synaesthesia

Nothing like stopping by early in the day on a weekend to grab one of the breakfast biscuits and a coffee. Egg and cheddar on biscuit, and you can choose to add ham or bacon, if you like. So buttery and good.

Here's another press release regurg from Missy Frederick. I wish she'd do some original reporting [her article notes a planned mid-June opening]. It is interesting to read background on what it takes to open this modest enterprise.

I haven't seen the press release for this, but given most of the press releases I receive this contains original reporting or at least original reporting with a press release as a start.

It's worth noting that her beat is meant to focus on the retail aspects of restaurants (thus WBJ) and not the more personal features or menu aspects. (And full disclosure that she and I are friends.)

Heather, it's on the east side of 355 between Edmonston and Wootton Parkway - across the street from Wintergreen.

In the same disjointed strip that has the MoCo liquor store, Pho Nom Nom (formerly Ba Le).

I've had the grilled chicken banh mi and the op la (two fried eggs). You can add pate to any of the banh mi for free. The runny fried egg and pate was pretty darned awesome. The chicken was decent. Though the sandwich is a little on the pricier side of banh mi, it's also quite large - in the 9 inch range.

Definitely easy for vegetarians to get a meal, but be cautious when they're refilling your stock and double check what they are pouring in is vegetarian stock. I went with a vegetarian, and she really enjoyed herself.

I find it almost criminal that no one has either (1) mentioned or (2) had the smoked potato gnocchi. It is so very good.

Get the Thai fried bananas. Skip the fried taro (undercooked).

This just reminds me of this story of one of the "Restore Honor" tea party folks who was so furious about the DC bag tax, he threw a sandwich at a store employee's face. People are terrible. http://dcist.com/2010/08/dont_tread_on_my_change_purse.php

You might also be able to use it as a thickener instead of flour. So even if you don't use it for the nut flavor, it could add substance to soups.

Fiola is doing truffles at cost during January.

I know that Fiola and Acqua de Al 2 had them. Dunno if they still have them.

Is English her first language? Part of me wonders if people feel they can take extra advantage of her because English might not be her first language. Not sure if she has the funding to hire someone or have a family member who can man the phone for whom English is a first language.

As the kid of parents' for whom English is not a first language, and having grown up around a number of people for whom it isn't, I've seen so many people pretend they can't understand what is being said or take advantage by saying that the "rules" in America are just different. It's really sad, and many of them rely on their kids to help run the business to stop stuff like this from happening.

I was fortunate that both of my parents speak English very well, and I vividly remember my mom calling people out on it.

Stopped in for some pho to take out. The broth has a strong aroma of cinnamon, but otherwise has a really nice meaty flavor. Some of the prettiest tendon I've seen in a while.

Banh mi is still at least a month away.

The Post's Smoke Signals blog has an article on Memphis Barbeque here.

I got a note that the opening is delayed until Dec. 1.

I vaguely remember Burger King experimenting with something like this during the early 90s. (And Wikipedia proves me right.) You'd sit down and have complimentary popcorn before they'd bring out your food. So weird.

Found myself at the Bethesda Jaleo Saturday night...with a table of 6 we covered a lot of ground.

I actually thought the cooking at the Bethesda branch was stronger than the past two times I've been to the DC branch, which I thought slapdash and sloppy.

I concur that the last two times I've eaten at Bethesda within probably the past six months or so have been pretty solid. There was a thinly sliced duck breast dish on rice that was really good, but I can't remember the exact outlines of it.

I think this is what opened in the old Ba Le space at 842-A Rockville Pike across from Wintergreen Plaza.

Do you mean no banh mi yet, or no in-house bread yet?

Yes the old Ba Le space. That whole strip is starting to look really interesting now with the options.

No banh mi are being served yet.

Today the sign said: Phó Nom Nom coming soon

It opened last week. They're going to be making their bread in-house for the banh mi, but that hasn't started yet. They have 3 sizes of pho, the largest of which is scarily enormous. I didn't feel up to eating there when I drove by, but did grab an iced Vietnamese coffee. It was very sweet and tasted exactly like coffee-flavored Nips hard candy. I was excited to see they also have salty plum, and lime drinks, as well as che on the menu.

I got this cookbook and it reads really well - but haven't made the time to try any of the recipes yet. Has anybody made anything from it, with or without success?

My friend, who is a pastry chef, made the recipes that were posted online about two years ago. He made the crack pie and the blueberries or peaches (?) and cream cookies. I think the recipes themselves work correctly from a technical point of view. I can't compare to Milk Bar itself, but I wasn't in love with the results. We both found the crack pie to be overwhelmingly sweet, especially when served hot as recommended (but this obviously tempers when it is cooled). (He ended up doing another batch with less sugar, and cherries and balsamic as the filling.) I enjoyed the cookies, but the white chocolate can be a bit much if you aren't a white chocolate fan to begin with.

Fiola has set price lunch menus.

They don't open until Monday. They won't have the banana tapioca pudding as far as I know. But I think the more interesting thing to look out for is the bread, which was created in collaboration with Lyon. It's a blend of wheat and rice flour.

Headed down for the bacon flight this Sunday!! I am so excited, have been meaning to get down there for this for some time and I have a fellow bacon-loving friend in town who is flying back out to CA out of National that afternoon so we're going to squeeze in brunch before he leaves. Any suggestions for what's good aside from the bacon flight? I'm more of a savory than sweet kind of gal, but I'm always open to anything (especially since I hear the donuts are good).

I really liked their French toast. You may end up preferring sweet items, if as happened when I went, the bacon ended up being too salty (and I like salt).

Pepin is not a chef in a professional kitchen anymore. He wasn't writing books and doing TV shows at the expense of some other work. I'd say that's what gives him a leg to stand upon.

It's actually a sad commentary on how skewed things have become in favor of bacon, that I feel compelled to ask if there's any in the cookies. (It would be kind of refreshing if there wasn't, especially with a glass of cold milk. Mmmm.)

No bacon. And yeah you have your choice of a cold glass of whole(?) or chocolate milk to accompany. When I took a friend, the only way to describe the feeling afterward was "cookie drunk."

It's worth mentioning how good the chocolate chip cookies are Ripple are with Valrhona chocolate, and cacao nibs. Crisp edges with soft gooey centers. Some of the best I've ever had.