bettyjoan

We had dinner at the Dabney on Sunday night at 8:30 - the only time we could get in!  It was four adults and one toddler (who was mesmerized by the hearth!), and it was really lovely.  In particular, I was quite pleasantly surprised by how many vegetables were on the menu and how well they were treated - perhaps this should not have been surprising, but I guess based on the "Southern" tilt I figured it would be porkier than it was.  Don't get me wrong, there was plenty of piggy on the menu!

The space is stunning, but boy it is LOUD.  Had the dining room been full, we would not have been able to hear one another at the table.  I thought there was a great selection of cocktails, wine, and beer, and we enjoyed everything that we ordered from the drink menu.

We sampled most of the food menu, and everything was really yummy - my favorites were the sorghum glazed maitake mushrooms, the grilled ciabatta, the pan-fried blue catfish (totally unlike any catfish I've ever had before - delicious), and the farro verde.  There was also a chicken special with grilled potatoes and charred lettuces that was awesome.

I wasn't super enamored with the dessert choices, but the devil's food cake with sour cream ice cream was actually quite good.  I have no idea what the total bill was (and we were probably comped some items), but we definitely did not leave hungry.  I thought the portion sizes were really generous for what they were and for the prices, and I can see hubby and I coming in to sit at the bar and order a few dishes.

Chefly brother-in-law really wanted to go to Rose's while he was in town, so we all (6 adults + 1 toddler) went on Saturday night to celebrate my mother's upcoming retirement.  We had, quite literally, everything on the menu.  I thought everything was delicious, but particular highlights for me were the bread and butter (always SO GOOD); the ricotta toast with pickled strawberries and spring vegetables; the spaghetti with spring pistou, jalapeno, and blue crab; the strawberry rhubarb pie (not a traditional version, but can't think of any other way to describe); and the cinnamon toast crunch ice cream.

My only nits to pick - there still doesn't seem to be much wine on the menu that suits my fancy (even by the bottle), which is a bummer.  Also, mom wanted to do the caviar service, and we definitely knew it was going to be expensive, but I feel like for the price they could so a bit more with the presentation/accompaniments - it simply came with a small bowl of chips and some crème fraiche.

I think our guests really enjoyed themselves, but they definitely felt like they wouldn't wait on line to eat there again.  I certainly feel fortunate that I live close by and can find ways to eat at Rose's without waiting in line. 

ETA: We had Rose's cacio e pepe again (back on the menu), and I still maintain that the best version in the city comes from The Red Hen (off menu).

The space is really beautiful - we went to Rose's on Saturday night and Chef Silverman was nice enough to give us a tour before we sat down to eat.  The bar in particular is absolutely gorgeous.  It's definitely not as "homey" of a feel as next door, but it is still very warm and inviting.  The kitchen is magnificent - I couldn't believe it was the same space that used to be a home goods store!

We rebuilt our box two weekends ago, and I'm looking forward to planting again.  Anyone starting already and/or seeing any good seedlings around town?  Frager's last weekend didn't have much besides lettuces and herbs.

Congratulations to the 2016 Food & Wine Magazine Best New Chefs!

http://www.foodandwine.com/slideshows/best-new-chefs-2016

Special shout-outs to Aaron Silverman (yay, DC!) and my chefly brother-in-law (David Barzelay of SF's Lazy Bear).  

I've known for a while now, so it's nice to finally get to share and celebrate!

Saturday night was a Dutch-inspired, small dinner party with our best friends.  First we did a cheese course, with some raw milk gouda (one wheel aged 4 months, one aged 9 months) that we brought back from our recent travels.  Then I made a savory "Dutch baby" pancake - the texture was good, but I could barely taste the thyme and chives I put in, so the recipe definitely needs some tweaking.  For the main, I did an Indonesian stir fry that turned out really well - and the leftovers reheated well the next day, too.

I left the Dutch theme for dessert - I made Guiness chocolate cupcakes with Bailey's cream cheese frosting, in honor of St. Patrick's day.  

25 or so days until departure...woo hoo!  I got reservations at Le Coq Rico and Restaurant Frenchie - I'll certainly let everyone know how they were!

Outside of the two dinner reservations, I plan to eat nothing but really good bread and butter.  Only half kidding.

We actually only kept our reservation at Le Coq Rico - and it was so very delicious.  We started with the "deli board" of giblets, which contained livers, hearts, wings, etc.  The hearts were my favorite - super tender and flavorful.  We also got the chicken consomme with celeriac and foie gras ravioli - yum.  Really satisfying on a cold evening.

For our main, we ordered the whole duckling, knowing that it would likely be too much food - it was worth every penny.  Perfectly seasoned and roasted - nothing fancy, but executed impeccably.  The green salad and oven mac and cheese that were served on the side were lovely; the roasted veggies were just so-so and paled in comparison to the flavors of the other components of our meal.

We were too full for dessert, but I still couldn't pass up the brioche french-toast with caramelized pear and beer ice cream.  I was really glad we ordered it - not too sweet, but definitely a nice ending to a really delicious evening.

I had the great pleasure of meeting Coach Summitt during my time at UT, and there really isn't anything I can say other than that she is a remarkable human being.  I was never a basketball fan, but I was grateful I got to spend time on campus during her tenure.

Do any Spanish speakers know why certain feminine nouns (e.g., "agua") take a masculine article in the singular case?

The only thing I can think of (at least in this case) is for clarity of sound - for example, "el agua" sounds perfectly clear, whereas "la agua" is more difficult to understand. If this is the case, why not simply use an apostophe, e.g., "l'agua?"

Is clarity of sound the reason?

If so, there's a similar thing in French to avoid connecting two potentially confusing-sounding vowels. For example, <<Il y a>> (those brackets are the French equivalent of quotation marks) means "There is." However, if you make it a question, you insert a "-t-" to avoid a confusing-sounding phrase: in order to say, "Is there?" you say <<Y a-t-il?>> as opposed to the incorrect <<Y a il?>> which is more difficult for the ears to understand - the "-t-" adds nothing whatsoever except clarity of sound. Granted, this has nothing to do with gender, but it might serve a similar purpose.

The short answer is yes, the articles can shift based on awkwardness of sound.  "El agua" is the perfect example of when this happens.  Not sure why Spanish doesn't use the apostrophe like the French.

Articles can also shift for other reasons - for example, abbreviations and words in which the article changes the meaning.  There aren't TONS of words like this in Spanish, so after a while, you just sort of know which ones they are.  Or, you're a dork like me and study Spanish linguistics.  

On 3/1/2016 at 0:10 AM, DonRocks said:

I hope you got to see Pittsburgh.

"Capitals Rally to Defeat Penguins, 3-2" by Jenn Menendez on post-gazette.com

I watched it on TV, and it was pretty exciting!  I still think there's room for improvement (especially in the 1st period), but I'm feeling pretty good about a possible 1st-round playoff series against the Pens.

Even though I missed it (community garden meeting that night), when I saw all of the tributes afterward I definitely felt a warm fuzzy.  By all accounts, Brooks has been AMAZING to his teammates and fans over the years, and it's just a shame that his contract made it basically cost-prohibitive to keep him at this point.

If anyone is interested, I have one extra ticket to each of the games next week (Tuesday vs. Penguins, Wednesday vs. Maple Leafs, and Friday vs. Rangers) - hubby is traveling.  The down side is that you'd have to sit next to me.  

For the Tuesday or Wednesday games, I might be willing to part with both tickets if you'd rather attend with someone else.  Just PM me if you are interested or have any questions.

This is a quote I didn't expect to see in the WaPo sports pages, especially about hockey:

Fact is, we haven't seen this before. Virtually no one has. The Caps have more wins through their first 57 games than any team in the history of the league. They have the most points through 57 games of any team in 35 years. Since Jan. 3, they're 15-3-1; the much-worshiped Golden State Warriors are 18-3 in that same span. To say "we've seen this before" is both empirically incorrect and a bit gauche, like scoffing at the arrival of Rose's Luxury because Washington already had a Morton's.

I thought that was a really good article.  I know I'm definitely enjoying this regular season ride!

I've never had premium cable (but I have Netflix) until someone gave me access to Xfinity. Now I have to lots of shows to pick from.

Years ago I watched Rome and loved it. I also love Game of Thrones, Deadwood, first season of True Detective, Spartacus, Marco Polo, House of Cards, and <a data-ipb="nomediaparse" data-cke-saved-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Da_Vinci" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Da_Vinci" s_demons"="">DaVinci's Demons.

I'm currently watching True Blood (season 5).

I couldn't get into The Wire, never tried to watch Sopranos, gave up on Vikings, Borgia, and Tudors. Not crazy about any of the Marvel shows on Netflix (Jessica Jones, Daredevil).

Just wondering what shows merit my attention after I finish watching Bloodsuckers.

"Broadchurch."  Period.  I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Sorry, I have no earthly idea what the name was - I just remember a very steep uphill taxi ride to get there.  The actual cider season is only January through April, though, and there are only a few sidrerias that stay open to the public year-round.  Where are you staying?  I would imagine that if you asked the owner/concierge, he or she could recommend a place you could visit in the off-season.

Glad there was a good result here!  Out of curiosity, Don, when you looked for Uber and there were none available, were you just looking at one category of Uber (i.e., UberX)?  Or were there no Ubers of any kind?

I have been noticing lately a trend with UberX, where the drivers don't seem to come out until/unless there is some kind of surge in place.  The past two airport trips I've taken, I've had to use Uber Black (the original and more expensive) because there were either no UberX cars available or because the surge was so much that the Black fare actually would be cheaper.  My departure/arrival times were not particularly early or late or otherwise unusual.

25 or so days until departure...woo hoo!  I got reservations at Le Coq Rico and Restaurant Frenchie - I'll certainly let everyone know how they were!

Outside of the two dinner reservations, I plan to eat nothing but really good bread and butter.  Only half kidding.

My whole family is converging upon DC during the beginning of April (basically the 6th through the 11th), and I'm starting to think about our food options.  Since I don't have kids, I'm not really in the know in terms of family-friendly restaurants - the good news is, my nephew (who will be about 22 months old at the time of the visit) is a good eater and is generally well-behaved and pleasant in restaurants.

My brother-in-law is a Michelin-starred chef (seriously, saying that never gets old - we are so proud of him), so standards are high!  We also would prefer places where we can make reservations, since we are a larger group (6 adults plus the little one) and my parents won't want to stand around and wait for too long.

Red Hen came immediately to mind (my parents have been, but I'm sure they would be willing to go again), and my sister mentioned Jaleo.  Other than that, I'm pretty much out of ideas.  Any thoughts?  Our "home base" will be Hill East/Capitol Hill, but we don't care as much about location because we are willing to Metro/Uber.

Thank you!!!

We went for happy hour/dinner last Friday night - overall we were quite pleased.  The champagne cocktail and gimlet were both lovely, especially at happy hour prices.  We tried a couple of the small bar bites, and the one that stood out were the potato chips with onion dip - really, really good, crispy, well-seasoned, not greasy, yum yum yum.  We split a caesar salad, and it was very, very tasty - though hubby did not like the anchovy filets in prime view (he's weird - flavor doesn't bother him, but he hates seeing any kind of "whole" fish).  He got the schnitzel for his main, which was tasty if a bit underseasoned (and I did not care for the super bacony potato salad that came with it), but my roasted chicken was perfectly cooked and full of flavor (as were the potatoes, onions, and rapini that came with it).  The chicken was also a HUGE portion - I took half of it home, and it will be another full meal.

Definitely not a cheap meal, but reliable and really good for the neighboring homes and offices.  We don't get to NW much, so I can't say we'll be regulars, but we'd certainly recommend it to others.

It's too bad you weren't around for this!

That WAS a fantastic time. I think it was my first DR event.

And man, I need to get back to Sushi Capitol...

Last night - southwestern stuffed peppers (turkey, corn, black beans, tomatoes, cilantro, jalapenos - the usual suspects)

Tonight - creamy chicken with mushrooms and leeks (one pot and done in 30 minutes, woo hoo!)

This all looks awesome - thanks for sharing!  Hope to try some of the dishes this weekend...

A question just occurred to me - how hard is it going to be in terms of dining out in Paris if we don't speak French?  I am trying to learn a bit before we go, out of respect and general curiosity, but I doubt I'll be anything close to proficient by the time we leave.  Wondering if any restaurants in particular are tougher/easier for visitors...

To Alex Ovechkin - the 5th fastest player in NHL history to hit 500 goals (and he actually also got 501 last night as well).  DC is lucky that he rocks the red!  So much fun being there for the milestone - the place absolutely went nutso.

I have reservations this evening to celebrate my birthday with my wife.  I've never been here before, any "must try" dishes?

Go off-menu and order the cacio e pepe.  Trust me.