ktmoomau

Went last night. The spinach salad was good, the spinach was fresh and the salad was nicely dressed, I love pine nuts so a good choice. We had half margarita and half of the Boola Boola I think (Hubby and Brother ordered). The roasted garlic, carmelized onions and peppers on the Boola Boola kicked the margarita's butt, even without the fact that the boola boola half also had meat. Hubby who likes NY pizza, but accepts that their are other pizzas in the world liked it a good bit. One thing I thought was a little odd was that the cheese seemed to get thick and congealed rather quickly, although the roof of my mouth is burnt. I don't know if it just cools very quickly or what. Didn't really take away from the taste. I still like thin crust pizza with a little less cheese better, but always good for the hubby to be happy. I would definitely eat it again. And it would be great delivery pizza, the kind of pizza you have for a big group. Definitely go for some with roasted garlic though it really makes it much tastier. Would like to try the crispy goat cheese salad next time. And we saw people with ice cream that I think they got at the counter, but wasn't on the menu? The need to let people know about that, it looked like pretty good ice cream.

I know... but it is the best pizza in the neighborhood and I am not normally home for lunch. Sigh.

And just as a note in Ballston I saw the Middle Eastern food cart was there till 9:00 pm the other night. I wish Pupatella (the italian cart with good thin crust pizza) would stay open a little later, it is really good.

Eleventh Street Lounge has some small plates but they are pretty generous, although I think they only have one outside table. I like the NC BBQ sliders, which are really just pulled pork sliders, but good ones. I just saw you said tiniest though it might not be great for kids. GuaRapo has some good appetizers to share, but I don't know about the outside tables. And I don't know about kid factor here... I have seen lots of kids at Sette Bello, they might have some interesting antipasta. The bar menu at Liberty Tavern might work and they might serve that on the patio? And then there is Jaleo in Crystal City, not Clarendon area though. Grand Cru in Arlington has some small plates, but their outdoor section is normally packed.

Recent trip to San Fransisco for the first part of our honeymoon just thought I would post some thoughts: R&G Lounge- So I am trying to get into Chinese food, when I was little I had a couple really bad reactions and it has taken a while, but we ordered a bunch of stuff and I had a good time trying things. I had XO chicken with snap peas (I know pretty tame but again you walk into the pool before you dive in) that was very good. And I have to admit I ordered spring rolls as they are pretty safe in my book, and found the ones there very fresh and crispy and not huge in a good way. Unfortunately with all the other stuff we ate I can't remember all the dishes. I know we started with a bit of bbq too (again safe) and it was served with these beans that were brown and a little hard in a good way I really liked those. I am trying to remember what hubby got it was more adventurous but I tasted some and liked it... I should have taken notes or more pictures. I wish I had more people with us for the meal so I could have tried more things because the plates flowing to the tables around us all looked good and I just wanted to go around and sample to see what I liked. We also had gone to a Chinese Bakery on Grant St. Golden Gate Bakery (I found out later this place is normally packed but jetlag had us up early that morning) we got a moon cake, pineapple bun, egg custard and a bbq pork bun. I liked all of those very much. Those are things I could get more used to. Top of the Mark- we arrived pretty late our first evening and stayed at the Fairmont so this was across the street and kind of romantic for a first night honeymoon. On our way up a nice gay couple told hubby that my rings were gorgeous and he did a great job so he was in a very good mood. We ordered cocktails- I just got a gin and tonic, he got a martini. The view was really nice. We had seared tuna there that was very good- seared perfectly nice crust of sesame seeds, nicely but not overly sauced. It was a nice late night snack. We also had the cheese plate, which didn't have very adventurous cheese and two blues of which hubby isn't a fan of so I had a lot of cheese, but it was nice for a late night just to unwind after a huge wedding and flights. I know it is a touristy thing to do, but it is nice and rather relaxing and they don't make bad cocktails so I am not complaining. The next day we headed to the ferry building and did some nibbling- The roast beef sushi from Delica rfi was really good, good marks to cowgirl creamery of course. We were on an off day so it was a little slow and we were leaving to go to Napa for the French Laundry so we just wanted to graze some. We sat down at the Market Bar because my puppies were tired had charcuterie, dugenese deviled eggs and smoked salmon bruschetta with goat cheese. The deviled eggs were so-so, meat was very good and the smoked salmon bruschetta stole the show. The salmon was almost creamy and wasn't so smokey that it overwhelmed the fish. The goat cheese had nice balance with the relish and it was toasted so that the textures and flavors came together quite well. I had wanted to go to the slanted door but life's a compromise. We then headed out to Napa and Sonoma. Dinner at the French Laundry was worth it. It was an experience not just a dinner. I browsed the garden across the street and sat in the lovely flower garden waiting for them to order as we had 5:30 reservations. We were greeted with Champagne and congratulations. We ordered the tasting menu alternating the choices. What was incredible is that they incorporated flavors from individual things hubby and I are not crazy about into dishes in ways that we liked them (beets, caviar, mushrooms- mostly hubby dislikes but I am not huge on beets). Every dish was memorable in a different way. The pearls, oyster and caviar was rich with a tiny tang and the texture in your mouth with the salty and savory flavors really came together to make this exotic dish almost homey. The salad of hamachi was cool, crisp and refreshing while the fatty fish had nice texture and flavor as it melded in your mouth. The lobster with leeks and beets was rich but the texture of the lobster was perfect and the beet used here just added a fresh flavor and cut a bit of the salt flavor to make it very balanced. The beef dish gave you the perfect portion and in each bite I tried to get a bit of everything as it was just very balanced. The chocolate dessert was decadent and hubby had a very fruity dessert that was a good combination of sweet and tart. We were then overloaded with a whole box of other assorted goodies and then sent home with shortbread cookes that made the plane to Australia very tastey. I won't go through every dish there is no use anyway someone else I am sure has. I know some people say it is overrated, but for us the balanced flavors and perfection of smell, texture, taste and balance paired with absolutely impeccable service that was in no way over the top really made the experience for us. We both commented that we had as much fun as we did at Minibar, which in essence is a fun food experience where the French Laundry just doesn't try to play up the fun as much. So if you get a chance do go. We were lucky Amex plat called as soon as they started taking calls at the first day out they would take reservations for our date we needed so it worked out. I think if you are contemplating going, don't rule it out because other people say it is underwhelming. But I wouldn't go to see something you have never seen before. It is still food on a plate. It will taste like the ingredients in it. But I do think the almost science of perfecting flavor if you really taste it is quite nice. Anyway those are my thoughts. Hope this may come in helpful for someone.

Had any of you read the book previously? I am just wondering because I found the book really tedious and kind of whiny and I just wondered if anyone felt the movie was better than the book. If so it would go on the netflix list (or I could be really nice and take the person who gave me the book to see it, obviously she thought the book was good and would probably love the movie), but I am not going if it is a fair representation of the book.

Hello, I am ktmoomau. I wandered over from chow after reading a lot of posts and lurking without joining for a while because, in all honesty, the boards over there were a bit slow and I needed yet another food related website to read. And since Michael Landrum only posts updates about Ray's here I decided to join. It's nice to see so many familiar faces. I look forward to reading people's posts. I grew up on a beef farm in Western Maryland. I live in Arlington with my hubby who is extremely nice about taking me out to new places I want to try and trying new things he might otherwise not. I write, but not about food really, there are so many people that can describe food better than I can, I just pride myself in being able to cook it and eat it well. I am also a jeweler but don't have a lot of time for that anymore, but I am hoping to be able to devote more time to that soon. Anyway that is me in a nutshell. KT