Jason Perlow

That's because its closed on Tuesdays.

First thing that comes to mind after using the Bunn this evening... <heavy, forced mechanical breathing> AND NOW, YOUR HIGHNESS, WE SHALL DISCUSS THE LOCATION OF YOUR HIDDEN REBEL BASE. BUT FIRST, I SHALL HAVE A MONSTER POD. YOU DON'T KNOW THE POWER OF THE DARK SIDE WHEN I HAVEN'T HAD MY MORNING CUP. Lord Vader and My Cafe.. Separated at birth. Even the lighted BUNN logo is the same color as Darth's light saber. It's a mean looking machine and it makes a mean cup of coffee -- no doubt about that. I tried it so far with Baronet French Vanilla and Baronet "Monster" 12 gram Kenya AA pods -- nice extraction at 8oz, although the "Monster" can easily brew at 10 or 12 oz and still give you a -really- strong coffee. The blue illumination while the system is brewing is really cool, and I like the manual selection switch for brew volume. I will say this, the sucker is -really- loud when the brew pump is going. Its powerful and it means business. Is it as high tech and sexy looking as the Simplehuman? Nope. I really like its Sith Lord appearance, though, and it does the job it's supposed to do. Really nice construction too. Its definitely a BUNN and true to its Bunn-o-matic heritage, no question about that. Its pricier than the Simplehuman or the Senseo, but this thing is clearly made for battle -- you could bring this into a small office and have no problem with this thing being constantly on -- its designed to power down into a hibernation mode after a few hours of inactivity and switches itself off automatically after two weeks. The re-prime is extremely fast -- you can do mug after mug with this thing, with maybe only 30 seconds wait time between mugs. <iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=egulletcom-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B0002E4VY0&=1&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&lc1=0000ff&bc1=000000&bg1=ffffff&f=ifr" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe> On Amazon you can get this unit for $25 off ($175) and are entitled to free shipping if you use the checkout code "HOHOHOHO"

I always thought that the concept was good and that Glenn had a huge passion for his place but the location was going to be a tremendous challenge -- it wasn't anywhere near the main drag of Jersey City and that particular street is a very difficult one for attracting the lunch and evening dinner crowd. Its also difficult to attract outside travellers to Jersey City as well, because its very much "can't get there from here" from most points in Bergen and Hudson County. You literally have to subject yourself to the brutalities of Holland Tunnel traffic just to get onto the street where Melt is, and thats a huge turnoff. I think that if Glenn is bent on staying in JC and resurrecting Melt in some form, he should be near all the big office buildings and the shopping areas.

I definitely agree with the Pork Fried Rice, Cubano and BBQ sandwich suggestions.

Just for clarification, #12 and #8 are just the names, thats not how old they are. The Special Barrel Reserve is the oldest stuff they make.

Wow, that was quick.

Anyone ever tried this stuff? http://www.canarino.com/ Keurig just released a K-Cup version for their single serve brewing system of this classic hot lemon drink. I think you could sort of do a hot limoncello with this, if you spiked it with rum or vodka and hit it with some honey or simple syrup.

By the way, I've tasted a few cups of the Timothy's in the last day or so (I set up my Keurig B60 last night, my initial impressions of it are here) and I can attest that the coffee is good.

I was going to use that joke myself but I thought otherwise...

Owen -- the max I can crank the "brew temp" control on that machine is 192. I'm not sure if that means what tempature the liquid comes out of the spigot or if thats the actual temperature that is used when it is brewing. I can assure you though this stuff comes out piping hot and the coffee itself is properly brewed and has a good extraction. I know for sure I can hear the water boiling inside the machine during the re-prime process itself. As I understand it, the essential guts of the B40, B50 and B60 are basically mechanically identical and produce the same quality of coffee -- the B40 can be had as low as $100 and the B50 for about $140-$150. The B60 may have an advantage for assisted living or sight impaired (or morning impaired like myself) because of the illuminated display, reservoir and buttons. The $100 B40 is limited to a regular 7.2oz pour, whereas the B50 can do a 7.2oz and 5.25 oz, and the B60 can do 7.2oz, 5.25 and 9.25oz pours, and has a larger 64oz reservoir as opposed to 48oz on the other two machines. <table border="0" id="table1"> <tr> <td> <iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=egulletcom-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B000AQPMHA&=1&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&lc1=0000ff&bc1=000000&bg1=ffffff&f=ifr" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe></td> <td> <iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=egulletcom-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B0007IQQUI&=1&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&lc1=0000ff&bc1=000000&bg1=ffffff&f=ifr" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe></td> <td> <iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=egulletcom-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B000AQSMPO&=1&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&lc1=0000ff&bc1=000000&bg1=ffffff&f=ifr" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe></td> </tr> </table>

Shit, they stopped making those?

Yep, I just ordered some pods and K-cups today from CoffeeWhiz, they really seem to have their act together. They were also very accomodating when I asked them to send some samples of other stuff in my order as well.

Having never had tasted the quality of the coffee coming out of a Keurig machine, I couldn't understand why people would even think about buying a proprietary coffee dispensing system like the K-Cup, with such a diversity and abundance of Pod coffee on the market. Well, sometimes, proprietary standards also means higher quality and better technology -- and in terms of the quality of product the Keurig can produce, the proprietary system is totally justified. I just tasted the Timothy's Decaf Colombian coffee and Celestial Seasonings Breakfast Blend tea, and they were excellent. The recycle/re-prime on the Keurig is very fast, and the water comes out at a nice 192 degrees (although you can manually step it down to 187 you want to go colder, such as if you wanted to flush pure water thru the system and brew a high quality loose-leaf Chinese tea in your mug, for example) As far as i understand, the primary difference between the B50 and B60 is that the B60 has 3 pour sizes whereas the B50 has two, and the B60 has a lighted control panel and reservoir plus chrome effects. I'm not sure if it justifies the extra $50, but it definitely is one seriously cool looking coffee machine and you can easily tell how high the mechanical build quality of this thing is and how strong the electrical pump is. In terms of ease of use nothing could possibly be easier -- the water tank is easy to pour into, the loader mechanism a child (or a senior citizen in assisted living) could master, and there is virtually no cleanup required. For a small office environment I'm not sure what could possibly beat the Keurig system if you were going the single-serve route. So do I like the Keurig system and K-Cups? It may be premature, but I would say its a resounding "Hell Yes!". I'm really looking forward to more and more K-cups -- hopefully Keurig will make it easier for 3rd parties to produce the cups, or that they will be partner with more companies in the future.

It also comes in a really nice decanter, which a good deal of that extra price comes from.

Although I think the water-line version of the Keurig B100 is probably your best bet, Timothy's has a very atttractive offer on the B50 for the Christmas season: http://www.timothys.com/landing/b50xmasoff...g=017&kwd=2for1 So if you buy a B100 or a B50 from Timothy's along with 3 boxes of K-cups, you get a second B50 free.

Mandelbread/Mandelbrot is also popular in Ashkenaze Jewish cooking as well, but frequently you see it during Passover, made with Matzoh Meal. You'd also be less likely to see candied fruits in it, that would pretty much instantly Gentile-ize it, although I have had it with nuts and chocolate chips. Sounds like some flatter and stiffer form of Pannetone. I think I've had this at Italian bakeries here as well, but I am not sure what it is called. EDIT: According to this page Pannettone comes in various forms and densities, among them, "Pandolce" which is very dense.

Here's the URL of FAGE (PRONOUNCED Fa'-yeh!) USA: http://www.fageusa.com The other URL's above were for the UK.

Its not a new product but its great. It arrived on the market about two years ago but it was pulled off the market temporarily in 2004 because of some weird import issue with the FDA that had to be resolved. There was much outrage at the time. http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=50860&hl= http://www.totalgreekyoghurt.com/ FAGE also makes some really good goat milk Feta as well. http://www.fage.gr/intro_new_eng.htm http://www.fage.gr/page/default.asp?id=555&la=2

Why bother with a local supplier? Call an internet vendor and have him send you local drop shipments, like CoffeeWhiz.com or CoffeeCow.com. I also believe Van Houtte sells its K-cups directly in Canada via its online store, and they also offer teas in K-cup. http://www.vanhoutte.com/en/ I'll let you know about the Timothy K-Cups shortly, a Keurig B60 is making its way here soon.

You could combine chopped apple with the brie mixture inside -- as baked brie is commonly served with apple that might be nice. Or freshly cooked apple sauce on the side. Rachel recently posted a recipe in Recipegullet for it. http://recipes.egullet.org/recipes/r1520.html

Artisinal shoyu would be top on my list.

If you want Asian/Chinese varieties of tea, particularly Jasmine, I would check out Ten Ren, which is one of the largest importers and retailers of Asian teas in the world. In New York and San Francisco, and in Chinatowns in several other major cities, Ten Ren has retail stores, but they also have an online store: http://www.tenren.com/jasmine.html http://www.tenren.com/teabags.html Some Asian supermarkets also carry Ten Ren teas, but if you want the best selection you should go to a Ten Ren store or order from their website. Obviously, their very best stuff is loose leaf, but I have a few boxes of their teabags (which I am using with my pod brewing machine) and they are very good.

Its definitely more of a market expansion than a paradigm shift, yes.

No, I certainly don't agree. I like the pod variety of coffee a lot -- you're going to be seeing a number of pod and machine reviews here in the future, actually. In one sense I can appreciate patents. I am involved in a business venture unrelated to the food industry where patents are key. But I don't think that Philips and Douwe Egberts have "prior art" if I am using that term correctly -- Teabags and such have been in use for a very long time, and the coffee pod is just a variation on that. Its not a "basic patent", so I am not sure the argument would even fly in the US or in other places in Europe.

You mean the "Chinese Vegetable (bok choy) with Oyster Sauce" that typically comes as a small side dish in a Cantonese/Hong Kong style place like Greater New York Noodletown isn't really pretty much steamed bok choy and oyster sauce? I believe it is. ← Its totally used over steamed Gai Lan/Yu Choy in just about every Dim Sum place I can think of in New York/NJ and SF as well.