obama for yo mama pt. 2

After wandering around DC, the night ended with a late dinner at Ben's Chili Bowl. Couzin told me that since elected, Obama has been eating around town, doing wonders for the restaurant economy, and Ben's was no exception as he dropped in, unannounced, with the mayor of DC one day.

An amusing sign posted for all the world to see.

taken from cache.daylife.com

What do you crave after you're drinking? I usually like some sort of soup. Unfortunately, that wasn't an option at this place, but that was okay since I was here to try the chili half smoke, a moderate sized link made up of half pork and beef with a variety of spices, and combined to create something new for me.

Not the most attractive picture and I didn't take a very good shot at it either, but the half smoke itself did the trick for dinner and the morning after =x. The chili wasn't too heavy and didn't overpower the sausage at all. All was well in the world. I just wish we had it given to us fresh off the grill because it seemed like it would have tasted a lot better hot, but we did come after midnight.

Cheese fries. Your standard goop that tastes oh so good when you have the munchies.

Till next time folks. Same hot dog time. Same hot dog channel.

east coast west coast everywhere a pig pig

Recently, I had the chance to visit DC and Philly with my sister. It was nice to be able to just spend a week there peacefully without having to give a damn about anything. I had a good time visiting family, but good lord, i met a lady named gluttony, and I came back to cali a hurt heart, a swollen foot, and a few pounds heavier.

Having taken the red eye flight, we passed out once we arrived in DC and woke up to have a late lunch/early dinner.

Here's the spread from a local take out joint + a Heiny. As much as I love the whole shebang, I am more of an Old Bay fan when it comes to seafood(perhaps bc salt>butter for me?). I was curious to what it actually has in it and so I looked it up on wiki: "Mustard, paprika, celery seed, bay leaf, both black and red pepper, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, nutmeg, cardamom, salt, and ginger," all of which combines to make something which I fondly refer to as crabby crackle crack to sprinkle sprinkle liberally on your food.

Maybe it's my poor technique, but getting the crab meat out is tedious, hard work. Wonder how long it took these guys to make these cakes or what they did different from my cousin's tutorial? Very meaty and good with a squeeze of lemon. Served with some coleslaw and a stale homely looking bun which I still ate.

We had no trouble polishing off the dozen #1s. brains and guts tasted like something familiar, but what was its name? What's in a name anyhow. It was lipsmackin good.

Had to get the bubba shrimp too. I think I'm going to buy some Old Bay and make this myself.

And that was the start of my clogged artery causing, belly bustin, let's fatten up Wilbur for that applewood smoked bacon and winter ham we all love so much, trip to the east coast.

Noodles and soup and o my!

Heyo! Glee has resumed, and life has meaning once again. Hallelujah!

Sorry about the lack of updates. I haven't been eating out too much/didn't want to bore you with the stuff I occasionally cook. Here's a short blurb on a Korean joint that specializes in kal gooksoo, which literally means knife noodles.

The banchan here only consists of one thing: kimchi, made from radish greens(i'm not really sure what to call them, but the tops of radishes), served in a clay(?) pot, which is where the restaurant name, Hang a Ri, comes from. I thought it was really refreshing and a cool welcome to complement the noodle soup.

We also got some steamed dumplings. These were really quite good. For the first time in my life, I found myself not wanting to dip them into soy sauce. They were fine on their own.

The kal gooksoo portion was huge and topped with long strips of mushrooms. The noodles were thick and gave a nice chew. I'm not completely sure, but I think they make their noodles here. But the real winner was the broth. It had a solid seafood base that held its own against the sands of time. Maybe they used some clams? Usually, I've had it with some ground beef or pieces of chicken, so this ocean inspired version threw my presumptions to the wind, only to be carried off to the ends of the earth, destined to die alone.

Also got some mandoo (dumplings to go), and they were still good a few hours later. What you know about that?