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astrid

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Everything posted by astrid

  1. astrid
    I'm not really critical of David Chang and I hope his BOH staff reads the interview and lights a fire under him. Just sad that as of right now, even David Chang can't or won't pay his BOH staff handsomely. There are waiters at certain fine dining restaurants that get close to or at six figures, and almost nobody goes to a restaurant for its FOH no matter how nice it is. Why can't the chefs and cooks who actually created the deliciousness get compensated at that level?
  2. astrid
    Funny how much experiences can vary. I liked the atmosphere at Laurel, it's fairly minimalist but in a very tasteful way. I think the restaurant did put a lot of thought into designing a nice tranquil space for its diners and it pairs well with the style of food served here. It's the nicest BYOB restaurant I've been to, most of them feel more jammed in and frenetic. We loved our meal here. Certainly in my top 5 for the year. I particularly liked the hamachi with horseradish snow and the shaved frozen foie gras - I enjoyed the interplay of temperature/texture/flavors, and how they change between bites. We also ended up splurging on two additions, the ricotta gnocchi with shaved alba truffles and the grilled Kobe beef, they were expensive but soooo worth it. The snails, scallop, cod, and pork dishes were all very well done, but not as nearly as interesting as those 4. The huckleberry/olive oil dessert was interesting but had an odd bitterness that I didn't like. I would definitely come back here, especially if someone else was paying for the meal with additions.
  3. astrid
    Absolutely no regrets over getting a whole dinner here, though we stuffed ourselves (again) before we got to secondis and desserts. The pastas here are all as wonderful as ever, almost of all of them available in half portions (which are still pretty big). The standout appetizers are the truffled steak tartare and the hazelnut scallop crudo, though the porchetta tonnato is as good as always. And the polpo pizza is still a dreamy combination of octopus, sauce, cheese, and a hit of heat.
  4. astrid
    Sunday brunch here was a bit louder than dinner, but still very relaxed and full of great food. The brunch menu has something to offer everyone - sandwiches, salads, pastries, salty brunchy foods, and sweet things. Everything we had is perfectly made and tasty. It was the perfect restorative after a hard Saturday of riding rollercoasters at Six Flags Great Adventure (the headlining rollercoasters were great, everything else about the park not so much). I also finally realized that one could buy a loaf (or two) of the wonderful bread that serve to dinners. They're soooooo good. It's also possible to pick up sandwiches to go.
  5. astrid
    Hmmm, all hat and no cattle, that's very disappointing. I would like hyper-successful celebri-chefs to take the lead and pay their BOH staff a true living wage, an amount that lets people raise a family and have a life-long career with. I truly believe that a restaurant that treats all its staff well and can keep the best of the best, is one that would also serve its guests the best food and provide the best overall experience. Fine dining is a luxury. It would be nice if we all paid a little more so that people who gave us the experience can also have some nice things in their lives.
  6. astrid
    I read Kliman's interview and I'm impressed by how well Chang pays his BOH staff. That definitely makes the $17 bowl of ramen a lot more reasonable. A world where everyone in the restaurant business has decent health insurance and can afford to live in the city they work in, is a better world.
  7. astrid
    It's from a personal reaction. While I have been lucky to be spared long term unemployment thus far in my life, I have seen its terrible effects in others. I would not wish that on my worst enemy. So someone publicly airing a private grievance to threaten the financial security of others, is totally not okay in my book. I also learned that you just need to let people be. That goes for the father and the daughter in this case. Unless there was legally actionable abuse or illegal business practices, its better to let it go. To publicly announce the situation to make the other side the villain, smacks of the sort of manipulative and callous behavior I have witnessed from a few people whom I have largely cut out of my life.
  8. astrid
    Surely you can tell the difference between private prejudice (yes, it is bad and hurtful) and legally barring people from marrying. And I assure you that the civil rights era decisions did not change the private prejudice of many, even 50 years later.
  9. astrid
    In any case, the father came out and said it wasn't about race. You can choose to not believe him, but that is what he has now said. I just find Terri Upshaw's choice to air old dirty family laundry, in a way that hurt her natal family, to be very repellent. People in this country believe in a lot of dumb things, many of which I find incredibly repugnant and destructive. But if I held all businesses to that standard, I would have a hard time even feeding myself from a farmer's market. As long as a business behaves in a generally ethical way in its business dealings, I'll let its employees and owners believe whatever they want in private.
  10. astrid
    I actually know of a south Asian couple where the husband was disowned by his parents for marrying a woman whose family came from the *wrong* region. I certainly disagree strongly with the parents in that situation, but lots of older people (especially those born elsewhere) feel very strongly about their kids marrying within their culture. It's very against the USian ideal of individual freedom to choose, but the strong cultural identification (especially for people who were minorities in their original country) was what allowed them to survive culturally and sometimes physically. It's very important to them. It's obviously putting their kids in a not ideal position, but it's as important as religion or guns is for many USians and should not be dismissed as mere prejudice or racism.
  11. astrid
    Thanks for the report! Just made a lunch reservation at Pirouette. We'll be in Paris for a day in early November and then 4 days in mid-late November. The vacationing me tends to be quite ambitious, so we've made reservations at the following places: Septime Sola Au Passage David Toutain Le Cinq Le Clos Y Pirouette I'm checking thefork.com multiple times each day, waiting for Frenchie to release the dates that I want. We're also hoping to get into Abri (NYT recommended just dropping in at the restaurant and get ourselves onto the waiting list). Then there are the no res places, Verjus, Clamato, Frenchie Wine Bar, Poilane's sandwich shop, L'As du Falafel, and Frenchie to Go. Finally, pretty psyched that A L'Etoile d'Or is reopening on November 3.
  12. astrid
    You can get the full article by googling the title and then clicking out from there. Thanks for the article! The father came out and said that 1) the disowning was not because of the race of man she married, 2) that he had not been actively involved in the business for 20+ years, and 3) other members of the family did stay in touch with the daughter. I won't get into #1 (though the stories certainly suggest that she's a golddigger and a homewrecker, which may be sufficient cause to alienate me from a person in my life). The fact that someone would go out of her way to air dirty old family laundry to the financial detriment of family members that maintained a relationship with her, tells me all I need to know about the situation.
  13. astrid
    At least Rose's line ends at a recognizable restaurant door, Little Serow's lines ends at an unmarked basement door. Confuses passerbys to no end.
  14. astrid
    I think enough people have found PC to make it long term viable. At least I really hope so. The room filled up by 7ish on a Monday evening.
  15. astrid
    The food here is great. The fried chicken might be a contender for DC's best. The octopus, trumpet mushroom, and fish cakes were all very tasty and perfectly executed. Even though much of the menu is fried, nothing we ordered tasted the least bit oily or heavy. The service we got was efficient and friendly, too. Also, all night happy hour and entree prices in the mid to low teens. This will probably make its way into our regular rotation.
  16. astrid
    Thanks for your advice. I'll ponder about Michel Bras...it would be a full day's driving out of the way, but Don had spoken so highly of it and the drive would be through a national park. But skipping it would give us more time to see the Roman ruins around Nimes and Arles. Or an extra day checking out the Pyrennes around Lourdes. The trip is roughly divided into 3rds. Nice to Bilbao portion would focus on eating at modest restaurants and perhaps prepared foods from local markets and vendors. Basque-land would be a mix of Michelin starred and local tapas/seafood places. Then Paris leans heavy on Parisbymouth's favorites list (with l'Astrance's 70 Euro lunch being the only Michelin 3 star and Le Cinq's lunch being the only blowout meal). The overall food budget will still be high (probably well over 50% of the overall travel cost), but it seemed foolish to skip out on the high end of the Basque dining scene since it's not a trip we're likely to retake anytime soon.
  17. astrid
    Yes, we will be spending 4 days in San Sebastian. Akelarre and Martin B reservations are booked so far. Azurmendi and probably Mina near Bilbao.
  18. astrid
    We will have 5 days to make our way from Nice to Bilbao, so far, only Michel Bras has been booked.
  19. astrid
    A bit of pre-trip announcement. We're going to try all the non-Arzak Michelin 3-Stars in the Basque-lands ( plus Extebarri - I'm expecting amazing things from Extebarri). Also Michel Bras because of Don's rather vocal recommendations. Also going to Le Cinq and Le Clos Y and David Toutain in Paris. Hopefully, we will also go to Septime and Frenchie, if we can play thefork,com's reservation lottery correctly. We'll also have time to eat a lot of tapas in between those meals. Also - Paris patisseries and chocolate shops and Languiole steak knives for Don... Anyone with other recommendations? Esp. for Cote d'Azur and Provence? I'm so psyched over this right now. I will definitely report back on what I find in Europe.
  20. astrid
    And please do write about your winter experiences. WOW is running some pretty attractive fares for mid winter, so I am actually seriously considering this. And please enjoy yourselves. Iceland is gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous. Of all the places I've been to, only New Zealand would come ahead of Iceland for sheer gorgeousness.
  21. astrid
    Had another wonderful a la carte dinner at Restaurant at Patowmack Farms. Tarver King doesn't get nearly enough recognition from DC or national food critics. Every time we come here, we marvel at the flavors that he's able to coax from his ingredients. His cooking has mellowed and rustified and improved with his move to R@PF. We've recently had dinners at Clarity and Garrison, while both experiences were good, they pale compared to our dinner last night. For people complaining about Rose's Luxury's lines, book a reservation here and eat Tarver King's cooking. Not nearly as much bragging rights but much more special. PS - regarding the booking situation. I suspect that if you call them up, they will be able to accommodate you on Thursday. It appears that they only put about 1/3 of the available tables up on Opentable for booking. We were only offered 6:30 reservation time yesterday, but only 1/3 of the tables were actually filled for the night. This seems to be an intentional choice since they're staffed for the level of diners, but I suspect that they can accommodate one more party if asked.
  22. astrid
    Perhaps I should stick to raw whale next time. We had it in kabob form at Saegreifinn (The Sea Baron) next to the harbor. It's a fantastic little joint with good atmospherics, but I would not recommend their whale kabobs as food (I would recommend it if you just want to say you've eaten whale, it's probably amongst the cheapest options for trying whale). Good to know about the surprising amount of winter sunlight in Reykjavik "“ now I'm going to go check Iceland Air prices for February.
  23. astrid
    For January, I would second Eric's recommendation for Reykjavik Excursion (not to be confused with the not-so-good Iceland Excursion). The roads would not be fun to drive on that time of the year. You may want to consider adding on a glacier sledding experience to your Golden Circle excursion, we had friends who did that and really liked it. The day will be very short, maybe only 3 hours of light, just glancing the horizon. I suspect bumping into fellow tourists won't be a problem outside of maybe a few at Blue Lagoon, taking advantage of the free Iceland Air layovers. Check out the schedule at the Harpa (their ultra modern concert hall and take a camera if you go, the building is a trip. I think there's a city pass that will get you into all the musuems at a discount "“ definitely worth looking into as their museums are excellent. Alcohol is incredibly expensive there, check the current liquor allowance and bring that. Never went in winter but I suspect the land based northern lights tour is better. It gets really windy and cold on the water sometimes, and the bobbing would not be good for long exposure shots. I also suggest staying at Northern Lights Inn for your first or last day, and combine it with the Blue Lagoon. I stayed there 4 years ago, but remember it being comfortable and reasonably priced. The dining room offers good dinners and a nice breakfast buffet. Best part is that they offer free transport to nearby Blue Lagoon and Keflavik, which can streamline things when you're car-less. RE runs buses from Reykjavik to Keflavik, which will stop there if you ask. I wouldn't call whale delicious myself. It's livery and I hate that taste. Most seabirds taste like a combination of squab and anchovies/sardine. Guillemot might be the best of the bunch for taste. Skip Skaftafell and Jokulsarlon. They're much better in summer. Skaftafell is full of gorgeous day hikes of various lengths and the ones we hiked were not difficult and had good footing.
  24. astrid
    If you have time to spare, rent a car and take an overnight trip to Skaftafell and Jokulsarlon. The combination of volcanoes and endless ice fields is breathtaking.
  25. astrid
    If I follow you correctly, your argument boils down to: Rose's Luxury is inconvenient and inhospitable for you and some others. So even though Sietsma personally found it more convenient than the reservation and ticketing options of other highly sought after restaurants, he made the paramount mistake of not recognizing the importance of your specific situation, above all the other types of conveniences (including the convenience of actually serving more covers and letting more people try Rose's menu) and business considerations that a restaurant may have. Can't argue with that.
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