Jason Perlow

Today Rachel and I went to the Hackensack Costco in an attempt to have an all-Costco-snackbar degustation menu. As it happens, our local Costco has a very limited menu. Pretty much everything you can possibly order is displayed above, with the exception of the hand dipped ice cream pops. We had mixed reactions to the pizza. For the most part, we thought it was better than Dominos or Pizza Hut pizza, and the veggie toppings were fresh. However, don't bother with the pepperoni or the sausage, we thought they were of pretty lousy quality. I think if you were going to order one of these to take out, I'd get a plain or a veggie pie. The sausage subs we thought were just okay. The Premio brand sausage has a very high fat content, its a bit on the soft side, and rather underseasoned for Italian sausage. The rolls are also soft, which is not the ideal type for a sausage sub. We'd probably not order these again. I was pleasantly surprised by the Chicken Bake, which while having highly processed tasting chicken peices in it, was actually pretty good. The dough was seasoned with some sort of not at all unpleasant commercial foodservice parmesan cheese, had a nice chew to it, and I liked the mixture of processed chicken chunks to onion and cheese and ham filling. I'd definitely order this one again. I'm now rather inclined to head over to other Costco locations in my area to see if there is any variation of selection in the respective snack bars.

Actually for its lightweightness is more so than its hardness, which is why you see Titanium in steel alloys as opposed to pure Titanium. Its a pretty brittle metal, actually.

I don't think Costco would be selling fake d'Yquem.

I can't imagine titanium being as good as conductor of heat as cast iron. I mean, isn't it specifically used in aerospace for that particular reason?

I dunno, if I ever feel like throwing away F-U money, I could totally see doing the Roman Emperor thing, having an orgy, and drinking entire beer steins filled with d'Yquem. Reclined on a couch and wearing a toga.

God I totally would eat one of those. In a heartbeat. In fact I want one right now. I'm surprised with all the Koreans we have in North Jersey our local Costco doesn't offer that. Its less than half a mile away right down the road from like the biggest Korean supermarket in the entire area.

I agree wholeheartedly with this one. The problem is, a lot of the demo people don't know how to reheat stuff properly, and it isn't very appetizing when they do that. I saw an item tonight I almost spot purchased but Rachel made me put away -- "Huxtable's Kitchen Itty Bitty Meatball Subs". Micro-sized, individually wrapped, microwaveable two bite meatball sub sandwiches. If that isn't a major cause of child obesity I don't know what is. But I want some, and I don't think they are gonna demo them.

You're scary @#$%^& anal, Shaw. But I think I'm going to try that. That's what I like about them. The almost ghetto cloyingness aspect.

Next time I think I'm going to get one of the $1.25 cups of ice cream, and dump it into one of those 50 cent soda cups and fill it up with say, Dr. Pepper or Coke. I forgot if they had root beer or not.

Interestingly enough, even with my professed love of Tots, we never buy the Ore Ida ones. We get the supermarket brand, which is usually just fine. I think Ore Ida overseasons their stuff. I'm extremely pissed that our Costco does not appear to sell large bags of tots. They only have big bags of Ore Ida crinkle cut fries. I really find it hard to beleive with the family with six kids demographics they appeal to, there's no Kirkland brand tots.

6L 1997 Chateau d'Yquem Sauternes Ok, I could understand a Magnum. But SIX liters? Thats like a Methuselah or a Jeroboam or something crazy like that. EDIT: Yep, its a Methuselah. What the heck is next, a Nebuchadnezzar of Dow 1977?

Recently, Rachel and I became Costco members. Now, I know we've had threads about products to buy there that people reccomend, but we haven't had anything about stuff thats good you can eat AT Costco. Obviously, the large drink and the kosher hot dog deal is quite good -- but has anyone eaten any of the other stuff? Right off the bat I'll strongly reccomend the Very Berry Sundaes, which is lowfat soft-serve ice cream that's topped with a mixed berry topping -- you can get it with either chocolate or vanilla ice cream. For like a $1.25 its a great big ice cream cup that you can easily share, and its at least as good as the soft serve ice cream you'd get at say, a Carvel. Has anyone tried the Chicken Bakes or the Italian Sausage sandwich or the Pizza? Any other hidden Costco snack gems?

I did an awful lot of research when I bought the A620. It has more manual modes you can shake a stick at. DPreview.com, which is probably the foremost digital camera review site, did a very comprehensive writeup on the A620 and gave it Highly Reccomended. Very few cameras get that level of endorsement from that site: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canona620/ http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canona620/page14.asp He also recently reviewed the brand new Canon S80 (which is also Digic-II based)and gave it "Highly recommended". It has 1MP more than the A620, however its macro mode is not as good, in fact he says its "mediocre". By comparison The A620 has 1 centimeter macro focus, which is ideal for food photography. http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canons80/page14.asp

The refurb biz is complicated. I used to work for Canon, so I know that some items make sense to buy refurb and some do not, and as employees we got some pretty good deals from authorized shops that bought the refurb merchandise for resale -as- refurb merchandise. The more expensive items you can save a LOT of money by going with a refurb, like some of the high end lenses and manual pro level cameras (in the multi thousand dollar range) and digital photocopiers and things like that. Cheap consumer electronics makes no sense to buy refurb. You also have to be careful from buying from the big retail camera stores, who will sell refurb merchandise as new. Its not as much of an issue with recent vintage models, but you'll find some stores who will sell a 2 or 3 year old model as brand new. With digital, its not as much as an issue anymore, but I remember a whole bunch of retail stores in the NY/NJ metro area who had their official Canon and Nikon reseller distributorships revoked for engaging in practices like that.

The A610 is the baby brother to the A620. Basically, the cameras are identical, but the A610 has only a 5 megapixel CCD whereas the A620 is a 7.1. The Costco price is about par for the course in retail or mail order. Not everything they sell is a great deal -- in fact MOST of the stuff they sell the prices are about average. PCNation and Buydig.com have the A620 for less than $350. Canon A620 on Froogle

The Powershot 620, which is a 7.1 Megapixel, has a street price of $350. Its the camera I currently use.

That's a bit too homebrew for my taste! Cool reading though.

Yeah, but I've seen some haute preparations of braised beef tenderloin, so I know its not completely alien.

What about flank steak? Or London Broil?

I doubt if tenderloin has enough fat in it. Brisket maybe. ← Isn't that the point of using a whole pound of butter as the braising medium?

Is there any reason why you couldn't make butter braised beef, with say, an entire Beef Tenderloin?

I think the definition of legal depends entirely upon if you are using the Orthodox Rabbinate of Bergen County's definition or if you are using another certificate issuer's definition.

I think it needs more butter. Like a full pound.

How do you sous vide a 17lb roast? EDIT: "If you're not Nathan Mhyrvold"

Just put the whole damn stick in. It'll taste better.