KP in the LBC: Random Updates

Well since my last post in August - September happened. Not much to report - but it happened. Now we're already in the 3rd week of October and I always wonder what exactly I'm supposed to write about...But yesterday had a few non-typical occurrences.

First - my friend Bill Chang and his girl friend Angela invited me to go to lunch with them, and then we were going to watch the afternoon football games. This turned into lunch with Bill's family in Alhambra which has a very high concentration of Chinese people - everything from new immigrants, to families who've been here 4-5 generations. So we head up to Bill's parents house to decide where to eat. His dad finds out I haven't been to have dim sum in over 10 years and decides that we have to go - just for the spectacle of it - and to see if he can get me to eat weird unidentifiable things. We get to this place that says it seats about 1000 people and is one of the busiest dim sum restaurants in the area, there's at least 50 people waiting, 10-15 groups in line before us. But Bill's mom's got connections, she talks to someone and we're seated right away. The best part of dim sum is that as soon as you're seated the food starts coming! And the food keeps coming until you're too full to eat anymore - took us about 45 minutes :)

We had porridge - which is a rice based warm porridge type thing with 1000 year old eggs in it - I said I'd try it - it was good - pretty bland, and the egg just tasted like over cooked hard boiled egg. I lived. We also had a couple different kinds of pork dumplings (steamed, fried and baked), spare ribs, Korean ribs, and various unidentifiable items that they tell me were either, beef, pork or chicken, some radish cakes (like gooey latkes sorta) and sweet roll with either sweet potato or squash inside that was really good - the only things I wouldn't eat were the tripe stew, and the chicken feet. Angela and I passed on those, and let the Chang family dig in. This means you bite off a "toe", chew the meat/skin/whatever away, and spit the bones back on your plate. Bill's dad kept trying to talk me into it, but I insisted it just meant more for them. He also kept telling me the tripe stew was just like Menudo (Mexican weekend stew with tripe/pork/hominy), but without the tomatoes. I guess he didn't know I don't really like Menudo either :)

Anyway - about an hour later - we're all stuffed and they count up our order and give us our bill. Lunch for 6 with tip - $45. :) I've definitely gotta go back - so long as bill is willing to go with me. Someone who knows what they're doing and speaks Chinese is a definite bonus.

After lunch, Bill, Angela and I decided we'd rather nap than go to a bar for football so we went back to Bill's house for a while, then I remembered that I had my Sur la Table gift certificate from my birthday in my wallet, and there's a Sur la Table right by Bill's house. Angela shares my love for cooking stores, so we decided to go and even talked Bill into coming.

Doug got me the gift certificate in a very generous amount but I hadn't had a chance to shop yet...so we get to the store and the sign in the window said..."All Le Creuset on Special". That made my decision of what to get pretty freakin easy. I had been torn between LOTS of little stuff, random utensils, dishes, gadgets etc, or an investment piece like a Le Creuset Pot- here's what I decided. (The clerk helped me decide by saying I could fit two chickens in this pot...).

6 3/4 quart Oval Baker, great for roasts, chicken, stews and soups :)