Pan

I haven't found overwhelming cause to trust Citysearch reviews (though the descriptions in the main entry are usually accurate), so yes, please describe what you like about these places.

This thread hasn't been posted to for a while. I'm probably going to be visiting some friends in Mt. Shasta this August, and I'd love to treat them to a nice meal somewhere. They're both vegetarians (no, seafood, though they might be ovo-lacto); I'm an omnivore but have nothing against good food, whether it's vegetarian or not. Would any of you like to comment on the places marie-louise recommended in 2003, or add your own recommendations?

Thanks. I'm sure the directions will become clear to me when I'm there. "Upscale Chinese" is a little bit of a red flag for me, because in New York that tends to imply "coat check and white tablecloths plus overpriced, mediocre food pandering to white people" (e.g., Shun Lee Palace, Shun Lee West, and apologies to those who feel differently about those places). Is that inapplicable to Chang's? How big a Chinese community is there in San Diego? Is there a Chinatown? A Japantown? A Korean neighborhood? Vietnamese pho places?

What's a "hot"? Regional pronunciations, Deborah. In my East-Coast US pronunciation, the vowel in "hot" is like "a" as in "father," but the British have a separate "o" vowel, as I understand. And then there's Jamaican English, Australian English, New Zealand English, South African English, Scottish English, etc., etc.

Chris, now I think we're just talking about different native-speaker English accents. For me, it's "a" as in "hat," but just wait until you find out how many different ways "hat" is pronounced around the English-speaking world...

I would think the straightforward way to do this is to say: "Thank you for your reservation. As you know, we are a small restaurant, so it's particularly important for you to come when we are expecting you. We look forward to seeing you then." Does that phrasing bother anyone?

Wow, that's really odd!

We risk going off the topic of hunger, but I'll note that statistics have repeatedly shown that every other country usually classed as "developed" by international organizations has less difference between the incomes of the richest and the poorest than the US (lately, Israel, a country repeatedly hit by major bombings, has been second to the US). I'm just guessing that all those countries also have lower rates of hunger and malnutrition than the U.S. Keeping in mind the saying that there are "lies, damned lies, and statistics," nevertheless, I do think there's a way to lessen poverty and hunger, whether it's because other "developed" countries spend more money or/and spend it more wisely.

They have two really good steamed chicken dishes. One is steamed in a bamboo "log" and the other is steamed in a bigger thingy. The bigger one has lily buds and dried (reconstituted) Chinese dates in it, while the one in the bamboo has rice and black mushrooms. (Rice Baked with Chicken and Black Mushroom?? But it's steamed.) I always confuse them a little, but I think it's the one that is made in a bigger pot that has the sausages in it. It's kind of salty, but very good. To make things more confusing, I think both steamed chicken dishes have mushrooms or at least fungus in them.

I'd love descriptions of more of these places. I'm going to be in Venice staying with relatives in August and I'm thinking of surprising them by taking them out for a nice meal somewhere. The meal would probably be for a total of 4 adults and 1 child, though, so it can't be all that expensive (maybe $50-60/person tops).

I haven't tried the Lamb Chops in Black Bean Sauce, so I don't know if it's as good or better than the breaded/fried ones, but I like some of their other black bean sauce dishes a lot, so I'm sure it's good. Aside from the special menu dishes I've recommended upthread, I recommend the following (from their regular menu online): Sliced Beef with Black Bean Sauce Chow Fun Noodles Most flavors of congee (to your taste). I like these in particular: Fresh Squid with Ginger Sauce Porridge Chicken W. Black Mushroom Porridge Sliced Fish and Lettuce Porridge Roast Duck and Meat Ball Porridge Sliced Beef & Fish Porridge Seafood Porridge Sauteed Lotus Root with Special Bean Paste Sauce (mentioned upthread) Steamed Bean Curd W. mixed Veg. (but get the special version mentioned above) House Special Chicken Steamed Chicken with Black Mushroom Rice Baked with Chicken and Black Mushroom Rice Baked with Two kinds of Chinese Sausage I know I'm missing some of the dishes I've had and liked before, and keep in mind, too, that I most often get stuff for just myself, so I have limited opportunities to explore the menu. A typical meal for me is congee or one main dish (if I'm really hungry, both, with part of the main dish taken home).

Thanks, that's information I can use. I find the SignOnSanDiego website a little alarming, though, because a TGI Friday's is 8th in order of Citysearch editors' picks (Mission Valley, All Cuisines).

I've seen a percentage like this come up every now and then in the thread (sometimes 80/20?) What does it mean? ← Percentage of meat/percentage of fat.

I'm going to be in San Diego in August. I'll be staying at a place in Hotel Circle (the Super 8 gave me a cheap rate; I hope it won't be horrible, but as long as the room doesn't smell and has nothing infesting it and I'm able to sleep on the bed, that'll be OK), in order to go to a convention at the Town & Country Convention Center, and I won't have any wheels (not so atypically of a New Yorker, I've never gotten a driver's license). Any advice or recommendations? If there's some public transportation, I'd be more than happy to avail myself of such for some good meals. I'd prefer to keep most of my meals under $30-35; good taquerias most welcome.

Martin, I think I'm understanding you now. But on the subject of whether ethical philosophy (whether in regard to food choices or anything else) doesn't really hold up under a logical analysis, I bow out.

Ah, but we kill people in war; we execute people. Some people think that's just fine. I think that's very far from being a category on which we can all agree. I don't think abandoning moral absolutes or even complete consistency necessarily means that you've cast rational thought aside. ← Agreed. With well over 6 billion people on Earth, it wouldn't end the human race (I'll leave aside "civilization" for now) to sacrifice a certain number of people every year to cannibalism. Though I think we'd have few volunteers for that sacrifice. I maintain that all of us draw a line somewhere, and I would certainly say that those who don't (the Jeffrey Dahmers, Andrei Chikatilos, and Idi Amins of the world) are much more of a danger than those who do. I'm not a vegetarian, but I not only wouldn't support murdering people for food but also have strong compunctions about the idea of eating certain extremely intelligent animals (such as whales, apes, monkeys, elephants). That has to do with my degree of identification with these potential food sources. Another manifestation of that identification is that, because I had pet guinea pigs when I was a child, I'd prefer not to eat guinea pig. I also love cats (which I find have variable degrees of intelligence but complex and in some ways human-like personalities) and wouldn't want to eat one. Actually, I think that the identification that prevents many people from wanting to eat things we feel are very much like us or that we have an emotional attachment to is probably a highly adaptive non-rational trait (though one given to various forms of coherent rationalization), because it's a brake on large-scale cannibalism-murder and a stimulus for humane behavior.

Oh yes John, those special manager wage increases ! ← Don't try to fool us, Alberto! We know you managers make twice as much as we hosts do! [but remember, everyone: 2x0=0]

I think there's a dispute precisely about how much respect is reasonable. And I think that most human beings single out human beings (or, God forbid, only a certain segment thereof) as "more deserving of existence." Given that we constitute only one species and are therefore a "minor segment of life" in that respect, is it unreasonable for people to consider human beings as more deserving of existence than, say, cockroaches, or even ladybugs? And if it isn't reason that's causing most of us to make that distinction, does that make the opinion invalid? I think there's a danger in making a logic of extremes (don't kill anything vs. kill everything) the enemy of pragmatic rationalizations we can live by. Apologies if anything in this post comes across as a caricature of your position; my intention is just to take the points you seem to be advancing to what seems to me to be their logical extremes, for the sake of argument.

For some more ideas, look here: The Okra Thread

Yeah, if you speak Italian!

For everyone's reference, this is the superpages.com listing for "Italian Food Center": Italian Food Center 186 Grand, New York, NY 10013 (212) 226-9046 I know nothing about it, and a "Little Italy" lunch for me would most likely be Chinese.

Did you look at the thread about Chufi's trip? That's not an old thread. Enjoy your trip! Burgundy is wonderful in every way I can think of: Terrific, warm people, delicious food and wine, lovely scenery, amazing art and architecture.

Sichuan pepper.

And before them all (?) was Charlotte's Web, which is about a pig (Wilbur) and a spider (Charlotte). I really enjoyed the book when I was a child, and it was made into a movie some time ago.

Florida.