herbacidal

considering one of the side effects of drinking beer is catching a buzz, taste isn't the only consideration. what's wit all the different avatars, tommy? you had the same one for a long time, now it looks like you're changing every week.

i will agree with that as far as both japanese and chinese desserts, although i expect that to apply across asia. desserts probably are barely even afterthoughts, and it has been oft repeated that asians will usually just eat fruit. dessert is not viewed as a sweet end to the meal, a contrast or anything like that, IMO. the last dish is more of a palate cleanser; even better, it is intended to settle the stomach. i would say that the recent emergence (i expect that sweet soups and the like to have emerged within the last 30 years, although i actually haven't done any research) of desserts is more of a pressure to conform with western sensibilities than anything else.

the only chinese salad i've had would be a 5 lb lobster mixed with melon and mayonnaise. more of a fruit salad. that was about 8 years ago. nothing since.

Katie, I am so there. I'm there already! Really, I'm camped outside, dictating this message by carrier pigeon! Greek on Thursday, and then on to the Italian Market this weekend for that cross-cultural thing. If I'm really good, I can even work this into my dissertation... first katie, who's bueller? are you trying to work ferris into this? he's part of my adolscence, not yours. andrew, yea you can contrast the greeks and the romans. and if you can pull that stretch off, my hat's off to you. next time i actually wear one that is. maybe before the end of the decade it'll happen.

meishi, how'd ya pick that name? no problem?

that is nasty. i shudder thinking about it. Ummm: I don't shudder. Sounds good. Yes, yes! Puffy Cheetos. puffy cheetos are quite tasty. not as good as potato stix or pork rinds or shrimp chips, but tasty nonetheless.

Hey, I was born in '75. God, I can't believe I'm almost 30. YIKES! yup, ditto. 1976. where did the time go?

that is nasty. i shudder thinking about it.

no need to apologize. it may well be rusty. should stop by sometime and take a gander. i gots no clue what that is. does greasy spoon refer to diner/coffee shop? i do love holes in the wall. hopefully they're all holes in different walls. i always tell people that my favorite places in hong kong are the places you dump the tea you washed your plate, bowl, chopsticks, and teacup with into a small tub under the table. also called dai pai dong in cantonese.

i'm planning to check it out. hafta see how it compares to their Friday lunches.

Smaller portions? don't forget the snooty atty-tude and accent!!

now see, i think this is a very good move. there's only so much newman can do. he has to fight battles inside and outside the LCB. First there's the unions. Then the state legislature. i'm sure there's others i'm not aware of or can't think of right now. i think all your suggestions make sense and are eminently logical. but i think they are wholly doomed to failure in the current framework. a move like this will enable a transition towards changing things overall. i applaud newman for plotting a course towards a better working system, but it will take time.

add me to the maybe list too. might have a significant Philly contingent, eh?

i suppose this means toilet paper?

yea, that's definitely true. although i think the big glitzy indoor malls in beijing and other large cities had nice lavatories. especially relevant in comparision to the decrepit public bathrooms available otherwise.

that sounds interesting. it does fit what i would expect of the region. that would be what in cantonese is called jook. i've noticed that everywhere in china that i've been to, including hong kong, it is much more watery than i'm used to from growing up eating it here in the US. also less variations. just plain jook, without fish, meat, etc. in it.

how long ago? i'm guessing it was before they figured out how much of the population was lactose intolerant, not to mention haven't grown up with it.

Is that really true? Most of the things I think of as "American Chinese Food" most Cantonese I know wouldn't acknowledge them as Cantonese, inferior or not, and I don't see at the Cantonese restaurants I frequent. What dishes are you thinking of? When I think about American Chinese food I think about chop suey, beef with western broccoli, orange beef, general tso's whatever, sweet and sour pork that is breaded and deep fried and served with bright red sauce and pineapple, deep fried eggrolls with indistinguishable middles and really dark brown horrible versions of fried rice. Basically stuff people buy at those mall "Chinese" fast food places. Do you consider these Cantonese? Some of the stuff that I read about from people in the eastern US I've never run across (shrimp with lobster sauce???) so maybe "American Chinese Food" has a regional element as well. regards, trillium yes, most of that stuff was probably created for the market. i've served it enough in chinese restaurants geared to westerners, and seen it on western menus in chinese seafood restaurants that chinese people would come to.

but what hapened to the four bridesmaids? nobody works their reception into the ceremony, do they?

so, it is like on TV, huh? hmm..

At Cantonese banquets, a savoury soup is usually the 2nd course (out of 8 or 10) after the 4 seasons platter (saye yee fun). There is also a sweet soup as the last course as part of dessert. Sometimes the soup is served with the fish at the end. at the cantonese banquets i've been to (way too many), the first course is your cold platter, which is probably the same as 4 seasons. sometimes it's just pork and fat (siu yook), sometimes it's a variety of meats. if they've spent more money, you'll see jellyfish, pig hock, cuttlefish, marinated pork, and something else i can't remember. soup is usually about fourth, after which there is a brief lull while the rest of the dinner is started.

going to the western franchised places is a "night on the town" for many families in nanjing (jiangsu province). less so in guangdong since it is a comparatively wealthy province. in 1997, McDonald's and KFC had made the most inroads. Dunkin Donuts, TGI Fridays I believe I saw 1 of each in Bejing, none anywhere else. when I was there, I had been to Chengdu (Sichuan), Nanjing (Jiangsu) Shanghai, Beijing (not in provinces), Xian (can't remember province name) Wuhan (Hunan), and all over Guangdong. Yes, I'm interested as well. I've never had anything from the area. Being Cantonese, I've had plenty of that, and had the chance to visit the above places. I would expect food there to be hearty, b/c of cold, coal mining and heavy industry area. I'm interested in this as well. In Nanjing, we had a jian bing. Dough stick (you tiao) wrapped in rice before being wrapped in crepe-thin pancake, with sprinkles of scallion, hot sauce. Or at least that's what I remember. Hope I'm not mixing 2 different breakfasts. I actually liked the Cantonese version of the dough stick better: larger, lighter, and to me, tastier.

and what, pray tell, might that have appeared to be? paint me a vision please, my imagination about the world ending isn't as strong as it is otherwise.

thanx, that's what i needed. clears everything up for me.

215.238.3996 915 arch, between 9th-10th there are no steps up there. same for tai lake on 10th between race and arch, and ocean city on 9th between race and vine. all in chinatown, of course.