JeAnneS

I'm not a 'que expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I do like it a lot I think The Joint in the Bywater is pretty darn good though I haven't tried the truck in comparison. www.alwayssmokin.com JeAnne

Daniel; Great reviews and pictures. My husband and I lived in NJ and worked in NYC for the better part of 12 years. We honeymooned in New Orleans in 2000 and apart from 2005, returned to this fantastic city every year. Last year we decided to make our fantasy a reality and we bought a little place in the Marigny in December and just moved here three weeks ago!! I am still pinching myself I can hardly believe it!! The weekend we closed on our house, our real estate agent took us to Parkway and I nearly died over the roast beef po boy. I had half to take home and savor the next meal along with a slab of their banana pudding. Next trip I highly recommend Coop's on Decatur...it's nothing pretty but their beans and rice (with sausage natch) and Cajun Fried chicken are finger licking good. Best wishes and hope you come back! JeAnne

I have placed two books up for auction on Ebay with 100% of the sale going to Egullet. Nick Malgieri - Chocolate http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...68511&rd=1&rd=1 Bo Friberg - The Professional Pastry Chef http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...67947&rd=1&rd=1 Any questions, please feel free to drop a post! JeAnne

Thank you Jason for posting about this place! Chaz (my husband) and I were in the mood for a little "themed" dinner this evening. I remembered drooling over the pics in this thread, pulled up the mapquest and off we went! It was fantastic for both of us. Chaz was thrilled..he's Scottish and though most of his memory of Chinese food in the UK is take away, he said it was very similar to what we had tonight ..ie Cantonese style. His opinion of the Chinese we've had here (here=states, not here meaning Chan's!) is that it's too healthy tasting The blowfish lights over the booths and the twinkling dragon eyes just put it over the top (or it could have been the zombies and love potion)! We started with the drinkies and a small pupu platter (the roast meat on a stick was fabu as were the fried chicken wings) and then split the roast pork Hawaii with a side order of fried rice. It was slices of roast pork over a bed of bean sprouts, sugar snap peas, mushrooms and water chestnuts in this brown sauce. YUMMY! The fried rice was the best I've had in a really long time..but that could be nostalgia talking. We brought home plenty of leftover and I thought the price was well worth it. We will definitely go back! JeAnne

This is similar to the mousse part of a peanut butter mousse cake on Epicurious and let me tell you it is nirvana. Every time I make this cake I have to forcefully stop myself from inhaling and devouring the mousse part...it is amazing stuff!

I'm so happy to have this thread and the fondant = looks great but tastes like cr@p thread today as it's a very slow work day. For the record, I had a whipped cream/cream cheese frosting on my wedding cake (pass on the fondant thanks!) and I will take cake over pie ANY day! JeAnne

ps Phil mentioned that they plan to have an outdoor patio this summer and they are expanding and renovating the second floor which should be open for dining in the fall

I really like the canned pomodoro and the low fat marinara. I tried one or two of the jars (vodka and I think bolognese) and wasn't impressed. I think the pomodoro and the marinara make great "bases" that you can quickly build on when you don't have a simmering day in front of you

I'm so glad I finally get to start really posting on the Jersey board! For the six years we have been here, we've been carless commuters into manhattan so needless to say our exploration of jersey didn't really take us much further than downtown Jersey City and Hoboken. Now we have a house in Bayonne and a car for exploring when we don't feel like going into the city!! I promise this is a relevant post Hub and I went to Front Street last night. I made the mistake of following mapquest directions and we got a little lost...first we missed Bayside and ended up in Staten Island and then we found bayside which was rerouted or something and ended up the going the long way around to get to Front Street. However it was SO WORTH IT! We shared the collossal onion and the pig out platter. Unless I missed it, I don't think the onion has been reviewed. It is fantastic much to hub's delight...perfectly seasoned batter fried up crispy with a kicking horseradish sauce. YUM. Our pig out platter consisted of the baby back ribs with brisket, pulled pork and sausage. I LOVED the barbecue sauce...its like vinegary sour and honey (maple?)sweet at the same time. I kept pouring little pools of sauce to dip forkfuls of meat into The pulled pork was tender, the brisket was wonderfully smoky and the sausage ...fantastic. Our sides were the sweet potato fries (which I thought were crispy) and the black beans which were delicious. Next time I want to try the chili and the pulled pork quesadilla. We met Phil who is a very sweet guy and gracious host. The bartender seemed a tad surly but the waitress made up for it. oh and the pigtini isn't bad either off to hunt for more jersey good eats! JeAnne

I haven't read every single post in this thread, but I will make a few statements: 1)I disagree that people who shop in the greenmarket wont be the same people at Trader Joes. I shop at Farmer's Markets once or twice a week for produce and will make a once a month pilgrimage to TJ's...I would maybe go more often if it was closer. (I'm in Bayonne and the closest TJ's is Westfield). 2)Trader Joes is more comparible in the "chain" arena to Citarella and Whole Foods than it is to Olive Garden and McDonalds'. Trader Joe's is much more specialty store than it is grocery store. But it has a lot of grocery store items (at better quality usually and cheaper price definitely) that make it more fun to shop than Balducci's or Citarella. I would say it's closer to a Whole Foods, but not as expensive and not as grocery store like. I'm not sure how well it will do in Manhattan and I wonder how the prices are going to stay as low as the prices are say in Jersey. My favorite TJ items: Frozen packaged fruit - wild blueberries, mango chunks and berry mix...I LOVE the mango chunks. Frozen veg - yes I try to eat mostly fresh, but in a pinch on a weeknight... my faves are the pre peeled butternut squash chunks and the haricot verts. Great variety of olive oil, vinegars, mustards ..ie funky condiment heaven TLC Crackers - they can be found elsewhere, but there is always a large variety at TJ's. Whole grain cereals - again a large variety and inexpensive TJ brand chicken sausages ..I think there are 3-4 different varieties and they are all good. The cheese and bulk chocolate chunks (usually callebaut) are unbelievably reasonable. and last but not least: Chocolate covered espresso beans cheers, JeAnne

Hub and i have tried a few pizza places in Bayonne. Our favorites are Pompei for take away and Giovanni's for either take out or eat in.

Thank you Mark for your response. We splurged for the hotel (a much needed therapy after the family reunion I'm sure!) and will be staying at the Threadneedles.

Thanks Caroline for the recommendation..I will definitely check out the Willow Tree. I also hate being rushed...especially as Chaz and I aren't exactly huge loungers over dinner. Anyone else? I'll have to try to search some threads for east london recs as I'm sure there are some here. Thank you again JeAnne

Hi everyone; My husband and I are spending a long weekend in the UK towards the end of January. We are spending two days in Bridgwater visiting his mother and older sister and then three days in London - staying in East London. My mouth is already watering for good curry so any recs there would be good..but would also like some good pub recommendations (hub is Scots) and maybe a higher end rec for a nice dinner out. Thanks so much in advance. Cheers! JeAnne

Happy Holidays everyone!!! Here are a couple pics from a cookie klatch I had at my house On the tray: Orange Honey Thumbprints (with Cranberry) Linzer Cookies Gingerbread Almond Ravioli Congo Bars Essence of Chocolate Squares Loaded Oatmeal Cookies (hub's fave ) Coconut Lime Sours Off tray: Chocolate Peanut Butter Truffles Spicy Nuts Brown Butter Cardamom Cookies Stilton Tart with Cranberry Chutney Bacon, Onion and Gruyere Tart

my mom would bake it with slices of potatoes, onions, linguica, hard boiled eggs and olives. very yummy she also made a mean fish cake with egg, potato, lots of fresh parsley, and parmesan.

i'm partial to gianduja myself!! There's a fantastic recipe on epicurious for lemon curd filled little cookies as well...mmm lemon curd.

I dont know about hangover cure, but my mom (i'm portuguese) makes a killer tripe stew..it's got all sorts of beans and fat sausages as well as the tripe and I believe the broth is a tomato/red wine base. Yumm yumm.

My favorite is Barefoot Contessa Outrageous Brownies

I just wanted to thank you so much for this recipe...it was fantastic and I'm sitting here stuffed to the gills from eating a plate that was probably 50% stuffing I cut back on the butter and added a bit of chicken broth as I was cooking this outside the bird. Really fantastic.

This year I was very lucky as I had some "orders" from co workers Have already made: Sweet Potato Pecan Pie Poached Pear Frangipane Tart Coconut Custard Pie Old Fashioned Bread Pudding Gingerbread Linzertorte Everything is already made and out the door! I made a couple of doubles for my meal and I'm also toying with a Lemon Tart with Pecan Citrus Sauce that's in the latest Food and Wine Happy holidays everyone!

Wendy I have a recipe for apple bread that is from Woman's Day of all places. It's fantastic, but the consistency is more like a pound cake than a quick bread. It also has a streusel layer and topping. Chunky apples, but no applesauce. Let me know if you wish me to post. JeAnne

Well that's good to hear! They have just started up a farmer's market on Tuesdays and Thursdays (or is it M/W? ) at Pavonia/Newport Path Station. It may be worth your while to even leave some flyers with someone selling bread or cheese ..never mind giving away samples. As to the delivery services, I think there is one in JC and it is called something like "Diner's Club". We used them a couple of times and back in the day when downtown JC didn't have many dining options it was worth it to go through this service to get someone to come to our zone from say Hoboken Another thought is to hit public spaces of apt complexes. I know you are looking for commercial business, but these apartment dwellers work somewhere. We lived in Dixon Mills before we moved to Bayonne and I know there were regularly menus left in the lobby/mailbox areas. I do work for corporate america in manhattan and we do use seamless web...for someone who has to order catering on a regular basis it is a godsend so it may be worth your while to hit up those people. I order almost exclusively through seamless web..even when it's for me personally. It's the convenience of being able to use a debit card, being able to include a tip so I'm not looking for singles when delivery gets there etc.. Plus there are tons of places to choose from and I can choose to order from a "menu" format or a "catering" format. JeAnne

This thread is completely fascinating..it's taken me two days to read through it, but it was worth it! My opinion is more along the lines of waiter in "waiter rant" blog. I think it totally works for a place like Per Se where you are going to get the highest service and attention. My concerns are when the "non flashy" but darn good eats places start incorporating the same practice. Overall, my dining experiences are in the $$$ category...once in a blue moon going for the $$$$ And in my experience, I can count on one hand the times in my mind that service has been stellar at that $$$ price range. Most of the time it's adequate and my tip reflects that sort of average service. But if you go to different parts of the country (or world for that matter), it's a different experience. I find that the service quality is higher even at establishments where I am not expecting it. I don't know if it's a NYC "I'm not a waiter, I'm a writer/actor/musician" thing, but I worry that having a uniform service charge in place of a tipping system is only going to increase the general apathy in service.

Not that you are asking for suggestions, but how about fliers (with coupons?) at rush hour at grove street path and/or harsimus cove light rail? We walked from the Jersey Ave light rail and it was worth the trip But people on the other side of newark ave need to know you are there!