Hybrid Kimchi Recipe

I love the taste of homemade kimchi, but it can be quite time consuming, mostly from the first part - salting the cabbage, which using the Maangchi recipe, takes hours. While on a flight, I watched a Masterclass episode about fermented foods and the chef, David Zilber, did a very quick kimchi using a 2% ratio of veggies to kosher salt. I tried his recipe, but didn't care for the flavor, so I combined his salting technique with Maangchi's general recipe (with some adjustment, mostly removing ingredients I don't care for) and it worked out great.

I gave some to my friend's mom and she asked for the recipe, so I just went through the whole process of writing it up for her, so figured I would post it here for anyone who is looking for a quicker way to make kimchi that will definitely taste better than store bought.

Email to my friend's mom:

The main recipe is from Maangchi, my favorite Korean chef. Here's a link with a video showing generally how to make it. The biggest modification I've made is in the first part of the process - the salting of the cabbage. Her recipe calls for 6 lbs of cabbage, but that's a lot of kimchi, probably too much for most people, so I halved it.

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Modified Kimchi Recipe (half recipe)

Veggie Ingredients

• 1 head napa cabbage (roughly 3 lbs, but any size is fine)
• Kosher salt (roughly 1/4 cup, but you will weigh on a scale)
• 1 cup Korean radish (mu) or daikon radish
• 1/2 cup carrot matchsticks
• 3-4 green onions (scallions), chopped
• 1/2 cup chopped Asian chives, or add 2 more green onions

Porridge Ingredients

• 1 cup water
• 1 Tbsp sweet rice flour (aka glutinous rice flour)
• 1 Tbsp turbinado sugar (or brown or white sugar)

Seasonings and spices

• 12 garlic cloves
• 1 tsp ginger
• 1/2 medium onion
• 1/4 cup fish sauce
• 1 cup red pepper flakes (gochugaru 고추가루, coarse bigger flakes, not a fine powder). I usually look for one that is sundried.

Steps:

Start by making porridge first because it needs to cool down:

1. Combine the water and the sweet rice flour in a pot that looks bigger than you'd need because this will usually bubble up. Mix well with a wooden spoon and let it cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes until it starts to bubble.
   
2. Add the sugar and cook for 1 more minute, stirring. Remove from the heat and let it cool off completely.

Prepping spices

1. I usually put the garlic, ginger, and onion into a food processor and run it until it's very minced. This is easier than chopping everything by hand. It's almost like a paste consistency.
2. Put minced spices into a big bowl that you will later use to mix up the whole thing, so a big bowl.
   
3. Add fish sauce and red pepper flakes.

Prepping veggies

1. Slice the napa cabbage into quarters lengthwise, then proceed to chop those quarters into 3 cm wide strips. Remove the cores.
2. Place your large mixing bowl with the spice mixture on a scale and tare it to zero grams.
3. Transfer all the chopped cabbage to the mixing bowl.
4. Add the cut radish, matchstick carrots, and green onions to the bowl.
5. Note the weight (in grams is easiest) and calculate 2 percent of that weight in salt. Add the salt to the bowl, and proceed to mix everything together thoroughly until all the ingredients have been moistened and well mixed.
6. Put mixed well kimchi into a container and if possible, put a weight on top to keep cabbage submerged. If you don't have something for this, you can use a ziploc filled with water.

Notes on fermentation (copied from Maangchi's website)

The kimchi will start fermenting a day or two at room temperature, depending on the temperature and humidity of your room. The warmer and more humid it is, the faster the kimchi will ferment. Once it starts to ferment it will smell and taste sour, and pressing on the top of the kimchi with a spoon will release bubbles from beneath. If you’re using a sealed jar with a lid, be sure to open it once a while, let it breathe, and press down on the top of the kimchi.

Once it starts to fermented, store in the refrigerator to use as needed. This slows down the fermentation process, which will make the kimchi more and more sour as time goes on.

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That's it! If it ends up being too much, my favorite other things to make with kimchi are kimchi-jjigae (shortcut here is buying anchovy broth bags or tablets so you can skip making the anchovy broth), kimchi pancakes, and kimchi fried rice.

 

25 Random Things About Me

OMG - could this meme be any more pervasive? And could I be any more behind the curve? Hi, here I am, four months after it was popular, filling out the 25 random things list. I'm never the early adopter on these, mainly because I kept getting 25 random things mixed up with 25 interesting things about me. So, once I gave up on trying to make them interesting, I was fine... And now, in no particular order, just the order I thought of them in... Dave - this is for you!!!! (I threw in a few more exclamation points just for you...)

1. I'm a huge game show fan. I remember spending summers watching nothing but game shows from 9 AM - noon every morning! Oh, how I used to love Bob Barker and The Price is Right! And then I got older and had a mad crush on Alex Trebek. How could I not? He was soooooo smart! Now, I just think he's smug and want to strangle him every time he pronounces something with the correct accent. Although Jeopardy! is still one of my favorite game shows.
   
2. Speaking of game shows... I've been on two since 2005. My sister and I went on Lingo (a Game Show Network show) in 2005 and proceeded to wipe up the competition. The stars were definitely aligned that day. In addition, I got to meet Chuck Woolery, Game Show Icon!! It was thrilling. If you ever want to see the episode, it's permanently on my TiVo and I also have DVDs made. Oh, and I was on the first episode ever of 1 vs. 100. It was such a terrible experience. Although, I did get to meet Ken Jennings (of Jeopardy! fame), so all was not lost.
   
3. I was married for 11 years. We met at my favorite dive bar in Burbank and eloped two months later. On my 21st birthday. We're still friends and hopefully always will be. He's known me for the most important third of my life to this point.
4. I went to a college prep magnet school for 7th - 11th grades . I didn't technically graduate from there, but the only friends I have from high school are from that school. As a nerd, I was on the Brain Brawl team and regularly traveled out of town for math competitions!
5. I've pretty much had a job ever since I could legally work at age 15 1/2. My first W-2 job was at a movie theater in El Toro, CA. By the time I was 20, I had worked the following jobs (roughly in this order): concession girl for two movie theaters (CA & FL), hostess for a seafood restaurant, greeter/cashier at Jiffy Lube, driver/counter girl at a dry cleaners, a shuttle driver for my college, a back office phone person at a doctor's office, a waitress at several restaurants, a concession girl at a country club, an auditor for an inventory company and a receptionist at an aerospace company. I then stayed at the aerospace company for 13 years. I think I held three jobs at once, but that was temporary. Now I'm a CFO at an awesome computer consulting firm and work from home.
   
6. I've been a B-52s fan since I was in the third grade and lived with my dad & his second wife and her family for a year. My super-cool 16 year old step-sister Danielle said they were cool and I believed her and have loved them ever since.
   
7. I own a Ruger .357 Magnum revolver that has a six-inch barrel. I'd like to buy another gun, probably something in the automatic family. I know all of you who live in the South think, only one gun? But in California, I'm the right-wing gun nut!
   
8. I can write with both hands. Backwards and forwards. Backwards as in, if you hold up the paper to a mirror, you can make out what it says. Oh, and in cursive. (I was bored in high school...)
   
9. My favorite number is 9. Like seriously. It's the only thing I'm slightly OCD about. Whenever I set my alarm or set the microwave, I make it so that the numbers add up to 9 or a number divisible by 9. I never put anything in for 30 seconds... it's either 27 or 36. See how that works? (OK, moving on...) [Wait, I'm going to make this the #9 thing on the list. There, that's better.]
   
10. I own 70 pairs of panties. I was having a conversation with a couple I know, during which he showed concern that if she didn't do her laundry, she might run out of underwear. I started laughing, then asked him how many pairs he owned. He guesstimated that he owned eight pairs(!). Wow. So, the next time I did laundry, I counted because I was curious to know how many I had. I can go two months baby!
    
11. I took piano lessons for seven years. I was in second grade and remember watching our new next door neighbor move in and seeing the piano roll down the ramp of the moving truck! I had always wanted to take piano lessons. I started taking lessons and we promptly adopted her as our "granny" for many years.
    
12. I have 364 items on my Netflix list. Probably not totally unreasonable, until I tell you that I'm on the "one disc at a time, maximum two discs per month" plan. And I've had Borat at home since September 2008. I probably should just return it so I can get the next disc on my list. But I'm a HUGE fan of the instant streaming through my 360.
    
13. I'm a list maker! I love making to-do lists and one of my favorite blogs is http://todolist.blogspot.com/. Most of the posts are photos of people's to-do lists. They're fun to read.
    
14. I'm a huge board game fan! I own 165 games and travel around the country to hang out with friends and play games. Along with #13, I track all my game plays on www.boardgamegeek.com. Since I started tracking in 2006, I've recorded 1,888 plays of about 500 unique games. In 2007, I traveled to Germany for gaming trade show. It was really fun.
15. My favorite food is fried chicken and I try it anywhere I can. My favorite fried chicken place is Mrs. White's Golden Rule Cafe in Phoenix, AZ. If Mrs. White's isn't open, Lo-Lo's is almost as good. My non-Phoenix favorite is in Nashville: Monahan's, a great family-style sit-down buffet place. My favorite place in Los Angeles is Roscoe's Chicken & Waffles.
16. I'm half Korean and 1/8+ Cherokee. What I find amusing is that some people think I look obviously Asian, while other people have no clue I am. I can't figure that part out.
17. The first time I ever played Charades was actually Fortune Cookie Charades while on break at a gaming convention in 2007. My first official game of "normal" charades was 2/15/09. It was a lot of fun...
18. I have an uncanny ability to guess what size pants guys wear. I don't know why I like doing it, but I do. I also am decent at guessing weight too. Maybe I should take a job at the fair...
19. I just started exercising and actually am kinda diggin' it. I haven't been doing anything that crazy, just walking with a bit of jogging. I've been using Podrunner Interval and it's awe-some! My love handles are already getting smaller.
20. I had a cookie-of-the-month club, where I made cookies for certain members "every month". That turned out to be just a wee bit overly ambitious. It has since turned into the cookie-of-the-quarter club, which means, I think they're due for some! It's the perfect Christmas gift for some of my guy friends who are real-life cookie monsters!
21. My favorite city in the whole world is Paris. I've thought about moving there temporarily. I'd love to go there with a boyfriend or husband one day.
    
22. I hate flossing. I try to make myself do it when I think about it, but I just hate doing it. I recently heard that flossing can help your breath smell better and this has actually helped me get started with flossing more regularly. Ah, vanity... Who wants bad breath??
    
23. When I was a junior in high school, I went on a date with a guy who took me and a couple of his friends on a plane trip across the state of Florida to Cedar Key. We landed on a little, teeny, tiny airstrip. We walked to town after being offered a ride in the local "cab," a station wagon driven by this older woman. We ate a hole-in-the-wall walk-up counter. I don't think I ever saw him after that. And to think I was interested in going out with him because he was a tall, dorky white guy that had higher a math SAT score than me!
    
24. I've been bitten by the poker bug. I think the gambling gene comes with being half-Asian. Craps used to be my game when I went to Vegas, but now it's all poker! I just went to Vegas for my birthday and we managed to spend 19 hours playing poker in a trip that was less than 48 hours. And most of it was on Sunday.
25. My favorite weird food combos are peanut butter & kimchi sandwiches, kimchi on my hot dogs, peanut butter on pickles and pickles with spaghetti.
    

Photo up on Womansday.com

Often I get teased for all the photos of food I take when we go out to eat. I love doing that. They aren't gourmet shots, just quick ones to remember what we had to eat that night. Hmmm... that reminds me, I need to download my birthday dinner photos off of my camera!

Well, womansday.com contacted me and asked if they could use one of my grilled cheese photos from our outing to Campanile a couple years ago. I asked them for $50 to use it and they basically said that they don't have a budget to pay people for photos, but that they'd link to my blog and flickr account, so I said, "Why not?" So, I have a photo up in their article: 10 Greatest Grilled Cheese Sandwiches. I'm photo #2 of the Croque Madame.

Fun!

Diets of all Sorts

I have eaten SO much during the last month. So, here's my plan that I'm focusing on for the next two weeks...

• I'm swearing off all fried foods.
• I need to just eat less!
• Drink just water, UNsweetened tea or diet soda... but mainly water.
• Exercise!! Even if it's just 15 minutes...

I'm really contemplating trying Tim Ferriss' technique of how to lose 20 lbs. of fat in 30 days... Although I'd only do it for the 15 days... Anything to help!


On a total random side note... Well, actually, I guess it's not totally random. It's kind of like a financial diet! :-)

I've also been stressing about retirement funds lately. Probably an odd thing for a 33 year old to worry about, but for some reason I do. I get obsessed sometimes about being prepared enough for retirement, worried that I won't have enough saved.

I was obsessing on this earlier this week and lucky for me, I had the good fortune to sit next to a retired person on each of my flights. I picked their brains and turns out, both of them were government workers, so they have pensions coming from that along with saving other ways. One of them told me to just save, even if it was a little bit and do it with every paycheck. I do that, so I am satisfied with that, but I feel like there's more I can and should do. I guess in reality, there's nothing more I can do about retirement since I'm maxing everything out. What I need to do is focus on saving more outside of my retirement accounts.

Anyway, random thoughts about the money stuff, I don't have a firm plan on that just yet. I think the first part is just looking at all the income and expenses and see how much I could possibly save if I wanted to and see how feasible that is. Luckily, I think I can make the next couple trips out to see Greg without actually spending anything by using miles that I've accumulated over the last few years.

I wonder how many people have budgets? And how many people stick to them? I should give myself a challenge of doing that! Making a budget and seeing if I can stick to it. For now, I'll do the research to see how much I'm actually spending. To be honest, I really don't know how much I'm spending other than my fixed expenses. My guess is that I'd be shocked at how much I'm spending going out to eat each month. Probably traveling too! Getting paid monthly should make it easy to divvy everything up if I make a budget. First step... see how much I'm spending and what exactly I'm spending it on...

Recharging my batteries

I've been home alone the last couple days, recharging the batteries. Last night, I chatted with a couple friends, watched some TiVoed programs (yay!!) and went to bed before midnight. That pretty much qualifies as early for me!

Today, I went into the office from 6 AM - 9 AM, then had an eyebrow waxing appointment. Then I went to Costco!! I haven't been there in ages! I also did six loads of laundry, re-read the book that I'm leading a book group for tomorrow and have been catching up on my Food Network programs. I also did something I haven't done in months! I swept my balcony! It looks so much better.

I watched an episode of Barefoot Contessa today that really made me want to make her Coq au Vin recipe! Oh my, it looked so delicious! After making her Beef Bourguinon a couple months ago, I'm itching to use my Dutch oven again. Oh, I wish I had taken pictures of that stew. It was delicious!!

Tonight, I'm going to just clean up around the apartment (and maybe play some video games) and go to bed early. Tomorrow is my first Ultimate experience and then a couple MyPC meetings, so I have a pretty busy day tomorrow. I'm glad I've been able to relax some today. It's been sooooo nice!

I let him talk me into rutabagas!

On my way in to Huntsville for Gulf Games, I stopped at Niki West's Steak and Seafood in Birmingham. It's a big cafeteria and I found it by calling Dave and having him check his "Roadfood" book for any points of interest in Birmingham. He gave me directions over the phone and it was so easy to find, only about a mile off of the freeway.

The food was pretty tasty. I had a fried pork chop and a few side dishes, my favorite being a broccoli, rice & cheese mixture. I let the guy talk me into rutabagas! I'd never had them before, but they were sweet, surprisingly.

It was definitely worth the stop and I'd go there again!

Here was my dinner:

Gulf Games Day #1

I drove in from Mississippi after my visit with Carolyn last night. It's about a five hour drive, so I called my boss to find out if there was any update to the big project we were working on the week or so before I left for vacation. Long story short: I worked all night on Wednesday and all day Thursday. Obviously, I'm NOT using vacation time for today!

I finally took a shower and got dressed and ventured out into the real world around 6:30 and ran into Dale & co. They intercepted me for dinner and then we were off to Five Guys Burgers! 42 has told me SO much about Five Guys because they are based in Philly and he loves them, but we've never actually made it over to check it out when I've visited him the last couple times. I put about 8 toppings on my burger and it was tasty. I'd definitely try it again! The fries were really good, homemade and yummy.

After dinner, we had our welcome party. I didn't win Take it Easy at my table. There are a lot of newcomers, probably about half of whom I've already met at other cons. I'm already behind in the Friendliest Gamer contest for this Gulf Games, not sure if I can make up the deficit of being holed up in my room all day today.

Highlights of gaming tonight: We played Traumfabrik with five players and I won! With 100 points! It was quite exciting! We also played a couple games of Tichu and I over-called Jon many times during our game and broke him almost every time! It was awesome! I just kept getting the cards to do it. It was fun!

I might go to the Unclaimed Baggage store tomorrow, but considering I have to be ready to go in 5 1/2 hours, I'm not too sure I'll get up in time. I'm going to set my alarm and see how I feel in the morning!

I made it to Mississippi safely

I made it safely to Mississippi and so far am having a wonderful time! Carolyn and her husband Eric have been completely gracious hosts, staying up with me chatting with me until almost 1:00 AM! Their son, Gabriel is totally as cute as his pictures and was amazingly still awake when I arrived! They also have two dogs - Beatrice, a harlequin Great Dane and Chloe, a boxer-lab mix. Chloe loooooves attention, while Beatrice is sort of a bully, but I've been standing my ground. Not as easy as you'd think when you're face to face with a dog that could take a big chunk out of you with one bite! But so far, it's been working!

Tomorrow, I get to sleep in (yea!) and then Carolyn, Gabe & I are going to meet up with Eric for his lunch break at Mint Julep! Apparently, they have awesome fried chicken! Who would've thought I'd be interested in that?! Yes, pictures will be forthcoming. Of people AND food!

I Do Not Run a Vegetarian-Friendly Household

The last time I visited 42, we stopped by his favorite hoagie shop to pick up, well, hoagies (of course), but more importantly, pepper shooters! He had extolled their virtues on the phone to me many a time, so I finally had the chance to try one! And they were good! A pepper shooter consists of a hunk of extra sharp provolone, wrapped with prosciutto, that's been stuffed into a cherry pepper. Even better, they also had they're special creation, the salamincini, which is basically the same idea: a hunk of extra sharp provolone, wrapped with salami, stuffed inside a peperoncini! I preferred those, but probably because of the flavor of the pepper more than anything.

One of the reasons we made the 30 minute trek to this hoagie shop was because they had these pepper shooters. 42 wants me to learn how to make them and make them for him! Ah, do I love a challenge! So on Saturday, I decided to try making them. I made both types and the soaked them in olive oil overnight. They're good, but they don't taste exactly like the ones I had when I visited him. I'm going to call the sandwich shop to see if I can get any more information from them on how to make them. Here's how they're looking...



The point is, I have some friends coming over tomorrow night to play Die Macher. I was going to offer them as snacks tomorrow night, then I remembered, OH WAIT, one of them's a vegetarian. So I guess I'll just warn him about the meat content.

This is the second time in the last month or so that I'd have to warn a vegetarian off of a seemingly innocuous dish! Who would expect pickled peppers to have meat in them? The last time was during Bakefest 2007, when we made the bacon chocolate chip cookies. I had my friend Gary (also a vegetarian) come by and I had to warn him about the bacon content in the cookies! Not a normal warning, I'm sure! :-)

Oh, and I've been meaning to post a picture of this because it's too good to not get a mention in the blog... For my New Year's Eve party, Shannon made a retro meat-tacular appetizer! The meat tree!!!

O Meat-Cheese Tree...

Isn't that amazing? When she walked in we were all amazed I took the picture with my tree in the background for sizing. That was a pretty tall tree, at least 7 ft tall! It was covered with cocktail wieners, hunks of cheddar and pepper jack cheese, pigs in a blanket, gherkin pickles, olives and I think that's it. It was delicious!! And talk about presentation! It was quite festive and was a huge hit!!

Meat & Cheese tree close-up

Boyfriend!

I'm not sure what exactly turns a "guy I'm dating" into an official "boyfriend," but I think I have one! At least I called him that and he seems to like it! :-) Things have been progressing with 42. I really like him. We have some major common interests (games, food and each other!) and goals, but we have differences too and that part we're working on to see if they can be ironed out.

The biggest problem? He lives across the country. Yes, a long distance relationship. I've been out there to visit him a couple times, we talk on the phone everyday and he's coming out to visit me in a couple weeks. He's never been to California, so I've been making a list of places to see, well, more accurately, things to eat while he's out here. So far, In-n-Out, juicy pork dumplings from Din Tai Fung, a sandwich from Tony's Deli in Burbank, Scoops and sushi are on the list... mmmm... Plus, I want to take him to the beach, have Shane meet him, cook him dinner and make pepper shooters! Somehow, I doubt we'll get all of that done, but it's good to have goals.

Festive Weekend

This weekend has been quite festive so far. On Friday, after working 12 long hours, I went to Erin & Liz's holiday party and had a good time. I had another party to go to, but after stopping by there, I was too tired to think about driving over the hill and finding parking to boot. Erin made queso - YUM and Liz made some gingerbread cookies that were delicious!! I usually don't like gingerbread cookies, but these were so yummy that I happily took a few home with me when she offered them!

On Saturday, eight of us celebrated Shannon's birthday by piling into a rental mini-van and stopping at seven different restaurants for various courses throughout the day! I overslept and didn't make it to the "bacon of the month" tasting & champagne cocktails at the house before hitting the first restaurant. Boo to me! I don't have the mental energy right now to make the list of all the places we went, but all of them were highly recommended by Jonathan Gold, Pulitzer prize winning food critic of the LA Weekly. It was a stomach crawl through the best of LA!

Today, I slept in (finally!!), went to church, and then came home and watched some football and finally finished decorating my Christmas tree. I've also been slowly working on straightening up the apartment because I'm having people over for a bit on Christmas Eve and for gaming later in the week. Also, I'm hosting a New Year's Eve party, but decided to take a trip next weekend since I'm not working, so I need to make sure my apartment is cleaned and ready for the party before I leave on Friday. Especially since I have to work on New Year's Eve during the day, specifically at 7 AM! In Orange County. Fun! Not.

I'm supposed to go out dancing tonight, but at the moment, I'm really not feeling like going. Hopefully, in the next few hours, I get a bit more peppy! The Spazmatics go on at 10 PM! This is the super-cool 80s cover band we saw at the Mandalay Bay House of Blues last January in Vegas and then at Universal City Walk one time over the summer.

I'm looking forward to going to Providence for their special dinner for Christmas Eve tomorrow night. Providence, a fabulous fancy French restaurant, hosts a very Italian "Feast of the Seven Fishes" on Christmas Eve each year. I was talking to an Italian guy I know and he said that his family does that every year. It should be tasty and fun! I need to decide what to wear too.

Leaving for BGG.CON tomorrow!

Wow, today has just FLOWN by! I've been trying to get everything done, but didn't succeed. At least the stuff that got left is stuff that's OK to wait until my return on Monday.

And, for the record, Agricola is like gamer gold. I've received more than a few requests from my long distance gamer friends for me to teach them how to play Agricola. And I will be happy to. I feel like I'll be able to recite it in my sleep by the end of the weekend!

My Coolio BGG.CON schedule thus far...
Wednesday: Going for a fancy steak dinner, then setting up
Thursday: Gaming and going to the Spurs vs. Mavericks game
Friday: Puzzle hunt with my hand-picked, totally awesome, smarty-pants team!, Transamerica tournament
Saturday: Game show and more gaming!
Sunday: Gaming plus going to the Redskins vs. Cowboys game

It's going to be a packed weekend. I want to play Agricola once a day if possible while there, eat lots of BBQ and play lotsa Time's Up and Werewolf! OOOOoooo... Ultimate Werewolf!!!

Oh, I feel sorry for everyone NOT going. It's going to be a blast!

Evan's Homemade Costume 2007

I am sure all of you remember Evan's costume from last Halloween... how could you not? It was an awesome homemade Lego-Man!!

Whenever I have kids, I want to make homemade costumes for them. I think that would be so much fun! And way better than some canned costume from Target!! I know I'll never be as handy as my sister is, but you have to admire the handiwork!!

As you know, I am a big fan of food (hence all the photos of what I've eaten or cooked!), but really it's a family thing. We all love food! Including my 7 year old nephew who apparently has watched one episode too many of Rachel Ray's show and goes around asking if we're going to use EVOO (extra-virgin olive oil for those non-foodie types out there). He's not your "normal" 7 year old in some respects. So, they started doing research on what food costume ideas they could use for Halloween and narrowed it down to a California roll or the winning costume...

I present to you, my nephew Evan, the Lipton tea bag. Yes, you read correctly...



Oh, isn't that adorable!?!

Bonjour from Paris

Bonjour! Wow, today has been a long day! We left Los Angeles around noon on Saturday and had a layover at JFK. While we were there, we stopped by the Palm store to see if they could help us format my SD card. While the guy was finishing up, they made a final boarding call for our flight to Paris and we RAN to make it on time!! Whew!

We're doing okay jetlag-wise because we decided to stay awake during the LA-NYC flight and sleep during the NYC-Paris flight which worked out beautifully! We arrived here at 11 AM, rested and ready to go!

We first went to our B&B to meet our host. She's actually in the country this weekend, so her 20 year old son was here to greet us. We dropped off our stuff, then headed for a bakery recommended in Ron's tour book.

I was hoping to write more but can't right now. How about some pictures?

Here ya go!!

Couch Surfer #2 Update

Sebastian, my couch surfer #2, arrived last Friday night, just after midnight. I was out dancing at Clockwork Orange and he called and then texted me to let me know that he would meet me at my apartment. So, I left the club, drove home to meet him and then we chatted for quite a while. Shane & Ron showed up around 2 AM and Ron got a chance to practice some of that German he's been studying on a live person!! Those podcasts have really paid off because Sebastian said that he could understand everything Ron was saying and apparently Ron was understanding what Sebastian was saying too! So, it looks like we'll be set in both France and Germany as far as languages go!

On Saturday, I cooked a HUGE breakfast for me, Shane and Sebastian - bacon, eggs, potatoes with onions cooked in bacon grease, YUM! And then Sebastian headed out to Hollywood & Highland to do some shopping. Apparently, the jeans in Germany are very expensive, so he wanted to buy some while he was here. He also went to Venice and Santa Monica. Meanwhile, Shane & I listened to the rain and watched the last five episodes of Heroes Season 1 so she'd be all caught up for the premiere on Monday. Sebastian met up with us over at L&N's for their movie party later that evening. We ended up watching "Support Your Local Sheriff" and "The Sting." Both were really good! He showed up in time to play Loopin' Louie and sleep through "The Sting." Poor thing, he was still trying to adjust to US time.


On Sunday, he was already gone by the time I woke up which was nice because it gave me a chance to clean up the kitchen and watch some football. He went again to Hollywood & Highland and then 3rd Street Promenade and then drove up PCH to Malibu. It was gorgeous weather on Sunday, so it was perfect for that!! He met me back at my place to go out to dinner with me and Travis. We ended up going to Colombo's, a place that I'd been wanting to try FOREVER! It was OK. Has that really old school feel to it and they have a piano guy singing the standards with a crazy lookin' chick playing a bass. Then we headed over to Barnes & Noble in Old Town Pasadena because Sebastian wanted to get a book about California to figure out where to stop as he drove up to San Jose on Monday. After that, we picked up a piece of Godiva chocolate cheesecake and walked to Lucky Baldwin's for a couple beers.

It was really cool hanging out with him and comparing notes about the differences between Germany and the US. Things he mentioned were: he likes that retailers are nice to you even if you don't buy anything! Also, people in Germany don't call dates "dates." It's just going to dinner with someone. They don't have a different way to indicate that it's a romantic relationship like we do. And people in Germany don't own guns, I guess they're not allowed to.

Weekend Recap

This weekend was fun without being crazy, which is so nice. I felt relaxed even though I was pretty busy most of the weekend.

Since it has really cooled down, I've been making a very strong effort to exercise more. I don't actually hate exercising, I just hate being overheated and when it's 90-100 degrees outside, I just can't bring myself to do it!

Friday night - Met Erin at the park after work and we walked for about 45 minutes. Then we headed back to my place and I thawed some chicken and made us dinner while she constructed a super-awesome house for our Sims to live in! I bought Sims2 for the PS2 last year and have hardly played it, so I thought it was about time to crack it open.

Saturday - Woke up, exercised for about 20 minutes then headed over to pick up sandwiches for my games day I held ALL day Saturday. We had a great time! Played games, Guitar Hero and met some new peeps! We played two good games of Werewolf. I moderated both and kind of screwed up the first one, but oh well. Live and learn. I'll make sure to be better about it in the future. The second game, the seer actually stayed alive and was the key to killing the final werewolf. It was great!!

Sunday - Shane and I went to the park to walk and then I walked the mile to meet Erin at a nearby theater that was hosting the Valley Film Festival. We saw a short called "My Wallet" (which I wasn't crazy about, but I'm not into slapstick-y type "humor") and "11 Minutes Ago" which I really really liked. It's a romance and I liked the story a lot. The actors were actually pretty decent too. Then Erin & I walked down to Pit Fire Pizza to meet up with Liz and enjoyed the beautiful weather we were having yesterday! Sunny, 70s with a slight breeze. We sat outside and chatted about knitting, shoes (Liz recommends Zappos.com which I'm going to peruse today during lunch) and movies. After that, I went home to eat a quick lunch myself and headed over to Chris' for a pretty fun afternoon of gaming. I managed to win Traumfabrik for the first time ever(!) and On the Underground. I came in hilariously DEAD last during Ticket to Ride 1910. The five player game is just cut-off city!! It was great! Lots of cursing, flipping off and for me, drawing of tickets just hoping to get something useful! At least I ended with a positive point value!! :-) Yes, that's how bad it was!!

Overall, a pretty fun and relaxing weekend!!

Bacon Salt

Ron - you are the best. Why is Ron the best?

Because he saw this website for Bacon Salt and forwarded it to me. It's salt that makes everything taste like bacon. You can have bacon French fries!!

I want some. Anyone else wanna get in on an order? It's kosher, vegetarian friendly and most of all, bacony and salty! :-)

Check it out!!

Kansas City Restaurant Reviews

Jack Stack BBQ
I realized that I never posted a recap of the restaurants I visited while in Kansas City earlier this month! Let's see... on Friday night, we went to Jack Stack BBQ and I ordered the burnt ends & baby back ribs. The first thing I was surprised about was that the place was so nice! When we walked in, I thought, "Wow, this place looks like a nice steakhouse!" and I was worried it would be priced accordingly. Even with the extra charge for the baby back ribs, I think my dinner was about $16.50, which is pretty reasonable. Barbecue in Los Angeles is expensive, so it was nice to pay less than $20 for two different kinds of meat.

Before dinner, I had a dinner salad that had fresh bacon bits on it. Before I go on... the salad was the best tasting part of my meal. Yep you heard me right. The salad was the best part. The BBQ was OK, but not really spectacular. And maybe KC BBQ isn't for me. I can accept that. It certainly won't stop me from trying a different restaurant the next time I go. Most likely Arthur Bryant's or Gates since those seem to be the "big two" around there.

However, if I'm just going for salad and munchies, I would, without hestitation, go to Jack Stack again. We were still talking about our salad when we ate dinner the next night at Stroud's. It was that good. I don't know if it was the blue cheese dressing or the bacon bits? I suspect a bit of both. It did make us joke that next time, we'd go to Jack Stack for a salad, then head over to Stroud's for some fried chicken!

The second best part were the sides. The cheesy corn bake was pretty yummy, but rich. The french fries, even though they look quite institutional, were cooked well and were yummy.

After a comment on this entry, I'm modifying it to include something I neglected to mention... One thing I really did enjoy about Jack Stack was the experience itself. Our wait time was less than expected, our food came quickly, the atmosphere is comfortable and decor were very nice. Our server was great! I used to wait tables for years and I can attest to the fact that it's hard to find good service (at least in California!). She was attentive and very helpful without being annoying.

Here's a picture of my dinner:

Jack Stack Dinner

And here's a close-up of the burnt ends:

Burnt Ends

Stroud's
Then on Saturday night, I went to Stroud's which is famous for its fried chicken. After waiting an hour for a table and then another thirty minutes for my food, I can say that it was worth the wait. The fried chicken was delicious. I still don't think it tops Mrs. White's Golden Rule Cafe in my book, but Stroud's will be a must-eat anytime I'm in KC.

The disappointing thing about both restaurants was that neither one had sweet tea. How far south of the Mason-Dixon line does a woman need to go to get some sweet tea?!

It looks like Stroud's was an old house on a pond that was converted to a restaurant. There are rooms that look like additions and they have a big screened in porch down by the pond where you can listen to the fans, get an awesome freshly made strawberry margarita and munch on some popcorn while you're waiting for your table. This is a picture of the yard between the house and the screened in porch. I think the building on the right is a little chapel.

Side yard

And then our dinner! The green beans were yummily peppery as was the gravy for the mashed potatos. (Not pictured, but for bread, you get these cinnamin buns that are delicious if you like that sort of thing...)

Dinner

Close-up of our star - the Fried Chicken

Overall? I would recommend going to Stroud's, but I'd skip Jack Stack next time.

Bacon Caramel Ice Cream

Where might one find bacon caramel ice cream? At Scoops!! If you're a LA foodie or Yelper, you've no doubt heard of Scoops! Erin & I *finally* went last Saturday because we had heard that one of the flavors that day would be bacon caramel! Who can pass that up?! I didn't take a picture, plus I didn't feel particularly overly descriptive, but here is her account of our visit (with a picture!). Other flavors I tried were brown bread and Guinness-tiramisu.

Overall, the Scoops experience is pretty cool. If you buy an ice cream cake (24 hour notice required), Mr. Kim will make you whatever flavor you request for the cake! How cool is that?!

Pros: Awesome, original ice cream flavors that change every day; VEGAN ice cream for you non-animal product eating people out there
Cons: Not a lot of parking, just go up a block and park there. You might need quarters if you park at a meter.

Scoops
712 N. Heliotrope Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90029
(323) 906-2649

Open Mon - Sat 12 noon - 10 PM
Closed on Sundays!

Korean Fried Chicken

No wonder fried chicken is one of my favorite foods! Not only did I grow up in the South on delicious fried chicken, it's genetic! Apparently, Korean fried chicken has been under the radar for 20+ years and is on its way to becoming more and more popular with the white people!

Check out this article in the NY Times about it! I wonder if there are any places like this in Los Angeles?

EDIT: Just spotted this thread on Chowhound about places in LA to get chicken like this!

On the fried chicken note, I'm in Arizona this weekend and plan on hitting up Lolo's in Phoenix. He's the grandson of Mrs. White (who makes the BEST fried chicken on this planet!) and has her recipe and has opened up a Roscoe-esque chicken and waffle place in Phoenix. We'll see if it's any good! Full report next week.