Tweaked

hmmm, lets see Thursday: Ugly Mug for ex-Matchbox miniburgers and pizza. The minburgers were yummy as always, but not quite a juicy as past miniburgers. The proscuitto pizza was tasty, although I'm not overly convinced that a cooked pizza with uncooked proscuitto thrown on top is the best way to present it. Friday: A nice bowl of beef pho and fried egg rolls from Pacific Cafe helped settle the loopy feeling I was suffering from after receiving a battery of immunizations for my upcoming India trip Saturday: A very poorly constructed grilled cheese sandwich at the Capitol Lounge...large chunks of foccacia slathered with melted Kraft cheese slices, topped with a slice of tomato and overdone bacon. plus DC United lost. However the Bass and the women were nice. A late night drunken rummage through the refrigerator scored me some left over upma and which I topped with a fried egg Sunday: Dominos new 5/5/5 deal, that's right buy 3 medium one topping pizzas for $5 each with a side of Survivor Finale. So really you and peanut didn't miss all that much!

Anyone received any invites to their pre-opening events???

I'd be down for some Malaysia Koptium...

Fabio Chat on Wash Post

I really liked Django and would rate it better than Pasion.

I like to saute mine in a little butter and olive oil for a couple minutes...remove soft shell...then make a quick sauce by throwing in some shallots, deglaze with white wine, reduce, add a healthy squeeze of lemon juice and a dash of old bay, reduce a little more and add some butter and chopped parsley...serve over a bed of arugula or other greens...

Funny I just got back from Philly for the Dali show Monday... Morimoto's is great and expensive...The multicourse Omakase can run up to $120 and the matching multicourse drink pairing (which was very good) goes for $60...at the very least stop in to Morimotos and have a drink/snack at the lounge which overlooks the restaurant, which is a treat to see. Another place you might want to look into is Pasion (known for their cheviche) and Django (which Sietsema reviewed in his Postcard recently.) Another restaurant that gets rave rewiews is Vetri (but you might have a problem getting a reservation this late in the game). Mark Vetri just won the James Beard for best Mid Atlantic chef. Finally, also check out the Reading Terminal Market...a foodies paradise. If you want some bars here's a post from my blog that details my Trail of Beers tour of Philly... Our trail of beers started at Fergie's. While you're not going to find anything extraordinary at Fergie's, the list does include Hoegaarden, Yard's ESA and standards like Guinness, Harp, and Smithwicks all on tap backed up by 36 bottles...The Irish stylings of the bar makes it a pleasent stop off for a quick pint. Perhaps the best known outside the City of Brotherly Love is Monk's Cafe. Written up by numerous travel, food, and beer magazines, Monk's offers an impressive selection of Belgium beers on tap and an extended bottled beer list. The Boudin Blanc Sausage went very nicely with the Delirium Tremons. Unfortunately the award winning pomme frites were no better than limp shoe string french fries, nothing pommey nor fritey about them! However, a true find was across the street from our hotel: Ludwig's Garten (1315 Samson St). Dark and dingy, Ludwig's has German beer on tap...and a lot of it. The cheese and sausage platter was a nice snack and beer prices couldn't be better during their late night happy hour, $2.95 a beer after 11pm! Just up the street from Ludwig's is a pleasent respite from walking around mid-town Philly, Sansom Street Oyster House. With windows that open onto the street and a large handsome bar, the obvious appeal here is anything raw and while the beer isn't special, you can't beat some oysters and Bass to while away the afternoon. My finally stop on the trail was way off the beat path. A quick trip up 3rd Avenue to the Nothern Liberty neighborhood brought me to The Standard Tap. The kind of neighborhood joint that anyone would be happy to have near by, The Standard Tap offers a smaller but well choosen beer list from regional brewers likes Yards, Victory, Legacy Brewing, and Dogfish head (just to name a few) and offers two beers by hand pump. If I lived in Philly, I could see myself spending a lot of time at the Standard Tap!

vitually impossible to spread butter on crappy supermarket bread (unless your butter is really soft)...you need the slick, oily processed margarine to get it right.

You might try Eastern Market, the deli guys have a wide selection of sausage.

I'll have them delivered!

My all time fave ethnic sandwich: Marmite and roasted peanuts on crappy store bought white bread slathered with margarine (preferrable Country Crock) . Does a Brit proud sniff, sniff.

Here's a list: La Casa - in the the plaza where the new Harris Teeter (Foxchase?) is going in, good cheap family run sandwich/pizza joint, closed Sundays. Shooter McGee's - nothing outstanding here, but burgers and wings are decent, has a patio that over looks the parking lot but not bad for lunch or drinks. Local crowd. Dancing Peppers - cheap mexican...again nothing great but good place to go for margaritas and tacos Table Talk (assuming still there) - good place for Sat/Sun brunch..eggs bacon etc. Mediterrean Cafe and Bakery - in the Home Depot Plaza, excellent source for olive oils, vingars, imported groceries, desserts, excellent fresh made pita, yogurt, prepped food, has a kebab/sandwich counter for good cheap food. You must go here. The plaza that has the Giant grocery store has a bunch of asian ethnic places...again all cheap and serve decent but not great food. You've not going to find great fine dining in the area, but you will find there are enough inexepnsive mom and pop places that have several good dishes to keep you happy and coming back....

Just got back from an expense account lunch at Vidalia...and I wasn't picking up the check! I like what they have done to the place, modern and sophisticated...and the food was damn good! Started with the Grillades and Grits - braised veal cheeks with creamy grits, tasso ham, green onions, tomatoes and capers...the veal cheek was lovely and went well with the creamy grits, the capers gave a nice sharp counterpoint Then went with the St. Mary's County Pork Tenderloin with pork belly, hog jowl bacon, savoy cabbage roll, braised greens, carolina gold rice, corned smithfield ham and old overholt rye pork jus...2 knobs of tenderloin wrapped in bacon, the tenderloin was perfectly pink inside...a nice cube of pork belly...the greens, rice and ham were wrapped in the cabbage roll...a very nice dish dessert went with the lemon chess pie...very lemony and very sweet...but after veal cheeks, bacon wrapped tenderloin and pork belly...perhaps a bit too much decadence! Vidalia is not cheap...but I was suitably impressed! Now I need a nap

That's where the extensive sampling of the wine cellar comes into play!

It sounds like they will have some tasting evenings to get feed back on food, test out the kitchen, help generate a buzz etc. Perhaps if we ask nice enough Chef Trautmann can do a DR.com tasting evening...what better source for ideas then us!

I'll be running around a field chasing a silly ball...have a joyous picnic.

I had a burrito from Baja Fresh Friday, horrid indigestion all afternoon...

Come over to Capitol Hill and wander around Eastern Market on the weekend...farmers market, indoor pavilion, flea market... Places to eat: Tortilla Cafe/Grill. The papusa platter will set you back $5 (across the street from the market) Canales Deli: Huge sandwiches, soda, bag of chips also under $5 (inside the Market) Market Lunch: All sorts of good cheap stuff here. (inside the Market)

Went to Rice last night for dinner. Arrived at 6:45 place was empty, by 7:45, not a seat in the house available. The complaint that the restaurant, with its hard minimal surfaces, is loud was evident last night...and every 15 minutes they dimmed the lights another notch. All in all a nice restaurant, nice modern interior, not overly expensive although the portion sizes, especially the entrees are also modern and minimal. The menu is split into 4 sections, seasonal (although they are currently stuck in fall/winter mode), authentic (what they consider to be Thai food being served in Thailand), Rice Specialties (their take on Thai) and Healthy (veggie selections) we went with a selection of apps and then two entrees Chiang Mai Pork Sausage served with fresh herbs, this is a yummy sausage flavored with Thai spices and lightly grilled. I would love to have this sausage at a summer BBQ! Green tea dumplings with shrimp, crab, and pork - nice little dumplings, nothing special but tasty, didn't really see any evidence of green tea. Pumpkin Empanada - South America via Thailand, also very tasty. Unfortunately the entrees weren't so successful...the deep fried squid with garlic and peppercorns seem to be grilled which was fine, a nice dish but nothing to write home about...very small portion. Chicken and cashews didn't do much to seperate itself from any other asian take on chicken and cashews. I'm sure there are some entree dishes that are better than what we had. My advice would to be load up on the apps...a nice spot for the neighborhood or before the area theaters...but not sure I would go out of my way to eat there unless I had other reasons to be in the 'hood.

Stopped in to Komi for dessert last night around 8:30. Restaurant was maybe half full so we were able to get a seat right away. We started things off with a platter of cheese. Sebastian kindly brought out a selection of 9. unfortunately this is not in order but as far as I can remember we had the following: Rochebaron Montbriac - from Auvergne France, cave-ripened, double creme Great Hill Blue - Buzzard's Bay, MA un-homogenized cow's milk Teleggio Vero Ciresa (this was cheese #8) - Lombardi Italy washed rind, cow's milk Nancy's Camemebert (I think this was #1) - Old Chatham, NY soft ripened sheep's milk Petit Munster Gerome - Lorraine France cow's milk Mobay - Lavalle, WI - half sheep and half goat divined by a line of ash...very good Garroxta - Catalonia Spain semi-firm fresh goat's milk Pont L'Eveque - Normandy France cow's mil triple creme, soft ripened yep I'm missing one! He then brought out 2 desserts, we tried the new doughnut selection, Greek Style Doughnuts with honey glaze and chocolate mascarpone pudding. Honestly I liked the originial doughnut presentation better, but this has more of a summer feel. The doughnut now is more of a cross between a doughnut and a pastry, then the straight up doughnut it was. The chocolate mascarpone pudding is some of the best chocolate pudding you will ever have! Then also brought a new dessert they are testing lemon polenta cupcake with basil gelato, orange blossom syrup. The cupcake was hollowed out and filled with a strong lemon curd and topped with a rich creamy merrange (sp?)...this combination worked quite well, definitely rich, however the the basil gelato really didn't work when incorporated with the cupcake...my suggestion is to take a spoonful of the cupcake, then use the basil gelato as a plalate cleanser before the next bite of cupcake...it seems they are still trying to work on this dessert conceptually right now. the basil gelato is amazing by the way...a small plate of gelato would make a very simple and elegant dessert by itself! Once again Komi distinguished itself as one of DC's top restaurant...and you really can't say enough about Sebastian and the staff...a great service to the DC dining scene. ok I'll stop gushing now!

I have soccer games at 1 pm and 2 pm respectively those weekends So unless these are late running picnics, count me out...

The New York Times food section had a pretty good article a couple weeks ago about restaurant auctions and the cottage industry that surrounds them. Restaurant owners looking for deals, culinary stores looking for stuff etc. Sounded like you could get rediculous deals, full sheet pans going for 25 cents each. Apparantly they advertise the auctions in classified section...not sure what the deal in DC is, but worth checking out. Bring cash. generally all my all-clad stuff has been gifts from now ex-girlfriends...certainly a good way to get the stuff! Also check out the william Sonoma discount store at Leesburg outlets, they usually have a ton of all-clad stuff that is marked down alot for simple things like scratches.

Pork Shoulder, green sauce, onion, peppers, broccoli rabe, provolone cheese. devine! even received the Donna nod of approval..."that's the only way to have it"

That's just wrong on sooooo many levels!

Last week I think it was ministrone as well...lots of veggies but a lot of celery (one of my least favorite veggies)...not bad for a couple bucks