Simul Parikh

Hmm. Sounds like Clear gets you to front of line at the ID/Boarding pass ... since I've had Pre Check, that hasn't been an issue. Maybe for business travelers the pre check line is very long on Monday morning and Clear could be helpful?

So, just got to use the lounges ... in IAD and in FCO. Free booze and wifi. Food is very sad appearing. I'll take it!! But overall thinking about what Chase Saph Reserve's effect will be on things. As an economics major, it just seems that we are creating points inflation and devaluing the currency. Everyone and their sister are getting the 100,000 bonus and now other cards are upping their bonuses. Flooding the market with points has already led Delta to modify their program and it's way worse. Other airlines are following suit. I think the lounges are worse and worse, and with priority pass going to be quite crowded. Pretty soon, we are going to be bringing in points on wheelbarrows to get a free flight or an upgrade. I think spend them now before they become worthless.... just try booking awards flights on United or Delta. Pretty lame. The Points Guy changes the game, and then the concierge guys that figure out the loopholes for you to use your points, but now with the enormous dumping of points into the system ... it's like QE - short term the massive dumping of points into the system won't hurt because their is so much capacity, but at some point you can't reverse the easing / point dumping and we are going to see a rapid decline in the value of points. Use em or lose em !

So, that was a fun trip with lady friend, sister, and sister's future ex-boyfriend (SFEB, ha ha ha). After a day in London, we got to Rome in the mid afternoon. Our hotel was about 1 mile north of the Fountain of Trevi, and about 25 minutes walk from the Vatican. It was the River Palace Hotel, a cute little place. That evening, we had no real plans and had a drink at the hotel bar with some snacks (apertivos!). Then, we went over to Gusto for drinks and more apertivos. I did not realize that this was a thing... Almost all the places we'd go to would give snacks at happy hour. Not just peanuts. Sandwiches, mozzarella and tomatoes, meats, cheeses, veggies, chips, and a variety of different things. It was either buffet style, or they would give you little plates. This was common place in both Rome and Florence, and I was very surprised, because I've always heard about tapas in Spain, but did not know this was a thing. At times, if we hit the apertivos hard, clearly would not have had to eat dinner. But, we were good soldiers, and would never let apertivos get in the way of our dining plans. Dinner that night was at Velavevodetto Ai Quiriti. Cute little Roman joint, seemingly local folks. We were a little full and sis and SFEB were a bit jet lagged, but made a decent night of it. We got some appetizers, fried artichoke that was fantastic, very good mozzarella, and also prosciutto. The bread was pretty good, but not warm (I don't think it was at any restaurant we went to). For pastas, we got tonnarelli cacio e pepe, rigatoni carbonara, and a pumpkin ravioli. The carbonara was a bit too salty for me, but all were otherwise very good. Was it fresh pasta? Honestly, I have no idea. Tried to ask. One thing surprised me about Italy vs recent trip to Croatia is that the English speaking is typically poor or non-existent, unless the person works in hospitality (hotels, tour guides, museum workers, etc.), whereas in Croatia, almost everybody spoke FLUENT English. We were too full for secondi or dessert (and that's what usually happened, there was no way for us to get antipasti, primi, secondi, and dessert; who the hell eats like that?) The coffee... that's my favorite thing about Spain, and I can say the same for Italy. So good, so available, so cheap. Espresso was almost never more than 1E (okay, b/c the conversion is currently 1 USD = 0.94 Euro, I'm not going to convert it and will just stick to $). Cappuccinos were usually 1.20 or 1.30. Americanos 1.30 to 1.50. Caffe correto (espresso with a splash of booze) was 1.20-1.30 and a nice little pick me up, ha. Really high quality, available everywhere. If the sign says BAR they are serving coffee. We had breakfast at the hotel in Rome, and it was actually very good. Did a lot of tourist stuff (Forum, Colosseum, some palace on a hill, Vatican museums). Was rather exhausting. Had pizza near the Vatican at Pizzarium, which is very highly regarded. Eh... it was too fancy and odd toppings and what not. I wouldn't really recommend it with all the other bakeries and pizza by the taglio type places around. Went for gelato nearby the Vatican at a place called Gelato Millennium and it was off the proverbial heezy. Then espresso at a tiny shop called Coso (I think that's the name, it was across from Millennium but it may not be right), so we could use the bathrooms, too, haha. That was a nice thing in Italy, though, you could use the bathrooms without having to worry about buying anything. But, we always did, b/c a delicious $1 espresso to go to the bathroom is a win - win situation, as far as I'm concerned. Went back to the hotel, got refreshed and ready for dinner, and had a drink at the lobby bar. They again forced us to eat delicious snacks (including a random tuna mac that I bet reminded my Arkansan lady friend of home!) but we couldn't very much of them, since the two of us had dinner plans. This was the best meal we had. It was at Trattoria dal Cavalier Gino and was a Katie Parla pick. Man oh man. 1L of house red was so good. Antipasti plate was incredible, the meats, the cheeses, the veggies. Lady wanted minestrone, and it's not something I'd ever order, but so good. Saw some people eating next to us got this parmesan shards topped over some vegetable. It was artichoke and we pointed at that, and wowza. We also got some chicory, it's a root/green sort of thing, and the prep was super simple and delicious. We shared a Bucatini Amatriciana and it was the best pasta I've had ever, I think. Perfect. The whole meal was $54. It's cash only, so prepare for that. It just felt like what I thought dining in Italy would feel like. Had to head to Florence, so we loaded up on breakfast and went to the station. It's only $15-50 to go to Florence on the train (depends on how early you buy the ticket) and it only takes 1 hour and 20 minutes. Easy peasy. We walked to the hotel from the station and dropped the bags off, of course getting coffee next door. The plan was to go to the famous sandwich place, All' Antico Vinaio. It's famous, and touristy, and there are lines, but that's for good reason. Bread is fresh and made throughout the day, it's foccaccia. The meats. Oh the meats. And the creams (they use a lot of cheese cream spreads). We all had different sandwiches that we didn't really know what was in it exactly except the basics. Didn't see translations until it was too late. $5 for sandwich, $2 for wine, $28 total. Absolutely stuffed. I had some cured pork meats, sis had roast pork, someone had porchetta. It was a sandwich bloodbath. It was very heavy, though. Could have split 2 and have been fine. I think you can refill your wine for free. From here, we went to some place right by the Duomo for Aperol Spritz and etc before the Duomo climb. That was pretty cool, but I can't imagine what it would be like in peak season, was crowded on a gross November day. Views were super cool. You have to get a reservation, so do that. It's like $20. We went to The Corner for a cocktail and they forced apertivos onto us. The chef was just handing us stuff he fried right out of the kitchen. Would have liked to have sampled more, but we had dinner plans at Cibreo. I was really excited about this place, it's legit Florentine food, but it's aggressively so. I.e. no pasta. Not even one pasta dish! Didn't sit well with my crew. We had a chicken liver appetizer that no one liked except me. Even I don't know how much I love chicken liver, but I kept trying it every chance I could. Had some soups, minestrone and ribollita. Ribollita is delicious and it was Thanksgiving, so the fact that I was having a soup that tasted like liquid stuffing made me happy. We got three other dishes - chicken ricotta meatballs (sort of had an Indian feel to it, like C-T-M mixed with malai kofta), eggplant parmesan (not what I expected, it's not really breaded and the skin is still on), steamed mullet that was pretty good. The desserts were solid, caramel panna cotta and a cheesecake with some sort of marmalade on top. This meal was a bust for us. It was probably too autentico. We just wanted some pasta, man. One of our pricier miles at about $160. Afterwards, had an amaro with the proprietor of our hotel and he recommended a place for lunch the next day. We went on a guided tour of the city. Was supposed to include tours of the Uffizi and Accademia but in a very European twist, the museum workers were on strike, so no museums for us. It was okay. We aren't museum people. So, after the tour, we just got to wander. We ended up going to a place called La Gratella that was recommended by our host. We enjoyed this a lot. We got a big salad that had cured beef ham (?; that's what they called it) and burrata that was great, antipasti plate of meats and cheese, a bottle of Chianti, and some pastas - ravioli with ricotta in sage butter sauce, gnocchi with gorgonzola sauce and walnuts, and papperdelle with wild boar. Excellent meal, stuffed, $80. My sister and lady friend had met for the first time on this trip, and they felt bonding would not be complete without some day drinking. The three of us love craft beer, so we made lady friend go with us to Brewdog, a Scottish brewery that has a bunch of brew pubs in Europe. They had stuff that I hadn't had before, and it was a nice respite from the Chianti Classico, Aperol Spritz, and proseccos that were being imbibed. We needed a nap, but sis and SFEB marched on and we met them afterwards to take a walk in the markets and then went into the Mercado Centrale. I loved that place, and sort of wanted to eat something there, but we decided to find a proper restaurant. We crossed the river to go to 4 Leoni, which is a pretty neat place that gets a mix of tourists and locals. It's semi-formal and really cute. We had a wait, so went to a little bar across the street, who of course had a ton of free food to give us with our drinks, but we had some self control and limited to peanuts and crisps. Got back to the restaurant and we ordered parmesan cheese plate, artichoke with pecorino, linguine with tomato sauce and prawns, and I got the pasta with white truffles and butter/oil sauce (I had just listened to The Planet Money podcast on truffles, and was dying to try them). Everything was really good. We got a liter bottle of wine, tiramisu, and flour less chocolate cake, and cheesecake, and spent just $45 a person. The next day, we had our tour of Tuscany - San Gimignano, Siena, and then wine tasting. Our guide was Alessandro, coming highly recommended from our very own Astrid. I will say that he was one of the absolute pleasures of this trip. Remarkably knowledgeable, very interesting and funny, and really wants to make sure you have a good time. His classic tour is the one above and it's what most operators offer. The same tour costs you about $60/person if you do a big group with the big companies, and about $400-600 total for smaller groups. His was 360E, and well worth it. His English is excellent, he really wants you to be comfortable and happy, and every bit of the tour is customizable, but his recommendations were all excellent. The wine tasting and tour at Montagliari was great, and including tastings of olive oil and balsamic and amaro. We ended up eating lunch there, but he didn't push it, nor did the winery folks. We got to meet the owner, who was a hoot and I believe their daughter. Long family history of winemakers and that was neat to hear about. We had antipasti with meats and cheeses and chicken liver crostini (okay, just I had that), peccorino, gorgonzola (that was on point... soft, veiny, funky). Then I had the papperdelle with rabbit ragu which was unbelievable, we shared lamb chops (a little well done for my taste), my sister had a nearly rare sliced steak that was a tad fatty for her, and SFEB had ravioli with cream sauce and walnuts. And another bottle of Chianti (I bought 2 of these to take home, a bottle of amaro for a friend, and lady friend bought the balsamic). Lunch was around $35/person and very much enjoyed. We went to another winery for a tasting, but I have no idea what the name is. The girl serving was South African and hilarious. We got back and sister, being a Buckeye grad, wanted to watch The Game. I'm not a big Sports Ball fan, but I went to another Big Ten school and have a bunch of friends who went to UMich, so we went to watch the game at an Irish pub, which I believe is called "Irish Pub". My sister was losing her mind, but OSU won at the end. It was pretty late, and we were hungry, but Italian'd out, so we went to this Sichuan place (no joke!) that we passed a bunch of times (that was 1 of 3 Sichuan places that I saw in the area). Not getting into details, because who wants to hear about that type of food in Florence, but if you need a break from pasta, this place was not bad. It's across from Brewdog, don't remember the name. The next day, SFEB left and it was just us 3. Just kidding about him, he's actually going to make a great first husband for my sister some day We had pizza at Mercato Centrale for a brunch/lunch and then headed back to do some last minute sight seeing in Rome (Fountain, Spanish Steps) and then headed to our hotel near the airport. We ate a shopping mall there at an American Style Western Restaurant (I don't know .. we were just tired) and that was that. Some thoughts (comparing to only recent European trips - Spain and Croatia) - You eat and drink very inexpensively in Italy compared to Spain, with some really great meals at surprising price points... some times it seemed closer to prices in Croatia, which is a much poorer country. - The coffee and gelato at even the most random places can be very, very good. - Unless you are trying to eat at Michelin starred restaurants, too much pre-planning hurts isn't really necessary. Romans and Florentinos LOVE food, and your concierge, your bellhop, your bartender, your cabbie, your tour guide - they all know good restaurants and it isn't like a "kickback" sort of thing - they eat out more than the Spanish or Croatians, and will guide you well. Three of the restaurants that we liked a lot were based on Italian people recommending to us. - Shocking how few people speak English. Not a knock. Just unexpected. - Taxi drivers and Uber drivers are both kind of terrible. Definitely get the run around. Try to walk as much as you can. I think we hit like 40 miles this week. - Conversely, the other members of the hospitality world - bartenders, waiters, tour guides, and just average Italians are helpful, friendly, and genuinely not pissed off at having a zillion tourists around at all given times. - If you aren't interested in heavy dinners, apertivos will be plenty. And drinks are not expensive, so it's a great deal! - Italian men and women dress quite well. There aren't really dress codes, but I was in my usually hoodie/jeans/sneakers/hat uniform that I wear when traveling in cooler weather. I wouldn't do that again in Italy. I looked like a slob. - The idea of getting a place near the airport the night before makes sense, but we got an AirBnb, not a true airport hotel, and that hurt us. 1) You don't get the airport fare to get dropped off there, and even though only a few miles from airport, it's $40 more in a cab (!!!), about $90. So, we rolled the dice and got an Uber Black (they don't have X), and it was $50 (Well, originally $70, but dude obviously taking us for a ride and the moment I put '"wrong route" Uber spit out a $20 refund, that quick) 2) The cab in the morning is about $25 to go about 4 miles 3) There is nothing to do there, so eat in Rome first if you decide to go this route. Or, have terrible Tex Mex at the mall, as we did. - Get Alessandro as your guide in Tuscany!! And if you're an American gal looking for a handsome, knowledgeable, food/wine loving Italian man, you're in luck - he loves American gals! - I'm so fat now. My pants barely fit.

Landed today, the line for customs at IAD was out of control, would have been at least 1 hour, maybe more. Took me 30 seconds with GE. Amazing.

Thanks! Had no idea all these places had private rooms, Fiola or Kinship sounds like it would hit the spot.. I wonder how far in advance you'd need to book.

Followed the instructions pretty much exactly. Looked very good, aesthetically. Ended up rubbery. Maybe over-kneaded? I don't know. It also didn't melt (we made eggplant parmesan) in the oven. Was a fail. Sad! The spaghetti amatriciana came out pretty good. But the cheese really bummed me out.

Some sad news to report, though much of the Del Ray community is well aware. James Morrison died of stomach cancer this summer. He was a good bartender, a great friend of the community, and an amazing person. The staff there is a family and was shattered to know he was sick, and even more devastated when his illness took him away. He was younger than me. He and Evan always took good care of me. I just hadn't made it there for a while. I only heard this week from one of his co workers. When you go there next, share your condolences with his "family".

Say the premier radiation oncology group in the Mid Atlantic wants to get a nice group dinner. The group happens to be about 14 people. Where would I, I mean, where would this group be able to fit in and have a good meal? Sources say the last time they went to "The Source".

I moved to DC at the cusp of the Uber revolution, 2010. Right after they got rid of zones, and 1.5 year before Uber. Living in Capitol Hill, I could never get a cab. One night, we were stuck and waiting to try to get up to H St, and ended up asking a Domino's pizza delivery van to take us. He did it for like $40. When I was in the city in NW, if I told them where I lived, they wouldn't take me home. When I would say "You have to take me, it's the rules" they would say "Call the cops". I would eventually find a taxi and lie a bit about how far SE I was. They would have stickers on the windows saying they took credit cards. When I get in the car, they would tell me the machine is broken and make me go to an ATM. I decided not to tell them until the end of the ride, and then they would say the machine was broken, and I'd say "I have no money and no debit card". Somehow, the machine would magically be fixed. When I first visit DC in the zone-era, I was in NW, no smart phone so didn't know distances, and got in a cab. Asked to go to a place that was literally 1/2 mile but crossed a zone line. "$13" "Um, you drove me for 1 minute" "Yes, but we crossed zones". Turns out his credit card machine didn't work either. I had friends that would meet me in the city that lived in Bethesda. We would wait a very long time before someone would take her home. Trying to meet someone for a date in Arlington meant definitely taking the Metro, even though it was only 6 miles away and an easy fare for the taxi driver. Let's also not forget that year we were bombarded by the taxi drivers about the election and what an a-hole Mayor A.F. was (if he was or wasn't, I didn't need the taxi drivers to hand out pamphlets about him). I will say more than half the drivers needed directions to my place (that was a DC thing, NYC taxi drivers knew where they were going). And, I wonder if any of you are an African American male? If there are few that want to speak up about trying to catch a taxi in DC or NYC at night in the 2000s, I'm sure it would be helpful. I bet those folks might be quite big Uber fans. Though, there is data that Uber and Lyft have some issues with that, as well. In NYC, certain areas were pretty much taxi free zones (certain parts of the Bronx and Brooklyn is where I had gotten stuck) for years. You had either private black cars or jitneys that were not exactly regulated or safe. I think the people in outer boroughs, and in other suburbs, and exurbs are probably pretty happy about the existence of Ubers (helps my elderly parents out a lot, not too many taxis in Rochester Hills, MI). Let's dispel the fiction that taxis were amazing in the good old days, and let's also not forget that because of Uber, they now take always credit cards, they now have mobile apps to summon them, and they now will actually cross the river. But, try being a person of color over by Potomac Station Metro trying to catch one. Not much has changed for that...

Well, people will pay what they will pay for certain luxury items. Maybe there are people on this board that would easily pay for the fried chicken at Momofuku's, but would never pay $200 for Citizens of Humanity jeans or $20k for a Tag. I don't think it's ridiculous to have the conversation of perceived value, but there are many that feel you can't really bring price up when discussing nice things. People that feel that way probably have a large amount of disposable income compared to people that don't feel that way. My rich college friends never talked about the price of things that they ate or traveled to. I had to consider it, and still do. Interestingly, I think the rest of the menu at MFCCDC is a really good value and I like that place a lot.

Yeah, I used a lot of onions in all the other dishes, so wanted to see if the seasoning and aromatics were enough, and I really think they were. It did feel odd, because in Punjabi cooking you typically have the trinity in every dish - onions, ginger, garlic - in every dish.

1) I haven't stopped clutching my pearls about the $56 roast chicken. Clutched. Knuckles white. Pearls nearly broken. But, will try it one day. 2) Leaving for Italy Sunday night! Well, technically will get there Tuesday but want to stop in London for a day bc lady friend hasn't been to Europe and we have a day before meeting sis in Rome.

Well you get sauces and moo shu. So it's actually more like $64. For fried chicken. For fried chicken. For fried chicken. God bless the gilded age. EDIT: It looks really good.. Let us know how it tastes!

Great interview !

Thank you! Enjoyed the Pete Wells episode this evening. Kept me from hearing about repeals of things and men that start wearing black gowns.

Anyone listen to "The Sporkful"? I love it. Dan Pashman discusses the intersection of food, eating, people, and culture. Since the election I can't read or listen to current events and have a moratorium, so focusing on stuff like this. A good start is the episodes "Other People's Food". He's just a positive voice in this odd time. I think people on this forum would appreciate it. Episodes include "Should Bagels Ever Be Toasted?" "The Agony and Ecstasy of School Lunch" "Is This Pizza Worth Waiting For?" Give it a listen ...

This!

That recipe above for butternut squash is very similar to what I do for the baingan I made. I did 3 eggplants, which made a lot of food, so will cut it to 1/3 1 big eggplant, 1" ginger, 2 tomatoes, one chili pepper, 1 tsp coriander, 1/2 tsp turmeric, 1/2 tsp red chili powder, 1/2 a bell pepper (green or red fine, red sort of looks nicer), 1 tsp cumin, 2 tbsp cilantro, 1/4 tsp garam masala. 1. Pre-heat oven to 400. Bake the eggplant for at least 40-60 min. Rotate it every 15 to 20 min. The skin will get really dark, and it may collapse, but it may not. Should be super soft. 2. Put it aside, b/c it's super hot, and too hard to peel right now. Just put a gash in it to let some steam out. 3. In a food processor or blender, blend the tomatoes, ginger and a chili pepper, ground coriander, turmeric, red chili powder (definitely can omit this). I used 3 green little chilis and it was so spicy, so adjust accordingly. Note, no garlic. This recipe didn't have it, but certainly can add it. 4. Stir fry the bell pepper, set it aside 5. Make the vaghar. Heat up oil, and when hot, put in cumin and if you have hing can put that in, too. When it's poppin'... 6. Add the tomato mixture. Cook for 5-10 min until it starts to separate (that fluid comes up on the surface). 7. Peel the eggplant, take the tops off (the top is chewy and gross). Puree it in a food processor. 8. Add the eggplant to the rest of the dish. Stir, cook for 10 min. 9. Add bell pepper, cilantro, and garam masala. Stir. 10. Serve! Any idea why Indian recipes always say to add garam masala at the very end, as opposed to all the other spices?

Ravi's is really good. I think they use way less or no tomato, and that's what separates it from most Indian places. I have a killer baingan bharta recipe. Made it this weekend for the feast and it disappeared before I could even have any. 16 people crushed pretty much everything made. Sushi definitely, Chinese, Mexican I rather would eat out. I feel like Italian I can do well at home (well I don't make pasta fresh). Thai is do-able at home, but making a good curry paste does take some times. Indian can do home, but certainly not everything. I don't understand French food at all, so have to get that out.

Okay, for "An Elegant Night With Simul: A Night to Remember" (not catchy, but still meaningful), we made them again. This time, the lady friend did the dough ("you can cook, leave the baking to me"). It rose. But not double. Made 16 small ish naans. One for each person (oops forgot me and her). People really liked it. And Indian friend from India asked for recipe and methods. I didn't get to try one, but lady friend did and she didn't love - she doesn't like it to taste "doughy" and it certainly needed even more salt. She's from Arkansas, so what does she know? I kind of want one of those Uuni ovens for naan and pizza ...

Generally, Waze is very helpful. And, at least with uber, you can request they use Waze as soon as you get in the car. I've used them since they arrived in DC as a black car service and the quality and service has declined so much. Every time I have a bad event, I email them and let them know I've been using them since inception and I expect better. Usually get a credit or a refund. I've been using the flat fare service, and it's very hard to get a driver - I'm fairly certain the algorithm puts flat fare riders behind in the queue. Overall, uber to me is a fantastic improvement over taxi rides, but because the quality was so high at the beginning, every hitch drives me bananas. My suggestion is to: 1) tell them the exact route you want to go 2) tell them to turn on waze 3) if there is a problem, complain immediately

Well.. it was my house. I keep it at 70. I'll try it again. Have several guests coming for dinner Saturday, and It tasted good enough that I'll just claim it's chapati!

This has made me really want to know the differences. I thought I did, but not really. This was a helpful resource! I think you're right, naan should not have any whole wheat flour. Thinking about it, I didn't have adequate baking soda. I had baking powder and the yeast. Maybe without the soda, that's why no fermentation or rise? The other thing, is I cut the recipe into 1/3. I wonder if that 1/3 amount of yeast was just not enough.

Did you follow it exactly ?

I think the whole wheat flour (1/4 of the flour used) isn't something I'd add in next time. And, add more salt as you had suggested above.