from our New Jersey correspondent
Tuesday, November 4, 2014
yelp yourself to good reviews
San Francisco-based YELP got a big break from the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals the other day.
uanews.org
The court ruled unanimously it was legal to favor restaurants who purchased advertising, and to pan any restaurant who refused.
YELP reviews are based on coerced payment.
Not on food or atmosphere or service.
Going digital did not level the playing field in food service.
At least now we know.
customercare.com
Monday, November 3, 2014
I don’t always drink small batch, artisanal whiskys
But when I do, I head out to Long Island’s north fork.
Truth be told, this was supposed to be a bus-chauffeured,
wine tasting tour.
If you’re gonna drink wine on a cold rainy day,
might as well sleep it off in a bus!
Right?
The first stop was Jason’s Vineyards.
About 2 hours east of Manhattan.
Beautiful landscape but it was just okay, and kinda felt like a money machine.
Probably had no choice considering the investment.
I pressed on, to Duckwalk Vineyards.
This place was huge, another tourist trap.
Again, the wine was just so-so but I enjoyed a young and enthusiastic host.
Plus I was pleasantly buzzed by now. :-D
Time to go!
But then things took a turn for the worse.
The rain grew harder, the winds went crazy and the next place we rode to, incredibly, was a tent.
Wut?
Cold, wet, windy, I was outta there.
The bus driver told me about a whisky place just down the road and I found it!
Long Island Spirits, in Baiting Hollow, New York.
Homemade liquor!
In copper stills and charred oak barrels.
Their Pine Barrens single malt is made in small batches, then aged for about a year to 18 months.
Very tasty.
I bought a bottle from batch #12...
...then rode quietly home, back to the city in a warm and dry, alcoholic haze.
Kudos to our driver on wet highways.
Stay thirsty, my friends.
Happy Monday!
Sunday, November 2, 2014
waxing nostalgic
“Get ‘em young” as the saying goes,
and so doctrine like these crayons are routine
throughout the South.
But the Orange County, Florida Public School system might think twice before choosing sides again, in a freedom of religion request.
Last year they gave the green light to “World Changers of Florida”, to pass out Bibles to the Orange County children.
efibishopsblog.files
But now New York-based “Satanic Temple” has used that same permission to gain similar access to the students.
Except this time they are handing out the devil’s coloring book.
The book explicitly features Satanic symbols and...
...a whole range of devilish encouragements.
Said Temple co-founder Lucien Greaves:
Their goal is to highlight the hypocrisy and denounce favoritism to Judeo-Christianity in America, over equally lawful--but unpopular--belief systems.
Probably won’t be long before Orange County wishes they’d been more careful with their approvals.
Saturday, November 1, 2014
my new grillfriend
Joseph Lodge entered the Tennessee cast iron industry as a young man in 1896.
lodge
Today his great-grandson Henry Lodge is President of the family firm, the only cast iron cookware maker in America.
lodge
They’ve enjoyed a huge surge of demand thanks to television cooking shows.
Today they routinely craft over 400 pieces an hour.
lodge
First, the iron is melted at 2800 degrees. Impurities, called “slag” float to the top where they are skimmed.
lodge
Then the metal is cooled to 2500 degrees and poured into sand-cast molds.
lodge
A new cast iron pan should be washed well with soapy water once, but then little soap is needed after that.
jj
Brush on a heat resistant oil like olive or peanut
and heat until it smokes.
This draws oil into the pan as it cools down, making it “seasoned.”
After that nothing sticks.
Adding weight can help make grill marks deeper.
Cast iron has great heat retention because of its mass and once hot, it stays searingly hot.
Because the heavy mass retains heat so well, it doesn’t cool when food is added to the pan.
Grill marks are not just for appearance, they add real flavor.
Unlike flat bottomed skillets, grill pans allow juices to drip off and evaporate, concentrating flavor and adding smokey-notes from blackened lines.
There’s a new kid in town!
1976
Farewell, Summer.
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