Kibbee Nayee

A few places in my Springfield rotation have slipped a notch or two lately, and Canton Cafe is certainly one of them. Dinner on Saturday night began with a quarter of a duck, which was tasty enough and was swimming in a nice broth of mostly soy sauce, but the skin was a bit disappointing. Much too soggy. We followed with Szechuan green beans, seafood combination, lo mein combination and crispy shrimp in spicy salt. These dishes were average at best, but I did like the full head-on shrimp complete with shell. Nice crunch and nice flavor. But I could easily have made the green beans and the lo mein at home, and they would have been much better and without as much oiliness. Adding -- or I should say, detracting -- from the experience was the apparent requirement for every member of the staff to stop by our table and ask how was everything, on an irritatingly frequent basis. Also, we ordered a bottle of wine, and the waitress brought it to the table, opened it, and poured about half a glass out of it and set the glass aside. I asked what she was doing and she said there was some cork floating in it. When I paid the bill I noticed the full price for a bottle on the bill, even though half a glass was set aside. I suppose I'll be heading to Sampan more often for my Cantonese fix in the future.

Please, oh please, make the Springfield location be the next to close. Please! (News alert -- in that same plaza, down from Whole Foods, a new Thai restaurant is about to open -- Thai Celadon....field report to follow).

Stopped in for carry-out tonight, and I think I broke the code. Two restaurants under the same roof. Two different cash registers too -- Village Chicken on the left, El Sabor Boliviano on the right. If you want a soft drink, the fountain soda dispenser next to the Village Chicken cash register is where you get the Village Chicken drinks, and the large refrigerated case on the left wall with bottles and cans is where you get the El Sabor Boliviano drinks. The young lady explaining it to me said the two owners are friends, and the Village Chicken owner is allowing his friend who owns El Sabor Boliviano to get an incubated head-start on his business. I asked her if El Sabor Boliviano was eventually going to get its own place, and she indicated that something to that effect was in the plans. But back to the food. This is pretty good stuff, from the saltenas and empanadas to the daily specials, like (today) brochetta (skewed kabobs over rice with a side of typically Bolivian over-carb fries) and silpancho (breaded beef cutlet topped with a fried egg, over rice and, again, with roasted potatoes). For kicks, I invoked the Village Chicken cash register for a chicken souvlaki topped salad for girlfriend. All of this, only a few steps down the strip mall from Delia's. Thanks to Backlick Rd, I'll never have to set foot in a stupid Town Center again. Where else in the DC area are you going to get rotisserie chicken, with notes of Greek all over the menu, accompanied by Bolivian dishes that are pretty darned good? At least until El Sabor Boliviano moves....

I finally found an English speaker at El Sabor Bolviano today and found out more about the ownership situation. First, the people at Milano's told me that Village Chicken was not owned by them, so the people at Delia's were misinformed. Then I went to El Sabor Boliviano today and asked them what the situation was. As it was explained to me, it's two owners and two restaurants under the same roof. On weekdays, it's Village Chicken with El Sabor Boliviano offering its daily fare of saltenas and empanadas and a few nice menu options. On weekends, the Village Chicken menu sign hanging over the counter is turned around so nobody can see it, and it's all El Sabor Boliviano with the extended Bolivian offerings. Two different restaurants, two different owners, one roof. Somewhere down the line I'll be betting on a buyout....

I have to say, this was a very nice event. The crowd was pleasant, the music (The Melonheads) was good, the cause was worth and the food was excellent. This event will be on my list of events that are not to be missed every year. One of the best parts about the food tables was that a top toque was there at many of them. Eric and Mary from Del Merei were there, and I chatted with Mary about the Vienna Inn when her grandparents were in charge. The new (3 years) executive chef at Union Street Public House was there, and we chatted about his updates to the menu. The number two at Columbia Firehouse was there and we chatted about the mussels on the menu there. It was a really good time. Highlights from a food perspective were the shrimp and grits from Del Merei; the outstanding barbecue from Pork Barrel BBQ, along with its award-winning sauce; A la Lucia's penne with meat sauce; Restaurant Eve's sweet cake with cherry topping; the sweet bites laid out by Bread and Chocolate; and (drum roll....for a surprise entry among the top dishes) the biscuit topped with sausage gravy and a slice of praline bacon from the Union Street Public House. This was the best lunch I've had in a long time!

Does that mean there will be frickles?

(Standing and clapping, with a slight bit of teariness).....I watched the Abi Najm kids grow up in this little place, before it expanded, ever since I moved here in 1980. I would fill a table with mezze and settle in, and every now and then Dory would bring out something that his wife was playing with back in the kitchen....maybe some stuffed cabbage, maybe some lamb stew....this place could not possibly have lost a step. It is, in my estimation, a local institution.

I had not seen a post on this, and aside from purchasing tickets I'm not involved in any way. But the list of restaurants that will be there is impressive. For my measly $40 ticket, I'm going to eat food from The Majestic, A la Lucia, Del Merei Grille, Rustico, Jackson 20, Columbia Firehouse, and....Restaurant Eve! About 20 total restaurants, lots of activities for the kids (kids tickets are a measly $5). Plus live music. I'll be there. Plus, according to our Board's spiritual leader, there are karma points to be scored by supporting such a worthy cause as Carpenter's Shelter. So get some...! http://www.carpentersshelter.org/2010/02/carpenters-cook-off/

Just curious, but did yours have an olive inside, complete with pit? That just strikes me as a dangerous ingredient to use in a saltena.... Concur that it was difficult to discern major flavor differences between the beef and the chicken saltena, but both were pleasant and the price is right. Can't wait to try the weekend menu sometime soon....

There is an African food co-op that I drive by on weekends that I go to the Sharpshooters range in Lorton. It is only open on weekends and is right off I-95 and the Parkway, in the same plaza as Sharpshooters. I've been meaning to check it out, but discharging firearms is usually a higher priority at the time I've been in the neighborhood. I'll bet these people know where every African restaurant is located, as well as who owns them.

From the people at Delia's....Village Chicken is apparently owned by the same people who own the Italian place Milano's in the plaza behind Whole Foods in Springfield (where Asian Grill is located). Whether or not the same owner is involved with this current Village Chicken, or sold it to the El Sabor Boliviano people, will be investigated in more detail once the language barrier can be surmounted. One theory by the Delia's crowd is that the El Sabor Boliviano people moved into the space and kept the Village Chicken equipment and menu in place under some arrangement with the owner of Milano's.....

Lo and behold, the Backlick area of Springfield defined by Brookfield Plaza and nearby plazas up and down and across Backlick is home to some decent, even above-average food from Korea, Thailand, Peru, Vietnam, India, Pakistan, Greece....and now, Bolivia! Yes, saltenas are to be had in Springfield! I visited El Sabor Boliviano for lunch today, and was confronted with a vast menu of Bolivian items, including "platos de la fin de semana" or weekend plates. I'll get to the rest of the menu on subsequent visits, but today I had to tuck into a beef saltena, a chicken saltena and a cheese empanada. The people running the place did not have enough mastery of the English language to help me figure out the "merger" with Village Chicken, but apparently all of Village Chicken's menu items are also available here. The saltenas were very good. The crust was about the standard, like I had at Tutto Bene, with a bit of crunch and sweetness. Inside, both the chicken and the beef version were loaded with juices -- be careful if you get carry out and try to eat it in your car! -- and were filled with meat (a bit sparse) and potatoes and peas and hard-cooked eggs...and...a single olive (with pit!) in each one. The cheese empanada was also good, with a nice cheesy flavor but hardly-visible cheese. But the three items, with a coke, came to just under eight bucks, and I left nicely filled and very happy. The menu is vast, with daily specials, soups, weekend specials, and plenty to entice me back a few times. There doesn't appear to be any alcohol on the menu, at least yet, but the news here is that saltenas are now in Springfield, and I'm loving it. [Next door is Spices of Asia Bazaar, and I wandered in for a quick drive-by. What I saw was four aisles of very clean and neatly arranged food products from southern Asia, including an entire wall of beans-rice-flour-grains, and if I knew anything about how to cook this genre of food, I'd be here regularly. I couldn't help but imagine that if this place had a halal butcher in the back, it would probably drive about a half dozen halal markets in the general area out of business.]

Had another fine meal at House of Siam last Sunday night. The place was about half-filled, including a mostly-Asian group in the big central table. The host (co-owner?) was his usual gracious and helpful self. The food was excellent -- started with the duck salad and then the drunken noodles this time for me. My only critique of this place is that the portions tend to be small, thus inhibiting sharing and limiting the fun to be had with next-day leftovers. I love the fact that so much good food is within steps of each other -- Sahm Oh Jong and Ravi Kabob III are almost next door, Chutny is across the way, and Le Bledo Bakery (and Vietnamese lunch counter) is right across Backlick Road. You can have your Disney-esque 'Town Centers' all you want, but give me Brookfield Plaza any day. [Early news flash, to be developed by a direct field report soon, but slightly down Backlick, in the same little strip mall as Delia's, and between Delia's and Asian Spices, where the old Village Chicken was, there appears to be going in there a Bolivian restaurant. The sign on the door was something like Sabor Boliviano. I will check it out and confirm whether or not Saltenas can be had there!]

Count in Kibbee Nayee +1 or +4, to be confirmed in a few weeks. I can certainly bring whatever is requested of a Middle Eastern derivation, to include, but not necessarily limited to, cooked kibbee.

Must....have....pig....!

That was about as unappetizing a review as I've read in a while. Here is a restaurant that is worth a detour (towards it) on the weekend and worth a detour (away from it) on the weekdays. Thanks for taking one for the team.

To me, nothing beats smoked salmon with potato bagels and a make-it-yourself assortment of capers, sliced red onions, sliced tomatoes, chopped cooked eggs, and cream cheese. Put it out like a buffet and to each his own. Those who don't like smoked salmon can just slather cream cheese and capers on their bagel.

Just about everywhere I go in Virginia or DC, if it's lunchtime and I see a Cuban sandwich on the menu, I have to try it. At its best, it's in the sandwich hall of fame. All too often, it fails to compare with the standards I've tasted across Florida. The best examples I've tried around here are at Blue Iguana in Fair Lakes and Acadiana downtown, but the latter was a special. Now it's available at Bozzelli's, and it's not bad. The Bozzelli's version takes a regular sub roll, which are actually pretty good here, and layers folded slices of ham over thick slices of roasted pork, a mild white cheese and sandwich pickles (a bit too sharp) and a mustard-mayo sauce, then presses the sub roll in a sandwich iron. They don't slather the roll with butter or oil, thankfully, but it also creates a certain dryness that I don't mind because it spares the extra oiliness. Overall, I liked it, but I'm still looking for a version that surpasses the Blue Iguana or Acadiana.

I guess I'm with Anthony Bourdain on this one. Jamie Oliver and Rachel Ray are two personalities who just plain annoy me, and I really don't understand their popularity. I do everything I possibly can to avoid their presence on the air waves, at all times.

Landini Brothers hit the spot again today for lunch. The caprese salad was very good, with surprisingly good tomatoes from who-knows-where, topped with very pleasant mozzarella and ribbons of basil, drizzled with a nicely aged balsamic vinegar and some extra virgin olive oil. A hit of cracked black pepper and down the hatch. Very good. Then came the special of soft-shell crab, fried crispy and not oily at all, accompanied by linguine that was perfectly al dente. Overall, pretty good.

I'm mucho in. I can certainly bring the kibbee (probably not the raw version, unless an ice-contraption with a cover can be found or constructed...). I also seem to recall bringing a fire extinguisher to last summer's event, and it may still be in someone's possession....could come in handy.

Just thought I would offer an observation. I tasted In-n-Out Burger last week in Las Vegas, and as many raves as I hear and read about this place, it's a few rungs beneath Five Guys on the quality ladder. I doubt that it's a sampling error either.

Quick In-n-Out (pun intended) in Las Vegas this week, part business and part pleasure. Having heard so much about In-n-Out Burger on this board and others, I decided to give it a try. I took my 27-year-old son, who is in the Air Force at Nellis AFB, and his age-group-demographic has a thing or two to say about hamburgers. He warned me that Five Guys is quite the better meal, but reading so many stellar comments on In-n-Out had me believing that his youthful palate just didn't 'get it'. I was wrong, and he was right. I would take Five Guys any day over In-n-Out. The fries at In-n-Out absolutely suck, like little sticks of cardboard, and even the "animal sauce" (labeled "spread" on the packet) couldn't save them. The burgers are dry and thin, not a whole lot unlike McDonald's. About the only compelling things about the meal were the toppings, which appeared to be fresh and flavorful. What a disappointment. My son wanted a good steak dinner, so I obliged him. His research indicated that Circus Circus had the bet steak on the strip, so we went with high expectations. The down side is that Circus Circus is a hell hole of a resort. But I have to admit, the steak house is a nice surprise. It is a dark and mahogany man-food kind of place, with the primals on display in the aging room as you walk in the door. The cuts were generous, and the steaks were cooked to perfection. If there was one flaw, it may have been that the steaks arrived underseasoned, but fresh-ground pepper was offered and salt is on the table. The service was good, maybe a bit slow, but our server has been there all of 24 years. The sides were good enough -- I had the salad, the pilaf and the asparagus -- and unlike a lot of stuffy steak houses, the sides came with the entrees, not a la carte. Overall, a very good meal, but if this is the best of Vegas, then I can safely assert that it's not as good as Ray's the Steaks. The next day, son and I headed out of Vegas to the Red Rock Canyon for some beautiful sight-seeing. It's where the locals go to cavort with nature, and it is absolutely spectacular. We enjoyed lunch at a western chain called Claim Jumper, and as opposed to chains as I am, this one was pretty darned good. Portions are huge, the interios is nicely done in a western-mining kind of motif, and the food is pretty good. GAR should go figure out what these people are doing, because the food at Claim Jumper is actually palatable. After enjoying the Beatles Cirque du Soleil show called "Love" (best show I've seen in a long time, at least since Jersey Boys in November), we had a final meal at Fin, a Chinese place inside the Mirage. It received a Michelin "recommendation" but not a star. This is high-end Chinese with a bit of cross-Asian flair. My appetizer of goose livers was $28 and worth every perfect bite, and my entree of Hong Kong roasted duck was superb. Service was slow, but precise. Fin is probably not a restaurant I would seek out when I'm in town, but if I find myself at the Mirage and I'm hungry for something west of Hawaii, then I would happily return and sample the rest of the menu.

I am in awe of Sam and will eat there every time I'm on the West Coast. I kind of agree about the rolls, but at the end of my huge omakase, I ordered an extra "chili dog" which is a nicely spicy special tuna roll. It was the perfect ending to an outstanding feast.

Yeah, there was a road sign damaged at Tysons that backed up traffic well beyond the Cabin John all the way past Rockville. Horrific. That dish had me sweating and blowing my nose, so it had a good deal of kick to it. But the menu had it with two peppers (extra spicy) and not the additional star (numbing). Nonetheless, I was digging out whole small peppers, red and green, along the way, and I have a feeling that tomorrow will yield additional sensations.