dracisk

Nope, not the hei for black. I thought I was so clever! Thanks for the link. :-)

I've never heard of that term, either. Is this "hei" as in the Mandarin word for the color black (possibly referring to char)?

We're doing prime rib with mashed potatoes and honey balsamic Brussels sprouts tonight. We just had prime rib on New Year's Eve, but we're ready for it again. :-)

I know her from Top Chef. Presumably she has other items on her resume.

I went to a place called Cafe Arzu in Rego Park, Queens, that supposedly has Uyghur food. This was almost 10 years ago, so I don't remember much, but they still appear to be open. I studied in China for 6 months during college and we used to go to a neighborhood in Beijing called Uyghurville (at least by the expats; apparently it's long gone now, having been replaced by condos or something else terrible) for Uyghur food that was so amazingly delicious. I would so love to have a source for lagman with spiced lamb nearby.

Thanks for this review. I live in Silver Spring and have wondered about this place. I'm also pleased to see they offer or have offered a couple of different kinds of Rhode Island (my native state) seafood (oysters and calamari). :-) Any thoughts on toddler friendliness? Someone above mentioned it's loud -- that's always good when dining with a toddler ...

Agreed! I think the pulled pork bread pudding and the buccatelli carbonara with pancetta were my favorites, but everything was delicious. And my husband and I must be pigs (haha) because we each had five courses plus a dessert. :-)

I don't speak French (I can read a fair bit from studying Spanish and I can understand spoken French a little, but I really can't speak it), and I've never had a problem dining or otherwise getting around in Paris. I've found that people appreciate if you try. I've recited "Désolé, je ne parle pas franí§ais" ("Sorry, I don't speak French") many times. In restaurants I've found "Je voudrais ... s'il vous plaí®t" ("I would like ... please") to be helpful. I've used "L'additionattention, s'il vous plait" ("Check, please" -- and you will need to ask for it) as well. I've found that being humble about not speaking the language really helps (and that's not just in France). Contrary to their reputation, I don't find Parisians to be any more gruff or rude than any other big city dwellers around the world. If you're used to a big city vibe, you're humble about not speaking French, and you try your best not to be annoying tourists (and from living in or around DC most of us know what NOT to do as tourists if we don't want to annoy the locals), you should be fine. I haven't done any fine dining in Paris, but I would think in the more well known or well-regarded restaurants they're used to dealing with non-French speakers.

Bart gave some really good info about Global Entry in this thread: Do you know about Global Entry? It's similar to TSA Precheck but better (TSA Precheck was based on Global Entry, if anyone cares). With Global Entry, you have to apply on line, and then go to one of their processing centers for an "interview" and then you get a temporary card and can travel immediately. My son was going on a spring break trip with a family he's friendly with and they all had Global Entry (GE) so they asked him to get it. We applied online on Wednesday, he was approved on Friday, and we made his interview appointment the following Monday which happened to be MLK day (they were open!). Five days from start to finish!!!! I've spent more time waiting in DMV lines! What GE does for you is it lets you skip the long immigration lines at the airport (the passport part) and check yourself in at a little kiosk. You fill out your customs form right there (no need to fill out those blue cards on the plane) and it gives you a print out. Then you get to skip the long lines at customs (the blue forms).......you walk past dozens and dozens of people and just give your print out to the agent and you're done. My wife and I just came back from the Caribbean and our flight into Charlotte was late. The only way we made our connecting flight was because of GE. The entire customs/immigration process took maybe 3 minutes and the vast majority of that time was spent walking through the airport from station to station. The other great thing about GE is you get all the TSA precheck benefits once you're approved for GE. Even if there's only a slim change you're going to travel internationally in the next five years, it's worth the investment to sign up for GE. TSA precheck costs $85 for five years. GE costs $100 for five years. [E]ven if you never travel internationally GE will get you through domestic lines faster (you use the TSA precheck lines). It only costs 15 bucks more. You have to register your "known traveler number" IE your GE number with your airline, but once that's done, you're good and your tickets will be printed with "TSA precheck" on them. The only downside is the background check is more extensive than TSAs. A few years ago I met a guy (in his 60s who was a physician) who was denied GE because of some dumb thing he got arrested for in his youth. This was a while ago so they may have gotten smarted about dumb mistakes 40 years ago, but I don't know. I think there may be some way to grieve stuff like that, but I'm not totally sure. As far as getting searched for cheese or whatever.......you're less likely to have that happen because you barely spend anytime with a real person. You do it all through a kiosk. We just had to show our printed "receipt" to one agent, and then give it to another. No one looked at our bags or even talked to us. We were doing carry on, so I don't know if there's any difference with checked bags, but I don't think so based on the layout in Charlotte.

In addition to checking for overly long layovers, I always check for layovers that seem like they could be too tight if I need to change planes. I usually don't like to have less than an hour layover (for domestic flights, anyway). I don't usually check seatguru.com, although my flights over the last couple of years haven't been very long. If I was flying to Fiji I might be more likely to investigate equipment. When I went to Bangkok a few years ago I didn't investigate equipment and ended up in a seat that didn't recline for the 14-hour flight from NRT to IAD. I'm not usually a big seat recliner, but it might have been nice to have that option at some point during those 14 hours (just a couple of degrees!). I'm usually unwilling to leave very early in the morning, although I once got to IAD from Silver Spring for a 7am non-stop flight to SFO for a good fare on Virgin, and I still think that was worth it. I'm also usually unwilling to have more than one layover, although I did once right after law school use a free Southwest voucher for an itinerary that was something along the lines of BWI-SAT-LAX-OAK-SEA. That was insane. :-) Some people think that the fares offered in online searches change depending on your browsing history (http://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/columnist/mcgee/2013/04/03/do-travel-deals-change-based-on-your-browsing-history/2021993/), but others aren't so sure (http://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/columnist/seaney/2013/04/30/airfare-expert-do-cookies-really-raise-airfares/2121981/). I haven't noticed this in my own searching.

What about Carmine's?

Babysitter has been procured and we have a reservation for next Friday night. Can't wait!

My husband threw a surprise birthday party for me at Zaytinya, and I think once the group got over a certain size he also had to go the private room with minimum purchase route. (They do have a private room, or at least semi-private.) I think we ended up with just under 20 people. This was in 2013, so I don't know if their policies have changed.

This looks amazing!! My college aged stepdaughter is in town for a couple more weeks, and I'm hoping to take advantage of another rare toddler babysitting opportunity to check this out. I almost suggested Grapeseed to my husband last weekend, but we ended up at a movie in Silver Spring (thanks to said college aged stepdaughter), so it didn't work out. Hoping to make it this time!!

I went for my birthday on a Tuesday this past August. We arrived at 6:20pm and there was already a 90-minute wait for a table. I thought it would be less busy on a Tuesday in August. Thankfully there were two open seats at the bar when we arrived and my husband and I were happy to sit at the bar. I'm not sure if it's gotten any less crazy since then, but I'd suspect the smaller your party the better off you'll be. Maybe when you call them they can help with strategy.

Filippo's in Wheaton carries dried pasta, though I'm not sure about this brand or shape.

February 7th is Super Bowl Sunday. If people are hosting or attending Super Bowl parties (I'm hosting one), it may not be a great day for them. I'm not sure if I'll be able to attend no matter what the date, so just an FYI -- I know it's hard to find the perfect date!

According to my neighborhood listserv, the Wheaton location closed.

I can't believe they've been open that long and I'm just hearing about them (and only because of a message on my neighborhood listserv). They must not have done much publicity.

We ended up roasting on a bed of potatoes and carrots and it was great! The roast was tender and cooked to the right temperature, and the horseradish cream sauce was amazing. Thanks for the suggestions on how to get around not having a roasting pan with a rack!

I haven't been there yet, but I recently learned of a new restaurant in Wheaton called BeClaws. They bill themselves as Cajun fusion. People on my neighborhood listserv seem to like it, for whatever that's worth. Has anyone been?

I can't believe I knew this before other people! (I know nothing about cars.) My husband told me a few years ago. It's very useful information!

Thank you both for the ideas! My husband had the idea to use potatoes and I was about to ask if that seemed advisable.

We have a 5-pound beef tenderloin and we're belatedly trying to figure out what to do with it. My stepdaughter found this recipe: "Beef Tenderloin with Horseradish Cream" by Tom Perini on epicurious.com and it sounds great (I love horseradish!) except that we don't have the called for roasting pan with a rack. I'm not interested in going out to buy one in this weather with the inevitable crowds. Should we find a different recipe, or is there hope? (We have a large disposable roasting pan that we could potentially use (?) if the rack isn't essential.)

Here are the characters: 丽丽水饺. They mean Lili's Dumplings. (Lili appears to be someone's name.) Also, there's a reference to Mandarin characters above. To my knowledge, all Chinese dialects use one of two sets of characters, traditional and simplified. All Chinese speakers used traditional characters until the Communists came to power in China and created simplified versions of the characters so they would be easier for the proletariat to learn and use. So now Mainland China uses simplified characters and Taiwan and other places still use traditional characters. I'm not sure what Hong Kong does at this point. The characters on the restaurant's sign and in this post are simplified characters, but they could represent any dialect.