Jason Perlow

Oh my god. That's a major, major tragedy. Its not like Tabasco is even a similar product to Crystal either. Is there anything that can even come close to taking its place?

There is definitely a similarity. I've also had the Bolinhos with catupiry cheese/shredded chicken inside as well. Brazil's third (or fourth, depending on if you meter it by imports or exports) largest trading partner, by the way, is Japan. Brazilians of Japanese descent also makes up one of the largest resident ethnic minority groups in Brazil. In addition Brazil also has the distinction of being the country with the largest amount of foreign Japanese nationals living there. The US I beleive is second. http://www.ashbrook.org/publicat/respub/v8n2/ellis.html http://www.ucsc.edu/currents/01-02/03-04/reading.html http://www.mofa.go.jp/region/latin/brazil/ Here are some photos of Bolinho (sometimes called Pasteles) I've eaten in the last year. These I had at a local Brazilian food fair in Newark, NJ. These are from CiA Do Sanduiche, a Brazilian hamburger/croquette shop in Cliffside Park, NJ. These are Beef and Catupiry Cheese and Ham and Cheese. Coincidentally, I've seen quite a few Japanese people at this restaurant. Cliffside Park has a sizeable Brazilian population, and its right next door to Fort Lee, which also has a sizeable Japanese population. Mitsuwa Marketplace, which is probably the largest Japanese grocery store in the entire area, is only like 5 minutes away.

On the way back from the movies in Edgewater, Rachel and I stopped by Mitsuwa to pick up some Japanese supplies and grab some Ramen. I hadn't been to Mitsuwa in at least six months -- a lot of renovations apparently started about two months ago. The Food Court has been completely knocked down, and there are a few new restaurants/food stalls taking their place. Several others are under construction, but currently there is a new, dedicated Ramen shop as well as a bento-box / combination plate type place doing stuff like curries and tonkatsu and ebi furai and kushiage, and a place making those molded cake things. We ordered stuff from both the Ramen place and the bento box place. There's a temporary seating area outside the food stalls while the main seating area is being constructed. Unfortunately I only had my Treo 600 with me at the time, and not my new Canon, but this should give you a general idea of what is going on. Display area for bento/combo plate place, I think it was called Sanuki. A beef rice bowl and some sort of fried seafood pancake thing. A fried shrimp/korokke/Pork asparagus fried maki combo Display area for the Ramen place, which I think is called Sanoku. Ramen menu Relatively accurate color portrayal of my bowl of Hot Miso Ramen Hot Miso Ramen under different lighting

Yes, we do it, consistently. Although now we are branching out to other forms of Asian cuisine on the 25th, such as Vietnamese, Thai, Sushi, or Indian. I've even managed to have Korean food on Christmas, as unlikely as that sounds.

Jason, what are the benefits of the two textures? I'm particularly curious about the fine chop. ← I'm not sure if there is a scientific reason for it or even a good one. I just like them that way. If you use all shredded, they come out tasting like hash browns. If you use all fine chop, the interior tends to have a mushy texture. If you use both plus add matzo meal, you get equilibrium. In the words of Pat Morita as Mr. Miyagi, Balance, Daniel-San.

In case anyone didn't see the Magnolia-bakery inspired rap video on SNL over the weekend Lazy Sunday "Two! No Six! No Twelve! Bakers Dozen!" "68th and Broadway, Step on it sucka, Whatcha wanna do Chris? Snack attack mother#$%#!"

It depends on how water saturated your potatoes are. Some types of potatoes are a lot more watery than others, and even the same kind of potatoes grown in different regions also vary in water retention. I for one, like the heavier variety of latke, however. I also think matzo meal as part of the mix is a necessity, as are two textures of potatoes -- shredded and fine chop.

Nah... It was probably more like.. MOTHERF!@#$ER!

Doesn't "addiction" also imply that you can have a chemical dependency? I've never heard of anyone having major withdrawal symptoms from stopping eating chile-laden food.

Some Casa Vasca pics from our meal tonight:

Some China 46 brunch photos: The Brunch Menu -- These are included in the price with the regular steam table stuff, but you must order them a la carte. Bean Curd Skin and Cilantro with sesame oil Crabs Salt and Pepper Shrimp, Pan Fried Juicy Buns, Scallion Pancake Sesame Scallion Bread

I know there is a very large, burning hot room in Hell filled with people who eat California Burgers topped with Guacamole. At least I hope there is. Welcome to the site!

Well, chrysanthemum tea in my experience has always referred to dried chrysamthemum flowers that are suitable to infuse into hot water... TenRen sells them... http://www.tentea.com/chrysflow.html What I think you're asking for is the display teas... which are bundles of leaves tied together in such ways that they look something like a flower once they rehydrate in your tea glass... I've bought such teas from Ten Ren too, but can't find them on their website. What I've got are a jasmine tea tied into balls about the size of marbles that unfold into a starburst looking thing in the glass. There are also snowflake looking teas that are flat rather than ball shaped. Adagio sells some of them online: http://www.adagio.com/misc/display_teas.html ← Youre talking about their $100 per pound pearl jasmine tea. http://www.tentea.com/pearljasmine.html I have some of this stuff... Its well worth the price but its not something you drink every day unless you happen to be the Prime Minister of China or Taiwan. This is definitely "drink when your really close Chinese friends come over for dinner" tea.

Some new dishes tried at C46 last night: Fava Beans with Scallion (cold appetizer) Exotic Green with Pork and Tofu Soup (very good) A variation on Shanghai Shrimp, I think it was called steamed shrimp and garlic. Pan Fried Noodles With Pork We'll be posting our initial proposed menu for the Year of the Dog celebration shortly. Right now, its looking like the weekend of January 28/29.

I definitely will, dude!

Its intent was meant to be humorous, but perhaps I should have used "un-parent" or "one without younglings" or "bereft of puppies" instead.

Please do not attribute the actions or views of others to the people who you are addressing with that statement. If you have a problem with one of -my- stated opinions, fine, but please do not use this forum as a means of ascribing my views and opinions to others, Chefzadi.

Yeah, but if you do a Google search on "Sikh Kebab" you still come up with a lot of results.

In Turkish, its "Sis Kebap" I always thought "Seekh" or "Sikh" referred to the Indian Sikh religion itself and that Seekh Kebab was a dish of that culture, which originated in the Punjab province in India. I've had it in Indian restaurants as well and its definitely tubes of minced meat on skewers -- and I have been told Seekh Kebab is Punjabi in origin.

NISSIN or someone has to figure out how to do this over the web, but on a much larger, cheaper scale. Custom Ramen could be the gift of the future.

I completely agree, jgm.

My parents brought me to all sorts of fancy restaurants before the age of 9 and as I understand it from my parents and grand parents, I was exceptionally well behaved (too bad this trend did not continue later on in life). I ate my soup with aplomb and then I would usually fall asleep in my chair or someone's lap. Wait, I still do that now. That being said, I didn't have an appreciation or awareness for any sort of fine dining until I was in my early teens. Before I was 13 you could have just as easily brought me to the local pizza parlor and I would be just as happy as when they brought me to Lutece, Le Cirque or the Four Seasons. I just don't think children that young are even capable of it.

Yeah, but I'm not sure if the frozen fries that go to Mcdonalds restaurants are packaged in any specific way to prevent freezer burn and such, like with vac sealed bags, or if there is a special blanching process, etc -- I do know that beef flavor is added during the prep. I'm guessing that given the volume of fries that Mcdonalds goes thru, they must go from the plants to the franchises very quickly.

On the other and totally selfish side of the equation, I can certainly say as a non-breeder myself, that if I was paying top dollar at a 3-Star Michelin restaurant and I heard a child starting to cry and make a ruckus and the parents didn't walk out immediately, I would be -extremely- pissed off. So even if your children are angels, I personally wouldn't risk it. Sorry guys. I know, I'm an A-hole. I don't beleive young children belong in fine dining establishments.

Fried rice is a really good way to use up basically any leftover meat (roast pork or leftover steak is my favorite) or veggies that may be on the cusp of going off like bell peppers, celery, mushrooms, etc. Spruce it up with some fresh scallions, some canned pineapple, bean sprouts. A hit of fish sauce, cilantro and basil with a few squirts of Sriracha if you want to go the Southeast Asian route... I also like to keep Chinese sausage in the freezer, it adds a nice flavor to whatever else is in the dish. One link chopped up goes a long way. As Steven says you need leftover white rice -- I always order extra white rice when I get Chinese food delivery just so I can have fried rice later on in the week. Alternatively, you can do the same thing with dried rice noodles or fresh egg noodles that you can buy at the Asian market and just par boil them, drain and throw them into the mix and stir fry. For fried rice I like using a capful of dark soy to get that really good fried rice color with a bit of regular, whole bean soy sauce -- I like the Korean brands because they are cheaper than Japanese mardaizu and have no wheat or alcohol.