Ericandblueboy

I ODed on meat by-products last night at Commonwealth. It was a combination of more food than expected and the extraordinary richness of the food. I started with potted pork and a butcher plate of deviled sweetbread, stuffed trotters and head cheese. Those were followed by roasted marrow and steak and oyter pie. My wife wisely ordered only fish and chips. The potted pork reminded me of Underwood deviled ham. They were always on the shelf next to the canned tuna. The little devil would say "eat me" everytime I walked by until one day I bought a can, and it was good, for canned meat spread. The deviled sweetbread was also good, nice flavor, seared lightly and very tender. Most delicious was the stuffed trotters. A thin layer of pork skin wrapped around a smorgasboard of pork by-products. In comparison, the head cheese was just bland. The roasted marrow came in 4 pieces. Since my wife wasn't partaking, I attempted to eat the whole thing by myself and failed miserably. That also meant I barely touched my steak and oyster pie. It was a huge plate of stewed beef, 4 huge oysters, topped with a puff pastry crust. I managed to slurp down the 4 oysters but I left the stewed beef alone (tough and bland). I had to try a few bites of the fish and chips. We couldn't help but compare them to Eamonn's, which we tried last week. We agreed that Eamonn's tartar sauce was much better. My wife does not eat fish, but thanks to Eamonn's, now she's willing to eat fish as long as it's battered and fried. And the fish at Commonwealth also met her approval. I'm not hurrying to go back because I'm afraid I'll OD again.

I want to go back to Canton Cafe to see if it's worthy of a full blown dim sum Sunday. If anyone wants to join me around 11:30 a.m. on Superbowl Sunday, post here or shoot me an IM.

I think Miu Kee did the cod a little better on the tenderness front on my last visit there. It could've been the particularly fish, the timing, etc. The fish last night was very flavorful.

Thank you Stephen for doing the legwork. 15 dishes in any one evening is stupendous. These are my takes on the food: tangy spicy wonton - not necessarily a starter to a big meal, wontons can be a meal in itself preserved pork - cured pork with plenty of fat, stir-fried (not for weight watchers) beef & beef tendon with szechuan spicy sauce - tripe and beef with tendon, marinated in hot sauce and served cold fried dry fish with peanut - tiny little fish, about an inch long each, fried crispy without batter, you can taste the fish but it's not overwhelming spicy oil-touched chicken - skin and bone, tender, but not very spicy or flavorful. steamed cod fish with ginger & green onion - nicely done, not fishy, this recipe goes with many types of fish, many times with whole fish chicken with hot garlic sauce - didn't try beef with vegetable in peppery broth - (water cooked beef in Chinese), beef stewed with napa cabbage in a spicy star anise broth, also available as a delicious fish dish (I've had it a Jasmine Gardne and Peking Village) chengdu smoking tea duck - duck with skin and bone (poultry is always well done in Chinese cooking) ma po tofu - a good version, definitely try it if you like tofu spicy sichuan ribs - I've never had this before, a little overcooked and not much flavor to me pan fried celery & wooden ear mushroom - I like veggies but I've never had this combination....lightly stir-fried cumin lamb - intro to Sichuan cuisine, you gotta try it, then try the cumin fish at HKP stir-fried sliced pork with chili pepper - this is chinese comfort food, nothing fancy, just tender pork stir fried with spicy pepper, the spiciness makes you eat rice and get filled up (that's what yo mama wants you to do) garlic flavor fried flounder - nice batter and great frying, could use a little more pepper in the batter....serve this with fries and and they can serve this in the UK (you can say I'm comparing apples to oranges but how many people have had English fish and chips but never had Chinese filet o' fish?)

This place is gone. Joe's Burgers has moved into its fomer space. The old Joe's Burgers space is not Joe's Gyros.

No +1 for me. She's working the closing shift at her bank and won't get out until after 7. More food for the rest of us

I just ordered this book. I'm assuming it's because these families can't really cook very well and hence they move to places with little or no competition.

What makes their mussels special? Is it their relatively unique broths? Or do they somehow cook their mussels better than other restaurants? For example, is their mussels marinere better than Beck, Cafe du Parc, or Westend Bistro's?

If you really want to try Baci, Restaurant.com, has various certficates (e.g., $50 for $20).

Went looking for the Commonwealth certificate but it's not there right now (dang it, since we're going on Sat. night). Instead, they're featuring Sequoia (really?).

Another cantonese speaker eh?

Are meatballs usually made in-house or just purchased frozen at most pho places? I always thought they just buy them from the grocery store (but since I don't order meatballs, I have no clue).

Try Canton Cafe in Springfield. I've only been once and I enjoyed it. If more people recommend it, we might be able to do a dim sum Sunday in NOVA.

I told my wife only Chinese people get red envelopes. She already took all of our winnings in Vegas so I don't feel so bad that she's not getting sh!t next week.

You want a whole monkey or just specific parts? I hear monkey butts are a delicacy.

My wife loved it. I got over the gimmick fairly quickly. At first the fish makes this tingling sensation but after a short while, you're more or less desensitized. Fish & normal pedicure is $45, fish and spa pedicure is $70. We asked for the normal pedicure and got the spa pedicure, which is 20 minutes + with the fish, 2 exfoliant scrubs, 1 mud cover, and then lotion. We got there at 11 and didn't get out until about 12:30. You get your money's worth. They're very friendly (almost too much so).

We were in Alexandria this morning having our feet eaten by little fishies (http://doctorfishmassage.com/). So we bit back by going to Eamonn's. I've been to Ireland but never had Irish fish & chips, so I had to try the cod and the grouper. Thank be the cod came in two sizes because there's no way I could've eaten two normal sized filets. My wife had the burger. The gentlemen asked if we wanted to share an order of chips (which stunned me momentarily, huh? the chips don't come with?) so we ordered a small. The burger was a deep fried flavorless patty. My wife ate my fish despite the fact she doesn't like fish and pronounced the fish much better. Oye! I prefer the cod over the grouper (grouper was a bit fishier), but both were really good. The classic tartar was my favorite, whereas the Marie Rose was kind of bland. We'll have to try more sauces next time. I didn't think much of the chips but then I wasn't fond of the chips in England either. I still remember my Chinese restaurant experience in Cork. Would you like rice or chips? WTF do you mean rice or chips?

I'm not sure how this restaurant climbed to the top of the DC seafood scene. Anchovy white pizza - couldn't taste the hummus, in fact, I couldn't see the hummus. The flatbread itself had a diameter of 2 inches, but the plate did come with 4 anchovies. Not bad, but not necessarily good. Braised baby octopus - this dish needs to be taken off the menu. No flavor and tough. They've been doing this for years now. Why don't they realize this dish sucks. Fried clams - nicely breaded but there's no seasoning in the breading. I hate fried food that has no flavor. What's the point of breading it then? Grilled sardines - nicely grilled. I liked the flavor. This is the only dish I truly liked. I also had a caribbean cobia that's supposedly to come with foie gras ravioli. I didn't taste any foie gras in the ravioli (which was disappointing) but the ravioli itself was okay. The cobia was visibly raw in the center. I asked our server whether that was intentional and she said yes, it's supposed to be medium rare. The cooked part of the fish was light and flakey but the raw part was incredibly tough and chewy (probably barely thawed out). The mixed texture was distasteful. My wife had no complaints on the nantucket scallops or her steak. On our way out, I wanted to buy some clams. The only person behind the counter was on the phone on a personal call with his back to us. Since he couldn't ackowledge our presence, we left.

Oyster pancake looks something like this: This is an acquired taste, very much like stinky tofu. The texture is gelatinous and it's not even something every Taiwanese enjoy. You can go to Bob's Noodle and try their version. If you hate it there as well, I suggest you stop eating them.

Not when I went but they were applying for one. I have to assume they have it now. You might want to call and confirm.

Doesn't that suggest his show more or less suck? I couldn't care less about his worldview, I just want to see more food!

Anyone else work around Tysons? I've driven as far south as Little River Turnpike (to Pho Hot), as far west as 66 and Rt 50 (for Minerva's buffet), and as far east as La Cararquena on Rt. 7 for lunch.

This place has many flavors of dumplings to choose from. Best bets are the typical pork dumplings, either with chives or napa cabbage. The more esoteric includes fish dumplings and pork with dill. The dumpling wrapper is home made but a little on the thick side. They're tasty but not elegant or delicate (far from the best dumplings in the world but maybe as good as it gets in DC, A+ for variety and a B for actual quality). This time we tried 10 out of 12 flavors. Next time I'll try some of their hand made noodles.

I'll blow up to $100 on lunch. I think I'm going to over-order anyway so I'll have some leftovers to take home.