hillbill

I'd love to attend but I have two caveats before buying a ticket: 1. I don't know how to cook anything except microwave popcorn so I'd like to know if it's okay to bring staples from the supermarket like soda or chips in lieu of a potluck dish. 2. What's the deadline, assuming there's one, for signing up? I'm going to be away earlier in the month at dance camp in Maine, and I'm pretty sure I'll be back before the 18th but I'd like to know if I can postpone signing up until after I return from Maine in September (i.e. are there a limited number of tickets being sold?)

There are a number of coffee shop/take out/diner type places very close to the ferry. I'm not sure what will or won't be open for breakfast, depending upon the time, but some of them will be open. If you follow the pedestrian exit out of the ferry, cross the street (Richmond Terrace) in front of the ferry, there's a large historic building (Borough Hall) opposite the ferry terminal. If you walk up the stairs next to Borough Hall, or walk up Schuyler Street (a half-block to the right, next to a courthouse) there's Stuyvesant Place, a small commercial strip with some of these places. Directly ABOVE Borough Hall (it's all uphill from Richmond Terrace!) there's Hyatt Street, intersecting with Stuyvesant, and there's a breakfast joint. I think it's called Hillside Restaurant, 8 Hyatt Street (from Yahoo Maps.) If you take a right on Richmond Terrace when you exit the terminal, there's a Country Donuts that's open 24 hours about 2 blocks down (just past the police station. ) Country Donuts is a funky/cheesy/sleazy formica dive with some sit-down booths that serves some basic breakfast stuff in addition to the donuts and coffee. Just before the police station there's a tiny strip mall that might have another coffee shop in it. A couple of blocks past Country Donuts there's a funky little bodega/deli on a corner with some white plastic seats and a table outside. They (used to) have a sign outside saying something like "best coffee in NYC!" I never tried it, don't know if it's the best or not. I'm guessing they serve standard NYC breakfast stuff like egg on a roll also.

I live in Staten Island, near the ferry. Neither of the these restaurants is near the ferry and I wouldn't think of either as being in the "roadfood" category, I think they're both too upscale and too expensive for that. There are a number of ethnic "cheap eats" places within walking distance of the feryy. There's a couple of Sri Lankan places, a Polish Deli that gets rave reviews, a Taco stand that Sietsma in the Village Voice said made superb tacos (there are a couple of other Mexican groceries that perpare some takeout food also) a couple of Roti joints, and a few diner/bar/hamburger kinda places, among others. If you want more info or directions let me know and I'll do my best.

Slice (America's Favorite Pizza Weblog!) translated into Japanese: Japanese Slice

Here's a hint, maybe.

The all-carb diet. Carbo-loading. Bread. Pasta. Okay, really going out on a limb for this one: The latest fad that will sweep the nation and the mass media will be for balance, moderation, and reasonableness in all things diet-related. Sorry, I was just daydreaming there for a moment!

The online version of the NY magazine article: Pizza Got a New Upper Crust.

If you want to edit my headline and remove the word "demise" for the sake of clarity it's fine with me. I guess it's more accurately an evolution than a demise.

Raising Anchor There are also two slide shows on the page:

I've noticed a number of online retailers mention the use of a pizza stone in a microwave. Here's one from Amazon: I believe that I also saw a microwave-specific accessory that was essentially a pizza stone a few months ago, although I can't find it again now. I would like to know if this would be useful for reheating pizza, or cooking microwave pizza, or for the other uses mentioned in the quote (not for making pizza from scratch!)

Yes!

this stuff is usually sent in by viewers, and i don't doubt sometimes by people interested in getting the particular product's name out. not to suggest that this is the case with Mo Pho, but obviously it was sent in by someone who thought the name was funny. and we all do. jay's "punch line", however, isn't nearly as funny as most of us could have come up with. perhaps we should have a thread on possible punch lines for jay. ← Perhaps we should take up a collection to buy Jay a funny bone.

Thank you, that one looks like it might fit the bill nicely. I'm going to check out what they have in the local stores like Linens 'n Things, I never thought about this before, that there might actually be various nutcracker designs, in my mind nutcracker and those "V" things were always synonymous!

The conventional wisdom, I'd imagine, is that the "bad" would be that the gourmet chains will drive out the locals, and that quality will decline while corporate glossiness and blandness reigns (that it's gotta be much more about "catering to the rampant status anxiety among the upper middle class" than about humbly passionate merchants selling the best possible quality to humbly appreciative customers.) I'm not agreeing with this assesment, I'm just curioius about what more knowledgable people think, that's why I posed the question. One phenomenon that does seem to be occuring in the grocery market, as is apparently happening throughout our culture, is that the middle is disappearing, and we're left with most of the capitalist money and energy and passion chasing and catering to the wealthy; with Wal-Mart left for the rest of us. This would seem to be bad for our society for numerous reasons. But of course, the Wal-Marts and the Whole Foods are all just exploiting this phemomenon, not creating it.

I'm absolutely fascinated by urban planning; how people and places interact; how space affects the way people do or don't interact, and the ways that space defines how people see/feel/think about themselves; the public vs. private dichotomy in this society; and how (or why) it is that, even after having 40+ years of learning that sprawling suburbs are not healthy for children and other living things, the majority of us (with notable exceptions) flock gleefully to ever-expanding McUrbs, and the zoning laws most everywhere apparently both encrouage and demand sprawlurbia. I'm also really interested in the business of business; and in vernacular and pop culture and in food (yes, there is a reason for my lurking at eGullet!;) thus all of these interests manifest in curiosity about supermarkets, shopping malls, urban markets, "walkable" neighborhoods, etc. etc.

A Big Crowd in the Specialty Niche

Thank you for the suggestions (I read all your follow-up messages also.) I'm wondering if this nutcracker would be overkill for my purposes; not hardcore, frequent nutcracking, but rather occasional sitting-on-the-couch-watching-TV kinda nutcracking. Something that I can hold in my hand and crack a nut wthout excessive muss or fuss (the Rocket looks like it needs to be placed on a sturdy table and is designed for cracking large quantities quickly, no?)

That place really stands out as a must in my mind from all I've read in this and other forums about NJ Dogs.

There was a neat essay about this subject in the NY Times magazine a few weeks ago: Über Market I like Trader Joe's and other small, focused markets, but also the Uber-markets (not that I shop in either regularly, nearby to me are the garden-variety Pathmark, ShopRite, Waldbaums.) The Uber-markets are appealing not for the 300 different varieties of Oreos and their variations and permutations, but for the unique and different products, just like TJ's in a way ('cept that the Uber-markets don't cull the wheat from the chaff, so you have to dig through 300 varieties of Oreos, and their permutations, to find the one unique and exceptional item.) Thinking about it, I realize that there's something appealing about the sheer size and overwhelmingness of the Ubers also, perhaps because it's a very occasional experience for me, so each time it's a EXCITING BIG BRIGHT SHINY NEW TOY experience, whereas if I shopped Uber all the time perhaps it might also become DULL TARNISHED BORING TOY like my local Pathmark is. I'll generalize here and conjecture that it's the intrinsic human (or is it exclusively American?) desire for NEW and/or BIGGER makes the Ubers very appealing from the distance at which I usually gaze at them, appearing perhaps like a shimmering mirage in a dessert. There's also the sheer theatricality of the places. Exurban theater mostly takes place in the malls and the Ubers, no? Since there's usually no street life to allow urban theater, that's where the fun of watching people acting peopleish is gonna go down.

I'd also really like to join the posse if I'm available!

Calling all kitchen gadgetphiles! I'm looking for a better nutcracker. Something better than the standard cheapo "V" shaped nutcracker, something less messy, less frustrating, and less likely to mush the nuts while cracking the shell. I saw this in a magzine, it looks intriguing, potentially a better nutcracker: Rotary Nut Cracker by Trudeau Any feedback? Any other suggestions for a reasonably priced, better than mediocre nutcracker? Thanks!

A&P sold Eight O'Clock coffee in 2003: A&P Completes Sale of Coffee Business Eight O'Clock® Coffee is Reborn

Now that Waldbaums is owned by A&P they both carry the same generic A&P brands, "Master Choice" and "America's Choice;" so you can get the current "Waldbaums" generic in A&P (and also Food Emporium, Super Fresh, and Food Basics, the other A&P monikers in NJ.) A&P owned supermarkets in NJ A&P Brands

That seedy little strip of stores is quite interesting, what with the book store, Phillip's, and Artmaxx selling fine art reproductions. This comment from the article helped me to understand exactly what Phillip's is, and is not. It's a boardwalk sweet shop serving the hoi-polloi (I mean that as a compliment) that happened to relocate to a side street in the middle of Staten Island. As I mention above, John Dorman, the co-owner, said straight out that he's using Nestle chocolate for most of the chocolate items and the lack of pretense of the place and the man is especially appealing to me, being that I'm part of the unwashed masses myself and all that.I think it's really neat that the place survives as it does. Too bad it's not down on Sand Lane near the boardwalk (along with a whole bunch of other Coney Island type of businesses!) but in a way it's even more compellingly bizarre in the location that it is. P.S. If you want to visit another neat used bookstore next time you're on Staten Island, check out Everything Goes.

I just came back from Phillip's. Fascinating, the place is utterly charming in its utterly charmless way. It's in an ugly, charmless strip of 50's storefronts on a side street. The interior is largely open workspace except for a couple of display cases and a small area for customers at the front. There are various objects and some photos that look like they were transferred from the Coney Island store, as mentioned in the article. I've passed by this store many times and I never would have thought to visit if not for the stories in the papers about it. I spoke with John Dorman, the co-owner for a bit. He told me that they don't work with chocolate at all during the summer (although there were some chocolate-dipped grapes and a few other chocolate items in the display case) and that they start again in September. He said that they use Nestle's chocolate for most of what they make, but also some French chocolate for some items. I bought some cashew clusters that were still warm, and I also saw candied apples, marshmallow-coconut patties, and something on a stick (bananas?) covered in coconut and some jellied(?) fruit and fig bars that he said were also homemade, among other items.