Picnic a Les Marmitons

by Rachel Nash Perlow

Chef Christine Nunn of Picnic, The Restaurant (opening June 2010), was the special guest chef at the New Jersey chapter of Les Marmitons‘ Spring event.

We feel a bit of a Yenta’s pride in this as another OTB friend Eric Eisenbud, and former President of the chapter, was the event organizer, responsible for procuring the guest chef and provisions. For those who don’t know, “Les Marmitons is a gastronomic and social club of gentlemen who share a common interest in fine food, wine and the culinary arts.“

Chef Christine Nunn discusses the menu with current NJ chapter President, Efrain Raices (right), and John Howlet (left), a past president of the NJ chapter and the current Vice President of Les Marmitons International.

Click here for a slide show of all of Jason’s photos of the event.

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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.

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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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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.

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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