Most Vietnamese restaurants in our New Jersey neighborhood tend to be Pho parlors, specializing in the ubiquitous noodle soup that is a staple of Viet cuisine. They may have a a few appetizers (such as spring rolls or grilled beef on skewers) , a selection of over-rice dishes and a few vermicelli dishes but nothing [...]
Archive for March, 2009
Sampling Vietnamese Cuisine in Falls Church, VA
Posted in Food on March 30, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Great Burmese Food in the D.C Area
Posted in Food on March 28, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Burmese restaurants are rather thin on the ground anywhere in the U.S. Good Burmese restaurants are even rarer. Even in New York City , that restaurant mecca , I’ve only heard of two Burmese restaurants, neither of them particularly good. What a surprise to find not one but two good Burmese restaurants in the Washington [...]
Final Four Countdown : Doing OK So Far
Posted in Sports on March 25, 2009 | 1 Comment »
After the first two rounds of the NCAA Basketball tournament, I’m not doing too badly with my picks. If I could have been the office pool I’d have been among the leaders. In the first round I correctly picked 23 of the 32 winners correctly. In the second round , I picked 13 of 16. [...]
The Final Four : President Obama’s Choices and mine
Posted in Sports on March 19, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
There have been sports loving Presidents before, notably Gerald Ford, but I doubt that there has been anyone quite like our current President. Others go through the ritual of inviting Championship winning teams to the White House but sometimes it seems more like an exercise in PR or because it is a tradition that they have [...]
Roads to Quoz: An American Mosey
Posted in American Scene, books on March 19, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Back in 1982, William Least Heat Moon ,jobless and newly divorced , fitted his camper with a bunk bed and set out to explore America, Sticking to the backroads , meeting interesting people and listening to their stories, he distilled his experiences into his first book, Blue Highways, which became an instant best seller. I [...]
The Shrinking Family
Posted in American Scene, Culture, Life on March 17, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Recently, in response to viewer requests, food shows on Japanese TV ,cut down the size of the meals they showed being prepared. Previously they used to prepare meals for four; now they prepare meals for two since that is closer to the size of most Japanese households. More and more Japanese are opting to marry [...]
The Hanshin Tigers and the Curse of Colonel Sanders
Posted in Asia, Humor, Random, Sports on March 16, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Way back in 1985, the Hanshin Tigers of Osaka won the Japan Central League title, after a lapse of 21 years. Their overjoyed fans took to the streets in celebration and happened upon a staue of KFC founder Colonel Harlan Sanders. Deciding that it bore a strong resemblance to Hanshin Tigers slugger, Randy Bass, they tore the [...]
The Re-Birth of the Dollar Store
Posted in Uncategorized on March 15, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
It must have been about 15 years ago that I noticed that dollar stores were popping up like mushrooms. All of a sudden it seemed that every shopping center had a Dollar Mart, a Dollar Place, a Dollar Barn or some such variationof the name. This was in addition to the 99 cent stores. On [...]
How Many People Will You Meet In your Lifetime ?
Posted in American Scene, Daily Life, Life, Thoughts on March 15, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Long car journeys can be a mind numbing experience when one is driving alone. Some time ago,the author William Leat Heat Moon was driving across North Dakota and he needed to find a way to keep awake. At such times , one way to keep from dozing off is to think up an interesting question. [...]
Cricket Roundup: Australia Resurgent, India Triumphant : England ??
Posted in Cricket on March 11, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Australia Resurgent : Who woudda thunk it ? Just a couple of months ago, the Aussies were in the doldrums after having been comprehensively beaten at home by the visiting South Africans. Most observers ( including me ) thought that this was the end of Aussie dominance and that they would be savaged when they [...]
