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.

Steamed Dumplings

As the New Empire is not large enough to push around large unwieldy dim sum carts you instead order off a menu similar to one you’d use when ordering sushi at a Japanese restaurant. Be sure to ask for the dim sum menu when your being seated. The menu is mostly made up of small items for $2.60 and medium items for $2.95. Don’t let the name fool you as the “small items” are anything but. The steamed dumplings come four to an order crammed full of pork, vegetables, and peanuts in a simple rice wrapper. The not so small steamed roast pork buns come three to an order, and are generously filled with BBQ pork. My absolute favorite small item are the turnip cakes, three large white gelatinous pan fried cakes filled with bits of daikon and sausage and served with thick sweet hoisin sauce.

Turnip Cakes

The majority of the medium items are shrimp dishes which explains the slightly higher cost. The shrimp har kau are shrimp steamed in a rice wrapper that are simple yet delicious. Be sure to ask for the roasted chili sauce which is the perfect accompaniment. The stuffed eggplant, green peppers, and mushrooms are all excellent as well. Three large pieces of the vegetable of your choice stuffed full of shrimp and drizzled with a light sauce. The noodle rolls are excellent as well and come with either beef, shrimp, or chicken, plated in a small pool of soy sauce. Another favorite of mine is the fried stuffed tofu, three blocks of tofu lightly fried stuffed with shrimp and served with hoisin sauce for dipping.

Shrimp Har Kau

If your feeling adventurous you can also try the surprisingly delicious curry baby cuttlefish, or the chicken feet which remind me of chicken wings with stranger bones, less meat, and more skin. There are also a couple large items available, the sticky rice wrap and turnip with beef tripe at $3.95 but I still have yet to try these. The New Empire also has a assortment of noodles dishes available for dim sum served family style which are also fantastic.

Taro Dumplings

If your looking to expand your Chinese food palette or just want to try some amazing food, I can’t recommend dim sum at New Empire highly enough.

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)

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

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:

• Grindhouse
• From Dusk Til Dawn
• Takoyaki explained.
• Sushi
• Derek schooling Aaron with his Green Lantern and DC comics knowledge.
• Crisis On Infinite Earths
• Hot Topic

• The Gamma Quadrant, a kick ass Star Trek DS9 Podcast.
• Chicago, IL.
• Mitsuwa Marketplace
• FOOD.
• Sushi Station
• Pan handlers and the rabid homeless.

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)

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!

]]> http://schnuth.com/2009/09/14/shiny/feed/ 5 schnuth The Bean http://schnuth.com/2009/09/03/wireless-video-game-controllers-ftw/ http://schnuth.com/2009/09/03/wireless-video-game-controllers-ftw/#comments Thu, 03 Sep 2009 20:31:17 +0000 schnuth http://schnuth.com/?p=426 ]]>

Super Nintendo vs. Super Famicom controller cord lengths

You know what my favorite thing is about modern video game systems?  Sure the graphics are awesome and I love the internet integration, but those are trumped by one simple thing:  wireless controllers.  I love the fact that I can sit wherever I want and even play from the bathroom with my Xbox 360 controller.  The way I’ve always had my living/game room set up, controller cords were just a bit too short and an extension cord was purchased on the same day I bought a new console.

But as bad as we had it, the Japanese had it far worse.  The standard length of a controller cord in the US is 6 feet, where it’s only 3 feet in Japan.  Of course the reason is obvious.  The Japanese have far smaller homes and far less space then we do here in the US.  But it’s pretty shocking to see in person, especially when your trying to play your newly imported Japanese video game system for the first time.  On my first trip to Tokyo my main video game purchase was a Nintendo Famicom with Disk System.  Upon shopping for one I decided on a Sharp Twin Famicom, since I have a soft spot for all in one combo systems.  It didn’t occur to me until I got home that the controller cords were hard wired into the console.

This made for an interesting setup.  Since the cords were so short I couldn’t have the Twin Famicom live in my entertainment system (along with my standard def TV) and still sit at a comfortable distance.  So I had to drag the system next to the couch and play that way.  I’ve since gotten a AV Famicom which uses standard Nintendo controllers solving that problem.  It makes me wonder though, did Japanese mothers yell at their children to sit back from the TV too?

On this installment of the Schnuthcast we headed out into the Toledo wilderness to see Hayao Miyazaki’s newest film Ponyo.  Did we love or hate it?  Listen in to find out!  Besides Ponyo we also talk about a variety of other things:

• Zune podcast directory difficulties.
• Our love of Quentin Tarantino.
• Douchbag Christians at the International Festival.
• Weird ass Ohio weather.
• Aaron’s fascination with learning how to cook takoyaki.
• Green Lantern
• Ender’s Game
• … and of course, Ponyo!

Music Featured in this episode:

• Puyo Puyo Sun opening theme
• The Ponyo song

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 006 (55.9 MB, 1:21:23)

Welcome back for another episode of the Schnuthcast!  Besides our usual banter we talk about some of our favorite podcasts.  A question we get quite a lot is what podcasts we listen to, so this episode should give you a better idea of what we’re listening to these days.  Brace yourself for shownote goodness:

• Aaron got a bike.
• Church camp hanky-panky.
• Outrunning bullies on 10 speeds.
• Aaron has too much stuff!  Time to make some room.
• SwapADVD.com, PaperBackSwap.com (Aaron’s blog post about PBS)
• Supercommuter – 8-bit electronic nerdcore hip-hop!
• The days of using money orders on eBay sucked.
• The music industry has it’s head up it’s ass.
• Video game rock: The Minibosses, Entertainment System
• Crayon Physics Deluxe for iPhone
• Stair Dismount: a fun and twisted physics game.
• Library book sales rule.
• Sesame Street
• Jadin left an iTunes review, shouldn’t you?
• The Schnuthcast: less popular then bears, slightly more popular then furries.
• Anime Full Circle: Andrew’s anime blog.
• Podcast novel roundup: Scott Sigler, Tee Morris, Mark Jeffrey, Mur Lafferty.
• Pros and cons of podcast monitation.
• Motivation To Move
• Non Prophets
• Atheist Experience
• Infidel Guy
• Chariots Of Iron
• The Accidental Terrorist – William Shunn’s excellent Mormon memoir.
• Twinkie Beyond
• The Apocalypse Dowell Show
• Distorted View Daily

• You Can’t Do That On Television
• Reasonable Diet 6 Minutes Of Sanity
• Off The Hook & Off The Wall
• Anime World Order
• Happy House Of Hentai
• Fast Karate For The Gentlemen
• Retronauts
• 11 O’clock Comics
• RIP Wicked Pissa Podcast
• Podiobooks.com – free audio books galore!

Music Featured in this episode:

• The Dudes In The Car by Vincent Van Go-Go
• 10th Generation by Supercommuter

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 005

Diana has been posting a different photograph every Thursday this year over on her blog, so I decided to join in these past couple weeks.  Here’s a photo of some folks rocking a mikoshi at the Sanja Matsuri in Asakusa, Tokyo on May 16, 2009.  I thought this turned out pretty good for being taken with my iPhone.

]]> http://schnuth.com/2009/07/30/rocking-the-mikoshi/feed/ 0 schnuth Sanja Matsuri 2009 http://schnuth.com/2009/07/29/schnuthcast-episode-4-another-quality-schnuthcast/ http://schnuth.com/2009/07/29/schnuthcast-episode-4-another-quality-schnuthcast/#comments Wed, 29 Jul 2009 04:50:07 +0000 schnuth http://schnuth.com/?p=392 ]]>

Welcome back for another quality Schnuthcast!  We’re a little late on this episode, but we’re sure this show will more then make up for it.  In this episode of the Schnuthcast we discuss the important issues of our time, including:

• Why the late podcast?
• Peggle
• Should I jailbreak my iPhone?
• Spore
• Diana the camera and photography otaku.
• The Holga, Lomo, and Diana’s other fun and interesting cameras.
• Diana’s Flickr.
• Amazon sellers suck.
• The Collected Comics Library Podcast.
• Reliving the 90s through Valiant Comics: Harbinger, X-O Manowar, Solar Man Of The Atom.
• ValiantFans.com
• Only The Valiant Podcast
• Movie Genie: a great IMDB app for iPhone.
• iScrobbler: a Last.FM app for iPhone
• HundredPushups.com
• The new Clutch album, Strange Cousins From The West, kicks much ass.

• The Gamma Quadrant Podcast: The best Star Trek Deep Space Nine podcast ever!
• Seth sent me a bunch of old awesome video games.  Thanks!
• Praising God on your Nintendo with Wisdom Tree games.
• Grubzillaman left us a iTunes review.  Shouldn’t you?
• Patty & Mike have questions about Japan.  We have answers.
• Akihabara channel has a awesome online Akihabara map.
• Using your iPhone in Japan.
• Our Google Map for our last trip to Tokyo.
• Using your custom Google maps on iPhone.
• Adam Savage of the Mythbusters got billed $11,000 for data roaming in Canada.
• Tadashi the insane tour bus guide.
• COSPA: The cool store I bought anime t-shirts from in Akiba, but neglected to same it’s name on the podcast.
• Oppai mouse pads.

Music Featured in this episode:

• The Dudes In The Car by Vincent Van Go-Go

Be sure to leave a comment, send an e-mail, or call our voicemail line at 206-350-2102.  Thanks for listening!

Schnuthcast Epsiode 004