Taboni

I know its not English, but how about Llanelli (I know how to say it, just no clue how to phoneticize it!) Food related terms that got me when living in England were fillet (pronounced fill-itt) and paella (with the ll pronounced as a hard L)

Its hard to beat the romantic atmosphere at Whispers in Spring Lake, although I bet they are pretty booked this weekend. I think they are on Opentable.com though, worth a try. I haven't tried the Black Trumpet at the Sandpiper in S.L.yet but it is on our list as I have heard pretty good things from there. We used to go to Le Fandy quite often, but haven't been since Chef Plastiak sold the restaurant.

I have always pronounced this meel foy (although I have heard meel fway as well)

I go to the Fromagerie several times a year and while I have only been going there for about 5 years (so I can't really tell if it has indeed gone down) I never leave disappointed. If you can, be sure to request a table downstairs though, since I find the upstairs room a little cramped.

I would try any one of the German butchers in the Union area as John has suggested. Having only been in Chicago once, I have really never had any of the mentioned sausages, but I assume the "metts" are smoked mettwurst, which any German butcher should carry. The Chicago Polish sausage however, I am not sure of, and I am 100% Ukrainian! I am assuming it is similar to siekena kielbasa (which is ground rather than the chunky kryana variety)??? Or perhaps it is like raw unsmoked kielbasa? Anyway try either Pulaski on Wood ave or go around the corner to Bratek's on Henry street.

While I am all for the new trend in open plan housing (I used to live in a loft above Espositos on 9th ave), the one thing I didn't like, and actually caused us to swap the dining room in our new house with the formal living room (another anachronism) in the front of the house, was the problem of sitting down for a more formal dinner and having the now extremely messy kitchen in full view while eating (my wife wants me to contact the Food Network to see if they will let me join the Iron Chef crew as the "Messy Chef") I know I should clean as I go, but I must be missing that organizational/clean gene.

We used to use our formal dining room only for holidays, etc. but lately even though we have a very comfortable table in our kitchen/family room we find that we use it every chance we get. I bought the dining room set (Stickley) before I met my wife and she knows it is the one set of furniture that is not subject to her decorating whims. She keeps reminding me there is no sense in having a room you only use 2 or 3 times a year, although we usually reserve it for times when our 2 year old is not in the dining plan. We used it for her 1st birthday party and my mom cringed when our daughter dropped cake all over the rug we inherited from my grandmother. Since then we usually delay dinner until after her bedtime, but hey you can always clean the carpet.

They are all about the same. I wouldn't put them in an oven over 400 (I know some of them say 425) naked and expect them to work again. Actually its the wire, not the probe itself that gets fried. You can circumvent this by wrapping the wire in tin foil to protect it. Personally I use a Polder (not the dual temp one) and a Thermpen (best cooking-related present I ever got, bar none) I have a Weber remote grill thermometer but it has yet to be tested.

I am not sure where you are referring to, but when I lived in England (1990-98) I was introduced rather succinctly to the concept of a "timed reservation" After approximately 2 hours at a table we were asked to leave. The first time I ran into this concept I was livid, but it seems that it has become quite normal. In all defense, when calling for the reservation, one is informed that say for a 7 pm table they will need the table back by 9. Some places handle this with more grace than others (eg give me a table in the bar area if one exists to enjoy after dinner drinks and coffee) while some merely bring you the bill and remind you that they told you in advance of their policy. I have no problem leaving a credit card and being charged if necessary if I renege on my end of the contract, but I also expect a reserved table to be available within a reasonable amount of time with respect to the time agreed upon. I understand the whole overbooking concept, but unless the restaurant industry is willing to compensate those who are unreasonably delayed as the airline industry does, they can't consider that excuse a reasonable explanation to the problem.

Unfortunately I think the idea was to SAVE money and while Lobel's has better meat than most restaurants I doubt if it is the most thrifty solution to the problem.

Most of the dry aged beef I have come across in good butchers is in the $20+ per lb range, which might be a little too much for your budget. I don't know where you are located but you can try John's market in Scotch Plains as well (908) 322-7126. I think it is a little tough to do it yourself for such a large number of guests as since there is significant product loss due to the drying process you have to start with pretty big primal cuts and expect to lose 10% or so (don't qote me on this number) due to the drying process, hence the increased price. Trying to dry age individual steaks is not the best way to go about it. Me, I would call a butcher.

I grew up in Union county and a sloppy joe was always a triple decker soft rye with roast beef or turkey, swiss, cole slaw and russian dressing. I have since moved to Monmouth county and its the same thing here, so I wouldn't exactly call it a North Jersey thing. Two places here, Elsie's in Red Bank and Fair Winds in Fair Haven make pretty good ones.

We had planned to have a small dinner party but it was cancelled early Saturday morning despite purposely calling both couples to make sure they were still coming on Friday before heading out to the butcher. Needless to say I was now stuck with an $80 5lb prime strip loin roast along with 3 lb of shrimp. We had shrimp and a welsh rarebit "fondue" for happy hour. We cut the roast into steaks to eat over the next week or so (I hate frozen meat) and had 2 great strip steaks. I turned my herbed roasted potatoes into hash browns and had an haricot verts and goat cheese salad. Unfortunately our friends were supposed to bring dessert so we were SOL on that front. We rescheduled the party for 2 weeks from now. Is it rude to ask friends for a credit card number in case of a no show??

Barilla, although I probably have to do a wide tasting now to see if the others are that much better. (I'm guessing marginal at best)

Thanks for your help. I will be sure to let you guys know what we decided on and hopefully give a good review! I just hope it doesn't snow.

My wife and I are going to Boston for a long weekend and staying in Beacon Hill (Charles Street Inn) Anyone have a suggestion for somewhere special in the area? We are open to pretty much anything except for Japanese/sushi. Thanks.

How about naming your restaurant after it? ← Gah. As for "sketti", I have fortunately never actually heard someone say this. Baby-talk about food is asinine. ← If I may add the equally annoying abbreviation 'mater to the list. God I hate that. Also I will be very happy if I never hear the term "heirloom" again. It is the "artisinal" of 2004.

I agree regarding Florida's Natural, but the Mrs won't drink it (she is a nightmare of a picky eater) She also doesn't get the fact that certain sizes of things may be on sale (eg the gallon of OJ for 4.99 as opposed to the half for 3.59) The few times she actually goes shopping with me I constantly have to walk behind and replace items she has already put in the cart. You can imagine how much she loves this. My wife isn't allowed to do any grocery shopping..she just doesn't get it.

If you talk to my wife, she will tell you that my purpose in life is the eternal search for cheap Tropicana OJ. 2 for $4 you can get every day at Costco (actually its 4 for $7.99). In my world buy 1 get 1 free is cause for excitement. Call me Ponce de Leon.

Hoboken Eddies Original BBq is one of my choices for a bottled sauce, although some of the other varieties are quite good as well. Not sure where you are, but there is a store in Blue Bell that carries his line.

I miss the old Frank's before the fire.

At $1000+ I am thinking Rachel's Cuisinart Toaster Oven is a better bet. But then again I am probably the only person on this board who doesn't have a professional or pseudo professional range at home. Just couldn't justify the expense at the time, and I can turn out some pretty great stuff on my middle of the road jenn air convection range. It actually gives me great inspiration catching glimpses of peoples appliances on the food blogs and seeing some awesome dishes being prepared on less than state of the art equipment.

If frozen is the only thing available, soak it in cold water until it thaws (shouldn't take long) I think you can still probably get a fresh one in London if you do a little legwork. I always was able to get one with no more than 2 days notice at Porterfords in Bow Lane in the City. Not cheap but good quality.

Definitely less sweet than regular pepsi, but I personally didn't taste much "spice" to it at all. Kinda boring really.

I vaguely recall drinking it when I was in South Africa back in the mid 90s. I think it was served on ice as an after dinner drink.