cjsadler

It's not cloudy, but not consommé clear, which I don't care about. It does depend on how careful you are when you strain it.

Right. It's not murky or anything. It's a nice golden color. I don't care about it being perfectly clear either-- the flavor is as good and for just about any purpose beyond a consomme-type soup it won't matter. I didn't even bother with blanching this last time-- keeps it simpler and doesn't seem to matter to the finished product. Scum skimming suddenly seems superfluous

My charcuterie consumption is up about 68% since this place opened. The prices are much, much better than when RA is/was at the farmer's markets (they were selling most of their cured meats for $80/lb if you added it up!). The cured products are fantastic and most go for either $16 or $25/lb. Only complaint is that the texture on most of the fresh sausages is not so great (I think J. Stachowski called them "too dense" in that Post article about RA a few weeks ago).

Pressure cookers save a tremendous amount of time and energy, it extracts natural flavors exponentially [great results to get a very flavorful chicken stock].

I've become a total convert to making chicken stock with a pressure cooker. Takes only about an hour and the results are superior to what you'd get from simmering (apparently there's some scientific basis for this).

Kind of an obscure location, but apparently a popular neighborhood place (it was packed on Saturday-- we waited about 30 minutes for a table). Loud and without much in the way of atmosphere, but the food was good-to-very-good and fairly priced. The wedge salad I had ($7) was like half a large head of lettuce (I gave a large cut of it to someone else at the table and was still left with a good sized salad), with a nice buttermilk-blue cheese dressing and good bacon. I paired the salad with a plate of two great short-rib sliders. My dining companions also enjoyed what they ordered. The fish tacos that one of them raved about (a house specialty here, we were told) looked delicious. There were some well-priced picks on the wine list, especially for MoCo (we went with the Chehalem INOX chardonnay, which I believe was $30). $9 for a Lagunitas IPA was a bit crazy, though. If you're near the Glen Echo area, this a great place for a casual meal. It's still owned and run by the Persimmon folks.

Damn.

They often have different pimento cheeses open for sampling at Harris Teeter. All the ones I've tried I thought were pretty gross. I did have that stuff at Grape and Bean pictured in the first post-- it was ok, but this is something you're so much better off making at home... so simple, and much tastier and cheaper. I use something close to this recipe. The onion addition is nice.

I'm definitely no ramen expert, but after having been to most of the other new places (Daikaya, Sakuramen, Toki), I still like Taan. From what I understand, the broths are a bit richer and more non-traditional here. All I know is that I find the pork and duck ramen to be delicious. Both have lots of nice little additions to them. Besides a leg of confit, the duck ramen has fried shallots, tomato confit, pickled cucumbers and a few other things that make it interesting. I've found that I get tired of eating a giant bowl of relatively plain ramen. Only issue I've had here is that the broths have tended to be very salty. I mentioned this to them, and maybe some other people did as well, as the salt levels seem to have come down a bit.

Now I'm not one to usually pass up duck confit and pork belly, but the vegetarian ramen, made with a beet broth and topped with pickled vegetables, might actually be the best one. In hot weather, I'd definitely opt for it over the heavy meat ramens.

I noted turbogrrl's comment about the prices. From 5-7, all beer and wine is half price (and on other certain nights sake and cocktails are half price as well). On Mondays you can combine that with all ramen being $10.

As sheldman said, this place seems under the radar. It was full, though, so a certain crowd seems to know about it. From what I can remember, the decor didn't change much from when it was Mendocino. It's a very small, cozy place.

Beets and goat cheese are certainly overdone, but the version here with pickled beets was fantastic (look at it!). Having many of the entrees at half portions for half price allows you to set up a little tasting menu. Forget restaurant week-- you can do three courses here for about $35 (it was only $30 for what I ordered). The beets along with half portions of the hanger steak and the gnocchi (both good) were more than enough food for me. Unum should be getting more attention.

I visited Swing's coffee house, which officially opened today. Twice. I had expresso both times and they were excellent. There is nowhere else in Old Town--and probably Alexandria--that comes close to making espresso like the better cafes in DC. Swing's does.

Is the coffee house in Alexandria at the same location as the roasting plant?

Growlers really seem to be taking off, and not just at the usual places I'd expect. Near me in Adams Morgan, both Metro Wine & Spirits and Sherry's (places I'd classify more as "liquor stores") have recently got growler systems up and running.

One of the best things I've ever eaten was the wood-oven cooked octopus at Marco Polo. Just looked online, though, and there's some grumbling that the place has gone downhill (apparently Rick Bayless recommended it on PBS). The best meal I had was at El Naranjo (where I also got a great cooking lesson from their chef), but it looks like they've moved to Austin, TX. Sorry, but I'm blanking on the names of the other restaurants I went to.

Definitely check out the markets, get some ice cream from the vendors around the zocolo, drink lots of mezcal, eat grasshoppers, eat Oaxacan cheese, go to Monte Alban, buy lots of art... I loved Oaxaca.

Dinner there last night. I'm half Croatian, but know next to nothing about the cuisine other than a few things my grandmother used to make. The comments above are right that the Balkan Kabobs were sorta like your average breakfast sausages. The Veal Schnitzel was a bit different than what you'd expect. It was a pounded veal cutlet, but then rolled into a long tube and fried. Rolling it up into a thick tube like that made the bites of veal fairly tough, plus the breading did not stay on very well... not a successful idea. Tried a few other things, but the Mushroom Crepes and the bread basket with spreads were probably the two best savory plates we had. The most interesting dish, though, was the Forest Gnocchi dessert. Now that foams and gels and all that seem to have been abandoned, the current modernist fad seems to be making things look like a nature scene (copied from the restaurant Noma in Denmark?). This was pretty tasty, though I'm not sure the flavors of some of the listed ingredients, such as black tea, came through. It's only $6-- order it. Interesting Balkan-focused wine list and the mezcal/pear/rakia cocktail was nice.

The $4 happy hour menu looks like the best way to sample Ambar if you're curious. The bars were packed (downstairs, upstairs, and an outside patio one).

FYI: Free corkage on Tuesdays here.

Somehow this did not do it for me, but it's probably more the style than the beer. I had Ayinger Celebrator a month or so ago, #1 on BA for the style, and I remember it tasting much like this. A lot of malt but what is really memorable for me is the boozy, dark fruit smell and taste that lingers, Not a big fan of boozy in a beer. Since I rarely eat plums, figs or dates, I'm not really sure what that dark fruit taste is with the boozy, but it's one or some combination of those (and maybe raisins as well), More of a dessert drink of something to accompany hefty meats.

Agree with VikingJew and jrichstar on those big, caramel-y fig and date flavors in this beer. Has more hops than you'd get with German versions, and personally I think this is the best American dobblebock (not that there is all that many of them..). I like this beer quite a bit, though I'm rarely in the mood for it (as jrichstar mentioned it is more of a dessert/heavy meal/winter night beer).

I'm not sure how I feel about Celebrator, which I happened to have again recently. That beer has a weird, distinctive soy sauce note to me. I'm curious if anyone else gets that.

Kliman's take: http://www.washingtonian.com/blogs/bestbites/food-restaurant-news/suna-fascinating-frustratingand-gone-in-a-flash.php

I thought Kliman nailed this review* To me, the food at Suna was beautiful, technically well-executed, and not particularly delicious or satisfying (in several senses of 'satisfying', one being that we were all still hungry after the 8-course and had to order snacks at Harold Black after). The dashi custard dish was a highlight for me as well (though the custard eaten by itself was quite bland-- the dish might have been even better if the custard had more flavor), as was the beet dish. Other than that, I thought the dishes were somewhat interesting, but unremarkable flavor-wise. It's unfortunate that Suna is closing, though-- I would have loved to have seen how it progressed.

*Probably because it's exactly what I was thinking about Suna "We rarely find men of good sense... save those that agree with us in opinion".

Like VikingJew, I had hard time trying to finish one of these (thankfully I only bought a single). In fact, I poured half of it down the drain. At 10% abv it just wasn't worth it. Has a murky porter-ish flavor (not the roast of a stout) with some faint coffee and chocolate notes. Without much flavor, the booze becomes unpleasant. I have a hard time imagining anyone drinking this next to Founders Breakfast Stout and thinking 3 Beans is anywhere near the same level.

I would have sworn that Sucks was made primarily with Citra hops (a fairly new breed of hops that has a distinctive citrus/fruit aroma), but searched to see what hops they use and apparently I'm wrong.

Ha, that was actually my own criteria, and I seemed to have failed miserably. I'll do a little more research on distribution next time. Maryland I get, but I figured anything in NoVa would be in DC. My apologies to the gang and hopefully swing #2 will result in something for everyone.

Go with your other choice of Lagunitas Sucks? That would be an interesting one. It's out right now in DC, MD, and VA. I think (?) it meets Ted's criteria of being available at most "better" beer shops (might wanna call first, though-- this stuff is popular).

Left Hand doesn't distribute in DC proper, right? Or at least I've never seen any of their beers in DC stores.

Back on topic: where have people found Stone Enjoy By ... at retail?

I found a bottle at Cairo (their last one they said), but haven't seen any anywhere since. This stuff seems to have come and gone very quickly, unfortunately.

I had a bottle tonight from some friends who both found 6-packs in convenience stores for $23.99.

It is (as to be expected) a crazy smooth example of a strong IPA, almost to the point of being too subdued. Maybe it's just my poor memory but I seem to recall last tear's batch being a little more aggressive on the front end. Whatever though, it is still really good - of course whether or not the price and hype are worth it is an entirely different discussion. I had a glass of Stone's "Enjoy By..." this weekend as well and actually preferred it of the two. It's a very good time to be a beer drinker if you like these styles of beers.

And I'd jump on a beer tasting club for sure.

People over on Beer Advocate are saying the 1/15 batch of Hopslam (which is the one that made it to DC) seems to be off. I think I agree. It's good, but the hop aroma and flavor seems to be muted compared to years past. Hard to tell, though, if that's just my memory playing tricks on me or that there's so many other good DIPAs that Hopslam has to compete with now (like ad.mich, I thought the Enjoy By was preferable... easily so for me).

I love the virtual beer tasting idea.

They may have tap options that aren't available in bottles, but those options are whatever is available through the distributor. In that sense I don't believe they have access to any exclusives from the brewery. DFH bottles a pretty staggering range of their product; aside from a couple one-offs at ChurchKey or something I can't recall much that makes it out of DE in kegs only.

The Rehoboth brewpub serves some one-off beers that aren't available in bottles (I just took a look out of curiosity and they have 5 exclusive brews on tap right now, including a chocolate-lobster stout ), but I've never seen anything at the DC area places that wasn't also available in bottles except for the "mixed" beers: 75-Minute (half 90 and half 60 Min) and Black and Tan (half Chicory Stout and half 90-Minute).

I was surprised to find it in a pretty industrial part of town and it's essentially a shiny glass island of a building on a huge blacktop so it's easily found if you're not familiar with Frederick.

It wasn't where I was expecting it to be either. I believe it's a former car dealership (?) We were happier with the "American classic" dishes on the menu. The fancier stuff (like a rockfish dish for $19) was underwhelming. The fried chicken is excellent and somehow only $11 for a good sized portion (it was like a whole small chicken). Get the pot-pie fritters and the zucchini side dish, which was surprisingly great (the zucchini seemed to be smoked).

Reasonably priced and interesting drink menu: a list of flips (a mezcal-based one, a rye one and one other) for $8 and a short, interesting wine list at fair mark-ups. The Backyard Ale, a smoked beer collaboration between locals Flying Dog and Brian Voltaggio, is a steal at $3 a bottle (this beer is sold at stores only by individual 12oz bottles for about the same price).

I was underwhelmed by those same Chocolate City beers (1814 and Copper Ale) too. Reminiscent of some my homebrews... not a good thing! Hopefully CC will improve as time goes on.

Went last week as well, and enjoyed quite a few of the dishes. The lamb sopes, suckling pork tacos, and the tuna taquitos (very finely diced raw tuna and sweet potato in a tiny fried malanga shell) were the standouts for me.

The misses:

Thought the crab taquitos were heavy on the coconut-- couldn't taste the crab.

The very thick, bland pepita seed dip that was served with the pork rinds was left uneaten.

A salad with an interesting dressing (though too little of it. I think it might have been made with oil from chorizo?) had an odd layer of thinned, pureed avocado on the bottom, which didn't work.

The margaritas were pretty good, especially the one with the mezcal float that I had.

Dessert - they were out of the tres leches parfait which everyone at the table wanted to try (and we were a 730 reservation) but I'm sure they've adjusted (the waiter mentioned literally everyone had ordered that).

Same thing happened to us-- out of the tres leches. The coconut flan was a bit too stiff and had an odd texture, like there was flour in it.

It ended up being a lot of food for the price. I'll definitely be interested in going back when they open, but depending on what they price these dishes at. The small plates thing can make for an expensive meal sometimes.