Escoffier

You should at least try Hong Kong Palace and A&J. Hong Kong Palace is our go-to place for Sichuan food and A&J has the best Taiwanese food in the DC metro area. It's served Dim Sum style so you can sample a number of plates and find foods you really like (try the fried chicken, it's marvelous). Don't expect food carts, more like mezze. Small plates are the rule.

If you should find yourself in Deal's Gap or Fontana Village (Rt 129 also known as The Dragon) in western NC/eastern TN, check out Deal's Gap Motorcycle Hotel Diner (I kid you not). Not exactly fine dining but for a couple of dollars, a huge home-made biscuit with good sausage and scrambled egg (and the ubiquitous American "cheese") and 16 oz of coffee. You also get to dine with people wearing bandanas and leather and sporting various tattoos which makes it even more interesting. Or you can drive to Dollywood in Gatlinburg, TN, about 2 hours away and eat in commercialized purgatory.

Had a great lunch today at Hong Kong Palace with a close friend of Stephen B. We had Dan Dan Noodles, Sliced Pork in Garlic Sauce, Golden Fried Chicken in grilled peppers and Cumin Fish. The spicing was just perfect and the cumin fish (flounder) reminded me of Peter Chang's efforts (minus the presentation). A great way to celebrate Christmas (albeit a bit abnormal for goyim )

Of course. We've got a group together and will be going to lunch on the 25th. No movie though, just lunch in the Stephen B tradition.

Okay, so you're not going to pay a premium for the extensive decor, but it's hard to beat Hong Kong Palace. It was a tradition with Stephen Banker, Grover and me to go there for an authentic Jewish Christmas. We never made it to the movies, but we always enjoyed a long leisurely lunch and Melanie was always a gracious hostess.

Uhh, thanks for the opportunity...but...nope!!! select one from column A and one from column B.

Well, Korean-American anyway (half mee-guk, half han-guk and living in the US since she was three). And now that you've made that statement, you'll have to tell me your name so I can see if I assume you're not Korean . (just kidding about the name part).

I'm afraid you'll have to define "best". It depends on what you're hungry for, whether you favor cooking from the north or the south, whether you prefer seafood or beef or pork, well, you get the idea.

I find this very strange (but then I don't drink beer so I have no idea about beer prices). The food seems to be at about the same price point as other "high-end" restaurant in Old Town (Vermilion, Eve, Jackson 20). The wine prices seem to be in line with every other place we dine (and we pair wines with the food so we may be getting varying price points on the wine but have no way of knowing).

Now there are some good, typical Korean names .

We were there for Thanksgiving, as well as a wine dinner in the last couple of weeks. I took my grandson there for his 4th birthday and he was well taken care of. Personally, we've never had a bad meal there.

It was great. The oysters and food were amazing. (More to come later when I have enough time to expand this)

Does this mean there will finally be some respectable food reviews in the Post?

I'd suggest Brabo a bit farther down King St. towards the metro station. Alexandria has the free lunch shuttle which you could grab and it would drop you off in front of Brabo and you can catch it back to the courthouse when you're finished lunch. I've never been there for lunch but they have excellent beef at dinner. You could also go to Vermillion (same shuttle service) or if you want to drive a bit, Evening Star Cafe in Del Ray. I'm sure Chef Will would be happy to help you out.

I"m sure you did, but if I did, they'd be over-run with mee-guks and the whole cycle would start over again. Of course, you could just marry a Korean like I did and then you don't have to ask.

Sorry, I don't have a visa for MD. But you can check Honey Pig's other location somewhere near Baltimore. Maybe someone else can tell you where it is (or a quick search will find it). Actually, I think it is in Ellicott CIty.

I'm really glad that the mee--guks like Honey Pig. That means we get better tables and faster service at infinitely better BBQ places in Annandale. (You should have ordered the pork belly cooked with kimchi and then you would have found out why cooked kimchi is so good).

Grover and I will go and have lunch there tomorrow and see how many people the upstairs room will hold.

Well, there seems to be a dearth of $20 Tuesdays lately so....(I haven't checked with Grover yet and she might tell me NO!) but North Korean Soondae sure sounds good. The restaurant is small and the service ranges from off-handed to sporadic, but when the food comes....well, who needs someone hovering over you every 30 seconds anyway? I've eaten soondae in restaurants in Seoul that specialize in nothing but soondae and they are a remote second to this tiny new restaurant. If there is sufficient interest, Grover and I will approach Mrs.Ma and see if we can shoe-horn in a bunch of Rockwellians.

Grover and I decided we weren't getting enough Chinese food for breakfast lately so we headed out to Hong Kong Palace. Okay, there was also a bit of nostalgia involved as well. We had been thinking about who to invite for our normal (goyim) Christmas traditional dinner of Chinese food and StephenB's memory made us think of HKP. Anyway, we headed toward Seven Corners and decided that we'd just decide on breakfast when we got there. Through the door and found ourselves the second group in the house (told you it was close to breakfast time). After a warm welcome from Melanie and being seated, Grover perused the Chinese specials listed on the wall and we decided on Dan Dan noodles, Shredded pork with peppers and for our second main, Fish in Spicy Broth (definitely not your run of the mill breakfast). So, here in the order the dishes arrived is my (overstuffed with Chinese goodness) opinion of the food: 1. Dan Dan Noodles: Is this dish a cliche or what? Maybe not so much at HKP. A light bit of greens on top of a generous sprinkling of crumpled beef over some really flavorful, al dente noodles. Those noodles were hiding the best part of all...lightly covered with sesame chili oil, there was more beef and more greens. Because this was the first dish out, it was 99% devoured when... 2. The Shredded Pork with Peppers arrived. Amazing, flavorful bits of pork (appeared to have been wok cooked in a bit of soy sauce) and shredded peppers (both jalapeno and standard green variety), sliced garlic. After the pork was gently cooked, the peppers and garlic were added to the wok and then quickly cooked and then straight to the table. Nice spiciness, great pepper flavor. This had an amazing undertone of spicy without being overwhelming. We'd ordered mah lah but it wasn't the nuclear option by any stretch of the imagination. This was followed by... 3. Fish in Spicy Broth. This was one of StephenB's favorite dishes and it's not hard to see why. Big pieces of fish in a really spicy broth (lots of chili oil) with celery, cabbage and other miscellaneous bits of veggies. Grover and I ate every piece of fish in the (large) bowl. At this point, there was no going on. We were satiated. This isn't my normal Saturday breakfast (that's usually Korean food) but HKP was a great way to get the day off to a quick start. So to you, StephenB, our quarterly pilgrimage to HKP to say hello to Melanie for you and to eat some fine Chinese food in your memory.

RSVP'd, donated, getting hungry just thinking about it. Grover and I will be there.

We have both BJ's and Costco membership. We buy paper products, cleaning materials, Keurig K-cups, electronics and "stuff" at both. You can save a fair amount of money and if you don't decide you really need 4 gallons of mayonnaise, you'll be doing okay. We find their cheese and wine selection to be varied. You can get some good prices on both but you have to shop wisely (I think that probably applies no matter where you shop). We find it to be a good choice for a number of things. YMMV.

If you haven't made reservations yet, you may also want to check with Brabo. They're serving Thanksgiving dinner starting at 2:30 and going until around 6:00pm. (they decided the staff deserved a Thanksgiving dinner too).

Let's see: Il Mee Todai Hee Been Cho's Garden Minerva Chutny Bamboo Garden ...and almost forgot...Peter Pan (I'm sure there are more. These are all in VA because if I'm going to leave the Commonwealth, it won't be for a buffet).

Now for the mee-guk review. First the exterior. It's quite pleasant. The restaurant that was there has been modified so that you now enter on the side. You enter somewhat to the rear of a small front room that has a counter for take out orders, the cashier and people to dine. The rear dining room has the 8 4 tops and is the main dining area. There is also an upstairs room which we didn't see but which (on opening night) was hosting a group of Vietnam war veterans and, boy were they getting a lot of food. Unfortunately that also detracted from the service in the main part of the restaurant. You can imagine a small room with 20 or 30 people all trying to get food at the same time. Our server (who appeared a bit harried) not only cleaned the table, she also brought set-ups, glasses, the aforementioned white plastic fork, water and our tea. And then the best part, she bought the best Soon-dae I've ever eaten (and I've eaten a lot of Soon-dae in restaurants in Seoul who specialize in nothing but Soon-dae), it wasn't as tightly packed in the (fresh, not commercial) casing, lightly spiced and damn good!!. I started tentatively, not knowing what to expect and before the two sauces (chili paste and a spicy baby shrimp sauce) had come, I had managed to eat about 6 pieces. It was absolutely the best Soon-dae I've ever eaten (I think I've already said that but it deserves to be said again). There was also slices of pork-belly like intestine and liver. The intestine was very good (a bit chewy but actually quite flavorful), but the liver I found to be dry. Grover told me it had been steamed and then had been sitting for a while. Surprisingly, the liver wasn't overpowering. If you like Liver and onions, you might find this a bit bland but I liked it. After a gentle reminder, our bottle of Makkoli (okay, I admit it, my Korean isn't the worlds greatest) was delivered and we ate the last two or three pieces of Soon-dae with the proper beverage. Grover managed to borrow two pieces of what turned out to be duck from the table behind us. I think she said it was good and you won't get an argument from me. It was very good. We asked about our dumplings (I really wanted to taste those pheasant dumplings but it wasn't to be). When we were told the chef had just started to make them, we decided to leave to let the 10 or 12 people who were waiting patiently for a table to fight over the one we abandoned. If I knew I didn't have to wait, I think I'd go back tonight and eat that Soon-dae again. It was amazing.