jschyun

Forgive me if someone mentioned this ( just skimmed the above) but Buddhists also stay away from garlic and onions. At least the temple food I've had never had any.

Hehe, well I was out of town anyway. I've only been to Gohyangsanchun once, for the Shindangdong ddeokbokki. The service was very good. The deokkbokki was decent, but I wanted more ddeok (rice cakes) in there. The one I had contained a lot of cabbage and I ran out of ddeok too early (maybe it was my fault). Yeah, the owner is really eager to please (he helped me that one time I was there), but I suspect his English is limited. -- I have been thinking about getting my mom to eat some goat boshintang at Miho, but I don't know if she believes that it will really give her strength (stamina?)

At Ralph's in SoCal, unless I am totally misremembering this, I believe they asked me for my driver's license to verify I was the person that I said I was. I think I later signed up with a fake name and address. There is every reason to be paranoid about them selling your info, because they do. Unless I'm mistaken, they even try to get your SSN from you. WTF? If you question it, the checker will say, "oh you don't need to fill that out", but people like my mom fill every single box. Strangely, most everyone I know uses their real name, number and address. They encourage you to use your real number so that if you lose your card they can find you in the computer (pfft, just get another card).

This is an interesting question, partly because of what a wine guy you are. I vote that you should have wine with your meal, but also offer a selection of non-alcoholic drinks for your guests. I don't think your Mormon friends will have any problem with you having a glass of wine (esp if they know your interest in wine), because like someone else said, they're not there to push their beliefs on you. They're there to have a good time with their friends, and as long as you give them some non-alcoholic choices, they'll get to enjoy the dinner along with everyone else. I've found this true with everyone I know who has some sort of dietary limitation, but there could be exceptions. --oh i guess i was late to the party. how did the dinner go?

Haven't had the $25 lunch omakase but have had the $50 omakase at dinner. Some of the dishes were interesting. Presentation is kind of cool, but I do wish they used better quality plates and glassware. What really put me off my feed were the flip-flop wearing neighborhood locals ordering California rolls and spicy tuna with...chardonnay. Also, the chefs are young and cheery.

Just a note, I enjoy Y. Ben House but the place does have a distinctly funky odor that my one-time-only eating companions found offensive. If you are in any way squeamish or bothered by say, weird smells, sight of neighboring table's trash, then don't come in here. When I bring home stuff, however, it always seems to get eaten.

LA Times Food Section -- August 11, 2004 To view the articles below, register a username with www.latimes.com. Registration is free. There is a separate Calendar section with more food articles, but you have to pay a fee for those. The chicken man -- Russ Parsons "Josiah Citrin, chef at Mélisse, is crazy for the bird. No wonder he has a few tricks up his sleeve for preparing the most succulent, flavorful fowl." But is his $84 rotisserie chicken worth it? Three with vision -- Corie Brown Talks about the work of three Californians who have vastly increased our store of wine knowledge and choices: Frank Kysela (Kermit Lynch), Jim Fetzer (Fetzer Vineyards), Allen Meadows (Burghound newsletter) Where the wild greens are -- Regina Schrambling "With peppery, pungent wild arugula, everything is new again. Tossed in salads or pasta, or wilted in hot sandwiches, it's irresistible." Recipes COOKBOOK WATCH -- Charles Perry "Schott's Food & Drink Miscellany" (Bloomsbury, 2004: $14.95). Tidbits include the fact that Marie Antoinette did not say "Let them eat cake", but "Let them eat brioche". CULINARY SOS -- Barbara Hansen Recipe for Water Grill's trifle Wine of the Week -- S. Irene Virbila 2001 Isole e Olena Chianti Classico: "A gorgeous deep red, it's Sangiovese with a touch of Syrah that doesn't take away from its typicity but somehow gives the Sangiovese a little push of color and body. I could happily pop the cork on this one every night. " (about $16) Correction "An article about chocolate fountains in last week's Food section described Callebaut brand chocolate as French. It's Belgian. "

Amen. Not doing the man's laundry is concrete evidence that feminism has practical applications. When I become rich, I plan on taking my man as my wife. My SO can cook Pasta-Roni and makes a decent cereal with milk. He also pours a good sized juice. He's also very good at washing dishes and letting me choose what we'll have for dinner. I know good male cooks, but he happily admits he isn't one of them.

Any ordinary basil stem with no roots will root readily if you put it in a glass of water long enough. I know a gal who does this with the Vietnamese basil from the restaurant. She puts the used basil stems in water until they root and then pots them up normally. Easier than starting from seed, unless you are looking for a particular variety. --of course the basil has to be relatively fresh.

I don't even bother to poke holes. I usually just sprinkle seeds on the seed starting mix in the cup and then cover with what I think is 1/4" of mix. Basil needs a warm place to sprout and grow. A good cold snap and it's dead and black. Good luck. If your temp swings are really as wide as you say, I would look for a warm, sunny, insulated windowsill area. Don't bother with a greenhouse, it's a lot of work for a couple of basil plants. Thyme seeds take forever to sprout. I am betting that by the time you have little basil plants, your thyme seeds will have done nothing. On the other hand, thyme is harder to kill, once established. Most people just buy a plant because of the time factor. It takes months of babying to get to the size you would find at the garden store. At least it took months for me, and I had near ideal temps and fertilizing program.

Isn't Quan Hy owned by a famous actor?

Thanks so much for your recommendations and great comments! We had a great time, and it turns out that our host is a foodie type and I barely had to do any work this time! I have to admit, it's nice when I can just sit back, relax and let someone else do all the driving, choosing, and ordering. However, when I told our host about your recommendations, he was really happy to have some more places to try. Unfortunately, I was forced to lend my camera to someone so no pics. Oh well. We'll definitely be back though. First night: Got some vanilla bean infused martinis at Brazen Bean. Happy hour special is $3 for a martini! I'm not much of a drinker, but I sucked down 1.5 of these in no time. I tried a straight martini, but retreated to my vanilla bean girl drink. It was like drinking vanilla scented lemonade. The pomegranate wasn't too bad. We went to Caffe Mingo for dinner. Our host ordered the best gnocchi I've ever had, we also had the the haricot verts salad (great) and a really decent panna cotta, among other things. I actually liked the olive oil here. I'll have to call and ask what they use. After that, it was bar hopping, starting at HUNG FAR LOW! Our host remarked that it was a less sleazy crowd than usual ("very fratty tonight"), and we ordered a couple of drinks, including the Hung Far Lowng Island. Strong, but not that great. We also ordered the crab puffs, which eventually resulted in a stomachache for one of us. I didn't eat them, but I did split one open and poked at the innards, looking for evidence of crab in the mayo filling. Didn't find any. Tried the Cellar Bar and got good screwdrivers with fresh squeezed orange juice. We checked out Yur's, a cross between Denny's and a raucous pool hall. I forget what other bars we went. Second day: We went to Byways Cafe for breakfast. A kooky diner, they had some decent blueberry pancakes. I had the blue corn pancakes, which were pretty good with maple syrup and the pecan (honey?) butter ball that topped it. We rode the trolley (free, and comes with live commentary!) to the Farmer's Market where I grabbed a bottle of the Leonforte 2003 harvest olive oil from the warm and friendly Jim Dixon and introduced myself. I didn't get a chance to try all the stuff I wanted to get, but it was still a pretty neat. We went back to NW area, and packed a late lunch at Ken's Artisan Bakery. I think the breads are the best thing at this place, and I kept seeing their bread at restaurants we went to (luckily for me). We got some sandwiches to go, for our hike at Multnomah falls. Unfortunately, by the time we ate them, the sandwiches were smashed and stale. We still tried eating them. The lone cannelle I got as an afterthought fared the best, but it was only an okay cannelle. The croissant was not bad at all. At Multnomah Falls, everyone walked around eating soft ice cream, but we held out for Mio Gelato's gelato. Whoever talked about the texture was so very right, extra creamy and rich. Small place, only like 20 flavors. I ate some other flavors but I kept going back to the hazelnut. Mango was artificially flavored. Plum was excellent. We had dinner at Noble Rot. For the quality of the food, I couldn't believe the prices. $13 for an entree? The salmon crusted with cornmeal and pepper was great. They had a special, lobster mushrooms and spinach in phylo turnovers, which was good too. We had pinot noir flights for $17! One of them was excellent, (2nd one, name?). Hole played softly in the background. We went to Holocene and I had an unremarkable screwdriver made with storebought orange juice. I wanted to go back to the Cellar Bar or the Brazen Bean. Afterwards, we ended up going to Savannah, a Caribbean (Jamaican?) restaurant, for what ended up being a second round of dinner. We had burnt shrimp on Uncle Ben type rice and some cold ribs that we had to send back to the microwave. 3rd day: Had breakfast at a little crepe place that was a couple blocks from Bewon. We went to a beach, Cape something or other. The weather was gorgeous and there were lots of people out there hanging out. It was glorious weekend weather. On the way back from the beach, our host thought it would be a good idea to stop at a little general store and show us what the uh, backcountry is like. They had stuff like $.50 corndogs, puzzle books for the road, bait and tackle. We just got drinks. This store had a bunch of deer antlers and heads on the walls. When I inquired about them to the lady behind the counter, she claimed that her husband shot them all and had his friend, a taxidermist, stuff them. We got out of there pretty quickly. Didn't get a chance to have Tillamook ice cream even though it was 2 miles from the beach. For dinner, our host took us to The Farm Cafe. The apps were good. I liked the ubiquitous sauteed goat cheese on greens app. The heirloom tomato plate was pretty good too. They had a good assortment of colors and flavors. We got more (Kens Artisan) bread to sop up the juices and portion out the goat cheese better. My entree (salmon) was bland though, as was the smoked gouda and broccoli with penne. We went to Powell's Books and browsed the amazing selection. We then tried to go to Mio Gelato again, but it was closed. Then we tried to go to Southpark for dessert, but they had closed. Oh well. 4th morning: We tried to go to Mother's for breakfast, but it was closed. We ended up going to Higgins for lunch (it was late in the morning) and all was good. Really enjoyed the oysters gratin, though it was small. I wanted the burger so badly, but I broke with tradition and got the pastrami, which was good, but no Langers Deli. I could kick myself for not getting the burger. The salmon over mashed potatoes was damn good. More Mio Gelato and then back home, to the grind. Thanks again. We had a great time in Portland and we'll definitely be coming back.

Hate to burst your bubble, but what the checkers are actually doing is making sure that you haven't secreted some expensive item in the egg carton!! Uh, actually no. I used to work at Trader Joe's way back when and it was a courtesy thing. I did it too. --if there was a cracked or broken egg, we got another carton for them.

I meant mentally.

Africa? I hope you're not talking about guinea worms here. <shiver> I would rather have allergies any day.

Alright I'll bite. Where does one get well-prepared fast food? --damn i must really like this thread

At Trader Joe's I go to, the checkers actually open the egg cartons and check the eggs for me.

slightly off topic but Crazy Legs Conti really loves his oysters. I watched his movie and tried not to barf as he slurped his way though I forget how many of them.

Sure I'll meet you. I believe I have mentioned before, on this board, that like every other 13 year old I enjoy meeting strangers I met on the Internet. Note: One of the (French) bakers at the Viet/French place sure likes the girls. He's not so friendly to me after he figured out I'm there for his product and not him. He told me that he wanted me to bring all my female friends, no guys allowed. Seulement les femmes! he says or something like that. Desperate guys are the same in every country.

I have to say that as much as I enjoy bitching about Orange County, it's just not as enjoyable when everyone else joins in. Suddenly I feel an unfamiliar urge to defend it somehow. Let me tell you, that is a very strange feeling.

for the innocents from parts east: what jschyun is trying to tell you here is that irvine is the only store with two 99 ranch markets (this only becomes meaningful information once you visit one), not that it is the only city with 299 ranches. Oh crap. Sorry about that. But you guys knew what I meant, right?

you poor, misguided baby, you. I do hope he has other redeeming qualities...Just don't let him pick your restaurants from now on and you'll be all set. :) I know it's love because I think it's funny, not alarming, that he would eat Pasta Roni every day if he could. Before I met him, I didn't think that people actually ate that stuff. But now, I sometimes eat Pasta Roni too. AAAAHHH! hehe. I also had Cambell's chicken soup recently. My God that stuff is nasty, but in a strangely comforting way.... actually, no, it's just nasty.

Aw, group hug. Well, I have to attend one of the dreaded family barbecues eventually, so I guess I'll be up that way sometime in the next couple of months. --save me from the family barbecue!

Alright people, as much as I can't stand living here 99% of the time, I have to say that Orange County does have some decent places to eat. Laguna Niguel completely sucks foodwise, but Laguna Niguel does not represent all of Orange County. Off topic, I do remember talking to someone about trying to review restaurants in LN and this person looked at me in wide-eyed amazement and sincerely asked if there was actually anything to review there. This is from a person who knows OC like the back of his hand, and knows all sorts of cool places nearby... We have a Claro's in Tustin. (good Italian store) We have the only decent Vietnamese French bakery I've ever seen. We have the best Vietnamese food I've had. We have the only city (Irvine) that has two 99Ranches. We have at least 1 good Persian market. We have better Korean than Oakland or SF, that's for sure. haven't been to south bay lately, however. Okay this is a short list, but I gotta go back to work. I say OC because I'm lazy, but I'll never, ever say "The OC". AAAAHHHHH! It's like nails screeching on a chalkboard.... --edited to change 299Ranches to two 99Ranches...

Well, at least if they had an angry lion roll, it would be entertaining. I couldn't figure out what that air force roll was.