tommy

yup. chinese take-out place. not notable, from my experience, but one of about 50 in town. i lie. it's the "upscale" place. one of those places with a fish tank. i never quite understood that as the fish in these things never look very tasty. but still, one of about 50 generic places overall. i think the best chinese place is the new "asian fusion" place. i think is called "asia something or another". not too shabby.

NJ. you're welcome. and hey, it's not a pig roast til the cops show up. i hope everything turned out OK. thanks to everyone, especially our gracious host. you all made this a great big fat success. and dumpling, i have your purse and all of your money. (actually, jason took your purse...but i pinched the money).

i don't think my grilled steak turns out at good as NYC's top steakhouses. and i don't think most people have access to beef that quality (or temps that high?). and yes, we can all order from lobel's, but not many people know that, and even more aren't inclined to spend that kind of money and run the risk of messing it all up. besides, there's more to the experience of a steakhouse than the steak and sides.

i think that good steakhouses use good quality meat and cook them perfectly (give or take) every time. there's no clean up, there's no heating up your kitchen, there's no smoke in your house, and there's the aspect of "going out to eat". the latter, i would think, is a big factor.

i think i can produce better food, cheaper, than most of the restaurants i go to. i think whatever case can be made for steakhouses can be made for any type of restaurant where this is the case.

i see you haven't met most of the NJ people.

we should make sure that there's an unloading area near the field for the cars. but i'm sure that's been thought of. great looking day today.

oh man, that actually sounds pretty good.

well, we were in town anyway. the phone thing is what bothered me. no hours posted on the door either.

there's only one thing worse than not having a proper outgoing message on an answering machine, and that's not picking up at all even though there are a bunch of employees in the place. clearly, as i found out, they're not open for lunch. however, the phone thing pissed me off just enough to make me not bother going back.

address/phone number?

did we sort out the water issue? i know they have well water there, but i can't help but think that people will have to fill up containers and carry them across a field or something. and even if that's not a bad thing, we'll still need containers. maybe people who are going to drink water could bring a bottle and then fill it as necessary? i know i am, so this is more a heads up for those who haven't thought about it.

you get the tambourine. trust me on this one.

i don't think they need support really. i've cleaned up plenty without support in the past. i don't look forward to driving garbage home, however.

god help us all.

hate compliments. i'm almost never happy with the final product. although on some occasions i just *know* it's freakin great.

300 actually. my bad.

larb.

i was wondering that myself. i've got the following: 500 plastic forks 500 plastic knives 500 plastic spoons 260 plastic plates 140 plastic bowls 360 16 oz plastic cups 120 or so 9 oz plastic cups for wine 2 cases of soda (pepsi/diet pepsi) 1000 napkins several rolls of paper towels a bottle of 409, because a clean pig pickin is a happy pig pickin, and enough plastic bags to tie up all the garbage and all of the guests if need be. also, a few folding or plastic chairs 1 or 2 3x3 plastic tables a cooler with ice one of those big round tubs for cans/bottles/etc with ice that's assuming i can fit it all. i may have to leave the big round tub thing behind.

you go girl.

ah. #10. i missed that one. hopefully no one else did! worse case scenario, i'll just use my hands to serve everyone.

yeah, you're probably right, although BDR suggests that he/she usually enjoys spicy dishes. but as far as kung pao chicken that i've had, it wasn't particularly spicy.

the top of whose page? i don't know if 10 serving spoons is enough. If your eGullet settings are set to 40 posts per page, most of the updates I've been posting appear at the top of most of the new pages. All of you who haven't optimized your eGullet settings must think I just post the updates randomly, huh? The 10 spoons I brought were the extra (in my mind), JIC people forget to bring their own serving implement for their dish. random is right kid. 10 extra spoons are great. now, how many do we need and who's bringing them? should i buy them? that's the question.

the top of whose page? i don't know if 10 serving spoons is enough. it depends on how many dishes need serving spoons and how many serving spoons people plan on bringing. i just didn't want it to be an oversight, as these things can often be. there's nothing like sitting in a field with 40 dishes, 3 cases of beer, and 4 cases of wine, and realizing there isn't a corkscrew, bottle opener, or enough servering spoons.