Dennis R. wrote:
In article , says...
If Cowen was discussing Hong Kong Palace, they have two menus (well, at
least two) - one is the American Chinese menu, and the other is the
'Traditional Chinese' menu, and if you are non-Chinese you should ask
for the Traditional one - and its in English. A third Chinese menu is on
the wall, and who knows what that says!

HKP is near 7 Corners in Falls Church and does Szechuan food pretty
well. Their Szechuan Cold Noodles are an instant hit with everybody I
have brought there.

Ian

In a more general vein, I would be interested in the prevalence of what
Ian refers to as "Traditional Chinese" menus in restaurants. There is a
large number of Chinese restaurants in my small city (200,000) in Canada
across the border from Detroit, Michigan. About 20 out of 60 offer
mostly "Traditional" menus with a couple of pages of the
"American/Canadian Chinese" type items near the back of the menu. About
10 of those 20 also offer a one or two page listing of "Chef's
Specials" in both Chinese and English. The only restaurants that
actually have items written in Chinese only flyers or bristol board on
the walls are very small "diners" near the university that cater to
students who want cheap home-style cooking.

The odd thing is that for most of the group of 20 restaurants, their
menus are about 80% - 90% identical - often entire pages are identical.
In fact, I have been told that the templates from the menus often
originated from Chinatown restaurants in Toronto, Ontario where many of
the owners or chefs once worked. Perhaps a similar thing happens in
Vancouver (British Columbia), the other major Asian centre in Canada?

Has anyone noticed a pattern in menus in their particular cities or
regions in the USA or Europe?

Dennis

Yes, here in Northern VA I get flyers from several local Chinese places,
and the offerings are often remarkably similar. I suspected just what
you report - that they are copying from somewhere else, or from each other.

The other tendency I am seeing in Chinese menus is Thai and other Asian
dishes - creeping fusion, you might call it.

Ian

James,

The first time I had tripe was when I was living in
France. I hated it. It was the only French dish that I
disliked in 3.5 years.

HOWEVER ....

The next time you go to a good Mexican restaurant try some
Menudo.it probably contains some tripe which is tasty in
that dish. Or, you can get it in cans at the supermarket or
Latin market. I have seen it at Safeway and Shoppers Food
Warehouse. I treat myself to a can about once a month. I
first sampled it in California -- and liked it.

Nice info he http://tinyurl.com/y8crcs
Nice photo he http://tinyurl.com/453ydm

Also, try some tripe in a Pho (soup) as a Pho restaurant
(Vietnamese)

Nice article he http://tinyurl.com/74h82
Nice photo he http://tinyurl.com/44bdwg

There are plenty of Pho restaurants around you in
Rockville and Silver Spring.

Here's a trick (for all)
Go to http://maps.google.com
Select 'Find Businesses'
Enter 'Pho' in the What --- Enter 'Potomac, MD' (or any
city) in the Where and select 'Search Businesses'. A nice
map with the Pho restaurants will pop up.

I'm not sure about Montana or Wyoming. ;-)

Gary Hayman, Greenbelt, MD
Gary's WEB pages
http://snipurl.com/garyswebpages

On Apr 29, 10:20*am, "James Silverton"
wrote:
*blake *wrote *on Tue, 29 Apr 2008 13:45:05 GMT:

*?? blake *wrote *on Mon, 28 Apr 2008 13:58:48 GMT:
*??
*?? Another thing I have wondered about that he mentions is
*?? the "Chinese Menu" that is sometimes recommended. What
*?? exactly are those? I don't suppose most of us can really
*?? read Chinese characters.
*??
*bm just a guess, but i think he's talking about the list of
*bm specials in chinese that is sometimes appended to the
*bm menu (or displayed on the wall) in places with a heavily
*bm chinese clientele.
*??
*?? I wonder what a person who knows no Chinese is supposed to
*?? do? Asking a waiter for a translation or any complex
*?? question often does not work in Chinese restaurants.
*??
*bm take a chance and point?

There is a limit! I have usually had good luck trying anything
that seems popular but I do need to know what it is. There are a
few things that many people like and I don't. Some Chinese
restaurants attract people because of their unusual specialties
like Sea Cucumber but I've only tried that once! Another thing
I've tried, in Chinese, French and British cooking is tripe and
you can keep it! I suppose that last is to be expected, I don't
chew gum either.

James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland

E-mail, with obvious alterations:
not.jim.silverton.at.verizon.not

wrote on Tue, 29 Apr 2008 21:42:57 -0400:

i Dennis R. wrote:
?? In article ,
?? says...
?? If Cowen was discussing Hong Kong Palace, they have two
?? menus (well, at least two) - one is the American Chinese
?? menu, and the other is the 'Traditional Chinese' menu,
?? and if you are non-Chinese you should ask for the
?? Traditional one - and its in English. A third Chinese
?? menu is on the wall, and who knows what that says!
??
?? HKP is near 7 Corners in Falls Church and does Szechuan
?? food pretty well. Their Szechuan Cold Noodles are an
?? instant hit with everybody I have brought there.
??
?? Ian
??
?? In a more general vein, I would be interested in the
?? prevalence of what Ian refers to as "Traditional Chinese"
?? menus in restaurants. There is a large number of Chinese
?? restaurants in my small city (200,000) in Canada across
?? the border from Detroit, Michigan. About 20 out of 60
?? offer mostly "Traditional" menus with a couple of pages of
?? the "American/Canadian Chinese" type items near the back
?? of the menu. About 10 of those 20 also offer a one or two
?? page listing of "Chef's Specials" in both Chinese and
?? English. The only restaurants that actually have items
?? written in Chinese only flyers or bristol board on the
?? walls are very small "diners" near the university that
?? cater to students who want cheap home-style cooking.
??
?? The odd thing is that for most of the group of 20
?? restaurants, their menus are about 80% - 90% identical -
?? often entire pages are identical. In fact, I have been
?? told that the templates from the menus often originated
?? from Chinatown restaurants in Toronto, Ontario where many
?? of the owners or chefs once worked. Perhaps a similar
?? thing happens in Vancouver (British Columbia), the other
?? major Asian centre in Canada?
??
?? Has anyone noticed a pattern in menus in their particular
?? cities or regions in the USA or Europe?
??
?? Dennis

i Yes, here in Northern VA I get flyers from several local
i Chinese places, and the offerings are often remarkably
i similar. I suspected just what you report - that they are
i copying from somewhere else, or from each other.

i The other tendency I am seeing in Chinese menus is Thai and
i other Asian dishes - creeping fusion, you might call it.

Not that I dispute the idea that one restaurant may copy
another's menu but, given the usual number of offerings,
similarities are not surprising. Sometimes you wonder what
dishes the restaurants *do not* make. The rather good (even if
the name sounds unlikely) Bob's 88 Shabu-Shabu in Rockville, MD
is a case in point. I might even be able to learn some Chinese
characters from their menu (in English and Chinese) if the
Chinese characters were not almost too small to read. I've yet
to be able to write the character for "chicken". I guess I'll
have to use a magnifying glass.

James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland

E-mail, with obvious alterations:
not.jim.silverton.at.verizon.not

On Wed, 30 Apr 2008 12:38:26 GMT, "James Silverton"
wrote:

Not that I dispute the idea that one restaurant may copy
another's menu but, given the usual number of offerings,
similarities are not surprising. Sometimes you wonder what
dishes the restaurants *do not* make. The rather good (even if
the name sounds unlikely) Bob's 88 Shabu-Shabu in Rockville, MD
is a case in point. I might even be able to learn some Chinese
characters from their menu (in English and Chinese) if the
Chinese characters were not almost too small to read. I've yet
to be able to write the character for "chicken". I guess I'll
have to use a magnifying glass.

James Silverton

bob's shabu-shabu sounds like an interesting place.

your pal,
blake

Shabu-Shabu is a Japanese dish.
But it is a varient of the 'hot-pot.'
I often make it at home. It's easy to do.

However when I travel to California
I always find a restaurant that
serves it and I enjoy a a good lunch.

I highly recommend it.

See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shabu_shabu

Gary Hayman
Gary's WEB Pages
http://snipurl.com/garyswebpages



On Apr 30, 11:31*am, blake murphy wrote:
On Wed, 30 Apr 2008 12:38:26 GMT, "James Silverton"

wrote:
Not that I dispute the idea that one restaurant may copy
another's menu but, given the usual number of offerings,
similarities are not surprising. Sometimes you wonder what
dishes the restaurants **do not* *make. The rather good (even if
the name sounds unlikely) Bob's 88 Shabu-Shabu in Rockville, MD
is a case in point. I might even be able to learn some Chinese
characters from their menu (in English and Chinese) if the
Chinese characters were not almost too small to read. I've yet
to be able to write the character for "chicken". I guess I'll
have to use a magnifying glass.

James Silverton

bob's shabu-shabu sounds like an interesting place.

your pal,
blake

The first time I had tripe was when I was living in
France. I hated it. It was the only French dish that I
disliked in 3.5 years.

HOWEVER ....


dearest christina's relatives have a restaurant in firenze (florence) italy.
i could not eat in a place this nice (read expensive) but they would refuse
me paying for anything. the third or fourth course came out and we asked
what it was. manuella said 'i tell you, you won't eat'. tell us tell us, it
smells wonderful.....okay, it's treepay. ?? treepay. ?? (you gotta roll the
r's) OH!!!!! it's tripe. in tomatoe sauce. wonderful. not my first choice of
texture but if i knew i could get this again, i'd order it.

On Wed, 30 Apr 2008 12:38:26 GMT, "James Silverton"
wrote:


Not that I dispute the idea that one restaurant may copy
another's menu but, given the usual number of offerings,
similarities are not surprising. Sometimes you wonder what
dishes the restaurants *do not* make. The rather good (even if
the name sounds unlikely) Bob's 88 Shabu-Shabu in Rockville, MD
is a case in point. I might even be able to learn some Chinese
characters from their menu (in English and Chinese)


Interesting that a restaurant with the "Shabu-Shabu" (a Japanese dish)
has a menu in English and Chinese.

--
Ken Blake
Please Reply to the Newsgroup

On Wed, 30 Apr 2008 02:36:36 -0700 (PDT), zydecogary
wrote:

James,

The first time I had tripe was when I was living in
France. I hated it. It was the only French dish that I
disliked in 3.5 years.

HOWEVER ....

The next time you go to a good Mexican restaurant try some
Menudo.it probably contains some tripe which is tasty in
that dish.

I like French tripe, Italian tripe, Chinese tripe, menudo, etc. I
fact, I like tripe a lot. It's one of my favorite foods.

What I don't particularly like is the dish called "beef tripe," often
found in dim-sum restaurants. This is usually an assortment of various
internal organs, only one of which is tripe. I'm not fond of most of
the others.

--
Ken Blake
Please Reply to the Newsgroup

Ken Blake said...
On Wed, 30 Apr 2008 02:36:36 -0700 (PDT), zydecogary
wrote:

James,

The first time I had tripe was when I was living in
France. I hated it. It was the only French dish that I
disliked in 3.5 years.

HOWEVER ....

The next time you go to a good Mexican restaurant try some
Menudo.it probably contains some tripe which is tasty in
that dish.

I like French tripe, Italian tripe, Chinese tripe, menudo, etc. I
fact, I like tripe a lot. It's one of my favorite foods.

What I don't particularly like is the dish called "beef tripe," often
found in dim-sum restaurants. This is usually an assortment of various
internal organs, only one of which is tripe. I'm not fond of most of
the others.



Tripes as in Madrid is great too !


Gerardus

Ken wrote on Wed, 30 Apr 2008 12:00:41 -0700:

?? Not that I dispute the idea that one restaurant may copy
?? another's menu but, given the usual number of offerings,
?? similarities are not surprising. Sometimes you wonder what
?? dishes the restaurants *do not* make. The rather good
?? (even if the name sounds unlikely) Bob's 88 Shabu-Shabu in
?? Rockville, MD is a case in point. I might even be able to
?? learn some Chinese characters from their menu (in English
?? and Chinese)

KB Interesting that a restaurant with the "Shabu-Shabu" (a
KB Japanese dish) has a menu in English and Chinese.

Bob is a good Chinese, i.e.. don't let ethnicity stand in the
way of profits! The owners are actually Taiwanese and may have
felt that Shabu-shabu was more recognizable than the other name
sometimes used in self-consciously Chinese places: Mongolian Hot
Pot. Even so, they do allege Mongolian origins for the dish.

--

James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland

E-mail, with obvious alterations:
not.jim.silverton.at.verizon.not

On Wed, 30 Apr 2008 21:33:26 +0200, Gerardus wrote:

Ken Blake said...
On Wed, 30 Apr 2008 02:36:36 -0700 (PDT), zydecogary
wrote:

James,

The first time I had tripe was when I was living in
France. I hated it. It was the only French dish that I
disliked in 3.5 years.

HOWEVER ....

The next time you go to a good Mexican restaurant try some
Menudo.it probably contains some tripe which is tasty in
that dish.

I like French tripe, Italian tripe, Chinese tripe, menudo, etc. I
fact, I like tripe a lot. It's one of my favorite foods.

What I don't particularly like is the dish called "beef tripe," often
found in dim-sum restaurants. This is usually an assortment of various
internal organs, only one of which is tripe. I'm not fond of most of
the others.



Tripes as in Madrid is great too !


I would expect to like it there too, but I've never had the
experience.

--
Ken Blake
Please Reply to the Newsgroup

Ken Blake said...
On Wed, 30 Apr 2008 21:33:26 +0200, Gerardus wrote:

Tripes as in Madrid is great too !


I would expect to like it there too, but I've never had the
experience.



This version add some snout to it...

http://www.belgourmet.be/en/world_re..._Madrilena.php


Gerardus unsure whether his had some or not

Gerardus wrote:
Ken Blake said...
On Wed, 30 Apr 2008 21:33:26 +0200, Gerardus wrote:

Tripes as in Madrid is great too !

I would expect to like it there too, but I've never had the
experience.

This version add some snout to it...

http://www.belgourmet.be/en/world_re..._Madrilena.php

Sounds great, 'Gerardus'. I've never had beef snout, but I've had black
Southern home cooked tripe (wow, over 40 years ago) and it was wonderful!

--
Nick. Support severely wounded and disabled Veterans and their families!
I've known US vets who served as far back as the Spanish American War. They
are all my heroes! Thank a Veteran and Support Our Troops. You are not
forgotten. Thanks ! ! ~Semper Fi~

On Apr 30, 7:04 pm, Ken Blake
wrote:

What I don't particularly like is the dish called "beef tripe," often
found in dim-sum restaurants. This is usually an assortment of various
internal organs, only one of which is tripe. I'm not fond of most of
the others.

In Chinese it's called "beef mixed", meaning a mix of organ meats. The
translation is at fault.

Tippi wrote on Thu, 1 May 2008 11:04:12 -0700 (PDT):

What I don't particularly like is the dish called "beef
tripe," often found in dim-sum restaurants. This is usually
an assortment of various internal organs, only one of which
is tripe. I'm not fond of most of the others.

In Chinese it's called "beef mixed", meaning a mix of organ
meats. The
translation is at fault.

The restaurant that I have mentioned, Bob's Shabu-Shabu, has
some interesting things in addition to its namesake dish, like
"Pork Intestine over Rice" and "Spicy Pig Blood with Tripe",
that I've not had the nerve to try but the dishes I have had
were good. Those who have memories of the bath time scrubber
might like to try "Loofha with Clam".
--

James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland

E-mail, with obvious alterations:
not.jim.silverton.at.verizon.not