porcupine

I disagree. Part of being in the service business is dealing with assholes. Most of the time you have to suffer them with a smile. Sometimes you get to bitch slap them. But in most cases, it's best just to solve the problem and then let it go.

Not that its worth anything, but I for one am sick and tired of seeing spoiled brats get their way. Yes, situations must be handled politely, but I say politely give 'em the boot so the rest of us don't have to suffer. I'll be going back to Dino soon, and paying in cash.

hmmm...

Anyone remember the Peter Pan Inn? I used to love the hush puppies and salad/relish tray as a kid.

whoa! That takes me back. Fried chicken. It's been something like 30 years.

Canederli with royal trumpet mushrooms and asparagus - Palena

gnocchi with wild mushrooms - Palena

roast chicken - Palena

backberry shortcake - Palena

hmmmm, interesting trend.

Oh, and pork belly confit - Restaurant Eve

Or, pure alcohol.  I sent ScotteeM the recipe I use every year.  If anyone else wants it, send me a PM.

I tried that once, using Everclear, I think. The result was horrible. Is there some secret to it, like letting it age for a decade or so?

Good golly. Too bad you didn't have a camera handy. Would've been kinda funny if you'd taken their picture and then emailed it or posted it where other area restaurateurs could see it!

A camera can be a handy thing. Years ago, when I worked at an animal shelter, a woman called asking for advice on how to stop people from letting their dogs dump on her front lawn. She had already tried asking them nicely. They ignored her, or got rude with her.

Since it happened at about the same time almost every evening (owners got home from work, walked the dogs...), I suggested she borrow a video camera, and when she saw the offenders, open her door and start taping in a really obvious way. (A still camera would have the same effect, too, of course.)

The problem was solved within a few days.

Are we still on for Oriental East at 1pm today? Anybody else joining us? Please let one of us know so we can get the right size table.

Would you be referring to the cloyingly delicious Montgomery Donuts?

yes, indeedy. Maple iced. Late late late at night after a concert at Merriweather Post Pavilion, for example, too wired and tired and fired up to return to the 'rents, need coffee and sugar and fat to keep it up. Ah, for the glory days of youth.

Had to give my ma lift from an auto body shop last week; it was in the old MoDo plant. It was just wrong.

It's not like you can't do dim sum with 4...

I couldn't do the 11th, and the 18th is only maybe, so I vote for not changing...

well, guess we're in either way. Doesn't seem right without Perri, though.

MoDo. sigh.

Arrrgh. I can't make it after all. It's been eons since I've been to Oriental East, so someone please post a full report!

But you're the star of the show! Can we postpone for a week?

I am standing there, still holding the list, and the bicep curve on my outstretched arm is swelling slightly.

Perhaps you have an exceptionally nicely sculpted bicep and your patrons are just admiring it on the sly? <ducking and covering from the kitten's gun>

Coco Loco.
Xing Kuba.
Terramar.
Cesco back when it was good.
Cottonwood Cafe back when it was good.

Sorta kinda - it had some Brazilian, but if I recall it was more tapas, with some mixed grill.  Located where RFD is now.

<sigh> I really liked Coco Loco. I believe there were two seating sections with different menus; one was tapas and the other churrascaria. Wasn't it also a Yannick Cam production? I remember being only mildly surprised when I walked into the ladies' room to discover two women making out and smoking a joint.

Sounds great.  I haven't been up that way in a while but when I worked in Rockville (Shady Grove Rd area), I would frequent a place called The Caribbean Feast on Rockville Pike (just south of Rockville Audi/Porsche).  Authentic Jamaican cuisine and very generous portions.    It is a little hole in the wall but the food was amazing.  Looks like I might have to make the trip from Falls Church to Rockville in order to check out Grand'Ma Cooking. 

Thanks,

Eric

Feast!!!!!!! Weird little counter service place with just a few long communal tables, but man does the food hit the spot. Jerk pork, spicy, with plantains and sweeeet potatoes. Or goat curry.

Damn. Just got back from A&J, stuffed, and now I'm craving the Feast.

Shall we stick with the 1pm start time? Might as well be consistent across the board.

Mr. P and I are in.

I'll take the heat for that screw-up.  (Lydia even gave me her cell phone and I left it sitting on my desk) . 

Never occurred to me that they would be closed and I figured they'd be able to get four in, no problem, at that time.  If only the doors were opened.

I didn't mean to blame you. I just figure next time, better paranoid than disappointed.

This reminds me of a thought experiment I devised once to try to convince a friend of the importance of the right ingredient. And I swear I came up with this years before Ari Weinzweig wrote Zingerman's Guide to Good Eating .

Imagine it's August. You go to your garden and pick a few perfect tomatoes and a handful of basil. You cut them, arrange on a plate along with a fresh mozzarella you picked up at your favorite Mom and Pop Italian deli, drizzle with your favorite EVOO, perhaps your favorite fleur de sel, too, and serve with a baguette your good friend just brought you from Firehook.

Imagine now it's February. You buy hothouse tomatoes at Safeway. You cut them up and plate them with shrink-wrapped low-fat salted mozzarella, also from Safeway, sprinkle with dried basil, Morton's salt, and salad oil. Serve with Wonder bread.

This is what pisses me off about the overuse of the word gourmet . Sometime in the late 1980s, I think, marketing types realized they could sell more by dubbing foods gourmet (like realtors - oops, Realtors - selling homes [abstract noun] instead of houses [concrete noun]). There was a glut of prepared foods like my February monstrosity being marketed as gourmet, when they were really just a ghost of the real thing.

Okay, putting my soapbox away now and heading out for a bubble tea.

Yes, exactly.  And, after trying to make decent chocolate mousse for years, I turned to Julia (who else?) and her recipe in Mastering the Art of French Cooking.  The best chocolate mousse EVER--and I used Callebaut.

Heh heh. And I use Julia's recipe from The Way to Cook , with Vahlrona, sometimes Ghirardelli.

I need to try the one in Mastering , stat.

How was it?

It wasn't. Mr. P and I got in traffic so bad that we bailed when it was clear we'd be more than an hour late. Bilrus toughed out the traffic for two hours to find that Sodere was closed! so he ate at Etete. And Lydia R was there mostly on time, but it was still closed, of course. D'oh!

Note to anyone planning future events: call first to confirm that restaurant will be open; get cell phone numbers of other people so you can apologize in real time for not showing when fucked by traffic.

<banging head>

We may try again in a week or two.

Wat time are you going?  (snicker)

oh, very funny.

My main complaint against Cook's Illustrated is that in their blind tasting of vanilla, the winner was... imitation vanilla. (Sorry, I just threw out all my back issues, so I can't provide the date of the article.)

At about that time, I was on a creme brulee bender. After perfecting the recipe, I made about two dozen for a party. Every one of my guests was astonished at the flavor. No one could figure out what it was, but all agreed that it was wonderfully delicious. About half the guests were not particularly foodies, either - just average-palate people.

It was Tahitian vanilla. Inordinately expensive, but worth it in certain applications (it would be lost in anything chocolate, for example), despite what the yokels at Cook's concluded.

On the other hand, I don't believe I could tell the difference between Nielsen-Massey's Mexican and Madagascar vanillas if my life depended on it.

In recipes where one ingredient takes center stage, the specialty version can make a difference. I love tupelo honey in my tea, but I wouldn't waste it in honey-soy chicken wings. And I only serve guacamole when I can get perfect Haas avocadoes;

if the avocadoes aren't good, there's nothing you can do to make the guac any good. And the difference between Vahlrona chocolate, and Scharffen-Berger, and Baker's is painfully obvious in my chocolate mousse.

Lewes dairy cream does rock the casbah, though. Worth it for whipping ability alone.

As Barbara said, it all depends.

OK - let's try it again.  Sodere on Tuesday the 29th.  Who's in?

Once we have a list, say on Friday, I'll call the restaurant to make sure they can handle us.  I'd also assume that some people gone for the weekend might want to join in too.

I am. Mr P may be as well.

at my place it'll be turkey burritos, with beans, cheese, and a really kick-ass tomato-chili sauce. And more cheese. You?

Grilled bacon and cheddar sandwiches. Bacon!!!!!!

Mr P and I, being sentimental ol' coots, actually like to celebrate a special occasion at a nice restaurant. But this particular anniversay is on New Year's Eve. So here's the question: are there any restaurants out there that do a really nice dinner on Dec 31 without all the champagne and kitsch and such? Is there a place we can go to celebrate that won't have a special menu, but rather a first-class, low-key, food-focused dinner? Or do I need to wake up and smell the coffee?