dracisk

So I did stop in on Sunday to pick up dinner for me, my husband, and my stepdaughter after a rare visit to Fairfax. I would have never, ever known about this place if not for this website. Wesley the owner waited on me, and he was so nice and helpful. I ordered the hushpuppies, tamales, and a barbacoa taco for myself. I'd wanted to try the chicken mole and the pork with green sauce tamales, but sadly they only had two left when I got there, one pork and one vegetarian. Although I was sad not to get to try the chicken mole, the tamales I did try were delicious. I really like the idea of tamales, but I don't think I'd ever had a decent one until now. I keep ordering them in mediocre to terrible Tex Mex restaurants, and they're awful, but these were so good. reedm's description just above my post pretty much sums it up. I also enjoyed the barbacoa taco, especially the tortilla. Like someone else mentioned above, I also loved how they packed the tacos for transport with the meat in small plastic containers and the tortillas separate -- such care and thought! I was worried about how the hushpuppies would travel home to Silver Spring, so I started popping them on my drive (taking a page from Don's playbook). So, so delicious. Nice cornmeal flavor and great crunch on the outside while staying softer on the inside. I'm happy to report that the hushpuppies traveled pretty well the 45 minutes home. I was surprised when I pulled into my driveway and found that there were still several hushpuppies remaining -- I was sure I'd devoured them all on my drive. A generous portion. My husband loves fish and chips, and I wished he could have ordered them, but we weren't sure they'd survive the drive back to Silver Spring (he wasn't with me at the restaurant). So he ordered the steak mojo sandwich (of course steak). I had a couple of bites and thought it was tasty, but I was glad I ordered what I ordered (not that there was anything wrong with the sandwich at all). My husband liked the sandwich. My stepdaughter, who has the opposite of my almost limitless appetite, ordered three barbacoa tacos and actually finished them! I'm pretty sure this was the first time I'd even seen her finish a meal. She thought the tacos were amazing. I'm so, so glad to have learned about this place and also so glad I braved that nearby traffic circle to try it!

My husband is going to be all over this place. He orders steak at every opportunity.

My husband and I had a last minute opportunity for a toddlerless* meal Wednesday night, so we snagged a 7pm reservation at Dino's Grotto. I had eaten at Dino once a long, long time ago (maybe 10 years ago if it was open that long ago), but I'd never eaten at the Grotto. We had a great time. (I'd enjoyed my meal at Dino, but I somehow never made it back there. Too many new places to try, I guess. My loss.) Dean stopped by our table a couple of times to chat, which was great. (Dean, we were the couple you were encouraging to get the Feast of the Seven Fishes, but I said I wasn't a huge fish fan. We also discussed Apicius and Roman antiquity at some length.) He also chatted a couple of times with a couple behind us and seemed to know them pretty well. I was wondering if they were also Rockwellians. We started with the half salumi plate and the cauliflower gratinare. Both delicious. I can't say I normally get very excited about cauliflower, but I knew with the quality of the ingredients and the preparation (crucolo, fontina, ramp butter, baked) that it would be great. I had to really push my husband to order the cauliflower (he wanted the whole salumi plate), and I was glad I did. (He enjoyed the cauliflower, too.) We contemplated ordering the whole salumi plate plus the cauliflower, but thankfully our waiter talked us down from that. So often when we order charcuterie boards the portions are so miniscule that we feel like we could have eaten twice as much. This salumi plate was not only delicious but the portions were ample. I was so excited to eat the salumi that I gobbled it down without being sure of what most things were. My only nit of the whole evening is that I wish someone had oriented us to the items on the plate when it was left with us. I didn't think about this until much later, so it obviously didn't have a huge impact on our experience. For my primi I had the duck bolognese on Dean's recommendation. It was wonderful. I usually think of bolognese as a heavy dish, but this was pretty light and also had a nice kick to it, which I don't remember experiencing with other bolognese I've had. My husband had the campidanese, which was also delicious though not to my mind as exciting as the bolognese. For my secondi I had a pork belly dish that I don't see on the online menu, so I won't be able to explain it very well, but I liked it. (What's not to like about pork belly?) The sauce accompanying the pork belly was lovely. My husband the steak fiend had the teres major steak. He'd never had the cut before or even heard of it, and he liked it. The potatoes on the side were delicate and tasty, too. For dessert I had the chocolate custard cream pie, again on Dean's recommendation. This was delicious, especially the gingerbread crust. I'm a sucker for anything gingerbread, and this crust was amazing. The pie's filling was also tasty of course, although I don't remember tasting the orange in the menu description. Maybe I was too focused on the gingerbread crust. My husband loves tiramisu, so that's what he ordered, and he wasn't disappointed. For drinks I had the flight of three Lambruscos. I loved this and for $18 it seemed like a really good deal. I also had a glass of red wine that I enjoyed, but I can't give any more details since I know even less about Italian wines than I know about others and I don't see the wine list on the website. My husband had the house made ginger ale, which he liked and which was a refreshing change from the Canada Dry he usually drinks (I tried a sip). As for parking, we lucked out with a spot on 9th Street right across from the restaurant, but I was armed with the parking information from the restaurant's website just in case. Thanks for a great night, Dean! We can't wait to come back! *Though we were very happy to have a toddlerless meal out, I did notice the kid's menu that people mention in earlier posts. It looks great! Perhaps the toddler will join us next time.

That's my understanding as well. And, aside from credit utilization concerns, another reason you don't want to close cards you don't use, assuming you've had them awhile and there are no annual fees, is that the length of your credit history also matters. I'm a big fan of the Discover card, partially because it's simple and I don't have the bandwidth to figure out the intricacies of other reward programs. There's no annual fee, and you can get cash back or redeem your rewards for gift cards through their website. I haven't paid for Starbucks in years because I periodically cash in $45 in rewards for a $50 Starbucks card. You can use your Discover rewards at Amazon dollar for dollar. They also have a program called Discover Deals. I use it when I shop online. If you click on a participating merchant you can get additional cash back (on top of the regular rewards) if you use your Discover card. I just looked at some deals and merchants are offering 5%, 10%, and 15% cash back. Other than in international locations, I almost never encounter a merchant who doesn't take Discover (I encountered this more in the past). Some very small merchants continue not to take it. I have a Visa card as a back-up.

Every once in awhile my Southwest boarding pass prints out with authorization to use the TSA PreCheck line (I have no idea why because I've never applied for TSA PreCheck) and it's awesome. The lines are shorter and you don't have to take off your shoes or disassemble your carry-ons to show your laptop or liquids. Global Entry sounds even better for only $15 more. Thanks for explaining that, Bart!

I just received the following e-mail from the Old Takoma Business Association: TACO-ma Restaurant Now Open in Takoma Inspired by the cuisine of the Yucatan Peninsula New restaurant TACO-ma Yucatan Chicken has opened at 353 Cedar St, NW, in the vibrant Takoma historic business district. Owners of the Takoma Park, MD favorite, Roscoe's Neapolitan Pizzeria, and Del Ray's Taqueria el Poblano have joined forces to open this new concept specializing in favorites like tacos, burritos, quesadillas, plus Yucatan chicken. All food is made on site with an emphasis on sourcing the freshest, local ingredients. The chicken, from Shenandoah Valley Organic, is humanely raised, organic chicken free of hormones, pesticides, and antibiotics. The cozy dining room centers around a map of the Yucatan Peninsula, celebrating the restaurant's style of food and inspiration. A new bar has been added to the space (formerly My Little Bistro) and will be offering specialty tequilas, craft beers, fresh mixed margaritas and sangrias, among other favorites in the near future. The restaurant currently offers lunch and dinner options and will expand later with brunch offerings, including favorites like huevos rancheros, breakfast burritos, and more. "We are so pleased to offer something new and exciting to the Takoma neighborhood with our casual, authentic style of Mexican cooking," says co-owner Daniel Villena, "As the only Mexican restaurant in Takoma, we look forward to providing a unique and genuine experience to locals and visitors alike. We will maintain the same standards that we abide by at Roscoe's Pizzeria in that we are a family restaurant offering only the freshest quality foods made with local, organic ingredients. Location: TACO-ma Yucatan Chicken 353 Cedar St, NW Washington, DC 20012 Next to the Takoma Metro Station https://www.facebook.com/TACO-ma-Yucatan-Chicken http://www.yucatanchicken.com (coming soon) Hours: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday: 11am-9:30pm, Sunday: 11am-6pm. Closed Tuesdays.

Metal may be accurate in terms of what it tastes like to me. I'm not eager to do this, but I may need to taste some cilantro and figure out what it tastes like that's so unappealing.

Providence Returning belatedly to report that we ended up at Cook and Brown Public House on Hope Street in Providence (on the East Side and across the street from Chez Pascal, which I've also heard good things about). We happened to be there on a Sunday so decided to do the chef's choice family style three course Sunday supper. I think this was $38 a piece. They asked us what we didn't want to eat and off they went. (At this point my husband took the opportunity to tell them that if they could highlight steak somehow he'd love that. Grr. I don't dislike steak, but I rarely order it in a restaurant.) It's been almost 3 weeks, so unfortunately my memory is somewhat fuzzy on details at this point, but we both enjoyed our experiences. I started with the Hummingbird cocktail (fords gin, hum botanical spirit, rosemary, lemon, bubbles) (this is on their online menu, so I don't have to remember the details!). I rarely order cocktails, but I enjoyed this, as it was light and refreshing. I'm a sucker for a cocktail with herbs and bubbles. I then switched to wine and tried to order a gamay, which they were out of, so the bartender recommended a bonarda when I said I was looking for a lighter red. As anyone who knows anything about wine can probably tell, I'm clueless about wine, but I know I like lighter reds, and I greatly enjoyed this wine (I unfortunately didn't get any information on it beyond the varietal). As for food, we started with a take on eggs benedict that included (I believe house made) lamb merguez sausage in place of pork and brioche in place of an English muffin. This was served with some lightly dressed greens and was delicious (although I was jealous of another party that received some kind of sliders made with house cured pastrami as their first course). For our main course we received steak (thanks, husband) with a romesco sauce, fingerling potatoes, leeks, and I believe shiitake mushrooms. The steak was well cooked and amply portioned. The romesco sauce was delicious. The fingerling potatoes were amazing -- crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside. I could have used a few more of those. The leeks were the only element of the evening that really didn't work for me. I'm not a huge fan of oniony flavors, so maybe it's partially just my taste, but we left a big pile of these on the plate. For dessert we had what were basically ice cream sandwiches made with pieces of a gingerbread-like cookie and I think cinnamon ice cream as the filling. They were good but didn't wow me even though I love gingerbread, and they were hard to eat because the cookies were hard to break with a fork and I wouldn't have wanted to pick them up (not sure if that would have been appropriate anyway) because the ice cream was oozing out the sides. We'd made a reservation to sit at a table, but we ended up sitting at the bar and got great service from the bartender, who was pleasant even to the tipsy and loud neighbors who came in for drinks and tried to dominate his time and attention. I'd recommend checking this place out to anyone who finds him- or herself in Providence (or, heck, anywhere in Rhode Island -- the state is tiny :-)).

I returned my husband's jeans yesterday. I had a brief speech ready about how he'd only worn them a few times and they tore but they clearly fit, so there must have been something wrong with them, blah blah, but the cashier didn't seem to care. She just (pleasantly) took them back and handed me my cash (I did have my receipt). Perhaps more newsworthy was the fact that once again there was no line for returns. This was around 3pm on a Monday in Wheaton. So if you have any flexibility about when you try to make a return (I realize many people don't), I suggest going on a weekday.

Yikes. I have every other Monday off from work, so that's when I usually go. Hopefully it'll be less busy this Monday when I make my attempt.

Thank you both so much. I'm going to give it a shot. The one time I returned something (just a standard return of an unused item that my husband bought but we didn't need) there was no line for returns -- I must've lucked out that time. I'll steel myself for a possible wait this time. Thanks again!

I have another non-food Costco question if people will indulge me: I bought my husband a pair of Levi's at the Wheaton Costco a few weeks ago. He wore them a few times and they tore when he was getting in the car (not on a seam, of course). They fit fine, so it's not an issue of them being too tight. Do people think Costco would take them back? I'd even just do an exchange assuming they still have the same jeans. I might even have the receipt. I think I read somewhere that they're pretty good about returns, but I thought I'd get some other intel before I make an attempt. Thanks in advance for any thoughts!

My husband smoked a beef brisket yesterday. Wow. It came out really well. He used a spice rub from the Salk Lick outside of Austin and smoked the brisket for 6 hours over mesquite chips and charcoal. (We sadly didn't make it to The Salt Lick when we were in Austin last year, but we bought the spice rub in the airport.) I was only going to have a bite of the brisket because I'm trying to watch what I eat, but I ended up eating way too much (classic). Standing in the kitchen cutting off hunks of brisket. No sides. The toddler and the dog liked the brisket, too.

Yes, there's science on the great cilantro divide. A lot of people who don't like it say it tastes like soap. I don't think it tastes like soap to me, but I sure don't like it.

I'm the same way about beer. I tried for years to like it, but I just don't. I'm not sure what it is I don't like, but I've never enjoyed any beer I've tried. I wish I liked it because I feel like there's so much to explore. Friends used to say, "I know you don't really like beer, but you should try this one. I think you'll like it." I used to agree to a sip, but now I ask, "Does it taste like beer?" and if my friend says yes I don't even bother. OK, OK, I did recently try a sip of my husband's Duchesse De Bourgogne, which didn't taste terrible, although I'm not sure I'd want to drink a whole bottle.

There's always the great cilantro divide. I can't stand it and don't expect I'll ever enjoy it. I'm also not much of a fan of raw onion.

I'm almost never out that way, but I just realized I'll practically be driving right by ABC Canteen on my way home from an event in a couple of weeks. I'm definitely stopping in to pick up dinner!

I think there's a difference between exploring without a plan and getting lost (though exploring without a plan may result in getting lost). I've done trips in which everything was planned (by me and/or for me) and trips where little was planned. I think when you're wandering around a neighborhood or a town without a plan (popping into a bookstore or a coffee shop or a church that looks interesting but isn't in your guidebook) you're more likely to meet a local who may take you under his or her wing. If you're constantly rushing from one planned activity to another I think you have fewer opportunities for such spontaneity. The bottom line is that I think a little bit of both (planning and exploring without a plan) makes for a great trip. If I've never been to a place I'm certainly more likely to plan more before I go so I can see the major sights that interest me. At the same time, I'm always sure to build in plenty of unstructured time to just wander, hang out, and (hopefully) enjoy wherever I am. One of my first trips to Europe was an 11-day tour of London, Paris, and Rome during which we basically bolted from one major tourist sight to another the entire time. I'm never doing that again. Now when I travel I usually plan one or two activities each day and devote the rest of the time to cafes and park benches. :-)

Interestingly enough, I had one of the best unplanned travel experiences of my life in China when I studied abroad there in 1993 (eons ago, especially when it comes to China!). I don't look Chinese-American (I'm white), and I spoke Mandarin very well at the time. I know my fellow travelers in my study abroad group who were Chinese-American had experiences similar to what Sundae in the Park described ("Your Chinese is terrible!" "I'm American!" "No you're not! You're Chinese!"), but basically whatever came out of my mouth was amazing because I'm white. We had a week-long break from school in the fall, and a friend and I flew from Nanjing to Chengdu (a really big deal to fly at the time!) then took a train to Chongqing in order to take a Yangzte River cruise through the Three Gorges back to Nanjing. (We took a boat for Chinese tourists as opposed to a boat for foreign tourists (not that there were many foreign tourists in China at the time) and ate fangbian mian (a/k/a "convenient noodles" a/k/a instant noodles) for a week. I have no idea why we didn't eat in the cafeteria with everyone else "“ maybe we were trying to save money? We were quite a curiosity on the boat.) In Chongqing we somehow got to talking to this Chinese guy who was probably a little older than we were. I think his English name was Eric. Now that 22 years have passed I can't remember how we came across him. He may have just approached us, which happened often because people wanted to practice their English with us. We ended up spending most of an afternoon with him, and he invited us to his apartment for dinner. At the time (not sure if this has changed) going to a Chinese person's home was a big deal for a foreigner. At our schools (one in Nanjing and one in Beijing) we stayed in foreign student dorms, not with families. I can't remember the details of what we ate, but I remember enjoying the meal. (I seem to remember a tofu dish. Could it have been mapo dofu? We were in Sichuan Province.) Our cruise back to Nanjing left the next morning, and Eric met us at the dock to see us off. I remember standing on the deck of the boat and watching him wave to us as we pulled away. So sweet. He gave me a tchotchke as a memento that I still have. My toddler was recently pretending to answer the tchotchke as if it was a phone (it's roughly the same size as a smartphone). I think we stayed in touch via letter for a while (this was pre-email for Eric, although I had primitive email back home), but we lost touch a long, long time ago.

was just at Victoria Gastro Pub a couple of weekends ago and ordered the poutine. It was delicious.

Weight loss experts say that keeping a journal of everything you eat helps with taking off weight.

I'm in RI and have an opportunity for a toddlerless meal with my husband tomorrow night. I'm drawing a blank on where to go. Last year when we had a similar opportunity we went to Mills Tavern and enjoyed it. I'd like to try someplace different. I've only been to Al Forno once and would like to go back, but they're closed on Sundays. I'd love to try Matunuck Oyster Bar, but I hear the waits are insane even in the winter, and I'm not sure I'm up for that. Aside from Al Forno I'm not super interested in Italian, but I'd consider it. I'm also not all that interested in East Asian or South Asian food (I'm generally interested but not for tomorrow). I went to Gracie's a couple of years ago and enjoyed it, but my husband wouldn't be interested. Does anyone have any RI suggestions for me??

Yes! I was looking at a list of new content and my eyes were immediately drawn to this thread. I'll be in RI for Thanksgiving and could pick up some Autocrat for you, but I bet your homemade version is better. How did you find out about the RI and coffee milk connection? Clam cakes are another amazing RI treat, especially in the summer with some chowder by the beach. I have them at least once every summer. (I try to limit my consumption to once, but I'm not always successful.)

I just came across the Culinary Arts Museum at Johnson & Wales University in the "Where Have All The Diners Gone?" article posted in the Greek-Italian Diners thread. Despite having grown up in RI and still visiting several times a year, I had never heard of this museum, but I thought others might be interested to check it out if they find themselves in the Ocean State. Also, I always love to promote anything RI-related. If I make it there myself I'll report back!

I second the thanks. I've been following along with fascination. I've been to Paris several times and to Barcelona once, but I've never done a fine dining tour like this. Amazing. Also, when I heard about the Paris attacks I immediately thought of astrid even though we've never interacted on the site much less met each other in real life!