Gumbo Z’herbes for Superbowl Sins

In celebration of this year’s Superbowl, we sinned. As did probably everyone else, including the entire city of New Orleans — which deservedly should celebrate their victory with all of their wonderful food and drink.

But some of you, like myself, are probably feeling like you overdid it. Like you need to cleanse your body. Like you want to eat something that is wholesome and not bad for you.

You may be thinking “I should do an herbal cleanse or do a high calonic and go on a three week juice diet”. No, heavens no. Don’t do that.

The Creole and Cajun people of Louisiana developed a cure for sinning many years ago, and it’s much more pleasant than a high calonic. It’s called Gumbo Z’herbes.

Big ol’ bowl of Gumbo Z’herbes, served with Brown Rice, Louisiana Hot Sauce and File Powder.

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Keiles BaconBowl 2010 Re-Cap

Okay, the Saints won. WHO DAT! But more importantly, WHAT DID WE EAT? Here’s the play-by play for the most incredible (and insane) Superbowl party I have ever attended.

Are you ready to attend the ultimate bacon bacchanal of Superbowl parties that has ever been seen by the likes of man? Click on the “Read the rest of this entry” link below for more.

NJ Dining: BBS Chicken

BBS Chicken
561 Livingston Street, Norwood NJ
(201) 768-1230

Web Site: http://www.bbschicken.com

BBS Chicken, the rogue warrior of Fried Chicken in Norwood, is the new king of Korean Wings in North Jersey.

As many of you are aware, I’m a bit of an obsessive when it comes to Korean Fried Chicken.

In Northern New Jersey, since I last wrote about the subject in 2007, there have been a number of openings of new Korean wing joints. Unidentified Flying Chickens in Tenafly opened in 2009 and in early January 2010, its sister restaurant in Englewood, Green’Licious Cafe also opened.

However I think there’s a new wing king, and unlike the big names such as Bon Chon which has multiple locations in the NYC/NJ metro area,  it’s an independent takeout/delivery-only store run by a pair of young, enterprising guys with a passion for making a quality product, and they’re on the main drag of Livingston Street in Norwood, where several Korean  businesses have opened up in the last few years, further extending the Korean community from their commercial centers in Palisades Park, Fort Lee, Leonia and Ridgefield.

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Miami Dining: Late Night on Calle Ocho

South Florida may be the land of senior citizens and early bird dinners, but late at night, Calle Ocho is hopping with activity.

Last week I went on a last minute business trip to Florida, with my base of operations being very close to Miami International Airport.

While I dreaded the idea of having to work what would certainly be very long days confined to conference rooms and then emerging late at night ravenously hungry, there was some consolation in the fact that unlike other parts of South Florida, where your food options late at night are restricted at best, downtown Miami and the neighborhood surrounding 8th street (“Calle Ocho”) which calls itself Little Havana (home to Free Cuba in Exile) has some of the best late-night eating anywhere in the state, and probably in the entire country.

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The Secret Ingredient is… Nothing.

For those of you who landed on this page today expecting extensive photographic coverage of the culinary competition in which Chef Jesse Jones of Heart and Soul Catering was to compete against Adam Weiss of Esty Street, only to find there are no photos at all, I deeply apologize. Due to circumstances which were completely out of my control, I was unable to cover today’s cooking event.

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Ultimate Chef Bergen County 2010: Battle Pignoli

That’s right folks. It’s time again for your favorite culinary battle competition, Ultimate Chef Bergen County, sponsored by Chef Central in Paramus, New Jersey. For the second round,  Chef Adam Weiss of Esty Street in Park Ridge went up against  Chef Ike Koutrakous of Cooking in Your Kitchen.

This fight was a doozy, resulting in the closest competition that Chef Central had ever had to judge. Let’s get to it!

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(UPDATE) NJ Dining: Picnic Caterers

Chef Christine Nunn announced some Good News / Bad News last week. First the bad, Picnic in Emerson will be closed for lunch effective immediately. They will still be doing catering out of a professional kitchen, so all scheduled parties will not be effected, and you can continue to book parties as well (call the number, below). This is all to make time in Chef Nunn’s life for the GOOD news: Picnic, The Restaurant, will be opening at the Radburn Building in Fair Lawn, hopefully in June. Stay tuned for more about Picnic, The Restaurant, as Off The Broiler learns about it.

Picnic Catering
(201) 321-3213

You’ve heard my praises about Christine Nunn and her wonderful little catering operation in Emerson before (click for podcast and previous photos). However, as of last week, Christine and her merry elves at Picnic have been doing dinner take-out orders. I recently had a chance to sample some of the dishes, and if you’re not inclined to cook for yourself this evening or some night in the future, but you want a restaurant-style meal to take home that will knock your socks off, get a good look at some of these:

Picnic’s Chef Christine Nunn, with an abundance of chanterelle mushrooms.

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Kindle Applications? Really? Now?

So, Bezos, lemme get this straight. You waited TWO YEARS to launch a Kindle developer program, a week before Jobs launches iPad/iSlate/Jesus Tablet?

Talk about too little, too late.

Read the rest of this article at ZDNet Tech Broiler.

Gear Up for Montclair Restaurant Week

To launch Montclair’s second-annual Restaurant Week, organizers have planned a kick-off event for Sunday, Jan. 24, from 5 to 8 p.m. at Halcyon Restaurant, 112-114 Walnut Street, Montclair.

Special guests for the event are Montclair’s own TV-star chefs – Michael Carrino of Passionne’, winner of “Chopped” and “Iron Chef America” contestant Marcell Veiga of Giancarelli’s Cucina. The chefs will draw the winners of the Restaurant Week online contest, featuring three, lavish “Night On The Town” prize packages.

The kick-off evening includes hors d’oeuvres, tastings of Jameson’s Irish Whiskey, fine wines and Egan’s microbrews, live entertainment by Eveleth Jazz and a dessert cupcake bar by Love My Cake bakery of Montclair. The cost is $31 per person.

Ten percent of the proceeds will be donated by Halcyon, via the Rotary Club of Montclair, to Restaurant Week beneficiaries The Salvation Army Food Program, Human Needs Food Pantry and Toni’s Kitchen.

All guests will receive gift bags and have the opportunity to bid on exclusive auction items – “Table Hop For Charity” – a progressive dinner for four at three celebrated Montclair Restaurants, and a spa treatment at the Bangz Wellness Spa in Montclair.

Montclair Restaurant Week 2010 begins on Jan. 25 and runs through Feb. 7. To make reservations for the kick-off event, enter the online contest and for more information, visit www.gotomontclairnj.com.

NJ-Based Chinese OTB Groupie Needed

Yup, it’s finally come down to this, we’re absolutely desperate. We’re looking for that special someone who can speak Mandarin, Cantonese and other regional Chinese dialects that is familiar with the New Jersey Chinese restaurant scene and knows how to get us “The Good Stuff”.  There are restaurants we’d like to go to, but our lack of Sino-communication skills are preventing us from getting the very best authentic dishes.

If you can tolerate hanging out with a bunch of hungry and loud food-obsessives that like to take photos of every single thing they eat, inquire within to jperlow AT Gmail DOT com.