smokey

Went to dinner there last night. Bottom line--I thought the food was generally great and I'm *thrilled* by this addition to Rockville Town Square (which is otherwise marred by some real dogs). As apps we ordered the chili cheese toast and the samosa. I thought the chili cheese toast was only so-so. I don't know what I was expecting, but somehow this wasn't it. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't to my taste. The samosa was fine, unremarkable, but pretty pricey compared to other Indian restaurants. What got the attention of everybody at the table was the chickpea dish on the side with the samosa. We told our waitress we didn't know what it was, but we wanted more of it. I don't know what the spices were, but it was SO good. For mains we ordered the lamb ishtoo stew, chicken tikka masala, benghan bartha (sp?) and a Portugese shrimp dish. I didn't have the lamb or the chicken tikka, but I can tell you that the lamb stew was probably the least favorite at the table (based on how much there was left over of it). My friend said that the chicken tikka was a bit creamier than she likes it, but she acknowledged that there are probably a lot of people who prefer it as creamy as this was. The banghan bartha was *great*. Everybody at the table liked it. And I thought hte Portuguese shrimp dish was *fantastic* I emphasized to our waitress that I wanted it spicey and it came out perfectly spicey for this dish. Not incendiary like you sometimes think of a vindaloo as being, but full flavored, some heat and delicious. All of the mains came with rice, a side of a slaw-like dish (shredded cabbage, no vinegar? not sure) and some vegetables. The slaw-type thing added little visually, but I liked the textural addition it provided. The rice was fine (it's rice). I didn't eat the vegetables because they basically looked like frozen mixed vegetables (I recall cubes of carrot and peas, I think there was something else, I can't remember) with some kind of spices on them. Everybody at the table agreed that they were the weakest link on the plate. Oh, and that amazing chickpea dish. The waitress didn't know what it was (we'll get back to that) when we first asked. But when we asked her what it was when we got an extra helping of it, she said it was dal makhani. It was like no dal makhni I've ever had (I've always had a black lentil, mildly spiced, very creamy dish), so I found that a bit strange. But I would order it again in a heartbeat. We got plain naan, garlic naan and aloo paratha. I thought the breads were fine. I typically prefer my naan a bit chewier than there's. To each their own. No desserts, so can't comment. We got three EtOH beverages, and a couple of others (mango lassi and something else?). Total (without tip) was $110 for 4. In all, a good deal. My two biggest complaints have nothing to do with the food. For some reason, we were seated in the bar area (and no, that wasn't the only place for us). The chairs were quite comfortable, but about 20 min into the meal I realized I really would have preferred sitting in the main dining room. I didn't feel like asking to move at that point, but I wasn't really into staring at the bar and the TV. The other was the waitress. She was very nice and fairly attentive. But she didn't know much about the menu specifically, or Indian food generally. And when asked about something, she would smile sheepishly and say that she didn't know. That's not a particularly big deal, but the next words out of your mouth probably ought to be, "I'm happy to go check for you--would you like the answer now, or should I continue taking your order?" She didn't do the logical follow-up on "I don't know." My +1 asked if there was any chance they served burfi for dessert. The waitress had no idea, but said she could get us the menu (ok, good follow-up). The +1 said no, he knew it wasn't on the menu, he was just wondering if there was any chance (it's a fave of his). It was pretty clear she had no idea what it was (she suggested that the chef could 'whip some up' if he wanted it). I'll admit, this is closer to the kind of response I think a wait person should give, but I don't think that burfi is something that can be whipped up. The wait staff could just use some more training. Our waitress was very friendly and I think with a bit of guidance could be quite good. I doubt it comes out this way (there's very little I'm wholly positive about), but I really, really liked it. It's a fantastic addition to Rockville Town Center specifically and mid-county generally. I look forward to returning.

Thanks, Blb and DanielK. We were set for Parkway (thanks to your recs), but some twists of fate left us at Marks Kitchen in Takoma Park. The food wasn't very hot when it came out, but it was generally good, inexpensive and I think our group was roundly pleased.

Four of us are planning to go out for breakfast/brunch this Monday morning. I'm looking for someplace between Rockville and College Park to accommodate the four of us. Two vegetarians, nobody very picky, any style of food welcome. Probably best if it can accommodate both the more lunch type person and the breakfast type person. Is Silver Spring best for midway point? Any recommendations greatly appreciated!

The soft tofu soup (whose name I am totally forgetting) at Lighthouse Tofu on Twinbrook Parkway. Incredibly cheap, filling and tasty.

Congratulations! At most, I only do occasional lurking around the board these days (job change and second child have me far busier than I would care to be, sigh). I'm so glad I logged on to catch this great news.

In The Perfect Scoop, the author (whose name totally escapes me at the moment) has a recipe for speculoos. They're used as an add-in for one of the recipes in the book.

Thanks to those who reminded me of Dino when I posted in the 'help needed' thread. I ended up heading there on Friday night and meeting up with my three friends who were flying into DCA over the evening (arrivals from 3 different cities starting at 6:00 and ending at 8:15). Everybody trickled in as I and the first friend relaxed at the bar. I had a great roasted beet salad that was a really good complement to the 3 cheese polenta with mushrooms. The salad had a great dressing (and not too much of it, a pet peeve!) and was a good acidic counterpart to the incredibly rich polenta with delicious mushrooms on top. Total comfort food (although the weather on Friday night wasn't really begging for comfort food). On the negative side (insert sad face here), when the last friend arrived and we all sat down together at a table, I decided to order a veggie plate off the appetizer list. I wasn't into at all. Seemed like a bunch of too cold roasted veggie salads that didn't really complement one another, a slice of some boring cheese (Swiss?) that felt a bit like it had been out a bit too long and some fresh mozza (which was the high point). Was it terrible? No. But it felt a bit like an afterthought and not well composed. To end on a good note, we had some gelato for dessert, which I loved. The hazelnut gelato (was it hazelnut? I don't remember, there were hazelnuts in the dish) was delicious. I love hazelnuts. My friends all said they liked their dishes. I didn't try any of them (lasagna, gorgonzola dressed pasta, pasta with pesto), so can't comment. It was a lovely evening, good food (although I wished I had stuck with the polenta and the roasted beet salad) and good service.

Well, the red line was really a preference, not a requirement. It's sort of a "metro accessible, but if we're gong out of downtown it needs to be up the red line towards shady grove" requirement. Yeah, the no room at the bar is a big disincentive to Palena. I went to Tosca once and liked it, but didn't love it. Plus, I'm not sure it's the right feel for this (I know, that's a subjective assessment and I haven't tried to convey to the group what I want in that; it would just be too hard). This has been *really* helpful and I'll happily hear more thoughts!

Hmmm, good point. I had somehow been stuck on downtown, but there's no reason Cleveland Park wouldn't work. Do you think the bar at Palena would also work (I'm particularly unsure about prices in the front room)? It would be nice to have a couple of options.

All, I've got a couple of friends coming into town this weekend. They're flying into DCA around 6:00pm tomorrow and I need to find someplace for us to meet and grab some drinks and dinner. My preferences, not necessarily in order of importance: 1. Easily Metro accessible, preferably on the Red line because that's the way we'll be heading home, but that's very negotiable. 2. Bar area so that we have some place to relax while we enjoy the long wait for a table! 3. Errm, someplace where having carry-on luggage won't be too much of a problem? 4. Not too expensive. What do I mean by this? I don't know. I guess I want to spend <$50/person (understanding, of course, that the EtOH consumption would affect that, but let's assume may one drink/person is included in that <$50/person?). 5. Open to all cuisines although anything too 'ethnic' will freak this group out (read here: sushi is out, one person doesn't like seafood and I think one doesn't like Indian food, although I'm not sure if that's still true). Oy. I don't live or work in the District, so I'm really at a loss for what (if anything) meets these goals. I'll admit, the quality of the food isn't anywhere near as important to the other folks as it is to me. So, it certainly doesn't have to be amazing food, but my behind gets chapped spending money on mediocre food. Please tell me my behind won't be chapped tomorrow evening! Thanks for any recommendations you can provide.

Hmm. I went once in mid-August for dinner. No server, no waiter to take order. Ordered at counter (same friendly guy as a Sat. lunch many months ago), food brought out fairly fast. Again, I liked it quite a bit. Tried the key lime pie this time and really liked it, but I don't claim to be an aficionado of key lime pie.

I've made a similar recipe I got off Chowhound and have been really pleased with the results. Easy to make and taste good--a difficult to beat combination!

Heather, what did you think of the recipe? I did the same with some sour cherries last year and thought the sour cherry and almond ice cream was WAY too rich. I've had so little success when I've tried to strike out on my own with ice cream recipes that I followed that one to a T. Hated the fatty texture (but, at least there were no ice crystals, my other nemesis!).

When I asked abuot buying one of their fancy dancy gadgets (the the kind DanielK described), the folks at Homestead Farms just taught me to do it with my thumb. Worked pretty well, all in all.

I haven't come regularly in a long time. I've missed it, but no longer have access to the car. Further killing my participation, Monday is my first day on a new job at the Bethesda branch (so to speak) of where I work. I hope I get a chance to sample all that Bethesda has to offer in terms of restaurants

However, take a look at the below quote (cut and pasted from the linked article): >Cream of mushroom was the soup of the day. It was a large serving, but the consistency was rather thin, with a one dimensional porcini mushroom flavor. Floating atop the soup was a truffle-infused foam. For $7, I'd rather have half the quantity and twice the quality: more mushroom goodness, more seasoning, more body and less foam. The previous reviewer (whose name escapes me) never wrote anything like that. Her reviews were uniformly glowing without a single criticism. My intuition (based on what you said and what I've read in the Gazette in the past) is that what we see published in the Gazette by him is, as you surmised, a tamed-by-somebody (the advertising staff?) version of what he originally drafted.

Went for lunch yesterday, shared a double order (regular size) crabcake sandwich with a friend. I thought they were great (as others have noted). The fries were also fantastic. It was a much nicer space than I expected. Didn't get any sides or dessert. Friendly service. Would definitely return.

Hey Elizabeth--I'm so glad you liked it! I was just re-reading my rec and your comment and wondering if it had lived up to my description. I'm so glad to read it did!

I'm still interested, too! Have simply been reluctant to push on this because I'm not offering to host, so don't want to be greedy.

Somehow, texture to me seems more like something I perceive or sense with my fingers, not my tongue. Probably not based on anything. (Oh, and I like to think I'm high-falutin'! )

I'm a pescaterian and have looked at the menus of almost all of the local places (let's dish, dream dinners, can't remember dinner name of any other dinners, blah, blah, blah). They tend to only have (at most) 2-3 dinners that I could eat. It's the main reason I haven't gone in for any of those places. They generally require a 4-8 meal commitment (IIRC, the terms vary), and I just couldn't see loading up on so much of the same meal. I agree with the other posters though--it's probably worth you looking into yourself online. It's probably been 12months since I've checked, and I think this is something that they may get more demand for. More demand may translate into menus that have changed somewhat.

Have you been varying the liquid depending on the flavor? I'm curious because I've yet to come up with a good liquid ratio that seems to reliably work with different flavors. Too much cream=blech mouthfeel, too little cream=blech mouthfeel (with apologies to those who hate the term mouthfeel). I made the toasted almond, candied cherry recipe from The Perfect Scoop and while the flavor was good, it was way too rich IMO (I don't remember how many egg yolks it called for).

The 16-18th is a maybe for me. The 23rd and 24th are good, the weekend after that is a maybe...

I was in Cairo for roughly a week 5-6y ago. I loved the Kushari. Interestingly, my Egyptian friends all recommended choosing one's kushari source carefully. They clearly considered a vector for disease (Mubarak's revenge, as I liked to think of it). And speaking of which, yes, I came down with it. On the bright side, pharmacists can prescribe meds there. So, if you come down with something, go to a pharmacy where you think there is a chance they'll speak English. If you describe your symptoms (be sure to mention any meds you're allergic to, as well), they should be able to hook you up. It cleared up my problems. We loved a bakery called El Abd (IIRC). It's been so long, however, that the recommendation probably has little standing. As a broad statement, however, I do recommend the desserts. They've got the flavor of a place that was colonized by the French while maintaining the things that a mid-E/African location does well (meaning, I remember lots of permutations on puff pastry/nuts/honey/coconuts/dates combos). If you ordered coffee 'a la Turk' you got the most wonderful coffee that could grow hair on your chest. I loved it. Oh, and delicious mint tea. Most of the food I could have taken or left. I didn't try anything in the neighborhood you're staying in or in any other expat-type neighborhood. Although it's an obvious statement, the local liquor is abysmal (and I'm not even much of a drinker). I dont' know if you can get imported liquor. Didn't look into it. (Side note unlrelated to food: I felt a lot of hostility while we were there (before the war in Iraq). I was never sure whether it was because I wasn't dressed sufficiently conservatively (and compared to most of the Western tourists I saw, I felt like I was dressed like a nun), because I was clearly from a Western country, because i was a woman, something else, maybe there was no hostility, who knows. I would definitely say it would behoove you to dress conservatively. At least you're going at a cool time. We were there in September and it was hard to wear pants in 37C weather.)

But, do any of these locations have room for the Ultimate field?!