Gastro888

For dinner tonight, I'm making: Tuna poke salad w/ mango pineapple salsa Greek cucumber-tomato salad Grilled dry-aged rib eye steak Sauteed spinach and mushrooms w/ garlic Rice (eh, the 888 should give the reasoning away...hee hee) Chocolate foundue w/ strawberries and bananas I'm debating on the tuna - should I make it poke style or make it more ceviche style. I like the flavors of the poke - soy sauce, sesame oil and a pinch of chile fakes but the ceviche is cool, too. Hmm.

Got reservations at Gaileo, Ten Penh and Cafe Mozu. Oooooh, sooooo looking forward to it. Hey, does anyone know the dress code at Gaileo for dinner? What should a guy wear? Does he have to wear a jacket and tie or can he get away with a nice button down shirt and slacks with dress shoes?

White rice, iced jasmine green tea and Chinese roast pork chowed with soy sauce. Oh my goodness...pork fat rules. Helllll yeah, baby.

Dinner was at Maria's last night - wonton soup, HK style milk tea (w/ extra milk, pls), crinkle cut French fries (and they were extra crispy and GOOD), and a couple of stolen bites of Portguese chicken with rice. That's a bake rice dish - chucks of fried boneless chicken in a light Chinese yellow curry sauce with onions, bell pepers and a bit of cheese on top. A wee bit, enough to make you go hmmm. Canto-fied Western food. Gotta love it.

BBQ turkey sausage, salmon cake and burger. Yummm.

More details on the fish fry plate, please!

The Old Siam on 8th near Penn Ave is really good! It's got great food and great interior. Prices are reasonable. I'd go there and head to the game. Metro's across the street, too.

I should mention that I'm looking to host potentially 30-50 people. Details, details, deatils. Sorry my brain is a bit fried from the sun - competition on the water will do that to you.

I'm organizing an event and was looking to host it at a restaurant that has a resonable (price and quality of food) buffet. This is for a number of reasons but mainly because I don't want to deal with the hassle of checks and RSVP - for ease of planning. Initally, I was thinking of Korean buffet but that may pose some logistical problems. So I pose to the DR posse, where can I find a good buffet in the DC area that's reasonably priced (20-30 dollars)? This will be on a Saturday night. I'm open to any cuisine. Thanks in advance for your help!

Oops, I shoulda been more specific. Apologies! It's outside the Beltway on Columbia Pike, Route 29. about 5 minutes north of the University Blvd. intersection. And they have Total Greek Yogurt. Whee!

Got back from a lunch break over at TJ's. Must say it's alot nicer and bigger than the one in Rockville, Bethesda or Falls Church. It's more spacious than most TJ's. Quite happy there's another choice in Silver Spring besides Whole Paychecks...

Korean kal bi on the bone. Different than the boneless ones - I think I'll stick with the boneless next time. Tonight - carbing up for the competition tomorrow. More kal bi and rice. Lots of rice. We will be a rice rocket dragon boat tomorrow at Thompson's Boat House!

Their mandoo are very good and the bibimbop is decent. Aiiiieee, no hwae du bop?!?! Oh my god, you must go back and try it! I'm serious - it's the best in town. Well, MD side, that is.

Steak - pan fried, served with a side of white rice. Mix the pan juices with the rice and gobble up like there's no tomorrow. Ahhhh.

Roasted lamb, rice, and leftover veggies. Dessert (which was before dinner, hee hee): A Vietnamese dessert from Eden Center - cubes of steamed rice jelly/dough with pandan flavoring, palm sugar and coconut cream. Oh yeah... Must plan my carbing-up meal. Hmm. Pasta or mein, pasta or mein. Hmm.

NO WAY! I *SO* don't believe you, bilrus. You and your wife were both intimidated? Nooooo. Huh. One of the things kills me about Sorrio's is that the wild mushroom pasta could've been good if they only did a few basic tweaks to it.

WTF, yo. Who in the heck would be intimidated by a restaurant?!?! Send 'em to Olive Garden. Oy.

We should've gone to Spices. Hell, we should've gone to SUBWAY! The prices were way too high for what they're offering. A calzone for $15 and it's mostly air with skimpy fillings? C'mon. We'll just have to eat two desserts at Palena the next time we go to make up for last night...

You MUST try their hwae du bop - raw fish on rice dish. It's like chirashi on acid - oh my god, they make the best one in the area. Fantastic...

Cross posted on eG: gnatharobed and I planned to dine off the cafe menu tonight at Palena. We looked forward to trying the Monday night menu and comparing dishes together. We both left work, excited to enjoy the food and ready for some great dessert. BUT IT WAS CLOSED TONIGHT! Ai ya, I shoulda called before I drove all the way from Montgomery County to NW. We were *so* disappointed! It was a bitter way to end a Monday - no Palena! And we had been planning this for 2 weeks! No burger, no chicken, no lime tartlet... <mock sob> Sidebar: We ended up at Sorrio's across the street. Overall, substandard food. We had the pizza, homemade pasta with wild mushrooms, seafood stew and creme brulee. The pizza with wild mushrooms, spinach and onions was solidly decent - they could've caramelized the onions prior to adding them, used a lighter hand with the cheese and made the crust crisper. The base for the seafood stew lacked the essence of seafood - the broth was mostly tomatoes. I'm waiting for the mussels to kick in - let's see if Bourdain was right about Monday and seafood. The homemade pasta could've been stellar had they actually used wild mushrooms, less herbs, made a sauce and added more pasta. (For $17, the portion shouldn't be something that's as small as my fist. Note: my fist of fury not that big.) The kicker was the creme brulee. 'Twas more like creme anglaise. Who knew creme brulee could run? Run, creme brulee, run... Yes we ate it (hey, we don't waste food!), no we didn't complain 'cause it wasn't horribly bad, just not great enough for us to come back.

Nope, it's not really a Western invention. Well, it's been adapted to Western tastes but it's a Northern Chinese thing. (Please excuse my generalization - being Cantonese anything not Cantonese is "Northern" Chinese given our geographical location. LOL!) Especially the fried fish in sweet in sour sauce. What would've been better than that fish is a steam fish in soy sauce with ginger and scallions. Ooooh. $70 bucks with a whole suckling pig, seafood, scallops, & etc? Hmm. I'll ask the expert about that price. Oh yeah, don't expect much in terms of drinks in a Chinese joint. *shrug* We pretty much focus on the food - let the French do the wine and food pairing...hee hee.

The photos look great - I wish I could've been there. I have been in very involved in preparation for my team's competition. Hopefully there'll be another event where I can try this great food!

The fish and the prawns seem to me to be a more Northern style of cooking than Cantonese style. It just LOOKS too sweet in the photos. The presentation and tableware are impressive. Quite fancy. I think I may bite the bullet and try the food one of these days. How much was the banquet, if I may ask?

'Cause most of the restaurants get their business is during lunchtime and I can't imagine alot of the yuppies in DC being down with pho and coming back smelling like it. And alot of people probably don't know what pho is, ya know? Pho's a great lunch and I don't care if I smell like it when I get back from a pho joint. Then again, I am the one who's dying to bring in stinky tofu to work one of these days.

I have a complaint - their pho is NOT train sized. Prices, yes but not the portions. (Well, I'm talking relative to other pho joints. Forgive me this is my restaurant background talking. I usually walk into a restaurant calculating their overhead. My poppy taught me well.) But golldang it if they don't have the best pho in the area!!! With sawtooth herb. AND the thermos of hot water that comes with the cafe phe.