DO NOT MISS: NTDTV 2009 International Chinese Culinary Competition in NYC, Sept 20 and 21

NTDTV‘s International Chinese Culinary Competition, which previously was exclusive to Asia, as seen in these photos of their preliminary competition in Taiwan, is now coming to New York City, at Chelsea Piers (Pier 61) September 20th and 21st, 2009.

The New Tang Dynasty Television International Chinese Culinary Competition is a new annual culinary event in New York City dedicated to traditional Chinese cuisines with the mission to revive traditional cooking methods and promote authentic Chinese culinary culture.

The Competition is comprised of 5 cuisine categories: Cantonese, Huaiyang, Szechuan, Shandong, and Northeastern Chinese. Gold-prize winners will be awarded $10,000 each. Contestants are required to prepare 2 dishes within 45 minutes during preliminaries and 3 dishes within 60 minutes during finals. Self-selected dishes must come from the traditional menu lists published by the Competition. It’s an individual competition and contestants are not allowed to bring assistants.

If you’re a fan of traditional regional Chinese cooking, this is a must-attend event.

For more information, check out http://www.bestchinesechefs.com

To purchase tickets, visit https://register.ntdtv.com/culinary/ticket.php

Download: NTDTV 2009 International Chinese Culinary Competition (PDF eCard)

Snow Leopard Coulda Been a Contenda

I have said on numerous occasions that Apple has missed the boat when it comes to enterprise adoption. This is sad, really, when you consider how good an operating system Mac OS X really is, in that it is the only UNIX-based OS that really could have had any chance in displacing the status quo of Windows and Microsoft hegemony in large enterprise environments with a “full stack” for end-user acceptance as a desktop OS. Consumers may enjoy its niche status, but In the enterprise, Apple is a “Coulda Been” contender of unfulfilled potential.

Click Here to read the rest of this article at ZDNet Tech Broiler.

NJ Dining: BHOJ (UPDATED)

BHOJ Restaurant
430 Market Street, Elmwood Park
(201) 797-6800
http://www.bhoj.us

Even with the economy in decline, there are probably no less than fifty Indian restaurants in Northern New Jersey (not counting Iselin and Edison) and I am probably underestimating that. With so much competition in that cuisine, it becomes hard for individual Indian restaurants to distinguish themselves from others and to attract a dedicated set of diners, particularly if a restaurant isn’t in the best of locations.

One particularly exceptional Indian restaurant is BHOJ, a small intimate Northern-style Indian restaurant in a secluded strip mall in Elmwood Park. From the outside, it looks like more of an Adult Video store than it does a restaurant, with bright red neon lights against white curtains — and I could see how many people could just pass this place by. Frankly, Rachel and I discovered this place by accident about six or seven years ago, when we happened to be in Elmwood Park shopping for appliances for our kitchen renovation. I was hungry, and I saw the restaurant from the side of the road. We went in, and I am glad we did.

Bhoj is not a unique Indian restaurant in that they are doing dishes that are significantly different than anyone else does — they’re serving probably the same two dozen Punjab-style Northern Indian dishes you’re used to, with a few added things like Dhosas and Kaathi Rolls (which, by the way, are excellent).

The way Bhoj distinguishes itself is it does all these things exceptionally well — the spicing is excellent, they are using fresh ingredients, and they are executing the dishes consistently and with skill. It should also be noted that their portion sizes are very generous, which for this day in age is a big plus because you’ll probably end up taking food home. Plus, I think their Tandoor breads and kebabs are awesome and cooked perfectly (nothing comes dried out) which scores big points when it comes to an Indian place for me.

Bhoj also does a really nice daily and weekend lunch buffet where you can try a whole bunch of their dishes for a set price — its how we first became familiar with the restaurant and probably a good way for you to do as well.

Storefront, which resembles more of a adult business than a restaurant. Still, don’t be afraid to go inside. (2007)

Click on the “Read the rest of this entry” link below for more.

Meatopia VI: Oy With The Lamb Already

Every year, at the time during the late summer when the stars align in the shape of a medium rare hamburger, the foodie elite of the world converge on a single place, much as in ancient times when the Pagans converged on the Stone Henge to celebrate the solstice.

But instead of dancing around naked and eating questionable vittles around giant stone monoliths, we converge (mostly) clothed upon Water Taxi Beach to celebrate the birthday of one of our own, Citysearch.com food editor, notorious carnivore Feedbag food blogger Josh Ozersky, aka Mr. Cutlets, also known as the devourer of worlds.

Each year, it’s been a different themed creature that is sacrificed and prepared a multiple of ways in order to feed the hunger of the Beast from Brooklyn. This time, it was a whole flock of lamb.

Here’s one of the cute little animals being cooked over hot coals on a rotating spit. Wanna see it on video? Yes, of course you do.

The smell that was permeating Water Taxi Beach was absolutely seductive. With all this Lamb, shouldn’t we be celebrating the re-birth of our lord and savior?

Click on the “Read the rest of this entry” link below for more.

Who is this company and what did you do with the old SONY?

As covered by ZDNet Assistant Editor Andrew Nusca in his Live Blog today, SONY announced the immediate release of two brand new e-Readers, the “Touch” and the “Pocket”, as well as pre-announcing for the holiday season a larger format, 3G wireless-enabled 7-inch “Daily” that will compete with Amazon’s Kindle DX.

Click to read the rest of this article at ZDNet Tech Broiler.

NJ Dining: Nouri Market and Fattal’s Bakery

Nouri Brothers Market & Syrian Bakery
999 Main Street, Paterson NJ

Fattal’s Bakery
975 Main Street, Paterson NJ

As I mentioned in my posts about Al-Basha and Al-Safa, the strip of Main Street in South Paterson known as “Little Arabia” or “Little Damascus” is filled with many restaurants and businesses that cater to Syrians, Lebanese, Palestinians and other ethnic groups from the Middle East that call Northern New Jersey home. Two of the best grocery stores on that street are Nouri Brothers and Fattal’s Bakery.

Nouri Brothers Storefront on Main Street in Paterson

Looking for Middle Eastern goodies? Click on the “Read the rest of this entry” link below for more.

NJ Dining: Al-Safa (Bab Al-hara)

Al-Safa (Bab Al-hara) Restaurant
960 Main Street, Paterson NJ 07503
(973)569-4545

Web Site: http://babalharapaterson.com/

In a previous post about the very excellent Al Basha Palestinian restaurant, I spoke a bit about the Middle-Eastern community on Main Street in South Paterson, which my friend Victor Sasson likes to refer to as “Little Damascus”, due to the large population of Syrian-owned businesses there.

My forays into South Paterson have been limited, mainly due to my general lack of familiarity with the Arabic language. I’ve certainly eaten a ton of Middle Eastern and Mediterranean food, primarily Israeli, Greek, Lebanese and Turkish, but in the Bergen County area. For lack of a politically correct way of saying it, being a Jew and someone of clear Semitic ethnic origin by general physical appearance and given the current geopolitical climate, historically I would tend to not venture into a predominantly Arabic-speaking area of New Jersey for shopping and eating purposes.

However, I’ve been exploring the area much more lately — for reasons entirely unrelated to food. Paterson is also home to a large retail outlet of Micro Center, a gigantic computer parts store, one of the few places in New Jersey you can still walk in and buy actual PC components. It used to be that we had CompUSA and many independent retail computer shops, but now they are mostly extinct, destroyed by companies such as Amazon and Tigerdirect who can undercut them on price and volume. Such is the way of the new economy.

So if I’m going to schlep down to Paterson (actually, it’s really only about 30 minutes from where I live, as long as traffic cooperates) I might as well get some stuff to eat. I brushed up on my basic Arabic and went exploring. After living in the Northern NJ area for nearly 20 years, I now wish I had done this years ago.

Al-Safa Storefront on Main Street in Paterson.

Looking for Kebabs and Schwarma? Eat like a Sheikh in Paterson.

I’m Sorry Dave, I’m Afraid You Can’t Sign That

I spent the better part of my day trying to get Thawte personal email digital signatures to work with GMail and Lotus Notes 8.5. Why does it need to be this hard?

Yesterday I finally had a need to get a personal digital certificate and send somebody a digitally signed email message — I’m working remotely on a project for one of my customers and I needed VPN access into their network. To get the necessary permissions and access, I had to send a digitally signed email to their head of IT security.

Click to read the rest of this article at ZDNet Tech Broiler

NJ Dining: Babylon (UPDATED)

Babylon Mediterranean Restaurant
606 Kinderkamack Road
River Edge, NJ

In August of 2006, Babylon, one of our favorite Turkish/Middle Eastern restaurants was forced to close when its lease was not renewed along with several other stores in the ill-fated Huffman-Koos shopping center in River Edge. Needless to say, I was totally bummed out by this development — not only was Babylon a great dining value but it also made some of the best Turkish and Middle-Eastern food that you could find in Bergen County. To get anything comparable, you had to go to Patterson or Union City. While we still had Kervan in Cliffside Park (a restaurant that has seen better days, its hardcore Turkish crowd long gone) and Samdan in Cresskill (admittedly solid Turkish place, but just didn’t have the precise atmosphere or taste I was looking for) they just weren’t the same — Babylon’s doner and other kebabs were made fresh from scratch daily, and had a definitively home made flavor that couldn’t easily be duplicated.

However, all was not lost. In Late March of 2007, Babylon re-opened only about a mile away from its original location, on Kinderkamack Road on the site of Shanghai Restaurant, which had closed six months before. The owners completely renovated the interior, and now Babylon, menu unchanged, with prices more or less the same, is back and better than ever.

Babylon storefront on Kinderkamack Road in River Edge

Babylon returns! Click on the “Read the rest of this entry” link below for more.

New Jersey Dining: Bevacqua’s Reservoir Tavern

Bevacqua’s Reservoir Tavern
90 Parsippany Blvd (US RT 202) Parsippany NJ
(973)334-5708

Web Site: http://www.mypizza-store.com/

New York City gets the lion’s share of adoration from pizza fans, but those of us who live in the Garden State know that when it comes to pizza, we have some of the oldest continuing operating pizzerias serving traditional American pies anywhere in the country, particularly in areas like Trenton and Elizabeth, where we have legendary places like Delorenzo’s and Santillo’s that have been in operation for several decades. One of these top Jersey pizzerias is Reservoir Tavern in Parsippany, which opened its doors in 1936.

Reservoir Tavern isn’t just a pizzeria, it’s also a full service Italian restaurant and also has a full bar. While I would qualify their Italian offerings as solid Ital-Am red sauce fare, it’s the pizza that keeps me and many other locals coming back again and again. During prime dinner hours  it’s not unusual to see the Tavern’s huge parking lot filled with cars and no spaces to be found, and a 45 minute to one hour wait at the front door for seating. My best advice is to come early, if you can.

Main Dining Room

Click on the “Read the rest of this entry” link below for more.