astrid
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Everything posted by astrid
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In the Harrisburg area, Byblo's Mediterranean Grill is a very good fast casual place, based on our visit there yesterday. Their chicken gyro made with laffa bread is one of the best gyros I have ever had.
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We just got back from a NOLA based cruise and caught meals at Herbsaint, Cochon, Toups, Le Petit Grocery, and Peche. We liked Herbsaint and we're really impressed by the rest. DC has a few restaurants that are on par, but at higher price points and harder to get reservations. We also liked the fact that the food is well seasoned and spicy.
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I would say that most chefs, even ones with prestigious resumes, go down on this path starts with a restaurant that offers a la carte and move to tasting menu only after they become really established. In fact, I think the most recent comparison would be Johnny Spero, by all accounts a really good chef with an excellent pedigree and lower prices, but still failed to make it work.- 307 replies
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- Shaw
- Modern American
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Temperature in Costa Rica in summer might be more comfortable in the highlands, but summer would be during rainy season. Winter or spring would be better times if she has her heart set on it. I would suggest Iceland as a possibility. There is a lot to see for people with all ranges of mobility and interests. 6 hours of flight with direct flights out of DC area airports. It's easy to get around there and lots of day trip possibilities from Reykjavik. The long summer days could be an interesting novelty and the daytime highs rarely go above 80 degrees. And excellent food and amenities everywhere. There probably won't be as big of a selection of giant houses for rent compared to OBX, but I definitely seen nice rental apartment options online. Scanning through Airbnb should give you some idea of what is available.
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- Summer 2017
- Family Reunion
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Littler is very very good. We didn't make it to Boulted Bread, but lots of other people on the internet did and loved it.
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The Research Triangle thread disappeared, so I am posting my find here. Littler is a very nice modern American place that recently opened in Durham that's well worth your time and dining bucks. Well executed and really tasty food, nice quiet dining room, and pretty good service especially for a place that's been open for only 4 months. Our experience here is on par with some of our finest meals anywhere.
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Thank you for this very timely post! We were able to stop by Cuban Burger last night and second your ringing endorsement. Great Cuban, tasty burgers, huge portions. The appetizers were particularly impressive, a giant plate of freshly and perfectly fried chicaronnes dusted with chili and served with a delicious red sauce for $6, the best yuca fritos we ever had served with an addictive green sauce, a huge and tasty kale salad generously topped with fried pork for $10.50. This will be a mandatory stopover for any future trips through the area!
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We really loved our recent dinner here. $100 omakase option for both of us and worth every penny. The rice is great as always, the practice of scoring the fish and warming the fish to above room temperature does wonderful things for texture and flavors of each piece of sushi. The service and atmosphere is just perfect. It felt like as close to a perfect overall restaurant experience as I can reasonably expect.
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- Dupont Circle
- North Dupont
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The pizzas here travel okay but is much better fresh from the oven. We had gotten takeout before and it was good, but much better fresh. I would still give Pizza CS the slight edge on the crust, but the toppings here are just fantastic. Although Montgomery County lags generally on restaurants, it might just have the two best pizzerias in the area right now.
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- Gaithersburg
- Pizzeria
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Though, now I notice the 2014 tag in the list, so maybe not so useful.
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Parisbymouth has a list of what's open during that time - http://parisbymouth.com/holiday-alert-most-paris-restaurants-will-be-closed/ Worst case scenario is eating a lot of sandwiches from Frenchie to Go... If Le Cinq is doing their "value lunch" during the time, I would recommend it. 145 euro lunch had so many extras that it almost felt like a good deal.
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Never heard about the expansion plans though that would be a wonderful addition to upper Arlington. GPB may no longer get the buzz but they are still very popular with the locals. They would have nearly fully packed houses for Sunday and Monday dinners.
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Green Pig Bistro is as good as it's ever been. We really liked our recent meals there.
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I haven't hit upon a satisfactory clearing house for all cities. TripAdvisor is probably the best overall, but required a lot of drilling down and there are often misses (some of their#1 ranked places are clunkers). Open table and thefork reviews are pretty good too. Yelp is very hit and miss outside of a few big US cities. I haven't been impressed with NYT 36 hours series, I think SeriousEats's travel content is great overall but they are not as exhaustive and can be uneven. For single city, Parisbymouth would be my gold stand. It's usefully organized and I found it very reliable for my tastes. Usually you can hit upon a couple good best of lists for each city, most bigger cities have at least a few papers and magazines that puts out annual lists. Then look at the menu and TripAdvisor. After my trip last fall, I definitely would not fully trust Michelin, whatever they grade on had only a passing relationship to the quality of the food and service. For travel guides, I think Frommers and Fodor's seem to have the most consistent and thorough foodie coverage. Rough Guides and Moon are heavily author dependent. My experience with Rick Steve's and Lonely Planet has been consistently poor.
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Revival Kitchen, in Reedsville, would be considered a superb restaurant anywhere. Considering its location in the picturesque backwaters of Central PA, it's simply phenomenal. If you are anywhere near the area, it's well worth a reservation and a detour.
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I wouldn't drive through big European cities, even without the ticketing issue. Parking and navigation are sufficient discouragements. But the ticketing issue is arising for medium and small tourist cities such as Florence and Pisa. We found Rome very walkable and honestly not much scarier than a road crossing in DC (especially suburban DC where drivers don't see anything smaller than another car).
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We first learned about this issue from a family member, who was still getting tickets 2 years after his trip. He said he paid thousands of Euros in fines already. And I will say that we got a quote of over 100 euros per day for a basic automatic vehicle, plus had to give permission to the rental company to draw up to 1500 euros to cover any "damages" without any recourse. Just the basic rental cost was about 3 times the cost of renting a nice automatic in the south of France.
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If you end up doing a solo leg, one possibility that our driver suggested to us for the future was that he would do city to city transfers. He is Florence based, but would pick up clients in Rome in the morning, then spend maybe 6 hours with them on a couple Tuscan hills towns and drop them off in Florence (or do this in reverse). It's certainly more expensive than a train between cities, but you get some sight seeing done and gets to travel on your schedule rather than the train's. If you want to stay overnight at a hill town, Sienna is a really nice option.
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Driving in Italy is scary and expensive, and you could easily run up huge fines if you accidentally drive into restricted zones (reserved for locals and licensed tour operators). After researching the topic, we ended up hiring a driver to see Tuscan hills towns and were glad we did. We spent 6 nights in Rome in February and wish we had a lot more time there. In comparison, we spent 4 nights in Florence and 2 nights in Venice and felt we covered those cities well. With 5.5 days, I wouldn't bother with Tuscan towns and more long distance travel. The Roman art musuems and ruins will keep you well occupied. But do also make time to visit the big cathedrals, esp. St. John at Laterno. If you want a day trip, Villa d'Este with Villa Adrianna is good. Or take a train down to Ostia as a more relaxed alternative to Pompeii. Stay in the heart of the city (but within 10 minutes walk of a subway station) and PM me if you want food recommendations. Do Keep your valuables in zipped inside pockets and small change in outside pockets for easy access. November should be a nice month to visit, not full of throngs of tourists, and not crazy hot.
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Reclining Your Airline Seat - What Is Right, and What Is Wrong?
astrid replied to DonRocks's topic in Current Events
3-4-3 would definitely be worse than 2-5-2, and not just because of the reduced width involved. It means going from one person per row who is two seats from exit to two. I recently got stuck in such a configuration as the exit seat on the window aisle. The mother and daughter seated next to me made no less than 8 bathroom trips during the flight, waking me up 4 times during a 14 hour flight to China. Not surprised that United is making this move. They seem to have zero interest in the comfort of their passengers and their slim profile seat are the worst I have experienced and used on their long haul flights to China as of 2015. I used to fly United a lot because I had a big FF mileage account with them (they have since moved to cap mileage to dollars spent rather than miles flown), but my recent somewhat more pleasant experiences on other airlines (especially Delta, surprisingly) suggest that United should be avoided at all costs for longer haul flights. -
Go for the Sushi Taro omakase. Regular sushi Taro is not as good as Sushi Capitol, but the omakase counter is an awesome experience. Seki and Sushi Capitol are both very good, but the omakase will be an occasion that you will both probably remember for the rest of your lives.
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It's a real thing. An elderly Detroit based relative sends two honeybaked ham to +1's parents every year for Christmas. They're pretty decent as cooked ham goes. (Of course, a Spain-based relative sending a full Iberico Bellota ham would be way better and let me use that gosh darn ham stand.)
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- Michigan Franchise
- Detroit
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I suspect that the atmospheric river coming your way will result in another flush of blooms into April. We saw death Valley during a previous round of superbloom, it was impressive but not comparable to the annual flower wonderland found in the northern Rockies and Cascades. It's more interesting because it's an explosion of life in an otherwise lifeless place. But Death Valley is a really cool place and well worth the drive from LA. If you were to go, be sure to check out Antelope Valley poppy reserve on the way. Or just go to Antelope Valley by itself. The blooms are incredible there and that is an easy trip from LA.
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- Death Valley
- California
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Vermilion Cliffs and Antelope Canyon are not far from Tuba City and definitely worth considering. I think Antelope would be doable for 6 year olds and slot canyons are otherworldly experiences. Rainbow Bridge and Glen Canyon dam are also great to visit. The Page area will give you and the kids a taste of my favorite area of the US, southern Utah spanning from Moab to Zion national park. Canyon de Chelly is lovely too, but it's further out and have unpaved roads. Can't make any specific food recommendations. I'd just check TripAdvisor and lower my expectations. Above average steak and burgers or Tex-Mex seems to be the best one can hope for, outside of Sedona and Phoenix.
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Ristorante Alla Corone is excellent. Not expensive considering the outstanding ingredients and prep.
