weezy

A new season has started on Top Chef.  They're centered in Louisville KY for this season and we have a local chef to root for, Eric Adejpong, who formerly worked at Kith/Kin but now owns a catering company.  He's made it through the first round.

17 hours ago, DaveO said:

Pita is important.  While the LT or MeJana thin pita is nice when it is fresh it loses attractiveness over time.   I too like a fluffy pita as does @KeithA above (terrific advise).  If I don’t have a fluffier pita I’ll substitute a good fluffy bread from a good bakery vs thin pita.

Try the pita at Cava; it's the fluffy style.  I'm sure they would be happy to sell you a stack of them.

I'd say it's a cross between Street and Treat for street food that's worth a special stop

Great show of sportsmanship by Ovi  in last night's game, where Price's magnificent stop kept Ovechkin from getting a hat trick  and getting the game winning goal.  Caps went on to win in OT, but this was the highlight of the night.

The Wilson saga, for now, is over.  He's back, in great shape, and opening up holes in the opposition's D, scoring, fighting, doing all the things he supposed to do.

And in the meantime, Holtby is out day-to-day with a upper body injury sustained in practice (puck to the neck?), Oshie is out day-to-day with an upper body injury (shoulder? concussion?) from a nasty hit that got the opponent an $8700 fine but no suspension, and Kuznetzov is out upper body day-to-day (concussion? neck?) from an elbow to the head that got a 2-minute penalty and no supplemental discipline at all. 

The good news is that our new back-up goalie, Phoenix Copley, is good and getting better with all these starts.  Game tonight against the Avalanche, where he gets to square off against our former back-up, Philip Grubauer.

Artisan Chocolates, in Arlington and Merrifield

Cava hummus, regular and red pepper, seen in the Annandale Giant store this past Sunday.  Unfortunately, not the baba ghanoush.

use some mixed with plenty of hot sauce and olive oil and toss veggies in it to roast, serve with a dollop of sour cream on top, sort of a riff on Buffalo wings for veggies

Unconventional Diner is worth checking out

I would try calling a few of the higher end restaurants near you and asking if you can buy some from them, or Alexandria Pastry Shop because they may have them in to garnish wedding cakes.

First game of the season tonight, 2018 Championship banner is being hung from the rafters, and Tom Wilson is being hung out to dry by the player safety dept. with a 20 game suspension.  That's a quarter of the regular season.  His previous suspension was 5 games, so a 10-game suspension would have been a standard escalation, so the league is going to make him change his play or put him out of business. 

Young Frankenstein is my favorite of the Mel Brooks films and still ridiculously funny every time I see it

Passion Fish

The Birds

Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile

Spirited Away

The Incredibles

I'm actually reading this now for my bookclub's next meeting.  It's a very easy read -- the author comes across as someone just sitting across the kitchen table from you, telling his story.  I have some of those same Appalachian Scots-Irish roots and can see some of my heritage in the things he talked about, and also where my family diverged from his path.  

looks like we've reached the end of the corn at the market in Falls Church, anyway.  Tomatoes are dwindling, the okra is starting to feel woody even when young & little.  Lots of nice little potatoes and turnips and beets showing up, peaches fading and apples & pears coming on.

I saw that and then made the mistake of reading in the comments.  Folks are saying "but it's just a bunch of grapes, why get your knickers in a twist."  As if they could lose a year's worth of their base salary.  

I haven't seen them at Falls Church ever.  I do have a friend near Atlanta who has a tree and is able to get about a dozen or so a year, but I don't think climate change will support them up here yet.  Give it a decade or so and plant one.

I just submitted my Pillsbury Bake-Off entry, inspired by the blueberry peach coffee cake that I made for the picnic.  It's open for entries until the 12th at noon Central time.

saw some on Sunday at Giant in Annandale.  My store has moved them over to a smaller  tropical fruits section that has the less sought-after fruits (near the bananas and salad bar), so maybe that's why you aren't spotting any where you typically shop

Lunched today at Kabobistan, a new eatery in the Bradlick Plaza strip mall in Annandale.  As the name implies, it's a kabob shop, but they also have a few other Afghani dishes on the menu.  My sister and I tried a couple of those today; her, the quabili pilau, and me, the Afghan curryanee, both of us asked for lamb.  Since the curry was being freshly made, they told me it was going to take about 20 minutes, and the owner, Joe -- who was making regular rounds of the dining area -- came by to tell us that he was going to make sure the two plates came out together and brought us each a small bowl of soup, gratis, to enjoy while we waited.  It was a nice homestyle veggie soup with a bit of pasta and chickpeas and a little spicy heat to it.   The grilled meats smelled great and the place was doing a good business, both eat in and carry-out, while we waited.  Of the two dishes we ordered, I think my sister's was better.  The rice was done with raisins and carrots, the spinach was simple, very mildly seasoned and good, and the pilau was tasty although a rather unappetizing greige color.  My curry was tasty but very oily; when finished, there was probably 1/3 cup or more of oil in the plate.  Mine came with Afghan naan style bread that was excellent, freshly baked, a bit of char and tender-chewy.  They have red sauce and green sauce at the table, both vinegary and the green hotter than the red.  Both our plates came with a side of mast-o-khyer, and I have to say, tearing off a hunk of that good naan, spreading a little mast-o-khyer on it and toppign it with some curry was just about a perfect bite.

I also heard Joe talking to another table that he was hoping to get the space next door because he thought that restaurant was going out of business.  That surprised me, because next door is Thai by Thai, which I thought was pretty solid, but walking by as we left after lunch, I looked in the window and didn't see a single person in there.  Kabobistan has cramped seating for about 30, and the kitchen is so tiny that it can get backed up just because there's no place to plate more than one meal at a time.

Will go back soon and try some of the kabobs.  That's what most folks were getting, and as I said, they smelled great while cooking.

On 1/23/2018 at 2:01 PM, JBag57 said:

This thread might get a little more active in the near future, in that Caboose is building out a brewpub at the Mosaic District, which will be a little more accessible than their current location (although if you are a biker, the current location can't be beat).

Their beers used to be mediocre-to-bad, notwithstanding that the brewer had some credentials from somewhere.  They seem to be improving, and I am pretty sure that I heard that they have fresh blood in the brewing operation.

They used to only offer the burger on Tuesdays, but as of about two weeks ago, it was added to the regular menu.  I need to get in there and try it.

Mosaic District location opening very soon.  The patio tables were set up outside as of Saturday and everything looks ready to go.  It's just outside the main Mosaic quadrant, at Strawberry & Eskridge, across the street just west of MOM's.  

Maybe they can turn it into an event space?  That way they still get some utilization of the kitchens and don't have to depend on day-to-day retail foot traffic to drive revenues.

If you're ever traveling in Roanoke and getting on I-581, be forewarned:  I have never found anywhere worse in my life for people stopping on a highway entry acceleration lane.  I can't count the number of times I've had to stand on my brakes  to avoid hitting these idiots.  

15 minutes ago, Kibbee Nayee said:

While we're wandering off-topic, the best place you've never eaten at in Tysons Galleria is the Marketplace Cafe in Nordstrom's.

But that's because it's in Tyson's Corner Center.  The anchors in Galleria are Neiman Marcus, Saks and Macy's.

Put all the kiddie stuff up there and then have ancillary shops with things that the parents can grab in a hurry for themselves, or make it the teen gathering area

stopped at the Mosaic District location of District Dumplings today.  The location is down a short side street where Brine is on the corner, then a Cheesetique has opened there as well, and then the dumpling shop.  They have a nice mix-and-match option of 10 dumplings for $10 ($1 extra per Peking duck dumpling) and a nice variety to pick from, standard crescent shaped dumplings as well as shumai in the mix-and-match for $10, plus they have soup dumplings.  I went with a mixed batch of standard dumplings, steamed:  chicken & basil, kale, pork & celery, and bulgogi.  The wrappers are nice and thin, slippery  and lightly chewy.  I thought the fillings were pretty good, with the chicken and basil being my favorite and the bulgogi being my least favorite -- mostly a texture thing, since it had little chunks of meat and air pockets, where they other dumplings had ground-up fillings for a more homogeneous texture against the wrapper.  Sauces were sriracha, Kikkoman soy, and hoisin sauce.  I wish they had a ponzu sauce.  They are cooked to order, so it was about 15-20 minutes for my order to be brought to the table.  A sign on the register noted when the place is busy, it can take 30-40 minutes to get an order to the table.  You can see most of the kitchen while standing at the register and it's easy to see that a busy restaurant could back up quickly.  There isn't a lot of seating, maybe 30 or so inside, and a couple of 2-tops on the patio outside.  The staff is friendly and helpful.  

All in all, a nice stop for a $10 lunch.