astrid

Garlic, fermented beans, and preserved seafood are all pretty common ingredients to SE Asian hot sauces.  Sometimes they also add spices such as Sichuan peppercorns.

I am a little surprised that they were half full at peak time on a Saturday, so it might be an Opentable snafu.  On our recent visits, it's been mostly to completely full.  I really like Hazel overall.

A friend and I met up for dinner at Le Thai recently.  I'm overall quite pleased with the food and service I got.  We shared 3 entrees and a dessert and ended up with plenty of leftovers.  All the food were nicely prepared and well seasoned, the portions were big, and the prices were quite reasonable.  I could see myself being a regular here if I lived nearby.  My friend said that they recently changed owners and that it was her favorite Thai restaurant in the area.

Knead in Broad Street Market is the best pizza we've sampled in central PA, by far.  Still not at best of MoCo level, but I'm glad to have found our local pizza place.

The Harrisburg branch of Mission BBQ is pretty good, possibly as good as Official BBQ and Burgers before the ownership switch.  My ribs are still way better though.

We were there in 2010, so our food recs are probably out of date.  I did really like Fleur's Place in Moeraki, Bay House in Westport, French Cafe in Auckland ( though the service was stuffy), and Boatshed in Nelson.   Just checked and all still open and getting pretty good ratings.

 I love whites from Marlborough, so that was a delightful day trip for me.

Coromandel peninsula has really wonderful oysters.

If you're looking for something a bit challenging physically, 7 Hour Lost World is on the top of my list for most fun activity ever.  We did both the Tongariro Crossing and Routeburn Trek (coordinated with a pick up and overnight sail in Milford Sound) and can highly recommend both.  Also, go swim with the dolphins in Kaikoura!

Short trip to Pittsburgh and stopped in at Gaucho Parrilla Argentina in the Strip District.  Really impressed by how good and inexpensive this place is.  Well deserves it’s #1 position on Yelp.  Also ate at Morcilla and Cure, they’re very good but pales compared to Gaucho.  Also love the stores in the Strip District.

This year my tomato hybrids were about 1.5X as productive as open pollinated tomatoes.  The biggest difference was that the heirlooms had much more cracking and catfacing.  That's a problem for commercial growers since those cosmetic defects mean the tomatoes can only be sold as seconds or not at all, but not a big problem for home growers. 

Part of my comparative success is that I moved from a community garden in a close-in DC suburb to suburban central PA.  The daytime highs are often 5-10 degrees below DC and overnight lows are usually 10-20 degrees below DC.  The lower temperatures meant that I'm still picking a lot of kale from a spring planting (stem rot and white flies are taking their toll, so they will be pulled soon), whereas they would have expired by early July at the latest in DC.

I wonder how everyone else's vegetable garden is growing this year.  I think this might be my best year yet, thanks to a combination of relatively mild weather, generous rain, and the 18 cubic yards of compost that I spent 2 months hauling around my yard.  The tomatoes in particular have been terrific this year, with my best performer being a monstrous and healthy Juliet (F1 hybrid) tomato, currently with maybe 50 clusters of tomatoes (each with 5-10 tomatoes) in various stages of ripening. It's a decent snacking and cooking tomato and will be my default paste tomato going forward.  Out of about 10 varieties I planted, I can happily recommend Juliet, Momotaro (perfect tomatoes with good tast/texture and long shelf life), Pink Berkeley Tie Dye (best tasting), and Wapsipinicon Peach (great for eat out of hand like a stone fruit).  The only dog was Peacevines, poor taste and pesky to pick, I yanked them out even though the plant was still relatively healthy and had loads of green tomatoes and blooms on it.

The peppers and eggplants have also done very well so far. 

Meanwhile, my ornamental yard (almost a hundred roses and more than a hundred perennials/grasses/shrubs) are under constant attack by rabbits, woodchucks, squirrels, and chipmunks, with certain plants being literally nibbled to death.  The bunnies in particular have been incredibly pesky, eating supposedly poisonous plants such as rhubarb and hellebore into the ground.

Mangia pizza would be a great pizza lunch, having possibly the best pizza ever in my book.  Il Tuscani 2 if you want an authentic giant rare steak dinner.  Both relatively inexpensive.  

There is a coupon for the jerky in the September coupon book.

Washington Post's Capital Weather Gang has been posting weather forecasts for the eclipse area.  Looking very good for the western third and hopeful for South Carolina.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2017/08/16/total-solar-eclipse-weather-forecast-as-of-aug-16/

This site has pretty exhausting description of possible weather scenarios based on historical probabilities.  http://eclipsophile.com/

Yes, I have seen pork jerky in all the east coast Costcos that I have been to.  They are similar to Chinese pork jerky that I grew up with, but better because they are not stale.

I love the parmesan whisps as well, I really regret not stocking up on more when there was a coupon.   A bit pricy but a bag goes a surprisingly long way for snacking.

I also really hope the truffle Gouda will make a triumphant return in a couple months.  It's by far the best truffle cheese I ever had, and I've tried every truffle cheese I ever come across.

My one visit to Cracker Barrel was terrible enough.  Everything there is cooked to death, greasy, and oversalted.  Might as well swallow a bundle of dynamite, a can of Crisco, a can of Morton's, and be done with it.

Trader Joe's has several varieties for around a buck a can.  I don't drink soda but they are handy to have on hand for mixing.

I am now glad that we are going to try to see it on the east coast, rather than in Oregon as we originally planned.  Between monster traffic for sparsely populated areas, coastal haze, and the wildfires, it sounds like a lot of things to worry about.  Hope it goes well!

This makes me very sad, but also feels somewhat inevitable.  I think they have the best overall charcuterie program in DC.  But charcuterie is a very labor intensive business on the retail side and it seems like they never quite made the dine-in aspect click.  I hope the talented people behind SSB will quickly land on their feet and start making delicious cured meat products elsewhere.

It's hard for me to imagine a place less economical than Urban Butcher.  Their success as an ongoing business concern always surprises me.  Have you tried Red Apron / B side for dine in?  The vibe is a little different but child friendly and much cheaper than Urban Butcher, and I think the food is better than UB.

23 hours ago, astrid said:

It's Costco, so you could try it out and return it if you don't like it.  I will say that the optimal use is making zucchini noodles and it doesn't handle carrots or any other veggies so well.  I like it because it's sharp and stores safely and small.

Though it might be too small for a lot of applications, it was a tight fit for a large-ish, but nowhere near baseball bat size zucchini, I imagine it would be too small for potatoes, beets, etc.

Zucchini noodles are excellent tossed with sesame oil, fish sauce, red wine vinegar, and a dusting of Penzey's smoked paprika.

It's Costco, so you could try it out and return it if you don't like it.  I will say that the optimal use is making zucchini noodles and it doesn't handle carrots or any other veggies so well.  I like it because it's sharp and stores safely and small.

And speaking of places that could/should have been a Bib Gourmand...

Based on my experience with Michelin starred restaurants in Europe, there's no clear correlation between quality of food/service and their Michelin rating.  My literal worst restaurant meal of 2015 was at Michelin 3-starred Akelarre.  The food was mediocre at best and barely edible at worst, the service declined precipitously during the meal from average to ridiculously sloppy (arguably second worst service I've ever received, behind Saba in NoVa).  If I was travelling to a city for which there is a Michelin guide, I might consult it as a potential list, but in no way would I consider it authoritative or consistent.

(On the same trip, I had one of my best meals of 2015 at another 3-star, Restaurant Martin Berasategui.  The food was wonderful and the service was exceptionally exemplary.)

Costco is currently selling a compact set also made by Oxo.  Really like it so far.

7 hours ago, ktmoomau said:

If you will have a wifi device with you, getting around the major cities of Japan with absolutely no context of kanji or Japanese is super easy (in the big cities there is a lot of free wifi, but it often isn't strong enough to do the job).  Google maps works exceedingly well with train tables, metro tables and directions, walking directions and etc- it is very good at finding places.  I used Google Maps and translate for quite a bit, and was very happy I had wifi with me the whole time.  The subway in Tokyo now has all English, they have English speaking staff in the metro and JR stations in fancy uniforms.  Many young people speak some English, and there are a lot of signs in English now (and probably even more-so in Tokyo from last year because they are gearing up for the Olympics).  Japan is very rule following, and most parts of Japan we were in we felt safe walking at any time.  I let my 18 year old cousin have lots of leeway because it was very safe.  Taxis tend to need some map or phone number to get you where you want to go as they don't have a formal address system like ours. If you read my threads in the Japan thread I have a lot of detail in there, but I would highly recommend it as actually being much easier to travel in than I expected.

Thanks for the vote of confidence!  I did read your comments on Japan and they were really encouraging!

Yeesh, now I want to book tickets for Tokyo.  Except that I also have a bunch of work related trips coming up, and 3-5 other fun trips coming up in the next 10 months.  Maybe fall 2018, before a shenjianbao filled jaunt to Shanghai...

How hard is it to get around as an independent traveler in Japan, if you don't speak the language?  I always hear that it's challenging, but between Google Translate, my ability to recognize Kanji (since I can read Chinese) and presumably universal English classes for everyone under 50, it doesn't seem like that big of a challenge.  

Omakase at Sushi Taro and omakase at the bar at Ogawa are completely different beasts.  For extravagance and variety, Sushi Taro is amazing.  But I prefer Ogawa for the rice and for serving the fish a little warmer, which improves the taste and texture a lot. 

Definitely make sure that you eat at the bar if you can, it's a big step up from table service (which I was a little disappointed by).  Then again, my experience is that sushi is always much better if you can eat at the bar. 

I would be curious to hear how top tier sushi in Japan compares to what's available in North America.  The only Japanese sushi I've ever eaten was at sushi Kyotatsu in Narita.  It was quite good, probably in my top 10 sushi eating experience.  I know Kyotatsu is famously *good for airport* sushi, but it does make me wonder what's on offer in the rest of Japan.

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Japan (lion)

As with any old school Cantonese seafood restaurant, you even get to meet your lobster/crab/fish before eating it.  I don't know what they use to cut up the lobster claws, some of the shells were 3-4 mm thick.

Toronto Restaurants Subjective Best to Worst

ALO Bar - Great cocktails and food, excellent service, good space, and plenty of room to accommodate walk-ins.  All this is severely under-rating how lovely this place is.  We're definitely going to try for a reservation to ALO proper for a re-visit to Toronto plus re-visiting ALO's bar.

Black Hoof - we almost didn't go here because their website said cash and Canadian debit only.  Actually they're happy to take US-ian credit cards now.  I really love the place, it has a nice vibe and a menu that reads well and tastes even better. The cocktails are nice, the food is very good, and the waitstaff treated us well.  We loved it so much that we came back for an encore the next day. 

Honest Weight - Honest to goodness great fresh seafood, not expensive and generous portions, and nice space.  The service was a little space-y but pleasant, and easy to forgive when everything else clicks so well.

Dragon Boat - seems to be amongst the top 2-3 places in Toronto for dimsun according to current Chowhound chatter.  It's certainly popular with the local Chinese population.  There was a line out the door at 10:45 AM on July 4th, a work day in Canada.  Luckily we were able to get seated quickly and ordered way too much food.  They don't do pushcarts but let you mark up an order sheet and then bring the food to your table when  its ready.  It's definitely the best dimsun since my last trip to Shanghai (my opinion is that Shanghainese shenjianbao is impossible to beat in the dimsun category).  Overall I really liked the food, even though the presentation is not elegant and the taste is not very refined, they're all spot-on for tasty.  They are really generous with portions, one of their dimsun (of 3 or 4 per order) would practically be a full order elsewhere (which is why my fridge is now crammed with dimsun of dubious eatability). 

Bar Raval - Bar Raval gets lots of positive raves.  It's good but I don't think a level above top tier tapas/pintxo bars elsewhere.  The atmosphere is nice and the Pollard punch I had was really really nice.  The specialty here is expensive imported cans of Spanish seafood.  Having parted with a decent chunk of change for 2 smallish cans of seafood, I don't get the appeal.  The flavor profile is more or less tinned oysters packed in oil, not a bad taste but not worth $20-50 per 50g portion, at least for me.  The non-canned portion of their menu is quite good and they serve their full menu (plus donuts) for breakfast (starting at 8 AM), so maybe a great spot to start drinking early to a platter of ham, tomato toast, and some fine tender octopus.

Fishman Lobster Club - I couldn't resist *GIANT CRUSTACEAN MOUNTAIN* so we made our way here.  You get pretty good value for your money, for $120CAD before tax and tip, we got a 7+ lb lobster fried up into a foot plus tall mound of garlic scented lobster chunks plus a large platter of tasty fried rice with roe and tamale plus a large platter of decent stir fried pea shoots.  This is their suggested 2 person meal but could feed 4 and maybe even 6 normal appetite people.  Good thing they ran out of king crab because I was actually tempted to order the lobster/crab combo for 4 people (5 lbs lobster + 6 lbs king crab).  The lobster was nicely done - tasty, fresh, and easy to extract.  It's probably worth going just for the picture, getting to eat a giant pile of lobster is just a bonus.  If you can get smaller, 3-5 lbs is probably the sweet spot for lobsters, bigger lobsters have a higher proportion of weight tied up in heavy claws rather than tail meat. 

Edulis - scored a last minute brunch (really lunch, nothing brunch-y about the meal) reservation at Edulis.  It was quite good but didn't fully click with us.  I think I just don't like homestyle cuisine when I'm dining out, and it seems like Edulis is mostly serving an elevated kind of home cooking.  I had a similar issue with Vetri and Bibou in Philly, everyone else seems to love them but I'm luke warm on the experience.  The individual bites were really nice and +1 loved the house soda program here.  The rolls and butter here are really great too (rolls almost as good as Kinship's parker house rolls and butter almost as good as the best Parisien butter).  The atmosphere for brunch is lovely and warm, it seems like half the people here are regulars and knew the owners well.  If this sounds like your thing, you may be happy to know that Edulis offered half off on wines with their Sunday brunch. 

Buca Yorkville - the seafood charcuterie plate was very nice.  The seafood platter is nicely fresh but too dominated by the olive oil that it's doused with.  The pastas were nice too.  It's good but not good enough to justify the mark-up (probably 50-100% more expensive than comparables elsewhere).  We did considerably better and much cheaper elsewhere.

DaiLo - I've decided that Chinese fusion cuisine is just not my thing and may just not that good, period.  Always end up unbalanced and dominated by one or two notes.  And the cocktail I got here was the worst one I had in Toronto by far.