thetrain

To all my former teammates that are safe and sound after running today. And to all those who were finishing today as the bombs went off - I've only run one marathon, and if it had been this one, I would have been right there finishing with you...

If I don't have any soft butter in my kitchen, I quickly make some mayo and use that instead for a grilled cheese. I read it somewhere, and it works pretty damn well.

Ditto. I can't remember where I read it either, but I liked it so much the first time I tried it, I made it a permanent substitution.

Hard Times Veggie Nachos

This. I only eat Hard Times nachos or Frito pie these days at the stadium, Cincinnati chili. The line, if there is one, moves super fast, the food is consistently good, and its one of the better deals price wise in the stadium.

Then again, when I drove by the other night, Bronx Pizza Subs had a line out the door and down the sidewalk. It broke my heart, and I lost hope for the future of humanity.

Was it late at night? I've never seen them busy, let alone have a line out the door, during normal business hours.

On topic, this write up makes the bold claim "We’re the first sausage shop in the area."

I happened to pick up a six pack of this the other day because the pickings were slim at the local 7-11. Bitter, not much hops for a pale ale, faint citrusy notes - but not much compared to other citrusy ales I've tasted. Overall, not very flavorful compared to other pale ales, but I'd buy it again as session beer when I'm not looking for an especially flavorful beer.

Also, Maryland doesn't carry Bells???? Jeez. I thought Bell was distributed in most states, and every state in this area.

Maybe I am just reading the wrong websites, but it is funny to me that Unum seems to be "off the radar" for the most part - even though, judging by my one and only dinner there (last night), they seem to do good business. Don't know if this is a matter of their not spending $ on publicists, or what. (I realize they were on the Washingtonian 100, but otherwise there is little "buzz" on the "buzzy" sites as far as I can tell. Contrast opentable reviews, which are numerous and positive - a different part of the online world, I guess.)

My guess is its a really small place and Georgetown is usually less 'buzzy' than other neighborhoods. Bandolero received some buzz initially, but I feel like it gets less talk now than Graffiato. Unum got some buzz at the beginning too. I've been once and enjoyed my meal (gnocci and oysters three ways) and I appreciated the full/half serving options.

I'm surprised there isn't a thread for this place, but its remarkable for a few reasons. Great, friendly service, open early on the weekends for breakfast (Teaism isn't open until 9:30), and right by the mall. The food is good by diner standards, although I've only tried traditional breakfast items. If you have family in town and want to start your touristing off with a hearty breakfast, this is the place. From what I've seen, the wait staff is also excellent with children. During one visit, a boy who was severally disfigured, from what I assume were burns, came in with his family, and the waitress did not miss a beat. She chatted him up, put a smile on his face and mine as well.

Yep. Croque Monsieur.

I recognized the frites and dips. I thought it was a Croque Monsieur, but it looks like the ham is on the outside - is it served open face?

Where did I dine?

Brasserie Beck?

It includes cubes of pork blood (blood tofu!) and pork ribs, ground pork, cherry tomatoes, garlic, shallots, shrimp paste and/or tua nuao (fermented soybean) lard or oil, with garnishes of bean sprouts, limes, chilli oil, and maybe mustard pickle. Here is a photo from photographer Austin Bush.

Chicken blood/noodle soup was one of my favorites when I was in Thailand. They served it to me at the school I was teaching at and I had no idea what the 'purple tofu' was for the first few days I was eating it. It was a very poor area and the soup was much simpler but I've missed it.

Does any other place serve pork or chicken blood? Is it possible or conceivable to make it home?

I know for pizza delivery most, if not all, places do not give the delivery fee to the driver, it goes to the restaurant. I give a minimum of $3 or $4 tip on small orders and then tip approximately 10% on orders above $40.

I take Metro a lot - during the day. But too many times in the past few years I have had a 20 or 25 minute wait for a Red Line train after dinner or a show. That's a lousy way to end a nice evening out. In that amount of time I could have a pleasant stroll back to wherever I parked my car.

Get one of the many smartphone apps that can tell you when the next metro is coming, search for wmata in the app store. You can time your exit, from dinner at least, to correspond to when the next train is coming.

I've been using the Finish tabs after reading good reviews. They are OK, but I'm thinking of trying Cascade's tabs because Costco has them on sale. Has anyone tried them?

I've been using them for quite sometime and they work much better than the powder I used before. Never used the Finish tabs so I can't compare the two, but Cascade tabs work well for me.

Now, I know nothing about what I am going to suggest. And from my wife to many on this board there are a huge throng who will agree with my admission that I know nothing. But...

Fairfax County is an affluent wasteland with over 50 million square feet of office space spread between Tysons and Reston. Thre is nowhere here where one can have an experience like Chef was providing at Suna. Nowhere.

There is a vacancy in the flagship Hyatt Regency main dining room in Reston Town Center right now. I am suggesting that as Fabio could help sell rooms at the Ritz Carlton with Maestro so could Johnny Spero sell rooms at Reston Town Center's only hotel. And its image. Which just happens to need something/someone special to compete with Jackson's/Clyde's/Passion Fish/Morton's/M & S/Uncle Julio's and fifteen more restaurants along with more hotels opening nearby in the years to come.

A restaurant, a destination of character in the right place: 20 million square feet of office space in a landmark town center with the two wealthiest counties in America surrounding it. Median fmaily income is north of $110,000 a year for Western Fairfax and Loudoun.

I think a serious suggestion. I passionately believe that Reston Town Center and the half million of us who live within ten minutes of it will support a cutting edge Chef.

Note: I have no connection to Town Center, Hyatt or anyone there. I just like to eat and believe this is an idea whose time has come-at the right location.

There are a few reasons why this hasn't happened and probably won't happen anytime soon. First, I'm guessing most younger/cutting edge chefs are not going to want to work in Reston, especially if they have an opportunity in the city. Second, the most recent Tyson's area attempts at higher end establishments have faltered and we have evidence that for some reason most of those affluent people aren't willing to spend their money on innovative restaurants and I'm guessing investors have noticed those other restaurants' failures. Third, I'm guessing there are more people from Reston that are willing to dine in DC after work than there are people in DC willing to drive out to Reston, even on a weekend. Traffic on 66 is frequently bad, even at inexplicable times, and those Dulles tolls are ever rising. A restaurant at RTC would have to be almost solely supported by an area that hasn't shown a lot of love for high end/innovative dining.

Not go out of your way for, but in the area we will get it for delivery again.

If you haven't tried Thai Curry just a little further down Glebe for delivery via grub hub, I'd highly recommend their food over Bangkok Bistro's. It is less americanized though, so pay attention to spice level warnings on certain dishes.

I think it was especially informative on how to determine a pizza type by picture. Comet wasn't a bad guess, because what you posted clearly wasn't anything that could be called "Neapolitan." How'd they taste compared to Paradiso?

Urbana.

And those 'zas look nothing like anything that has ever come out of Orso. They are what the industry calls "woodfire" pizza.

Where did I dine?

IMG_2882.jpg

Paradiso?

On the merits, the Pupatella pie is sliced into quarters--though fine, that's not authentic. They did tell me they always do that.

FWIW I've asked them not to slice it in the recent past and they've complied. If I remember correctly, they didn't slice it at first, people complained often enough that the default switched to slicing it. I know they've gone back and forth on cutting the pizza's at Orso too for the same reason and I usually specify there I'd like my pizza uncut.

La Chaumiere has a great one - left overs are good too. Only served on Thursdays though.

This is brilliant! There isn't anywhere to get sausages or German and Belgian beers nearby. Somebody needs to open a Chop't or a Sweetgreen in Clarendon. Or any other salad place that doesn't suck.

Agreed. I went to Rabbit once and got poor/mediocre version of a ceasar salad and the service was slow despite me being the only customer. Clarendon has an abundance of fro-yo and cupcakes and no decent quick salad/sandwich option. Whole foods and Northside sort of field the niche, but neither is especially fast, nor would I expect them to be, as its not what they are aiming for. I'm partial to Chop't, but I think really any fast casual chain that's a step up from panera or cosi would do really well in Clarendon.

Given the poor management/execution of Rabbit, I'm very skeptical this new place will succeed now that their concept is not novel for the area. And good luck getting a beer hall vibe going in that place.

Yeah, I don't know how anyone could think of Graffiato as pricey. It's one of the most reasonable places in the city for the quality of the food you get, right up there with Dino. In my opinion.

Granted this was a few months ago, but the portions I got at lunch were laughable. I had the caeser salad and gnocchi. The salad was the smallest version of caeser salad I have ever received and smaller than any vegetarian dish I've had at a tapas place (i.e. Jose Andres restaurants, Estadio), however it was at least in the same realm as portion sizes I've seen. The gnocchi portion was ridiculous. I forget now if it was 4 or 6 individual gnocchi, but either way, I have never seen such a precious portion of gnocchi. Fiola's half portion of gnocchi and tortellini are several magnitudes bigger, admittedly for 3-4 dollars more once Fiola ratcheted up its prices after opening. Eola's tasting menu's gnocchi portion was larger. Meat portions at tapas places were bigger than this vegetarian dish. To add insult to injury, it was missing an advertised ingredient. I wasn't very hungry and the tiny portion was very good, so I wasn't that put out, but I left thinking that Graffito was not a great value by any means. I've had gnocchi dishes at Proof, Unum, and Fiola that were at least as good as if not better than Graffito's, that were much better values.

Dino's portions on the other hand are hearty and, at least in the case of half orders of pasta, several magnitudes larger than Graffito's and can actually be considered a meal by someone other than an anorexic.

Gadarene, I do not doubt that you have received good food for reasonable prices at Graffito, its quite possible I ordered the two dishes with the most paltry portions or the chef wasn't putting out the correct gnocchi portion. I did notice the pizzas were a decent deal. But my solitary experience at Graffito and numerous visits to Dino suggest the two could not be further apart when it comes to overall value.

FYI - On tap at Galaxy Hut - sixpoint 3 beans chocolate coffee stout (10%) $9/pint, $7/goblet, $3.50/mini

You read an occasional article about high school courses being given about how to manage personal finances and balance a checkbook; you hear almost nothing about courses being taught teaching children about nutrition, and to be aware of their decisions about eating. This is much more important than any AP Calculus course.

For what its worth, in my public middle school fifteen years ago we had to take a cooking class that covered everything from food safety to nutrition and food preparation. Also, my science fair project in 7th grade was an analysis of the old food pyramid that was used at the time to teach nutrition. I created huge spreadsheets, crunched the numbers and found a person following the old pyramid would ingest too many calories, too much fat, and would be deficient in several nutrients according to the RDA amounts suggested by the government. Also, they would get 300% of the RDA for vitamin C. The old pyramid model was changed some years back, but I'm sure many were taught with a flawed model.

Now I want Cheetos.

For a heightened snack experience, dip them in helluva good jalapeno cheddar dip.

Honestly, if bars in DC weren't charging such exorbitant prices in ridiculously shaped glassware, I'm sure it wouldn't be an issue and so many people wouldn't be second guessing pours. If a bar is advertising a certain oz pour and not delivering, they should face the consequences of not doing so.

Probably a point for another thread, but I've noticed in the past year a marked difference in alcohol pricing between the Clarendon area and DC develop. I'm not sure of the difference in rents, but I suspect they are not that disparate. I am also not sure of the difference in alcohol regulations/prices, but I do know the VA bars have to buy from ABC stores at the same prices that individuals pay with no bulk discount. I assume DC's regulations are more lax, but I have no idea for sure, anyone know the answer to this?