jschyun

Wow, I can't wait for this blog. Your English is excellent. Most Germans seem to me to have very good command of English. (Due to school I guess?) I have German cousins whose English is so good, they often pass for native Los Angelans!

Yes he's being replaced by Ludovic Lefèbvre (formerly of L'Orangerie). He is going to start a more casual restaurant. la times article has a mention of it.

Holy cow! I would kill to sit next to Calvin Trillin. But then I would probably make a fool of myself. You didn't get an autograph, did you? My only celebrity sighting is waiting in line at Elixir (Los Angeles) behind Ellen Degeneres. I didn't realize it was her until she was leaving, but the voice was so familiar...

he's a professor and school's out... lucky for me school is finally done here too. But I'm not interested in being the next blogger. My life is hellishly busy enough already. --okay the real reason is...I'm not following this act!

My friend from Tennessee just told me about the great tomatoes they get there. Juicy, sweet, and they just grow plain old Celebrity and Bradley. She said she thought it was because they grow so fast. August she said, wait for August. The heat and rain make them super sweet and firm. The beefsteaks we get here in SoCal are not as spectacular, even for the best gardeners in our coop garden. In fact, I don't like them. The only beefsteak that I have ever come back for was Brandywine. that was my first experience with a juicy sweet, wonderful tomato. Comments?

I doubt they're related but hey, who knows. However, Arirang is a pretty common name. Chocolate fondue? You must take a pic and show us! hehe just kidding. no pressure... Over time, I've tried a bunch of different bubble tea shops, in L.A./O.C. and I have to say I haven't found one that does a patbingsu I like. i hope you like that place. I think I am averse to the idea of tapioca balls in my patbingsu, because they often use it in place of dduk, which makes me sad. However, there is this one bubble tea place near me that does an okay patbingsu, they put all sorts of stuff in there like young coconut, lychees, tapioca (large), ice cream, condensed milk, strawberries and I forget what else. But no dduk. Actually, this version seems, to me, to be closer to bing (Chinese) than bingsu.

My favorite way to eat shaved ice is in patbingsu, the treat you can get at Korean bubble tea joints in L.A., cafes, and some bakeries. If you want the deluxe version, it usually comes with ice cream, boatloads of fresh fruit (I think usually strawberries, kiwis, bananas) or you can get the cheaper ones with just red bean in syrup, some canned fruit, a shot of condensed milk or syrup. But the most important thing in a patbingsu is: the dduk. I love the dduk. it's the little white squre thing, basically looks like, and sort of tastes like a tiny, non-sweet marshmallow. it's soft and plump and gets a little chewier when it's cold from the ice. Eaten with the red beans, some ice, a little fruit, there's nothing better. My favorite version still is the one sold at the Arirang Supermarket in Garden Grove, CA (see pic below). They make the ice powdery fine, and they add lots of dduk and pat (beans) if you ask them nicely. The version below is the one with fruit but I think without ice cream. --even if you don't like the idea of beans in your dessert, they definitely add a rich, smooth sweetness that is occasionally almost chocolately. That chocolate looking syrup on top is not chocolate sauce, it's syrup from the beans.

Personally as far as garnishes go, I like them, even if they're not functional, though they're better when they are. well, with wedding cakes looks are almost everything. i would argue that a wedding cake is a garnish on a successful wedding. You don't really need it to get married, but it sure looks nice. Or maybe I'm saying a wedding is a garnish on the marriage? I'm sick at home, typing without glasses so forgive me... There are tons of stuff they have to do with non-edible things to make your cake look good. there were probably plastic pillars in your bottom layer (I think) and I think they put the cake on cardboard so it doesn't fall or something. I feel fondant is in the barely edible category. However, my sis did make a cake for me with white chocolate fondant, lemon curd/cream filling that was excellent. I brought it to work and my ungrateful co-workers made a mess of it and basically trashed the cake she had sent me and only a couple said thank you.

Hmm, the flowers that my sis puts onto wedding cakes are "edible", but then there's edible and there's the stuff you really don't want to put in your mouth. But I believe all the ones her place gets (they outsource the flowers) are sugar paste. Very realistic, I must say. I've never heard her say anything about wax flowers.

Well, this is nothing like last year. My tomatoes are all coming in like gangbusters. I have now decided to focus mostly on cherry tomatoes next year, because a) I'll have a lot less time than now b) they seem to be the most popular. light yellow: Dr. Carolyn, orange: Sungold, oval red: Jelly Bean (grape), purple-red: Black Cherry. My snow whites haven't come in or this would be even prettier. I chose not to grow green ones.

*sigh* You won't, but that's because you're not a botanist. Anyway, when you make ais kacang with shaved ice, how finely shaved is the ice. is it powdery fine, or is it rougher? do you wait until it's a little melted or do you just eat it right away?

Well, this is not the botanical definition of a bean, it's the definition of a legume. I'm not going to go into the various genuses (geni?), because it's boring, but suffice to say that within the legume family, peanuts, beans, and peas are all classified separately. So peanuts are not beans, but they're pretty close cousins. You want to hear something weird? Almonds are in the Rose family (yep, as in the flower) and are related to most of our fave tree fruits like cherries, apples, loquats.look here if you really want to know. Hey I did not say this stuff made any sense. I am just the messenger. Dude, you can't grow a tree from a peanut! hehehe. But if you can prove that you grew a tree from a peanut, I will give you $100 U.S. But if you try and cannot do it, then you must give me $100 U.S. Deal? a not all that helpful page, but best I could find before going to work

I wanna see some pics. shaved ice pics, that is.

Actually, peanuts are not beans, they grow underground, while beans form aboveground. However, they are a legume, which is in the same family. Nuts (pecans, almonds, etc) are totally different. They grow as the seed of certain trees.

LA Times Food Section -- June 16, 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. Shimmering Comeback -- Russ Parsons "Innovative fisheries are reviving California's treasure, the incomparable abalone." Also, info about the rare white abalone. Recipes Nirvana, by the juicy bushelful -- Donna Deane Thanks to that hot spring weather, apricots, peaches, plums and other stone fruits are excellent this year. Get them! Recipes Where outside is in -- S. Irene Virbila She gives 2* to Whist in Santa Monica. English Regency theme, food improving, still hip Mama mia! The sandwich that ate downtown -- Charles Perry Discusses Eastside Market & Italian Deli in L.A.'s old Little Italy. great sandwiches (hot pastrami, eggplant parm, etc) and lasagna. about $5-7 Meet the naked grape -- Jordan Mackay "A few California vintners are turning away from oak, making crisp Chardonnays that really feature the fruit." Could it be curtains for tablecloths? -- David Shaw Talks about how "fine dining", in the European sense, may be on its way out in L.A. Culinary SOS -- Barbara Hansen Recipe for Dodger Stadium's lentil salad Wine of the week -- S. Irene Virbila 2001 Domaine Tempier Bandol: about $28, full-bodied and lush, great with anything grilled Cookstuff All-Clad barbecue set $99.99 Letters: Readers flip for their own burger joints letters about last week's L.A. burger article, many complaining he missed their favorites Letters: Italiano, sì; romano, no One reader complains that last week's article on Roman cooking has recipes that are not really Roman. Letters: Savoring the controversy Emily Green's piece last week celebrating a gay marriage got lots of mail, mostly positive, a couple critical. Correction to June 2 article A review of cookbooks June 2 gave the wrong title for one of the books. the correct title is "Rome, at Home: The Spirit of La Cucina Romana in Your Own Kitchen." Also Suzanne Dunaway is no longer associated with Buona Forchetta Hand Made Breads. Correction The first Fatburger stand was not the corner of San Vicente and South La Cienega boulevards, but at Western Avenue between 30th and 31st streets.

it doesn't translate to bean ice? where are the nuts?

I just saw a pic of ais kacang and it looks a lot like patbingsu (Korean shaved ice) which in turn is related to the Chinese bing. But what does it mean?

hmm, that sounds pretty good. I could see myself eating that sexed up kielbasa with some steamed rice. On another note, there's a fruitcake that a friend of mine orders every year from... (Florida?) I never had fruitcake like that before. Good with some hot tea.

I saw this too. I'm surprised nobody has cracked a joke about how he, attempting to sound like a reluctant blog virgin, actually was advertising his interest being the next to be tagged. Looks like it's off to a good start though.

I have a question. Did you introduce your wife to Indian food or did she already like it? If she had never had it before, how long did it take for her to like it? What is her favorite? What does she dislike? Does she like cilantro? Conversely, did she introduce you to Korean food or did you already know all about it? Same questions as above but reverse.

What's the mango outlook in Vancouver for the next 2 weeks? I'm going to be there and was hoping to sit down and gorge myself before returning fat and happy back to my miserable hovel in California.

what is wife doing with cilantro? and when you guys eat a meal with both korean and indian dishes, what kind of rice do you normally eat?

Dude, you lived in SF and didn't get great OJ? Personally, I have had some unbelievably sweet, rich, lovely OJ, but of course, it changes from season to season, batch to batch. Naked Juice or Odwalla (I forget which) used to bottle a really good tangerine juice, but it's gotten "weak, acidic and lacking in any sweetness". But I remember the good old times.

What Indian food means to me: Well, mostly South Indian for me, a holdover from my longtime vegetarianness. Though i like a good butter chicken, I love even the cheapest, crappiest $2.50 masala dosa. Also, I never fail to get excellent service from south indian restaurants, in Artesia. I guess Koreans are rare in SI restaurants. I got even better service when I was a vegetarian.

If you noticed the odeng that mongo's wife made earlier, you'll see where all the peppers went. Damn, I've never seen odeng with that many peppers, but I don't get out much. --so is this yet more proof of her evilness?