Jason Perlow

I will never again put a pint-sized plastic deli container filled with leftover platanos maduros into the microwave, and push 1-0-0-0-START instead of Quick Minute. This is the after shot: I thought I nuked them for a minute, and went downstairs to check something on the computer. About five minutes later, I heard Rachel screaming, because apparently, the container melted into slag, and the food had burst into flames and smoke was pouring out of the microwave. I guess I forgot to mention that the digital readout on our relatively new microwave got all screwed up a few months ago after we had some sort of power surge.

No, I but I can say that for the longest period when Baumgart's was owned by Mr. Baumgart, Englewood was nowhere near as integrated a town as it is now.

Not recently. But the fact its a Chinese restaurant named "Baumgarts" may provide some insight.

This may sound like a foreign concept to you, but sometimes, people don't want to eat "authentic" regional-style Chinese food, myself included. My choice for American-style Chinese probably wouldn't be Baumgarts, but I have no real beef with the restaurant per se. I think you're misinterpreting what I said. I know damn well he understands what I am trying to say, only because I know Menton grew up in New York and approximately how old he is because I've met him in person. I'm also being facetious because I have no desire to play this sort of "Why, I don't know what you mean" game. If you're ascribing some sort of anti-semetic undertone to my message, it just ain't there. There are entire communities in Queens and Brooklyn which were, at one point not too long ago, 90 percent Jewish, and their restaurants catered to those people. That may not be the case in those communities today, but Baumgarts serves Chinese food that is very much like that, although they have expanded into Thai-like stuff as well.

And while not Rockland, Blue Hill at Stone Barns is just across the Tappan Zee bridge, in nearby Tarrytown. http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=3839

I can't elaborate on it because if you don't understand it, you're not going to. I grew up in New York, specifically Queens. There are a lot of American Chinese-type restaurants very similar to Baumgarts, particularly in the Flushing and Fresh Meadows / Union Turnpike strip which pretty much entirely cater to Jewish clientele. This is not a racist or anti semetic statement on my part, this simply just is what it is because of the demographics of those towns, or at least it was in the 1970s. I believe Brooklyn once also had a number of these, as did the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Baumgarts strikes me exactly as this kind of place, but your mileage may very.

Well, I didnt mean Jewish in terms of them having actual food items that we perceive as Jewish. I mean a form of American Chinese that people who are Jewish are most familiar with. Ben and Jerrys has become totally commercialized in the last 10 years. Its good, but then again, you have Cold Stone Creamery down the block as well. If you're going to eat at Baumgarts, you might as well have the ice cream for the full experience. Baumgarts hardly deserves scorn, they are a landmark business that has been in Englewood forever. Theres plenty of other businesses in that town that flat out shouldn't be in the business of serving food to people. I'm willing to cut Baumgarts a lot of slack.

Silver Oak Bistro in Ridgewood. Cajun-Creole/New American/Euro Fusion. Call for reservations, its not a big place. http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=79052

It isn't that bad a restaurant, Menton. Actually for American-style Chinese its pretty decent, just dated and not to my personal taste. For that style of americanized-fancy-upper middle class-Jewish audience Chinese I prefer a place like Mr. Chu or Bill and Harry's on RT 10 in East Hanover. Kuma in Englewood used to be decent but I haven't been there in a long time. There's much worse restaurants in Englewood than Baumgarts you could end up in. The ice cream is also made inhouse and is pretty good.

Not yet, but something I'd like to do soon. They did a really nice job with the New Bridge Inn, so I'm curious as to what they did with the place.

The noodles are the same kind of noodles used for Pho, and they were briefly boiled in water. The broth is a chicken broth, from Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet.

A Hu Tieu Rachel made tonight: Stuff at the bottom of the bowl before plating with soup and noodles Soup in the pot Finished soup

Xaviar's in Piermont is one of the best known ones. I've been wanting to dine there myself for a number of years. http://www.xaviars.com/

Its common for the rest of the world.

Wow, that looks like a really deep broth, ellen!

I now need to come up with a similar retort that a British person would find equally offensive. By an identical metric, you could say equally that Fish and Chips isn't real food either. You're padding protein with lots of carbohydrate batter, accompanying it with pure carbs and immersing it in hot grease. Does it deserve venerating as real food when done correctly and with care? Yes, absolutely. The same goes for the Hot Dog.

"gotten greasy" is at least a specific observation. "Quality wasn't there" is vague.

Uh, did you go on Thanksgiving?

No, but I think its safe to say that Americans only represent a very small portion of their clientele.

I've been to a number of high-end authentic regional-style Chinese restaurants that charge for rice -- particularly brown rice, since its not popular among their core customer base, Chinese. What is the "we" in that statement? Americans? China 46 is not geared toward American customers, for the most part.

Can you clarify that? How was the quality not there? That sounds like a serious generalization. You've pretty much eliminated a large swath of what the restaurant specializes in. A lot of people are impressed by the restaurant because of their skillful execution of those dishes which use seafood. If you impose traditional metrics on China 46 based on eating at Cantonese or American Chinese restaurants, you're going to come up disappointed. China 46 is producing authentic Shanghainese food, which is totally different from the kind of Chinese food most people are used to.

For the most part, Shanghainese cuisine does not involve eating a lot of rice, particularly with banquet style dishes. It's not that kind of restaurant.

Looking forward to seeing you!

The Wikipedia entry on Hot Dogs: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_dog

The Wikipedia entry on "Hot Dog" now contains a photo of the Jersey Breakfast Dog, so that the deep fried Jersey species of hot dog is properly represented: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_dog