ad.mich

Sunday opening confirmed by email. "Yes sir come on down."

Congrats to two worthy burgers. Boo to the people who think you should have to click 26 times to see a list.

Amen. Let's go with small victories here... there are now multiple restaurants in the area serving Louisiana-style cuisine that would not shutter in 6 months due to mediocrity/authenticity issues if they actually opened in New Orleans. I'd reckon there are few (if any) other places in the country that can make that claim.

I'm not a certified expert, but I've lived here for a bit, have had the pleasure of dating a few Texans, and also lived in the south for a bit, so I've been lucky enough to do some in-depth investigation of tamale variations. The description above of 'porridge-like' or even custard-y is pretty accurate for the Salvadoran style. They're near mushy and have less meat. Not necessarily bad, but... different. They look like this. Those "on the border" style are mostly meat and don't have that slickness from the cooked masa. Think something like this. I might be wrong on some of this but lord knows my Texas exes never were... consider this a premature apology if I'm talking out my gringo/yankee mouth. (and of course, there's also the fluffy salvadoran tamale de elote, which is damn near cornbread in my book. And then there are New Orleans/Delta style hot tamales, which are a completely different animal as well.)

Mexican tamales are so much better, imho. OP didn't specify though.

If you're into the Salvadoran style tamales (the 'wet' kind with chicken, potato, and veg - or the dry, fluffy corn ones) you can swing by Ana's Tamales at NY Ave and Fenwick street NE (Not NOVA I know, but close?). It's cash only, they only seem to be open in the morning and afternoon, and they speak little to no english... but they'll sell you tamales that are VERY simliar to most of the mexican/salvadoran spots around town for $1 a pop. I'd bet they supply tamales to half the little places in DC.

I'd be careful doing that - the last time I unwrapped a Butcher muffalatta on a plane the very large man next to me looked legitimately angry and said "you gotta lotta balls to be taking out just one sandwich and not be sharing..." (I shared)

If by traditionally you mean years and years ago, then perhaps. Even in New Orleans, even in the most traditional of restaurants, coffee and chicory is something you'll have to ask for (if they have it at all). "Standard" coffee is the standard, for better or worse.

Went in last week and ordered a decent tasting of their evening offerings. In short my girlfriend and I were very impressed with everything we tried. Since the arm drips aren't available at night we went with a selection of small plates. The andouille with dijon is one link sliced on a carving board with a shmear of dijon if you need it. You most likely won't need it. The andouille is smoky, greasy, and aggressively seasoned - and I mean that in the best way possible. The boudin with creole mustard and saltine crackers came with the same carving board prep, but with different mustard and the link was simply pierced to squeeze out on the crackers. The boudin was pleasantly liver-y but was slightly mild compared to the aggressiveness of the andouille. That's by design though, because with the bite of the creole mustard and salt from the cracker you end up with a perfect bite. This was easily the best boudin I've had in the area since moving here 3 years ago. It's a family recipe and I believe the sausages are being made to order by Stachowski. Between what I've tasted here and at the underrated Lyon Hall, it's looking more and more like that the best encased meats in the DC Metro Area are to be found in the Courthouse/Clarendon area. We also had the creole cream cheese with pepper jelly and petite buttermilk biscuits. The cream cheese came in a small jar, topped with the jelly, and we mixed the two together before applying (liberally) to the biscuits. No salt issues with our biscuits but they clearly hadn't come out of the oven recently. Not stale, but probably from that morning. No issues with them being too salty, either. Creole cream cheese had the right soft consistency. Worth a try if you've never had it before. Gumbo had a deep dark chocolate color from a long cooked roux. I know that isn't the thing for everyone but I like my gumbo as black as my coffee, so I loved it. Nice amount of seasoning to the gumbo and a decent amount of chicken and sausage were in there as well. Beignets were good but almost a little too airy for my taste. I actually preferred the ones at Cajun Experience, but they are 'cheating' by using the CDM mix. The porkorn is caramel corn mixed with crispy pieces of Benton's bacon. I love everything that come out of Alan Benton's smokehouse, so I knew this was going to be right in my wheelhouse. It made for a nice treat the next day and I'm not sure I'll be able to visit BB again without grabbing another bag for the road. It's very weird for me to see a 'trend' of restaurants popping up all of a sudden serving Louisiana cuisine. While I liked Cajun Experience's reliance on LA product, it's not fair to really compare the two places when one is essentially a coffee shop and the other is trying to be a mid-priced bistro. That being said, while both establishments are good, I think the food at BB is being executed at a higher level, at a fairer price, by a proprietor who was still in house at closing time on a random mid-week evening. I take all those things to be very good signs, and now I just need an excuse to get my butt to Arlington in an afternoon so I can get one of those arm drips...

...and here comes Rasika Part Two

The sabodet at Lyon Hall is, quite simply, stunning. Obscenely rich, earthy, porky, and the damn thing nearly melts before it reaches your mouth. The pork belly it's served with gilds the lily to the highest degree (and that's only when it's cooked properly, which hasn't been a guarantee in my visits) but the pickled shallots on the plate do a nice job cutting the fat. If you're into encased meats, you owe it to yourself to check this dish out. To my knowledge no one else in the area is doing sabodet, and it's being done at LH to a very high degree.

I'm not going to say this was me, but. Let's say last year when the Four Loko was just beginning to get bad press that if SOMEONE decided on a whim to top off some prosecco with a little of the finest Cranberry Lemonade flavor... solely to be able to say they were drinking a LokoMosa. That someone would surely be old enough to have known better. More to the point, that person surely should have known the bubbles from the prosecco would push straight to the nose the godawful malt liqour/sugar/caffeine combo that floated on top of the glass as ominously as BP's best work in the gulf. I bet that person never drinks $2 gas station booze ever again, no matter how silly the local news reports on the product are.

In fact, the table next to us in the tasting room disliked multiple courses and left them uneaten... the server inquired each time, asked what they didn't like about it, offered replacements, and generally started paying extra attention to make sure they were satisfied from there on out. While I can't speak for how they felt by the time they left but my date and I were both pretty impressed at the handling and accommodating of such a high maintenance table. I'm sorry to hear your experience in the main dining room wasn't at the same level.

Or Polynesian sauce if you want the sweet heat effect.

Only asking because the tuna tartare I received in the tasting room this weekend was topped with salmon roe, which is always going to be 'fishy' compared to caviar. I won't try and compare our experiences. I will say that the service we received in the tasting room this weekend was impeccable, and when you added in the canapes, amuse, sorbet palate cleanser, pre-dessert dessert, and petit fours that surrounded the actual seven courses, I came away from the "seven course tasting menu" feeling like I was getting away with a bargain.

Were you in the tasting room or the main dining room?

This post got me to look at the Central menu to see if the overhaul is still ongoing. I got sidetracked by the lunch 'to-go' menu, which now includes this: TO-GO SPECIAL: MICHEL'S FRIED CHICKEN BUCKET $29.95 Six Pieces (three breast, three thigh) of fried chicken, along with 10 Chicken Nuggets, our housemade Dijon/Mayo Sauce and an order of Mashed Potatoes If it was on the menu before, it was news to me, and I've never heard talk of it before... anyone out there try this?

I've had one delivery and one take-out experience where I paid the upcharge but received the same old fries. After it happening twice, I'll now only be pulling the swap if I dine in.

H Street offers all over Deals for Deeds this week. In addition to $30 for $50 at Granville Moore's (mentioned above and still valid) you can also get the same deal at the Argo or Liberty Tree.

Chatman's isn't much for coffee, but the breakfast is solid. The BBQ Brisket Biscuit is a gut bomb of the highest order.

I've made the CI version and everyone I served was very happy with the result. Of course, we were also betraying the peasant roots of the dish by using the best chicken and bacon I could get my hands on (not to mention a pretty decent bottle of wine as well). But whatever. FWIW I will happily sign off on the cook's recipe.

Seasonal milkshake right now is Italian Eggnog. I think most people can read that and decide immediately if they're 'in' or they're 'out' . If you think you're in: don't hesitate to order. It's gooooood.

I'm getting tired of being taunted by my friends in New Orleans who have access to Abita Strawberry Lager - and I'm hearing conflicting reports that we might not see it at all in DC this year.

Not sure, but Target was sold out of dart boards this afternoon. Coincidence?

That picture just reminded me how awesome Charles Smith/K wines have become. You smug, taunting, egoist...