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white lotus

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Everything posted by white lotus

  1. Sorry for late notice and many thanks Alex for remembering my presence at Gatherings of past. I will be attending with new friend & life partner, Farshid. Looking foreward to seeing old friends & making new ones ... cheers
  2. Driving to Philadelphia & flying back for Heartland in August sounded like a good idea @ the time but perhaps it might be best to just continue this car trip on through to the Pacific NW. Thanks for your thoughtful feedback. By the time we get home to Seattle, it may not make much sense for us nor will be have to energy to fly back for the gathering. Dance, Masumi & I were really looking forward to joining you for the festivities. I especially am heart broken @ not being able to see old friends, make or drink tea with you all. I send you love & good thought, cheers wl
  3. Greeting, wl here, sorry to break the zen-like silence but I have an inquiry and/or request. I will be in Philadelphia briefly around Memorial Day weekend with a car that my daughter has been driving across country. We will need a long term place for the car to reside for a few months until the great gathering in August @ which time we will return to retrieve it & continue on our car trip back to the Pacific NW. Any good suggestions as to a good temporary home in the area, hopefully in a secured location with nice people. It would make a great back-up or second vehicle to use for who ever volunteers to look after it. It even has GPS & satellite radio which we would keep activated for the duration...cheers
  4. Many thanks Katie for taking on the reigns of responsibility for this years Heartland as well as those of you who provide valuable input & efforts towards the success of this event past & present. Also,a thank you to Chris for the green light for Dance & I to proceed in making our plans to attend. As usual, we will make sure to hold up our end that the tea world & other non-alcohol friendly beverages are taken care of for Saturday's feast. There is the possibility that our adult daughter Masumi may be free @ that time to attend as well. Looking forwards to meeting new friends, seeing our old ones & eating with you all. cheers, wl
  5. Greetings, white lotus here from the Pacific NW... I would love to attend but was wondering whether bringing vegetarian/pescitarian, dairy (but not vegan) spouse Dance to would be an easy fit for Philiadephia. We have had wonderful veggie friendly experiences in past HEARTLANDS but a few of the Cleveland venues last year had slim offerings resulting one hefty dinner bill for a portion of salad & cooked greens. Since I have never been to Philadelphia, I was wondering how amenable your fair city would be for someone who was not carnivorous? Please inform... Regardless, I will make every effort to attend but would have a better time if I could bring Dance. cheers wl
  6. apology for duplicate posts, will someone with more brain cells erase/fix this for me. BTW, Dance will not be at the Thursday evening event & will be flying into Cleveland sometime Friday AM. I on the other hand will be coming coming into Cleveland sometime in the PM on Tuesday, to join my roomies Kerry, Prasantin & +1 on Thursday. See you all very soon... wl
  7. white lotus here, we just returned from Sri Lanka (which meant that have been having difficulties with internet abroad & also on the home front as well) a little over a week ago. My brain has been quite slow & thus we are just now reconnecting with you all here after a 3 week hiatus. Apologies for not communicating earlier. We will also be bringing some Sri Lankan estate teas as well as our usual tea stuff. By any chance, does any one have glass one gallon sun tea jars that we can use for iced tea dispensers. If we do not hear from anyone, we will bring 2 of them with us from the NW along with other tea paraphenalia that we don't expect most people to have readily available. Very much looking forward to seeing you all again & the fabulous food & beverages to come... cheers
  8. Tammy, correct on Dance's food preferences. He will also be an appreciative audience for whatever mixed cocktail beverages you make up as he is a relative newbee to the cocktail world, thanks to the KC heartland adventure last year. Tammy, thanks for all the work you are putting into this...
  9. Greetings Tammy et al, Sorry for radio silence. We have a few changes in our plans as all 3 (Dance, Masumi & I) of us will be arriving on different days & different times. That said, there will only be me for the Chia Shang Thursday in AA. Please cancel Dance's reservation for that evening. Hopefully you have received our remittance by now as we mailed it to you a while ago. For the FEAST, we are planning on being available for prep, washing dishes, or anything other duties where we can be useful. We are bringing NW smoked salmon to be used for the feast if any of you have good ideas for it. Otherwise, it could be put out for snacks. We are also packing our usual hot & iced tea stuff. Dance brought back some fairly good oolongs from a recent Taiwan tea tour. I will have my usual Japanese senchas/gyukuros as well. Looking forward to seeing you all soon. cheers, wl
  10. Dance & I are in for everything but the bread class, because I am lazy in the morning. I am not sure how Dance (pesca-vegetarian) will do with the bacon breakfast. He seemed to do okay with the BBQ tour in KC last year. My daughter, Masumi will also be joining us for Saturday & Sunday. She, like her father is a veg & will not eat meat flesh but does well with eggs & dairy. Our Saturday potluck contribution will be making teas, hot & cold, plus citrusaide of some sort. Some of us are available for kitchen duty of some sort as needed, i.e. knife skills, washing dishes & general clean-up. We can bring smoked salmon, seafood from the NW if there is interest. cheers,
  11. Many thanks Tammy & everyone else putting in effort for the gathering. Tammy, the above mentioned program sounds incredible. All the events sound fabulous. Confirm Dance & I for all the tours, meal/eating events. Our daughter Masumi may be ariving from from Madison, Wisc. late Friday PM via Amtrack to attend the Saturday potluck. Like Dance, she is a veg but pretty handy in the kitchen & an accomplished tea youth as well. We will let you know after her travel plans are confirmed. Dance & I are so looking forward to coming.
  12. Anytime July-August except for the weekend of July 24 will make it easier for Dance & I to represent the NW part of the country & bring any goodies, requested or not. We would also love to experience Ann Arbor as we had missed out on the earlier gatherings. Besides, We are curious to see if there is sign of Asian tea-life out there, if not, let's make it happen... I still have my well worn SEVA restaurant vegetarian cookbook. It has been over 30 years that I was a student there briefly & remember Jane Fonda stopping there overnight for an anti-war movement meeting. Things have probably changed since then. Hope to see you all this Summer. cheers, wl
  13. menupix.com duly noted and surprised that I am just now aware of all these foodie tools to put on my computer bookmarks. EMP, Aquavit, Marea are now on my personal short list. I am just now starting to make a small dent in reading your NYC forum & other websites, for reviews, etc. This is getting to be a little overwhelming but I will survive. I am also getting a sense of the Manhatten geography which I know for you is probably a no-brainer. Your ideas are invalueable to me, please continue... sincerely, wl
  14. The $60 - 80 is food only. Tax, gratuity, drinks, cocktails cost not included. Sorry for not including those important details. Hopefully, we still don't have to compromise on the visuals and most importantly, the ultimate yumminess. Again, the venue does not necessarily have to be Asian. Not that I would "cave" for non-Asian in-laws but my friend (childhood friend who comes from much better family than I) is a much nicer person who is trying his best to make this occasion special. Hopefully, this ease in budget makes it a little easier for the discussion. Thankyou for the heads-up to the menu.com website. I have printed out some of the menus, read reviews and started following-up on some of your leads. To say the least, this is also invaluable in structuring my own personal food crawl while I am visiting your locale. Keep the discussion going as I am finding your comments valuable and a great place to start the search. edited to add budget specifics and clean up grammer/typos...
  15. Greeting, I am white lotus from the NW forum. I have met some of you on your visits to Seattle & @ the Heartland Gathering. I hope you are able to give me imput on a dilemma. My dear friend who is throwing this party for his long time partner is having difficulty figuring out the right restaurant to have this dinner for about 14 to 18 people. He lives in San Francisco and folks will be flying in from all around the US for this. I have looked at your forum index of restaurants which although interesting, did not assist me in getting any new ideas as to give helpful imput. He was originally thinking about possibly something like Jewel Bako. BTW, I just heard that this venue may no longer be a great place. I digress, anyway, non-Asian family members of the birthday person informed him that they "don't do any raw fish" so now he is in a quandry as to what kind of place to book. The venue doesn't necessarily have to be Asian. He wants the place to be elegant, modern, visually stunning & of course, have yummy food. The budget for the dinner will be about $60 - 80 dollars per person. The dinner will be on a Monday evening in sometime in July after the 4th. Thankyou for your time and thoughtfulness in advance. Also, as I will be traveling by myself, any ideas where a mature-ish Asian-American should park her accomodations without loosing her bank account (I am still having to come up with one more year of college tuition for my kid). Since this is not food related, would you mind letting me know about any good websites or other leads via PMs or email. I hope that I can meet some of you & return the favor if/when any of you visit us in the NW. Many thanks again. Cheers, wl
  16. I recently had the best vegetarian meal of my life at Charlie Trotter's. This would definitely be a special occasion meal for vegetarian. It was quite expensive but I have to admit that every single aspect of this meal was perfect. They even offered a beverage pairing for those who don't drink alcohol. This may not be for everyone but I was impressed and would go again. wl
  17. Absolutely. An update to the list ... Heartland Gathering Bread Workshop Friday, August 8th So far, I have: edsel karen m Amy Viny CaliPoutine (*) Jean Blanchard santo_grace torakris (*) LuckyGirl (*) +2 (*) prasantrin's +1 NancyH's +1 (*) (*) = probable/maybe ← Dance & I would like to join in as well. Cheers, wl
  18. Please include Dance & I to the ethnic tour. I eat eveything except offal. Dance is vegetarian inclined who eats dairy and seafood. I am assuming that there will be plenty to eat for everyone. Please feel free to fit either/or both of us into the kitchen help equation. We arrive prepared with aprons and Daiso (Japanese $1.50 store) knives. I just remembered that we are also limited as of July 1st to only one airline baggage check-in limit, half of what it was last year. So unfortunately, we won't be able to cart as many PNW "omiage" gifties to everyone as we would have liked. Regrets... If there is anything we could contribute for the feast from the Pacific NW we could gladly bring it with us (i.e. smoked white king salmon, Mt. Ranier fire weed honey). We could contribute some salmon for everyone to nibble if there is interest. Let me know your thoughts. If there is a good Asian tea house or a tea establishment in the Chicago area with a reasonable palate, Dance and I would like to know. Many thanks to Lucky Girl and Steve for their gift to us of exotic teas from a wonderful Paris tea shop at last years gathering in Cleveland. Tea is, kind of, my life and I pretty much drink a lot of it all day. Our tea budget may rival that of some wine folks. If there is interest in trying some of our very nice jasmines, oolongs, puerhs and/or Japanese ocha (although I would defer the qualitiy of my stash to what Tora Chris usually drinks), we could bring some of our best stuff with us and brew samplings for whoever may be interested. Let me know so I can bring a lot of tiny Chinese sampling cups. We could also contribute some pretty decent quality fresh brewed iced teas perhaps. Since I don't drink (Dance does) I am kind of nerdy about tea. If there is interest in large quantity of iced (non-alcoholic beverage(s) we may need some form of distribution mechanism i.e. coolers to pitchers. Thanks for listening to my ramblings. We are very much looking forward to being a part of this years gathering. Sincerely, wl
  19. I am usually the last to know when any food news happens in the NW however, hell must be freezing over as I was lurking in the Heartland section of eG and happened to to stumble accross someone's post on Food + Wine dated April 3rd. http://www.foodandwine.com/articles/2008-best-new-chefs Is this incredibly old news? Does everyone else already know and has decided to not tell me? Well... a belated congratulations Ethan (and Hans and other staff whose names I don't know but who steadfastly support you). This recognition comes well deserved and I am very happy for you. Thankyou for many good meals in the past and those to come. Sincerely, wl
  20. Yikes! I have been traveling for the last few weeks and out of contact. Please include me plus 1 (Dance) for both of the Thursday events (drinks and dinner). Many thanks Ronnie for all the coordination and legwork. Also, Dance and I are looking forward to seeing those of you who gave us a warm welcome at last years gathering in Cleveland. Sincerely, wl
  21. Yikes! I am glad that I checked in on you all today. Hearty greetings to you all... Dance and I had such a fabulous time meeting everyone in Cleveland last Summer that we would like to be included in Saturday and most likely whatever else that we can cram in durring that whole weekend. You Heartland folks know how to eat and have fun. Hopefully, there is some quality teas in Chicago to be had. If not, we would be happy to bring some of ours along to share. Also, we can transport some fresh dead fish from the PNW if anyone is interested. Please let us in... Cheers, Connie aka white lotus
  22. Please let me explain that I was not disrespecting the Asian or seafood offerings here in Cleveland. Appologies if my "picky/snob" comment came off that way. I am an Asian (3rd generation Asian-American actually) who has never been fond of seafood or rice. Therefore, sushi with raw fish is not something I go out of my way to find. That being said, I did visit Siam Cafe late last night as my body was crying out for Asian soup after more than a week of marathon incredible Southern food (my last meal in Nashville having been at the Loveless Cafe with their awsome biscuits). I was in the mood for some simple wonton soup which I did not find. I did have their winter melon soup as winter melon is in season right now. The soup is extremely basic like a simple chicken soup. The winter melon came under-cooked, crunchy actually. I had to send it back for further cooking. The soup itself was quite undersalted as well. With a little addition of salt and white pepper my body was quite grateful of the RX. After a cupful or two, I felt better and ordered the sweet/sour ribmeat which I thought was fabulous. Yes, Cleveland does have some wonderful Asian options which you all are aware of. I may also have some Cambodian beef soup at that Cambodian restaurant near Westside market if I get another soup craving before I leave but I am trying to eat as much of stuff that I can't get in the PNW as possible. Again, thankyou sharing your thoughts and info on where and what to eat. BTW Rockandroller, thanks for your caution re: Sokolowski's. The last thing I need right now is a bad meal. I have been writing down & mapquesting all of your suggested venues just in case I happen to be driving near those places. I am always open to more suggestions... sincerely, wl
  23. Thoughts but no real answers. You might want to call the Tacoma News & Tribune and speak to the Arts and Entertainment person who may be able to refer you to a more reliable source. Good luck...wl
  24. Yikes, you all are fast ! Many thanks rockandroller, Steve, Calipoutine (best homemade pie I ever had), and tino27 (the ultimate "bread baking out of a regular oven" guy). Terrific! How wonderful to see your posts. I am remembering how much my belly was full of Cleveland goodness last Summer and looking forward to add Akron & environs to the positive buzz. BTW, I will be flying in from Nashville, TN, after having the unique Southern experience of being one of the 90 or so judges of the Jack Daniel's BBQ Championship. Actually, I still like good ribs but think that I have had enough of "meat, meat & more meat". I don't think I will be ordering a large steak very soon. Too bad that veg restaurant in Akron is not open yet. Being Asian and being inundated with too much PNW seafood, some of you know that I am a somewhat picky eater and down right snob with it comes to those two food categories. I am really looking forward to a true (& quality) experience of what is fabulous to eat in the Mid-west. I guess you could say that I am looking for the indigenous & wonderful that is Ohio. Good Middle Eastern (hopefully @ Aladin's...) and great pizza sounds like the just the right things to balance my head/palate back to a baseline. I do like good donuts and pastries, if they exist there. I will definitely be putting in an appearance to some of last July's highlights. Carrie Cerino's with or without the blue eggs, VT's virgin root beer floats and curiosity over missed opportunity to try the teas and tea menu of Monestary which had stellar "jasmine pearls". This sounds strange but I missed going to Sokolowski's in Cleveland (which I will visit in secret on my own) but is there any restaurants like this in the Akron-Canton et al area. This to me will be a unique experience that the PNW does not offer. I will sample just about anything once . Apologies ahead of time if there are typos & funny sentences. Please keep your wonderful energy and ideas flowing. I love hearing from you. Your PNW friend, wl
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