The Irascible Chef

Gee, I seem to remember not that long ago when Journalists* had integrity, at least they talked about having it.

Their (journalists and reporters) colors started to show soon after 9/11, maybe you remember, some stopped wearing the American Flag pin—said it wasn’t fair to be reporting news, yet supporting the country it was reporting about, even though they were Americans. Or, maybe you remember, that those same reporters* started calling the terrorists and enemies fighting against this country, Freedom Fighters… My theory is that it had to do with the journalists/reporters dogmatic ideology (—they had an agenda.)

I thought journalists and reporters are supposed to be objective—they report, we decide!

No, that day is gone. That trust is gone… Trust broken is not easily repaired. We need to be critical thinkers more each second that goes by. Everyone has an agenda and we the people need to sift through it to find the truth…

Questions:

• Do people have the time?
• After working or going to school all day to feed the kids, keep a roof over their head, deal with their own struggles and joys—who has the time to sift through all the garbage journalists and reporters throw at our feet?
• Good questions, they know the answer!

You’ve heard of the slippery slope? We’re sliding down it right now! Weeeee!

• When did this happen?
• Who made it possible?
• Who allowed commercial businesses to acquire NEWS agencies?
• When did the news become opinion? When did we start creating news? When did dogmatic ideology replace old-time journalistic integrity?
• Why did a reporter of Dan Rather’s caliber push a story without doing his job—making all his hard work over decades become a joke?

This news just in! Latest report on reporters and journalists:

Friday, August 29, 2008

By Brit Hume

Several members of the media were spotted cheering and clapping for Obama during the speech. The Hill newspaper online reports dozens of men and women wearing green media floor passes were seen standing around the stage area at Invesco Field “chanting along with the crowd.”

The report said that two members of the foreign press even snapped each other’s photos while wearing a Barack Obama hat and waving a flag. And several members of the press were also seen screaming during some of Obama’s biggest applause lines.

We don’t get the news anymore. We get peoples opinion and as a good friend of mine says all the time, “everybody has one and they all stink!”

Be careful what you vote for, you just might get it!

—iChef PSA (just my opinion)

(*When I say Journalist these days, I’m starting to get the same bad-sour-taste in my mouth that I get when I say lawyers, and it’s even stronger when I say Senator, House Representative and anyone running for office—Politician. Ugh, there’s that taste again—awful! Reporters also fall into this category.)

Technorati Tags: Dan Rather, dogmatic ideology, Election 2008, Fair and Balanced, Freedom fighters, Government, Houe Representative, hypocrisy, Journalists, News, Politician, reporters, Senators, terrorist

Open Letter:

Dear John,

I would like to take this time to thank you from the bottom of my heart for this blessed day! The day Republicans, once again, took the lead on REAL CHANGE. CHANGE that we can count on! By making a woman your Vice Presidential running mate you are paving the way for women around the world, busting up glass ceilings, letting women everywhere know their voice is being heard and there’s nothing we cannot do or be!

No more will we (women) be thought of as second class! No longer will being President only be for men! No more will anything be out of a woman’s reach! NO MORE! Thank you John McCain for having the courage to make such a bold move! Thank you for helping me BELIEVE again! I was dead inside and now I have never been more ALIVE!

Your Opponents and critics alike TALK about CHANGE and then do nothing to change the establishment. This is not CHANGE! Your Opponents TALK about CHANGE and then appoint the same type of people (OLD WHITE MALES) who have been holding back Washington from getting the peoples work done for 3 decades! This is not CHANGE!

Dearest John, may I hope during the Republican Convention we do not rely on despair to be our message, but a message of HOPE! Please don’t tell us that ALL AMERICANS: don’t have jobs, don’t have health care, are being thrown out of their houses because they can’t pay the mortgage they should have never gotten in the first place!

Or that we need to bailout poor financial decisions, or that we need to have open borders or that people who are in this country illegally should have the same rights and benefits as our hardworking self sacrificing MOTHERS and fathers—and that goes for our enemies as well!

As for a couple of side masquerades/shams I’ve seen this past week at the Democratic Convention:

• That the leaders of the party want us to be successful in Iraq—heck your Opponent can’t even admit the surge, you, John McCain pushed for months before GWB, worked! Why? Because it undermines his credibility! Imagine, Political-Party-Power, is more important than the security and well being of the US and successfully stabilizing the most volatile part of the world???
• Smoke and mirrors—movies made by the biggest Hollywood movie makers NEEDED to tell numb Americans that the Dem’s are patriotic and support the troops. Thank goodness for the actors—the jesters, movies—the stage, and directors—the illusionist! We wouldn’t know how to think without their collective intellect!
• That everyone in America needs help, we’re all victims, we’re all helpless, WE CAN’T, and we need government cheese to succeed!

Instead, tell us how we can take control of our own lives, tell us how we can be ENERGY INDEPENDENT (take us to the moon!) with our OWN resources—old AND NEW, tell us your plan for fixing the Health care and Social Security system that is crumbling, bring back some solid conservative ideals that will better ground this country’s zest for excuses and the “no accountability” mentality—that’s tearing this country apart!

After all this is about ideas! And compromise… Not about Dogmatic Ideology!

When Obama threw his grandmother under the bus we said nothing! When ObamaNation threw Hillary Clinton under the bus, a couple of times, we said nothing!

We will say NOTHING NO MORE! A vote for John McCain: is a vote for Women, a vote for Hillary, a vote for our country’s security, a vote for CHANGE we can count on, a vote of confidence, a vote for experience, and a vote for the future!

Sarah Palin!

Sincerely,

—iChef Politikos

Technorati Tags: Change, Election 2008, Fathers, Government Cheese, GWB, John McCain, Mothers, Vice President, Women's rights

—Travel all the way to Beijing, you know, what used to be called Peking! Painstakingly suffered through 13 luxurious hours in Business Class—which by the way shouldn’t even be counted as travel time, and didn’t find a way to get authentic Beijing Peking Peking Duck!

Did manage to attend 3 Olympic events including the final round of Mens Individual Gymnastics with medal ceremonies, did walk the Great Wall (with crown they gave me at BK), did go through the Forbidden City, did see Tiananmen Square, did have dinner with my childhood hero and Olympic World record holder Janet Evans, did invent and drink b-O-b®, did go on crazy taxi ride, did eat at McDonald’s in China (tasted like chicken) did say hello and thank you in Chinese like an authentic Chinamanperson, did eat traditional Chinese breakfast—DID NOT get to try: Scorpion, or doggie, or most disappointingly, authentic Peking Duck or roasted duck as they called it at the best Peking Duck restaurant in Beijing, Da Dong, because we got back to the hotel 15 minutes too late! (Did have greasy poor quality Peking duck sliced to order, wrapped in pancakes with Hoisin and scallions at the J&J hospitality center in the Hotel Kunlun, which was superb except for their rendition of Peking duck! It was nice because they had two chef’s making them to order, and we did get to actually have Peking duck in Beijing and it was after we foundout that we wouldn’t be able to have it in the restaurant, but…)

All this in 3 days on the ground, one of which was day 1 and we arrived at the hotel 4:30pm…

China Stix, here in Santa Clara, California!

A recommendation from a trusted (foodie) colleague. And, as promised from the onset, “it won’t look like much from the outside, and it didn’t! —to complete the visual it didn’t look like much on the inside either. But we were there for the Peking Duck! The same duck that eluded us in Beijing—or was it?

We tried in Beijing to communicate, we really did! My goal was to say 2 things—Hello, pronounced, nee how, and thank you pronounced, shia shia. I felt stupid, but I did make an effort. Communications in China otherwise was impossible, even simple sign language went no where—painfully slowly!

Well, communicating with our waiter was like trying to communicate with our taxi driver in Beijing. IMPOSSIBLE!

I wanted Tsing Tao, but I tried to get the hot sake on the menu, but as much as I tried I ended up with cold hot sake. My daring Sous Chef tried the plum wine that was so sweet we could have made Shirley temples for all of china!

SWITCH! Tsing Tao, and Chardonnay!

Let’s just say we got the Peking Duck for 2, not that it says it’s for 2 on the menu, but when asked if it would be enough for 2 we were told, “it is a whole duck! With pancakes.”

Okay we came for the duck, why mess it up with any other flavors, or possible disappointments? The duck, and only the duck, it shall be! For 2.

It was presented very nicely with head and beak included—no extra charge!
The skin was crispy, the meat was juicy, the fat was all but nonexistent! The pancakes were individually handmade, the Hoisin sauce was sweet, but not too sweet, and the scallions were uniformly sliced thin and not over powering.

I still remember having better (the duck 3 ways) at a Peking Duck House in Northern NJ— By the way, when we mentioned that we wanted Peking duck 3 ways our waiter asked us as if we were lunatics if we saw that on TV or something—because all us, pathetic American’s, see something on TV and must have it—after-all, it was on TV! (he also mentioned that we wouldn’t like the soup any way—way number 2 of 3, because it looks unappetizing with the duck bones sticking out—annoying American’s watching too much TV!)

TheMommyblog also, talks about this evening very positively!

—Irascible Chef

Technorati Tags: Beijing, China, China Stix, dog, iChef, J&J, Janet Evans, Johnson and Johnson, Peking Duck, Restaurant, Scorpion, The Mommy Blog

iChef Politikos

Best web finds of the day

Current: Oil Barrel Prices

A la: CNN

• Commentary: Beverly “Hillary-Billies” Come to Denver!

A la: Today MSNBC

Matt Lauer: Hillary doesn’t support this message—but she said it!

A la: Drudge

• OUT OF SIGHT: Dems working on hotel roll-call vote...

Supporters of Hillary Rodham Clinton furiously circulated petitions on the floor of the Democratic National Convention last night, hoping to stave off a plan to hold the convention’s roll call at breakfast Wednesday — out of the public eye — sources inside the delegations said.

• Carville: Dems wasting first night...

(CNN) — Have the Democrats wasted the first night of the convention? Yes, says Democratic Strategist and CNN contributor James Carville.

• Tensions boil...

— As Democrats arrived here Sunday for a convention intended to promote party unity, mistrust and resentments continued to boil among top associates of presumptive nominee Barack Obama and his defeated rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton.

• Bill Clinton in Denver again undercuts Obama
  

By Sam Youngman DENVER — Bill Clinton appeared to undermine Sen. Barack Obama again Tuesday. The former president, speaking in Denver, posed a hypothetical question in which he seemed to suggest that that the Democratic Party was making a mistake in choosing Obama as its presidential nominee.Full Video

• GALLUP Daily: Deadlocked at 45%...

UPDATE: GALLUP Daily: McCain Takes Lead After Biden Pick…

Gallup Daily: No Bounce for Obama in Post-Biden Tracking

McCain creeps ahead, 46% to 44%

PRINCETON, NJ — It’s official: Barack Obama has received no bounce in voter support out of his selection of Sen. Joe Biden to be his vice presidential running mate.

• Fasten Your seatbelts it's going to be a bumpy night!

  

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!

A la: Sig, Carl and Al. A la the Times

Tonight on stage in Denver Hillary Clinton, one of the most accomplished practitioners of the fine art of political deception, will pull off the biggest stunt of her career so far.

• ‘Hillary Clinton will pledge her support and call for unity but don’t believe a word of it’

Technorati Tags: Bill, Carville, Clinton, CNN, Denver, Drudge, Gallup, Hillary, iChef Politikos, Matt Lauer, MSNBC, News, Obama, Polls, Times, Today

Wowie! Can you say, Always Sunny in the Tropics Philadelphia?

Tropic Thunder—Let’s go down the list:

Tom Cruise is: fat, bald, bawdy, crass, Dane Cook!—loved it!

Ben Stiller: in charge of making fun of morons, retarded people, handicapped, mentally challenged people-in white face—Although, he could just have been making fun of Sean Penn—Love making fun of Sean Penn!

Robert Downey Junior in black face—friggin hysterical!

Jack Black’s charge: making fun of movie stars on drugs, forced cold-turkey-withdrawal, and also potty humor—all the necessary basic funny movie components—covered!

Can you say OUCH!

Also, I’m sorry, but there’s nothing funnier than:

• A small child stabbing Ben Stiller in the back and being eventually thrown off a bridge!
• Except for watching bald irascible Tom cruise with fat fingers and forearms rap dancing like Beavis and Butt-head!
• Except a black faced, African American stereotype sounding, nappy wig wearing Robert Downey Jr speaking the words to the theme song from the Jefferson’s and getting called on it by an actual African American!
• Except listening to what an underwear wearing, drug dependent, Jack Black will do to get untied from his withdrawal tree! Decorum prohibits repeating it here! But not here!

—iChef Cinema

After the first viewing of both movies, Step Brothers was funnier in my opinion, but Tropic Thunder still Rocks!

Technorati Tags: Ben Stiller, Comedy, Dark, Funny, iChef, Jack Black, Movies, Robert Downey Jr., Tom Cruise, Tropic Thunder

Wow did I luck out! My car was having it’s first checkup across the street and I was a little hungry and I don’t like being disappointed by any meal! The most risky meal for me may be when I’m forced to stumble on in (caught without a plan)—doesn’t happen often, but you have to eat when you have to eat

Lee’s Sandwiches.

I figure it’s a run of the mill sandwich shop like Subway and I will get the generic turkey with avocado—hard to screw that one up. Yes, when I walk in they have pictures on the wall of sandwiches, but I’m trying to process what all is going on. I see loaves of bread coming out, all the employees are of Asian decent, peoples food is being called out when ready, and there are prepackaged hot to-go delights. This type of food service is very similar to Nijiya Market in Mountain View—where, if I’m making Japanese Sushi or cooking any kind of Japanese, I buy my ingredients from. Nijiya Market (unbiased review) has the best quality, freshest sushi grade fish, nicest looking poultry and meats, that I trust enough to serve my guests. Japanese and Chinese food is all about the ingredients!

Just back from Beijing where the Hotel Kunlun dining area always smelled like you just walked into a Chinese Restaurant. I was still in the mood for a little more Chinese! As I said I don’t like to be disappointed and if there’s too much salt or my fries aren’t hot enough at McDonald’s I’m going to complain and send them back!

So, I’m going to Give Lee a shot! Yes, they had regular sandwiched as well, but come on—let’s roll the dice from up high!

I had rice paper wrapper spring rolls with shrimp and roasted pork and chicken lo mien. $2.50 each! Delicious! Fantastic! What a find!

Then I tell a couple of people about it and they tell me it’s a chain and they are all over—Double Fantastic! So, good job Lee and please keep up the great work!

—IrascibleChef

Technorati Tags: Chinese, food, Hotel Kunlun, iChef, Japanese, Lunch, McDonald's, Nijiya Market

Beijing enjoys best air in decade, vows to banish smog.

By Gillian Murdoch

BEIJING (Reuters) – Olympic host Beijing enjoyed its cleanest air in 10 years this month and will adopt strict new measures to ensure its notorious smog does not return, a top environment official said on Tuesday.

Performers wait for the 2008 Beijing Olympic torch relay at the Badaling section of the Great Wall on the outskirts of Beijing August 7, 2008. (REUTERS/Joe Chan)

Over the past 18 days, air quality in the capital ranged between excellent and fairly good on China’s index, Du Shaozhong, deputy director of the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau, told reporters.

And he pledged good conditions would continue.

“Beijing will be built into a liveable city,” Du said. “We will take some new measures to ensure that air quality will reach a new level after the Olympic Games.”

Du said those measures would be announced after the Games end on Sunday, once officials had studied Beijing’s “successful experiences”.

Isn’t this the kind of talk that has to happen before actual change can happen? The whole article…

I just got back from Beijing. Brought surgical masks along for the ride—never took them out of the bag! The pollution that was promised was absent as far as I could tell—but so was any traffic all the way to the Great Wall! (Controlled it was. There was no non-Olympic purpose driving, then only odd and even day driving…)

We’ll see if things change, but this is the first step—isn’t it?

—iChef P

Technorati Tags: Beijing, China, Global Warming, News, Olympics

Great Wall, Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, fabulous people, fabulous food, Olympic events, and Janet Evans—Wowie! And I still managed to get out safely!

Unlike these Yahoos!

Five Americans held as China steps up scrutiny...

By Ralph Jennings and Lindsay Beck

BEIJING (Reuters) – Five American blogger-activists and a foreign artist have been detained in Beijing as the government intensifies a crackdown on pro-Tibetan protests in the home stretch of the Olympics, rights groups said on Wednesday.

Technorati Tags: China, Communism, Dictatorship, Freedom

Let me just start by saying that the last time I saw Janet Evans she was a young girl, winning race after race and breaking record after record in the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

I had the biggest crush on her… She had the greatest smile, the biggest wide eyes, and the most enthusiastic personality—who could blame me?

Janet became America’s sweetheart and I didn’t stand a chance. I did think about joining the US Olympic team, but what would I do? When I was younger, I planned to be an Olympic bicycle racer, okay, why not, it’s a start? But. Oh, that’s right that was when I was 13, never competed in bike racing, and I was a kid—when that type of dream was still possible. I was 13 talking trash riding around on a 10 speed with my friends—it was a dream.

Sorry, where was I going with this? Oh, right, iChef Mindy won an all expense paid trip to the 2008 Beijing Olympics from sponsor Johnson & Johnson. For two! J & J ROCKS! They paid for every single thing, including food, drink, 5 star hotel, Olympic event tickets, AND round trip Business Class tickets to China— a small a freaking fortune!

One evening we were treated to a special intimate dinner for 11 at Green T in Beijing with special guest—can you guess who? No way!

YES! Janet Evans—all grownup!

Why was dinner for 11 and not 12 ? Because unfortunately Janet’s husband couldn’t make it—Unfortunate…

Would I speak or trip over myself? Continue to keep my secret or step up to the starting blocks and tell about my ridiculous unrequited feelings from over 20 years ago to someone I only met on TV?

Well, we show up at the restaurant and the hi’s, hello’s, and how-do-you-do’s, come and go and we all pressed palms, exchanged names, had a cocktail as a group (I had a GreenTea Martini.) The table at this fabulous Asian fusion restaurant rivaled Asia de Cuba (here in the states)—it ran the length of the restaurant and had seats with chair backs as high as the ceiling. There was a seating chart and iChef Mindy was so lucky (it almost wasn’t fair) because she was sat RIGHT next to Janet! Where would I be, probably at the end of this table as long as the Great Wall (just so happened we visited earlier.) Where’s my place card, where’s my name, where’s my— What’s this? There must be a mistake! Yikes! I was also seated next to Janet!

As fate would have it Janet was seated right between Mindy and myself! (because, unfortunately, as you know her husband couldn’t make it) Hoo-freaken-ha!

What a wonderful event, dinner, and conversation. Kids, blogging, writing books, (can’t call me inconsistent!) sponsorships, beer-in-a-bowl® (which IS of course trademarked) etc.

I didn’t tell her about the crush I had, I thought that would be so passé. Though when I did tell her what I told her I think she knew what I meant.

I told her what her smile, enthusiasm, and big brown eyes meant to (me) the country, how excited she made (me) the country feel, dot dot dot

She was great, she showed us pictures of her daughter and husband on her phone, talked to us like she was one of us. We took pictures before leaving. Yes, the group shot was great, but I wasn’t leaving without a pic of just the two of us—dreams do come true!

What a wonderful life!

PS. Predictably during the 1992 Olympics, I managed to fall love with Olympic swimmer Amy Van Dyken—I was young, a dreamer, falling in love with unattainable, enthusiastic, Olympic-Gold-medal-winning-women, that I would never meet, let alone have a meaningful thought provoking conversation with…

Though, my dream did eventually come true, in China of all places, with Janet.

—IrascibleChef

Technorati Tags: 2008 Olympics, America, Beijing, China, Crush, Dreams, J & J, Janet Evans, Mindy, Restaurants, Swimming, travel, USA

Happy 40th Birthday iChef Mindy! Welcome to the club!

# # #

I’m just not sure where to start… Maybe a, China Power In -N- Out, list!

• Janet Evans
• Business Class
• Beijing China—the People’s Republic
• The Green T
• Hotel Kunlun
• Communication or not
• 2008 Olympic (Beach Volleyball, Men’s Indiv Gymnastic Finals, Swimming—MP, the BirdsNest, WaterCube)
• Pollution and Traffic
• Yuan, RMB, $
• Johnson and Johnson
• Customs in China vs Customs in US—Airports
• The Forbidden City Tiananmen Square
• New Friends from the Old Country
• The Great Wall
• Janet Evans

Okay, I have my work cut out for me…

Technorati Tags: $, 2008 Olympic (Beach Volleyball, 2008 Olympics, Beijing China—the People, Business Class, Customs in China vs Customs in US—Airports, Hotel Kunlun, Janet Evans, Johnson and Johnson, Men's Indiv Gymnastic Finals, Pollution and Traffic, RMB, Swimming—MP, the BirdsNest, The Forbidden City Tiananmen Square, The Great Wall, The Green T, travel, WaterCube), Yuan