chaofun

After the expansion announcement, I tried all last week to get a reservation for me and Jenna's 2nd anniversary with no luck. No one was picking up, just voice mail all week. We had spent our 1st anniversary there before Top Chef made it so popular, and LOVED it. I really wanted to get in again. Obviously it was much easier last year to get in.

Luckily today instead of voice mail I got an actual person and secured a reservation! Go get a seat while you can.....

Chef, is the Thursday Pig and Pinot still a possibility?

chaofun (Theo) and jchao (Jenna) are in for March 25th.

I'm a fairly new member, but my trend is the exact opposite. I tend to trend more towards Donrockwell than Chow these days, though I def still frequent Chow when something interesting pops up. I think one of the thing that took me a good long while to do is get used to actually VISITING the site. I'm a huge Google Reader user, and Chow definitely does a better job with RSS than IP Board. With Chow I can fit my browsing neatly with the rest of my browsing, for work, news, whatever. But with DonRockwell, I have to have a special window dedicated to it. This may sound like a minor thing, but when you are looking at literally 100's of pages a day, its a big deal.

That said Donrockwell has become important enough to me to warrant this. It fills a different niche than chow, it allows the chefs and restaurants to have a connection with us that chowhound does not allow. It is where I get most of my latest DC area food news first. Lastly, you can really trust that what people here on this board say about something is on point, as opposed to lets say, Yelp. So even if Donrockwell is not what it used to be it's a very important and useful source of information to me now.

I'm hoping to add a Mango to the Mix.

(won't know for sure 'til friday afternoon)

(but am optimistic)

chaofun and jchao are in

I would be interested in this as well as I live in Rosslyn, work in Foggy Bottom.

Thursday the 25th (title updated too).

Thx Leigh!!

When in March is the next volunteer session? Just want to block out my calendar now.

I'm on the Slow Food DC board and thought this might be of interest to some of you.

DRINK BEER AND SAVE THE WORLD

Thursday, March 25, 6:30 - 8 p.m.

District Chophouse, The Vault Room

509 7th Street NW, Washington, DC 20004

Brewer Barrett Lauer presents seven hand-crafted ales with appetizers and beer writer Chris O'Brien explains how drinking slow beer builds community and a more sustainable world. O'Brien, co-owner of the Seven Bridges Organic Brewing Supply Cooperative and Director of Sustainability at American University, will sign copies of his award-winning book Fermenting Revolution: How to Drink Beer and Save the World and answer all your questions about beer. He blogs about drinking beer and saving the world at http://www.BeerActivist.com and twitters about greening the American dream at http://twitter.com/GreenAU.

Members: $25

Nonmembers: $28

Buy Your tickets

After a few month layoff they are back at the Arlington market. This morning they had some milk, all homogenized unfortunately. Next week he said they would have cream line, and would soon be using glass bottles. Either way it's nice to have milk options again.

I'm surprised that there has not been a separate topic made for this wonderful Pit beef establishment, if there has, please move it appropriately.

I happened upon Pioneer (after reading a bit about it) today as I was traveling up to a farm up north of Baltimore. First of all, god love it, it is a wood shack by I-70. These are the kind of places I feel are sorely lacking in the DC Metro area. By ambiance alone I was happy. On top of that, I can definitely say from my limited experience, Pioneer is the best pit beef I have had. The "super" is a ton of freshly sliced well seasoned beef (top round). I order it rare, with onions and horseradish. It was heavenly.

I think my favorite thing is that it is very near a major north way corridor (695), I know where I'm stopping for lunch next time I have to drive up by Harrisburg, Pa.

FYI to any urban gardeners, there is a free to the public forum called Rooting DC this Sat, Feb 20. It will have panel discussions workshops and talks about not only gardening but many other topics.

Rooting DC

http://fieldtoforknetwork.org/rootingdc/

Workshop Schedule:

http://fieldtoforknetwork.org/blog/rooting-dc-2010-schedule-now-available/

Just saw on Chowhound that Grace Garden is closed for the foreseeable future due to damage from the snow. If this is true, hopefully they will be back on their feet quickly.

I like Flavors Soul food in Falls Church. Also the General Store in Silver Spring.

Jenna (jchao) and I are back from Mexico, and it was a great trip! We spent most of our time at the resort, but managed to make the most of our time in Playa del Carmen. We had a nice list of "to visit" from internet research, and we were lucky enough to travel with a local and some people who traveled there before. If you've never been to Playa del Carmen, 5th avenue is the main shop and restaurant strip where you walk.

The first night we had street tacos near the bus station at Benito Juarez Avenue and 5th ave. There were shrimp tacos, and pork tacos, both lightly fried at one stand, both very good. At another stand they had chorizo, beef and pork. The chorizo was great. The next night in Playa, we went to HC de Monterrey. They have amazing grilled meat tacos, specifically arrachera style tacos. Arrachera is basically thinly sliced flank steak. They grill it in a large grill area in front of you. It's given to you with crema, fresh avacado, and salsa. The meat is given to you fresh off the grill and you cut it up and make your own tacos. The pork ribs and the beef short ribs were great as well, but the arrachera were the best. There was also a chorizo with cheese appetizer that was really good. Try and get the spicy chorizo if you order it. We went next to one Rocks suggested, El Fagon, which happens to be next door. They specialize in tacos al pastor, which is pork cooked shwarma style on a vertical spit. It is fantastic. We also ordered chorizo tacos which were also very very good. Both El Fagon and HC de Monterrey are next to the Mega on Constituyentes between 30th and 25th.

On the last night we went to Carboncitos which is on 4th st between the main strip (5th ave) and 10th. They do fantastic tacos al pastor. They present the meat cut up to you, you make your own tacos. Very good salsas, they had a pumpkin seed one that I'd never had before. Also that night I managed to get a large Molcajete with a painted pig face for $25, which was 50% off the asking price.

Overall a great trip. The only things we missed was a good churro stand, which we found in cozumel the last time we were in Mexico, and seafood. There was wonderful ceviche in the resort, but I would have liked to try it in Playa, as well as other seafood (besides the shrimp tacos which were great). Next time we will stay in Playa del carmen as opposed to a resort, so we can do a little more exploring.

PS - to StorageLady, if you have to stay in Cancun and can't go to Playa, I would recommend searching chowhound to start. I think you will have to leave the hotel zone, either way. Rocks gave a good tip to me which was ask your taxi cab driver where the best places to eat might be. They would know.

PPS - Sometime I'll have to visit Merida (where my local buddy was from), which is supposed to be beautiful, and have excellent regional food choices.

-Theo (chaofun)

Depending on how your web filters work, your best option would be using a VPN. I had to do that when I worked at a .gov to use chat.

I went to Montreal for a bachelor party over the MLK weekend, which was a blast. I finally got to visit APDC, which was fantastic. I love the fact that the portions are huge and and general felt really accessible. I shared a pigs head which was really cool, though I prob would not order it twice, there is just so much worth having on the menu. The chicharrones and fries are heavenly fried in duck fat and must be had.

We also did the traditional steak thing at Moishe's which was fine, nothing earth shattering. I tried to get into La Banquise for poutine but it was jam packed, and Joe Beef which was too far from where we were spending our time. They will have to wait till next time. This time around though before I went home, I picked up a dozen bagels from St-Viateur cafe and a nice 4 pound chunk of smoked meat for home.... Checked it on the plane. Bagels are gone already but the brisket is waiting for a special day to break out.

Jenna (jchao) and I will be visiting Playa del Carmen in the coming days for a wedding. I've got a small list of internet researched places from Chowhound, Rick Bayless, Jacques Pepin and here. Of course I will report and let everyone know my findings unless for some reason I get marooned in the resort all week.

Also I really want to pick up a molcajete while I'm there. If anybody has some MUST visits let me know!

Thanks, everyone, for coming out tonight. Full house!

I just realized that our scheduled February date is only 10 days away, so let's get some names down fast.

Monday, Feb 8th. Who's in?

That was great fun! Thanks again for organizing! Jenna and I will be out of town for the next outing, sunny Mexico.... We'll have to hit March instead.

I believe Rock Bottom in both Bethesda and Ballston do growlers as well. I have not checked in a while though.

On twitter District Taco http://twitter.com/districttaco says ALL sales today (Monday) will go to help with the Haiti crisis. If you are in Rosslyn today, you might want to check them out.

I'm in +1 (jchao)

I need a restaurant with a beer list that will keep the vegetarian happy (no meat, no chicken, no fish) with a menu that will keep me happy with a Dino to Palena price range. We also have to be able to make a reservation on a Saturday night. If Churchkey served actual food it would be perfect. Thoughts?

Pizzeria Paradiso has a good tap, and I'm pretty sure Brasserie Beck has a large Belgian tap as well.

He's still doing what he does! I went within the last year for I don't remember what, but he and the dogs were the same as ever.... which is somehow comforting. He still forgot my order 3 times while chatting about something, but the end result was a pretty good dog.

Ach, Carol, same here...I can't believe that I'm surfing Don Rockwell for good restaurants, and I see....MANOUCHE. Ayyy, I always wondered what happened to him.

Another awesome Pig and Pinot chef. Loved the Shoat, must have ordered at least 6 of them. The new deserts were wonderful as well. We'll be back very soon at our usual table