prasantrin

Went to Southland Restaurant in Fort Richmond yesterday for lunch. We arrived shortly before 1, and the restaurant was a little less than half full. From what we saw, the two tables occupied by Chinese patrons ordered dim sum or other food off the menu, while the other patrons (all non-Chinese) were eating from the buffet. We checked out the buffet, just to look, and there was pretty much nothing there I'd eat. It looked like food court Chinese food, but I guess for most of the other patrons, that's what they expect from Chinese food. At lunch on weekdays (I don't know about weekends) they've got an order sheet, not carts. They don't have a huge assortment of items, but they've got enough variety to keep you satisfied. Only one kind of tripe, one kind of chicken feet, etc, but at least they have them. I really like the order sheet because it has the prices clearly listed at the top for small, medium, large, extra large, and extra extra large items, and the "size" is clearly marked next to each item. We ordered some of our standards, so we could make a comparison with other places we frequent. Hum soi gok, cha siu cheung fan, lo mai gai, cha siu bao, and a very special pork trotters dish (XXL!). First came the lo mai gai and cha siu bao. The steamers were soggy, which also meant the cha siu bao was a little soggy. I hate soggy cha siu bao. The bao is really light and fluffy, though. In this case, the lightness was not a good thing, because it made it too delicate when soggy. The flavour of the filling was fine, though it could have been more plentiful and the cha siu, itself, lacked flavour. The lo mai gai wasn't as flavourful as I like, and the sticky rice was too loose. But it was fine. Then came the cha siu cheung fan. Mmmmm. The cheung fan is the best I've had in Winnipeg. It's so thin and light. They use a lot of chives in it, which is nice, but again, the cha siu isn't flavourful enough, so the entire dish sufferes because of it. It doesn't suffer terribly, but this dish could be an A+ rather than a B+ if it had better cha siu. Next was hum soi gok. The outside was perfect--not too thick or too thig, and perfectly crispy. When I cut it open, I was a little disapointed in the filling. It's heavy on the dried shrimp side, and I'm not a big fan of the flavour of too much dried shrimp. I tasted the one I cut open, and as I predicted, I didn't care for it. Too shrimpy. But the more I hate it, the more I liked it. I still like KKG's filling better, but I like Southland's, too. Finally, we were waiting on the pork trotters. Waiting, waiting, waiting. Nothing came. My mother had refrained from eating the sticky rice, so she could eat it with the trotters. You have no idea how much she was looking forward to that dish. After maybe 20-30 minutes, we asked the waitstaff. She went back to the kitchen, and came back with the answer. . . in Chinese (I assume Cantonese). Someone else came to help out, and it turned out they didn't have (or couldn't make) the trotters. Gee, thanks for letting us know. To soothe her disappointment, my mother ordered the beef tripe in satay sauce. She liked it a lot. It looked pretty, but I didn't try it. While she was eating her tripe (I had already finished eating), I went to browse the bakery displays and ended up buying a cocktail bun. It wasn't very good--tasted like artificial flavourings. KKG's is much better. I'd return to Southland, but overall, I think KKG is still better. We'd definitely like to try the pork trotters, though, and I want to try the you tiao (not wrapped in cheung fan, just plain). The prices are in line with other dim sum places--they run from just under $3 for the small to $5.95 for the XXL dishes (or was that $6.95?). Oh, and the woman at the front (manager? owner?) could give smiling Johnny a run for his money. ETA: Pics can be found on Flickr in my Winnipeg Food Set.

It looks as if there are no lockers inside the gates - http://www.narita-airport.jp/en/guide/serv...ist/svc_07.html ← Darn. But even if you have to leave your luggage in the non-secure area, it should be OK because you'll already have your boarding pass. It doesn't take that long to get through security at any airport in Japan (compared to large airports in the US, for example). And Y300 a day for a locker is a bargain--at MSP (minnapolis st. paul) it was $3 an *hour*! What are you interested in seeing/doing in Tokyo? Any particular food you're looking to try? That can help narrow down the area you should go out to.

If you wanted to keep indoor basil plants going all winter long, how would you keep them warm when it's 10C inside your apartment? Can it be done?

I'd do it. In fact, I had planned to do it for an 8-hour layover until swine flu wreaked havoc with my plans. You could easily get into Tokyo and if you're really worried, just stick around Tokyo Station. Plenty to do within a 15-minute walk or train ride. If at all possible, try to leave your carry-ons in a locker near the gates. I don't know if they still have them, but they'll definitely have lockers on the public side of the terminal. But that way when you come through security again, you won't have as much crap to put through.

I do one of two things: travel or cleanse. Travel--does it really need explanation? Seeing things with a new frame of reference helps rejuvenate all your senses. Cleansing--I don't do anything like only fruit for three days, but I keep my food light and simple for however long it takes.

I'm not BryanZ, but assuming that he is not capable of deciphering the written menu, I think I should answer the question. Yes, it is kaiseki. It starts with sakizuke (appetizer), includes yakimono (grilled dish) and nimono (simmere dish), and ends with mizu gashi (lit. watery sweet, usually fruit). To be more precise, it is restaraunt-style kaiseki, not tea ceremony kaiseki (aka cha-kaiseki, which starts with a bowl of rice and other dishes and ends with tea and a sweet). ← That's a little unfair. I couldn't read the menu, either, but I knew it was kaiseki.

It's the 40th anniversary this year! It's too bad you haven't been back. It's still fun, but I find the more I travel around the world, the more disappointed I am in Folklorama. But I think I'll still be going every year I'm in Winnipeg. Can't mess with tradition! ETA: I was looking at the list of participants this year, and thought there were some absences. Looking again, I realized the Japanese Pavilion was missing this year! Also missing are Chile Lindo, Czech and Slovak, Greek Isles, Argentina (but they only particpate every other year, and they did it last year), and Tamil. I thought there may have been a Sri Lankan pavilion in years past, but I might be wrong about that. I hope the above are temporary absences. I'd be pretty disappointed if they were gone forever.

At Costco.com it's less than US$11 for 56 oz. It's about 90 pieces per pound, so that's about 315 pieces. But no Hugs (but for 1/2 the price of Hugs&Kisses, and go for just kisses). And you'd have to go to the US (or ask someone who's going to the US) to get them.

No reports in 4 years? How'd that happen? Am I the only one who ever goes? (Then that means I've been slacking!) Sunday--Colombia Their first year running. Very disorganized and inefficient. Food wasn't bad, but I thought the prices were a little high. We had combo 1 (should have been a piece of chorizo and cheese arepa) and one beef empanada. I think the girl who served me was confused, because the arepa was filled with some kind of pulled pork instead of cheese. The arepa gave me indigestion--it was heavy and dry, but the pulled pork was quite tender and delicious. The empanada was OK, but tiny. The chorizo could have used more flavour, and it was just on the side of dry. We also had some kind of poached fig filled with dulce de leche for dessert. I liked it, but the poaching liquid could have been more flavourful (it tasted like pure water). We paid $13 for everything. Monday--Russia. We'd never been to the Russian Pavilion as far as I know, and we've been going to Folklorama for about as long as it has been running. After last night, we won't be going back. We ate blini (one sweet filled with cottage cheese and a few raisins, one savoury filled with tasteless ground beef). The crepe itself was really quite tasty. Borscht I didn't try, but my mother said it was OK. And we had beliashi--deep fried doughnut-like thing stuffed with ground meat (pork?). It would have been very good had it not been cold, and had the dough been cooked through all the way (it was very uncooked in the middle). This came to $13, I think. The Russian Pavilion was (in our opinion) even worse than the Colombian, and at least the Colombian Pavilion had the excuse of being newbies. Very inefficient, and the volunteers bordered on rude. Tuesday--Israel Always one of the best pavilions in terms of set up and efficiency. It's really very well run. We had falafel--lousy dry pita, mostly lettuce, and three very small dry balls of falafel for $6! Boureka--always good but the potato filling was a bit like paste this year, spinach and feta pie--always good, and cheesecake--always good. All that cost us $16.25. I love Folklorama, and I appreciate that the monies go to help support the different ethnic organizations putting on the pavilions, but really--for $16.25 or just a little more we could have had two dishes from a Chinese restaurant giving us enough food to eat for a week. Still to come--both Filipino pavilions, Chilean, and I can't remember the other one we're going to see. We've got one more this week, and the rest are next week. BTW, the passports are back but in two different forms. A "real" passport is $135 and it gives you free pass to all the pavilions. Supposedly you can by-pass entrance lines (but not food lines), but I've not yet seen it happen. If you're just doing individual or family-pack entries, then you can get your "guide book" stamped at each pavilion. Supposedly. I haven't seen any stamps set up anywhere, so I don't know if all the pavilions are really doing that.

Isn't that always the case with Chinese places? You have some great meals and get excited about a new restaurant. But then, inexplicably, it all goes downhill very quickly. Say what you will about places like Sun Sui Wah and Kirin, but they are reliable and consistent. ← A lot of Chinese restaurants go through chefs like they go through shirts. You can always tell if there's a new cook if the food has changed. For larger restaurants, they could also have multiple cooks and the cook who made your dishes one time, won't be the one who makes them the next time.

Have Skype will talk! I'll be back from Japan in March or April 2010, but I can also make lots of phone calls and stuff from Japan (my long-distance caller only charges Y2.5/minute--that's only about 2 cents/minute for calls to the US).

I've only seen a few episodes so far. Generally they've had more misses than hits, for sure, but there have been a few dishes with which the experts have been impressed. Anna made excellent challah from Arthur Schwartz's book, and although they had a lot of problems with the knish, the expert said it was good (I do think the chef--a guy with a kosher restaurant in NY, I can't remember his name--was a lot kinder than usual, though). He also said their chicken soup was good (but the matzoh balls were "sinkers"), and he said the brisket was really good, too. Interestingly, although the Schwartz book was the most successful with the chef/critic, Anna didn't recommend it while Kristina did. Books with split votes don't get recommendations. It's on again tomorrow--9am and double episodes at 7 in Winnipeg! And the 7pm show is on the French Laundry!

Yay!!! If I were in MSP, I'd help for sure! Is there anything I would be able to do from a distance? I could think of things to do and places to see (that isn't really much help, though, is it?).

Anna and Kristina went all the way to Italy to cook from the Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, and Umberto Menghi (popular Italian chef from Vancouver) flew all the way out there to taste the recipes (they did the cooking at his cooking school in Tuscany). Some comments from Umberto: After walking into his school's kitchen: Smells good, but what a mess. re: Homemade Fettuccine w/ Butter Sage Sauce Umberto: I'm sorry. This is not pasta. Tuscan Meat Roll with White Wine & Porcini Mushrooms Umberto: For me it's disgusting. Kristina's comment: That's the second time a chef has said something we've made is disgusting. Umberto: You come to Tuscany and you give this food, if I wouldn't be around, they put you in jail! Zuppa Inglese (Umberto looks at it, puts the plate down, and starts praying in Latin) Kristina: I wasn't sure if he was praying it would taste good, or if he was saying, "Mamma mia, this looks like crap!" (He liked it.) Umberto: You let me come all the way from Vancouver, 18 hours of flight, you gave me bruschetta and zuppa inglese? This show cracks me up! :lol:

Shhhhh. . . . We're surreptitiously putting pressure on people who live in those places to volunteer. Not that it would work, but one can dream!

My mother is allergic to dairy, too (and a bunch of other foods), but she still partakes occasionally in small amounts. It's very common, apparently, for people with non-life-threatening allergies to disregard them once in awhile. (The last time she had a very bad reaction to peanuts, the emergency room doctor said, "I don't understand why people with allergies insist on taking the risk," which led my mother to believe that she wasn't the only one.) The opposite side of the coin may be that once your friend has gone a few months without eggs or dairy, she may feel so good, that she'll never want to eat those things again.

Find her a really good vegan cookbook. It will help with the side-dishes. Vegetarian cookbooks might be too depressing at first because a lot of them use cheese and other dairy products. Or a really good kosher cookbook. I'd go with kosher over vegan, because vegan is too depressing for me.

On the Zagat boards, they say: Please call 1-800-540-9609 or 212-404-6477. In addition you may also contact customer service by clicking Ask a Question in the help section. I'd go the "ask a question" route.

Byeok-je Galbi was recommended to me, but I couldn't find it when I was there. It's within the terminal. I was told main floor, but I found a site that said it was in the basement. I ended up at some kind of fast food korean place which shared eating space with a coffee shop (not seattle's best, but some chain like that). It was fine, though not inspiring. From what I saw, you can't expect much better at the airport. I might try KFC on my way back through. They might have some interesting twists, and although KFC in Japan sucks, the one in Malaysia rocks, so I still have hope for KFC in the world. The airport website has a listing of restaurants and fast food places onsite, including their hours (many open around 6am). Personally, I wouldn't bother leaving the airport for such a short period of time.

It's a tourist attraction for domestic tourists. That's not to say it isn't good, but it's still a tourist attraction.

In my area it's on channel 21. We haven't had full cable in years, so I don't know what the network is. If you do a search for the title, you'll be able to find the channel in your area for your cable provider.

Were I from the US, I would not go up to Toronto just for a day thing. I'm from Winnipeg and I wouldn't even do that. But if it's a full weekend of fun and activities, I'd go for it. I suspect most eG types who go to these gatherings either have passports or are people for whom not having one at the moment would not be a deterrent to coming. It's a year away--plenty of time to apply for one.

I think TO would be great, but it's not Heartland. Center of the Universe, maybe, but not Heartland. Think your foodie cousin would be willing to organize? Not too many active TO eGulleters around who might take up the challenge. S/He could join just for this!

Have you tried contacting the restaurant? They (or someone there) may have copies lying around to sell.

I haven't had enough of either to choose fairly, but I've never had a Bourgogne I didn't like. Ever. Just based on that I'd have to go French.