RaisaB

Under no circumstances eat in the touristy areas. You will get bad expensive food. Don't order sodas in restaurants.Wine is cheaper,or if not of legal age,ask for Une Carafe d'Eau. (carafe of tap water). What is your definition of inexpensive? Do you plan to have your large meal at night or at lunch? I know Paris pretty well so let me know and I will give you some suggestions. Try Egullet.com also,they have alot more on the subject.

Dolce Vita most definately. It is casual, the food is good and the atmosphere is fun. Roaming guitarists on weekends. But you probably won't see this ....

I have only had positive experiences with Great American. I agree with Sthitch though, I won't wait over an hour for a table. I would rather get back in my car and drive to Arlington or the District. Their service, though not of the caliber of a place like Citronelle, is great. At Coastal Flats, my daughters soda was delivered in a dirty glass, and when I mean dirty (well it looked like dried on puke).. We brught it to their attention and within seconds, the manager was at the table apologizing. We were told the tables' desserts would be comped, plus they also comped her meal and drinks. It is just too bad she did not order the bottle of wine! Sweetwaters beer does kind of stink, but on Monday they have half priced wine bottles. Consdering the other choices, Ruby Tuesdays, TGIFridays, UNO's, Great American seems like fine dining at times. And now you know how pathetic my weekday dining out life usually is.

Dean, It is a vicious cycle. When I want to go locally to eat, I ONLY have chains to choose from. (See previous thread) Until that moment when small restaurateurs (sp?) start opening restaurants where I live, I have no choice but to support these chains and the cycle. By the way, I have a Bonefish across the road from me, I see Slavin and Sons delivering there every day. That isn't exactly a bad supplier or cheap at that. As far as a chain restaurant goes, I think they are one of the best. The other chain I think does very well is the Great American.

Oh come on! Where are the deleted parts, I know there are some! THis is not fair, I did not get to read them. Damn it!

BTW read my post on EG about Yves Camdeborde's place! If you can somehow make a reservation, do it. It is 40 euros for 7 courses. It is unbelievable. If you can't snag a reservation, try walking up and getting an outside table. It really is awesome! I absolutely love this man's cooking!

For everything in one place, and an excellent selection. go to Galeries Gourmand. It is at Place Maillot, right off the Champs Elysee. You can walk or take the Metro there, it leaves you right at it! (Line #1) You can't miss it because it is in the underground shopping area right at Concorde Lafayette Hotel which is the tallest point in the area. Le Palais de Congres is also there. The wonderful thing about this place is that it is open Sundays! There is a little wineshop called Vin D'or about 2 blocks from there, It is run by a charming Frenchman named Bruno. He usually has some excellent but inexpensive wiones available, he also has tastings on Saturdays from time to time. If you need further details, PM me.

Shogun, if you needed it by Wednesday of next week, I could bring you back some from my trip on Sunday. I could just buy it at Monoprix or Auchan.

Seriously, it was very impressive that Michael did this with only 1 or 2 people assisting him. Thank you very much Michael. Thanks also to HillVAlley and DonRocks for putting it all together. Though I am wondering, is there really a DonRocks? It was so very nice meeting so many of you after only 2 years of posting here and there!

If it is really bad, I won't go as I have a bit of driving to do. But I don't expect a refund if I don't come. Hopefully the roads will be good.

I think you gave the management enough notice to rectify the problem. They chose not to. I am guessing Chez Marc? Won't you please let us know? This forum is meant to be informative, not speculative.

Are you using the Epicurious recipe for the pumpkin cheesecake? If you are and itis the one with the nut crust also, the pecan halves look beautiful circled around the top edges. No disrespect meant to Barbara above but I think it would be too many flavors competing to have the Dulce de Leche on top. That is just my personal preference.

No I used the word sucks, but I said it with a laugh. I was not in the cheesriest of moods, I probably shouldn't of said it.

I went to Paulimoto's with my kids for lunch today. We all ordered the tofu miso soup, which was served lukewarm. The kids all ordered standard Chinese stuff, Lo Mein and rice! How hard can it be to screw that up? Well I tasted their food and while it was good, it must of had a ton of MSG in it because I instantly got a head rush and a headache. I had the Ceviche small plate, which was indeed small, but I wasn't hungry, and actually it was very good. I think it was slices of tuna, yellowtail, and the third fish escapes me, marinated ceviche style served in a wine glass. They still need to work on the servers skills though. One server could not serve the soups, so I took them from him and served the table. He had sloshed the soup all over the liner plates and was unsure of holding the tray and serving. The other poor server placed her tray on a stand and served from there, but as she took the plates off, she did it from the inside out, and the tray started falling. I caught it. I take this in stride as I remember doing the exact same things the first hew weeks I waitressed years ago. Would I go back? No, but only because of the MSG.

I was presented with an invitation to go with some friends to an expensive crummy restaurant tonight or as Don would put it, "A place that sucks Ventworms nuts". How did I handle it? Well I liked three of the other 5 people going and if it was a good restaurant I would of gone. But 2 of the people were not worth putting up with them and bad food. So I politely declined saying it would be a logistical nightmare with all my children's activities tonight and then I poloitely added that I thought the restaurant sucked. I am sure I will be brought up in conversation tonight.

Does anyone here know the differences between a cooked and uncooked Virginia ham? If I wanted more of a Serrano or Prociutto type slice, would I buy the cooked or the uncooked? I realize it will be totally different from either one of these but I always thought there was only one type of Virginia ham. This topic is also being discussed on EG, but the board there seems a bit slow. I hope I am not breaking any rules by posing the same question here. I figured there might be more people on here who were familiar with Virginia hams than on there.

I know you are probably in the District, but Mom's Apple Pie Company in Herndon makes great pies. It is all they do. I don't know if they sell at any of the farmer's markets but you may want to call them. They are seriously good. Moms Apple Pie Co.

Yes, but Rosslyn has a decent chain Rio Grande. You also are very close to some awesome restaurants within 2 or 3 miles. I know I made my bed by choosing to live out here, restaurants just weren't the priority back then . I just keep wondering why we get stuff like IHOP! Yuck! I know eventually we might get 1 or 2 or maybe 3 good places, I just hope I still have teeth left at that point in my life.

I really never noticed alot of microwave stuff in Joy of Cooking, but it does have alot of things you wouldn't of found in the old book. I used it to make Tres Leches cake one Christmas and the recipe was authentic. Mark Bittmans, How To Cook Everything, I have, but I have cooked nothing from it. I will check it out. Fannie Farmer I have also and I used to use it quite often before I got Joy.

I have had the Costco Kirkland version of the Allclad for years now and love it. I saw it today at the store, I think it was 39.99.

The Joy of Cooking The New Basics by Sheila Lukins I prbably have over 200 CookBooks but Joy is the one I turn to for Basics or really anything. The New Basics is perfect for a more modern twist.

Joe, I know the place you mean, it is kind of a good ole boys place. Twins, Yes Warrenton has Claires at the Depot and the Whistle Stop which is a condensed version of The RailStop in Warrenton. I have tried most of the other restaurants in town and besides Foster's burgers, none are worth the time or money. All three of these are doing very well.

I am sure their whites must be decent, but I am not a white wine drinker, (unless it is a White Burgundy Preferably Corton Charlemagne ). I tried one but I just can't drink them. (Whites)

They are relatively but so is BoneFish. Centreville has Rosemary's Thyme Bistro, and Sweetwater which are same price range, but are full of families. I am not trying to be snooty, I just want to have a choice of good food....

That is exactly my point. There are alot of valid points being mentioned but they do not really address what I started this post about. My neighbors and I eat at BoneFish at least once a week. Other nights we go to The Plains, Culpepper (which is far but away from traffic), Centreville or Fairfax. The Great American chain is one I would welcome. But small places with good chefs, where are they? We had a restaurant called Samia's here which has tried to reincarnate itself 3 different times now, but noone goes because the food sucks. it is foodservice crap that is finished off in the kitchen. I can go to Costco and get better. In fact I think the owner is looking for a buyer so he can get rid of the place. Why didn't he just invest in a good chef? I know why, it is because he doesn't know the difference. This area is definately a culinary wasteland. (Western Prince William)