LauraB

According to this NPR article, Truck Driver is the most common occupation in a large majority of states.  Imagine what will happen when all of these people lose their jobs and have no other alternative.  

This is really sad news.  I took a Knife-Skills class at the Bethesda location 10 years ago and it completely changed my approach to cooking - it made it so much easier. Just wish I'd taken the class 35 years ago!  Every time I dice an onion I think of that class -- can't remember the instructor's name, but he was really entertaining.

9 hours ago, dcandohio said:

  What can I add that put some color and vegetable into the soup without greatly changing the flavor profile?

How about some diced red bell peppers?

On 8/16/2017 at 9:47 PM, Pool Boy said:

Any updates? Planning on doing the North Coast 500 followed by a lot of time on the Isle of Skye. TIA!

Frank Bruni considered the Three Chimneys on the Isle of Skye to be one of his 5 favorite experiences (as distinguished from best restaurants) while he was the restaurant critic for the NYT.  Three Chimneys is not just a restaurant, it's an inn as well.  Well worth considering. We loved our experience there in 2010.  

4 hours ago, Pat said:

Jim Vance   This made me so sad, and I haven't watched local news in ages. He was just such a DC institution, it's hard to believe he's gone.  On a trivial note,  I didn't realize until I read the obituary that he was born in the same town my father was...

We moved from DC to North Carolina last winter.  Just yesterday, I was thinking about how much I missed Jim Vance.  I watched him for decades and there was no one better.  I especially appreciated his Vance's View editorials in which he would speak his mind freely and often offer what would be considered in some circles as controversial opinions.  I can't think of a single time that I disagreed with him.  He was a giant of a man and someone you just assumed would be there for you forever.  DC is so much poorer today.  

On 4/1/2017 at 9:36 AM, Tweaked said:

The Taj Mahal was as wonderful as I hoped/dreamed.  We went for a sunset tour (we arrived around 4:30 and left around 6:30) and watched as the evening colors changed on the white marble.

I agree, the Taj Mahal, unlike other iconic sites, does not disappoint -- it exceeded our sky-high expectations. Did you make it to the 'Baby Taj?' in Agra?  It is stunningly beautiful and we enjoyed our visit there as much as the Taj Mahal itself.  We visited first thing in the morning and basically had the place to ourselves!  The tile work there is amazing -- we took hundreds of photos.

On 4/1/2017 at 9:36 AM, Tweaked said:

Now in Jaipur for a couple of days and excited to try some Rajasthani food.

Jaipur was our favorite city of the several we visited in Northern India (Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Udaipur).  I hope that the Amer Fort and Samode Palace are on your itinerary.  There were so many highlights of our trip, but those two really stand out.

In Jaipur we stayed at the Jai Mahal Palace hotel and it was easily the most fabulous of all of the very nice hotels we stayed in. None of us wanted to leave.   

Tweaked, I am enjoying your dispatches from India.  Keep them coming!  By the way, how's the currency situation there currently?

I would encourage you to take the Eating Asheville High Rollers tour -- you visit several different restaurants and other food-related businesses and are served a dish and a drink at each one.  It's a walking tour, so you get to see some of Asheville as well as enjoy some delicious food.  

Thanks everyone for all of this great advice.  I looked into several options and most were incredibly expensive.  In the end, we decided that it made the most sense for MrB to fly back to DC and drive the car to Raleigh himself -- it's only a 4-hour drive.

17 minutes ago, porcupine said:

Been on a pastry bender recently. Some creations need a bit more work, but one that came out well I call "cacio e pepe" rolls: croissant dough with plenty of black pepper and pecorino romano, rolled, sliced, baked in muffin tins.

That sounds really good!

I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with using a vehicle transport service?  (That may not be the best description for the service I'm seeking.)  MrB and I need to have a vehicle driven or otherwise transported to Raleigh-Durham because, due to scheduling, we are unable to drive it ourselves.  Way back in the dark ages (the 1980s) I moved from San Francisco to DC and drove across the country with a friend in a vehicle that had been consigned to us by a service that matched people needing to have a car transported with people who needed a car to drive.  (We lucked out -- we were assigned a brand-new black Mercedes.)  I'm wondering if such services still exist and how I could go about finding one -- what search terms would I use?  Thanks for any advice you have.

Yes, I was confused at first with every truck having a sign emblazoned on the back of the truck, 'Blow Horn'.  After awhile I figured out that that was not the company name, but rather an invitation to let them know you are there.

Topolobampo

Frontera Grill

Spiaggia

On 5/13/2016 at 7:04 PM, Escoffier said:

Unless you're somewhere at the ends of the city limits going towards Boars Head Inn, the University of Virginia does NOT HAVE A CAMPUS.  The original University has the Grounds, the Grounds are where the heart of the University lies and the rest of those buildings are for people who call the Grounds of UVa a campus.  Heathens!

This is exactly why we decided not to move there. The town has been overtaken by UVA.

14 hours ago, Erik Ox said:

So I'm trying to get the quiet vibe of Corduory, as much as anything else. I think I've been to Bar Americain before, and that's not how I remember it. 

We loved our experience at Bar Americain, but it is very LOUD.  Not what you described that you needed.  

On 1/11/2017 at 0:19 AM, JeffC said:

How was the currency situation?    

As I described upthread, it was pretty bad.  Finally, on December 20th, we were able to get money out of an ATM in Udaipur.  We were limited to 2500 rupees 2x per day, supposedly, but one of my daughters was able to get 5 extractions of that amount.  The rest of us tried it, but did not have her good luck. I just read this article in the NYT and find it really discouraging.  I feel very badly for the Indian people, for whom I developed a great fondness during our trip to India.

8 hours ago, Simul Parikh said:

They do not serve Kingfisher but b/c of all the questions, they may offer it at some point. 

I would encourage them not to bother.  It's been decades since I drank a Budweiser, but the one Kingfisher I had in India was very reminiscent of Budweiser.  

After our stay in Delhi, we traveled through northern India from Agra through several locations in Rajasthan.  We had the great good fortune to have selected EasyTours to be our guides.  We could not have chosen better.  

I had been in communication with 3 tour groups in India and we decided on Easy Tours because of the ease of communication and the price.  It was not the most expensive, nor the cheapest, it was somewhere in the middle. And it delivered the best service,

I want to say that we traveled as a family of 4 (2 adult children, 2 parents) in a 9-seat van with a driver and his assistant.  There was plenty of room for all of our luggage in the back of the van.

Easy Tours was incredible!  I can't recommend them highly enough!  

(I'll have more to say later.)

The guide who was arranged for us by our hotel in Delhi was fantastic. He is an independent contractor and I would recommend him to anyone:

Ajay Massey: masseyajay@yahoo.com

We spent almost 3 weeks in India in December. This was my first trip to India and there is so much to say about India, but I’ll focus on the things that a prospective first-time visitor would like to know.  I am happy to report that none of the 4 of us got sick!  We accomplished this by dining primarily in high-end hotels and at restaurants recommended by our guides.  We drank only bottled water and even used it to brush our teeth at the high-end hotels, although I suspect that was an unnecessary precaution. 

New Delhi

We spent our first 5 days in India in Delhi while MrB worked with his clients.  Due to his need to be close to his clients’ offices, we stayed at a hotel on the southern outskirts of Delhi (Taj Vivanta Surajkund).  This hotel was superb in every way, but due to its location, I don’t think that it would be of interest to most people traveling to Delhi as tourists. The hotel supplied my daughters and me with a car, excellent driver and superb guide and for 3 solid days we were able to see the sights in Delhi.  You really haven’t lived until you’ve experienced the traffic in Delhi! It’s completely normal to be in a traffic jam composed of all manner of vehicles from large trucks to tuk-tuks to motor scooters, and all kinds of animals including cattle, stray dogs, monkeys, pigs, horses, camels and the occasional elephant. Oh, and people: pedestrians make up a good part of the jam, including small children, often unaccompanied by adults.  And passengers disembark from busses directly into oncoming traffic (not onto the sidewalk, if there is one).  At first, you’re pretty freaked out by this experience, but you quickly adjust and within a day you don’t even blink an eye when a large vehicle appears to be barreling down on you – you just know that it’ll squeak by with millimeters to spare and everything will be fine.  I will NEVER complain about DC traffic again!

And let us not forget the honking horns!  I joked to my family that I was going to record a musical piece consisting entirely of various honking horns and title it ‘Delhi Symphony.’

Sightseeing: If you have time for only one major sightseeing excursion in Delhi, make it Humayun’s Tomb – truly breathtaking.  Follow that up with The Red Fort, Jama Masjid, Qutub Minar, India Gate, Lodhi Gardens.

Dining: 

Indian Accent: If you have only one dinner in Delhi, make it Indian Accent at the Manor Hotel in a leafy section of Delhi.  Everything here was great from the food to the service to the ambience, which was quiet and understated.  The two best dishes we had were the Chicken Phulka Taco (from the Starters menu) and the Tamarind John Dory from the Entrées menu.  These were sublime.  Everything else was wonderful as well.  Recently Indian Accent opened a branch in NYC, if you can’t make it to Delhi.  I understand that it’s extremely expensive. 

Bhukara: Located in the beautiful ITC Maurya Hotel.  We had lunch here and were underwhelmed.  Given that this restaurant has been rated as one of the best in the world, we were flabbergasted.  Frankly, we didn’t consider it to be much better than a kabob place in NoVA.  Be forewarned: you have to eat with your hands here; fortunately, they provide you with a bib that covers the upper half of your body.  When I’m paying these kind of prices, I don’t want to eat with my hands!  Also, we ordered Gin & Tonics: they served us glasses with a small amount of gin and a can of Schweppes Tonic water that we could pour in ourselves.  I later learned on my credit card statement that I’d been charged $60 for 3 servings of gin!

Imperial Hotel: If you want a view into India under British colonial rule, come to the Imperial Hotel.  You’ve got it all: the lawn, the rattan furniture, the overhead ceiling fans, the dark wooden paneling, the impeccable service by the turbaned wait staff.  And, if you’re looking for good cocktails this was the only place we found them in India: Gin Gimlets were fantastic.  We had originally planned to have High Tea here, but our schedule dictated lunch instead.  Our lunch was mostly good.  I don’t recall the exact dishes we ordered, but all but one were good.  I ordered an Indonesian dish that I found incredibly salty and didn’t eat much of it.  I wouldn’t have said anything, but when asked, I said it was too salty.  Well, that resulted in the Chef himself coming out to inform me that the dish was not too salty.  I was treated to a very public lecture about the nature of the dish and it was highly embarrassing.  The good news: they didn’t charge us for the dish. 

Lodi Gardens: The Restaurant: Our guide suggested lunch at this place.  This is by no means a destination.  What appealed to us was the fact that it was in a tree-shaded, garden environment.  It was an oasis in the middle of the chaos of Dehli.  And, while we could still hear the honking horns, we felt somehow shielded from it.  The outdoor dining area was lovely.  The food was average.  Again, we mostly appreciated it for the location and setting.   

Proof is almost next-door to Zaytinya and has a great wine list and cocktails. If you want to be really adventuris, go to Barmini.

I tried to find a thread for the Research Triangle, but when I clicked on it I got a message saying, 'Sorry, we could not locate the item you are trying to view."  If there is a viable thread, please move this post there.  Thanks.

Anyway, we're going to be spending a week in Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill during the second week of January.  I'd love to get some recommendations of places to eat: breakfast, lunch and dinner, with focus on Durham.  In addition to eateries, would appreciate ideas for any food markets or non-food places that are worth a visit.

Thanks and Happy New Year!

On 12/15/2016 at 2:34 PM, ktmoomau said:

I definitely would make sure I had accounts with the top payment apps- not sure what most people there use, but Paypal, Paytm, etc.  Goodness, given how much we relied on cash for all transactions, this cannot be easy.  And the electricity and wifi outside of certain places aren't incredibly conducive to square readers, etc.

I'm not sure how helpful this would be.  We used cash mainly to tip our drivers, guides and hotel staff.  None of them accept Paypal or other online payment services.  Otherwise, we used credit cards to pay for hotels, restaurants and purchases.  

We were finally able to get cash from an ATM using a credit card on December 20th.  At that time the limit was 2500 rupees per transaction and you were limited to 2 transactions per day, although somehow my daughter was able to make 5 withdrawals within a matter of minutes.  The rest of us were not so lucky.

PSA for anyone planning to travel to India in the near future:

 You may be aware that PM Modi's 'demonetization' program has resulted in a currency crisis, such that it is extremely difficult to obtain any amount of Rupees.  I have been in Delhi for the last 5 days and I can confirm that the situation is even worse than it may appear through media sources.  I would encourage anyone with travel plans to India to make every effort to exchange money in the U.S. BEFORE leaving for India.  Once in India, it will be next to impossible to obtain anything more than very small quantities of cash in Rupees, if you can get any at all.  Trying to exchange money at a bank or ATM is nearly hopeless as all banks have limited funds and what the media describes as 'long lines' waiting to get in.  I would characterize them more as 'crowds,' or even 'mobs.' (My daughter described one scene we witnessed as a 'mosh pit.') Our driver told me on Friday that he had waited outside his bank for more than 5 hours the day before, only to be told that the bank had run out of cash by the time he made it inside. Theoretically, you can exchange cash dollars at your hotel.  In practice, however, the hotels are on strict rations and frequently have no cash at all or limit you to exchanging no more than $20 and can't tell you when they will receive their next cash delivery.  Further, if you are bringing U.S. dollars with you in hope of exchanging them, make sure they are in pristine condition.  I attempted to exchange a $20 bill -- the maximum allowed that day -- and was told that they could not accept it because it had a crease down the middle (it had been folded in half).  (We arrived in India with a healthy supply of rupees, but felt the need to increase that supply once here and seeing the situation firsthand.)

The demonetization program is supposed to end on December 30th, but no one knows what that means or whether or when the cash supply will return to normal levels. 

Try Corduroy.  I'm pretty sure it will be less expensive, but I can't guarantee that.

So, where did you end up?  And, how was it?