hungry prof

Let's not forget the role that the media could play in all of this. Melissa Clark's recipe in today's New York Times Dining section is for "Olive Oil Poached Halibut Nuggets with Garlic and Mint." There's no mention anywhere that Atlantic halibut is a big no-no in terms of sustainability, yet I suspect that many of the people who look to the Dining section for new recipes will head to their local Whole Foods and buy Atlantic halibut (since that's the only type of halibut they ever seem to have) this week or next in order to make this recipe. Before anybody overreacts, I'm not calling for anybody, including the media, to police what we eat, but would a little note about what type of halibut to look for really be all that intrusive. If we started seeing more conscious attention to this issue in the media, then perhaps we'd all become more conscious in both our own home cooking and when we eat out.

Well, I think the issue here is just how overdone were the two items. It seems like Stefan cooked the salmon until it was cat food while Carla's squab was more borderline. Recall Tom saying that there seemed to be a generational disagreement on whether the squab was appropriately cooked. That suggests that it wasn't *clearly* overcooked while Stefan's salmon was. Why can't it just be that simple? Carla's really grown on me. She has a great formula for doing well on this show: she's classically trained and she keeps it simple. I mean wasn't it obvious that trying to do molecular gastronomy in order to impress Wylie Dufresne was exactly the wrong thing to do? You're unlikely to do it as well as he does it, and just because he cooks that way doesn't mean that he can't enjoy eggs prepared simply. I'm glad Fabio won. I thought he had the hardest dish to prepare. You can't hide a bad roast chicken, and it's hard to make a truly great one (plus he had to deal with the request for a "leafy salad," which I thought was a bit silly).

Agree and disagree. Agree: Stefan is too obvious. Lots of people thought Richard was going to win last season. Disagree: I don't think the editors on the show are very good at all. They foreshadow the outcome of every episode at the outset of the episode.

Do you not eat anything but steak?

[Edited: I initially had mentioned the specific wine and price in this post as an update to my previous post. I got the information from my father-in-law. Simultaneously, I received a PM from Ferhat, asking if he could know the specific bottle so he could remedy the problem. I don't mean either to embarrass Corduroy or even to imply a "bait and switch," so I'm taking down the details. Suffice it to say that it was considerably more than 10%. We enjoyed our meal, and I appreciate Ferhat's PM.]

Fair point (though I don't think it would require an on-staff webmaster to update a simple text page every once in a while). I don't know exactly how much it was off (I think it was more than 10%). It was enough to mildly annoy my father-in-law.

Had a lovely dinner at Corduroy on Saturday night. We were seated at a nice quiet table in the front room upstairs. It was my first time in the new place. The decor strikes me as classy, if a bit stark. The lights were a bit too bright and the room a bit too cold, but no big issues with decor: High points: -The Rouge Vif D'Temps soup. Really extraordinary. My sister-in-law declared that she may never have soup again because it can't possibly get better. -Lobster carpaccio. I found myself kind of merrily humming uncontrollably as I ate every last bit. -Sea urchin pasta. Full flavor of urchin without being overwhelming in anyway. -Duck breast with fig sauce. Very good, though I couldn't taste much fig. I tasted five spice powder (or, more likely, some combination of the various spices in that powder), which I like but which I think overwhelmed the fig a bit. -Venison with chestnut puree. My father-in-law wouldn't share. Medium points: -Wild mushroom blintzes. More like eggrolls than blintzes, but still good. -Desserts. Both (baked chocolate sabayon and apple tarte tatin) were good enough, but not particularly memorable. Low points: -Service. Friendly, but very slow. The gap between appetizers and main course was uncomfortably long. Mixed point: -Corduroy has its entire menu and wine list on their website *with prices* (which as we know is not always the case). My father-in-law is a Burgundy snob, so he appreciates being able to look at the wine list online ahead of time and get a sense of whether there are any good opportunities on the list. In this case, he identified a few "interesting" red burgundies "at fair prices" beforehand. So, why is this a mixed point? Because the actual prices were different than what were listed online. Kudos for listing prices on your website; de-kudos for not keeping the prices current. More kudos for having a very nice wine list, which impressed even my snobby father-in-law who becomes indignant at the sight of most wine lists. All in all, a very nice evening with consistently good to excellent food. We'll surely be back.

That's too bad. According to Sietesma's "Dish" on this place, it's the same owners as Ceviche, just with a new concept. They flipped this place awfully quickly. If I recall correctly, New Year's Eve was Ceviche's last stand. To open a new restaurant in the same space in under a month sounds quick to me, but one can understand the economic imperatives to do so. But I guess it also shows in what's coming out of the kitchen at Kitchen. I suppose it would be unkind to already wonder what might come next in this space. The new restaurant from the Sonoma crowd looks like it's getting pretty close in the old Busara space. Surfside is doing a terrific job. Along with Sushi Ko and Heritage India (and Bourbon, Rocklands, and Z Burger), Glover Park is turning into a decent little dining neighborhood.

I live in the neighborhood and certainly wish them well. It had gotten a bit depressing to walk by the barren wilderness that was Ceviche for the entire time it was in that space. That said, I walked by the other day and glanced at the posted menu, and I can't say I'm going to be hurrying to try it. I understand that the conventional wisdom is that we all want comfort food in the midst of economic troubles, but that doesn't have to mean boring, does it?

I think they need to change the format of the show. They give the big reward--immunity--to the winner of the Quickfire, which is often so quirky that it's not necessarily the best chef who wins. The winner of the elimination challenges gets. . .a copy of the guest judge's cookbook. There's no incentive to win the elimination challenge. (Compare, for a second, to Project Runway, which inspired Top Chef, but in which the winner of each challenge gets immunity for the next challenge). I'm thinking way too much about this. P.S. What's interesting about this season being so weak is that I think it's actually the season in which they've most allowed the chefs "just to cook." In years past, there's always been complaining about the constraints of the challenges. "I just want to cook my food," I can hear the contestants whining. I don't intend to do the research to verify this, but my sense is that this season has had more challenges (not all, but more) in which the chefs have been able to cook just about anything they want in the elimination challenges.

The whole Carla sending out love thing was beyond kooky. It was bizarre (if that's beyond kooky). And I still can't stand Toby. My guess is that he's watched previous seasons of TC and has decided that he wants to be the new Bourdain . But he's trying too hard, and he's just not as witty as Bourdain.

Just watched last night's episode off the DVR. Does anybody else think that the new judge, Toby Whateverhisnameis, is incredibly annoying?

Breaking news. . .Eater.com has Fiamma closing effective immediately.

The Italian place in Chicago is Spiaggia, where the Obamas apparently had a regular table for their "date nights." There was a story someplace recently on the caterer that the Obama campaign used for everything here in DC. The head of Avalon Caterers (chosen apparently because they are a union shop) reported that Barack enjoys a lot of fish.

Where can I find some good latkes? We'll make 'em at home, but if I need a second restaurant helping, where should I go?

Thanks for all your insight, Rachael. I'm surprised nobody has asked this question yet (at least, I don't think it's been asked yet): when you think about the restaurant that you'll hopefully call your own someday, what do you envision? We're all a product of our own experiences, so what pieces of the restaurants that you've worked at do you hope to incorporate into your restaurant? Not just menu ideas, but philosophy, service approach, etc. Thanks, and happy holidays.

My wife, son, and I got take out from the new Surfside on Friday night. The model is similar to another Scribner joint, Jetties: you mark your order down on an order slip when you enter, submit it to the cashier, and wait for your name to be called. While Jetties is sandwiches and salads, Surfside is grilled food of a Tex-Mex bent. The name, I presume, alludes to a beach shack somewhere in southern California selling similar type of food. Overall, we were pretty satisfied and will likely be back, but it is worth noting an important difference between a newly renovated restaurant in Glover Park and a dilapidated beach shack: Surfside is no bargain. The details: First, a note on the decor. They really have done a remarkable job transforming the run down Apollo Market into Surfside. It's one of those transformations that leaves you wondering where they found all the space. The overcrowded market has been replaced by a very open feeling restaurant with hardwood floors and exposed brick all around. They've also added a rooftop deck, which a sign points out is currently open for food but off limits for alcoholic beverages (below the sign is a petition to try and get that changed). On the food, my wife had the fish tacos. I had the steak tacos. Both platters were $10 and included two tacos, a side of rice and beans, and a grilled half of a lime. The menu also includes a variety of other similar style salads and entrees.The tacos were well made and fresh. The steak on mine was cooked to a nice medium rare. Both types of tacos came with various toppings including a homemade guacamole. The rice and beans were unremarkable--neither particularly good, nor notably bad. For my son, we ordered a kids meal ($7), which included (from among a few options) a chicken quesadilla, a small cup of guac, and a side of oranges. My son didn't really eat much of it, but I don't think that was any type of statement about the food. All in all, we were pretty satisfied, and it's a nice addition to the neighborhood. A few closing comments/observations: -This is not a particularly environmentally friendly restaurant. Having each customer fill out a decent-sized order slip (printed on a heavy paper stock) for each individual order (in other words, I had to fill out three of them) seems kind of wasteful. On top of that, the packaging material for the to go meals was a bit much. Big plastic (unrecyclable, at least in DC) containers in a big paper bag. Nice for the picnic we had across the street in Guy Mason Park, but I felt a bit guilty throwing all that plastic in the trash. Seems like there should be a more efficient way to package up tacos. -The prices. I didn't fell as ripped off as I thought I would paying $10 for two tacos. They are of a nice quality and size. $7 for a kids plate struck me as bit more questionable. The one thing I did see that would not have made me happy had I ordered it was the appetizer "for two" of guacamole that somebody else ordered. The appetizer included a mound of chips and fairly small plastic cups of guacamole and salsa. For $8. I understand that avocados are very expensive, but that seems a bit much to me. All in all, this is a nice addition to the neighborhood--a welcome faster food alternative to Rocklands and the forthcoming Z Burger. I suspect once they are open more normal hours (until Labor Day they are only open dinner hours) that they will do a nice business for lunch, dinner, and the playground set across the street.

You do know you can get arrested for that, right?

Is this part of the plan as well?

I know this question has been asked in various forms before, but a slightly different take: how difficult is it to actually get on the list for the time you want on a Saturday night? I know one shows up during the afternoon and asks for a certain time, but do people line up on Saturday afternoons to get the primetime spots on Saturday nights? I have a party of six interested in a Saturday night. There are babysitters involved, so we need to be reasonably certain about what time we'll get a table. Thanks.

Just finished off a "Curry Gold" salad from Sweetgreen. Curry chicken salad is one of my measuring sticks for any sandwich or salad place. Sweetgreen serves theirs mixed with romaine lettuce and almonds. The curry chicken salad itself is good, not great. It's got a decent kick to it, but I like a bit more fruit in my curry chicken to offset the spice. This salad includes only a smattering of small grapes. The salad is advertised as coming with naan, but at least today, it came with a thin sliver of thoroughly unremarkable bread. This salad--one of their "chef crafted"--will run you $9. It's actually a decent sized salad, but I thought that was a bit steep. At $7, I would have thought I was getting a good deal. Regarding the conversation above, I haven't heard much about Georgetown students (i.e., my students) flocking to Sweetgreen. Though many are very affluent, most will also balk at a $9 salad for lunch. Perhaps they'll go for the yogurt, which I did not try. All in all, if you happen to be in Georgetown, this isn't a bad option for lunch considering the dearth of good, quick, relatively inexpensive places to eat in Georgetown. But it's also not worth a special trip (not that I gather anybody was actually considering this).

Couldn't have said it better myself. Decent--nothing better, nothing worse--in my experience. When my wife and I used to live in Adam's Morgan, we'd occasionally go to Bardia's for brunch when we didn't feel like waiting for a table at the Diner.

Actually, not so much, if you think of it "per volume." According to that chart, a Starbucks grande coffee has 20 mg of caffeine per ounce. A doppio espresso has roughly 23 mg per ounce. So, if you were to drink 16 oz. of espresso, you'd be getting about 369 mg of caffeine compared to 320 mg in that grande Starbucks coffee. Come to think of it, with 17 final exams to grade staring me in the face, 16 oz of espresso is sounding pretty good right about now. . .

Watched the episode last night. Quickfire: I'm still amazed, in a good way, by what Hung did to those chickens and, in a bad way, what Casey didn't do to those onions (not having a sharp knife is her own fault). Elimination: Disappointed to see Tre go. Not only did I like him, but I think this season just got much more boring. Who among those left can cook with Hung? Casey, CJ, Brian, Dale, Sara, Howie? None of them as far as I can see. I think everybody, contestants included, expected the finale to be Hung and Tre. As long as Hung doesn't self-destruct (and, as Bourdain points out on his blog, Hung seems to have come to his senses in the last few episodes), I can't see anybody beating him.

This might be Howie's week. It's another team challenge--the "dueling restaurants." As we know, Howie doesn't exactly excel at teamwork. Then again, I could see the producers completing this story arc by having Howie have an epiphany this week, realize his past errors, and turn into some great team player. In that case, it's Sarah's time to go.