Capital Icebox

It's not really a food movie, but 'Oldboy,' from Korea, involves a torrid relationship between an unconventional ex-con and a sushi chef. It won't spoil much to tell you there is great scene where the former prisoner eats a live octopus -- it will make you doubt how hardcore your sushi cred really is. Fried dumplings also figure into the plot.

Firkin Thursday at Vermilion

Featuring the Northern VA Premier of Clipper City Brewing's

Loose Cannon Hop3 Ale

Thursday, September 29th

6:00 p

Menu

Citrus-marinated Pulled Pork Nachos                          $4

Duck Confit with Stilton Cheese & Apricots on

Brioche Toast with Lavendar-Honey Drizzle                $6

Grilled Bistro Filet with Shitake Orange Sauce            $7

Vanilla Malted Frozen Custard Balls Rolled in

Dark Chocolate                                                              $3

Anyone else headed to this tonight? I'll be at the bar, head partially submerged in a plate of duck confit.

My hot dog today had waaay too much mustard, but it disappeared in five seconds flat anyways.

Arrived at 12:40 p.m. and there wasn't a soul in line, but the dining rooms were the most packed I've seen them at lunch. Summer must really be ending.

Are there prices available for any of these dishes? The menu on the website doesn't list prices, either. (Though it is in many other respects better than most other DC restaurant websites -- Eve, Corduroy, Ray's, Palena and more, I am looking in your collective direction.)

If Mrs. Crescentfresh finds out that she missed partaking in Laphroaig (her favorite!), missing this event is going to sit a lot less comfortably with her.

Oh, the Laphroaig... not part of the tasting room, but a great drink to end the evening (especially with that last chocolate bite still lingering in the mouth). If anyone caught sight of a disheveled young man careening down the street on his bicycle and mumbling something about figs, blame the scotch. I know I will.

Cheers to Chef Armstrong and the entire team at Eve -- this was a great evening with excellent company, exemplary service, and transplendent cuisine. It was a pleasure meeting so many of you here from DR, and here's to more more "all outs" in the future... next time I will save more room for the Stilton flan.

What the hell was this person doing for the 1 1/2 hours after their entrees were served? Even if this persons original complaint, slow service, is accurate, after the entrees have been dropped the rest of the time is ALL ON THEM.

Seriously -- if things are so slow, why the dessert, coffee, etc? And what is so bad about a 2 hour lunch? I've had a few business lunches where I actually try to drag them out that long (one actually passed the 3-hour mark at Dish once!). Not because I hate my job, mind you, but because sometimes I need to keep people eating and talking as long as I can. I don't know if that was the case with this lady, but keeping mum about it (even after two managers stopped by) was lame.

Wow.  There any many things in this world to get bitter about - poverty, injustice, hunger, etc.  Missing a restaurant meal is not high on my list.

I think the "bitterness" (which is obviously in jest) is in part about hunger, though. Hunger for the delights that await the chosen ones who have been called to the glorious Tasting Room, where we will sit at the hand of Armstrong before our exaltation.

Is the Grill done for the season? I haven't received an email this week.

Do we really need one-and-a-half full pages, including the entire page one above the fold, of L. Paul Bremer cooking?  I mean, the subject is bad and boring enough, but I'm even more shocked at how much space they gave it! 

Actually, being something of a foreign policy junkie, I was fascinated to read that Bremer is so into cooking. The paragraph about Iraq, in particular, was intriguing. For Washington's premier newspaper, I think it's a good subject for the Food section.

The huge photo on the front page accompanying the small amount of text is a bit much, though. They certainly don't seem to have a lot of faith in their material if they're taking up 80 percent of the page with photos and graphics.

The upside (against many downs) of working in Foggy Bottom is the Circle Bistro happy hour. Martinis at $5 a pop, pommes frites that disappear from the table before they have a chance to cool, and a poolside patio (even if it is covered with a green tarp after labor day). A goujonette of salmon, charcuterie with housemade pate, half-priced beer and wine... the planets are perfectly aligned and you got $2,347 back in taxes last year...

Until you learn that they no longer serve Hangar One vodkas. The 'Vicious Circle,' with local blackberry puree, used to be mixed with H1 Kaffir lime, but now is a companion to Absolut Citron. "The H1 just wasn't selling," the bartender tells me. For shame, Washington! One of the few bars in DC to carry Hangar One, you know must opt for Ciroc, Grey Goose, or Ketel One (at $5, still a helluva deal).

But this is what you're missing...

U2 tickets were much easier to get than FL reservations, unfortunately they're about equal in price!    If you do choose Napa as a Foodie Vacation destination, you really can't go wrong.

Now I'm considering selling my U2 tickets to fund the FL dinner. Hmmm...

I forgot to mention that I was also able to snag the only table that the French Laundry offers via opentable.com for lunch by trying very early one morning (about 3am)

Wow -- sounds like trying to get tickets to U2, but with much more at stake.

if you have any room left try chocolate con churros!!!

Chocloate con churros may just put Spain into first place.

Thanks for all of the ideas, and keep 'em coming. There's a good chance I'll be living in Europe next year, so I'll hopefully make my way to most of the European destinations.

Napa is a strong contender for this year, though -- but is it possible to get reservations at the French Laundry? They take them two months in advance, but I worry they book up the first few minutes their reservation line is open. Anyone had luck getting a table there?

What are the best destinations for a culinary vacation? Let's say you have a week, a decent budget and a healthy appetite -- where would you go? Where have you been?

I'm not looking for a specific restaurant in one city (i.e. Per se in New York), but rather a destination that offers an array of choices, a place that would have something like Michelin three-stars as well as eclectic, quality street food. I'm looking for a better way to spend Thanksgiving this year than with Mom's variations on Butterball.

What you needed was a glass of milk or a nice lassi

So true -- dairy is the best antidote to that kind of pain.

Headed down to Corolla in the Outer Banks for all of next week -- anyone have any suggestions? We'll be dining in most of the time, but I'd love to hear of some good seafood and BBQ places. The Red Drum sounds right up our alley.

This go round the green sauce seemed to be less garlicy...Also had green peppers and onions this time.  (Didn't last time and I don't think I changed how I ordered....Must watch for that.  Not a big pepper fan...)

The peppers are standard on the pork shoulder, chicken, and sausage sandwiches. You can ask Chef Donna to leave them off, though, and he'll kindly oblige.

On our first visit to TemptAsian last weekend, I was determined to try the craziest thing I could find on the menu; my girlfriend was bent on choosing the most boring. Thereby we ended up with an order of sweet and sour chicken from the English menu and Beef Triple in Pig Blood from the Chinese menu on the table, neither of us sure if we had done the right thing.

Has anyone else here tried the latter? It's a huge bowl of the less-than-familiar: tons of tripe; the aforementioned pig blood, appearing in rectangular gelatinous cubes that don't pack a lot of flavor but are a great way to impress (in a third grade sort of way) a date; more beef; and of course the rich broth and plenty of vegetables (including some nice hot spices and peppers) surrounding the whole deal. It was disorienting, and I can't say that I had them bag up the large amount I had left over for the next day. Had they served beer (or I'd done my research and known you can BYOB), I might have been braver. But I also can't say that I don't want to go back and try the myriad other options on the menu, preparing for the day when I go for the beef triple in pig blood again, this time emptying my bowl and licking it clean.

I lost my Kotobuki virginity today and am now ready to become a full-time sushi harlot. Toro, scallop, hamachi, flounder, lobster and more washed down with a box of cold, smooth sake with its own little bucket of salt for you to shovel onto the rim.

But even after all this and a maki roll, I felt I had missed something, so I asked what that might have been, and was promptly told to get the sea urchin. Seconds later, two small rolls appeared with an orange "tongue" of urchin atop them. The urchin was covered in goo and looked ready to jump out of the roll, so in they went. The flavor was creamy, slightly sweet and had a nice salty ocean taste without being briny. I can't wait to go back and try these again.

Besides the food, I really liked the music -- as it usually is, apparently Beatles were on the box, with a seeming preponderance of Lennon over McCartney, just my style.

Edited for clarity and drama

I've only had Atlantico's once -- but our version had too many peppers in it and the excessive heat ruined the overall experience. I asked the bartender and he said it usually isn't that hot. I did get a nice glimpse of it's buttery potential in the process, however.

Atlantico's guac is made to order, no? Isn't guac supposed to have 20-30 minutes to settle for the flavors to marry?

One issue I have with breadline is the Cheesecake Factory-esque menu, with dozens of items from all sorts of traditions to choose from. Just today you have a Mexican Quesadilla, African Chicken sandwich, Italian Piadina, Empanadas, Falafael, and a seafood chowder on the menu. To me, this breadth of cuisine tends to work against Breadline, making the menu overwhelming (especially to the first-timer being pressured to order quickly) and resulting in less-than-stellar dishes themselves (I hear the empanadas are illustrative of this point). It's just not the place to go to for great guacamole (Where is, though? Oyamel, you have yet to excite me. Same goes for you, Pablano. I sense a new guac thread... ripening).

That said, at Breadline I tend to stick to choices where I know the bread is good (i.e. my current favorite, the BLT or anything on a baguette), the sandwich isn't something too exotic and usually buffer my order with one of the soups or fries and cookies. That way if the sandwich doesn't fully satisfy (though I've never been so satisfied I've thrown one away), you're covered.

Took the folks to dinner tonight at A La Lucia (on their dime, of course) and was pleased -- not blown away by revolutionary cuisine, but not turned off by attempts at such, either. The food was on time, delicious, and very reasonably priced (and a downright bargain at lunch). My Salmon with fennel, fresh tomatoes pine nuts and basil had a perfect char on the outside and a nice pink center. Manicotti with ricotta is a nice blend of sweet and savory; the Roasted Pepper appetizer with olives and anchovies lasted a total of thirty seconds on our table before being devoured.

This place is worth checking out for consistently good, unpretentious Italian, and in a month or two its adjacent space will be opening as the only wine bar in Old Town. I hear they're going to have wine pong in the back on Fridays. If only OT had a purveyor of jumbo slices...

The Grill will be open Wednesday and Thursday this week. Dress up as Chef Donna and get half off your lunch.

Two pieces of Popeye's is roughly equal to a steak burrito at Baja Fresh. As an indulgence, neither is that bad. As your daily lunch, I'll see you at fat camp.