DonRocks
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Everything posted by DonRocks
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Terry, thank you very much for joining us here! And for those who can't get enough of Terry, there may be an interesting development coming for people on this website. Stay tuned...
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Dishes like this are what 3 Michelin Stars are made of. Ignore the general public, charge whatever needs to be charged, and make this a signature dish. -
Why doesn't Roberto offer this on an "as you dare" and/or call-ahead basis for his Laboratorio diners? It would get him worldwide attention, I believe - it's just the hook he needs to get the press to take note. Roberto, are you reading? Do it. Cheers, Rocks
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I needed some grounding today, so I headed to Woodlands out in Fairfax for some carryout. This is real Indian food, and I'm talking manly-man southern Indian. Not the meatly oolag you sit and nibble on with a Kingfisher and a side of A&D, but the stuff you snort down with a cup of damned tea. Look at this: $7.25 gets you a Special Rava Masala Dosa. Man oh man oh man this is awesome. Call ten minutes before you arrive because it takes them fifteen minutes to make it. Get your order, and march straight back to your car. Open the metal container. Notice the beautifully grilled crepe, a cream-of-wheat and lentil crepe, thick, honeycombed, and crunchy in parts. Green chiles are used to enhance the flavor of the potatoes and onions, not to overwhelm them. Try a few bites of everything, admire how deep and cellularly knit these flavors are. And now that we've gotten that little formality out of the way, take your entire thing of sambar, and dump it on top. Likewise your coconut chutney. Start driving home. Use the plastic spoon - not the plastic fork - that you requested. Start shoveling. I love Woodlands. Forget the buffet which is interesting but sometimes tired and picked-over. Get fresh-cooked food. Get a dosa. Get this dosa. Try this exact same dish and you'll dream about it later in the night. You'll thank yourself, and you'll come here again-and-again. Do it! And now if I could figure out what to do with this little thing of Paan I bought. What is this stuff? What do I do with it? Cheers, Rocks.
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You don't need a bar menu; there are lots of small plates to choose from - and Sebastian is doing a good job here with wines by the glass.
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Administrative Announcement - Use Email Address To Sign In
DonRocks replied to DonRocks's topic in Events and Gatherings
[My email was rejecting messages for several days last week, so if anyone was trying to reach me, please try again.] -
I've been to the Falls Church location of zpizza a couple of times for slices on-the-run. I kind of enjoy it although it's nothing special of course (Pie-tanza is better pizza in this general area). The good news is that if you take a bite and decide against it, Kasha's Kitchen is next door - one of the healthiest and most underrated lunch counters around (in the back of Kennedy's Natural Foods, and definitely worth a try for lunch if you're around Route 7 and the W&OD Trail). Cheers, Rocks
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Terry would never say this, so let me do it instead: I've recommended his wine catalogs (click here to view them online) as first-ever wine books for absolute beginners. Why? Because more than anything else, they're great reads. They're fun, passionate, very funny at times, and even though the "wine stuff" may seem like a bit much for the neophyte, I don't think it is. In the interest of full disclosure, these are commercial catalogs primarily used to sell wines to retail stores (not to retail customers) - as a result they're not "neutral," but it's so much fun to see Terry pitch his wares and boy-oh-boy does he do it in style. Seriously, spend twenty minutes reading one and you'll see what I mean - I had read these things for years before I ever met Terry, and loved them (and still do). Cheers, Rocks
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Maybe it's just me, but I don't see anything so terribly wrong with that question. "Open to cuisine" sounds like any type of ethnic is okay with the diner, at least that's the way it sounds to me. Seriously, I'd hate it if a younger diner felt afraid to ask something like that here. Am I being naive?
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Terry, You once told me that Germany is your wife, Austria is your best friend, and Champagne is your mistress. Do you remember this, and if so, can you elucidate?
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Gee what a small world... I had all those last night too.
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You said the same thing about "Girl Food" here. Do you think Frank's food is Girl Food? (he does brine a pretty hot chick)
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Terry and I chatted about this on the phone yesterday afternoon, and I mentioned that one of the things I love about Frank Ruta's cooking is that it's 'flawed.' It's not technically flawed, mind you, but there's a palpable sense of humanity that seems to go into each dish. Terry then replied that he found Frank's food to be 'pretty much perfect.' Terry, given that Palena is a favorite on this forum, can you expand on this a bit?
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Check with hub: eet may not bee zee libido.
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But I think you do argue for flawed wine - not any particular flaw, nor any particular wine, but for the human joy of imperfection. Quoting a synopsis of José Saramago's The Cave, the Nobel Prize winning author "tells the story of Cipriano Algor, an old man who makes a living selling hand-made pottery. He lives in an antiquated village on the outskirts of The Center, a gigantic residential shopping mall that buys his wares. The Center comes to embody everything wrong with the consumerist culture, its artificial playgrounds and catering to every need, whereas Cipriano longs for the old ways and traditions. The crisis in his life comes when The Center stops buying his pottery because plastic is cheaper, and his daughter and her husband consider moving to The Center where he works as a security guard." Algor's pottery is flawed, i.e. not plastic-y perfect or made to some sort of preconceived specifications, and this is exactly what I believe you seek in wine and in life. And it's one of the things I like best about you! Of course you also play a mean guitar, but that's another story.
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Terry, First of all, THANK YOU! for joining us here. With your tolerance, acceptance, perhaps even insistence in wine's everyday flaws, have you ever thought that you're Refusing Heaven? Or are they flaws? And there's the pitch. It's a long fly ball! He's taking him deep, deep, deep! Back! Way back! It's ... it's ... it's...
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Gerard's Place, McPherson Square - Pan Go.
DonRocks replied to DonRocks's topic in Washington DC Restaurants and Dining
The beet salad four-ways at Gerard's Place is unbelievable, Gerard Pangaud at his bring-tears-to-your-eyes finest. Small-chopped local beets "with oranges," which means small local cubes of beet, with touches of orange rind, in a light-touched sauce of olive-oil and the occasional grain of coarse salt. Napolean with goat cheese Carpaccio with Passion-Fruit dressing: a classic Pangaud nautilus of yellow beets that recalls his mango tarte tatin Mousse with walnuts: a crescent-shaped beet mousse, maybe with walnuts or walnut oil in the mix. The echo was on the carpaccio: a couple of very finely chopped walnuts were on top. Cheers, Rocks -
[Terry's thoughts on globalization here.]
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Lots of stars to lots of members of this website. Congratulations to all! And after an initial skimming, I've found one big mistake: the entry on the very, very last page of the book should have four stars instead of one. Cheers, Rocks
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It was Glenmont, and Shorty Divver used to drive a bunch of us kids to bowl there. The proprietor was a diminutive, brusque-but-kindly short-haired woman with glasses named Dottie. Back on topic: they had frozen ripple-cut french fries for 35 cents.
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On a hole-y unrelated note, Pernod-Ricard - a French conglomerate no less - just sold Dunkin Donuts for an eye-popping $2.43 billion.
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The List of DC Area Restaurants
DonRocks replied to DonRocks's topic in Washington DC Restaurants and Dining
Winter additions: Capital Singe Open and Shitty FakeLove Worth Pityin' Oya? O no. Debt-te Sell-o Jip Unlucky Streak Appalling No-show's Asian Bistro Raw Cecum Mocha Slut The Embarrassed Godmother Vaginate Depression Burger Goodbye Dahlia Burr bin Faux Gaudy Show or Forego The Chow (take your pick) And last but not least: Zen Gonad, aka "Mi-Mi-Mi-Mi ... & Not Yu" -
[dude you're like ... sooooo november.]
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was just trying to continue the alliteration and "grated fresh coconut" broke the cadence Thank you Tom. Seriously though, not a drop of sushi vinegar?
