Sthitch

The idea that "all the top bourbons" should never be diluted is... unorthodox.

You are being generous, I call that idea idiotic. At that proof the alcohol holds onto aromas like a dog with a dried bull's pizzle. They are generally their most fragrant right around where he likes his wine (25-30% abv).

dr.com happy hour? Steve, I'm knighting you King of the Britons.

I am sure that a happy hour would be fun for those that like that sort of thing, but for me the pleasure of having a drink made by Sam is to do so as a night cap,after a nice dinner with my wife or friends.

I would never had expected that the best stuffed grape leaves that I would eat would be from a Vietnamese restaurant (actually, these were the first stuff grape leaves that I have ever liked). The dish is Bo Nuong La Nho, and is completely unlike a dolmade in that they were stuffed with seasoned beef. The only reason we could think of for grape leaves showing up on a Vietnamese table would be from the French influence, but I could not think of any French dishes using grape leaves - I am sure they exist, I am just not aware of them. But now I suspect that the dish is actually Bo La Lot using grape leaves in place of the harder to find betel leaves.

That story is misleading - Sam is not at the Clyde's-owned Hamilton restaurant/concert venue at 14th & F, he's at 14K restaurant at the Hamilton Crowne Plaza hotel at 14th & K.

Very misleading. I have been a fan of Sam's for more years than I can count, thank you for clearing up where he is.

By the way, not only can he rock damn near any drink you can think of (I harken back to the Washington Post article about making a Jack Rose), but he makes the best Sidecar you will ever drink.

There has never been anything to draw me to visit the Hamilton until now - the city's best old-school bartender has a new home.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/bartender-benefactor-finds-the-right-mix/2013/05/06/f1242d3c-b686-11e2-92f3-f291801936b8_story.html

At lunch last Friday my Crispy Prok with Holy Basil was delicious, though it was made with regular Thai basil as they could not procure the holy basil from the temple. The highlight of my dish was the pork which was properly rendered and just the right amount of chew.

I got the same reaction when I mentioned the dish being on the blackboard, but afterwards had one of the sisters come over to the table several times to talk to me about the dish.

DonRocks, on 09 May 2013 - 12:42, said:

This screams "lazy and corporate." I'm not saying there's "no excuse" for this, but it's not unlike buying a car without knowing the year.

I can envision some scruffy (yet handsome) dude in Italy, wearing an expensive, but wrinkled and schleppy, suit, shirt unbuttoned, no tie, feet on his desk, smoking a Macedonia, phone in his ear because he's leaning back in his desk chair and typing, telling his underlings to slap together this wine list with "whatever the current vintage the distributor has - the Americans won't care."

I have a slightly different picture, and he is sitting in Poland.

Interestingly enough the website for the restaurant does not have an option to translate into Italian, I guess they are not a target audience for their "Authentic Italian" cuisine.

(yes, I was that gal you saw falling down the escalator at Union Station last week...thanks for clapping ),

I hope your knee is on the mend, but it could have been worse, last Friday at Daikaya a woman walked nose first into the front glass wall and oddly enough she was walking with Daisuke at the time - at least no one clapped.

Were they selling the ribs individually ?? ....

Miora contains an amylase, a protease, starch, sugar, and MSG and is used to cook rice for sushi. Unlikely that a homecook would make regular rice with Miora?

Agreed, plus I know this was just plain salt because for the most part she used what my mother had in the kitchen - not likely to find Miota in the cabinet of a farmgirl from Wisconsin.

Onigiri, at least what I have had, is seasoned by sprinkling salt in your palm before pressing the rice together.

That is exactly the seasoning I was looking for, not enough to notice that it is there, but enough to notice that it is not.

When I was very young I lived in Hakata and had a local nanny named Yoko (in the late 60's early 70's Japan even a junior naval officer could afford a nanny - my how times have changed). Yoko not only watched over my brother an I but also taught my mother how to make Japanese food. When she made rice she always added just a pinch of salt to the water and that is how I have always cooked rice, I find that while it is not obvious it does add flavor to the rice.

Right now my personal choice for rice is Nozomi.

I expected that the rice in the Onigiri Rice Balls to be seasoned but it tasted like it came right out of a rice cooker. Hands down the most disappointing offering we tried.

It appears the offerings have changed as well - could someone try and find out if the ownership has changed also?

The Twitter account appears to be the same one used in the previous incarnation though I am sure that the handle was not @70sfranfurter before.

I hope they are serving good dogs, surprisingly that has been the one food offering that has been missing from the whole food truck "kraze".

Did you notice whether or not they serve beer and wine?

The drink menu does not indicate any form of intoxicants. Only teas, juices, and frozen concoctions.

What would be an interesting tasting would be to compare Antisto Cahors against Antisto Mendoza as you would see a French and Argentine Malbec made by the same winemaker, but I cannot find the Mendoza locally.

I will have to see what Cahors are currently available - there are no large Cahors producers so availability is generally limited, though this does not mean expensive. Personally I think that Cahors are the gold standard when it comes to Malbec.

If you go with an Argentine malbec you might want to also pick a Cahors to compare with it. Cahors is also a Malbec, but the two styles are quite different and will help you to see the difference between old world and new world wines.

Perhaps the County would allow interested retail businesses to get a deal on rent now in the interest of preserving the first-floor-retail ideal?

I know that the county council has a Bloomberg like nanny streak, but I do not see how the county is disallowing interested businesses from getting deals from the property owners.

Is Khan's still open? The website resolves to a Realtor in Chevy Chase.

Roasted salmon on a bed of sautéed stinging nettles.

Honestly I've never seen any highly touted American cuisine in a foreign country. When Jean-Georges Vongerichten opens a restaurant in a foreign country, is his food considered American? If so, they're well received. I would think any highly rated American restaurant would be opened by a celebrity chef.

I sure hope his steak houses are not considered American... but when it comes to fine dining I am not sure that there is a distinct American cuisine. Even if you look at restaurants like Chez Panisse or the French Laundry what they are producing is not very different from what you would find in a similarly Michelin starred restaurant in France (we think of Alice Water’s as being revolutionary, but in reality she is just doing what has been done in the “old country” since well before Escoffier).

This is not to say that there is not a distinct American cuisine, just when it comes to fine dining it is generally just a twist on French, Italian, and a few other cuisines.

You can count me as another person who loves the steel. I am thinking about buying a second one to put on a rack above it to radiate heat onto the surface.

Wow. I want to see some consumer reviews on this one.

They have not reviewed it, on the other hand the Ninja 1000 (which Consumer Reports calls a "Food Chopper") got a 21 with a fair rating for chopping and pureeing, poor for grating, and average for noise.

Most of the "American" food that I have found abroad is usually referred to not as "American" but as BBQ, Californian, Cajun, Southern, and so forth. Unfortunately most of what I have found that is simply called American are chain/sports bar/burger types of spots.

I would say that it is likely closed, especially since it is not on Shula's website.