phaelon56

I also like Paisano's but haven't been back to Rutherford since Reggia Bistro opened (it's on Park where medina was - just a few doors over from Cafe Eros and across from the Bank of NY). I alaays meant to try Corrado'ds but didn't get aroudn it it when I was living there. Have been to Il Forno in Lyndhurst several times and always enjoyed my meals there - decent food and very reasonably priced. It's on Ridge Road just past the Rte 3 overpass heading south, just as you enter Lyndhurst.

Point well taken but OG really pushes the notion in their advertising that they offer a "real Italian experience" vs. Italian-American. My GF loves the place because she orders the same dish every tme and it's predictable. I always enjoy the salad and warm garlic breadsticks but have yet to find an entree I like enough to order it twice. Red Lobster is a different story - I've been on occasion with friends or co-workers who insisted on going there. I stuck to the broiled seafood and whatever I got always tasted the same - there's some sort of institutional seasoning blend / butter that prevails over the taste fo the seafood. Wierd. I think their flagging performance is due to the fact that enough people have caught on to the fact that fish is supposed to taste like fish.

Yes - a wonderful article. It strenghtens my already fervent desire to gain access to real Cuban coffee beans. I'm told that Cuba grows some of the best coffee throughout the entire Caribbean and Central American region. Not knocking Bustelo as I've enjoyed it so many times but there are much better coffees. For those who read the article and have a hankering to try some but can't get to Miami.... there's always West Yew York NJ (yes - West New York is in New Jersey!). That area has the largest Cuban population in the US outside of Miami and Bergenline Ave still has plenty of Cuban diners and neighborhood restaurants where this delicious coffee is readily available (and cheap!). My former GF is Cuban - her father would often make us Cuban style coffee after dinner that made my heart sing - great stuff.

And you think the consequences will be any less dire of you fail to make them for us this week? We must see the rolls I really appreciate your sharing about the passing along and preservation of your grandmother's recipes. I wish we had enough recipes and enough cooking tradition in my family to do such a thing.

Flush with the thrill of my first successful fruit tart I'm ready to make a couple more. The filling I used for the first one consisted of a can of sweetened condensed milk, 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice zest of a lemon, 8 oz cream cheese and 1/8 teaspoon of vanilla extract. I mixed with a hand blender, allowed to firm up in the fridge and filled the tart. My guest loved it but it was a trifle sweet for my taste and it tends to soften up quickly when not chilled. The tarts I'll be making later this week will most likely need to be filled in the morning of or even the night before the day on which they're served. I've seen recipes for pastry cream and some other possibilities that look good but am curious about how well they'll survive a 2 - 2 1/2 hour trip in an airconditioned car if they're not stored in an ice chest. Also - would it help to do something like a light egg wash if I'm doing a prebaked shell? Will that help the bottome crust stay drier and flakier for longer before it starts absorbing liquid from the filling?

It's time to incorporate a pinned glossary of coffee and espresso terms in the Coffee & Tea forum. We're looking for ways to distinguish ourselves from other online coffee resources and one thing has become quickly evident regarding the glossaries that currently exist: 1) They are usually either very broad based with inadequate detail or woefully short. The better ones try to cover every conceivable aspect of coffee and espresso terminology from bean and roast characteristics to cupping terms, drink preparation methods and names etc. but are very US-centric 2) None have any differentiation to account for regional, local or international variations We have a relatively upscale user community that includes many people who travel and try to integrate a meaningful food and beverage experience as part of both their personal and business travel. Coffee terms in general and espresso terms in particular have significant variations from one country to another - possibly even regional variations within a country. Wouldn't it be great to know the right lingo in advance before you travel so coffee and espresso ordering will be fast and painless? Here's your chance Here's where help is needed: the plan is to initially focus just on the terms commonly used to describe coffee and espresso drinks, as one would order them in a restaurant or cafe. I have a good handle on the US terminology (which is still open to variation as most of it has already been Starbuckized) but I'm not familair with many of the terms used in other countries. My exposrue to US terms is limited to the Northeast and the Northwest - folks with regional or local US terms should pipe up. This includes those problematic phrases such as "coffee regular" which in diner-speak means coffee with cream and sugar ("coffee light" is cream only and "coffee black" is just plain coffee). Anyone with specific knowledge of a country and or region.... please offer your input to help us make this the premier resource for caffienated drink names. At the present time we will not be including "Moolatte" on the list for well known reasons American drinks to consider: Drip coffee Americano (espresso mixed with water) Press pot coffee (aka French Press) Espresso Double shot espresso ( do they call it doppio anywhere in the US other than Starbucks? Cappuccino Latte Espresso con panna (topped with whipped cream) Lungo (long pull espresso - longer pull time than regular shot and more liquid) Ristretto (restricted pull espresso - ground finer and same pull time as regular shot but less liquid) Cafe Crema (coarser grind and slightly longer pull - like a drip coffee made in an espresso machine) Machiatto (espresso shot "stained" or topped with a small amount of foamed milk) Depth Charge or Red Eye - drip coffee with a shot of espresso added in I'm aware that terminology varies from place to place - Italy, Spain and France have their own variations while Australia has a whole raft of other terms (e.g. a "flat white"). We also have the issues of discrepancy within the industry in the US itself - Starbucks calls any drink with extra milk foam a cappuccino and any drink with no extra foam a latte but they vary wildly in the espresso to milk ratio depending on drink size. The more savvy specialty independent espresso purveyors here in the US know how to create pourable microfoam with the milk - there is no separate foam to scoop on or leave off - the foam is integral to the milk. In these establishments the differentiation between cappuccino and latte is solely one of the espresso to milk ratio (cappucino's have a 1 to 2 or 1 to 3 ratio and lattes are a 1 to 4 or 1 to 5 ratio). Any and all help appreciate including just pointing me to some existing online resources that may already have some of this info.

Was he really perky and energetic after his snack?

I've wondered about that but it appears not, despite the not so surprising similarity in the name. They certainly aspire to a similar branding concept. I just visited the truly horrible Starwich web site with its unbearably long Flash intro (for which there is no bypass shortcut link). In addition to the cheesy smooth jazz background music that plays when the site is opened, they make this statement: Wow. I didn't even realize that my life was so sorely in need of experience. All this time I thought that a sandwich was just a sandwich. Thank goodness I live in the Northeast - there's finally light at the end of the tunnel I discovered that the Starwich trademark is registered specifically to the Starwich company in NYC whereas all Starbucks trademarks (there are literally dozens of them) are registered to the Starbucks Brands Corproation in California. Starbucks actually now even owns the rights to this amusing anti-Starbucks brand No! Starbucks Coffee They actually now own the right to the word No! when ever it's used as a modifier for the Starbucks name. Thankfully, the US Patent and Trademark office has decided that Starbucks does NOT own the exclusive rights to the actual word "No!" when it used in other contexts

Heck yeah. As a resident of central NY state back in my drinking days (about two hours south of the Thousand Islands Bridge) we had Labatts a'plenty. Full cases of Labatts 50 Ale were as cheap as $8.99 at a time when Bud and the other US meagbrews were running nearly $14 to $16 per case and even stuff like Old Milwaukee was rarely under $2.50 per sixer. When visiting Canada it was an entirely new experience. John Labatts Extra Stock (a bit like Molson Brador) and Labatts Velvet Cream Porter were two that I really enjoyed yet they never found their way to the US market (at least where I lived). Neither was a microbrew but I'd put them up against any of today's "premium" products and believe they'd do respectably.

I hope it doesn't count or I'll have to look around to make sure no one sees me putting it on my cauliflower before roasting. I've tried a bunch of different seasonings for roasted cauliflower and keep going back to Lawry's Seasoned Salt. I've also tried a slew of different dry rubs for my smoked ribs and discovered McCormick's Montreal Steak Seasoning to be the hands-down winner. I know it's easy enough to just make that sort of thing myself but I haven't yet carved the time out of my schedule to do so.

I always sub brown for white in my pecan pies and it seems to add a richness to the flavor.

Newest update: Construction crews are now said to be on site and the opening is slated for mid September, just a couple months away. I'll try to find out if there's a soft opening planned and see if we get a small eGullet group in there to try the NYC location. They promise construction photos on the web site but there are none there yet.

Is this a new development or has Wagner been making these for awhile? I just scored a used Wagner Sydney skillet at a yard sale this weekend and it had the 1060 designation on the bottom, as does one of the sizes in the list linked above. Is that just a standard size reference? This is the first cast iron piece I've owned and it's incredibly smooth on the inside but perhaps form wear. I also grabbed a Lodge cornbread skillet but it's got a very distinct texture on the surface (appeared ot have been used very little if at all).

Supposedly Cafe New York brings their dough over from Brooklyn (seems plausible as North Jersey water is too funky to make good dough). They don't have a store in Brooklyn but I think they do have a second location down south - perhaps in Florida.

I just bought some today for the first time to season my latest garage sale treasure - a Lodge cast iron "corn bread skillet" (it has pie shaped indentations that allow you to bake eight wedges of corn bread - how cool is that?). It should be avalable adjacent to butter and margarine in the dairy section of nearly any grocery store in one pound blocks (shaped just like a pound of butter). Mine was the Morrel brand but was labeled as "Snow Cap Manteca". I had to read the fine print to verify that it was lard. About rolling dough. I use a pastry cloth and the matching cloth rolling pin cover. Has always worked really well for me but I dont' turn the dough. I just trun the rolling pin. Judicious use of gradually decreasing downwards pressure as one rolls outward pushes a sort of "wave" of dough that starts out thicker when more pressure is applied and then thins out towards the edge. It seems pretty intuitive - I just keep pushing outwards until the center is the thickness I want and then push the outer edges out. It's never really quite round but trimming takes care of that.

Keep in mind the context. My GF grew up eating squirrel, opossum, collards, beans and the like. Fried chicken was only on the occasions that they could afford that luxury. To this day she won't eat any kind of game and I can't say that I blame her. She still loves greens though and despite being content to let me doo nearly all the cooking, when we have greens she has to fix them (although she finally admitted that mine are pretty damn good). She was raised in Memphis but it was southern and not particularly urban - her upbringing was not citified in the way we think of it here in the Northeast. It wasn't really rural either (her stepfather drove out to the country to shoot the aforementioned game).

Try ordering your home fries browned and extra crispy - it may be lunch time before you get your breakfast Unlike Starbucks, which seems to work nearly anywhere provided there's enough pedestrian or vehicular traffic, I can't see Starwich succeeding outside the more affluent major and mid sized metro markets. In central NY state where I'm presently based, a $9 sandwich is about $3 - $4 higher than what the market will typically bear. Sure, we have a few people who will pay that much on occasion for the right type of sandwich and wouldn't blink an eye at paying that much if they were visiting NYC but regular repeat customers in this town (and many like it) are looking for a complete lunch that's $6 - $10 total including a soft drink and perhaps chips or fries. I'll be curious to see if the technology helps them in terms of efficiency. Someone has to try it first and it seems like the right time.

Cosi's certainly has no problem getting people to line up for $8 - $11 sandwiches. I can't see why Starwich should be any different - especially if the quality and selection are a bit better. Are you kidding? The meatloaf is pre-made at diners - they may heat the slices for you in an oven rather than in a microwave depending on what diner you're in but "made to order" it ain't. Not sure why it takes awhile in the diners you've frequented but it should take no longer than an omelet. That said.... I think I need an open faced meatloaf sandwich with gravy and home fries now

I've only had slices at Foschino's but I prefer Cafe New York in Rutherford on Park Ave - about a block up from Medina. The other pizza places in Rutherford proper that I tried were mediocre. The Park Tavern, just across the track on the edge of East Rutherford, makes a pretty decent pie. Their meatball pizza is the recommended choice.

Is this a couple doors down from Cafe Eros? if so it's likely in the space where Medina, the Moroccan restaurant, was. Nice room but I was way underhelmed with the food at Medina and never returned after one meal there. I think they closed in March. It must be good if you journeyed all the way from Lyndhurst to eat there

I live in central NY state and was introduced to them by a former GF who lived in Alabama during her adolescence and learned to cook from "Big Mama". I was blown away when I tried them - just stunned at how good they were. I had tried pcikled green tomatoes and was underwhelmed but in the fried form they are a revelation. She made them about 1/4" thick with cornmeal. Fast forward to recently - I was visiting my new GF in Charlotte, where she had relocated from NJ. We were getting some takeout from the Chicken Box (I think that's the name - it's on North Tryon about two miles north of Uptown). They had them on the menu and we got an order - a bit greasy but still delicious - also cut thin. What shocked me was that my current GF had never tried them before but she grew up in Memphis. Are they typically just popular further south? In the north.... I have had them at Maroon's Restaurant in Chelsea (NYC). Their menu is Jamaican and American Southern. Theirs are thick cut - probably close to 3/4 " and very light without a trace of visible oil - very good. Dinosaur BBQ in Syracuse NY and Rochester now has them on the menu as well (soon in NYC when they finally get that branch open. Theirs are about 1/2" thick and done with a cajun spiced cornmeal and served with a seasoned mayonnaise/dressing that seems lieklk a cross between ranch dressing and remoulade. Great dish - the best rendition of this that I've ever tried. They also sprinkle them with grated cheese (I think it's parmesan or romano) which is totally superfluous. Dinosaur BBQ Fried Green Tomatoes

Just a quick note to report that the crust on the fruit tart pictured above was good ad flaky. The suggestions here helped immensely and the next is sure to be better (which I will prepare next week). Thanks to all. I need to work on a better glaze and find a filling that's less sweet (for my taste) but it was a huge hit and was inhaled by all.

I had dinner in the restaurant a few months back and was very, very pleased. My date had been there several times and knew to order the chocolate souffle (which was fantastic and very filling - for two people at about $11 it's a steal). We shared a salad, shared an entree and had two glasses of wine and a tonic water between us. Might have had coffe but I don't recall. They cheerfully offered to split and plate the shared items without our asking for it and there was no plating charge. The Niman Ranch pork with bourbon reduction sauce was excellent as were the sides and the salad. Portions are generous. We were both hungry but a shared salad, shared entree and the souffle left us both quite sated. If I recall correctly the bill was about $100 with tax and tip. Good value. I could be perfectly content just going to their bar for coffee and souffle. By the way... service was friendly, unobtrusive and down to earth. It's a small room with some hard surfaces yet had a warm earthy feel and noise levels were low. I really like this place. Too bad I don't live in NYC

We once tried Crystal Palace vodka, which also came in 750ml plastic bottle like the McCormick. It was a disaster. Not only was it even worse than the other cheap vodkas we'd purchased prior to that time, the plastic bottles seemed to slip when being tossed back in the speed rack during bar rush. Based on unanimous demand from all the bartenders, we never got plastic bottles again. In addition to being slippery they totally threw off that intuitive sense of weight and balance that one develops for free pouring shots in a hurry. Mohawk is still a popular brand here in central NY state - their well gin and flavored schnapps are well distributed in this area.

I find the aspartame aftertaste to be a problem in nearly all diet sodas although when I drink soda I usually stick to diet. Unadulterated my current favorites are A&W ir IBC diet Rot Beer and also diet Dr. Pepper. Diet Pepsi actually tastes pretty good if you add about an ounce or so of cranberry juice to a glass full. It adds a slightly fruity note and somehow the cranberry cuts that edgy aspartame aftertaste. Cranberry is high in sugar but an oucne of it doesn't add many calories.