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DonRocks

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Everything posted by DonRocks

  1. I'd like to officially welcome Gillian Clark to eGullet, and say thank you in advance for being a guest in our house. Gillian, I've heard from many people on this forum that they're looking forward to a lively, informative, perhaps even raucous back-and-forth together, and I'd like to start with a couple of questions of my own. At this point, everyone else should feel free to ask anything they wish. 1) What narcotic do you put in your tartar sauce to make it so darned good? 2) You fry as well as anyone I've ever seen. Would you mind talking about the art of frying? And if you don't consider it an art, what makes you so talented at it? At the minimum, you must treat it with an enormous respect, or perhaps you just do it second-nature and I'm reading too much into it (in which case I have a followup question: why can't anyone else seem to do it like you can?) And once again, welcome, and thank you! Rocks.
  2. This brings the total down to ten people, does it not? I think it's important to try and fill the table for twelve, seeing as though a special dinner is being arranged. Can two people fill in?
  3. That's why I haven't locked it. It's important to remember that there are people - yes, actual people - posting on this thread, and that everything you say here, you should be ready, willing, able to say face-to-face over a cup of MooLatte. Gillian is not yet here to weigh in (I just now remembered that when I was young, I was friends with a Korean child named Way Yin), and it might be in keeping with the noble spirit of combat if we wait for her to arrive at the duel before drawing and firing. But be prepared to be disarmed. Rocks.
  4. Gillian Clark contacted me about this thread, and gave me permission to reproduce her letter to me in its entirety: The next eGullet DC & DelMarVa chat will be with Gillian, and will officially begin next Monday (in a separate thread), so hone your blades, screw your courage to its sticking place, and get your questions ready. Cheers, Rocks.
  5. So as I sign in from Sedona, Arizona, out here for a little research into Native American cuisines, and entirely Sinagua as I sip on a 2001 Pesquera, I leaf through this strangely volatile thread, and after thinking about all the political, philosophical and cathartic opinions being fecklessly bandied about here, I can think of only one thing to say to Gillian Clark for having indirectly consumed thirty minutes of my precious vacation time: I'm gonna git you, succor. Rocks.
  6. Yes, it's true: apparently to compensate for the defiantly wan name "Colorado Kitchen," they're going to open a "little foody retail store" two doors down, hilariously called - and not many people could get away with this - daSto. An excerpt from their newsletter:
  7. Restaurant WEAK. Places that decide to participate in this program do so with the obligation of courtesy and hospitality to their patrons. If you want to be a prick to your customers, if you want to treat them like tourbus scum ... DON'T PARTICIPATE. Thanks for all anecdotes, positive and negative. I'd bet two things (not knowing the answer to either): Nectar has probably not chosen to participate in Restaurant Week - a perfectly legitimate decision - but if they had, they would have chosen to extend novice customers the same courtesy as their regulars. Expose away. It's a fine time to do it. And restaurants: feel free to expose nightmare customers (anonymously if you'd like) without fear of sounding like sour grapes. It should work both ways. Cheers, and carry on, my wayward sons, Rocks.
  8. There was a place next door to The Flying Scotsman (called "My Brother's Place" or something?) that had a bunch of softball players there when I walked by a couple of weeks ago. The Flying Scotsman would take you in too, but don't get your hopes up for high-quality fare. A good grilled cheese, bacon and tomato sandwich comes with, blah, frozen fries. The famed Scott Cheggs are okay, but not all that. I hope your softball team fares better than your football team.
  9. Last night I went to a Big Name restaurant in downtown Washington, and spent a small fortune on bland, overpriced, dumbed-down food for the masses (and the masses were there, too). Featured on the menu: the single worst tuna carpaccio I have ever eaten, indistinguishable from cured ham. Contrast that with my carryout lunch today at El Pueblo, costing me all of ten dollars, the same price as that inedible tuna carpaccio. "Fish tacos" don't sound all that exciting, but these were stuffed with chunks of fried tilapia and mango. Served with first-rate guacamole, good rice and beans, and a real attempt at Pico de Gallo. El Pueblo actually has a website. Make sure to view the hilarious introduction. Cheers, Rocks.
  10. Here's a link to the website of Georgia Brown's owner, Capital Restaurant Concepts, LTD. An example of their southern flare, found on the website: So I was thinking of forming my own All-Star team - I've recruited Gillian Clark, Michael Landrum, Frank Ruta, Jamison Blankenship and Tom Power. Does anyone have a contact at Capital Restaurant Concepts that I can begin negotiations with as my sixth man? Not.
  11. It's going to be closed for three weeks in August (though I only overheard this, and didn't get any details as to when or why). And Joshua, one of our fine hosts, gets the prize for Amazing Memory, having remembered the exact seat where I sat last summer (he doesn't know who I am, but had somehow visually recalled that i was there with John "Organ pee known noir" Wabeck). They seemed to like my suggestion of a hummus foam being offered as Air Jordan. It's killing Jarad and Jamison that this thread has more Views than theirs, I just know it is. But Minibar and Nectar are mere pretenders to the Wegman's throne (for the time being). Cheers, Rocks. P.S. I still say that if you're coming in from out of town, Minibar should be first on your list of dining experiences. However, there is now a one-month waiting list, so call early. [Edit: I just got this bizarre, uproarious and arguably drunken Email, which I include for your reading pleasure:]
  12. Some degree of caution is in order with statements like this, absent positive confirmation. Can anyone confirm whether or not this is true?
  13. "But with the decidedly nonretro prices Cam insists on charging, he’s inevitably inviting comparisons with the likes of Citronelle, Maestro, and Laboratorio del Galileo, and the fact remains that Le Paradou is too frequently underwhelming to be regarded in their company"
  14. Second visit.
  15. Give her the charred part and eat the inside.
  16. Hi Dean, It's precisely that lack of complexity that makes the dishes so magical to me. Nothing is tortured, nothing is busy, nothing is muddled. A bite of corn or tomato will taste like the purity and innocence of the farm, without any of the flavors being challenged or lost. On their dinner menu on the web, they have a dish called Day Boat scallops with local butter beans, white corn, and yellow Tomato-vidalia relish. In this dish, every single kernel of corn shines through, not as a drowned-out drumbeat in a loud song, but as the purest kernel of corn you could imagine. And each butter bean has its own place in the dish. This is a string quartet where each instrument can be enjoyed individually if you wish to hear them, but the entire ensemble works together to offer a testament to the season. Here in Washington DC, we have an all-organic restaurant called Nora whose ingredients "read" of a certain purity, but the execution renders them dried out and boring. We have star chefs who pride themselves on playing with food, pairing this-and-that item with whatever clever ingredients they dreamed up the night before, and then making the dish look like something it's not. The results can be interesting and even quite good, but it's more about the chef than what went into the dish. No chef in the world is more important than a good tomato. And then, of course, there are the cowboys, the race drivers, feeling the need to throw as many items into a dish as possible. But Ashley is young and self-trained, has an uncorrupted aspect to her cooking, and an exceedingly rare ability to let the ingredients speak without feeling the need to put a strong personal imprint on them. She realizes, rightly so, that no human intervention can improve upon the freshest seasonal ingredients. However, she also has the ability to put together plates that amplify and heighten those flavors, without setting them in competition with each other or overwhelming them with external noise. If you go on a night that's not busy, ask if she'll arrange a special tasting menu for you. She truly appreciates customers who put their faith in her to assemble and present a multi-course meal. All this, coupled with one of the best wine lists in the world. Cheers! Rocks. P.S. Did I mention that they have a good wine list?
  17. Did I say that? Yes, I did. Chef Ashley Christensen is my idea of a chef's chef. A hard-working craftsman producing world-class dishes without running up against the rampant egos that are the downfall of otherwise talented cooks trying to make a name for themselves in this competitive, cold hard world. How many restaurants have you dined in lately that have the following: 1) a chef who is sweating bullets on the line in the kitchen 2) true, fresh, seasonal local ingredients 3) recipes that are elegant, ethereal, transparent and clean 4) depth of flavor that relies on the essence of the fresh ingredients, rather than some odd juxtaposition of flavors that should never have come into contact with each other. There can be nothing "better" than this without much costlier ingredients and way more hours spent preparing the meal. This is as good as it gets in terms of food, cuisine, wine and fine dining, less the formality of a multi-starred restaurant. And it's in a bistro setting. Oh, and here's a minor detail: if you consider selection and pricing, they have the best wine list in the United States of America. Yes, that's right, I just said that: if you consider selection and pricing, they have the best wine list in the country. Furthermore, my guess is that they have the single greatest Burgundy list in the entire world outside of Burgundy, with the possible exception of some Michelin-starred restaurants in France (but not many). Yes, I just said that too. And this is a bistro in Raleigh, North Carolina. The prices for the wines? About what you'd pay at retail, or about half what most other restaurants charge (assuming they had these wines on their lists, which they don't). When I was last there I enjoyed a perfectly stored 1978 Margaux with my dinner for $195. Think about this: when a restaurant offers expensive wines such as this at-or-near retail, they're taking the risk that the wine is somehow bad or defective, not you. However, this wine, like all other wines I've bought from them, was in perfect condition. There's a lot of good inexpensive stuff, too, and about thirty interesting wines by the glass! Enoteca Vin is a connoisseur's place to dine, and will not remain a secret much longer. The food is simple, elegant, and brilliant. The chef is an artist, but not a tortured, angry artist; merely a talented artist performing her craft with humility to the best of her abilities. Too good to be true? Maybe, but I'm telling you to heed my words before the October issue of Food and Wine Magazine comes out. You heard that little secret here first, my friends. It is a privilege to dine at Enoteca Vin. You should go now, before it catches on, because I promise you, dear reader, that it will catch on sooner rather than later. Listen to what I say here, Rocks.
  18. On hamburger notes, I'm please to report that the last time I went to Matchbox, the miniburgers were as great as they have ever been in the past. I ordered them medium-rare, and they came out medium-rare. Juicy, delicious, and with onion straws that were cleaner than they were on the previous visit, it was a pleasure, a reminiscent pleasure, to go through a platter of six of these jewels one more time. Matchbox at its best. Congratulations to Chef Graig Glufling for maintaining (restoring?) the excellence that these miniburgers put on display a year ago when they first made their debut. I adore them, and the only ones I've had in town that compare are those offered by Restaurant 701. Cheers, Rocks.
  19. Okay, so this morning I decide to work at home, so I french-pressed some Joe and cozied up with my laptop, with a big ol' wide-mouthed Campbell's Soup cup and my cell phone. I poured some coffee into the cup, turned on my laptop, reached for the cellphone to check my messages, and dropped the damned thing into my cup of coffee. Desperate, I began trying to fish the phone out of the mug, spilling coffee on my clean sheets, and scalding my thigh in the process. And then I find out about two minutes later that these things are not waterproof, as the "service needed" message appeared on the screen, briefly, before blinking off altogether for the last and final time. Two hours later, having visited my Verizon store which can only be compared to going to renew your driver's license at the Department of Motor Vehicles, and $250 poorer having been suckered into buying an extended-life battery, I came home and cursed my stained sheets, taking some degree of comfort that I took out insurance on my new cell phone this time around. GrrrrrRocks.
  20. Then shame on me for being cynical and crabby. And welcome to the forum!
  21. Hello chuchelo, and welcome to eGullet. A very interesting choice for a first posting. I'm glad to see the "beta database" looks easy to use, and that you're curious to see how "the launch" goes. Are you affiliated with The City Paper in any way? Cheers, Rocks.
  22. Morph of Jose and Frank
  23. I love that the wine list is unabashedly Italian, with 23 out the 24 selections coming from Italy. The basket of bread is quite good although the spread is a bit potent for my taste. The quality of the dried pasta Kuna uses is high, but offering a housemade pasta or two would put it on another level.
  24. Note: Whole Foods has started to sell dry-aged beef as well. It makes a big difference.
  25. You guys know how to live. And that was the nicest phone message I've gotten in a long time. Cheers, Rocks.
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