rworange's Profile
How to use a roasted pig knuckle?
Well, i didn't do do anything too exciting this time.
I cut the meat off the bone. Half of it i braised with rainbow chard and apples seasoned with smoked black pepper.The rest i crisped in the oven and topped the chard. The bone is waiting in the freezer for some future soup.
Thanks all. Once I get over this cold, I'll give some of these suggestions a try.
San Rafael: "Fancy" sit down restaurant
It is looking like a restaurant that opened to great reviews and started resting on its reputation or something changed recently. Thanks for the update.
How did your daughter like the ballet?
Address
http://www.yelp.com/biz/rumi-by-famous-kabob-san-rafael
E & J XO Brandy - Gross and undrinkable
Yeah, at that price point and the company involved, I wasn't expecting quality. I just expected it might be better than the other brandy they sell. It SO wasn't. Save money and just go with the cheapest. Again, I use it mainly for brandied cherries.
Roli Roti roasted pig knuckle?
The only reason I mentioned soup was because that was what RR wrote. I'm thinking this go around I might crsip up the meat and then freeze the bone for future use. This stupid cold, so to speak. I just don't have the energy to do my usual vendor/restaurant questioning. Every time I just buy and dash i always think 'damn'.
What feature would you like to see on Chowhound?
I have gotten info from Tripadvisor but it is rarely awesome.
I use it because it is the only info available in certain areas. The international restaurant scene has few sources of public review sites.
You can go to a Chowhound poster's profile page and scroll to the bottom and see how many pages they have contributed with 25 posts per page. I currently have 393 pages so do the math about how many posts that is.
Another thing to look at is the last page. some people don't post much but they may have started years ago. That is the most credible thing to me.
A shill and friends can put in lots of reviews but they will all be recent. If someone has been posting long term usually that indicates someone who is legit.
"Restaurants" Database To Be Eliminated
No.
Thanks for the kind words, but please don't think or say that.
Another difference between yelp and Chowhound is that Chowhound doesn't make posters stars. It makes the content of the post the stars. There may not be democracy as far as the site rules, but all posters are created equal in terms of content.
Like everyone, I have people whose posts get more attention and respect from me, but it was because i get to know them because of content.
The real danger of not having restaurant information is that it sends people elsewhere to look for it. Then that becomes the go to place for information.
Not everyone is as discriminating in terms of quality.
Whether a few posters leave or cut down on posting doesn't matter a bit in the big picture.
Is there a visiting page?
At the top of many boards, there is a topic about how to post to get the best response. Here it is from SF.
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/469166
It helps to read the board a bit and maybe come up with a few restaurants that interest you. As the above link states provide as much info you can give about the trip such as days of the week you will be visiting, budget, whether you will have a car and other info the more response you will get.
Here's a recent link on the SF board to get you started
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/832529
In your post, it would help to say what restaurants appealed to you and people will take it from there.
What feature would you like to see on Chowhound?
Gosh, that is scary ... stalked by a business over muliple websites.
I've never had a business follow me from yelp to Chowhound.
Long ago when I first started posting I was super careful about letting anyone know anything about me online.
A girlfrend was posting on another forum and some guy tracked her down and showed up at her front door. She had not given any address and this is someone I knew from high school so i knew she did zero to initiate that.
Someone whose business is at stake and takes comments too seriously might be more dangerous.
Four Barrel Guatemala Antigua Cadejo replacement?
OK, everytime I see Antigua, GT in the title, it gets me a little distracted as i spent a lot of 2010 and 2011 in Guatemala. if you only left out Antigua.
Have you considered mail order? Fernando's in Antigua is the second best coffee in Guatemala ... but it is only because I like dark roasts. So in all of GT, Cafe Saul was my favorite for a straight from the bean cup. Fernando's has a killer coffee that is a mix of its regular beans and espresso. It was the last thing I had before leaving GT. IIRC, I had two. But that doesn't apply to your situation.
Anyhow, Fernando is somewhat of a coffee geek with a committment to lical, quality fair-trade coffee beans. Let me ammend that to Fernando is a laid back coffee geek serious about a quality product. He does mail order because of the demand from people world-wide to order his ambrosial beans. Here's the website.
http://www.fernandoskaffee.us/
Lord, it took me 10 minutes to find that website link. The Chow database search was failing and picking through google took time. Yeah, i can't do anthing that time consuming often. Here's my report about fernando's in general
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/752041
Lunches in Napa and Carneros
God no to Sonoma Whole Foods which is really sucky. It is one of my least favorite Whole Foods.
I love the Epicurean Connection which you might find perfect
http://www.yelp.com/biz/epicurean-connection-sonoma
If you want to do a market, Sonoma Market trumps Whole Foods and there are a few tables in the coffee area ... it is not a linger cafe type of joint but if you want to sit it is good
http://www.yelp.com/biz/sonoma-market-sonoma
Fremont Diner is a little out of town on the road into Sonoma from Napa but it is pretty great as well
http://www.yelp.com/biz/the-fremont-diner-sonoma
Oxbow Public Market has a gourmet food court, so to speak. My favorite is C Casa which has rotisserie duck and chicken and innovative tacos.
http://www.yelp.com/biz/c-casa-napa
There are two gourmet food trucks - Marks the Spot which is worth a trip to Napa, IMO. Get the duck wings. They are at the Napa Farmers Market near Oxbow on Saturday, but check the website
http://www.yelp.com/biz/marks-the-spot-truck-napa
Crossroads Chicken is a truck with a wood-fired oven. They are usually at JV liquor on Saturday which is near Oxbow. They have some of the best sandwiches I have ever had. The come out wonderfully crispy from the wood-fired oven. Salads are great. The cheesecake of the day is fabulous. The owner's wife makes them. I think the working title of her business is going to be Slap Your Mama Cheesecake. It is cupcake size but at $3 is less and way tastier than the over rated Karas in Oxbow.
The only problem with Crossroads Chicken is the chicken. They brine it and use Mary's air chilld chicken. For my own personal tastes this doesn't work. Brined chicken creates an off texture. However the wood-fired oven gives it an almost smoked chicken taste. I still can't get over the texture. Love their other sandwiches.
I'll give you the facebook link on this one as that is where the current menu and location is and trying to navigate to it takes a bit of effort if you start from their website or elsewhere. It is best though to call them to confirm.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Crossroad-Chicken/145126162167131
Custard Pie
Again, haven't been there recently, but Heidi always seemed like a second rate Marie Callendars ... who years ago made a nice custard pie. i'm sorry whoever took them over screwed up things and they closed.
Have you tried Pilgrim? For all I know Heidi has been thru changes over the years and much better these days.
Tho, even when I was a customer at Heidi's they were better than Nations. Nation's problem is that crust. The fillings aren't bad for the most part.
Custard Pie
it has been years, but Pilgrim Kitchen in Belmont is good and they seem to be holding up. They make a nice banana cream too. Much better than Nation's all around.
Address
http://www.yelp.com/biz/pilgrim-kitchen-belmont#query:pie
Tres leches cake in SF?
Yeah, but the OP is asking for SF.
The classic is Lelenitas on Mission in SF. I have ordered it for a major birthday in the past and just had one at a friend's house this December.
Lelenitas
http://www.yelp.com/biz/lelenitas-cakes-san-francisco#query:bakery%20tres%20leches
For East Bay people, Mi Pueblo is ok but I'd choose Las Montanas where I've had three of their tres leches cakes recently for birthdays. it is the go to place for the family. The only one no one was crazy about was the mocha tres leches.
What feature would you like to see on Chowhound?
Yeah, personally I don't respond to these when they come in or accept their offers
VERY occasionally I will put something on a retry list on my own dime as a result. Once I retried a place and it still sucked (slightly eccentric older owner so that kind of compelled me). My review stood.
One time I did change a review on yelp because of a pm message. The owner made a number of changes because of my yelp review and while I still have it on my retry list, I didn't add the extra info to my Chowhound post though.
I usually do scathing reviews only on big restaurants where it doesn't matter. A little locally owned business like that, I use euphamisms if they suck. So I felt bad about the review and the owner was just so nice. He listened to that nonsense from me and took action. i was the jerk really. i should actually go back and retry them.
The other thing ... and while you can block emails ... I've had some rabid pm messages from people who didin't like my review. It had me for a while not posting anything negative on yelp.
And for some sites, PM doesn't mean private. If you don't want the site monitoring your messages, send an email.
Telegraph, Oakland. Sausage sandwiches
I went back today and noticed the name 'John' in the application. I'm still recovering from being sick for so long so I didn't ask questions, but i noticed the application notice on the window had 'John' on it. The guy I talked to on the first visit seemed so adamant he wasn't the owner though.
Anyway got the green bean sandwich and you can happily take a vegetarian friend.
What feature would you like to see on Chowhound?
For some people, they just lurk rather than post for a number of reasons.
It would be a way for those people to offer tips to posters off line.
While I realize that the object is to share with the community, it might be nice if people who didn't want to share with all could give posters help.
i didn't particularily want to post on the board last night. There was one of those tourist questions and i wanted to email the poster with advice ... no email address on the profile. No one to date has answered that poster.
One of the benefits i've found on sites with pm systems is that restaurants will sometimes contact you personally with freebies and deals. The current rules on this site prohibit self promotion, but a pm system allows this action behind the scenes.
It is an excellent way to send a message to a large number of Chowhounds without having to deal with email addresses.
Ok, the last two should give Chow some pause for thought, but I'd find the first reason an enhancement to this site.
German choc cake in Oakland/Berkeley?
Probably too late for the OP, but since this thread was revived ... Taste of Denmark does have German Chocolate cakes. They are expanding their cupcake repetoire. In addition to the German chocolate cupcake I bought they had red velvet and other flavors.
I stopped by James and the Giant Cupcake and ... good lord ... that is the best cupcake I've had in the Bay Area and ranks as one of the top cupcakes I've had in my life. I am SO going to be a regular here. I had sea salt caramel.
In March they will be making German chocolate cupcakes so German chocolate fans might check them out.
Special Valentines Day flavors will be available next week. Great prices.
Taste of Denmark
http://www.yelp.com/biz/taste-of-denmark-oakland-2
James and The Giant Cupcake
http://www.yelp.com/biz/james-and-the-giant-cupcake-oakland
How to use a roasted pig knuckle?
Seriously i'm not one to ask. I just saw knuckle and it was something new to me from this truck so i bought it. Maybe someone else knows.
How to use a roasted pig knuckle?
Yeah, that's pretty close to what I got out of quickly glancing at the recipe at the Roli Roti truck. Thanks ... definately not good in a thin beet or cabbage soup. If I go the soup route, maybe I'll make a potato soup out of it (as I have the potatoes) using the bone for flavor and topping it with the crisped up meat.
Next time I see it though, I'm going to ask them to chop up and have lunch at the market.
"Restaurants" Database To Be Eliminated
No. This is the Chow vision now. If you expect something else it leads to confusion. Call it Chow.
Once I got that, i let go. Like Jim often says, it is amazing it lasted this long and i will continue to enjoy the parts of it that remain but with different expectations and participation
"Restaurants" Database To Be Eliminated
in the locked parallel database thread i got it that there was no appealing to Chow managment and the database was gone.
Jim Leff who seemed to be appealing to chow to extract the data for possible use, put the nail in the coffin with his last two posts that reversed and went back to his original position of a restaurant database was irrelevant to this site. It was unfortunate people put so much into this but it didn't make any difference to the forums at all.
However, in my eulogy to the dead databse let me say some of the reasons outside of contributing content to the site why this could have been so great.
It was a database that wasn't easy to get to, for years didn't show up in searches correctly and wasn't promoted by Chow.
Searches and interfaces can be fixed, that has nothing to do with the content.
That was one of the primary problems, search wasn't helpful.
Searching by neighborhood is always great.
The cuisine data was better than anywhere and had that been a search not only could you find out, for example, restaurants that served Chinese cuisine, but what type Cantonese, etc.
The linking to significant reports would have been great had that been thought out.
if you wanted to see what other blogs or professional reviews were available for that restaurant. That was a hugely unutilized part of the system.
Then there was all the usual stuff like price, credit cards, liquor and other features.
It is nice to know if a restaurant is closed. One of the things that is most common on the web is it is impossible to tell if someplace is closed. Restaurants that have long closed and been razed show up in google search with no note of being closed. The people who worked on the Chow database worked to make sure that was reliable.
That is useful within this site as well. Isn't it a pain to open up a thread, get all excited and then either see a post at the end that the joint is closed ... or worse ... no one notes that and you go not thinking to call and check.
Needless to say, cutting and pasting restaurant info into a post is not only time consuming, but that data is subject to change.
it was a truly flexible international database that no other site but forsuare has. Yelp is currently going international, but it is not flexible.
Had there been any talk of improving it there are a few things i would have suggested changes to. .
it would be useful to split the hours field into two. One that is like yelp's where there are only specific hours to be added and one freeform field that don't fit the norm ... the restaurant is usually open mon-fri but check the website because blah, blah, blah. But i do like now that on a number of sites including yelp you can see if the restaurant is currently closed.
Good to know would have been nice to change to general restaurant overview like zagat does. It could be entered by Chow staff or approved posters. Then for the people who wanted to know an overview, it would be there.
I'd suggest adding information about event facilities. That is what lots of the SF restaurant records include. I put how many private rooms, how many people included. It wasn't searchable but it was there.
It would be nice if when you searched the first two lines of the overview were displayed so people could see searching Chinese restauarnts if they should look further.
It be nice if clicking on the phone number would connect you to the restaurant on a smartphone.
Over course something like yelp where you pull up a map and see what restaurants were around a specific location and then move along the map with restaurants displayed would be great. I found lots of great restaurants on yelp using that feature.
I also think the star system could have been valueable had it been a smart star system.
One objection was that restaurants and chefs change ... then it would be nice to have a star recheck. Chef changes ... reset the accumulated ratings to zero.
I personally think the quick review section wasn't useful, but if the stars had been visible on the thread, i'm sure Chowhounds would have been compelled to start entering stars so a correct view was represented.
The photo section needed some real love. That needed to integrate better into the site.
As usual this is too long. There are more treasures and possiblities that people worked years to input with the promise that somewhere up the line, things would be fixed.
The thing with yelp, like Chowhound in the past, is that is succeeds because of content.
People use it despite what it is because the find information there. The info quality may be debatable but i find it is getting more and more reliable. Lots of Chowhounds post there.
Like Chowhound said in the past, make the site what you want it to be. I see that sea change on yelp. People are starting to make it less of a frat party because they want a place they can get reliable info.
The restaurant data drew me to yelp. I ignored the reviews. However, when you are constantly going to a site for restaurant info, you look around and see what else is there. I'm liking more of what I see. If I want to discuss an interesting post, I can contact the poster on the pm system.
I'm getting to know the reliable posters and some old friends that i knew from days past on Chowhound.
That is the value of a database. It can pull even a die hard like me into re-evaluating a site.
Since this is dead, I hope Chowhounds don't jump in to start objections to stars or whatever. It isn't going to happen. A new database is not even on the table for the future.
Given that, I think Chowhound creaks. I hope there will be some changes that were objected to in the past like a PM system. I'm liking the idea of a like button. I say this without sarcasm. I now want those things.
I also thing the Chowhound brand should be done away with. Someone on Chow said that there was confusion about what was Chow and what was Chowhound.
I agree. I was confused until reading a discussion about the slogan of something like the site for sophiticated eaters, prrimitive cooks. For the first time I realized that didn't refer to Chowhounds at all. Only Chow. Removing the Chowhound brand would decrease the confusion.
What feature would you like to see on Chowhound?
i've change my mind. There are many reasons why this site should have a PM system outside of the ones you stated.
What feature would you like to see on Chowhound?
+!
I've changed my mind. This site does need a PM systems for so many reasons not mentioned yet.
How to use a roasted pig knuckle?
That sounds great. It looks more and more like it might get re-heated in the oven and served as is with sides. Any suggested bread to go with that?
How to use a roasted pig knuckle?
Thanks !!!
That part about reheating in the oven sounds good.
Touch of Soul?
I saw the grand opening sign driving by today.
I've been really sick for a few weeks now, so soul food may be good for my soul, but it won't be doing my body a favor. Should I put it on my to-try list. it looks promising.
A signboard had po boys written on it but I don't see it on the online menu.
Address on yelp
http://www.yelp.com/biz/touch-of-soul-emeryville
Telegraph, Oakland. Sausage sandwiches
I got that info reading yelp so didn't want to take content from there that wasn't mine and post it here. Anyway, I did a follow up and asked if John was the owner and if he was from Mua. The answer was that he didn't own the joint but was currently working in the kitchen. Yes he was from Mua. I don't know how this effects his association with Mua though ... maybe this is just a start up consulting gig.
Maybe a chowhound could do some sluething. I'm thinking of going back for the green bean sandwich but it probably won't be for a while.
It was 8 in the morning when I went and John was out picking up the bagels for breakfast, so I didn't see him. When i asked if the sausage was house made the guy at the counter pointed to the grinder on the shelf in back of the register.
Roli Roti roasted pig knuckle?
I bought on today and there was some vague recipe on a sheet of paper on the stand.
Has anyone bought this?
Looking for recipes on the web so far tell me how to roast it, but RR had a soup recipe. I checked the RR website and facebook page and don't see a mention of it.
Tell me how you used it. If it involves a recipe you want to share I've set up this thread on the Home Cooking board.
How to use a roasted pig knuckle?
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/833196
How to use a roasted pig knuckle?
I bought this from a farmers market vendor who sells fabulous rotiserrie chicken. There was a handwritten but vague recipe of throwing some veggies in a pot with the bone ... um cooking it I think ... then something about crisping up the meat and adding it.
I'm not looking for that recipe, but if someone has something similar sure.
Any ideas how to use this?
I'm considering two soups ... cabbage, potatoes and the pig's knuckle ... or ... beets, greens and knuckle.
I'm open to ideas though.
PS: This is aimed at SF posters who might have bought this from Roli Roti ... will it freeze? How long should I keep in in the fridge before doing something. The beet soup I'd do tommorrow. If I go the cabbage route I'd keep it around about a week.
