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sheldman

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Everything posted by sheldman

  1. sheldman
    Sad to say, they tell me that they no longer sell tortillas - they make only enough for in-house use, and couldn't really recommend another place nearby to get truly fresh ones. But I got a great taco out of the experience!
  2. sheldman
    Thank you. Optimally, it would be a place where I could pop over and buy 24 or so whenever I felt like it - very very rarely would I need more than that, but am willing to buy more than I need (within reason) if necessary.
  3. sheldman
    It's been a few years since the last "bump" on this question here, so I will hope that somebody can tell me that there is now a great place to buy corn tortillas. This summer I got spoiled by the ones at Cardenas supermarket in southern California, so I am looking hopefully for fresh (no preservatives), Mexican rather than thicker Salvadoran. Surely somewhere in Mt Pleasant or Columbia Heights by now? I can dream. Thank you for any info.
  4. sheldman
    Yes, you are remembering that scene as I remember it. It is a large part of why I say that Atticus was a good person. He was courageous in standing up for what he believed in; and what he believed in was better than some of his neighbors. But it is consistent with the overall picture of Atticus as establishment, conservative, non-revolutionary guy. He *needs* to believe that the judicial system is fair and honorable; he is a prominent part of that system (lawyer and state legislator), so his self-image as good guy requires him to believe in the system, and to visibly stand up for it even at personal risk. (As I joked to friends when I read the book, what he should have done is associated a good Communist lawyer from NYC who would help him challenge the exclusion of Blacks from the grand jury. He didn't do that, because doing it - and getting a transparently awful ruling from the Alabama Supreme Court - would demonstrate that the system was a sham in a case like the one he was handling.)
  5. sheldman
    I haven't read Watchman and probably won't. But from what I have read online, it does seem clear that this was Lee's own work - not a sequel or companion to Mockingbird, but instead as something like a first draft of the book. Articles online tell me that there was a non-ficton book published in the last few years called "Mockingbird" which goes into the development of Mockingbird, and affirms that there was an early version (submitted to editor/publisher) called "Watchman." I suppose it's possible that this newly-published work isn't really that early draft, but that seems unlikely to me. I find the outrage/surprise about Atticus-as-segregationist very interesting, because when I read Mockingbird for the first time this year I was struck by how different the Atticus of Mockingbird was, from the iconic "Atticus" I had always been told of. In Mockingbird, Atticus was a good father and a good person, but by no means a radical on racial issues. He was firmly in the establishment, with no indication that he believed anything more progressive on race than just that Black people should be treated with kindness as people and shouldn't be lynched. (Hell, he apparently didn't even challenge the composition of the grand jury!). It is perfectly believable to me (ex-Alabama) that a man of his age, with those views in his 40s, would have felt Black people to be a lesser race and would have been a segregationist, even a temporary Klan member in his youth, and would embarrass his more progressive kid as he became an old man in the era of Brown. People want to believe either that Atticus was a revolutionary in Mockingbird, or that only the most awful white Alabamians were segregationists. Neither is true - and Harper Lee knew it. Interesting to wonder why her editor, publisher, or whoever, steered her away from that "take" in the early Watchman draft, towards the gauzier picture in Mockingbird.
  6. sheldman
    First, you are clever to fly into BHM and drive to Montgomery. Second, ugh. Wanted to tell you to stop off on the way to the hotel at one of Frank Stitt's places, but they are not open Sunday. So unless someone has a better idea, and if you are a meat eater, Jim N Nick's is (now a chain, but still pretty darn good) Alabama-style barbeque. link
  7. sheldman
    I don't know if the restaurant "does" anything about parking (valet or otherwise). No indication that I can see, on the website. It is steps from the Metro but that may not be useful information for your situation. The neighborhood is hard for parking. If all else fails, and if you don't mind walking up to 5 to 10 mins or so, you can almost always find parking along, or just off, Cleveland Ave.
  8. sheldman
    Woodley Park needs a good place. (New Heights is reliably better than good, often wonderful, and I don't mean to diminish that at all. And by the way, Open City seems like it might have made the transition from "bad" to "not bad.") I let myself get excited about District Kitchen when it opened, and then not. So I am wary, because it is so easy for a restaurant in this neighborhood to start thinking "I can charge a couple dollars more, and make the food a lot worse, and serve it to a constantly rotating stream of conventioneers, none of whom will ever be back in town."). But ... I stopped in at Civita last night just to have a drink and see what it was like. Ended up having a great time sitting at the bar and talking to nice bartender Katie, who swore that the food was good and that the chef cared about keeping it good. So went back for dinner with the family tonight and was very pleased. The decor is sort of "clubby" in an old-fashioned woody way, which is perfectly nice. There is a big long bar, and a reasonable but not huge number of tables. Everyone on the staff, at all levels (including chef) was friendly, funny and welcoming. Not stiff at all - everybody was just a bit quirky and personable, which is great for a neighborhood place. Menu is here and self-explanatory. Most pastas and other dishes available as half or full. Meats and cheeses. Veggie "antipasti" are very good. I had pasta with smoked shrimp, mussels, arugula, etc., which was really quite good - a good smokiness. Others had ziti w/vodka sauce, goat cheese & peas etc. (pro tip: tell the server that you really will eat the shisito peppers, so maybe they will load up a little more). Desserts included a spumoni thing and a cookie plate that were surprisingly good - it would be so easy for a restaurant like this, in its first weeks, to offer just some lame-ass creme brulee or something. All in all, I recommend that you try this place. I will return, and hope that it keeps up the very good beginning. (By the way, scrawled on the mirror behind the bar was a suggestion that there is a burger that does not appear on the menu.)
  9. sheldman
    I'm surprised I'm only the second poster. First time eating here, tonight, and it was quite good. We stuck with vegetables for the most part, so can't speak to the entire menu. But what we ate was quite good. Crunchy edamame tacos and a cabbage salad were the best - even though you wouldn't think so from those short phrases, I swear they were delicious, with more variety of flavor and texture than the short phrases convey. Shishito peppers are near-trite if not fully trite by now, but these were very good with crispy shallots and lime zest. The decor is creative and the atmosphere is lively (and loud). My only qualm was one that is so common with small-plates places: we ordered everything at the outset, and were then on a fast pace and done in not much time. But I will happily go back.
  10. sheldman
    DGS now has a "falafel burger" - a very good falafel patty (the size and shape of an ordinary burger patty), good bun, good fries. At this moment I would call it the best veggie burger I have had in DC (other than the one-time-only Brooks Headley thing mentioned above). according to the menu, you can usually get an egg or avocado or chicken cracklins as add-ons - but those weren't listed on the Passover-related menu today so no egg for me -
  11. sheldman
    I highly recommend checking out Beefsteak. As everyone probably already knows, it is in the "fast casual" category (think Chipotle or Shophouse) where you move along the line watching your thing come together and make choices as necessary. I had one of the "suggested" bowls, kimchi and rice and vegetables and fried onions and whatnot - 8 dollars and really delicious. If you branch out into "choose your own," the possibilities are endless. As noted above, your vegetables are nicely and precisely cooked to order in a cool fryerbasket-in-water contraption. They will sell you a beer or wine if you want. Clean place, fast and friendly, and it looks like they are trying to keep trash waste to a minimum, which is cool too.
  12. sheldman
    Newish, but I am not sure just how new - Bul, a Korean place in Adams Morgan apparently owned by the same folks as Sakuramen - and, according to its website (here) it is intended to evoke street food (calling itself DC's first pojangmacha) Based on a first experience tonight, it was really nice - small, exposed brick pleasant place with very friendly staff. Good kimchi, made by chef's mom. Beer and sochu. Try the steamer egg stew and the odeng soup. Reasonably priced. Totally worth a try.
  13. sheldman
    A few days ago I was faced with what I considered a hard task: get a not-too-fancy 6pm Saturday reservation in close-in NoVA for six people, including one vegetarian, three (including the veg and me) who care deeply about food, and three out-of-towners who were described as being non-adventuresome eaters. I suggested Vietnamese (thinking of Minh's) and was told that this might be too weird, so I thought further. Let me just say that I am glad that I thought of Jaleo Crystal City. It is the perfect place to meet up with out-of-towners on this sort of mission. Get some bread-with-tomato, some potatas bravas and some grilled chicken, to convince everyone that it will be ok; and then go broader from there. The service was friendly, the food was great, and by the end I even had the out-of-towners each eating (and enjoying, or at least pretending to enjoy) a Ferran Adria pseudo-olive.
  14. sheldman
    My memory is telling me that I had a perfectly good one at Lincoln at lunchtime a couple of weeks ago - nice texture contrast between outside and (greenish) inside, but nothing mushy - but I don't see it on their menu. Maybe I am crazy. The best one EVER was at a Brooks Headley "pop-up" event at Toki a few weeks ago - you can read about his burgers here and elsewhere. Incredible.
  15. sheldman
    Just to bump this thread and say that happy hour really is nice here. A dozen very good oysters for a dozen dollars. Mussels "malata" (Smoked Greens, Chilies, Squash), a very reasonable portion for $9, and thankfully not the same old universal mussel preparation. And you could either get sloppy on martinis for $7 or pace yourself by going off-happy-hour to get a "Up A Creek," (BlackSalt Private Barrel Catoctin Creek Rye, Wilks & Wilson Orgeat, St-Germain, Lemon) which was delicious.
  16. sheldman
    I would guess sous vide - did not inspect for grill marks, but was unaware of any sense of char.
  17. sheldman
    In contrast to our Dear Leader, I am a big fan of a pedestrian American banh mi. And now finally I have found a good one within the District proper, at Simply Banh Mi in Georgetown (on Wisconsin, in a basement on the west side of the street, maybe between P and Q?). Yes, they cost more than $4 but they are big enough that you can be happy with only one. I had tofu, and also tried a pork belly. Both delicious. The people who run it are very friendly. They also have various other dishes (menu online, see link above). A place worth patronizing.
  18. sheldman
    Had dinner at Bucks a couple days ago for the first time in a very long time. It was lovely. Onion rings were perfect, light and crisp. Food was "comforting" (lobster stew, roasted broccoli, bread pudding etc.). Vibe was warm, service was friendly and helpful. I used to find the place a little stark, but that feeling was gone.
  19. sheldman
    I had ten minutes and needed some olive oil, potato chips and a red onion. So I ran into Glen's. Expensive, but I expected that and accepted it. What I had not anticipated: (1) such inflexible virtue, that they will not give you or sell you a paper bag, but only a cloth bag for 3 (maybe 2? I think 3) dollars - which is to say, never go in there to buy a few things on impulse while walking in the neighborhood; (2) the onion was bad inside, and unusable. Want to love but do not like.
  20. sheldman
    I have only eaten recently from the Dupont location, and only vegetarian tacos for take out in large quantities. Have done that a couple of times in the last few months. I give them a very high grade, in that context. You can't really expect perfection or mind-blowing taste combinations when that's what you're getting, but they were very tasty, fresh, and reasonably priced - and the staff and overall experience were friendly and more than competent. I would call it "very high quality fast food" rather than "omg tacos," but there is a time and a place for everything.
  21. sheldman
    I appreciate Don's work so much that I check the site every day even though I am out of town for months. Thanks for creating this community.
  22. sheldman
    So far, my "best thing to eat" contest around here is a tie between a strawberry croissant at Bouchon Bakery, and the tacos from a truck (La Gitana) in the gravel parking lot of a gas station just outside of Calistoga - facebook page here. Not talking about some hip take on tacos.
  23. sheldman
    A nice new place in St Helena is Archetype. So far I have only sat at the bar for drinks and cookies (both excellent), but the food looked very good too. The place is architecturally cool - nice open airy space, with a curved bar where you can see the open kitchen behind the bartenders. (You can trust me even though I have been in the area for four days now and haven't had a glass of wine.)
  24. sheldman
    An old friend of mine, a Black lawyer in Montgomery Alabama, once told me: "You know what the trouble is with you white people? You clean your chitlins too much." I think he was putting me on. But it is a taste that I have never acquired, as my overwhelming sense was "this must be what it is like to eat boiled squid in a bathroom." (Don, feel free to delete this if you see fit!).
  25. sheldman
    Wow, an excellent dinner tonight. As the menu is said to change often, all I will say in particular is that if you are offered a pasta dish with sea urchin, get it. Delicious. ("Bucatini "¢ Maya Prawns, Catalina Island Sea Urchins, Espelette"). All fishes and shellfishes were of very high quality. And the service (led by waiter "Antonio") was friendly, helpful and sophisticated.
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