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Ordered this. Today. To toast you. Yes, it's LebTav. Yes, it's probably good to great, and not extraordinary. With years since my last tasting, it read as revelatory to me. And the lighting flash of the server's eyes, followed by the silent, solemn placing of plate on the bar made me wonder if they knew my inspiration. They inadvertantly honored you. Good job, universe! /this dish remains ragingly difficult to find in North Texas suburbs //perhaps one day ///and until then

Our last two meals at Kinship were great. Last Sunday (it’s always best to go early in the week), the two stars were: Saucisson a l’Ail d’Agneau - fava beans, marinated maitakes, parsley vinaigrette (house-made lamb saucisson served warm!) Sautéed Sea Scallops - toasted sesame velouté, asparagus, anise hyssop, and shaved radish (The “secret ingredient” in the sauce (which you’ll want to pick up and drink, but can’t) is that they lightly smoke the scallop feet and add them.) 05.03.24.pdf

I hemmed and hawed for too long and then couldn't get a reservation for Meaza at a time that would work for us and our guests, so we ended up at Ethiopic, which had been my first thought. So I looped around and ended up back where I started. I hadn't been there since a couple years before the pandemic, but the food and service were just as good as they'd been in the past. We paid extra to get the fully teff injera, which is always so good. The server wanted to double check that we didn't have any gluten issues when I was willing to pay extra to get the teff. I thought that was good looking out. She also made a point when bringing the bill of saying that a 20% tip had already been added so we didn't need to tip, which we appreciated. We also left her an extra cash tip. In addition to the 7 item vegetarian platter we got an order of butcha, the chickpea salad of theirs I absolutely love, and a beef tibs and a lamb tibs. We ended up with leftovers, which we brought home. I turned the little bit of remaining food on the big platter and the berbere and juice-soaked injera under it into a migas kind of thing with a bunch of scrambled eggs. (There is an Ethiopian name for the dish that the ripped injera goes into, but I forget what it is.) Anyway, Ethiopic is still quite good. I do eventually want to get to Meaza and Chercher, though. It's been way too long since I've gotten Ethiopian food. Our friends live in New Zealand, where there is one Ethiopian restaurant in the entire country and not near them, so this was their very specific request.

Meaza via DoorDash crushes it for consistent flavor and value. Several times a year, for the past several years, Vegetarian Platter #1 never disappoints. Pro Tip: Shell out the $5 for "Injera from Ethiopia". It's mostly teff, a flavor win, and more satiating. Each time I have added this item, bolder jalapeno jumps forward in the vegetables, and portion sizes appear larger. YMMV, but the teff injera is worth it, even absent potential, other upgrades. /foods I miss in Texas //I always weigh more ///on the return flight

Chicken Marsala with Mushrooms last night, with one of those wild rice/couscous combos on the side with broccoli. I put a seasoned, rubbed with Worchestershire sauce eye round of beef in my sous vide at 12:30 a.m. and let it cook until almost 8 pm. I had that this evening with fresh spinach that I cooked down with a little water then added olive oil and garlic to cook down more. Also little yellow potatoes roasted with olive oil, S&P.

We had this one skillet chicken and rice last night, along with sourdough bread and a small salad. I didn't eat much since I had lunch out, but this came out well. I used jasmine rice because it was the most accessible white rice in my collection of airtight containers. I liked the combination of orzo and rice. It gave this a pilaf kind of feel.

Keren is temporarily closed, but perhaps only for renovations. For Ethiopian, I've had very good (not great) meals recently at Tsehay in Adams-Morgan and at Chercher in Bethesda (and I assume the quality is similar at the D.C. location).

Made a Provence-style sauce with roughly chopped fresh tomato, onion, garlic, capers, herbs and a glug of white wine. Air fried some halibut to rest on the sauce, drizzle of high quality EVOO and basil - delicious.

Playing catch-up here again. We did Taco Tuesday and made these Cajun shrimp tacos. We skipped the hard shell tacos but made everything else. We also did some pulled mushroom tacos as well. On Wednesday, we made this Thai crunch chicken salad with a mango jalapeno rotisserie chicken for the shredded chicken. Really liked this salad. We couldn't find fried wonton noodles so skipped those. The last recipe of the week was this Mushroom Pancit from the WashPo (gift link). I'd never made this before but definitely enjoyed it and will try other variations in the future.

My understanding is that this is a vegan Vietnamese restaurant in Eden Center. Has anyone eaten here? We have vegan friends for whom we are dying to find a good place to eat with a decent number of choices. Recommendations for other vegan places (aside from True Food Kitchen, only because we ate with our friends there previously) are also welcome. Or, at least, a place with a heavy lean towards vegan. Thank you! -Courtney

On Thursday, I made vegan Sichuan mala dry pot. My husband wasn't a fan of the lotus root, it's a texture thing, but I enjoyed it all. Last night, my husband made the most unique chili I've ever had. Not sure I would call it chili but it is fairly good. Today was spicy mushroom noodles. The dry pot was saltier than we like, so we used about half the soy sauce it called for and that was right amount. We bought a lot of produce for the recipes and ended up doubling all three recipes. I'm a fan of leftovers so glad we did this and of course, chili always tastes better the next day.

The milk bread here (which is set in stacks near the kitchen when they've gotten a delivery in) is wonderful. They clearly use quite a lot of this. It's used not just for the toasts but for sandwiches and croutons in the bright and delicious bread salad. The fries, which come with black pepper aioli and ketchup, are excellent, if you are a fry aficionado. This is a quirky concept but a reliable restaurant with excellent service.

Pan seared fillet of red trout, Sweet potato cubes roasted in the air fryer, a simple lettuce, tomato, and cucumber salad. I’m really enjoying the air fryer for small batches of vegetables so that I don’t have to heat up the oven.

Now open south of Dupont Circle in the old Yaffa space. First time trying them…pretty solid NY style slice. $4.19 for a slice of cheese is a bit high, but what isn’t these days.

We made these jerk sunchokes with beans & rice for dinner last night. The sauce was good as were the beans and rice, but the flavor didn't infuse the sunchokes and I missed that. I'd probably try to figure out how to get more of the sauce into them, if we do this again.

I bought a small pork loin roast on sale at Whole Foods and cooked it in the air fryer last night. It came out really well. Before cooking, I seasoned it with rubbed sage, dried thyme, onion and garlic powders, a little turmeric, and salt and pepper. We had this with more green beans and leftover mashed potatoes with morels, plus a salad. The salad was baby greens, carrots, hard-boiled egg, Campari tomatoes, and radishes with vinaigrette.

Often the menus will offer a “gluten-free” injera option. Those are the teff ones.

Grover and I are going to make a dinner trip to check out the food. If it's up to her standards (and the haemul panjang with shrimp is definitely interesting) we may propose a Don Rockwell dinner here. We're planning on going next Sunday if anyone would like to tag along. Post and let me know you'd like to join us (and aren't afraid to let someone else order) and we'll set a time. BTW, they do have a website now. From the pictures, the food looks very good.

I bought some morels at the H Street market today. Very extravagant purchase but worth it. I sauteed them in butter with fresh thyme, salt and pepper and then mixed them in with some very buttery and creamy mashed yukon gold potatoes. We also had green beans and roasted chicken leg quarters. There was a salad of mixed greens, radishes, cucumber, hard-boiled egg, and grape tomatoes, with the last of the avocado and feta salsa we'd been having with salmon.

It was packed when I was there this morning. The shelves and cases are emptying quickly. I heard one woman say she's coming back every day until they close. If there is something you really want, get there ASAP. SIgh. That space was Marvelous Market, then Silver Spork. This was a somewhat different type of place, and I really liked their coffee.

Just giving everyone an update who might have been following our progress since the fire but we are back open. We just wrapped up our first month of service after being shut down for over a year and a half. It's probably a very different experience than what most had in 2018 when we first opened, we made a huge transition during covid to focusing on seafood, would love to see some new and familiar faces come through!

On these boards he shared his love and knowledge of the food of the Levant and of Pennsylvania Amish country; please raise a glass and remember @Kibbee Nayee. https://www.fairfaxmemorialfuneralhome.com/obituaries/Bruce-Alan-Brody?obId=31120788