The anise-looking seed in rye bread is caraway. Anise, licorice, and fennel can be hard to distinguish, but at least to me caraway has quite a different aroma and flavor.
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I canāt stand black licorice either, but conversely LOVE italian sausage with fennel, esp on a good pizza.
I also ask for extra cilantro on thai food, so many consider me irretrievably broken.
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it seems to me (as a Ktown resident) that many Koreans are Christianā¦ā¦.Iāve gone out for Thai food and a movie on Christmas several times (Thai town is pretty close followed by the arclight)
True. For some reason, I was under the impression that the restaurants had similar holiday hrs to Chinese places (a decent of Chinese people are Christian), too. I could be totally wrong, though. Have you noticed that most K-town places tend to be closed on Christmas?
This would acutally make for a fascinating article (intersection of business, food, cultural identity, and religion).
Thatās the best idea Iāve heard in a long time! Now to see if Torihei is open on Xmasā¦
Is that a Smokeās Poutinery logo as your avatar? And is that from knowledge via the LA branch or are you Canuck-ian?
Yes it is, I own the Hollywood store.
Iāll have to pay closer attention this year, but I seem to recall many restaurants and retail businesses closed, but small corner markets, bars and liquor stores open.
Same here! I was at Full of Life and Plenty on Bell in Los Alamos during my last road trip and they served Italian sausage that they advertised as having fennel, so I worried that the flavor might be overwhelming, so they gave me a sample at Full of Life and it was tasty! But fennel alone on a plate I avoid.
Whatās wrong with extra cilantro? I consider cilantro, with other things like lemon grass, one of the great scents!
To me? not a thing. Some people are actually genetically predisposed to hate it. Thereās some chemical in it that, if you have some gene or other, makes cilantro taste like soap. So ANY amount of it can make a dish seem inedible to someone like that.
But a lot of others simply just hate it, the way some people hate asparagus (Iām in that category. Ugh. No.)
But hey, thatās their thing. More for me! Something about spicy sauce plus that fresh, green weird zing cilantro has makes me incredibly happy. Hence my love of street tacos and thai chicken wings.
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You can grow out of the cilantro sensitivity. Itās documented. Personally, I couldnāt abide the flavor until I magically turned 30.
Really? i totally believe you but Iāve never heard that it was possible to grow out of it. Did it ACTUALLY have that soap taste that the genetically unlucky report? And then it stopped tasting like that? Or was the flavor you experience unchanged, and you simply grew to enjoy it (like coffee, or wine or spicy foods)?
biology is WEIRD.
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I donāt know if I considered it a āsoapyā taste, which term is oft-repeated in media, but it was definitely repugnant to me, and I could pick up the smell and taste even when it was just a little garnish sprinkle on soup, or in a salsa.
Then one day I realized it didnāt bother me anymore. We were at a Thai restaurant and I was able to eat the soup, even though I forgot to say āNo cilantro, pleaseā.
I didnāt grow to like it, because I never ate it.
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Iāve now gotten to the point I can tolerate it in small quantities in salsa or in a cooked dished balanced with other herbs. But still canāt handle it if a dish or a taco is smothered in fresh cilantro.
This! The taste just bothered me so much even in small quantities.
But you know, I can eat and handle just about anything else, textures, etc, lucky not to have any food allergies (knock on wood). So really itās a small price to pay to be able go food exploring fearlessly and not worry about running into something that would really affect me.
The L.A. Times had an interview with Norm Langer, talking about the history and his life growing up in his dadās restaurant. But one interesting point came out of the interview:
[L.A. Times]: āAbout 15 years ago, per his wifeās suggestion, he started selling salads. More recently, Langerās began selling pastrami chili cheese fries after a customer request ā a new item Langer said is the biggest change he has made.ā
@wienermobile come clean. That was you, wasnāt it? 
(You and your delicious photos of the Langerās Pastrami on Fries with Chili you keep posting every month.)
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Langerās is such a friggin gem.
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I grew out of my aversion to cilantro at about 16. My older brother, a cook, loved it and told me to keep trying. Magically it disappeared one day very suddenly [not gradually] and I became a avid fan.
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Wish I could take the credit but canāt. I was the one that came up with the #19 milkshake and you can guess how well that wentā¦
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Your milkshakes make all the boys flee from the yard, flee from the yard, flee from the yardā¦
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@matthewkang on IG says his favorite sandwich at Langers is pastrami on rye with tomato and cream cheese. Anybody ever order this? Iām not sure how I see these things combining.