dcpolicywonk

So I'm sitting at Teatro Goldoni the other evening, watching someone eat the largest cheeseburger I've ever seen, and in walk couple-about-town Fellato Riminovich and Putana Harlotski. They ordered some bruschetta, wolfed it down hungrily, blew some air kisses, and then disappeared into the night.

And I thought about a conversation I once had.

"You're too much of a foodie," my friend once told me, shortly before heading to her shift at Cafe Milano.

"I am not," I protested. "I just don't like things that suck."

"Cafe Milano doesn't suck."

"It does suck."

"You need to understand: bars and restaurants aren't always about food."

"How can a restaurant not be about food?"

"It's no Tosca, but people enjoy it."

"People enjoy Cheesecake Factory too."

<glare>

"Look: the customers at Cafe Milano might not know anything about food, but they know what they like."

And I sat there, blinking.

Then I came back into the moment, my thoughts turning toward the pizza in front of me at Teatro Goldoni, the uneaten pizza, the undercooked piece of dough with harsh dried herbs sprayed on top of it, seemingly from a firehose, and wondering to myself if I should just try and enjoy the pizza for what it was.

And then I left and went to Palena.

 
LOL That pretty much sums up my opinion of those places. While Cafe Milano was always full, pretty much anything I read about it talked more about the atmosphere and the people who ate there. In fact I can't recall anything being said about the actual food. Generally I will at least try a place before forming a negative opinion but in this case I made an exception.

I have never had teleme made in Italy (it's like a ripe brie) and I've never bought it outside of the Bay Area, but it's possible that Trader Joe's might carry it locally.  Peluso Cheese in Los Banos, CA still makes teleme, and they have mail order.

edited to add:  doh!  Too late - mdt got the scoop!

Thanks for all the help! I guess growing up I only saw it in Italian delis and my grandparents (Italian) told me it was an Italian cheese. Now that I know it is Greek in origin it may be easier to find. I will let you all know if and where I find it. FYI Jill knew of the cheese but didn't have any but was willing to search it out for me. I declined at the time as I was getting ready to leave the country for a couple of weeks.

There is a cheese that I grew up with in the SF Bay Area that I've yet to find here. I used to think it was an Italian cheese (from Italy) but have come to learn that, in fact, it IS an Italian cheese but is an SF Bay Area specialty. It is called Teleme. Anyone know where to find some. I have checked with Jill at Cheesetique but I have not yet been to the Italian Store in Arlington.

Our second dr.com exclusive Cheesetique tasting will be on Sunday, August 28th at 5pm.  Jill's theme for this month is stinky cheese The cost will be $16 which includes the $15 for the tasting and the $1.00 paypal fee.

From the most recent Cheesetique e-newletter:

If you would like to join us please PM or email me.

Thanks for setting this up hillvalley. Do you know if the cheeses will be the same as the other stinky cheese tastings?

Got this info in an email from our favorite Cheese Lady and thought some of you might be interested.

Our Next Cheese Class: Stinky Cheeses

What more could you ask for? A whole evening of stinky cheeses! We will learn to savor the stink of some of the finest washed-rind and otherwise "fragrant" cheeses in the world. This is not for the faint of heart - or weak of nostril.

Available Dates:

Tuesday, August 16 at 7:00 PM

Thursday, August 18 at 7:00 PM

Sunday, August 21 at 6:00 PM

Please email tastings@cheesetique.com to sign up for the tasting. Please let me know the date you prefer and how many are in your party. The cost is only $15 per person. Act quickly - this will fill up in no time. Participants can expect to spend about an hour learning and tasting. Sparkling water and accompaniments will be served.

Based purely on the wonderful experience we had with a previous tasting with fellow DR.com'ers (as well as our love of stinky cheeses), my wife and I have RSVPd for the 16th. We can't wait to see what Jill has in store for us.

Daruma in Bethesda is a great little find.  Its off of Bradley and Arlington.  Its a Japanese market with a little food counter featuring great Sushi and nice ramen.  For $25 we had a quick and easy lunch for 2.  They also have a superb sake selection featuring Oni Koroshi, Suishin, Bisohnen and lots of others.  Yum!

I've shopped there many times but never eaten at the counter. Having just come back from two weeks in Japan I imagine I'll be making a trip to stock up on all the goodies I'd forgotten that I loved. I'll have to try the counter this time.

My wife and I went a couple of weeks ago and our experience pretty much mirrored that of Tom. The food was OK - the dishes I ordered were better than my wife's. My wife started with the house salad which was pretty nondescript with a bland dressing. Her entree was the seafood pasta which she did not care for at all. I also started with the salad (wish I could remember what it was) that had orange segments and a lemon infused olive oil and the ricotta and lobster (or was it crab) ravioli in a butter-sage sauce. My dishes were fine. I really enjoyed the flavors in the salad and the pasta had plenty of sweet lobster meat the balance with the ricotta was perfect but it was bland. I almost never add salt to a dish - the chef usually gets it right but boy this could have used it. The real high point for me was a decent sourdough bread on the table (so hard to find on this coast).So the food overall -OK but not worth the price. The wine list was fine - didn't strike me as anything outstanding but they did have the red sparking wine that I first had at 2 Amys. The service though was pretty rough - not just ours but people around us as well. The servers seemed very unsure of themselves, could not explain menu items, brought out dishes out of order (entrees before apps, etc.) and just generally unpolished. Now I have never worked in the industry so I generally don't criticize service but in this case it was just not where it should be for the prices they charge and for the type of atmosphere they are trying to pull off. I may be willing to try it once more in a few months and hope they have the kinks worked out. Just my 2 cents.

Charlie Palmer Steak: Tom,

I had a very similar experience with a female manager at CPS. My steak was overcooked and I sent it back. She told me it was cooked properly but got me a new steak anyway. At the end of the meal, she tried to make it up by bringing over 2 desserts, neither of which we wanted to eat. She asked what she could do as a gesture and I suggested that she ASK if we wanted dessert before showing up with it and allow us to choose. Clearly she didn't get the point.

Also, when I was looking at the wine list, I chose 3 wines that were out of stock. She told me she couldn't help me because "I don't drink American wines. I'm into Rhones."

Excuse me, but if the restaurant serves American wines, perhaps you should be INTO them!

I have also been to several CP restaurants and CPS is by far the worst.

Tom Sietsema: Hmmmmm. That wine comment cracks me up.

Rocks? Was that you?

I thought I'd start this thread after having a "are you kidding me?" moment. Maybe you've had one too. Mine was this: My husband and I were talking about perhaps having my (75 year old) mom over for the long 4th of July weekend. She'd be comming down from Philadelphia.

I know she could not hang around the mall et al to see the fireworks, so I started thinking of where we could go to view the event from afar. Well, not due to it's culinary, but rather it's scenic attributes I called the Marriott Key Bridge. Hey, OK food but a helluva show on the 4th.

I was surprised to find out that they had room to fit us in. In fact, they had a "special" menu. 5 courses. Wow. Hmmmmmmmm.

Get this...............$180.00pp

ARE YOU KIDDING ME??/

thank you, she said nicely. buh by.

Holy #*$%! I'm choking on my wine just thinking about it! Give me a good restaurant and a flat screen TV and I'll be happy.

wow.  What on earth was going on with that BdC complaint?  Sietsema gets complaints about the service there regularly and therefore decides to post an unverified food poisoning charge? How does the first justify the second?

Yeah I found that a little odd and definitely out of character for Tom who is usually very careful about that sort of thing.

Just wanted to point out a story about Chef Krinn and his father in the Christian Science Monitor today. Written by Monica Bhide.

Cookin' up a dream together

Arneis is an obscure Italian varietal that I like from northern Italy.  Medium bodied with lots of tropical fruit aromas...

That is it! Thank you! Unfortunately the Curious Grape is now out of the wine and I couldn't get the info tonight. I did, however, taste some great wines from the Loire Valley that were almost all under $15. I will post the info tomorrow.

Trebbiano and Ugni Blanc I know - I believe it started with an "A". I will check this evening when I'm there for a Loire Valley tasting.

I was at my friendly neighborhood wine shop this weekend and they had a few Italians on the counter for tasting. They were all outstanding and a good value but this one I think fits in this category particularly well. It is the 2003 Zenato Lugana. It is made from a grape that I hadn't heard of before (unfortunately I don't remember the name and it is not on the bottle) and was just outstanding. I'm not too good with wine descriptors so suffice it to say that I enjoyed it quite a bit and at $12.99 a bottle, a good bargain I think. The Curious Grape in Shirlington has it but as of this weekend they were down to just a couple of cases.

I'll my voice to the chorus - thanks hillvalley for organizing this. It was great to meet the people behind the screen names. And thanks to Jill for a very informative and fun session. I am a cheese novice and learned a great deal about cheeses in general not to mention specific uncommon Italian cheeses. I particularly enjoyed the Piave Vecchio and the Ubriaco. We picked up a bit of the Piave and I couldn't resist getting a bit of the Oregonzola. I look forward to doing this again.

Anyone received any invites to their pre-opening events???

Not yet but I am waiting excitedly.

I would second this suggestion and I'm surprised that I didn't think of it myself.  It's kind of hard to find, across the street from the strip mall with the big Giant.  Next to the carpet and mattress places.  Viennese I think.  Good carryout stuff as well.

Yeah it is a combination of Italian and Austrian. If you go, definitely check out the wiener schnitzel and spaetzle.

You might give Tempo a try. It has been around a long time and seems to be a neighborhood favorite. I ate there once many years ago and have no recollection of what I had or whether it was any good.

I would give Cafe Monti a try. Very simple place inside but the food is very tasty.

My wife and I will be in Japan for two weeks in July. I spent six months there back in 1992 as an exchange student and was not real interested in fine dining. This time around, we have the means for a couple of nice experiences and I was wondering if anyone would have suggestions for their favorite places. Price is not an issue nor is type of cuisine.

Looks really good and thanks for the menu tip. It'll be a good excuse to practice my Japanese.

Why?  It is so much more fun for the rest of us when he does not take his meds... 

I don't have much in the way of meds but am happy to open up my meager wine cellar, which has managed to serve me quite well.

I don't see a thread for the Arlington location of RTS yet so I started one. Rocks - If I've missed it, my apologies.

Just wanted to comment on my first visit there - it was everything I was expecting and more. As much as I like cool/hip decor/non-human eye candy in a restaurant, I really only ask three things of a place - good food, good wine list and good service. RTS was outstanding on all three counts. My wife took me for my birthday and having read quite a bit about it over the last few months on eGullet, I was expecting an exceptional experience and we got it. The service was prompt, attentive, friendly and not intrusive from the moment we got there through us walking out the door. The wine list is all its been said to be. Lots on really interesting, really great, really affordable selections - we had an amazing Cab (can't remember the name - it started with an "A" and was $28 a bottle) that, for the price, is probably the best value I've ever seen in a California Cab. Started off a little tight (to be expected in a 2002) but was still delicious and just opened up beautifully through dinner. And big bonus points for it being served at the proper temperature!

We both started with soup - I had the sherried crab bisque and my wife had the onion. They were both fantastic although I enjoyed mine more - of course anything made with that much cream has to be good . For our entrees I had the hanger steak and my wife had the brochettes (I think I spelled that right). The hanger was simply the most flavorful piece of meat I've ever had and we have friends who their own beef cattle in MD. The steak will forever change how I judge good meat. Cooked perfectly at medium rare with bleu cheese crumbles. The brochettes and assorted veggies were also very good but I paled in comparison to the hanger steak. The sides were also as delicious as has been said before. The portions were quite generous and I look forward to finishing that steak tonight - and a nice touch when we got our meals boxed up for home, we got a refill on the sides.

Being a big fan of key lime pie, there was no way to pass that up and man was it good! I'm not one for fanfare, my wife knows this and made no mention it was my birthday when she made reservations. It happened to slip out at some point during the night and the server made a point of telling me happy birthday and the desert was on the house. It is those little touches that really make a place shine. I can't wait to get back and try a different wine and have that hanger steak again.

Let me start off by saying that I really enjoyed Corduroy and that I am not trying to knock it. However, my wife and I went there for Christmas dinner and were not blown away by the cooking. The decor/atmosphere was better than I expected considering he (Tom Powers) was dealing with a hotel but the food (although very good) did not seem to live up to the hype in the eGullet forum. I suspect that this was because it was over Christmas and so maybe not in top form. Does anyone have any thoughts. I certainly would like to try it again.

So, we've got Chowhounds and eGulleteers - does this make us "Rockers?"