jdl

Ohmygaw. Do you have a potential date in mind? (Please don't say Dec 7, 8, 9 or 10.)

Anybody come across white truffles yet on the local dining scene? Where? Served with what? How good? How much? I need a fix, and I need it soon.

Just keep in mind that it might take a while to get your food. When the place gets really busy - and it will on Friday night - things sometimes start to move in slow motion behind the counter. Especially if you order fried chicken just as the existing batch runs out. Great show at the Lincoln that night, though. Paquito is great.

Post magazine piece on Chef Richard.

Sure. I didn't take notes on my Laboratorio meal, but I thought it very, very good. But there was nothing transcendant about it. I didn't find myself still thinking about the cuisine two days later. Whereas I've had multiple meals cooked by Angelo Auriana that I'm still thinking about, some of them 18-24 months after the fact. He knows from transcendence. He is also a wizard when it comes to pairing food and wine, particularly in reverse. By that I mean you can give him a list of wines and he'll come up with a menu with dishes selected specifically with the pairings in mind. (Sometimes, he'll even do it on the spot. That is, you send a glass to the kitchen, and a food pairing materializes a short time later.) Two examples, from notes on meals I had at Masque: With 1997 Marcassin Marcassin Vineyard Chardonnay, a cardoons tortino with sepia ragu and toasted hazelnuts. The tortino was otherworldly, like a savory flan. Great textures – and an interesting contrast: I loved the tortino vis-à-vis the sepia, the former soft and spongy, the latter just slightly chewy. Fava beans and the hazelnut pieces added additional textural contrast. Interestingly, each bite of the tortino seemed better than the last. Somebody noted that it seemed so simple that you almost forgot how great it was – until you had another bite. I could’ve eaten 10 of them. Great match with the Marcassin, which can be a difficult pairing because of its massive size and high-toast/grilled hazelnut profile. With 1998 Donnhoff Norheimer Kirschheck Spatlese, venison carpaccio: When this dish came out, a bunch of us were thinking there was a mistake - that we were supposed to be doing a red-wine course. Silly us. This was one of the best food-wine matches I've encountered this year (2004). And on its own, the carpaccio was great, too. New Zealand venison, which made our NZ visitor quite happy. Inside, bits of parmesean and swiss chard. Garnished with garden herbs, but who needed them? It was all about the meat. Three pieces to a plate. I wanted a dozen. Wonderful, wonderful stuff. When Angelo emerged from the kitchen later, he said that, of course he was going to do venison with the spatlese. That's why he's the chef and I'm just the dumb diner. There have been many, many other incredible dishes, including a whole raft of them at a white truffle dinner we did 2004. Foodie friends came in from around the country for this one, and all of us wound up declaring it our meal of the year. For me, it was top two all-time, rivaled only by the best of my meals at French Laundry. With 1982 Krug: Nantucket bay scallops with frizzled parsnips. With 1996 Jadot Chevalier Montrachet Les Demoiselles: a single seared prawn served with Chilean turbot and a carrot coulis With 1985 Jadot Bonnes Mares: sunchoke panna cotta with truffles With 1974 Gaja Sori Tilden: sweetbreads wrapped in beef tongue served with baby bok choy and truffles With 1978 and 1982 Giacosa Barbaresco Santo Stefano Riserva: foie gras tortelli with white truffles and white truffle risotto With 1994 Harlan and 1982 Cheval Blanc: Three hour braised beef cheeks. I think about that meal often. I'm not saying I dislike Donna's cuisine. That couldn't be further from the truth. It's just that I don't agree that he's the best Italian chef in the US. Then again, I didn't go to the truffle dinner Joe organized at Laboratorio, so I'm not sure I've tasted his cooking at its best. But I would expect that he's usually operating at a pretty high level at the Laboratorio, and I thought my meal was pretty representative based on what I've read about the place. Three years ago, I believe Angelo was already in Sacramento preparing for the opening of Masque. At the very least, he had one foot out the door at Valentino. And I believe that it's true that he was not at the top of his game when his Valentino run was coming to a close. He's admitted as much. (By the by, Angelo has never had any involvement with Valentino/Vegas. That was opened by Piero Selvaggio with one of Angelo's former sous chefs, and it is, quite frankly, a disaster.) We should do a bi-coastal dining tour. You set up a dinner with Roberto, and I'll set one up with Angelo. Then, we can really get down to the business of comparison. I suspect that if they're both in fine form, we'll be splitting hairs (not to mention one hell of a dining bill) by the end. I'll bring the mag of 82 Gaja San Lorenzo. Deal?

But maybe not as good as anybody in the US. Angelo Auriana, the longtime former (though kinda current, at least temporarily) executive chef at Valentino can outcook Roberta any day of the week. Except maybe Sundays, when Angelo doesn't work. Angelo is incredible. Roberta is merely pretty great.

I'll tell you what Katsen needs to do: He needs to remove Schweaty Beer Guy from the stands. Seriously. There's an absolutely disgusting plus-sized beer vendor who works at RFK, and the guy is flat-out gross. He sweats on patrons, he sweats on the beer bottles, he holds money in his mouth (uh, no thanks - keep the change). He probably scares little children. I know he scares me. I'm glad he's losing a few pounds during every game, but I wish he'd do it in private rather than in plainview. Really ruins my appetite for baseball and just about everything else. (I once saw the same guy at a Dylan-Willie Nelson show in Bowie, and it was the same sweaty drill. Ewwwwww.)

What, no Citronelle or CityZen?

Had a lovely dinner at 1789 during the last RW. Alas, it appears that they're not participating this summer. Vidalia also rocked the house last time out. Ditto Corduroy. Galileo, not so much. Georgia Brown's was just aight. Oh, and I had a very good lunch at Rasika. I think I gained about 10 pounds that week.

Well, I like his way of cooking.

Forgot to mention that I dined last summer at Puck's new Asian place at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. It's called 2021. I was skeptical, because of the museum setting - and because, well, I've never loved Chinois. But I have to say, it was pretty damn good. Actually preferred it to Vincent, Solera and Cosmos, which were supposed to be superior. On the other hand, of the half-dozen meals I've had at Postrio, I've loved exactly none.

Generally agree. BUT...I dropped into Spago/Vegas for a bite about a year and a half ago and ordered the lobster bisque and a foie gras mini-tasting with a couple of glasses of wine. The meal was somewhere between good-plus and excellent-minus. So there's hope yet.

From the press release: "The restaurant's ground floor will offer approachable dining with a 'bar and grill' ambiance, and a casual menu designed for comfortable dining or a quick bite. Workday lunch, bar menu, and late-night dining will be available in a contemporary, dynamic environment. "The upstairs dining room will evoke signature menus from Spago, Chinois and Postrio restaurants, featuring the finest and freshest ingredients, local artisanal producers and a more leisurely dining experience."

I thought it interesting that on my way out of the Farragut North Metro stop on Friday night, I dropped into N&B to get some take-out -- and the place was packed (at about 8:45p) with South Asian families. Can't always judge a place by its clientele, of course, but ethnic restaurants that are popular with people of that particular ethnicity are generally better than, uh, those that aren't.

Didn't say it outright, but the fact that I wrote (more than once) that it had never been mentioned/reviewed on DR.com should have been a pretty good giveaway.

Funny, by the way, that so many people were on my case about not outing the newly opened restaurant that so badly sucked upon my visit last year. And yet, when Tom writes of a bad experience at a newly opened place, the knives come out. Different venues, different audiences. But still. (Hey, pot; kettle calling. You're black! )

Save the world through food journalism! If you can survive the DR.com gauntlet, anyway. It's kinda interesting that the James Beard Foundation likes Tom's work enough that he's been a journalism-awards finalist multiple times. And yet the newly deputized writing police here want him arrested on charges of ... what? Not being William S. Vollman? Where the hell do these expectations come from, anyway? It's a daily newspaper, for chrissakes, not McSweeney's or The New f'n Yorker. By the way, Komi sucks because it's not French Laundry.

Any idea where they're sourcing the foie? Preparation aside, how was the quality?

I'm sure this has been asked before, but: Does Komi have a Web site?

Just a thought, but if there are certain dishes that frequently change because of ingredient availability - the soup, for instance, or the fish - and there really isn't much interest in printing a daily menu, for the reasons you mentioned Ferhat, or maybe because it's just a pain in the ass (and an additional expense) that Tom isn't particularly interested in taking on, then why not print a menu that lists a soup and a fish item but doesn't offer specifics? That way, Ferhat and the other servers can give diners the details on those dishes. And the diners don't have to be told that Dish X has become Dish Y, etc.

Ditto. (Well, that and the cigarette smoke that wafts from the bar to the tables closest to the front.) Otherwise, I love the place. I'm just sayin', is all.

"Items may change due to seasonal market availability." Here's a minor crab about Corduroy: If the menu varies from day to day due to market availability (and it does, as anybody who's been there knows), then why not print a new menu daily rather than having the server tell you that this item isn't available today and has been replaced by Dish X (if at all)? It seems like every time I've been, two or three items listed on the menu aren't available. Maybe the duck confit has been replaced by chicken. Or the Kabocha squash soup has been replaced by cauliflower. Or the halibut by, I dunno...turbot or something. This is an upper-middle-tier restaurant. So why not present the menu accordingly?

I did. But the math doesn't add up to me. Johnny (as in 's Half Shell) + La Colline = "destination dining room"?

So, who's moving into this space? Come on, people - I thought you were plugged in.

How 'bout their wine writer? You can meet him at an upcoming tasting.