Biotech

According to my British wife, marzipan is essential on a proper fruitcake. She was quick to add that Royal icing must cover the marzipan. Royal icing, in my opinion, is vile. English fruitcake is the shit. That and a homemade christmas pudding. Both need to be completely liquored up. Sounds like a good start, although I've not heard the bourbon thing before. Growing up my mom used to soak pound cake in bourbon, but it really was the only thing making her pound cake tolerable.

See, now that's what I was saying to my wife. When I was a kid I loved the slurpee for what it was. Now the first thing we do with a slurpee is mentally work through the booze that would work in that flavor . For instance, my wife had the pina colada one a week ago and said it was really good, but would've been better with rum. I'm thinking that the orange creamsickle one would work with vodka. Frawg and Mount Gay sounds good.

Slurpee: The product itself isn't actually banned for those above 10, but mixing every damn color/flavor together is generally frowned upon when you are, oh, I don't know, 32 like me. My sone loves the Frawg flavor (sour apple) and as any good father and grandfather would do, we convinced him that it is made of pureed frogs. Pixie Stix: Kiddie Crack aint' so cute in a suit. Fluff - in any form or delivery mechanism. I'm sure there are many others I'm forgetting. I agree though that hot donuts, crap soda, and a bowl of the Cap'n are some of life's guilty pleasures.

Had lunch with my new boss today (reorganization) at IndeBleu. We sat upstairs and I have to say, the setting is beautiful and very spacious. I like my job because we eat at a lot of restaurants, so I can test them before laying out my own cash. I started with the Masala Mary (a bloody mary with garam masala). This was, um...interesting. I like bloody maries, I like garam masala. This was not a winning combination. The waiter noticed I wasn't slurping it down and offered to exchange it for another drink. I chose it, so I wasn't sending it back. There wasn't anything wrong with it per se, just not my thing. Boss had the Big Easy - Southern Comfort, Cointreau, ginger ale, and something else god awfully sweet in there. Not my thing either, but he enjoyed it. I had the tandoori shrimp on cauliflower "risotto" for an appetizer. The shrimp were properly cooked, but nothing outstanding. I read the menu too quickly and thought I was actually going to get a grain of some sort with cauliflower in it. What I got was diced cauliflower sauteed in spices. Not very satisfying. Bossman had a gazpacho like creation. He seemed to enjoy it. It looked more flavorful than my appetizer. I had the gunpowder dusted monkfish. It was nice, but again, nothing earth shattering. Boss had the "dosa" which he said was adequate. I prefer real dosas like at Amma's, as this was super crisp on the outside and he said was a bit heavy. I finished with a mint ice cream with cardamom fudge, with no discernable cardamom in the fudge. It was a bit of a let down for $9. Boss had some sort of cakey thing with lemon sauce. All in all, a decent meal, but certainly not one I would be running back for. The staff were very friendly and professional at the same time. Damage was $121 before gratuity.

I use this site regularly to look for egregious violations or signs of dangerous ignorance. I rarely look at anything other than the 'critical' violations and scrutinize those. I worked 'back of house' for many years and still subconsciously act like that in my own home kitchen. Things get pull dates on them in my fridge, meats and RTE foods are stored in accordance with Morris County, NJ DOH rules (where I learned them), and I am always cleaning something up. I will still occasionally soak plastic and nylon tools in iodophor. That said, I forgive restaurants for a lot. Only if, say they are bleaching their rancid chicken, the food is improperly holding in steam tables (where bacteria thrive) or on a buffet, employees are not preventing disease like e. coli and staph from getting into the kitchen, will I black ball a restaurant. Things like using a residential toaster or blender instead of the professional version are nitpicking to me.

I feel the same way about the DF beers right now. I never really liked the 120 minute IPA, and I'm a hop head, but the 60 minute, the 90, and the brown have been a bit funky in recent months. I bought the aprihop and was underwhelmed by it about a year ago. 3 weeks ago I had one at a party and it was simply off, tasted like there was some sort of contamination - medicinal. I bought one of the pumpkin ales 2 weeks ago to see what it was like and it, too had that funkiness. Laying off the DF head at 8.99 a six. Right now I'm digging most of Stone's offerings. Their IPA now comes in sixes at my local beer store and I've always loved their smoked porter. I've thought for awhile that victory's offerings weren't as hoppy as they used to be. I'm starting into the fall beer season, so it's O'fests and belgians until Christmas.

I've been spoiled by my Mexican friend Chuco who makes the most amazing guac every morning at my friend Alicia's bed and breakfast in Cozumel Mexico. He literally creates a human shield with his body so no guest can steal his secret recipe. He finally let me in on it one day and I took my new found knowledge home. It is the avocados that make the difference. In Mexico, they are fresh from the mainland and aren't chilled. They really make the taste. I can reasonably approximate it, but it is the avocados, I'm convinced, that truly make a good guac recipe into something really special. Eating it on vacation for breakfast before a day of sun, sea, and diving probably has something to do with it too.

Rogan josh. Yummy stewed lamby goodness. Onion pickle Really good naan

Ollie burger with cheese and medium ollie fries they have a new promo running...after 5 burgers you get a free angioplasty

Barnes and Noble 12th and E The Jell-O Collection on sale 'nuff said.

Heather, I took my Avatar from the BH&G series, because my mom, who owned a very successful higher end catering business actually has these books in her collection...and chose to keep them when moving from NJ to DC. I was absolutely speechless when I saw them in their apartment last year, figuring that they had long hit the 30 yard dumpsters my parents rented when they moved. Lo and behold, a good chunk of the series is there...the Meat Cookbook, the Ground Meat Cookbook, the Gelatin Cookbook , the Vegetable Cookbook (cook corn on the cob for 20 minutes is one suggestion, I believe), among other horrors. One series that wasn't so bad was the "cookery" series. It wasn't BH&G, but something like that. Mexican Cookery by Barbara Hansen, c. 1981 actually isn't all that bad. It's mostly biased to the Yucatan, but is actually pretty authentic. I spend a fair amount of time in Quintana Roo each year and it definitely is very close to the food in both the Yucatan and truy Cozumeleno cooking. Go figure.

Good. Now we won't run the risk of making the same abomination.

Finemondo. Not returning was the consensus of the table. I believe the name translates to "sodium" in Italian. See the thread I started last week. Bad, Bad, Meal

Dining today I did, indeed, ask what I had done to deserve this. Who had I wronged, and why were they so cruel. Setting: Going away lunch for a support staffer today. Six of us were seated in the back of the restaurant in an out of the way place, which was nice, because we were near the kitchen and would have been banged into if we were closer. I ordered: POLPO: octopus served with fava beansalad, flavored with a light spicy red wine-enchovy-black olive vinaigrette. In reality, this dish was underdone fava beans, overdone to the point of octo-jerky, octopus, and the saucing was essentially pureed anchovies from a can with little to no wine or olive character. LINGUINI: Linguini with mussels and clams flavored with garlic and olive oil Simple to screw up unless the clams and mussels are bad, right. Wrong. Bad. Too oily, salty to the point of tongue numbing, with mushy overcooked pasta. Clams and mussels were plentiful, but of poor quality. Mussels were very gritty and clams were overcooked and tough. FRUTTI DI BOSCO: Mixed berries with balsamic vinegar served with vanilla ice cream Surpisingly, the only good thing of the meal. Berries were sauteed with balsamic to create a warm berry and cold ice cream combination. This was the best dessert of the table. Others had ravioli, canneloni, and plain pasta. Two diners had meat: 1 had the roasted chicken which actually looked like the safest bet. My boss had mutton, I mean lamb, which he was unable to cut through without great effort (and it was medium rare). Everyone at the table commented about the oversalting of every dish except dessert. 6 diners, no alcohol, 3 courses each = $250 for lunch. So not worth it.

20 minutes away from a rescheduled lunch at Finemondo....I'm thinking I might be adding to this thread later this afternoon.

mmm...Carvel....Where is Fudgie the whale these days?

I work in the Columbia Square building, which is right across from Ollie's. I went to Ollie's a few weeks ago and got the Ollie Burger with cheese and a medium fry. God I love ollie burgers. They are greasy, thick, juicy, and seem almost hand formed. The ollie fries are seasoned with some sort of cajun spice and salt, salt, salt, and I think, salt. After you eat one, you get that wonderful self loathing feeling.

Ardeo in CP. My halibut was actually still crispy from ICE in the center. Never again. Ivy's in CP as well. My parents live a block away and kept talking about how great it was. My squid appetizer was tastless, but that was okay because it was overcooked to an inedible rubbery texture. Think Michelin cooking...and I mean the kind you'd get at "Just Tires." The satay was a dark meat like I've never had. Unbelievely vile in texture and flavor...like it was microwaved. Shudder. Wait staff didn't inquire at to why I only ate two bites, one from the app and one from the main. I told them it wasn't edible, but they only smiled and shrugged. [Edited to fix very poor grammar and spelling errors (mom the English major would be pissed)]

I used to live in Adams Morgan and was a sucker for Chief Ike's. This was '98-00, before it started to get dj's. The bartender was an ex priest and very abusive to the patrons. I also visited Millie and Al's a few times, but Asylum before it got popular was the definite goth/dive bar. I was friends with the owners until the broke up and sold out. Now even that place has a dj. Dan's is a classic, though. Haven't thought about that place in years.

Thanks for the update. I suspect I won't hear much more on this place. I'll go for the hard to screw up approach. Eh, I'm not paying for it so I can't be too disappointed. That was my attitude at Red Sage while trying to choke down the shoe leather "medium rare" bison. Shame too, because the mussels there were really good that day.

First post, so let me introduce myself. I'm Chris and a refugee from EG where I was a refugee from C'hound. I've been in the DC area since 1993, lived in the city for 8 years, and now am out in Vienna/Tysons. Another Rockwellian, brr, turned my on to c'hound a couple of years ago and I've been following these forums ever since. I work in Penn Quarter, so there is no dearth of restaurants around here. Our company often has lunch meetings so I've been lucky enough to try a handfull around here - Ceiba, Ten Penh, Zatinya (been before), Red Sage (never again), Butterfield 9, etc...as well as my more pedestrian moments at Ollies Trolley, etc. These forums have been invaluable to me for personal dining as well. If not for EG, I never would have been to RTS and Dino's as early as I did, and have been fortunate enough to NOT dine at certain places I was planning on visiting. Okay, now the on topic question: So my admin coordinator booked a group of us for a going away lunch for a colleague at Finemondo at 13th and F. I work pretty much right there at the Columbia Square building and haven't even heard boo about this place. I'm a little worried as, to put it delicately, my AC has not the best taste in food. Anyone have anything on this place? I'd like to go in with some idea what is passable. Again, thanks in advance and I look forward to contributing. BTW, I've had a fair amount of dining experience in Tysons and Vienna.