Sthitch

For me the best memory of Silver Dinner was the cheese sticks wrapped in wonton skins.

Pan fried rockfish, orange risotto, roasted asparagus, with an orange and mustard vinaigrette. A nice change from the typical ham or lamb for Easter.

There are plenty of small European producers that are far from priced out of many pockets; it is just some of the better known "small producers" that have raised their prices without raising the quality of the product. A case in point, I had a Domaine du Grand Arc Corbieres the other day that cost half as much as the wine you described and was as big as I like wines to be, but it still maintained a lovely elegance at the same time – just one of many small grower producer that are making affordable and very drinkable (as opposed to chewable) wines.

I would like to know from the people that have been raving about this dish if the picture looks anything like what they had - the picture captures what I remember it looking like. The abscense of sea urchin roe was only one issue with the dish, as noted above the crab was fishy, and the pasta was overly oily.

This just reminds me why I love the elegance maintained by the small grower producers of France and Italy.

A little more commentary on the meal that Eric and I had tonight. The tuna crudo was a delight, the tartar alone made the dish stellar, but the roasted tomatoes brought a hint of sweetness, but intensified the meatiness, and the real key to this dish was the basil which added a wonderful freshness. I am not sure that I have ever had razor clams as tender as what we had tonight, the only problem with this dish that I can think of is not enough bread to complement the generous portion of clams the bivalves were taken to a different level when matched with the slightly charred bread than they were all on their own. Swordfish is generally not the tenderest of fish, but what we had tonight was as silken as the tuna curdo, unfortunately, the only flavor this dish presented was from the non-fish elements. Frankly if I had been blindfolded and asked what I was eating I would answer arugula with capers, blood oranges, and something that has the texture of meat unfortunately there was no flavor to the fish. Our first pasta dish was the Marche lasagna a dish that was all about the ragu, while the meat was a bit chewy the flavor was intense and the perfect complement to the rainy weather. I am not sure I would order this in the late spring through early fall, but when the chill returns to the air this is a dish that will be calling to me. The second pasta offering that we enjoyed was the octopus trenne, a dish that makes the dinner wonder if someone was thinking of their ex-mother-in-law while tenderizing the meat; it was one of the delicate octopus dishes I have ever eaten. We followed this with another set of two pasta dishes, the first being a lobster ravioli, but unlike any that I have ever eaten. Instead of being ground-up claw meat mixed with ricotta, we were presented a dish with two large ravioli filled with a quarter lobster tail each, plus the other half and a claw. Knowing what I can buy lobster for at retail, this dish was hardly a bargain (a chicken lobster runs about $8 at an Asian market, it will cost you $30). The final dish was an utter disappointment; I believe that Eric is way to forgiving of this dish as it was an absolute disaster. The crab was indeed fishy, if I had not seen the bits that I did I would have thought that it was pasteurized claw meat, but I did see portions of what were once something approaching lumps, and there was no evidence of sea urchin. I have no idea what other people were served, but based on what landed on our table; I would not recommend this dish to a cat (kind of leaves me wondering if you have to be someone "in the know" to actually score some sea urchin). The service that we had tonight was quite professional, and there was no sign of large ties, actually they looked a bit on the slender side. A word about the wine list, I found the Italian offerings to be quite exciting with a wide variety from all over the country and while the food a mixed bag, I will certainly be back to further explore the wine list.

The author seems to be a 5 Guys homer, and he write the following as a positive: This is exactly why 5 Guys fries are as limp as a 90 year-old out of Viagra.

After spending most of yesterday battling gale force winds on the Bay, I am now using the remains of our trophy strippers to make stock, 2 batches going only 4 more to go before the day is through...

No, you are not... plus I can imagine that the arcane laws regarding retail alcohol sales by multi-branch establishments might also be a hindrance. I for one an excited about the Shirlington location as it is much closer and easier to find parking than Del Ray. As for Curious Grape, the owners and employees were always quite nice, but I never understood why in a strip of restaurants they would close at 8:00 (is this because of some arcane Virginia law?).

So I take it you will not be partaking in the plethora of plenary porcine patio parties.

At a dinner with Daisuke Utagawa, I was introduced to the glories of matching red Burgundies with Japanese soups, the key to the match was the kombu in the stock, it adds enough umami to match with a light red. While I do not believe it would work with this soup, based on the conversation at this meal, I have started to add kombu to my stocks to make more broth forward soups friendlier to wine and have been quite pleased with the results.

Temporarily closed – not sure how long it will take to come back from the flood.

Well, not the only person, if I can find a quiet corner away from everyone else, I will take it, but failing that it is out to the sidewalk for me.

This opened as the Buddha Bar.

A fairly recent addition to the NoMa/Union Station area is a new outpost of Phillips Café that has raised the sandwich quality well above where it has been before. While I would have agreed with AllisonW’s comments based on visits to the F St. location, the new one at the corner of 1st and K Streets NE produces a much better sandwich, and far more consistent than what I have gotten from Toscana Café. They serve a delicious house roasted brisket that has just the right amount of warm fat to season the bread, but not so much as to make it soggy. The other meats are also cooked in house and carved as you order. It seems that each location is independently owned, and quality has varied based on which one I have visited, the NoMa location is far and away the best of the lot. (I have also seen one of the board's moderators frequenting this location)

That is wonderful, but I do have a certain place in my heart for listening to a piece as the composer meant it to be, so I give you Rachmaninov playing his Piano Concerto #3 (no need to watch, it is only an audio recording).

From DinerGirl’s write-up it appears that it has not really changed since I went in February, also it is not all that adventurous, aside from the heart and the tongue there is not much in the way of adventuresome eating (well executed, just not as daring as I had hoped). If they were to introduce a lamb nose-to-tail that included brains and sweetbreads (when was the last time you found lamb sweetbreads around these parts) I would be first in line.

I was driving down 395 last week and saw this, my first thought was that I thought that hazardous materials were prohibited on the 14th Street Bridge…

It is still owned by the branch of the Rothschild family that founded it. Looking at the Lafite site, I cannot find a wine with a similar name, the closest I can find is Baron de Milon and that is hardly deceptive as the name of the company that produces it is "Barons de Rothschilde [Lafite]" and it is in very small print on the label.

I can think of far worse.

I am going to have to disagree with some of the sentiment concerning Bo's vs. Popeye's and say that I prefer the flavor of Bo's chicken and fries over similar offerings at Popeye's. The chicken just reminds me of my youth, not that we had Bo's, but it tastes like I remember fried chicken tasting.

I see that Don beat me to mentioning his previous dislike of Shake Shack.

I am ambivalent about any stadium food that is not either a hotdog, cold beer, or regional specialty to the team (say a brat at Miller Park - which sucked, and I mean both the sausage and the park). While my tour of baseball stadiums has been limited, I find that most ballpark food is lousy.

We used to buy them, but our now departed pup had an affinity for them - it was always nice picking up candle studded poop over the next couple of days.

My wife, she would much rather have a huge lunch and a small dinner since it is much easier to sleep not being both stuffed and pickled.