sandynva

espita or all purpose? not sure if they're open for lunch but they are right there. and depending on how you feel about mike isabella, arroz is right there too, and i'd think it's open for lunch.

We had a lovely dinner here this weekend. one thing that i particularly appreciated is that though it's a hard res to get you'd never know that from being there--the tables aren't too close together, there's not a line of people waiting to get in, and service is not rushed. i think they do a good job of spacing out the reservations (or the food just comes fast meaning you finish dinner more quickly than usual). i would agree with the 2.5 dishes per person reccomendation. The plates are fairly small. I'm not sure how people managed a full dinner with less than 2 items a person, unless maybe the noodle dishes, which we didn't have, are significantly larger than the other plates. My favorites were the avocado--the contrast of the dense rich avocado with the fluffy cauliflower, pickled element, and crunchy papad-wafer was fun, and it all went well with the romesco, and the tofu, which had an extremely flavorful chermoula. that sauce was really delicious and i'd eat it on anything. The fondue was really interesting-the flavor reminded me of fermented tofu, and i really liked the pretzel bread and pickles. overall they use pickled elements really well. i don't like beets that much, and dislike smoke, but i could appreciate how beautifully cooked the beets were and how nicely the crumbs added texture. i'd say the one miss of the night was the langos, which was a small fried disk of bread (like a small bhatura) with too much remoulade on it, so much so that it muted the taste of the tomato and corn on top. this dish needed less mayo and more salt or seasoning or something. I'm normally not a fruit dessert person but the blueberry tart with lemon curd and poppyseed icecream was delicious. i don't normally like lemon curd because it tastes too eggy, but this version was really good, perhaps because it lacked egg. my mocktail with fruit and black tea was nice. my husband's with coconut, pineapple and pandan was not. service was sweet and friendly, we look forward to going again.

I may be in the minority here, but though I love Fiola, I wasn't wowed by my meal at Casa Luca, and I thought it was too expensive for what it was. On the other hand, I really enjoy Sfoglina and have been there multiple times. It's not life-changing, but it is reliably delicious, something which is less common than it should be. And I don't think it's that expensive either-we usually split The three pasta tasting, which is $66 for two people and is more than enough food, in fact we usually end up taking something home.

was the sauce flavorful enough that you think this would work for tofu?

congrats on the engagement and wedding! i agree that the food in edison is great. i haven't been to talk, but bombay talk, mentioned in the article, has great snack items. and the chole bhatura at jassi is seriously the best. my husband doesn't eat chole in dc anymore because he swears that jassi has spoiled him. (i don't love their aloo paratha though). There's a mini-food court about 2 blocks up the street, on the opposite side. their chinese bhel is great. they have a pani puri place with 6 waters where they fillthe puri for you like they do in india. one of their waters is quite good actually. not quite calcutta-good, but close. and i don't love most indian sweets, especially the milk/cheese based ones, but the ones at mughal are really good. i've never been to sarvanaa bhavan, but many of my ny/nj relatives like it a lot. in the dc area, one place that doesn't get as much press as it should, in my opinion, is indaroma in alexandria. i like their chaats, and when they catered my cousin's wedding the okra and other veg were delicious. if it weren't so far away for me, i'd go there quite often.

i had brunch at sylvains yesterday and the cheese grits are amazing. seriously probably the best i've ever had--so rich and flavorful, yet also with a bit of the sweet taste of fresh corn. my friend who was already full took one bite of mine and immediately placed her own order. the biscuits were really good too. and yesterday night I was at a wonderful event catered by coquette. the pimento cheese was crazy delicious--it had horseradish and was decidedly cheesy, unlike most pimento cheese i've had, and though i didn't try it, everyone was swooning over the hanger steak. so my guess is that the versions of these at the restaurant itself are pretty great. i know that if i ever go i'm going to ask for a bowl of that pimento cheese.

I've never seen police called at a place in this price range. Nor have I ever seen them called on people unless they were very intoxicated or apparently suffering mental health issues. And I absolutely stand by my statement. If they had been white, other measures would have been tried first-maybe higher level managers would've come over, perhaps bigger, burlier stuff would've come over, maybe an attempt would be made to mollify them with a free drink, or just something. And then, as an absolute last resort police might have been called. It's easy to say you have tapes, and I'll believe it when somebody on affiliated with the restaurant verifies the show what they say it does. And in any case the tape seem to have played no part in The behavior, Because it doesn't seem like they were looked at until after the police had been called.

I know nothing about this event, or restaurant, but did want to say that just because you're ok with one person who's asian definitely doesn't mean you aren't racist towards people from other races, particularly African Americans. Also, given the description of the event (customers who are pissed off, but not yelling or throwing things, etc) calling the police seems ridiculous to me and i am 100% willing to believe that they wouldn't have done it so quickly if it'd been two white women. And Tom's statement seems particularly inane as the non-white staff seemed to be on the customers' side.

medlar trees are still offered by several nurseries, including some major ones like Burpee, so there must be a reasonable demand for them. I guess they're maybe just consumed at home by the growers? Thistle--is your loquat outside? i love fresh loquats and never see them in stores, and had assumed that i'd have to grown them indoors here, which i don't have the space for. I'm hoping you'll tell me i was wrong!

I'm not sure if this is the right place to put this (there doesn't seem to be an aldi thread) but yesterday I was at aldi and they had a bag of 4 meyer lemons for $1.40 or something like that, and decent asparagus (actually better than is usually at my safeway) for $1.49 a pound. I was also delighted to find toasted ravioli in the freezer section. i haven't tried that yet, but the frozen cheddar/chive biscuits were pretty good.

had a nice lunch there. the space is really lovely, i think it would be a great date place, but more for the decor than the food. I had the vegetarian entree option, the rice bowl. which basically seemed like a nice bibimbap, with a few pieces of very nice crunchy fried tofu with a ginger glaze, and a slab of tofu with what i assume were meant to be blackened spices on it but in reality didn't taste like much. it was a perfectly good meal, and i was happy enough with it, but it wasnt particularly memorable or impressive. Was underwhelmed by the hummingbird cake. the portion was impressive but the cake itself didn't taste like much--like a mild carrot cake maybe--and the cream cheese citrus icing was pleasant, though nothing special. it really is a pretty space though.

no. but it is really good, as is the whole vibe and atmosphere. i had a lovely dinner there recently. part of that was due to the food, which was good (particularly the muhammara, and the hummus) but also in large part due to the vibe. it felt fun and warm like going to a nice dinner party.

i was just looking at their menu online. did they raise their prices?

There's a number of Indian Jain dishes that use unripe bananas or plantains instead of potatoes. I think they're only OK, but then again I really like potatoes and dislike the hints of sweet sometimes plantains have tjs also has a curry-I think it's thai-in the freezer section that uses jackfruit. I've never had cooked jackfruit before and it didn't impress me, but I realize it might have a lot to do with the application there

this is hysterical and portlandia-esque. were they serious? I'm a bit ashamed to admit that i bought some of their bread 2 weeks ago, i just happened to be in the area at the time and i guess my avid love of carbs overcame my aversion to pretension. got half a loaf of levain for about $6, i think, and to be fair, it's almost as large as a whole loaf other places. It was weird. the crust was quite firm and dark but the insides were so, so moist with a distinct sour(dough) taste. it actually reminded me strongly of injera-that level of moisture and tang--which made me laugh a bit--after all his experimentation the steve jobs of bread has apparently invented.....something that was invented a very long time ago by ethiopians. served it at a family dinner that night. despite being a bunch of carb lovers we made barely a dent in it. 2 of us liked the flavor and thought it was good, but somehow just didn't want more. i wrapped up the remainder in a loose plastic bag, put it on my counter and forgot about it till a few days ago. miraculously, it was not mouldy at all. in fact, in the 10 days it had dried out somewhat so that its texture was a lot better for me, more breadlike. i am quite impressed that the bread stayed good for that long but have no desire to get it again. i will be curious to see how long this place stays in business.

I love the weekend buffet at woodlands-- all vegetarian but both north and South Indian. I also enjoy the weekend buffet at spice xing, which includes meat dishes, and also often has Indo Chinese

i had my jeni's on a flat dish-thing, at home and waited until they were pretty melty (which is how i generally eat ice cream, i think it tastes better) which is pretty much the same way i often eat 2 amys. So i don't think the muted flavor was a function of temperature.

those cherries are delicious, thanks for the tip! the 14th street store also had jars of caperberries for $2. i don't recall the size exactly, maybe 8 oz? but in any case it seemed a good deal. they said they were only a holiday item. sadly they were out of the peppermint bark which i think i actually prefer to the williams-sonoma version.

i have absolutely no technical expertise in this area, so it's just my opinion, but i wonder 1) does it matter why 2 amys is better than jenis, or if 2 amys would be worse if it went national? isn't what matters to us the ultimate experience we are presented with here, in this city, where we have the chain jeni's and smaller 2 amys? 2) i don't know that it's just a matter of size. i was pretty underwhelmed by jeni's. it was definitely good, but in general i thought the flavors under-performed, that they read better than they actually tasted. i thought the goat cheese and cherries would be fantastic, but the cheese flavor was muted. similarly the roasted strawberry tasted somewhat different than typical strawberry, but not as much as i'd expected. in contrast, for me 2 amys flavors consistently overperform--i've never gotten x flavor and said " i wish this tasted more of x" and even flavors that sound sort of boring (straciatella) end up being more special than expected.

i was really excited when i heard about this place. I ordered carryout from there recently. They are very pleasant and the food was packaged beautifully. They are very accomodating and will try to make any dish vegetarian, even dishes that weren't on the menu (tofu laab). and they are cheaper than thip khao. my order of kaprow tofu was good.but, and i almost didn't post this because they were so nice and i want them to succeed, the naem khao and kaophoon were definitely not as good as the same dishes at thip khao. I really appreciate them trying with the tofu laab, and maybe this is what i deserved for going off menu, but it just didn't taste like much, we ended up pouring the leftover kaprow sauce on it. maybe with this place the meat makes a big difference, but what i had was tasty, but one-note, and not as complex as what i was hoping for. I do wish them well though, and am happy there's more Lao food in the city.

went there for brunch sunday and had a great meal, left thinking why it'd been so long since i'd been there and vowing to go there more often. many of the prices have inched up a bit. With some (like the hot and numbing shreds) the portion is larger, but with others (grandma noodles) it isn't. We mostly ordered familiar standbys. The grandma noodles are still great, and the fish rolls and crispy pork belly were enjoyed. Whoever was frying that day is really skilled, we had the dry fried eggplant and a dry fried mushroom from the specials menu. the eggplant was perfect and the mushrooms were my favorite dish--so flavorful and crunchy, it was almost like a cheeto--there was that level of flavor and crunch (though not cheesy of course). these were so good and i hope they become permanent. Sadly the hot and numbing shreds have gone downhill. the texture was the same but the oil/sauce was different--less hot, less numbing, and overall much less flavorful. i also thought there was a slightly sweet note. usually we are fighting over these and deciding if 2 orders will suffice, or if we dare order 3. this time our sole order languished and was only finished because we didn't feel like packing it up. we also tried two of the noodles from the specials menu. one was very good--i think it was the spicy sesame noodles.

i went there and have conflicting thoughts. I fully admit that it was turned off by much of the press, and even more so by the fact that on weekdays they are only open 8-4, with bread only available from 1-4, which i think is very customer-unfriendly. but i was tempted by the comments about exceptional bread, and it's on my way to work, so i went. The two people at the counter were really pleasant though i can't tell if one was clueless or snarky--when i asked about the bread hours she said they only sold it after 1 " so it would be warm for dinner." me-"but isn't it hard for people to buy it for dinner if you close at 4?" her--"well, we realize that it may be hard for people who work 9 to 5s" I don't work a 9 to 5 but don't work in the immediate vicinity either, and i can't take off 45 min from work to go get bread. but leaving that aside (and in fairness she said that they may be open longer hours later, possibly on fridays) i bought a chocolate croissant, a cheese and kale scone, and a sorghum chocolate chip cookie (apparently gluten free). the croissant was quite good, though not what i expected. most croissants i've had have been light and flaky. this was more soft and and moist. there are layers inside, but they're soft and moist like in a paratha, rather than more fluffy drier ones i'm used to. the flavor of the bread? (im not sure i'd call it pastry which in my mind is flakier, ) was savory and really good, i think a plain croissant with butter would be delicious. i thought the savory bread would be weird with the chocolate but it wasn't, it was quite good. i enjoyed it though i don't think i'd pay $5.50 for it again. the cheese kale scone is very good, though again not what i've expected. i've only had drier, crumbly scones. this is very moist, the texture is like the inside of a moist muffin or zucchini bread (but savory). the cheese was generous in amount, high quality, and tasty. i personally think the kale detracted, but that may be because i got a chunk of thick stem. the bready part again had a good flavor, and was very moist. I did not enjoy the cookie at all. the cookie part crumbled in your mouth like sand and had a slightly bitter taste. i'm admittedly not used to gluten free cookies, but i've had some, and the texture was nothing like this. i took two bites and refused to finish it. my husband volunteered to polish off the rest ( the chocolate is good quality) but even he left about half of it uneaten. and it wasn't just the texture that put me off--there was also a slightly bitter undertone which i didn't think went well with the chocolate cookie, and there werent' the butter and caramelization notes i usually look for. between the scone and the pastry on the croissant, i think i'll love their bread (if i ever get to buy it) but honestly that cookie was one of the more unpleasant eating experiences i've had in the past few months.

i sadly haven't been able to make it back since opening, due to general busyiness on my part, no flaw of theirs. but i was looking over the menu online today (for a possible trip soon) and it seems that the menu has some significant changes. there are some new items which look delicious--i'm especially excited about some that appear to use "olive vegetable" a condiment that i love and don't understand why it's not used more as an ingredient, so it'll be neat to see what he does with it. on the minus side, the emerald noodles i loved no longer seem to be present, but maybe they are a summer thing.

Like the others, I love the peppers. I keep meaning to buy a jar and just use it on plain cheese sandwiches

I Love Perfect Pita's black bean and cilantro hummus. I don't know if it's authentic but damn it's delicious. I've seen it in some local grocery stores