The Irascible Chef

—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

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

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

Can somebody tell me how we got here?

Traveling / flying really sucks these days. As a child I rode a school bus, the train, the public bus that you had to pull the cable attached to a bell to let the driver know he needed to stop, but I never flew on an airplane. I didn’t have that pleasure until I was in my 20’s—I believe it was on my honeymoon flight to Jamaica. On this trip I loved the entire event including being interrogated by US Customs Agents and the food and wine in little bottles with screw tops! I have a story about US Customs Agents, but not here. Not now.

Well, I have since flown quite a bit, back and forth, all over the country and across the pond a few times and the honeymoon is definitely over. Over, to the point of never wanting to strip down to my bare feet, or be probed by people with gloves, or to have my personal belongings (including a delicate machine that helps me stay alive while I sleep) fiddled with—checking in at a post 9/11 airport means checking my dignity at the curb (not that it was so much fun before, it’s just so much worse now) I don’t want to get into the whole flight thing, including paying ridiculous fees from the ticket that has a terrorist tax included, the food which isn’t included, and now extra moo-la for my luggage! If a person was quick enough to add up all the nickel and diming going on they would never fly because they would be outraged at the actual cost—much like taxes coming out of your paycheck. *tangent warning* Continue Reading »

Technorati Tags: iChef PSA, Rude

Found at the Eggs Up Grill!

If corned beef hash is on the menu I have to order it—It’s not like I have choice! I don’t! I’m on a constant mission.

It’s not that this delight is hard to make, I happen to make an awesome homemade corned beef hash and eggs. It only happens the day after St. Patty’s day because I only make corned beef once a year. It’s a delicate balance—it must not be greasy, nor too salty, but must be moist, crispy, and flavorful. Continue Reading »

Technorati Tags: breakfast, corned beef hash, iChef, Restaurants, south carolina

If you find yourself in Pawleys Island (right next to Myrtle Beach) in South Carolina and not sure which of the zillion restaurants to go to I can tell you that my experience at Wahoo’s Raw Bar and Marina, was Divine to say the least. Wahoo is an open-air, Tiki-bungalow-offshoot, adjacent to the Divine Fish House.

The rain, winds, booming thunder, not even the streaking bolts of lightning, could stop us from heading out to Murrells Inlet in search of some great food, drinks, with a high atmosphere in Low Country.

Recommended was the Blue Elephant Thai flavored restaurant which was closed due to renovations—I recommend that they need to renovate their website—no likee? Made me glad it wasn’t open.

Next stop: Divine Fish House. Trying to dodge the rain buckets we had to pass Wahoo’s tiki bar menu board, which looked like the menu from Divine. Let’s try it—enough items looked deliciosa. The Scallops wrapped with Proscuitto was too much to pass up… Continue Reading »

Technorati Tags: iChef, seafood, south carolina

Something was left out of the book All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum. It doesn’t matter how old you get, adults behave the same way they did when they were a child in grade school. Scenarios and situations might be slightly different, but the responses and human nature don’t really change all that much. Maybe people need to learn a few more things than what they did in Kindergarten.

Did you ever hear the one about the chaperones, who take a bunch of junior high students, on an airplane for an educational trip across the country for a week? Goes something like this:

Flight attendants served the kids Red Bull and Fuel Energy drinks before anyone could stop them. And they arrived at the airport with bags of candy and Starbucks coffee, with an arsenal of electronics to beat the band. Oh, students are in the 8th grade—which means they’re 13-14 years old and going on their first coed sleep away (3000 miles from home), school sponsored, no parents, just their friends, a few teachers, candy, coffee, super caffeine drinks, electronics, their unchecked hormones, and their “I’m in 8th grade,” I’m the top dog, we need to test the fence attitude. Continue Reading »

Technorati Tags: iChef, people, planes, travel

On the road again…
Of course I won’t only be traveling by road. I will be in the air, on the water, in different states, all the way across the country. I will be in San Jose, Denver, New Jersey, New York City, Westchester, Connecticut, Myrtle Beach, Pawleys Island, Georgia, and finally San Francisco.

There will be drinking, eating, laughing, visiting, lounging, swimming, crabbing, gambling, more drinking and eating and so on and so on…
I hope to keep posting to let you know what’s happening around the country and I will be rating, reviewing, offering opinions and suggestions along the way. I will be posting here and at OpenRoad.tv

Buckle up and enjoy the ride! (that was for Doug)

—iChef

PS Our iChefs will also be in full force (like the Capitola Police) so be on your best behavior—we’ll be talking about it either way!

Technorati Tags: iChef, road trip