B.A.R.

Let's see if I get this right. Since Rocks posted a part of the decor, then I will too!

Hmm...not very many restaurants have industrial blue/gray carpet on the floor. Probably in a strip mall. I am guessing the china and serving dishes would be a dead giveaway to anyone who has eaten there. Unfortunately, I am not that person.

Anyone know if there is a bar here? The family is abandoning me this weekend and I'm looking for a spot to dine solo.

Did this years ago when a patron kept complaining about their "black" waiter. Can't tolerate that shit, and public shaming works.

That was excellent and very clever. I will remember that for a long time (vacation, anyone?)

Oh come on people! If you are absolutely filthy stinking rich, like Scrooge McDuck rich, this is about the best thing ever! They'll sell a ton of them if they market it properly, (like to anyone who buys Ace of Spades....NBA players come to mind, Bieber, that crazy gambling boxer, etc.)

The bar at Trummer's is lovely. Points are deducted for the support column, but it's an old building so you deal with what you have

La Forchette (or whatever it's called now)? Al Dente

This article, in the New Yorker a few years ago, discusses the world of "natural flavorings". Red Bull was discussed as a challenge for the flavorings community, as it just tasted bad. Because Red Bull was so dominant, consumers had associated that bad taste with energy drinks, and those that went to market and actually tasted good struggled to gain a foothold. So they intentionally made energy drinks to taste a little bad.

This is going to be a very fun thread!

I am looking for a butcher block for my kitchen and was wondering if any members had one they were looking to get rid of. If so, let me know!

Please do.

I worked with a group of Thai people, and each night before the shift they sat down and had a pre-shift meal they prepared for themselves. I was always very interested in the food that they were eating, and they were most kind in sharing with me. It became something of a tradition that each night they would make me a plate, and I heartily ate everything, no questions asked. Since I was the boss, they showed genuine appreciation for my appreciation. So they brought me a delicacy to try. They were honored to present it to me. It was balut. My first reaction, upon seeing the embryo in the egg, was "we're going to sue someone!". I mean, how the hell did that happen? Then they explained that it was supposed to be like that and were clearly disappointed, if not offended, by my revulsion. So I apologized for my ignorance and decided to man up. If you've never seen it up close, it's a baby chicken embryo in an egg. To be more clear, it is a fully developed chicken embryo: beak, eyes, wings, little claws, feathers, EVERYTHING. And you can see everything, just frozen in place in the hard boiled egg. There's no easy way to eat a balut either. It's a minimum of two bites, if not three. There is crunchiness involved. I sized up the challenge and tried to figure out a way to eat the egg parts first, around the bird, then just power gulp the bird with minimal chewing. The way my bird was positioned, that couldn't happen. So I bit through the head part first, chewed and swallowed (beak=crunchy). Two more bites and I was done. There was a tremendous amount of sriricha involved. After that, I was pretty sure I could eat anything - then I read this thread. I now have that puke ball in the back of my throat, and am considering going vegan. ETA- I just went to the balut Wiki page and saw the pictures. Mine DID NOT look like that. Mine was a hard boiled egg with a chicken inside. Maybe I ate something different. Something worse?

Chili seems to be the ultimate "comfort" food and is one of those dishes that is almost always better at home, slurped from big bowls with big spoons, while surrounded by friends and family. Chili should always have meat! For me? I go with a "white" chili. Soak white beans overnight. Sautee up some ground turkey, pork and veal. Remove from pan. Add some onions, garlic, poblano chilis, jalepenos, ancho chili powder, ground cumin seeds, a bay leaf, S&P and sautee until they are soft. Add the meat back in and half the beans. In some chicken stock, I cook half of the beans (that were soaked overnight) until just soft, then puree. Add the stock to the beans, meat and chili mixture. It will be very thin at first. Simmer very low for a few hours until the uncooked beans release their starch and the pureed beans really thicken the whole mix. Oh yeah, throw some cilantro in there too. I'll dice up some habanero or thai chilis and add those to "my" batch as my wife can only tolerate a little heat. Top with some shredded, aged white cheddaAr and sour cream. Delicious. Sorry for the half-assed recipe but I love chili. Chili is a treasure.

Recently? No. But when I do, it is usually at Super H Mart

You can try the Henley Park Hotel on Mass Ave near the convention center. They used to serve tea in a small room off the lobby. If they still do, it'd be perfect for this group.

According to Tom S. , the restaurant will be closed on Mondays to afford the staff more time off. Considering they are already closed on Sundays, that's pretty amazing. Kudos to them, as two days off straight is the holy grail of the restaurant biz, and now all of the staff will get it.

Friends, I took advantage of the recent warm spell here in the nation’s capital to explore one of our most overlooked, and lightly regarded, areas of natural splendor. The holidays are a busy time for me, and when an opportunity presents itself to revel in all the beauty that nature bestows upon us, I gladly jumped at the chance. Too often in my pursuit of vinous perfection, I focus on the minutiae of components of the final scintillating elixir; the passion and soul of the vignerons toiling to gently shape, to craft, what nature has provided. I travel the world searching for God’s beauty in a bottle, but sometimes, that beauty is found right under my nose. And it is that rare occasion when my single minded focus stumbles upon that beauty, that unquestionable perfection, in a strange place. In a strange package. Today was just such a day. And the Anacostia River is just such a place. Friends, I implore you to read on. I slipped my kayak into the river at the Anacostia River Boathouse and paddled north, through Kingman Lake and into the labyrinth of creeks, tributaries, and hollows north of Kingman Island. Friends, you can trust me when I say the beauty of this majestic little parcel of water and land rivals any in the Mid-Atlantic. As the sun bathed me in a golden warmth and the steel blue water lapped at my boat, I was lost in the splendor and could not have foretold the impending confluence of nature’s bounty and man’s craftsmanship that was about to present itself. I slipped my craft onto a small alluvial shoal and took a sip of Badoit when I spied a Great Blue Egret out of the corner of my eye. Elegant and majestic, this creature’s extended legs and elongated, pencil thin beak were perfectly crafted to precisely pluck the small fish and pollywogs abundant in the pools beneath its feet. The normally bright plumage had darkened, masking its lean profile against the tangle of weeds, brush, and leaves along the shore. Such a simple sight and so magical. Just beyond the noble creature, trapped under a confusion of twigs, was a splash of red. Intrigued, I glided quietly past the heron and inched close enough to spy the second moment of bliss of the day. This one man made but the equivalent of what nature had wrought. It was a discarded box of Samoa’s. The Girl Scouts have been producing cookies in large scale since 1936. Friends, I can attest that there is no better treat to ruin your ill-advised New Year’s Weight loss resolution than these tasty little morsels. The scant amount of cookies in each package foretells the contents preciousness. There is a great amount of concern amongst the cognoscenti about unhealthy aspects of large scale food production, and rightly so. But I ask you, friends, have you tasted one of these damn things? They are scrumptious. And they do use Palm Oil, for what it’s worth. And I am told that the high fructose corn syrup in them was an accident. And that guy was fired. Friends, an opportunity like this presents itself only twice a year, or every time you go to the grocery store from now until June. The lots offered have no limits, and have been impeccably sourced by Isabella Reymann (full disclosure, she’s my 9 year old daughter, blah, blah, blah). Nikki is out of the office dealing with a bad case of gastritis, so please feel free to PM me with your orders. I will deliver and ship them as necessary. Payment due upon receipt.

To my next door neighbor Greg, for spending hours last night mounting and calibrating a massive* telescope in his driveway, and telling my girls that anytime they wanted to stare at the heavens, he'd be delighted. *seriously, this thing is 5' long, anchored to a heavy duty lift, computer controlled and hooked up to all sorts of cameras. It's insane

I'm with you! I was merely trying to say lack of choice was the thing I despised the least. Me too! Love a good Prix Fixe menu but am totally put off by many of these elaborate, precious, and well executed ill conceived "tasting menus". I ate at the "Chef's Table" of a very well known and highly regarded restaurant a few years back. Somewhere around course 15 and hour 3, I would have gladly paid EXTRA for any of the entrees going out from the ala carte menu just to stave off my hunger pangs and end the monotony and madness. More importantly, I don't want to eat like that regularly, and the necessity of a tasting menu is how I cull my dining choices herd.

For me, I am less bothered by the lack of choice than I am the amount of time it takes (several times I have simply asked for the meal to stop and PAID IN FULL), and the fact that I would much rather eat a single meal than 30 tastes of a meal.

Not sure where to put this and can't believe we have not discussed tasting menus in an individual thread. This is an interesting read: A look at Tasting Menus Although I have had several tasting menus over the last 5-7 years that I found exciting, provacative, and delicious, I have had many, many more that were just joyless, tedious, never ending affairs that left me hungrier, tired, and considerably poorer.

I have to say, this is one of the things that make restaurants, and opinions about restaurants, so interesting - and I am not saying John William G is wrong. My wife and I had dinner with another couple a few weeks back. I thought the meal was very solid, with no flaws and several wow dishes (we shared a bit of everything). Service was informed and restrained, no mishaps. We split the check, and walked out. I was thinking to myself, "I've overlooked this place for too long, that was an excellent meal." My dining companion said, as we walked down the walk, "Well, that was a very expensive disappointment. Wont be going back there!"

Say hi next time! I don't think anyone makes as consistently good soups as Tom Power.

I'll have the Burned Ortolan with Donkey Sauce, please.