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hungry prof

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Everything posted by hungry prof

  1. They do, but I think there's a difference between a few tablespoons of milk in a coffee and filling a large cold cup with milk on top of two shots of espresso.
  2. Much simpler explanation, I think. I suspect they don't want people ordering a "double iced espresso in a large cup" and then filling it to the top with milk. (This practice is so infamous at Starbucks that the drink created has a nickname, which I'd rather not repeat). If you want an iced latte, then they want you to pay for it.
  3. Thanks, all. Some great leads, here. And, yes, Carvel still exists with a bunch of area locations. Apparently, however, Fudgie the Whale is no longer a standard cake that they offer. What is Carvel without Fudgie the Whale?
  4. My soon-to-be eight-year old has requested an ice cream cake for his party. Anybody know where I can find one? Carvel is a fall back, I guess, but Carvel always tastes so. . .unlike ice cream. Thanks.
  5. That particular friend is very hard to impress and even harder to get to give up any control. She was skeptical of going to a place where she'd have no say in what she ate, but you won her over. An impressive feat. Also, I should give a quick tip of the hat to Rocks. I messaged him midweek to see if he had any recent reports on Rogue 24. He said he didn't, but he did reference a reliable and very positive review from a year or so ago. Helped convince us to take the plunge, and we are glad we did.
  6. Terrific 24-course "Journey" at Rogue 24 last night. One of those meals where certain dishes just keep you thinking about them for a while afterwards. All twenty-four dishes were not equally hits, but there were far more hits than less-than-hits (there we not true "misses" in my view). Among the dishes that most impressed us: Duck blood lavash/liver spread/onion marmalade: part of the initial plate of small bites that is the first thing to come out. The cracker, the mousse, and the marmalade work perfectly together Swordfish belly/blood orange/fennel/truffle: as good as any sashimi you'd get at a fine Japanese restaurant Foie gras/parsnip/apple/almond: a piece of foie with a parsnip puree and almond bread. I can't recall a dish I've had in DC recently that i enjoyed as much as this one. Fluke/spinach/lemon/brown butter: perfectly cooked fish, left to shine on its own without much saucing. Pigtail doughnuts/pear butter/pork fat dust/mustards: like southern dim sum. I could have eaten six of these, easily. Araucana cured yolk/elephant garlic/potato/ruby sorrel: an exquisitely cooked egg with a think piece of garlic "paper"on top. A simple egg. Shenandoah lamb neck/new zealand spinach/pepper compote: a rectangular cube of braised (?) lamb neck; the purest red meat dish of the night Squab leg/pear/rutabaga/mashua/tarragon: squab "two ways"; a recognizable boned leg and a roulade; gamey, a bit salty, flavorful--excellent Chocolate/cherry/pistachios/sage: the plated desserts were not overwhelmingly sweet, which we appreciated; this was probably the sweetest of the bunch other than the. . . Happy endings/little things/small bites: a box of six different petit fours. I don't remember them all, but I do remember delicious orange chocolates, mint meringues, and fudge covered peanut balls. We brought a couple of bottles of our own wine, so I can't say much about the wine service. But we did have few cocktails to start. I had their take on a Boulevardiere, and it went down way too smoothly. Another friend had their version of a gin and tonic, nicely garnished with juniper berries. Service was excellent with no lapses in explaining some of the non-obvious dishes to us. One of the highlights of the night for me was having a table feet from the kitchen. R.J. was as engaging as he could be given that he was apparently down three cooks on a busy Saturday night. I'm always impressed with the calm amidst the storm of a well-run restaurant kitchen. Other than an occasional stern, "Let's go" from R.J., there was never any sign of stress from the kitchen (which is managing what I have to imagine is a very complicated ballet with a number of tables working their way through 24-courses while others are doing 10-courses, all at different times). Really enjoyed this meal.
  7. Have you had fish from the Blacksalt market? I ask not to question your judgment, but just so I know your reference point. Saying it's better than WF isn't actually saying that much to me. Saying it's better than Blacksalt would be a significant statement (and almost hard for me to imagine since I've always been very impressed with Blacksalt).
  8. Silverman also spent time in the David Chang empire in New York. Maybe he learned something there and the pattern here will follow that of Ko, which did not accept reservations when it first opened but eventually transitioned over to a reservation system. I don't know where that transition point is, but presumably it's after the initial flurry has died down, at least a bit.
  9. After an absence of a few years, my wife and I found ourselves in our old Adams Morgan haunt on Saturday night. A few times around the block looking for parking, a conversation about whether this or that was gone or new, and a stop at Fleet Feet for running shoes, and we were ready for dinner. Between the snow and Valentine's Day, I suspect the opening of Roofers Union had escaped many peoples' attention, so we were able to get a last minute reservation despite it being Saturday night in Adams Morgan. First, a word on the space. It's beautiful. The second floor facade of floor-to-ceiling arched windows provides the best possible view of the bustle below on 18th Street. The room is wide open with a rustic chic feel nodding to the blue collar namesake of the restaurant. My wife thought that the roofers' jumpsuits hanging on one wall was a bit too literal a nod, but that's a minor complaint. The ceilings are high and the surfaces hard, so this is not a quiet room but that's excusable given the bar vibe of the restaurant. (One oddity: the two-top tables are too long, making conversation a bit difficult. As a consequence, the couple next to us were sitting at a right angle to each other rather than face-to-face. Again, not a major complaint, but these are not cozy, romantic tables.) As for the food, we enjoyed everything we tried (I'm going off of the menu that I found online, so some elements we actually had may have been different). This is not life-changing, transcendental food, but it is well-executed upscale comfort/bar food. We started with two "Snacks." First, deep-fried brussel sprout leaves with lemon and honey. These were very tasty, though primarily because anything deep fried is good. I didn't taste much lemon or honey, but I did taste lots of good oil. I thought they were a bit over-fried, but I could have eaten a lot of these. Then, we got the roasted cauliflower with mint and pine nuts. There was also a crumbled cheese in the mix--perhaps ricotta--that was not on the menu. Again, I'd say I mostly tasted the very good roasted cauliflower as opposed to the other elements of the dish, but that wasn't a bad thing. Roasted cauliflower is a great thing, and this is a fine rendition. We skipped over the "Stuffed" (i.e., house-made sausages) and "Stacked" (i.e., sandwiches) parts of the menu to get to the "Simple." Here, we opted for the beer-steamed mussels with andouille and chili served with a pretzel roll on the side. The mussels were fine, but I thought the broth was had a bit of a one-note chili character I like spicy food, and the level of spice was moderate but I didn't detect much andouille. Again, I was happy eating this, but it could be even better with a bit of tweaking. (The pretzel roll, on the other hand, should not be tweaked at all. It was great.) Finally, we tried the 1/2 brick chicken with smashed fingerling potatoes and arugula (there were also some roasted tomatoes on the plate, though I don't think they were listed on the menu). This was a very satisfying plate of food. The chicken was perfectly done with the nicely charred skin that one expects of chicken under a brick, and the potatoes were a terrific side. The greens were a bit over-wilted from sitting directly under the chicken, but again, I think that's something easily rectified. We closed the evening by splitting a sundae of vanilla ice cream with fudge and pretzel praline. What can I say? It was a good sundae, but I don't encounter t many sundaes I don't like. Unfortunately, their coffee/espresso machine is not yet installed because I sure would have loved a double espresso with that sundae. For drinks, we both had cocktails to start. I don't recall their names, but I had a rye based cocktail (loosely resembling a Manhattan) while my wife had a bourbon/fruit/soda concoction. Both were the creative, delicious concoctions that we've come to expect from the Ripple team. I also had a glass of sauvignon blanc with my dinner that was perfectly fine, if not perfectly memorable. Finally, service: the service was terrific, and it was clear a lot of effort went into training up the staff before the opening. If anything, the service was too good. Food arrived very quickly, more quickly than we frankly would have preferred. I suspect that service will reach an excellent equilibrium once everybody settles in a bit and exhales from the initial rush of opening. All in all, we concluded that this is a place we would definitely visit again, even if we won't necessarily go out of our way to deal with parking in Adams Morgan to eat here. If we still lived in Adams Morgan, I have no doubt that we would visit Roofers Union frequently. And perhaps that's what Roofers Union ultimately is: a very good neighborhood joint (one of the best in this particular neighborhood) that doesn't need to be anything more than that to be an excellent addition to the dining scene.
  10. I read things like this Young and Hungry piece by Jessica Sidman and wonder, "What the hell is wrong with people?"
  11. Kenji Lopez-Alt strikes again: reheat your pizza in a waffle iron.
  12. I suspect most of the local butchers have them (or can get them). I'm pretty sure I've seen them at Wagshal's, for example.
  13. Looks delicious. I prefer them fresh as well, but they tend to be a bit tricky to cook at my desk midday. Canned sardine and avocado sandwiches worked for Alton Brown. Forty-five pounds later, I can say they worked for me, too.
  14. Olive oil. I take it from all of this, though, that I should no longer be eating sardines from the Mediterranean. In my extensive taste testing, the canned sardines from Spain and Portugal are by far the best, with my favorite being Matiz. Wild Pacific are the best I've found fished from the Pacific, and in my view, they pale in comparison to the Spanish and Portuguese options (including both Matiz and Cole's, my other favorite). And in case you didn't know it already, you can find everything on the internet: I give you the Society for the Appreciation of the Lowly Tinned Sardine, where somebody has eaten a lot of sardines (and offers some useful reviews).
  15. I think I'll still take Wells' review of Guy Fieri's place over this one, but they're both jaw-dropping reviews. Wells has a gift for the takedown. . .
  16. Pete Wells for the New York Times: Ouch. "If soldiers had killed Escoffier's family in front of him and then forced him to make dinner, this [i.e., the veal cheek blanquette] is what he would have cooked," says Wells. Toward the end, Wells has an interesting comparison with Central. Wells was so confused after his "awful" meals at Villard MR that he felt compelled to visit DC and figure out whether Richard's reputation was wholly unjustified. Turns out Central was much better than what's being offered in New York.
  17. These results are almost true by definition. The survey is of "the most-searched-for national restaurants in 2013." There aren't many (any?) "national restaurants" other than big chains. Be interesting to see how, if at all, these results look different in particular markets. I suspect not much.
  18. Thinking about making pretzels, so I need food-grade lye. Anybody know where I can find it, preferably in MoCo or NW DC? Thanks.
  19. I've been thinking about and researching this exact same purchase for a long time, but have yet to take the plunge. For what it's worth, my research suggests that the conventional wisdom is that your grinder is just as important--if not more important--as the actual espresso machine. You can get the world's greatest espresso machine, but it'll do you no good without a quality grinder. Conversely, you can make a good espresso with an excellent grinder and just an average machine. There's a great shop called Seattle Coffee Gear that has a bunch of useful videos posted on various grinders and machines. They're also really friendly on the phone. When I finally do this, I'll probably buy from them.
  20. Yet Todd Kliman is: "The high-falutin diner is not an easy idea to pull off. The tendency among pedigreed chefs is to fancify, to nudge the diner to go against its humble nature -- witness the curried frogs legs with watermelon radishes that turned up on the menu one night at Family Meal in Frederick last year, or the starchy service and air of restraint that make a meal at The Majestic feel more formal than fun. This one -- from Spike Gjerde and Amy Gjerde, who also own and operate Woodberry Kitchen and Artifact -- gets it right. Not a little money was spent on restoring the one-time shoe store, but sitting in the comfy dining room or at the downstairs lunch counter you are not made to stand in awe of what money can buy, casting your eye over the detail work as if it were a Renaissance fresco. You're invited to settle in. A recent review in the Baltimore Sun criticized the menu, which doubles as a placemat, for not making sense. I find it to be a charming homage to the soda fountains and diners of old, and a friend and I enjoyed poring over its details (and game-planning our final courses among a slew of options) in the time between placing my order and diving into dinner. The night I was in, the lone dish with fine-dining pretensions was the chicken and dumplings, but I appreciated how grounded it was for something so refined; I could also appreciate its pricetag ($13 for a good-sized bowl; and among the 10 dishes we ordered this night, it was the most expensive). Its best feature was its broth, which showed the sort of deep, foundational work that Spike Gjerde insists upon. A slight saltiness was evident by the end, when it had cooled, but it was not hard to miss how good the stock is; a single spoonful, and I was thinking of bones slow-roasting in the oven before being dropped in a stockpot. The burger is not obviously special -- nothing extra in the patty, and no unexpected embellishments. What makes it good is that the meat is rich without being fatty, and that the kitchen has found a way to reprise the smell and taste of the old-time flat-top burgers with their distinctive outer crust. The egg salad sandwich, on the other hand, is obviously special -- the creation, unmistakably, of someone who adores egg salad sandwiches. This one's served open-faced on a long, thick slice of bread; picture a French bread pizza. The star ingredient is not over mayo-ed, nor presented too finely or too coarsely, and is topped with some of the lightest homemade potato chips I've ever eaten, along with a scattering of shaved radishes and microgreens. The bread is worthy of top billing. It's homemade, as are all the baked goods at Woodberry Kitchen and Artifact. In fact, from the jelly for the excellent biscuit to the soft-serve ice cream (which comes in two varieties at the moment, cream and cafe au lait), everything you eat here is made from scratch. Gjerde also only serves meat that his staff has butchered, and is fanatical in procuring a local source for his products (an Asian-style noodle salad on the menu at Artifact featured Maryland peanuts). As at Woodberry, almost as much thought has gone into the drinks as the eats. There's a neat twist on a black Russian, which is served in a cup and saucer and goes down like a boozed-up espresso. The soft-serve is repurposed for a homemade milk shake featuring an oatmeal stout that went down far too fast for something so subtle and complex. A slushie made with 101-proof bourbon and fresh pear cider went down even faster. My complains this night were few -- quibbles more than criticisms. Creamed collards is a great idea, but they clotted after a few minutes at the table, and the dish only really came into focus with a few splashes of chef Gjerde's fish pepper sauce, which sits out on the table the way a bottle of Heinz does at a conventional diner. I would have liked more crispiness from the otherwise tasty Buffalo oysters (a twist on Buffalo wings). Most restaurants that serve pies, serve them too cold; the chocolate chiffon, here, is better than most in that regard -- it had only a chill -- but it would have been a lot better at room temperature. And the crust was too hard to penetrate with a fork. I cannot quibble, however, with its silken interior, which showcases one of the best versions of dark chocolate mousse I have eaten anywhere, pie or no. The perfect ending, this night, was the Tollhouse cookie, which came to the table still warm, as if snatched from the cookie sheet the moment it was done. A cold glass of milk alongside it would have been nice. But I'm not complaining."
  21. While I don't necessarily disagree with Range being expensive for what it is, I would suggest that the rent for Range on Wisconsin Avenue in Chevy Chase is probably just a wee bit higher than the rent for Volt in downtown Frederick. There's more that goes into pricing than technique or ingredients. . .
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