cheezepowder

We tried Vapiano in Ballston for dinner tonight. We only tried one pasta and pizza, but it wasn't bad for a fast food type cheap place for dinner. When we walked in, a hostess asked us if we were familiar with the concept and gave us the rundown of what to do. The seating is couches/tables or long tables with bar-like stools. I didn't walk to the end of the restaurant to see if there were any other type of seats. We each got a Vapiano card and a menu and headed to the food stations - desserts/alcohol, pasta, pizza, salad. There's also a big pasta machine where they supposedly make pasta in house though we didn't see it in action. There were no lines at all when we got there, but then crowds of people started coming in (from where I don't know). I can see it being annoying if you have big lines when you go. I went to the pasta station -- you pick a sauce and get your choice of pastas (they have a stand up card on the counter that shows you the names of the pastas they have with pictures of the shapes). I ordered campanelle pasta with pesto. The guy picked up a clamshell package of pasta among many that were lined up behind him and put it in something that looked like a fry basket in hot water. He then cooked up the pesto in front of me, gave me my bowl of pasta, asked if I wanted bread and gave me two slices of bread on a plate. I then held the card in front of the cash register to "swipe" it though there's no actual swiping going on, you line up the Vapiano logo on your card with the logo on the back of the register facing you. (It has to be the correct side of the card. I got lucky the first time, but had two unsuccessful tries when I went back for a diet coke). You also pick up a tray, silverware, and napkins at the station. The pasta was pretty good, slightly chewy, like fresh pasta. The pesto was a bit oily. They have olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper at the tables. My husband went to the pizza station. For pizza they give you a buzzer to call you when it's ready. So in the meantime, he went to the bar station and got our beer and wine. They have soft drinks and water at the pasta and pizza stations - they carry the coke and diet coke that comes in little glass bottles. He had the caprese pizza with basil and mozzerella which came with a thick slice of tomato with fresh mozzerella melted on top and a basil leaf towards the crust side of almost every slice. The pizza was about the size of a plate, typical individual sized pizza. The middle part of the crust was a little soft, it could have been crunchier, and I thought it was ok, not that great. It got better when I reached the tomato/basil/mozzerella part and the crust was crispier on the edge. We had a few servers come by and ask us how things were. A server comes by and takes your plates when you're done. The service was enthusiastic and friendly. You pay when you leave at the cashier near the entrance. For the pasta, pizza, a beer, a glass of red wine, and a diet coke, our bill was a little less than $31 for dinner for two. There's alot of better places for pizza, but I thought it was good for fast, fresh made pasta. We went with plain, non meat, choices this time. Next time I'd be interested in trying the pastas with sausage or tuna (or the odd combination of turkey breast, orange-chili sauce, bok choi, and bell peppers with pasta?) and see how those are.

We still ended up going to Central for dinner last weekend even though my husband is vegetarian. I thought I'd report back on what he had. Since they don't have any vegetarian entrees, it's not as veggie friendly as other restaurants as people mentioned above. He ordered the iceberg lettuce with blue cheese dressing salad to start and two appetizers for his entree - the vegetable torte (a green quiche or flanlike square on top of puff pastry - asparagus? spinach?) and mushroom pearl pasta risotto. The iceberg salad was much bigger than we expected, and he ended up with a lot of food. He would have been fine with just the two appetizers, especially because he also ordered the chocolate mousse for dessert (we particularly liked the little chocolate balls that come on top of the mousse). The server was very helpful about confirming that his choices were vegetarian when he ordered and also came back to let us know that he had reconfirmed they were vegetarian. I had the gougeres, cheeseburger with fries, and the kit kat bar. I really enjoyed the cheeseburger, the bottom bun did get pretty soggy though. And the server did ask me how I wanted my burger when I ordered. I should have shared a dessert as I was super stuffed even though I didn't finish everything.

It would be cheaper to cook it at home, but I've had Alaskan king crab legs at Legal Seafood. www.legalseafoods.com Of course, double check if/when you make a reservation that they will have it that night.

We're going here for dinner this weekend, and my husband's a vegetarian. Does anyone have recommendations on good dishes for a vegetarian to order for dinner? (No meat or fish.) I did call the restaurant and am aware that there are no vegetarian entrees. Thanks.

It was at 3100 Clarendon Blvd.

Free cone day at Ben and Jerry's this year is on Tuesday, April 17th, from 12pm until 8pm. FYI, the Ben and Jerry's at Clarendon's Market Common is gone.

I was at the Courthouse farmers market this past Saturday. It's open, but I wouldn't say full swing mode. There were a lot fewer stands. The ones that were there included mushrooms, sorbet, meats, dairy, Toigo (I bought a jar of heirloom tomato pasta sauce), bakers (not including Shoebox Oven), hydroponic greens, small potted herbs/plants, fresh apples, bee products.

don't forget footwear for your wine glass - click and scroll down for tennis shoes, golf shoes, flip flops!

I have a bug phobia which manifests itself in my eating habits in that I am grossed out at the thought of eating bugs of the sea (shrimp). I also tend not to order leafy green salads anymore. Many years ago, I was halfway through a chicken caesar salad when a big beetle came crawling out from under the greens. I've also found a small green inchworm crawling through my salad as well as a dead gnat in another one of my salads. So when I do order a salad, I pay close attention to each bite.

Sushi Taro seems kinda far to walk from 14th and M on a cold day with time restrictions.

I vaguely recall having seen these cookies when I lived in NY. We saw them at Wegman's this past holiday season, and my husband mentioned they used to be his mom's favorite cookies (she also grew up in NY). The food coloring turned me off so I didn't buy them, but they did pique my curiosity so I decided to try making them when I saw the recipe. I'll be making them again. I mailed some to my mother in law and will see how they compare to the ones she remembers.

I made ribbon layer cookies using the recipe here. For the chocolate glaze, I didn't want to use unsweetened chocolate and powdered sugar because I thought I may as well use semisweet chocolate to begin with, so instead, I made chocolate glaze by mixing 4 oz melted semisweet chocolate, 4 tbls melted butter, and about 1 to 2 tbls corn syrup based on the chocolate butter icing recipe in The Best Recipe. I also didn't bake the cake layers for the full 15 minutes [edited to add: for the first layer, I baked for about 14 minutes, but I started checking the second two cake layers after about 10 minutes and pulled them out after approx. 11 minutes.] I've never had these before so can't compare to other versions, but I thought these were really good - moist, dense, almondy.

I tried the afternoon tea and taste sampler for lunch (choice of small portions of two appetizers, two entrees, rice, pot of tea, ice cream). I had: one roasted duck spring roll - came hot, with a couple of chunks of duck, pretty good one vegetable dumpling - came drizzled with a strong soy dumpling sauce, standard dumpling pork with chili? pepper - four lightly battered pieces of pork, nicely salted, a little greasy, with slices of sauteed pepper that looked like jalepeno, garlic yushiang eggplant - pieces of eggplant with garlic sauce - sweet, thick sauce that had some savory flavor standard bowl of rice scoop of vanilla ice cream - they were out of mango sorbet small pot of jasmine tea - they had a choice of teas The food was fine to good. The best part was the variety in one meal. But $12.99, plus tax and tip, was high for what I'd normally spend for lunch, though I could see myself going back occasionally. I was worried about it being too much food, but it wasn't that large. It was one of the few times I've left a Chinese restaurant without a doggie bag, which I was glad about (sometimes I feel tied down by leftovers).

Siena's is still there. I've been curious but haven't tried it. Has anyone else been?

Thanks, that's helpful. I'll try take-out from one of those VA restaurants sometime. Edited to add: Oh, I did get take-out once from Il Mee some years ago for lunch. I think they charged by weight for the buffet, but with the raw meats on the buffet, take-out didn't quite work so well because I didn't want to get take-out but still have to cook at home.

Anyone have thoughts on good places for Korean take-out? Ease of calling in the order by phone, whether you still get as good panchan (side dishes) for orders to go, etc.?

Washingtonian says, among other things,

There's a sign at the Jamba Juice in the Clarendon Whole Foods that Jamba Juice is closing for good on March 5. The sign also said there's new food and wine stuff coming in its place this summer (guess we're getting a pizza oven too?)

Today's Going out Gurus chat says the Liberty Tavern's not coming until summer. I haven't pressed my face against the glass to see what's going on inside, but from what I've seen while driving by, I was hoping it was closer to opening than the summer.

I think Restaurant Nora has a good website. Even though there's a daily menu, they're pretty good about updating it.

Thanks for reminding me - I haven't been in a long time. But I keep meaning to go back and get another Nobadeer -- turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce and mayo. Website here.

We had dinner there a couple of weeks ago, and we both noticed that the pacing of our courses was fast (we had the five course menu, with dishes chosen off the menu.) We had an 8:30 reservation so I don't think it was because there was another reservation after us. That wasn't a big deal in our evening - we were happy with our service. We received reminders of what each dish was when it was served to us. We didn't get the wine pairing so can't comment on that.

I think the menu on the website is still the old menu. The new menu focuses on small plates and has some burgers including a mushroom bulger burger if I'm recalling that one correctly. I think the new menu goes well (better?) with the bar/lounge-ness of Eleventh. While it may look like a dive from the outside, it seems to have an upscale/sophisticated feeling on the inside.

The catfish wrap used to be my favorite dish at Iota about one to two years ago. Then last summer I had one, and it wasn't as good as it used to be. I finally tried it again earlier this week, and sadly, it was not as good as it was. It's deep fried chunks of catfish in a wrap with jack cheese, greens, chipotle mayo, and roasted tomato black bean salsa. The breading on the catfish used to be nicely spiced. This time the breading didn't have much flavor, there wasn't much, if any, mayo, and the sandwich overall was bland. The fries were still good (lightly coated with a spiced batter). I was there on one of the snowy days so hoping it was just a fluke? Has anyone else had the catfish wrap lately?

Eve Zibart- "Smooth Sailing at Rockville's Seven Seas." The afternoon tea and taste sampler sounds interesting: "a form of midday dim sum that is one of the area's best bargains: two appetizers, two entree samplers, rice and your choice of tea and ice cream for $12.99."