October 28, 2009

New Empire Restaurant: Dim Sum in Toledo

New Empire Restaurant

For most Americans when we think of Chinese food we envision endless buffets heaped with piles of sweet and sour shrimp, General Tso’s chicken, and deep fried egg rolls. This is especially true for those of us living in the Midwest where if we’re not eating at buffets it’s from microwaved cans of La Choy. For years this was the attitude I had about Chinese cuisine until visiting Chinatown in Honolulu two years ago.

On this fateful trip we ate at a restaurant serving dim sum, a traditional Cantonese brunch time meal. Dim Sum consists of several small Chinese dishes brought to you by waitresses pushing metal carts. These are piled high with steamer trays full of small and delicious dishes that you wash down with hot tea. This way you can order a variety of different dishes and everyone gets to have a little of each. While our dim sum cherries were popped by a rather brusk and anti-tourist waitress in Honolulu, it wet our appetite for more. At first we were convinced that there couldn’t be anywhere in Toledo serving dim sum, and were surprised when we discovered there is one restaurant that does.

Situated in the Spring Meadows Shopping Center in Holland, OH, the New Empire Restaurant continues the proud midwest tradition that amazing food can come from strip malls if you know where to look. While they have all the deep fried and sauce heavy dishes that us midwesterners come to expect from Chinese food (as well as hamburgers and fries for the truly unadventurous), they also serve dim sum daily from 11am until 4pm.

Keep reading →

October 22, 2009

Schnuthcast Episode 8: Comic Books, Video Games, & Godless Heathens

Wii Fit with Aaron

On this exciting episode of the Schnuthcast, Aaron & Diana talk about:

  • Neil Gaiman
  • Diana’s old blog posts
  • Flickr porn
  • Our Prius test drive
  • Gamefly: Halo 3 ODST, X-Men Origins: Wolverine
  • Astonishing X-Men Omnibus
  • Wii Fit Plus
  • Toledo Atheist Meetup: Take 2
  • Manhattan’s brunch =meh.
  • RIP Captain Lou Albano
  • WordPress.com sucks for hosting podcasts, but the blogging tools kick Libsyn’s ass.  Can we successfully smash the two together?

Let us know how you like the podcast by leaving a comment, sending an e-mail, or calling our voicemail line at 206-350-2102.  Thanks a lot for listening!

Schnuthcast Episode 008 (40.2MB, 58:25)

October 11, 2009

An Evening With Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman in Toledo

I first got into Neil Gaiman’s writing back in high school through the comic book Sandman and have been following his work ever since.  I don’t exactly keep up with what is going on in the world, let alone Toledo, so I was extremely excited when my friend Greg told me about Neil coming to town as part of the library’s Authors! Authors! talking series.  There have only been a couple authors I would have loved to see as part of this series in the past, but missed out because I didn’t know about it until after the event.  So thanks to Greg I knew about this one ahead of time for a change.

Most people probably grab their camera when going to an event like this, but I brought along my iRiver and Giant Squid Mics.  Sometimes my recordings turn out great, and sometimes they turn out terrible.  This one surprised me by turning out pretty decent so I figured I’d share it here on my blog.  There were signs forbidding photography and video, but not audio recording.  So hopefully I won’t get any nasty cease and desist letters from anyone involved.  He reads a bit from his Newbery Award winning novel The Graveyard Book, and answers questions from the audience.

Recorded live at the Stranahan Theater in Toledo, OH on October 5th, 2009 as part of the Toledo Lucas County Public Library’s Authors! Authors! series of talks.  Enjoy an evening with Neil Gaiman.

MP3 Direct Download – 1:18:03, 53.6MB, 96 kbps MP3

September 22, 2009

Schnuthcast Episode 7: E-mail & Chicago Fun

Diana & Chicago Deepdish Pizza

Since we finally got over being sick and got our voices back, we felt it was only appropriate to record another Schnuthcast.  In this exciting episode we answer some listener e-mail and talk about our Labor Day weekend trip to Chicago. If you download this MP3 file to your computer or other compatible device you’ll hear about:

Music Featured in this episode:

  • One Night In NEO KOBE CITY by Kazuo Hashi

Let us know how you like the podcast by leaving a comment, sending an e-mail, or calling our voicemail line at 206-350-2102.  Thanks a lot for listening!

Schnuthcast Episode 007 (42.3MB, 1:01:34)

September 14, 2009

Shiny!

The Bean

It’s been dead around here, so how about another random photo post?  Diana and I went to Chicago over Labor Day weekend and did the tourist thing.  Tourists do such things as take pictures of the Cloud Gate sculpture (aka, The Bean) in Millennium Park.  You can see tons of pictures of this thing online so I wasn’t expecting much, but seeing it in person was actually pretty cool.  Plus it’s fun watching all the other people acting like dorks in front of it too.  Click to enlarge the photo if you want to find us in it’s reflection.

Because of our trip to Chicago and the cold we both got afterward, there will unfortunately not be a Schnuthcast again this week.  We’re both feeling much better but are still recovering from this bitch of a cold.  There will definitely be a new episode next week though!