astrid

After two fantastic visits here, I definitely agree with the above opinions. Definitely my favorite *Asian* place in DC right now (Bangkok Golden might be a close second, but I need another visit or three to, ergh, affirm that opinion). Every dish we tried was as good as the best of Daikaya, Sushi Taro, Kaz, or Kushi. Plus, the wait staff is extremely pleasant and helpful by Japanese restaurant standards. Just need to get a second job to pay for future visits here.

Anyone been to Kauai or Maui in the last year? We'll be there in late May and would love the latest scoop. We have the "Hidden" guides and TripAdvisor for general reference, but are always on the lookout for exciting foods and adventures. I would very much appreciate anyone chiming in on the following: kayak tours of the Napali Coast poke farmer's market or fruit stand fresh sushi or seafood "back" part of Road to Hana (going through Maui's south coast) hikes around Koke'e/Waimea area Scuba or snorkeling trips

Thistle has graciously agreed to provide a home for all the roses named.

If you would like smaller plants, you might want to consider growing your figs in large pots. Pot bound figs tend to fruit better and stay smaller.

This might be a long shot, but is anyone here interested in taking in some own root roses? I've decided that my community garden plot is too rose heavy, so I would like to give away some of my plants to a good home (they need at least 5-6 hours to stay healthy). The plants are very healthy and have bloomed well for me with no spraying of any kind. I’d like to dig them out sometime between April 27 and May 12. Tea Mrs. BR Cant Tea M. Tillier Damask Ispahan Tea Francis Dubreuil Hyb. Musk Jeri Jennings Golden Buddha October Moon PM me if you’re interested.

I went in for lunch with a coworker two weeks ago. The food was very good, but it's not attracting much of a lunch crowd yet. I think the place was only 1/4 full for the time I was there. I think the partition in the front and dim lighting is a problem. I saw quite a few people stopping and reading the posted menu, but none of them came in. Maybe they were checking out the menu for another time, or maybe they were daunted by the darkness. The other problem is that the place isn't well set up for a 1-hour lunch that's pretty typical for the neighborhood office workers. Having table service just slows things down too much and adds 20% to the tab, even though the service itself is very nice and attentive. It would be better for lunchtime to move to an order-at-the-cash-register system.

The cocktail menu seems to mostly be in $8-10 range and were served in large-ish jam jars. That seem like a decent price, bordering on low end considering the ingredients. I didn't check the beer or wine prices. I probably also have a skewed sense of pricing in the neighborhood prices as my other neighborhood drinking experiences were at Corduroy and The Passenger.

In their defense, the $6 macarons are 4-5" across. They do sell normal size macarons for $15/dozen. On the other hand, their macarons were not particularly good. The enormous version is too dense and has a brownie like texture. I actually prefer Trader Joe's macarons, and have tasted better versions at various area French restaurants.

Just want to put in a good word for this joint, brought to you by the same folks as SunDeVich and Seasonal Pantry. Cheap artisanal drinks and amazing (but very limited) food menu. The bar in front was packed on Saturday night, but the back room was quite empty. If you're in the neighborhood after 5 PM and looking for addictively tasty bar grub, you need to make your way to this place.

CORK is in good hands indeed. We went there for brunch because Vermillion and all the other usual suspects for brunch were fully booked up. We're so lucky that we did, as every dish was just perfectly executed. CORK's brunch is also good for people who don't like typicaly brunch food, since the dishes are all in small sharable plates and are a bit lighter than traditional brunch food. The cocktail offerings were also creative and tasty, but not too heavy Favorites french fries - these might be the best french fries ever, like a good bistro frite, but lighter and more crisp. comes with a great house ketchup baked egg with parmesan crust Coddled egg

Pizzeria Orso's grilled octopus is indeed charred. I've seen it on the menu for the past year at least, so I suspect it's there to stay. Get it, it's terrific. I used to be a big fan of Green Pig Bistro's grilled octopus, but they've recently made some changes to their menu in the wrong direction. So what used to be a delicious grilled octopus small plate with a couple simple accompaniments became an overloaded and hard to eat crostini with a *barely there* sprinkling of octopus bits.

It's always interesting and refreshing to see how much experiences and opinions can differ, even at the same table! I've always been particularly impressed with 2941's fresh made pasta offerings, which I find to be amongst the best in DC. They seem to be using a yolk only recipe, which makes the pasta particularly silky and rich. So it's interesting to see it highlighted a pasta dish as being particularly poor. Even more funny how the experience even extend to pricing! Probably due to the fact that we generally book here with Savored, we're actually always surprised by how low our tab ends up being, even after a generous tip! We do tend to steer clear of entrees in favor of small plates, so that may have shifted the cost equation somewhat in our favor. The tapas size starters here almost qualifies as steals in my book.

I think celery is probably more likely than lovage, since I definitely got some very strong tasting celery (a bit too strong for me, I saved it for stock making) from Potomac Vegetable Farm CSA this year, but I don't recall ever getting lovage. I grew some cutting celeries in 2011 and they are definitely strongly flavored and prolific after a slow start (the seeds are tiny and the baby plants didn't do much for a while). They're allegedly much easier than regular celery to grow because they don't need to be blanched and are less picky about watering. Stir fried cutting celery (usually with some pork slivers or dried tofu curd slivers) is a popular dish in China and you might be able to find them in Korean supermarkets.

I must try the Talenti gelato. My standby was the gelato sold at the food court in Pentagon City Costco - it's only $5/quart and they seem to make it fresh on the premise. But they only have three flavors and two of them are now chocolate-centric (they swapped out a delicious mixed berry flavor for chocolate), so not much for variety.

I usually just soak my sour cherries in Seagram's seven crown with a spoonful of sugar. The cherries are good but the booze is better. Homestead Farm has a really nice variety called Jubilee that ripen a week or two before the bright red Montmorencies. I think Jubilee is a Morello as it is dark red and almost sweet enough to eat fresh, but still have tender skin. I also made a batch of pickled cherries in 2012, with white vinegar, coriander, rosemary, and peppercorn. It is tasty but very potent.

My trip was in early 2009, so my restaurant recs may be out of date. I did check with Yelp and these places are still getting very good ratings. Coffee Shack in Captain Cook - serves up a very tasty breakfast, definitely the best of its kind that we encountered Manago Hotel - very inexpensive and tasty Kona Villages used to have the best luau with great food and entertainment, but it looks like the new owners closed that down in 2012. I would have recommended buying this but it hasn't been updated since 2009. Hawaii The Big Island Revealed gives generally pretty good guidance (though they were waaay too optimistic about the conditions of some unpaved roads), much better than Lonely Planet or Rough Guides.

One of my favorite things about the Shopping and Cooking forum are the interesting discoveries highlighted in grocery store specific threads. I would love to hear from you all about your favorite ingredient/grocery store discoveries of 2012. Mine were: queso de freier (Costco) - just as tasty and easy to fry as halloumi at only 1/4 the price. aji dulce (home grown from Southern Exposure Seeds) - similar flavor as habanero but none of the heat, these proved to be wonderful additions for various stews, sauces, hot sauce (in place of carrots), and surprisingly, popiscles. frozen almond crossiants (Trader Joe's) - are way better than any bakery almond croissants I've ever had okra "Burmese" (home grown from Baker's Creek Seeds) - this variety is amazing, I had loads of tender 10" pods from my community garden every week, this is *the* variety for weekend gardeners fennel (Trader Joe's) - I'm a big fan of the Trader Joe's fennel 2 packs because they're cheaper and don't come with all the annoying fronds (my community garden plot is infested by non-bulbing fennel, so I already have way too much of the tops)

I definitely have a worst of meal for 2012 - to find a meal comparable to the disaster that was our dinner at Mammoth Hotel Dining Room, I would have to reach far into the early 1990s. Honestly, I cannot recall airline food that was as bad as what I ate that night. Otherwise, I think we did really well this year. Lots of great meals and relatively few disappointing ones. I apologize ahead of time for gushiness. Little Serow - the pork ribs! Are! Back! Fiola – their marinara sauce is 25% crack FIG (Charleston) – ricotta gnocchi! Suckling pig confit! Everything! Osteria (Philadelphia) – best pizzas ever! Pupatella –Enzo’s Montanare (fried pizza) might challenge the claim above, if he’ll just bring it back on the menu… Oysters with toppings – we had some horrors but also some revelations. The latter category at HUSK (Charleston), Woodberry Kitchen(Baltimore), BlackFish (Philadelphia). Pizzeria Orso – favorite octopus, favorite cannoli 2941 - a memorably good meal here was followed 2 hours later by the memorable Derecho of 2012 PS 7's – I will miss Italian Night, a lot. SunDeVich – yay! SunDeVich is my new favorite sandwich place. Rogue 24 – thank you for the bar menu Green Pig Bistro – I’m not a fan of some recent changes to their lineup, but their duck liver poutine is a definite and completely ridiculous winner. Tortas Frontera (Chicago O’Hare)- best airport food yet, plus I got a good habanero hot sauce recipe from the visit Rendezvous Bistro (Jackson, WY) – favorite meal of our 2 week long Yellowstone/Tetons/Glacier trip, by far. Peaks (Tetons) – best pie ever American Grocery (Greenville, SC) – favorite “farm-to-table”

I would stay away from anything featured on No Reservations: Namibia.

Non-food impressions: The aquarium is a very pleasant way to spend a rainy afternoon. It's small, but well organized (going from the mountains to ocean) and highly interactive. They have nice educational programs at the start of each hour. The "4-D" movie is very gimmicky but kids will probably love it. You can get discounted tickets at the Charleston Costco. Charleston Place - the train set was indeed very cool, as was the ginormous chandelier overhead. Mepkin Abbey - a beautiful and peaceful place, though probably not worth the hour+ drive each way unless you're planning to visit other attractions nearby. Magnolia Plantation (including the swamp) - December is definitely not as colorful as the spring photos suggest. There were lots of camellias in bloom but they don't have the color power of azaleas and rhododenrens. The swamp is pretty cool, we saw 10+ alligators on our short walk, including a cunningly concealed mama gater with her brood. In retrospect, I probably should have picked Middleton Place for a first visit. Nearby beaches - basically deserted and very pleasant on a 60+ degree and sunny December day. Edisto Island was particularly interesting for the contrast between the posh and non-posh areas, and probably provide the best glimpse into the pre-resort Sea Islands life.

+1 and I are very happy to make our acquaintance with Charleston. Places we visited below, from most favored to least favored. FIG - deserves all the kudos everyone gives the place. The ricotta gnocchi with lamb Bolognese was SOOOO GOOD. As was the suckling pig, as was steak tartare, as was…we loved everything. We’re usually pretty happy with a restaurant if it can executed 2-3 things at the level that FIG sustained for our entire dinner. They managed to kick every dish up a notch, making it better than we thought it would be. Glass Onion –The Glass Onion deliver exactly what it promises, perfectly and deliciously. To me, they serve the food equivalent of a warm and soft security blanket. Everything we tried was so warm and delicious and comforting. We had two lunches here but their menu changes daily and would have allowed for a couple more visits. If I could eat lunch here every day for the rest of my life, I would weigh 400 lbs and be very happy. Bar at Husk – Is a really nice space, a bar space downstairs and a lounge area upstairs. The bar shares drinks but not food with the main restaurant. $9 got us a generous portion of very tasty wings. I may be biased to this side of the restaurant because both +1 and I got very enjoyable drinks here. I got a Charleston Light Dragoon’s Punch and +1 had a Brom Bones mocktail. Husk – We really enjoyed most of the food here - the house cured meat plate, pig ear lettuce wrap, Caper’s Blade oyster with buttermilk dressing, ribs, bison short ribs, and the grits with mushroom side. But there were two misfires – the fatty doughy fried chicken skin and gritty local clams. Caper’s Blade oysters were my favorite, the gently tart buttermilk is such a good complement to the crisp oysters. McCrady's – No complaints about the food or service, everything here was impeccably executed. However, it was not a good match of restaurant concept (upscale mature adult dining) to eaters (we’re appetizer grazers who never dress up for dinner). If our neighboring tables are any indication, this is a great place to go to celebrate a 27th wedding anniversary or build rapport with a business partner. While this was not quite our cup of tea, we can highly recommend the fish (+1 usually hates cooked fish and he liked the swordfish and grouper dishes that came with the 4 course prix fix) and anything that includes their house truffle sauce. SNOB – SNOB serves as a good foil to FIG. Superficially, they’re pretty similar in menu and concept, but nothing we tried really went for the extra notch. Our dinner here was perfectly fine, service was fine, and the room was lovely. But there were no delightful surprises here. Martha Lou's – It’s pink, feels very authentic, and inexpensive ($22 for two meals and two bottles of water). The chicken and porkchop were tasty but the side are ho-hum. Sorry for the Yelp link. Hominy Grill – Our visit proved disappointing considering the reputation. The fried chicken was a bit dry and not particularly tasty, the she crab soup was just good, and shrimp and grits…I’m used to having my grits with lots more cream and cheese. It’s not bad by any means, but I would rather be at the Glass Onion.

Had dinners at American Grocery and Soby's recently. American Grocery is fantastic. My comparison to Vermillion was underrating this place (and I'm a big fan of Vermillion). I think it could be a top 10 restaurant in DC. The food is just perfect, not fussy, no novelty for novelty's sake, yet so interesting and delicious on the palate. Soby's was decent enough (proper seasoning, fresh ingredients), but not in the same league.

Reporting back. We ended up going to Noble Fare and Local 11Ten, and Mrs. Wilkes' the next day for lunch. Local11Ten is definitely our favorite of the three, tasty and innovative cooking, lots of interesting looking choices, beautiful space and location. It's also a really good value even though the prices are average for DC (so probably high for Savannah) because the portions here are huge. The $8 soup of the day was entree size and it was a really interesting and tasty take on beef chili. In retrospect, I really wish I had skipped our (quite excellent) first dinner at Noble Fare to try more of the menu here. I almost feel guilty for relative downgrade of Noble Fare, since I should have had a closer look at the menu and realized that it's not a good fit for grazers such as +1 and myself. The cooking is quite good and I have absolutely no complaints about the salmon tartare, duck, and scallops that we got. It is a small menu and a relatively formal restaurant, and felt like steakhouse, is not my cup of tea. The decor (boudoir? upscale whorehouse?) and the funny waiter outfits were not our thing either. It's a distinctive style and I imagine lots of people would love this this place and may even prefer it to Local 11Ten. I was quite disappointed by Mrs. Wilkes. Given its reputation, I expected very good fried chicken. But the several pieces of chicken that I tried were quite dry and bland, as though they did not brine or marinate the chicken at all. The crust on the chicken was okay, but not noticeably tasty. The sides were decent to good, and very generously portioned. It was a fun experience and we only waited about 25 minutes in good weather to get in, but I would be rather annoyed if I had waited 1+ hour in sweltering heat for the food here.

Perhaps some goodies Buzz Bakery or Willow?

Also, clicky.