Biscuit Girl

How long do you think the talk/demo will be?

Sounds like a great way to spend a Friday night, add me to the lottery!

couldn't have said it better myself. Until a few years ago I was lucky to have the Honolulu in my 'hood. One of the best dive bars around. David's Mai Tai's were sorely missed this summer.

We lived within walking distance to Honolulu. It makes me sad everytime I drive by where it once stood and remember with great fondness the food, the atmosphere and walking outside on a summers night after a few drinks and thinking, "dear lord, its too light out here to be this drunk!"

I'll delete this post later today, but this is too funny not to share. Right before - and I mean RIGHT before - I opened this post to read it just now, I was thinking aloud, wondering about whether to open up the dr.com dining guide to the public (so it will have higher readership), or to make it even more restrictive, i.e., to people who have posted twice rather than just once (after all, this website is worth nothing without people posting here). And I made a tentative decision, and right as I was opening this post, I said, out loud, "Fuck it." And then I immediately read what you wrote above and bleated out loud like a sheep.

(As an aside, there used to be a restaurant on Georgia Avenue in Silver Spring called Phucket and yes I now know it's pronounced poo-kay but the first time I saw its big red sign I didn't know what it was and I was driving down Georgia Avenue doubled over laughing.)

Ah, yes. Foods like Phuket Fried Rice or Phuket noodles bring out the child in all of us. Imagine the giggles, snickers and snorts from folks if they saw Phuket Noodles on the same menu as Spotted Dick.

The Mount Vernon Farmer's Market is moving from Tuesdays to Wednesdays. First day is May 4 and runs through November 23, 8:30 to noon.

The change in days is a result of a change in Sherwood Hall Library's hours which hosts the market in its parking lot. They are closed on Wed mornings now due to having hours cut when the libary system's budget got whacked two years in a row.

But the result is library users and market shoppers will no longer have to compete for parking spaces since the library doesn't open until 1:00 on Wednesdays.

Here's the link to the FX County Farmers Markets http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/parks/wp-farm-mkt.htm

Jim and I celebrated his birthday at Galileo III on Friday night. We made reservations and specifically said we'd be ordering the 12+ course Chef's Choice Tasting Menu which we had seen on the Gailieo III dinner menu online.

The condensed review is that the food was fabulous. Wish we could say the same about the overall dining experience. Below is the text of my blog post. To see the pictures of the food, click here.

We got to the restaurant about 30 minutes before our reservation and paid a visit to the bar and pestered Chris the bar manager. We each ordered a cocktail and a short time later, were treated to a small plate of the thinnest sliced Mortadella ever and some warm bread. It was heavenly. With drinks and our pre-dinner treat behind us, we were seated at our table to begin our dining extravaganza.

With help from Chris and our server, we selected a nice bottle each of white and red wine to go with the meal.

Reflection from the wine glasses on a shelf behind our table

An assortment of breads were brought to the table with a side of ricotta, parsley and garlic butter.

Then the courses began.

1st Course: Burrata: Imported Burrata cheese over roasted peppers marinated with capers, garlic, Sicilian olive oil.

2nd Course: Tonno delle Isolelle Isole: Salad of Fregola, chopped tuna, smoked, bottarga of tuna, curly endive, blood orange dressing.

3rd Course: Bagna Cauda: Flan Duo of warm red peppers and Jerusalem artichokes in a Bagna Cauda (anchovy garlic) sauce.

4th Course: Budino di Parmigiano: Parmigiano Reggiano cheese pudding top with a layer of Burrata cheese, cream of porcini mushrooms, sliced black truffle. (Ours were sans black truffle)

5th Course: Raviolini del Plin: Small “pinched” ravioli filled with beef, veal and chicken. Served in a sauce of veal jus, butter and sage.

6th Course: Tortelloni: Tortelloni filled with red beets in a chive cream sauce with poppy seeds.

7th Course: Butternut Squash Ravioli: Ravioli stuffed with butternut squash. Topped with crushed ameretti cookies and a butter sage sauce.

8th Course: AnatraFettuccine all”Anatra: Spinach fettuccine with duck meat stewed in tomato and vegetables.

9th Course: Capesante: Sauteed sea scallops atop yellow & black polenta, sautéed lobster mushrooms, cream sauce.

10th Course: Coniglio: Roasted loin of rabbit served over braised legs with pancetta in a sauce “alla Ligure” of stewed celery, onions, olives and walnuts.

Dessert:

I had Crostata di Mele. Apple crostata, honey-roasted pecans, caramel gelato, apple jelly.

Jim had Torta All’ Olio D’Oliva. Olive oil cake blood orange sauce, mascarpone sorbetto, crispy pine nuts, vanilla poached fennel.And some lovely coffee

The food was in a word, fabulous! Jim's favorites was the artichoke flan. The delicate texture and flavors were wonderful. My favorite was the budino. I called it sex in a spoon (Jim said I'm not that limber). We would easily order any of the 10 dishes again. In fact, some we had already eaten on two previous visits.

And Chris, Bar Manager extraordinaire, was terrific as always. Thank you Chris!

As good as the food was, we felt the dining experience could have been better. The tab for this meal was $360 meal (before tax and tip). This was the Chef's Choice Tasting Menu which we said we would be ordering when we made our reservations. It's not like they weren't aware what we would be ordering.

Issue 1: You'd think they would have seated us closer to the open kitchen but no, we were in the farthest corner behind a wall from the kitchen between two service stations.

Issue 2: The online menu says the Chef's Choice is 12 plus courses plus desert. Trust me, we were very full after 10 courses but I can imagine there are folks out there that would argue this with the server and either say to bring two more courses or lower the price of the meal. There needs to be consistency with what you advertise and what you actually offer.

Issue 3: Where was the chef? Even if it wasn't Chef Donna in the kitchen, you'd think the who ever was in charge of the kitchen would have made at least one appearance just to ask if we had any questions or to see how things were going. Just sayin'

We'd still say that the food is worth a visit. But to get a better bang for you buck, each person at the table should order the 3 or 4 course meal + dessert and have everyone get different items. You'll be able to get to choose what you want and have slightly larger portions which lends itself to sharing and swapping bites.

There was a nice little blurb about Bayou Bakery in the December 2010 issue of Travel and Leisure.

Those pix are from 3 people dining. Three people x 4 courses=12 dishes and if everyone orders something different, that's a good bit of the menu (and some great dining). There were two of us for dinner on Friday night and we had 8 different courses plus two different desserts. Don't worry, you will get way more than your money's worth. Chef Donna and Galileo III would be worth it if it were only two courses.

Nope, the pictures on my blog are from just two of us dining. We thought the four courses included dessert and partway through our first course, Roberto came out of the kitchen to tell us we still needed to order one more course! So the special was four courses PLUS dessert.

Has anyone been yet?

What do you mean that real kung pao is dry? Please elaborate. There is sauce on the dish normally.

http://hkpalace.webs.com/menu.htm

The Chengdu Kung Pao Chicken has that same quality. It has peanuts, dark meat chicken, and green onions, so it's obviously Kung Pao, but they jack it up with Sichuan peppercorns and spice it in ways that you don't get at a typical Americanized take-out joint.

If I didn't have a fridge full of good veggies from the farmers market, I'd be getting takeout from there tonight.

There's always tomorrow night

Yes, indeed they do. Dame Edna and I were there on Friday and got the bar menu. The chowder was on offer, along with cauliflower soup, several salads; and lumpia--which DE ordered. He also got the faux ribeye steak, cooked a perfect medium-rare, and I got the pork belly. I wound up taking about half of that home for lunch on Saturday. The fish-of-the-day was the big eye tuna with sushi rice. For dessert, he had the pistachio bread pudding and I had some truly wonderful mango sorbet. We were there during happy hour when the wines by the glass were $7, so we each had two glasses. This is such a good deal, I couldn't understand why the bar was mostly empty while we were there. Admittedly, people might have been scared off by the preparations for the Nuclear Summit at the convention center.

The bar menu is one of the best deals in town, especially when you arrive during happy hour for those $7 glasses of wine. We haven't been in a while so we're due for another trip.

And to answer Joni, no, the bar does not take reservations but you can usually get a seat with no trouble.

Did anyone see the news this morning? There was a fire Blacksalt last night around 7:30. According to the news, everyone was safely evacuated and the cause of the fire was still being investigated.

Inexplicably, my first visit to Heidelberg was yesterday. Why haven't I been before?

The samples were generous, and everything looked so good. I was so happy to find fresh-baked rye and pumpernickel bread, and bought a loaf of each. No more stocking up when I go back to Philly!

I can't believe I ate the whooooooooooole thing.

I'm suddenly hungry and craving a cupcake.

Biscuit Girl, I just read about that version; coconut milk, spicy red broth, fried egg strips, prawns.... Sign me up! I want some too! I have never been to Sarawak, yet another reason to go back to Indo...

Here's a link to my blog on our trip to Malaysia You'll find a Sarawak Laksa picture of sarawak laksa that we enjoyed one morning while in Kuching.

Anna, I am with you on that. Trying to find a good Laksa at a Japanese place in Chinatown is risky. I tasted two completely different types of Laksa in Malaysia and Indonesia. The two countries share the same malay ethnic cuisine background, to some degree, as well as their languages, bahasa Melayu and bahasa Indonesia.

I ran into sour Assam Laksa in the Highlands through to Penang but just about everywhere else, (i.e Pulau Perhentian, Singapore and most of Indo) it was a version of the curry Laksa. But I only spent 5 or 6 weeks between 2 trips so I could be way wrong on that. The locals type of Assam Laksa can be a real eye opener. It is very sour, and almost fermented in its intensity. The first time I ordered it, the cook looked at me and piled the thick noodles in so full it almost overflowed the bowl. Then I got mouthful and my eyes crossed it was so strongly sour. Of the curried versions, Singapores curry Laksa is spicy and pretty good, tho with the smaller noodles (similar to Penangs Asam Laksa in that way) it looks considerably different from other Assam Laksas. Great in hawker stalls all up and down the peninsula, good but not as great in Indonesia, where food is a bit more problematic.

There is a third kind of laksa that my husband and I love. It's Sarawak Laksa. Had it while in Kuching two years ago and really would love to have some again without having to travel halfway around the world. It's not sour like Assam and isn't curry based. It's more of a spicy broth. Now if anyone knew where we could find that in the area, I'd be a happy girl.

Who won Fan Favorite last night? I tried to stay up to watch but could not get past the dribble at the beginning of the show.

That's it. I'm out. I can resign from the board now. My work here is done.

If anyone needs me for anything, I'll be in hell. I'll be the one on the grill.

First Saveur, now Food and Wine. Michael Landrum - this picture will certainly merit the same level of refined commentary as the Saver issue....if not more.

January 2010 issue, page 85. I'll step back now and let the comments begin.

Is it just me or did Bryan get ripped off last night? I went into the final episode thinking that I'd be happy with anyone of the three winning, I didn't have any strong preferences, they are all extremely talented. But after watching the show, I feel differently. Byran appeared to have done the best overall. He had the single best dish of the evening with his venison, and scored best on dessert. Michael scored well on the mystery box course but overcooked his dessert and, like Bryan, had mixed comments on the other two dishes.

I don't think it was as much creative editing as it was the judges looking back at the season and judging on that rather than the meal for this challenge. Michael won more elimination challenges and they gave him credit for it. If they judged just on last night's meal, Bryan should have won.

But, I think we can all agree that this has been probably the best Top Chef season so far froma sheer culinary talent point of view. It'll be hard to beat this season with next season - no matter what they try to pull off.

How about a baby food challenge for Padma.

Or better yet, Padma breastfeeding during Judges Table.

They were $999/lb truffles from Wegman's. I assumed they were "Winter" as opposed to the less sought after "Summer" because the price went up with the changing of seasons from $299/lb to $999/lb.

Are they pretty fresh? I have always been wary of buying them there are there is no telling how long that have been sitting in the rice.

Having never bought truffles before we didn't know for sure what besides the heavenly aroma to look for. We should have been weary when they didn't have much smell but went and bought them anyway. When Jim tried to shave one, it was as hard as a rock. When he finally did get a bit off of it, it smelled like dirt. No truffle aroma whatsoever.

I plan on taking them back to Wegmans. Probably won't do me any good but we'll see.

Saw this on the Bravo Top Chef page. Her face looks much fuller but her chest is HUGE.

Look at pictures #3and 11

http://www.bravotv.com/top-chef/photos/top-chef-out-and-about-in-nyc

Also, a shout out for the Tuscan Beggar's Purse. I've seen this on the menu multiple times but foolishly waited until last night to order it for the first time. The nice hint of orange rind cuts right through the rich duck fat in this well constructed, rustic dish.

Concord Grape with Bertagnoli Grappanino, mixed berry with Hangar 1 Bhudda's Hand Vodka and Orange Cinnamon Aperol.

I look forward to trying these frozen fries.

This is what I grew up with in Brooklyn, either in my own home or at the numerous luncheonettes in my neighborhood (from the 60s). My realization that frozen food could be better than fresh food came about 15 years ago when I went to the famed Carnegie Deli in Manhattan for the first time. Of course, I ordered the knish since I love knishes. Well, the knish was homemade and fresh and I guess it was okay, but it didn't hold a candle to the frozen ones heated up at the Kosher delis or sold by the vendors at Coney Island when I was a kid.

I don't like McDonald's fries for they just taste fried, but I have had frozen fries that had a specific frozen potato-y taste that I really enjoy. Call it a guilty pleasure....one I hope to enjoy at Ray's Hellburger.