Joshua Grinnell

Back when I was young and didn't have to worry about sodium (gout- the silent killer) I could do the ULTRA Ramen, which was one packet of noodles with two entire flavoring sachets. Everything about it was intense. Now, though, I'm very pleased that the Safeway down the street (next to The Italian Store) has mie goreng-flavored ramen packs. I've had it fresh in Indonesia and this stuff isn't too bad. Comes with a little packet of oil to give it sheen. Sometimes I can't find the instant mie goreng in asian markets and it turns up in Safeway?

Indeed! I'll drink a toast to the new boss tonight, maybe pour a can of expired beets on the curb for the old one.

I might be mistaken and I would be glad to be wrong, but is the second Bob and Edith's (further west on Columbia Pike) closed permanently or just shut for the summer? We went by last weekend hoping to take advantage of the erratic nice weather and the outdoor seating had all be packed away and the interior of the restaurant looked pretty bare. The original location (not initially chosen because it can get a little smokey for brunch) was so packed that we had to go elsewhere, so it's hard to believe that B and E's has fallen on hard times for want of diner love.

I'd like to put in a plug for Kabob Bazaar, as it's slowly edging out Moby's as our go-to Persian place. We're still addicted to Moby Dick, but now it seems more like a gateway drug. The regular field of kabobs is in play here, but with some advanced manifestations. Order the chicken barg kabob for the yoghurt and turmeric marinated chicken thighs that you're used to, but with additional hot notes from the dark barg spices. Order any of the kabob dishes with rice, but substitute the normal saffron rice with Zershk polo (adds barberries for tartness) or Shirin polo (with candied orange peel, carrots, and nuts for a sweet pilaf). The specials tend to mirror the specials on offer at Moby Dick, comprised of the homier all-day stews. Kabob Bazaar just has more of them. Koresh Fesenjan was the special a couple of saturdays ago- a half chicken stewed in pomegranate molasses, stock, and chopped walnuts. We're just about entering that time of year when sitting outside on the boulevard and drinking hot Persian tea with the cabdrivers is starting to be appealing, so give this place a shot when you're dazzled by Clarendon's dining plenty. If someone suggests cheesecake factory, punch them in the back of the head and take them here.

We've had the same issues with staggered food delivery- entrees sometimes making it out before appetizers or as a general mixed pile on the table. Besides that, we're really enjoying this place. The menu is pretty vast, so I've been withholding judgement until we've found all the highs and lows. It's certainly been more hits than misses so far. My current favorite is the chilli pork belly, which I found to be rather spicy but may have been the wonderful solubility of spice in all that pork fat that made it hit me so hard. Your mileage may vary.

I just wish I could get the Dogs in the dining room- maybe as an appetizer, perhaps? Hell, if you're worried about them chilli-dogging down the classiness of the room, maybe they could be in a vertical presentation? Or... mini-chilli dogs? Served in a brace of eight?

Just a quick note that the brazilian (picanha) steak I remember from RTC long ago has made an appearance at RTS in the past couple of weeks. Comes with the excellent piranha sauce, which appears to be a chimichurri with added peppers and cilantro. I'm still tasting it twelve hours later and I've brushed my teeth twice. Here's hoping that the sauce makes it next door for those who want some heat on their burgers.

This may not be a problem for a while, as turnover on mangosteens is probably pretty high in the states, but I currently have access to bins and bins of them overseas and I'm finding that some are better (fruit not hard or shriveled, easier to peel) than others. If you can't press the flower-shaped bit on the bottom in with your thumb slightly, I would pass on it. The best way to open them, as demonstrated by numerous Filipino staff, is to twist off the top stem, press in the bottom flower-area, and then squeeze the sides in both hands. This will cause a ripe one to split in various places and get you the fruit. If done incorrectly, the fruit flies across the room. Try to make a game of it. The older the mangosteen gets, the harder it is to split it in that manner and you have to resort to tools, i.e. butter knife, entrenching tool, or kukhri.

I leave the country on Monday night for a month, which means that if I can't manage to try one of these burgers before I leave... well, I can arrange it so that we invade Iran and then you'll alllllllll be sorry.

Milady and I have been once, but it was pre-patio installation (I don't believe it had many tables on the inside at that point, either). It's heartening to see it rocking now from time to time, because the food was pretty good and inexpensive. It's basic lebanese stuff (fettoush, shawarma, tabbouleh, etc.) plus some larger kabob platters. We didn't go back after the one time because now when we have a craving for Lebanese, Me Jana is equidistant from our apartment and they win taste-wise.

Lalibela, which are wonderful Ethiopian restaurants, makes sure that you know which dishes have row beef. It's not a typo, it's on the menu half a dozen times. Lord knows I like my little beefs all in a row. Bear in mind, the Jane Black piece in the Post caveated that ethnic menus don't really count. I'd eat mescaline greens, btw.

I love Alton and I love our ceramic vegetable peeler, but you can really only use it for one thing unless you add in "taking the tip of your finger off" as a task.

Went last year as well and after the huge-ass line for St. Sophia's this year, I can safely say that the calculus of excellent food and a smaller turnout at St. Katherine's might be the better bet. I will also vouch for the loukamades, especially seasoned by the grandmother-types who keep dumping on the honey even after you've made a face that says "for the love of god I can not possibly deal with that much honey."

Here's an interesting link re: the hop shortage in Europe. They're interested in crossing German and English hops which aren't handling the extra-hot summers well with foreign varieties from Turkey and the southwestern US. Science marches on!

+1(Sarah) and I will bring dinner rolls for soaking up porky goodness and a jug of cold mint ice tea. It will be sweetened.

I wish my office sponsored talks like this, but oh well: Michael Pollan Talks at Google This youtube video mostly covers his In Defense of Food, "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly Plants." Hah!

I got hooked on the damn things in Bali (where they give them away like mints on pillows) and went to Bangkok 54 tonight for their Thai New Year/Embassy Restaurant week thing, in which mangosteens were being given away. Unfortunately, they were out. I looked so sad that the waitress thought something had been wrong with the food. We did have an interesting varietal of mango, though, tasted almost melon-like. I've seen mangosteen at Wegmans, where I believe it worked out to about $8 a fruit. They're worth it, but right now I'm still in the "resenting having a price accurately placed on desire" phase. The freeze dried ones from trader joes will hold me over.

That line did indeed move very fast and good lord nothing anyone said could prepare me for how much food was going to come on the gyro platter... the string beans were excellent, as reported, and my wife enjoyed her Avgolemono (egg, lemon, and chicken soup with orzo) so much that she's on RecipeZaar right now to start making it at home. Imitation, of course, being the sincerest form of flattery and much cheaper than stealing it outright.

This reminded me of a Jackie Harvey column from The Onion. ITEM! Steak provacateur Michael London will open a new Raise the Steaks location in Court's House in Arlington! Next to Me Juna and a plucky little burger enterprise called Fly Guys, let's hope Mike (as all his friends call him) can hold his own! Ah, to din in Arlington!

Cashed in a collection of gift cards for Coastal Flats- excellent crab cake, couldn't even find any binder, just a crumb topping. Scooped up forkfuls with the coleslaw and made it that much better. Friend had the sea bass with a side of roasted mushrooms, very subtle taste which I liked. Wife had a key lime martini foisted on her by waitress who acknowledged that it wasn't our money to start with, with graham cracker rim on the glass... it was the only thing that wasn't slightly oversalted, but otherwise everything was excellent.

Isn't Pistone's Italian Inn right there on the corner? Never been in, but the exterior hints that men in suits (track, business, etc.) would not be out of place. "Take the cannoli." In more seriousness, you could hop over to 29 and go to Argia's for lunch. More adventurous would be Lebanese Butcher. Uber adventurous but really, really good would be Myanmar on 29, which is rather close to where you would be.

Sauerkraut. Mom's heirloom sauerkraut, which was brought down from upstate New York because that was the only place she could BE SURE that it had been stomped on by barefoot transplanted rhinemaidens and valkyries and then left to ferment in some shed behind the hard cider. She would pop a precious jar of it into the crock pot with a pork roast 6 hours or so before company was coming over and I would find excuses to leave the house. I'm just now getting to the point where I can eat it. I tried kimchee before I tried sauerkraut because of that crippling and lingering childhood sense memory.

Linda's Cafe is out on Rt. 29, not far past the Glebe intersection and the Heidelberg Bakery, on the corner of Edison St. and Lee Hwy. This is what I saw outside that made me pull over: 1. A neon sign that said "The Best Burgers." 2. An exterior done in red paint that was so thick it looked sticky to the touch. 3. Limited parking in the sort of minimall that could earnestly include a stamp and coin collecting shop. Once inside, this is why I stayed: 1. The elderly black host/waiter/sometime cook who was wearing a huxtable sweater and baseball cap. 2. The latina waitress who sang softly to herself as she bussed tables. 3. The silver-haired Greek cook with the hair on his hands singed short from constant proximity to the grill. 4. The menagerie of customers you get at 10:30 on a Friday morning, which is too late for a respectable breakfast and too early for a respectable lunch. Bedraggled hipsters, mechanics, some elderly men reading the paper, a knight, the Pardoner, the wife of Bath, etc. Characters. People with stories worth eavesdropping on. Afterwards, this is why I'll be back: 1. The burger (the Linda Burger) with grilled onions and mushrooms could likely compete in the "best" category with Five Guys, In-n-Out, etc. Not Palena or other boutique burgers, of course, but this isn't the sort of place that uses brioche for a bun. I take burgers VERY seriously. Even the waitress stopped what she was doing to watch it cook, then turned to me and said, "doesn't that look delicious?" It really did and I said so. 2. A fairly comprehensive diner breakfast, reasonably priced, that looks like it's worth a shot. 3. Regulars actually send this place postcards from vacation. There are wedding photos on the wall by the cashier, plus graduation portraits, and a glamor shot of the waitress (could she be the eponymous Linda?) 4. The sort of food that McDonalds and Subway neutered and rendered safe, the American greasy spoon menu, still exists here. My wife will shy away from this place, say it's too greasy, and then we'll go get roti slathered with ghee in an Indian restaurant. No, honey, no more excuses. I like grease. I like my burger with a side of cheese grits. I want four, maybe five, different fried potato products and I'm going to put hot sauce on all of them and the healthy way we live our lives means that this is a more enjoyable eating adventure than Mexican/Asian fusion (screw you, Zengo, you're too hip for me) will ever be. 5. The Clarendon corridor has reached a saturation point. Some day, all of that will come marching down Lee Highway (four dollar gas might get metro stops in lots of unlikely places, you know) and then where will the dives and diners go in the face of property values that can't be stopped? Eat here, enjoy it, because there's a sense of permanence in a place like this that is actually very fragile. Detractions, of course, exist: 1. No desserts. The waitress said it was because she has a sweet tooth and wants to watch her figure. On the one hand, that's sensible. On the other hand, where's my damn apple pie? 2. If there were more than a half dozen people in Linda's at 10:30AM on a workday, I can't imagine the tiny parking lot working out very well during sensible dining hours. There, that's twelve good reasons minus two bad for a grand total of ten give this place a try points.

Many thanks, Lizzie. Between that and sambol, I'm a desperate man.

I'm drawing a blank on what it was called and I've been unable to find it, but I had a variation on kecap in Bali which had made the circle from proto-ketchup (soy sauce) into American ketchup and then into this wonderful combination of the two. Definitely a tomato base, with added umami from the soy sauce and then some random sweetness to make it pert. I prowl and glower through the aisles of Asian grocery stores trying to find it, but it would help if I could just remember the name. Another great example of translated food would be pizza in England. An American improvisation on an Italian dish, ruined completely by the Brits with the addition of sweet corn as a topping.