Simul Parikh

On Sietsema chat today ... Wow, what an answer by the owner .. blaming the DC customers for being uniquely intolerant for waiting in line... Ouch. I think DC people wait in a line a ton. especially for a cool/tasty things - museums, Rose's/Bad Saint, to see a Supreme Court case, etc... makes me not that excited about ever wanting to visit. Not that much of a bread guy. "Q: Furst in line Dear Tom, My family and I are regulars at Bread Furst and we LOVE everything about it except for the awful ordering experience, which is chaos. We went on Sunday morning to pick up some treats for Father's Day, and within a minute or two of placing our order at the rear counter, three additional employees asked if they could take our order. Besides that, we couldn't place our entire order at once because we hadn't yet seen what was available at the front register. And the person who took our partial order had to walk to the front anyway to see if there was a bialy left. After we made it through the line (passing by the pickup counter jammed with people collecting food and coffee) we made it to the front register, where the employee helping us couldn't answer basic questions about some of the items on display (e.g. what type of filling is in the rugelach?). There were different varieties of donuts for sale, but you wouldn't know it because they weren't labeled. Then we arrived at the register where we had to recite everything in our large order to the cashier (what if we had forgotten something?). All of this after straining to communicate with a half-dozen different staffers in the noisy atmosphere and feeling the push to keep the line moving. I'm stressed again just thinking about it! I write all of this with great affection for Bread Furst, as a plea for Mr. Furstenberg and Co. to please make the ordering experience better for customers!" A: Tom Sietsema I totally sympathize with you. Been there, done that. Bread Furst is one of the crummiest (pun intended!) ordering experiences in town. The bakery really needs to get its act together on that front. Patience is rewarded, I have to say; not for nothing did owner Mark Furstenberg win the a coveted James Beard award this spring for Outstanding Baker. I reached out to the owner (a long-time friend of mine) for comment and received this note: "It is chaotic at Bread Furst on Saturday and Sunday mornings. I am sympathetic to the critic. I know that people want to come to us at those times, a lot of people. I am awfully glad they do. But at those times we are trying to do two things at once — serve a lot of Washingtonians who are uniquely intolerant about waiting in line and offer them a large number of choices. And they of course want to look at the choices and ask questions about them. That takes time. We overstaff on Saturdays and Sundays so that people can be served quickly and we try to move fast because that’s what our customers want. We ought not to badger customers by asking repeatedly whether they have been served. I am afraid that we are cowed by the memory of the faces of customers we occasionally overlook and so we overreact. There is no excuse for our failing to label. There is no excuse for our staff being unable to describe or answer questions. We’ll continue to work on our sales skills but we are selling 600 item an hour on Saturday and Sunday mornings and I am afraid that the experience is going to continue to be chaotic."

So... I was at Ginger and Spice, and they don't have bread. The lady there said "Try those Sweet Hawaiian rolls, in Mumbai the bread is a little sweeter." So, I did... different. Good, but I'd like to find a different one next time

Why do you need a coarse grind for cold brew?

Just knock the building down and put a parking lot there. -S

Sounds delish... I made pav bhaji yesterday (yay, instant pot!) and used cauliflower in addition to potato and it definitely lightened the texture.

Man that Application is hard!

I think Fiola is more expensive than Mirabelle. $95 for 2 courses/dessert on Fiola's current menu with no drinks. With 2 drinks each, tax, tip, approaching $300. Mirabelle very comfortably under that amount - apps are abou $17, entrees about $42, desserts are $13, so same sort of deal (2 courses + desserts) is over $20 less a person. Go there, it's really nice!

Had a nice meal here yesterday and some medicinal cocktails. 1. Cheung fun - shrimp rolled dumpling thingie, so beautiful to look at it, and tasty. The sauce is awesome. 2. Humble chili wontons - meat a little chewy, but dumpling skin was top notch 3. Whole dourade - they filet it, and then sauce it, and then put it back in the fish. Tasty! I got the pisco drink, Peruvian Chef In A Chinese Kitchen, that was refreshing, almost like a green juice. Kind of $$$, but unique and beautiful dishes. It was over a $100 for me and the cardiologist. -S

Other than pork belly, what else to order here? Going tonight, pictures look dope.

Closest place to Alexandria to get goat meat? I think there was a place by Curry Mantra, but that's so darn far from me.

Ordered the lamb kabob "juicy" (their word for medium or medium rare) on Thursday, and it was dry/a little over cooked. Bummer, because they were batting 1.000 with me last several years. Won't stop me from going back.

Thanks! Yeah, neither Mike's or Cantler's lets you make reservations. That's the hitch.

Trying to organize a group dinner, and got too big. Wanted to do crabs, which seemed possible to have a walk-in group of 12, but now it's 20, and don't want to risk not getting seated. Any ideas? I don't love Chart House or Blackwall Hitch, but it seems like those will be the easiest to reserve 10 days out. Thanks S

Well... Sea Pearl chef isn't quite Andy Ricker, but those apps looks really delish!

Le Mirch?

Bindass? Isn't the cook Indian?

Was it fake news???

Loui's is awesome! Great food in the city / suburbs. Vinsetta Garage, Imperial, Johnny Noodle King, El Barzon for Italian/Mexican (weird, but good!), Green Dot Stables, great taquerias, Supino's pizza, Selden Standard, Al-Ameer and a million other middle eastern places (and the amazing garlic sauce!), excellent Thai food in most suburbs, very good Indian in Oakland county, Coney Island diners galore, Slow's BBQ and many more. With rent being super cheap, people can be inventive and distinct. For it's size/composition, it's a GREAT food city, particularly for ethnic food. It's worth a visit... And I swear I'm not biased just b/c I'm from there.

What an excellent idea. Zaytinya is so classic and been overshadowed by all the new places that I think it's cool again... like record players or jean shorts ... something for all palates, easy to get reservation, great ambience, interesting wine. It would be a great way to ring in 30! Someone on New Orleans thread said that Z is probably better than Shaya, and I wouldn't doubt it... they've been crushing it for years. And I can tell it's probably not what you're looking for, but I had a fantastic party last month for my birthday. I got to Kingfisher (dive bar on 14th) early on a Saturday evening, decorated, invited about 40-50 people and catered it with Baan Thai (Kingfisher doesn't have food, so you can. bring anything). It was a blast and food was delicious! If anyone ever wants a chill/fun party in a fun space, I'd recommend it!

Compass Rose - but I don't think they do reservations? Maybe it's a bit casual, but it really does have something for everyone and with portion sizes you get to try a million different things. Hazel looks super interesting, but haven't been yet.

Went this weekend, and had a really nice time, as usual. City keeps changing, and it's not the place that I lived in before the storm. Some things are better, some things are worse, but both the potholes and cockroaches remain large. Before dinner, we went to Cure on Freret, was kicking there. Had a refreshing Rainwater Madeira and Tonic; they had happy hour for all their classic cocktails. Nice crowd. Oh, Freret St. is totally different. So many places to eat and drink, shops. Pretty cool. Then we went to dinner at Gautreau's, which I have never been to, even after living there for years, and visiting many times afterwards. It's uptown, in a cute unlabeled house. You wouldn't even know there was a restaurant there. It's old school New Orleans in there, well dressed servers, old couples, people on dates, and larger groups, too. We had cocktails and wine before starting the meal. I wasn't picking the wines, so I have no idea, I just know our host got one bottle of Malbec and one bottle of a BIG Cab Sav. Most of us got the special appetizer - half a soft shell crab in a spicy crab bique. Mmmm... Lady got marinated Hamachi. She liked it a lot. I got red snapper and it was done well, with some crispy skin that I loved. She got the chicken, and it was a HUGE portion. A few people got the duck and appeared to like it. We got Vanilla Creme Brulee and devoured it. They just do the caramelization better down here. Brunch was at Atchafalaya, a pretty hoppin' spot. We didn't have reservations - just got there at opening (already a line) and got seated at the bar. Would have waited about 20 minutes to get a table. This is place is great - heavy, heavy - but great. Bloody Mary's are awesome, they have a make your own bar, but the house mix is pretty perfect - I didn't add a thing. We got alligator sausage to start, and that just tasted kind of porky to me, but she thought it had a unique taste to it. She got the Eggs Treme. When she ordered it, couldn't help but chuckle, because she said "I'll get the 'extreme'" ... being somewhat local, I knew it as Egg "Truh-meh", but when I looked it on the menu, I bet 90% of out of towners would say "extreme". Anyway, it was poached eggs, boudin, hollandaise, and french bread. RICH. Boudin in NOLA can be softer than other places you may have had it, and I think the texture was unexpected for her. I got the crawfish etoufee omelette. Pretty awesome. Walked it off, and got coffee at HiVolt in the Lower Garden District by my old Magazine St apartment (one of the most glorious shit holes I've ever lived in). They did all the fancy stuff, I got an Oji brewed ice coffee. It was really tasty until I put cream in it. Then the taste got bitter. We walked all over, and then went to the best place of the weekend, but going there led to us missing a great meal... We went to Mid City to Bayou Beer Garden. That place is amazing. Huge patio, 3 patios basically that are interconnected. The other end of the beer garden is Bayou Wine Garden, with many wines on tap, and a Frose' coming out of a Daquiri machine. It was so hot, but the fans and the cover made it pretty comfortable and we just had a ball. There was a gal in the parking lot boiling up crawfish, and you could buy some from her and eat at the beer garden. $12 for 3 pounds, including corn, sausage, and potatoes. SO GOOD. We were there long enough to get hungry again, so we went to Parkway Bakery and Tavern, another legendary place I'd never gone to. I got the fried shrimp, and she got the "surf and turf" with roast beef and gravy topped with fried shrimp. Amazing. Just amazing. So, we had a res for Shaya... but after the afternoon we had, needed to take a nap. Ended up turning off the alarm and not getting up til almost 10. Missed our meal! Ended up at Cooter Brown's. Not as good as I remembered... but nice to reminisce.

I've had it in ~ 2011. I don't know what you mean by Indian? Or have they changed it?

This can't be real... Portland is ludicrous. Every news story is straight out of Portlandia. I'm a little offended that nobody has appropriated Indian food yet. Feel like the red headed stepchild. Andy Ricker - go to Kerala or Punjab or Gujarat and make it happen! But, seriously, WTF is wrong with that place?

Where do you get nice Hawaiian shirts? Bonobos has them but are quite pricey

South Indian staff member said it's gone down hill when I asked her about it recently, but good to hear that it seems that may not be true! Rock vegas so far, though.