Happy Everything to Everyone

I probably won't post again until next week.

killed it

J. News killed it last night. She had to cancel the last few shows because she had lost her voice but she was able to sing pretty well last night even though you could tell it was somewhat painful. I have gotten over the fact that her album is a little hard to get into because of the super long songs and I love it! Each song has so many good little parts to wait for. She kept the self-absorbed SF crowd relatively quiet for the duration of the long set. The Santa Cruz crowd was much less annoying and more attentive. I heard a guy behind me namedrop both Don Delillo and a "sixteen minute version of Cinnamon Girl" as if that would be a good thing.

There is also a show tonight that I'm excited about. It's at the Delta of Venus, yet another folkie from Nevada City, Alela Diane (i keep changing this cuz I don't know which one is first or last. Her myspace says the show starts at seven but I'm not sure if that's true or what the line up is. I'll try to call after I get some work done.

she's phoking amazing!

How much do I love Edokko 2? So much that even though they were not answering their phones on sunday I somehow convinced myself that that must be the wrong number (despite the fact that I checked the phone book and called information and called them about 20 times) and drove all the way out to Greenhaven anyway in my desperate attempt for a sunday ramen breakfast. They open at five on sunday but I drew the line at waiting outside the door for five hours. Soooo...I ended up at Pho King on stockton. It was very good. I wish I could say that it was PhoKing Amazing! but that would be going a bit too far. I got the lemongrass noodle soup with pork and beef. That sounds innocuous but the result was rather scary. There were some cuts of beef that looked frightening (with globular bits) but tasted like normal, yummy beef. The pork cut didn't really have any meat, just white, tough goosebumped skin and tendons and stuff. The scariest thing was an exactly rectangular chunk of something that we concluded was either congealed and sliced blood or a chunk of liver or kidney? Can anyone help me out here with what it might have been? There was no mention of it on the menu. I tasted it and it tasted vaguely iron-ish but not as strong as liver. The broth and noodles were really good and I was proud that I didn't get grossed out. Smiller got flank steak pho that had a good tamarind heavy broth.

I'm going to Joanna Newsom at the great american in sf tonight! Yay!

the elder craftsman

I was in Old Sac on sunday (you can't keep me out of the sac. don't try) to hit up Laszlo's gourmet smoked fish for my article and I happened by an awesome store called the Elder Craftsman. It's all crafts created by old folks (or Sacramento's senior artisans as they put it) and staffed by a sweet grandma type. I scored a rad Christmas ornament but the real score was the kid stuff. They had great hand-knitted blankets, clothes and dolls. They had super big amazing sock monkeys. They have some of the stuff online so you can take a look at it. Those big sock monkeys are only 22 bucks! I can't believe I haven't ever been to this place. The lady staffing it said that it's been open since the 80's.

help!

I have a lot to post but guess which jerk waited until the very last minute to write her midtown monthly article which happens to coincide with being very very very busy at work?**



the jerk is me

PE at the Beat?

I heard that the Public Enemy show at the Empire sold so few tickets that they cancelled it and that PE just went and hung out at the Beat instead? Can anyone confirm or deny this rumor?

nog dog!

I barely have time to post today. Tonight is the first night of hanukah. Mazel tov, if that's appropriate. Tomorrow there are dueling events, which sucks. Can someone post more info on the nog dogs party? I dont' have time to find that original comment. Also, the J. Richman show is tomorrow. JC is in town, can IJQ be far behind?

Thanksgiving Appetite Enhancement Ride 2006

Thanksgiving Appetite Enhancement Ride 2006
Originally uploaded by pinkboi.

I finally found some photos of that thing I can't talk about. I'm in this picture so there's a hint if you don't know who I am. I don't know the guy who took this but he also has awesome pictures of his dog in a santa outfit

super rambling post-try to make it through

Jeez, Darell Corti is always one step ahead of me (and like ten steps on the evolutionary ladder). I thought I was the first to hunt down Stochniy's Russian restaurant (the sign sez Russian, the internet listing says Ukrainian) but that by now legendary (in Sac) sfgate article (linked above, scroll down for addresses) mentions his recommendation of it. I tried it out yesterday for my Midtown Monthly article. The hot borscht was great and really hit the spot on a gloomy day. They give you yeasty, fresh rolls with the soup and a garlic dipping sauce for the them. The stuffed cabbage was also delicious. It was stuffed with very fatty ground beef. I accidentally ordered sweet cheese blinis, which weren't very good. I should have gotten a savory type but I panicked when I was ordering. We got a funny "salad" that consisted of mayo, peas, crab meat, potatoes, and chicken. Not bad bud I wished that it was Junes macaroni salad instead. Man, I have been eating a lot of stuffed cabbage lately for this article. The stuffed cabbage at Cafe Marika is also wonderful. I think I am starting to resemble a stuffed cabbage and my hair smells like chopped liver. Sorry for giving all the dudes reading this a boner at work. Just cover it with the Peterson report until it goes away.

After spending a day in North Highlands thrifting and eating yesterday let me tell you that the Russian ladies can do things with their hair that Americans can only dream of. It really pained me to have to pass a completely empty Pattaya Thai because I have to write that damn article! And I officially decided that Deseret is the best thrift store in the greater Sacramento area. It is cheap and it has great stuff of all types. I picked up an old Levi's womans plaid shirt with a matching strip of fabric that I can use in my hair! For like a buck. And like I've said before, they always have rad handmade stuff because of the industrious Mormon women that stock the place. And old lady there told Smiller that they sometimes take the jigsaw puzzles home and do them to make sure all the pieces are there! We scored a puzzle that is the poster for Dr. Zhivago. A search for the Dr. Zhivago image led me to the rad fan art above. There's lots more where that came from.

Speaking of Cortis (which someone once called "that place you're always talking about" which didn't make me feel like the most exciting person in the world) they are now importing the products of the famous and previously illegal Iberian pig. When chorizos are outlawed...you know the rest. The celebrity couple that US Magazine have dubbed "willa" (actually this is something I accidentally call them all the time-when I'm not calling them CrossField) bought some of the salami and I tried it. It tasted...acorn fed?

another far-flung correspondent

Katy has established a cool blog from her base in Fukuoka. Let's just hope she posts unlike some other bloggers I could mention.

what am I?

Let me tell you, making schmaltz and chopped liver is not for the faint of heart. Vegetarians may want to stop reading here. First, I had to cut up all the yellow, bumpy chicken skin and fry it down. At no point did this turn into something delicious that I would like to snack on as the websites assured me it would. I got the fat from that and then dumped out the vat of chicken livers to broil it. Taylor's had snuck four chicken hearts in there to pad the outrageous bill (1.61) nice try Taylors. The liver bled and just generally looked disgusting and was not cooked in the requisite time. But I was wary of overcooking so we threw the rare livers in the cuisinart and pummeled them into a stinky paste. Then I cooked some diced onions in the schmaltz, salted and peppered, and sauteed the liver paste for a minute or two. Back into the cuisinart with three hard-boiled eggs and you have something that looks pretty gross. I have not yet tried it because it's supposed to sit in the fridge for a while. Last night I started fretting that I would somehow give the hanukah guests salmonella, so I will have to test it first tonight and see if I die. The liver seemed to be fully cooked by the end. I was right next to Teremok yesterday so I should have just run in and bought their chopped liver!

take that shit to the spicy personals!

Two reasons why this missed conn is the best evs
1)he is obviously on his laptop at the spaghetti factory
2)look for the typo

Taylor's market is the best!

Don't tell Cortis that I said that. I called earlier and they said they would sell me (or possibly just give me) chicken livers. And I just called back to ask about buying some chicken skins for schmaltz and they're going to hook me up! And their website says they have started selling framani stuff (hopefully the sausage and not just the salami) and Old Soul coffee.

booger + nilsson = love

This interview is so rad!

Be adequite

The band spankrock (that brew saw in SF last night) has a song called lindsay lohan that sez her vag looks like a "baby rat" and tells her to "put that pussy away". Funny. This tshirt was also making me laugh.

This Fortunato Brothers review is going to make some people I know mad and is also comple bullshit. Fortunato Bros has a great cappucino and I don't even really like cannoli but theirs is the best (guess what else is probably going to fall in quality because of NYs stupid trans fat ban? Cannoli.-If I lived there I would be rioting in the streets. I would have a lard-in in the mayor's office)

total melarkey

This article made me sad (except for the part about him wearing thrift stores clothes, which I am doing right now-not underwear, though). When did Melarkey's close? Does anyone have any ideas how many businesses have been in that spot and is it open now or totally closed? I can never understand why no club can stay open there because when I worked at Tower skanks would wobble over there all the time thinking it was the club.

This article also made me sad, mostly when I read about the Z Gallerie. The reporter mentions in the end that with the softening of the housing market the housing deal will probably take an eternity to work out. Does anyone have any info on how all the luxury lofts are renting or selling? I have a feeling by the time the twin towers and the Liebeskind condos are done that they are not going to have anyone to sell them to, but maybe I'm wrong.

Edokko 2: The return of the ramen.

Ricksha and Wakano Ura are both closed on monday (at least they didn't answer their phones around 2) so in search of Japanese comfort food I went to Edokko II on Florin you get on 5 south and get off at the 43rd ave exit, turn right onto Riverside and then left onto Florin and it's right there on your right. So good and so cheap! Unbelievably cheap. I got the mapo tofu ramen which was described as spicy tofu and ground pork. It was 6.75 and it was so giant I had to take some home. Me and GW split a large hot sake and it was 4.95. The place was filled up with cute families and everything that everyone was getting was very intriguing. I can't wait to go back and try more. Why can't New Edokko and Edokko 2 switch places?

Hey you guys, don't forget that the Jonathan Richman show is this saturday at Marilyn's. That is always a good time.

I'm making chopped liver for a Hanukah celebration I'm going to. Does anyone have a recommendation for where I can pick up a pound of chicken livers? Making schmaltz is so much work, I don't think I'm going to bother. Where am I supposed to get like four pounds of chicken skin?! Oy.

the horror

This disgusting thing is a breakfast item at Del Taco called a maple sausage rollup.

lost lost lost lost lost lost

I like the comments that you guys had going. I haven't posted because I'm using what free time I have to either a) think about lost or b)read stupid old lost messageboard threads. I just wish I had believed everyone at first when they said Lost was so good because now I have to read the old messageboards so as not to spoil everything for myself.

Fun weekend. Jaybiz's command performance kept the crowd in the palm of his hand. The walk-on duet with Neil Diamond was completely unexpected, Neil usually calls me when he is in town. Too bad Joel couldn't come to do his toasting part during white white wine. Holy shit! I was looking for the myspace page of jay and joel just now and ended up searching four eyes myspace and there is another band (person) named four eyes. The scary thing is that the song that played was called "becky demo" and I am just self-centered enough to think that it was about me, but the song is bizarre and sucks, so it couldn't be about me (no cracks!) Here is the Jay and Joel show page.

Saw Apocalypto. Mel Gibson is a sick fuck. The most disturbing thing about this movie for me was watching it with a bloodthirsty crowd that laughed at the violence. Also, when a guy's heart was cut out of his chest this middle-aged guy behind me kept saying "eat it" over and over.

Sampinos has continued its roll of good stuff. We got a rotisserie chicken and some corned beef. Both meats were delectable.

If anyone is going to make those bacon cookies, I'd leave out the syrup. Last year I left it out and they were more like bacon sugar cookies which was a better flavor than bacony ginger snaps.

pub rankings

OK, so I shelled out 3.99 for Sactown mag (you're welcome, JV). It's not bad. There is stuff to read and look at. There is a minimum of "I can't wait till Sac is cool and we can stop hanging our heads in shame" rhetoric or arena cheerleading. It is a giant step up from Sacramento magazine. I just had about 15 minutes to read it in my car, so maybe I'm mistaken, but the food coverage in this issue seemed to be mostly limited to blurbs about a bunch of local places. Oh, and one little feature on things that aren't on the menu that you can order in local restaurants (i.e. spaghetti with tuna at Bibas cuz Willie Brown used to order it). I think it needs more food writing, but maybe I skipped an article accidentally. There was nothing in it that made me cringe or roll my eyes. Overall, this is where I place it on my rankings of local pubs:
1)Sacramento News and Review
2)Midtown Monthly (slightly biased)
3)Alive and Kicking
4)SacTown
5)Sacramento Biz Journal
6)Because People Matter
7)The rantings of USA against racism
8)Senses
9)B.L. Kennedy's 60 page poem about the instant that Jim Morrison died
10)That graffiti in the alley behind the Java Lounge that says "Gett up off my nutts"
11)Sacramento magazine
12)The Sacramento Bee

yelp again

Yelp is the website that I love to hate and today it is driving me extra, extra insane. First things first, I finally opened an account and probably my only review ever is the review I just wrote of Vientiane because it was driving me nuts that Dane H.'s review is often the top one. Sorry DH, I often like reading your reviews and I am sorry that I called you a dumbass when you first posted that, but I think it is absolutely inaccurate. If you are bored of me talking about yelp you should go read the critique of Lohan's letter on Go Fug Yourself it's really funny) I present you with some new reviews from today.

Here is a review of the La Bou in West Sac:

I had a really bad experience at this La Bou. No details needed. I would not eat here again. ever.

This is a really bad review. No details needed. I will not read this review again. ever.

And then K.F. goes off on the alleged attitude of staff and customers at Peets. I went there twice this week. I go there from 1 to 5 times every single week and I have yet to ever receive an iota of attitude. Sometimes the workers are harried, but they are always nice. But I guess I should just listen to the Armeniac's lecture and bite my tongue. Too late though I already wrote this and my backspacing finger is tired.

That's all for now on the driving me nuts. Don't feel compelled to defend it if you love it because obviously I read it all the time. The only other thing that has been twisting me up is trying to figure out the secret identity of this reviewer. He cracks me up because I already wrote about how I hate the "no msg" guy (that's his quote) (oops, looks like he changed his quote) who mostly reviews chains as to whether their food has msg. Well, this persons quote is "monosodium glutamate" and his/her pictures are all msg related, like the chemical structure of msg or a really funny new one of msg going straight to his dome. I have a suspicion but I don't know if it's true because whoever it is worked at Pieces.

rumor

Can anyone confirm or deny the rumor that M.I.A. is headed for Liberia? Anyone?

me me me

The news and review is all up on my tip this week (at least bites is)-yes I am linking to a column that mentions me, things are getting very self-referential around here, but enough about this, let's talk about me!

I made chili verde from the Bledsoe's pork shoulder that I bought at the famer's market (which required some butchering on my part, at Bledsoe's they really just give you a hunk of meat, skin attched). I used JD's recipe from the comments on an earlier post and it turned out remarkably good for my first try! It seemed like something you'd get at a restaurant, only spicier (I added two whole serranos). I also made bagels using the Montreal recipe that G linked to, and they turned out ok except I followed the baking directions and they charred on the bottom and set off the smoke alarm! Maybe it's my oven, I'll have to try again. I do think you'd need a wood-burning oven to duplicate the chewy texture that sets Montreal bagels apart, though, and that would set off the smoke alarm for sure.

I am starting my eastern Euro eating rampage tonight. No goulash is safe!

KW reviewed a downtown restaurant and I learned a new word (soignee)

i feel like chicken tonight

oh yeah, I forgot I wanted to post that there's a show at fools' tonight that might be good. In all honesty, I will probably not make it because I will be too tired, but it's this band Pink Mountaintops. Wait a second, their myspace says that the show starts at 800, could that be true? If so perhaps grandma (me) can make it!

service debate, part 69

So I check yelp all the time, obvs, but like I said before stuff about it bugs me. What do you think (if you care) about people posting gripes about people not bringing them their check when it is an establishment in which you are supposed to go up to the counter and pick up your bill? To me, this seem akin to complaining that there is no table service at Bernardo. There just ain't so it will do you no good to sit there all day and wait for a server to come take your order. For instance, at Pho Bac Hoa Viet, they will drop off the check at your table (maybe you have to ask sometimes) but you're supposed to go the cash register to pay. This is just a quirk of certain places and it bothers me when people complain about it because you basically just have to watch and figure it out what to do if you're not familiar with the policy. And some places don't even drop off your check, you're just supposed to make the entire transaction at the front when you're done. This isn't a shortcoming, it's just the way it is. The reviews of Pho Bac are what mostly brought this up for me. Every time I've gone in there I get courteous service, my food is served almost instantly, I eat it say "this food is good" to myself or others around me, and then walk up to the front and pay. This is all I expect and it's all that I get.

Speaking of Vietnamese food, everyone who has eaten at Andy Nguyen knows that it is often slow and you shouldn't go there if you have any kind of time limit. I still love the food so I accept this and plan accordingly. However, the other night the portion size of the item I usually order (the awakening of faith rice noodle bowl) was randomly quite a bit smaller! GW confirmed she had experienced this with some soup she got there recently. I hope this is not a trend! Oh Andy when will you ever get it together?

Toy drive on saturday

Here's are the details. It's at Spanish Fly, 6:30pm - 9:30pm. Sac brew, and 58 degrees are donating the beverages. 54321are djing, and the lonely kings, dead celebrities, and vanish affair are playing.Fortunately the bands will be in one room and the djs in another so you can pick yourpoison. Any unwrapped toy is fine.

Chris Macias is doing a three part series on South Sac rappers. The really entertaining part is the comments after. There are a bunch of the inevitable anti hiphop ones that a bunch of uptight squares wrote. I liked this one:
From a 62-year old man and his 66-year old wife. COOL! Like our dances and concerts when we were younger, audience participation and lots of highs and FUN! What a PARTY!

Now that's the spirit!

true love returns

The True Love gets Heyamoto-ized. Here's their myspace.

goin' apeshit

I am going apeshit right now as I sit at my desk because I just read on FFT that both the fomer Albertson's (the one on J and the one on F) are going to be piece of shit Rite-Aids. Worse than Starbucks!

If you ever mailorder CDs or LPs, don't forget about our friends over at tonevendor. I just got a CD from them and it arrived posthaste.

haps

Oh yeah, there's a wine tasting dealy that Donal (one of the wine guys at Corti's) is organizing at Sweetwater. It's tomorrow, starts at 730, costs 30 bucks, wine and snacks included. If you're interested you can call Donal at Corti's or call Sweetwater.

Also, midtown monthly and Spanish Fly Hair Garage (it caused me a lot of pain to type that just now) are having a toy drive on saturday. I need to find more info, but these are the sketchy details that LM provided:

I wanna say it starts at 5pm. 54321 will be spinning records, acouple of bands are going to play, and we're doing a toy drive.

i make bagels

I don't know if any of you are following the story of this super rare Velvet Underground acetate, but the bidding is up to 106 grand with four days left! I'm winning right now, but I'm expecting to lose out in the end.

There was a pretty weird comment somewhere down there about Sactown mag that was semi-calling me out or something. I havent' read it (or even seen it) yet so I can't really say anything. Corti's doesn't sell it. I'm not sure who does.

Joanna Newsom was fucking amazing, or course. I guess both her shows in SF are sold out so hopefully she'll add another one.

The really earth-shaking news (for me) is that I made bagels this weekend. At around eight on saturday night I had the brainstorm that rather than constantly lamenting the lack of good bagels in Sac I could just make them! I had all the ingredients on hand and by 11pm I was stuffing them down like nobody's business. I used the Joy of Cooking recipe, but I want to try different ones. They are small, they are funny looking, and they're not as dense as I'd like them to be, but they're better than the bagels you can get around here. I thought that boiling them would be scary and they'd fall apart or something, but once I figured out to just drop in a couple at a time (the Joy of C makes it sound like you dump them in all at once but they expand like crazy!) I was OK.

Also, I bought a giant pork shoulder at the farmer's market this weekend. Does anyone have any ideas about what I should do with it (and don't be rude!)?

food! i'm hungry

Finally, I can post. I hate when actual work gets in the way. I went to Siam restaurant on Franklin last night, on a yelp recommendation from Lisa D. This place is the bomb! There are dishes that you can't find anywhere else, like frog legs and duck noodle soup (both of which I want to try and will go back for soon). We got the drunken noodle, which was far superior to the oversalted mushy mess that it can be at other places. It had some heat and nice firm noodles. We got a green curry that was also spicy and good, and roasted duck on a pile of vegetables that was delicious but there was really barely any duck on the platter. That's usually the problem with duck, I guess, it's all bones and fat. And delicious skin. We started off with miang kum, which is a salad that I love (you take a lettuce leaf and load it up with a shrimpy/tamarindy sauce-at least I think that's what it is-peanuts, big chunks of ginger, red onion, dried shrimp, and best of all, toasted coconut). What a great restaurant!

Also, we passed a place called Mariscos Mazatlan that is right near it. Has anyone been there? I really want to try it. I'm hoping they have smoked marlin tacos!