yeah

I noticed the more pronounced Old Bay too, and different aspects of the seasoning come out this year as well.  Last year there was more of a celery/vegetable thing versus more peppery/smokey this year.  Still good, just different.

Picked up a six at Westover Market last night. BTW--Flying Dog also has a very handy widget on their website for locating specific product lines.  Will report soon. 

Does anyone know if they're bringing it back this year? If so, and if someone spots it, can you please let us know? Thanks. 

Milam St.

Les Grival's has very good bread and the grilled pork is better cut/less grisly than what I'm typically getting in the DMV.  But don't miss the spring rolls either, there's something going on in there that seems different or maybe just atypically well-executed. 

Excellent as ever. Only gripe was the cucumbers on the Szechuan dry noodles were not quite matchstick thin, a little wider and that threw something off texture-wise.  Fried tofu had that excellent salt and pepper tang accompanying its light crisp.  My little ones split the beef noodle soup, which put two-yeah old into slurping carb-zen for the duration of the meal and had four-yeah-old asking, totally unprompted, to return the next day.  About 80% of the tables were full on a Friday at lunch, in a just world the line would be out the door.  

Dropped in today. Atmosphere is pleasant, with some awesomely cheeseball lounge covers as the soundtrack--think Foo Fighters played as a samba.  Very friendly host and waitstaff.  The chef attended several broths in sort of a semi-open kitchen (think hockey penalty box) next to the bar.  

"Hakata" Tonkotsu was thick and velvety as you'd want it to be, with thin scallions, egg and four generous slices of tenderloin inside along with a standard-size portion of noodles.  The flavor of the broth was maybe just slightly too salty and the meat just a little overdone, but overall this was an excellent bowl of ramen I'd put up against Jinya or Ren's.  Yeahwife enjoyed Buta Kakuni and its generous pork belly slices. I also enjoyed a couple bites of the crispy chicken in the Karedon donburi we ordered for four-yeah-old, and the curry itself was pleasantly spicy, though perhaps best enjoyed on the side. 

I think Columbia Pike now hosts our go-to ramen shop.  Next I think I'll give the Shio a try and see how it compares with Bantam King's. 

I strongly agree El Pollo Rico is superior judging by the chicken alone.  Others I've found either dry, over-, under- or weirdly seasoned (see Don's hilarious post on the Wilson Blvd Super Pollo). The popularity of Rico seems to breed a virtuous cycle of fast turnover, so the chickens aren't spending too much time under direct heat.  Also agree sides are better elsewhere, but I'm not really there for the sides. 

@Pool Boy @hopsing

Just curious, what are some Pollo a la Brasa places in the area you like better than El Pollo Rico? 

Was there with a large-ish group last night.  We all did AYCE option A--thought the miso pork belly and spicy chicken were highlights. Panchan also above average--egg custard was much more savory and rich than most places, stew was pleasantly spicy and the pickled chayote was a unique offering.  Meats, though quite fatty, were not as "fatiguing" as one would expect, even on round two or three, and there was none of that mustiness you get when pork is less than fresh. Similar atmosphere to Honey Pig, more dressed up than Nakwon or Il Mee, but I think the food is better than any of those.  I still prefer the more seafood-focused To Sok Jip, but I think this is could be anyone's go-to for bbq. 

The Maryland Crab soup at the Clarendon location was better than it had any right to be a couple weeks ago.  Bright, briny, and lots of Old Bay.  Subtle or delicate it was not, but neither was the can of Founders All Day IPA I had to go with it.  

Is it just me or has this place flown seriously below the radar? 

When eating one's weight in dumplings--which two-yeah old may have, literally, accomplished--the fish and chive dumplings are an excellent choice to break up all the ground pork you'd typically consume.  Chives also make the dish accessible to the cilantro-averse.   Varying the skin between fried and steamed is good for textural contrast, though steamed is likely advisable for high-volume "sessions."

The scallion pancake is also above average here, the very crisp external layer could be pulled off and eaten like a pita chip.  A gratis winter melon soup had a wonderfully mild flavor with a bit of thickness.  Lots of potential missteps on the menu, but a dumpling/pancake/soup-focused meal is a likely winner.

The bone-in chicken and kubideh kabobs were always my go-to.  We have many great options for kabobs in this area, I'm not sure any are better than KP.  Agree, get a lot of the green sauce and deploy liberally.

Rudi Lechner's claims 1976 as an open date.  Never been but that "Beer Schnitzel Express Lunch" and "overly stuffed" cabbage rolls look like a win right now. 

Ignore all of the items in the name of the place, better boba-type drinks can be had in multiple places in the same shopping mall (in fact there are like half a dozen fronting Bellaire, all battling it out, the creamy/tart variety at Sharetea was my winner), the Szechuan dry noodles here are just incredible.  Perfect flavor and textural balance--match-stick cucumbers of a nutty, spicy, sauce... I could go on but just go try it.  It's also $4.50, so, yeah.  The beef noodle soup, pork chop, fried tofu are all very good here as well, but, those noodles tho.

Casarecce Nero is pasta that is crunchy, spicy, and smells of the sea.  Scallops were pillowy soft while the fusilli was springy resilient.  Trota is a perfect dance of smoke and fishy. Capelletti is complex, rich, decadent and offset best by the driest of the three Lambruschi in the flight: tart, grassy, dry.  Sit near a window and watch the lights reflect off the Anacostia.

Also on the top floor food court at Tysons.  Though the price for a sandwich or salad comes in north of $10, it's still easily the best choice in otherwise treacherous territory. They are quite generous with toppings.  You can also order the falafel separately, with hummus, for something like $4.  

They've expanded over to the space that was Seaside Crab House as well as the outdoor seating under the "tent."  With Ban Ta temporarily (I hope) out of commission, this may now be the strongest Banh Mi in Eden Center.  They supposedly use the bread from neighboring Banh Mi So #1  but I like the fillings here better. Grilled chicken, pedestrian and dry as it is elsewhere, has a nice smokiness and is lean and moist (enough).  "Combination" choices are headcheesy as you need them to be, and the sardine is abundant, funky and delicious if cut with enough cilantro and jalepeno. Not as crazy about the Lee's iced coffee they serve; I'd recommend getting the banh mi here and coffee at the coffee next door at So #1.

And Thanh Son remains a must.

Latest episode features Jose Zelaya of La Union discussing the restaurant's history, differences among Latin American cuisines and how to order off-menu.   Past episodes feature Republicans eating ethically sourced meat and County Commissioners of Revenue growing up vegetarian.   Every other Saturday at 9:30 AM (next will be 10/22) on WERA 96.7 and streaming at wera.fm and mixcloud.

5:30 PM Saturday finds the place about 40% full for Neapolitan pizza that is 80% as good as Pupatella and orders of magnitude less drama.  We parked 50' away from the door.  In a garage.  

Special of blue cheese mussels ($12) was very rich, savory and sopped up nicely with two large hunks of grilled bread.  Crudo pizza ($15ish) had heavy coverage of prosciutto, cheese, added olive oil and arugula, a bit busy for a purist, but satisfying nonetheless. 

Brussels sprouts chips ($7) was a bit of a miss, nothing to offset the bitterness but salt and oil, more severely under-performing the delicious balsamic-tinged Pupatella rendition than the pizza.

4-yeah-old's Macaroni and cheese was thick, roux-y sauce over orichietti,  good enough to theft a few bites.  2-yeah-old seemed happy with dairy-less spaghetti in marinara. 

On 8/9/2013 at 9:59 AM, KeithA said:

Tried the new Rosenfeld's Jewish Deli at 63rd? street right next to where Coastal Hwy meet Rt 90.  Full disclosure - Warren Rosenfeld the owner is an old acquitance of mine and I wish him the best on the success of having a real Jewish deli in OC. He is a real mensch and deserves it. As his website says it is the only Jewish within a 2 hour drive.  For those familiar with the good, not great deli of Parkway Deli in Silver Spring, this place will be very familiar. The woman who was the old manager of Parkway for years settled down in OC and now is working here too.  We had carryout so things would have probably been better fresh in the restaurant which has a few seats inside (as well as a takeout counter) and a nice outdoor shaded patio with a good number of tables.  We had a very good kasha knish and great whitefish salad (made in store), but the ____'s Guilt sandwich was only so so - it is a non-homemade potato knish split and piled high with corned beef.  Like Parkway, the pastrami and corned beef come from Saval, which can be good as I'm a fan of Parkway, but meat was kind of meh on the sandwich and the knish would have been so much better if it wasn't the square, frozen type you get from a cart in NY (one brand of this style is Gabilla), but a homemade more rounded knish with fresh pastry on the outside (like the kasha knish here). Also, this dish definitely suffered from being carried out and steaming in its box. The other good thing we had was the baltimore-style Coddie (shredded cod fish/maybe salt cod with a bit of seasoning, rolled in bread crumbs and fried). If you've been to 2Amys and had the cod croquettes - this the same idea, but less refined but still declious.  I didn't try sandwich on rye, but the bread looked good and the sandwiches are piled pretty high (three different sizes you can order from - 8, 10 or 12 oz).  They only opened this season, so hopefully they'll work out the kinks and keep serving up good Jewish fare.  Despite the heavy emphasis on the Jewish nature of the deli in its literature - it is NOT kosher, but does have kosher Hebrew National salami and bologna.

Though we were generally operating in the Fish Tales-type space, Rosenfeld's Jewish Deli was easily the best meal had this week.  Two eggs any style (5.95) were perfectly over-easy with a chewy, tangy, dense bagel and potato latkes that contrasted a crisp exterior with fluffy interior.  Sit outside in the morning and watch the Coastal Highway traffic slowly come to life with sea breezes to accompany--this may be the most comfortable and sated you will be all day.  I went back two mornings later, wanting to leave the City on a high note, had a two eggs bagel sandwich (5.95 + 1.00 for Swiss cheese), which performed as well. Coffee came from a very industrial-looking burner but was of pleasantly moderate strength and temperature. The person behind the counter was warm, cared about the business she was getting, and had none of the indifference seen at nearly every other establishment visited. 

Shio Chintan is probably the only soup for dinner I'd ever crave in DC in August. Perfectly seasoned, not heavy, but not thin either.  Not directly comparable with pork-based offerings of say Toki, Ippudo, etc but every bit as satisfying.  Fun decor, nothing pretentious nor does it try not to be pretentious.  I added nothing but the chicken quarter ($3.50), the broccolini, leak and egg that comes "standard" adding weight, color and textural interest necessary when making a meal of soup.  Washed down with a $5 Sapporo draft.  Maybe only about 10 oz in the glass but still a good price for the neighborhood and brightens up the salty ramen perfectly.