ScotteeM

This past Saturday evening my husband and I enjoyed a fantastic meal at Fiola. We were seated in the front area, where I had a view of the entrance. Many diners arrived wearing jeans (some even with shirts untucked) and all were greeted graciously and seated. So no one should be offended or insulted. Tuxedo t-shirt? Sounds a little overdressed.

My husband and I will really miss Aldo Molina, as will many others. He was a really great cheesemonger. He worked the last 9 years at Arrowine, and before that he was at Dean & Deluca in Georgetown, where my husband first met him. Even though I only visited Arrowine occasionally, Aldo would always ask after me when my husband made his regular visits. He always picked cheeses for us that we loved. He knew them very well.

This post has been a long time in coming. Bibiana is my favorite restaurant in the DC Metro area. My husband and I have been following Chef Stefanelli's career since he was at Maestro. We are so pleased that he has found his own niche in Bibiana. The staff are all very welcoming and take very good care of all of their diners. Everyone is committed to ensuring happy dining experiences. My own experience with the food is limited by my gluten intolerance, but my favorites dishes (as in you should definitely try them) include the fried artichokes, hay-smoked sweetbreads, and the seafood mixed grill. They have all been consistently wonderful. Braised veal dishes, lamb dishes, and fish have all been wonderful. Salads can be a revelation here. The sea scallops are to die for! Last night we had the medjool dates stuffed with foie gras for the first time, and they were delicious. We also loved the yellow-fin tuna carpaccio with its dollops of cream and baby celery and lemon. Chef has created a menu that is easily adaptable to the seasons. Many basic items remain, with their accompaniments changing seasonally. Others change totally from one season to the next. I can't list every dish we have had and loved at Bibiana, but there have been many.

I've been a member of Potomac Vegetable Farms for 3 years (I think) and just signed up for my fourth year. My husband and I love the vegetables, and love the chance to try some that are unfamiliar. The regular share is more than enough for 2 people who don't eat out very often. I've ended up sharing with neighbors and friends at times when I had excess (or had something like cilantro that I dislike). I don't recommend going for the robust share for a family of 2 adults, especially if you're not vegetarian. It will overwhelm you. If you want more details on what we've gotten in the past, I would be happy to be your friend on facebook so that you can see photos and lists I've posted in previous years. I'm Scottee Maddox Meade on Facebook.

We finally got to The Happy Tart today. The larder was a bit bare because of the crowds that attended the grand opening yesterday, but we left with two lemon mango squares, two tiny lime tarts, an apple turnover that was still warm, and a large baguette. The turnover was awesome with coffee when we got home. The crust is lovely, light and flaky, like a nice pie crust. It's the sort of pastry I thought I'd never taste again after going gluten free. I can't wait to try the rest of our loot tonight with and after dinner! The Happy Tart is a welcome addition to Northern Virginia, and I wish them years of success.

That would be Pho King, in Del Ray.

I also used GF bread to make breadcrumbs. Udi's is good, but I like Rudi's better overall. I also have used plain Glutino crackers to make cracker meal. Please let us know what you are making and how the event goes!

Is Old Ebbitt Grill's Happy Hour still the best raw bar deal in town? I don't see much reference to it on the OEG website, so not sure if it is still happening. We've been indulging the last few years, but the price of parking before 6 cuts into the bargain. Last year, we had wonderful oysters ordered separately, but the Orca platter wasn't as good as we remembered. The oysters were kind of plain and the snow crab legs were watery and tasteless. Has anyone had it recently? Any other suggestions?

Stumbled on this thread this morning while perusing the Dining Guide looking for something new and close by. We're so happy to find this place! We tried the hummus with chicken, which blew me away. The chicken was nicely seasoned and deftly grilled, with good char, but not overcooked. The hummus was rich and smooth. We also ordered the feta cheese with cucumber slices and olives, ostensibly so that I could dip the cucumber in the hummus, but that dish stood well on its own--I happen to love those canned black olives. We also shared the makluba with chicken, which is that lovely rice dish with roasted veggies described above, topped with a delicious half of a roasted/grilled chicken. We wound up with plenty of leftovers to take home for tomorrow's lunch. I couldn't try the bread (gluten intolerant) but it looked and smelled really great and very fresh. The salad that came with the makluba was light and refreshing. The down side: Google Maps directed us to take Columbia Pike north, turn left on Courtland and right on Payne, with the restaurant up the street on the right. No mention of having to cross 4 lanes of busy Route 7 with no traffic light to get there! Lesson learned! We won't go that way next time.

I'm so glad the forum is up and running again! Even though I don't post very often, I read almost daily. I do agree that the subtitles really added a lot to the topics, but given the choice of no subtitles or no DR.COM, I would choose the former. I also miss the button that takes you back to the top of the page, and I hope it will be found, but I can live without it, too. I don't do change very well, either, but after a few days of no forum, I'm happy with having it back, changes and all!

Mr. S and I made our first visit to Old Town Manassas today, and chose Okra's for lunch. We split an order of Choctaw Oysters (6 for $11.95). I thought they were fine, although I agreed with Mr. S that the corn and andouille sausage tended to drown out the flavor of the oysters themselves. I think it is a matter of personal preference that we like our oysters less adorned. Mr. S had a shrimp po' boy with French fries. The large sandwich was stuffed with small fried shrimp, lined with lettuce and tomato. I wasn't able to taste it, but I'm told the shrimp were tasty and well-cooked (neither over nor under cooked) and lightly sauced (remoulade?). In fact, a little more sauce would have really hit the spot, he reports. At $7.95 for an 8-inch sandwich brimming with shrimp, I thought it a reasonable deal. A 4-inch sandwich will set you back $4.95. The accompanying fries ($1.95) were large waffle-cut slabs, crispy on the outside and creamy ("potato-y") inside. Mr. S is particular about fries, and he seemed to really enjoy these. I had a "tee" (small) portion of jambalaya ($9.95) with maque choux on the side ($2.95). A small was plenty for me, and I ended up bringing home leftovers. I really enjoyed the jambalaya, but I don't have a point of reference. I was worried that it might be too spicy for me as a Scoville wimp, but the spicing was just right. As for the maque choux, I would have liked a little more ham flavor, and I prefer a version with cream, but overall it was a nice side. Again, my criticism is more personal preference than execution. My unsweetened ice tea tasted like brewed tea, which was a plus. The decor is bright and colorful (it was remodeled in 2005), the music soft and upbeat. I imagine it could be pretty loud when it's running at full capacity, but it was pretty quiet at lunch today. I was very happy that they provided a separate list of gluten-free menu items. I might not have tried this restaurant if I hadn't seen that on their website. And I might have overlooked this little restaurant altogether if this forum had not be inaccessible yesterday when I was planning our excursion. We look forward to returning to Okra's. Edited to add: The service was friendly and attentive.

Don, have you checked the reviews on Amazon.com for the pepper spray product preferred by the UC Davis police? As of this writing, there are fully 320 reviews, up from 6 earlier in the week. Must be very popular.

Thanks for posting this, Qwertyy! It ain't cheap, but if it is as good as I think it is, maybe even I might try baking! I'd love to see a review or two from folks who DO bake.

I noticed on the Skytop Lodge website that the room rates include 3 meals/day. It sounds to me as if you might have been mistaken for guests of the lodge, hence the menus with no prices. However, they really should keep track of their diners and KNOW who is staying at the lodge and who is there just for dinner. It sounds like disastrous service all around.

For years my department head has hosted a modest buffet luncheon for the whole hospital staff at the holidays. He always gets platters of cold cuts and vegetarian roll-ups from Shoppers Food Warehouse (they have sandwich platters, too). Not fancy, and easy on the wallet. Makes the whole hospital happy for an afternoon.

Since this thread has been updated, I'll throw out my two cents for Sommo Coffee. I've been buying their various offerings through a buying club for more than a year now, and I really enjoy them. The website lists retail outlets and offers online ordering. They are local (Reston) and roast to order.

With limited resources in our kitchenette at the Residence Inn Marriott in Merrifield, a salad of arugula with Hakorei turnips and green meat radish from our CSA with homemade miso salad dressing, boiled potatoes (also from our CSA), and shrimp (from H-Mart) in a garlic cream sauce.

The best g-f pasta I've found comes from Italy. We love Le Asolane and La Veniziane, which can be ordered from Quattrobimbi. It is not at all inexpensive, although my understanding is that a large portion of the increased cost is a special tax on imported g-f pastas, and that this tax may be eliminated in the near future. Meanwhile, we don't have pasta as a cheap meal, but we enjoy it for the special meal it has become. I have not tried everything on the website, but I did try the g-f couscous, and it was good, although I'm certainly not an expert on that food.

Those emails have become spam for me. I've written 3 or 4 pleading emails to be removed from their mailing list with no response, and the emails keep coming.

From what I've read on another thread, Olive Garden's GF pasta comes pre-cooked and packaged with a red sauce. This is done to prevent cross-contamination. I would be very wary of the rest of the offerings there, as the risk of cross-contamination could be quite high. And simply removing croutons from a Cesar salad is not safe for the truly gluten-intolerant or celiac individuals. Any given restaurant can have a "gluten-free" menu, but if the servers and the kitchen staff aren't trained to avoid errors and contamination, it does no good. Separate preparation surfaces, changing gloves before preparing GF food, are two very necessary precautions. French fries that are cooked in the same oil as flour-coated or batter-coated items such as onion rings are not GF. Even if the oil is freshly changed, the risk of cross-contamination from previous use of the fryer is a high risk. That being said, I hope you had a lovely and healthy lunch.

We got two beauties last week at Wegmans in Fairfax. They were $9.99 each, and they measured 6 inches point to point--they were HUGE! They were also very lively--I cleaned them minutes before I put them in the pan. We added a few large fresh wild-caught shrimp to the pan as well, and it was plenty for the two of us. At that price, we won't buy them as often as we used to, but we like to support the industry when we can.

Mr. ScottteeM is headed for Cairo in a few weeks, for work. Anyone been there recently?

I've had so many wonderful dishes at Eve, mostly in the bar for the Lickety Split Lunch. Today's Antelope Scrapple on a disk of potatoes coated in corn meal, with a poached Polyface Farm egg on top, left me wishing I'd ordered it for both of my courses. Yummy goodness, indeed. Of course, the risotto with peas and bacon that followed was delicious, too. And all of it was gluten free! Bonus!

Being gluten intolerant, I can't eat pita bread ever. I do carry an airtight container of GF crackers and bread with me when I eat out (which is often), and it's never been a problem. One memorable experience I had at Zaytinya in Penn Quarter was that they provided sliced cucumber for me to use with the hummus and baba ganoush, which was wonderful!

After a fantastic meal tonight, the last night of the soft opening, I can say with confidence that you will not be disappointed. All is not as it seems on paper. I'll try to post some details tomorrow. I'm too stuffed right now!