jschyun

Hehe. Maybe you should try the ginger and scallion version again to make sure it's not even better than Saturday's deep fried salt and pepper version. You can never be too sure. i think it's hard to go wrong right now with the crab season starting and all. fried crab w/ ginger and scallion is just oh so good. Actually, I like beef with ginger and scallion too (of course not deep fried). I love ginger and scallion!

Beautiful, pim.

I don't know if you have a Japanese store near you, but usually they are stocked with a bunch of different kinds of mushrooms, not sure if they're the kind you want though.

Yeah, waiter? Give him a double.

I love In & Out burger, but this thread was originally meant to find out about non-fast food for around $10. But yeah, In & Out rocks. At least I think so, apparently my SO disagrees with me.

thanks for the great mini-reports, chrisamirault! Pink's is great. I even tried their veggie dog once, and it was better than I thought it would be.

Top Dog is not better than Pink's, they're both great. Personally, I think you can't really compare them. Top Dog (esp Durant) rocks for the food and for the cool history. Pink's rocks for the dogs (but they are different) and a different, L.A. vibe that a NorCal person perhaps doesn't get. Different strokes for different folks, right?

Also, you can try Jessica's Biscuit. Sometimes they have some real deals. I got the Desserts by Pierre Herme book for $12. Jessica's Biscuit link

I agree totallly with nwyles, chefs are human too, and they deserve a second chance, esp if you know that your experience was contrary to the experience of others. On the other hand, there are so many places I want to try that getting back can be a problem even if I liked a place, but esp if I really hated it the first time around. For instance, I went to a restaurant in SF this summer that was absolutely one of the worst meals I've had in that fair city. By the way, this place is known for their use of wonderful organic produce, and their simple yet satisfying dishes, and so I was very interested in trying it, not to mention that this place has been highly touted by various mags and even posters here. This one dish came to our table as one large light pink slice of allegedly organic but definitely tasteless heirloom tomato. It was topped by a large yellow rectangular slice of what they kept insisting was mozzarella. They called this dish "insalata caprese". caprese salad, my ass. My gnocchi was like rubber but the sauce was edible. My friend ordered some pasta that was so tasteless, I was grateful for my gnocchi. My green salad was essentially a bunch of bitter Lolla Rossa lettuce in a nondescript vinaigrette. My organic strawberries in the polenta cake dessert were pure white puffballs with a little blush of pink and zero flavor. The cake itself was okay, but nothing special. The best dish of the night was the ribeye steak with fries, strangely enough. Service was lackadaisical at best. I paid approx $120 for 2pple, for this shitty meal. Would I go back? Yes I'm going back. I feel I ought to give it a last try because trusted people recommended it, and they totally ripped my friend a new one for admitting he hated it. Am I a masochist? You be the judge.

Aw, don't worry about the kids, I'm sure they'll be just fine. Heck, if they're eating, they can't be loud at the same time. hehe ;-) I don't know if this is up your alley, but one hole in the wall that we frequent a lot is Shanghai Dumpling Shop. I did a thread on it a while ago, and to this day, it's one of our staples. This restaurant specializes in all manner of dumplings but our fave is the xiaolongbao. Our last visit had a bunch of broken dumplings though, but after a couple of orders, they smoothed it out. I heard they opened a new shop in Millbrae recently, which might have caused the recent consistency issues. Well, we'll see. We've had a bunch of things here, but the main draw for us is the xiaolongbao, and on the side, an order of pan fried scallion bread, and an order of the handmade noodles, crap I forget the exact name of the noodle dish. I'll get back to you, or perhaps someone else knows. I heard they do a good lion's head meatball in the claypot, but I've haven't had the chance to try it. --oh and don't forget to to check out the Ferry Building Market or tanabutler will cry and cry. they aslo have lots of little places to eat and shop and the view when you go to the back on a sunny day is incredible. I think your kids will like this place. Hog Island Oyster Co is here, nuff said. One place you might be interested in is the Recchiuti (sp?) chocolate shop. at first I thought it was a little precious and the flavors weird (pink peppercorn is one) but now it's grown on me and I like it a lot. Also, Ciao Bella gelato shop is here. You can even pick up a bag of heirloom beans from our own rancho_gordo's stand in the front of the Ferry Building. Bunch of other places, too numerous to mention.

This is a great idea...my wife and I would fly out from California for this. ← I totally missed out on Trio, but I am definitely flying out from California to see the new place. Very excited! I'd love to see Chicago too, never been.

El Gringo. haha. That's like a Chinese restaurant named Gweilo.

If you are around Venice, I highly recommend driving by Abbot Kinney (sp?) blvd and looking around all the little shops. No chain stores there, and it's good, funky L.A., albeit good funky L.A. for rich people. Plus Massimo's gelato and Jin's Patisserie is there. Expensive. Right next to the beach. --someone on CH told me about Jin's Patisserie and I went there recently. I tried some of everything and I didn't really care for the macarons even though they are filled right when you order. Of the chocolates I tried (about 8 pieces), I really liked the lavender chocolate, and the passionfruit chocolate piece. I had the "Jin" cake too. It was stunning and actually pretty good eats as well.

I think it's the same thing. Dungeness crab is caught all along the coast, including near Vancouver Island I think. In fact, I had Dungeness crab on Vancouver Island in July.

Au Coquelet Cafe in Berkeley, which does a lot of business with students, told us that they wouldn't put in wifi because then it would encourage the kids to sit around there all day. But my favorite cafe in Irvine, CA has free wifi and it definitely keeps my SO occupied while I study and eat. The place is not busy enough yet where I'm taking up a prospective patron's seat.

I also think it's overpriced for what you get, but we get a lot of free boxes here (I'm in a tech department of a university and people try to bribe us with choccies during the holidays) so I eat them periodically. From the assortments, I like the dark chocolate mint, and strangely enough, the white chocolate marbelized starfish. It looks cool, but tastes achingly sweet. I mostly like the way it looks. I like some of the hazelnut stuff. I don't really like any of the truffles, but I still eat them if they're lying around. From the store, I might buy the warm just dipped chocolate strawberries (though I can make it better at home, but these days I don't have a kitchen), the chocolate dipped orange peel, and maybe something with nuts in it. But these days I just go to Trader Joe's for a cheaper chocolate fix. They have these organic chocolate bars with raisins and nuts that I like. The dark Valhrona bars make good truffles. Also, they just came out with this huge box of Belgian chocs. Might try it.

You know, ever since I had this in Vancouver, I have wondered how that pancake was made. I looked at it very carefully, and it almost looks like it was poured very thinly, and then just let to set. There is absolutely no leavening I could ascertain. I would suspect that there are eggs in this recipe, and then just water and flour, but as to proportions and technique I could not guess. --actually, I wonder if it's steamed because there were absolutely no markings of frying of any kind. Perfectly smooth.

I'm with Hest88 on this one, but I have to admit, I've refrained from ordering chicken feet at dim sum if I'm with a group of squeamish people. Plus I can't eat it all myself because it's too rich so I need a partner in crime and my SO refuses, so I have to hunt down a friend to come with us. Taro croquettes are very dainty. What's so bad about them?

I'd have to admit that the meal at 1550 Hyde was awful that day with Squeat. Squeat really got screwed. Mine was alright. I thought I would wait and go one or two more times before permanently crossing it off, but yeah that night was pretty bad. I think Kiss is a very good choice for a solo diner, but I prefer Gary Danko whenever I'm alone and in town. I just love that bar.

I had Vet's day off so I took one for the team yesterday. the lunch bento special is $15. I got the lunch chirashi sushi deluxe special for $20. I noticed the majority of the customers were also getting the chirashi sushi deluxe. Beautiful tuna.

OHMYGOD - I just remembered! Empanadas Place on Venice Boulevard, up by Sawtelle! Amazingly good and Shawn and I rarely spent over $10 a person! Gads, I miss that place. The family all too briefly tried to open one in Redondo Beach but then I ended up driving to Venice for empanadas! ← that's the one i meant--though i suspect jschyun was just being a smartass. ← What's really funny is that I was serious. Howver, I was a bit embarrassed about not knowing what apparently everyone else knows. I'm not a big empanadas person.

thanks for the tip mongo. now which empanadas place has the best food, and yet stays under or around $10? hehe I've been racking my brain for my own cheap and good places. Unfortunately, I've come to the conclusion that I have no such places in my mental rolodex. well, that's why I posted the question, I guess.

The reason why they way you want to use white, old potatoes, specifically old potatoes is that potatoes convert the sucrose in the potato into starch as they age. You want a starchier (or "floury") potato for gnocchi.

You know, this site kind of sucks for navigation. The reviews link is kind of on the side, not very prominent. You can see all his reviews here if you're interested.

spago comes to mind