I went to Todai with H for dinner last night. For those who may be interested, Todai is a chain restaurant who serves all you can eat seafood and some other stuff. There's sushi, king crab, dungeness, and a lot of other things. Things are pretty good and we stuffed ourselves.
Halfway through dinner, we noticed that there is a kid sitting on a high chair with a large piece of tarp (garbage bag?) under the whole thing. H thought the parents probably have a really messy kid and wonder how messy the kid can get. We were both only mildly interested at this point and we were sitting a little too far away to receive much damage in case the kid blows up or something.
Turns out this must be the restaurant's policy as we noticed another kid with the same kind of setup.
I guess it's better than trying to vacuum up sticky goopy food that they may drop.
Monday, June 26, 2006
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Unit of measurement
We had a potluck at work today. Everybody brought something, some brought more than one thing. It was fun. We had lots of food. Among the pickings are: rotisseri chicken, chicken masala, pasta salad, lassagne, corn beef, california rolls, roasted pepper salad, magarita cheesecake, snicker doodles, cubed cantalopes, shrimp cocktail and soda. There were 8 of us total and as you can probably tell ... we really loaded up on the food.
Everything was good, except we felt that the roasted pepper and pasta salads were too garlic-y. The guy who made them followed the recipes accordingly too. We didn't figured out the reason until after our whole meal and we were cleaning up. Turns out he thought a clove of garlic was what the rest of us considers a whole bulb. Good thing he didn't get his recipes from the Stinking Rose, whose signature dish is their famous 40-clove garlic chicken!
Everything was good, except we felt that the roasted pepper and pasta salads were too garlic-y. The guy who made them followed the recipes accordingly too. We didn't figured out the reason until after our whole meal and we were cleaning up. Turns out he thought a clove of garlic was what the rest of us considers a whole bulb. Good thing he didn't get his recipes from the Stinking Rose, whose signature dish is their famous 40-clove garlic chicken!
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
yummy spa-rific stuff
Ok, so this is not entirely food, but since it's food-related, I'll just stick it in here for safekeeping.
Foodstuff as spa products has grown out of my curious nature with kitchen experiments, so here are a few. Enjoy!
Scrubs:
Baking soda, sugar, salt all make excellent scrubs. Mix any of them with your favorite cleanser and instantly give yourself a post-microdermabrasion glow. Cetaphyll is an excellent, mild product that's good for any type of skin.
Masks:
Just about anything goopy works. For dryer skin, try oilier stuff like mashed avocado, banana, mayo, etc. I've heard people using honey, which is an anti-inflammatory agent, but I've never tried it for the sticky factor.
For oilier skin like mine, my favorite has been just plain yogurt. The stuff has lactic acid in it, helping skin renew itself. Mix to it some ground up oatmeal (I used a coffee grinder to ground mine up). Rub a generous dollop on. It acts as a scrub for a while when you're rubbing the goop on, then a mask when you're letting it dry. The leftovers make a lovely breakfast for yourself too.
Body moisturizers:
Reading the ingredient lists on a lot of the natural products, I've found that a lot of them contain stuff we have in our kitchen cabinets, or at least the cooking isle from the supermarkets. Grape seed oil, olive oil, sesame oil, almond oil. I haven't tried using these yet, since most of these have a pretty distinct aroma. I'll have to do a bit more research before trying them. I do believe that there may just be cosmetic grade oils for their specific use.
Bath bombs:
These have been really popular lately. Fragrant balls of fizz that's activated when they are in water. Some contain oils or different kinds of grease-type stuff like coco butter, shea butter, mango butter, coconut butter, etc. Be careful not to use too much oil as any kind of liquid sets off the bombs. You don't want them to start fizzing up before you're ready to use them. The basic recipe calls for just baking soda and citric acid. You can leave them loose and in a jar and just use scoopfuls of them at bath-time, or you can mist the dry mixture with some kind of a binding liquid like witch hazel, vitamin E oil, sweet almond oil, etc. and put the mixture into molds to form balls, or whatever other shape you choose. The butters can be mixed in after the dry ingredients are mixed and before the misting. Other stuff can be incorporated: corn starch to keep things smooth, Epsom salt as additional bath salt and water softening agent, dry flowers, etc.
Pick a dry day to make it. I made two batches. The first batch came out great; the second one started bubbling when I was trying to mold it. I used plastic Easter egg shapes and just filled the two halves and mashed them together. I haven't quite gotten the hang of keeping the two halves together when I unmold them, but will keep practicing.
Foodstuff as spa products has grown out of my curious nature with kitchen experiments, so here are a few. Enjoy!
Scrubs:
Baking soda, sugar, salt all make excellent scrubs. Mix any of them with your favorite cleanser and instantly give yourself a post-microdermabrasion glow. Cetaphyll is an excellent, mild product that's good for any type of skin.
Masks:
Just about anything goopy works. For dryer skin, try oilier stuff like mashed avocado, banana, mayo, etc. I've heard people using honey, which is an anti-inflammatory agent, but I've never tried it for the sticky factor.
For oilier skin like mine, my favorite has been just plain yogurt. The stuff has lactic acid in it, helping skin renew itself. Mix to it some ground up oatmeal (I used a coffee grinder to ground mine up). Rub a generous dollop on. It acts as a scrub for a while when you're rubbing the goop on, then a mask when you're letting it dry. The leftovers make a lovely breakfast for yourself too.
Body moisturizers:
Reading the ingredient lists on a lot of the natural products, I've found that a lot of them contain stuff we have in our kitchen cabinets, or at least the cooking isle from the supermarkets. Grape seed oil, olive oil, sesame oil, almond oil. I haven't tried using these yet, since most of these have a pretty distinct aroma. I'll have to do a bit more research before trying them. I do believe that there may just be cosmetic grade oils for their specific use.
Bath bombs:
These have been really popular lately. Fragrant balls of fizz that's activated when they are in water. Some contain oils or different kinds of grease-type stuff like coco butter, shea butter, mango butter, coconut butter, etc. Be careful not to use too much oil as any kind of liquid sets off the bombs. You don't want them to start fizzing up before you're ready to use them. The basic recipe calls for just baking soda and citric acid. You can leave them loose and in a jar and just use scoopfuls of them at bath-time, or you can mist the dry mixture with some kind of a binding liquid like witch hazel, vitamin E oil, sweet almond oil, etc. and put the mixture into molds to form balls, or whatever other shape you choose. The butters can be mixed in after the dry ingredients are mixed and before the misting. Other stuff can be incorporated: corn starch to keep things smooth, Epsom salt as additional bath salt and water softening agent, dry flowers, etc.
Pick a dry day to make it. I made two batches. The first batch came out great; the second one started bubbling when I was trying to mold it. I used plastic Easter egg shapes and just filled the two halves and mashed them together. I haven't quite gotten the hang of keeping the two halves together when I unmold them, but will keep practicing.
Monday, June 12, 2006
Delancy Street
I've been trying to convince other people to go try new restaurants with me for some time now. For some reason, most people I know either don't have much of a taste bud to appreciate really good food (at least I don't think they can tell the difference between excellent food with ok food), or they would find a place they like and just keep going there and ordering the same foods each time.
Time for a change.
So I finally convinced D to go try out Delancy Street with me last week. I have wanted to try this place out for some time now. The restaurant is actually part of an organization to give training and sort of a last chance to people who would end of in jail (or prison) for a very long time. The organization provides training and services in a host of different areas. Restaurant, moving, Xmas sales, cleaning, etc. The entire "staff" live onsite, they work, they learn, in exchange for a new chance in life. They typically stay in the program for about 2 to 3 years and come out a "new" person.
I've heard a few of my friends talk about this place and even my aunt had talked about how the food was good and a great deal. So we went last Wednesday to try them out.
We shared an appetizer of crab cakes. I don't believe these were made with the local Dungeness crabs. Two pretty good sized crab cakes were presented on a bed of mixed greens. Very nicely presented and the cakes were pretty good too. D ordered pork ribs. It came with callard greens and a slice of sweet potato pie. The ribs were a little tough, but I guess it may be unfair to compare them with those from Houston's. Both of us agreed that the sauce was too tangy.
I ordered the rib-eye steak with whiskey sauce. It came with mashed potatos and squash (green and yellow). The whiskey sauce did not taste of whiskey, but I guess that's a good thing. The steak was a little over done (I had asked for medium rare, but it came medium). I chose to just eat it. Both the sides were really good. The mashed potatos was creamy without being too gluey and the squash were definately fresh and not from a frozen bag.
We were both too stuffed for dessert. All in all, the meal wasn't bad, but it wasn't excellent by any means. Overall, a place that I don't mind going back to, but wouldn't seek it out as a place that I crave going back to either.
Time for a change.
So I finally convinced D to go try out Delancy Street with me last week. I have wanted to try this place out for some time now. The restaurant is actually part of an organization to give training and sort of a last chance to people who would end of in jail (or prison) for a very long time. The organization provides training and services in a host of different areas. Restaurant, moving, Xmas sales, cleaning, etc. The entire "staff" live onsite, they work, they learn, in exchange for a new chance in life. They typically stay in the program for about 2 to 3 years and come out a "new" person.
I've heard a few of my friends talk about this place and even my aunt had talked about how the food was good and a great deal. So we went last Wednesday to try them out.
We shared an appetizer of crab cakes. I don't believe these were made with the local Dungeness crabs. Two pretty good sized crab cakes were presented on a bed of mixed greens. Very nicely presented and the cakes were pretty good too. D ordered pork ribs. It came with callard greens and a slice of sweet potato pie. The ribs were a little tough, but I guess it may be unfair to compare them with those from Houston's. Both of us agreed that the sauce was too tangy.
I ordered the rib-eye steak with whiskey sauce. It came with mashed potatos and squash (green and yellow). The whiskey sauce did not taste of whiskey, but I guess that's a good thing. The steak was a little over done (I had asked for medium rare, but it came medium). I chose to just eat it. Both the sides were really good. The mashed potatos was creamy without being too gluey and the squash were definately fresh and not from a frozen bag.
We were both too stuffed for dessert. All in all, the meal wasn't bad, but it wasn't excellent by any means. Overall, a place that I don't mind going back to, but wouldn't seek it out as a place that I crave going back to either.
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