Category: Food

  • Friends, Romans, Countrymen, Lend Me Your Knives

    Having a knife sharpener is the most impractical of practical kitchen appliances. You cannot prepare food without a sharp knife. From mincing to chopping to slicing to dicing, having a sharp knife makes these essential kitchen tasks an absolute joy. So, after unboxing the Chef’s Choice 1520 AngleSelect Diamond Home Electric Knife Sharpener, I proceeded…

  • Thiabendazole Yum

    I spotted the following note on the box of oranges I brought home from Costco: Treated to maintain freshness in transport with one or more of the following Thiabendazole, Imazalil and coated with food grade natural resins and/or vegetable wax. At Costco, the warning isn’t too helpful unless you know what those unpronounceable chemicals do…

  • Chef’s Choice 1520 AngleSelect Diamond Hone Electric Knife Sharpener

    I recently purchased a Chef’s Choice 1520 AngleSelect Diamond Hone Electric Knife Sharpener because some kitchen knives were flunking the ripe tomato test. Basically, if a knife could not cleanly slice through a ripe tomato, which presents the dual challenge of a moderately tough skin with a mushy interior, then it flunks the ripe tomato…

  • 西红柿鸡蛋面

    The restaurant translated this as tomato egg surface. Not sure how the relatively easier 面 ended up as surface. I would have expected the trickier 西红柿 to be mistranslated as western red persimmon. Google Translate offers the better translation of tomato and egg noodles.

  • 醬肉煎包

    The restaurant translated this to “The soy-sauce cooked pork fries the package.” Google Translate offers a translation of Sauce 煎包. Not particularly helpful. If I separate the words into 醬肉 ç…Ž 包, Google Translate then offers Sauce Fried package. I think Pan-Fried Beef or Pork Bun would be the better translation.

  • Old Mandarin Islamic 清真老北京

    I first heard of Old Mandarin Islamic through the Check, Please! Bay Area television show on KQED. You can view that episode on the KQED website or download the free episode from iTunes. Anyways, I finally made my way to San Francisco this past weekend for a taste test and ended up enjoying a feast…

  • Little Sheep Hot Pot Soup Base

    Previously, I had purchased Little Sheep Hot Pot Soup Base from 99 Ranch for $4.99 per package. Not an unreasonably price. It worked better the second time with shabu shabu meat from a Japanese supermarket than my first attempt with 99 Ranch’s frozen stuff. On a return visit to 99 Ranch for more soup base,…

  • Little Sheep Shabu Shabu

    Last night, I used my remaining package of Little Sheep Hot Pot Soup Base. However, instead of using the pre-cut beef and lamb from 99 Ranch, I tried the shabu shabu meats from Mitsuwa Marketplace. From their shabu shabu selection, I picked up one package of each cut of beef: Angus Chuck Roll @ $8.99/lb…

  • Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot & Grill – San Mateo, CA

    Little Sheep is too popular. I knew that we were in for trouble tonight when we were a block away and I could hear the receptionist calling out ticket numbers over the loudspeaker. If you are coming with a large party (i.e., at least 6 adults), reservations should be mandatory. Otherwise, you risk not being…

  • Little Sheep Hot Pot Soup Base

    Little Sheep Mongolian Hot Pot is one of my favorite restaurants. Today, I was shopping at 99 Ranch when I spotted a package of Little Sheep Hot Pot Soup Base – Plain selling for $4.99 per package. Of course, I had to try it. However, I carefully scrutinized the package to make sure that the…