Kimchi fried rice

At a recent brunch at The Roosevelt (one of my favorites in town), I saw a little dish that stuck out amidst the other terrific options - Ham and Mushroom Fried Rice with Kimchi.
I rarely do this, but it got me thinking to try this quick and easy variant (plus some other minor "fusion" modifications) to good old Kimchi fried rice.

(since this is largely emperical, no proportions listed but easy to figure out):
Cooked Rice (recipes recommend a day old rice but you can also cook rice just prior with a little less water)
Onion finely chopped
Fresh ginger and garlic
Julienned carrots
Mixed mushrooms
cubed ham (optional)
Kimchi, chopped up
Chili paste - Gochujang is best, Sambal oelek is a good substitute
Scallions, cilantro + dried seaweed (garnish)
(most available at many places in RVA including Tan A or any of the Korean stores on Midlothian Tpk)

Heat oil + bit of butter + saute ingredients. Add kimchi. Saute a bit longer. ++chilli paste to taste. Add the rice. Toss till well coated.
Fry an egg / serving. Garnish. Sauteed bok choy is a good side.

EAT !!

Pork bellies....

A nanosecond late to the pork belly party, but RVA has certainly embraced the international pork-belly-is-the-new-foie-gras mantra. Its hard to find a restaurant around town these days, that hasnt jumped on the PB bandwagon (not that I'm complaining).
Reminds me of Trading Places and commodity futures in pork bellies at the mercantile exchange. "Pork Bellies Going Down"



Violating one of my rules about not taking pictures of food in restaurants (the food trellis on this was was intriguing enough), a particularly interesting, crispy and spicy pork belly dish from the Peter Chang restaurant in C-Ville. Well worth a visit till the new location in Short Pump gets settled.

More OPEN

Nice to see that RVA is finally catching up on the incorporation of online reservations for dining (OpenTable). Participation up to around 50 since April (with several notable adoptions). Given that this is not an inexpensive proposition for the business, I do hope its working out (viz. economics + usage from patrons, the so called "incremental customer" who would not have visited otherwise). Some possible downsides. As a consumer, obviously its easy for me to want the convenience but I understand it isnt so straightforward.

One amusing mathematical conundrum is how many restaurants calculate themselves to be in the $$ range (is it possible with entrees hovering around $25 on average at most??). The Price reflects the estimated price of dinner for one with one drink and tip ($$ = $30 and under, $$$ = $31 to $50, $$$$ = $50 and over)

ampersats

New beginnings @ a familiar venue. The new S@AMPLE @ the site of the old Sprout and earlier incarnations. A nice, open (amazing how a wall or two changes up the place) modern decor with a "tech" slant (it was easier to connect to the open crossroads wireless next door!). Now open for lunch. Interesting small ($5-$12) and larger ($12-$15) plates. More appealing dining options around campus needed, so, despite questions as to value propositions (cf. above)... Good luck ahead !!

Some fun nicknames for the "at the rate of" or "at" (@ STP? or @locus) for scientists; ampersat @ - "strudel" in Hebrew, "snail" in Italian and Korean, "little mouse" in Chinese, "elephant trunk" in Swedish, "monkey" in German, "dog" in Russian and "little duck" in Greek!

Acacia (pollen)

Playing around with Lookup Tables recently, I came across a lovely electron microscope image of the pollen from the Acacia plant (Acacia saligna). Behold this beautiful (pseudocolored) "cookie shaped" disk of the acacia pollen around 50 micrometers in diameter! (as a point of reference, 50 micrometers is about half the diameter of a single strand of hair !!). The micro and nanoscales never cease to delight !!

While the pollen is blamed for bouts of sneezes, the restaurant of the same name in town continues to shine in the Richmond dining firmament.
A recent visit had us well pleased with the generally creative combinations of taste on the menu rounded off nicely with some delectable desserts from the pastry chef (almond parsnip cake?!).
Minor quibble follows: While the kitchen continues to impress, the floor seems to have some catching up to do (apparently a long recurring issue). Now, I am all for cold and impersonal (as opposed to fakely effusive) service as long as it is efficient; and Acacia is still one of the few establishments around that gets the little things done (water refills, folding napkins when a patron leaves the table - yes!). However, an eyebrow does get raised when a restaurant that deservedly aspires to this, ends up with waitstaff who dont know about the food they're serving ! An anomaly (?) but it would be helpful for instance, if one knew a wee more about certain items on the menu, what the cheeses on the plate were or able to respond to recommendation questions with a more educated answer than "everything is great". Perhaps the culinary equivalent of what in mathematics we call a "trivial solution", (synonymous with intuitively obvious)

Regardless, a fine restaurant I'm happy to still have on my favs list and well worth a visit (as an aside, vegetarians still have no luck, but the prix fixe menu @24 is easily one of the best "deals" in RVA for a solid weekday "fine" dining experience).

Back to the pollen image, I wonder if restaurants could have a "signature dish" in a literal sense (some clever word play perhaps or a crazy scientific allusion). Now that would be fun.