DonRocks

I'm not sure; we're winging this whole thing on short notice. At the picnic there's basically going to be a coffee can to throw donations into. I don't want the picnic to be an official fund-raiser because it wasn't announced as such in advance. Nobody is obligated to donate anything, but if anyone wants to write a check at the picnic, simply write it to me and stuff it into the coffee can. I'll cash the checks and get the cash to the family. They won't be tax-deductible, unfortunately, but this is a situation where there will be strength in numbers, and even a couple dollars will go a long way. I'll fully disclose all cash and non-cash contributions on this thread.

I'm sorry aero.

The pig roast is costing about $300 (and apparently, four people have already pitched in and paid for it), so the first $300 of donations will go towards the pig roast. Anything collected above and beyond that amount will go directly to the family of Luis "Quike" Morales (click here for details).

Here is the article. If ever this website had a purpose, it's right now. I just got off the phone with Scott Magnuson, manager at the Argonaut. They didn't think Mr. Morales would make it through the weekend, but he is now sitting up and talking. He lost an eye and part of the back of his head. His mother is in town from Panama and will be staying for the duration of his recovery. The Argonaut's fundraiser this Friday night will donate all proceeds toward housing the mother, and also for the unthinkable medical costs. Click here for details about how to donate at the picnic.

The comment about the bread being the "best in town" might have been the tipping point. We chuckled about it in passing, and I'm certain his reply was meant in good humor as well.

I actually talked about that message with Todd a couple days ago, and we both thought it looked like an insider job.

Danny, from my point of view your tone did come across as hostile, not half-joking, and not laying the foundation for a "fun discussion." This may be a classic case of the typed word not revealing the author's true intent. Also, I believe most people here, myself included, feel that Tom is, in fact, up to the task. He just won the 2006 first prize for Restaurant Criticism given by the Association of Food Journalists (click here for the .pdf file). But more importantly, people here tend to like him, which makes some of your comments hard to, erm, digest. [speaking as moderator, I don't want to quell open discussion about Tom's work, but I do think the points have been made, and perhaps it's time to move forward.] Cheers, Rocks. [ETA: Five posts deleted. I won't lock the topic yet, but don't push it.]

You've probably never heard of FAIRFAX DELI AND PIZZA, but it has been in operation since 1952, in a decrepit stripmall not far from German Gourmet on Lee Highway in Falls Church, making it one of the Oldest Restaurants in the Area, sometimes these 1950s pizza shops have a good, hot oven, but this joint uses a timed conveyor-belt system, albeit a big, industrial one, and the pizza here is as bad as pizza can be, it's 7-11 bad, I had heard blips of praise for Red Ginger Bistro from time-to-time, but had never dined there, at 7:30 on a Sunday evening I walked into an empty restaurant, with only chef Howsoon Cham and the bartender in the building, for over an hour, I was the only diner, and that made me even more determined to like, and hopefully champion, Red Ginger, I ordered the Jamaican Jerk Chicken Lollipops ($7) and Adobo Spiced Duck Breast ($18), to my distress, I kept hearing the beep-beep-beep, power, ding of a microwave coming from the kitchen, the lollipops were nothing more than two frozen drumsticks taking a bath in sauce, the duck breast was just awful, having excessive gristle, not fat, but gristle, and was the worst version I've had since the gray, inedible disaster I ordered at Foti's in early May, I left a 30% tip knowing I may never return, the actual menu is priced about 20% lower than what's listed on their website, which I fear is a death knell given that nobody was in the restaurant, I almost desperately wanted to love Red Ginger Bistro, but it was not to be, I hadn't been to Dolcezza in close to a year, mainly because of the blimpage factor, the ice cream looks beautiful, creamy and swirled in the trays just like the best Italian Gelati, but a medium cup of Tahitian Vanilla Bean and Pistachio confirmed my previous impression that this ice cream is badly overrated, it's too sweet, there's too much air, it's served too cold, and there's no depth of flavor, while driving home in a dark car, I couldn't even distinguish the vanilla from the pistachio, it's cold and it's sweet and it's nothing more than that, Ceiba is a restaurant that, while better than the odious norm, is of little or no interest to anyone who cares about the beauty, the humanity, of food, even the cracker-things that come with the eggplant dip have become thick, hard, cumin-laden, and soulless, the very good empanadas, gazpacho, and queso fundido - which has turned tomato-y and orange over the years - were the best bets, and if you’ll notice that they’re all gooey and wet, that might lend some insight not only into why they’re the safest things to order here, but also into why Ceiba, gooey by nature, may be a safer choice than the other Passion Food restaurants, such as Ten Penh, Asian cuisine not being as forgiving as Mexican, the desserts, corporate and wan, were a testament that there are no great pastry chefs, only great pastry cooks, I do hope David Guas and Steve Klc are reading this, and also Michel Richard, whose Breakfast at Citronelle keeps becoming more perfect-looking as the months and years go by, cleverly designed to photograph well in a cookbook, it could hang on the wall at MoMA, and perhaps it should, but it has become a DID (Dish In Decline), having gone from something visually beautiful and delicious, to something visually beautiful and utterly boring to eat, Richard spends a lot of time out on the terrace these days discussing business, I recently walked by and he was chatting with Mark Furstenburg, no official word yet on whether Furstenburg will be involved with the breads at the soon-to-open Central, “That’s not your credit card,” a friend said to me when I was paying a bill one evening, and sure enough, it wasn’t, to my horror, I quickly put two-and-two together, and realized that I had been given back the wrong credit card the night before at Pizzeria Paradiso, I drove over to Georgetown after dinner, asked to see a manager, and explained my predicament, “Are you Don,” she asked, and when I said yes, she smiled and gave me a big hug with an obvious sense of cleansing relief, “We’ve been trying to track you down all day, we’re so sorry about all of this,” to me it was just not a big deal, a simple mistake, but apparently the gentleman whose card I received was a bit less jovial about it, to put it mildly, I wondered if perhaps we had mistakenly paid each others bill, but another manager said, “no, we didn’t charge either of you,” which was unnecessary, “we hope you’ll give us another chance,” he added, but they have nothing to worry about, as this small, gracious gesture more than compensated for a mistake which could have been made by any busy restaurant, small, gracious gestures were commonplace at Notti Bianche under the stewardship of Danny Boylen, whom I saw at the bar this week at PS7, at some point I handed him a dollar to change because I only had enough money in the meter to last until 8:45, and the meters were in operation until 9:30, "Why don't you let us do it for you?" he asked me, and, a bit stunned, I said that was really considerate, but there's no way I'm going to have you guys do that, I'm down south of H Street, to which he responded, "Would you let us do it if I promised you I'd do it for any other customer?" I looked at him for a couple of seconds, convinced myself that he meant it, then reluctantly nodded my head and said sure, thanks, Matchbox is no longer a matchbox, the recent expansion having taken the seating from 75 to 200, a remarkable feat of architecture, it’s interesting to walk into the old space and notice the portal to the right of the bar, walk in and stroll to the end of the multi-level wrap-around addition, feasting your eyes on the patio in these last few days of Indian summer, the new space will be ramping up into full gear in the coming weeks, and everything will be changing, a second pizza oven will become operational, and the kitchen is racing to find the staff to meet the additional capacity, who knows what will become of the miniburgers and pizza, but for now, I’m happy to report that they’re as good as ever, it’s imperative, repeat, imperative, to ask for the miniburgers medium-rare, because the default is well-done as the table next to mine demonstrated, but they’ll cook them like you ask, the onion straws are, as they generally are, throwaways, I’ve had good onion straws at Matchbox once or twice in the past, but the current versions are empty calories, the pizzas remain some of the best in town, with a thin, chewy crust and downhome toppings just the way you want them, I worry about the future of one of my favorite burger and pizza haunts, because the question in my mind is how much, if any, the food will decline in the immediate future, because I assure you that the expansion, more than doubling the size of the restaurant, will not improve the quality of what’s coming out of the kitchen, Restaurant Kolumbia remains one of the more underrated restaurants in town, chef Jamie Stachowski is a formidable talent in the kitchen, capable of turning out interesting, well-executed dishes but sometimes falling prey to being too ambitious for his own good, Restaurant Kolumbia is a large space, and I just get the feeling that Stachowski is back in the kitchen, trying to conquer the world all by himself, the dishes are quite complex and the menu is ambitious, but Kolumbia’s strengths lie in its more straightforward offerings, the pierogies, the incredible charcuterie plate which, on a recent visit, was its fabulous self once again, the best kielbasa in town, it’s important to remember that despite its location on K Street, Restaurant Kolumbia is a chef-owned, mom-n-pop operation run by Jamie and Carolyn Stachowski, and is precisely the type of establishment that deserves our support, there cannot be a better deal than the happy-hour tapas at Taberna del Alabardero, half-price between 3-7 PM Monday through Friday, which makes them range in price from $3.00 for the patatas bravas up to about $8.00, a hearty piquillo peppers stuffed with oxtail is an amazing $4.25 during happy hour, the wines by-the-glass here are exceptional and almost all less than $10 for a generous pour, a lamb shank braised in red wine entree isn’t cheap at $34, but it’s a lovely presentation, brought out in a clay vessel and dished tableside, an ample portion of well-cooked lamb, the food here isn’t cutting-edge (this particular dish was served with a whole potato the size of a tennis ball), but it can be well-executed, the service is as elegant and polished as anywhere in town, and you can never go wrong with the tapas bar, even at full price, “You always come in here on our worst nights,” a frenetic John Wabeck told me as he was rushing by, Wabeck was hard at work in the kitchen during a packed Saturday night at Firefly, hopping around and getting an aerobic workout equal to any at the gym, I chose an Epoisses de Bourgogne, Selles-sur-Cher, and a Tomme de Savoie for my three-cheese plate ($7.00), and all three cheeses were in perfect shape, served at the correct temperature, “Would you care for some dessert,” the bartender asked me afterwards, “Yes,” I replied, “I’d like another three-cheese plate, this time with a triple order of Epoisses,” how was your week.

Todd writes a tribute to Johnny Apple here.

This thread got mentioned in the Post Express today, so I'm bumping it back up to the top of the page for our new guests. Welcome! Rocks.

[There are legitimate points-of-view on both sides of this issue. And I'm not sure there isn't a huge overlap of agreement at the middle ground. Please, let's stay respectful of one another, and please understand I need to delete any posting that doesn't exercise this respect. Be mindful and polite. Thanks! Rocks.]

I asked mktye to write up something about this - I should have known it would be something more than a couple of sentences. Cheers! Rocks -- Do you find that the smallness of your avatar makes you feel inadequate? Does that lone wee photo leave you craving another outlet for your visual expression? Well, fret no more… now you can have two (yes, two!) pictures associated with your DR.com account: an Avatar that will appear below your screen name on all of your posts and a larger Personal Picture located on your profile page (in addition to your avatar photo) . "How?!?" you ask? Click on "My Controls" located at the top of any of the pages, then scroll down the left hand menu and click on "Change Personal Photo" in the "Personal Profile" section. That will take you to a screen where you can either link to a photo that is currently residing someplace online (the first option) or upload a photo from your own computer (the second option). Click on "Update Photo" and your picture will now appear to the right of your screen name on your profile page (and anyone's profile can be accessed by simply clicking on their screen name). Too keep things under control around here, you will need to restrain your expression… personal photos are limited to 300 KB and 300 pixels by 200 pixels. However, the board software will automatically resize your picture if it is too big to swallow, so as long as you stay within the very generous 300 KB allowed, you'll be just fine. Now don't hurt yourself!

What do vinho verde, scheurebe, gruner veltliner, semillion, counoise, monica, and Calvados have in common, they’re all wines that sommelier Doug Mohr of Vidalia paired with a fall tasting menu prepared by talented chef R J Cooper, I’m convinced Mohr goes out of his way to serve me the most esoteric things he can come up with, but I must say he can pair a wine like few people I’ve ever seen, a passionate sommelier in charge of one of the best wine programs in town, and completely in sync with Cooper’s interesting autumn menu, it bears repeating that the best way to dine at Vidalia is to have Cooper go off-menu, and cook whatever he feels like cooking, he’ll do it for anyone who asks, and it works out to about $15 a course, Viridian has greatly improved during the tenure of Antonio Burrell, the sleek dining room was always attractive, the service always friendly and efficient, but now the food is equally elegant, the platings are busy with many ingredients, but each tends to have its own space so the diner can mix-and-match, chilled watermelon soup with grapefruit, cilantro and yogurt lime sorbet ($7) seemed a bit past season, but the sorbet was fascinating, and the grapefruit was an absolutely perfect match for a bottle of 2005 Chateau Soucherie Anjou (a Chenin Blanc imported by Neal Rosenthal, $32), squash on pastry with onions, tomatoes, herbs, Keswick Creamery ricotta ($9) was Burrell at his best, an intricate dish that stood up well to the chef’s austere style, the only drawback was the pastry itself which was a touch burnt, American red snapper with fennel, onion, bacon, preserved lemon, and salsa verde ($24) was the dish of the night, the snapper perfectly cooked with crispy skin, the lemon and salsa verde providing a thrilling acidic counterpoint to the smokiness of the bacon, organic chicken, roasted with stuffed leg, farm potato-egg salad, chicken jus ($20) is a good introduction to the style of Burrell, a complicated dish that comes off as spare and elegantly plated, I’ve always had mixed feelings about Rasika, mainly because there are so many things about it that I like, the atmosphere is lively but refreshingly civilized, the service has always been first-rate, and the prices can be surprisingly gentle, but my problem lies with the cooking itself, as everything comes across to me with an assembled feel, talking about the dal makhani, my server said to me, “the chef lets this cook for three hours,” but this is a dish that several other restaurants in the area, such as Bombay Curry Company and Passage To India, let cook for much longer, a good way for two people to dine here is to order one vegetarian tasting menu ($36) and one non-vegetarian tasting menu ($50) and share the two, the vegetarian courses are generally better than meats here, which can be dry and overcooked albeit masked by saucing, the wine list was always too expensive, and is now declining in quality after the departure of Sebastian Zutant, my first bite of food at Sushi-Ko this week was, gulp, geoduck sashimi, which Koji Terano masterfully plated alongside orange clam, Maine scallop, Spanish mackeral, Japanese jackfish, Japanese sea bream, fatty yellowtail, lean tuna, medium-fatty tuna, and fatty tuna, and advised eating it in exactly that order (clams, shellfish, whitefish, tuna from lean to fat), if you haven’t sat in front of Koji yet and ordered a chef’s sashimi plate ($28.95), you’re missing one of the great dining experiences in town, I hadn’t been to KAZAN in McLean for twelve years, and, God willing, it will be twelve more before I return, open since 1980, this is an overpriced Turkish restaurant with food that is cruise-ship bad, a donner kabob special was interesting only for the yogurt, and the Anatolian Chicken was large chunks of flavorless chicken served over farfalle pasta in a nasty dark brown sauce, the “Kazan’s Catering” van out in front should be your clue to go elsewhere, a waste of precious time and money, the only good thing I can say about Kazan is that the staff made an effort to greet its regular diners, mainly senior citizens who seemed comfortable being there, beers at Kazan, even Budweiser, cost $6.00, not even affording me the smallest bit of compensatory solace during my long, sad evening of culinary vapidity, take the wine list seriously at the new Johnny’s Half Shell, there are good, affordable wines by the glass, a fine little selection of half-bottles, and the list itself is organized in a very readable, easy-to-understand format, early Friday evening there was a mob scene at the bar, with people standing four and five deep, and save room for a fabulous wedge of Valerie Hill’s coconut passionfruit layer cake, I pulled up to The Argonaut Tavern and parked on Maryland Ave just south of H Street, walking over I noticed DAAVI’S WEST AFRICAN RESTAURANT right next door and then went into Argonaut and stood at the bar, staring down at someone’s plate of awful looking french fries, I walked around and counted 28 people, all white, then left and went next door to poke my head into Daavi’s, completely empty except for two customers and the two proprietors, one of them an older man fumbling with a mop and pail, cursing about the plumbing in what I assume was Ghanaian, the other a frumpy woman in an apron and a bandana, just as my comfort level was nearing an all-time low, the woman flashed me a big smile and said “come on in!” so I walked up to the counter and looked at the menu and saw a bewildering array of emo-tuo and peanut butter soup, whiting fish stew, kenkey, shito, boiled yam, blue fish and croaker, jollof rice, goat soup, woakeye and cow feet stew, banku, kakro, and aboboe, and then I thought about The Argonaut, filled with young hipsters, eating cheeseburgers, and seeking precisely the same level of comfort as the wealthy older clientele walking into Kazan, and said “I’d like something a West African would eat,” not yet noticing the flag from Ghana on the wall, “You want fufu?” she said, “have a seat,” and then disappeared into the kitchen, coming back ten minutes later with a giant ball of fufu served alongside a big bowl of rich, medium-spicy, long-cooked chicken stew, she was tickled that I enjoyed it so much, “you come back again, okay?” she said flashing one last smile as I walked out, when I headed down Maryland Avenue on the way to my car, I saw a frighteningly large rat running down the sidewalk, coming from the direction of The Argonaut, heading in the direction of Daavi’s, “I guess I’m not the only one with good taste,” I thought to myself, Le Bar at Hotel Sofitel showed great promise when it first opened, serving up elegant little dishes in an attractive lounge, no longer, this place has taken on a creepy vibe and the menu has gone south, as I sat and had some frozen sweet-potato french fries, surrounded by older hotel guests having a couple of scotches, I couldn’t wait to get out of there, I found myself wandering around Springfield one afternoon figuring I was condemned to mediocrity, and stumbled across an obscure little place called MENA MARKET, in a little townhouse in the corner of West Springfield Center (the shopping center near Whole Foods with a clock tower on it), when I walked inside it was empty, but it quickly dawned on me that this was a little Ethiopian operation, and they make their own injera, in fact they make it in a large-enough quantity to wholesale it, I was so happy to find this, not because it was injera (it could have been saltenas or even a decent pub), but because I had discovered some small shard of meaning in a sterile sea of soccer moms and minivans, I walked over and saw a lady ladling the liquid out of an enormous, industrial-sized plastic trashcan, simultaneously manning about six large griddles, and churning out freshly made injera, I bought two of them ($1.20) and they were delicious, several Ethiopian customers came in and were buying it by the bag, the $45 three-course menu at CityZen Lounge remains the best high-end deal in the area right now, Eric Ziebold, whom I consider a personal friend at this point (disclosure here), knew I was coming in, and was undoubtedly hovering over the execution of my dishes with a microscope, nevertheless, I can say that the two best meals I’ve had in 2006 have been at CityZen, and that right now, Eric Ziebold, when he’s on his game, is the best chef in the Washington DC area, in terms of him being regarded as one of the greatest chefs in the world, the question is “when,” and perhaps “where,” but certainly not “if,” remember I said this in five years, how was your week.

You're in a cabin in the woods: Use Caerphilly and make a classic Welsh Rarebit, make a mild, smooth, thick, creamy tomato soup, serve freshly-ground white pepper on the side of the plate to be used at the diner's discretion, and don't deconstruct a thing. Cheers, Rocks.

Why don't you both save yourselves the trouble and go to Colorado Kitchen for Gillian Clark's magnificent Lilliputian Fried Chicken? (Actually a cornish hen). Also, I believe that Ray's The Classics is deep-fried, not pan-fried. Cheers, Rocks. -- The following posts have been split into separate threads: Crisfield Seafood (happyguy) Blue & White Carry Out (anhdeluxe)

In the mid-90s, Pesquera was notorious for refusing to use paraffin wax to line their corks, and this resulted in wine seeping around the edges and oxidizing - it was very common to have a completely drenched cork, from top to bottom, when opening a Pesquera. Nearly every bottle of the expensive 1994 Janus - a beautiful wine on release - was ruined after a number of years. Although I'm not current on this problem, I fear that the tightness you both describe might be indicative of a continued absence of paraffin wax - the wax would make the cork glide out more easily. Drink up, Rocks.

Thanks for posting this Sthitch - I just called and bought a few bottles of each. These are all a good deal, and if anyone out there is looking for a good assortment of Terry Theise Champagnes that won't break the bank, call (202) 333-7500 and order a mixed case (or whatever). Elliot Staren the owner will probably answer the phone - tell him I said hello. Cheers, Rocks.

I disagree. When I read the review, I found myself nodding my head in agreement with most every point Tom was making. Agraria is a restaurant that has been hyped in the national press for months. The review might not have been relevant to us, but for the Sunday Post's other 900,000 readers, I think it provided a perfectly lucid, well-written picture of the restaurant. Cheers, Rocks

It means, I thought I saw a почитать!

The bigger problem is that you guys watch TV. If it wasn't for this website, I'm not sure I'd even know who Rachel Ray is. Going to read Milton by candlelight in my dark, cold basement now, Rocks.

The selling-out occurs when they go to the Food Network. I'm not saying it's wrong, but let's at least identify the singularity at the point of origin; the commercial stuff is just a logical extension.

The following posts have been split into separate threads: Full Key (johnb) Full Kee (synaesthesia) Good Fortune (deangold)

He also owns a second brewery right off the Belgian coast called Brouweij Dropp Anker.

Coagulated underneath your "e" key, is more like it. Stop surfing porn!