Jason Perlow

By far, my favorite type of ramen broth is Tonkotsu, which originates from Nagata which is in the south of Japan and is also served in other specialty ramen shops thoughout the country. Click for Flickr photo This Site has a basic recipe, but I've heard that making real Tonkotsu broth is an entire day affair. Does anyone have any real, tried and true method for making this stuff? And what kind of pork bones do you need?

Ths is awesome news. First Galatoires and Brigtsens, and now Hubig Pies. Its all coming together again!

So tommy, are you going to be joining us this year?

At this point, I think that all points pro and con for the law have been made, and there isn't that much more to talk about, so we're going to be locking the thread. Thanks.

So which begs the question, does that mean you won't be able to smoke cigars at the bar at JR tobacco outlet anymore on RT 10 in Whippany? Or will they have some sort of special dispensation by virtue of being a cigar shop, like the place in the Arthur Avenue Retail Market?

Well, I've invited other luminaries to chime in on this one. Certainly, the city will be at a loss for losing one of its great delis, although I never thought it occupied the same legendary status as either Katz or Carnegie. I think the whole Carnegie vs. Katz thing is very much part of New York legend -- both delis have staunch defenders on either sides. I think it depends on your upbringing. My family always ate at Katz, and its the pastrami I grew up knowing as the best in the world. By national standards, Carnegie certainly makes very good pastrami, but my grandfather always told me "Carnegie for Corned Beef, Katz for Pastrami." and thats what I've been telling everyone for as long as I can remember. Carnegie actually makes excellent oversized knishes, particularly its Kasha knish. I always get one when I visit, and I'm lucky to be able to finish half of it, especially if I am ordering a sandwich. That requires two full cans (I so wish the old glass bottles were still around) of Cel-Ray to get down.

Katz's. ← not Carnegie Deli? ← Carnegie is more known for its Corned Beef. Its pastrami is okay. I don't agree with Mimi that their meat quality is better than Katz. I will say that Katz is more difficult to get the hulking sandwich now than it used to be. Just a few years past, if you got one of the old Jewish guys as a slicer, and you tipped him like 2 bucks, he'd give you extra meat on your plate AND feed you a slice right there on the line. "Eh, You like juicy? Cause you look like a juicy guy!". The Latino guys they now have don't seem to understand the tradition -- if you tip them, they don't do anything extra for you. They just look at you strangely and say "uh, thanks". That actually really pissed me off the last time I went. I beleive they still have a few of the old timers working there, but I just happened to get one of the new guys on the slicing line.

We went to Saigon House this evening with Rachel's parents this evening for dinner. I think this place has a lot of potential but its only 3 weeks old, and thus, they have a lot of kinks to work out. On a Friday night they were very busy and the restaurant is currently understaffed -- because they are so harried, we had some food come out cold (first order of spring rolls had to be redone) and they even ran out of some stuff, such as the Banh Xeo shrimp crepe. However as Rosie said, the servers are very attentive and also very good guides to the menu, if you aren't familiar with Vietnamese food. We also got the owner's daughter, she's very attentive and very nice (and very pretty, Tommy) and I hope we get her again. Edit: Rachel added the captions below the pics... 3. Bo Bia - Jicama Rolls ($4.95) 1. Cha Gio - Spring Rolls ($4.95) 4. Goi Cuon - Summer Rolls ($4.95) 8. Muc Rang Muoi - Crispy Salted Calamari ($9.95) 36. Bo Luc Lac - Rock and Roll Beef ($12.95) 40. Mi Xao Don Thap Cam - Combination Crispy Noodles ($14.95) 61. Com Hen Tay Cam - Baby Clams Rice in Clay-Pot ($10.95) I turned the bottom of the rice up for Jason to capture the crisped bottom. It was much tastier than it's grey appearance would leave you to expect. 24. Pho Dac Biet - Combination Beef Pho ($7.95) 25. Hu Tieu Mi ($7.95) Coconut Cheesecake with Lychee (cake of the day $4.50) Our favorite dishes of the evening were the Rock and Roll beef, which is known elsewhere as Vietnamese beef salad, and its one of the best renditions of this dish we have had -- in fact I'd have to say its even better than Saigon Republic's and Mo Pho's. The roll appetizers (Spring Rolls, Summer Rolls, Jicama Rolls) were not bad but the portions were very small so they are not ideal for sharing. The fried squid was good, although I would say Binh Duong in Bloomfield does it better, its more tender there. The pan fried noodles was good although it really didn't distinguish itself as anything particularly special. The crockpot rice dish with the clams was interesting although I am not sure I would order it again. Both the noodle soups were somewhat of a disappointment, the Hu Tieu's chicken stock really could have been intensified a bit more and the egg noodles in it came out clumpy. The Pho was decent, and had a good amount of beef and "stuff" in it but maybe we are just spoiled by Saigon Republic and Mo Pho's really intense beef stock -- the anise flavor is not as pronounced as we'd like and again, the beefyness was just not there -- I think this place is capable of producing a really strong stock, maybe they just need to let it go a bit longer and use more beef bones. The Vietnamese iced coffee was strong and not too sweet, which is the way I like it. Everyone liked the Litchi and Coconut Cheesecake. Since the steak salad was so good, we're really interested in trying some of their other beef and grilled and sauteed dishes -- their beef rolls and lemongrass beef that was brought to the other tables smelled very good. Also, some of the other noodle dishes being brought to other tables smelled really good as well, so thats something to try for next time. They are definitely more expensive than your typical Vietnamese place (Binh Duong is dirt cheap in comparison, but its a hole in the wall) and they are obviously trying for a classier atmosphere than your typical Pho and summer roll stall. I would definitely say if you live in the area to give this place a try, but I wouldn't go on a really busy weekend night -- the place was crazy at about 7PM-8PM but it got quiet at 9PM, so you could probably go later on a Friday or Saturday night. I'd try it on a weeknight where you can get the best attention and the staff isnt freaking out as much. Compared to Little Saigon the service is very good and attentive, even with their quirkiness -- we'll go back when we are in the area again. This should say a great deal because I won't go back to Little Saigon in Montclair which after being reopened for a year in their new location manages still to have horrendous service.

We are talking about a legal product.. Until cigarettes are made illegal, it is still legal to smoke them.. As long as we are protecting non-smokers who are forced to go to restaurants against there will.. I think restaurants should also be forced to provide Kosher Meals.. What about the poor helpless Kosher people that cant go to the BBQ Restaurant.. Or what about the Vegan.. Restaurants should be forced to provide full vegan meal as well.. Also wheat free and whatever else people are allergic too.. They do it with peanut butter in places.. ← The key differnece Daniel, is that cigarette smoke is harmful to other people, whereas kosher and vegan lifestyles are simply a lifestyle and dietary choice and their choice to pursue that lifestyle only affects themselves.

Guys, I would appreciate it if we all maintain a tone of civility here and be respectful of others opinions, while allowing each other to agree to disagree and not making ad hominem attacks on people ("whiners", etc). I've already removed posts that don't add any significant new thoughts to the discussion and are simply incindiary or have political content. If we can't manage to be respectful and civil, I'm going to be closing this topic. Shall we try this again?

Rachel and I went to the Iron Horse last night for the first time and we didn't find it smelly at all. In fact, we both had their burgers (which are unique in that they are stuffed with the cheese instead of melted on top) and they were really good and they come with great fries and onion rings. Nice French onion soup too. Fink told us they make great potato skins, but we didn't try them -- after a burger and soup there you get pretty full. if you order the "Bedrock" burger its a full 12 ounces. Definitely a place we'll be going back to for our burger fix.

There are a number of restaurants we can't go to currently because Rachel is especially sensitive to cigarrete smoke. My personal opinion is that ideally it should be up to the establishment to enforce smoking policy, and workers should have a choice of whether or not they want to be in a smoke-free workplace. Patrons should be able to vote with their dollars if they want to patronize the restaurant or not. That being said, I personally will look forward to being able to go into a restaurant bar and not be hit with cigarrete smoke.

20 euros for 7 grams...I wonder what the cost to ship to the US is.

I think it depends on the type of sushi. Most straightforward maki rolls travel home pretty well, provided you eat them right away. If you throw it in the fridge, sushi deteriorates quickly, though, because the rice gets hard.

I know this sounds like a pretty stupid topic -- virtually all food should really be eaten immediately after cooking. But I'm talking about dishes that so severely degrade during the ride home that its almost pointless ordering for take-out or delivery. Case in point -- General Tso's Chicken, or one of its derivatives, such as Sesame Chicken, Orange Beef ,etc. -- those Chinese dishes that are deep fried and sauteed, that have a total effective crispyness life of about 10 minutes, and will instantly degrade into a mushy, clumpy mess if you put them in a delivery container and steam enters the picture. Its an amazing dish when you eat it at your favorite Chinese restaurant, when it comes right out of the wok all glazed and crispy -- but after a 5 minute ride to your house in a delivery container, its glop. What other dishes are like that? In some sense, you could also say that about pizza.

Which Keurig did you get? The B100 or the B2003? I use a B60 and yes, the dark roasts are much better. Green Mountain has some very good "Extra Bold" K-cups which have more coffee in the actual cups, such as their Sumatra Dark Magic Extra Bold. Timothy's has a blend called "Wiiiwii" that is supposed to be very good and they also have Rainforest Espresso which is also an Extra Bold. http://www.coffeewhiz.com/SearchResult.aspx?CategoryID=118 For the most part the K-cups are good for 8oz pours unless its an extra bold or dark roast. Most of the Timothy's roasts are light or medium roasts, and don't hold up to a lot of liquid, so you want to go for the smaller pours.

Rosie, how would you compare the place to Little Saigon? The service at the very least sounds a lot better...

Yeah, compared to Minado its a pointless endeavor to go to East.

i.e., its Unobtanium.

This may be the one Iron Chef episode that is a must see.

Yeah it would totally work with ground turkey. Sassy's Sliders in NYC makes them that way.

Okay, but again, we don't live on that planet and thankfully, the Spanish don't have to make those choices. The dishes in which saffron is used in Spanish cuisine are ones which tend to be made on special occasions and seasonally -- paprika, however, is an everyday spice. So they have particular reverence for it because of that "special" use. You could arguably make your same point about Caspian Sea caviar which recently was embargoed -- does Caspian Sea caviar have the same impact as world cuisine as Saffron does? Probably not. But its immensely expensive and its not a major component for any world cusine, and there are also other types of caviar. The same could be said for Perigord or Alba truffles as they are a superluxury ingredient and out of the reach of most regular people -- although the Italians and French would probably weep in eternal sorrow if those were to go away.

You can say it 500 times in a row but that isn't going to make it true.

The Spanish revere saffron because its an integral part of their culture, it grows in that country, and so many of their dishes use it. That on top of the fact its a royal pain in the ass to cultivate and harvest makes it particularly revered. Turmeric is a commodity spice and food coloring used by a lot of different cultures. It's inane to compare the two. Turmeric, by the way, is revered by Indians because its a very important spice for making curries and a lot of other things, in addition it has ritual use in the Hindu religion. They'd be pretty pissed if you took it away from them. It happens also to be one of the cheapest spices to cultivate.

I agree - tumeric has a great colour and flavour, yet where is the reverence? ← But tumeric DOES NOT TASTE like saffron. It tastes like tumeric.