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What about Yankee Pier in Larkspur and San Jose? I haven't been but I like Lark Creek Inn, another Bradley Ogden restaurant, which of course, is a recommendation that means absolutely nothing. I think Ogden called this restaurant the California version of a New England clam shack.

You can read the final itinerary interspersed between the pics but here it is anyway. 1:00pm Ruen Pair: see above 2:30pm BhankanomThai, sweet shop: everyone bought a ton of sweet stuff to take home or eat right there. Awesome place. around 3:00pm: Thai market next door. Everyone except a couple people left at this point. around 4: To rest our stomachs, we saw Big Fish at I think it was the Cinedome theater. Awesome theater. At one point in the movie, they're in a Chinese playhouse, but the guards were speaking Korean and doing what I assume to be tae kwon do. That was funny. around 6 or 7: Jitlada: see above.

trillium, that looks just like the fermented shrimp sauce we use. If you got it at a Korean grocery, chances are, it's the right thing. I'm sure you'll be fine. I love that shrimp sauce on pork's foot and any other cold meat, especially if the sauce has been doctored with chili flakes and some green onions. yum! --shrimp is sehwoo (I think that's how to romanize it?) and I think pickled or fermented means jeot. put the two together and sehwoo jeot means fermented shrimp. You can get fermented oysters and stuff like that too.

ingridsf you've read Calvin Trillin, haven't you?

Well, unfortunately, the place I was talking about is in SoCal. It's called Mission 261, which is also the street name, and I think they have way better egg custard tarts than their sister restaurant Sea Harbour in Rosemead (too greasy). Their milk tarts with ginger juice were very bland though. Hey, if you're down in SoCal, let me know! I'd love to go there with someone else who loves dim sum. It was recently written up in laweekly.com, but I dont remember mention of egg custard tart. Jonathan Gold doesn't write about sweets much. The place near me is this little craphole, but they do an inexplicably good egg custard tart. It's in OC. I guess I must be a pig, because I read some back posts and nobody seems to complain about the size of Ton Kiang's food except me. I forgot to go to Kee Wah bakery this weekend. Damn.

I laughed my butt off over the chicken fried rice pic.

No, Ton Kiang's egg custard tarts are usually fresh but after having some spectacular ones at Mission 261, I can't honestly say Ton Kiang's is the best, or even close. Actually, I think Ton Kiang's egg custard tarts are probably some of the best I've had in the Bay area, but they're so small that you hardly get a bite before it's gone, which is my only complaint. I like the fact that the crust is flaky, unlike Koi Palace's. Perhaps I should have been more clear about the reason I started this thread. There is this local place near me that also has spectacular egg tarts. The crust is ridiculously flaky and the filling, while a bit sweet, is rich, bright yellow with egg. Fantastic. It got me wondering if I had been missing out on other great egg custard tarts. I have been to most of the popular places, but not many of the little bakeries like Golden Gate and Wonder Bakery. Perhaps it's time to wait in that long, long line. I am also curious if the bakeries do egg custard tarts better than the dim sum joints. I guess this is sort of a pet project of mine.

They're okay.

Actually, I'm not interested in recipes but places who do them.

I'm curious about what you think.

interesting article in defense of dog eating Defending Dog Eating

Are you talking about the one that is sort of golden brown thin fish cake in a sort of sweetish sauce, yet a little spicy, with maybe some pepper threads and sesame seeds? Or are you talking about something else entirely?

I had dinner at a local Thai restaurant that refused to serve me certain hot and sour soups because, as the waiter told me shaking his head, "Too hot for you." The food was probably the best Thai I've had in the county, so far, and I just had the mild stuff.

McDonald's likes to tease so I've seen them in the past couple years as "limited time only" sandwiches This is going to sound strange but Boca Burger (vegetarian) makes a really good McRib like product that I think are called Riblets. yes it's vegetarian but it was 99 cents a box so I tried it. It was really good, but of course, not exactly McRiblike as in less fat. When you think about it, the McRib is so processed, you really can't tell if it's meat or not anyway. I'm definitely not a vegetarian, but for a quick McRib fix, the Boca Burger's Riblets was the ticket.

Welcome Robert! I also say hope to hear more from you! Need more L.A. Koreans on this site. Where are the best drinking places in your opinion? (Maybe this should be on California forum)

I can't imagine why you couldn't ask. There isn't a language barrier, and Indian people that I've met are so friendly and open. I bet I could get one of my favorite restaurants to teach me how to make aloo gobi or better, idlis. Needless to say, I love idlis. But also, I am a regular. It's all about having a relationship first, I think, no matter what the culture.

I love bosam kimchi, but i'm too lazy to make it. If you're in the L.A. area, you can go to YongSusan for it. I think it's the only branch they have outside Korea.

Cheju is considered a subtropical volcanic island. It's south of the southernmost tip of Korea. Went on a tour there with my Mom, twas spectacular. It seemed like most people were there for their honeymoon. The ground had lava rocks in it and I vaguely remember seeing sculptures on the tour that were made of pockmarked lava rock. I don't remember bananas but a lot of citrus fruit. I believe they have a lot of fruit farms there. Also, their (in?)famous pork. I thought it was cool watching a bottle roll upwards too, on a certain road, the name of which I forget. They found out that the gravity pull is such that it appears something is rolling uphill here, but it is really isn't. The Chun jeh yun (sp?) waterfall was something you'd see in Hawaii, except it's very large, much larger than any of the waterfalls I saw in Maui recently.

Good question. I...don't...know. I go there and just don't feel satisfied. It could be the "decor" but then I liked Y. Ben House, which isn't exactly a showcase. That's probably the reason why I didn't state exactly why I didn't like it, as I did with Ton Kiang. Also, about that article. Tina's Tea House is allegedly one member of the "the best dim sum" in Oakland? I've never been there, but can someone say whether or not it's better than Legendary Palace? I like Legendary Palace, even if their egg custard buns have ghostly pale custard centers. --edit I'll get back to you on Gold Mountain --end edit

Yeah, FoodZealot, let us know if you need any help of any sort. Looking forward to this.

If you have a car, and you say you want the "best dim sum", IMHO your best bet is Koi Palace. Make sure you call ahead and get a number. When you arrive, you'll only have to wait 15 or 20 mins, as opposed to over an hour. Our staples are the Shanghai dumplings, mango pudding, egg custard buns, most of the seafood dumplings, sometimes BBQ pork buns, sugar puffs. I can't think of anything I don't like here. As you can tell, I like sweets... I liked Y. Ben House when I was there, but it's kind of grungy looking, but the food was surprisingly good. Good if you're sneaking out by yourself for a quickie dim sum run, but maybe not for impressing the folks. Plus it's the cheapest dim sum I've ever had. I like this place better than Yank Sing, except for the Yank Sing crab dumpling. This place is good for seafood stuff, I believe. I think food at Ton Kiang is fine, but it's really tiny. Miniscule. Also, parking for Ton Kiang is horrible, wait is long and cold, and it's not even half as nice a restaurant as Koi Palace. Why bother? If you really want to go to Yank Sing (very pricey, quality is hit or miss), then go to the one on Spears St, at the Rincon Center, as mentioned by chaud-froid. It's nicer. I liked the crab dumplings here. $5 for 2 I think. Lobster dumplings were nasty, way overcooked the last time I went. $5 for 2 as well, I believe. They do fun shapes like frogs and such. Everything else I've had here was forgettable. I dislike Gold Mountain. --edit I read the article and personally I think these people don't know what they're doing. If you're going to make a list of "some of the best dim sum" in SF Bay Area, I think it's a crime to put Mayflower on a list like that, and leave Koi Palace off. That's not fair to innocent tourists. --end edit

Oh geez, didn't see this post until now. But what the hey, I'll respond. A Yongsusan outlet opened in L.A. years ago. YongSusan Branches I like it because it's different from most of the other Koreatown offerings and it's fairly close to the teahouse Hwa Sun Ji, which continues the "yangban" theme. When I was in Seoul 2 years ago, we didn't go here, but we went practically everywhere else. --edit another soup I have learned to like is soondae guk. I guess women shouldn't like this, but it's pretty good if you ignore what's in it...

I've developed a tolerance for heat that would have amazed me 10 years ago. But my problem was that it burned my mouth to an intolerable level. I never had stomach trouble, but then I usually eat other foods along with the spicy ones.

People definitely should not be bringing in any sort of produce into the country. I think the screeners should do a better job of checking for this. It really irritates me to hear about people bringing back a piece of their trip, in the form of a plant in a flask. Seeds are probably less of a threat, but they still can spread seedborne diseases if the seeds weren't grown out in an environment that would reveal them. But cheese? I suppose it's possible that the spores in the cheese will proliferate and cause widespread ecological disruption, but it's unlikely, as you don't plant them, you eat em. Even juice is okay, for the same reason. I would think Velveeta is even less of a threat, because I don't think they actually age it. Also, the salt in that stuff will kill anything it comes in contact with. In general, I personally think it's okay to "smuggle" goods into the country, as long as it is not any sort of agricultural item. If in doubt, declare. You'll be doing a service to your country. I always declare and never have a problem.