NFL Week 2: Yunnan Cuisine

Spent most of the morning trying to upload those videos for the post below. It takes a while - I don't know what it is, but I can only uploade one at a time, then I have to restart the computer....painful.

As I said in the post, we really didn't know what to expect from the food last night at the Yunnan restaurant. It turned out that this was close to what people think of as Chinese food - without the rice!
Here is a picture of the dishes we ordered - I will try to explain each dish, starting with the black dish in the 9'oclock position, going clockwise:

- Black "fungus" with vegetables; the local mushroom, served with other local veggies. The mushroom was ribbon like and very floppy - and tasted just fine.

- Pork and pepper mixture, served with the lettuce you see in the middle. Very close to the "Lettuce wraps" you get at PF Chang.

- Chicken with the local mushrooms. Sense a trend here - what the local dish is? Strips of pork stir fried with the local mushroom. Very good!

- Lotus root in sauce. I'm not a big lotus fan, but it was ok, as it stayed crunchy in the sauce

- Spicy hot eggplant (in the hot pot). By far the spiciest dish on the table, the dish came out boiliing was a  stew of primarily eggplant and peppers. Once the temperature of the dish came down, we tried it - it was just about on the edge of my tolerance for spiciness.

- "Shredded pumpkin". That was the translation, but it was clearly not pumpkin. More like a squash/zucchini sort of thing; shredded and lightly sauced.

- Fried noodles. Simple and just a bit flavored - for Martin and Frankie

- Carrots with pork; the dish was 90% shredded carrots and 10% pork. I loved this dish the best, no extra frills in there with unneeded flavors. Just carrots and pork, with some brown sauce on it. Wonderful.

- Steamed buns with pork filling. Exactly what you would expect.

The grand total for these dishes, plus the tea and the 4 (1/2 liter) bottles of beer? 330 RMB - about 50 dollars - for all of us.

This dinner reminds me (hopefully) of this week for the Browns. I am expecting the worst - going out to an unknown Chinese restaurant with a 4 year old and a 21 month old toddler could be disaster. A disaster like Brandon Weeden's 5.4 QB rating.
However, it was surprising and exceeded my (admittedly low) expectations. A diamond in the rough. That's about what I can hope for with the Browns this week. We all know the expectations - Weeden's a bust, Richardson can't run behind the line, Haden is out now, so teh D will suffer..... let's rise above all that and shock the world.

Let's put a little carrot and pork dish on the table on Sunday afternoon. Cmon Weeded - you are better than what you showed in week 1.
(and if he isn't, just please, have the dignity not to rub it into my face).

Onto the games.

NYG 23, TB 13. I see Tampa as a team that will consistenly score 10-17 points and use their D to win; I see the Giants as just desperate enough to score in the mid 20s.

NE 30, Az 20. Classic back-door cover. NE will be up 20 most of this game.

Ind 23, Min 17. Indy's front 7 is good and should shut down Peterson. I'll take my chances with Luck at home vs. Ponder on the road.

NO 27, Car 20. Yes, yes, I know I am falling for this one. I don't believe in the Panthers.

KC 20, Buf 17. I believe that the Chiefs can move the ball and score; I don't think the Bills can. (until next week? -ed).

Phi 30, Bal 24. Baltimore coming off an emotional game (gack) and everyone is rating the Eagles too low.

Mia 20, Oak 16. A team coming off a late late Monday game flying to Miami for a Sunday 1 pm Eastern game? Yes, please.

Hou 27, Jax 17. I just can't see the Jags scoring more than 17 against the Texans' good D.

Sea 27, Dal 24. How many times does it happen in a year when a supposedly good team heads to Seattle and loses? Remember Baltimore last year?

Was 23, StL 21. I'll wait to jump on the RG3 bandwagon for a bit......

Pit 27, NYJ 13. Let's not forgot that the Jets still hav trouble scoring. I think LeBeau will have something cooked up for the Jets and Sanchez.

Ten 24, SD 19. The Titans did not look bad against the Pats last week, and I'm not sure about San Diego. Aren't they one-dimensional?

SF 31, Det 20. The new and improved SF pass offense vs. the weak Detroit secondary.

Atl 28, Den 27. Should be close and exciting the whole way.

Best bets: 16 of them. Last week: 10-4-1

NYG -7
TB/NYG under 43 1/2
Az +13 1/2
Ind +3
NO -2 1/2
KC +3
KC/Buf under 44 1/2
Phi -2 1/2
Bal/Phi over 46
Mia +2 1/2
Hou -7
Sea +3
Dal/Sea over 42 1/2
Pit -5
Ten +6 1/2
SF -7

Supercontest update: 4-1 last week. I will try not to make any obvious typos this week, Wiz.

Ind +1
Phi -2.5
Sea +3
Pit -6
Ten +6