"Cat meat is good for women. You can eat it in the summer or winter. It is very light. Men usually prefer dog. It is like yin and yang. Cat is yin and dog is yang," said customer Jiang Changlin, who works for the local government.
He recommended that visitors try one of Guangdong's most famous recipes, "dragon fighting tiger," a dish made with both snake and cat, its distinctiveness coming from the competing power of the ingredients.
The FDA has issues with Coca Cola's new Diet Coke Plus. It sent the company a letter earlier this month about the drink, which Coke purports to have a "refreshing taste...AND several essential nutrients" with "each 8 fl. oz. serving of Diet Coke Plus provid(ing) 15% of your RDI for niacin and vitamins B6 and B12, and 10% for zinc and magnesium".
So what do the feds have a problem with? It's the word "plus", believe it or not.
The FDA says that the drink fails to meet the standard for the word. Their letter to Coke goes on to say that the new drink is "misbranded ... because the product makes a nutrient content claim but does not meet the criteria to make the claim."
As an avowed hater of all things Diet drink (the aftertaste makes my mouth want shrivel up and die), my problem is not with the word "plus" (which I had no idea needed to be quantifiable), it's with their claim that it has a "refreshing taste". Blech.
And they're going to put vitamins in it?! I'll take water, thank you.
I don't shop at Bloomingdale's, but I like going through its front entrance to get to the mall. Why? In the store's entryway, you can see into Charlie Palmer's kitchen through this eye-slit of a peep-hole. From it, you can spy all the cooking action and the Top Chef dreamers doing it, and that's exactly what most of these bright-eyed kids look like: Marcels and Hungs.
It's fun to watch what goes on in there, even if it does get a bit boring without the QuickFire Challenges.
Next to Charlie Palmer's, across the same hallway, Crustacean is slated to open in the spring. This makes no sense to me. But I suppose as long as there are people who are willing and able to drop coin on Bloomingdales' overpriced wares, there will be customers who will do the same on Crustacean's overpriced Vietnamese food -- all the while oblivious that Little Saigon lies just a few exits away on the 405.
Normally, I'd save my ire until I try a place, but about eight years ago I had the displeasure of eating at the Beverly Hills location -- an experience that left me about $80 poorer and for what? Bo luc lac and their "famous" garlic noodles, which tasted like gussied up store bought ramen.
And since we looked like Orange County bumpkin with no cash in the bank (which was not entirely untrue) you can guess how well we were treated.
Reuters had an enlightening article today about how in Thailand, authentic Thai food is endangered because of "changing tastes wrought by globalization." And most lamentably "culinary shortcuts (that) have ended up changing Thai flavors, and placing some dishes in danger of extinction altogether."
At the Irvine Spectrum, according to this post here on the OC Metblogs. Personally, I've become re-acquainted with the chain's terrific burgers, ever since I moved to Seal Beach and can easily walk to the one at the end of the Seal Beach Pier.....KOCE-OC Mon, 12/01/2008 10:30:00
KOCE-OC Tue, 12/02/2008 11:00:00
KOCE-OC Wed, 12/03/2008 03:30:00
KOCE-OC Wed, 12/03/2008 01:00:00
KOCE-OC Fri, 12/05/2008 20:00:00
KOCE-OC Fri, 12/05/2008 15:30:00
KOCE-OC Sat, 12/06/2008 10:30:00
KOCE-OC Sat, 12/06/2008 03:00:00
KOCE-OC Sun, 12/07/2008 20:00:00
KOCE-OC Sun, 12/07/2008 02:30:00
*For the record: Alton Brown is still a God, the only exception to the rule.
Here's an interesting story by the LA Times about our sister paper's venerated and Pulitzer Prize-winning food critic, his meal of whale on a trip to South Korea, and what his brother Mark, a marine scientist and president of Heal the Bay thinks about it.
Here's somewhat encouraging news in discouraging times. Although "at least eight people were laid off this year from the company's office in Woodland Hills", according to an article in the LA Times, about a dozen Daily Grill executives -- whose annual salaries range from $100,000 to $350,000 -- are going to take a 10% pay cut, effective immediately, instead of resorting to more lay-offs.
Amazingly, both parties have ignored Mexicans in this election. So leave it to the animal-abusing geniuses behind the No on Proposition 2 campaign (y'know, that nefarious measure that would force farmers to treat their animals humanely) to conjure up the spectre of the Reconquista in this ominous ad. Dig the long lines!
And it's not the first time Prop. 2 opponents have bagged on Mexico:
I can't say I'm surprised. Besides, list like these are subjective, as all lists are. But this one, is especially so. A panel of four, consisting of "Food & Wine Restaurant Editor Kate Krader; Anya Fernald, executive director of Slow Food Nation; and Erik Wolf, president of the International Culinary and Tourism Association", did the picking.
But I can't say that I wasn't slightly disappointed that O.C. didn't even get a mention for all the wonderful ethnic foods we have. Doesn't Little Saigon, Little Seoul, all of Santa Ana, and Little Gaza count for something?
Sure, we could do a little better on the fine dining front, but we've still got our gems. Bluefin? Marche Moderne? You can't tell me they're not worthy.
Though I am intrigued on what the article has to say about the microbrewery scene San Diego, surely we're just as good as Tucson!
Or perhaps I'm reading it all wrong. The list says "Up-And-Coming". Perhaps being excluded means that we've already ARRIVED!
To read the article for yourselves, click HERE.
Melamine-tainted baby formula: tragic and scary.
Melamine-tainted pet food: sad.
Now a New York Times story reports that melamine has also been detected in edible adult sex accessories sold in England. It's still disturbing, of course, but somehow, this time, you can't help but chuckle a little bit -- if only because this might just be the first time the phrase "edible sex accessories" has ever appeared on the pages of The New York Times.
The short article goes on to reassure people who have eaten (ahem) from the Chinese-made strawberry "body pens" and erotic chocolate lotion that the levels of melamine discovered were low.
But it just goes to show that nothing, and I do mean nothing, is sacred.
The Newport Beach City Council will vote today on an ordinance to ban Sytrofoam products. Initially proposed by students of Newport Harbor High School, the citywide ban would curb the use of those to-go containers we are all too familiar with, but according to The Daily Pilot, it includes a hardship clause that "exempts restaurants if eliminating Styrofoam products from their businesses would cause owners undue economic hardship and no reasonable alternative can be found."
Similar ordinances are already in effect in Laguna Hills.
Update Oct. 15: The Newport Beach City Council was unanimous in banning Styrofoam. Final approval is expected to happen Oct. 28th. If it passes this final step, the ban will begin April 29th of next year.
A few months ago, Orange County had its first crudo bar in Blanca; and now, not so much. There was already signs of trouble back in July when repo men were sent to rip out equipment from its kitchens as Newport Beach police stood guard. Blanca's suppliers said the restaurant wasn't paying their bills.
Then there was word that the chef left because they were allegedly not paying him either. Now the restaurant is under new management, and most importantly, has changed over to serving "Coastal Mexican". The closest you'll get to crudo there now is most likely ceviche, which is probably for the better anyway. Blanca's crudo, while good, was exorbitant. Not the kind of meal anyone can justify paying for in this economy.
The real story here, though, is about The Mor Project, the developers who were behind Blanca and Irezumi Sushi. They seemed to have disappeared from the face of the world, or at least the world wide web. Their website (http://www.morproject.com/) is offline, and so is Irezumi Sushi's.
The first hit on Google if you search for "The Mor Project" sheds some light on why. Posted two days ago, this website called The Rip-Off Report has a post by an "investor" who is allegedly suing its founder. And if you believe what the anonymous poster has to say, it's safe to assume that the wine bar and restaurant dubbed Fleur de L’Age the group was building at The Irvine Spectrum won't be opening soon, or ever.
The San Francisco Chronicle had an interesting and informative article today on what's believed to be "the only sustainable sushi bar in North America." It serves no bluefin toro, hamachi, unagi, octopus or spider rolls (from Chinese blue crabs). It's called Tataki. Read about what they serve instead and how they do it here.
According to various news reports and this one from ABC News, beginning this week, the USDA is requiring that all food retailers label some foods with their country of origin. The law, called COOL (Country of Origin Labeling) will mandate that the consumer is informed where all "raw beef, veal, lamb, pork, chicken, goat, wild and farm-raised fish and shellfish, fresh or frozen fruits and vegetables, peanuts, pecans, macadamia nuts and whole ginseng" are from.
Amid the widening Chinese milk scandal, this might seem timely, but the ABC article correctly notes that the recent outbreak of E. coli was from spinach grown in California.
TV food critic Elmer Dills, who was a regular on KABC's Eyewitness News, passed away yesterday at 82. Read the story on KABC's own website.
One of the first investigative series I wrote was on Gigante Supermarkets, a multibillion-dollar Mexican chain that wanted to open a store in Anaheim in order to conquer local Latino households. Its efforts made national headlines because this multinational cried the race card after Anaheim planning officials approved their plans but denied a liquor license because the area where Gigante wanted to open a store already had too many over the legal limit. Gigante enlisted the help of mega-hitters--PR firm Waters & Faubel, race warrior Larry "Nativo" Lopez (who memorably, stupidly said Gigante's rejection amounted to "market ethnic cleansing"), and then-Anaheim mayoral candidate Curt Pringle--in order to browbeat the Anaheim City Council into approving the liquor license, going so far as to make the ridiculous claim Latinos in Anaheim were underserved in their supermarket needs. Gigante won, opened a store in 2003, and quickly spoke of becoming the dominant Latino supermarket in Southern California.
So what was the sign we saw yesterday while driving up Euclid Avenue on the way to visit Mami y Papi? A new sign proclaiming "EL SUPER." This is what I get for not reading the Orange County Business Journal--seems Gigante sold off its American holdings to another business over the summer, and the Gigante Reconquista is over. The culprit wasn't the faltering economy, but rather homegrown--the Northgate Gonzalez supermarket empire.
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...Is Avanti Cafe, the Costa Mesa Slow Food laboratory of everything great and healthy. They serve food at the Great Park's Hangar Cafe for the massive thing's free Friday and Saturday concerts. The menu is limited--veggie burgers, three-way hummus (as delicious as it sound randy), salads, and a massive choco-chip cream cheese banana sandwich that's worth its pricey $8 price is about it. But in honor of the Great Park's multi-culti offerings, Avanti also prepares special menus themed with every performance--taro for Hawaiian groups, a potato-and-black-bean salad topped with an heirloom tomato dressing for the recent mick concert. This special menu is worth the drive down to Larry Agran's baby, but if you miss out, don't worry--just visit Avanti on Tuesdays for their International Tuesday offerings.
According to KTLA News, there was a gun fight overnight at the Alerto's Mexican Food parking lot in Westminster. Two people were shot, one critically.