The only way to eat seafood.

Move over peasants! I'm here to eat all of your live seafood. This is the only way to really eat seafood. Us of the nobility know of no other way!

The ability to point out the exact fish that you want to eat, to pick out the oysters, shrimp, razor clams, pinkish blobs, edible-looking stones. Now that is something for only us of the 1%. Now move aside you plebian pests! I must poke a well heeled finger at the food to let the chefy know how he may please me today.

This is the most luxurious way to eat seafood. I found this on the street in China. Welcome to the lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.

Snips?

Snails?

Puppy dog tails.

Live blogging the Great Taste of The Midwest Beerfest!

Welcome to the 28th annual Great Taste Of The Midwest with over 1000 amazing Midwestern microbrews from 160+ breweries around the Midwest. On tap each brewer has brought their most popular beers along with some of their most interesting. Many breweries have timed taps for one-off barrels of especially rare beers.

The first thing you are handed upon entrance is a tasting mug with this year's great taste logo:

I will be drinking approximately this much beer. And apparently farting a lot.

The second thing you are handed is the program tome; A 122 page pamphlet which is still a better love story then Twilight. This was immediately placed into a pocket and made me limp the rest of the day.

Green Tea

Welcome to China, would you like a $45 pot of tea? Bear in mind a fancy Chinese feast for four in a nice restaurant might not cost $45.

Yes this is a $45 pot of tea. It's a Longjing hand roasted tea from the West Lake Region that my mother was born in.

This tea was hand roasted in a pan with a little "delicious" oil, which gives it a light oily taste on the first steeping which quickly fades to the more delicate notes in the tea with the 2nd and third steepings.

I was told that this tea is best on the 2nd steeping, thats when the flavor is the most complex and pleasing.

I'll admit it was very tasty tea, Perfectly served in a nice Tea House. I think this is the equivalent of a Coffee House from ancient China, expensive drinks served to a group of friends, to provide a nice comfortable place to hang out and enjoy each other's company.

I got a nice lesson in tea factoids from a very Quality (hehe) co-worker. The most expensive tea he has ever seen cost more then its weight in gold (>$1500/ounce) This was the same type Longjing of tea, but from one of 18 tea bushes which were declared "Gong Cha" or Imperial tea be an 18th century emperor. It is dried in the sun, Then it is wetted on the tongue of virgin girls. After this it is pan roasted again to be ready to drink. I am not making a joke. I'm kind of hoping he was.  

I can only imagine what would happen if your virgin tea rehydrators weren't virgin.. I'm pretty sure I would be able to taste the difference.

Best Grocery Store in Shanghai

My hotel ended up being about one block away from one of my co-workers, so he was able to show me a lot of local spots for dumplings or laundry. But none of it compares to the day he showed me the "best grocery store in Shanghai" it was "very famous". He was sure that I would like it. He said this chain was all over China and every major Chinese city had several. This grocery nervana was just 3 blocks away from my hotel. He walked me over to show me this gem.

Pronounced Waal-Martu

Beijing is famous for a cheap quick lunch of noodles called Zhajiangmian "Fried Sauce Noodles"

After touring around the forbidden city all morning we were looking for a quick lunch. We took a cab who told us he would take us to a great place for Beijing noodles. After I got done talking about how cabbies always know the best places for food and I had never been steered wrong.

Dueling pig roasts

Classic first world problem. I had two pig roasts on the same day last weekend. What could I do? Choose? Psh, obviously you haven't been reading long.

For the first pig roast I was cooking the pig, so my morning started off at about 7:30. Toasting and grinding whole cumin, cinnamon, and star anise. Fresh ground always adds such a welcome kick. I mixed that with a bunch of turbinado (raw) sugar, garlic powder and salt.

Do she got a booty? She DOOOOOO!

Half cooked pig

Half of the spice mix was rubbed into the cavity of the pig and half was made into a mop.

What's a mop you say? It's the juice of the gods you baste the pig with while it's roasting. This particular god juice was made with those spices plus apple wine vinegar, ginger ale, Coke, water and coconut rum. That was "mopped" on every half hour or so.

Still almost Czech food

The one thing I have to say about the czech people and food. They really enjoy their food. Almost every plate of food I ate in the Czech republic was delicious, and well presented. Food both for the eyes and the stomach.
This extended to a little pizza place in Praha 9 about a block from "Ubitovani Prokopka" where we lived for almost 3 weeks. This was a tiny little family run pizza shop in a tiny neighborhood at the outskirts of Prague. Still you can tell they take a lot of pride in their craftsmanship. Fresh toppings, good pizza oven they kept well tended. They turned the pizza 3 times in the oven so it was perfectly cooked all around. They made really really thin crust style pizzas that were a delight to eat.

This one has chicken, tomatoes, bacon, garlic, tomato sauce, cream and nice fresh mozzarella. yum yum and perfectly cooked in my opinion.
This pizza had jalapeno peppers bacon ham and a whole egg on top. I'll admit the whole egg was a little strange on a pizza but the nice spicy peppers more then made up for it. OK I'll admit this isn't the prettiest pizza ever but their only transgression was to make it too big for the box. You know me you can't have too much of a good thing, even if your stupid pizza box doesn't agree with me.

We went a couple times and I was always pleased with their pizzas, and check it out!

This travel blog photo's source is TravelPod page: George Clooney pizza box, Florence, Italy

George Clooney is making the pizza! This is a stand in photo because we seem to have lost the photos I took of the box :(.

Anywhoo, Great pizza. I swear the next post will be about traditional Czech food.

-NOM!