agm

We got takeout, and ate it at home a couple of hours later. And again for lunch today :-) Yes, that's good pastrami. Moist, tender, enough fat for flavor. Seasoned and smoked to enhance the beef, not hide it. Get Katz's in New York, and Stachowski's in DC, but if you're anywhere in the area it's definitely worth a stop into Chubby's.

Note: it's not on the menu, but was listed as a special. I don't know if it's always available.

Once more to Arlington. The mussels were very good. The beer was good, although I'm pretty sure my first glass was not what I ordered. The rest of the meal, not so much. My pork belly appetizer arrived as a nice small plate of beans, which served as a bed for two very small pieces of pork belly. Both pieces fit easily on my fork, and would have made a small mouthful at best. I brought it to the attention of my server, and it was replaced by another dish with three larger pieces. Much more appropriate for a starter, and quite tasty. My braised short rib main dish was dry and a little tough. Nice sauce, but not enough to moisten or flavor the generous portion of meat. The rest of the dish was edible enough, but disappointing overall. NQD's shrimp and grits was salty and greasy. Service was friendly, but slow and confused.

The restaurant was busy, but not slammed. It's possible that they were understaffed for a Sunday evening, but it's not as if the Monday holiday was a surprise. It's also possible that it was just a bad night. We'll be back, in the hope that they'll bounce back. Had this been our first visit we probably wouldn't return.

For those of you who want to take a nice ride up this way, we now have a killer Pastrami. I'll put it head to head with any Pastrami I've had in New York and certainly DC. Not bragging, simply stating the facts. Mention dr.com and you get 25% off the Pastrami. 1/2 lb sandwich with either our twice fried homemade FF, cole slaw, potato salad or homemade potato chips, $10.99 before discount.

Damn. Where was this in late September? We had a great meal, but pastrami would have really hit the spot. We'll be traveling with dogs the next time we pass by, so I don't think we'll be stopping in. Have you given any thought to a drive-through window? 

NQD and I have been to Mussel Bar three times - twice in Arlington, once in Atlantic City. We had mussels each time, of course. Different preparations, but each very, very tasty. One on occasion the mussels were the fattest, roundest little morsels of deliciousness we've had the pleasure to eat. I have no idea why they were so plump, but we're not complaining.

We've also had oysters all three times. The quality, of course, depends largely on the source, but they were at least good each time, and one batch from Canada was delicious. The exterior of the shells in Atlantic City could have used a bit more cleaning.

Frites have also always been excellent. French onion soup was wonderful on a rainy night. A duck breast, medium-rare, was more rare than medium, but was otherwise very enjoyable. (I'd give more detailed descriptions, but I was just eating, not taking notes.)

The beer selection was nice, if you like Belgian beers. Robert Wiedmaier has a couple of beers made for his restaurants, and they're worth a try.

Cost - a little higher than we expected. Enough to be noticed, not enough to keep us from returning. Higher in Atlantic City, of course, but it's in a big, expensive, and amazingly butt-ugly casino/hotel, so that's to be expected.

Overall, not fine dining or a destination restaurant, but as a neighborhood restaurant (or bar), I'm glad to have it around, and we'll definitely be back.

We'll be in Atlantic City on a Saturday night in late October. I'm not even going to bother trying to get in to Chef Vola's, but is there anything else nearby that's decent? We're looking for an early dinner, and want to stay in that immediate area (fight night at Boardwalk Hall, and we won't have a car). Doesn't have to be a destination restaurant, just something that's not tragic.

Well, damn. That was our go-to place for barbecue.

NQD and I will be coming, most likely with pork. Or maybe goat. Or something else entirely. Any suggestions? Whatever it is, it will be cooked, or at least finished, on-site, so expect smoke and open flames.

There were 11 of us; at one point the count was 14. The parents wanted to stay close to the hotel, to get the kids back quickly. Much of what's in the area seems to be devoted to drinking. That's not a bad thing, but not right for us. Many of the other options either couldn't seat a group our size, or didn't take reservations at all. So we ended up at Tortilla Coast. If you want to go out for a good meal, go somewhere else. But if you have a large group, and kids, and the company is more important than the meal, it's fine. And the three-year-old was asleep before we left, so staying close to the hotel was a good call.

Friends are in from out of town, and we're planning to meet for dinner on Sunday. Three kids under 10, four adults, maybe six. They're staying near Logan Circle, so something in that area would be great, but not essential. Any suggestions?

This is the dumbest strawman I have ever read. If you still post here I would like to challenge you to a duel.

This is an amazing thread.

You can mouse over a poster's name to see some basic information about that person, including when he or she was last active. In this case, it was seven and one half years ago. This is an OLD thread.

According to our server at Corduroy last night (sorry, drawing a blank on his name), this may actually be happening this summer.

Antelope. Yum!

No mention yet? Does anybody still care? (Or did I miss a topic somewhere?)

http://www.therammys.org/winners/2013-restaurants-in-bloom/

Duke Zeibert Capital Achievement Award – Linda Lee
Joan Hisaoka Associate Member – Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, Washington, DC
Neighborhood Gathering Place – Nellie’s Sports Bar, Washington, DC
Power Spot – P.J. Clarke’s, Washington, DC
Hottest Bar Scene – Bar Pilar, Washington, DC
Restaurant Employee – Luis Noriega, Zengo, Washington, DC
Restaurant Manager – Michael Nevarez, Vidalia/Bistro Bis/Woodward Table, Washington, DC
Pastry Chef – Beverly Bates, Vidalia, Washington, DC
Upscale Casual Restaurant – Estadio, Washington, DC
Rising Culinary Star – Scot Harlan, Green Pig Bistro, Arlington, VA
Best New Restaurant – Mintwood Place, Washington, DC
Wine Program – Marcel’s by Robert Wiedmaier, Washington, DC
Beverage/Mixology Program – Room 11, Washington, DC
Fine Dining Restaurant – Blue Duck Tavern, Washington, DC
Casual Restaurant – C.F. Folks Restaurant, Washington, DC
Restaurateur of the Year – Ashok Bajaj, Knightsbridge Restaurant Group
Chef of the Year – Fabio Trabocchi, Fiola, Washington, DC
Honorary Milestone – Clyde’s of Georgetown, Washington, DC

I got my first email address in 1994, and in a dazzling burst of creativity, used my initials. I've been using agm ever since (except that damn gmail).

Brunch. Weekends. GO!

There are a bunch of tasty options on the menu - frittata, egg & bacon sandwich, flank steak, waffle, two breakfast pizzas. But the centerpiece is the biscuit board. A large, light biscuit, with up to nine different sauces and over a dozen toppings, from sausage gravy to mushrooms to lamb belly and fried chicken. If you go this weekend, your only regret will be that you didn't go last weekend, too.

It looks like we're not coming after all. Family obligations.

I can agree w/ testing until a later date-if you guys can make it to the spring picnic, no pressure, just come & eat some food, it IS a little sooner than most picnics....a fall picnic is a little more reasonable to shoot for...you have provided food for so many picnics, you should take a break....

Oh, we'll be there, and we'll bring food. I just need a new plan.

This is incredibly tantalizing-what are you planning? I'll help, if you clue me in (& I hear you on too soon, I just got my daughter's lax tailgate & snack schedule-at least someone had the cojones to just draw it all up & expect us to follow)...she has a game on picnic day, but I've already told her I'm calling in favors, maybe she can make it for the wrap-up....

I'm not planning anything for this picnic. In this case, too soon really is too soon. I need a couple of test runs first. It's not difficult, it just involves some techniques I'm not familiar enough with, a lengthy process, and one particular ingredient that may take some work to find. Can't be done in time.

The date works for us... partly. We're free, and we're planning to be there. But it's too soon! We only have one free weekend between now and then, which doesn't give me enough time to work on a plan I had for a bit of stunt cooking that would easily surpass the caja china for both entertainment value and porky goodness. Maybe this fall, if we can make it. No, I'm not telling. Yes, it's that good, potentially.

A suggestion for anyone who isn't comfortable cooking or who doesn't have time - since it's National Hoagie Day, go to Stachowski's in Georgetown and pick up some four-meat grinders.

Middle of May is bad for us. Memorial Day will probably be a problem for a lot of people. Early June looks OK.

The caja china is a large volume cooker. I haven't seen enough of a turn-out at the last few picnics to justify it. But if you want on-site stunt cooking and porky goodness (or some other small animal), that can be arranged.

Can't comment on the price, but as far as the pastrami being salty, or smoky, that seems to vary. Maybe that's a good thing - handcrafted, small-batch pastrami, with a natural range of flavors depending on the individual piece of beef, day-to-day variations in the smoker, tweaking of the recipe or the time spent curing leading to a one-of-a-kind product. Maybe that's a bad thing - just can't get it consistent. You'd have to ask Jamie about that. But the last pastrami sandwich I had there, and the most recent mound of sliced pastrami I walked out with, looked, smelled, and tasted different, and were cut very differently as well.

To me, that's good - I like the variation. But if one of those had been too salty to eat, yeah, I wouldn't be happy. Tell Jamie. I'm sure he'd want to know.

Why would someone want to register a false identity?

Before I shut them down on my board, they were used to post ads, some blatant, some disguised. Just another spam vector. I'm sure at some point there would have been attempts to distribute malware. There were also attempts to gain control of the board, but that was a different kind of attack, that didn't require a successful registration.

I don't think this means people are going to walk into your front door and rob you at gunpoint; it merely means we've had over FIFTY bogus registration attempts in the past two days.

You're lucky. I run a much smaller, lower profile, lower traffic forum. No advertising. I've had around 100 false registration attempts in the past 24 hours, mostly pointing back to Russia and Ukraine. That's about an average day now. It started more slowly, but in the past three years I've had over 75,000 false registration attempts.

Lost power for only 2.5 hours last night -- immediately after finishing cooking dinner, so very good timing there. Still slept in the den in case of falling timber but no issues there. However, when rolling up my bedroll, I threw my back out. This confirms what I've always suspected:

Hurricanes = bothersome

Housework = dangerous

We never lost power, just had a few spikes. But I did manage to injure my rib cage last night, by sneezing.

http://www.gourmet.com/recipes/2000s/2009/07/sticky-balsamic-ribs

Instead of oven roasting, I smoked the ribs in http://theorioncooker.com/