hungry prof

Public service announcement. The electronic versions of two cookbooks about which I've heard very good things are part of an ebook sale that the publisher, Chronicle Books, is having. Ridiculously cheap, and unclear how long it last: Michael Ruhlman's Twenty is $3.03. Yotam Ottolenghi's Plenty is $2.99.

Having lunch today at BlackSalt, so I went to check out their current menu on their website on my iPhone. To my pleasant surprise, BlackSalt now has a great mobile website. Simply formatted. Basic information readily available. Quite simply a model mobile website for a restaurant. Maybe this has been around for a bit, but it's the first time I noticed (and BlackSalt's regular website used to be a real pain on a mobile device). Bravo, BlackSalt.

Thanks, all. I've never made my own sausage and I'll need to get some equipment to do so, but maybe now's the time.

Reviving this thread after 3+ years. I'm gearing up to make cassoulet for New Year's. Anybody know where to get Toulouse-style sausage in the DC-area? Stachowski's doesn't list it among their sausages on their website. Paula Wolfert recommends an online source, but that winds up being $50 for a pound of sausage once you factor in shipping. If the answer is no, anybody have a substitute to recommend? Thanks.

Chicken Madness serves a useful role for calorie- and grease-seeking Georgetown undergraduates, but I'm not sure it deserves a place on any "best of" list for DC sandwiches.

It looks like there's no thread on this place. We wandered over here after Kliman mentioned it as one of his "Where I'm Eating Now" places in the most recent Kliman Online. This is a good find and worth checking out. For suburban Marylanders craving Korean, the need to trek out to Annandale may now be over. Kliman describes Moa as being located in the "fascinating industrial sector of Rockville." Don't know if I'd go as far as fascinating, but it is indeed the type of place that you'd never find unless you were seeking it out. Nestled among various kitchen tile suppliers and across the street from an Italian joint named Amalfi, Moa is small, but not tiny, furnished with wooden tables and benches complete with the grills in the center of the table familiar from many a Korean restaurant. We arrived at Moa a little after 7pm and immediately got a table for two. At various points throughout the night, there appeared to be a short wait, and the staff definitely seemed to be dealing with more traffic than the norm (and they seemed a bit bewildered by it--guess nobody told them about Kliman's write-up). As best we can tell, the staff consisted of one waitress who literally was on the run all evening long, a host who cleared tables when he could, and then the kitchen staff, one of whom really did appear to be the Mom (and who herself was spotted running out dishes throughout the evening). Service was a bit slow as a consequence of the seemingly larger-than-usual crowd, but we weren't in a hurry and everybody was very friendly and apologetic. On to the food. It was just the two of us, so we ordered a seafood bibimbap ($12.99), bulgogi ($18.99), and a pitcher of watermelon soju ($14.99). Everything hit the spot. The bibimbap was served in the traditional stone bowl and was filled with rice (nicely crunchy on the bottom) along with shrimp, squid, and (I think) mussels. We mixed in the spicy sauce served with it and didn't look back. The bulgogi was well-grilled meat alongside onions, served with the usual accompaniments--rice, lettuce leaves, sauce, and raw garlic. Again, delicious. The table was filled with all the various little side dishes that one expects at a Korean restaurant--kimchi here, pickled eggplant there, some sort of sausage thing on the other corner. There wasn't a scrap left when we were done. Finally, the watermelon soju--recommended by Kliman--hit the spot and left my wife wondering if there was any alcohol in it (until she stood up at the end of the night). Around the room, we saw nothing but happy people from a remarkable diversity of backgrounds, including Korean families out for dinner, dating couples, small children, and everything in between. All in all, we can't wait to go back with more people so we can try more dishes.

We got take-out for dinner there late last week. Some mediocre sushi, a serviceable seaweed salad, and underwhelming shrimp with vegetables. The shrimp were the oddest bit--they were completely flavorless, as if there wasn't even salt and pepper. Nothing was bad per se and the ingredients seemed of fine quality, but not any type of destination. Doable in a pinch (unlike the China Pavilion in the same shopping center, which literally has brought my wife to tears before).

The DR.com dining guide strikes again! Without kids for the evening and needing to run some errands in Northern Virginia, I consulted the guide for something new and interesting to try. I stumbled upon Minh's, described in the dining guide as, "For several years now, Minh's has been perhaps the best Vietnamese restaurant in the DC area, inexplicably overlooked." Having tried only a smattering of Vietnamese restaurants in the DC area, I can't testify with confidence to Minh's being the best, but I can certainly agree with the "inexplicably overlooked" part. Minh's is very good, honest food, and I take it as a good sign that the restaurant appeared to be populated with a large number of Vietnamese on this Saturday night. The restaurant was, in fact, quite crowded, including at least one party for twenty-five or so right in the middle of the dining room and assorted other parties of 6-8. With apologies from the hostess, we were shuffled back to a table squeezed into the back corner of the dining room. Our only complaint of the night was not about the table itself, but rather that we seemed to be forgotten at points, needing to flag somebody down for a beer or for the check at the end of the night. On to the food, we started with baby mustard rolls with little idea what we'd be getting. What we got were delicious. I presume that the mustard is a reference to the leaves surrounding the rolls that we received. Inside the mustard leaves was a combination of rice and caramelized pork served along with a spicy dipping sauce. I'd order this again in a heartbeat. Tired of gummy summer rolls or flavorless fried spring rolls? Try these. For the entrees, we ordered the "sizzling" catfish skewers and then asked for a recommendation on our second dish. Without hesitation, our server recommended shrimp with asparagus. Both were very good, but we actually preferred the catfish to the shrimp. The catfish dish came with two skewers of catfish buried among what appeared to be fried dill, all served in a sizzling cast iron dish (think fajitas). Along side was the traditional plate of Southeast Asian accompaniments--lettuce leaves, Thai basil, cilantro, sauce, peanuts, etc.--in which to wrap the catfish. Think classic, fresh Vietnamese flavors, and that's what this was. The shrimp and asparagus was perfectly well cooked in a brown sauce of some sort with carrots mixed in. The shrimp and asparagus both seemed to be of good quality, and we certainly cleaned the plate clean. When we go back, though, I suspect we'll order something else. This was a good dish, but it just didn't make much of an impression. Like many of us, I think, I felt compelled to order the Vietnamese beer to go with our Vietnamese food. That was "Export 33" in this case. Standard Asian beer (i.e., on the lighter side). Perfectly fine, but not anything I'd seek out for another occasion other than eating Vietnamese food. Service was affable, if a bit slow. All in all, a very pleasant dining experience. We are sure to return, and we likely would have never known about it were it not for Don's magical dining guide. Kudos to both Minh's and Don Rockwell for writing about Minh's.

The first item on their New York menu on the website is "Cheesesteak Eggrolls." I pretty much stopped reading there.

$20/bottle, up to one bottle per person at the table. Haven't been able to write up a review yet, but my wife and I had dinner at MP last Saturday. Absolutely terrific meal. Oddly, Sietsema didn't mention the frog legs in his review, but they are worthy of all the attention they got when the place first opened.

Go to Ripple. Excellent food and corkage is only $10.

This place is "kraze." They have a "semi-nude beef brunch." (Scroll down) (Anybody able to translate the Korean on what that actually means?) ETA: Looks like it might mean a burger that is missing its top bun.

Well, put me in the more positive category. Lovely dinner for six this past Saturday night at Ripple. I agree that the portion sizes are not huge, but I'm ok with that. I think the value is reasonable for the quality of what you're getting, and I actually like walking out of a restaurant these days and not feeling like I'm stuffed to the gills. A more specific report: Several of our party had the rouge pumpkin soup, charred eggplant, marinated squid, cipollini, pine nuts ($9) to start. It somehow seemed appropriate on a cool night two days before Halloween. A huge bowl? No. A satisfying appetizer? Yes. I had the fazzoletti, tuna ragu, caperberries, cerignola olives, celery ($15) off of the pasta menu. This was more or less a loose lasagna with a classic flavor combination presented in a new light. The pistachio agnolotti, roasted beets, gaeta olives, tarragon, ricotta ($15) was also well received off of the pasta menu. For the main course, the table split between the pine-smoked venison, toasted oats, radish tops, ginger emulsion ($25), which was very good, though a bit odd. The venison was served just about room temperature, which I suppose could be appropriate for something that has been smoked, but it was also a bit unexpected. The other half had a duck leg dish (not on their current menu online) that was a quite ample serving of duck. I don't remember what it came with All of the dessert plates were licked clean: milk chocolate cremeux, toasted marshmallow, crisp graham cracker (smores--with awesome toasted marshmallow lining the bowl), baked-to-order chocolate chip cookies & milk, butterscotch pudding, chantilly cream, toffee shards, and an assortment of ice creams (including pumpkin, espresso, and apple riesling). All of the food was interesting and artfully presented. The flavors were simultaneously adventurous while also being comfortable. And the ingredients felt wholesome. Service was excellent. Really one of the best waiters I've encountered in DC. The room was relatively quiet--good for my in-laws who are losing their hearing. And, last but not least, their corkage fee is only $10 for those, like my father-in-law, who judge a restaurant largely by their ability to bring their own Burgundy. All in all, we really enjoyed it, and it definitely will be in the rotation for future visits.

I'll be stunned if they get rid of the sunflower seed butter. Best I can tell, it's become a staple in daycare centers everywhere that don't allow nuts (i.e., all of them these days).

More here. Hook badly damaged, but nobody hurt.

They get you with the lemonade. The place is not cheap, and the lemonade (which I recall as being $4.50 for a cup at the Georgetown location) is especially not cheap.

Doesn't even mention the disaster that is the River Rd store on the weekends. I particularly like the off-duty cops who are there to prevent road enraged soccer moms and dads from bashing into each other. I wouldn't be surprised to see WF close that store at some point. Just not enough parking, a small store to begin with, and reasonably close to the new Friendship Heights store. Friendship Heights, on the other hand, is just as the story depicts. A parker's dream. We live a few minutes closer to River Rd, but we go to Friendship Heights every time.

Who wouldn't want to eat these?

Where's Mie N Yu?

So, is there actually discernible benefit to grinding one's own flour? [DR: get your mind out of the gutter.] Grinding one's own coffee is, of course, common place, and I think makes a difference. But I can't say I've heard much about grinding flour.

Can't explain the photo in the application. My own two eyes did see the coming soon signs in the old KPT space.

Signs up in the old Kemble Park Tavern space. Info, including a sample menu, in their application to serve alcohol. Doesn't look too exciting, but a good neighborhood joint is always welcome. They will be open at 6am for breakfast. . .

Somebody with too much time on their hands should do an analysis of how often the final decisions agree or disagree with the outcome Tom prefers (which is usually discernible). My impression is that Tom usually gets what he wants, and in this case, he preferred Mike's dish.

We don't get out much these days. A 4.5 year old and a sixteen-month old will do that. When we have gone out in recent months, we've been disappointed with higher end places, choosing increasingly to go to moderately priced old reliables for pizza or burgers. I'm happy to report that Birch and Barley on Saturday night erased all disappointment. Go. Just go. When we made the reservation a month or so ago to go out with some friends, I didn't even realize it was restaurant week. I'll admit my immediate reaction when I made the connection was, "Uh-oh." But I couldn't have been more wrong. This is a restaurant that gets the opportunity it has in the form of restaurant week. The menu isn't a full menu, but it's an excellent representative sample. The portions are more than ample, and the service was simply outstanding with no sense of being rushed along in an effort to turn the table. We started with a Butcher's Board for the table--five different types of charcuterie served with small toasts and a ramekin of tangy mustard. All were excellent. The cognac-laced (I think it was cognac) chicken liver mousse was superb as was the testa--pig's head sausage--which I am thrilled that my dining mates seemed a bit squeemish about trying. I happily devoured it myself. With the charcuterie, I had a glass of the Thornbridge Merrie cask ale. I could have drunk that all night long. Following the charcuterie, out came the amazing, awesome, delicious bread board. Pretzel rolls, cornbread, and olive rolls on a big board with one of each for everybody at the table. Served with more mustard and excellent butter, the bread was as good as I can remember being served at any restaurant in DC in recent memory. Then, to our surprise, came a lovely amuse bouche--a perfectly fried arancini flavored with red beet, sitting atop a bed of whipped goat cheese. Delicious. I started my meal with a white anchovy flatbread served with a glass of Goose Island Dominique. This was probably my least favorite course of the night. The flatbread was, well, not flat enough. The bread to topping ratio was off, and between the charcuterie toasts, the breadboard, and the flatbread, I was already starting to fill up. The Dominique, which is fermented in casks previously used for bourbon, was really unique and well-matched with the flatbread. No mistaking the bourbon flavor in this beer. Others around the table had the arctic char tartare and the chestnut agnolotti, which disappeared in remarkable time. All three men at the table had the Bratburger served with crisp, salty french fries. Cooked to a perfect medium on a proper bun, I couldn't finish it at this point as much as I wanted to. The leftovers made for an excellent lunch on Sunday. Once again, the beer--Edmund Fitzgerald from the Great Lakes Brewing Company--was well-matched. Others had a trout special, which also got strong reviews. Finally, even though all of us were too full for dessert by this point, we managed to stuff down top-notch desserts, including a chocolate panna cotta, an assortment of playful confections (a "hostess cupcake," for example), and a lemon meringue based dessert. Really terrific food throughout, which was matched by terrific service. The waitstaff explained everything well and was attentive without being intrusive. The beer sommelier was superb at explaining to us why the beers they selected were the right match for the food we were having (and the pairings really were uncanny). On a cold Saturday night, the lack of valet parking is about the only complaint that I can muster. We're lucky to have this place in DC. Go. Just go.

Closed, or at least it appears that way. Never heard particularly great reviews, but all the empty storefronts around can't make anybody happy.