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Ericandblueboy

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  1. Ericandblueboy
    Spent the weekend shopping at Williamsburg. Was gonna do some more shopping yesterday but it was pouring so we decided to head home. Stopped at the Pancho Villa in Fredericksburg for lunch. To my surprise, their menu includes menudo as a house special so I ordered it. I haven't had menudo since I was in Cancun in 2005(?) and I don't recall ever seeing it in a local restaurant. Pancho Villa's menudo was served with a side of corn tortillas, lime, chopped onions, chopped cilantro, oregano and red pepper flakes. The soup had plenty of tripe and a hunk of cow foot - all cooked nice and tender with great flavor, especially after spicing it up with the red pepper flakes. I'll try to remember to eat there on future roadtrips, but I was wondering if there's a place with good menudo closer to home?
  2. Ericandblueboy
    They in fact do some authentic Shanghai dishes. The XLB wasn't great, not very juicy at all but at least the wrap wasn't too doughy. Same issue with the Lion's Head, too dry and not enough fat. We did have a headcheese type cold app that was really good but since my bro did the ordering, I didn't get the name of the dish, possibly "cooked ham shanghai style." We had two other dishes - eel sauteed Shanghai style, and snow cabbage lima beans with bean curd sheets - authentic but not fantastic. It's the only Shanghai cuisine that I know of so we'll probably go back at some point (wish it wasn't that far out of the way).
  3. Ericandblueboy
    If you want casinos and food, then Aruba and St. Martin are good choices. If you want good food and a diverse eco-system, I suggest Puerto Rico. If you want French (as in the people, straight off the plane from France) - Guadeloupe.
  4. Ericandblueboy
    Not everyone is a foodie so Waitman is quite right - there are plenty of people of whatever ethnicity that eat shit and like it. But given two foodies, one is of the applicable ethnic group, I'd be hard pressed not to give that person more credence for authenticity. More importantly, I think people of different culture have different palates, and you're better off following one who shares your palate.
  5. Ericandblueboy
    I went to NYC for a seminar last week and stayed at the Crowne Plaza in Times Sq. They don't have minibars and I couldn't get NBC. So rather than watch and be inspired by the Biggest Loser, I went out to eat like I was the Biggest Gainer. Dinner at Del Posto was lovely. 3 pastas for $27 - not cheap but not expensive. My entree was a nicely grilled lobster which was overshadowed by my cousin's pork loin, which was as tender as a piece of wagyu. My cousin, who has tried every Batali restaurant in NYC, still prefers Babbo. The next night, we went to Momofuku Ko. 11 courses later, I was still a little hungry (I didn't finish the venison, and didn't love the monkfish) so we popped into the Noodle Bar and sampled some oxtail soup ramen ($18 a bowl, the broth on the salty side the the oxtail could have used more cooking time). Earlier in the day, my cousin had stopped at the Ssam bar for lunch and then had dessert at the milk shake joint. He tried all 4 Chang joints! Ko was good but not necessarily better than Komi, Chef's Table at Teatro Goldoni, or Volt. On my last day, I caught up with my bro on the upper east side for Sichuan food at Szechuan Chalet on 72nd and 2nd Ave. Good authentic Sichuan food.
  6. Ericandblueboy
    That's not universally true in China. The places that were part of our tour, they would bring the food and give us our 1 free drink, and that's pretty much it. When we ate at Shanghai on our own at T8, the service was impeccable, probably because lunch cost us over US $100. You get what you pay for.
  7. Ericandblueboy
    Overpriced Buca? What is the attraction?
  8. Ericandblueboy
    don't think there's a new show tonight.
  9. Ericandblueboy
    Them chicks are feisty eh? That makes sense.
  10. Ericandblueboy
    Oy! I can't believe Tennille is still on the show. BTW, do restaurants really pre-cook risotto rice? I'm assuming the answer is yes, so the follow-up question, does it taste any different if pre-cooked?
  11. Ericandblueboy
    What kind of carnage are we talkinga about here? I mean, so a chick gets lucky, what's the big deal?
  12. Ericandblueboy
    That sucks. First it was the little eatery inside Great Wall, not it's Peking Village. Now where am I gonna eat when I need to shop at Great Wall? ETA: There's an Asian buffet next door to Great Wall, it's not expensive but it's not really good. Their buffet does include pho, some cantonese dim sum (chicken feet, turnip cake, siu mai, etc.), among other stuff. More quantity than quality. I do not recommend eating there.
  13. Ericandblueboy
    Each culture has its own basic sauces, and they're not all or even mostly built on French sauces. Why not ask everyone to do a vindaloo next week?
  14. Ericandblueboy
    I'm not entirely sure why this show would require anyone to make any specific sauce (unless it's specified somewhere in the fine print). Is this Top Chef or Top French Chef?
  15. Ericandblueboy
    LOL, we don't normally eat out on a weeknight so that's never been an issue. As for splitting the wine...I enjoy making my wife drink my backwash.
  16. Ericandblueboy
    Yes, we drink from the same glass, and no restaurant yet has offered to split the wine into 2 glasses (but we've never asked).
  17. Ericandblueboy
    We do this all the time and I've never had to receive approval from the restaurant. Not sure why a restaurant would care?
  18. Ericandblueboy
    Do they offer food a la carte at lunch? If so, do they give people who order a la carte the naan too? I use to go to Cafe Taj in McLean for their lunch buffet. They do give you naan as part of their buffet but it's not on the buffet table - that way you get fresh naan.
  19. Ericandblueboy
    I think $125 is fairly priced, unless you factor in the time value of money of getting there. We also ate at a much faster pace than you. We had the earlier seating on a Saturday evening and were done in about 2.5 hrs, IIRC. Lastly, if Bryan wins Top Chef, then this place could get national attention.
  20. Ericandblueboy
    The menu online is exactly what's served at the restaurant, no off menu specials. So we picked from 6 appetizers and 6 entrees, none of which were particularly appealing to me. We settled for cream sweet corn soup with crab meat, which turned out to be fantastic. My wife's crab cake starter was also fantastic, with mildly sweet crab meat. The fried green tomato that came with the crab cake had no flavor and resembled a hockey puck. The entrees were decidedly less fantastic. Neither the duck breast nor the black angus beef had much flavor - needed seasoning for sure. The duck confit was nice as was the beef hash that came with the steak. Overall, not very exciting food even if they were perfectly exectued (in this case they weren't). I'm more or less writing off both restaurants on that block (the other being Oval Room).
  21. Ericandblueboy
    if he's given notice, you think he's still busting his ass?
  22. Ericandblueboy
    Thought Kevin looks a bit like a feral pig but hey there's lots of intelligence behind those beady eyes. And what's the big deal with Hector frying a steak? Why can't a hispanic chef deep fry a rib-eye? Seems like the judges are judging based on preconceptions as opposed to just tasting the food.
  23. Ericandblueboy
    I actually should thank you for bringing it to my attention. It was the only place where we could sit outside with our dogs. It really wasn't bad for Warrenton, just not great. The one dish to avoid was the fried calamari. We never made it to Iron Bridge, got up and went back to DC so I can get some work done.
  24. Ericandblueboy
    I read in "Chop Suey: A Cultural History of Chinese Food in the United States" today that crab rangoon was invented by "Trader Vic" Bergeron.
  25. Ericandblueboy
    Not impressed with brunch - had a disappointing da lu mian (overcooked shrimp and mostly inauthentic ingredients - made with typical lo mein noodles), chicken roll (better at Bob's Noodle Bistro), scallion pancake (flavorless) and you tiao (better than A&J's but not as good as Peking Village). For northern Chinese brunch, I still prefer Peking Village. If anyone knows of other places, please let me know. I haven't been to Joe's Noodle House yet.
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