1000yregg

Thanks to chaofun and his wife for setting up this event. Good to see other dr.com members there as well. We got cow poop flung on us! Here are some pictures.

In the last month, in the space where Puffs & Pastries was on the Avenue in Hampden, they have decided to move away from sweets to hamburgers. They are currently rotating the menu weekly, trying different kinds of "burgers" from scrapple to rabbit confit and a variety of toppings including creamy sriracha pea shoots, raspberry-shallot ketchup. The menu can be seen here. I dropped by a couple weeks ago and tried their regular burger. It was cooked well, and was pretty good. I thought it was a bit pricey relative to the quality- about $10. I got mine with American cheese, a fried egg, strawberry rhubarb ketchup, and a stuffed squash blossom. pics

I went to the Corner a second time for dinner last week. This time, I did not bring alcohol because of their stupid corkage policy. Dinner was good though. I spoke with the hostess and she said the exotic meat club will be starting up in the fall. My appetizer was an arugula salad topped with a proscuitto chip and seared diver scallop. My main was a fish called a courbine- cooked in cross section on the bone with spherical plum juice and truffled fingerling potatoes. The fish is carnivorous, and it's flesh was white and medium density. For dessert, I had a waffle with fruit and whipped cream.

weird- my post yesterday disappeared. i mentioned two places- Alewife - for pub food and decent beer selection, and B&O in the Hotel Monaco- they just changed chefs but I hear good things. Planning to go tomorrow.

Opening in theaters soon is The Trip, a movie by Michael Winterbottom with Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon. It basically follows the two stars travelling to various restaurants around the Lake district of Britain. I've only seen the TV series but it is basically the two guys being funny mixed with scenes of food and food prep. It's brilliantly funny and there is quite a good amount of food porn (at least in the series). I'd be interested in seeing how this got cut down to a feature film, but if you have the chance to see the series- do it.

I was at Freddy's last weekend and got some pictures of the lobster roll and the lobster stew. I liked the lemon zest in the roll, and did not find it overpowering. I look forward to returning to try the whole belly clams.

I feel bad that I had to leave early, but here are my pictures from today's picnic.

Macho Man Randy Savage. "Oooh Yeaahhh"

A couple sources in town report that The Corner is starting an exotic meat club. They say the chef has served python and yak, and he is also looking for black bear. Wonder if there will be Komodo dragon?

Thanks for posting this. It's near my folks place, so I'm planning to go.

I'm planning on coming for the early part of the afternoon, camera in hand. I will bring some plates, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to contribute a dish.

You should watch the No Reservations episode from this season in Vienna for pointers. Bourdain ate at Gut Purbach, in the countryside, and it looked fantastic. There is a travel guide at their website.

The next two days in Vegas, I was eating 4-5 meals each day. The next morning I had a ridiculously sized breakfast of fried chicken and bacon waffles at the Hash House a Go Go . This was followed by lunch of Hokkaido style ramen (miso ramen with butter & corn) at Monta Noodle House on Spring Mtn. That night I had an amazing dinner at Aburiya Raku, a Japanese robata grill on Spring Mountain west of Chinatown. Pics We started with cold apps: housemade tofu with choice of toppings including green tea salt, chile powders, plum deuced soy sauce/daikon, a slimy umami rich bowl of uni/poached egg/okra/mountain yam/mushrooms, Kobe beef liver sashimi, amberjack sashimi, and firefly squid sunomono. The robatayaki we had were tomatoes, Japanese eggplant, Kobe skirt with garlic, Kobe filet with fresh wasabi, lambchop, tsokone, Kurobata pork cheek, pig ear, and Kobe beef tendon. The chef offers a Kaiseki meal if you book far in advance that looks amazing in some blogs I've read. The next day, I located a few places in Vegas that make malasadas, a doughnut popular in Hawaii, inspired by Portuguese missionaries. I also ate at Aloha Treasures in the California Casino downtown- known for their Hawaiian food including Loco Moco, Saimin, and Spam items. I had the Hawaiian tripe stew with a mac salad. For my last meal in town, I went to Soyo Korean Barstaurant, a late night joint that is like an izakaya but with Korean cuisine. They had a good Korean fried chicken, the rice dumplings in spicy sauce, a dish with corn topped with mozzarella cheese, potato pancake, and grilled squid. Pics

Arcturus, are you intentionally "triple spacing"?

Last night, before I went to see John Sayles read at Atomic Books, I dropped into The Corner on the Avenue in Hampden for dinner. It's the former site of the 36th st Diner, just south of The Wine Source. The chef, Bernard Dehaene used to be a Mannequin Pis in Olney. The menu looked pretty impressive- continental with a Belgian influence- mussels, steak frites, waffles for dessert, escargots. Their specials sounded intriguing as well- kangaroo tenderloin, dover sole. I ordered 2 starters- housemade boudin noir and soft shell crab on top of fiddleheads. The blood sausage was creamy & delicious. The softshell was beautifully pan fried, no batter. For my main course, I had the veal orloff- it was cooked with the bone and topped generously with beschamel and mushrooms. The meat was very well prepared. My only complaints- they are cash only (not that bad), and the corkage fee- I brought in a beer and was charged $4 for it. Also they charge you $1 for a takeaway box. 850 West 36th Street Baltimore, MD 21211 (443)869.5075 UPDATE- pics are here

My first night in Vegas last week, I ate at Jose Andrés' é , the not so secret restaurant inside Jaleo at the new Cosmopolitan Hotel. It was easier to get a seat here than minibar. You can do it by email via their website 1 month in advance of the date you want. They have 2 seatings of 8 persons each. It's pricey $250/person- all inclusive- tip, taxes, drinks, but worth it. I had a wonderful time. Your group has it's own servers and team of chefs who prep courses in front of you while you can casually talk to them, ask them questions, and marvel at each prep. It is a 20 course meal with 5 different wines/beer. My favorite was the secreto cut of iberico pork- a piece of pork that was so fatty and wonderful. It reminded me of wagyu meets pork belly. I also loved fried artichoke stuffed with a quail egg and topped with caviar, foie gras baked in salt with chocolate and orange juice, a "Ho Ho" of apple merigue, blue cheese espuma & walnut butter, and a fried mini brioche calamari & aioli sandwich. I put a full breakdown and pics here.

I get the impression the gracious Chef Trabocchi's been reading this thread and taking feedback because last night, the spaghetti with crab, sea urchin, and chile flakes was fantastic. I was worried they weren't going to have it as it was not on the written menu. Instead, it was presented as a "special". When it arrived at the table, there was clear visual evidence of the presence of sea urchin in the burnt orange colored sauce coating the noodles. Also, the crab was very fresh, and I loved the kick of the chile pepper at the end of each bite. I think I could have liked the plate clean. As leleboo stated, our dinner was great from start to finish. We began with the Apulia buffalo mozzarella, roasted tomatoes, & a pesto of basil Genovese, and a salad of violet baby artichoke, fava beans, English peas, & mint. Both items represented to me a restraint in letting the high quality ingredients speak for themselves. After the pasta dish, I ordered the branzino topped with a "brodetto", a tomato based stew of littleneck clams and fish. The fish was beautifully cooked, light and delicious, and I liked the subtle kick in the sauce. In contrast, leleboo ordered the veal chop covered in mushroom and wrapped in proscuitto, served with hazelnuts & Jerusalem artichoke puree. This was rich and hearty tasting, and the meat was perfect. We also enjoyed both our desserts: the fennel gelato with blood orange on an olive oil semolina cake and a trifle of strawberry & lemon granita. Both of them had a blend of flavors. The gelato had a strong fennel flavor that was tempered with the tangy orange and sweet cake. Likewise, the trifle combined sweet and sour as well. PICS

I'm going to Vegas this weekend and later this year, and have been researching food options. I came across this amazing resource- a food critic named Max Jacobson has a website called Unica World. The local dining section is pretty impressive. He ranges the gamut from small divey ethnic places to fine dining. Worth checking out before any trip there.

Some Korean-American friends took me to Kimko Seafood in Ellicott City this weekend for Korean style sashimi. This place was mentioned under a different name, Bethany Seafood in a post by howchow a while ago. It's known to have lobster sashimi. I also found out from my friends that they often serve San Nakji, live octopus sashimi. Unfortunately, when we arrived they had run out of the octopus for the week. We ordered the large sashimi platter/dinner for the 5 of us. I believe it was $200. You start off with a small cup of congee, and then they brought out 20 different plates of bonchon. This included a large seafood pancake, fishes prepared in various forms- grilled/fried/raw, seaweed, edamame, potato salad, grilled chicken gizzards, rice with roe, seaweed soup, salmon collarbone, clams, and octopus. The sashimi platter is served on a meter long plank. Korean style sashimi is also eaten with kochujang, the red chile pepper sauce, as well as soy sauce and wasabi. My friend told me Koreans also prefer to chewier pieces of sashimi, the most popular being halibut. The lobster sashimi is pretty incredible. They take a fresh lobster from the tank, dispatch it, and right away, bring the tail split open and cut up topped with some roe. The remainder goes into a soup at the end of the meal. The meat is sweet, had a little bite at first, and then melts into the mouth. I also loved the fresh sea cucumber sashimi. It is not at all liked the cooked sea cucumber I've had. It has a mild briny flavor and has the texture of raw octopus. We also had the abalone and sea squirt sashimi. Abalone reminded me of a mushroom, and the sea squirt, while bitter at first, was just ok. The lobster soup is in a spicy broth also loaded with fish. It was wonderful. PICS

I just talked to a friend in Vienna. There are is a third BonChon now in Fairfax as well as the one in Annandale and Centreville. 3242 Old Pickett Rd Fairfax, VA 22031 (703) 865-5688

I went to the Songkran festival this past weekend. I got there at 9 am and there was already a good crowd. I queued up in the longest line at the food stands, and I found myself enjoying a floating market noodle soup at 9 in the morning. The lady who runs the stand was surrounded my roast pork and other pig parts. Naturally, I got one with everything for $6. The broth was really good- savory and sweet, with a kick of spice as you continued to eat. They used square flat rice noodles that were in small rollups. I poked around at some of the other stands, and negotiated like Chris Rock for loosies. "How about a handful of soda for a quarter?" I liked these tapioca balls filled with pork and chiles, pork meatballs on bamboo sticks, and fresh made pork rinds. For dessert, I had durian fruit with sticky rice from another stand with a long line, but worth the wait. Pics

Too funny- we are eating at APDC the same evening- I think my reservation is for 6 pm- They are fine with booking this far out, but you might want to confirm a few weeks out. I've posted about my favs in this thread. We are looking to try out some new places this year.

When Mi Viejo Pueblito shut down, I found out it was bought by the owner of a Mexican place in Rosedale, MD, just outside of the city called Fiesta Mexicana. I stopped by there recently, and tried some of their food. Their big draw might be the Pambazo sandwich, a recipe from Veracruz, Mexico. They start with a fresh roll, brush it with a red guajillo suace and then pan sear it. It's then filled with chorizo, potatoes, lettuce, crema fresca, & queso fresco. It's pretty hearty. I also tried one of their lengua tacos- which was ok. And I also tried their made to order guacamole. The chips were not that great- clearly from some Costco bag of chips. Pics

I go every year with my cousin in July- we've already booked our table. We are always surprise when people eat at APDC and don't do it family style. The seafood platter is awesome. You might be able to tackle it by yourself and still eat something else. It's like eating steamed crabs- you are still hungry afterwards. Their waitstaff is also good about telling us we've ordered too much food.

Thanks to Leleboo, Ba Bay regular, for getting me to come down from Baltimore to try them. The meal was great. We ate a lot. I started with a good cocktail, the "633", Brugal rum, St. Germain, & milk punch topped with culantro. We shared a trio of appetizers: the autumn roll, chili glazed wings with scallion. and the purple cabbage salad with a fish sauce vinaigrette. The autumn roll was rice paper loaded with egg, jicama, Chinese sausage, carrots & jalapenos. It had a really nice kick to it, and the dipping sauce of hoison & peanuts was delicious. I was also really impressed by the purple cabbage salad- it had a really pleasant combination of bitterness and fishiness. For an entree- I ordered their special soup- a smoked pork broth, with ham hock, braised pork, a soft poached egg, Saigon noodles (like an udon), & celery. The broth was wonderful & complex. We also got a side of flash fried cauliflower with chiles that was awesome. They told us that it is going to be added to the menu as brussel sprouts are not in season now. I had a bite of Leleboo's Papa Weaver's grilled pork loin with a fish sauce glaze. It was nice and fatty. For dessert, I barely had enough room to try the awesome Vietnamese coffee milkshake and the lemongrass pot de creme. I was worried at first about the idea of modernizing Vietnamese food, but I think Ba Bay's got something special going on. PICS