Saycheese

I just saw this and would love to come.

When I ate at the one at National Place, I was able to get a small chicken biryani with sauce from one of the hot dishes. It was delicious. At the one on L Street, I usually just get a small chicken biryani and maybe a veg. samosa. I've found the filling in the chicken samosas to be pretty dry.

Whole Foods in Arlington used to sell goat's milk -- maybe they still do -- I just haven't looked for it recently.

Saturday night -- upstairs at The Source (first time visit). Very favorable impression of the food and wine list, although as for the atmosphere, a little more light and a little less volume for the music would be good (although I'm glad they were playing classic rock like the Stones, rather than techno). (Sorry if I sound like a fogey complaining about dim lights and loud music, but I guess I'm heading inexorably in that direction). I liked the look of the restaurant - very sleek and chic -- I didn't feel beautiful enough to be there. Everything was delicious. For appetizers, we had the soft shell crab tempura, tiny dumplings, roast suckling pig, and artic char. The soft shell crab was ethereally light and crispy, with a nice asian-type slaw accompaniment. The tiny dumplings were very good, and a generous amount - I think 8? Plenty to share. The suckling pig was unbelievably tender and meltingly rich. The char seemed rather small -- perhaps the size of a large postage stamp, but seemed pleasing to the person who ordered it. I tried a molecule of it, which was insufficient to really tell how it was overall. For main courses, we had lacquered duck, whole wok fried sea bass, short ribs and assam prawn curry. 3 out of 4 were fabulous. The shrimp, while very tasty and well seasoned, was skimpy -- it didn't even come with rice! It was served in a beautiful large square plate with a round indentation/bowl in the middle, which only made the portion look even smaller. By contrast, the lacquered duck included about half a duck and came with a small pot of ridiculously good chow fun. The whole sea bass was brought to the table upright in a swimming position, and boned table-side. It was huge. Now, I'm not the kind of person who chooses a restaurant only because it serves large portions (if I were, I could just go to Denny's all the time). However, compared with the other dishes, the curry dish seemed disproportionately small. And when you are paying mid-30 to 40 dollars per entree, I think it's fair to expect a decent-sized portion. That being said, overall, the cost of the meal was surprisingly quite reasonable. Desserts included a 15-layer mocha case, a selection of ice cream, sorbet and gelato, and a blueberry cobbler. The mocha cake was the best, but the cobbler was excellent and the blueberry flavor was wonderful. The coconut gelato was the best of the 3 flavors in the assortment.

I regularly get banh mi and some of the buns and pastries at Song Que in the Eden Center. They also have food in steam trays and cold things, such as jello-like dessert stuff in really natural colors like bright pink and emerald green. I'm really curious about the prepared foods, but for various reasons, feel self conscious about pointing and asking what it is. I have considered buying small portions of a lot of different things, but that might be somewhat wasteful if it turns out that it tastes yucky. Can anyone provide recommendations about favorite foods there? I'm not talking about the ready-to-go foods that are pre-packaged and wrapped in plastic. I often thought that if they labeled the dishes, they would probably make more sales to neophytes like me.

Last Friday -- in NYC, pre-opera snack at Mandoo Bar on W. 32nd (Koreatown) -- pan fried pork mandoo, pan fried vegetable mandoo, and steamed seafood mandoo. The pan-fried dumplings are better than the steamed, and the seafood dumplings are a little non-descript. But the pork mandoo are delicious. Anticipated going to Yakitori Totto after the opera, but we didn't get out until 12:45 am, due to the sudden illness of Deborah Voigt in Act II delaying the performance, and because it was cold, rainy and windy and "some people" didn't feel like going out (*wimps*). Saturday brunch -- scored a reservation at Bar Boulud (woo hoo!!). Awesome charcuterie, really cool atmosphere. The long vaulted dining room resembles a wine cave, or the inside of a wine bottle -- the ceiling is high and curved, as if you were inside a wine bottle, but at least during the day, it was bright and sunny. Started with the large charcuterie degustation -- a little of each of the house made terrines, ham, headcheese, etc. with smooth and grainy mustard, pickled onions, cornichons, and cubes of braised carrots with spices, along with toasted pain au levain. The terrines were terrine grandmere (smooth), terrine grandpere (coarse), terrine of beef cheeks, tagine of lamb with sweet potatoes, pate de foie, rabbit terrine with big chunks of rabbit and whole carrots, and terrine bourguignon. They offer a 2-course option which allows you to choose 1 main and an appetizer or a dessert. The croque monsieur and croque madame were exceptional -- very robust, with lots of the house made ham, gruyere cheese and bechamel on top (egg, of course, on top of the croque madame). Boudin blanc on a bed on mashed potatoes was velvety and delicious. Duck hash was also very satisfying. Saturday dinner -- Telepan on W. 69th between Columbus and Central Park West. They offer a pretty extensive 4 or 5 course menu which allows you to choose 1 appetizer, 1 mid-course, 1 main and 1 dessert (cheese is the additional course for the 5 course menu), or you can choose a la carte. For the table, we ordered foie gras donuts dusted with cocoa -- these were small and light, with almost melted foie gras in the middle. These were better than I expected -- I thought they would just be a gimmick. The amuse consisted of 3 different things, the last of which was butternut squash soup with a touch of olive oil, and I forget what the first 2 things were -- but it was larger than most amuses, and very tasty. I chose the 4 course menu, and was quite full -- the first course was egg in a hole with hen of the woods mushrooms -- simple yet flavorful, then papardelle with ragu of pork, then squab, then dessert -- coconut ice cream and vanilla and brandied cherry ice cream. The cheese plates that some of us got as the 5th course were really lovely -- 4 kinds of cheese with accompaniments. Some people got the torchon of foie gras (with a slight supplement) for their mid-course, and raved about it -- it was actually foie gras two ways -- torchon and seared. Everything was delicious, and the portions were generous. We also got the wine pairings, which were inventive and served by the most amazing sommelier. He was young and had a really melifluous voice -- like he was a radio broadcaster on a mellow jazz station in his day job. His descriptions of the wines were really entertaining. It was pretty amazing, because each dish was paired with a different wine, so the sommelier had to pour about 4 or 5 different wines at our table for each course, and describe each one. I was pretty excited to eat here, because I have wanted to for quite a while, and was not disappointed -- in fact, it seems like one of those rare places that offers excellent food, good wines, reasonable prices (considering the quality and the location), and a comfortable atmosphere. Could someone please just give me a few million dollars so these can be my neighborhood hang-outs.

Thursday evening -- the bar at Equinox -- lovely shad roe -- the first I have had this spring -- served on a bed of mashed potatoes, with celery of all things, but it was a very nice, subtle accent. The pale green of the celery on the bed of mashed potatoes enhanced the feeling of early spring. Chopped pecans and a little bacon added to the texture and rounded out the flavor sensations. Truffled mac & cheese -- always a hit here. Salad of rabbit -- rabbit 3 ways (or was it only 2?) -- either way, the dish was excellent. Friday evening -- at home -- made the Goan Shrimp Curry recipe from last Wednesday's New York Times and had it with brown rice and a bottle of Domaine Weinbach Gewurtztraminer Vendanges Tardives 1990. The wine was a happy accident, because +1 pulled it out of the cellar without noticing it was a vendanges tardives, and it turned out to be spectacular with the curry. Will definitely make the curry again and again -- it was quick, easy, uses cheap ingredients, and is full of flavor. Sunday evening -- Brasserie Beck -- sadly, we weren't part of Michel Richard's post-CityZen birthday celebration, since we were there too early. We had mussels, frites, and the special roulade of quail appetizer (with foie gras). The roulade was lovely -- rich, flavorful, cooked absolutely perfectly. The mussels were somewhat shriveled -- a problem I have had there too many times (I didn't order them this time, someone else did, and shared). Tuesday lunch -- The Oval Room. Cobb salad and toasted coconut cream tart with green tea and lemongrass sorbet. I found the salad to be quite substantial, but the large pieces of lettuce, although attractive, made it a bit awkward to eat. The coconut cream tart was delicious, although I'm not sure I noticed the green tea enough. I like the food here quite a lot -- it seems very elegant and well executed, and the service is always attentive and not intrusive. Still to come -- weekend in NYC -- late dinner at Yakitori Totto on Friday night and dinner at Telepan on Saturday night. Saturday lunch tbd.

Wow, what a great ad for iPhone! The meal looks spectacular. Couldn't you include a link to the sounds of chewing, moaning and lip-smacking recorded on your iPhone as you ate those dishes?

Does anyone have any more recent information/experience with South Mountain Creamery? Someone in my neighborhood is looking into getting enough homes together for a delivery route. Thanks.

I just re-read the posts a little more closely. The powdered coconut that I described is like the texture of almond flour. not powdered coconut cream, as V.H. described. It's basically finely ground unsweetened coconut and is excellent for baking -- I use it to make coconut dacquoise and in cookies.

I have found powdered coconut at Shoppers Food Warehouse at Seven Corners, which is a stone's throw from Grand Mart. They have re-organized the store, so I am not sure exactly where the powdered coconut is now, but in the past, it was in the Latin/Asian section. It comes in 1 lb clear plastic bags with black print. They don't always have it, so it's good to know that Grand Mart has it also.

Arrowine is currently advertising white truffles at $279/oz., black truffles at $69.99/oz., and Burgundy truffles at $49.99/oz. (all range from 0.75 to 1.5 oz.). Order by 5 pm Tuesday for Thursday delivery. I haven't ordered any, so can't vouch for the quality.

A few days ago, while looking for Christmas presents for our kitchen (which is, in fact, a member of our family), I saw a really modern, cool-looking vacuum food saving device called a Frisper in an on-line newsletter (selling for $99). That seemed pretty expensive, so I kept surfing the internet and I came across the Handi-Vac, which is made by Reynold's, the aluminum foil company. You can see it on the Reynold's website. It's hand-held and battery operated, and uses resealable zip lock bags. And best of all, it's only $8.99! I found it locally at Shopper's Food Warehouse. Extra bags are about $3/box for gallon and quart size. The gadget comes with batteries and 3 quart-size bags. I tried it out on a partially used onion. You just put the food in the zip lock bag so it's in contact with the textured part of the bag, seal it, and then line up the nozzle of the gadget on a little round one-way air valve on the bag and press the switch. As it sucks out the air, the bag contracts around the food, until it's tight. It takes just a few seconds. It's absolutely mesmerizing! Perhaps the novelty will wear off, but right now, I want to Handi-Vac everything in sight. My (the kitchen's) Handi-Vac is still too new to determine whether it actually prevents or reduces freezer burn. My husband says I have to wrap it back up and put it under the tree, but until Christmas Eve, I'm going to Handi-Vac to my heart's content.

Having had three dinners at Westend in four days, I am now referring to it as my new favorite restaurant. The tuna carpaccio is fabulous -- beautifully presented and delicate in flavor and texture. The mussels with chorizo are what Beck's used to be -- plump and satisfying, plentiful enough for two people to share as an appetizer or to be a main course for one. The broth is both redolent of the sea and piquant and earthy from the chorizo. We also tried to salmon rillettes, which we liked, although there was a bit too much mayonnaise. It's a good dish to share among 3 or 4 people because it's pretty rich. The pate en croute was a different spin on a traditional pate en croute -- the pate is served in the form of little empanadas or meat pies -- very tasty, but filling. The warm goat cheese salad and the house salad are both fine. The main dishes we had were for the most part outstanding. The burger and fries are exceptional -- the meat is loosely packed and very flavorful -- and cooked perfectly as requested -- worth every penny -- and the fries were just crisp enough on the outside without being too crisp and soft in the middle, and they tasted like they were cooked in duck fat. The veal cheeks were delicious on the two occasions we had them -- very tender and rich, and not at all bland. My only complaint was there were only three pieces -- one or two more would have been nice. The skate received mixed reviews -- on one occasion the brown butter sauce was too brown and was overpowering and somewhat bitter. The mac and cheese with ham for two is also wonderful -- it could be a meal in itself. The wine list has a lot of good values, and Gonzague is very knowledgeable -- he said he chose all of the wines himself -- and he's very charming, enthusiastic and warm. (The women at the hostess station, on the other hand, seemed quite indifferent.) The restaurant has big plate glass windows at street level, which is a bit odd because the scenery isn't very attractive -- there is a large, bright gas station on one side, a fire station close by so fire trucks with their lights flashing went by pretty often, and Asia Nora is on the other side, and apparently that building will be under construction early next year.

We were at the new location around 3:00 on Saturday as well, and got the Hausmacher and Bauern wurst with sauerkraut. Also tried the carrot salad and german potato salad. The wurst and kraut was delicious. The rolls they use are good -- neither too hard and crispy nor too soft and mushy. The potato salad at Heidelburg Pastry Shoppe is better in my opinion -- the potatoes in the German Gourmet's potato salad were too soft and I didn't detect enough bacon flavor. The German Gourmet offers more variety than Heidelburg as far as the types of wurst you can get for your sandwich. The selection of cold cuts was phenomenal. We plan to try the smoked pork loin, the stuffed veal breast, the bacon roll, the tongue and the double smoked bacon in time. They have a selection of pates and terrines including venison and rabbit, and in addition, in the freezer they have all kinds of game sausages. They also have breads and pastries. This is a great addition for the food loving community.

Spent last weekend in LA and had dinner at Blue Velvet [Closed on Sep 16, 2010] and Opus [Closed in Jan, 2010]. The food at both places was outstanding, although I would rate Opus higher for creativity, execution, atmosphere and service. Click. First, we ate at Blue Velvet at 10:15, after a performance at the Disney Concert Hall, which was only a short drive away. I had read about this place on-line and had read Jonathan Gold's review of it in his recent top restaurants list, but I don't recall anyone mentioning that it's a hot spot for clubbing. The hostess checked ID's at the door, even though we were a group of 3 parents with our college age and post-graduate kids. The bar soon became packed with young folks and the techno music was pounding. It was impossible to carry on a conversation, because there was no barrier between the lounge and the restaurant. Thank goodness indoor smoking is prohibited. The food, as I mentioned, was excellent -- crispy sweetbreads, foie gras terrine, seafood risotto, pigs trotters, venison -- I can't recall the preparation, but everything was delicious. We weren't the oldest fogeys there -- one other couple arrived around the same time we did, but left before we were through with our main courses. Opus was fabulous. We had chosen Opus because we read that the entire menu was comprised of $10 dishes and you could put together your own tasting menu of as many courses as you wanted. Unfortunately, when we arrived, we were told they only do that during the middle of the week, and it was Saturday. We must have looked disappointed, because the chef sent out a couple of complementary appetizers -- an escabeche of ahi and a salad of octopus. The escabeche was outstanding -- there were probably 8 small fillets of fish, slightly firm, marinated and bathed in a mixture of onions, peppers, tomatoes. The octopus was also very good -- tender and very flavorful. Then we had among us, rigatoni with cheese sauce and breadcrumbs (a very upscale macaroni and cheese), acorn noodles with shoyu and nori, spaghetti bolognese, roast chicken with mashed potatoes, and the fish of the day, which was prawns. The acorn noodles were particularly interesting -- savory and earthy. The chicken was perfect -- crispy skin, juicy, tender flesh. The food sounds very simple, but there was a lot of creativity and skill in the preparation. We were seated right in front of the kitchen -- there were long leather covered tables for 6 people with large leather high back sofas on either side -- it seemed awkward at first, because the waiter had to move the table from one side to the other to let 3 people sit down on one couch first and then shift the table to the other side to let the other three people sit on the opposite couch -- but once we were seated, the couches were super comfortable. The chef at Opus is Josef Centeno, and he worked previously at Charles of Nob Hill [Closed on Aug 29, 2004] and Manresa in Los Gatos, and I think Daniel in NYC. He's opening another restaurant soon in another part of LA.

While I love Dino, I would say it's pretty casual and sometimes noisy. It's not clear how formal your business associates are or whether they would be more comfortable is a quieter environment. You could consider Spezie. More upscale Italian. I posted about it in a separate topic yesterday or the day before. (Sorry, I don't know how to put a link in). That being said, I think the menu at Dino offers a pretty good variety of foods for non-meat eaters. The last time I was there, they had some really good fish dishes.

I can't believe that nobody has posted about Spezie in the last 3 weeks! The brasserie boom, moule frites, fancy $18 burgers -- that's all so last week. You should RUN over there NOW -- RIGHT NOW -- to enjoy Chef Cesare's honest, fresh Italian cooking. Last Wednesday night after the Post announced its reopening in the Food section, the restaurant was nearly empty. It was great to see the chef looking trim, happy and bubbling over with excitement about this new venture. And the food was awesome. The aforementioned risotto had porcinis in it rather than chanterelles, but chanterelles could be had in the Rigatoni al sugo di cinghiale e gallinacci (chanterelles). We also tried some crab and corn fritters served with salsa verde and seared scallops with roasted beets perfumed with orange zest. Especially while the weather remains nice and the large windows in the front are open, the bar area is a great place to enjoy a more casual dining experience than in the dining room. I was also there for lunch a while back, and the Pasta Casareccia Alla Norma will make anyone who hates eggplant change their ways. As Ah-nold said, "I'll be back."

Any update on the opening of the re-formatted Gerard's Place? A walk-by yesterday did not suggest that any change had occurred as of yet.

This barbecue sauce is based on a recipe from Charlie Palmer that was published in the Wall Street Journal: 1 large onion, diced 1 Tbl. ground cumin 2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes ½ cup honey 2 cups orange juice 2 cups strong coffee 1½ cups ketchup 1 cup packed dark-brown sugar 1 cup red-wine vinegar 2 tablespoons tomato paste 1 Tbl. dry mustard Coarse salt In a large stockpot or Dutch oven, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onions and cook until just wilted, about 4 minutes. Add the cumin and pepper flakes and cook for 1 minute more. Stir in the honey and cook, stirring occasionally, until the honey starts to caramelize, about 5 minutes. Add the orange juice, coffee, ketchup, sugar, vinegar, tomato paste and mustard, whisking to blend. Bring to a simmer and cook for 15-30 minutes, allowing the flavors to come together and the sauce to thicken.

Sichuan Pavillion is open now, but I haven't been there yet.

Cafe Asia on I street between 17th and 18th is okay - large portions. Marvelous Market on 17th between I and K -- sandwiches are decent Sichuan Pavilion on K between 18th and 19th The food court at Farragut West has Five Guys. $9 bar lunch at Restaurant Kolumbia

Marvelous Market on 18th Street was shut down today and notices from the DC government stating that Marvelous Market has been "seized" are stuck to the door and windows. What happened?

Had a terrific RW lunch at The Oval Room. The menu, which is posted on their website (always a plus when deciding where to go during RW) offers choices of 4 very appealing dishes for each course. I had corn custard with jalapenos, salmon with a delicious citrus sauce that tasted like it had some miso in it, and blueberry peach cobbler. My dining companion had wax beans, steak, and a chocolate dessert. Everything was delicious. The service was spot on too -- we were in and out in about an hour, without feeling rushed.

A couple in my neighborhood opened a place in Annandale called Beanetics, on Columbia Pike in the shopping center where Magruder's is/was. They roast coffee beans on site. I must admit I have not tried it yet, as we are Illy fans, but certainly plan to soon.