JPW

Did someone say corn soup?? I'm more obsessed with corn soup than Rocks is with the double spacing issue.

Rage, at the idiots I work with.

Malawry and I stopped off at 1789 for restaurant week last night.

A good choice as the whole menu is available with only the lamb and the filet having surcharges.

We started with a crispy shrimp and cole slaw. The fried shrimp were nicely prepared, but so small the taste kind of disappeared. The other appetizer was soft shell crab tempura with a soy sauce/vinegar (?). Good, but nothing to write home about.

Entrees were the filet and the "rack of pork", more commonly known as a pork chop. The filet was presented with some nice fries, amazing sauteed bell peppers in a sweetish vinagrette, and a fried egg. Again, quite nice, but not mind altering. The pork chop ranks up there with Eve's confit of pork belly as one of the best pieces of pig that I have ever had. Unfortunately the sides (baked beans and swiss chard) did not live up to the standard of the pork. Listed as coming with grilled peaches, I was disappointed to see one sorry looking (but delicious) half on my plate.

Malawry had a blueberry tart for dessert and I had the cheese course ($4 surcharge). The cheeses were quite good and accompanied by some warm toasted nut bread and the biggest raspberries I have ever seen.

About 15 wines by the glass each of red and white is nice for pairing. THe wine is a little pricey, but not out of line for a place at this price point. Service was excellent.

A great restaurant week deal, but I'm not sure if I would make it a top choice at full price.

My MIL got the snapper (?) soup and the beet-goat cheese salad.

The red snapper bisque is a lovely example of Chef Power's skill in the world of soup. The first spoon can be a little strong, but each subsequent taste is very mellow and smooth.

RABBIT AND CRAWFISH

Rabbit fillet and sausage with sautéed Girolle mushrooms and crawfish Tails, accompanied by a lobster and béarnaise sauce

Is it just me, or does this entree sound like a disaster in the making?

Mexican is far and away my favorite "summertime, guests are coming and I want to grill" cuisine.  It is easy, flavorful and almost everyone likes it.

Indeed, Saturday was beef fajitas with my sister and nephew.

My house. Sorry, I don't deliver.

Seriously though, I've had decent Pad Thai at my local Thai joint -- Thai Derm (Bonifant Ave, SS). And for a dated recommendation, THAI in Shirlington.

Tacoma is finally running at full speed and has moved back to Carroll St.

Corn (different purveyor this time, hillvalley)

Peaches

Tomatoes

Spring Cheese from Keswick Creamery

Wow I am surprised to see fans of this place.  The couple of times I was there it was horrible.  It closed and is now Extra Virgin, which according to Tom S. is equally has bad.

Fair notice -- I moved from the Park Fairfax (accross 395 from Shirlington) in October 2001. Lots of time for a place that had good tapas and very tasty sangria go downhill.

At its best, their chorizo made Jaleo's taste like ball park franks.

Barring that, where else is good for tapas in DC?  there used to be a place in Shirlington, but that has been closed and replaced by a (from what i hear, unless i am getting the reviews confused with another restaurant) subpar italian restaurant.

Drat, we loved Toro Tapas in Shirlington when we lived there.

For MEZZE go to Cafe Ole in Tenleytown on Wisconsin, or Zatinyah in Penn Quarter accross from the DC library. Let the homeless guys watch your car, they're cheaper than the Zatinyah valet.

Avoid Lebanese Taverna -- they have jumped the shark

Hot off the presses from France, a letter in my inbox this morning:

"J'ai vu à la TV un restaurateur du Jura qui s'est inspiré du doggy bag Américain et qui propose à ses clients le Jura bag. Ils peuvent donc commander une bonne bouteille de vin et comme il ne faut pas trop boire avant de reprendre le volant, ils peuvent emporter le reste de la bouteille dans un sac en papier épais marron avec anses de la dimension d'une bouteille: 'Le Jura bag'."

"I saw on TV a restaurateur from the Jura who was inspired by the 'American Doggy Bag" and is offering his patrons the "Jura Bag."  They can order a good bottle of wine, and since you can't drink too much before getting behind the wheel, they can take the rest of the bottle in a thick paper bag the size of the bottle:  'The Jura Bag.'"

My first thought?  Hell, we can do that here at Tallula.

Not too mention numerous storefronts in the District. Or does Mad Dog not count?

I assume there is good trite and bad trite...right?

Trite is always bad.

There is, however, the less pejorative "ubiquitous" category.

Funny you should mention this: I was going to add salumi as an emerging trend.

I think for it to become truly trite, a dish must start appearing at inappropriate restaurants. When Cheesecake Factory starts advertising a charcuterie platter I'll officially add it to the trite food list.

As a side note -- if the meat is created/aged in house it cannot be trite. If Sysco provides it, it is automatically trite.

Tritely yours.

JPW

We have finally recieved our hand-cranked vertical prosciutto slicer (as far as we know, we are the first restaurant and the second business in the DC area to get one).  "What is THAT?" you ask.

The other being Cornucopia, a deli on Woodmont (?) in Bethesda.

They're real purdy.

Evans & Tate Gnangara Unwooded 2003 (~$11)

Nice to see one of bargain wines placed.

Anyone have more info on this particular bottle?

I've not heard of this producer.

What? No pork desserts?

Jay,

Welcome to DR.

Jill occasionally pokes her head in here.

Check out these cheese tastings at Cheesetique.

We may even talk her into holding a DR only one.

My continuing explorations of Rockville Pike lunch options took me to Benjarong exactly once. That's all I needed.

Tom Yan with mixed veggies was way heavy on the sour without the sweet. The lack of sweet also meant that the fish sauce gave this an overly salty character.

I, too had the Pad Pik Khing, which is one of my Thai staples in evaluating a restaurant. It too was disappointing, with no fire and no taste to the sauce.

What stood out for me was how muddied the flavors were (not too mention how muddy the sauce and soup broth were).

I think that you'd do much better with the food at Thai Farm in the King's Farm development.

Or, stick with the green theme and go with pistachios.

That way you can avoid the bitterness that almonds can sometimes bring to the party.

Pan-fried (too hot to grill)

Have I mentioned yet that I feel like I'm sprouting mushrooms after Sunday night?

Beautiful fungi served with the beef tartar and the veal.

I'll just take a bowl of those.

lightly sauteed.

to go.

A few follow up thoughts (ok, they're really opinions)...

I was fine with the pacing of the courses. Don't forget the two amuse that came out before the primi.

Of course, some dishes had to sit under the heat lamp...

People, we were a table of SEVENTEEN!!!!!

I'd rather have food under a lamp for a few minutes than watch half of the table eat and the other half staring at them.

Can't comment on the wine prices given my ignorance of Italian wine, but a quick glance showed very few bottles of wine that would cost less than the food.

Would I go back without the discount? Doubtful for the main dining room as financial considerations enter into mind. But as the appetizers were for me the main strength of the kitchen, a Happy Hour graze at the bar sounds good.

Looks good, Bill.

After Sunday's bacchanalia we just had my favorite pasta -- penne with kale and sausage. Inspired by Chef Power, I also made a simple tomato salad with a lime and olive oil dressing and a little s +p.

Wine was "Les Viguiers", Cave de Rasteau coop, CdRhone, 2003. While drinkable, this wine showed how problematic the 2003 vintage is going to be for southern French wines -- very hot and thin -- not the best vinatage for this wine.

Really swamped today, but have a few minutes while waiting on an e-mail.

Quick summary -- A very pleasant evening in the laboratorio room. Chef Amy came out to greet us and went through the whole menu. Although some have said elsewhere that they find the service stuffy, I found it to be impeccable, from the floor manager down to the busboys. Proper and correct, attentive without being obtrusive. My mother in law would approve. In many senses, in a place like Galileo you're paying as much for the service as you are for the food. For example, I left my cell phone in the car and when I went out to retrieve it, the valet SPRINTED to our car to get it.

3 courses and dessert was more than enough for me and Mrs JPW.

I began with the beef tartar. A very asian inspired dish that came in a cylindrical fried wonton skin. A very fine chop with a hint of sweetness (oyster sauce?). Very nicely done -- especially the contrast of the silky tartar and the crisp skin. Perhaps a hint too sweet for me to enjoy the whole portion, so halfway through I switched with Mrs JPW who had the tuna carpaccio. The tuna was nicely presented in a single layer in a lemon vinagrette given a tiny bit of bitter flavor from what I'm guessing was orange zest. Superb. I could sit and have 4 or 5 orders of this and call it dinner.

Pasta course was agnolotti for me. Asparagus puree stuffing with a mascarpone cheese and basil oil sauce. Very nice balance of flavor and texture, but it was missing something that I can't quite put my finger on. Mrs JPW had the fettucinin with rabbit. This was the only real disappointment of the night. While I can appreciate the need to perhaps cut some of the gaminess of the rabbit (which actually I had never tried before so I'm taking mdt's word on this) somehow, the rabbit taste was overwhelmed with the taste of the chicken stock base. As a final note, I felt that the tiny dice of rabbit was overwhelmed by the extremely wide fettucini. A larger cut of rabbit or using a penne or farfalle might at least visually and texturely show off the rabbit to better advantage.

For mains I had the veal chop. Cooked to perfection, this monstrous slab of a chop was excellent. One might note here that the sureness of the kitchen can be seen in the lack of any hint of providing anything other than the basic table knife to cut the meat.

Mrs JPW had the butter poached lobster. I usually can take or leave lobster, but I enjoyed this greatly. Unfortunately, I only got the chance to steal one bite.

Dessert was sorbet for me and a chocolate cake for Mrs Jpw. I did not taste hers, but several at the table had it and will be able to comment. THere were three flavors of sorbet whose exact flavors I may be a little off on -- orange, some berry and lemon. The lemon was the standout. The berry was a little weak in flavor and not quite the perfect shaved texture of the other two.

At our end of the table we had a nice Barolo and a Bastianich Tocai Friuliani that I thought a perfect choice. Thanks to mdt and FunJonny for guiding us right in the world of Italian wine where my knowledge is very weak.

Thanks to Chef Amy and the whole Galileo staff for a memorable evening.

EDIT -- to add -- Thanks to hillvalley for her organizational efforts. Everything went off without a hitch. You da woman.

That's Saganaki.

OPA!!!