sheldman

The same thing just started happening to me today with Yahoo - an "app" on Facebook that I have never authorized, but now the fact that other people have read stories on Yahoo shows up in my Facebook feed. And it does seem like Facebook must have changed its user options for the worse, lately - I assumed that I would be able to block this sort of "news item" permanently in the simple way that people have mentioned above, but that option doesn't appear anymore. Lesson to me: don't ever assume that Don is failing to see some simple mouseover option. Grrrr.

In January we had a really very good dinner at Gordon Ramsay's (I know, I know) Maze, in midtown, on the "pre-theater menu" - 3 courses for $35 dollars, and I thought it was a great value at that price. If you are looking to eat before a show, and are interested in that cuisine, check it out.

I got the Momofuku Milk Bar cookbook and it reads really well - but haven't made the time to try any of the recipes yet. Has anybody made anything from it, with or without success?

In case anybody from Shophouse reads this: in addition to the points above, the sauces need more variety.. For a vegetarian, or for somebody like me that has a bad relationship with coconut milk, tamarind vinaigrette is the only choice, and it doesn't work with many combinations.

Oh man, sign outside tonight says "closed pending further notice" - which is weird/sudden/sad, since Open Table was happy to give me a reservation this afternoon I hope that whatever the problem is, it gets resolved.

Part of what doesn't make sense is that there is even a bank involved. Though I am not a business guy, it seems like this ought to be handled as a simple internal matter of crediting $ to the restaurant against what it would otherwise owe to Open Table for the month. No need to involve "going to the bank" at all. If Open Table screws restaurants in little ways like this, restaurants should fight back.

The index contains 10 recipes under "eggplant.". But there are plenty of recipes without.

The smoky frittata with cauliflower is also very good - though again (see above) I like it better with less fat than the recipe calls for.

I don't understand this. Open Table website says that "cheques" expire 180 days after date of issue. Maybe there is some fine print on the "cheque" saying that what this really means is that the customer must present the "cheque" in adequate time to make sure that the restaurant then actually somehow presents the "cheque" back to Open Table (or a bank?) by the 180th day - maybe so, but that would be silly. Why should a customer then not be allowed to use the "cheque" on the 180th day, and why should a server (not restaurant, but server) be "burned" for taking a "cheque" on the 180th day? Sounds very weird to me.

Not meaning to take any sides in, or to derail, this important debate - but I do love this Artisanal Pencil Sharpening (by David Rees, cartoonist of Get Your War On "fame")

I've just spent a few minutes fiddling around in Google Maps, and it does seem like technologically it would be easy enough to do there. Initial data entry would be time-consuming - consisting of finding the google map "pin" for each restaurant, adding it to a custom map, and linking it to the DR.com page would take a couple of minutes per entry - but I would happily sign on to a team effort to get it done. Google Maps seems to allow "collaboration" on a map like that, to share the effort of data entry. I think it would have to be a publicly-accessible map, if that causes any concern.

The blade-that-scrapes-the-sides, mentioned above, is important and great. The one I got is some random off-brand (not Kitchenaid itself) but designed for use with the Kitchenaid machine. Little silicone edges like windshield wipers. Got to have it.

In case anyone else does what I did today, and searches for a thread here about where to eat when on jury duty in DC - When the weather is nice, as it was today (finally!), walk to Cowgirl Creamery (900something F St.) and get a sandwich and a cup of coffee. Great great sandwiches. Limited menu, changes daily, but always great in my experience. Also, good sodas, beers, chips, etc. You will be back in plenty of time within your allotted hour.

The right thing to do in the moment (and I assume what the chef did) was play it cool and make everything as wonderful as possible. The right thing to do the next morning may be something different, depending on who the "major writer" is. If this means that it was one of the tiny handful of "name" restaurant reviewers in the area, it MIGHT be a good idea to send an email to the person saying "Gee I know you were in here last night even though anonymous, and I wanted to reach out to you to say that IF you got anything other than our best service I apologize but the system was somewhat flustered by the fact that your party arrived so late. Please do come see us again." That way it's on record, for whatever that might be worth someday. But only do it if you can do it extremely nicely. If it was somebody from out of town not in a locally-reviewing capacity, let it slide. I wish that the right thing to do was to tell us all who it was, but that's probably not right. I am not an expert.

I went today, picked up a few things for a group. It is even less "authentically" the cuisine of any particular country or group than Chipotle is, and the people who are bothered by that sort of thing will be very bothered. But if you don't mind that, the food was pretty tasty. I got what they call the "banh mi," with tofu. The tofu, which is closer to a scramble than to big chunks, has something close to a Malaysian curry flavor (in my non-expert opinion). They add a sort of slaw, and some cilantro, and some crushed peanuts. The bread is fine, for fast-food sub roll bread. So it's a good sandwich, again leaving aside arguments about whether it's a banh mi. Bowls are made with your choice of brown rice, white rice, or cold rice noodles. Then you add your choice of a meat or tofu, your choice of a vegetable (chinese brocolli, long beans (which may or may not be actually long beans as contrasted with regular green beans, I don't know), etc.), your choice of sauce (a couple of different curries or a tamarind vinaigrette), etc. Perfectly tasty, and spicier than I would have guessed the mass market was ready for. Everything costs somewhere around seven dollars. Bottom line - significantly better, in my view, than what you would get at some rice-bowl sort of place in your average food court. Perfectly nice.

I agree, the Post website is awful. (Much of the content is awful, too, but that's a different question.) Compare to the NYT site. The main page of NYT contains headlines and/or blurbs of a huge number of stories, well organized, many of which are enticing enough on a given day to click and read at least the first paragraph. The Post website, by contrast, leaves me wondering whether there are actually any articles in the paper. Somebody posted in another thread, here the other day, that the NYT food section has become boring and the Post's is better. But even on Wednesday, it is hard to find a clear link to the Food Section on the Post's main page, much less a series of enticing headlines or blurbs from it. Maybe the experts at the Post believe (and maybe they are right) that pictures are more enticing to the average web viewer than text is, I don't know. But to me it is the website of an information-free zone. Also, it crashes my browser on my iPad at least half the time. Grrrr. The Guardian has a new web front page that's making a play for US viewers, maybe that's worth a try. I don't know enough about the Guardian to know whether it's likely to be great or not. Guardian

Had a nice first experience here last night. I wouldn't necessarily italicize it if I were the guy running the Dining Guide, based only on this one dinner, but the staff was very friendly and the food was good, so no complaints whatsoever. Maybe it is just the time of year, or the day of the week, or the things that we ordered, but I got less of a vibe of "this place must be run by chefs with a farm and a real vision" than I expected based on some reviews here and elsewhere. (Among other things, there were no specials, meaning nothing that was notably in-the-moment. And the menu, which you can see online, requires a little creative thinking and puzzle-assembling for those who want to eat heartily but without meat. But again this is not meant as a complaint, because the staff were very helpful for those who wanted to assemble that particular puzzle.) If the phrase "Peanut Butter Whoopee Pie" excites you even a little bit (as it did with my son) you should get that, and it comes also with a little milkshake and some peanut brittle, creatively thought-out and well-prepared.

Good answer, thanks. I will also say that I am an odd enough duck, that I tend to feel a little bad - as though I am not keeping up my end of the fair deal - if I order "too" inexpensively at a restaurant. Ordering drinks does help me feel like I am paying fair rent for my table. Maybe I am actually confessing to a disguised fear that I would get bad service if I didn't.

I bet that we all perceive that we are receiving lousy service a substantial fraction of the times that we go out. I know I do. And often enough, I perceive that the server is paying more attention to other tables than to mine. This could be accurate perception, or could be me being paranoid. I order my fair share of alcohol, but not bottles of wine. I say all this, not to say that I have some insight into whether non-drinkers actually get worse service at some places, many places, most places. I can't answer that question. I say it to say, I wonder why people (on Sietsema chat, here, elsewhere) spend much energy searching for explanations for WHY they are getting lousy service. Lousy service is lousy service. If it happens once, well that's life, and who knows why. If it happens to me repeatedly at the same place I won't be likely to go again, regardless of the underlying why. If (as has been suggested above) the lousy service for non-drinkers is economic rationality on the part of the server or restaurant, I see how that stinks from the perspective of the non-drinker. But if that's the correct hypothesis, then decrying it won't change it, will it?

Foer's Pharmacy seems to be a 4-location chain. The one I have used is at 2141 K Street NW. I urge you, if you hate dealing with Rite Aid or CVS for prescriptions, try these folks out. They (especially the pharmacist on-site) are so extraordinarily helpful and pleasant to deal with, it will amaze you that a pharmacy experience can be like that. And they deliver, for some not-exorbitant fee. I have no connection to them other than as a customer. They are the antidote to chain-pharmacy blues. Sam Heldman

I made the "Sweet Corn Polenta" (which is made from fresh corn, not from meal) with its eggplant sauce, and the Saffron Cauliflower. Both were very good, as modified a bit. (Make fun of me if you will, but I didn't feel like using $$$ of saffron for a simple Sunday supper, even if it was in the name of the dish, so I didn't. I know it would have made the dish a little yellower and a little better.) My qualm with the book so far - see my earlier question about the tofu dish, and my experience last night cooking the polenta/eggplant sauce - is that a good many of these recipes rely on large quantities of fat, for a particular sort of "goodness." (I realize that's very common among restaurant chefs.) My objection isn't moral or health-based, but just a personal preference about how things taste and feel to me (and to most of my family/guests). In most cases, I think, it will be possible just to use less fat and come out with something more to my taste.

Last night was my first trip to Bistro du Coin in a couple of years. Also been a long time since anybody was talking about it here. Because the rain has finally stopped and my mood has improved, let me put it this way: Bistro du Coin makes me realize that I must be far out of the ordinary, in terms of what I look for in a restaurant. The place was, and from what I hear always is, absolutely jam-packed with people paying quite a lot of money for food. (Specials were something like $26, a not-very-big pot of mussels was something like $18, etc.). And it was not food that I enjoyed. A vegetable tartine was a soggy mess (maybe a tartine is supposed to be a soggy mess, I am not an expert by any means, but this was in fact a soggy mess). Mussels were small and overcooked, in a broth (labeled mariniere) that was not tasty to me, mostly giving off a vibe of age. The "Bretonne" gratin of buckwheat pasta with seafood was practically tasteless. Fries were soggy mess as well. French cuisine is not at the top of my personal list. Maybe other people like the way this food at BdC tastes, or maybe I just happened to order all the wrong things. Maybe, to many people, loud boisterous atmosphere with French posters on the wall is, in itself, a source of great pleasure and it doesn't matter as much what the food tastes like? If anyone could figure out what makes this restaurant such a success, they could solve the economic crisis.

Just got this book, inspired by the discussion here. Looks great. One immediate question, for anyone who's done the black pepper tofu: Surely "11 tbsp butter" is a typo and should be "1," right?, in a Chinese-ish tofu recipe to serve 4? I know I should trust my instincts, but then again maybe 11 tablespoons of butter plus hot pepper would be a revelation for me ...

Tonight I got to try the new onion rings and fried pickles, with ranch dressing (all made in-house of course). Wow. Available at the bar, along with a Reuben that is reputed to be good but I didn't have one. You can take this with as many grains of salt as you want, if you want, since I didn't pay for the rings/pickles - but they were really really good.

Lots of defensiveness/anger in this thread. Seems like it would be possible to chill out at a middle ground. If a potential customer is aware of information that the proprietor has engaged in a long pattern of cheating both people with less $ and prestige than himself (working-class employees) and the public - and if the potential customer lacks good reason to believe that the fraudster has changed his ways - and if the potential customer doesn't have an awfully good countervailing reason - the customer should stay away no matter how good the food tastes. If the customer is momentarily blinded by the desire for some personal pleasure, he or she is not a moral monster but should probably try harder next time in striking the right balance between personal pleasure and social responsibility. This leaves aside harder questions of how much "duty" a customer has to try to find out things, and how much duty there is to do something more than simply staying away. Those are harder and more divisive questions. Then there are some, I guess, who happily say that they care only about whether the food tastes good. My decision not to go to G3 was easy because I never liked his previous restaurants. No morality points for me!