bonaire

Very good to know. Good thing I have my travel gallon of vodka...

I take the GMAT that day. Should be done by 3:30. I wonder how much vodka I can consume while waiting in line repeatedly for free ice cream. I'll be at the E Street location if anyone wants to watch...I'll be the girl muttering "F*ck square roots" over and over again.

I know a lot of people think it's overly expensive, but I really like BLT Steak for private dinners. It can hold 24 for a sit-down dinner. I like it because they generally serve the meals family style, which means you get some of everything. I think you can choose what appetizers/mains/sides/desserts that the group will have to choose from, and the food has always been pretty good. Le Paradou (also quite expensive) does a really good sit down dinner too. Everyone won't be at one table, though (or at least haven't in the dinners I've done there). Instead, it's a number of circular tables. Always, always have duck as one of the options there.

Hey now. I'm 31 and still do eggs and ketchup. Nice sweet and salty balance.Very nice post, Matt. I'm jealous, as I've never made it to Colorado Kitchen and your comments on the donuts have me halfway to my car to camp out for tomorrow morning!

This place is across the street from my office. I haven't been impressed w/ the food, but wanted folks to know that they have an outside gelati cart now. It looks like it probably only holds 2-3 flavors but I imagine it'll get good tourist business in that spot.

I concur with jm chen...the apple pie is not to be missed. I've gone several times just for the apple pie. I personally don't think the fries are all they're cracked up to be, so if you're not a huge fry fan don't waste your sides on those.

Years ago, a Kentucky congressman (no longer in office) gave me a bottle of real, honest-to-goodness backwoods Kentucky moonshine, along with the warning "If you go blind, you didn't get this from me. Hell, you didn't get this from me, period." Just going within 10 feet of the jar hurt. We ended up acting like the @sshat 24 year olds that we were and we made Shineapple Shots on New Years Eve. Moonshine and pineapple jello. I can't remember much from that night, but I do remember there were some problems getting the jello to conjeal. We finally figured it out though and managed to get so rip roaring wasted that the New Years Eve dinner table shot featured four of the twelve participants actually passed out with their heads on their plates. And this was before dinner.

Had my first meal at Central today. I would highly recommend the mussel chowder. It's a broth based soup that I believe our waitress said was mixed with some pureed mussels. Plenty of whole plump mussels and fresh leeks in the soup too. It's even better if you soak it up with the bread. Perfect for the weather! The Washington Times stopped in to take pictures of Michel Richard. They took a ton of pictures of the space too. Will definitely head back there soon!

The Hairy Buffalo: Only ingredient is a non-porous bar mat found at approximately 3 am. Gently lift bar mat, tilt corner to glass, let all of the excess/spilled liquor from the night run into said glass, drink. Sometimes the soapy taste is actually a good thing.... Also, the Oatmeal Cookie: Jager Goldschlager Baileys Tastes remarkably like a burning, searing oatmeal cookie.

See, that's what I thought it might be (no more posting during basketball for me!), but I couldn't resist doing my part to promote such a classy eating establishment.

Viagra was initially researched as a heart medication. A number of men in the studies kept coming back and asking for "extra" medicine. A star was born. The medicine itself is probably good for your heart, as it gets more blood flowing there (everywhere). Ergo, more wine and more viagra a good man makes.

No one here will believe me, but the Longworth House Office Building cafeteria used to have a mean chicken and dumplings. I think they may still have it on Mondays. And it's cheap -- max $5 bucks with plenty of crazy people watching.

I'm with you here. Won't touch them, won't smell them and go so far as to wipe my bread over and over again with a napkin if one has touched my sandwich. The texture and the taste make me ill. Love me some ketchup tho....

It's been awhile since I've been able to post, so apologies for being a bit late to this topic (and slightly off-topic). I have a bit of a Twinkie obsession. To the point where I have a "Twinkie Cookbook" sitting on my desk. It has such gems as Twinkie Sushi (green fruit rollups = seaweed), Twinkiehenge, Twinkie burrito and Twinkie lasagna. There are literally at least 50 Twinkie recipies in this book. If you're ever able to get beyond the origin of the great Twinkie and would like to try some of these truly sophisticated masterpieces, feel free to PM me. You WILL be the envy of all of your friends when you roll into your next cocktail party with Twinkie Macchiato Cake as your contribution.

Ooh, I love me some poker (and I love me some other people's money, I mean chips). If you wind up testing out any of the dives, please post back. I host a weekly game on Sundays and I'm about out of original ideas on some food. Plus, it's about time for someone else to pay.

And never ketchup, apparently. I was once on a date at Wrigley Field and offered to get my date a hot dog while I was up. Since I forgot to ask what condiments he wanted, I got him one w/ mustard and one w/ ketchup. He looked at me like I was certifiably insane when I gave them to him. "Ketchup?! You put ketchup on my hot dog?! We don't do THAT here in Chicago." Never again. (Ketchup or date)

They are really good sandwiches. I drive over there (Alexandria) sometimes with some folks from the office just for the sandwiches (and we're in DC!). The guy who owns the Alexandria locations (Karl) is just about one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet.

It's probably a chick thing, but my reward is new clothing. Once I hit my 10% mark, I'm going to let myself buy new stuff. It'll be enough weight lost that I'll be down a size, maybe two, and I'll feel comfortable buying nicer things. I've got another, bigger reward in mind if I get below my 10% mark, but that's too far off to even think about...it is nice to have something to work toward, though. Plus, getting Brad Pitt to agree to my "reward" may take some time...

I'm a member of Vida and WSC. WSC is great b/c it has a ton of locations. Vida is great because it has so many different classes, a ton of cardio machines and some nice eye candy... Only problem is lack of parking.

The folks on this board are awesome. I'm right back on the diet and plan on exercising my little behind off by traipsing through Tysons Corner mall all day. You're right, Bilrus, we all have our rhythms. Mine would be so much easier to manage if I didn't work right around the corner from Cap Grille....

No reporting for me. Disaster struck yesterday in the form of a bad day at work, which I answered with a filet, an entire side of mac and cheese and a whole slice of coconut cream pie at Cap Grille. I'm such an emotional eater -- some people drink when they've had a bad day, I want comfort food. Bah. Back on the diet tomorrow.

See, this is where I struggle. I work, most weeks, about 70-80 hours a week. It's almost impossible for me to find significant and recurring exercise time. I really love the running program synaesthesia linked to because it's only 30 minutes and gives me days where walking is my only responsibility -- I desperately need that b/c gym time just isn't always possible. If I had more time, I'm pretty sure I'd be in the gym at least 5 days a week. Any suggestions for things I can do during my interminable 3 hours conference calls each day would be great! (I can lock my door, so no one sees me doing lunges while pontificating on Power Point slides.) ETA: Ventworm! Ventworm! I'm a ventworm!!!

Veering off the wine path for a bit, I need recommendations for a good bottle of port. I'm looking to spend around $100 (if one can get good port for that amount). I don't drink the stuff, never have, so I'm completely ignorant about what might be good. Any suggestions the peanut gallery may have would be very welcome!

"Bump" is when you add a new message to a thread so that it shows up as having new messages and therefore gets everyone to refocus on it. They're bumping it up to your attention.

I swear by the Nabisco 100 calorie packs -- Chips Ahoy, Ritz, Honey Grahams, etc. They're great -- actually taste somewhat like the real thing and the cookie ones assuage my sweet craving....