Biotech

I live in the Tysons side of Vienna and I second Thai Pillin on Rte. 7. It's definitely worth checking out. It's my favorite thai around my house Shamshiry is good as is Panjshir II (far end of Vienna on 123, so traffic can be a pain). Songbird on Old Courthouse at 123 is decent Korean with a large Korean clientele (probably as a result of the US/Korean science cooperative building on Old Gallows). In the same set of strip malls is a Lebanese place which serves up pretty good fare.

My boss and I ate at Acadiana yesterday after going to the Washington auto show. The show was fun, but I won't make the mistake of eating at Acadiana again. At 2pm we had to wait for a table while the hostess got people's coats and took a personal phone call while bantering with a server. Our server stepped away from our table twice while taking our order and seemed less than thrilled to be serving us...whatever. I'm used to a terrible service industry in DC. Most other cities understand the meaning of the word service, but that's another thread. So my boss ordered the shrimp with grits and an order of hush puppies and I ordered the oyster po boy and a side of blue cheese cole slaw. To say I was disappointed would be an understatement. First, my oysters were dirty, gritty, and full of oyster crap. They tasted old and were definitely sub standard. I ate half of the sandwich. The cole slaw was a total mistake. It was ice cold and was limp and bland except the blue cheese which was nothing better than I could buy at Giant. It was simply cole slaw with blue cheese chunks thrown in. There was absolutely no thought put into this side. My boss' hush puppies should have been good. They were studded with enough jalapenos and other bits, but were surprisingly bland and boring. His shrimp were overcooked and rubbery. He left about half of his lunch too. The best part of the meal were the pillsbury-like biscuits. We had three servings. We both left thinking we should have followed through on the initial plan to go Zatinya. At least I got to sit in some expensive cars.

Abso-freakin'-lutely

I agree, my meals at Corduroy have always been fabulous.

I think Rocks is asking how it went. Well, the short of it is that I wouldn't judge Citronelle by this dinner. We had a choice of osso bucco, filet mignon, or crab cakes for dinner. We weren't in the restaurant proper, but in a meeting room below. Our servers were a bunch of surly help hired, I think, for the night. The osso bucco was decent, but no better than what one can make at home. Wine choices were basic, but appealed to a wide crowd. I wasn't impressed at all with the dinner, but it was a totally different setting and experience from the restaurant proper. Appetizers were predictable as was the salad starter and unmemorable dessert. The whole dinner could be summed up as "serviceable," but not necessarily worth $100 a head. The food, however, wasn't what this dinner was about. It was about gathering most of our office together and celebrating a great year for the company. My highlight was getting a $75 gift certificate to M&S. The night before I had dinner at Corduroy with a smaller work group (10) and it was an entirely different affair. The food was excellent and the hosts were wonderful. This was my choice, and it everyone was extremely pleased. Next year I think I'll organize the holiday dinner as we had such success at Corduroy. [Edited to correct errors]

Tonight we had a dinner at Corduroy after a day of intensive meetings that started at 7:30 am. We had a few cancellations, but they are the ones that are really out of the loop tomorrow. Oh, my God. I've had lunch here before, but our dinner was sublime. I admit I was a bit nervous when I walked into the restaurant with 14 bottles of wine. I told Rissa it was our appreciation gifts. In stride, she played along and told me we could open 3 with a sly smile. After we finally got the whole party to sit down and order, we had an incredibly good time. Our table had a pescetarian (my boss) who didn't like snapper, so Tom Power put together a plate of veg and starch that wowed him. I had the pork belly. This dish took the lowly cut to new heights. I hate fat, but this was what could only be called a "creamy fat." I ate every bit and was left looking for more. The most surreal experience was going to the men's room and heading past the gym...with a belly full of fat. Colleagues commented that the squash soup was excellent and the chicken what chicken should be - moist and rich. Sadly I had to skip dessert as I had to run off to get my kid's prescription, but as I was leaving, my VP was eating the dessert I had ordered and proclaimed it the best he'd had in years. This is truly one of the best kept secrets in this city. Now with a belly full of belly, I am happy.

Excellent. I live 2 minutes from that store. When I stopped in there a couple of weeks ago the guy helping me, I think it was the owner, was very good. Look forward to stopping in. Is it still going until 9? I wouldn't get a chance to get down there until 7:30-8:00.

Rissa, The back sections will be perfect for us. It's not a holiday party or anything. I'll call the restaurant tomorrow to discuss the details.

My secretary just booked a dinner for my department mid-December on the day before a long series of meetings (this is not the result of my earlier query for a holiday party). So far, I have to say I'm excited to share this place with my colleagues. Raisa has been very accomodating to us. We've gotten, what we feel, is an excellent deal for food in a private dining area with flexibility on a menu that includes a great number of choices for my colleagues. This was my task for this dinner event - work with my secretary to find a restaurant. We all know how they are for small parties, but I wanted to say that Corduroy has thoroughly impressed us on flexibility and price as other restaurants were not at all. One restaurant wanted to only give us one choice each for appetizer, entree, and dessert. One isn't really a choice, now is it?

I'm going to disagree with your disagreement Welcome to DR. The Joy of Cooking, How to Cook Everything, and The Fannie Farmer Cookbook, for example, are general purpose how to start cooking books. Each one has sections about the food item, how to buy, store, and prepare. The recipes are easy in most and are very accessible standards. Some aren't my thing like the casseroles in Fannie Farmer, but they are for better or worse, the history of last century's suburban kitchens. I agree that some of our recommendations are a bit advanced, but I grew up in my Mom's professional kitchen, so I was cooking by myself by age 6 and didn't really buy starter books as my parents took care of teaching me the basics. However, I bought How to Cook Everything after a former coworker who couldn't boil water was happily making dinner everynight for his wife. It's a good book and approachable even to my kitchen phobic wife. Also, I know some people hate him, but Jamie Oliver's books are a good simple approach to cooking too. Many are one pot with few steps in the cooking process. I know many Brits who started cooking since this guy came on the scene.

I'm partial to "How to Cook Everything" and Gastronomique for a general references. "License to Grill" for grilling. I like the Les Halles Cookbook for cozy fall food.

My boss and I just got back from a nice lunch at Tosca. Given it's a federal holiday, the restaurant was pretty empty, service was very attentive, and food came quickly. We each had the ridicchio and pear salad. The candied walnuts were a nice touch. The gorgonzola wasn't nearly strong enough, but I'm a huge stinky cheese fan, so the bar is kinda high for me. One odd item, however, was what was unmistakenly a canned pear. I'm a huge pear eater in the fall, and it seemed strange to have a canned pear during pear season. Not bad, mind you, but a little strange for Tosca. I had the duck confit ravioli with foie gras sauce. This is one seriously addictive lunch pasta. Really good. Bossman had the leek soup which looked a little pasty. He ended up leaving half of it. Dessert for me was the apple tart (a winner) and chocolate semifreddo for the boss. He enjoyed it. Nice leisure lunch before we knock off early today.

Just got back from Oya, the self titled French Asian restaurant and lounge downtown. The space is very nice, borrowing a lot from the LA lounge scene. Service was very attentive and professional. Food was basically serviceable to okay. One gripe I have is that if you are a minimalist menu designer (i.e, 5 appetizers), please have all of them at 12:30. Two of us were going to have the lobster consomme. They were out of that so we went with the warm yellow tomato soup with shrimp. The soup was very nice, but got cold quickly since there was so little of it in the bowl. The shrimp were unfortunately overcooked. Two others had tuna tartare. One ate most of it, the other pushed it away after a few bites as she said it was a bit too fishy. I tasted it and there was an odd flavor, but I'm not sure it was fishy. One had a salad of greens and winter berries. Entrees: I had the sole and langostine. This was an appalling small sized dish for an entree. Two little thumbsized rolls of overcooked sole, one rubbery langostine, one quartered shitake, a little wilted greens. That would be it. The appetizers were larger. It tasted very neutral would be the best word. Another had the salmon which he ate some of, but didn't finish. The wild mushroom "dumplings" were actually just ravioli that were okay according to the diner. The steak sandwich, which was offered to me by a dining companion to share upon the placement of my "snack" was tough as all get out. Flavor was fine, but chewiness made it rather unpleasant. Our fourth had a shrimp sarnie that had 4 overcooked medium shrimp in it. Limeade was good though. This space is a lot of flash and would probably be a good happy hour place, but I can't see myself dropping serious cash on the food again. Again, front of house staff were very talented. Kitchen staff not so much. There really wasn't anything egregiously wrong (e.g., spoiled) about the food nor any service concerns, just bad execution in the kitchen.

Oh, I don't think with these guys that this would be a problem. We had a 50 person dinner at Butterfield 9 during the summer. However, our office manager just heard from Ortanique that they will be open and their issue was with somthing structural in the building. I'm so in the dark about this restaurant, but the website makes me worried Ortanique Thanks everyone, I put together a good list for future uses. I should have just went to DR's where to eat in DC list earlier, but forgot that existed. Too engrossed in the blacklisted thread I guess.

So we were supposed to have our holiday office party at Ortanique, but that appears to be very questionable at this point. So, being the bearer of bad news, the office manager determined me to be the guy to find a new restaurant. Here is what I'm up against: 1) must be able to handle 85 people comfortably 2) must be willing to rent out the entire restaurant on December 15th (a Thursday). 3) must be in DC, downtown. 4) we are looking for higher end. First off, what places can handle 85? Who would be willing to have us in for the evening? The plan would be for cocktails/reception in a lounge or bar area followed by a longish meal. Any suggestions or outright offers by chefs would be appreciated. PM or posting work fine. Thanks so much.

Vienna, VA smartass

70 within 5 miles of work in Penn Quarter (work_ 16 within 5 miles of vienna (home)

Good for them. I always thought they were a great addition to the community. Audry worked really hard to get some of the city's development money for actual community initiatives instead of the usual "orporate tax break, screw the citizens" policy I found so very frustrating in areas like Petworth and 16th Street Heights. BTW, they were slow even if they weren't the slightest bit busy at the 14th and Decatur location, but then again, you went if you wanted to have a leisurely snack. Sadly the deli two doors down didn't make it a year.

Wait. Did Mocha hut move? or expand? I used to live at 13th and Emerson and they were up across from the bus station on 14th at Decatur. Is this still owned by George and his wife Audrey?

My Government Cog wife put this meal together for us yesterday as I was slaving away in my office. We used a 3 pound brisket and man, was that good. I served it with corn tortillas, salsas, and some sort of vegetable. The only difference is we used the oven to slow cook it at 350 for 5 hours.

Did you get the duck fat locally? My plans for the fall include duck confit and I need the fat. I was thinking maybe an asian grocery store for the legs, but wasn't sure about the fat. I'm hesitant to pay for the shipping on the duck fat and am hoping to procure it locally.

Certain traditional side dishes don't have to be made for an army. You can cater the following to any number of people, including 2: Mashed potatoes - my newest version is to boil the potatoes while roasting a bunch of unpeeled garlic cloves in the oven. Then I squeeze the roased garlic into the drained potatoes, add olive oil and salt and mash. I've skipped the butter and milk version and settled on this one for the time being. Yams and apples. Get a can of Bruce's Yams and some baking apples. Drain the yams, reserve the liquid. Slice the yams and apples and alternate their layout in a baking pan. Add some liquid and some butter, dot with butter, and bake. Stuffing: My father's version (simple and homey) is to saute onion, celery and garlic then add hot or mild italian sausage out of the casing. When mostly cooked, add bagged stuffing, season accordingly and moisten with chicken stock - not too much so it turns to a gloppy mess, but enough to take the dryness off. Then we do another veg or 2. We do thanksgiving for a minimum of 15 each year, but our menu is flexible enough to cut it down or bump it up for last minute changes. It is also such a low effort meal that we spent time with our guests.

Why not do a turkey breast for 2? Dead simple and you can focus your time on side dishes.

And also keeping the walls of your actual house patched.

Oh no, The Shit = The Best I meant that I'm a huge fan of English fruitcake (sans royal icing). I love puddings too. Both are best when liberally stewed in booze for months. English fruitcake reminds me of Christmas' for the past 12 years that I've been visiting my in-laws.