Adrian Smith @207, I grew up with an enthusiasm for a French-style Japanese bakery (St. Germain), so items that might give some pause in the French-Korean bakery don't slow me down. St Germain savory pastries with mayo, for example, or the Boulangerie Bakery hot dog pizza on a sweet bread dough. I haven't seen it lately, but the Boulangerie Bakery does a sort of French toast croque-monsieur that I think of as an Asian Elvis ham sandwich. I'm sure there's mayo in it, as well as some kind of pickle relish, and the whole shebang is battered and fried. Everything in it is European or American, but the combination/applications have a flavor I think of as Asian.
This morning at the KCC Farmers Market I stopped at the Ba-Le stand, where they have the full line of bakery items (the chain specializes in Vietnamese sandwiches and pho). Their almond croissants are delightful, and I'm really glad I can only get them at the farmers market (if anyone knows of another venue selling them - don't tell me, please). An iced Vietnamese coffee and an almond croissant for breakfast sounds wonderful to me but would result in behaving like a hyperactive toddler, so I chose to go with my 'usual' - the Popo's Ginger shave ice from Blue Lotus. Then I had an ear of roasted corn with butter and furikake. Forgot to buy kim chee Portuguese sausage, though.
Nicole J. Leboeuf-Little @142, there is a Korean bakery I frequent which offers an excellent wheat-free rice bread and I'm fairly certain the black sesame mochi balls are also wheat-free (I can't say if they are totally gluten-free). Wondering if the bakers have an advantage on that coming from a culture with a long history of using rice flour?
It is a French-style Korean Bakery called the Boulangerie Bakery. My father calls it The Bakery Bakery (and is a big fan of their coffee, walnut balls, and peanut butter buns).
Linkmeister @157, I remember there being a Taco Bell/Pizza Hut combo on the UH-Manoa campus, and was slightly odd but convenient. The combination of Dunkin' Donuts and Catch of the Day Sushi (across from the convention center) didn't work as well for me, even with the dividing wall. I heard the same family owned the franchise for both, hence the shared space.
Linkmeister, I have also noted that it's pretty easy to eat good quality on the cheap in NYC, and I think that can in part be chalked up to the cities proximity to agricultural producers - upstate NY, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, for example. Plus there's the amount of competition and a population that can support a wide range of niche markets (vegetarian/vegan Korean tea house, anyone?). fwiw, we had a bunch of New Yorkers here recently for a wedding and they had rave reviews of some of the eateries in Honolulu (Cream Pot, 12th Ave Grill, and ShaveDice at the KCC farmers market in particular).
Arguably I could get a plate lunch here for $5 - $8 that would take care of my caloric needs for the day (and then some) but that's not the smartest move health-wise.
The natural foods co-ops I worked for used a 50/50 mix of oat bran and wheat bran, both of which were readily available in the bulk bins of the co-ops (important because the oil spills tend to happen by the bulk containers of oils) and much, much cheaper than kitty litter. I think it's the oat bran that clumps and the wheat bran that absorbs. Followed up with a quick wash with a dishwashing liquid solution, the linoleum would be safe for customers again.
Shalanna @ 40: In addition to the bias towards conventionally attractive performers, I believe part of the reason Susan Boyle didn't have a singing career earlier in her life was because she was caring for her mother. Pure speculation here, but it's possible that even if she'd had the chance earlier, she may not have taken it if it would have meant leaving her mother.
Hadn't seen that sketch before, and I think that my recent addition of the BBC Radio 4 podcast of In Our Time with Melvyn Bragg to my daily commute made that sketch even more fun for me to watch.
My congratulations to New Hampshire! I hope to visit soon.
A friend of mine asked me about how the vote was going here in Hawai'i and I told her I've been so angry I can't see straight. Angry enough that I have considered having a wedding ceremony just so that I could send out "sorry I ruined your life" cards a la Portia de Rossi.
The wedding industry here has been nosediving as well (part of the decline in tourism). I wonder if the Hawai'i Visitors Bureau is aware of how many potential gay vacation wedding dollars they may have lost out on.
Lee @ 191, thank you - what a difference a little terminology makes! The friends I've been talking to about this don't like using the term 'commune.'
Linkmeister, I'm fine with drivers using the side streets responsibly - I'm not fine with drivers who go 40 mph down a narrow side street and don't bother to stop until they've gone past the stop sign, or who do a rolling stop. I know that part of the problem is that all the vehicles parked alongside the road makes it more difficult for drivers to see the road traffic, but I still fantasize about carrying a brick in my pocket to throw at some of the drivers.
Current home neighborhood: 42, but with decent city bus service. Neighborhood I will move to temporarily: 29, and has city bus service but less frequently and the route doesn't go to the nearest shopping center or the university.
One of my job locations got an 83 - it's in an older mixed use neighborhood and is indeed very close to the library, parks, grocery stores, restaurants, etc. It's also got no sidewalks, cars block up most of the space on either side of the road, and side streets get used as shortcuts by drivers who don't look for pedestrians. I walk anyway. [Those familiar with Honolulu: McCully/Mo'ili'ili neighborhood, mauka of Old Stadium Park.]
Yesterday I was telling my hanai* Mom about how some of my friends have been getting more serious about looking into communal living arrangements for when we get older; turns out she's been talking with some of her friends about much the same concept, with mixed generations. Her generation is still thinking about doing this on a small farm, and mine is considering ways to do this in urban settings. If anyone has got resources they could direct me to, I'd be delighted if you shared them.
*adopted
Pendrift, I've used bamboo knitting needles in similar gauge to skewers, and found that they tend to warp and are fairly easy to break.
A (German) yarn shop owner here despises bamboo needles and will carry only metal and birch wood needles. I've used the Brittany brand of birch needles and crochet hooks and liked them, although I don't personally see any superiority over bamboo (which I love and have several sets of, just not in anything below 3.0 mm).
When I did my jury duty, on the first day, the ladies at the security checkpoint had a good laugh as they confiscated my folding knife, Swiss army knife, scissors, sewing needles, and metal dpns from my person and my bag. I was allowed to keep my crochet hook and yarn, though.
On the subsequent days they all smiled when they saw me coming. As older Filipino women, I think it's possible they were actually charmed by having had to confiscate knives and knitting needles from the same person.
I was the jury foreperson and I started smoking again during that trial. Can't remember if I was allowed a lighter or if I had to stick to matches.
When I was 8, D. put a gun to his head and ended his life. I inherited his complete set of Burroughs paperbacks and several Star Trek books.
Baba teaching me how to make beef broccoli, which included his turning to my partner, saying "you can't treat her like that" matter-of-factly, and then showing me how much cornstarch to use.
Wanting something to do on my bus commute and getting out my grandmother's crochet hooks.
Usage of 'hapa' these days seems to be mostly for Asian-Caucasian, and my understanding is that the term used to be more flexible. I see the change in usage as being a reflection of societal constructs of race. The 'one-drop rule,' now going out of fashion, would hold that Obama is Black. The current social construct of 'Native Hawaiian' involves blood quantum, which some Native groups regard as a measurement of 'how close to/far from White are you' and are trying to reclaim traditional definitions of tribal/ethnic affiliation.
You can't be White without being 'pure' - and you can't be Asian without being 'pure,' and so the usage of 'hapa' or 'mixed' increases. There is less shaming involved nowadays with being mixed, but people's self-identification is often still at odds with society's identification - arguably African-Americans, Native Americans, and Native Hawaiians are more likely to be admixtures but are rarely identified as such. Tiger Woods, for example, is often referred to as Black, despite being half Asian, possibly because of the legacy of the 'one-drop rule.'
Personally I roll my eyes at the "mixed = beautiful" stereotype. I know it's meant to be complimentary but I interpret it as "exotic but not too exotic." Mulattas and octoroons, let's not forget, have had a history of being lauded for combining White standards of beauty with Black sexual prowess. It's really not much of a compliment.
The knitting conundrum that popped up here in the comments - I can't tell if it's been resolved (600+ comments!), but during my long bus commute* I remembered that when I first started using circular needles, I got mixed up with how to hold the needles. If the cord is against your body and the tips of the needles pointing away, you are knitting inside out, which would give you knit on the inside, purl on the outside. With the tips pointed towards you and the cord away from you, the knit should wind up on the outside.
If that's already been brought up, my apologies for the redundancy.
This reminds me of a website selling 'traditional'* Irish sweaters I saw several years back, claiming that Aran knitting was near extinction. Clearly they were not subscribers to the Twists and Turns newsletter.
*what is frequently sold to consumers is a heap of blarney. Richard Rutt's A History of Hand Knitting, among others, helps dispels the myths, and DoChara.com makes a good point: "So, how Irish is Aran Knitting? Completely Irish, and it there is no dispute about its origin in the Aran Islands. Some people have expressed dismay that something they believed was an ancient traditional craft was in fact of recent origin and always commercial in nature. They shouldn’t. It is immensely to the credit of the women living on the remote Islands of Aran in the mid-20th century that they developed and created an original style of knitting with such wide appeal...It does no justice to these remarkable women to belittle their achievement or their creativity or to devalue their sweaters just because they, and not their forebears, came up with the style of knitting."
I bought two pairs of Diesel jeans a few years ago. The 'Zathan' cut are mens jeans but they do not look like mens jeans when I have them on, and they are very comfortable (and have button flys, which I am personally very fond of). Reportedly the staff in the denim department at Diesel will ignore the intended gender of the garment in favor of a good fit. The two pairs I bought are still my favorite jeans and I should replace them soon but I have to admit that spending $150 - $230 on a single pair of jeans is difficult for me, even knowing that over time the per-wear cost would be in pennies. FWIW, the jeans are reportedly made in clean, modern Italian factories by well-paid unionized workers (but the t-shirts are not).
Just a reminder to vegetarians and vegans: not eating meat or animal products does not mean you are safe from food poisoning. Raw fruits and vegetables can be handled unsafely and it can be as simple as the food preparer not washing their hands, or not washing their hands thoroughly.
Brooks Moses @ #14: it's my reply to those panicking over the Obama assassination scenario. My apologies for not being clear on that.
The panicking old hippies tell me that I'm too young to understand, but as you said, Biden seems competent.
Brooks Moses, my standard reply: What if he isn't?
| Year | Number of comments posted |
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| 2009 | 16 |
| 2008 | 10 |
| 2007 | 31 |
| 2006 | 4 |
| 2005 | 3 |
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