jaredrakes

Butterscotch blondie bars with peanut pretzel caramel from this month's Bon Appetit. Good concept but a little too sweet for us. Maybe cut down on the caramel and use a little more salt in the blondie part next time. Makes a good looking cookie/bar...definitely worth doctoring a little.

A little lowbrow compared to the beautiful recent creations above, but I baked 24 elmo cupcakes and a large elmo cake for my daughter's 2nd birthday party. So many things are still red.

Kim, do you have an eggtimer that you cook in the pan with your eggs? It turns a darker red from the outside in, to show you how 'deeply' the eggs have cooked. Lee Valley has them, I just got one out of their catalog for about $ 6.50 http://www.leevalley.com/gifts/page.aspx?c...,104,53214&ap=2 Hope the link works! ←

link to inq review: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/food/200904...an_Dynasty.html

BTW, it is official...Laban's Han Dynasty Royersford review will be printed Sunday APril 19th. ← I'm really curious to see how this'll rate on the bell-scale. I suspect, in company of its overall greater Phila scenario, it'll be two bells for great food, nice ambiance, good consistency. If the bell scale truly turned out to be based on the "fulfills what it aspires to be" scale, then Han should get about 16 bells out of 4, imHo (capital H) give or take a couple bells. Our recent first visit to HD2 after countless visits to HD Exton was met with very warm greetings for our party, including a 1-year-old for friday lunch (on her third peep, we always make a run for it, don't wanna be "those" people--but staff truly seemed happy to see the kid!). Food was perfectly spiced, perfectly executed (Crisp, fresh, hot, balanced). I can only hope against my own dining convenience that Han gets what he deserves in the LaBan review. Planning one last gorge before sunday....

The judge issued summary judgements for market management on everything except $1500 in site improvements. RTM was heavy handed with a difficult merchant, but Rick didn't protect his franchise effectively. He had a lease, not a legacy. Now this divorce is final, lets leave this bitterness for the participants and hope the next cash cow in that spot offers great eats for all of us. ← +1, +1 +1, and for the love of gods plus one. Enough.

"Pittsburgh is barely nine-tenths of the way there." literal LOL. Hilarious!

We visited on Friday 1/4, mid evening. I was expecting a menu of all small plates, but it's now more evenly split between smaller and larger plates. So we each ordered a smaller plate, a larger plate, and dessert. I had a fantastic Dark and Stormy, followed by a good cider Manhattan. While all of our plates were good to great, the one that stands out for me is the brussels sprouts. I don't really like brussels sprouts. And who has the nerve to charge 10 bucks for a smallish bowl of brussels sprouts? These magnificent sons of, uh, guns, that's who. About 3 seconds into my first bite, I confirmed the fastest unhealthy relationship I ever developed--I was already devising elaborate schemes to get back to snackbar for another hit of the sprouts. Then I realized I had a mouth full of brussels sprouts, bacon, mustard seeds, etc, so I cut the catatonia and finished chewing. My wife laughed at me when I used the last bit of pork to mop the inside of the bowl for flavor remnants. Wow those are good.

Haven't been in the area for a year or two, but there weren't many options for upscale-casual when the allentown area was my haunt. I would suggest the farmhouse restaurant in Emmaus, which has had consistently strong food and a great single malt scotch list: http://www.thefarmhouse.com/menu/menu_dinner.htm

You mean we aren't? Hot Rabbits Ding! Oh yeah. I'll definitely make the drive out there to finally get a chance to try my favorite badly-translated-Chinese-menu item. If we were to do this on a Monday or Tuesday when they aren't so busy and I'm likely to be off work that would be grand. ← Would definitely like the opportunity to meet some of the local egullet folks for a Han-athon after all this lurking. And how can I not go back and try the "sliced pork kidney"....which I believe was on the "cold items" section of the menu?

Based on all the feedback here, we tried Han Dynasty for a late lunch yesterday. I grabbed a takeout menu on the way to our seats, and the chef/owner spotted me doing it--he came over to our table and pointed out that now their bound menus now include their authentic dishes (many, many more than on the takeout menu). Everyone was fantastically friendly, and the chef offered to order for us the next time we come. We're going to take him up on that. Oh, right, the food. Had to do the chinese spaghetti, and the double cooked pork. Both fantastic, with just the right amount of spice (a lot). Also had some wontons (great filling, delicate wrappers rather than the doughy ones from the more american-chinese takeout places). The taiwanese-menu's fried rice with sausage was my wife's favorite; she loves the sausage in it--I think it's called "lap xuong." Thinking of going back tonight. Off to go make some leftover pork belly egg porn for the breakfast thread....

On Ling's brioche toast--with apologies for potty mouth: Holy crap is that the best looking piece of toast i've seen in this life! (great use of light, too) On Parmhero's gutsy, forward thinking decision to serve walnut pancakes with fried eggs on top--good show! We'll pour a little mimosa off to you this weekend when we brazenly copy your invention at home. This weekend will also be a test-kitchen run of several sweet potato pancake recipes, trying to balance SP content with light/buttermilk tangy pancake. Pics forthcoming.

Liquor--$44 Food--$81 plus tip = about $150.

Took the wife to Susanna Foo's Gourmet Kitchen for her birthday last week. It was a very slow night, before they publicly announced their opening (we've been keeping an eye on it for a while as it's in our 'hood). Service was great--friendly, knowledgeable about the food, wine, and cocktails. Everyone on hosting and waitstaff had a smile and a hello. Cocktails were generous pours--I had a martini and she had a (I know, I know) cosmopolitan. The cosmo seemed to be made from real ingredients rather than a mix or whatever that dreck is that comes out from the "red" button on the bar soda gun. Which was a welcome change. Vegetable hot and sour soup was as much about veggies as about hot or sour. I'dve liked more kick, but wife thought it was just right. Mini pork dumplings were really good, with that great fried-but-doughy dumpling texture, and a fantastically aromatic hoisin-y reduction sauce drizzled around (There could have been more sauce, but then I'd freebase the stuff if given a chance, so maybe my opinion is a bit skewed here). I had the five-spice short ribs with coconut polenta. Meat was well-flavored, beyond fork tender, and the polenta was a great pairing--more aromatic of coconut essence than thickly sweet. The meat seemed more like a crafty cut of chuck roast rather than short ribs (no rib bones, rather large pieces of meat) but I wouldn't change it. My wife ordered the peking pork loin. This was OK, but not great. A little too sweet, not much depth. Along with our shared entrees, we ordered a (nine dollar) plate of pork fried rice. This was good, not as greasy as you'd expect from a typical takeout place, otherwise unremarkable. The entrees each came with small carb-sides, so the rice was overkill, in retrospect. We had the apple tart and the panna cotta for desserts, sharing both. Both were absolutely wonderful, fresh, and each a bit unusual (big pieces of crystallized ginger softened in the panna cotta, gave it a bit of backround bite; the apple tart was a study in apply-ness, with layers of reduced apple compote and sliced baked apples on crispy pastry). Our waiter selected a great white wine for us to drink with desserts (Viura Santana). Since we hadn't spared the cocktails, I said we'd just share one glass. He had them split the pour into two glasses. Nice. Total damage with tip was about $150. We ordered too much food, and didn't spare the drinks either. Still, I was hoping this place would be more of a casual (read: inexpensive) noodle house or dumpling house as early reports described. We'll have to try some tapas or go the noodle/dumpling route next time, and see what the costs look like. We're glad to have it in the neighborhood, and it will clearly do well on its own merits beyond the Foo name.

I tried the recipe Katie cited above a few months ago--fed it to my buttercake-wistful family at a get together. It was a hit, absolutely delicious, and those who remembered "the real thing" said it was right on.