Feeling Grinchy on eBook Readers

He’s a mean one, that Mr. Pogue. He’s a nasty, wasty skunk. His heart is full of unwashed socks and his soul is full of gunk. Right?

Um, no. Although I sometimes disagree with Pogue and his assessment of many consumer electronics products, after observing our own Mobile Gadgeteer’s hands-on Nook video tour, I happen to think he’s probably dead-on with his analysis — the Nook ain’t ready for prime time.

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

Tony Maro, Linux Superhero

Tony Maro, CIO of EvriChart, a hospital records management and archiving business, successfully migrated his company’s Windows-based line of business document management extranet application and his employees’ 40-odd Windows-based desktops to a 100 percent Linux-based server and desktop infrastructure.

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.

My Bandwidth’s BAD! It’s Bad! You Know it!

When the King of Pop died last week, I swore that I was going to be tasteful and not cover it. I was going to take the opposite route — focus on pure technology, and let the other opportunistic bloggers grab the hits on bottom feeder clickwhore material. In all fairness, too much of my subject matter in the last few weeks has been bordering on the frivolous and I wanted to get back into writing about hardcore subjects, traffic be damned, my street creds are at stake here.

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

The Ultimate Potato Kugel

by Rachel Perlow

Jason asked me to share my recipe for potato kugel with you all. This is the best potato kugel you will ever eat. It’s a pain in the ass to make, but so worth it. Originally, it was created for Rosh Hashanah in 2005, but I made it for the next couple of Passovers as well. However, since we have started eating more healthfully, I have avoided making it. It is just too damn good, I can’t trust myself to be near it. Let alone making the extra dish to keep at home. Oy!

But please, you make it, enjoy, don’t think about all the carbs and fat, saturated fat at that. Go for it, and think kind thoughts towards me as I go without. Sniff. (Is the Jewish guilt coming through loud and clear?)

I was inspired by a couple of recipes, including one from our dear friend Melissa Goodman, combining them with Jason’s inspired idea to add caramelized onions. And schmaltz. You’ve got to use the schmaltz.

Fasta Pasta: An “As Seen on TV” product that actually works!

by Rachel Perlow

The Fasta Pasta microwave macaroni cooker.

We first saw the Fasta Pasta on the TV in December. It wasn’t actually an ad or infomercial, it was on a local news product review segment. They started by saying another fast pasta cooker product (the one that you just pour boiling water over the pasta) didn’t work in their previous segment. It just made mushy but still uncooked noodles, like they had just been re-hydrated. So, they were skeptical about the Fasta Pasta — as were we. They followed the instructions and lo and behold it worked! Still incredulous, we contacted the manufacturer and they were kind enough to send us one to review. And, guess what? It works!

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NJ Dining: Bartolomeo (Englewood)

Bartolomeo Italian Gourmet and Prepared Foods
195 North Dean Street, Englewood NJ
(201) 567-7002

Click for Hi-Res Slide Show

Over the course of the last year, the Bartolomeo family had been building the 3600 square foot replacement to its former Palisades Park store — which now resides on Dean Street in Englewood. As many of you are aware, Englewood is home to Jerry’s Gourmet, another large Italian grocery store. I had been wondering what Carlo Bartolomeo was going to do to differentiate himself from the incumbent Italian mega-grocery, and now I know what it is — prepared foods.

The new Bartolomeo location on 195 Dean Street in Englewood, just opposite the Englewood train station.

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Viva Daisy! (Updated, with video)

Daisy Martinez, star of “Viva Daisy!” which premieres Saturday, January 10, 9:30am on Food Network. Click on the Picture above to watch the promotional video (Source: Food Network)

Web Site: http://www.foodnetwork.com/viva-daisy/index.html

I’ve been keeping this news under wraps for longer than I can remember, and now I’m finally relieved I can tell everyone about it — my friend Daisy Martinez is going to become the star of her own show on Food Network — which will be produced by no other than Food Network’s #1, Rachael Ray herself.

I first got to know Daisy in the spring of 2006, after approaching her to do a podcast for Off The Broiler.  I was a big fan of her PBS show, which featured an intelligent, educating,  full-spectrum view of Pan-Latino cuisine, and found her bubbly and Brooklyn girl personality intoxicating.

Daisy only did one season of Daisy Cooks! on PBS, but I  knew some day she would be a huge star, so I started consulting for her and helped  her launch her own website, DaisyMartinez.com, as well as her personal blog, Boriqua Blog. I hope you head over there and see what we’ve accomplished over the last two years — It’s a goldmine for anyone who wants to cook bold, Latin flavors, or who wants to know the real Daisy behind the camera.

I’m privileged to be one of the few who will be able to say “I knew her when.”

Good Luck, Daisy — and break a leg!

Silicon Valley Spiral Cut

Right now, Sun has a market capitalization of approximately $2.44 billion. Given fluctuations in the market, and if we have a few more bad weeks and Sun has a lousy Q1 for ‘09, that could easily drive it down to under $2B, as its been fluctuating between $2.2B and $2.4B for weeks.

There are a number of companies that could afford to buy Sun entirely for $2B. I’m not going to speculate on who might have that much cash, but it’s a pretty small list. However, it’s unlikely that Sun would be purchased outright as a single entity  — several of its product lines directly overlap with that of its major competitors, so it is probably reasonable to assume that Sun is likely to be sold off in pieces, by lines of business (see 33MB PDF). My CNET News Colleague Dawn Kawamoto tends to agree with me on this thought process.

Read the article on ZDNet Tech Broiler.

Oh yes. Yes, YES! Knead Me Like a Pizza Pie Baby!

Okay, I know I’m going to get flamed for furthering ethnic stereotypes, but I have to admit, us Jews love a good bargain. So I’m going to risk getting my butt chewed because I feel compelled to play yiddische consumer advocate.

Read the rest of this story on ZDNet Tech Broiler.