turbogrrl

we go every few weeks, and have never encountered anything but decent to good service.

some quirks: when it's busy at night, they will hand you a paper slip with a number-- do not lose that paper slip or they won't seat you! (ruined by people "claiming" an earlier number). if you want water, you need to ask for it early, they don't bring it by default. if they are still running the 1 XLB free deal, as DanielK mentions you need to calculate that in, or else they just bring you one more XLB than you asked for.

they also appear to be selling frozen XLB to go-- the sign advertises a price for 100; I haven't asked about smaller amounts.

One of these days I will remember to leave room for the shaved ice dessert. it's monumental and fascinating. favorite dishes: pork XLB, salt and pepper flounder, snow pea leaves (when they have it), lamb and cumin, the chinese "doughnut", and a noodle dish that I can't remember the name of. doh.

I think they're slowing down on the extra plates in general. I also went last night, and we lucked out and got the three seats at the corner of the upstairs bar, and I sat on a stool at the point. Good thing, as the wait for 4 at 7pm was 2.5 hours.

Tried the strawberry pasta for the first time, and all my tastebuds could hear was strawberry. I didn't get any significant tomato notes *or* heat. We all thought it was very very sweet.

Determined that it is in fact true"” the pork and lychee salad tastes MUCH better if shared. (and by shared I mean squabbled over). It was still great when I had a whole bowl of it on the rooftop, but there's just an added *something* when you have to plunge a spoon in and get a mound of it before someone snatches the bowl out of your hand.

(I will be so happy when dill falls out of fashion. I couldn't have the carrots, the chicken, or the crab claw dip.)

Loved the gnocchi and the rigatoni. And all of us loved the stracciatella.

Nothing drives home the fact that I want to eat here once a week like looking at a calendar and remembering that Seki is closed through the 8th. To make up for that I went twice last week, but still.

They've made a change to the chicken kara-age: it's now served with a dashi rather than the garlic puree. I can understand wanting to make it lighter for summer but I miss the delicious garlic. I can make up for this slightly by ordering the tuna tataki, which for the last couple of months has been served with fried garlic chips, which are addictive. And in this hot weather I'm loving the cold soba; it's great to share, as everyone gets their own little dipping sauce.

Right. I can hold out a week.

I brought a nice length of saucisson sec to a cheese party this weekend, and it was a huge hit. I do really like a lot of their other offerings, but for me the saucisson sec is just amazingly addictive. Also finally found a bacon that Nick adores; of course, it was a slab of breakfast bacon from Three Little Pigs (pork belly cured with kosher salt, black pepper, maple syrup, and hot smoked over maple wood). <3

So I finally made it to red hen, and promptly ran into an old coworker. this can be such a small town at times! we ended up having to wait around 25 minutes for our reservation, which would have vexed me if the MIL's knee had been acting up. Fortunately, she was able to cope with the extra standing. Lesson learned; probably best to not bother with reservations (trying to plan weeks out is incredibly painful), and just go early in the middle of the week.

If one is going to loiter at the bar, one might as well drink: "A Beautiful Snowflake" with mezcal, hellfire bitters, dry curacao, and agave was the hit of the evening. I also had "The Man is Five" which was tasty but also earwormed me with the Pixies for the rest of the night.

We started off with the ricotta crostini, the citrus cured salmon, and the salt cod brandade. The cod was probably the standout of the bunch; I'm allergic to dill so had to pass on the salmon.

For mains we had the rigatoni with sausage, the fra diavolo chicken, and the scallops. I liked the rigatoni the best; my companions preferred the scallops. The chicken was very good but paled into the background next to the other two. Our server also brought out a side of fingerling potatoes by way of apology for the earlier wait, which were utterly delicious. Crafty, too, as now we will have to order them any time we go back. They were really really good.

And then, because clearly we hadn't eaten enough, we got the brownie, the lemon tart, and the maple custard. The sugar content of the first two gave me an uncomfortable buzz, but the custard was perfection.

Loved the space; it was very cosy and welcoming. We'll be back.

yeah, i think the prices bite you depending on whether you're estimating all pre-tax and tip or not. The wine drinkers at my table ended up adding $45 in wine to their tab (each). This of course is still well under $200 pp before you start adding the tax and tip, but is also well over $200pp at the final calculation. And yet even if one drinks nothing, the evening costs a total of $165.

It was a lot of fun, and a lovely evening, but I think I still prefer eating at the kitchen bar. It was so strange to have a whole park and lychee salad to myself. It turns out I think I kind of like fighting over it with my sweetie.

The OMG experiences so far: everything we ate at Bao Bei (bean curd skin in a truffled vinaigrette, taiwanese sausage, beef tartare, chickpea tofu, mantou, truffled pork dumplings, fried rice, halibut, bok choi, and crispy pork belly), cream puffs and chocolate from Beta5, frissants (aka cronuts) from the Swiss Bakery.

Very good: sesame pastry with 'grounded' pork, sheng jian bao from Chen's Shanghai Kitchen. Salmon sashimi at Hapa Izakaya. The XLB and fish with green beans at Shanghai River. Duck two ways and cannoli from Cioppino's. Gelato from Bella Gelateria. Hangover Hash and a Caesar (served in a glass boot!) from Eight 1/2 fixed me right up after a night of debauchery. Lebanese food and fresh-pressed juices at Nuba Cafe.

The XLB from Chen's were tragic; all but one broke. Probably worth trying again though.

Aung always seemed pretty clear that he had given himself a year to experiment with the type of cooking that made him happy, and that profit wasn't really a factor in that. Mandalay in Silver Spring is high-volume, delicious, and competent-- but there's really no room for experimentation or dishes that are significantly labor-intensive. If someone is yearning to do something different, 1) it's not going to work with an established business and 2) it's not fair to that business (or the customers) to try.

Given that he's now got to uproot himself for the unforeseeable future... I'm really glad he got to do what he wanted for at least these last several months. Some might call it a cautionary tale, but there's a lot to be said for doing what makes us happy when we get the chance to do so. And the neighborhood is only going to improve in the next couple of years. It'll be interesting to see what he does when he comes back.

In the mean time, you can still get some delicious burmese food tonight or tomorrow.

The downstairs has been serving an approachable menu for months. And there was also brunch. How is that "never"?

headed to nyc, we hadn't left before it occurred to me to make a detour! Nick was a little cranky, and especially since he expected a long wait. wandering in at 11, there wasn't a line. A couple cannelés mollified my pilot. I've stashed away a couple more pastries to help us get to new york. mmmmmm.

Unfortunately, the vendor they used doesn't seem to have adequate experience in handling load or record locking. (I'm not making light of this, it's a very difficult problem.) The first round of reservations sold out in a minute, and double-bookings weren't identified until at least a day later.

And thus we come to a very real problem for an exceedingly popular restaurant. To move to a reservation model means that 1) they have to pay, and pay top dollar, for serious engineering"” as enough people want to go that any average reservation software is going to fail, and going to fail in ways that will make their devoted customers howlingly upset. 2) the only people that will be able to get in are the ones who have the time to sit by the computer and race with all the other privileged folks who can clear their schedule for an arbitrary date that happens to be available when they click on the site at exactly 11:00:00. And, of course, race against the bots that will opportunistically try to grab all available.

While I can appreciate what Alinea and Next are doing, I would really hate to see Rose's turn into a ticket-only once-a-decade dinner that has a painful secondary market of scalpers, ebay, and shady craigslist deals. And of course I'm sure we will try again, and just be part of the problem. In the mean time, I'm going to just keep going on random weeknights, and enjoy what I love while it exists and I can get to it.

I don't understand why people are insisting that Rose's has to change what they are doing. It's like suddenly finding yourself dating the girl you thought was too cool to even notice you, and then wanting to immediately change everything about them.

Rose's fits me. I like the space, the light fixtures, the china, the energy, the playfulness, the happiness, the bustle at the bar. I love the food. I was stalking Silverman the moment the pork and lychee hit my tastebuds at Hogo. I like that I have just as much chance as anyone else to get in, and I don't have to plan a month/week in advance. I hear Red Hen is awesome, but you know what? I still haven't gone because I can't plan two weeks ahead and the few times I've had a chance to go on a whim the wait for a walk-in was three+ hours.

Maybe things will change. Maybe not. For now, I'm enjoying the awesome.

The little fried baby Cthulhu on the specials menu, sprinkled with cracked pepper, are magical. I've never found an Elder God so delicious and adorable.

I'm also enjoying the eel and cucumber, even more so because Nick and I carefully split the eel evenly between us but he only takes one or two of the cucumber. Mine. All mine!

Last night we were seated at the bar next to a couple (and their adorable daughter!) who first started going to Mr. Seki's restaurant in St. Louis when they were dating in the early 90s. They had been heartbroken when he vanished, and very very happy to find him again.

The only (only) thing that was off last time was that every table around us received gratis dishes and desserts that the servers were to happy to announce were "compliments from the kitchen".  Like, all of them.  Maybe we didn't get them because we over ordered (No Ragrets) but after you see and loudly hear it happen 3 times in a row and you just get the check, you start to wonder if you're the asshole (probably).  

I think it depends on a combination of factors. 1) if someone is a regular 2) if it's a special occasion 3) if they have a new dish that people aren't ordering enough of because it's new. I know that the asparagus dish was brand-new new last week, which is what we got  'compliments of the kitchen.' And we hit all three factors last when we went last week; we've been a lot, it was a birthday, and we never would have ordered that dish otherwise.

Clearly you need to go again to test my theory. ;-p

Stopped by Red Light during their soft opening (I think the official open is the 27th?); a friend wanted to meet up for dessert for her birthday. Can give give an unabashed Yes! to the beer-based doughnuts and chocolate on the menu; there is enough chocolate to go around for all of the doughnuts, with a bit left over to lick off your fingers... or smear on the slightly-too-sweet marshmallows that came with the mexican chocolate tart. (there, i fixed it.) Also tasty, a goat cheese tart with sorbet.

Inside it's all dark grey and moody; I'm pretty in love with the lamps in this place.

Will be interesting to see how they handle the load once the patio opens "”I suspect its going to get crazy. But those doughnuts! I'm going to have to go back and get more doughnuts.

spring has sprung. new to the menu was an asparagus dish that I wouldn't have thought to order (nick studiously avoids all greens) but came out complements of the kitchen. we ate all of it; I might have run my finger around the bowl a few times. grilled asparagus, fried jalapenos, pineapple, and chive oil all added up to awesome.

also awesome was a pasta so completely garlicy and spring oniony that I think I can still smell the garlic. the uni eggs were intense. And then we ran smack into a wall in the middle of our ribs, and couldn't even contemplate dessert, which was tragic. But I might have let slip that we were there for a birthday, and so out came a little tiny dessert with magically-reigniting sparkler candles. All around, a lovely evening.

Niel and Ada Piferoen sold Locolat to the owner of Hawthorne Fine Breakfast Pastry, Jessica Knudson. The cafe's name has changed to Hans Pedr' Kaffe. The cafe opens earlier now, and serves Vigilante coffee.

aaaaand mixtec is gone.

A bunch of cameras this morning at the Dupont Market. Also, the rumour is that the when they switch to spring hours the market is going to stay open until 2pm.

In any case, I've stocked up on my duck eggs, hamburger meat, greens, cured meats, and pickles, so i don't think i'm going to starve during this coming storm.

When I was a part-time executive assistant, I found my job on Craigslist, and when I'd had enough, I found my replacement on Craigslist. There is a lot of chaff, yes. But there is usually a fairly clear demarcation between who you want to follow up with and not.

(2) Go to a big Asian market like Super H.  They will have several brands of Korean-made aluminum cookware (lightweight) that is fully coated, inside and out (so no dishwasher problem), with a speckled non-stick coating they call "nano-particle" or "marble" or something like that depending on the brand.  Be sure it is speckled.  Joycook is one brand you may see.  Sorel is another. This stuff cooks and cleans up like a dream, and even large pieces go for around $30 or less.   Buy one or two, take them home and try them out.  Unfortunately, no lids, and no pot shapes but the wok shapes do the job of pots nicely, as well as other jobs.  This stuff doesn't last forever either, but it's so cheap you can toss it and go buy new.  Actually the fact that no non-stick coating lasts very long is the biggest argument against expensive non-stick cookware.

Seconded on the Korean marbled aluminum cookware. We've got two "Dolce Marble-Coated frying pans" by Seshin (a 10" and 12") that do in fact clean up like a dream. I toss them in the dishwasher every so often, they don't care. And they are most definitely non-stick.

Cashions is open tonight

Three Little PIgs is ensconced at the Dupont Market, next to Q street and the empanada stand. A couple of weeks ago, I picked up a Saucisson Sec aux Herbes, and picked up another one today since I was almost out, and also a small Breakfast Sausage. It's definitely a splurge, but so far a worthy one.

When I went to berlin last year, I walked by an emporium of chocolate that was dizzying in its excess: a chocolate Berlin Reichstag? a chocolate Titanic? but of course! The Fassbender & Rausch shop was amazing. And I foolishly didn't try the chocolate until I'd made it to Zurich, which made it difficult to go back and fill my suitcase. Fortunately, I discovered that Amazon stocks the Rausch plantation chocolates. (Tobago being my favorite: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004H0W07K/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B004H0W07K&linkCode=as2&tag=mur-20 )

More recently, my belgian neighbor brought back a duffel bag full of Galler chocolate in many forms, and it is also mighty fine, but my access is cruelly limited.