jschyun

Scratch Ameci's, you want a real neighborhood gem? This also happens to be in Irvine (sorry). I think the owners are Iranian. Baked goods are by the pound. I've been going here for at least a year or two now. Consistently good and very cheap. Assal Bakery: The stuff below cost me $3.80, but that's because the fruit tart is heavy. Usually 3 little cakes costs me about $2.50. The ladyfinger sandwich on the right, with whip cream filling and dusting of ground pistachios is my absolute fave.

ah crap, it's spelled Ameci's. Ameci's Pizza and Pasta. I'm not saying it's on the level of Totonno's in Brooklyn, of course, but it's better than say, Brooklyn Pizza in Costa Mesa, which I personally think serves crap. On the whole, I do not believe in pizza in California, so I'm biding my time until I get to NY. However, Ameci's is cheap, decent, local. It's been around for a while. --But it's not NY style. I just think the best pizza I've had is in NY, which is why I mentioned NY.

In OC there's this mini chain of Italianesque restaurants called Amici's. They are not particularly fast, but I like their eggplant parmesana sandwiches and their calzones are cheap, decent, and very filling. I usually get the calzone instead of pizza, so I can't comment on the pizzas, which is what everyone else gets.

LA Times Food Section -- June 2, 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. Here's to love (and lunch) -- Emily Green (Recipes included) She sneered at weddings but some Campanile chefs, gay newlyweds and toast (crunchy kind) made her see religion. Another wedding gift to buy? Don't panic -- Susan LaTempa cool wedding gifts When it comes to bubbly, just say yes -- David Lansing Champagne: it makes everything better. Battle over organic standards continues -- Corie Brown. Under pressure, Ann Veneman rescinds 4 questionable directives issued by her staff. The current rules of organic foods. -- Corie Brown mentions no fish meal for livestock feed, no antibiotics (some exceptions), only permitted synthetic pesticides A virtual Roman holiday -- Leslie Brenner (Recipes included) Roman food: fresh ingredients, bold spice use L.A. Times Food Book Hot List for June 2, 2004 Poet finds his muse in the vines -- David Shaw Pascal Marchand: French Canadian kid turned Burgundian vintner Wine of the Week: -- S. Irene Virbila 2001 La Serre Nuove dell' Ornellaia Sly, sensual and sophisticated -- S. Irene Virbila Virbila revisits Jar and gives it 3*. Authoritative Thai, with a backbeat -- Barbara Hansen Ban Phai: good Thai food, Thai country music close to Thai Town Correction to last week's fingerling potato recipe (fleur de sel not 2 fleur de sel) Correction to last week's farmer's market listings. (Santa Clarita is in L.A. County not Ventura)

Recently, I once got comped an appetizer for no other reason than that they felt sorry for me because I was eating alone. (I think they saw that I was originally a 2 person party and took pity on me) It was an excellent dish and I simply tacked the price onto the tip. --spelling edit

Tatuma (aka Tatume) squash looks like the pic, but this variety is vining, not bushy. Wow, talk about mystery squash!

hmm, Magda? --never mind, not stripey enough, however, I would still guess that you have one of the Middle Eastern types

When making mushroom risotto, I learned to "finish" it with a little truffle oil poured on top. Very little. Then when you stir it into the risotto, it releases all sorts of fantastic aromas, and tastes so good. I use black truffle oil for this, however.

Just came back from Din Tai Fung and was surprised to be disappointed. We agreed that SDS's xlb has much more soup, and they are much nicer to eat because they're bigger and have more tender skins. However, I did think Din Tai Fung's version was better seasoned. I find SDS's dumplings need a little more salt and pepper, or whatever it is that you're supposed to use to season the meat. However, my friends disagree. FYI: At DTF, we ordered the soup dumplings (the mini dumplings that you eat with some broth), the xiaolongbao, crab/pork dumplings (I liked these, but they were deemed "fishy"), fish dumplings (bland), house special chicken noodle soup (tasteless), spinach (good). xiaolongbao had very little juice, but the seasoning was better than at Shanghai Dumpling Shop. Also, the skins on all dumplings were tough, though they were pretty. Of all the dishes, I'd only go back for the soup dumplings. My cousin said that Grand Sichuan and Joe's Shanghai in NY are much better for xiaolongbao than DTF. However, DTF is a very clean restaurant. DTF pics from egullet lunch last year I'm going to see if I can pre-order the crab dumplings from SDS for this weekend. Now where do I find a place that does good bing for dessert in Richmond? After watching a movie on the Weathermen, writing "SDS" in a non political context feels kind of strange.

I was thinking of taking pics of all my meals and showing off the best ones. I expect I'll have a lot of pics. And if you ever find yourself in L.A. or San Fran (I commute to San Fran alot), definitely look me up. I always welcome the chance to meet up with strangers I just met online.

I worry about authenticity because I feel like people are in on something good and I don't know about it and am sitting in a cloud of ignorance, when I could be eating something fabulous. I admit to chasing after "authentic" stuff.

Thanks so much! I will definitely be goingn to Kirin and President. What do you think of Victoria (1055 W. Georgia St., 669-8383) for dim sum? Van mag said it was "beyond the ordinary" Sha Lin over Legendary Noodle for noodles? Oh man, you guys are drowning in good Chinese. And there's good gelato too. I love Vancouver. I wish I lived here.

Personally, I think Alan Bresson should have paid the fine.

It's not Meilong Village?

Well, the harvest is in. Here's today's pics: R-L: The ridged zucchini (Costata Romanesco) is excellent in soup (we put it in duenjang jigae) because it doesn't get all mushy. The round light green squash (Rond de Nice) are great in hobak jeon, a.k.a fried squash rounds, because they have a sort of soft creamy texture and they're round and big so it's less work to cut them up and make them. The yellow and green squash (Zephyr) is great as fresh eating, cut into sticks. We likes it with kochujang, but I haven't had a chance to try it that way, because they get eaten fast. The dark green round one (8-ball) is not as good as the other round one, but I got the seed in trade and wanted to try it. Not pictured: Also growing what appears to be a dark green zucchini (Verte de Maraicher) that I got from a guy in Belgium. And a Korean squash for comparison with the others (Early Bulam) but those aren't ready yet. Oh and I had a Black Cherry tomato today. I took the pic after I ate it. I also had a Dr. Carolyn yellow cherry tomato, but it wasn't as good as Black Cherry. Oh yes, I am saving seed from this plant! Wow, I wish I had enough time and space for 130 tomato plants. As it is, I'm not doing a particularly good job with my approx. 15 plants.

LA Times Food Section -- May 26, 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. Today, it's all about farmers markets. L.A. denizens rejoice. Russ Parsons on our awesome farmer's markets, yeah! Recipes included: sugar snap peas and shrimp with chive mayonnaise, grilled cheese sandwiches with sweet onions, seafood stew with peas Donna Deane on making great dinners from farmer's market finds. Recipes included: Steamed fingerling potatoes with spring garlic, Three-berry crisp, Green and yellow beans in lemon mustard vinaigrette Laurie Winer on stuff to eat while getting veggies/fruit at the Hollywood Farmer's Market. Pupusas! Uh, Jambalaya! Oh geez, why can't they leave the aebleskivers in Solvang? Addresses for pupusas, jambalaya place, as well as other places mentioned in article. Barbara Hansen and Valli Herman give you a List of L.A. Farmer's Markets Same List, Different Format Valli Herman on the new electronic benefits card that is replacing food stamps at the farmers markets. Farmers markets where you can use the new EBT card. David Shaw on the irrepressible partyloving restauranteur Michael McCarty. Russ Parsons tells the story behind a mysterious old wine bottle with a hand-written label. S. Irene Virbila's Wine of the Week: 2002 E. Guigal Condrieu 'La Doriane' Barbara Hansen has the recipe for Lincoln Steakhouse Americana's braised turnip greens.

nah, doesn't have crab dumplings with roe. sorry about the din tai fung comparison. may be misleading. shanghai dumpling shop is just a little tiny restaurant that serves inexpensive, decent food. It's not a din tai fung-like operation. I have to admit the xiaolongbao here didn't look as fantastic as the din tai fung crab dumpling tad posted in your egullet group outing last year. But you can't beat the price. $4.25 for 10 dumplings? To my knowledge, that's absurdly cheap. i have the takeout menu and it says nothing about frozen dumplings unfortunately. I suppose you can call them, but i somehow doubt they do it.

Hey Gary, didn't you go to Din Tai Fung in Shanghai a while ago? Did I miss that post or what? By the way, when I said these are the best xialongbao I've had, bear in mind I still have not gotten my ass to Din Tai Fung for some reason. I think I just forgot about them. Will be correcting this deficiency next weekend...

Hey what kind of squash is that? The squash looks almost like the Korean squash I grew last year. My plant was a rambler however, which is typical of the Korean squashes. Yours is nice and bushy like a zucchini plant. fifi, thanks for the Asian veggies link! Evergreen seeds rocks. I actually was asking for Asian veggie seeds or plants for someone in Austin. I had tried another forum, but figured you guys might know better since you guys would be more likely to have popped into an Asian market for food articles and seen some there. I think she did end up finding something. If you start getting powdery mildew on your squash plant leaves, try spraying them with watered down milk. Will stop PM in its tracks. I read this hint in Organic Gardening some time ago.

sorry, i meant to say beijing boiled dumplings. see pic in first post. I have to say, my pics didn't come out all that great. In reality, they looked a lot better.

They were just very finely minced veggies, i thought I saw some mushroom in there. Not particularly garlicky or sour, to the best of my recollection. Somewhat bland, but it made me feel better about eating 15 xiaolongbao in one sitting. On sunday, we restrained ourselves and only had 10 xiaolongbao each, with some beijing boiled and that bread. I didn't belch more than I usually do. The Picky Eater recommends Shanghai Dumpling Shop

Shanghai Dumpling Shop 3319 Balboa St San Francisco 415-387-2088 An ex-girlfriend of a friend of ours recommended this place and I finally got a camera so I took some pics. We love shanghai dumplings, but we usually go to Koi Palace where we special order, but still usually get some that are broken, with the juice dripping out. So we went to the Richmond District and found the Shanghai Dumpling Shop on a lonely street a couple streets off Geary on Sat. In front of SDS, is a cafe where you can also get beer. FYI. Anyway, at SDS on Sat, we got the shanghai dumplings (#5, $4.95 for 10 dumplings), beijing style dumplings (with chinese chives)(#6 $4.25 for 10) and veggie dumplings (#7, $4.25 for 10). On sunday, we went back for more shanghai dumplings and i got some golden thread bread, which has that crispy deep fried crust, served with a little saucer of condensed milk (better than it sounds). We ate 15 shanghai dumplings per person. they are pretty damn good. They give you a soup spoon, so we plucked them from the steam basket and dipped in the gingered soy sauce and then dropped them into the soup spoon. Then I nibbled on top and sipped the juice inside and then ate the meat. I don't know how the other guys ate theirs. all in all a good deal and I think the best xiaolongbao I've had. I saw some noodles at another table that looked good. Also, the green onion bread looked good. i don't think i saw a bad looking dish. Store Front Shanghai Steamed Dumplings (xiaolongbao) Beijing Boiled Dumplings. Veggie dumplings, only I liked these --oops, i guess i was a little late. Just saw Gary Soup's post on CH.

Keith Talent, I just want to say that I would actually pay the $18.95 for your entrance fee. That's right! After all, I have spent far more money on far worse things, like *cough* that meal at Joe Fortes *cough cough*.

If one wants to eat at West rather than Lumiere, what should one order? --Ah I see they only have 2 non vegetarian tasting menus. Makes it easy!

Also, thanks for all the tips, esp the suspension bridge stuff and the bike info. I'm even less good at figuring out normal activities than I am figuring out where I want to eat. And it probably would be wise to do some sort of activity before the next meal... I went to Sun Sui Wah in Richmond last time and loved it. But if you say Kirin is the flavor of the month, than I'll definitely go there. Maybe I can do both.