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V.H.

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Everything posted by V.H.

  1. V.H.
    I'm not sure how they'll do in Clarendon. On the one hand, there's tons of foot traffic and the only other places to get baked goods would be the Cheesecake Factory or Whole Foods so it would certainly appeal to folks who don't want to get in a car or buy pastries from a chain. On the other hand, I personally think the cakes at Cheesecake Factory and Whole Foods are generally tastier than the stuff from Cakelove. Additionally, a short drive away from Clarendon are Randolph's and Heidelberg's, which both make knock out cakes and pastries that happen to also be delicious at any temperature. I don't see customers from either of those stores becoming customers of Cakelove. Certainly at his price point, there are lots of better options in the North Arlingon area.
  2. V.H.
    I picked up takeout from a new Thai place, Amarin (3373 Rosecrans St) on my way to my hotel this evening. I really wanted to like it since the people were so nice and the folks eating in the restaurant seemed to be enjoying themselves. Unfortunately, I was a bit disappointed with the two things I ordered. I started with the Tom Yum soup with shrimp. While the shrimp were cooked well, the soup lacked both the hot and sour aspects that make it one of my usual favorites. It was a little sour, but seemed to have been tamed down considerably for western tastes. The mock duck gaprow I ordered looked impressive and the vegetables were cooked to a nice crisp tender stage. The mock duck looked like boneless pieces of duck meat with the skin on. I love meat but ordered this since my curiousity got the better of me regarding what mock duck looks like. The gaprow had very little heat and not enough Thai basil flavor for my taste. Like the soup, this dish seems to have been westernized. I wish I could have liked the food more since it's so conveniently near my customer location.
  3. V.H.
    If you're willing to buy a second (generally just a minor scratch) and use a coupon, fantastic deals can be had.
  4. V.H.
    The same people who bring babies to a two hour movie and think that just because they are standing by the door watching the movie that we can't hear their wailing offspring. Dim Sum is the secret baby charmer. Can't fuss if your mouth is full of baked pork buns.
  5. V.H.
    This article showed up on a parenting list I'm on and for the most part, parents were supportive of the shopkeeper. There were a few parents, however, who didn't understand why people had such high expectations of children in public. These are parents who don't seem to understand that practicing good behavior in more casual venues is good practice for the more formal ones. This probably sounds wierd, but we actively avoid restaurants with lots of children because it's much easier for our two year old to model good behavior when she's surrounded by it. The few times we've been to a place with lots of kids, it was very confusing for her because there are invariably at least a few kids who were allowed to run around and play in the restaurant. I don't claim that my daughter is the model of good behavior, but at least until she's old enough that we can explain that some parents have different rules than us, it's just much easier to do it this way.
  6. V.H.
    I tried out two recipes this weekend, one for caramels with sea salt and the other for sweet spiced nuts. Both were well received at an open house I went to and incredibly easy to make so I'll definitely be making them for holiday gifts. If I host something, can more people attend if it's a weekday night or sometime on the weekend?
  7. V.H.
    Any interest in doing some sort of recipe swap? We could each make a small batch of stuff and get together and sample each others recipes and see if it's something that we'd be interested in making for a gift basket this year. Sometime in early December perhaps? I'd be happy to host at my house in Arlington.
  8. V.H.
    You could create two lotteries for the next event. Let's say there are 40 seats at the next event. You could run a lottery for half of those seats using just the names on the waitlist from this event. Those who don't win are then added a general lottery for the remaining 20 seats. This way, those who get shut out are given a higher probability than the general population of winning and you don't fill up a new event with the waitlist of a previous one.
  9. V.H.
    Not me but a friend would can all year long, start freezing cookie and biscotti doughs the month before Christmas, and then make truffles and caramels. She'd give people baskets with apple butter, jams, marmalades, several different flavors of truffles, individually wrapped caramels, and at least half a dozen varieties of cookies.
  10. V.H.
    The Halloween decorated ones with a ghost or a pumpkin were $3. The same sized cupcakes with Halloween colored buttercream frosting and sprinkles were $1.25. I can't vouch for the more expensive ones but the regular ones were delicious. Their pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese icing intrigued me. I might have to try to bake a batch this weekend.
  11. V.H.
    I am such an unagi addict that I buy the pre-cooked fillets at the Korean grocery stores and keep a steady supply in my freezer. My husband thinks I'm a little odd but you never know when you'll want to pop some in the toaster oven to have with a little bowl of rice.
  12. V.H.
    We were at Kotobuki this past Friday around 7pm and the place was packed. Orders came out slower than usual due to the sheer number of folks there. When we left, there were about 8 or 9 people standing at the top of the stairs waiting for a table. Sushi was amazing as usual and we were glad to see that business is picking up.
  13. V.H.
    I'm in Arlington, so my score of 80 is not surprising.
  14. V.H.
    We had relatives in town and got takeout from Kotobuki because they love sushi and we wanted to share the wondrous experience that is Kotobuki with them. We ask them what their likes and dislikes are. We get the response, "Nothing raw, only cooked shrimp or crab, and preferably with a hot creamy sauce." Ummm, don't tell people that you LOVE sushi if all you eat is something resembling a tuna melt on vinegared rice.
  15. V.H.
    When my daugter was about 16 months old we had dinner at Majestic Cafe. I ordered the rabbit and split it with my daughter, knowing that she would probably like it's chicken-like texture. About two months later she had two little friends over to play and they noticed little baby bunnies hopping in the front yard. As the two other children and their mothers cooed over the baby bunnies, my daughter takes one look and says, "Mmmmm, tastes like chicken!"
  16. V.H.

    Fruitcake

    V.H. replied to mktye's topic in Shopping and Cooking

    Ummm, if there wasn't one already in the works, I think this is enough reason to start planning one!
  17. V.H.
    You mean you had about 95 personal cases of wine? That must have been some party when you moved it all out.
  18. V.H.
    For sushi lovers, Ace Beverage is a very short jaunt (by car) from Kotobuki.
  19. V.H.
    We recently returned from a two week trip to Provence with a great group of friends. Given that the local Rhone wines were about $3-$4 for a good bottle at the grocery stores and wine cooperatives, we drank great quantities of wine daily. My question is, how was it that I was able to drink four or five glasses of wine every night with dinner and not be hung over in the morning? A friend and I agreed that the only day we woke up with a headache was when we overindulged and had maybe seven glasses. As a reference point, I only weigh a little over a hundred pounds and two glasses usually totally do me in.
  20. V.H.
    I love the Tom Yum Paste in a jar but I add some Tamarind Soup powder and chicken broth to it to get the level of tartness and flavor that I like.
  21. V.H.
    I grew up in Riverdale, MD and everyone knew you had to stop at the Mayor's house because they always gave away King sized candy bars. Also, the guy who gave out fistfuls (childsize) of quarters.
  22. V.H.
    Being able to purchase alcoholic drinks using your meal card seems to be an interesting twist. I do like the idea that a more sophisticated student palate is driving these changes. I would love to see more places that are indicative of DC cuisine pop up on local campuses, maybe a Banh Mi shop and a kabob place?
  23. V.H.
    Met a friend for a quick lunch at Sonoma today. I tried to make reservations on OpenTable but they were booked until 2pm, so we risked our chances at the bar. We ordered the rosemary skewered shrimp on cauliflower puree with brown butter, the seared venison carpaccio, the rabbit goat cheese cannelloni with kale, and the marinated octopus with new potatoes, all about $7 or 8 a piece for a first course sized portion. My friend thought the goat cheese overpowered the flavor of the rabbit just a little bit and we both thought there were a couple of pieces in the octopus dish that were bland and mushy (most of it was very good). I think the cannelloni was my favorite dish. I didn't think the goat cheese was overpowering at all and the kale that accompanied the dish had such a wonderful meaty flavor. The venison carpaccio was very mild and delicious with none of the gameyness you sometimes find with venison. Overall, an excellent lunch for a great price and we were able to get out in about an hour.
  24. V.H.
    For certain, I know that both Giant and Harris Teeter will give you the item for free if it rings up incorrectly. Every couple of weeks seems rather infrequent for a person to come into WF to correct prices given that the regular supermarkets seem to have handheld scanners so that they can change it on the spot.
  25. V.H.
    The grocery store thread made me wonder how many people have a weekly/monthly grocery budget and how many people just always buy whatever strikes their fancy without a thought to cost. A couple of years ago we tracked how much we spent monthly on groceries and it was about $300-400 a month. Now we have a two year old toddler who we admittedly spoil with good food so our bills are probably higher. I'm thinking about instituting a monthly grocery budget and was curious as to what folks think would be a reasonable budget for a family of two adults and one child. We are omnivores and pack lunch about 80%of the time from leftovers.
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