turbogrrl

Wandered out for brunch today at 1, happily noted it went until 4pm for those days when i just can't quite make it out of bed until 3. Sadly, the tasty mango mimosa and the crispy bacon and the nummy pancake-scrambled egg-sandwich did not do anything to budge my headache, but I had a good time anyway. Nick got the chocolate-chip pancakes, but the chips were a bit overwhelming. I think he's going to get the pancake sandwich the next time. Not crowded at all today; the lack of crowds is the only thing I like at all about summer in the swamp of DC. *sigh* hello, labor day.

The tomato and beet salad was bliss. As was the tarte tatin. And after waiting a significant amount of time for our table, once seated we understood how it was that the table of women that had been camping there for 2.5+ hours didn't want to leave... service was very charming. As was the accent.

Was north of Detroit for a visit and the Dream Cruise last weekend.

Kerbys Coney Island for ... well, Coney dogs. And breakfast.

A & W Drive-in, where we got the 70's menu for showing up in old cars. $1.50 Coneys, $1.50 floats, too. Messy but so tasty. I managed to keep it mostly off the Stingray and in my mouth. Sadly, the waitresses were not on rollerskates.

(Not So) Original Pancake House in Birmingham, MI, where I got *custom* pancakes: buckwheat-almond. My sister got the bacon pancakes.

And home-made spaghetti last saturday night.

Question: are the "recommended" burgers coming out very-rare (as the one I last had was), and I should be ordering medium, or is "recommended" really a bit more medium-rare (and my previous visit was unusual)?

I generally hate to order medium, but I'll admit that the last one was a tad too rare in the middle for me.

I'm trying to get a friend to go with me tonight. I've been dreaming of that burger.

It's still a bit variable. "recommended" is nominally medium rare; they will actively try to talk you out of rare, for example. But the last time I ordered recommended it came out more like medium well. After still ordering rare, my rare came out a leetle more rare than I wanted, but Nick's "dear god please, just give it to me as blue as possible" came out perfectly. I think Mr. P's was "recommended" (though may have been medium), and looked more cooked than I would have wanted, but still pinkish-red in the middle. Order it recommended; if it comes out really too rare, they'll happily throw it back on for you for a minute or two. Undercooked can be fixed, overcooked— requires a new burger. And that would be sad.

Another fine orgy of beef and ice cream. Nick had the Fat Joe, and was talked down from adding cheese to it. 'It would do nothing for the burger!' Michael declared.

But. But. Michael *did* allow as how Bacon on a Fat Joe might not be a bad thing.

Surely someone can take one for the team, and order a Bacon Fat Joe? C'mon. You know you want to.

now, if only he'd add a fried egg to that... the Heart Attack on a Bun would be complete!

Princess had holed herself up in the house, and Nick and I decided to drag her out. She wouldn't help, though. Anything you're in the mood for? 'Food.' Any particular *kind* of food? 'Food.' Can you narrow it down to a continent? 'Too hard.' Animal, vegetable, or mineral? 'Eh. Vegetable. Oh, and I refuse to drive myself.'

Well, fine then. We piled her in the back seat of the car and took her to Dino. (This is a sacrifice, as Princess lives in bethesda and Dino is only two miles from my house. Clearly we should have just put her on the metro.) We walk in, and there are Porcupine and Mr. P finishing up their meal! We took the bar table behind them, but we managed to not throw anything but conversation at them. Dean let us know that he had one order left of the scallops-as-butter-conveyance-system, so we couldn't say no to that. (it was everything it was promised to be, too.) What followed was a blissful orgy of tastes: apricots and caprese and burrata, a whispering manhattan for me, and risotto and rabbit & wild boar stew and milk fed young pig roasted on the rotisserie. The peppercorn ice cream was a definite hit; I had it in my affogato, Princess had it with the roasted plums.

Princess will never actually admit when she's had a good time, but I'm pretty sure I saw a smile on her face. Nick and I certainly had a fantastic evening. The only problem is that I'm not actually hungry yet. I guess it's going to be a late late brunch kind of day. Many thanks to Dean for being an incomparable host and chef and raconteur!

Having not set foot in a bennigans since... hrmm, homecoming of 1991, I have never had one of their vaunted and lamented monto cristos... but I will have the incarnation at The Diner every couple of months. So good. So bad for me.

(crap. I just remembered. I think someone took me to lunch at Bennigans in August of 1994. *shudder* not like starving students can be choosers, though. At least it was free calories.)

Ah, Metromedia... failed purveyors of networks, dark fiber, colo space, and american food.

Lunch to help me face the day: coffee boba, sesame sandwich with pork, vegetarian delight, mushrooms and tofu, AND pork buns.

so what if i was late to work?

...meant to go to tryst, but no seats— walked by the diner, even worse. What to do? We darted across the street and up the alley and over to Cashions, where we were lead to a nice table and had a very fine brunch of oj, omelette, bacon, and bison burger.

The busboy who had been bribed by Nick's parents to take pictures of us together was there, and happy to see us. (We had had one date there early on, and the entire staff ratted him out to his parents, who then demanded to know who was this GIRL nick was taking to dinner. The parents met me before we went back, but the busboy is still happy— I expect they paid in advance.)

Too bad I am still full from dinner this evening; I'd hoped to get a dessert waffle there this evening.

Dupont got rid of their tandoori oven in favour of a new stove. This is sad. The chicken-and-apple sausages are still fine, but they are not plump and juicy anymore. And the pita are no longer light and airy. *sniffle*

It had been while since I"d been to the Washington Blvd LebTav— long enough for all the people who remembered why I used to get free dessert to have scattered— but it just meant we made new friends. Everything we had tonight hit the spot: kafta harra, sujuk, labneh, hummus and pine nuts, kibbeh, fatteh bel djaje, falafel. And then there was the dessert that I've never had before nor got the name of, which was essentially deep-fried honey doughnuts served with panna cotta.

I am going to explode. Oh My God.

It's not haute cuisine. But it was a wonderfully nummy and leisurely meal.

Yes, definitely going to explode.

I knew you were going to pick on that as I was typing it!

What can I say? It's tasty pickle.

What? Man, get your mind out of the gutter! I was referring to the pickled vegetables! Geez!

Agreed, it is pretty good, and perhaps more importantly, it's one of the only Indonesian restaurants in the Washington, DC area. Off the top of my head, I can't think of another one other than Sabang in Wheaton (I heard Sabang is closed, is this true?)

Old news, but Sabang apparently was sold quite abruptly, and tragically in toto... which meant all of the fabulous Indonesian art and artifacts were unceremoniously thrown out by the new restaurant. The Sarinah folks were heartbroken to hear about it, but it was too late.

Anyway.

I've had a hankering for Indonesian for a few days, so off we went tonight.

Sadly, neither Nick nor I can bear to deviate from our regular order. Yes, we KNOW there are many other tasty things on the menu, but our tastebuds want what they want:

Indonesian coffee. mmmmm.

Bakwan Jagung: fried corn cakes. It's like taking large spoonfuls of spoonbread and deep-frying them. Tender, juicy, full of corn, and crispily greasy too. $5

Kroket Kentang: fried and breaded mashed potatoes filled with ground meat and bits of carrots, served with peanut sauce. $4

Krupuk Udang: shrimp chips. large and solid, these are not the lighter-than-air incarnations. we fight over making sure we each get exactly half. $3

Nasi Goreng Jawa Deluxe: spicy fried rice with marinated chicken, shrimp, and egg, served with small shrimp chips and pickled vegetables. deluxe comes with an egg on top and a skewer of beef satay. We get two of these. We can't help it. We brought Nick's parents once, in hopes of getting to try more of the menu, and we just ended up with *three* Nasi Goreng Jawas. Very sad, but Oh! So Tasty. $11

I've been going to Satay Sarinah for four years or so, and I will say that the all of these recipes have stayed remarkably stable over the transition to new ownership: the only difference I've noted is the Nasi Goreng now has shrimp in it too. (I don't particularly like shrimp, but Nick happily takes my leavings— I take his pickle in trade.) But every time I go in, I've been treated as an honored old friend, and each time I am grateful that somehow, they've managed to stay in business.

It's quite inexpensive, and well worth the trip. Even if it is in the middle of strip-mall Alexandria.

Gone. Still in your cache, by any chance?

I'm typing this from Murky Coffee.

Come over and say hi Nick, or I'll write mean things about u. Good luck picking me out. Bwa-ha-ha-ha.

Hrmm. Now I'm tempted to get in my *car* and go over to murky, just in the hopes of spotting the elusive Rocks!

My understanding is that the word originally comes from Italian, to describe the small neighborhood in Venice that Jews were quartered/forced to live in.

Yes, I was trying to edit the post to be more clear when it got moved from underneath me ;-)

Though the OED seems to indicate that it referred to any jewish quarter in an italian town, not specifically venice.

I am seriously curious: What are the origins and history of the word, if not racial, especially as applied to the over-use of free condiments to save money?

The OED states that ghetto frequently refers to "a quarter in a city, esp. a thickly populated slum area, inhabited by a minority group or groups, usu. as a result of economic or social pressures." In other words, economically disadvantaged urban areas. Which in many US cities has a high racial correlation, but the original word goes back to the early 1600s.

The Doubletongued Dictionary claims that "ghetto as an adjective meaning 'fake, imitative, improvised, shoddy' has been used for at least nine years." I'm not really sure that I'm comfortable with that particular antedating or that definition, but it provides another viewpoint.

I can say that in the contexts that I've heard the complete phrase "ghetto latte" (and there is precedent for phrases to significantly drift semantically from the words that comprise them) over the last few years the phrase itself has not had any racially connotative meaning, and generally seems to be aimed more at (and used by) thrifty urban margin-dwellers. aka young underwaged college types.... yuppie, without the mobility. spawn of yuppies? Sounds like a bad movie.

Ob coffee: I can say I have a soft spot for rabidly untactful yet pedanticly principled people. I've not been to murky, but I probably will soon.

I've never been and I'm going to Ella's this week for happy hour (which I can't change the location), any recommendations? Thanks.

whatever you do, do NOT get the chicken risotto croquettes.

The pizzas are ok... I generally stick with the margherita.

Another tasty meal at A&J. Nick and I don't share well, so we both got our own fried chicken noodle soup and braised eggs. (actually, we usually *do* share well— just not fried chicken, burratta, tomatoes, or eggs!)

We also split an order of steamed pork buns. I've noticed that the buns are now steamed on slices of carrot, rather than lettuce. I first noticed the change during the monkey county water problem, which made sense; can't wash the lettuce, really, except in boiling water, where it really wouldn't stand up. A carrot briefly boiled, though, is still pretty sturdy. But this seems to have continued, so maybe it was just coincidence. I'm not sure there's any resulting noticeable difference in the buns (still delicious!)... it just makes me curious.

Holy cow. It's been more than 24 hours since anyone posted about hellburger! ...d'oh!

I just want to make it clear that for a change I was not being a trend whore - we were dining elsewhere.

Yes, but while you were away this tonight we kidnapped Mr. P and forced him, positively forced him to have a burger there. And ice cream. And then we watched a movie with angelina jolie in it. (With way too little nudity in it, I must say.)

Ob burgers: while I love au poivre on a steak, I don't think it enhances the burgers. Back to the diablo it is.

If I'd remembered about that damn article in the post I probably would have suggested someplace else Wednesday night. The stripmall was a madhouse, but a familiar one: ran into Mr. P and Porcupine on my way in, they followed me in to say hi to Nick and his family, then they ran into a whole bunch of the Rocks crew. (I lost the memo, is there a gang sign?).

Somehow, we managed to snag the tables in the window, and settled in to wait. Misunderstanding on the part of the girl in to help at the counter meant she thought that burgers could only be ordered med-rare. Princess was Displeased, as she wanted it rare. Princess' Daddy threw a fit at Princess, told her to deal. Michael wandered by, resplendent in a leafy green shirt, stopped and blinked at the sight of Princess (note to self: bring Princess when wanting Special treatment at any Ray's establishment), and promised to fix.

Unfortunately, every burger *but* Princess' came out perfectly. Oh no. On principle, she also refused to share in anyone else's burger.

Princess was left Severely Displeased, but everyone else was happy.

Just as we were about to depart, friends of ol_ironstomach's wandered in... I offered to bequeath them our table, but they took one look at the madhouse and decided that perhaps waiting for a steak would be more relaxing.

Hopefully we'll be able to lure Princess back sometime when her snit wears off. My diablo-style with Chimay (and stolen bits of guac from Nick) was verra fine indeed.

Hey I'll consider the beer but I'll take a PASS on the piggy-back!

no piggy-backs on Rocks. Way to dash a girl's hopes and dreams... the day suddenly seems just a little less bright!

What's next? no Tipsy Twister, either?

ye gods. along with half the world: hell-burger. I almost wish I'd remembered to read the WaPo, and avoided the madhouse, except— I ran into so many people I knew!

Has anyone tried the guacamole?

Yes; it was tasty, though it severely increased the instability of the burger, and I only used half of it! (Nick stole the other half.)