lizzie

My kids love orzo and our current favorite orzo recipe is from greengiantfresh.com, of all places. It is cooked with chicken broth, spinach and carrots, and is easy and has come out perfectly every time: http://greengiantfresh.com/recipes.asp?action=view&id=58

I called yesterday and was told that they were booked for the rest of Restaurant Week.

A friend, who does like those wings, once took her 5-year old daughter in to Hooter's to pick up a carry out order. The little girl looked around, looked up to her mom and said, "Mom, when I grow up do you think I can be a stay-at-home mom AND a Hooter's waitress?"!!!

In the hotel there is a cafe that is very mediocre, a Pizza Hut take-out, and Starbucks on the corner. There is a Vie de France in the office building across from your hotel serving breakfast items. There is also a MacDonald's at the far end of the hotel block. About 2 blocks away, on School Street, you can find The Atrium, a very good sandwich shop with lots of breakfast items - egg sandwiches, bagels, homemade muffins, etc. Next door in that building is a small take out shop with individual packs of pop-tarts and cereal. You are a relatively close walk to Capital Hill where there are several easy lunch places like Cosi and Firehook Bakery, but probably less for dinner that your kids would like. Actually, it is something of a long walk up Independence Avenue, but it is within view of the Capitol and the monuments the whole way. It is only one stop on the metro to South Capital St. The restaurant in the National Gallery of Art has a wide variety of food and the kids get to watch the very cool fountain (including things that will appeal to the 12 year old). There is another small cafe at the outdoor sculpture garden at 7th and Constitution that has salads, pizza, and sandwiches. The National Musem of the American Indian does have the best of the museum cafes, as an earlier poster said. For dinner, you can easily get across the mall to the Archives and Chinatown area -- your hotel is in a great area for sight-seeing, but not so great for after touring meals. But DC offers this great new bus system called The Circulator, which costs only $1 and passes all the major tourist sights. It is perfect from your hotel - one blck away nd takes you straight to Chinatown. It is chock full of national chains, but has a great variety of local, very good places as well. Kanlaya for Thai and Chinatown Express for great homemade noodles served as soup or fried (made in the window while you watch) are both on 6th St. just off H and are favorites of my kids. The soups are very mild, the homemade steamed dumpings are great, and the ducks and other meat in the window a great conversation piece. It is very reasonable - the soups are about $4.50 for a huge bowl. Kids can get an extra order of plain noodles on the side for a small extra cost. Jaleo is a spanish tapas restaurant where even most picky eaters can find something to enjoy. Austin Grill is ok Tex-Mex. Matchbox is nearby as well and is known for its mini burgers. You can find all these addresses online. This neighborhood also has the Spy Museum and the newlt re-opened Portrait Gallery.

I believe they are also moving Clare and Don's. That was a short-term lease from the beginning, from what I understand.

Dandelion greens are very popular where I grew up in Pennsylvania. Salad were often prepared with the greens, a hot bacon dressing and chopped hard-boiled eggs. It is an Easter staple if the plants are out. Churches actually have dandelion and ham dinners. Some of the first wine I smuggled from my parents' liquor cabinet was homemade dandelion wine - there is a reason it is not available at your local wine purveyor.

We will be in the Malvern area for the weekend and are looking for something for Friday night - any ideas or is it better to go in to the city? I will be with 3 teens who want to stay casual. --- [The following posts were split into separate threads: Mainland Inn (DanCole42) Johnnie's Dog House (Sthitch)]

Several vendors at the Courthouse Market in Arlington still had sour cherries, but at least one had a sign that it was the last week.

I also love the tom kha gai. An added benefit of many of the Sala Thai locations is the jazz nights on weekends, for which they never charge a cover.

Perry's - first you pull your heels out of the space between the wood planks on the deck, and then you slide as gracefully as possible down to the bathroom level, all the while hoping that a large crowd or food server doesn't start the trek up.. Re an earlier comment on Oyamel (Conversely, my favorite area restaurant restroom -- Oyamel. The stalls are like stepping into a Frida Kahlo painting.). My 11 year old refuses to go to the bathroom there - she believes it is the stuff of which nightmares are made.

I have never been to Carraba's and after reading this thread will ikely never go, but I have a funny Olive Garden story. Every year for Christmas my aunt, whom I adore, gives me an Olive Garden gift card (which I don't). My family lost our home in a fire last year, and even my Calphalon and Le Creuset cookware was destroyed - but what survived? You got it - those 3 Olive Garden gift cards were still clinging to the kitchen bulletin board. After that, my kids decided we had no choice but to use them. We ordered many different things to try, none of which we can recall, handed the 3 cards to the waitress, and she returned and announced that we still had $42 remaining. Anyone want a smoky $42 Olive Garden gift card? We continue to seek good, classic Italian cooking in the close-in Virginia suburbs.

Another recommendation for Jetties - my kids go to school near there and we frequent it. While we also like Marvelous market, there is more selection at Jetties. My favorite is the turkey salad sandwich, although my daughter loves the hot roast beef au jus. Milkshakes are decent too. Lots of outdoor tables. It is on Foxhall, just below Reservoir Rd. If you head to Wisconsin Ave, there is Cafe Divan, which is decent for Turkish/Middle Eastern, and the Whole Foods is a few blocks up Wisconsin, with lots of choices for breakfast and lunch (sushi, sandwiches, hot foods, etc), fruit, and smoothies, etc. Other than Marvelous Market for breakfast stuff, the pizza place next door (Palisades Pizza and Clam Bar) serves a fast diner-style breakfast.

It was not in NY, it was a competition in Washington tied to the Cherry Blossom Festival, and Perry's had 2 chefs win: The 7th Annual National Sushi Society Technical Sushi Competition was held on April 5th @ The National Geographic Museum @ 1145 17th St NW in DC. Our head sushi chef, Noriaki Yasutake won the Creative Sushi Division and will go to London in October to compete in the World Competition. Timothy Lee won the Maki Division and will go to Japan at the beginning of next year (January 2007) to compete in the World Competition for Maki. Also (to answer an earlier poster), Morou is now the consulting chef at Perry's and has introduced a great new menu, as well as a new Sunday brunch menu. I have a connection to Perry's so this is a totally biased opinion, but I have grown quite fond of the fried rigatoni entree - true comfort food, and the wild mushroom gratinee appetizer.

My kids fly in to BWI late tomorrow night, so we thought it would be fun to eat dinner in Baltimore before going to the airport. Great food would be a nice aside, but more important is that we can watch the NCAA games - lots of Big East pride on the line. We do not know Baltimore restaurants that well, so any ideas are welcome.

Last night, we tried Bistro 1-2-3, at Tyson Corner Center. I really wanted to like this restaurant, but sadly, it was just ok, at least for what we ordered. I had a caesar salad and French Onion soup. The soup was not that flavorful - I have been searching for a great french onion soup for a long time now, and still have not found it. The broth did not taste canned, but it was missing any richness, and the onions did not seem to add any real taste. My husband had the steak frite, but after having eaten at Ray's last week, the steak was disappointing. It was empty - only 4 tables when we were there. It is an odd location, too, as there is no mall entrance and easy to miss as you look for mall parking, so I do not know how they attract more diners. Perhaps they do a busier lunch business.

We celebrated a birthday last night with an early seating at Ray's, starting with one of each of the soups - my daughters loved the chowder and the bisque ( I never asked my husband about the onion soup), and I had the scallops, which were perfectly cooked. After convincing my 10 year old that she did not really want the 20-ounce new york strip medium rare, she settled for the petite filet, which she devoured (and it was her 4th meal of the day after a school lunch, an african feast post-lunch, and a pasta cooking class after school). My older daughter had the filet with brandy cream sauce, which she declared the best steak she has eaten (she did wonder what a steak would look like if ordered well done - I told her it would likely look like her "meat in a sarcophagus" experiment from 6th grade). The adults had another filet with horseradish cream, the house special, and a new york strip - it is a gift to the customers that Ray's always gets medium rare so perfect. Our only regret was that we did not order dessert as we already had a chocolate cake waiting (from Randolph's, so a good consolation prize) - my kids hope to return for the mousse. I also appreciated Michael's wise words to the girls about studying hard so they do not grow up to bus tables -but, if they have a successful restaurant AND bus a few tables, I could live with that.

Off topic, but...Late night food reading to an infant, go to Amazon.com and order: First Book of Sushi by Amy Wilson Sanger "I see take-out tekka maki, kappa maki packed to go..." (more) or her dim sum book. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My kids love making these chips - watching them grow huge in only a few seconds is something they never tire of. Most of the Indonesian and Malaysian restaurants in the area serve them, but it is hard to find the kinds with stronger flavor. I used to buy the not-yet-fried chips at the Vietnamese markets on Wilson Blvd. They still carry some of the regular chips, but the better ones have to be ordered by mail (e.g., http://www.hollandsbest.com/english/grocer.../snacks/chips/). If you can find the spicy chips - they are big and fabulous. You should also try the tapioca chips - a very distinct taste not common in any American cooking. We generally buy chips in Amsterdam since we get there rather frequently or have them sent by my Dutch Indonesian MIL who lives there.

I recall a huge snowstorm in 86 or 87 when we got rides through Rock Creek Park from the park police on horseback, and then spent about 2 days at Stetson's playing darts and drinking. Now, we just find the neighbor with the best stocked bar and take all of our sustenance there, as our N. Arlington neighborhood is a LONG winter walk from any place even remotely cozy.

Growing up, we had a variation of the pizza fork - it was a spaghetti fork - there was a handle on the side that when turned, also turned the tines and wrapped the spaghetti around the fork so you did not have to actually turn the whole fork. My brothers and I fought over that one fork so many times, I think my mom threw it away. I have never seen another like it.

I agree with your list - my family lost everything in a house fire a few months ago and are living in a rental house with rental everything while we rebuild. Having had high quality kitchen gear before, then being exposed to the truly awful rental line which visually appears to be good quality but fails in use in every way, I no longer take for granted a good paring knife and chef's knife, as well as the All-Clad fry pan, an OXO peeler, a sturdy spatula, a real corkscrew, and a range of better quality wine glasses (Lord knows a bottle of wine is needed after watching your house burn down on April Fool's Day). I am spending a lot of time browsing the kitchen stores and catalogs - restocking the kitchen will be the one brighter spot in this whole experience.

I also use epicurious frequently, generally as I am leaving my office and have no idea what to make for dinner. I once got stopped for rolling through a stop sign in the middle of nowhere in PA and could not find my registration because I had so many print-outs of epicurious recipes in my glove box. The policeman let me go with a warning since he got tired of waiting. A few more sites that I use regularly Martha Stewart's Everyday Foods sites- which includes the nutritional information. I find these recipes family friendly and easy to attack after a day at work: http://www.marthastewart.com/page.jhtml?ty...7922&rsc=msonav Other places many people do not think about are the association websites for different US-produced food products. Because of my work with many of the US agriculture industries, I have found great recipes from many of their sites, including: the National Pork Producers Council: http://www.otherwhitemeat.com/ National Cattlemen's Beef Association: http://www.beefitswhatsfordinner.com/ and several seafood groups, including: http://www.wildamericanshrimp.com http://www.louisianaseafood.com/recipes.html (some of these southern seafood links have great background music!) and even_ http://www.peanut-institute.org/recipes.html There are many more sites like these available, easily found with Google. And remember, everything tastes better if grown in the US!

Before I post this - full disclosure: my husband is Saied Azali's partner in Perry's, although I do not work at Perry's or in the industry in any way. Anyway, Perry's recently introduced a bar menu: Join us everyday for happy hour from 5:30-7:30pm. We now feature a bar menu including: Drink Specials $15 Bottles of wine $5 Wine by the glass $4 Bottled beer $5 Smirnoff Cocktails $9 Food Appetizers Duck Quesadilla with Goat Cheese Mini Tuna Burger with Melted Jack Cheese Short Ribs with Curried Cabbage Grilled Brie and Carmelized Onion Sandwich Lamb Croquettes with Yogurt *Prices available during happy hour only (5:30-7:30 pm). PERRYS 1811 Columbia Road, NW Washington, DC 20009 202.234.6218 PerrysAdamsMorgan.com

Mini pigs-in-blankets. Preemptively trite. According to KidsPost, April 24 is National Pigs-in-blankets day. Can they be trite if they have their own day?

If I recall correctly, many years ago, Tachibana was in Arlington (Cherrydale) on Old Dominion near the Military Rd/Lee Highway intersection. It was considered one of the higher quality standards for sushi in the DC area. We lived nearby and loved going, as they always served a little something extra to try - thereby introducing this PA girl to many things I would otherwise never have ordered. We followed the restaurant to its McLean location for several years, but in more recent years tended to spend our sushi dollars (in McLean) at Kotobuki before it moved to DC and now at Ichiban (my kids love the staff there and the udon).