synaesthesia

Seeing as how I've been bribed by the machine this opinion may not be valid. (Though I did write about them well in advance of any invites for any events.) What I had was pretty tasty. Really light on the mayo with a ton of lobster flavor. If they are on their a-game, the rolls are grilled to the perfect line of toasty without being burnt and not too buttery.

They're also doing Cape Cod chips.

It never happened to me before, but I suppose it is possible that some restaurants are more strict than others when it comes to alcohol policy.

Restaurants can be steeply penalized for not properly checking for identification or folks drinking without ID. If this guy didn't have his ID, and they were caught it would have been very problematic. I wouldn't be surprised if there were more checks earlier in a restaurant's life cycle, as well as in certain areas, certain types of venues, and certain types of events. As much as I would love to sneak my 20 year old cousin in to bars, I wouldn't want to get the places I visit in trouble.

Prince of Petworth is reporting a RUMOR that Ray's Hellburger is opening a location on K Street in the CityVista building, anyone know anything about this?

http://www.princeofpetworth.com/2010/08/seriously-sweet-mt-vernon-square-scuttlebutt-chipotle-and-rays-coming-soon/

Landrum says, "Premature." http://dcist.com/2010/08/raysing_rumors.php

I poked my head into the asian grocery store (former Nava Thai location) when we had the DR dinner several months ago. I was thinking about hitting there as well.

I need some product for Indonesia cooking.

There's also another Asian grocery in the same plaza as Max's Kosher Cafe that I think might be more south Asian. You'll probably have better luck at those places than Korean Korner. That Korean Korner is also a mere shadow of what it used to be. There's a Lotte at Georgia and Aspen Hill. There's also a Thai grocery that I haven't visited near Bonifant in Silver Spring.

Adding to the list: Nando's, Urfa Tomato Kebab

I was surprised to see a lunch deal at Sushi Ko in Chevy Chase this week. It runs 7 days a week, not just weekdays. $20.10 gets you three courses. First is a choice of miso soup, seaweed salad, and another option I can't remember. Second is salmon ceviche or shrimp tempura. Third is four pieces of sushi and one maki or chicken teriyaki. The seaweed salad was a surprisingly substantial amount; the ceviche has four slices of carpaccio thickness with salmon roe. A surprisingly good deal, given that small plates can cost as much as $12 here. And of course, the overall quality was quite good, making this a steal with respect to a sushi restaurant, especially now that Sushi Taro has upgraded itself.

Agreed, totally asinine.

I'd really like to hear the conversation and see the blank stares this guy is going to get when he discourages his friends from patronizing Restaurant Eve. I think he will recognize the inherent crazy in his comments pretty quickly.

They're somewhere in between peanut and regular-sized balls. There's something I find a little off about them. Not quite salty enough and I think not quite enough chocolate. You would probably expect them to taste like chocolate covered pretzels, but they taste closer to candy-coated pretzels with a teensy hint of chocolate. What I really miss are the Mint Crispy M&Ms. The coconut ones taste quite coconutty, despite not having any actual coconut or sadly any coconut bits.

Just picked some up at P&C Market, $19.99. Maybe I kept my last one in the fridge for too long, because my last description is off. These cherries in a heavy syrup (not paste) and still have a "crisp" to them, but just barely. A fun side, but I should have waited to buy until I host a fancy party.

I've been told not to keep the luxardos in the fridge. Crystallizes the sugars and gives it a glaceed effect.

Thanks, both of you. I was referring to very short grain glutinous rice that I bought in an Asian grocery store. For dinner last night I washed it several times, soaked it for about an hour, cooked for about 15 minutes, and let it rest for another ten minutes. I used 2 1/2 cups of water for 2 cups of rice. It came out a bit wetter and softer than I like, but tastily sticky, and a nice side dish for ma po tofu and stir fried vegetables.

Depending on the rice you bought, most of them you don't need to rinse. If it's labeled enriched, the cloudy water is the result of a vitamin-enriched powder that coats the outside to protect the rice grains. In some cases, some are covered with talc, and should be rinsed. General rule for water when I was growing up was 1:1, though an old trick is if the water covers your fingers when placed flat against the top of the rice (approx. 1 inch over the top of the rice) you've got enough. Wish I knew more about timing...

The bar area at Adour is nice, but you can always have your drinks in their lobby. Great original architecture in the lobby. Original architecture on the ceilings in the bar.

I'm not sure if you mean a type of rice or making it sticky. It depends on the rice. If you want it quite sticky, you need to ensure that there's a significant amount of starch, which is obviously achieved with minimal rinsing. I imagine the long soak has something to do with trying to bring the starch into the water. A lot of the typical long grain rices that you find in American groceries tend to be less sticky and starchy. Short grain rices are more likely to be starchy. Just think about it in the context of risotto as well.

Us DCist fols have a list of specials and places as well. We have a ton of hardcore regular season fans on staff. http://dcist.com/2010/06/world_cup_a_where_to_watch_guide.php

My friend is the assistant chocolatier at J Chocolatier, so this is a little biased. But I really love the "drunken Buddha" chocolates - chocolates with a Bells Cherry Stout-infused ganache and a liqueur-soaked dried cherry inside. Pretty boozy and nice. The classic dark chocolate truffles are also quite tasty. They also just added a lavender-infused lemonade to their drinks menu, and plan to add a few others.

I use a good quantity as part of the filling for Chinese dumplings. Scallion pancakes - though you don't need a huge quantity for that. A sauce of garlic, ginger, scallions, salt and olive oil heated up is great for drizzling on a meaty white fish or plain chicken.

To StephenB, who never hesitated to compliment a woman or tell her that her sweater was ugly. You'll be missed.

Bread and Chocolate or Panera. There's a new cupcake place called Icing as well, dunno if they have other stuff.

Is Kushi too far afield?

The new WF in Friendship Heights has a fresh pasta bar, freshly ground nut butters, fill your own honey, a pizza oven, pick your own granola, and a barbecue meat section. It's pretty darn impressive.

Generally don't love the whole cupcake thing at all, but my friend is friends with Justin and brought some to a birthday party. The Irish apple was fantastic - like a really good carrot cake but with apple. Loved the crustiness of the top as well that wasn't obliterated by the frosting.

A friend and I stopped by yesterday around 5:30 and found the broth rather lacking. It was beefy, but didn't have the complexity that it used to have. Also, very oddly, the limes we received were not acidic at all.

Pho 88. Myong Dong? IKEA cafe? heh. Maybe go over to Langley Park to Woodlands, Saravana Palace or Tiffin.

Johnny Monis fills the pitted, roasted dates with mascarpone. When I make them, I use homemade lavender chevre and sprinkle on some lemon zest, in addition to the olive oil and fleur de sel.

I read on this blog comment to mix the mascarpone with a little Greek yogurt to make it a little bit more tart. It also makes the dates easier to fill since the mixture is thinned out.

We walked into Jackie's just as they were closing the kitchen, after drinking at Sidebar. They let us put in our order right before they closed. We had the Elvis sliders and then tries what appear to be two new items - truffled cheese fries, and the chicken chiles relleno. The burgers were great - browned, but not yet charred on the outside and pink on the inside. The truffled cheese fries had small pieces of truffle (likely inside the cheese), but is a vast improvement from just using truffle oil and cheese. The cheese was sweeter than I expected it to be, but they got to be pretty addictive.

The chicken chiles rellenos was pretty surprising. It was a refined take without excessive amounts of gooey cheese, instead just some moist, flavorful shreds of chicken under an umbrella of a chile topped with a sort of crepe-like cover instead of frying with a creamy salsa verde. If this is a reflection on the new chef's cooking, Jackie's is definitely worth making return trips to try out other items. Yum.

North China (with the original Joe) has fried intestine, and the stinky tofu isn't offal, but it's unique. Bob's Noodle has fried duck tongues, and probably any other conglomeration of items. Sometimes Jaleo has some offal dishes.