sandynva

i've never been, but from what you said you value--new ingredients and preparations-- it sounds like minibar would be a great experience for you. granted, my view is highly biased by the fact that i'm vegetarian and can rarely have more than one or two dishes at these places, but i've been to proof a couple of times now and not been wowed. it's good food that was perfectly enjoyable to eat, but nothing i found surprising or craveable or even worth much thought later. (again though, usually the only thing i can have here is the gnocchi). and proper, attentive yet non-fawning service is a big thing for me, and i was not impressed by the service i've had dining at proof (the bar is good though) I'd reccomend tosca--not that the food is super-novel, but it's always very delicious and i've always had great service, but they have a pre-theater menu every day so this isn't your only chance to go there. My recent meal at the oval room was lovely, the service good, and the atmosphere pleasantly adult and subdued, though not terribly romantic, if that's what you're looking for.

oh no! i really enjoyed their rasam vada and rava dosa!

i think you're thinking of sambar, a lentil based soup that usually accompanies dosa and idli. but even if that was what he was thinking of, as you said, it'd be odd to serve it with soup, as sambar is itself a soup.

top chef masters is making me want to go to zentan too! one odd thing though is that when i pass the place on evenings, particularly weekends, i often see a line outside the door, which i thought odd for a place i thought was primarily a restaurant rather than a club. does anyone have any insight into this? was i the only one a bit bewildered by Marcus' "indian" tomato soup with what he said were the "traditional garnishes" of nuts, melons, chickpeas and sambal? granted i'm mostly used to gujarati food, but i'd never seen those all together in an indian dish before, certainly not tomato soup. and i was under the impression that sambals were from indonesia and other places but not india? And then when hank azaria was confused as to what to do with the garnishes, marcus was so certain that apu would know how to use them.....

For anyone who's interested, when i drove by Cravyn's nursery today (off fairfax blvd) they had a sign saying they had over 100 types of herbs available. i didn't stop in to confirm it or to see the plants, but i've been quite happy with their things in the past--they're grown well and not coddled so even though they don't look as pretty as some plants you see at the markets they are much likelier to thrive. http://www.cravensnursery.com/

He's still at Tosca too, right?

i like kemoll's, have been there a number of times, and tony's is quite good as well. if you have a car, i'd try to go to the hill, the italian area, to hit vivano's (get some carry out) or the original amighetti's. maybe get doughnuts at the soulard farmer's market......

I have to admit a certain fondness for Pizza Mart pizza. Is it 2 Amy's? of course not, but sometimes it's pretty tasty.

it was my understanding that all the durian available in the US was frozen, rather than fresh. if so, i wonder if the "picking a good one" matters as much. i much prefer the stuff that comes out of the fruit and ready to eat (you can find this in the frozen section of asian supermarkets). For me, the big frozen fruit, while undeniably dramatic, is just too big a pain to fuss with and i've never noticed a difference in the quality/flavor of the fruit in the whole vs pre shelled durian.

I've had their vegetarian kati roll and thought it was fine, though not super flavorful (too many potatoes!). other indian friends i've been with have said their frankies/kati rolls are really good, so maybe the nonveg ones are better? the pani puri are fine. not great, but i don't know that there's a better version of them in d.c, (though i've never had the ones at masala art.) the only local version i've had that were better (though only a little bit better) were the ones at indaroma on little river turnpike. nonetheless, since there are so few places in dc that serve the "hawker food" i'm quite glad heritage offers what it does. at happy hour the "street food" is half off or heavily discounted. ps-for my money, the best "hawker food" in the area is at 1) rasika--the ragda patties is a good rendition of a street food classic, imho not too far off from homemade or the original, and their palak chat is also a version of a classic street food and 2) indaroma in va.....

sadly, i have to second this, i'm very interested in gardening, particularly edibles, but unfortunately have mostly shade. what you can grow will depend on exactly how much sun you do get. in the brightest moments on your windowsill, if you raise your hand above it, do you get a shadow? if so, that's good news and you can try more things. if you don't get a shadow, that's pretty low light for plants, and you might be stuck with the most shade-tolerant herbs, which are, in my experience, parsley and rosemary (which doesn't grow very fast in low light, but at least doesn't die). oddly, pepper plants also do ok--you don't get many peppers, but you do get some. if you get more light maybe try chives or mint? anothe shade-toleranbt thing to try might be scented geraniums, particularly the lemon or rose scented ones. these do tolerate some shade, and supposedly you can cook with them, mostly baking i think. however, i just love them for the smell of their leaves, it's an instant pick-me up!

if the weather's nice, the roof of tabaq might be a nice option.

Neat, thanks! i'll have to try them sometime......

i have a quite healthy, large cardamom plant in my home. Though it never flowers for me, the foliage, both fresh and dried, smells wonderful. I believe i once read somewhere that you can cook the green shoots. can anyone confirm this, or does anyone have experience with this? Interestingly, the smell of the foliage is different than the smell of the pods, much sweeter.....

Thank you for your help everyone! they do have it on the menu at Maggianos (not sure if it's the type you mentioned, Rocks, or the rolled kind). but when i mentioned maggianos to my proud italian american friend, he suddenly got very quiet and then interested in going to churchkey instead!

I'm having dinner with a friend tomorrow night and he'd love to go to a place that serves braciole. Does anyone know of a restaurant with this on its menu? thanks!!

I also wondered about the prices at some of them. $195? That price seems in line with the most expensive restaurants in the area, I'm wondering if a dinner at these clubs is really better than spending the money at eve or komi. And even for the less pricey ones, well, $50-$70 will get you a lot of vegetarian Gujarati Jain food at nirvana, though you wouldn't have the same amount of explanation. (Although at nirvana maybe you would. when I've been there the hostess/owner has always stopped by the table to chat and see how things are, so I'm guessing she'd be happy to talk about Gujarati food) I'm not criticizing these clubs, as I've never been to them. Maybe the experience is well worth the money. I was just kind of confused about the prices as if these are people who aren't paying rent on a restaurant, paying salaries for staff, etc, I would've expected the price to be less than that of a comparable restaurant experience. But then again I suppose restaurants have volume, can buy in bulk etc. also, maybe I'm just sad that since I'm a vegetarian I can't go to wok + wine which sounds like so much fun!

i thought this was interesting.... http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/03/the-great-grocery-smackdown/7904/

the drinks at both are fabulous, but to me there's a difference in atmosphere. at the gibson, as someone noted, it's more upscale, and to my mind, the wooden booths inside are downright glamorous/romantic. The passenger's more casual, a better place to go if i'm feeling totally casual. and there's a similar difference in food--chacuterie and cheese plates vs hot dogs and chips.....so, both great, but for different moods. also, when it gets warmer the gibson has an outdoor patio, not sure if passenger has/will have outdoor seating...

i did smile!

I too enjoyed the pizza. I had a margarita with eggplant added as a topping. the crust was quite good--thicker than neopolitan style, a bit pillowy, but quite tasty and well seasoned. the pizza wasn't quite the margarita i was expecting--i'm used to seeing the red sauce with isolated circles of white cheese. this was more like a regular cheese pizza, (with roasted eggplant and basil) but a quite tasty one. i've only been to pizzaiolo once, so am not fully qualified to judge, but i think the pizza at kora was as good, and i liked the crust better. they have a nice happy hour deal--a half order of pasta or a generous "happy hour pizza" which is maybe half the size of a regular pizza for $5. My friend had, and liked, the vegetable agnolotti with red pepper sauce. also, the pasta was vegan, which is a nice touch.

M-thank you very much for the interesting article and great summary! and, you hit the nail on the head--what i dislike about so many brands is the puree/cooked taste.

It's too bad you had a bad experience with hunts. I wonder if it was maybe the style of sauce you were making? one of my weeknight/get home from work famished and can't wait more than 10 mins to eat meals is pasta with a quick sauce made from hunts petite diced tomatoes. while water's boiling I just put a bit of olive oil in skillet, 2 smashed garlic cloves, red pepper flakes and a can of hunts petite diced, simmer for a few min, add fresh basil at the end, and that's it, the (rather chunky) sauce is done before the pasta is. so it's a fresh-type rather than long-simmered sauce, and the hunts works better in it, because it's fresher tasting/closer to fresh diced tomatoes than other brands i've tried. but, for the same reason i like it in the quick sauce-it's comparative freshness--it might be bad in a longer simmered sauce.....

for the poster looking for places in NoVa, i like the one on little river turnpike, opposite grand mart. the name is Ginger ____ something, and as a bonus it's right next to IndAroma, so you can pick up a yummy snack after you shop. the address is 6548 little river turnpike. They have a good selection of prepared and frozen food and spices, and they don't have that many fresh vegetables, but grand mart is right across the street.

A friend and I took advantage of Masa's excellent happy hour last night and are definitely adding it to our regular rotation. The happy hour is excellent -it lasts till 7 and a number of drinks (including house red and white, margaritas, mojitos, and the yummy strawberry lemonade) are $4, as are a number of the small plates, including the crunchy okra, which were delicious enough to convert my formerly okra-hating friend. the okra are coated in a cornstarch batter, deep fried, tossed with a tangy sauce and served with a citrusy-soy dipping sauce on the side. great bar food. I thought the drinks were on the sweet side, but my friend didn't mind that.