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Flavortown

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Everything posted by Flavortown

  1. Fantastic meal here tonight. From the astoundingly good bread -- perhaps better than any bread service I've had in DC -- to the desserts, it was just about all awesome. Well worth a trip to Baltimore, if only for the bread and their over the top disco fries.
  2. Hitting up the bar at Palena in about a half hour. Say hi if you're around.
  3. As leleboo described, we had a great meal tonight. A part of me feared that Ba Bay's concept of modernized Vietnamese food would equate merely to yet another cuisine presented (poorly) via overpriced small plates, but that's not the case here. The kitchen seems to be striking a good balance between innovation and tradition, and other than the slight oversalting of those crispy rice sticks, each dish was flavorful, deftly balanced, and well worth the accompanying price tag.
  4. Masala Art is worth going out of your way for, and it's really only a 10 minute drive from Dupont.
  5. Voting closes tonight at midnight. It's real close, so hurry up and vote if you haven't already (and don't forget that your phone will allow you to vote a second time).
  6. As usual, another awesome meal at Cork tonight. Order the chick peas with saffron broth, swiss chard, tomato, and mint, a dish that doesn't stand out on paper (next to all the other options), but turns out to be a bowl of warmth and perfection.
  7. Check out the nominees for the Mid-Atlantic, including 4 from the DC Area: Nicholas Stefanelli of Bibiana, David Guas of Bayou Bakery, Daniel Giusti of 1789, and Kyle Bailey of Birch & Barley. People's Best New Chef 2011 - Mid-Atlantic Nominees
  8. When I think finger food, I think fried. Do you have a deep fryer (or a bunch of oil and a pot)? As soon as you ditch AP flour for rice flour in dredges, you can go to town frying whatever you want. And there are plenty of things you can fry without a dredge at all, like chickpeas: fried chickpeas, tossed with whatever spices you like (over at Radius they use cumin and thyme), are perfect finger food. Also, if you want to do something like a pasta salad, corn pasta is an alternative that actually tastes good, and you can work with the flavor it brings by employing ingredients that complement it. Oh, and on the subject of corn, there's always polenta, which can easily be chilled, cut into cakes, seared or baked, and then topped off with all sorts of condiments.
  9. Dish of the night for me, though everything was across the board fantastic. After some momofuku inspired doubt regarding the state of DC restaurants, Cork was just what I needed: really flavorful, precise cooking, accompanied by great wine, all served at seriously reasonable prices. And that cheesecake definitely did come close to stealing the show, especially when paired up with the suggested wine.
  10. One meal in NYC, and I can start to comprehend how people find it possible to uphold the distinction between the DC and NY food scenes. There simply is no equivalent to momofuku ssäm bar in DC. Possible restaurants with stylistic similarities that come to mind are Masa 14 and Ba Bay, but based on personal dining experiences and what I've read, they don't seem to be operating on the same level. Nothing at ssäm bar fell flat, almost every dish was a revelation - from expert pickling to some of the best treatment of proteins I've seen in a while (and here, too, from both ends of the spectrum: precisely prepared raw fish to pork in all its variations), and the prices were shockingly reasonable. DC has plenty of its own all star restaurants, for sure, but last night's dinner has me seriously jealous.
  11. As we all know full well, snow inspires drinking, and eating can't be far behind. So, in case anybody's experiencing the same compulsions, I'll be heading over to the bar at 2 Amy's around 7 for a few drinks and a bite.
  12. For anybody considering this beef feast, don't hesitate for a minute; it is well worth the money. Chef Ruta's Vaccinara is the most deftly balanced dish I've had in recent memory: so many components ( oxtail and beef cheek in a sauce of tomato, raisins, cinnamon, and micro mirepoix, paired up with spicy, garlicky vermicelli pasta), all at the right levels. The other courses, spanning tongue, heart, rib eye, and filet, showed just as much finesse, and amounted to far more food than I had expected.
  13. Cauliflower Pasta: spaghetti, roasted cauliflower, cauliflower puree, extra virgin, anchovies, garlic, toasted pine nuts, bread crumbs, crushed red pepper, parm, lemon juice.
  14. Probably not coming, but possibly sending food anyway if I have a willing mule. It feels like arrancini have become a tradition, and I've been wanting to whip up a batch with butternut squash, bacon, and sage.
  15. Dropped by last week and found most of it to be just okay, save for the pasta. The rice balls were plain white risotto in a too-thin shell of breadcrumbs that never got crispy, and couldn't stand up to the pool of red sauce beneath. The chicken piccata was forgettable, rounded out too much by the butter and lacking lemon/acidity. The pasta - orecchiette with fennel sausage and rapini - however, was stellar, and not overpriced. The 1/4 lb portion, at $17 is easily an entree for one and enough for 2 to 3 as an appetizer. The only outright bad part of the meal was dessert: dense donuts glazed with overly sweet limoncello, random puffs of meringue, and candied lemon peel.
  16. Pan roasted pork loin with bacon-sage pan sauce. Butternut squash risotto with mascarpone, fried sage, bacon, and toasted pumpkin seeds.
  17. Great meal last night with 6 friends: Saag Gosht, Tandoori Malai Paneer with Tamater Kut, and Baingan Bharta were the standout dishes, but everything ordered was good. Great spicing, proper cooking (the lamb wasn't tough, as happens at many Indian joints), and perfect portion sizes -- definitely the best Indian food I've had in DC proper.
  18. A few months ago, it was posted on Mandu's twitter page that they would be opening a second location in that area.
  19. Had a truly fantastic meal tonight at Trinity restaurant in Keyport. It's a cool location - a 130 year old, renovated church - with a chef who is putting out far more creative and intricate food than I have seen just about anywhere else in Jersey: Corn bread accompanied by a compound butter rife with honey and bacon; a playful 'Mozza Ball' Soup (a perfectly creamy smoked tomato soup with crispy balls of fried mozzarella and pesto oil); a burger that matches the size of a hellburger and rivals it in terms of flavor, texture, and toppings; and the list goes on. Plus the prices are reasonable, they run some great specials (Wednesday's are half priced wines by the glass, along with discounted bottles), the service is totally on point, and they really ran with the church theme. Just check out the layout of their menu and you'll see how. Now I wish I'd tried the Root Beer Glazed Pork Belly...I guess it'll have to wait until the next time I get back up here.
  20. Work calls, gonna have to drop out of this week's dcck run. Sorry guys, hopefully next time.
  21. Sadly, based on the lunch I shared with Chaofun yesterday, Vidalia's burger is not quite what it used to be. Sure, it's just about the same in appearance: a mountain of fried onions strings atop a seriously huge burger, and a pile of super thin chips flanking the beast; but beneath the surface, it's just not the same. This time around, the meat was severely compacted, rendering a super dense patty -- even cooked medium rare, the meat wasn't crumbly or loose at all; instead it had a texture that resembled sausage. Beyond that, the flavor of the beef itself didn't really shine through: I couldn't place what it was exactly, but it seems like the kitchen is aggressively seasoning the meat with something other than salt and pepper. The result was that I couldn't even really taste the bacon that topped the burger, or even the cheese -- just that odd flavor that was spread throughout the meat. The crispy onions and the chips were great as usual, but the whole package together just is not worth the $16.50 price tag, nor a special trip out of one's way. Hopefully this was just a fluke, as they were surprisingly busy for lunch, and didn't seem to be expecting such a rush.
  22. I don't remember how long exactly they had to prep once in the Palm's kitchen, but I tend to agree with what Kenny said: Alex wouldn't have had time to make his own english pea puree. Plus, if he had made it himself, everybody else would have seen and heard it: blending the peas, running it through a chinoise, etc. It's neither a quick nor a discreet process. And yeah, this season sucks compared to the last one. Still watching though, and hoping for a brawl between Kenny and Angelo in the finals. PS: Kenny in that robe is absolutely hilarious. I just wish they'd play some Barry White in the background.
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