Ericandblueboy

I understand the premise of zipcars relieving parking icongestion but why do spaces have to be free, especially in light of the fact that it is a for profit company? Why can't zipcar just pass that cost onto their users?

Fabulous dinner in the back room, the best dish was something called lobster and dumplings. It turns out to be a light tomato based broth, with vegetables, minced fish balls and a couple of chunks of lobster. The broth and the fish dumplings were fantastic and again I am reminded of a Vietnamese dish - it's a soup I've had a couple of times at Present called Bun Rieu. I would love to sample the two at the same time to see which I like better - in any case, they're both terrific.

Pardon me....I misremembered. The first that I had heard about this restaurant came thru a Washingtonian chat on 3/2/10 with Kliman where someone asked for Australian food and someone else posted:

Would that niche be WaPo chat readers?

I'd like to go but not anytime soon (unless the crowds die down quickly). I've only had Chang's food once. While I think it's good and his scallion pancake unique, based on my limited experience, I'm not so certain that he's head and shoulders above Hong Kong Palace. It could be because we ordered what we're comfortable with and not his most inventive/best dishes. Of course, looking at the fairly typical Sichuan menu, it's hard to know what's unique to him. If anyone knows of other dishes that separates Chang from other Sichuan chefs, please post up.

I have to defend Hooters' wings. They're not all breaded. If you don't like them breaded, order the ones without breading.

Is the place turning into a Waffle House?

I'm saying that in some instances, you are allowed to use deadly force to prevent crime. If we have warships fire on poachers, that would be a more effective deterrent.

Meaning the product could be confiscated after the fact? The fish is already dead at that point. I was hoping we'd arm Green Peace and let them take out poachers.

As a practical matter, even if there is a ban, who enforces it? Will our navy blast poachers (be they Japanese or otherwise) out of the water?

I believe they're closed for good as of tonight. So long, and thanks for all the fish.

The amuse was the pork heart - delicious. Not even the best beef anticuchos I've ever had is better (but I only eat hearts when I have my Indiana Jones hat and whip). Based on the food we had, this is one of the top 10 high end American joints in DC to me (although it wasn't very expensive, $85 for 6 courses and drinks before tip). But with a small menu (6 apps and 6 entrees), I urge everyone to check their updated online menu first.

The food we ordered were remarkable. 4 out of 5 dishes were fantastic. One wasn't but I'll explain why later. Chicken Fried Tongue, Artic Char, duck confit, guinea hen - perfectly cooked, perfectly seasoned. The tongue was soft and luscious, how you make tongue meltingly soft, I don't know but that's how it was. Arctic Char with fish roe, really brought out the flavor of the fish. Confit - just delicious (but it's duck confit, you don't need to order it here because it's t not unique). Guinea hen - flavorful and juicy. The one dish that wasn't great was a pan seared monkfish. I'm not entirely sure how you can make a pan seared filet of fish really tasty. I personally have never had any that I considered really good. So the one dish I didn't like is a dish I never liked anywhere. I like whole fish, with head and tail....but that's just me. Even so, the fish was cooked nicely.

Question about Hooked. Is it generally busy on weekends (right now Open Table shows plenty of availability)? What are some really good dishes?

Google search comes up with (non-chains) - O'Faolains Irish Pub, Cheng's Oriental Restaurant, Los Toltecos, Ned Devine's, and Pollos Inti among others. Are any of these good? I'm leaning towards Pollos Inti just based on their website. http://www.pollosinti.com/

I told my wife to keep the fresh dozen at work because I don't need to gain any more sympathy weight. She and her co-workers love the cookies. Even the week-old ones I tried were still very good.

I guess I need to add some back story to my cooking to make it taste better.

Tell us how you really feel about the cake

I'm curious about this article but I'm too lazy to get a free copy myself. If anyone feels like copying and pasting it and e-mail it to me at ericandblueboy@gmail.com, I'd really appreciate it.

According to the the sensor I locked on her ankle, she's no longer in the business, unless she's running a restaurant out of her house. [i'm just kidding, I don't know what she's up to nor do I care]

Carole Greenwood? Just a guess, I don't know her and don't think I've ate at any of her restaurants. I think Spike Mendelsohn is overexposed.

I don't really understand how we can participate. Do I make a reservation with Mio as usual (for example, on March 12 or 13), show up and there will be a special menu that we will order from?

Happy B-day Waitman. So how twas the food?

I feel like a moron (can't use the "r" word) after missing the $150 pet charge on Residence Inn's website. I looked but apparently not thorough enough. The manager was nice enough to cut it down to $75 but that's still more expensive than Lowes (only $25 per stay). Incidentally, we called The Muse (a Kimpton Hotel in NYC where we'll be staying later this year) and they confimed there is no pet charge. So if you travel often with pets, keep Kimpton in mind. Onto the food: I assume the above description from Philadelphiaweekly.com is correct. Our Chifa chicken is flavorful but the end product does not resemble Peking Duck. Our bird did not have crispy skin at all. I can certainly taste the star anise and soy sauce, which are not used on a Peking Duck. Chifa chicken tastes like it's been pressured cooked and not roasted. It's more like 3 Cup Chicken than Peking Duck. So is it good? It is....but we fed most of the chicken to our dogs because we also had the soup dumplings (where's the juice?), humita, pork ramen (nice, tender, flavorful pork), chicharrones (a large uncrispy piece of fat), and yu choy. The only thing that I would recommend out of that bunch is the pork ramen. I think the concept is to induce people who are not particularly familiar with Asian or South American food to try an exotic concept. That certainly was part of the reason why we went to Peru. At least the food wasn't ridiculously expensive, with 2 beers (they have Cristal and Cusquena) we spent only $84 (before tip). As for DiNic's and Herschel's - we weren't bowled over by either one. I'm no expert on deli food but I thought the pastrami really lacked flavor at Herschel's. Steve's Prince of Steaks do not chop up their steak, so you get a sandwich of well done thin but chewy slices of steak. It's not bad but I don't see why it's any better than Geno's. I personally like the steak chopped up and I still prefer Jim's. Chink's is closed on Sundays and I didn't have room to eat more anyway. The photos are soup dumplings, chicharrones, and chifa chicken.

Wonton does not mean eating clouds. There is another name for wonton that does mean eating clouds. Hope that clarifies the confusion. I don't think wonton means anything.