The Queue: Fine dining with Wrathion

Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Anne Stickney (@Shadesogrey) is Wrathion's favorite rogue. Don't argue, he told me so.

I don't even have words to describe the above video. Just sit back, close your eyes and listen.

A lot of people asked:

Hey where is the latest WoW Insider Show?!?! (or something similar)

It's right here! Episode 300 and everything -- listen and enjoy.

silverwind asked:

When is the best time to sell and offload all your crafting mats of a expansion, specifically gems? I have played since vanilla but haven't found out yet if it's better to sell then right before a new expansion is released or after it is. Also would that change for MoP gems since they will always be needed for the panther mounts?

Generally speaking, the best time to unload a lot of gems is just after a patch is launched. Once 5.4 hits, people will begin decking themselves out in new gear from Siege of Orgrimmar -- that's when the gems will fly out of the AH. As far as the jewelcrafting mounts go, there may be a bit of a demand for the gems in the next expansion, but don't expect a lot of it -- the Mechahog from Wrath sold for a little while into Cataclysm, but then everyone promptly found more interesting things to spend their gold on. I imagine you could safely stockpile gems required for the mounts without too much worry, just for use down the road.

zengarzombolt11 asked:

Q for the Q: which non-legendary quest (still in-game ) you think is the least done by the players?

That's a really good question! I'm thinking it would probably be one of the Burning Crusade quests -- players tend to zip right through Outland as soon as they possibly can, and the quests aren't really locked in a progression path like the quests from Cataclysm. Let's pick a particularly obscure one: The Horrors of Pollution. Yes, it's Alliance-only, but it ticks off the main criteria behind that question: It's in a region that most players skip entirely in favor of moving on to Wrath content, and it's not available on the map because it's a quest that drops from a random mob. Lower-level random drop quests aren't usually done by players wanting to level quickly.

Neuromante asked:

Does anyone know what happens to the rare mobs in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms after patch 5.4 hits? Are Moldo, Sahn, Yorik, Urgolax and the rest still there, or should I hurry up and finish my Glorious! achievment before patch hits?

They should all still be around. They may be riddled with sha energy, however. But the Glorious! achievement hasn't been made a Feat of Strength, so it should still be possible to complete in 5.4.

Nocjin asked:

If pandaria has all these evil races like Yaungol, Mantid and Mogu, why have Sha only become a big problem since 'we' got there? Mantid are far more hateful, yaungol are more violent and mogu are extremely proud.

The Shado-Pan have had everything down like clockwork for thousands of years -- I'll be expanding on them as well as Taran Zhu in tomorrow's Know Your Lore. But it's safe to say that the mantid were on a very predictable gestational cycle -- they would spawn and swarm once every hundred years, so Pandaria was more than prepared to handle it. The yaungol, while brutes, weren't really in the habit of invading other areas of Pandaria. It was the intervention of the sha caused that mantid swarming cycle to begin early -- way earlier than the Shado-Pan were prepared for. Because of that, the yaungol started heading out of Townlong Steppes, which wasn't expected, either. The mogu were almost a non-entity -- they were present, but not at all a powerful force.

When we arrived, we brought with us an influx of negative emotion that Pandaria simply wasn't prepared for. It was the Alliance and Horde's extreme hatred for each other that just jump-started the sha into full power. Think of it kind of like a faucet dripping water. The pandaren and the Shado-Pan had, over ten thousand years, managed to regulate that water into a steady, predictable stream. We showed up and were so busy arguing with each other that we broke the faucet off entirely and now it's spewing water all over the house and the hardwood floors are totally wrecked, let me tell you.

stingjc asked:

Does time in WoW pass the same as time in the real world? I would think so with holidays and whatnot, but I'm still curious as to whether a year in game time is the same as a year for me?

Nope! Not at all. For the purpose of game mechanics and fun, the holidays line up with our own holidays, and day and night cycles line up with real-life time zones. But as far as the fantasy-world timeline goes, each expansion has only been a year long. Wrath may have been a two-year expansion in real time, but as far as the lore goes, we were in Northrend for a year. It's a little confusing, and probably best not to think about it.

@beam19 asked via Twitter:

Confused by the whole "there must always be a Lich King" .What keeps Bolvar from going power hungry and unleashing the scourge?

Consider the Lich King as a supremely evil machine that controls a massive army of flesh-eating zombies. If the machine suddenly stops working, there is absolutely nothing stopping that massive army of flesh-eating zombies from quickly over-running the planet and destroying all life as we know it. As far as Bolvar goes, he took the helm willingly because he'd spent most of Wrath as a charred, disfigured husk of the hero he once was -- but he spent all those months being tortured by the Lich King and completely resisting his power. His will was stronger than the Lich King's will. Presumably, that strength of will is going to hold out and he'll keep the Scourge in check up in Northrend -- but we'll see how long that really lasts.

Have questions about the World of Warcraft? The WoW Insider crew is here with The Queue, our daily Q&A column. Leave your questions in the comments, and we'll do our best to answer 'em! Tags: featured, guide, qa, question-and-answer, wow-answers, wow-daily-answers, wow-daily-questions, wow-guide, wow-player-questions, wow-q-and-a, wow-questions

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Tasty Dining – Wuhan Dry Hot Pot

Restaurant: Tasty Dining

Location: 301 W Valley Blvd, Ste 101. San Gabriel, CA 91776

Date: February 10, 2013

Cuisine: Wuhan Chinese

Rating: One Note

We Hedonists venture out again into the San Gabriel Valley for some more regional Chinese, this time to the heartland province of Wuhan. Like nearby Szechuan and Hunan this area of China is known for its chile-dominated heat. This particular place specializes in “dry pot” which is like a stir fry / hot pot hybrid that is sizzled table-side.

The usual unassuming San Gabriel storefront.

This page shows the dry pots.

And the things here aren’t really sides, but are options you can add to the dry pots. There is very little on the menu that isn’t a dry pot.

This last page are the few non dry pot options.

A dry white went well with the sesame noodles below. This was the only dish before the heat set in.

Dry noodles in sesame sauce. These tasted as they look, like noodles in sesame sauce. They aren’t spicy, and are VERY sesame.

A very old (1962) Spatlese riesling that had actually been open for 3-4 days. Considering, it was impressive that it was still drinkable, if considerably oxidized.

Wuhan sui mai, stuffed with rice, meat, and with a bit of a vinegar tang.

1969 Coteaux du Layon illustrates the striking combination of mineral and nobly sweet characteristics that were possible, though its notoriously high acidity is scarcely noticeable thanks to the balance lent by high sugar and the harmony conveyed by time in bottle. Alkaline and wet stone aromas here approach the effect of sticking one’s head down a moss- and algae-covered cistern, accompanied by scents of lily, narcissus, quince preserves, stale bread, musk, and sweat. The rich quince character is carried and complimented by a juicy and not at all heavy palate impression, and this finishes with remarkable refreshment and pronouncedly alkaline and stony minerality, as well as snuffed candle wick smokiness and bitterness of quinine. Mature nobly sweet Chenin, although it had also been open for a couple days and was beginning to oxidize.

Our first Wuhan dry pot (this will soon look familiar). This one was chicken wings, yep, the central Chinese equivalent of hot wings. They’re in there with mountain potatoes (french fries), celery, hot peppers of several type, cauliflower, garlic, and lots of chili oil.

Displaying an expressive, candied green apple-scented nose, the profound 1992 Quarts de Chaume is intense and massively ripe. Citrus fruit and apricot-flavored, this wine is powerful, thick, and yet focused and delineated.

Dry pot number two, shrimp and we threw in some “lobster balls” (those vaguely round things).

Parker 94, “Quince preserves, baked apple, lily, gardenia, and hints of caramel and vanilla mark the nose of the Prum 2007 Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese. With richness yet delicacy and lift it saturates the palate with rich fruit, liquid flowers, vanilla cream, and savory, saline, shrimp shell reduction-like mineral essences. This intense, pure, subtly and truly nobly botrytized Auslese has umami with a capital “U.””

And number three, with squid. You’re starting to get the picture! The sauce/flavor is basically identical on all of these.

Schonleber’s 2002 Monzinger Fruhlingsplatzchen Riesling Kabinett smells alluringly of ripe red raspberries and strawberries. Quite honeyed and creamy for a Kabinett, yet both juicy and delicate, this is a bit superficially sweet in the finish, even though undeniably delicious.

Number four was duck, bone in. Lots of bone in. Meat was fairly tasty, if you didn’t break a tooth on it.

The Schonleber 2001 Monzinger Halenberg Riesling Spatlese features honey-glazed nectarine and red berries in a seductively creamy, subtly caramelized and bitter-sweet melange. Rich nut oil and saline and wet stone mineral notes emerge in the long, refined finish. There is no significant sacrifice of clarity or purity to the wine’s evident botrytis.

And number five was mutton, also very bone (and gristle) in. The meat was fairly tasty, but there was very little of it. But this time were were pretty sick of potatoes and cauliflower.

Soft buns, like the white fluffy stuff surrounding bork buns, but without the pork. The sauce in the center is sweetened condensed milk. Nicely cooling after all that Wuhan heat.

And the exact same buns straight out of the deep frier!

For “dessert” we have some unique (but somehow typically Chinese) mild flavors like these pumpkin buns covered in sesame and pan fried.

And these fried bean paste buns.

Tasty Dining was interesting because I’ve never had Wuhan dry pot before (actually I think I have once, but I didn’t know it). And presumably, it’s well executed. However, this is very much a one trick pony restaurant. There isn’t much but dry pot and every dry pot essentially tastes the same, dominated as it is by pepper, garlic, and oil! The noodles were interesting too, but I’ve had better of this type. The Szechuan meal I had in November in Philly was about 100x better with much more variety.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

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