RAHiggins1

Has anyone been watching Emeril Green on planet Green, discovery channel's new channel? I caught an episode last night as they were marathoning the series. It's reminiscent of "Essence of Emeril", but with live participants that are not an audience per se. It seems to be backed by whole paycheck. Almost the entire episode was taped there. It was a nice one though, all the counters formed a circle with a restaurant and high bar counter setup in the center, also circular. The food looked good and Emeril is somewhat toned down with a minimum of the oh yea babes and no bams. He's somewhat more plump these days.

I headed over to youtube and and picked up this clip. For the most part all of the judges used chopsticks except for eating a vietnamese spring roll. I would say that at the Iron chef's table that if the chef preferred you to eat his sushi by hand he would instruct you to do so.

Wow. That's below soup and sandwich budget. Even for drop and run. Be careful what you provide for low budget jobs, even if you're just thinking of it as "getting your name out there". Don't become known as "the cheap catering place". Once you're that place it's very hard to not be that place. Giving more for the money and giving more than the money are not the same thing. When you give them more than budget warrants just to get their attention they don't generally come back the next time saying "that was really nice of you to give us a deal that other time but we understand it can't always be that way". They say "what the hell, you only charged us $x.xx last time for this same menu". I feel like I give nothing but warnings is this thread and it probably sounds like I think it's a crappy business but that's not true. I enjoy it. I just had to learn a few things the hard way. Just tell me to shut up if it becomes annoying. I can take it. Glad to hear the tasting went well, everything looks great. ← As a third party I've never read anyrthing negative into your entirely constructive suggestions.

Try Escovitch for an appetizer. Red snapper with pickled vegetables. A nice center piece from the Dutch Antilles is Baked Edam with Shrimp Stuffing. A Haitian dish I think you would like is "Griots", pork loin braised and glazed in orange and lime juices and served with fried sweet potatoes and bananas.

Tropical themed eh? Polynesian or Carribean? Don Ho or Jimmy Buffet... I doubt most people would be willing to dip their fingers in communal bowl of Poi, but I've already thought up making Taro chips with Poi as a dip. They are both the same thing and you could call it Poi-Poi.. A play on cheesburger in paradise would be fun as well...

Would one even eat bad sushi?

I guess brisket sandwiches will be the special this week. Mmmmm.. brisket melt.

Unfortunately I did not take pics but I did a standard ground beef meat filling with fried white corn tortillas. Because the shells were very crisp and crunchy I took green leaf lettuce and lined the shell with it before adding the meat. The taco held together and stayed crunchy all of the way through. The 2nd, 3rd & 4th tacos did not get soggy while waiting for me to eat them. It also made it look nice with a lettuce fringe bordering the edges of the taco. I also added your garden variety mexican cheese mix, chopped onions and tomatoes.

Not to belabor the point or anything like that, BUT BELIEVE ME YOU WILL be able to tell! If said biker is big and burly and hairy, they are most likely hardcore. The recreational bikers look like the guys in "Hog Wild" (the good guys, that is...) ← Real bikers are few and far between. I own a 84" Harley Shovelhead FLH Shrine, I don't consider myself hardcore, but also am no wild hog. I've been restoring my bike for way too long. I tore it completely down and life happened I'm still trying to recover. It will be ok, they are just people. Now if she says oh, they're hells angels or outlaws then you need to worry.

Ok, so I got excited, called up a buddy to join me, and headed over to Buford Hwy. We went to Chef Liu first, we ordered the seaweed, sliced pig tongue, lamb kabobs, and Xiao long bao (juicy pork dumplings) it turned out to be quite a bit of food and was only $15.00 I'd like to thank Biskuit for pointing out this place on flickr. We then headed over to Cook's Warehouse. The sidewalk sale was so-so. The accompanying wine store was better. We picked up a couple of bottles of chardonnay for our wives, knowing we would drink it too. Afterwards we headed back over to Buford Hwy to try the Banh-Mi at Quoc Huong. The people there were super friendly, since we had just eaten we decided to order something as a snack. I was there to try the Banh Mi, so I ordered it with pork sausage ($2.00) and my buddy ordered the vietnamese eggrolls($5.99) from the chef's special menu section. Mine was good, the pork sausage turned out to be a head cheese. Beware the whole sliced jalapeno in this sandwich. I would not have minded had they seeded it and trimmed off the bitter white membrane. My buddy's dish came out with a large plate of green leaf lettuce with carrots, cucumber and basil and a basket of small pork eggrolls. This being a fairly foreign meal to us, we did not realize that his dish came with some assembly required. I had a suspicion that he was supposed to roll up the veggies in the lettuce leaf and dip it in the provided sauce. We also should have looked closer on entry, they only take cash, so I had to dash out to a ATM around the corner. When I got back My friend Dave told me the propritors had instructed him on how he should have eaten his eggrolls, rolled up with the veggies in the lettuce leaf and dipped in the sauce. Incidentally, the Banh Mi are buy 5 and get one free. That is a healthy quantity of food for $10, most everything else on the menu was pretty cheaply priced too. I shall be returning to both places. We then headed to Buford Highway Farmer's Market. It was nicer than I remember it, but you could smell the seafood counter in the back when you walked in the door. As we were pressed for time I didn't get to peruse every item in every aisle as I normally would. I did look for palm sugar but did not find it. Later that evening we made dinner, the women wanted hamburgers. fries and tots and we drank our wine with it. The wines were a 2004 "Le Pierre"($37.50), it was everything we like in a chardonnay, crisp with apples, pears, almonds, and a nice oaky-buttery undertone. We loves our oak. The other was a "Au bon Climat"($45.00), this was just as excellent but not ask oaky as we like and a hint more fruity. I can't remember the vintage on that one.

You know what would be easy and right up a cowboy/biker's alley? A big ol' honkin' pot of beans.

You write the checks and as long as you keep that empowerment you can make them jump through hoops like poodles. Continue to shop it as a standard operating procedure.

It's funny that you should say this today. For the first three years that we were in town, we were invited to so many parties and get togethers. Fairly recently we must have been bumped from the A list, and our guess is that it's because we're already at the store so much. Today I heard about a party that we always have gone to and this year we didn't even know about it. Since we're not out as much, people don't think about us, and so we don't get invited. With the restaurant, we'll be even less out and about. We enjoy our faux celebrity and have built much of our business on it, so I hope we can find a way to stay out there. ← You need to push a catering menu to your friends and get paid for your social life. Then you have both. Somethng not over the top, like tasting trays. Whoops, there's more pointing people to your desserts!

How about a minature dessert that would wake up their sweet tooth and make them look closer at your other creations.

True story as witnessed by me. There was a sandwich shop in an area where I used to live. They sold good but smallish sandwiches of the sort you mentioned (you might need two unless you were dieting or a very light eater). They sold these sandwiches for, let's say $4.99 (because I don't remember the exact number). A butcher shop in the same area decided to add a deli counter to the business that would also make sandwiches to order. He knew all about the "place with the small sandwiches". He decided to use 8oz. of meat in his sandwiches (they were HUGE, eating one was a challenge) instead of the 2oz.-ish the other place used. No filler, no fluff. Just massive sandwiches that were good. He sold his sandwiches for about $1 more than the sandwich shop. Word got out. People thought he was crazy selling them that cheap. The people in the other sandwich shop were thrilled. "He'll never make it doing that". He began to sell a lot of sandwiches. The word spread even more. He began selling so many sandwiches he had to hire additional help so that he could tend to his butchery. The other shop wouldn't budge on what it was doing. It became a downward spiral where eventually they couldn't afford to compete with him if they wanted to and they closed the shop. More sales at a slightly smaller margin will take you further than a couple crackers and a pickle. If the customer base says the portions are too small, make them bigger. ← That also is an excellent point. Put more one the sammich and add a buck to the price AND give them the pickle.

No not really. It's mostly just trying to delve further into the culture you are experiencing. If you were to go to the middle east, would you eat wth your fingers from a communal bowl given the opportunity? I would.

I'm curious about the consistency of the dish. Does it come out firm like a patè or loose like a stew?

Do you already include the perfunctory pickle with the sandwich? I'm sure you are aware that every morsel impacts the bottom line. Are there any other shops or restaurants close by that you are on good terms with and can share orders to get better service delivered?

Alternatively, go get a manicure at Nails by Joann on Beaver Ruin at Indian Trail and ask her where to get good "Banh Mi". She is also good for directing you towards a good bowl of Pho. Update: I called her and asked. Joann says to go to Market 99 at buford Hwy, 8th & Square is the corner in the market they are on, look for a place called "Quoc Xuong". They have the very best one. ← That's Quoc Huong. 5150 Buford Hwy. They are definitely among the best. My other favorite is Lee's Bakery, closer in to town, 4005 Buford Hwy. See a few Quoc Huong photos at http://flickr.com/search/?q=banh&w=59833804%40N00 ← I followed your flickr link and ended up drooling over the Xiao Long Bao at Chef Liu's. I'm making a trip this weekend to get some of that. I'm just in Norcross, so Buford Farmer's Market is going to be a waypoint along the way. Do you know if the restaurant at Buford and Chamblee tucker that served all you can eat Dim Sum is still there? It's been to long since I explored that area.

ahhh, so it's parmesan, not parma. yeah...i'd def lose the hair reference. cloud, maybe? good luck with your proposal! ← "Nest"

Alternatively, go get a manicure at Nails by Joann on Beaver Ruin at Indian Trail and ask her where to get good "Banh Mi". She is also good for directing you towards a good bowl of Pho. Update: I called her and asked. Joann says to go to Market 99 at buford Hwy, 8th & Square is the corner in the market they are on, look for a place called "Quoc Xuong". They have the very best one.

Glub! Glub! That prawn needs rescueing from your misoshiru! No worries, I'll handle it! Om nom nom nom..

I was thinking 4x the cost. Keep in mind you have to transport everything to a location an hour away. Also who is going to be passing the Canapes? More cost. If you are supplying the drinks, I'd find a bartender to sub that out to and make them bring their own stock.

I do that, I roll the Nigiri to its side and pick it up with my chopsticks. I use chopsticks because the rice is sticky and will stick to your hand. I had read/seen somewhere a long time ago in the early 90's that Sushi was eaten originally by hand and that Maki sushi (rolls) were invented as a necessity to serve sushi at card games where the player did not wish to get the sticky rice all over the cards. I doubt I could prove this, its just what I had read/seen somewhere. As a side note I had the most wonderful Hamachi (yellowtail, also my favorite) the other night, there was so much flavor. I had not eaten at an actual sushi bar in awhile and had been getting my sushi fixes at the asian buffet at lunch. I can attest that the quality was far superior. I've decided to not eat buffet sushi anymore as it now all tastes the same to me, unrecognizable, indistinguishable. I had thought my palate was not picking up subtle nuances between the different types of fish. It turns out that the other sushi just sucked, at the sushi bar the flavors were slapping me in the face, what a reality check.

I'm starting to get the impression that Thailand is the new "Hot spot", not unlike Dubai. With Peter's expose on his buffet post, this post of a similar occurence, and as I recall where the Top Chef winner, Stephanie spent her time before heading to PR for the final. I guess I'll have to save up for a vacation to fill my buffet needs.