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My first time at Bombay Club last night won't be my last! First of all, the place is gorgeous. It reminded me a lot of the high-end expat places in India and the rest of Asia where you feel almost compelled to order a manhattan. (Which I did, and which was lovely.) After my cocktail, I dove into a fiesta of appetizers--stuffed puris, fish peri peri, and seekh kabob. The stuffed puris had a little too much cloying sourness, but the texture was spot on, and I somehow managed to eat them all... The kabob is strong--really nicely spiced and well-ground lamb served with a phenomenal green sauce that I'd like to have a few jugs of in my fridge. But the hands-down winner was the fish. At first I thought salmon was a bad choice, too fishy and strong for the simple preparation. But after a couple of bites, as the spice began to build in my mouth, it became apparent the salmon was perfect--a milder fish would have folded under the rich, complex spice rub, but the salmon carried straight through. Wow. Great dish. The bartender wasn't terribly helpful in choosing wine to go with the food, but I ended with fine pairings anyway, and his attentive friendliness made up for it in spades. Considering the surroundings, the prices are not bad either. Stop by the Bombay Club next time you're feeling like a raj or viceroy. It'll satisfy.

Truly a great post, D. I'm sorry that I enjoyed it much more than you enjoyed your meal; thanks for taking one for the team!

I'm so glad someone brought this place up--I've been curious for a long time! Now I know where to head for happy hour this evening...

Bell Wine Shop on M Street sends a weekly email out that shares notes on about 10 wines in the store. I think they taste every Saturday afternoon. You can sign up in the shop, or I think by responding to the address, bellwine(at)msn.com. A sample:

We talked about this in the credit card thread. I was under the impression that it's illegal to print the entire number on a reciept.

My bro--the consummate foie lover--sent me this article too, saying, "I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but foie gras is being targteted by spineless "animal rights" activists and is slowly being out-lawed around the country. "The activists (whose anti-foie gras tactics have included threatening chefs' families) targeted foie farmers because they don't have the resources to defend themselves. "The production of chicken is the most inhumane food production possible, but you don't see the anti-foie contigent going after chicken farmers because those farmers could actually defend themselves in court."

Now if they can just do something about the infants nabbing cherries out of my bags... By the by... The 18th and Columbia farmers' market continues to offer sublime tomatoes, spectacular nectarines, and lovely squash. And the farmet at the larger stand recently got me hooked on the ugly cucumbers, which are phenomenal: they taste like something--like cucumber!--and are really, really good (especially for soup!).

Gee, really?This is not life or death, man. I just think it's a damn shame that the Washington Post has a total of two restaurant reviewers, one of whom I may as well not bother reading.

I'm with Danny on this one (though perhaps a trifle less vehemently). There's no mention of beverage service and two sentences on steaks--one of which was "Jimmy's boneless filet mignon is better for its tender texture than its muted taste"; isn't that true of every filet on earth?? The language of this review mirrors that of nearly every other in recent memory, and I thought the one star was the only clear indication of Jimmy's quality--or lack thereof. I am delighted, though, that Tom's gotten out of the two-star rut!

Ice water. But I will be drinking a Guinness in T-minus nine minutes.

How long have you been waiting to use that one?

Never let the intern pick the goodbye-lunch spot. I just had lunch at Aria today. The steak on my salad was surpisingly good and nicely cooked. The rest of the salad, the service, and even the iced tea were abysmal. It's such a shame that this nice of a setting, in such close proximity to so many potential business diners, has to be so bloody sub-par. I think they must have to try to make it bad--I know I would have to search long and hard to find people as vapid, unmotivated, and unhelpful as our host and server, and ingredients as insipid as those that made up my salad. ETA: Oh, and this is the second entree I've ordered in the last week where the advertised bleu cheese has been MIA. Is there a shortage I don't know about???

Then why not just direct to voice mail? Office person can check every 30 or so minutes to check if anyone called to say he or she would be late, but other than that, get back to them at a better time.I know there are all kinds of reasons why this wouldn't work; I'm just growing really frustrated as a diner at the increasing limitations on when and where and how I can eat. I'm irked at the notion that if I eat out Mother's Day, Valentine's Day, New Year's Eve, graduation weekend, Restaurant Week, yada yada yada, I can expect to be treated shoddily. I'm irked at the notion that if I don't call at certain times I can expect to be treated shoddily. I wish my office gave me an allowance for rudeness or half-assedness during especially busy periods, but it seems that only the service industry does that. Oh, irony. [Please note: This isn't directed at Nadya--whose writings I always enjoy for their style and ability to get us talking about interesting topics--or at any particular restaurant at all, just the dining environment in general. And I'm kind of crabby today. Sorry.]

Except, of course, for the Super Bass-o-matic '76!!!

Trying to apply the logic that "it's worse in [Mexico/Afghanistan/other place where the majority of the people lives on less than a dollar a day]" may be able to revive the Pollyanna in us all by reminding us how *&$^%@ good we have it compared to other folks in the world, but it doesn't really enrich our knowledge in this case. DC water may be fine as a whole, but it differs neighborhood to neighborhood (lead pipes anyone?) and building to building (hello, corrosion!).MDT, that helped. Thanks!

What concerns me is that I learned orange=iron, red/pink=bacteria. Is there a doctor in the house to help us out on this?

I loooooove my yogurt maker. I use it once a month or more, so it definitely earns the cabinet space (or at least, earns it more than, say, the malignantly dusty tart pan, juicer, and espresso machine). I want a zester. And a food mill. And a mortar and pestle. Wow. I'm lame. Those are really normal items.

Since it's considered rude to drink with a garnish on your glass, and since I know of a few places that don't wash their lemons (making me really not want them swimming in my drink!), I just put it on the table. Along with the straw. And any other detritus they've decided to foist on me for ordering a simple glass of tap water. Messy, yes. But we live.

Absolutely, Sthitch. A few years ago at a meat and cheese store in northern Wisconsin (yes, a meat and cheese store, bless 'em), I saw a summer sausage shaped like a Leinie's bottle, label and all. I still regret not buying it.

Theory: Mark Furstenberg and Peter "Szechuan Boy" Chang are actually THE SAME GUY. Think about it...

Enhanced? Heck, if it were pink it would be spot-on! Am interested to find that I'm not the only one getting this. I suppose that means either that I'll be fine or that I'll have someone next to me in hospital quarantine.

I enjoy this stuff traveling abroad too: Tusker in Kenya, Kingfisher in India, Beliken in Belize, Cristal in Peru, Nile Special in Uganda, Angkor in Cambodia... and on and on. Every tropical, developing nation has its own yellow beer that is cheap, not tasty--but not offensive--and drunk regularly. Not much switching up to be done. But it, like water, generally goes well with the food. One word of warning: in Thailand, treat yourself and upgrade from the bottom-of-the-barrel Chang to Tiger. They essentially taste the same, but at least with Tiger you don't get the formaldehyde headache.

How do you feel about the quality of DC area water? Do you know of anywhere I can take my tap water to get tested for icky stuff? Backstory: I live in Adams Morgan and have, in the last week, noticed reddish-pink stains appearing in my tub and toilet. This is not, as one might reasonably assume, a result of my limited housekeeping; I've been much more lax in the past and never seen anything like this--plus, the same color stains also appeared in the bottom of a mug in my kitchen sink that had about a tablespoon of water in it for about three days. I'm honestly kind of skeezed and kind of worried. I know from biology that red=bad. But how bad? Expertise and anecdotes welcomed and appreciated.

When I have a fabulous first meal at a restaurant, I don't wait to report on it till I go back a second time, just to give them the chance to do worse.

In today's Reliable Source: