John William G

To Fred Hellerman. From today's Times: "Fred Hellerman, a singer, guitarist and songwriter and the last surviving member of the Weavers, the quartet that in the 1950s helped usher in the folk music revival, died on Thursday at his home in Weston, Conn. He was 89." I'll listen to the Weavers a bit today and remember my visits to the Village in the 1960s.

From an article in the New York Times: “Château Lynch-Bages, a celebrated producer known for rich yet refined reds, also operates Viniv, a niche company that helps clients create their own custom blends. These clients select the vineyards and tinker with the taste, but leave the grape harvesting, crushing, aging, barrel-racking and shipping to the experts at the chateau.”

I received a gift card for True Food Kitchen in the Mosaic District. I’ve never been there, but their menu looks interesting. If you’ve eaten there, what would you recommend? Or recommend I avoid?

My wife and I went to Marib for diner yesterday. Not only was it my first time at Marib, it was my first time at a Yemeni restaurant. We ordered vegetable Sambousa, described on the menu as “Four pieces of fried pastry filled with a medley of vegetables.” For our main dishes we order Fahsa beef (“Shredded beef served with cooked vegetables and hilbeh, a fenugreek-based whipped condiment, served with warm pita bread”) and Chicken Mandi (“Traditional Arabian-seasoned rice made with roasted chicken and potatoes, served with sahawiq”). The sambousa came with a small container of a spicy dip. We both though it tasted very good, and was fine appetizer. The fahsa was a very large serving of shredded beef, with a lot of vegetables and spices. This dish was not my cup of tea; the mixture of spices just did not work for me. My wife, on the other hand, thought it was fine. The chicken mandi I thought was very good. It came on a large bed of rice. The chicken was very tender and flavorful. The rice and potatoes were also good. The portions were very generous, including the bread that came with the dishes. The restaurant is nice looking, with paintings on the wall. The tables all had white table cloths on them, and the chairs were very comfortable. The servers were very nice, and happy to try to explain what was in various dishes. Their website includes a current version of their menu:

We went to Woodlands. They do have a very large selection of vegan dishes. My wife ordered Chole Batura (which looked like Peter Chang's scallion bubble pancakes when it came out); she thought it was very good. I wanted to try the Special Rava Masala Dosa, which was not on their menu. I asked the waitress, and she said yes she would get it for me. I don't know if that is what I was served or not (the bill said I had "Onion Rawa Masala Dosa), but whatever it was, it was very good. I will definitely take my vegan friends there the next time they are in town.

Thanks for the suggestions. I've eaten at Jaleo several times, but for some reason didn't think of it when looking for vegan dishes. I'll have to pay more attention next time I visit. As for Woodlands, I've never eaten there, but I intend to give it a visit in the next week or two. Again, thanks for the suggestions.

We have a friend who comes to visit from time to time, who is vegan. Can anyone recommend a quality restaurant in Northern Virginia that his likely to have more than one vegan dish on their menu?

According to an article in the NY Times, "Tesco, Britain's largest supermarket chain and a bellwether of sorts for popular tastes, is dispensing with the traditional curved pastry as of Friday and instead will sell only straight ones. The company offered a decidedly British rationale: It is easier to spread jam on the straight variety." Further, "The Daily Telegraph, a conservative British newspaper, noted that the virtue of the traditional French croissant was its foreignness. "˜They must not be sliced in two, like buns to be buttered,' it observed. "˜They must be torn, and each morsel eaten with jam, even alien apricot jam, if wanted.'" "British Retailer's Straight Croissants Leave Some Bent Out Of Shape" by Dan BIlefsky on nytimes.com

My wife and I had dinner at The Trio Grill the other night. It was our first time there, and we were both pleased. To begin with, the restaurant looked nice"”white table clothes, comfortable chairs, etc. My first course was tomato bisque soup with pesto. It was very good. For the main course I had the Berkshire Pork Chop mentioned above. It came, as the menu stated, with braised collard greens, bacon and apple marmalade, and spicy habanero mustard. It was delicious. The mustard was a bit too spicy for me, but that is a very minor complaint. The pie I had for desert was OK, but nothing special. In general both my wife and I were quite pleased. Good atmosphere, nice service, and good food. Check out their menu on line. If the kind of food they have appeals to you, I think you will enjoy a visit.

That's it.

Not Four Sisters.

Not Thai by Thai, but close by Yes, it was at a Thai or Vietnam restaurant.

No, not Secret Chopsticks.

I think that is a red pepper, not a tomato. The dish has meat and vegetables (broccoli, onions, peppers, etc) over the crispy noodles, and underneath is a sauce for dipping the vegetables and noodles. And cilantro on top.

No, not Peter Chang.

Where did I dine?

Those sound like three very good ones to me. If you can't get into one of them, I'd recommenced replacing it with Cannon Green, which I mentioned above.

We were looking or someplace close to go to for dinner last night, so we took a chance and went for the first time to Pho Cong Ly, in the Bradlick strip mall, at the corner of Braddock and Backlick roads. We started with Crispy Shrimp Cakes, which the menu described as "Shredded sweet potatoes with whole shrimps fried in a light batter and served with lettuce and sweet chili fish sauce." The shrimp still had their shells on, so it was necessary to peel them off before eating, but we both agreed that it was a very tasty dish. I followed that with a noodle soup, which was also good. I made the mistake of asking for "meatballs" to be added; what came were small pieces of beef that were without much taste, and a bit tough. The soup I would order again, but the meatballs, never again. My wife had a beef sandwich (which I don't see on their on-line menu) and and said it was very good. They have a kids menu, and a vegetarian menu. The service was very good. The waitress was didn't seem to mind explaining to us what some of their dishes were. I will definitely go again.

The dish on their menu is Seared New-England Scallops, and it is described as with: "quinoa, haricot verts, cranberry, orange, brown butter." Very good, in my opinion. They have a small three-table room just off of the kitchen, and that is where we were seated.To me it was a great place to be seated as the noise level was much, much lower than in the main dining area (which was packed).

Clarity it is, and we were sitting by the open kitchen..

Not The Dabney. I apologize for the poor quality of my photo.

Not Roses luxury.

This is from a meal I had last night:

On a recent visit to Charleston, SC, I visited several nice restaurants. The best of the group was a fairly new one, Cannon Green. The restaurant has a very interesting décor (the inside of the restaurant includes a wall from an old Charleston house) and extremely good food. They describe their food as "Mediterranean cuisine, supplemented with Lowcountry and regional farm producers' ingredients." I hate to rave too much about a restaurant I have only visited one time, but I would rank this with the best restaurants in Charleston. If you are going to be in Charleston you definitely should consider having a meal here. Another restaurant I visited was Chez Nous. This was briefly mentioned in a article about Charleston in the Post Food Section of Sept 27. Our meal there was very good, but a bit below the Cannon Green one.

If any of you happen to go to 2941 for Restaurant Week (extended there until August 28), I highly recommend the Coconut Mellon Soup for the first course. I had it yesterday and it was absolutely delicious.