No More Roxolana for Me (yet again!)

***UPDATE: The owner of Roxolana emailed to apologize and said that my photo was set to be used on Yelp by mistake, and that he had uploaded it before the first incident. ***

Some of you may be familiar with the incident where Ukrainian restaurant, Roxolana, in Pasadena used my photo without permission or credit for their Groupon deal a while back. I asked Groupon to take the photo down, and emailed the owner which resulted in a ridiculous email exchange (documented below).

Well, I thought that was that. But NO! This morning a fellow blogger told me that she saw my photo used by Roxolana yet again, this time for their Yelp deal! Here's a screen capture of the deal page:

This was my photo on flickr, uploaded in July 2011

The photo on Yelp was apparently uploaded by an "Alex R." who has no review and 3 uploaded photos, all of which are of Roxolana. I mean, seriously, once was annoying enough, but to do it AGAIN??

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Pig: A Restaurant - A Foodie Parody

You know you love to make fun of people - foodies, bloggers, ourselves! Now there's a whole comedy show making fun of the restaurant world, which is playing at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in LA on Thursdays January 26 and February 2.

Pig: A Restaurant is written by Leila Cohan-Miccio. The premise is apparently the opening party for the "most pork-obsessed restaurant in Brooklyn" (I already know many people who can relate to that ...). I don't know my comedians/comedy writers, but I know Gothamist, Eater, Grubstreet, and Saveur have sang praises for it. And hey, it's only $5 to see the show! So why not, right?

Here are the deets:
http://losangeles.ucbtheatre.com/shows/view/2850
Tuesday Jan 26 and Feb 2, 8pm
$5
UCB Theatre
5919 Franklin Ave. Hollywood, CA 90028
(323) 908-8702

Durian, from Indonesia to Singapore

Among all the sticky fingers and durian burps came the anticipated question: Should we get another one?
Our tummies were full, we seemed to vacillate but we all knew the answer: Yes.

Fruits. They're what you grab at grocery stores and farmer's markets, to be eaten as snacks or accompaniments to your meal. Garnishes, palate cleansers. But not durian. In Singapore, durian sellers have set up tables and chairs. They will open the fruits up for you to enjoy right there and then.

This practice is spreading to part of Indonesia, too, like in Medan. I think this is partly for two reasons. One is that the stinky fruit is banned from public transportation like MTA and buses in Singapore, so it's harder to buy and take them home. Second, unlike berries that you'd eat as snacks, when you eat durian, you want to eat them.

You may think all durians are alike, but once you land in Singapore you'll realize you're wrong. There are as many varieties of durian as there are in the family of oranges/clementines/tangerines! One of the more popular is the butter durian (pictured above), smaller but sweeter than the durian monthong from Thailand. A box like the one above was S$10. The durian sellers can also tell you which ones are sweet vs "bitter" (they're not really bitter but has more of a subtle bitterness or more fermented taste underneath the sweetness). How? I have no idea until I eat them, but somehow they can. This isn't variety dependent but is a characteristic of each fruit.

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