Kanishka

+1 on the recommendations for Neopol. Their whitefish salad on an everything bagel is, well, everything I've ever wanted in a bagel sandwich. My wife likes their smoked salmon "A(pple).L.T.," and as a Northwesterner tells me every time that the smoked salmon is hot smoked, "as smoked salmon should be." One (small) complaint about Union Market, from my most recent visit early Sunday morning. We went for breakfast at 10 AM, and were unable to find anything to drink outside of soda, water, and coffee. Water worked just fine, but I would have killed for some sort of juice. Perhaps the vendors were just out. Just a quibble, though.

Per Twitter and Facebook, they'll be open tonight at 5 PM.

Yup. I tried my best last week to polish one off and only managed to get half way. But the remaining half made for some delicious leftovers -- I diced the pastrami and made a hash with it Saturday morning, throwing in potato, onion, a red bell pepper, and butter and frying it all into a delicious mess. Topped with an over-easy egg, it was absolutely delicious, and made enough for breakfast Saturday and Sunday!

We finally snagged two spots at Boundary Road's bar last night, and our meal was a mixed bag. The quark and black pepper pierogies were delicately made and sauced, and a small order was the perfect size for a shared appetizer. My wife's hanger steak with kale was delicious, at least according to her and my two stray bites. The menu describes the kale as "spicy", and it was a solid mild-to-medium. Any more spicy and it would have been a jarring companion to the steak, but on this plate it was spiced just right. My swordfish was, sadly, not so good. I had been wavering between the swordfish and the rockfish and fear I made the wrong choice. It was well cooked, but was spiced with so much fennel pollen that the flavor and aroma was completely overwhelming. A nice olive tapenade at times balanced the fennel pollen but not often enough. Overall, not something I would eat again. One aspect of Boundary Road my wife remarked upon that I had previously not noticed: in comparison to the other restaurants on H Street, Boundary Road feels spacious. I think its the higher ceilings and the wider building, which most of the other restaurants on H lack.

I haven't been back to Smith Commons recently enough to concur credibly, but I've had one enjoyable, one mediocre, and two downright bad meals at Smith Commons in the last year, compared with two very good ( and both more recent) meals at Boundary Road. Sadly we are last-minute types and Boundary Road has been jammed the last few times we've wanted to go back. Thanks for this reminder that we need to give it another go soon.

Went today on a whim and really enjoyed it. I had the broccoli rabe with extra long hots, while the wife had the Red. Long hots were surprisingly not spicy, but did have a bit of a kick. The combination of broccoli, provolone, and rib eye would have been good enough, so next time I think I'll skip the hots. Wife enjoyed her sub, which was basically a chicken parm. Service was fast and the proprietary fountain soda they have was pretty different from your standard Coke/Pepsi fountain. Proprietary fountain soda on H Street... the idea scares me, but only a little. Best sandwich shop named after a war criminal in DC! Or at least until Spike Mendelsohn opens his Serbian fusion lunch stand, MILOseVICH.

Any more on this speakeasy? Is it attached to Suna or Acqua al Due? I'm not familiar with it.

In Seattle for the holidays. My wife is from here, and we return here frequently -- it's as close to a second home as I think I'll ever get. We are delightfully under-programmed for this trip, as many family and friends aren't around. That means lots of time to eat. We elected to hit up an old stand-by on our first night here, Pizzeria Pulcinella. We first took my mother-in-law here years ago. It doesn't look like much, and is located far from any of the more hip, commercial strips of downtown Seattle. But the pizza is that elusive combination of simple and simply terrific -- crust with just the right combination of chew and crunch, simple and unpretentious toppings, and an outstanding tomato sauce. I had the puttanesca pizza special -- olives, capers, anchovies, and basil on tomato sauce with no cheese (!!). After a long flight I wasn't up for something heavy and the lack of cheese was frankly welcome. If you're not a salt lover you may disagree, but I loved every bite. My wife had the chiaia (cheese, tomato sauce, eggplant, parmesan) and my MiL had the margherita. Both raved about their choices, as usual. The best part: a $10-14 pie at Pulcinella is 14 inches and can easily feed two, especially if you get a salad or other starter. So now we have a fridge full of pizza leftovers. It's rainy and gray over here on the left coast, and I'm preheating the oven. Time for breakfast!

We go to Toki roughly once a month, most often on Saturday or Friday nights, and have noticed that specials have become much more infrequent. When we first started going to Toki regularly, two years ago, there was regularly some sort of special on offer that was nearly entree size. Last Saturday's only special was the (delicious) pickle dish dcandohio mentions above -- and I can't remember specials being on the menu the last three or four times we've visted. This makes me sad, as some of the very best things I've had at Toki have been specials, rather than the rightfully lauded ramen. Anyone know why specials have dropped off? Maybe we need to visit on weekdays...

The wife and I tried to walk in to Boundary Road Friday night but the place was packed. Walking east to the center of the action on H we passed Le Grenier, a brand-new French restaurant I recall reading about but couldn't find mentioned here. We walked in to a fairly crowded restaurant, with (kind of loud) French standards on the sound system. The host/waiter found two spots for us at the bar. Immediate first impressions: an attractive, unique, dark space with fun decor (a french horn on the wall, a black and white film projected through the window, so on). Reminded me of an eccentric aunt's sitting room, with the lights lowered. Upon being seated we were handed menus stapled within old french "cahiers," the type a Parisian elementary school student would use. Cute! Two warm, good pieces of baguette came gratis. As an app we split the tartelette du provence. Advertised as a tart of ratatouille, it seemed to me basically a tomato tart with comte cheese. That's not a knock -- it was really good, with perfectly cooked puff pastry and just enough cheese to salt things up without overwhelming the tomato. I would have liked to have had more ratatouille flavor, perhaps from some more eggplant, but the dish itself was quite good. The mains were a mixed bag -- she had an excellent coq au vin, while my seafood stew was awkwardly served in a high-sided bowl black bowl which in the very dark dining room made the components impossible to see. It was advertised as "spicy," but felt only "spiced." That's a pet peeve though. Your mileage may vary. Flavor-wise it was thoroughly OK. Dessert was a rhubarb crepe, which we ordered without whipped cream but came with it anyway. A little too sweet for my taste, but not bad. Le Grenier has only been open for nine weeks, and is getting savaged on Yelp. I can understand some of the quibbles -- the pacing between courses bordered on glacial, likely because of the Friday night crowd and what I suspect is a small kitchen. Service at the bar was a bit inattentive, but not unpleasantly so. But this is a young restaurant working the kinks out. I know nothing about the owners, but suspect they are aware of the various issues. They have a second floor seating area that warrants checking out some time. The western end of H St NE isn't nearly as developed as its eastern sibling, and a new addition is very welcome. -- -- -- -- Hello! Long time lurker, former prolific poster, faded away due to a mix of world travels and that pesky thing called "life." Now temporarily free from the chains of bureaucracy and a full time student. I hope to post a bit more now, and when I jump abroad again next summer. Don's posts on the PS7 thread were inspirational. Also, Don -- just saw an older thread on Le Grenier just as I posted this. Whoops! Please feel free to move my post. I can't seem to figure out how.

My experiences with street food here has generally been positive. Luck? Maybe. Or perhaps I've developed a good resistance after many, many years of traveling to south Asia. I have been brushing my teeth with tap water twice daily. But if you want real Mumbai street food and are a little on the squeamish side, your best bet is Elco Pani Puri Center on Hill Road, in the tony suburb of Bandra (and rather conveniently a five minute walk from my house). The legend goes that Elco evolved from an immensely popular streetfood stand to multiple stands, then to a storefront, and eventually all the way to the three floor restaurant it is now. There are still genuine Elco stands scattered in front of the store, but if the inescapable Mumbai heat is getting to you there are two air conditioned floors where you can sit and enjoy the same menu, with a slight mark up. We go to Elco whenever we have guests or a new arrival around. They make street food with "safe" ingredients, and all of the chaats taste authentic. The titular Pani Puri is accompanied by two distilled "pani" dips, one tamarind water and the other a spicy, cumin and black pepper spiked version. I like the latter and my wife likes the former, but frankly the main reason people have this snack here is because the water's safe, not because it's particularly good. Better are the other snacks, like the bhel puri with flat, fried gram chips, yogurt, potato, and pomegranate seeds. I also love the tavaa alu (potato) chat. If you're a cilantro-phobe or asafoetida-phobe, avoid. Elco also has a killer selection of dosas, including an interpretation of the mysore masala dosa that's more tangy than spicy and an XXL dosa I managed to finish by myself a few months ago. Woodlands and Udupi are good, but they probably won't make a dosa that's 3 feet long. Dosas here come with a bowl of sambar that's sometimes a bit too sweet for me, and two coconut chutneys, one mild and one spicy. Elco isn't mindblowing and isn't fancy. When they try to get inventive they end up making things like the baffling "Chinese Cheese Dosa" (it's stuffed with chow mein noodles and it's kind of gross). But it is hands down the most reliable place to get an extremely large variety of honest, cheap vegetarian Indian food, especially if you're vacationing and are worried about sanitary issues. You can walk out stuffed after spending less than $5 for two people. For a more high-profile mention of this Bandra institution, and an OK writeup of Bombay street food, check out the NY Times article.

For the last couple days, I've been having an odd problem that made it impossible for me to look at this board from home. This prompted an email to Don, which further made me realize that I've been idle for a long time and am itching to write a bit about what I've been eating lately. Many thanks to Don for fixing whatever problem randomly popped up! The problem was probably related to where "home" is now. After not-insignificant tumult and a lot of moving around the last few years, I've landed in Mumbai, also known as Bombay, where I live with my wife (of almost 2 years!). We've been here almost a year now. My time's short right now, so I'll say: there's a lot to eat here, good and bad, and very different. We've traveled to about half the Indian states and are having quite an experience, living and eating at places ridiculously high end and as low end as you can get, and we've still got a year left. India is a gastric nightmare and a food-lover's dream, and sometimes the two are only a few hours apart (usually the latter comes first -- sorry, it's been a while since I've written and am forgetting my parallelism). I promise, more writing about actual restaurants to come. Hi again everyone! If you've got special India requests, please send them my way. K

Qwertyy's response says it best. The only way this analogy comes CLOSE to working is in the case of China, and maybe India. Combined, 1/3 the world's population, and even then countries with a long history of cultural unity. Not so between East and West Africa. Not during the Malian empire, not during the colonial period, and definitely not now.

Odds are I'm overreacting to something Chef Morou himself is not bothered by. But to the geographically ignorant reader, the line seems like misinformation. I agree, btw, on the line-item nailing sentiment. It is a bit unfair. Unfortunately, I'm very sensitive about geography and how common notions like a singular "Africa" are subtly diminishing of indigenous cultures. Its something slightly more than a pet peeve of mine. (I'm also irritated by the mission statement on FO's website!)

Assuming you're referring to my comment, its not that hard to look at a map and do some fact checking. Bumbling on the geographic origins of wine varietals probably would make it hard to get a sommelier certificate, right? Why is it okay when a food critic does it about ethnic cuisine? Especially when things Ethiopian are such a known quantity in this city.

People keep commenting on Chef Morou's use of berbere as being indicative of his African roots. Quoting Sietsema from this week's review: "... some berbere oil, an accent that... trumpets the chef's origins." Sietsema goes on to note that Chef Morou is Ivorian and that berbere is Ethiopian. What the hell! Someone get a map... oh, here's one. A quick eyeballing of the scale at the bottom leads me to believe that Abidjan is about 3200-3500 miles from Addis Ababa. But somehow, people are making the cuisines of the two countries roughly equivalent. Its insulting, and belies the cultural trend to treat "Africa" as some sort of undifferentiated whole instead of a diverse continent. Some quick wikipedia research (and some basic knowledge) confirms that Ivorians don't use berbere. Think of it this way: if someone were to point out a Russian chef's use of chorizo as "trumpeting his/her European origins," you'd at the very least be confused, right? So why's it okay to do the same for an Ivorian chef using an ingredient from a continent away? At the least, its geographic and cultural ignorance. And this is definitely not the first time it's happened.

Speaking of rumors, is there any truth to the rumor in the first reader review posted here? I can't attest to the content, but the spelling is fairly tragic. K

I really, really don't know how I feel about this article. It doesn't tell me anything didn't know before, and I'd already read about Chef Richard's wedding cake shenanigans but this takes it to a level that I'm very uncomfortable with. Maybe its my squeamishness coupled with the fact that I try to not be "that customer" who gets his food... um... adulterated. But this really makes me wonder. And respect Chef Andres for at the very least keeping mum. K

This will be the first of hopefully many dispatches from Bangladesh. If you're unfamiliar with Bengali culture, you should know in advance that the general stereotype amongst many South Asians is that of all of them, the Bengalis really, really love to eat. And this in a region that is well known to take down its share of food. This stereotype is abundantly visible on the streets of Dhaka; one need only walk a few steps before seeing either a restaurant, a food vendor, or some combination of the two. If you're adventurous and willing to tempt fate, Bangladesh can be a food lovers paradise. Just be careful, and make sure the seal on your bottled water is unbroken. The Time Out Coworkers took me out to a place they referred to as "The Time Out," a regular after-work hangout during non-Ramadan months. I didn't really know what to expect, but when I got there it was definitely not anything like what I thought it was going to be. Located just off of Gulshan Avenue in Gulshan 1, the area known as "The Time Out" is actually a small plaza surrounded by vendors of various finger foods. Diners sit at outdoor tables and waiters from the various restaurants come by and give you their menus. You order off of any of them (or as we did, all of them) and eat collectively, passing plates around. We stuck primarily to South Asian dishes, though there were some other dishes. From what I recall, ten of us shared plates of masala dosas, plain dosas, fried battered prawns, pani puri (known locally as phhuchka), papri chaat, "nachos," and chicken fingers. Mexican food in Dhaka is fairly interesting in its complete un-Mexicanness. The basic ingredients (tomato, onion, chili powder, cilantro) are all here, but somehow the food acquires a sort of South Asian twist. Your nachos won't be like anything you've had before, and if you're looking for the real deal you're out of luck. But if you're willing to ignore traditional, it can be delicious. But the street food -- papri chaat, pani puri -- are really not to be missed at The Time Out. The pani puri -- small deep fried hollow globes pf dough cracked open and filled with a mix of mashed spiced potato and tamarind water -- are delicious and dangerous. Delicious because of the tartness, the spicyness, and the crunch, a mass of big flavors that almost overwhelm but not quite. Dangerous because you may eat too many, and you don't exactly know where the water in the tamarind water came from. No matter. Pop some Imodium and go for the gusto. The papri chaat. small fried discs (this is a very important distinction!) topped with potato, chopped red onion, cilantro, tamarind, and yogurt, was not as tasty in my opinion as the pani puri, but if you're turned off by the fear of perhaps drinking water with some unwelcome residents, it's a good alternative. The dosas were a bit of a disappointment compared to the rest of the food. The dosas themselves were okay, but the sambar dal provided didn't have nearly the kick that you can get from DC area South Indian restaurants like Udupi or Woodlands. Luckily, there was a tremendously spicy cilantro sauce that I'd never tasted before to liven up the flavor. If you're in Dhaka, first, get in touch! Second, try to make the most of the experience by delving into the street food. "The Time Out" (which turned out to be the name of just one of the restaurants serving us, but had morphed into a nickname for the whole area) is just one of many places to really get your taste buds going. And at a total cost of 400 taka each (that's a little bit less than $6) for more food than necessary, two lassis, and a few bottles of water, it's worth giving a shot.

Jason (DCeiver) is many things, but a foodie he is not. I love the guy, but take his rants with a grain of salt. That said, I think all of his other responses to the Best Bets are right on. K

You are not answering the main question, MD. You are clearly in the business. Where is your restaurant? What is your role? Most pros here have their affiliations openly stated in their signatures. It's a courtesy.

Please explain references to moving to Crystal City -- I'm confused... The whole restaurant? The grill? What's up? Sorry for the ignorance... K

One other quick thing, before I forget -- and I'm not bringing this up to be argumentative, just to bring up a point brought up in the thread on authenticity. Salmon is not found in Persia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, or India. There is a fish that they call "salmon" over there that I only saw sold in the markets that cater to Westerners, but it is decidedly *not* salmon. So the salmon kebabs at Bamian, Shamshiry, or whereever are definitely not "authentic" if one is going to be a strict traditionalist. As is clear from prior posts, I have not eaten at Bamian. And additionally, I don't think it matters -- matters whether or not I've eaten there, or whether or not salmon is authentic to the area. If the salmon kebab at Bamian is as good as JoeH says, well, I think that it might be a sign of an adventurous kitchen or chef trying to stretch the limits of native cuisine and introduce old spices to new meats. My mother makes a wonderful curry using leftover steamed Maryland blue crabs -- a good example. I make a turkey dish similar to butter chicken from leftovers after every Thanksgiving that also fits the bill. There's a chance that the chefs at Bamian will disagree, but biologically salmon doesn't exist in that part of the world. And I'll be the first to say: who cares? If its delicious, well, more power to the chef. K

I've had just about as close to the real deal as anyone this side of Kandahar (indeed, while living in Pakistan Afghan friends took me to one particular restaurant that was "better than home" according to them) and I'm curious about Bamian. I wasn't a big fan of Shamshiry before I left -- Ravi Kabob and Food Factory in College Park are my two favorite kabob places, and after returning from abroad I can say that Ravi Kabob does an excellent job, but there's still something missing. So my question: I'm car-less. Any suggestions for easy ways to get to Bamian and check it out? K

I don't know how I feel about this place now. The old friends that used to work there are gone, the management has decreed that staff can no longer drink there (they were half the fun!) and because of my work I feel very sketched out by the Byelorussian "students" who seem to have taken over the majority of the wait staff. At the very least, I don't think I'm going to be eating there any time soon. Though the $9.50 corned beef hash is still appealing in the artery clogging, hangover curing kind of way. This is, btw, before I heard about the cameras. That crosses over into the "really weird." K