blakegwinn

I would keep picturing Salman Rushdie (ala Lumberg sex dream sequence in Office Space) though. How could they be married?!?

We have been getting ready for a big move, Beth is taking the pharmacy boards and I am going back to school all in the next three weeks so the last month or so we have been reallllly budget concious. Everytime we walk by and look at the menu one of us says some version of this, "For these prices I would rather just go to Sushi-ko or for two meals at Kotobuki." It has gotten to the point where everytime we go up there and try and decide where to eat we narrow it down to 2 places and then always end up going to Adega anyways. The special bar menu at Ray's would usually be number one for quality on a budget but it is usually a Saturday or Sunday that we are out because we both work weeknights so the bar menu isn't an option.

You know what was funny, the judges' favorite dish of Marcel's in the finals was actually Sam's from start to finish.

You know he grew on me too. I think he watched some of those episodes and saw himself going on and on about some obscure wine region or the anthropological signifigance of some root vegetable while the listeners were looking around for someone to rescue them or heard how bad he sounded trying to berate another talented chef and had an epiphany. I like to give him the benefit of the doubt and hope that he just realized he is a pompous douche and is trying to get better.

Same thing happenned to me. Everything I tried resulted in a "HI" reading. Only got two dinners out of it and almost ruined a real nice brined rack of pork on the third. Mine was Maverick brand looked just like Dan's description.

I do agree that Lee Ann was one of the most mature personalities on the show but I do think the right two made it to the finals in season 1. After reading and watching some of the "making of" stuff I think that the judging is actually pretty honest and without influence from producers. I know some watchers will jump to say I am naive but I think it is kind of a Hearst-esque "you provide the pictures, I provide the war" type of situation. I think that they carry out the contest filming every interaction and then after the smoke clears, writers make a story out of the thousands upon thousands of hours they have on film. If the finals had ended up being Leanne and Harold I am sure we would have seen much more shots of the two of them getting into it throughout the season. I know that if I was living together for a month or two cramped up in an apartment in an intense contest with one of my best friends, they would have enough footage to make us look like mortal enemies in a few 30 minute episodes. Anyways, I thought Harold and red-head chick (blackout on name) were actually the two strongest technical chefs on the first season. I felt that they messed up a bit 2nd season sending Ilan and Marcel. I don't believe it was intentional to create drama but because of the policy that no past contests or behavior affect the decisions. Marcel and Ilan were probably not the two best overall but there isn't much denying that they did the best on the semifinals and due to the guidelines given to the judges, belonged in the final. The other two really crapped the bed on that last elimination challenge I thought. I thought there was a lot less talent second season in general and most of the chefs in season 2 wouldn't have cracked the top 5 on season 1. Beth and I both commented after seeing the preview for 3 on the number of young attractive chefs in the promo. Nothing against young attractive people I am sure they sell more ad time but when it comes to quality cheffing give me fat old and possibly even ugly.

I have a feeling this is the same person(s) every week. A poorly reviewed owner/chef? A "maligned" diner on a personal PR vendetta against a restaurant that got a glowing review from Tom and thus destroying his efforts to single-handedly put the place out of business? Jilted ex-lover (perhaps the restaurant industry person he was accused of dating in the chat?)

I think there is someone from DC on this season. My girlfriend said she heard a piece of an interview with him on one of the morning radio shows.

Use the finger on straw suction method to remove debris.

Yeah that seemed like a crazy temperature to me as well. My heavy duty calphalon pans said they would start to break down at 700.

I have gas grills at my apartment complex but if I am doing something that I want smoke flavor I will just put some of my chips into a foil pouch (single layer, if it doubles up it insulates too much) and then poke holes on one side. About 10-15 minutes before I put the food I lift up the grate and put the pouch, holes side up, down on the bottom of the grill. I get some great smoke and just remove the pouch and set it on the concrete to cool off when I am done. No ashes or anything. I tried soaking the chips but lately have just put them on dry because they start smoldering a lot quicker. About the chicken, I like doing mine tripod/beer can style as well but just to offer another suggestion, about the easiest quickest dinner I make is a butterfly chicken and whatever vegetables look good. I drizzle everything with olive oil, s&p and sprinkle with whatever fresh herbs I have in the kitchen. I have a few bricks I got from Strosneiders wrapped in foil and I will put those on the grill while it heats up. When I put everything on I put a brick on top of each half of the chicken. It is so easy to do variations on this also. Sometimes for the vegetables I grill red bell peppers, red onion, jalapenos, roma tomatoes, corn and some green onions. I bring everything back inside, shred the chicken and toss with a bit of white vinegar, cilantro, lime juice. Can of black beans from the cabinet and some tortillas and done. Last week I grilled zuccini, summer squash, shiitake mushrooms, roma tomatoes, and asparagus and cut the chicken into strips. Once back inside I sauteed some garlic and shallot in butter and olive oil, added some white wine and then tossed everything together with pasta. I know that these are kind of a waste of nicely brined chicken but just some ideas for other quick healthy meals with normal chickens.

I believe the "special" cuts are usually listed on the menu. I think the word special is causing a misunderstanding. They are special cuts as in you don't usually see them on menus, not special as in "tonight's special cuts are...."

Beth and I went up to Mike's last night. The larges were 55 a dozen, tasted great and were really heavy. The larges were running about 6-7 inches. We also had some pretty nice raw oysters. Very plump but virtually no briny flavor. I have to say I was pretty proud of myself I could still pick a crab clean in under 5 minutes with one hand in a cast. It was quite a spectacle. The beer selection was fairly weak. I can't believe they don't try to get some local beers on tap. I really could have used some dogfish head. They did have blue moon and Sam summer but I'm not really a huge fan of wheat beer with crabs. Nice night, great scenery really the quintessential "maryland crab experience" I think. Oh and they did have softshells sauteed or steamed.

Dude the steak was just plain overcooked, to an extreme. But I might give this place another shot sometime soon and I want to make sure I am Worthy before I head over. I was thinking I would just send the chef a polaroid of me wearing an "I heart Rumberos" t-shirt while taking a bite out of a live cow and holding up a government id in one hand and an AMEX blackcard in the other. If the chef deems me worthy I will report back to you guys on the double-secret steak stock and withdraw my previous post.

Their top choice gin, Plymouth is currently on sale at MOCO liquor stores. Picked some up last night for 16.99 I believe. I made a martini with it last night but unfortunately all I could taste was the vermouth. I broke my hand and my almost supernatural "accurate to the .1 of an ounce" pouring ability is a bit off and i think i ended up at like a 3 to 1 ratio.

Just tried these last night, WOW! Perfect cocktail olive.

They have 2 in the front room I believe. A little LCD behind the bar and a big one right to the left of the door when you come in.

Cafe Deluxe is looking to hire some servers ASAP. Please PM me if you or anyone you know might be interested or if you have any questions about the tips, hours, environment etc.

Didn't see the picanha last time I was there....

Beth and I went last night and this was one of those places us that left us thinking about other things we could have done with the money as we left. To explain, we are young and don't have a whole lot of money to go out to eat all the time. This is not to say that we don't spend some serious change on dining. We have gone to places in NYC and around DC where we have dropped 200 or more for a meal but when we walk out the door we aren't talking about or thinking about prices. The discussion is "Man can you BELIEVE how good that pork dish was" or "That is the most amazing thing I have ever seen done with a piece of fish". Well when we walked out of Ceviche, having just come from doing some shopping, we were both thinking somthing along the lines of "I can't believe I passed up that new shirt and pair of shoes for THAT."This is not to say that the food was horrible or the place is really pricey but it is very expensive considering how good the food/drink is and how much you get. I think that for the most part you are paying for the space. If you are with some friends and you are all dressed up and ready for a night out on the town, by all means go to Ceviche for a bite first. Ok now for the point by point review I will start from the beginning. First pet peeve, which actually burns me a lot more than it should, was that the drink menu had no prices on it. I am not cheap or anything but at a place like Ceviche that has that hip, house music, night club feel you never know when a mojito might run you 14 bucks. And to make it worse when we asked about prices the server didn't know. I just wanted a range. Are your cocktails all like 7-9 dollars? 14-15? 20-25? And as a waiter it always just makes me feel cheap asking about all the prices like that. I know that is my own insecurities but whatever. Just print the prices on there and make it easier on your customers and servers. So the rest of the service wasn't lousy but there were enough small things that we both commented on it at some point. Our drinks didn't come out until we were both completely done with our appetizers and she didn't really know about a few things when we had questions. I think she was new so I am more than willing to cut some slack. (I came to this conclusion because she had to go check on prices a couple of times and she was REAL shaky with the drinks and plates and stuff.) No biggie I am sure she will get the hang of it and be a fine server in time. We got some cocktail with ginger and serrano chile in it and a blood orange margarita. The serrano chile one was a bit syrupy but not bad and the margarita was orange juice with red food coloring and sour mix and maybe a splash of tequila but that is up for debate. Really not that good. I MIGHT order a pitcher of these if there was a happy hour special and I was sitting out on a patio in the summer I guess but for a rocks glass at 9 and a half bucks, skip it. We got the plantain chips and salsa and mixed ceviche for an appetizer. Both were really really salty. I mean to the point that after eating them my lips were kind of burning and I felt a little sick to my stomach from all the salt. The ceviche portion was a bit small 3 mini-shrimp maybe a dozen calamari rings, didn't see the fish and some chunks of waaay overcooked octupus. I imagine the octupus is what a galosh would taste feel like if you chewed on it... The salsa came in one of those ceramic butter ramakins so it was gone after like 3-4 dips for each of us. For entrees we got the salmon and the mahi mahi. These weren't bad but both were a little overcooked for our tastes and the mahi mahi portion seemed small. It was on a huge pile of rice and covered with a ton of a stewed onion mixture but when you got past all off that it was a pretty small cut of fish. While neither of these dishes were really that bad, I just couldn't help thinking (as I did with the drinks) that I could have made better versions of both of our dishes in under twenty minutes at home for half the price. I think Heather hit it on the head when she said "boring". Both of our dishes were just really boring. With the two cocktails, chips and salsa, one ceviche and two entrees our check was around 75 pre tip. We were both still a bit hungry but didn't feel like getting dessert. I know that isn't a huge check even by our standards but it left us both sad dreaming about the feast we could have had for that at Samantha's, Rays, cubano's or even just cooking ourselves. I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone unless you had an interest in the clubby atmosphere, like a pregame dinner before going out dancing or something. I don't know. For our money we will just go to Samantha's next time we feel like some ceviche. Oh and there was no pork rib on the menu!

Beth and I have really grown addicted to the Silver Spring location due to the fact that they deliver. Of course many better pizzas can be had around town but not without requiring me to actually put on shoes. Their salads are pretty tasty as well. I usually consider our meals healthy for what they are, fast food. I would look at a lot of other factors than just calories and fat content when deciding if something is "healthy dining". Absence of preservatives or chemical additives, lower sodium, higher fiber, vitamin and mineral content etc. etc. And I think for a delivery pizza, they do pretty well. Our favorite order is a spinach salad, california salad and a medium pizza with tomato sauce, skim mozz, chicken sausage, spinach and roasted red peppers on wheat crust (I like the taste better!). But we have always been very happy with our other choices also.

Bare minimum is usually the norm. Exceptions might be the union jobs you can get at national hotel chains etc but very very rare. I don't ever see a check. Most servers I know just get a blank pay stub every two weeks and still owe the IRS at least a few grand at the end of the year.

Did you plagiarize this post? I could swear I saw this in a Princeton SAT Prep course book...Just an FYI in this situation the last guy would have way less on his card than he owes. The way our system works when you enter set amounts on different cards it subtracts those from the total owed for the whole bill. You can't apply parts of that to tax or tip, it all goes towards the check amount. Say the toal is 60 dollars and you account for 40 dollars of that and you want to leave an 8 dollar tip. You tell the waiter to put 48 on your card and your friend says he will pay the balance. You will get a slip for 48 with a blank tip line and he will get a slip for 12 dollars with a blank tip. That is the way our POSi system works. You can't charge more than the total of the meal. You can only apply tips when you close the check, not when you are charging the card. What you CAN do is tell the server that 8 of that 48 is a tip and he should charge 40 and write 8 on the tip line before he gives it back so you just have to sign it. If you do that than your friends will say 20 dollars like it should. I hope this makes sense to non-restaurant employees. I am having trouble explaining it without showing you on the computer.

That is strange seeing them on the way to dinner. I usually prefer my inhalants and black tar as a digestif. To each his own I guess...

This kind of reminds me how my girlfriend hates all Tom Cruise movies. I distinctly remember her liking A Few Good Men, Mission Impossible I, Top Gun, Risky Business, etc. etc. when we first got together. Ever since Cruise became the spokesperson for scientology (and crazy) the last few years and "brainwashed" one of her favorites (Katie Holmes) she loudly voices her negative reviews anytime one of his movies is replaying on TNT. Now I am not saying that she secretly still likes those movies but is lying because she hates Tom Cruise, I think her personal distaste of the man creates a pavlovian distaste in her response to him on screen. So she honestly doesn't like those movies. What I am wondering is when you take a bite of food you know was created by Andres, does your absolute distaste of the man hijack the synapse between your taste buds and the taste center of your brain and create the sensation of a dirty sock.I'm not saying everyone has to or does like his cooking but it was just a thought...