half food blog. half tech blog. half george blog.
life
Restaurant List Updated, Finally
Jul 12th
Yes, I know it’s been a long time coming (almost a year!), but I’ve finally gotten around to updating the George and Linda’s A to Z Eatathon Extravaganza list.
As of this update, we’re up to 104 different places.
This list covers 688 days – 8/23/2008 to 7/12/2010
We eat at a new place approximately once every 6.6 days.
We’ve eaten in 7 different states: GA, CA, PA, IL, TX, FL, NY
22 of 26 letters have been covered – missing letters: Q, V, X, Z
What We’ve Been Up To
Jul 8th
Gauging from my statistics, it’s been a sad showing for George’s World. I’d like to blame the economy for the free-fall of the tourism industry, but in reality, it’s because I haven’t added anything particularly interesting lately (do I ever?) because we’ve been out running around and being awesome.
So, here’s a quick round-up of where we’ve been and what we’ve been doing. This should really be cross-posted to georgeandlinda.com, but that means I actually at some point need to revamp it to make it applicable to post-wedding life (we’re over 9 months now!).
May 28-31 – Memorial Day Weekend. We were down in Jacksonville, FL for the conference. It was disgusting hot. Not Heatpocalypse kind of hot, but uncomfortably warm for the end of May.
June 5-6 – Dallas. Out there to see my dear grandmother, as well as caught up with some kids that I’ve been completely MIA/out of touch with, not unlike this blog.
June 12-13 – Birmingham. Took a little road trip out to be with the migration training there.
June 25 – July 5 – California. Summer training and hanging with the fam and stuffing our faces with more food than should be legally allowable, even in the most liberal of states like California.
So for those of you keeping score at home, that’s right; 5 different states in 6 weeks. Foursquare was struggling to keep up with my massive number of check ins, and probably at one point thought I was cheating – I mean, does anyone really get boba 7 times in one week? Yes. This guy. *points to self* And his wife. *points to wife*
So yeah, once again, here’s my empty promise that is destined to be unfulfilled, which largely explains my lack of readership: I’m going to write more, I promise. More as in quantity and in quality. You will be so entertained that you will do nothing but continuously hit refresh until something new comes up.
Disclaimer: I am not responsible for warn out keyboards or mouse buttons.
Exhaustion.
Jun 14th
WARNING: Sleepy stream of consciousness ahead.
I think I’m hitting my limit.
All these weekends away are starting to take a toll on me. I feel like I can go into hibernation mode for a few weeks with no problem.
To give you perspective, I’ve been in 3 different states the past 3 weekends. One of those states is not Georgia. We’re staying put this coming weekend, and then we’re off to the semi-annual training. 5 of 6 weekends not in Georgia. Add in the 40+ hour work weeks of stress sandwiched between these weekends and you’ve got a inevitable mental revolt on your hands.
I don’t want to sound like I’m complaining (though it’s probably coming out that way) – I’ve enjoyed all my trips for their corresponding reasons. I like my job, even though it makes my brain explode sometimes. I’m just tired, that’s all.
It doesn’t look like I’m going to get a bona fide vacation this year either. One day I’ll get enough vacation days (and salary!) to account for conferences and trainings AND a real actual vacation.
Home Away from Home / Office Away from Office
Apr 5th
As I’ve been mentally calculating the drastic unbalance between hours in a day and hours of work that need to get done by a certain point in time, it’s glaringly apparent that it’s not all going to get done during office hours. In reality, it probably isn’t all going to get done during waking hours.
This means that I need to find myself an office away from the office. The real office is just too far of a drive – and too quiet, if there was such a thing, and working at home is far too distracting with all my little toys and whatnot. No, what I need is a chair, a table, some ambient noise, preferably coffee, and a subtle distraction every now and again.
My ex-go-to-places have started to get overrun by…outsiders. White Windmill, Maum as a desperate second, even Library Coffee despite them having all of 4 outlets for the entire place.
What I need is a new hidden gem. Somewhere where I can hide that no one else really knows about. Somewhere like White Windmill a year or two ago.
Anyone want to share their secret place with me?
Or do I really need to go open one up for myself?
another one!
May 8th
I should score better on this one:
Appetite for China’s 100 Chinese Foods to Try Before You Die
- Almond milk
- Ants Climbing a Tree (poetic, not literal, name)
- Asian pear
- Baby bok choy
- Baijiu
- Beef brisket
- Beggar’s Chicken
- Bingtang hulu
- Bitter melon
- Bubble tea
- Buddha’s Delight
- Cantonese roast duck
- Century egg, or thousand-year egg
- Cha siu (Cantonese roast pork)
- Char kway teow
- Chicken feet
- Chinese sausage
- Chow mein
- Chrysanthemum tea
- Claypot rice
- Congee
- Conpoy (dried scallops)
- Crab rangoon
- Dan Dan noodles
- Dragonfruit
- Dragon’s Beard candy
- Dried cuttlefish
- Drunken chicken
- Dry-fried green beans
- Egg drop soup
- Egg rolls
- Egg tart, Cantonese or Macanese
- Fresh bamboo shoots
- Fortune cookies
- Fried milk
- Fried rice
- Gai lan (Chinese broccoli)
- General Tso’s Chicken
- Gobi Manchurian
- Goji berries (Chinese wolfberries)
- Grass jelly
- Hainan chicken rice
- Hand-pulled noodles
- Har gau (steamed shrimp dumplings in translucent wrappers)
- Haw flakes
- Hibiscus tea
- Hong Kong-style Milk Tea
- Hot and sour soup
- Hot Coca-Cola with Ginger
- Hot Pot
- Iron Goddess tea (Tieguanyin)
- Jellyfish
- Kosher Chinese food
- Kung Pao Chicken
- Lamb skewers (yangrou chua’r)
- Lion’s Head meatballs
- Lomo Saltado
- Longan fruit
- Lychee
- Macaroni in soup with Spam
- Malatang
- Mantou, especially if fried and dipped in sweetened condensed milk
- Mapo Tofu
- Mock meat
- Mooncake (bonus points for the snow-skin variety)
- Nor mai gai (chicken and sticky rice in lotus leaf)
- Pan-fried jiaozi
- Peking duck
- Pineapple bun
- Prawn crackers
- Pu’er tea
- Rambutan
- Red bean in dessert form
- Red bayberry
- Red cooked pork
- Roast pigeon
- Rose tea
- Roujiamo
- Scallion pancake
- Shaved ice dessert
- Sesame chicken
- Sichuan pepper in any dish
- Sichuan preserved vegetable (zhacai)
- Silken tofu
- Soy milk, freshly made
- Steamed egg custard
- Stinky tofu
- Sugar cane juice
- Sweet and sour pork, chicken, or shrimp
- Taro
- Tea eggs
- Tea-smoked duck
- Turnip cake (law bok gau)
- Twice-cooked pork
- Water chestnut cake (mati gau)
- Wonton noodle soup
- Wood ear
- Xiaolongbao (soup dumplings)
- Yuanyang (half coffee, half tea, Hong Kong style)
- Yunnan goat cheese
85/100. That’s a little more like it.