MBK

Yep, the place was crawling with Rockweillers last night! My friend and I had eyes bigger than our stomachs, so my veal is going to make a great lunch today... and tomorrow... but the highlights for us were the sausage biscuits (my Louisiana born-and-bred friend wants to know if he can pick up an order of those every Saturday night, for his Sunday breakfast), the figs with prosciutto and goat cheese, and the peach charlotte.

Chrissie produces Kliman's chat.

I think it may be. I grew up in Louisiana too, and I don't remember hearing of them til some reference on tv in high school.Another good peanut butter combo -- grilled peanut butter and banana -- had this for the first time at Graceland and was sold. And the messy option I always took to lunch as a kid, peanut butter and honey. Delish!

In today's TomChat, the gloves come off... Yesterday, Kliman reported that Galileo would be heading to Crystal City for the year, while their downtown building undergoes renovations. Today, Sietsema calls that "no secret" and "hardly news" -- "It's no secret that Galileo -- and the two other Italian dining rooms within Galileo -- will soon shutter, so that the building that houses them all at 1110 21st St. NW can complete major renovations. And it's hardly news that chef Roberto Donna plans to take his pots, pans and a lot of his staff to Crystal City (and a soon-to-be-vacated, 140-seat restaurant space) so that he can continue to cook for the year or so the construction downtown is expected to take. What's news is the forthcoming restaurant's name, Bebo Trattoria, and the dishes Donna plans to offer (as soon as next month, if all goes according to schedule). The Post got a sneak peek of Bebo's menu yesterday, and the choices read like a cross between Donna's budget-priced Osteria and the more formal Galileo. The seductions include (start salivating) house-made salami with fried bread and green sauce; fried rabbit with artichokes; an Italian wedding soup; raw veal topped with celery, mushrooms, Parmesan and olive oil; spaghetti with bacon, cream and egg yolks - amusingly dubbed "spaghetti alla coronary"; and the chef's popular hot and cold panini and pizzas. For the curious, "Bebo" is Mr. Donna's nickname." Why the snark, Tom?

We always used to call it "Signers' Island". Not sure if that's an official name for it, but I agree with Danny that it's a great spot, and pretty undiscovered by the tourists.

Cowgirl is also a great addition to the lunch options for those of us who work in the area. They have two kinds of sandwiches every day (one veg, one meat), and you can get out of there with a sandwich and drink for less than you'd pay at Cosi. (And it goes without saying, the quality's about a thousand times better at Cowgirl!) Only thing is, I've stopped in for a late lunch a couple of times and found that they'd run out of sandwiches by 2pm or so. But that problem is easily solved by just buying some cheese and bread and making the sandwich back at the office myself...

So true. That's the best sushi I've ever had. Every time I go to Japan, I save a morning for Tsukiji.

Costa Rica isn't really a foodie destination -- it's a fantastic place to visit and ranks up there as one of my favorite vacations (the relaxation, amazing natural beauty, and kind people make it impossible to have anything but an excellent time), but don't go for the food. Some non-European options: Shanghai/Suzhou/Hangzhou is a great China itinerary; and I'm also partial to Tokyo/Kyoto/some great small towns along the way as well.

I'm not a huge fan of Obelisk (although it's been a couple of years since I was last there), but I do know that they'll do a 100% vegetarian menu for anyone at your table who requests it. Still, I think you'd be better off at any of the places others have suggested... and if it were me, I'd pick Eve.

According to dictionary.com, A fruit is actually the sweet, ripened ovary or ovaries of a seed-bearing plant. A vegetable, in contrast, is an herbaceous plant cultivated for an edible part (seeds, roots, stems, leaves, bulbs, tubers, or nonsweet fruits). So, to be really nitpicky, a fruit could be a vegetable, but a vegetable could not be a fruit. ------------------------- Plain English for a non-scientist, that's not. But hey, it's something.

My friend and I ducked our heads in after a play at the Studio Theatre last week. After being ID'ed by a bouncer standing by a velvet rope (where are we?), we walked in to find an empty (no one there but the servers), but LOUD (so loud you couldn't hear yourself think), club. We were looking for a place to sit, have dinner, and catch up with each other, and this was not it, so we kept walking. I can't vouch for the food, nor for the atmosphere before 10:30pm. But by atmosphere alone, Jin does not fit the "we just saw a fantastic play and want to have a bite and talk about it" niche.

I went on the Fourth of July and wrote about it here (sorry for the shameless self-promo...) We were pleasantly surprised at the lack of crowds! Word on the street is that the real winner among the food at the festival this year is the bison burgers at the Alberta exhibit. Oh, and according to my Mexican-American friend, the offerings at the Cantina Latina were primarily Peruvian food, not Mexican. True this year as well... but still a fun way to spend a free afternoon.

I've been patiently awaiting the arrival of peaches on menus around town, and today was my lucky day. Peach sorbet with blueberries. A guilt-free (well, maybe just less guilt than the dark chocolate tart that I always order) lunchtime dessert. And, if I understood my companion's "yums" correctly, the mango sorbet wasn't half bad either.

Anyone know where one can buy ready-made fondant in the DC area? My friend wants to bake her own wedding cake, but doesn't want to make her own fondant. As an aside, I'd like to open her mind to non-fondant options, and if anyone has any suggestions I'd be happy to hear them.

I'm in...

So I was grilling burgers last night, and my friend suggested that instead of putting the blue cheese on top of the burger toward the end, that we stuff it in the middle of the burger, so when biting in, you get cheese throughout. Great in concept, bad in execution -- the cheese melted away leaving us with the faintest hint of a blue cheese flavor in the burgers, and blue cheese covered charcoal. Anyone have any tips for making burgers this way? More cheese? Better seal of the burger around the cheese? A less creamy blue cheese? (We used Oregonzola from Cowgirl.) Or should we just go back to throwing the cheese on top near the end? (I didn't see a burger-specific thread -- if there is one, Don, go ahead and move this.)

I haven't yet found the ultimate hushpuppy up here, and, to be honest, lately have refrained from ordering them to avoid the resulting disappointment. But if you're ever in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, you'll find the best hushpuppies at Drusilla Seafood. Twelve for $1.00. Yum. Now I'm hungry.

A history lesson from the folks at DCist...

They've been there each weekend in the past month or so, including this past Sunday.

Hannah's right, I got half sizes of both of those last week. Yum!

So I'm waiting for the bus to head up Connecticut to Buck's. In the rain. Leaving behind my condo with its leaky ceiling, my workday with its conflict and confusion, my poor cat who really would've liked an escape from the rainforest conditions of our living space. And for a second, I wonder if it really makes sense to shlep all the way up to Buck's on a night like tonight. "Wouldn't it be easier to stay home and watch a DVD," I think to myself. "Mike would understand if I canceled... what with the leaky ceiling and all... wouldn't he?" And then the bus comes, and I clamber aboard, deciding I deserve a night out after the sleepless nights of flood watch I've been on of late. (Presumably, the roofers did something about the leak problem today. Presumably.) I arrive at Buck's and take a seat at the bar. (Mike has already called with a delay of his own. Apparently cabs are hard to flag down during the Deluge of '06...) The friendly bartender and I strike up a conversation, and I select a glass of Kir Yianni rose. It's summer, goddamit, and I want a summer wine. Even if it is a nightmare outside. We continue chatting as Mike texts his whereabouts. "Hitting traffic around Dupont." "Fifteen minutes away, I promise." My bartender friend offers suggestions about the menu ("it's all good") as the friendly gentleman next to me lectures me on fascism in America today. Mike arrives. And if the generous glass plus of rose didn't already melt away the stress of the week (it did), our meal certainly gave me the jump-start I needed in the middle of a week that started out on the wrong foot. We shared a starter of mozzarella and tomatoes, with greens, local beans, and a pistachio pesto that was fresh and light and delicious and summery (and yes, I'm a sucker for anything with pistachios), as well as the fried green tomatoes, which were not quite as tender or flavorful as I would have hoped. And then our mains. The softshell crab -- two perfectly juicy and crispy crabs, resting on mounds of potato salad and coleslaw. I don't think I ceded a bite, which is okay, because I barely got a taste of the perfectly cooked to medium rare steak. And although we didn't really need it, a slice of the chocolate icebox cake was a decadent and perfect ending to the night. No. The perfect ending to the night was returning home to find no leaky ceiling. Maybe... just maybe... the roofers did their job. Or maybe I'll wake up in the morning to find it was just a dream, a mozzarella and softshell and chocolate cake-inspired dream. Either way, it was a good night.

My favorite Bill Cosby skit ever

They're open Tuesday through Saturday... if I remember correctly they open at 10am, but I'm not sure when they close.

But the egg makes it non-vegan, no?

This year, my Dad was in China on Father's Day. Always the good daughter, I called him up my Saturday night, his Sunday morning, to wish him a happy Father's Day. When we hung up, he was on his way to breakfast, I'm sure to enjoy congee and that sticky rice and pork dish that comes wrapped in some sort of leaf. (At least, those are always my breakfast favorites, and I'm assuming like daughter, like father!) And I was left craving those dishes. So this week, my mission was to find them. And it was half-accomplished yesterday. I had the congee with minced beef at Full Kee and, although it didn't quite live up to my memories of the dish (Dad says add a dash of chili or brown vinegar), it certainly satisfied the craving. (I also had the soup with shrimp dumplings, which I can never pass up there...) But, I'm still drawing a blank on my other favorite. Anyone know where I can find that sticky rice and pork wrapped in a (lotus?) leaf? Or, what it's called??