Diverging Paths

(Pictures for this recipe taken with my Canon Rebel XTi.)



It's bell pepper season at the farmers' market! With modern growing and transportation methods, bell peppers have become so ubiquitous as a year-round staple that most of us probably don't think about their natural growing cycles. However, bell peppers are actually a type of berry. Like all fruits, they're best enjoyed at the peak of their ripeness and freshness. Bell peppers become the most sweet and flavorful between July and November, which means that now is the perfect time to load up at your local farmer's market!



The optimal way to appreciate bell peppers in season is raw. However, if you intend to cook your bell peppers, you should pick a cooking method that preserves their natural sweetness and crispness. Stir-frying is ideal for this, since the short cooking time leaves the bell peppers close to their natural state. This basic recipe for Bell Pepper Beef Stir-fry is quick, easy, and delicious to make. It's a great meal on a hot summer day.


Get the complete recipe, Bell Pepper Beef Stir-fry - [Cooking], on Chubbypanda.com.

(Pictures for this review taken with my Canon PowerShot SD800is.)



What's your snack of choice when you're cruising the city late at night? Do you like wrapping your lips around the obscene, incestuous porcine coupling that is the Bacon-Wrapped Hot Dog? Are you lured to the kaleidoscopic glitter of roasted meat served up at the many taco stands that dot La La Land? Maybe you're the kinky type, seeking out flavor-packed abominations that aren't completely one thing or another, only to find yourself crying in a shower the next morning. No, it never washes off. But, if you're like me, you'll find yourself obsessively checking Twitter again later that day.



Still, I usually like my after dark street food encounters like I like my women; sweet and almost too hot to handle. Near downtown Los Angeles that can mean only one thing. Hotteok, the Korean version of crispy fried napalm with a nutty finish. Luckily, I can always get my fix in front of Kaju Market on the corner of 5th and Western.


Read the complete review, Kaju Market Hotteok Stand - Los Angeles, CA [Eating], at Chubbypanda.com.

(Pictures for this review taken with my Canon Rebel XTi.)



Last Sunday was the city of Tustin's 25^th annual Street Fair & Chili Cook-Off. Believe you me, people in Tustin know how to throw a good bash.




Read the entire review, Tustin Street Fair & Chili Cook-Off - Tustin, CA [Eating], on Chubbypanda.com.

What crawled up this guy's ass and died? This is most insulting portrayal of my hometown I've ever read. How dare he use Lancy in this piece of shit article? How dare he!?!

"Saratoga is a beautiful privileged place, and it makes you feel, if you don't love it and become a part of it, that something is wrong with you. It's a debilitating feeling, a special venom, that paralyzed me within a day of arriving. Because the only place you can go from Saratoga is down."

http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/02.19.04/saratoga-0408.html

Blow me, Mark Ames! Eat shit and die you worthless motherfucker!

"告他們把腦袋吃掉." "Eat the head!"

I have succumbed to Twitter. God help me...

http://twitter.com/ChubbypandaBlog

OMG. This is the most inventive use of LEDs and sheep ever. Ain't technology grand?

"OBama O'Leary, O'Reilly, O'Hare and O'Hara. There's no one as Irish as Barack O'Bama..."

I'm one sick panda. Not so much in terms of degree, but in terms of duration. Two weekends ago, I got a cold. Then my ears got blocked up during the cold. Then I had insomnia for a few days because of how uncomfortable the ear pressure was. Then the ears unblocked and the cold went away. But, we had daylight savings time, which threw off my sleep schedule and gave me another night of insomnia. Then allergy season hit, right as my cold was getting better. Then, my ears got blocked up again...

I just wanna feel rested and not sick!

(Pictures for this review taken with my Canon PowerShot SD800is.)

I am one seriously pissed off panda. I can't remember the last time I was this angry. We have rising gas prices, plummeting real estate values, double-digit unemployment, the specter of economic depression, and stock markets that have fallen with such rapidity that they threaten to drag the rest of the country into the Abyss with them. While criminally irresponsible Wall Street CEOs demand handouts from the federal government, and usurious financial institutions exploit us with our own tax dollars, small businesses, the backbone of the American economy, collapse left and right.


(What we're losing.)

Are you worried about your job? I am. Everyone I know is. Consumers aren't spending. Retirement savings, home values, and investment portfolios have been cut in half. The unemployment rate hasn't been this high since 1983. People aren't just feeling poor, they're becoming poor. Businesses can't get the short-term loans they need for day-to-day operations. Even if they could, who's going to buy their goods or services? Credit card rates are being arbitrarily jacked up in excess of 30%. 30%! You'd get a better deal from Big Tony. Sure, his boys might break your legs, but at least he'd have the decency not to do it while taking a federal handout. It's not just us, either. Thanks to globalization, the world is now flat. Everyone is getting screwed with their pants on in an international clusterfuck.

If you're not worried, you haven't been paying attention.



"But Chubbypanda," you say, "Isn't this blog supposed to be about food? Why are you ranting about the economy like Rick Santelli before his entirely justified and glorious bitch slapping by John Stewart?"

Because, dear reader, everything is about the economy these days, even food. People are eating out less. A lot less. Restaurant spending is down 12%. Around the county, independent restaurants are closing shop left and right. From small mom & pop eateries to iconic mainstays like New York's Rainbow Room Grill, the recession is taking its toll.


(You'd pick a Big Mac over this Croque Madame?)


Read the complete article, Hamilton Petit Cafe (A Call to Action) - Huntington Beach, CA [Eating/Crazies], on Chubbypanda.com

(Pictures for this review taken with my Canon PowerShot SD800is.)


(Olive Original Chicken)

Southern-fried chicken is one of life's perfect pleasures. Locked in an armored shell of crunchy batter, the chicken is practically steamed in its own rich juices. The intense heat gelatinizes and draws collagen and marrow out from the bones, then forces it into the meat. Biting into a well-prepared piece of fried chicken is an experience akin to eating deep-fried stock; a lip-smacking good time.



The opening of Diamond Jamboree, Irvine's latest Asian mega center, brings a new wave of spectacular Korean, Japanese, and Taiwanese eateries to an area of Orange County second only to Little Saigon for great Asian eats. Among them is my latest go-to place for Southern-fried chicken; BBQ Chicken. A restaurant which, ironically enough, serves no barbecue chicken at all.



Any American barbecue enthusiast worth his disposable plastic bib can tell you that true BBQ requires a dry rub, charcoal, and smoke, the holy trinity of this slow-cooked art. Keeping these immutable tenets in mind, BBQ Chicken's "Barbecue Chicken" isn't actually barbecued, it's grilled. What's more, while the grilled items on its myopic menu are good, where BBQ Chicken really shines is with its Southern-fried chicken. South Korea, that is.




Read the complete article, BBQ Chicken - Irvine, CA [Eating], on Chubbypanda.com

I love those mad fiends at Improv Everywhere. Their crazy antics are always good for a workday laugh.

Take their Food Court Musical smack dab in the middle of downtown LA.



Thanks to dragonblink for sending me this. I'll never take a napkin for granted again. Can I get a napkin, please?

To all my Jewish buddies:

Here's to eight crazy nights! =)

Huh. There seems to be a definite theme to my spam this morning. In order, starting sometime around 1am:

Christmas pleasure
The blue pill will bring harmony to your bedroom
Get shocked with length increase
Christmas night

Give your lady crazy enjoyment
You can drill ladies better
Get amazing buildup
Your powerful uprise will excite women

I'm thinking of setting it to music...

One of the three transformer arrays in my building blew out this morning, plunging the office in to darkness. We have no lights, heating, or plumbing, since apparently the pumps that get the water up our floor are out as well. Somehow, they managed to jury-rig power and internet for us, but the entire internal network is down.

I'm getting a lot of time to catch up on my blogging.

(Pictures for this review taken with my Canon PowerShot SD800is.)

My friend Kimchee is a really interesting guy. A Korean orphan, he was adopted at a very young age by a Caucasian family in the mid-West and had a traditional American upbringing complete with sock hops, football, and mom's apple pie. By every measure except the most superficial, he's a good ol' corn fed farm boy.


(Kimchee in front of Green House.)

However, he never stopped being curious about his roots. Like many other acculturated Asian-Americans, Kimchee began seeking connections with his ethnic heritage. His Korean identity has been painstakingly earned, the result of a lifelong exploration of the food, language, and customs of his ancestral homeland. Each experience reveals a little more about a place he's never known and a people he continues to discover.



Kimchee's enthusiasm for all things Korean, and his former life as a restaurant chef, makes him the perfect guide for my Korean food adventures. Any question I can think of, he's already asked and has an answer to. His finely-tuned tongue has never led me astray. Where he goes, my gluttonous self is only too happy to follow.



One of his latest finds specializes in home-style Korean dishes seldom found in any of the more popular tabletop grill establishments. A mom & pop eatery of the finest kind, Green House occupies a claustrophobic storefront in the middle of Gardena's surprising treasure trove of tasty ethnic restaurants. The space is tiny, barely large enough to seat a dozen people, with just enough room for Mom to work the front and Pop to cook up a storm in the back.




Read the complete review, Green House - Gardena, CA [Eating], on Chubbypanda.com.

(Pictures for this review taken with my Canon PowerShot SD100 and Canon PowerShot SD800is.)



One of Little Saigon's worst kept secrets is Brodard Nem Nuong Restaurant. It's also one of the best hidden. A bustling oasis for local Vietnamese food lovers, the restaurant is incredibly difficult for first-time visitors to find. Even Google Maps will lead you astray.



However, those who persevere in their search will find Brodard's signature dish, Nem Nuong Cuon (Pork Spring Rolls), well-worth the effort. A specialty of the house, these chewy tubes of grilled pork paste and herbs are *the* reason people flock to the restaurant.




Read the complete review, Brodard Nem Nuong Restaurant - Garden Grove, CA [Eating], on Chubbypanda.com.

(Images for this review taken with my Canon PowerShot SD800is.)

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!



Japanese society during the Edo period was rigidly striated into four impermeable classes. Merchants, because they produced no goods and did not serve the State, comprised the lowest officially recognized caste. To keep the merchant class in its place, the Tokugawa bakufu regulated what merchants could spend their money on. Displays of wealth in the form of lavish homes or personal adornment were strictly prohibited. Instead, the merchant class turned to other, less material ways to flaunt their success; food, sex, and entertainment. Centered in urban red light districts, the services and subculture that arose to support the hedonistic lifestyle of affluent merchants was described as Ukiyo, a "floating world" separate from the unyielding confines of the Pax Tokugawa.



Tucked away in an odd little fold of the border between Irvine and Newport Beach, Kitayama evokes storied descriptions of life in the floating world. The restaurant is a beautiful, labyrinthine sprawl surrounding a peaceful Japanese garden. Attentive, kimono-clad servers glide through the dimly lit halls, waiting on each table with polite efficiency.




Read the complete review, Kitayama - Newport Beach, CA [Eating], on Chubbypanda.com.

One of the sites my company owns, Bargainist.com, has an 80% off coupon code when purchasing $25 gift certificates to member restaurants. The average $25 gift certificate costs $10. The coupon knocks it down to $2.

http://www.bargainist.com/deals/2008/11/restaurantcom-80-off-25-gc-coupon/

It's an awesome deal. Last time this coupon came around, I picked up $375 worth of gift certificates for $27, and I'm still eating like a king. The coupon expires tomorrow, though, so you should check it out ASAP.