Rail Paul

Count me and dee (rhymes, too) to the in crowd bringing my bottle of ripple and six pack of iron city

Is this the Basque Place favorably reviewed in the NY Times (or Ledger) on Sunday? They seemed to like it a lot...

Is Peristyle the place which was the object of a contest between Anne Rice and another well heeled local? At the end of one of her books, Lestat disappears into the window of an abandoned auto dealership in the Garden District. Anne wanted that building, but was outbid by another local. She then funded several groups which objected to the glitz of her rival's design. They slugged it out for a year...

Han Ah Reum is written up in a feature article in Wednesday's Newark Star Ledger. very positive, flattering. Good overview of the various types of produce and how to use it in cooking.

Rosie - I wasn't very impressed with NJ Monthly's privacy policy on information furnished. I get enough spam as it is, without inviting more from them by filling out a survey. Paul

Been to Sebastian's. Nice place, good service. Thought the steak was fine. In the summer, later in the evening, with the French doors open, it's delightful.

eGullet's been moving up from a consistent 40 hits per 12 hour period over the weekends, and about 30-35 per 12 hour period during the week. Hit 49 per 12 hours overnight Sat-Sun. Rosie's getting surges of hits, but nowhere near as many as eGullet. Holly's gettin' hammered, and other folks have outpolled him in several recent measuring periods.

Nice article and map about Key West in current Conde Nast Traveler. Walking (staggering, actually) tour of historic sites and bars, with stops at various restaurants and bars, which could theoretically be done in a day.

Connections need to be verified... They'd prob be logging on to nakednews.com if it wasn't an offlimits/404 site. By my checking the network links, they get another 10 minute smoke break, which brings them up to about 57 minutes of breaks per hour...

Chef2chef doesn't use cookies, which would be an easy way for them to track usage. I think they track it by IP address. I voted (ummn) last night from the cable modem and comcast address, rebooting three times, and the system allowed me in each time. It looks like AOL must use the IP address created for the ISP's boot, rahter than th eindividual logon to AOL. I logged off AOL, and logged back on, and the chef system wouldn't let me vote again. Tonight, I'll see if I can duplicate the cable modem access. We may be installing new network software at work next week, so perhaps I can tag along as our tech people check the network connections on 50 machines...

Yikes, Rosie, where'd that site come from? You'd almost think they had a bunch of maniacs going from computer to computer, voting, and voting. Holly's moving up in the listings, as well.

Mark - thanks for the post. How would you describe Terrapin and its menu? You're the second person in two days to mention it as a pleasant place to dine when up near Kingston. Thanks Paul

Perhaps Empire thinks the pin feathers are part of the charm. I often cook an Empire turkey at Thanksgiving, so I've included a flat nosed pliers as a kitchen tool. Takes a few minutes, but the appearance is greatly enhanced. Maybe the other manufacturers use lye or paint remover to de-feather the critters, so I'll take my chances with my pliers. The greasy part is unusual. FWIW, Empire is usually available in NJ for about ũ.29 a pound.

The 99 and 100 positions remain open for nominations. The chowhound website is now #90 on chef2chef.

eGullet continues to surge in the rankings, but Rosie's feeling the heat of the fast rising bitsys kitchen. Just 350 votes keep bitsys from taking Rosie's #11 position Remember, vote early, vote often, vote for both

Bergen County should have an abundance of good places to eat, given the affluence and all the businesses in the area. I'm surprised market forces don't cause the owner to improve or lose customers...

let me go back and find the reimbursement voucher, that should tell me the name. I don't recall it to have been expensive. I remember it was a house, with several rooms, very intimate (4-5 tables in our room).

Thank you for your first post, OldGoat (great name!!!). Where else do you like to eat up in that Northeast Bergen area? That whole area of Old Tappan, Northvale, etc really hasn't been well covered lately on this board. If we get this going, maybe we can annex Rockland County to NJ...

Ron - Is Lilly's the small house with Mexican / French cusine, located on a side street? Brilliant wall coverings, looks like an updated, hip tearoom... I recall a wonderful business lunch there in 1998, but haven't been back to town since. (Didn't get the sale, either) Paul

Wilfrid's excellent list of 50 restaurants reminded me I haven't been to Zoe. Walked past it, looked interesting, but I had something else to do. Anybody have experiences or suggestions about Zoe? Thanks

The Times did put out a correction on the melon de bourgogne the following week. Years ago, when the New Yorker had fact checkers, there were three or four "immortals" whose work would never be fact checked. I believe McPhee and White were among them. Everybody else was checked. Like flying, today.

Better than Maxim's? That's going a stretch for produce. Hmmmm, I'll have to ask Dee to check it out on her way home from Fort Lee...

Christopher - when you're asked for a wine opinion, how much do you weight the comments made by prior customers concerning the various pairings of a particular wine and food combination? If the person making the decision doesn't appear to be especially knowledgeable about wines, do you suggest a wine as "I think x might be an excellent choice" or do you offer "Previous patrons have appreciated x with the duck, etc"? I'm assuming that, since your guests expect YOU to have an answer, you provide the answer as a an expression of your expertise. Am I correct? Thanks Paul

Looks like Rosie's widening her lead over the competition, too.

Nice post, Joey - welcome aboard!