jschyun

Pickles? I always thought that was a garnish to be thrown away if present on the plate. Honestly, after eating the canned pickles as a child, I never took to them. Oh no, what if the pickles are bad! Ahh! I'll have to revisit Langer's and I'm going to New York in a couple of months, so I'll reevaluate then.

I had an experience writing a story for a local paper, where I reviewed a restaurant and said some negative things. They weren't all that negative. Basically, I told the reader to avoid certain dishes, because they weren't very good. Aside from these dishes, I gave a glowing review. The editor returned the piece to me, saying he couldn't publish negative comments, in a restaurant review. I rewrote it without the offending remarks. However, I'm curious to know what the policy is at the LA Times, regarding not-so-positive statements in reviews. I can't recall seeing anything negative or cautionary in their reviews. Also, is this a legal issue? Are newspapers worried about getting sued over a critical remark in their paper? One of the reasons I love egullet is that I get the unvarnished truth from people. People here will tell you if a restaurant stinks or if it's a winner, and why. They'll tell you what their favorite dishes are, and which ones to avoid. If one's hands are bound by an editorial preference, what good is the final review? If someone goes to that restaurant and tries one of the "bad" dishes, am I not ultimately culpable? It is a rare restaurant that is good at everything. Thanks for your participation in this Q&A. I have enjoyed reading all your posts here, and in the California forum.

Langer's beats the pants off the New York places. Believe it or not. I think Katz's is the only hand slicer left in the Big Apple. Everyone else slices theirs on a machine. Feh. Also Langer's does something to their bread (I think they throw it in water and recrisp it before serving) so everything is nice and fresh. It is my belief that Langer's is the best pastrami in the nation. I am not alone. Jonathan Gold also thinks so.

Well, after avoiding all the people standing in line and chanting, I found a new market! I have already forgotten the name, but I think it's called Henry's and it is a new health food market that opened up near my house and I never knew it until now. I got a really fresh large green pepper for 25 cents and a box of graham crackers to make key lime tarts with for $1.29. Sweet! --edit oh, Henry's workers are part of a union, but a different one.

So how do you make that creamy egg custard in the middle? I looked through all the books in the library including Wei-Chuan, Florence Lin and some others and didn't see any, although I was flipping rather fast in my urgent quest. --edit The texture seems to be radically different from the egg custard tarts. In fact, I would say they aren't the same thing at all. Just my 2 cents. --another edit So you use yeast with cake flour? That doesn't make sense to me. The cake flour would let all that gas escape. Please enlighten me. Thank you

I am looking for a recipe for custard buns, those white steamed buns with bright yellow egg custard in the middle. I haven't seen any recipes for this anywhere, not even Wei Chuan. Can anyone help? Also, what kind of flour do you use for your bao recipes? I like my bao dough to turn out unnaturally white and very fluffy just like at Koi Palace in San Francisco. But I think it's my flour or something that is not letting do that. Help! Also, does anyone know of a really good recipe for shanghai "juicy" dumplings? Soup dumplings? custard tarts? Thanks in advance.

I just read about this and I'm ready to head on over there unless someone says it's really bad. SFGate article about Roxanne's To Go

Yeah, good point. Since I normally don't do the barbeque thing in L.A., I can't vouch for any of them except Dong Il Jang. It was pretty good, but not thrilling. I'd like to hear what others have to say.

In the odd language known as English language - American style, the word "cookie" is a noun that refers to a small, (usually sweet) "flat or slightly raised cake". The word is believed to be derived from the Dutch "koekje", diminutive of koek cake (1) 1. (Merriam Webster) So it's not an adjective, but a noun. As mentioned by tryska: UK: biscuits == US: cookies Cookies are also a web term but I won't go into that here.

I was thinking one of the bigger places in L.A or OC. Open to suggestions. Just off the top of my head: Soot Bull Jeep haven't been, everyone else says it's decent. ChoSun Galbi heard good things about this place Dong Il Jang Restaurant pretty good Chung Ki Wa Wonder if this is related to the soft tofu place in Fullerton? Shik Do Rak good food, but the OC location is larger and nicer There are a couple of bbq places in fullerton that are good, but whose names escape my memory. I'm open to any of these or any others that you guys find out about. I was wondering if people would be interested in early november, since the dim sum thing is next week. I'm in town only every other week so I'll be able to make it if we do it on weekend of Nov1-Nov2, or Nov 7-9, Nov 15-16.

You hit the mark when you wondered if I don't eat dog because it is usually eaten by males to increase sexual potency. You are also right in saying that our food animals live in filthy, cramped conditions before being slaughtered. This isn't just in Korea; the USA has a very bad record. They use Jindo dogs for boshing tang? I used to have a jindo dog... Regardless of my feelings pro or con, I get a little irritated that Korea has been targeted with global scorn for the practice of eating dogs when American Southerners purportedly eat raccoons, squirrels, and skunks. The craze in the U.S. is now ostrich meat. I love dogs, I would never eat them personally, but I just don't understand why it's okay to eat one animal and not the other.

Some of us are doing that dim sum thing in Rosemead on Oct 19, right? Maybe we could schedule it around that.

Hi, Was wondering if anyone would like to meet up for some good Korean BBQ. Anyone interested?

I personally love those toddler sticks that everyone else thinks is gross. People are rushed these days. The average family has two wage earners trying to make ends meet. Sometimes, you don't have the time to perfectly steam some veggies for your own dinner let alone baby's. So you crack open a jar. Or plastic container? I guess it depends on what country you're in.

Chocolate Chocolate Cookie is very chocolately. Love it My all time favorite is that limited edition Oatmeal cookie with chocolate chunks. I don't even like oatmeal. We get Whoopie Pie here in Southern California, as an FYI All time other fave is Mint Chocolate cookie. I might have already mentioned it's minty goodness, but it bears repeating in my one track mind.

You're absolutely right. You tell 'em! Nobody should be eating this processed crap! I mean, look at all the disgusting processed items parading as food, that line our supermarket shelves : cheese, deli meats, candies, chocolates, cookies, salsa, canned soups, tomato sauces, pasta... Yeah, we really gotta stop eating this stuff. I think a boycott is in order. Really, there is no need to type out condescending remarks like "You could even thaw these out in baby food jars if that would seem more comfortable. ". Get over yourself.

If Y. Ben House is in Chinatown, wouldn't that make it closest to Union Square? I think you might even be able to walk it.

Ton Kiang is good, but I think Koi Palace is better for ambiance and presentation. Food quality is excellent at both places but Koi Palace seems to me to have much more variety in dim sum. It's a very nice restaurant. We went yesterday and were offered birds nest custard tarts, shanghai dumplings, an unusual shrimp dumpling, like har gau but shaped like a beggars purse and containing scallops as well. Maybe it's common here, but haven't seen that one. I would even venture to say that Koi Palace is better than Sun Sui Wah, in Vancouver, in terms of variety and presentation. However, I felt the fragrance and taste of the jasmine tea was superior at Sun Sui Wah. I like Ton Kiang's seafood better by a hair,but I like everything else better at Koi Palace. If you go to Koi Palace, know that they have a weird reservation system. You call ahead to put your name in the reservation queue and then when you get there you take a number and wait for 20 minutes or so. This is in contrast to waiting over an hour if you don't call ahead!

I think they use snow crab legs. Probably frozen and dumped into a vat of salt water or...something.

I think that Trader Joe's is a good starting point for people who like food. You can buy a large bottle of black truffle oil for $10. Now it's not exceptional, but it's as good as the bottles at my local "gourmet" emporiums. I got hooked on Trader Joe's offerings and then I started branching out. This is my problem. When I first started getting cheeses at Trader Joe's I thought they were awesome. Then I tried the cheeses in Paris and even Beverly Hills Cheese Shop and then I stopped liking Trader Joe's stuff. I kind of miss the days when I could buy Trader Joe's brie and not know I was eating something totally inferior to the real thing. Tben again, I do love a good cheese. It's a constant struggle.

What's funny is the fact that my mother never used baby food. Never. She didn't trust it so she scraped up bananas herself and fed them to us, ground up rice and made a gruel, made applesauce on a little grater...you get the picture. I started eating those toddler sausages as an adult because they looked like vienna sausages and I love vienna sausages. Signs that say "for toddlers age 2-3" don't dissuade me from eating them.

I've never heard of Total yogurt, so I'll be scouting for that on the next shopping trip. Thanks! We are fans of Horizon (organic) yogurt. Not the nonfat kind. Comes in plain or vanilla, and I think we buy it at Trader Joe's.

I admit that as an adult, I used to eat those toddler sized chicken sticks (just like vienna sausages, except with less salt). My best friend watched me eat them once and said it was the most disgusting thing he ever saw me eat. I was kind of curious if anyone else ate stuff packaged for babies.

You know, in all these years, I still don't know exactly what that was for. I guess iron or something. He's also big on whole grains, beans, and sweet potatoes. I have to say, for a 60+ year old guy, he's very fit and young looking.

My dad is a health nut, oh I'm sorry, I mean health advocate. When we were little kids, I remember him cutting up cubes of dark red, quivery, raw calves liver on a little chopping board and covering them with salt and sesame oil. It's disgusting, but at the time...I loved it. I think I like anything doused in salt and sesame oil though. --edit I remember some more meals I thought I had repressed My boyfriend's mom is a very peppy, eager to please kind of gal. They're Caucasian and I'm Asian so she wanted to make me feel more at home by making some sort of Asian dish. She made some stuff in a wok and put it in a bowl in front of me. My boyfriend took one look and said he didn't want any. I can't remember the entirety of the dish, but I do recall water chestnuts, some dry, chewy thin noodles, and a lot of soy sauce with some celery and other assorted vegetables and tofu. I think it had dill as well. There was no rice or anything to help it down. Not as bad as orange salad though. hehe I once perpetrated a bad food experience on my poor college roommate and her boyfriend. I made some Thai chicken coconut soup and patiently chopped up the lemongrass which we later had to pick out of our teeth and it was so hard on our teeth that nobody took more than a couple of bites. Also, I used cream and it was so creamy, it was almost like a sauce. We haven't kept in touch.