The Irascible Chef

Question: How can you say Sarah Palin doesn’t have experience, and at the same time say that Barack Obama does? Question: And when asked what example can you cite, the same people say BO has run a successful primary campaign…

Question: How can you say Sarah Palin is BAD, BAD, BAD, and when asked for an example, you say she was for the bridge to nowhere before she was against it and she used that example on national TV. (She was for it, as a matter of opinion, before she was in a position, she didn’t vote or anything for it, it was put to her as a question on her campaign for governor trail—and she said yes.) All this aside, Palin is bad and not worthy because she was for the idea of the bridge.

Question: So by that rationale anybody in the US Senate who voted for money that would go to this bridge is ALSO BAD—no? The key word is rationale… Ah, rationale!

Question: My guess is if Biden and Obama voted for the money it would be okay, because of the rationale of double standard. Even if they BOTH voted for keeping the bill alive twice AND voted once against an amendment that would strip out the money for the bridge project from the bill. They have immunity to these horrendous charges—they are still better than the BAD Sarah Palin! Right? Because she’s BAD! No, that would be hypocritical, and the people who are RIGHT (LEFT) are never hypocrites—right?

Question: So, the question remains, what do you do when your argument negates itself and in keeping your argument proves you are a hypocrite, what do you do? Some proof and video, from all places, CNN!

Question: What’s this? Investigative reporting from CNN??? MUST See video!

DEWEY BEACH, Delaware (CNN) — Although Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden routinely mocks his Republican counterpart, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, for her onetime support of the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere,” Biden and his running mate voted to keep the project alive twice.

Both Biden and Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama voted to kill a Senate amendment that would have diverted federal funding for the bridge to repair a Louisiana span badly damaged by Hurricane Katrina, Senate records show.

And both voted for the final transportation bill that included the $223 million earmark for the Alaska project.

An amendment offered by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma, would have stripped the money appropriated to connect the Alaskan coastal city of Ketchikan to its airport on sparsely populated Gravina Island and diverted the money to Louisiana.

But Biden andObama and 80 of their colleagues rejected the measure, an amendment to a massive 2005 transportation bill that funded thousands of projects across the country.

Change is what you want… R i g h t

Question: Is the above news some kind of trick or trap? It seems so obvious… As formerly stated on TheAnchoressOnline: Astroturfing Palin & Race-baiting, etc UPDATED

This goes along with my previous point. What the press does not want you to see, you will not see. What it does want you to see, you’ll see everywhere. The press wants you to see Sarah Palin and John McCain in the worst possible way, and Obama in the best. Which would be fine, if they’d just admit it and stop pretending they’re the gatekeepers and mediating intelligences who are somehow “keeping things balanced.”

As Archie Bunker used to say, Good night nurse!”

—iChef Politikos

Technorati Tags: Archie Bunker, Biden and Obama, Change, Hurricane Katrina, hypocrisy, Sarah Palin is BAD, Sen. Tom Coburn, US Senate

iChef Retail gets the tag-in by iChef!

Maybe you can change the world with words and a network! IrascibleChef makes things happen! Like Santa Claus, he knows when you are naughty or nice! He will put coal in your stocking if you’re not careful! Safeway didn’t like the lump of coal they got based on the the IrascibleChef’s visit to their deli section last week!

The first and second step have been taken, let’s see where they go!

Dear Valued Customer:

Thank you for your recent correspondence regarding the Deli Department of your local Safeway store.

You expressed your concern regarding the level of service that you received at the Deli Department. We sincerely apologize for any blah blah blah you may have encountered. Safeway continuously weighs options to provide the highest quality blah blah blah blah blah blah.

Blah, blah blah. Thank you again for your patience in this matter.

If you would like to discuss this further, please blah blah blah blah to this email or call our free number at 1-877-723-3929. One of our associates will be happy to blah blah blah blah.

We appreciate your blah blah blah blah blah blah. Thank you for shopping at Safeway.

Sincerely,
Customer Service Center

We shall see how sorry they really are! See, they use the word may, as if they may not have… which makes me think not very sorry! I wrote a pretty lengthy in depth review and they still aren’t sure if I did in fact encounter a problem.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience you may have encountered.

I’ll let you know! You know I will…

—iChef Retail

Technorati Tags: Customer Service, iChef, iChef Retail, Review, Safeway

—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

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

WHa happen?

Those who know me, know that this cannot possibly be a serious question. The answer is never, as in, never-ever-ever!

Goes down like this, the automatic clothes dryer’s “Stainless Steel” drum gets a tear in it. Let me be more specific: a 2004 LG Super-Dooper expensive ($800) (my bad, $1100) dryer’s “Stainless Steel” drum gets a tear in it and needs to be repaired! Thank goodness for the home owners home shield insurance that covers such disasters!

Mr. Fix-it shows up and the conversation goes something like this:
Mr. Fix-it: “Lets get the money out of the way first, that will be $60 for the service call. Then I can start.”
Me: *I felt dirty like it was some sort of pay for play scenario* “do you take credit cards?”
Mr. Fix-it: *what am I a prostitute?* “no, cash or check.”
Me: “Do you have change for $100?”
Mr. Fix-it: “I only have $39 in change”—of course he does.
Me: *If I only had $59 would he do the job? He should at least give me a kiss if he’s going to be short a dollar!*
Mr. Fix-it: *What is this guy waiting for? I’m not going to kiss him.* “I have change in the car.”

After the money was exchanged for service, I was off in the corner smoking, he was fiddling with the dryer. Mr. Fix-it tells me he’s never seen such a thing before, it’s cheaply built he says. I say the dryer actually cost A LOT of money! He says, I’m sure it did, still cheaply made, that’s the way it is these days.
Great!

Bottom line—repair needs to be pre-approved by the insurance company! What? I already paid the monthly bill and the co-pay service fee and it might not be approved? He left without giving me the dollar—didn’t even mention it!

Relax, it’s only a dollar—Fuck! A minute later there is a knock at the door—Mr. Fix-it back with the 4 quarters. Thank you! Very nice man and was very helpful!

Okay what does this have to do with Barbra Streisand? Well, today I had some laundry to do and no clothes dryer to do it with! Old school, hang the clothes on the clothesline, or on the clothes hanging contraption thingy.

Those were the days my friend...

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Technorati Tags: barbra streisand, Customer Service, Dryer, iChef, iChef PSA, iChef Retail, laundry, mr. fix-it, old fashioned

Days Inn, Lombard Street, San Francisco: revisited! A REMINDER !

New owners doing their best to run service into the ground

Sometimes when you find a place, a little hole in the wall place, a place you can count on time and time again—it’s the right price, located in the right place even includes free parking and free Internet, you take for granted that it will always be this place. But nothing is forever… and once it stops being that place, it’s hard for it to ever recover. Because once trust is betrayed there is forever doubt…

This is a story of such a place that betrayed our trust. And because they made it so miserable for us, challenging us by saying things like, “tell whoever you want, we never want for business!” we would like to remind people that such betrayers of trust are defiantly out there! They think we the people are powerless against them and their poor service, that we don’t have choices, that our voices won’t be heard nor our warnings heeded! This event happened to us in 2006—I told you don’t cross us! We’ll tell the world about it!

Continue Reading »

Technorati Tags: bad hotel, Customer Service, iChef, phil tour, san francisco

—and, more importantly who do they think we are to them?

I just joined Epicurious.com. You know join a bunch of sites contribute increase traffic—that idea! Mistake!

Well this is a PSA, a Public Service Announcement, for everyday people—you don’t have to give up your rights to anything you own because someone tells you you do! Sounds simple enough, practically common sense, if you ask me! But sometimes we want to belong, and everybody else is doing it, so what’s the harm —r i g h t ? —WRONG!

Stop being sheep!

All of these sites that encourage user participation for content need YOU and ME! Because without us they have no content, they have no back and forth conversation, they have CRICKETS croaking or whatever the hell that noise crickets make!

Technorati Tags: epicurious, iChef PSA, Recipe

It was the best of times it was the worst of times.

Palo Alto vs. Los Gatos

In this corner from Palo Alto the Italian Stallion: Il Fornaio and in the other corner from Los Gatos the Hoppin’ Jalepeno: Pedro’s Cantina. Yes, two different cuisines. Yes, two different levels of service. Yes, two different scales of pricing. Mismatch, let’s see!

Bring it on! Cage Match!

Wednesday night dinner for three at Il Fornaio. People dressed nicely, several tables of men looking like they’re in talks about trading and trafficking women. A table on the patio was very lovely, bread and oil vinegar very tasty. 2 glasses of white wine ordered and brought by transferable carafe which I thought at the time was genius (because of the tall wine glasses that probably cost them a few profits when they often broke—my speculation on this type of wine service.) The wine was on the warm side and this was noticed more when the third glass was ordered and sipped from. The third glass was very tasty and the proper temperature made all the difference in the world. (At $8.50 each glass=$25.50 for the 3 glasses and maybe, a 2.5 oz pour in each, maybe. It should at least be at the proper temperature)

The temperature was discreetly mentioned to the waiter. He apologized, but did mention that some people prefer their white wine warm because they get more flavor from it—so more of a you’re an idiot and an excuse than an apology.

Hello! I was pointing out that I am not one of those people and don’t try to infer that there’s something wrong with me! I was hoping for him to remove said glasses of warm wine and return with some properly chilled wine! Or at least offer!

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Technorati Tags: Cage Match, iChef, Il Fornaio, Pedros, Restaurants

Current: Oil Barrel Prices

Okay, I’ve been on a roll, eating a lot of good food served by many good people.

Stayed a little longer than planned in SC, to squeeze a few more experiences into the vaca. Like in Vegas, if you play long enough—you’re gonna lose! Well the streak has ended. It was a good one that was bound to end. It didn’t end in spectacular fashion as one might imagine, but it did end at Buzz’s Roost in Litchfield, South Carolina.

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Technorati Tags: iChef, Pawleys Island, Restaurants, SC

I will spare you the narrowing down process as it was exhausting to say the least. I will also disclose that all this happened in Feb-March of 2008—as gas prices were inclining, but still not skyrocketing.

(in my calculations of gas future costs I planned on $5 a gallon gas in the next couple of years, to which one of my colleagues chortled, “feeling a little bullish on gas prices are you?” This from a man who drives a V-8 Audi Super-Guzzler…) Well, I felt like gas prices will be there in the next couple of years anyway. And besides there’s no reason in the World that prices will be coming down anytime soon when so much money is being made from the something that costs no more to pull out of the ground then it did in the last few years… I believe it costs Saudi Arabia $2-3 per barrel—at current figures $137/barrel. $134 profit per barrel. What’s the percentage of profit here?!?!! Mother…

Not where I wanted to go. Okay, let me just say no one is chortling now except for you know them—Saudi Arabia and the US Government who makes more on taxes on gasoline than the profit by big oil over the last 10 years… I digress again. I am sorry. No, don’t drill here! No, don’t have new refineries here! No, don’t open more nuclear power plants! No! No! No! No! Don’t do that! Just complain that we have to defend a region of the world that’s crazy messed up because WE ALL USE too much oil from those foreign places when we do have an option right here! I am sorry for that. Continue Reading »

Technorati Tags: auto, iChef Retail