Any idea where to find a real rosh keves for roasting for r"h in the tri-state area? Not just cheek meat, but the real deal. I know it's unlikely, but thought I'd ask.

Thought you might find this article on macaroons, macaroni, and macarons interesting:
http://www.slate.com/articles/life/fo...

Naomi's pizza in Queens?

I've had food from Kosh three times now, once in the restaurant for dinner, once at the bar to watch a football game and once did takeout. I've had a burger, chicken wings, deep fried pickle, and the Joe Lieberman deli sandwich. I thought the food was delicious, though the wings weren't quite spicy enough for my taste. Their Montreal smoked meat and fake bacon are home made and truly worth travelling for. I heard from those who tried the meat entrees (specifically the steaks and the stuffed veal) that they were excellent. My kids have had their hotdog and chicken fingers (and some of our sandwiches and burgers) and loved it all. I did hear some negative feedback on some of their chicken and vegetarian options though. All that being said, they're new, this is technically their soft opening period and I think they're still working through a lot of kinks - particularly in their service. For those who had a negative experience, I would strongly encourage you to give them time and another try. Let them work through the kinks, tighten up service, tighten up their menu, etc. Some of us live in Stamford and will go regardless, but this place place really does aim to be a top class restaurant - give them the time to get there. Don't let that stop you from going now. As I said, the food I've had is great.

The real secret is the grater you use. You need a proper potato grater:
http://www.amazon.com/Kuchenprofi-Pot...

Black kale. Corn husks. Banana leaves. Radichio leaves.

I had a nice malbec recently. The Don Guillermo malbec. Nice cherry flavors. Goes well with food. I had it with beef, but I think it would go particularly well with lamb. I also have been thinking of getting some more of the elvi Adar Brut Cava. I kind of like the idea of a sparkling wine for the last cup. This is a nice, crisp, and dry, with nice small bubbles. Curious to hear what you've been thinking of.

We went to Mochableu tonight (a Sunday night) for my mother's birthday. It was me, my wife, our 3 kids and my parents (4 adults and 3 kids for those counting). I'll start with the good. The pizza was decent. We had the bianco, and it was OK, though it didn't match what was on the menu, which seemed to be a recurring problem (the menu claimed it had sun dried tomatoes, but this pizza had none). The french onion soup was also decent.
On to the bad. Where to start? When we first got there, my wife went up to the hostess to request a cupcake with a candle at the end for my Mom. I'll get back to that cupcake later on. Let's start with the food. We ordered that white pizza, the french onion soup and a vegetable soup as starters. While the pizza and french onion soup were decent, the vegetable soup was terrible. The soup was made from pizza sauce mixed with frozen veggies. For the main course we ordered fish and chips, the grilled dorado, the Linguini primavera, and the cheese ravioli. In order, the fish and chips fish smelled heavily of fish past its prime, the chips were soggy and bland, the dorado was dry and tasteless (I would strongly contest that what they served us was not dorado at all), and the linguini was served in some tasteless broth and featured those same frozen veggies. When they brought the cheese ravioli, and we cut one open, we realized that it was sweet pumpkin ravioli. This would be fine but just didn't go with the tomato cheese sauced it came in. We sent it back, and in it's place they brought cheese ravioli, but the inside of the raviolis was still frozen. Also, though the menu said there would be 8 ravioli, they only served 6 (small point, but worth noting).

As bad as the food, if not worse, was the service. Back to that cupcake. At the end of the meal, my wife went back to the hostess to ask if they could bring the cupcake to the table. The hostess told her that they had sold it to someone else. They suggested that we order something else. We ordered a chocolate cake (that happened to be partly burnt and all dried out. But more broadly, the service was absolutely abominable. They had seated us in the back, and I'm sure that was part of the problem. They never brought us bread (not that we needed it with such a carb-heavy meal, but you get the point). They never asked us how the meal was. The waiter was about as absent as could be. The dirty dishes piled up and weren't cleared by anyone (I didn't even notice they had busboys until I went up to the front of the restaurant to find the manager). When I did go up to find the manager (if the owners are reading this, it was a gentleman with a trimmed beard), he was rude and condescending - and never even apologized for the problems. He didn't offer to take the ravioli off the bill or offer to comp the desert. instead, at the very end, they gave us a bag with some stale pastries as a means of somehow making up for high prices, terrible food and terrible service.

Trust me, this is a place to avoid.

Fairway in Stamford, CT also carries it.

I've seen Kosher Oaxaca cheese in both Mexico City and in the Costco in Cancun.

We had these steaks from the Darien TJs this past shabbat. Best steaks I've made. The steaks were nearly 2 inches thick, full flavored and well marbeled. Highly recommended.

Of course on the hand grating. My family secret is on the type of grater you use. Rather than a box grater that shreds the potato into strands, we use a grater that is basically just a chicken wire grid. It's tough on the fingers, but the latkes that are made this way are inordinately better than those from any other means. It breaks the potatoes down completely.

Two words: Beef Cheeks.

Mendy's in Grand Central makes a decent dog - and they have good turnover.

Puchero? My wife is from Mexico and makes it. There are many varieties across latin america.

While the other posters are technically correct, you could order what you are looking for from Stamford Kosher: http://stamfordkosher.com/
They are closed until September (so this may not work for you), but they are a one stop delivery shop for a variety of kosher products that would not normally be available in Fairfield County.

Where do you find kosher goose breast?

I would actually disagree with you on the sauce. I agree that pre-spiced "tomato sauce" is not the way to go, the best pizzas I've had or made have been with a sauce of simple stewed san marzano tomatoes, pureed, with a bit of salt, olive oil, and, optionally, fresh basil and/or oregano.

FYI - Just received this email from the folks at Bacon Salt:
--------------------
From: J&D's Bacon Salt [mailto:passthebacon@baconsalt.com]
Subject: RE: kosher certification

Hi,
Thanks for your email. Funny you mention it, we are currently working towards getting Kof-K certified for all 4 Bacon Salt flavors!

Cheers
J&D

------------------
In a separate email they suggested that they should have it sometime in the early fall.

Thought I'd point you to this recipe from the Times from back in 1999. It's a recipe for how to take cheap balsamic vinegar (like the bartenura) and make it more like the DOP stuff. It's a hack, but it works:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage...
Thanks to Bill Maddex (ob"m) for pointing out the article to me back when.

Too late to order for Pesach, but I recently received a shipment of a couple of cases from Gan Eden wines (http://www.ganeden.com/). Although they have ceased production, Craig Winchell, the winemaker, is still selling off his stock. I've seen some of his posts on the kosher chowhound boards. I opened and decanted a bottle of their 1997 cab for friday night dinner last shabbos. My guests and I really enjoyed it. Other recent faves: Gabrielle Montpulciano d'Abruzzo and the Yatir Cab-Merlot-Shiraz.

When I lived in Chicago, the folks at Romanian gave me about 50 feet of casing. Not sure what kind it was, they just cut off a piece for me. Alternatives that I've used: parchment paper (prick holes in it so it can breath), cheese cloth. As to the dry sausages, fat definitely helps. I used a piece of meat that Romanian called fertiloff, not sure what that is. I also added beef suet (hardened beef fat) that I got from them.

A forkful of chopped liver. A thick slices of white radish, sprinkled with salt. Repeat.

If you want different, get him a membership to the Scotch Malt Whiskey Society:
http://www.smwsa.com/join.html
He'll get one bottle for the membership price and access to their whiskeys. I'm not a member, but a Scottish friend of mine is and took me to the SMWS bar in London. Had the best whiskeys of my life there. Highly recommended.

There was a bit of publicity last year about the release of "Bacon Salt". Its makers claim that it "is a zero calorie, vegetarian, kosher certified seasoning salt that makes everything taste like real bacon". The kashrut is Square K. The ingredients include, in their words, "natural and artificial flavors (contains milk)". The fact that the ingredients include milk-based flavor components and the hashgacha doesn't say that it's milkhic concerns me (though, in theory, it could be less than relevant amounts). I want to buy/use this stuff, but can't without some reassurance. Questions for this forum: Anyone know anything about this hechsher? Is it reliable? From what I can find online, the rav hamachshir is Rabbi Moshe Londinski, in Seattle, Washington. Does anyone have any info on him or Square K? Thanks.

I second the Naomi's Pizza recomendation. Their Falafel is one of the best I've had in this country. My family has been going there for years. We try to make a point to fly via JFK or LGA (rather than Newark) so that we can stop here (and to the other kosher shops in Queens.

I've been there twice now.

I agree Essex is better but:

Pros:
Location (it's around the corner from my work, while essex is a bit of a schlep).
Speed (as was mentioned before, the line moves fast).
Variety of breads, toppings, meats, etc.
The meat quality isn't terrible - it's no quality deli, but that's not what they're going for

Cons:
Frankly the biggest negative is price. Both times I went lunch cost me $15. That's just too high for lunch.
Sure the meat is vacuum packed, but that's to be expected.

If you are truly looking for something ethnic and somewhat exotic, I'd go for tongue rather than brisket. And serve it all with Dr. Browns Celray soda.

You don't need a coal/wood oven to get good pizza. The secret is heat (as ganeden suggests elsewhere on this thread). Wood/Coal are the best bets to get a good hot oven, but you can get a good gas fired pizza oven up to the right temp (800+ farenheit). This site describes what it takes to make a classic quality NY Pizza:
http://slice.seriouseats.com/jvpizza/

To slightly redirect, does anyone have recommendations for more expensive kosher wines. I see plenty of wines in the $40 to $70 range at my usual wine shop (a lot of French reds, in particular), but have been hesitant to buy without having a sense for their quality. Any recommendations (either pro or con)? Ganeden, as the professional, I'm particularly interested in your thoughts on this. Thanks.