herbacidal

I have had the same experience of late. I started about 2 months ago working out about 3 times a week. I Life Cycle about 30 miles weekly, along with adductor and abductor toning (inner and outer thigh). Although I haven't lost any weight, my pants are loose! Although I'd like to drop about 10 lbs, I'll take the reshaping! BTW, love the blog. My hubby cooks for me, but not nearly as gourmet as Sam. It's still better than me having to cook when I arrive home from work. If I'm not mistaken, muscle weighs more than fat. So losing fat, and its inches on the waistline and elsewhere, while simultaneously toning and further developing your muscles, it is entirely possible to stay the same weight and lose inches.

I've never liked lotus root. But I do love the soups it's used in. And as an FYI, there's an ingredient's it's commonly used with, the long black stringy stuff I've always called hair because I don't have another English name for it. It is one of my favorite things to eat. It's been more and more rare because it's now illegal to gather it from the hillsides in China. Something to do with the environment, as I recall. Prevention of erosion, perhaps?

Yea, that's a New Year's dish. I'm pretty sure I had some a little more than a month ago.

I imagine Lacroix would be willing to serve you light fare, at the very least in Lily's Cafe, the lite/casual side of Lacroix, if you will. Check with the hotel to be sure. One alternative would be Bleu, just across the square (the southernmost of the string of restaurants along the 18th Street/eastern edge of Rittenhouse Square.) I'd recommend Rouge or Devon, but I'd guestimate they'd be too lively and you sound like you might like something quiet. Another would be Los Catrines, a Mexican restaurant at 16th and Locust (two blocks east of Bleu, on that very same street, Locust Street.) Another option in the other direction would be Cafe Casta Diva, around the corner on the backside of the hotel on 20th Street between Walnut and Locust. Also on 20th south of Locust would be Twenty Manning, Audrey Claire, and D'Angelo's. Of those I'd recommend Twenty Manning or D'Angelo's, since I'm also guessing you may like a drink with dinner, and Audrey Claire is a BYOB. Twenty Manning may be slightly noisy on a Friday night though. Of the three, D'Angelo's is modern Italian, with the other two American, although Twenty Manning tries to put a slight Asian accent on its food. Well that's enough for Friday.

Do Sam and Ben work at the same law firm as you? Interesting that you all live and work so close together.

Not to disparage it because of sour grapes or anything since my father was briefly an owner of LHF, but comments from friends of mine indicate that the food quality and tastiness have gone down. This seems plausible to me because the former owner who was the primary chef is retired and is no longer in the kitchen, and we are still on relatively good terms with the family. (In fact, I just saw the former owner-chef last week.) And yes, Penang's success is due at least partly to the fact that they present an interesting decor to go with prices that are slightly above standard Chinatown prices.

Are you sure? This destroys some of my ideas about Japanese ethnographic ideas in the US.

Ah yes, one of my favorite sushi memories. Wasn't a buffet, but it was all you can eat. I remember hiding a piece of maki in the soy sauce container, throwing some in the unused stairwell next to the table, hiding some in the bathroom plunger, probably flushed a few down the toilet too. Now, at this point I'm adding some fantasy to it, but I can imagine we might have hid some in the toilet paper rolls, on door frames, etc.

you can bake?!

That's an interesting soundbite. I didn't know Kunz was there. Hmm.

Hmm. Is her birthday a Saturday or Sunday? Would the tour be equally feasible on both days, IE the day her birthday is not?

Next you'll be working on matching up bachelors and bachelorettes.

We'll make a day of it: a morning of tacos de cesos, the to the E. Village for spleen sandwiches; for lunch, mixed grill at Pampa(?); and an all-offal dinner at a Batali place. For dessert, we'll have to creative. Baba au pig's blood? But seriously, I'd love to go mid-March, when my temping ends. Is Noche Mex still tiny? Whoa, Nellie! Youse mind an interloper on this excursion? Sounds like something worth coming up to NYC for. Absolutely, dude. Look for an announcement of Sam 'n' JJ's NYC Guts Tour coming sometime in mid-March. I am leaning towards "Gutapalooza," but there is some popular sentiment for calling it "The Offal Truth." Hey Sam and JJ, Any chance of doing this either this weekend or March 21st weekend? Preferably March 21st. Although I would really like to come up this weekend, I don't think I can. I'd prefer trying to make it a as cheap as possible good offal day, although I do need to try a Batali place before long. Not that Batali's places charge an arm and a leg, but I'm still trying to delay it until my cash flow improves. Tacos de cesos sounds good. Donde? By East Village spleen sandwiches, do you mean First Ave. Foccaceria? Me gusto Pampa por mixed grill.

Hey, you beat me to it! Anyway, congrats yet again, Senor Cantu.

I agree. I'm not from there, nor have I even been there, but I think it's entirely possible that Old Forge has some good pizza. The key difference between Old Forge and New Haven and New York is that Old Forge doesn't get press coverage. New York gets tons as world media capital, New Haven gets some as Yale's base, but Old Forge doesn't have anything close to comparable. So it's entirely possible that Old Forge could have some damm good pizza being enjoyed in obscurity. Although it's entirely possible that the pizza there could be crappy and stinky as well. Given that I generally trust Rich's palate on certain culinary matters, I'm willing to hold judgement and give it the benefit of the doubt until I try it.

Kale isn't gai lan. Or at least gai lan isn't the kale I see here, which is the kale I'm used to.

Actually, judging from past accounts of his eating prowess, I think his presence means you could have doubled your number of dishes ordered.

And now you can, thanks to the new low-carb, Atkins-friendly, South Beach-y menu at Skyline. But for me, that is like lasagna without the noodles... just not the same thing at all. You know, I didn't really think about how Atkins related to it. But from an outsider, it sounded better without the spaghetti. I'm the last person that could go on Atkins or South Beach. I like pasta and bread too much, and will never hesitate from eating them. And I'm Chinese, and eat rice and noodles often.

I have to admit, I look at those combinations, and I'd want the chili, cheese, beans and onions, without the spaghetti.

In NJ liquor licenses in certain towns sell in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. There is a finite number of them in every town.

That's interesting. She didn't decide to buy it with the license and re-sell the license, or is that not possible?

Tell you what. I'm Chinese, and I can't do the deshelled shrimp maneuver. Actually, I've never heard of it or seen it done before. Bones, however, are somewhat easy to work through within the mouth. Even fish bones. The way its done is by using the front of the mouth.. They place the shrimp between their teeth and lip.. Now from there you want to take the shrimp sideways and have it sweep downwards. I am sure there is a lot of suction going on here also. But it is a pretty remarkable trick. I'm just suprised that I've never heard of it, more than anything else. I don't particularly like shrimp, so it's never mattered much to me. It would be a cool trick though. My dad, however can eat snails without toothpicks, just by using the suction from his mouth.

You just have to learn how to distinguish between various things and identify bones in your mouth.

Tell you what. I'm Chinese, and I can't do the deshelled shrimp maneuver. Actually, I've never heard of it or seen it done before. Bones, however, are somewhat easy to work through within the mouth. Even fish bones.

Pan, This is eminently more quotable. Although I would say they're both accurate. Mongo, I take that to be in Denver, or would it be LA? PCL, you have some interesting insight. Although, like Mongo, I don't think I totally figured out that last paragraph. Are you trying to say that when people take particular techniques and chef-specific ways of doing something out of their background and context, they leave much too much behind, most importantly good taste, when they are examining the results of the particular technique combined with different ingredients? Regardless, welcome to Egullet!