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Comments on: DON’T PANIC! https://whynow.dumka.us/2010/05/25/dont-panic-6/ On-line Opinion Magazine...OK, it's a blog Mon, 31 May 2010 18:23:22 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 By: Kryten42 https://whynow.dumka.us/2010/05/25/dont-panic-6/comment-page-1/#comment-52261 Mon, 31 May 2010 18:23:22 +0000 http://whynow.dumka.us/?p=14546#comment-52261 LOL Yeah… I first visited CA around ’85 and was invited to Cruz in late ’89 by a small company that was based there called Imagine That! It was a small husband/Wife software company at the time… It’s good to see it’s a lot bigger now, though I have no idea if they still own it. I was distro here for their simulation tool he wrote called Extend (at that time). There was a quake while I was on the phone talking to the wife getting directions before I set off from where I was staying in Cruz to their house for dinner. I heard a loud noise and a crash and an exclamation from the lady over the phone, and the building i was in was shaking. She said that the back of the house had just fallen off! I was almost knocked down. I left to go to the house, and the town was a mess. My friends had lost the back section of the house (mainly kitchen and laundry). They were luckier than many. So yeah… I remember the Loma Prieta quake… was… October, I think… My memory isn’t what it was! I know it was near the end of ’89. A relative of theirs phoned to say that the ‘ocean was disappearing’! We discovered later that the water level in Cruz harbor had dropped about 3ft, and half an hour later, a tsunami hit Monterey! Part of the Oakland Bay Bridge disappeared also. I stayed longer than I was originally intending and helped with cleanup. My recent Military experience helped a lot… I even helped deal with some looting from damaged buildings, though there was more of that going in SF apparently. And because of that quake, I missed my only chance to go to a World Series game! My friend had gotten good tickets for the third game (I think) at Candlestick Park. I didn’t even care who was playing! Oh well. 🙂

When I got back here, my *boss* showed me photo’s, apparently taken by a U-2 from Beale AFB. They were amazingly good! You could even see some structural details. 😉 That was just before I bid ‘fare thee well’ to the DIO and the company I worked for that they basically controlled, and went back to a ‘legitimate’ job in Engineering. 🙂

Sushi is great… so long as you can trust the people preparing it!! (Otherwise, the Japanese would have ceased to exist long ago!) 😉 I’ll never eat it here again however. I’m not known for taking *stupid* risks. 😉

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By: Badtux https://whynow.dumka.us/2010/05/25/dont-panic-6/comment-page-1/#comment-52260 Mon, 31 May 2010 15:01:07 +0000 http://whynow.dumka.us/?p=14546#comment-52260 Kryten, the thing about Santa Clara is that it looks like a typical American strip mall suburban community… until you notice the Korean writing on many of the shops and restaurants in those strip malls. I.e., there isn’t much to “see” here, Santa Clara doesn’t even have a downtown (it was only a few blocks near Santa Clara University, the university being a Catholic university that was the whole reason the town was founded in the first place, it got run-down so they tore it down to build a mall, but then never built the mall because really, a mall by a university far from any freeway and barely a mile away from the biggest mall in the area, Valley Fair Mall, just doesn’t make any sense). But anyhow, it’s a nice place to live, but not much of a place to visit, except for the part along El Camino Real where all the ethnic shops and restaurants are and even that looks like a typical American strip mall other than the writing on the buildings (and it’s not just Korean, there’s all sorts of ethnic shops and restaurants here, though the Koreans are most numerous). So you didn’t really miss much :).

I do visit Santa Cruz from time to time. It’s a cool funky town. I like walking along the waterfront and people-watching, humans do the strangest things ;). They’ve renovated downtown a bit since you came through, assuming you came through before the Loma Prieta quake… the quake shook down several buildings downtown, so they went through and did seismic fixes on everything, and renovated the streets and sidewalks too. It’s gone a bit upscale compared to what it was, but still plenty funky and cool.

And of course San Francisco remains San Francisco. I do visit there from time to time but mostly for things like festivals and bands that never make it down here because well, sleepy suburban towns aren’t much for nightlife. I certainly don’t go there for food, we have plenty down here in the South Bay.

Regarding sushi: I will only eat raw fish that I caught and killed myself ;). But really, if the Great Penguin had intended mankind to eat raw fish, then He would have never created fire. Just sayin’ :).

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By: hipparchia https://whynow.dumka.us/2010/05/25/dont-panic-6/comment-page-1/#comment-52255 Mon, 31 May 2010 03:30:38 +0000 http://whynow.dumka.us/?p=14546#comment-52255 maltese cuisine? you mean those cute little fluffy white dogs have a cuisine?! or do you mean they are the cuisine? not so sure i want to know about this one… 😛

srsly, though, it does sound interesting. i’m a fan of anything even remotely mediterranean.

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By: Kryten42 https://whynow.dumka.us/2010/05/25/dont-panic-6/comment-page-1/#comment-52253 Mon, 31 May 2010 02:46:22 +0000 http://whynow.dumka.us/?p=14546#comment-52253 Ohhh.. That’s a shame about the Corner Restaurant. 🙁 Happens hear too often also! Still… some do survive somehow! My fave place here (a Cypriot Restaurant) has been operating since 1935! And, as you say, there are plenty more! 😀

I figured you’d know that market. 🙂 I thought I’d post it for others if they were interested. Looked very impressive! If the quality is as good as it’s size… Wow! It might almost be worth me even moving there… 😆 I didn’t get to see Santa Clara, but as I said, I did really like Santa Cruz. If they are at all similar, I’d like it (even though Cruz is mainly a University town, unlike many others, it’s not that noticeable. 🙂

All the Sushi places here are being put on notice or closing! They found up to 80% of them has serious health issues! Including

Sushi warning

Microbiologist Glen Pinna tested 60 sushi rolls purchased from shopping centres, restaurants and takeaways in suburban and city outlets.

“The type of sushi rolls we got positive was a broad range terriyaki chicken, straight chicken, beef – even a Peking duck,” Glen said.

In Sydney, four out of five shops failed tests – most were already on the name and shame list.

A beef sushi roll tested positive to the potentially deadly staphylococcus bacteria, 26 times above the limit.

Four sushi rolls had had hidden bacillus cereus, a food poisoning bug found in rice.

It should be at levels less than 100 – one chicken roll had a count of 600.

In Brisbane, almost half of the sushi outlets failed.

A chicken terriyaki roll tested posted to staphylococcus at levels 29 times higher than what is acceptable.

The sample also tested positive to bacillus cereus.

The most worrying sample was purchased at an outlet on Brisbane’s southside with a sushi roll testing positive to listeria.

“Listeria can cause still birth in pregnant women and serious infections that can lead to death,” Glen said.

🙁

I’ll never eat Sushi here again! I actually did get severe food poisoning about 10 years ago after having Sushi for lunch in Sydney! I spent over 21 hours in emergency! I was on a morphene IV injector that gave me a shot every half-hour. I LOVE morphene! 😀

Ya know… Hospital staff are REALLY not very bright! I’d just had food poisoning, had my stomach pumped, and been pumped full of morphene for over 20 hours… and they insisted I had to have breakfast before I left!! It came up faster than it went down… and I told them it would! Idiots.

Next time I want Sushi & Sushimi etc… I’ll go to Japan! 😉

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By: Badtux https://whynow.dumka.us/2010/05/25/dont-panic-6/comment-page-1/#comment-52238 Sun, 30 May 2010 18:43:29 +0000 http://whynow.dumka.us/?p=14546#comment-52238 Yes, it *is* big, Kryten! I shop there from time to time, they have a huge set of salad-bar looking things with a great selection of banchan (Korean side dishes) already pre-prepared and ready to put into to-go containers and taken home. Dining on spiced bean sprouts, kimchi of various sorts (cabbage, cucumber, root), fried tofu, etc., none of which needs cooking… quite a nice quick noon meal on a weekend, yum! They also have a small grill area with a few tables set up where you can take your ingredients and they’ll toss some rice and your ingredients into a hot pot for you so you can have bibimbop right there in the store! To say that I’m happy that I’m moving *much* closer to this store is an understatement, I’m salivating just thinking about it even though I just finished eating some tasty Korean noodles and tuna :).

Regarding the Corner Restaurant, disaster overtook them. I went by there a few months back to get some bibimbap and there was a notice in the window, “Closed By Order Of The Health Department”. Siiiigh! I hate when that happens! However, that’s okay, I went to the Korean tofu place next door and got some soondubu (spicy tofu soup) instead ;). Sadly, that was the end of that restaurant, the sign is gone and now there’s just a ‘For Lease’ sign in the window, but hey, there’s 76 other Korean restaurants to try in Santa Clara so I’m not exactly distraught :).

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By: Kryten42 https://whynow.dumka.us/2010/05/25/dont-panic-6/comment-page-1/#comment-52236 Sun, 30 May 2010 17:35:07 +0000 http://whynow.dumka.us/?p=14546#comment-52236 Oops! Meant to put the uRL for the supermarket… looks BIG!!

Hankook Supermarket

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By: Kryten42 https://whynow.dumka.us/2010/05/25/dont-panic-6/comment-page-1/#comment-52235 Sun, 30 May 2010 17:32:35 +0000 http://whynow.dumka.us/?p=14546#comment-52235 How about this then:

The Korean Secret Garden in Santa Clara – Bi Won Restaurant

I came across this comment on a SF cuisine board…

It’s hard to make a bad BiBimBop, but one of the better ones I’ve had is at the “Corner” Restaurant in Santa Clara. It’s a small neighrbood type of place but the food is very good. The Dol Sot BBB is not overly oily as some of the other places. Some of the other places I’ve tried uses too much oil to grease the stone pot.

The generous amount of real pieces of Bulgoki meat tastes better than the others who use bits and pieces of leftover meat.

It’s located next to Sushi-O-Sushi on El Camino Real.

I had a wonderful time sampling food in SF and Santa Cruz! I didn’t want to leave… I have to say, they were my fave places in the USA. 🙂

Speaking of Yelp, I found this:

Hankook Supermarket

“Hands down, the best Korean Grocery store in Northern Cali.”

Hope that helps. 🙂

And… Speaking of backpacks and heavy gear (and yeah, boots were a pain! Especially as ours were Kevlar reinforced.) Near the end of my tour, my team volunteered to field test a new backpack. Was exceptionally good! Had much better compartment layout, was tougher and lighter, and had an inbuilt insulated water bladder that could take several liters of water, and it was cooler than ambient. 🙂

On several missions, we had to also lug my Steyr AMR in two man-portable field packs. The weapon alone was 18kg (about 40 lbs) plus the heavy secure portable field packs, sighting gear (daylight, low-light and IR scopes) and ammo (which was heavy given it was 15.2mm caliber ultra-high velocity APFSDS projectile. Had a muzzle velocity of approx 1.55 km/s or mach 4.5 & point blank was 1.5km). We also had to carry a gillies suit and other special equipment. Though generally on those missions, we were dropped off by chopper when possible, or some other means of transport, and gear was distributed among the 6 man team, except for the fwd scout. 🙂

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By: Badtux https://whynow.dumka.us/2010/05/25/dont-panic-6/comment-page-1/#comment-52234 Sun, 30 May 2010 17:04:28 +0000 http://whynow.dumka.us/?p=14546#comment-52234 As has been alluded to earlier, I am moving. I am moving into the middle of Santa Clara’s Koreatown, yum :). There are reviews on Yelp of 77 Korean restaurants in Santa Clara, CA. I can well believe it, within three blocks of my new place there’s at least a half dozen Korean restaurants (and a pho place and a taqueria and a Paki restaurant and a Mongolian restaurant and Japanese restaurant and and … well, just lots of good food, 62 real restaurants within a half-mile walk in addition to a McDonald’s :)). So anyhow, I will check out the links above, and hopefully when I get unpacked I shall go get the supplies for a good bibimbap or bokum or something :). (Note: English transliterations are so touchy, I’ve seen so many different ones for these dishes!).

Just call me…

– Badtux the Soon-to-be-waddling Penguin
.-= last blog ..Crashing halt =-.

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By: Kryten42 https://whynow.dumka.us/2010/05/25/dont-panic-6/comment-page-1/#comment-52233 Sun, 30 May 2010 16:40:19 +0000 http://whynow.dumka.us/?p=14546#comment-52233 Oh… I checked my bookmarks. 🙂 I use this site as a reference sometimes, they have something over 400,000 recipe’s, and I found over 300 Korean there! 🙂

Recipezaar – 303 Korean recipes

It’s a good one to keep as a reference. 🙂

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By: Kryten42 https://whynow.dumka.us/2010/05/25/dont-panic-6/comment-page-1/#comment-52232 Sun, 30 May 2010 16:28:49 +0000 http://whynow.dumka.us/?p=14546#comment-52232 BTW, our Multicultural TV channel had a weekly special on Asian food. Apparently we have 55 Korean Restaurants here. One of my fave dishes is Salt and pepper squid

More here (the site also has dishes from many other cultures also):
SBS – Korean recipes and Korean cuisine

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