Pepe's is high-ish temperature, but it's not as high as Neapolitan, and, from New Haven experts that I've spoken about this in depth with, because of the somewhat fickle nature of coal ovens, their temperatures can vary pretty wildly. I hear stories of 3 minute bakes at Pepe's, all the way to 9. I think they attempt to run them around 650-700, but 650-700 doesn't make a 9 minute pie, so obviously they're missing the mark. Regardless of where they fall in the 3-9 minute spectrum, it's never the 90 seconds of Neapolitan. So NH can be/usually is hotter than NY deck oven style, but it's never the Neapolitan temps I was referring to above.

Coal oven pizza is very quixotic by nature. I think Pepe's might wrangle a bit more consistency out of their ovens than the NY coal places, and I also have a gut feeling that they might have a bit better doughmaking skills/fermentation knowledge than some of the historic NY haunts as well, but, no matter which coal oven joint you visit, it's always going to be a bit of a crap shoot.

I've heard from some pretty reliable sources that Patsy's in East Harlem, while great sometimes, suffers from consistency issues. Have you witnessed this yourself? Have you ever traveled further north to Johnny's?

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/8991...

I would describe it a lot differently as well. I will defend this book's right to use strange ingredients in a non style specific perspective, but it's by far, not 'nearly everything you need to know about pizza.' Not even close.

double post. disregard

Josh, while I almost always side with purists/authenticists and I applaud your level of passion, I believe that you're painting with too broad of a brush here.

If you wanted to say something along the lines of "Milk and eggs have no place in the top two favorite styles of pizza- New York and Neapolitan," that would be an excellent argument. But you really can't restrict ingredients in a non-style specific discussion. You can't make the inference that any particular style of pizza isn't 'decent.'

Milk and eggs have no place in what most people would probably consider the best pizza (they definitely have no place in my favorite style), but not all.

Root's market (Lancaster) has a pizza stall every Tuesday that serves up what could easily be the best NY style slice West of NJ.

http://www.rootsmarket.com/standholders-detail.asp?Image=59
https://www.facebook.com/NormasPizzaAtRootsCountryMarketAndAuction
http://learningknowledgetomakepizza.blogspot.com/
http://slice.seriouseats.com/archives/2011/05/pizza-obsessives-norma-knepp-experimental-pizza-maven.html
http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=9031

Norma is REALLY serious about her pizza. She tends to go a little thicker than most NY places go for NY style, so if you want something a bit more authentic, you might want to ask her to stretch the pizza a bit further. Regardless of what thickness you go with, this is top notch pizza.

Beyond NY style, Norma is a virtuoso with Detroit style. There's not a lot of Detroit competition on the East Coast, but, from the looks of the pies she's made, she could be making one of the best Detroit pies on the planet. I'm not sure that she makes Detroit every Tuesday, though- I'd call in advance just to make sure.

Norma's good friend and frequent partner in crime, Steve Grisafi, has a mobile trailer called 'X-Stream Cuisine', at the Green Dragon Market (Ephrata) on Fridays (weather permitting) that does Neapolitan and NY styles in a wood fired oven.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/X-Stream-Cuisine/394747973922378
http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,21856.0.html

In the huge swath of area between Pittsburgh and NYC, I'm confident that this is the best Neapolitan pizza you'll find, by far.

These will both be a bit of drive from Harrisburg, but, for the area, I don't think anyone can touch the quality of pies Norma and Steve are putting out.

New Haven style, in your area, isn't going to happen. You could ask Steve to stretch his NY dough further and put it in a cooler part of his oven, and that might get you something a bit New Haven-ish, but the coolest part of his oven might still be a bit too hot. For NH, as Melpy mentioned, I think your best bet is to make it yourself. A home oven will never truly match a coal oven, but, with a little initiative, you can get pretty darn close:

http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/inde...

Thanks, everyone, but I'm looking for feedback on canned options, not jarred, packs or frozen options. I'm specifically interested in cans because of the expense.

Are there any canned Indian food brands that you'd recommend?

I recall, about 10 years ago, having a canned saag that tasted okay, but I'm drawing a blank on the name. Even if they're cheap, I'd still prefer to not have to taste too many different brands to find one that I like, because I do recall that some brands aren't fit for human consumption.

Alright, I'm resurrecting this more than 2 year old thread to see if anyone can come up with some new options.

The buck double is no more, and, by the time I made the trip to a polish restaurant lead in Lake Hiawatha, it was closed.

Any new ideas?

CH411, I just saw your question.

While I do have professional aspirations, right now, it's homemade. I have a small list of pizzerias that I've consulted for, and that's beginning to grow, and, I would at some point, eventually like to open my own place, but, in this area, the sheer number of pizzerias is pretty intimidating. Even though mediocrity seems to rule the day, mediocre pizza can still muster a great deal of brand loyalty, so if I do enter the market, my ducks have to be in a row.

I'm not in your area a great deal, but if I do get a chance, I'll look into your suggestions, thanks. Btw, Pizza Town, my favorite up here, has a second shop in Ocean Grove called the Pizza Shoppe. In conversations I've had with Michele Tomo (P-town's co-owner), I believe that the father might run it. I've never been there, so I can't vouch for it, but she has assured me that they're doing things the same way at both places.

Zippyhaas, I'm glad that Pizza Suprema worked out for you, but, for this kind of style, there are far better options in the NY area. The only catch is that you have to leave Manhattan.

If you love pizza, coming to NY and missing out on the outer boroughs is a tremendous tragedy, imo. Manhattan is tourist pizza and it differs very little to the pizza found in anytown, USA- with a little digging, you'd probably find something comparable in your home town. It's only when you get out of Manhattan that the magic happens.

CH411, my favorite pizzas in the area are my own :)

As far as the rest, well, it depends on how you define the area :)

For Neapolitan, Amano, as I mentioned is excellent, although it pales in comparison to Keste's lardo pie, Motorino's brussel sprouts pie or Paulie Gee's hellboy. Forcella (Brooklyn) is in the top 4, although it's my favorite crust and I haven't found the ultimate topping there yet.

As much as I like Neapolitan, though, my real love is NY. This area is a serious wasteland for a truly great NY slice. I haven't been everywhere, but I've been trying slices for decades and, recently, have stepped up my game and probably hit over 80 slice places in the last 6 months. The results have generally been abysmal. Here's how I rank them.

My own, at the top of my game: 9.5
Pizza Town, Elmwood Park: 8.5 (If Michele Tomo is making it, otherwise, 7.5)
Nonna's (Florham Park): 4
Angelo's (Parsippany): 3.5
Pomodoro (Morristown): 3
Everything else is less than 1

There's a few places I've been meaning to get to, such as Reservoir tavern and Star Tavern, but it could be a while because those styles are not that much of a draw for me.

As far as certification being a racket... it can be. The main certification group, VPN has been frequently accused of certifying anyone with a checkbook. Roberto, though, is a little different. I actually talked with Roberto about the APN at length. At the time, I wasn't aware of his affiliation (whoops!) and was quite critical- no softball questions there. Merely taking his course doesn't guarantee certification. Roberto is renowned for being a very demanding boss, and I have no doubt that he's not certifying anyone on a whim. I'm not, at this point, expecting the certification process to be the end all be all for assuring great authentic Neapolitan pizza, but, between APN, VPN or no certification all, APN gets my vote.

I should also note that while VPN takes a lot of flack, my issue is less with the organization as a whole but with certain instructors. VPN has some, imo, less talented teachers, but they also have some great teachers. If Giulio Adriani (Forcella) certifies a new pizzeria, then I trust that assessment. He definitely has some skills. If I see a VPN sticker on a window, though, without knowing who did the certification... that's not much of a selling point.

$18 for a margherita is insane. I've been waiting for this place to open since Roberto (Keste) told me about them about a year ago. Keste and DA are noticeably less expensive, but don't forget Amano, in Ridgewood, which, imo, is equally as affluent as Morristown (Whole Paycheck *cough*) Their prices and quality are on par with Keste as well.

Roberto, btw, isn't technically a consultant. He's part owner of Amano and Don Antonio and either part or full owner of Keste. He's president of the APN (Associazione Pizzaiuoli Napoletani) a training and certification organization in the U.S. Schedule allowing, Roberto trains aspiring Neapolitan pizza makers. The folks at Millies are his students. Roberto is a great teacher, and some talented people have studied under him, but I should point out that his courses usually last no longer than about 2 weeks, and, while that's an excellent foundation for making Neapolitan pizza, it takes months to master- especially tending an oven. Being a student of Roberto's doesn't automatically make someone a master pizzaiolo.

I'd like to say that at some point I'll be able to judge the extent of their mastery of these skills, but, at $18 a pop, I'm not sure they're ever going to see my business. Maybe eventually I'll break down and try it, but, right now, $18 seems incredibly offensive to me. Neapolitan pizza, at it's heart, is food of the people, not food of the elite. Some of the best pizzerias in Naples only charge around $8 for a pie. Even if Millies makes the best Neapolitan pizza ever, right now, I'd still see myself spending the time and gas to drive to Ridgewood, just on principle.

I'd also like to try their coal pies as well, although coal in NJ hasn't had the best track record in recent years (Anthony's). I'm not repeating my Tomato Pie experience ($18 for one of the worst pizzas I've ever had).

Pizza is my life, and I do live in Morristown, so, in theory, I should be knocking down the doors to get in, but, I also have pretty passionate beliefs about fair pricing of goods and services. Right now, my level of offense is outweighing my passion for pizza.

Edit: I just spent 15 minutes looking through the photos on Millie's site. Photo's of topped skins before baking, photos of heavily sugared Nutella pies, but not a single shot of a baked margherita? I'm sorry, but that's a really bad sign.

I've had it at Forcella in Brooklyn, and, while I have the greatest respect for Giulio Adriani's doughmaking skills, the Montanara wasn't thrilling.

I have yet to meet any serious pizza obsessive that's been all that amped about Neapolitan fried pizza. It's great in theory- anything fried HAS to be better, right? But in practice... meh.

For those that are really passionate about pizza in the NY metro area, there's no competition between Roberta's and Paulie Gees. It's only when you start stacking Paulie's up against Motorino and Keste that it begins to be a fair fight.

Roberta's was a large part of Paulie's inspiration (especially his interior design) and should be a destination for any serious piehead, but it's more of a top 20 NY area pizzeria than a top 5 joint like Paulie's.

Even if Paulie sold carbon copies of Roberta's pizzas, he'd still be considerably higher on the list because of his charming personality/"everyone's a VIP at Paulie Gee's" philosophy. Roberto Caporuscio is passionate about pizza, but it's an incredibly niche Neapolitan passion, whereas Paulie lives eats and breathes every kind of pizza known to man.

The website 'Slice' is NYC based. Any world class in pizza in NY will invariably show up on their site. If it's not on slice, and Pomodori isn't showing up in a search, then I think it's safe to say that it isn't exceptional.

That being said, shmoogle seems to give it good reviews.

http://www.shmoogle.com/local/pomodor...

I don't know how reliable shmoogle is, though. Both Yelp and Urbanspoon have done me incredibly wrong on the pizza front.

If you are looking for top notch kosher pizza in Brooklyn I can talk to a friend who is vastly knowledgeable on this subject.

While Kickstarter has many members who are actively seeking investors, the manner in which Andris is utilizing it is less from the perspective of investments and more in the form of a marketplace. Saying "donate $72 and I'll send you this steel plate" is no different than "buy this steel plate for $72." Start-ups seeking investment are free to make mistakes, but the moment you start selling merchandise, the moment you say "hey, buy this" you have to be informed about your product, regardless of whether or not you're an amateur or a professional.

If I find someone on Craig's list selling speakers, they're free to quote specs from other trusted commercial sources, but they're not free to talk about things like ohms and speaker impedance if they don't know what these things are themselves.

I don't care who you are, if you're selling something, and you make a claim, you had better be able to back that up.

At the top of his Kickstarter page, he states,

"Create Neapolitan style pizza or artisan breads right at home, without investing in a brick oven. Create the crust you crave."

This is blatantly false advertising. Steel (at any thickness) cannot produce Neapolitan/brick oven bake times. He used a misquoted blurb from a book as the basis for his claim:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704709304576124353978673570.html

It's one thing for a book to be incorrect or misquoted in promotional materials, but if you're selling a product, you better do you're homework. And Andris did not. As I said earlier, I spoke with Nathan Myrvold

http://forums.egullet.org/topic/137365-can-you-make-authentic-neapolitan-pizzas-at-home/

around the time the book was being published about these claims and he has since come out with a correction:

http://modernistcuisine.com/correctio...

*The related clarification can be found in the 3rd and 4th entry in the Volume 2: Techniques and Equipment section

Andris, unfortunately, never got that message. He used a misquoted advertisement and never actually read the book that was supposed to be his inspiration. He also never followed up on any clarifications. Both the original text of the book and the correction completely dispute his claim (as does anyone else who's baked with steel).

Zero homework. I'd like to say it's just ignorance, but he's been aware of this discrepancy for around 8 months and has done nothing to correct his claim. When he's aware that the statements he's making are untrue and does nothing to correct them, that's no longer ignorance.

If you've ever eaten breakfast at a diner, it was cooked on an A36 steel grill. If it's good enough for omelets, it's good enough for pizza.

I'm aware that Andris offers a 1/2" model. He only started offering it after I made him aware of the inferiority of 1/4" steel. He still pushes 1/4" strongly, though, because of it's lighter weight. Mass is a big part of the pizzamaking equation and 1/4" steel just doesn't provide enough. Traditional cordierite baking stones, such as the one you currently have, tend to vary in density/baking properties, but there's a very high chance that the 1/4" steel won't outperform your 1/2" stone. For you to spend $72 and end up with the same baking properties that you have now- that would be quite a shame, imo. $20 (+ shipping) cordierite kiln shelves can surpass 1/4" steel.

Steel is advanced pizzamaking. It's not for beginners. It's generally for people who've been using traditional cordierite stones and want to step up their game with faster bake times. For the beginner who's not really hung up on making the perfect pizza, kiln shelves are more than sufficient, far less expensive and easy to obtain. Steel, specifically 1/2" steel, is for the zealot. As your pizzamaking improves and you start wowing friends and family, your obsession invariably grows and you start thinking about ways to move up yet another notch on the pizzamaking ladder. Pizzeria quality flour is part of that journey, as are higher quality cheeses and tomatoes. Slice (triangle) size is another component of this voyage.

In other words, you may not care all that much about the size of your pizzas now, but, in the event you start taking this more seriously (and with 1/2" steel, you will), size will matter. In the New York area, no self respecting pizzeria would offer a slice pie that's less than 18" and many go much higher into the 21" realm and beyond. This is where the magic happens. It may seem insignificant now, but as you move up the ladder towards pizza perfection, relatively insignificant factors start taking on much greater significance.

As you noticed, you can find the same steel for about 1/2 the price locally. It depends on where you are, but I'd keep looking around a bit more- there's a good chance you might find a better price- in the 1/3 realm.

When you say 'he thought of it first,' you're talking about marketing steel for pizza, correct? He definitely didn't come up with the idea of baking pizza on steel. Commercial pizza ovens have been offering steel decks for at least 25 years and I've been recommending steel for the home baker quite a while before Modernist Cuisine (Andris' inspiration) was printed.

And you'll have to excuse me if I don't give Andris 'credit' for being a good businessman. If you aren't informed or honest about your product, that's not good business. Once you throw truthful advertising out the window, people like Bernie Madoff start qualifying as 'good businessmen.'

Btw, plasma isn't necessary for cutting a36 steel. If you can find someone who will do a shear cut, it might be a little less expensive.

This guy 'deserves' nothing. The product he's selling is A36 hot rolled steel (aka 'mild steel'), not stainless. Mild steel, sourced locally, is usually 1/3 to 1/2 the price he's offering. He's also selling a one size fits all solution, that will happen to fit all ovens, but has a maximum pizza size of 13"-13.5". For NY style, when you get into that size, it's almost all rim. If you buy the steel yourself, you can size the steel to your oven, rather than being forced into making postage stamp sized pies.

In addition, in his advertising, he's making specious claims about Neapolitan bake times, based upon a dated and incorrect ad campaign for Modernist Cuisine. The actual book recommends 3/4" and, when it was released, incorrectly promised Neapolitan bake times, but has since been revised to back off any Neapolitan claims after a conversation I had with Mr. Myrhvold. Bottom line- the vast majority (99.9%) of home ovens can't produce Neapolitan pizza, and to say otherwise is either incredibly misinformed or dishonest.

Lastly, the website pushes the 1/4" thick steel model as being optimum for pizza. 1/4" steel is way too thin for NY style. Steel only begins to show it's innate superiority to other materials at 1/2" or thicker- as Kenji points out in his reviews.

Overpriced, too small, too thin (for the recommended model) and misinformed advertising. Buyer beware.

Steel is the best material for home pizza baking you can find, just not the snake oil branded steel that this guy is peddling.

Have you shopped at the A&P lately? Sure, WF will have items that A&P doesn't offer, such as huge shrimp, specialty cheeses and aged beef, all of which will be very costly, but on the items that are comparable, the prices will be very similar. Anyone that checks prices isn't shopping at A&P.

Not that the local residents are even buying that many groceries. 70% of A&P's business is alcohol. When you start comparing alcohol pricing, WF is pretty competitive.

If WF replaced a Shop Rite, then I think you'd find a lot of sticker shock, but your average A&P shopper either tends to be either poor or rich, and neither demographic tends to be smart shoppers.

Mogul was far from flawless. You're spot on about the excessive use of cream in their meat dishes. Their CTM was incredibly one dimensional and probably one of the worst CTMs I've ever had. But the okra (served every Sunday) was magnificent and the paneer unsurpassed. I'm an incredibly harsh critic and always see room for improvement, but the okra and paneer were, imo, perfect. It's the only time I've ever had paneer that wasn't a bit squeeky when you bit into it, revealing a world class cheesemaker at the helm. The wings were top notch as well, although, since I've never seen wings at any other Indian buffet, I don't have anything to compare them to.

In theory, some aspiring restauranteur could come along and make the best version of every dish, but I've never seen it. Even in the best places it's usually only one or two dishes that truly shine. Jyoti, in Wayne, does the best CTM I've ever had, but, unfortunately, their other dishes are kind of non descript. Saffron does a really good fresh spinach palak. Spice grill has a generically labeled 'chicken curry' that's the best non tomato based chicken I've tasted. For many years, I've longed to befriend a restaurant owner and take him/her around to all the different places that offer the best versions of each dish, so that they can see what's possible and collate everything into an all star menu. I'd like to take them to London as well, as they bring a few other flavors to the table (such as coconut milk and additional methi) that bring a little more variety into the mix, which, considering that all the dishes pretty much start with the same base, can be valuable.

I've had the goat at Cinnamon probably 30 times and every time it's been tough and grisly- just like the lamb. If I didn't know any better, I'd swear that they go to the butcher and ask for the sinewy trimmings that are being thrown away. Both the lamb and the goat taste like the lowest grade of meat possible. At least they did about 8 months ago. It's been a while since I've been to Cinnamon. Another gripe that I have with them is that they're really cheap and starchy with their approach to veggies. In a meal where you're already eating bread and rice, corn and potato dishes have absolutely no place. I have no issue with aloo gobi, but aloo on it's own, no. Yes, cauliflower is expensive, but there's no cuisine on this planet that produces better cauliflower than Indian and it's nutritional aspect is a huge added plus. Places that have, since 2008, been nickel and diming the veggie options should be ashamed of themselves. Lastly, this is completely personal, but I'm not a big fan of peas and Cinnamon was getting very pea happy for a while. The peas also play a part in my starch issues.

There's absolutely no difference, sticking wise, between cast iron and stone. If there's sufficient flour for the pizza to launch from the peel, the dough will never stick to unseasoned cast iron. Assuming, of course, you don't burn it. If you take bread past a black appearance, it will blister and liquefy, and become sticky.

And while some pizza styles may not require peak oven temps, the most popular styles do, and, at peak oven temps, oil will burn. By oiling a pizza stone- any pizza stone of any material, you're smoking up the house for no reason.

Taco Bell is one of my guilty pleasures. I used to eat there once every couple years. I would pig out on 6 beef burritos, which use to run me around $6. Now a simple beef burrito isn't even on the menu.

So, I'm taking a shot a crafting my own. I'm fine on everything but the tortilla. Problem is, I can't walk into a supermarket and buy a comparable tortilla. My supermarkets carry Taco Bell tortillas and similar brands, but they sit on the shelves for days and the stench of the store gets into them and they're disgusting.

Trader Joes tortillas are pretty good, but they're a little too upscale. I'm looking for a very industrial, bleached, low protein/fluffy tortilla. It's a little bit of an oxymoron, but I'm looking for a heavily preserved tortilla that's freshly prepared/hasn't been sitting in the store for very long.

Quite a few years ago I went tortilla shopping in Dover, and, if memory serves me correctly, the packages were huge and there's no guarantee of good turnover there either.

If I could find a fluffy frozen tortilla, I'd be up for that, but most of the frozen tortillas I find tend to be on the multi-grain/unbleached side.

Wow, the Morristown area is really coming alive with new shopping opportunities in the coming years. You've got Wegmans in East Hanover (YES!), a new Shop Rite/Target (less hearty yes) in the township (Across from Walmart) and now Whole Foods. I don't shop at WF much, but anything is better than the smelly old A&P.

That's a really good question. While I'm not certain that a layer of paint can seal in the old A&P's stench, I'm reasonably certain the new WF will smell just as good as the other locations- which, compared to most supermarkets, is flawless. I can't recall which supermarket it was, but WF Madison replaced a stinky old place and they smell perfectly fine.

I'm a little late to this discussion, but have tried around 80 different slices in the area within the last 6 months and wanted to add my 2 cents to this thread. As Bropaul stated, the pizza in this area is especially ordinary. In fact I'd go a step further and say that most places are crappy, and, if you're lucky, you can find a place that's good, but Morris County doesn't have a place that's great. I've heard great things about Reservoir Tavern (Parsippany), but it's not a pure NY style pizza, and thus not up my alley.

I still have a long list of places to try (Firehouse sounds interesting. Does Nonna's do slices?), but out of the long list that I have sampled, a couple have risen to the top. Like I said, nothing great, but, imo, a little better than most. It was only one slice, and I need another trip back for confirmation, but Pomodoro (Morristown), was better than I expected. Much better than Pete's a few doors down- which isn't really saying much as Pete's a shell of what it used to be during the 80s, when it was trading best in area awards with Suvios.

Angelos in Parsippany (rt 46) also isn't bad. He uses a rolling pin and a screen (the horror!), but the sauce is one of the best I've found in the area. If anyone goes there, I recommend requesting more sauce.

The other thing that I wanted to share is the super obvious recommendation to ignore urbanspoon and yelp. Dominicks (Morristown address, but really Harding/Bernardsville) gets top ratings on urbanspoon and it's one of the worst pizzas I've ever tasted. It's shoe leather.

Does Makkoli have eel for lunch? Minado only serves eel nigari for dinner.

I called it Neelam as well (and also called Mehndi 'Ming'). Since you've resurrected this old thread around the same time that I've rediscovered my love for Indian buffet, I'll update my thoughts on my favorite (and not so favorite) places in the area.

First of all, Neelam (Berkely Heights), is just plain terrible. I went there last week and I swear that there were only four gravied dishes and what was there was incredibly dull and uninspired.

Cinnamon (Morris Plains) was my favorite for a while, but they went down hill over the years. They're the only place that consistently serves lamb (or goat), but, unfortunately, good lamb curry seems to be no longer possible in a buffet setting. Lamb stew meat sucks. On the beef side, beef stew meat, if treated well, can be full of collagen and melt in your mouth (and be very expensive), but lamb stew meat, as done is buffets, is always sinewy and tough. I've gotten to a point where I wish they just wouldn't serve it anymore. I'd have much more respect for a place that offered a third gravied Chicken option. Years ago, a place in East Hanover, Palki, used to make a lamb meatball in a korma gravy that used to rock my world, but, alas, I think the odds of ever seeing that again are pretty much non existent. Anyway, Cinnamon still offers the biggest selection in the area, but what they do offer is not what it used to be.

In 2009, I had talked about how Parsippany was a step above the rest of the area, but, because of an increase of restaurants and a more competitive atmosphere, Parsippany is now in an entirely different universe. I recently ventured back to Spice Grill (rt. 46) after a couple year hiatus and I was blown away. Next to Spice Grill, Neelam is an embarrassment. Neelam's food is infused with apathy. The closest buffet is at least 10 miles away and they know that they'll have plenty of customers no matter what they serve. At Spice Grill, you can practically throw a rock and hit two other Indian restaurants. That fierce competition drives a quest for excellence that produces world class food. It's not the hugest spread (Two gravied Chickens, four gravied veggies), but the dishes they have are some of the best I've had in this area in 4 years.

Pakwaan recently opened down the street (Home Depot shopping center) and it's very good (much better than Neelam), but it's not Spice Grill.

Btw, here we are, 3 years later, and I still drive past the old Mogul location in Morristown and wistfully long for their crispy deep fried okra and melt in your mouth, house made paneer. At the same time, I still curse Mendhi. A couple months back I thought about giving Mendhi another chance, only to find out that their Sunday buffet was $15. I'm not spending that much on the very remote possibility that the food has improved. Before I do that, I'm giving some of the other new places in Parsippany a shot.

Lastly, just to keep this a little bit on topic, Summit continues to be an overpriced culinary wasteland when it comes to ethnic food. If one is looking for Indian and doesn't want to drive to Parsippany (24 west/287 N is a surprisingly quick trip), Begum (Chatham) has to be better than Neelam (ANYTHING is better than Neelam), although it's been at least 4 years since I've been to Begum.

Okay, my travels brought me to Bottle King, they had a six for 8.49, so I pulled the trigger.

Long story short, it didn't 'bring me back.' I'm happy I bought it, because it helped me to hone my bottle quest a bit.

Compared to what I remember, and I have to admit, 15 years is a lot of time to carry the taste of an ale in my mind, the Brawler's malt is just too dark, too chocolate-y, the body is too thin, the alcohol note too pronounced and the yeastiness that I'm looking for just isn't there.

Now I know that I can't really expect a cask conditioned experience from a bottle, but, even compared to some of my other favorite bottled beers, such as Anchor Steam, the Brawler fell short.

I'm still grateful for the recommendation. Up until I tasted this, I was a little bit on the fence regarding dark malts. Now I think it's pretty safe to say that I'm not a big fan of them, across the board.