Jason Perlow

Upperline is also open, and Casamento's will be open shortly, even with the recent death of its proprietor, Joe Casamento.

NOLAcuisine.com reports that Joe Casamento Jr., proprietor of Casamento's Restaurant, known for their famed Oyster Loaves (with oysters deep fried in lard) passed away during the night Katrina hit. Joe Casamento Jr, RIP

The satsumas are here and my oh my are they fantastic. Exploding in your mouth juicy sweet. The peel literally flies off these things. Run to their website now and order up a bushel or half bushel. You won't be disappointed. Note that the natural ripe color of these fruits is a mottled orange and green. Don't worry about that -- that's what they are supposed to look like when they are juicy and sweet.

So ejebud, now that your place is to become a reality, have you given any more concrete thought as to what kind of dog(s) you are going to use? Are you still settled on Best's? You gonna go with Pizza Bread on your Italian Dogs or more like Italian rolls?

With Black Perigord Truffle.

Mushroom Duxelles butter. Which is obscene because to make Duxelles you have to saute minced mushrooms IN butter. I like the spreadable mushroom butter concept in any case. Truffle butter is the obvious, but that might blow your thanksgiving budget.

Spaghetti Carbonara.

Butter and crumbled bacon.

A new AP article on the foray: Chicago Gets Worked Up Over Foie Gras (AP Newswire)

Parmigiano/Garlic/Parsley.

Yep, that was my understanding as well -- even though this is a dish of origin from Chengdu there is still a lot of regional variation. Sort of like the way Ma Po Tofu is.

It does at the St. Marks location, and it always did at the 24 St. location when I used to go there. It doesn't at the 50th St. location? Their Sichuan Cold Noodles include Sichuan pepper as well as hot oil, and also are more vinegary than Cantonese-style Cold Noodles with Sesame typically are. ← If I'm recalling it right, the 50th street one has no pork. I might be wrong.

Be it as it may Menton, the lack of a forum for that region does not proscribe anyone from posting about Westchester or Upstate. Right now we have an entire forum tha encompasses all of New York State. If we start seeing significant Westchester or upstate or Long Isand content in it, it might call for a new forum. New forum creation is justified by how much activity we see -- we start out with larger geographical forums and we subdivide them as we see fit, and that includes finding appropriate leadership for those forums. Right now we just don't see that need. Traffic and posts grow on this site in an organic manner, not by just creating forums and expecting people to post there -- we tried that with several other areas of the site, such as the Caribbean and South America and Africa-- so "build it and they will come" is just not true. People complain we don't have a Northern California or Southern California Forum for the same reason and it is just as invalid.

Right, I don't think the GSI version includes the ground pork meat. Wu Liang Ye's version (which is also served warm and not cold) however, does. I think Cecil at China 46 prepared us a Dan Dan Mian once with the pork meat and it was cold.

Well, order them both and take photos.

Yup. Same thing. But Dan Dan Mian is not always served cold, I've had it hot (well, warm) as well. There are a few variations of this dish that use different types of noodles (like the fat translucent mungbean noodles that are brick shaped -- Grand Sichuan International Midtown I think uses a thinner noodle for Dan Dan and they also use the mungbean noodles for a slightly different dish but without the pork) but all use sichuan fire oil and a lot of Sichuan Peppercorn.

Baked Alaska. Fits your parameters. Who doesn't like stuff on fire?

That's a very rich line up of dishes, Chuck. I would stay on the light side and progress into more powerful wines with each dish. I'd go with the sherry (manzanilla perhaps), cidre or spanish sidra (sparkling cider) or a champagne/sparkler to start. The Alsatian might be too boozy for a first course, perhaps with the Pork, go germanic and get a Kabinett level Riesling or the Alsatian Gewurtz. Maybe Chenin Blanc or Sauvignon Blanc. The shepherd's pie is going to demand a serious red so you could do your Burgundy then. What are you going to serve with the Pot de Creme? Banyuls? Thats a good wine to match with dark chocolate desserts. Course if you wanna be festive you start with Beaujelais Nouveau. All the cool kids are doing it. Thats pretty low impact but I like the idea of starting with whites and progressing into reds.

Yeah, I would say Sherry as well. Perhaps something on the light end of the scale. A Cidre Bouche might not be bad either. You want something with high acid content I think to break up the oilyness and fattyness of the Gruyere cheese. Busboy's Alsace reccomendation is also solid. I'm not a huge fan of drinking big ass boistrous reds such as Burgundies with Soupe L'Oignon (particularly because most of the recipes I have seen call for deglazing the onions with white wine, sherry or cognac or a combination thereof before the stock is added) unless of course you plan to serve a meat dish as your main course, like Steak Au Poive or something like that.

The toaster oven is great for reheating Latkes.

In the interim, one thing you might want to consider is making your own Muffaletta bread -- the actual meats used in a muffaletta are fairly easy to get -- genoa salami, cappicola ham, mortadella, prosciutto (my addition) , sliced mozzarella, and provolone cheese. NOLAcuisine.com actually has a good recipe for muffaletta bread. I haven't tried it myself but it is something that looks like a fun project. Muffaletta Bread Recipe Of course, once you got the bread, you need the olive salad. Olive Salad Recipe And then you need to know how to put it together Muffaletta Recipe

Progress Grocery in Metairie, which is said to have Muffalettas as good as Central's and has been in business nearly as long, is also currently closed. http://www.progressgrocery.com Our own Mayhaw Man works for the company that does their eCommerce site, he may have some insights as to what is going on.

I've tried both the Peach Citrus and Black Cherry Citrus versions today and I am of the opinion that of the "new" flavors that the Peach is probably the best, with the Black Cherry in second. I'm actually of the opinion that I like the Peach better than the original, Grapefruit-only version.

Golden Krust is excellent, and I'd be jumping for joy if there was one here in Northern NJ. We have a few Jamaican bakeries around here, one makes its own patties. I like them, but they aren't as good as Golden Krust. So far they all appear to be at least 40 minutes from where I live.

Pakistani or Sichuan Chinese. Thai even, Bangkok Spicy level 10. Something with lots of chiles, garlic, and black pepper. Anything to overpower the flavor and oak bomb profile of that stuff. Hideous. Not very helpful, I know.