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silentbob

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Posts posted by silentbob

  1. Okay, I managed to track down the restaurant name -- it's Tang 2000, located on the second floor at 432 Huaihai West Road in the Changning district. If anyone happens to be in Shanghai and ends up eating there, I'd love to hear what you think. From what I can tell, the prices are fairly gentle for what we considered to be an excellent meal.

  2. 1) A consensus on the one "must try" place for Peking Duck?

    I think Quan Ju De is the way to go. A bit touristy, yes, but my parents have been living in Beijing for a year and still think it's head and shoulders above the others.

    For something a little different, try the fish at Fei Teng Yu Xiang on Jiangguomenwai Road in the Chaoyang Zone. It's cooked in a lot of oil with TONS of Szechwan peppercorns. Ridiculously tender, will make your mouth delightfully numb.

  3. I had a great dinner in Shanghai with my tour group earlier this month, but forgot what the place was called (except that it had "2000" or "2004" in the name). This joint served some reasonably creative Chinese fare, and was probably about a 10 minute drive from the Sheraton Grand Tai Ping Yang (in the Hongqiao district) where we were staying.

    Google searches have been unfruitful. Can someone help me figure out the restaurant's name?

  4. I am headed there tomorrow night. Does the tasting menu generally include anything from the main menu or is it a completely separate entity?

    Also, how big are the portions? I'm tempted to stop by il Laboratorio beforehand, but don't want to ruin my appetite either.

  5. Sorry, I didn't mean to disparage Zaytinya by calling it a "safe" choice. It's just that there really aren't any moderately-priced trendy places that are GREAT. You'll have to settle for non-trendy/great or trendy/good.

    If hip decor is more important, go to Zaytinya. If great food is more important, go to Corduroy, Firefly, or 1789.

  6. I haven't been to Urban in over a year and definitely need to go back.

    Some old friends dragged me to dinner at Timpano's earlier this week. It wasn't as bad as I expected. Picked some relatively "safe" options (spinach salad with blue cheese and warm bacon dressing, seared ahi tuna) which turned out okay, but I would've rather spent $36 elsewhere.

    Oh well. It's the people you dine with that matters, right?

  7. Heh, you know what Tony Bourdain says about fish on Mondays...

    I had dinner with my parents at Houston's -- the one on the Pike -- earlier this week and am ashamed to say that I liked it. The pork chop I ordered was cooked perfectly, and their steaks were decent too. My only quibble was their caesar salad with eggless (bleah) dressing. Service was really, really good.

    IMO, the food is still a bit overpriced but it's a reliable safe option for eating with folks who don't have adventurous tastes.

  8. There have been over 300 battles on Iron Chef during the last decade or so. I've probably seen at least half of these episodes, and don't think anyone has ever failed to complete most if not all of their dishes. Much as I'd like to give Chef Donna the benefit of the doubt, 90 percent of the challengers on the show are similarly unfamiliar with the layout of Kitchen Stadium and the format/pacing of the battle.

    This must've been a bit embarrassing, especially for such a great chef. I feel bad for him, but would be very surprised if he was invited back -- there are so many other chefs in this country that are deserving of an appearance, and only a handful of episodes of the show get produced each year.

    ETA: Back in July 2002, Iron Chefs Sakai and Chen did a couple of exhibition battles in DC just outside the International Trade Center. I caught the battle between Sakai and Todd Gray, and seem to recall that Chef Donna was one of the judges there. So he had at least a passing familiarity with the show's concept.

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