Text 38, 119 rader
Skriven 2006-04-06 10:24:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av DAVE DRUM
Ärende: ALDI-la 478
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 DD> I am eagerly awaiting the rebuilding of our Asian Food Supply which
 DD> was  totalled (down to the concrete slab floor) by the tornadoes three
 DD> weeks  ago.

I'm sorry to hear that it went the way of all prefab
metal buildings but am confident that it must have a
good enough profit history so the rebuild will take
place soon. There's this amusing image tornadoing through
my head, though - during the height of the storm, there
must have been some stray tropical fruit winging their
ways through unsuspecting rural Illinois. Imagine flying
durians, and be very afraid.

 ML> DD> As  well as (in my two stores) wine. FEH!!!
 ML>Nothing wrong with wine.
 DD> There is the way these mugs do it. A lot of it sits right by the front
 DD> windows where it is subject to solar heating and strong sunlight. And 
 DD> it's all priced higher than Two buck Chuck.

Most places, two buck Chuck is three or four bucks and is of
very variable quality. I recommend the Delicato line of box
wines for about 3.50 a bottle equivalent - consistent and
palatable if not exciting. My friend Harry and I had a bottle
of Rosemount diamond series Shiraz last night, and it wasn't
much better (although quite pleasant in its own right, it was
not such a treat at three or four times the price). Actually,
this was worth a food report, so see below.

 DD> If that happens some other store/chain/company will open to serve that
 DD> market. And the ALDI locations may become "former" ALDI locations - as
 DD> I  noted in my first post.

Yup ... I was wondering of Springfield was being invaded by an
army of the affluent classes.

My father wanted to take us and the next-door neighbors out to
dinner, and he suggested a place I hadn't heard of, the Far
East Restaurant, off Rockville Pike on Nicholson Lane. Now you
may know that my trust in my father's taste buds is scanty
(given what I've said about his favorite restaurant; plus I saw
him eat a green and mold-smelling bao for breakfast yesterday),
but, what the heck, he has only a few more years, so why not
humor him. My brother was supposed to get off work at 4 and
take us to the place at 7 (we always allow him a bit of extra
time), but the neighbors knocked at 7, and Jonathan was nowhere
to be seen, and his cell phone was down. Called his office to
leave a message, and he answered! saying that he was busy and
had lost track of the time. So Harry and Barbara took us in
their comfy station wagon.

It's a big ugly barn of a restaurant, with big lions in the
entryway, a fish pond, and a huge repertory of umbrella
drinks. My heart sank, but Harry reassured me that the food
was generally okay (it's a sad day when I listen to the Jewish
neighbors' testimonies about Chinese food before my father's).

We got a nice table in the back; our waiters were pleasant - a
loutish but good-natured Mainland boy who spoke some incredibly
obscure rural dialect and a Mexican guy. The menu is your usual
Chinese joint list, but luckily there is a Chinese list as well
and there was someone to read it.

I must have looked harried, as Harry suggested we split a bottle
of wine (Barbara doesn't drink much, my father will do half a
glass tops, and Jonathan is a designated driver type). So we did
the Rosemount Shiraz, which had good dense fruit, plums and
berries, good smoothness, too much ripe sweetness, a fair amount
of oak (at times it smelled to me rather like a black raspberry
milk shake), and a decent long fruit-and-mint finish. We sat a
while with our potations (the others had Diet Coke) before the
appetizers came.

These included the vegetarian goose (shiitake mushrooms
wrapped in smoked bean curd sheet) and Barbara's favorite,
sweet-sour cabbage (no bargain, though a big pile - it was
$6). Both were quite palatable. We also had a pretty decent
hot-sour soup.

Just as we were finishing up, Jonathan showed - it was about
8:30 - so we fed him the greasy deep-fried noodles that had come,
incongruously, with the soup, while we awaited our main courses.

Jonathan asked the waiter for a double order of pot stickers,
which were actually respectable as well, with a thinnish dough
and well-seasoned if salty pork filling.

Mains:

Mongolian-style lamb was quite tasty, thin slices of lamb leg
stir-fried with an abundance of scallions and a little ginger.

A steamed rockfish, about 2 lb, was very fresh (probably alive
until we'd ordered the execution) and tasty, although done just
a hair more than I'd have liked.

Jonathan wanted "Hunan steak," an expensive dish - this was
stir-fried large sheets of very good beef in a ketchup-based
sauce with a few chiles thrown in - I ate the chiles, which
were quite hot.

We'd ordered baby bok choy in garlic sauce, but they were out,
so we had gai lan (Chinese broccoli) instead. It was good.

The wine, being a little too sweet and a little too smooth,
went very well with both meats and okay with the fish.

A fairly successful meal, and I wonder if it would have been as
good were all the diners round-eyes.

Afterward, orange slices and fortune cookies: mine read
"someone is speaking well of you"; I said, "you can fool some
of the people all of the time."

Father insisted that I pick up the check. As I'll charge the
estate, it's not that big of a deal, but the gesture was
peculiar.
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