Do you ever find yourself with leftover white rice from your Chinese takeout? Stop! Don't throw that stuff away! If you keep a well-stocked pantry, you can make delicious fried rice the next day with only a few extra ingredients from the grocery store.

It's actually best to make fried rice with day-old rice, because it's easier to get it crispy if the grains are a little dried out. You can even freeze leftover rice if you want to use it later than a day or two after it's been cooked.

And if you like Asian fare, soy sauce and dark sesame oil should be staples in your pantry. Sesame oil has such an incredible flavor, and you only need a very small amount because it's so intense.

The day after bringing home and devouring some takeout from South Charleston's Taste of Asia (man, they've got good spring rolls), I assembled these ingredients:

I had everything pictured there on hand, except the ginger root and the frozen shrimp. (Turn up your nose at frozen shrimp? Guess what? The shrimp you get "fresh" at the fish market has been frozen, too. If you hadn't noticed, we're landlocked.) I chose to make shrimp fried rice, but you can make it vegetarian or with other meats like chicken, beef, pork, or I suppose even mallard, if you can get your hands on one. (I kid.)

Here's a pretty good basic recipe from Sara Moulton for fried rice that can easily be tweaked to your liking. Obviously, other meats would take longer to cook than shrimp. I cut down on the amount of peas and added carrots, and I'm sure you can think of other veggies you might want to throw in there. Once you've made this dish a few times, you won't really need a recipe. That's the beauty of fried rice - just throw in whatever you have lying around, top it off with a little more soy sauce and a few drops of sesame oil, garnish with chopped green onions and cilantro, and voila! Behold the beauty of leftovers, taken to a new level:

Every Sunday night since the new season of The Sopranos started, I've enjoyed a different home-cooked Italian meal. (Well, except for that one lazy Sunday when we just ordered pizza.) This week it was linguine with pesto, which I made after noticing the inordinate amount of basil in the fridge that would inevitably go bad if something wasn't done with it soon.

On this week's episode, Artie Bucco's restaurant, Vesuvio, was hitting hard times due to new competition and some in-house credit card scamming. Artie scoffed at the suggestion from Tony that he start offering 2-for-1 dinners, but ended up having to do it in the end.

Let's hope there's no credit card fraud going on at Gratzi (and that nobody's giving the chef third degree burns by plunging his hand into the marinara). They've now started offering an Early Fare Menu from 4-6 p.m., if you feel like dining that early. I've personally only been there once, back when they first opened, but our very own Doug Imbrogno, whose Italian father stewed his sauce for three days, praises their chunky tomato sauce and calls Gratzi his "favorite Charleston restaurant of the moment."

By Josh Saul

When the Chop House opened in late 2001 it became something of a small legend. Rumors of so-called "à la carte" dining and triple-digit checks spread across the Valley like black slurry from a breached strip mine pond.

TGI McFunster's, the Chop House is not.

There are no deep-fried potato bacon bombs for you to split with the kids. If you want asparagus with your steak, you'll have to order it separately - they'll bring you more than enough to share, though. Your steak will not have spent the past few days soaking in a vat of MSG. And your server will most certainly know what she is doing. But behind the faux woodgrain, leather and warm mood lighting lies the worst kept secret in town: the Chop House is ridiculously overpriced.

To clearly understand exactly what the Chop House is going for, you need look no further than the market-researched text from the website, which boasts of "Cognac, Single Malt Scotch, Fine Hand Rolled Cigars and more, all served with distinctive style in a strong, luxurious setting of comfortable leather and beautiful wood." If you still don't get it, just take a look at the anatomically correct bull logo. Yes folks, the Chop House is designed to be a place for business men. And on any given night, that's who you'll see there--doctors, pharmaceutical reps and insurance agents living it up on company expense accounts.

Now, I'm about the last person you'll hear complain about a good meal being too expensive. But if you can find me a more egregiously overpriced steak anywhere in America, I'd like to know about it. You see, $40 isn't just a lot to pay for a steak in Charleston. It's a lot to pay for a steak anywhere, period. But if it's going on the expense account then who cares, right?

For comparison's sake, dinner for 2 at the Chop House can run you about $150. Dinner for 2 at Peter Luger's Steak House in Brooklyn (which is widely regarded as the best steak house on Earth) may end up costing you a little more than half that. In New York City. And the steak at Peter Luger is actually dry aged, as opposed to the dubious "wet aging" the Chop house boasts of. (Did they not think I would know the difference?) To be fair though, the Chop House and Peter Luger are definitely not going for the same thing as far as elegance and ambiance goes - but all the "comfortable leather and beautiful wood" in the world won't change how your food tastes.

So let's talk about the food. First, I had chilled oysters on the half-shell. They were good, but not great. I've had much better at the Bridge Road Bistro and Fuji's. And what did they expect me to do with that enormous vat of cocktail sauce? Drown a toddler in it? But they were $9.95 - not bad. (As you'll see, the steak is where they get you.)

Next came the house salad in Creamy Garlic Dressing ($4.95). This was the most disappointing part of the meal. It was obscenely overdressed and the greens were soggy. This is a simple and inexcusable mistake. Seriously, does the pile of pale green matter in the picture look appetizing to you? (The tomatoes were great though, which leads me to believe that the better salad choice would have been the beefsteak tomato, sweet onion, and Roquefort cheese.)

My sides were Garlic Smashed Potatoes ($5.95) and Sautéed Wild Mushrooms ($7.95). As you can see, they're served family style, so there's more than enough to feed two hungry people. The mushrooms were especially impressive, coated in a beef stock reduction. The potatoes were fluffy, creamy and not at all gluey. Both went very well with my steak - a New York Strip cooked medium rare ($39.95).

Though the ribeye is typically my favorite steak on the cow, I went for the strip because restaurants like the Chop House tend to have access to much better beef than us civilians do. Such was the case this night--my steak was really great. Sublime, even. It had a nice brown crust on the outside, and even sported those little lines that make people think "oooh, grilled food!" Steak like this needs no adornment, and Chop House gives you none, save a lonely sprig of greens on the side. Perfect. But as I looked down at my 40 dollar steak, swimming all alone in that glorious artery clogging fat, I couldn't help but think about all the other great meals I have purchased for significantly less.


---
IF YOU GO: The Chop House, 1003 Charleston Town Center (facing the Charleston Civic Center)
Call: 344-3954. Reservations: 888-456-DINE.
HOURS: 5 to 10 p.m., Monday to Thursday; 5 to 11 p.m., Friday and Saturday; 5 to 9 p.m., Sunday.
MENU: Click on menu icon here.
EXTRAS: Valet parking available (whatdya' expect?)

"There's a Blog in My Soup" is the latest addition to the ongoing renovation projects underway in the gazz blogosphere. This food-oriented blog will focus on adventures in eating in Charleston and across West Virginia. It will include accounts of area restaurant outings, food stream-of-consciousness posts (what IS in Brett Benjamin's shopping cart), investigative reports on the varieties of bar peanut and pretzel mixes, how to make a margarita worthy of the Virgin Mary, and, really, anything having to do with putting things between your lips that is not porn-related to borrow a line from our other new blog, DowntownWV, by Walker DeVille, who has some other pointers for oral fun).

"Blog in My Soup" is written by two Charleston area residents. The capsule bios, please:

JOSH SAUL: Lover of sushi and a sucker for pizza in all its forms, Josh Saul avoids terms like "gourmand" or "foodie," and instead thinks of himself more as a "roving belly." A modestly accomplished artist and art educator, Josh also enjoys playing guitar and sticking it to the man--when he's not on his way to the fridge, that is. He is a much better cook than you are.

JENNIFER HUGHES: During those particularly stressful moments in law school, Jennifer Hughes fantasized about switching gears and going to culinary school instead. Now, she's content to just play chef in her own kitchen. She loves dining out and isn't afraid to be adventurous (her most exotic food experience was eating cobra in Indonesia). But if she had to choose a last meal, it would probably just be a cheeseburger and french fries.

Spotted next to the tomatoes in the produce section of Kroger, the newest member of the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia had in his buggy a two-liter bottle of Big K Diet Cherry Cola, about eight packages of split chicken breasts, and a loaf of sliced Jewish rye bread. So now you know the answer to that eternal question, WWBBE? (What would Brent Benjamin eat?)

I think store bought salad dressing is an abomination. I think Paul Westerberg is one of the most underrated musicians of the latter part of the 20th century. And I think duck is superior to chicken in every way.

Even so, duck can be hard to come by. It does take some knowledge to prepare home. Ducks float, so you've got all that subcutaneous fat to render off. Ducks fly, so their meat is darker and more flavorful. (West Virginia's game hunters should be OK with that, right?) And one whole duck usually feeds just a couple of people.

But it's worth the work. Because of the extra fat, duck skin will crisp up almost like bacon when properly seared. That's right, hippies, we leave the skin on. And all that extra fat left in the pan? Hopefully, you have enough sense to saute some Swiss chard or spinach in that. Or--if you've never had potatoes and ramps fried in duck fat, then you have truly missed out on one of life's great pleasures.

Duck is not easy to find in restaurants around here either--even in restaurants with duck on the menu. I'm talking about you, Thai House in Dunbar. The last 2 times I've been there I ordered duck--only to be told "no duck." No duck? Why?

I was naturally excited last weekend when they finally did have duck. Instead of my normal Gang Dang Ped (which is fried duck in a coconut curry sauce), I went for the Basil Duck. Basil Duck, it turns out, is served with the same brown sauce as the Pad Kee Mao. It tasted great, but it could have used a side of rice to soak up some of the wonderful sauce. But at last, I had my duck.

-- Josh

I checked out the Power Alley Grill the other night, right before opening day at Appalachian Power Park. My first impression upon entering the place: the food would have to really suck for this to be a bad dining experience. It's a hell of a nice room. Think of a three way between Soho's, The Bridge Road Bistro and a sports bar--but a clean sports bar. The kind of sports bar Bill Sohovich and Robert Wong would want to have a three way with. If they're into that.

Televisions were everywhere, but there's something about baseball that makes for a more upscale feel. As you walk through the front door, you can see the open kitchen across the room. (Chef Wong must be fond of the open kitchen.) To the left there's a full bar, and to the right is the baseball field, with a good view of the scoreboard. And there's also outdoor seating! (Seriously people, what is up with Charleston's utter drought of outdoor seating?) As I said, even if the food was terrible, this would still be one of the coolest places around to sit and drink beer.

But the food was really, really great. A proper review will come later--all I had was wings and a burger. But seriously dude, look at this burger:

Ground beef, bacon and cheese speak for themselves. Along with sandwiches and bar food fare, there are some nice looking entrees as well. I cannot wait to try the other stuff--but right now, I can't stop thinking about that burger.

-- Josh

I have a habit of ordering the same thing every time I go to a particular restaurant. Why mess with a good thing, right? When I find a dish that I love, I'm sometimes reluctant to order anything else for fear that it might not be as good.

Almost every time I have eaten at the Thai House in Dunbar, I have ordered Pad Kee Mao. I just discovered (through the miracle of Google) that the name of this dish means "drunkard's noodles," so I guess I shouldn't be surprised that it's my favorite. The brown sauce covering the broad noodles and mushrooms, peppers, tomatoes, basil, and onions is to die for. It really is hard for me to order anything else.

But just recently, I finally decided to try the Pad Thai. To me, Pad Thai is the quintessential Thai dish. Just look at that photo - doesn't it look luscious? In fact, it looked so good that when I was leaving the restaurant, a woman came up to me and asked me what I had ordered. After I told her, she then asked if she could take a peek at my leftovers! A strange request, but I obliged. I hope she liked it as much as I did. The Thai House's Pad Kee Mao may be to die for, but the Pad Thai is to live for. (Oh, and I have it on good authority that even kids like it.)

-- Jennifer

I was once describing to a friend this fabulous Thai chicken pizza I had eaten (sorry - not available around here), and he got a skeptical look on his face and said: "Gourmet pizza is an oxymoron." By "gourmet" he meant pizza with the kinds of toppings you won't find at Pizza Hut. I'm kind of a foodie myself, so I'm open to trying pretty much anything on a pizza, but I understand where he was coming from. Sometimes you just want the basics.

That's the mood Josh and I were in the last time we went to Lola's, the recently opened restaurant on Bridge Road in the South Hills. After having tried the portabello pesto pizza and creating our own concoctions involving roasted red peppers, carmelized onions, roasted garlic, and other yummy morsels during previous visits, we opted to order a plain old pepperoni pie. It was fantastic.

Pizza is such a simple food, but it's so hard to get just right. The plain pepperoni pizza highlighted how great the sauce and crust are at this quaint little pizza joint. The sauce is bare bones - tomatoes, minced onions, garlic, and a bit of basil. It tastes so fresh that I wonder where she's getting such good tomatoes out of season. (Are they canned?) The crust is perfect - crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside.

Needless to say, we ate the whole thing (and polished off that bottle of Six Hands).

IF YOU GO: Lola's is at 1038 Bridge Rd. Hours are 4 to 9 p.m. Tuesdays to Thursday; 4 to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. They do not take reservations. Call 343-5652.

I've always been puzzled by Charleston's lack of a truly great pizza place. Graziano's makes a pretty good stab at New York style pie, but you could still take any random corner pizza joint out of New York City, transplant it on Capitol Street and have the best pizza in a 150-mile radius of Charleston. Well, sorta...

Now there's Lola's on Bridge Road. After three visits, I can comfortably say that Lola's is one of the very best restaurants in town. And I'll confess that on some level the class warrior in me didn't want to like this place. It's not everywhere in Charleston that you'll almost always park your car between a Lexus and a Mercedes, but this is one of them. But hey, you'll get to listen in on details of European vacations, cabins at Snoeshoe and fine leather handbags.

To be continued...

-- Josh