weezy

thanks for getting this up & running! As for the look, I'm okay with. I'm not in love with it yet, but definitely not a hater.

Firstly, she can keep track of the offenders and refuse them service unless they order in the store and pay in cash. Secondly, she can emphasize (put on the menu? website? sign in the shop?) that during peak times, orders will take at least X amount of time. Just because the customer says it wasn't ready in 10 minutes doesn't mean she has to accept their time frame. That's an easy and free fix. And thirdly, she can raise prices (and offer favored customers a discount, or a punchcard buy-9-entrees-get-one-free sort of arrangement). As for the other freeloaders, I'll leave it to others to come up with suggestions.

They had a coupon.

joined friends here for a late lunch after a movie at Cinema Arts on Saturday -- our show of support for small businesses. It was very quiet but we were dining about 2:30, so we didn't expect a peak crowd. Another friend had raved recently about the wonton soup so we all ordered that. A delicate, flavorful broth and 3-4 wontons per bowl. The wonton wrappers were silky and tender and thin and so delicate that I'm surprised they held together. The wonton filling was bland to the point of being merely a texture, not a flavor. Then we shared crystal shrimp and shredded chicken with leeks, as one person didn't want anything spicy. A bit of a shame, as the spicy dishes can be so good here. Also hot tea for all. I've had the crystal shrimp before and it was the same as I remembered; it is shrimp chunks in a white sauce that to me tasted almost entirely of a salt-like substance but not actual salt. No headaches or screaming thirst later, so perhaps not MSG (FWIW, I get the same flavor off the corn dish at Hong Kong Palace). It was just all right and we left some behind. The others didn't comment on the salty flavor, but it overwhelmed the shrimp completely. The shredded chicken with leeks was a misnomer. More correctly, it's sliced chicken that's been chowed with lots of garlic chive stems in a light chicken stock-based sauce. Very very good stuff; we competed to get the last bits of it. Service was quick, albeit unpolished -- reaching across a diner to clear a plate while she was in the process of lifting food to her mouth, for instance -- and seldom checking back to see if we needed anything. All in all, an okay meal with one standout dish that came out to $39 for 3 of us including tax & tip.

Don, I host a couple of small private forums with folks I've been internet friends with since the late 1990s (or my imaginary friends, as I like to call them). We still go through phases even now when we've known each other for so long where posting activity drops off dramatically. In the case of my forums, there are a couple of people who are catalysts for getting folks to join in and if they aren't posting -- vacations, service interruptions or whatever -- no one else posts much, either. Also, the biggest draw to these boards initially is the reporting on dining experiences, and a reportage style post usually doesn't generate much discussion, so you've got a double whammy there. My only suggestion is to figure out who are the catalysts here and do whatever you can to encourage them to stay active because their activity produces greater activity among other members and helps keep the momentum going and the board growing.

picked up my bird on Sunday and most of the rest of the feast fixings. Made up a cranberry fig pinot noir chutney from epicurious -- good, intense flavors, but it makes a lot. I'm going to have to put some by for future pork roasts, etc. Tempted to try my hand at a sweet potato ravioli for a starter, but I have a tendency to take on too many projects with not enough workspace, so tying up that much kitchen real estate making fresh pasta, probably not a good idea and I'll default to sweet potatoes whipped with chipotles and cream instead. And I have decided since there won't be table-carved bird, I'm going to break it into quarters and roast my dark & white meat separately, and breaking it down early will give me the backbone to make into stock to use in the dressing.

It's a secret??

Video chat on today's Washington Post website with Chef Petersen. Since I can't turn the sound on at the office, it will have to wait until I get home.

Thank you, ZoraM.

Thank you thank you! to the organizers! I had a wonderful time and the food was superb! I'm hoping that whoever brought the fennel persmimmon slaw will post or link the recipe. I don't even like fennel and I loved this dish.

I went and looked at the menu, and apparently she got the benefit of poor eyesight -- she ordered as #36, which is pork bun with cha gio on the menu, and asked for chicken, so the kitchen apparently substituted chicken for the pork on the menu. Turned out great, tho.

Came here with a friend for dinner this evening. She loves Vietnamese, which is hard to find in the foothills of NC, and it was delightful. We started with summer rolls and the grilled quail for appetizers. The rolls were pleasant and fresh and the satay was well balanced, a good tho typical dish. The quail were outstanding, grilled with a teriyaki type glaze, deep mahoghany, crispy on the edges and moist, with a thin intensely lemon & pepper sauce to dip them into. We both got bun for mains, me the beef with lemongrass, she a chicken one that sounded plain but had fried spring rolls that had a some pate in the filling that were in the dish in addition to the chicken. No. 36 on the menu if I remember correctly. She was kind enough to let me have a bite -- oh so good! Mine was tasty and homey but certainly not the star of the table. The restaurant was almost full at all times while we were there, usually just 1-2 tables open, maybe 2 seats at the bar, and folks coming in all the time. I wouldn't doubt they turned most tables 3 times tonight. Good on them! Service was fast, helpful, efficient and friendly. Very happy dining here tonight, a very solid experience.

Met some visiting friends at the Merrifield branch here last night. They have a 2 and 4 year old and were looking for someplace fast and kid-and-adult friendly. This was walking distance from their hotel, so it seemed perfect. It was a few minutes after 5:00, so also not busy and if the kids were loud/rambunctious, they wouldn't disturb folks. And except for major service glitches, it would have been perfect. All the food was good -- everyone got the crab and corn chowder, made with Chesapeake Bay blue crabs and local corn -- to start. Very nice, although a bit heavy on the corn side of the equation, so a little sweeter than my preference, but you could definitely taste the crab. 3 of the adults at the table got the same special -- bison chopsteak with mashed & veg, and 1 got a burger & fries. They had ordered pancakes for the kids with a side of bacon and milk, and asked that the kids' meals be brought out as soon as they were prepared b/c they were getting antsy. The pancakes came out right away by a runner, but no milk, no bacon, and no waitress to be seen. And we waited and we waited and we waited. The kids ate the pancakes and colored and got antsty again and we were still waiting and no service. One of our group could see down the length of the resto and she had 2-3 tables at the far end of the building from our table. I don't know what she had done to piss the hostess off to divide her territory that way. We flagged down someone else to get her, and she came over all apologetic and saying she couldn't trust the runners, but she also showed up empty handed and it was another 15 mintues before we got our entrees -- and then the burger was 3-4 minutes behind the rest of the order, and the fries were stone cold, so we had to get a new order of fries. The kids ate the cold fries, so helpful in that regard that they didn't have to wait for a cool-down period, and the milk and the bacon were also finally brought over. Oh, and from the time we sat down, the waitress was pushing their new dessert, a red velvet & pumpkin cake, every time she came to the table "save room for cake!" yada yada. We decided at the end of the meal to get a couple of slices to go since we wanted to get the kids out of there b/c by then it was TWO HOURS since we had been seated, and it was another ten minutes before she came back with the checks and *one* slice of cake because they had sold out., so then whose bill does it go on, and she comped a bowl of chowder and whose bill did that come off, etc., and another five minutes getting out of there. So, closer to 2.5 hours from seating to leaving, which is totally ridiculous. And from what I could tell, the kitchen wasn't the problem, it was all FOH.

Well, in my case, my friend is coming to town tomorrow. I've already bought the olives.

What a shame. A friend is coming into town tomorrow and she loves Greek food and we were going to go here. Now I guess I'll just buy some kalamata olives and shrimp and cook at home instead.

I went to a party where the hostess had blanched & chilled snow peas, split them open and then piped in a baba ghanouj style spread. They were very popular and didn't seem too difficult to make

Or, Amtrak to Union Station, Metro to Reagan Natl, and rent a car there.

so you understand my pain?

Ditto this, except move it to Annandale! We have a lot of great Korean, and a lot of fast food, but nothing approaching a good pizzeria, let alone a great one.

I was at Breeze Bakery in Annandale tonight and noticed a signboard touting affogato, I guess made with their gelato. Part of the sign was in Korean, so there may have been more info to be had.

Met a friend here for dinner tonight. Enjoyable yet not outstanding. We started with steamed mandu and small seafood pancakes (2 to an order), for mains I got the galbi bibimbap and she got seafood japchae. Banchan included the jellied something... chestnut, maybe?...with a salty spicy sesame garnish, zucchini salad, cold whipped potatoes with peas, roasted potatoes in a soy sauce, kimchi more & less fermented, seaweed salad, marinated mushrooms, miso soup, and I think there were a couple more things on the table. All the banchan were obviously fresh and pleasant, but none of them kept me digging in for more. A taste was enough. I thought the seafood pancakes were very tasty and the flavor held up well as they cooled. and my friend liked the mandu more from the appetizers. We started off splitting evenly then decided to choose a favorite and stopped sharing after that point. Friend's japchae had a few large mussels (I'm guessing frozen NZ green mussels) that were a bit gritty and flabby tasting, and 3 head-on shrimp, which wouldn't be a problem except she freaks at faces on food. Once I decapitated them, she was fine. The gabli bibimbap certainly benefited from the addition of plenty of hot sauce and there were a few gristly bits in the beef. The veggies were fresh and well prepared for even cooking in the stone bowl. The rice on the bottom crisped up very nicely. Once again, perfectly pleasant but not outstanding. Friend said the seafood japchae was a little bland compared to beef japchae and she probably wouldn't order that variety again. We both had hot corn tea to drink. Overall, quite reasonable at $50 for the two of us, leftovers for lunch tomorrow, but I think we both would order a little differently next time we go. Followed dinner at Breeze Bakery next door and split a piece of cake and had some ginger tea. That tea was great -- a little sweet and intensely gingery. The cake was unremarkable in comparison.

I dated a fellow many many years ago who took me to Serbian Crown a couple of times, which surprised me because he drank very little and was a timid eater. Chicken Kiev and tea for him was as wild as it got. I tried the wild boar with cherries one time (extremely lean and, as a result, poorly cooked as a braise), and I have no idea what game dish I went with the second time. I do remember that is the only place I've been to where the lady's menu did not list prices.

thanks for all the info, it's a great help. Also, good to know I'm not missing out on a treasure when by-passing the various-named cremas at the grocery store. BTW, after I got it in my head to make the Tarte d'Alsace, I went ahead and made one up last night. Good, but now I think I'm glad that I made the quiche instead on Saturday. I think it was the better dish of the two.

I was going to make a Tarte d'Alsace for a potluck this afternoon but realized I didn't have any creme fraiche. I ran to the store to get some, but they were out. They had, however, about a half dozen different types of crema -- Honduran, Salvadoran, Guatemalan, etc. Since I didn't know which style was the best approximation of creme fraiche, I chickened out entirely and came home and whipped up a quiche Lorraine instead. So, is there any discernible difference (at least to a gringa) between any of the various cremas, and if there is which one is most like creme fraiche in texture and flavor?

This is something that I'm noticing within the discussion (not just porcupine's post, it's simply the most recent ), and that I have noticed myself when dining with women friends and teetotaling v. dining with a man and teetotaling -- I never get the diss when I'm dining with a male companion. It only happens if I'm dining with a woman or women. So, is it less about drinksism and more about sexism? Do waiters see me with my oft-times dining companion, a crunchy granola type gal, and figure we must be a lesbian couple and therefore tip poorly? Obviously our figures give a clue that we are both extremely fond of food even to our detriment, so that can't be the reason.