DISQUS

I saw this place on No Reservations D.C. show a week or two back. Being solidly a Mountain States guy my entire life with one trip to the Capital back in 8th grade, I have to ask- is this place as good as it looked on TV? I was almost ready to scratch through my plasma in a weak effort to get there, cause those chili smokes looked good.

You'll have to excuse my stupidity, having never worked in a restaurant of any type...

70 freaking pages? I'll go out on a limb and say I bet it is a real page turner too. I suppose if the health code is 70 pages one would need a "food Manager" since everyone else might be busy, I don't know, making food?

I don't understand this need, compulsion for folks to want to regulate. Was there a recent rash of food related deaths that L.A. had to endure, caused by restaurant health code violations?

Fisher makes the right points here. I would rather eat in a C restaurant that has violated some minor code that in the end really protects me from either infinitesimal or non existent harm, versus an A restaurant where the guy/gal handling my food just happens to have a massive, contagious URI that day, for instance, but came in because he/she needed the cash.

When I read stuff like this, I remember that I drank out of the gutter once as a kid, and turned out OK.....I think.

George likes his hot side hot, cold side cold.

there/their confusion.

My bad.

The winner of the fan contest thing is from Saudi Arabia and I guess that is where they will be going/went for that show.

Kinda cool, since I know little about Saudi Arabia aside from what a friend who worked their building oil refineries told me.

And he generally was stuck in the dessert with a house boy who made all their food.

Of course I'd be psyched to see him come to Denver, but we aren't exactly a food mecha in any sense so it could be a very long while.

I'm married to a half Pinoy, and let me tell you the Philippines have some damn fine food. My mother in law can make some of it with the best of them.

I was disappointed to see there wasn't any adobo on the menu, but did see the rice meals. They come with spring roles, lumpia as they are known, and when done well, the kick plain old egg rolls in the nuts.

Next time I get to Vegas I'm heading to Jollibee.

I can't agree that on face adventurous eating has jumped the shark, but doing it for the sake of doing it (like Andrew Zimmern's Travel Channel show) has. It's an important distinction to me.

The difference I think has always been eating local (which in many parts of the world means eating things we in the first world -Western? Industrialized?? Well, whatever the hell we are- do not)versus eating something for the sake of grossing other people out.

Bourdain didn't seek out that cobra heart in Vietnam. Or at least his book and original series made it out that he did not (could have been a TV set up and I could be naive). There have been wonderful things he has come across in his show that are way out of the ordinary and would take a sort of leap of faith for most Americans to try. But there is always that cultural resonance with him (and others), especially when they talk about foods of the past or national dishes like Haggis.

Zimmern though actively seems to seek this stuff, regardless of where he is at in the world, or the ingredients available. I agree his MO and shtick generally suck in that regard as I learn nothing about the culture he is in, or what meals and food help comprise in the larger sense.

To me that makes a huge difference.

Anyway, aside from my rant. Interesting to see American Airlines jump on the bandwagon. Can Frito Lay be far behind?

I've never had Shochu. Sounds worth a whirl to me.

Sake will always have a place in my heart though. I remember fondly mom and dad getting tanked on it as a kid (also on B&B, but that's a different story).

For the daughters birthday this year we had a Japanese themed party (she's two and digs Hello Kitty). We bought some different types of sake and the one I particularly liked was the one that was less filtered and milky white (can't remember the brand or name). Had a wonderful sweetness to it.

Thanks for the Dunkard link. That sounds much more fun to attend than the DNC. We Denverites (Denverarians? Denverians? Devronians? Jabroni's?) also have the Great American Beer Festival every October- http://www.beertown.org/events/gabf/index.htm

Waste Beer huh?. But it's got that can thingy where it'll tell y'all when the can is icy cold! It can't be bad! It's uses Rocky Mountain Sprig water, dammit.

Don't get me started on the Coors family.

When it comes to cheap beer I've always been a PBR man myself.

reading the Quackwatch article I was struck by the tendency of the pro pasteurization folks (CDC, FDA, etc) to gloss over any real numbers. There were claims of possibility sickness, even one study of 94 families that only really concluded some folks in those families got sick and and stayed sick for awhile, probably through raw milk.

More telling was the stat offered by a pro raw supporter that noted "3.6 million human cases of salmonellosis were reported between 1971 and 1982 in California, and that almost half of them were attributed to food service establishments, most of the remainder to meat and poultry, and only 103 to certified raw milk".

103 out of 3.6 million? And that constitutes a health problem? Granted I understand salmonella is not the only risk of raw milk, but unless one of them is far more prevalent than that, I don't see the risk.

I don't buy the it'll cure me of X problem angle, and while it may contain more vitamins than pasteurized, I'm not sure milk drinkers are at any danger if they don't drink raw milk.

But the fact that no one could show any real numbers on public health harms it seems to me this ought to be a legal option for folks to purchase.

Seems to me to easily be more Nanny State BS in terms of food.

This reminds me of the scene in Animal House, when the evil administrators have everything of worth removed from the Delta House, and one of the hired hands drops an entire case of Jack Daniels in front of Bluto.

I'm making that same face right now, that he made then.

Normally political wrangling of the type mentioned in the Trib article would make me roll my eyes and generally swear at the folks who enter the political arena.

However, in this case, because of the utter absurdity of the ban, I'm quite happy the mayor and council did an end around.

One win for food, freedom of choice and common sense.

Now, doesn't California have a law upcoming to ban our outlaw by 2010 or something?

"Chassis, an automated keg on wheels, zoomed around the show, serving thirsty patrons beer throughout the night. Controlled by a wireless remote, Chassis also cracked jokes, insulted and flirted with guests"

I for one, welcome our new robot bartender overlords.

Question though. What happens if Chassis's flirting works?

Wait. Scratch that. I've seen Heavy Metal.

To be clear (cause I can be a little dense)...

The outrage aimed at folks like Lee and Smith is basically the falsehood in their recipes (Semi-Homemade! just read the sauce label, and all will be explained!). I'm OK with that on face.

But the a relevant point (aside form the dinner party angle) that the article tries to make but misses for me is the idea that on a given Tuesday night, after I get home from work, after my son's t-ball practice, I don't really have time to spend an hour or more in the kitchen just cooking. Sometimes my Spam fried rice recipe (really quick if you cook the rice ahead of time) is awesome for moments like that. It's not that I'm lazy per se. Its that I'd like a little downtime between eating, kids and bedtime.

Of course, I've gotten around some of this by making meals at home on the weekends, and freezing/keeping them for the week nights.

BTW awesome site.