Teich.Net :: All In

It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of the Village Imports Warehouse Sales. In case you too are looking for tons of chocolate, or fabulous bargain cheeses, or an entire pound of dried morel mushrooms (OK, so you can get just a few ounces), or any of the other great things they stock (the website only has a fraction of their selection), mark your calendar: the next sale in Brisbane will be Friday, November 18th (2:00pm - 6:00pm), and Saturday, November 19th (8:30am - 1:30pm). Apparently they now have a Los Angeles location that will be open on the same dates and times at 6900 Beck Avenue in North Hollywood (off Vanowen Avenue, close to Lankershim Blvd). I’m hoping to pick up another wheel of le Délice, in particular. (I haven’t seen in anywhere else, but I need to start looking.) If you go, just don’t make the same mistake a friend of mine recently did: 3 compact but incredibly rich Petit Suisse yogurts in one sitting is one or two too many.

Someone told me recently that if you want a vegetarian to like something, make it spicy. That is of course a gross generalization and undermines the fine palates and subtle nuances of many meat-free foods, but it so happens that I do like spicy foods and, as much as I love pure, unadulterated dark chocolate, I also like the idea of spiced chocolate. The reality is usually a disappointment. Most bars that I have tried are bland, or don’t start with good chocolate, or have spice but no depth. My own spicy truffle experiment last year, made with Valrhona Manjari dark chocolate and a blend of top quality Hungarian paprika, chipotle, and some ridiculously good tequila had spice and flavor but just weren’t compelling. The best I had found were the dark chocolate chili truffles from Gilli Café in Florence, but with a burn that long outlasts the chocolate flavors, these are not for the faint of heart. As they aren’t exactly easy to pick up when the craving strikes, I’ve had to continue my search and in doing so, I’ve found a new love, so much better than the rest.
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Kate of Accidental Hedonist’s post on the familiar debate over prices at Whole Foods, If the Name “Whole Paycheck” fits…, has already sparked quite a discussion, but I wanted to point out her evidence for a belief I’ve long held: when you shop for fresh basics rather than luxury items, the cost difference of going to Whole Foods is marginal. For most of what I buy (seasonal and preferably local, organic/natural vegetables and fruits), Whole Foods’ prices are actually lower than those of other stores that sell the same quality produce (which isn’t Safeway). For me, the difference in quality, in what’s stocked, and in the shopping experience itself at Whole Foods and many of the smaller, independent groceries is worth a lot more than a few pennies per item.

(Full disclosure: I have a familial Yahoo! bias.) I’m all for software trying to “do the right thing,” but this is just silly. I’m sitting here in Japan and do a quick search on Google. (For some reason my Firefox insists on switching back to Google every now and then. I’m sure it’s me, but I don’t know what I’m doing.) It gives me results from google.co.jp… in Japanese. That makes sense, and I’ve noticed this behavior in many other places as well. Only one problem. I can’t make it give me English results. I type in google.com, changed the URL, and it keeps sending me to co.jp. I figure that one of the links is preferences, but the language list is in Japanese as well. Luckily (?) the internationally popular “Elmer Fudd” language is written in English.

Be vewwy, vewwy quiet…

Last night was dinner number two at The French Laundry. We had a wonderful meal, though it was a small notch below our first, out-of-this-world experience there in May. I’m already planning our next visit, but will be keeping two new lessons in mind.
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We had an outstanding lunch at Pilar yesterday on our way up to Yountville for our second dinner at The French Laundry. The biggest challenge of this lunch was passing up some of the fabulous things on the menu to leave room for dinner a whole seven hours later.
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I usually leave the tech commentary at All In to Oren, but having played with the new Yahoo! Maps over the last few months and seeing the leaps and bounds forward in the new public beta (which I happen to think trounces the competition), I felt the need to share this news with all of you. It’s easy to miss the link to the Maps Beta on Yahoo!, but follow it here or seek it out. It’s worth it. There are sure to be tons of awesome mash-ups to come (like this Local Events Browser) and how fantastic is it to finally be able to do multi-point driving directions?! Drag and drop and integrated Local Search are pretty nifty too. I mapped out where I’m headed this weekend–point D was the site of the best meal I’ve ever had–but mailing and copying links doesn’t seem to be working for me. Hopefully that will be fixed soon.