Dmnkly

Just wanted to check back in with thanks again, and a quick report. We had a great meal at Queen Makeda. Definitely kicked the pine tar out of the Chicago stalwarts (not that Chicago is known for its Ethiopian). I've always enjoyed Ethiopian, but couldn't get excited about it previously. I've always suspected it could be much better than what I'd tried. Glad to see that hunch finally confirmed, and I look forward to trying some of the other spots. My sister-in-law, who adores Ethiopian and has had much of it, thought it was among the best she's had, if not quite a personal pinnacle. At any rate, no high chairs was an ominous sign, but we ended up having the entire second floor to ourselves, so it really couldn't have worked out any better. The little guy usually eats everything, but while he seemed to enjoy his first few bites, I think the sneaky spice on the tibs caught up with him, and after that he was even rejecting goldfish. So we'll have to wait until next time to properly introduce him :-) Thanks again, all... muchly appreciated.

Thanks... and like I say, I don't want to turn this place into Chowhound, where nine out of ten questions are specific "help me pick a restaurant" requests, but I appreciate the help. He's extremely good in restaurants, he just comes along with age appropriate babbling (not a screamer, or anything), and he eats more foods than my wife does (including the spicy), so I just wanted to make sure a little one wouldn't be totally out of place. I was leaning Queen Makeda anyway, so that sounds great. Thanks guys... greatly appreciated :-)

Word is he's doing a few guest bartending stints and occasionally helping out at Sola while trying to get his place, Town & Country, off the ground. Last I heard he still thought it was going to be a summer opening. Whether that's realistic or wishful thinking and where he is in the process, I don't know.

Hey, all! Apologies for the Chowhound-esque "help me pick a restaurant" question, but this is information that's tricky to garner without asking directly... so I'm asking directly (and I figured it'd be better to give this its own thread that can be promptly lost in the ether rather than polluting the busier threads). With my sister-in-law -- who adores Ethiopian but has been living in Wausau, Wisconsin for the past year -- visiting DC on business this weekend, we're trucking on down for dinner tomorrow (Sunday) night. We'll have the little guy in tow, who is very well-behaved in restaurants, but is still one and half. While I know which Ethiopian restaurants are grabbing my attention from a food standpoint (Etete, Queen Makeda), I have no sense whatsoever of which places would be most appropriate for a little one. Naturally, I fear sleek and hip and low tables (no high chairs). And we'll be doing the early dinner thing to avoid bothering the later crowd, but still, we obviously don't want to end up in a place where it just isn't appropriate to bring him. Are there any you guys would steer me towards or away from? We're coming down from Baltimore, so meeting not-quite-halfway in Silver Spring is also an option, but I get the sense that folks are generally more enthused by the downtown spots. Thanks... and apologies again.

Or Spiaggia Cafe, if you aren't up for the full-on fine dining experience.

No, she did, in fact, make soup dumplings... thickened the soup with agar agar, cut it into chunks and wrapped it so that it would liquefy while steaming. Which is not to say that I disagree with your assessment of her at all :-)

Tell that to Dale Levitski, who suddenly came on stong late in the season and narrowly lost in the final episode -- and never would have had that chance if he'd been eliminated early on as somebody who "[didn't] have a shot"... because he certainly didn't look like he did early in the season.

Understood, and I'd agree if it weren't for the the angle that "doing their job" includes flat-out lying about the integrity of the judging in a competition where the dreams of (sometimes) talented chefs and $100,000 is at stake. On the continuum of unethical secret influence on contests of skill, I don't know that I'd put it as high as fixing the World Series, but Top Chef isn't pro wrestling, either. These are real people with real careers at stake, and the judges are well-respected industry professionals. It's wrapped up in an overly dramatized reality-show package, but at its heart is a real contest of skill with real consequences, both good and bad, for those who participate. If it were totally fictionalized and the whole thing was scripted, then I don't think there's an ethical issue at all... or at least it's a different one. Then the show's just a hoax. But with the given that these known and often respected chefs are coming in looking for an honest competition, if they don't get one, yeah, I think there are some serious ethical issues there -- potentially legal ones, too -- and I think to dismiss it as "just television" is to hold those who are involved in its making at arm's length and forget that they're real people who are putting real careers on hold to compete.

You assume that traditional reality show drama and honest competition are mutually exclusive. Why can't they give the judges total autonomy and get their "reality-show tensions"? The point I make is they'd have to be totally incomptetnt to need to influence the judging in the manner you describe to achieve that end. The casting team can easily ensure that there are a few obnoxious nutjobs among the more talented chefs. And if, somehow, the stars align and all of their characters are eliminated early, the editors can easily pick up the slack. If you watch the show carefully, you've already seen this happen. Everything but the finals is shot before the editors get to work, so they can use the entire season to develop whatever arcs they want, and this is all done, as needed, to preserve the drama you describe. Heroes have morphed into villains. Villains have morphed into heroes. Dale was portrayed as obnoxious, but sympathetic. If he'd made the finals instead of Lisa, you don't think he would have been pushed into full-on villain status? I think you grossly underestimate the power of good editors. The point I make is that is that even if you believe the producers would influence the judging in such a manner (which is not at all unreasonable), unless their staff is totally incompetent there isn't any need -- any why take that chance in a situation where you have little, if anything, to gain and everything to lose?

Don't be. Chicago has two signature styles of BBQ (well, one BBQ and one "BBQ"). The first is epitomized by rib tips and hot links slow-cooked over hardwood in an aquarium smoker. The second is epitomized by mushy baby back ribs that are boiled, slathered in sickly sweet BBQ sauce and slapped on the grill. Ribfest is, I believe, almost exclusively comprised of the latter.

That's true, they're very different things. However, Tom, Ted and Tony have all stated very clearly that the producers have never attempted to sway them in any way. All three have been exceedingly clear on this point. So the question is simply whether or not you believe them.

Well, this addresses revealing eliminations out of turn, which isn't the same thing. And if there's some provision that they cannot reveal that they're not the ones making the decisions, that presumes they're willing to sign on to such an arrangement in the first place. Not to mention which, it takes one kind of person to dodge the question of whether the producers influence them at all. It takes another kind of person entirely to go out of their way to flat-out lie about it. Call me naive, but those who have denied it -- very strongly and very clearly -- don't strike me as that kind of person. I don't mean to suggest that the show isn't heavily manipulated. I'm just saying that there are plenty of ways they can do so without screwing with the intregrity of the judging.

Well, that certainly would explain why I was underwhelmed if you're right :-) I've been meaning to try the stand at the farmers market since last summer. No doubt about what's going on there.

I wasn't a big fan of Chaps either, and I'm practically a pit beef virgin so I don't have a discerning eye just yet, but are we talking about the same place, Henry? Note, bloody bun. It looks like they're cooking hunks of meat from scratch to me. Or did you mean that they're taking packaged deli meat and just putting a little char on them? That could be -- it's not something I was watching for -- but they didn't seem to have that kind of uniformity to me. I'm not defending the sandwich. I wasn't a fan. But though I wasn't looking with a suspicious eye and might've missed something, I'm a little surprised by the suggestion that they aren't cooking their own meat. I'm curious as to what leads you to think so.

Known and acknowledged, agm... but here's my current list of the other things you must also believe if you believe the show is fixed: That keeping a person such as Lisa around until the end would have a significant impact on ratings. That the Top Chef audience isn't interested in seeing great chefs compete by making great food, and would rather see good guys vs. bad guys. That the producers believe the difference in ratings to be so significant that they're willing to risk completely destroying an already successful show if word ever got out that it was fixed. That the producers feel it is vitally important to the audience's enjoyment to help "villains" get deeper into the show, despite the howling and complaints and viewership that tunes out every time there's a controversial decision when a chef like Lisa is kept over a chef like Dale. That, in season two, the producers temporarily decided to ditch their "villain vs. good guy" formula for the finals in eliminating beloved Sam and lovely Elia, leaving the final battle between two snotty, obnoxious, unlikeable chefs and killing interest in the final episode. That the show's casting department is so incompetent, they can't achieve the same ends simply and with no risk to the show's credibility through careful casting. That the show's editors are so incompetent, they can't achieve the same ends simply and with no risk to the show's credibility through selective editing to portray certain people as "villains" (see many of the judges' posts, saying that Lisa isn't nearly as bad as she's been made out to be). That, because the entire season except for the finals is in the can before episode one is ever broadcast so they have no way of gauging fan reaction as a means of deciding who to eliminate, the producers are prescient enough to know who the fans will love and who they'll hate. That, despite the large number of snide, snotty chefs who started the season, it's still mathematically suspicious that one of them made the final three. That the judges are all in on the fix, and regular judges Tom and Ted, having stated in no uncertain terms that the producers have never influenced their decisions (with the exception of Cliff in season two -- a highly unusual circumstance and just the sort of thing the disclaimer is meant to address), are bald-faced liars. That numerous titans of the food world -- including Paul Kahan, Art Smith, Rick Bayless and José Andrés, just to name a few from this season -- are in on it as well. That Anthony Bourdain, another frequent judge who has explicitly stated that he doesn't give a damn what the producers want and has never received nor witnessed even the slightest attempt on the part of the producers to exert influence over the eliminations, is the kind of guy who's willing to preside over a fixed contest, and also a bald-faced liar. That of all of the people involved, not a single one has felt compelled to blow the whistle. If all of the above strikes you as reasonable, then yes, it makes perfect sense to believe that Top Chef is fixed. It is a perfectly rational opinion to which you are absolutely entitled. But when you consider all of the other presumptions that must be made if this is the case, I personally find the simple, straightforward explanation -- that the judges try to be as objective as possible and Lisa's been lucky to frequenly be just better than one other person ("skimming the bottom like a stingray" is a line I read somewhere else and rather liked) -- to be far, far, far more compelling then accepting the entire grocery list above that ranges from possible to improbable to just plain ridiculous.

The benefit elimination, miso bacon, episode five. (This does not in any way diminish your points even the slightest bit :-)

Secondhand info is that he expects to have it after the 4th of July :-)

With Rockville a bit of a hike for this father of a one year old, I'm still trying to get a grip on the level of excellence the DC crowd expects from their Chinese cuisine. My education on the finer details is somewhat lacking, but I have spent a LOT of time eating in China (to the tune of 40+ trips to Hong Kong and Shenzhen), so while I'm sometimes fuzzy on the details of how the good stuff got there, I like to think I recognize it when I have it. So I figured I'd share a little place that some of us Charm City Hounds have been frequenting for the past couple of weeks, and see if any of the Chinese fiends here have had a chance to check it out. Crackers and I have been organizing dinners at Grace Garden in Odenton as of late (and who could ask for a lovelier and more capable co-host than Crackers?), and we've been truly impressed by what we've had. It's a completely nondescript strip mall joint that seems to be subsisting on its Americanized carryout menu for the Army base across the street, but they have an authentic menu as well that focuses on the chef's native Cantonese, but also includes some Sichuan and others. We've had tender fish noodles in a velvety, subtle ginger sauce. We've had complex, fiery Sichuan fish with rice powder and crispy fried bones. We've had a sticky rice stuffed steamed duck that redefines the word comforting. We've had sliced pork belly stir-fried with toban djan, pristine baby bok choy with salted fish, salted egg shrimp with a crispy fried exterior and a volcanic head gush, mixed seafood with a superbly balanced hot/sweet XO sauce... I could go on. If it isn't bad form, here's a link to a more complete post with photos: http://www.skilletdoux.com/2008/05/grace-garden.html I'm inclined to think this is a diamond in the rough. Anybody else been there? Grace Garden www.gracegardenchinese.com 1690 Annapolis Rd. Odenton, MD 21113 410-672-3581 Mon - Thu 11:00 AM - 10:00 PM Fri - Sat 11:00 AM - 10:30 PM Sun Closed

At this point, I'm a little shocked by how okay I'd be with that :-)

As opposed to somebody who does Italian, French, Spanish and German, thereby only doing "European" cuisine? As Bourdain said, "Asia's a big place."

My thought exactly :-) And put me in the camp that thinks the stove issue was probably either an accident, or that Lisa screwed it up herself. But if somebody did sabotage her, it would only strike me as being in character for Spike. Dale's displayed plenty of contempt for her, but having contempt for her and being willing to sabotage her are two very, very different things. And I'm surprised that Andrew could be considered a suspect. He's a nutjob, but he seemed like an honorable (if somewhat egotistical) fellow, even before his reaction to Lisa throwing him under the bus. Spike, on the other hand, has already outed himself as somebody willing to screw over the others -- ingredient selection this week, reporting pantries "cleaned out" during the block party... and I think there was another instance as well that I can't recall at the moment. But most likely, just an accident.

Awesome news, thanks for the heads-up! Now, can we get somebody to release the full series on DVD already? :-)

I have that shot. And you're right, the total was just over $50. But the shot of the register was a tight shot that didn't have any chefs in frame. It could have been shot at any time, it could have been B-roll they pulled from a different episode, it could have been a random shopper shopping -- we have no way of knowing. The editors put all of this stuff together so that it looks seamless, but in the span of ten seconds you could have three or four shots that were all done weeks apart from each other. It's difficult to make out the specific ingredients listed on the register in that shot, but I got navel oranges, figs and half & half (among others). None of the dishes this week put those ingredients together, so I'm inclined to think it was from another episode, or one of the cameras getting random register shots that had nothing to do with the challenge.

It was -- see upthread -- since confirmed by Ted Allen. (They just didn't use very much of it.)

Y'know, I get almost exclusively teas and sesame and other non-fruity drinks, so you've got me -- I'm not sure :-)