zgast

On 11/8/2020 at 7:26 PM, yeah said:

Apple hand pies [from Red Truck Bakery] --a vastly superior version of the only thing I can eat from McDonald's.  That's almost certainly underselling it, but eating the two side by side would be an excellent reminder of why you should pay up for quality.

Not Red Truck, but drooling thinking of the apple hand pies that Jeff Heineman made at Grapeseed.  Damn, I miss him and the great food he made.

I would be fascinated to know how this tastes. Was quite thrown off by the white wine appearing black. 
Unfortunately, I have no clue how you should go about tasting this. 

6 hours ago, Ericandblueboy said:

Did you self quarantine?  Kanye apparently didn't but he can just pay the fine.  I'm itching to travel, and I'm debating whether to ignore the quarantine requirement.

We did. 14 days in 900 sq ft. It sucked. Figured getting kicked out of the UK 2 months into a 5 year job wouldn’t be the smartest move. 
 

UK is in lockdown now so no reason to travel here. You couldn’t do anything anyway. I do think quarantines will move to 5-7 days plus a test, which may make the whole thing more doable. 

I can chime in with a review here.  We enjoyed a takeout dinner from L'Amorosa last night - just before lockdown begins and all the restaurants shut down.  The food was quite nice and very reasonable to the wallet.  We split the burrata with delicata squash and tomato appetizer.  My wife didn't love the delicata (she's not big on any squash or zucchini) but we both agreed it was probably the best burrata we had ever had.  I didn't think I would ever say that about burrata, which seems so simple.

The first pasta was agnolotti in a beef ragu, which Andy reviewed above - we both agreed with his review.  Very intense flavor and perfect for a fall night. We would have been better off with a red wine here.  Next pasta was an orecchiette with a delicata squash sauce, greens, a bit of chile and breadcrumbs.  This was good, but probably suffered the most from being takeout (and the second course).  The breadcrumbs were imperceptible and I would have loved a bit more chile flavor to kick it up.  The winner of the night was actually the entree - chicken with polenta, mushrooms and crisp prosciutto.  We got this one for our son - the blanditarian.  Not only did he scarf it down, but me and my wife were fighting for pieces of the chicken and even the sauce over the polenta.  That good.  Whatever chicken's he's nurturing in the back, I'm going to start stealing for myself.

Wrapped up with two tiramisu, which was definitely overkill, but hey - last dinner before lockdown.  All this came to less than £65 or about $85, so definitely a place I'll be revisiting.

8 minutes ago, DonRocks said:

I promise I wasn't being a douche with a thesarus; I actually suffered through Gulliver's Travels once (it's a very old (1726), very long (300 pages), slog-of-a-book with Gulliver visiting four lands - the land of Brobdingnag (giants) was the opposite of the land of Lilliput (teeny-tiny people). I figured after thirty years, I could throw the word in one time (if I use it again, slap me).

It's a bit of a flight - mind if I deputize DishGo if you use it again?

20 hours ago, DonRocks said:

The two main dishes were Brobdingnagian, and diners here need to be careful not to over-order.

Please tell me someone else had to google this.

11 hours ago, Rhone1998 said:

Hello DR hive, I’m looking for a pizza place, in DC or Montgomery County ideally, with a patio suitable for a party of 10 to 15 people. Bonus points if it’s got heat lamps since the weather might be cold when we head there.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Pizzeria Da Marco in Bethesda has a patio that could accomodate that many. I'm not sure if MoCo regs allow parties larger than 6 at a single table, so you might need to be seated across two or three tables.  Alatri Bros also has patio seating as well, but is probably not as strong pizza wise.

22 hours ago, DonRocks said:

Sohaib is a friend of mine on Twitter who lives in Pakistan.

Whatever you did, the UK did it too. I think this is about EU tracking rules. Rather than comply, some sites just block international access. Washington Gas is one of many I’ve come across. 

On 10/24/2020 at 1:58 PM, ElGuapo said:

Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich and the County Council are investigating the county’s ability to force lower fees charged to restaurants by food delivery apps, such as Uber Eats, Grubhub, and DoorDash:

https://www.sourceofthespring.com/montgomery-county/food-delivery-app-fees/

Whether I think the fees are too high or not (I do, for what it's worth), this is insane and not how a local county should be spending it's time. Elrich is going to squander tens of millions in federal aid because it's unspent, and he's worried about this????

I still prefer Pho Nam in Gaithersburg on Shady Grove.  They even let you pay with a credit card now.

---

Dining in Merrifield (Ericandblueboy)

36 minutes ago, Bart said:

Hey Tweaked - it looks like the Jaleo link actually takes you to the ChiKo story.

New link to Eater.

11 minutes ago, Ericandblueboy said:

A proper pour of champagne and sparkling wine is 4 oz.  I know this because I've thought the pour is stingy when I had champagne in Europe and I looked it up.

It is, but most places in the US do pour 5-6 oz, so 4 oz looks stingy, as you said.  

12 hours ago, DonRocks said:

Was looking for a new hobby.

17 hours ago, Bart said:

This sucks.

And from the article:  Owner Ruth Gresser cites the reason to close permanently as unsuccessful lease negotiations.

This sucks, even worse.

I've heard this from every restaurant owner I've spoken with or read about. Property owners don't seem to be budging on rents - at all.  

47 minutes ago, Kibbee Nayee said:

Microsoft had some loose change in their pocket when TikTok went to Oracle and WalMart.

Should this topic be moved to Rockville, where Bethesda is actually based? Sorry - been up since 4 am.

2 hours ago, DonRocks said:

Just for added perspective:

"This is my favorite restaurant in the world."
-- Andy Hayler

Mentally adding this to my to do list.

24 minutes ago, Bob Wells said:

Where are you moving to? Hopefully some place where there is some good pizza, even if a different style.

London - plenty of great pizza, but there won't be anything quite like Vace.

19 minutes ago, saf said:

Vace for dinner tonight - got a large pizza, so we could have lunch leftovers. Extra cheese and mushrooms on the whole thing. The husband added garlic and sausage to his half. I don't like their sausage. The garlic is good, but there is enough of it that it is hard on my stomach, so I don't get it on my half.

Agree on the sausage.  And they need to get bell peppers as an option.  That being said, Vace remains my favorite pizza night in the city.  My son is seriously worried that they won't have pizza like Vace when we move (they won't - we'll survive).  Gotta love a place this down to earth nearby.

11 hours ago, Keithstg said:

From where and to where in Maine? That's wild unless you are headed to Aroostoock County. I've been driving from DC or VA to ME for the past 19ish years, save for when we fly or leave from NY. Never taken more than 13 to NE Harbor. Of course, now I've jinxed myself...

There was a direct flight on United from Dulles to Portland, and Dulles to Bangor, but fear it's a casualty of the pandemic. 

I'm pretty sure it was just a fluke weekend of traffic - we went to Long Lake.  I think a lot of those regional airport flights are gonna be slow to come back.

57 minutes ago, Ericandblueboy said:

I thought about going back to Portland, ME for Labor Day weekend (stopping and picking up my bro in NJ on the way to and fro).  The trip failed to materialize because my SIL couldn't get time off.  I wouldn't drive straight to Portland (8.5 hrs is too long).

The last time we drove to Maine it took 17 hours.  We decided we were never going to do that again.

14 hours ago, DonRocks said:

It's got to be the texture - that little bit of squeaky firmness, and then ... squish.

Have you tried making a puree and deceiving them? Or if that won't work, making an 80-20 mashed potato - zucchini puree, slowly upping the percentage of zucchini, and telling them it's calabacín if they ask why the potatoes are green?

Pancakes!  It masks the green.  Even better if you just get the yellow squash. 

Passage to India has added delivery through some of the apps - a welcome addition to our dining out-in retinue.  Wish I had the time/energy to go pick it up, but the delivery makes a bid difference.  They've also added some more dishes you'd traditionally see at Indian restaurants (tikka masala, lamb ghost, etc) to the menu which let's us pick up a couple things for the less adventurous eaters.  The cooking is still great - I hope these changes let them keep doing what they're doing!

3 hours ago, dracisk said:

My husband gave my 6-year-old a big bowl of Goldfish and an orange soda at 5pm. 🙄🤯 Shockingly, she's not hungry for dinner. But still wants dessert!

Sounds like a yummy dinner to me!  Goldfish are the one kid food that I'll still go for all of the time.

32 minutes ago, leleboo said:

International? CRIPES. Where ya headed? We are building a house up the road (different school district) and the Air Force will be paying for our move, and and we rent now so we don’t have to sell this time. It’s STILL stressful. 

Lion, that seems hard for 1st grade. We still (HAHAHAHAH) don’t have our final plan, but the suggestion was that it would be a bit of synchronous time in the morning, and asynchronous otherwise. Plus my 3rd grader gets gifted services, so that’s also supposed to be a once-a-week synchronous pull-out. But spending all day replicating “school” ... that sounds hard. At least you have a lunch break! 

London - which is why I can forgive myself for ordering in two meals today (partly first day of school reasons, too).  Any move is tough though.

I can't imagine trying to supervise virtual school for a six year old. Meals are something that should be simple, simple at that point.

1 hour ago, lion said:

It does seem like a long march with distance learning for kids.

Today, our rising 1st grade son had a video chat with his new teacher. From what she said, the school day will be much fuller than the spring term as they have prepared to replicate a regular school day's activities with specials and different level reading and math groups. 

Everyday lunch will be between 12 and 1, so at least our schedule will be more fixed moving into the fall. At least dinner has fallen into a routine where we rotate thru 7-8 things over two weeks.

 

You could always mix things up by trying to orchestrate an international move and home sale.  Can't recommend it highly enough - it's doing wonders for my anxiety level.....