hillbill

I've never been to either one (I first read about Phillip's when it was closing) but now that I know that it has relocated to Staten Island I want to check it out. I also met a man last week who was lamenting the loss of Phillips and searching for the Staten Island location, so his enthusiasm further encouraged me to want to check it out.

Island-hopping

I thought I'd try making a cold brew and then filtering it through a cloth filter (a "COLADOR DE TELA") Any comments/suggestions?

Staten Island has Liberian restaurants. And Sri Lankan.

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While researching coffee online I've learned that espresso refers to a method of making coffee and that it has nothing to do with the coffee itself, whereas I'd previously always thought that espresso referred to a type of coffee or coffee bean. However, I repeatedly see comments that imply that there is a difference in the coffee itself when comparing espresso vs. "regular" coffee (i.e. in the thread about Starbucks vs. Dunkin Donuts.) So my question is: Shouldn't good coffee be good coffee, regardless of whether it is made by the espresso method or the "regular" method? And likewise, bad coffee would be bad coffee regardless? Why else does it matter which brewing method is used?

I always heard Denino’s was the awesome Staten Island pizza place, though I think most Islanders are pretty loyal about their local places. There's also Nunzio's and Pal Joey's though a friend tells me that some place called Lee's is the best. Since I'm from Staten Island I'll weigh in with what I know even though I haven't been to any of these places in quite some time. The conventional wisdom seems to be that both Denino's and Nunzio's offer some of the best pizza in Staten Island, if not the entire city and I would concur (although I've never had any of the "standard bearers" like DiFara's to be able to compare them to.) Nunzio's, which used to be a takeout and slices shack with a ratty yet atmospheric dining space in the back has recently been renovated from a tumbledown shack to a more substantial joint so I don't know if the quality of the pizza has survived the change. And of course Denino's is best in the spring or summer when you can go across the street to Ralph's Famous Italian Ices for dessert. I've never eaten at Joe and Pat's but it seems to have an exellent reputation also. From the Village Voice: From Ed Levine in the NY Times in November, 2002: From NYMetro.com: Pal Joey's recently moved to a new location. My experience and sense of the place was that it was supremely mediocre at best, and according to the food forum of the local paper it's gotten much worse since it moved. Pal Joey's 676 Forest Avenue 718-981-3737 Lee's Tavern seems to be the dark horse that doesn't have the borough-and-further-wide reputation like Denino's (and to a lesser degree Nunzio's.) I know that Jim Leff has raved about it and that it gets rave in food forum of the paper (for whatever that's worth.) From Jim Leff's 2000 review: From the Village Voice's Top 100 Cheap Eats in NYC (which also lists Denino's and Nunzio's): Lee's Tavern 60 Hancock St 718-667-9749 Oh, and FWIW, in the above review of Lee's, Jim Leff also says:

That's interesting. Sweet Maria's describes a similar process although they don't mention the "bloom" or the gas, just to do this to make sure to get all the grounds wet. French Press Brewing Instructions from Sweet Maria's!

Back in the dark days of the late '80s when I was emerging from years of haze.... I had a GF of Puerto Rican ancestry. She introduced me to Hispanic style coffee. Just boil some water, throw in a generous amount of Bustelo to steep for several minutes and then pour it through the little cloth windsock style filter assembly that the bodegas and Spanish markets sell. I've been using one of those socks (colador de tela) becasue someone recommended it as a cheap way to make better coffee (I got one for 99 cents at Western Beef.) I tried it first with the Bustelo coffee but I didn't care for the taste, it was too bitter and "burnt" for me. And now that I'm learning a bit about what makes for good coffee it seems that the espresso grind of those Cuban coffees is the opposite of what's best for the sock method becuase the grind is espresso fine, and so regardless of wheter or not it's burnt the coffee will be overextracted. So I bought some Eight O'Clock beans that I've been grinding in a blade grinder and it is a huge improvement over any other coffee I've had anytime recently. And I ordered a French Press to replace the sock.

I'd probably only drink coffee but I'm trying to drink tea also because of the purported health benefits. Of course I've probably never had good tea; similarly to most of the coffee I've drunk in my life that has been mediocre to (mostly) abominable; so I've thought of both of them as something I endure because they're both a caffeine delivery system rather than something that I consume for the taste or enjoyment thereof.

Well this is just super-duper cool because my recent obsession with a desire to start drinking some decent coffee has been my entree into the brave new world of contemplating the quality and taste of the stuff I stick in my meGullet.

I ran across a web site with articles by a syndicated columnist called the Supermarket Shopper. There are two articles about shopping cart (non) cleanliness and a copy of the Inisde Edition report. And he also is soliciting information about "an instance where a child riding in a shopping cart became sick and you suspect the germs came from a dirty cart, or a leaky package of meat." Dirty Germ Laden Shopping Carts Endanger the Health of Shoppers and their Children Concerned Parents, Please Read This: Do you know of an instance where a child (or adult) became seriously ill and you suspect the germs came from a dirty shopping cart or a leaky package of meat?

I've been wearing the aluminum foil skullcap to protect myself from alien space invaders trying to read my mind but I'm glad to hear that it also gives me the additional anti-microwave protection.

FYI for people in the NYC area, there's a TV show on PBS Channel 13 about Burger King at 10:30 tonight, Nov. 10

I found the name of the place: Sciortino's Pizzeria Perth Amboy looks past relocation struggles Perth Amboy to pay landmark pizzeria $775,000 - City to demolish property to make way for public safety complex SAVE SCIORTINO'S!

Where?

I like the "we prepped the S'mores" pic. It looks like a cool abstract sculpture. It also looks like the two sets of marshmallows are making out.

Shopping around for the perfect cart

The latest Burger King Chicken Baguette TV commercial.

Did you find the Corning Coupon? Yes and I think that the whatchamacallit he found should be the new Doritos TV commercial. And speaking of logical thinking, if we had searched for Grilla Gear it would have brought us directly to the World Kitchen/Corningware Corelle Revere Factory Stores web site. Obviously.

Nalgene also has their own web store which lists the type of plastic for each type of bottle and the advantages of each type of plastic. For the smoke-gray round Lexan bottles it says: There's another page describing the various plastics. For polycarbonate (Lexan) it says:

My talent is free associating (popularly known as ADD - attention deficit disorder.)

Okay now that I finally got it straight that Nalgene is a brand name and not a proprietary name for some plastic I see that Nalgene sells bottle made of various plastics and you're talking about the Lexan bottles. I know of at least one other company that makes Lexan water bottles (I found it when I was looking at their Lexan French Press coffee maker) and I'd imagine that there are other manufacturers of Lexan water bottles also GSI Outdoors H2O! Bottles- made of Lexan® resin

Here's the list of factory outlets. Corningware Corelle Revere Factory Stores Here's the contact info from the web site: