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Escoffier

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  1. Escoffier
    From WTOP: Ramen bar set to open in Mosaic District Is ramen becoming the next fast food (or worse, cupcake fad)?
  2. Escoffier
    Now you've done it, you've started a mee-guk stampede to Nakwon.
  3. Escoffier
    The seafood soo doo boo is one of my favorites, but Lighthouse isn't really in our regular "go-to" places. Now Gom Ba Woo is. If you go to Gom Ba Woo, try the mandu and the haemool paejun. Both are excellent but are obviously not BBQ.
  4. Escoffier
    Great Duk Mandu Guk. My standard for that at every other Korean restaurant. BBQ is so-so. They have sushi but it's way better at other Korean places (Momo or Yamazato in Alexandria for example), the hot pots are good, the banchan varies. A good spot to go to when you are out late and don't want to eat the emaciated hot dogs at 7-11.
  5. Escoffier
    Depends. Pork or beef? Spicy or non-spicy? Annandale, Centerville, or some place in MD? We go to Anan-Gol for spicy marinated pork (the spicy pork in Super-H in Fairfax is almost as good though it's not cooked at your table...just so you know). We like Kogiya but it can be totally crowded and almost impossible to get a seat. Honey Pig Gooldaegee is good now and then. I think that might have something to do with phases of the moon.
  6. Escoffier
    We have an outstanding set of seats waiting for us whenever we visit Al Dente. Roberto does some of the best Italian in the area.
  7. Escoffier
    Aw, who wants to be reasonable? . I agree that we can disagree. Regarding Eric Z., I somehow doubt that the vast majority of his menu is made up of Asian food (or derivatives) and that he plans on expanding to more Asian dishes to the detriment of his other dishes. I would never go to Kinship with the expectation that I was going to make a night of eating sashimi and tonkatsu at his restaurant. It's true that an Asian chef has no obligation to serve Asian food. I agree that this has certainly been an entertaining couple of entries. Amazing how easily conclusions can be leaped to over the misreading of a simple sentence. All over something that none have any more interest than sitting down and eating and drinking. Some restaurants I like you probably don't, some you like I don't. Not sure that makes me reasonable, but I'm certainly not going to get upset that you don't like the same food or restaurants or wallpaper I don't. Life is a bit larger than that. (but it sure is fun to play devils advocate and watch the fuming )
  8. Escoffier
    Okay, I'm going to say this one more time (and for the LAST TIME). We asked if they had CUCUMBER KIMCHI (see those words to the left? The ones spelled C-U-C-U-M-B-E-R K-I-M-C-H-I?) We asked if they had cucumber KIMCHI, The answer was yes, they had CUCUMBER KIMCHI. To expand the horizons of anyone who might want to go to a Korean restaurant (or Super-H) and try CUCUMBER KIMCHI I added the parenthetical (you know, words that are between those things that are shaped like ( and )) comment with the Korean for CUCUMBER KIMCHI. That Korean two letter phrase is OI KIMCHI, we didn't ask for OI KIMCHI, we asked for CUCUMBER KIMCHI. I hope that clears up any misconception that we asked for OI KIMCHI when we asked for CUCUBER KIMCHI (daggonit! ) I certainly can agree that he is not seeking to serve authentic anything, he's right on target with that effort. As a matter of fact, he might be outdoing himself. Just out of curiousity, what do you consider what he's doing? He's certainly not breaking new ground anywhere. What do you feel he's attempting to do? If a restaurant serves 70% Asian food is it Pan-Asian? How about 60% or 90%? As to the Italian food on the menu (excuse me the XO noodles which were actually shrimp noodles even though on the check they were described as XO noodles), if I had really wanted Italian food, I would have gone to a place where I would have had the reasonable expectation that if I wanted Shrimp Pappardelle, I would have received Shrimp with Pappardelle noodles. Anyway, it's entirely academic. I didn't go with the expectation that I would find a reflection of one of the better Annandale restaurants, I went with the expectation of being served food that would challenge the pedestrian, would expand my food horizons (even a bit) and would make me appreciate even more the width and breadth of the Asian influence on modern gastronomy. Unfortunately, I was disappointed, and I said so. There was nothing in the food that made it rise above the any of the most mediocre of the Chinese restaurants in DC's Chinatown or any of the Korean restaurants in Annandale. There was no challenge, no "amazing" moment, just somewhat average food that (in my most humble opinion) was trying way too hard to be anything more than mainstream.
  9. Escoffier
    I completely agree with you, Momofuku in it's finer minutes, will never be able to compete with Annandale for Korean food. However, if you serve something with a Korean name, a Korean heritage, and supposedly a Korean taste, don't you kind of expect something that happens to fall within your Korean taste parameters? And while it's true that most chefs serve what they want, most chefs seem to think that if they're in an Italian restaurant, the food will have some resemblance to Italian food, just as an Asian chef will serve Asian food. My complaint about another "Pan-Asian" restaurant is that they serve a lot of different ethnic foods, none of which are very good. But if you think a wide variety is great, it's the place to go. If you want to play molecular chemistry with food, you don't call your restaurant a hot dog stand. The funniest thing about this whole brouhaha (okay, food fight) is the spotlight on one word. I haven't seen a single refutation of anything else that was written. I guess that's some justification of my observations. (Oh, and Milk Bar? Don't even get me started )
  10. Escoffier
    지냈어요 Pardon the rambling that follows, it's that kind of evening. Mr. Tofu is owned by the people who own Shilla Bakery. Nice interior, difficult to get to (pass Manny, Moe, and Jack, stop before the CVS). Food was okay but nothing spectacular enough for us to put it into our normal rotation. I'm a mee-guk but my tolerance for spicy is pretty high so I like the higher end of the Scovill scale (but not so much that the complexities of the food disappear in spicy numbness). We were at To Sok Jip today so Grover could have Duk Guk and I could have that chicken noodle soup (Korean, not a hint of Italian (or Campbell's) anywhere ) that I really like. Unfortunately, it seems they're going upscale. The interior has been painted, the rickety, old tables are gone, no more handwritten Specials on the walls. It doesn't even smell like natto anymore. Next thing you know, they'll be having sweet potato or corn topped pizza on the menu and we'll have to search out another small, authentic piece of Seoul in Annandale. --- Siroo Juk Story (cocobinga)
  11. Escoffier
    I believe you misread what I wrote. We asked if there was cucumber kimchi available. I added the parenthetical oi kimchi, because that's what cucumber kimchi is in Korean. (You get not only a personal restaurant review but a language primer all in one neat little lump.) "When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean"”neither more nor less." "The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things." "The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master"”that's all." "• Lewis Carroll Sort of reminds you of Momofuku in a way .
  12. Escoffier
    Vegetarian friendly is somewhat difficult in Korean food because a lot of the stocks are either made from beef bones, chicken, or fish. You could eat lots of banchan but I'm not sure you'd want to make a meal from that (even though in some places it would be possible). You might find pae-jon (the ubiquitous "seafood pancake" without the seafood some place). I'm an unabashed non-beef (for the most part) carnivore but we have a friend in NYC who is a vegan and he always seems to find something to (overly) fill up on when we go out to eat.
  13. Escoffier
    I totally agree with you. However, if you are running what is described as a Pan-Asian restaurant, don't you think you might be a bit more reflective of the cuisine you say you are serving? My noodle order (to repeat myself) would not be out of place in an Italian restaurant. If David C. was aiming for a canonical Korean he missed by an extreme margin. Korean foods are extremely varied, running from what might be described as bland to the pyrotechnical extreme at the other end. There are some dishes that common to vast areas of Asia, ramen being one. The largest variation in ramen is the soup, the common factor is the ramen noodle. There is a certain expectation of what the noodles should taste like, the texture, and the mouth feel. If any of those are missing, it detracts from the dish.
  14. Escoffier
    Darn it, Eric. You've just ruined a perfectly good high dudgeon.
  15. Escoffier
    Not sure that I've ever noticed that the marinade is sweet (maybe it helps if you're Korean ). We tend to avoid Honey-Pig but you might want to try Anangol. Their spicy pork is very good. There's another Korean-Chinese place you might also want to try. It's across from K-Mart (left side going towards Columbia Pike) beside the tire store. Name escapes me at the moment, but their combos (spicy seafood soup on one side, ja jang myung on the other is one of my favorites). (And don't tell anyone, but now and then we duck into Bon Chon for the spicy wings)
  16. Escoffier
    Gom Ba Woo for soups, Kogiya for bbq, Tanpopo for ramen, To Sok Jip (but it's been discovered, so you have to go at awful times ) which has Dock kal guk su (Chicken noodle soup) that's amazing. Lighthouse for Soon Doo Boo (tofu stew). Choong Hwa Woon (on John Marr Drive behind Popeyes) for Chinese-Korean food.
  17. Escoffier
    Gosh! you're right. I just started eating Asian food this week and let me tell you, there's a big variation. Why did you know that not all egg rolls are the same? Actually, just to assuage you, you're correct, we didn't look at the menu when we asked if they had cucumber kimchi. We were assured that they had. Now, our server may not have known what cucumber kimchi was, but we specified cucumber KIMCHI. This was definitely not oi kimchi. As to Sietsma, what he knows about Korean food could be summed up in one word, "nothing". If I had known we were going to be eating in a more expensive Cafe Asia, we could have saved a lot of money and gone to Annandale. I accept your apology.
  18. Escoffier
    First time at Momofuku, probably one more trial before we go back to authentic food in Annandale. Way too much XO and 5 Spice everything. For the food: Grover and I split an order of Shrimp buns and Brisket buns. More like flattened Chinese steam buns turned into tacos. For some reason, every time I looked at the brisket, it reminded me of pork belly. I think it had to do with the layer of fat under the skin. The Shrimp buns were an interesting dish. A large blob (I really don't know how else to describe it) of shrimp bonded into a contiguous mass. I have to admit, it did taste like shrimp which was in it's favor. As a side we got cucumber (oi kimchi) kimchi. Sorry, no resemblance to oi kimchi. No bite, no spice (with the exception of XO(?) again. With nuts or some crunchy something and coated with some mysterious green something. David Chang seems to have forgotten his Korean upbringing. This was more Mott Street than Seoul. For a main I got Shrimp noodles. When the dish arrived I thought I'd made a mistake. This is a dish that belongs in an red tablecloth Italian restaurant. What looked like pappardelle noodles in cream sauce with pieces of shrimp. It was presented as XO (again? Arghhhh!) noodles. The addition of potato chips (or something similar) was an interesting touch. A nice cream sauce that Dean Gold would happily serve on a date night $9.96 special pasta dish made me long for a good bottle of Barolo. Well, the pasta was a bit al dente so that was a minor point in it's favor (especially if this had been an Italian restaurant). Made it through about a quarter (six 2 foot long noodles ) before I gave up. Grover had Ramen: quick synopsis: Soup was good. The ramen? So-so. She did say that Daiakya had better ramen. This is Asian food for people who have a passing familiarity with Asian food and are afraid of spice. The nice thing about the food is that I could take my grandmother here and she would have no problem with the spiciness (or lack of). Service was a bit haphazard at times. The table next to us got the wrong order a couple of times, I think I may have been served the incorrect dish (one of the servers Italian take out, maybe?) but our server was a familiar face, she kept the sparkling water coming and it was a pleasure seeing her again. The bill, including taxes but not tip was just short of $80 or the rough equivalent of three dinners for two in almost any restaurant in Annandale. As I said, we'll try once more just to see if what we experienced was an off night
  19. Escoffier
    From Italian to Italian...pretty normal progression. Villa d'Este to Hank's Pasta Bar. (took me a while to remember that Villa d'Este was marginally Italian)
  20. Escoffier
    Shinmoto-san was the real reason we went to Tanpopo. His omakase was unique, colorful, inventive and extremely good. He was a very quiet person and when he was creating sushi (not making, creating), I don't think you could distract him in any manner. I've never seen anyone treat fish the way he did. Even rolling the sushi rice, you could see the feeling he put into such a simple task. He was one hell of a great sushi chef.
  21. Escoffier
    Once upon a time when Kent was the general manager at Overwood and they had done the soft opening and were open to the general public, the menu was a lot more adventurous and two of our favorite servers from the "old" Majestic had come to work there and the service was amazing, we went quite frequently. When the three of them left for other places, we did too.
  22. Escoffier
    Speaking of La Bergerie, I just received their New Years Eve menu via email. New Year's Eve Thursday, December 31, 2015 5 "“ 10 pm Strolling Violinist First Course La Soupe de Palourdes í la Franí§aise Creamless French Clam Chowder with Smoked Duck Breast, Clams, Fennel, Purple Potato and Pernod Terrine de Foie Gras, Brioche et Figue Caramélisée Terrine of Duck Liver with Homemade Brioche and Caramelized Fig Fricassée de Champignons Sauvages dans une Pate Feuilletée et sa Sauce au Porto Wild Mushroom Fricassée in Puff Pastry with a Port Sauce Le Carpaccio de Koby BÅ“uf í l'Huile de Truffe Blanche et Parmesan Kobe-like Beef Carpaccio with White Truffle Oil and Parmesan Cheese Second Course Les Grosses Crevette Tempura sur une Salade d'Algue, Sauce au Raifort Jumbo Shrimp Tempura on a Seaweed Salad with a Horseradish Sauce Le Tartare de Thon Rouge Ahi sur une Sa Sauce Sesame et Chips Phyllo Ahi Tuna Tartare with a Sesame Seed Oil Dressing and Phyllo Chips La Saucisse de Venaison sur des Lentilles de Puy et sa Sauce au Vin Rouge Venison Sausage on a Bed of Lentils with a Red Wine Sauce Foie Gras Poèlé et Abricots, Gastrique de Gingembre Pan Seared Foie Gras with a Ginger Gastrique and Apricots Third Course Le Filet d'Ombre d'Arctique au Cous Cous d'Israí«l et Cerfeuil Filet of Arctic Char on Pearl Cous Cous and Fresh Chervil Sauce Le Filet de Bar sur du Quinoa Rouge et Blanc, Sauce au Pistou de Persil Wild Maryland Rockfish with Red & White Quinoa and a Parsley Pesto Sauce Le Homard Entier aux Risotto de Safran et sa Sauce au Homard Roasted Lobster with Saffron Risotto and Lobster Sauce Le Duo d'Agneau Rôi sur des Flageolets avec une Sauce au Romarin ½ Rack of Baby Lamb & Lamb Sausage with a Rosemary Sauce on Cannellini Beans Le Filet de Veau Rôi avec une Sauce aux Girolles Milk Fed Veal Tenderloin with a Fresh Chanterelle Mushroom Sauce Tournedos de Boeuf et son Gratin de Pomme de Terre au Bleu d'Auvergne, Sauce Bordelaise 6 oz. Aged Black Angus Beef Tenderloin with Blue Cheese Potato au Gratin and a Bone Marrow Red Wine Sauce Filet de Venaison aux Pommes Violettes et Lardons, Sauce aux Fruits Rouges Venison Loin with Roasted Purple Potatoes, Smoked Applewood Bacon and a Lingonberry Sauce Tagliatelles aux Truffes Noires Homemade Tagliatelle Pasta with Black Truffle Shavings Fourth Course Le Choix de Soufflés Choice of Raspberry, Hazelnut or Grand Marnier Soufflés Les Marrons Glacés Candied Chestnuts served on Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream Profiterolles Puff Pastry with Vanilla Ice Cream and Hot Chocolate Sauce Le Clafoutis de Poire et sa Glace í la Cannelle Pear Pound Cake with Cinnamon Ice Cream 4 Course Dinner "“ $99 per person, excluding beverages, tax and gratuity Children's (12 & under) Menu - $18 Free Range Chicken Breast with Pasta or Black Angus Hamburger with Fries and Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream with Chocolate Sauce
  23. Escoffier
    No, Laurent isn't Chef de Cuisine, he's the harried owner. He also owns Del Ray Cafe which is where we will be dining tonight. I'll find out who the chef is at La Bergerie. ScotteeM: we were there for dinner just before Christmas. The food is very good French comfort food. Cassoulet, coq au vin were on the menu then (might still be, this was about 3 weeks ago). Service? excellent old-school, non-intrusive but timely. Food? also excellent, flavorful, comforting, and satisfying.
  24. Escoffier
    No, the ultimate would be bringing the 1975 and 1976 Lafite and then drinking a bottle of MD-2020 at midnight. (Some things are way too good to waste on a paltry date change like Dec 31 to Jan 01).
  25. Escoffier
    Our annual homage to Stephen B. with a journey to Hong Kong Palace. Last Christmas we started ordering dishes that Stephen really liked (and ordered ofter) so our pilgrimage now includes our two (always) ordered Dan Dan Noodles and Cumin fish. This year we ordered the Fried Chicken with Dried Peppers as the third dish. Nice, small bite-sized pieces of coated chicken (no bones!) with LOTS of dried peppers, onions, and garlic. I believe this dish is going to become a regular on our list. Excellent all way around. Nice moist chicken pieces, not numbing spice but with a definite spiciness. I started eating this after we finished the Dan Dan Noodles, and almost didn't have time for the always excellent Cumin Fish. Even when I was totally full, I found myself seeking out any overlooked pieces of chicken. To you Stephen B. A hello from Melanie, and a raised cup of hot tea from Grover and me.
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