Muffin210

When you reach LA, how long will you be there for, and where in LA will you be staying? (The Magic Mountain area is not what most of us would call LA.)

Houseberg and I are finally starting to plan our trip to Romania, and we're thinking about visiting Moldova while we're "in the area." I haven't heard too much about the food and restaurants of Moldova, though -- it's mainly the alcoholic beverages that get written about. Does anyone have any experience with or recommendations about the food or restaurants or particular regional wines that we should try? Are there any Moldovian regional specialities? We'd probably fly into Chisinau (Kishinev) from Bucharest. Thanks in advance for any info anyone might have!

I'm with you. The last three times I went to Oahu, Chef Mavro was one of the highlights. It's the one place I always want to go back to...well, that and the darn malasada place...yummmmmy...

My last three restaurant meals: Sushi Sei, in Hermosa Beach (for Friday night happy hour) Table 8, in LA (my current FAVORITE restaurant...I still can't believe Govind Armstong lost on Iron Chef America! ) Cinch, in Santa Monica Speaking of restaurants, I'm not sure about this new eGullet policy stuff, but it seems to me that it's about time to start planning another "Carl Chu Chinese Restaurant Book" run...anyone figured out how to start an acceptable thread?

When are you going, and for how long? Where are you staying? Houseberg and I were in Slovenia in 2003 and had a great time. We had some wonderful authentic Slovenian meals at the hotel we stayed in for two nights, but it is not located in the city -- Kendov Dvorec (www.kendov-dvorec.com). The staff there even arranged for us to visit with local winemakers at their homes nearby; Slovenian wines are wonderful so if you have the time, you should take a side trip and go wine-tasting! I'd have to try to dig up my notes to find the specific restaurants we went to but we ate some delicious fried tiny fish at the Ljubljana farmers' market and some amazing fruits (it was cherry season). Also be sure to try the gibanica for dessert if you've never had it before (pastry with poppy seeds and other good stuff)!

Ha ha! I bet there are a lot of us who haven't been able to touch those things since their freshman year in college! (Not to mention Jaegermeister...) The last thing I ate before getting ill with what turned out later to be appendicitis was a blueberry danish, and although blueberries were probably one of my favorite foods before then, it was years before I could stand to taste them again.

Just got back from dinner...we missed you, jschyun! It was only Foodzealot, Cathy (Texasgal) and myself, but we had lots of good food and I'm sure Foodzealot will post the photos soon. I think my favorites were the beef soup with pickled cabbage and the flash-fried lamb with green onions, along with the dabing bread. Cathy seemed to really like the three flavor knife-cut noodles. Hopefully next time we'll get a bigger group (so we can try more stuff!) and better weather -- the rain was a real downer... skchai, we were talking about your upcoming visit to LA -- if you're serious about getting together for a meal with the local eGullet crowd, let us know when you're available -- perhaps this would be a good new thread? I think there would be quite a few of us interested in meeting up with you and checking out a new restaurant!

Houseberg and I are totally in, if you can find a way to get a reservation!

This should be a lot of fun -- try to make it if you can! (Chris Cognac, I know this is in your neighborhood!) Beijing Islamic is one of the restaurants in the Carl Chu book, for those of you keeping score (we are attempting to eat our way through the book...although this will only be restaurant #2 so far...hey, you gotta start somewhere!) I invited Cathy (from the potluck) and she will probably be able to make it. Houseberg is still in Philadelphia, so he'll have to eat more cheesesteak instead. See you all tomorrow!

I'd second that. I've been there twice before and the food is not memorable. However, you don't go there for the food, so the magic makes up for it!

Chris Cognac and I were talking about Club 33 at Disneyland: http://www.disneylandclub33.com/ Has anyone ever actually been inside? What's it like? Is anyone a member? Are there other "secret" restaurants like this around that you've been to (or even just heard about)? If so, how did you get to be a member or extended an invitation? (I'm not talking about hidden trendy nightclubs and bars, but actual restaurants.) There hasn't been much activity lately on the CA board (is it still the lingering effects of too much turkey?), but hopefully we'll get some input on this topic. I've always thought it would be pretty cool to check out Club 33, but I don't know anyone who's a member!

And I'd happily trade a tray of those dungeness crabs from Crustacean (garlic noodles and all) for just one good ol' Maryland steamed blue crab! Preferably served with a pitcher of beer and thrown on a newspaper-strewn table... Thanks for all the great recommendations...I wish I had more than three days in Philadelphia to try places! I'd forgotten about scrapple...I think I used to shy away from it as a child...guess I'll have to give it a try this time around!

Thanks, everyone, for the suggestions! I am looking forward to checking out the RTM, and we're going to Morimoto for dinner on Friday night (I'm a big Iron Chef fan...). We're from Los Angeles, so the whole Penn Dutch-style cuisine is sort of a novelty -- what else is typical (and available) other than shoofly pie? The produce will probably be quite different too -- people here are still trying to give away the citrus fruits growing on their yard trees! I really miss blue crabs (California is dungeness crab territory) -- can you get Maryland-style steamed blue crabs in Old Bay seasoning in Philadelphia?

I'm headed to Philadelphia this weekend (December 3-5), so I'm glad this thread got started! Any particular things to look out for at the big market this time of year? Our hotel room has a kitchenette. I'm also hoping to get some shoo-fly pie (or other regional specialties), since my boyfriend has never had Pennsylvania Dutch/Mennonite/Amish food before...

Personally, I wouldn't want to go out with anyone who WASN'T willing to eat at Soot Bull Jeep on a date! But that's just me...luckily for me, Houseberg loves Korean food (he even lived in Korea for a few months teaching English), so he doesn't mind if we end up with smoky clothes and kimchee breath! Glad to hear you liked Soot Bull Jeep, and that you managed to hit such a variety of good LA restaurants. Can't wait to read your next installment!