Annoying Spam and the FTC Guidelines

This type of spam annoys me.  I found this comment awaiting my approval the other day in response to a recent post about, no not furniture or modern decor, but food.

"Hello,

I'd appreciate if you can give me some feedback on our site: http://www.regencyshop.com/Bar-Stools/c33/index.html?osCsid=c57d1fcff64e9730d85dc1e8b59a7c5f

I realize that you are home decor-modern design connoisseur :) I'd like to hear your opinion/feedback on our products. Also, it'd be swell if you can place our suede wassily chair in a bag set in a bag on your blog.

Thank you,

Nancy "

I am neither a modern decor connoisseur nor am I shilling for anyone in this blog. (Please see FTC Guidelines Expert Endoresments (a)). Nor do I lie or fabricate anything, in any blog or on any social networking site anywhere ever.  If I support someone's business, it happens only after I have experienced the product/service. I thought to myself, after this incident of spammage, "Self, maybe we should explore this just a little instead of outright deleting it".  Why on Earth someone would approach me for my skills as a "modern decor connoisseur" is a mystery to me.  I decided to follow up on this, just to assuage my curiosity.

Here is the email thread that followed this spamming attempt, I go first:

"Nancy from your site contacted me via my blog asking me to review your

Wassily chair on my website. I would be more than happy to review your chair if you send me one to experience.
Thank you.
Liz"

Followed by this response,

"Sorry, we don't pay for links and plus, it is illegal for you to ask for compensation.
If you post a link to our chair it will be appreciated
Thanks".

To which I, somewhat incensed, replied,

"I didn't ask for compensation. I asked to experience a chair that you asked me to review.

And if it's illegal for me to ask for compensation, it should be illegal for you to ask me to review a product I have never experienced, and YOU solicited ME."

Please see FTC Guidlines, General Concerns (c), page 3.

It is, in fact, illegal for me to review a product I have not used. To this someone responded,

"Read the FTC guidelines before you blast reasonable replies

Good luck!".

How is it reasonable to ask a food blogger you have never met to wax poetic about a furniture product they have never ever seen, let alone sat in?  This whole exchange leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth.  MSNBC reported the new guidelines for bloggers back in October, 2009.  What incenses me is that I feel these guidelines imply dishonesty on the part of bloggers.  The bloggers I personally know are upstanding citizens, serious about what they write and do so with a huge amount of integrity, very much in love with food and spend boatloads of their own money to experience the ever changing face of food culture to share their experiences with others. Although I certainly understand concern over abuse of the blogger/business relationship. What incenses me about this email exchange is the idea that I somehow did something wrong by responding to a completely inappropriate spam requesting to actually experience said chair if they wanted me to write a review or post a link about their product.  That I went against the FTC guidlines and blasted a reasonable request. To this, I scoff.

There was no blasting, there was no reasonable request, and there was nothing in my actions that went against FTC guidelines. Now, if I could broil the chair in one of my new Le Creuset pans, serve it to a group of 10 at a dinner party, then wax poetic about its smokiness or lucious texture, that would constitute a reasonable request.

Happy Hour in a Japanese Beer Garden at Chaya DTLA

Chaya Downtown
525 S Flower St
Los Angeles, CA 90071
(213) 236-9577

Press Release: As of Monday, March 22 through the end of summer, CHAYA Downtown will unveil a new weekly Japanese Beer Garden menu on the restaurant’s heated outdoor patio. Offered exclusively on Monday evenings at the downtown L.A. location, diners will be able to order off Executive Chef Shigefumi Tachibe’s special menu featuring a variety of Yakitori Skewers ($2 each or 3 for $5) including Chicken, Beef Tongue, Short Rib, Shrimp, or Shiitake, grilled to order on Hibachi grills set up on the outdoor patio; Sake-steamed Mussels ($8); Grilled Corn with Feta Cheese ($5); Chicken Spring Roll ($5); Albacore Tuna Poke ($7); as well as pitchers of Kirin Beer ($15). Accommodating up to 50 guests, the outdoor patio will be festively decorated with traditional red Japanese lanterns.

I was sold as soon as I saw the menu. Design win.

Monday April 5, Chaya invited in a slew of local bloggers for a drop-in evening of sampling yakitori and drinking beer under the heat-lamps of their new Japanese beer garden.  D and I ran into Tony from Sinosoul and his awesome wife H, nommed on some meats and watched Duke bring home the championship.

I like that the yakitori ordering sheets remind me of  karaoke sheets.  Maybe they are really supposed to be like a sushi bar write-in menu, but in my mind I am sticking with the karaoke reference for my own amusement.

Hands down the best tasting item on the menu was the albacore poke. Best poke I have eaten since landing on continental soil after last fall's trip to Hawaii. Generous amounts of wonderfully fresh albacore, three types of nori, cucumbers, and a very classic seasoning. Since returning from the fall poke-quest in Honolulu, I have been ordering poke from any menu listing poke that comes across my path.  This one is the sublime best I have had.

Below, complimentary yakitori skewers. (These will set you back $2 a pop.)

Shiitake mushrooms, grileld dry. Very nice.

Chicken with a not-too-sweet teriyaki. H found hers a little, mine must have been more well marinated or cooked more briefly because they were perfectly moist. Moist.

Shrimps.  I loved the savory mixture on top. The shrimp were small but cooked nicely, not dry or chewy.

My favorite skewer, beef tongue.  At Totoraku a couple weeks back I discovered my love for beef tongue. Both preparations of tongue at Totoraku were sliced very thinly, while Tachibe-san's were cubed. Incredibly succulent.

It says on the menu simply beef, but the press release announces short ribs. Texturally and flavor wise, these sang short rib to me. Delicious.


At first thought, $2 is a lot for one skewer. However, D mentioned "What wouldn't you pay $2 for?", which is true. But also, thinking about the portion ounce wise of high quality protein you are getting on the plate for $10, this is pretty price efficient.Order a side salad and/or some veg and you've got dinner. Didn't hurt that the patio is gorgeous, well heated for now, but cannot wait to spend a blamy evening the Chaya's new outdoor lounge.

Disclosure: Yakitori skewers were freebies, and we spent plenty of our hadr earned cash on cocktails and a slew of other menu items.

Mah Jongg in the Springtime

This is how my girls and I do some mah jongg. Thanks to T for the inspiration and J for the snacks.

Initially quite confusing, once we started playing I quickly got the hang of it. T happens to be a very good teacher. She's patient and she understands scaffolding. The above set of tiles are called "characters", or "crack".

Not pricey, but this is a perfect Saturday afternoon cotes-du-rhone for sipping and chatting, Les Moirets.

I called these tiles "rings", we also called them "scrolls" or "circles".

There is no learning curve necessary for slightly stinky soft cheese and organic fruit from the WeHo Whole Foods.

At the time I considered taking notes, something I always do when I want to actually retain important information. Now, after only one session, it all makes perfect sense. I will still need a cheat sheet to keep track of the different groupings that can complete a mah jongg, but the tiles no longer confuse me. The above suit is called "bamboo", or "bam".

Above are the three "dragons".  White, red and green dragons.

Still life with cheese, grapes and sunshine. I love T's cheese knives. They have me scouring eBay for some interesting ones.

And above is the beginnings of my first mah jongg of the day, of life.

Happy new late afternoon tradition, friends. I hope we share it for many seasons to come.

Tangiers Korean BBQ of Tokyo in Los Feliz

Tangier Korean BBQ of Tokyo
2138 Hillhurst Ave

Los Feliz
Los Angeles, CA 90027
323-663-2000

When I first read Pat's (of EatingLA) announcement about Tangiers's change of hands, decor and menu, I hurried over to the referenced UrbanDaddy article and got all excited. Excited in a "they've remodeled Pirate's of the Caribbean" kind of way, not, "there's a notable  culinary playa in the neighborhood" kind of way.

Just this last weekend, we met R&R (violinist in The Furious Seasons and his significant other) in Los Feliz at Tangiers and had a great time. A great time in the "I can't believe they serve meat this good on Space Mountain" rather than, "I am peeking through a cultural window into Korean dining traditions" kind of great time.

Upon arrival, there was not an owner or member of management in sight, but we grabbed a seat and an ensuing drink at the bar and took in the surroundings.  As expressed at UrbanDaddy, the name Tangiers Korean BBQ of Tokyo and the decor both communicate, "a playful, anything-goes mishmash" of cultures.  And by mishmash, I mean Japanese and Korean, definitely not even a trace nor a hint of a trace of anything even vaguely Moroccan. R suggested maybe they were too lazy to change the signage, and I cannot see why when literally everything else has been changed structurally and design wise. Walls have been torn down, the bar moved, booths and a giant LED screen installed, and so on and so forth.  The effect is whimsical and a bit raucous in the sexy/innocent/superhero way that anime has on our collective conscious. 

There are many options on the menu, mind-bogglingly so. We chose a set menu for "3-4 people" that legitimately would have fed 6. See above.

There were some issues with the sake menu.  They are in the process of changing the entire sake offereings and were out of all but the most expensive offerings by the bottle.  D and I went for $10 glasses of cold house sake spilling over into cedar wasu. R & R had cocktails from the list. R the violinist had a Seoul Iced Tea, a riff on a Long Island that was tasty but super sweet, and R had a Kiki Fizz, gingery and refreshing.

Anime splashes the menu playfully on nearly every page.  With such good company I didn't take the time to explore the stories, but under more solo circumstances I would have read every word. I love a graphic novel, or novella as the case may be.

And just like at any normal Korean BBQ, diners are started off by a dizzying array of banchan.

Daikon.

Pickled bean sprouts.

Potato salad.

Tofu with chile flakes, oil and green onion.

Baechu kimchi, made using whole leaves of cabbage.

Wakame nori.

Sigumchi namul (marinated spinach).

Cucumber kimchi.

Every bowl of banchan was delicious, devoured quickly and refiled several times. Service that night was stellar and incredibly personal.  And there was no lack of customers in the house. There were a couple large parties, the bar stayed full all evening long and many two tops came and went. Service remained steadily excellent.

Courses were served quite rapidly. While all four of us are good eaters, we are all fairly health conscious and exercise enthusiasts. We all ate fairly slowly, tempering any speed with lots of good conversation, news, and general chattyness.  The food really piled up on our table. Sitting at a long table designed for six with two grills, it's a good thing we didn't need to share space with anyone. There was barely room for the four of us with all our food spread out across the table.

Immediately after the banchan arrived our soup. Our choice: spicy miso or kimchi jjigae.  I can never get enough kimchi and my taste buds steered everyone else in that direction as well. We were advised about the intense spiciness of the jjigae, however we were ill advised.  Not one dish in the series of banchan registered on my spice-o-meter, nor did the kimchi jjigae.  I was disappointed in the level of heat. Just a warning.

Above is a gorgeous and plentiful green salad with a mild miso dressing. Delicious. Despite my disappointment of in the lack of spice of all dishes that crossed my path, I was beyond thrilled at the quality and quantity of produce.

Veg for grilling. Squash, asparagus, mushrooms, carrots.

Lettuces and greens for wrapping meats after grilling. I don't remember wrapping meats in green leaves from my two previous favorite Korean BBQ joints, ChoSan Galbee and the now defunked east side Woo Lae Oak (the Beverly Hills Woo lae Oak is still up and running, I understand). It's been awhile since my last Korean BBQ experience, but when I first moved to LA I was semi-regular at ChoSan.

You, eat. This guy could kick Mr. Clean's ass.

Between courses we were offered a choice of Tokyo or Seoul Carpaccio, and you know how the saying goes. When in Korea...Everyone else liked this a lot, a carpaccio of red snapper. I thought the freshness of the fish left a lot to be desired. A little mealy and a touch dehydrated.

And the BBQ games begin. Simple chicken breast with yuzu-lime-pepper stuff. We tried the yuzu-lime on the chicken before grilling and after, and it was delicious.

The breast had not been marinated in any way, and after grilling I thought it was a little dry.  I ate my slices with a trace of yuzu-lime or a slice of garlic that sizzled away until brown in the hand made foil container you see above. Tasty!

Reminds me of Trixie from Speed Racer, just a little more, a'hem, mature. Put that cleavage away, ma'am.

The first round of beef was Kobe beef sirloin. Did anyone else see the April Fool's day article about Kobe Bryant suing Kobe, Japan for using his name in branding beef with that locale as a provenance? I was not fooled. But Chowhound did take me in on their spoof about mothers protesting booze flavored ice cream at the Bay Area's Humphrey Slocombe.  What got you this year, you fool?

We did a good job of sharing the grill.  Recently I ate yakiniku at Totoraku, and there were hands far more versed in grilling than I, so I took a backseat. Friday I jumped on in.

This was melt in your mouth delicious and appropriately marbled with luscious fatness.

Two other beef courses crossed our paths: harami and kalbi marinated short ribs. Harami is the very tender beef around the diaphragm typically used in Japanese yakiniku, and a kalbi marinade includes Korean soy sauce, garlic and sugar. When I make a kalbi, I use Howard Yoon's recipe gleaned from NPR years ago and still hanging around the internet.  I was super stuffed by the time the kalbi was done on the grill. Next time the kalbi, my favorite meat of the night, will be the only beef I order. Having said that, the Tangier Course Meal was a great introduction and we really enjoyed sharing all the different bits and pieces that came to the table.

If Tangier Korean BBQ of Tokyo seems like a sports car, it is definitely a convertible.  Friday night it seemed very adult, full bar, funky and fun drinks list, bright lights, large parties, an unoccupied DJ booth.  But it could be used just as happily for a family friendly event for eaters of all ages.  The booths against the north wall have brightly colored murals, the menu is vast with lots of white-washed style maki rolls (a blinking neon sign telling me this is not a place for the kind of sushi I like), and the anime theme is echoed throughout the menu and onto the several bigger than life-size statues that populate the dining room.

And the high chairs are irresistible.

I wouldn't come here seeking the most authentic Korean BBQ experience. However, I like that a little taste of K-Town has bled its way northward and into Los Feliz. There is fun to be had at Tangier Korean BBQ of Tokyo and I have every intention of returning. As soon as the fix that cold sake menu.

Raw Fish in the Desert: Kiyosaku Palm Springs

Kiyosaku

1555 S Palm Canyon Dr
Palm Springs, CA 92264

(760) 327-6601

During one of my winter work forays into Palm Springs last season, I found this husband/wife run sushi spot via the much maligned Yelp.  Reviews are rave, with very few exceptions*.  And although I have become their Facebook fan, I can find precious little information about them on the internet. They lack a home page or even an informational blurb on their FB profile. The odd amalgamation of folks over at Trip Advisor echo Yelpers opinions, saying that, "owner has been here for 30 odd years", "Kiyo and Terri, husband and wife and 2 staff run this relatively small sushi bar and limited Japanese menu", and even, "sushi was the freshest and best I've had since eating just outside the Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo".

Kiyo-san works the sushi bar, supervises the back kitchen while his kimono and obi clad wife takes care of the front of the house.  Here solo one night, I sat at the sushi bar and both were quiet but very hospitable company.

   

The menu ain't cheap, but as I discovered one night when ordering a la carte from items not on the menu nor listed in the specials, I was served some delights at a hefty price. That night I ordered with Kiyo-san's help: giant scallop nigiri, uni. and albacore belly. With my sake and one other nigiri item I didn't commit to memory my total came to around $80 before tip. Now way the ladies in the back office would let me expense that lavish a dinner. I gladly sucked it up as a needed and deserved luxury in the midst of a busy season of travel. It was worth every penny.

I find the appetizers to be more reasonably priced, the nigiri not priced at what one would expect from a sushi hole in the wall in the desert.  However neither is the quality what one would expect from sushi in Palm Springs. It is astoundingly good. Simple and straightforward, rivaling any I have eaten in Los Angeles**.

At Kiyosaku, sake is served in a traditional masu container, originally used for measuring rice. You can see, Kiyo-san's wife serves with the cold sake overflowing the masu as a show of the host's generosity.  Service here feels very personal despite the fact that it is occasionally slow and the room is always packed.

Kiyosaku is reknowned for their grapefruit special, something Kiyo-san created. A partially hollowed out grapefruit filled with crab, raw scallop, tuna, salmon and daikon sprout.  On my first visit I was not even tempted to try it. I thought this must be a way to get rid of end pieces, albeit it in a beautiful presentation.  However, at the end of my visit, after experiencing the attentive service to a single woman with a book at the sushi bar and their kind queries about my comfort, I reconsidered.

During my next visit with D, the week of the Indian Wells tennis tournament, we came in late on Saturday evening and started with the grapefruit.  It is fabulous. Fresh, bright citrus and lots of beautiful raw and cooked fish slightly cured by the citric acid.  The generous slices of fish spilled over from the fruit into the container, and we had to dig deep into the bowl to get every last piece of fish.

This visit, sticking to the menu I ordered a simple yellowtail sashimi platter. Melt-in-your-mouth fresh.

D asked for the nigiri combo, which along with the grapefruit was more than enough and I might have snuck a piece or two when he wasn't looking.

*One Yelper gave three stars because the sushi was not innovative enough, "i have no problem spending a $100 on premium sushi--but when i've done so, namely at katsuya in encino, the sushi has been innovative, visually stunning and exceptionally flavorful. here--it was functional".  Which basically communicates to me that this is exactly my kind of sushi chef.

**I have yet to experience Urasawa.