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sheldman

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Everything posted by sheldman

  1. sheldman
    Rehoboth I have a history of eating poorly in Rehoboth Beach - e.g., too much mediocre fried fish, and too many places attempting a hip nightclub vibe along with overpriced food. Did better this weekend with a couple of places that were new to me. Shorebreak Lodge (http://shorebreaklodge.tumblr.com) for dinner - don't mean to oversell it, but it was a nice place attempting a (sorry) "foodie" vibe, striving for simplicity and good preparation. For breakfast, Greenman (http://www.greenmanjuicebar.com/ordereze/Content/2/Summary.aspx) - juice bar, quiches, waffles, etc. - a little cramped but a friendly place that makes you feel better than if you'd eaten too many greasy potatoes at the Crystal Diner.
  2. sheldman
    Dinner at Ris last night was excellent. As others have mentioned above, the staff and service are very pleasant. And the food was excellent. The special, a seafood stew, was particularly good - as was the pear clafoutis. My dining partner put together a funny but delicious and satisfying meal from two of the "small plates" (which are easy to miss on the last page of the menu, so don't miss them) - smoked trout pana cotta and salmon miso tartar - and two "sides" (broccoli rabe and cauliflower). A cocktail, smoked apricot sazerac, was really interesting (I ordered it with less-than-usual simple syrup because that's how I roll). (Contrast Cashion's a few days ago, which I always think that I should love in theory and then never quite find myself loving in reality. Same price as Ris, perfectly pleasant food but entirely forgettable (literally can't remember what I ate), and an included gratuity on the tab for six people with nary a mention by the server. My little rant for the day is that servers should always mention an included gratuity, but should especially always mention it when they are splitting a check between two credit cards - when paying for three people one doesn't tend to assume that there is an included gratuity.)
  3. sheldman
    The "mussel burger" (Burger de Moules, Sauce Aioli et ses Chips de Patates Douces) is a really really good thing. It is like the sophisticated cousin of an oyster poorboy; it gives that same blast of ocean funk in a sandwich format, and some fried onions add nicely to the texture. Very nice.
  4. sheldman
    More generally, TS is a very (and, I infer, intentionally) bad moderator of his chats. He gets, and therefore I think he strives for, a very negative vibe all around. He chooses to post people's snotty comments back and forth at each other (oh you don't like Indian food, you're a moron - oh you don't know what tapas is, you're a moron). He chooses to post things that allow him to act offended, or put-upon, on his own account (how dare you accuse me of being recognized when I eat, or of not going to Virginia often enough). He chooses to post things that (like the Palena hamburger thing) represent customer obnoxiousness or at least exaggerated offense. I guess that's what gets the page views, but it's nothing to be proud of.
  5. sheldman
    I hear you. Don't know your life situation, but it happens to me when I feel like "damn, cooking for my family has become obligation rather than creativity, and every week the grocery stores just have the same things." All I can suggest is changing a facet of "how/why/when I cook," to get away from old routine. Could be drinking more while I cook, or less. Could be "start smoking a lot of stuff" (food, not tobacco or pot) or "start quick-pickling a lot of stuff" or "go raw for two days" or "make bread" or "no bread for a week." Could be "get another family member or friend to cook with me or at least talk with me while I cook" or "watch all episodes of Dr. Who, on netflix while I cook." Could be "have a dinner party on Saturday night and spend all day making complicated fancy things." If you have the $, and don't have a Vitamix, then there's your answer. Lots of fun to be had by making things ridiculously smooth. Good luck, and please share the answer that works for you when you find it.
  6. sheldman
    Dirt Candy is a vegetable restaurant in NYC. (Apparently part of their branding is that they don't prefer to say "vegetarian." OK fine.) They have a new cookbook out, which I love even though I just got it and have not cooked from it yet. It is not just a cookbook, but also a set of stories and essays, in graphic-novel format, about various aspects of starting a restaurant, cooking, etc. The comic illustrations are also used effectively in some recipes, to give good visual information. In case you are a graphic novel fan, you may be interested to know that the artist is the guy who has done things like "Action Philosophers." So it is a lot of fun, it is not expensive ($13 at Amazon for now, and you can "look inside" to get a sense of it), and my guess is that it's going to be good to cook from (even though some of the dishes look maybe more aspirational or "lots of stages and steps there, will save that for a day when I've got nothing better to do".) [by the way, if this belongs in "cooking" rather than "news and media," please feel free to move it.]
  7. sheldman
    Union Market was frustrating this morning, and I hope that the folks "in charge," as well as the participating vendors, do what is necessary to make it work. What I mean is, the posted hours for Sunday are 8 to 8. On arriving at about 1030, it felt like we found more vendors not interested in selling, than ones that were interested. Several stalls, marked with vendors' names, were completely empty. Others had equipment but no personnel. Others had personnel but were not interested in exchanging goods for $ until some time after 11 (and conveyed this information either directly, or by simply ignoring people). A relative few were happy to do business, and had some really good stuff. This sort of market really requires a critical mass of actively-working vendors. I wonder if the developers insisted on having an opening day before people were actually ready, or whether there is some other sort of problem. Whatever it is, I hope they fix it and get vendors in there, and actually doing business, during business hours.
  8. sheldman
    For whatever reason I had never eaten here, until tonight. I guess I had read the iffy reviews above. But after one meal, I am happy to say this about it, which I intend as a meaningfully positive statement: If somebody says to me, "I want to eat at this price range (which is, you can get a nice appetizer in the 10-12 range, and an entree in the 16-24 range)," and imagine that the stipulated geographic range is limited to NW DC, north of N St and west of 16th St, and imagine that I don't want to go to 2 Amys or New Heights (two very different places, I know)," then: I can't currently think of any place that I would recommend over this. Meaning, the place is pretty, the whiskey list is astounding, the service was pleasant, and the food was better than adequate. Smoked trout salad was notably good. You may all say, "You fool, you are forgetting about Restaurants X, Y and Z." If so, please advise (but do not suggest Mintwood please, and allow me my feelings about that, because in my experience it failed on the pretty place, whiskey, and pleasant service fronts). For the amount of disposable income in DC west of Rock Creek, the neighborhood restaurant situation is mindblowingly limited. If I had a jetpack it would be ok, but I have no jetpack.
  9. sheldman
    I respectfully disagree! I often look through a thread when I'm thinking about whether to go to a place. If your reviews appear (or are linked) only from some other (general) forum or thread, I therefore won't see them when they will be most useful. My old brain won't be able to remember "oh yeah, Don said something about this restaurant a while back, let me go check the Blog Central forum or dcdining ..." (And you know it's all about me, right?)
  10. sheldman
    Second option sounds great. If not too much trouble, would really appreciate a short post (even if just the link to the dcdining post) in each pertinent restaurant thread here (and not just in Blog Central).
  11. sheldman
    Very very nice. Highlights included house-made vinegar-cured mackerel; udon noodles with dashi etc.; sashimi special, with excellent quality and variety (the selection apparently changes rapidly, even during the course of an evening); burdock and lotus salad. Excellent use of shiso in a couple of dishes (leading to informative conversation with chef on the proper cultivation of shiso, after I told him that my backyard has been overtaken by it). Very welcoming place. Not too crowded to sit at the bar on the early side (630). Check it out.
  12. sheldman
    On facebook a few minutes ago, they referred to Saturday as the opening.
  13. sheldman
    I don't think that there is (or at least I cannot find) a thread on Union Market (warning - autoplay embedded video with sound), which seems to be set to open next weekend. This looks to be a nice new multi-vendor indoor market, in that old market area that includes Litteri's, near Florida and NY NE. I am not involved with it, but from what I can gather it will include Rappahannock Oysters, a cheese seller, a creamery, a pickler, etc. I hope that it works out well.
  14. sheldman
    Today for lunch I shared the following poorboys (the spelling I prefer, for reasons I cannot say): (1) grilled shrimp, (2) fried oyster, (3) vegetarian, which today was fried green tomato, goat cheese, etc. All were good, especially when accompanied by Zapps potato chips, and I will definitely go again. But I do not feel the urge to say "omg, I went to New Orleans in my mind!" They were good sandwiches, nice ingredients, well prepared. The bread was well suited for its function and was good, but not really with a "crisp crust" as the menu suggests. Maybe they would tell me that this is because I got the sandwiches to go and ate them about twenty minutes later.
  15. sheldman
    I finally managed to stop in here, and am glad that I did. (A friend whom I rarely see is one of the owners, but you can tell that I am not a ridiculous booster-at-all-costs from the fact that it has taken me months to make a visit.) All that I have had so far are desserts - a chocolate mousse, a key lime pie, and a tiramisu - all "raw," I am told, and in that sense noticeably different from standard versions of the same foods, but really really good. (My family, including my child, all agreed that these desserts were better than the cupcakes next door, which are good cupcakes.) The governing philosophy seems to be healthful eating - they offer juice cleanses, etc. - but put aside your notions of punitive or boring hippy health food, because they also clearly believe in things that taste good. They also sell a few provisions (pastas, sauces, oils, etc., as well as homemade yogurt), and have breakfast burritos, smoothies, and whatnot. Also it will give you a chance to prove your tech/hipster cred by using the "Square" app on your iphone or pad, to pay without a credit card.
  16. sheldman
    I'm perfectly prepared to believe that Hank's is good (haven't been there for years), but unless I disown my vegetarian child and get a new wife who lacks an irrational dislike of the place, it will stay out of my rotation.
  17. sheldman
    In my life there is a category of "sure, ok" restaurants - the ones as to which, if somebody says "let's go there," I say "sure, ok." Maybe this means I need to turn in my guild card, and admit that I am not a true believer Rockwellian, but ... After dinner at Agora last night, it is comfortably in the "sure, ok" category. Staff was friendly, food was good, prices were fair. No revelations, not even anything I am reminiscing about the next day, but perfectly good. Seventeenth street in general seems tired and mildewy these days, with a sense that restaurants aren't trying very hard because they don't have to. Kind of like Woodley Park (with each of those neighborhoods having small number of exceptions). But Agora was ok. If anyone knows of a restaurant on 17th St that is better than "sure, ok," please advise. (Yes I know about Komi and Little Serow, and would tell you my feelings about them but don't feel like starting something.)
  18. sheldman
    Really enjoyed a first visit to Maple last night. Had four good-size bruschetta for $10 (there are maybe six or seven varieties to choose from - all the ones we had were good, especially marscapone). Very nice salads (one w beets & their greens, one tomato), and puttanesca pasta. All very tasty and reasonably priced. Friendly and helpful server. Kitchen slightly slow, maybe, but nothing to worry about. I had not been in this neighborhood for a while. It is full of restaurants and bars full of young people. Things change. (Used to live at 13th & Fairmont, 15 years or so ago).
  19. sheldman
    ("that" being a link to a piece on Slate titled "How to ban Chick-Fil-A from your city," suggesting that all you have to do is provide that fast food chain restaurants in the city must be open 7 days per week, and then Chick-Fil-A won't be able to open because they close on Sunday) This too brings up an important lesson in life: don't believe much that you read on Slate, especially if written by this writer, who has the annoying habit of believing that a good undergraduate education, and the ability to reason from first principles of his own devising, make him an expert on everything. I know just enough about the law, in this area, to know that it is not necessarily that simple. Conceivable that he has studied up on the law known as RLUIPA, as well as on the question of whether a facially neutral law can be constitutionally challenged as a subterfuge for religious discrimination - but I sure doubt it.
  20. sheldman
    The discussion has been fascinating, but (like so many discussions of legal issues, whether by lawyers or non-lawyers) the Mayor's letter as linked by Don above is a great reminder that the facts really have to come first, before you can decide who's right or wrong. As a guy who "does" constitutional law a reasonable percentage of my worklife, and has therefore been indoctrinated into late 20th/early 21st century mainstream American constitutional law, it seems pretty obvious to me (as a rough general principle) that a city can't refuse to allow business permits to (or otherwise ban) a business if that refusal or ban is motivated by the business's or owner's speech on hotly debated political or social issues. First Amendment, "unconstitutional conditions" law. But the Mayor's letter doesn't look like that sort of unconstitutional action, to me - it looks like "screw you, we don't want you here," which (I would happily argue if I were his lawyer) is just lawful government speech rather than adverse government action. Also it might (might might) make a difference that the location they're talking about is of particular historical importance to the City as a birthplace of freedom and equality - that might (might might) give the City more leeway to say who gets to have a business there, than a general city-wide ban on Chik-Fil-A.
  21. sheldman
    Cheeky's and Birba (both discussed above) now have another sibling a block away, Jiao [Closed in 2014] (no website yet, but it does have a facebook presence), open for lunch and dinner. Pan- or quasi- or fusion-Asian, whatever you want to call it - and (if our first dinner was a reliable guide) delicious. Not expensive (e.g., $14 for black cod miso on salad greens, maybe $11 or something for a good yellow tofu curry on black rice, and so forth). Sit outside under the misters to stay cool, eat some very good pea shoot, carrot, and ginger dumplings, and grilled padron peppers with sesame seeds. Really nice. All of these are on North Palm Canyon, just a block above where it becomes a two-way street. All will be closed from about two weeks from now, through about Labor Day. (That's when it's too hot here for most potential visitors, but I love it - and I see that it's just about as hot in DC these days, plus derecho and humidity. Ha.)
  22. sheldman
    The internet is a really amazing thing. Found a document here that is a 1960 report on the demographics and trends of Mt. Airy NC (the real-life Mayberry, where Andy Griffith grew up. The African-American population was quite small - less than 5 percent if I am reading correctly - and mostly quite poor. So the show may have been substantially accurate in terms of its representation of who was milling around "downtown" in this small town in this part of NC. (I am not an expert on Mt. Airy in the 1950s and 60s, though I did spend many wonderful weeks there in the 1980s and 90s at the fiddlers' convention.)
  23. sheldman
    The internet is a really amazing thing. Found a document here that is a 1960 report on the demographics and trends of Mt. Airy NC (the real-life Mayberry, where Andy Griffith grew up). The African-American population was quite small - less than 5 percent if I am reading correctly - and mostly quite poor. So the show may have been substantially accurate in terms of its representation of who was milling around "downtown" in this small town in this part of NC. (I am not an expert on Mt. Airy in the 1950s and 60s, though I did spend many wonderful weeks there in the 1980s and 90s at the fiddlers' convention.)
  24. sheldman
    If anyone can get a reliable understanding of what happened, please post or at least IM me. This makes me sad. I like Radius, and Nicole and Todd, a lot. I go out of town for the summer and the whole District falls apart ...
  25. sheldman
    I may be confused (I often am) but as far as I can tell, Savored is no longer charging $ for reservations? (That is, you used to pay $x to Savored and then get discount on total bill - now it looks like you don't pay any $ at all but you get a discount on bill, just because you used savored.com not opentable.com?)
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