Jason Perlow

I'd like to welcome Danno as well. His blog happens to be a pretty frequent stop for me!

Thanks Spiro. As a follow up to my original question, how much percentage of business do you see from the pre-set specialty sandwiches and salads versus the create-your-owns? Are those numbers different during lunch time than from dinner? And have you witnessed any production issues related to customer confusion or indecisiveness with the long ingredient card?

Cubbys is actually really good for hot dogs and hamburgers and chicken sandwiches, and their ribs are tasty. However, as Tongo points out, its a baked rib, with BBQ sauce slathered onto it, not a smoked rib.

Yeah, the've got a full range of cooked menu items.

Do you remember what some of the other menu items were?

The restaurant is not typically crowded. Also, they don't serve the egg to Westerners, you have to ask for it. They were very nice and accomodating. At least one of the two waitstaff, a Korean-American girl, speaks perfect english and the other one, the older Japanese lady, speaks it well enough and is very nice.

They did make it this last christmas, yeah.

Add to that a nice vintage port, and you're set.

Tamaya Restaurant 2347 Hudson Ter, Fort Lee, NJ 07024 Phone: (201) 585-7009 Tonight, with the freezing cold weather, Rachel and I had some serious cravings for Japanese nabemono, so we went over to Tamaya, a Japanese restaurant with a specialization in Sukiyaki, Shabu Shabu and Tempura. Tamaya serves Sukiyaki in the traditional hot pot, cooked at table fashion, so essentially, you become the cook. They give you a portable burner with the ingredients and you go to town. We each started off with a small Tempura appetizer. I had the Shrimp tempura, Rachel had sea eel tempura. We thought these were really good, and fried perfectly. This is the portable burner with iron sukiyaki pot that is filled with soup broth, which is brought to a boil. The vegetables: Scallions, Shiritaki noodles, Onion, Tofu, Oyster Mushroom, Shitake Mushroom. The meat, which I think is sliced ribeye. They're not at all skimpy on the meat. Raw egg, which is brought to you in a cute little basket. You crack the eggs into small bowls, and beat them with your chopsticks, and use it as a dipping sauce for the meat. Here's the sukiyaki cooking up. We added the stuff in this order: Onions, Mushrooms, Scallions, Tofu, Shiritaki, and then the sliced meat. Dipping some cooked meat into the egg. Tamaya attracts a primarily Japanese clientele and its more expensive than some of the other Japanese places in the area. There's no sushi bar, as they focus primarily on cooked food, but the specials list (written in Japanese) typically has a sashimi or sushi on it, which always looks very good every time I've been there -- tonight they had a Mackerel sashimi and I saw some coming out of the kitchen. So its a good idea to ask the very nice staff what fish is good for Sushi or sashimi that evening. By default the regular menu is in Japanese, but they have an English-translated version of it, which appears to have the same items on it. If you're looking for an authentic Japanese experience I highly reccomend this place.

Jon, I don't think there is essentially anything wrong with the concept of Holiday Soda. In fact, I think Pepsi has done a really good job in the last two xmas seasons with the Pepsi Holiday Spice. The difference though, is that Pepsi doesn't market it as some premium brand, its the same price, so people do buy it, as opposed to the Jones sodas, which are just stupid expensive.

Hey Spiro! Thanks for joining us. When you first started the company, I was made to understand that one of the unique peices of your business model was the integration of smart card technology. From Steven's initial writeup of Starwich on our original discussion thread: As the resident technologist and cynical bastard on the team, I said the following: There was much spirited argument afterwards. Now, two and a half years later, it looks like some of what I predicted came to pass. You ditched the smartcards (or rather, chose not to introduce the technology for the same reasons for which it was originally intended -- you use them for other purposes now instead, such as tracking usage of Wi-Fi and Phone Chargers, Fax Machines and Photocopiers) you added 8 specialty sandwiches and 8 salads (all of which are very good, by the way -- I love the shortrib and soft shell crab!) but you kept the ingredient card. Why did you finally decide not to use the Smart Cards for sandwich preference tracking and quick ordering? For the reasons I outlined above? Or for some other reasons? Was the implementation more complex than originally thought? Perhaps its on hold? I originally had my doubts about Starwich's long term viability, but it seems like you guys have adapted to fit actual business realities and are now doing very well -- It's always a hard choice to make those changes when you have strong emotional and philosophical ties as the business founder and so wanted to make those things work. I salute you and respect you for doing so and modifying your convictions and concept rather than doggedly persuing a bad strategy, which many new businesses end up doing and folding as a result.

I think Rachel referred to it as "Tamago Sashimi" because it wasn't over rice and formed into a nigiri sushi, which is usually how it's served in most American sushi restaurants.

Nice, Jack.

Chocolate. See, now you have to do all of them. We're pulling for you, Jack.

At this restaurant, yes. Not in the rest of Jersey or even for most of the US. Most sushi restaurants except for the very top tier serve the green dyed domestic grated radish paste, which is -not- actual grated wasabi rhizome. It should also be emphasized again that Sakura Bana is totally Japanese owned and operated -- many Sushi places in NJ are owned by Koreans and Chinese. Not that there is anything wrong with that mind you, but a Japanese-owned and operated sushi restaurant is going to be a much more authentic experience for the most part.

Not an original idea, no. But I would have enjoyed writing it just the same and I'm sure I could have figured out a unique take on it.

Hiroyuki, I did not make this atsuyaki tamago, but ate some this evening at a local sushi place. I thought the presentation was very interesting:

Sakura Bana Restaurant 43 Franklin Ave, Ridgewood, NJ 07450 (201) 447-6525 Rachel and I had dinner here this evening with an eGer who reccomended this place to us as their absolute favorite local sushi. The reccomendation was right on--Its one of the best sushi experiences we have had in Bergen county so far, and compares favorably with some of the better mid-range sushi restaurants in Manhattan. Its totally Japanese owned with a full Japanese staff, including waitstaff. Real grated wasabi. Fresh Uni. It was still moving. Fried head-on shrimp appetizer. Excellent. Blue Crab Miso Soup. Not too salty, perfect. "Peter" Roll. Red Trout (left) and Salmon Sashimi (right) We didn't order this, I snapped it while it was being prepped Dynamite Roll: spicy tuna with tempura inside Amaebi, Sweet Shrimp Toro, Chutoro, Kanpachi (Amberjack) and Tai (Red Snapper) "Service" appetizer, some kind of wonton skin fried with white fish inside, really good Baby Octopus Artfully presented Tamago (Rachel always orders this at the end) Grilled Mirugai (Giant Clam) Skewers

Is it just me or was anyone disturbed by the Italian / Korean Jap Chae fusion noodles with kimchi, tomato, basil and mozzarella with EVOO in the (eighth?) episode? The ruptured kabocha custard failure was also very sad. I liked the monster Zucchini pajun-thing with the balsamico dip. When they finally got it right, though, the end product looked really nice. Not sure if I liked the idea of all that Wagyu buried with all that stuff on top.

I can't wait until these are subtitled in English. Hiroyuki, do you think Hattori-san would like to come onto eG Forums and talk to us?

Its a very solid steak and chop house (I really liked their chops) but its very expensive. A nice place to go for special occassions, certainly.

Our backsplash is a combination of stainless steel and tile: The steel results in an easy cleanup directly behind the range, and the tile around the rest of the kitchen is for better aesthetics.

Omelette for lunch, using our leftover quiche filling (Spinach, chopped salumi, mushrooms, shallot) and feta cheese:

By the way, these were all foreign exchange students, from Germany.

Well come on, were we even close?