rat's Profile
Best Vegan Vietnamese?
NO NO NO! At Au Lac some dishes have Vietnamese names but are not Vietnamese, or at best hit and miss.
(To be clear, Exilekiss and I are both talking about the one in Fountain Valley, not "Au Lac Pure Vegetarian" 9741 Bolsa Ave in Westminster)
Other diners looked happy, but my table was profoundly disappointed. We each ordered noodle soup. We smiled when the abundant platters of herb add-ins came out. No, wait, it is a cruel farce: one platter had shredded lettuce and some bean sprouts, the other had two kinds of shredded cabbage; both had three jalapeno slices and a lemon (not lime) wedge. Not an herb to be found. Anywhere. No basil (Thai or otherwise). Never mind exotic stuff like perilla, rau ram, ngo om, ngo gai, etc. No mint. No mint, for the love of Pete! Not even cilantro. (Cilantro is pretty inexpensive, 3 bunches/$1?)
I don't pretend to be an expert but have never used LETTUCE as a soup add-in.
We speculated the chef had once seen a Vietnamese meal from afar, just was fuzzy on the details. ("A big plate of...something green was served with the meal.")
One of the soups at least tasted pretty good. Maybe we unluckily ordered all their weakest dishes. One friend sighted cilantro, described as a total of two boiled leaves. We left hungry and sad. One at the table actually was Vietnamese vegetarian of all things and was more upset than all the rest of us.
Seem to recall it was much better years ago. Maybe a change in ownership?
It might be good, fresh, etc. Surprisingly decent portions. Just don't call it Vietnamese. That was our main beef.
Alone, not confident. Think I should try entertaining again. Without any help, or should I just get a caterer?
Where are you located?
Chowing with the Hounds 2009 Picnic Recipe Requests
Found em! They are called "drops" but they look like cookies to me.
http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes.aspx/sesame-seed-drops
ChowDown (Chowing with the Hounds Picnic) 2009 Report
OK, I'll help. Too clueless to be the organizer, but can be a footsoldier.
Marlon, are you doing it? Would be happy to work with you. Everything was so great, I wouldn't change a thing.
Chowing with the Hounds 2009 Picnic Recipe Requests
Agree, I guessed a partial list for that salad, will the contributing Hound please add anything I missed?
Wouldn't mind knowing the secret ingredient in the Hawaiian cornbread.
ChowDown (Chowing with the Hounds Picnic) 2009 Report
I was surprised how much I enjoyed that salad! I scribbled some notes that included Chaparral Gardens pepper and blackberry vinegar, arugula mix, diced chile mango, Tiber Canyon yuzu olive oil, feta cheese...
Also enoyed the spinach-dal thingy. So comforting. Who brought this? Wanna thank you.
Hawaiian cornbread was so good, I snagged a 2nd piece.
Louise's crisp and cobbler blew my mind with deliciousness. So much so that they erase all other memories. Louise, you are a genius. I won't even bother asking for a recipe, my mortal kitchen (or rather its chef) just can't compare.
JasmineG, your perfectly balanced apple pie with Gruyere crust rocked! Blame Louise if I can't praise it properly.
There was more, so much more that deserves acclaim...
ChowDown (Chowing with the Hounds Picnic) 2009 Report
Let's get this started!
Perfect weather, great site, terrific folks and UN.believable. food. Participants pulled out all the stops.
Struggling to remember correct Chow handles to protect the chowish, some help please?
Very well organized, thanks to those. Marlon, the fruit tasting game was a blast! Don't you think you could identify an apple by looking at it? Don't you really think you could do it if you could look at it AND taste it? Come on, how challenging could that be? We were even given the complete answer list, all we had to do was match them up. But it was hard! But also fun (and tasty).
Random Pricing at Scoops
Sorry your experience was bad. Every time I go, I order two flavors and Tai charges me the small/one flavor price. It is a very generous serving. And yes, the gelato is incredible. Does the refill have to be the same flavor?
