Fall blues
My last two plant purchases about a month ago involved two asters, a Days Aster and a mum-like button-headed aster that I still haven’t identified (possibly an annual type). All three asters in the blue bed have subsequently dropped their blooms, and as of this week look very scraggly. I suspect lack of watering and poor soil may have killed the aster centered in the bed; meanwhile the Days aster has retained its green foliage, perhaps because it has remained in the shadow of the angelonias still blooming rampantly in the bed. I also had to trim back the Wood’s Blue aster next to the fence since most of its foliage browned, leaving behind basal leaves.
I must mention that the scabiosa are long gone, as well as the white plumbago that must have died during the summer drought. Any traces of the phlox and dianthus planted in this bed have also disappeared, as well as the catmint that were huge disappointments. The surviving inhabitants of the blue bed include the two Oertel yarrows, the 2 clusters of Serena Whites and Blues (still blooming heavily now in mid-November), 2 Oxalis triangularis which have endured all summer, the imperial dark blue plumbago and the Wood’s Blue aster.
I have contemplated moving the Felicia daisy from its plant stand to take up central residence in the bed. I’m also considering moving my Tropical Breeze purple/white verbena also to the same bed in hopes that it will survive through the cold months with some proper mulching.
I do miss putting bulbs into the ground this time of year; I dream of the early perennial bloomers such as muscari and irises and lately have been serious considering purchasing some bulbs to drop into the blue bed. The bed of course will need amending before I proceed with this plan…luckily, I have a large bag of Miracle-Gro garden soil just waiting to be used. As soon as the weather becomes a bit milder, I plan on taking a shovel to the bed and dig out some good spots.
Reminder to self: take plumbago cuttings, bring the Diana blueberry dianthus indoors.
Spicy lunching
Royal Sichuan
400 N Greenville Ave Ste 6
Richardson, TX 75081I’m a fan of Sichuan cooking, having spent many a hot, sweaty mealtime hanging out at the Sichuanese on Coit Rd and Little Sichuan on Legacy in Plano. When I heard of Royal Sichuan’s opening, it went on my list of places to try.
My man and I finally made our way across town to dine there for a late lunch. At 2pm on a Saturday the place still seemed busy, all booths were occupied, as we were led to our table. The dining room was narrow, but not cramped, appointed in soothing shades of sage and tan, decorated with calm landscapes and warm woodwork. The place was comfortable and inviting, and I saw myself coming back here for this reason alone.
Our hostesses (it seemed we were beset by two or three at them at once) took our order and we were left pondering the surprises that lay in store for us.
As a starter we tried Chung’s dumplings, which came out hot and steaming along with the lamb with cumin we ordered. As we dug into the dumplings, the eggplant in garlic sauce arrived, followed by the Chongqing chicken and steamed rice. Like most authentic places, pacing of the different courses is non-existent; for this visit, we were starved and weren’t in the mood to wait for the next course.
The dumplings were slippery yet tasty, though I expected more heat and sweetness from the chili oil they swam in. Lamb and cumin had the typical flavor I’ve come to expect of this dish, except Royal Sichuan’s version was heavily garnished with cilantro–which tamed the strong flavors. The eggplant provided a perfect counterpoint to the lamb, neutral and soothing to the palate. Being both garlic fans, my companion and I heartily approved of this dish. The chicken dish was our adventurous gamble; a fiery golden mound of battered chicken arrived at our table, smothered in red chilis and green onions. The chicken had a dry salty-peppery seasoning which supplied a different texture from our previous dishes. I also enjoyed the red chilis which lent a papery texture to the dish; though my man abstained from it for the very same reason. Of course it took only one bite of the tiny sichuan peppers (huajiao?) garnishing this dish to induce a mouth-tingling explosion that is hard to erase. But the Chongqing chicken was addicting, so we carefully picked out the pepper flowers as we snarfed down the rest of the dish.
We skipped soft drinks and went with water this round; luckily our servers were extremely attentive and refilled our glasses. The damage came to nearly $40 total, and for that price, the experience at Royal Sichuan was well worth it. We’ll visit again to sample more of their menu.
Rating by epicureasian: stars
Disabling revision history and other wp-config.php edits
Still trying to nail down the WordPress load hangs in Firefox…can’t seem to pin it down.
However I decided to clean up the back end database by deleting old post revisions and optimizing the table.
Using phpMyAdmin, I performed the following query:
delete from wp_posts where post_type=’revision’;
Then I disabled the option in wp-config.php by adding the following line:
define(‘WP_POST_REVISIONS’, false);
Lots of other nifty options to do with tweaking WordPress via wp-config.php can be found on the codex.
A slice of Philly in Carrollton, TX
Fred’s Downtown Philly
2521 N Josey Ln Ste 200
Carrollton, TX 75006
(972) 820-0882This is the newest westernmost location of Fred’s Downtown Philly in the Dallas area. I was excited to learn they opened shop in Carrollton, despite the flagging economy. That says something about the food here.
The proof is in the Philly. I partook of the #4, Extra Meat Cheesesteak in the 10″ form and discovered heaven. I also realized my eyes were too big for my stomach, after managing to down only 6″ of it. But, it was oh-SOOO-good. Now that Fred’s is closer to home, I’ll be visiting more often frequently to try out every cheesesteak variety on his menu, including some of his specials, like the Teriyaki and the Chipotle Cheesesteaks.
The short steaks start at $4.25, while the 10 inchers start at about $6. You have the option to modify any order with a choice of 16 extras, which includes 5 different peppers and 5 kinds of cheese. Fred’s also offers hoagies, wings, salads and burgers along with typical side items like fries and onion straws. The Hockey Pucks (jalapeno cheese rounds) are bite-sized discs of heat, which complemented my cheesesteak order. Everything is cooked to order, so you’re guaranteed a fresh-off-the-grill experience when you visit.
Fred’s newest store is sparsely decorated, with a TV decorating a non-descript corner of a very barebones back room. I expect to see more Philly memorabilia covering the walls soon, but as with all of Fred’s other locations, don’t expect white tablecloth and champagne glasses: it’s a hole-in-the-wall that serves up some great Philly cheesesteaks.
Rating by epicureasian: stars