bonaire
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Everything posted by bonaire
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"Meat Labels Hope To Lure The Sensitive Carnivore"
bonaire replied to clayrae's topic in News and Media
I've always heard the same, but I've also heard it's not quite that easy. I think a lot of people care about how the animal was kept before it gets the electroshock therapy. And there have been stories about how often such "therapy" is botched. -
Was told tonight the chef has a new menu on the way. I was told when but was so panicked by the thought of losing my chicken makhani that I don't remember. I believe in the next month or so....Fortunately, some of the favorites are staying (including my makhani and the palak chaat) but should be fun to see what new dishes he comes up with.
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SWEEEEEEEEEET. I'm wondering if it's inappropriate to set up camp outside....I can subsist on marshmallows and custard, right??
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"Meat Labels Hope To Lure The Sensitive Carnivore"
bonaire replied to clayrae's topic in News and Media
I agree -- as a consumer and a self-confessed meatatarian, I'd be very willing to pay a bit more to buy meat/poultry/etc that got to bound about in a field and then got a quick axe as opposed to a death more akin to "The Jungle".Right now, I convince myself that it's okay for me to eat meat because ALL animals have a field to themselves, get lots of good $ex and then die (willingly) when they want to commit themselves to the table. I don't want any of you to tell me differently. -
You just decided my evening. I'm craving all things pumpkin these days and the Creamery is damn good. Plus, those gooey marshmallows always make my day!
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I agree with you on this -- I actually attempted to respond but it wasn't picked up. I didn't think the prices were out of line and goodness gracious we've waited long enough on the Hill for decent food, why limit access?? Small and intimate can be great, but not at a place that will likely cater an awful lot to the expense account crowd. And to your exact point Heather, why diss a place just because it's big?? City Zen is bigger than both Palena and Tosca and seems to be doing just fine....
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Good lord. And I thought my carpal tunnel from IMing w/ Mark Foley was bad....The comments on stepping up the food make sense. Do the chatters who think Tom should just accept that he's outed and run with it have a point then?
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Is this the same for food and service? I've never been an industry person, so from the outside I can imagine service improving dramatically, but can restaurants do the same w/ food?
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So, there have been a lot of questions recently in Tom's chat (Today's Chat) about whether he is recognized when he does his restaurant visits. Prompts, in my mind, a few questions: 1. Does it matter to those reading the reviews whether he was recognized? How much do you discount a review if you think the person got special treatment? 2. Is he really as recognized as people think? 3. How much can a restaurant truly step up its performance (food and service) if it thinks it's catering to a critic? Not sure if this is the appropriate place for this question, but think he gets an awful lot of grief that I'm not sure is totally warranted re: recognition.
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Went to Johnnys for the first time today. I imagine I'll be there fairly frequently as I'm a lobbyist and the previous tenant, La Colline, did quite a bit of business hosting fundraisers. There were a few of those today, in fact. Had the BBQ shrimp and grits to start with -- loved the taste (had a beat of heat and the grits were quite creamy) but didn't love the huge pool of oil that came with them. I don't even know where that oil came from -- had to be the BBQ sauce I suppose. Had the shrimp po boy (half) for my main meal -- I really liked it. Like one of the previous posters, I can't imagine eating a whole one. Five shrimp, not too much mayonnaise but just enough to moisten the sandwich and fairly soft bread. I didn't like the potato chips served with the sandwich. They were just bland. I loved the banana pudding I had for dessert -- pudding with what tasted like caramelized banana pieces in it, topped with a healthy serving of meringue and lined with, I'm guessing, Nilla wafers. SOOOO GOOOOOOD. Definitely worth heading back for...
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Charlie Palmers actually serves one of the better breakfasts in the city. I'm not sure if they are open for everyone, though, or just for the fundraisers I have to attend. It's great food, very well done, good mix of healthy fruits and some great eggs/bacon/sausage. I'd highly recommend it. As someone who has to go to breakfast after breakfast for work, it's one of the better places in the city to do it.
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Thanks Gubeen! Those are great suggestions. I will use the next half hour to decide which one to take! The E. 42nd Street isn't my choosing -- my company is based on 42nd -- I'm up here at least once a week and need to take the time to venture outside of my midtown base more often!
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I'm in NYC for the gajillionth time this month and am staying around midtown east tonight (E. 42nd). Any suggestions on a place not terribly expensive w/ a good bar to sit at? Or takeout that I can bring back to my hotel and watch "movies"? Sushi, Italian, sammiches, bar food preferred, around E. 42nd street. And I'm kidding about the movies. Really.
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The Jumbo Slice - Adams Morgan's Claim to Shame
bonaire replied to DameEdna's topic in Washington DC Restaurants and Dining
I once ate Pizza Mart sober. Actually made a boyfriend drive me to get it. I got about three bites in before I felt like I had injested the better part of a horse's....well, something bad. I haven't eaten it since, even drunk (even JAGERMEISTER drunk). Now, when I was much much younger, both Pizza Mart and Jumbo Slice were great spots to find a "friend" if you had failed to do so at Millie and Al's beforehand. Just sayin...... -
Thanks for your reply Dave. I wonder if the maple whipped cream was just off that night? Want to make sure it's clear that I had a good experience -- just wasn't a fan of smoked items. As you said, everyone's got a different palate and it's great to know y'all are accomodating on those dishes.
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I went to Rustico for the first time tonight w/ some girlfriends. The service we had was great -- we sat in the bar and the waitress managed to handle the 37 refills of diet coke we each had. For an appetizer, I had the bbq pork on cheddar biscuits. When the biscuits arrived, I was disappointed -- I was thinking of true Popeyes/Acadiana-esque biscuits. These were crumblier, grainier biscuits. However, I was delighted when I tried them -- there's just a hint of cheddar and the pork was very tender and the barbeque sauce was pretty tasty. My friend ordered the parmesan rosemary fries to start -- they were okay, but the smoked ketchup didn't do it for us. I thought the fried pizza dough was a great concept, but they were covered in just a bit too much cheese for my tastes and again, the dipping sauce was a little too smoky (there's a trend here). For entrees, one of my girlfriends got the white pizza and she loved it -- managed to eat half of it herself, and the other friend got the rotisserie chicken and cleaned her plate (well, she didn't eat the brussel sprouts, but some childhood fears you just can't get over). I got the caesar salad for my entree and really didn't like it. The lettuce, which was purposefully wilted, was way overdone. It too was so smoky I thought it had been left inside a closed grill for a few hours. The caesar dressing was pretty good, but I couldn't really taste much of it through the smokiness. I had a pumpkin cheesecake for dessert which was very good. It wasn't too sweet and had a bourbon caramel sauce that was fantastic. There was an odd dollop of very bitter cream (with a slight burnt maple taste to it) that I worked around, but definitely would have the dessert again. I'm unfortuntely not a beer drinker so I didn't get to taste any of the great beers they have, but I will say that their diet coke tap was quite cold and refreshing (yes, I'm kidding here). Overall, I'd go back but stick with items that don't have "smoked" in their description. P.S. They have a lot of good big tvs -- looks like a great place to watch games.
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So, my father lives in Ocean Pines (just outside of Ocean City) and had his annual "Festival of the Callinectes Sapidus" this weekend (crab feast for those of you who aren't as weird as my Dad). I decided, after reading all about Fractured Prune on this board, that I needed to try the West Ocean City branch in order to properly prepare for the arrival of the Dupont Circle location. Well, I walked out of there with 24 donuts. And I tried a bite of each one (for research purposes, of course). I've just now managed to hold still long enough to write about them (bit of a sugar overload goin' on here). My absolute favorite was the "French Toast" donut -- maple glaze with cinnamon sugar. It was simple and not too overwhelming, and tasted just like real French Toast. I actually got yelled at for making off with the whole thing. Other good ones included "O.C. Sand" (honey glaze and cinnamon sugar), which is their bestseller at this location; "Lemonade" (lemon glaze and powdered sugar); and one I made myself, peanut butter glaze and powdered sugar. Donuts that were a bit too much for me were "Rolo" (caramel glaze and chocolate chips), "Black Forest" (raspberry glaze, chocolate chips and coconut) and "Morning Buzz" (mocha glaze and oreo cookies). I think the running theme to my favs and second favs (I can't say I truly disliked any of them) was simplicity. Those that were just a glaze and a type of sugar were great -- you could taste the individual flavors and the actual donut. When the ingredients included chocolate or other toppings, those toppings tended to overwhelm the glaze flavor AND made the donuts kind of soggy. Plus, they really load on those toppings, so sometimes you're just tasting a mouthful of chocolate chips and nothing else. For the citrusy glazes, they were a little sweeter than I would have liked (would be nice to have something cut the sweetness just a bit) but they still were wonderful. The "Creamsicle" (orange glaze and powdered sugar) truly did taste like the creamsicles I ate as a kid. While I'm all donut-ed out for now, I'm anxiously awaiting the Dupont Circle opening so I can try all the ones I missed....
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The best red velvet cake I've ever had came from Majestic. I assume Bob made it. I'd love to know where he lands because I've always said I want the Majestic red velvet cake for my wedding. Now, I just need to find the husband...
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Other places that I have found have good private rooms are Acadiana and Oceannaire. Did a private dinner at Acadiana for my father's 60th birthday and they did a special printed menu for him, had champagne waiting and let us stay as long as we like. I've also held corporate events there.
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I went on my semi-regular Cheesetique/Poblano/Dairy Godmother swing today. Got some of the homeade marshmallows at Dairy Godmother today -- vanilla flavored (they also had lemon). I hadn't been able to try them before as they said they don't carry them in the summer. Darn those things are good -- square, lightly powdered and light and fluffy. Not nearly as dense as the marshmallows you buy in a bag. I want to try the lemon next time!
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Capital Grille (at least the one on Penn but I imagine all of them) has added a few items to their menu, including a rather delicious lobster mac & cheese. It's a small meal unto itself -- big chunks of lobster, good amount of cheesieness w/o being too liquidy. They've also added massive onion rings and a few other items I haven't been able to try out yet. But definitely hit the mac & cheese if you get in there....
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I just read the TemptAsian thread...thanks to you (and Lydia!) for the directional arrow. Now, how quickly can I get to Atlanta? I'm awfully hungry!
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Is anyone able to give us newbies some backstory?
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I grew up a horribly finicky eater -- if it wasn't Velveeta or PB&J, I wasn't eating it. I really thought I'd stay that way forever, until my first date with a guy I was totally swooning over. He took me to a sushi place -- and ordered RAW EEL!!! I forced myself to swallow it down because I didn't want him to know just how crazy I was. He eventually clued in, but it wasn't the sushi that did me in... Today, I still spend a lot of my time with a jar of Peter Pan in my hand, but I've expanded my range to Indian, even wilder sushi, and cheese that doesn't come in a box (along with a lot of other things). I still hate tomatoes (but love ketchup), thing mushrooms belong in a forest, not on my plate and, horror of horrors, avoid truffle like the plague. But I've tried all of those things -- I just don't like them. I find lots of ways to enjoy other foods and have learned to lovegreat cooking. I'd never let my weirdness dictate someone elses restaurant choices and when I eat at a friends's I'll try everything. Because they shouldn't know how crazy I am either...
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Thanks for all of your suggestions -- we got a table and had a great night at Dino. My father and his wife are pretty hard to please, so I'm always a little anxious when I take them somewhere new. We were joined by four others, so we had a nice sized group. We had a booth upstairs, which turned out to be our saving grace later in the evening (my family has a penchant for breaking out in songs from "Pirates of Penzance" when we get together -- don't ask). We stuck mainly w/ small plates for our meals -- the burrata was a bit hit, as was the half order of wild boar pasta we got. My father said the fagioli was "quite good", a huge compliment from him. The proscuitto was gobbled up rather quickly ("melts in your mouth" was the description), even as I got laughed at for trying to explain about the "special machine" they had for slicing it. Dean was nice enough to help us pick a bottle of wine, a pinot noir which turned into two or three. My dad's a huge grappa fan and we had to talk him out of ordering a couple different kinds at the end of the evening. I thought the bread pudding was delicous and not too soggy and the hint of orange brandy (I think that's what it was) in the canoli kept it from being overly sweet. All in all, a wonderful meal. Thanks Dean!