rockhopper

A wild guess without checking mapblast.com would be southern NJ Thanks for the Ralph's rec John. I haven't been there yet. I'll give it a try. Tacconelli's doesn't travel home well. I'm about a 10 minute drive from their Moorestown location and the pie was pretty soggy by the time I got home. Much later I tried one there in their dining room and it was pretty good.

Philadelphia Magazine in thier current "Best of Philly" issue (which includes places in Southern NJ) listed South Jersey [sic] as the worst area for pizza. "When Bertucci's is the best you can do...". Yes there are Bertuccis at shopping mauls but so are McDonalds and you never hear people hold that up as a paragon of burgers. The interns writing the story simply made a hit and run snarky comment and didn't back it up with a list of pizza places - except for mentioning Bertucci's. It's almost as ridiculous as the Star Ledger's recent story on NNJ cheesesteaks. So, where are your favorite SNJ pizza places? I'll start a short list. Tony's on Haddon Ave in Haddonfield. Both their regular Napoletano and the special Margherita are standouts. Bruno's in Haddon Heights for Sicilian Vitarelli's in Cherry Hill

Just my .02 If it's small kernel NJ corn just picked that day Ill steam it for 10 minutes, butter it and add a bit of salt and pepper. Boiling it is like boiling ribs. Take of whiff of your boiling water. That flavor should go into your mouth and not down the drain. If it's that awful stuff imported to NJ from Florida or the hog fodder you get in the midwest then I can see making salsa, throwing it on the grill, adding it to a stew or whatever. I can't see making salsa out of NJ tomatoes either. All they need is olive oil, salt and pepper... Just my .02

Bella di Cerignola. English pronunciation: Cheh-ree-nyola It's a small town in southern Italy near the place my grandparents left.

Way to go John! I'm in.

That's a use of Fleur de Sel that justifies its price. It gets lost otherwise. Sounds like a great treat for working late. Jersey Tomatoes are not a variety. There doesnt seem to be any kind of state trademark legal nonsense (like vidalia) so I think any variety grown in NJ would count.

The link is here http://www.nj.com/printer/printer.ssf?/bas...53779261820.xml Anyplace that sells "philly cheesesteaks" or even worse "philly steak and cheese sandwiches" are places to leave immediately. If the sign just says 'cheesesteak' or "steak" then fine. Three larges at Gaetano's? Were there 30 people eating? Really, Gaetano's has the biggest. I get their mini and Im stuffed. Also cheesesteaks aren't about "the spice". Bad criterion. They didn't list their criteria. They mentioned soft bread was supposed to be good. No one checked the bacteria count of the meat? To be really authentic you need a high count :) Don't know about seaside heights. The sausage and peppers place always gets me there. Philly attitude is misspelled. It's attytude. :) Were all of the munchers from the north? bloomfield, manasquan, kearny, south plainfield; where else? fwiw, pat's and geno's are the most well known; not the best imho.

Since Westmont is about 30 miles south of the Joizey/Southern New Jersey border (I-195) I'm sure she knew what a hoagie was. Actually I think a sub up north is different from a hoagie in this area. The ingredients are layered differently. Seriously the point I was making was that she went out of her way to be nice to a customer. And I'm on the ugly side so it was really just being nice!

A pizzaiolo asked Yogi Berra if he wanted his pie cut into 6 or 8 slices. He said "cut it in 6; I could never eat 8".

There is a fresh pasta place in Westmont (Haddon Township, 8 miles east of Philly) named Severino's on Haddon Ave. I always buy ravioli there and it's excellent. (They make a lot of different pasta) The other day I was hungry while ordering and was looking at their cold cuts while the lady was boxing up my ravioli. I asked for an Italian Hoagie. She looked at me a bit funny but was nice and said "We don't make Hoagies but if you're hungry I'll you a nice sandwich". Sure! I didn't say what I wanted but a "nice sandwich" from an Italian lady who makes great ravioli sounded like a good idea. It was proscuitto with fresh mozzarella and fresh basil leaves dressed with a bit of olive oil. It was indeed a "nice sandwich" - actually a great one! What stuck me was that she didn't make me feel dumb because I didn't know they didn't make hoagies. (I've always just bought pasta there). It is all too common that the counter people are a bit jerky. For example at a deli in Haddonfield (next town over) I ordered a hoagie and asked "would you mind cutting it in half"? the response was not "Sure! no problem" but "We always do" in a nasty tone as if I were some ignorant jerk. What do you think the chances are of me returning to that one?

When I was exiled in Dallas working on my doctorate I drove to Champaign IL with a friend from NJ to go to a conference. When we were deciding which way to drive home I suggested St. Louis since I remembered that about 20 years ago White Castle printed on their boxes "available in these cities: xxx,yyy,zzz" and St. Louis was one.(they are not availabe in Texas) We had no idea where to find one in St. Louis so we stopped at the Arch, and looked them up in the phone book. My friend got on the phone and said "we just got into St Louis and just saw the arch. The only other thing we want to do here is eat some White Castles. Where' s the nearest one"? I'm sure they had a good laugh about that one. One of the advantages of eating them is that they make their presence known hours later. Talk about getting your money's worth.

Yes Tony Luke's is the first choice but they do have a concession inside the stadium. Price is comparable. Actually I'm surprised at the food in the park. The Pork BBQ sandwich is excellent at Bull's. My Texan companion let's me go to games if I get her one. The $3 hot dogs suck. Just as bad as at the Vet. Avoid them. There are a few places where they are grilled and those are ok. If you really want to eat outside the park there is Celebre's pizza a block west of Broad right next to Chickie and Pete's. I like their pizza. Go up Broad a bit and there a quite a few Italian places. Make a left on ritner and there is Primo Hoagies a bit down the block.

There was some noise last winter about a rib run. It was probably too cold back then but it's not now. I had a rack from Sweet Lucy's yesterday and that's put me in a rib frame of mind. Might even drive down to the Kingfish today. Anyone interested in sharing opinions on local ribs or barbecue? In particular I'd like to avoid joints who teabag their racks instead of the low and slow method. Anyone feel like getting a gang together for hitting some joints and sharing the heartburn later?

On my way to Sweet Lucy's yesterday I saw that they have bulldozed the White Castle on Route73 in Pennsauken. There goes my source for sliders. I have no idea why they gave that location the Kremlin treatment.

No argument about the dismay of finding so many chains. There are a few things to note. There are people who don't care about food. When their tummies get growling it doesn't matter what to put in them; just do it fast and get it out of the way so they can do more important things. I don't understand this. Eating is one of the joys of life and one reason why we work all day/night. There are um, what's a good label, picky, finicky, stodgy, heads encased in cement eaters. I have a brilliant friend who is the smartest person I've ever known. Chinese food means sweet and sour pork. Nothing else exists. When he orders it he runs down a list of how it "should" be prepared. He would break into a sweat at the thought of eating vietnamese or thai food. (actually I break into a sweat with thai food since I usually go for the 5 star heat level :) ). One of my minor successes was getting him to Tony Lukes on oregon. (He had a backup PB&J in the car just in case...). Roast Pork Italian (spinach and sharp provolone) cut in half and I didn't tell him what I was ordering (sit at that picknic table and Ill order). When I unwrapped it he said "im not that hungry, cut the half in half". So he ate about a fifth of the sandwich which IMHO puts philly in the eating pantheon. Anyway, I don't thinks there is much we can do about the chains except not to spend our own money there.

With 2 pitchers under your belts it looks like not only the frijoles were borracho.

cornquistos.

I will never eat pizza - or any Italian food - west or south of New Jersey.

I didn't misconstruded [sic] his goombah comments - I simply regard them as misguided. In his review of Giumarello's he said the Caesar Salad had no taste of anchovies and was therefore "not authentic". In Caesar Cardini's original recipe the only anchovies were in the Worcestershire sauce. So, not having a pronounced anchovy flavor sounds "authentic" to me.

Tried their lunch specials yesterday. It wasn't the worst Thai food I've ever had (I've had it all over the planet including Thailand. Haven't tried it in antarctica yet...) but it really was on the bottom side of mediocre. The green curry was very bland and thin. Like they took 1/8 tsp of Maesri paste and mixed with thin (the kind with fat skimmed) coconut milk. There were pieces of Kaffir lime leaf in it but their flavor wasn't. I bit one (you usually don't) and it was dead; boiled out. Only beef was available and it was very tough. There were huge chunks of cheap veggies like bamboo shoots. It wasn't Jasmine rice either. The hot tea was a cup of hot water and a chinese tea bag. The salad was iceberg lettuce with a sweet and sour dressing - not the peanut dressing you'd expect. rozrapp seems to have gone for dinner several times. perhaps they have a different chef at dinner. I would never eat lunch here again though. The decor is indeed very nice.

I ate a couple dogs here last week while visiting a friend in phillipsburg. He live about 2 miles away. John is right about the "ambience". The guy - also named John - was very nice. He went in the back and cooked the dogs on an old stove and took the sauce out of the fridge and heated it up for me. It was - bottom to top - bun, dog, sauce, and a pickle the length of the bun. The sauce was very good. I don't like mustard and couldn't really taste any in it. Gotta hand it to John for finding this place. It is really in an out of the way location. He must have a special nose for finding good hot dog joints.

Wasn't the reason they chose the blueberry is that it was first cultivated in NJ since other states produce a greater quantity?

Hey I live in Haddonfield too. I have Cardini's original recipe along with a pile of others. We can trade! I usually make a Caesar style salad since I mash up anchovies and garlic in the dressing. When I have a gang over I make the original.

I'll second that. A good espresso machine isn't enough; you really do need a real espresso grinder.

Does anyone know of a place in Philly or delaware valley where you can get a real Caesar salad - perhaps created tableside? You can find a Caesar style salad everywhere with various travesties commited (mustard, canola oil, boxed croutons, anchovy filets laid on top...) so I'm not interested in those.