While Ramiele Malubay survived another week in American Idol, another Filipino surfaces on a reality show competition: Dale Talde is gunning to be the next "Top Chef" on Bravo. The premiere show aired this week and Dale seems to be a promising competitor with an impressive resumé. Seems a bit cocky but for now I'll classify it as self-confidence.
hoy top chef!
more politricks
Thanks to Geraldine Ferraro for accelerating the ugly. This type of negative campaigning is one of the reasons why I never get caught up in politics in the first place. This race-baiting which started with Bill Clinton in S.C. and now with Ferraro has really turned me off from Hillary. Its appears to be a strategy to paint Obama as the black candidate.
I was drawn to Obama because he ran on a positive message of hope and stayed above the fray. Now you wonder if he'll have to abandon that strategy and get his hands dirty to fight back.
wei over seasoned
The owners of P.F. Chang's (the "upscale" chinese restaurant chain whose food doesn't live up to its forced pretentiousness) recently opened Pei Wei in Cherry Hill. This establishment bills itself as an "Asian diner" - a unique concept for South Jersey, a region inundated with cookie cutter chinese/japanese fare. The interior shares a similar style to Chang's with lots of reds, golds and dark wood - a rich palette contrasted nicely with framed black and white slice of life photos of China. I suppose these photos are meant to establish some authenticity. There is a long bar where one can sit and observe the chefs cooking in front - but nobody was seated there by the hostess. Maybe we aren't supposed to examine what the cooks were actually doing. Anyhow, we place an order up front at the register and wait for our food to be served at our numbered table.
The menu offers various Chinese, Korean, Thai and Vietnamese dishes - all fairly basic and suitably Americanized for its location. I ordered the spring rolls for appetizer and the Mongolian beef, while my wife sampled the Pad Thai. Spring rolls were decent but both of our entrees were totally over-seasoned. It was so salty that I discovered new veins in my forehead throbbing from my blood pressure going through the roof. My wife comes from the Japanese school of minimal seasoning with the belief that over seasoning distracts from the natural flavor of the food. Too much oil actually disrupts her stomach. So as you can imagine, she wasn't enjoying her Pad Thai at all. She kept mixing the noodles furiously in a futile attempt to dilute the heavy flavors. I looked around for sympathy. The family near us was eating it up and adding hot sauce. On our other side, the waitress was recommending one dish because it has so many flavors going on. Yeah, don't forget to recommend 20 glasses of water with that. I did see one couple leave with their dishes half-eaten. So we weren't alone.
My hunger actually overrode my health concerns and I nearly finished my Mongolian beef. I did walk out craving water. The only other time I crave water is after a dehydrating 5 mile run. Funny thing is I was more disappointed by P.F. Changs because it was pricey and faux-pretentious. Yes, Pei Wei was over-seasoned beyond belief...but it was cheap...and thus a sub-par meal more easy to swallow...or forget.
obama city, japan
Obama City is located in the Fukui Prefecture in Japan. This video shows the people's support for the presidential hopeful who shares their city's namesake:
graf appreciation
Read a BoingBoing post about a billboard announcing the Takashi Murakami exhibit at the L.A. Museum of contemporary art. 2 well known local graffiti artists bombed the billboard with their names and Murakami characters. Murakami asked for the billboard to be taken down - not out of anger but because he liked it so much that he wanted it shipped back to Tokyo.
watch with caution
This video has been banned by MTV because its strobelight effects failed the Harding Test - which judges whether images may trigger epilectic seizures.
More random tracks:
Q-tip | midnight 08 (smirnoff signature mix)
The Roots feat. Dice Raw, Peedi Crakk & DJ Jazzy Jeff | Get Busy
Idle Warship feat. mc chris | Screamin
Snoop Dogg | Press Play
mark ward / nike be true
Who wouldn't want a side of fries with a pair of Air Force 1's?
via sneakerfreaker
vibrant thing
Great color and energy from Excusado Printsystem, a Colombian street art collective. Nice writeup in Pingmag.
yuki nakano
Yuki Nakano is a talented artist who works in a variety of media including illustration, collage and photography.
yakitori boy
Yakitori Boy is a restaurant/bar and karaoke club that recently opened in Philly's Chinatown. Its the first Japanese establishment in this neighborhood and uniquely serves "Japas" - you guessed it: Japanese tapas. These type of joints are common in Japan and the after-work crowd relish in eating small dishes that perfectly complement the need to get drunk after a hectic workday. My brother-in-law took us to a joint near Tokyo and we found ourselves among the hectic salaryman crowd drinking and eating away their stress.
Upon entering Yakitori Boy, I found myself agreeing with a reviewer who commented that the decor was reminiscent of the movie "Lost in Translation". The interior is dimly lit with Japanese styled beamed structures framing the private booth area. The bar and tabled seating areas are ultramodern and minimal.
On to the food. I was encouraged to be served by a Japanese waitress and welcomed the complimentary edamame. The sushi was a little underwhelming - not so fresh or up to the standards of Morimoto or Genji. I enjoyed the okonomyaki - a pancake filled with shrimp, octopus, bonito flakes and various vegetables topped with sauce and mayonnaise. Lots of stuff going on in this dish - but its went perfectly with my Asahi. Their specialty Yakitori dish (photo above courtesy of philadining.com) features meatballs, gizzards, and beef on skewers. Gizzards were a little tough but the meatballs melted in your mouth. Lots of flavors and spices going on. Again...perfect to eat with beer. The portions are fairly generous and cheap.
The food is adequate if not mind-blowing but I came away seeing Yakitori Boy as more about the experience than the food. Chinatown needs a hip place to drink and lounge at and you'll enjoy getting tipsy and eating perfectly complementary "Japas". You almost expect Bill Murray to be sipping some Suntory in the corner or singing some Elvis Costello in the karaoke lounge upstairs.
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