morela

...or look at some of the honchos at eGullet.

Oh, and here's Todd's column today: "Buns and Fishes" Ask away! Mmm rum bun.

Todd, I promise I'm not trying to cause trouble... I'll ask some great burger-cooking chef to chime in too. In this month's Washingtonian, they have a burger guide. The top five burgers on their list are the following: Harry's Tap Room The Prime Rib Black's Bar and Kitchen Morton's Billy Martin's Tavern Have you had burgers at all of these places? Not that I'm arguing about the burger quality at any of these places. Not at all. But what happened to Five Guys, Palena, Colorado Kitchen, Matchbox ? Does Ray's the Steaks have a burger? Where do you go for great burgers?

Ladies and Gentlemen, It gives me great pleasure to introduce The Washington City Paper's Food Columnist, Todd Kliman, as a new member of eGullet and the next D.C. & DelMarVa Q&A guest. As some of you know, Kliman launched his regular weekly column in The City Paper at the end of 2003, after contributing freelance pieces for more than a year (Young & Hungry). In conjunction with his stellar column, he is also doing a weekly radio hit now. You can catch him every Friday on the The WMAL Morning News with Fred Grandy and Andy Parks at 6:38 a.m. That's WMAL-AM 630. Prior to the debut of his weekly column, Kliman was a freelance writer and a lecturer in Howard University's English department where some of his students rated him as"the coolest teacher ever". Kliman was also the "white guy" editorial adviser to comedian Chris Rock's humor magazine, the Illtop Journal, which was designed to promote African American comedy. His weekly workshops at Howard fueled many of the ideas for Rock's (very controversial) magazine, which was unfortunately discontinued after the first two issues. Kliman has written a number of book reviews for The Washington Post, The St. Petersburg Times, and has done quite a bit of magazine/feature writing on everything from punk rock, to Harvard yuppies, to the corporate thuggery of selling Reeboks. He has interviewed Al Gore and John Barth, smoked clove cigarettes and drank beers with Martin Amis, has hung out in the Chicago Bulls locker room with a very young Michael Jordan, spent a week out west with rodeo clowns and another one in the desert at Cal Ripken's fantasy camp. And now he's working on his first novel, "Martrys: A Comedy". So Todd, to start, tell us how on earth you got yourself into food journalism. Thank you, too, for doing this

Do'h. What the pho? You did a very different Sunday thing, and I missed it! I heard "Ray" of RTS came over to Minister's and Mr. W cooked. Ray brought stuff from his store? Do again, do again. Pray, pray. Oh you ballers, you. Tell me about this menu.

Thank you so much! I enjoyed that. I identified and agreed! ...that could have been me. One of my favorite smells in the world has always been Rehoboth Beach, the combination of the salty air with the aroma of the foods.I share his favorites and his disappointments, and experienced some of those in our recent trip back to Delaware. Sadly, Grotto Pizza has declined. I still eat some whenever in Delaware, but now it's for reasons of nostalgia only. As a teenager, my friends and I would drive to Rehoboth every Sunday night for Grotto Pizza, because back in those days, the weekend tourists would exit every Sunday afternoon and we would be able to find a parking spot. Very nice description of Blue Moon... Of course I broke out in laughter, visualizing this, when reading about Taste. How funny.Well written... thanks again. You're welcome, Susan. We think Kliman is great. Well, at least I do... And it's pretty much been confirmed that he'll be on eGullet for a Q&A session really soon, so don't forget to chime in and let him know what you think...

Be a Rebel. Go to a 9 p.m. movie at the E Street Theater (Landmark) and pop by the bar shortly after 11...

My plan involves fellow e-gulleteers and a backyard, I think. I'm sure pork will squeeze its way into the equation, vino doesn't even need to be said, high fashion (linen suits and hats), cigars, I bet. I hope there's none of this... And lot of this and this and the guys can do this... And when it's all over, some of us will do this, and others of us will stumble sort of like this, and fall into bed. John W. makes the best gazpacho ever, by the way. Better than Spanish people, I swear...

I love the Fourth of July too. For much of my late teens I spent my summers working for a farmer's market, selling local produce on the side of the road. It was the greatest job I'll ever have; I was as brown as a berry and totally buff from throwing watermelons and lifting crates. I got to hang around eating peaches and cherries all day ...and Einstein bagels (we had a deal with them, bagels for produce) with Heirloom tomatoes and the sweetest Vidalia onion man will ever find (those onions weren't local or organic). Mmm, that Silver Queen corn, the homemade gazpachos I would make, 'loupes like the olden days (that's what old regulars always said; Strom Thurman came a few times), and the juiciest tomatoes in the world. Hey - - the Rupert's people used to come by my stand and buy everything. They were reaaallly nice. But what I remember the most was how much we SOLD on the Forth of July...and the romantic evenings of barely-underage drinking that inevitably followed. The guys who owned the business would throw big parties for us and we'd just eat and drink... and everyone had a trade, and everyone knew how to cook. My boyfriend at the time thought he was his dad, he talked about red wine and jazz. We knew we were cool (but now, I just don't know). Sometimes I sit at my desk, like today, and dream of being outside...and I think about how good that first beer is when your all hot and sweaty and dirty. And after a while how rotting produce smells so much better than the nasty coffee at work. Oh, and another cool thing about that job, I got to drive a box truck was was paid under the table cash.

I'll tell you if you tell me Can't.wait.to.get.out.of.here.today. Which restaurants are closed Monday, by the way?

Sietsema's review: "Enter Sette Osteria, which flung open its doors in Dupont Circle in February and immediately packed 'em in with a menu of pizza, pasta and wines that celebrates the goods of southern Italy. By the look of things, you could be forgiven for thinking the place was offering free tickets to the latest Harry Potter movie." Funny, I actually agree with this. Coincidentally, I went to premier of Harry Potter and Sette on the same night (and that space did used to be the grotty Janus theater). On that note, I usually go to Sette with my friend John W., who looks a lot like Harry. "(As the waiter with two names noted, after midnight "the tips are good!") Thoughtful little details abound, such as colorful pillows to soften the hard seats and wines poured by the half-glass as well as the standard six ounces. " And that good tipping would have to be the magic of my friend, Harry Potter W.

And then, there's always Stoney's, where they have many many many happy hours, all day and all night...

If you like Chimay and the like, check out L'Enfant (up hill from Rosemary's) on Tuesdays for half price Belgian beer. They have a hearty selection and it ends up being a sweet deal when there's more than just you drinking... And Saint-Ex does the same thing at some regular happy time on some happy days of the week. I'm sort of the nite-cap type, myself, and that tends to take place at a somewhat less happy hour.

I have to say, this thread more than any other, makes me want to say, 'go to Old Ebbitt's happy hour'... It's so poorly represented (not even a word about it on their website), and if you like oysters, order the Wellfleets... Yes, Ebbitt does as many covers as three Outback Steak Houses, but keep in mind (as far as I'm concerned) the people who work there are super nice (DAVID with the leopard hair at LALA Land in Rehoboth worked there some time ago) ... email: info@ebbitt.com to find out when that happy hour is, though, my feeling is that it's less publicized for a reason (they prolly lose money on it). Oh well, GO!, and let me know if it still holds (last time I did the happy hours was around Easter),

Dear Mr. Nuttycombe (a.ka. CityPaper), If more of us join, will you guys lobby to the honchos so that my links to Kliman's columns can be evergreen instead of expiring after a measly four weeks? I'm young & hungry and and am certain that $2.95 could get me to Palena and back on the red line. I wanted to look at "The Raw Deal" again and compare "Pie in the Sky" to Sietsema's review of Sette, but those links are dead, dead, dead. Why not just sell more ad space to Results Gym or The Glut Food Co-op? Wanna bargain? Best wishes, morela PS: I'm signed up, Dave. My name is meatloaf.

Here's today's column on The Flying Scotman, which Kliman says is best accessed from an alley behind Charlie Palmer Steak on Capitol Hill: I wanna go, I wanna go. "Great Scot" "It looks, wherever possible, to update the traditional and the leaden; it does so most memorably with the Scotch eggs. The classic artery-clogger—hard-boiled eggs encased in aggressively seasoned ground pork, then plunged into the fryer—is sliced into rounds and fanned out on the plate around a mound of lightly vinegared field greens, as if it were a delicate, summery appetizer." I'm truly a fan of Scott Cheggs! Flattered that someone noticed... "...it’s what results when a bunch of kitchen veterans sit around and bullshit about the kind of place they’d really like to open—and then, on a whim or a dare, do it: Open late, good burgers and fries, the kind of place you can find a dish of braised lamb shank if you want it. Lots of brews on tap, a menu that’s all-organic, and—oh, yeah: It’s gotta be Scottish, dude. Definitely Scottish." Wait a minute, what's going on here? I know someone else around here that says, dude... Anyway, this place looks like fun, and they have WiFi, so I'll shoot you and my boss an e-mail (with greasy fingers) while getting comfortable with my scotch... Check out their menu KlimanRocks@yahoo.com (fine, I made that up)

Chef: I read with interest what you said about the importance and challenge of good pastry. It's been discussed in this forum and Tom Sietsema's chats; really, really outstanding pastry (and freshly baked breads at restaurants) are hard to find. Well, what I mean is, it's way easier for me to find a decent soft-shell or better-than-satisfactory roasted chicken or foie gras, than it is a killer cheese plate or a dessert that inspires me to string more than a few sentences together on E-gullet. Enough about me, though. My question for you is, where would you send someone for really great dessert in our area? I respect your philopsopy and am interested in hearing where you have had some your best meals (dessert, obviously included)... France wins, but we're talking DCDelMarVa.

It's Right Here --------->* Oh look, they have an Ann Taylor Loft in Silver Spring now... Where did The Burlington Coat Factory go?

1. You're a great kid. Your Dad's lucky to have been so well taken care of. I ended up treating my Dad to a tank of gas and a Wendy's chicken sandwich (I don't even know what it was)...but it's not my fault he wouldn't let me do anything else! Yet another treasury memory on the glorious Jersey Turnpike. 2. There's noooo way in hell that "cowboy cut" is any less than 40 ounces. If that's 28 ounces, then I weigh 67 pounds. Be Heart Healthy: Take the extra 12-15 ounces home and eat an apple if still hungry. 3. I love Ray's. Yes I do, yes I do. 4. I'm moving down the street from Ray's in a month or so... Gym and Ray will be fighting each other.

I was scared to death that you were going to say you had breakfast there (but at the pho place near Low Man's). Some nice raw beef and all the rest... Thank God our mighty forum host still has the energy to go to work. Thank God.

I like Bucks alot, I do, but I think Mr. Moore would have urged you to Ray's the Steaks tonight; he's that kinda guy. Mmmm. My tummy is happy-full, and I'm as drunk as HomerS with a Bible. So, was F-911 just funny or are your as sick of Bush?

For convenience, even though the link expires in four weeks, I'm putting this week's Young & Hungry in here too. "Greetings from Rehoboth" by Todd Kliman

Cashion in in Silver Spring I don't get it! How about Siver Spring in my Cushion? In? In!

Looks like tomorrow morning Kliman talks about how to get a great beach body (or how to fit in 17 restaurants in a long weekend) The WMAL Morning News Just Remember: NewsTalk630 at 6:30 a.m. And never ever forget the gym.

Picture spinning newspapers with the following headlines, piling up one by one (also picture a 1950s street setting, with camera flashes going off and people wearing hats ...and do all this picturing in black and white): (Accolades) "Carrabba's: This chain is pure gold." Boston North Shore Sunday: 2003 "New Carrabba's Italian Grill a winner all around." The Post-Standard: 2003 "Carrabba's worth its wait in savory Italian flavors." Washington Post: 2001 "Carrabba's Italian Grill does not disappoint." Detroit Free Press: 2003 "Carrabba's is worth a visit. Families and casual diners will enjoy its upbeat atmosphere and well-prepared food." The Cleveland Plain Dealer: 2000 "Mama mia! Now that's Italian." Tulsa WORLD: 2001 "...the ooohs and ahhs of customers as their food arrives all combine to create a sense of warmth and welcome." The Canton Repository: 2001 "Authentically Italiano..." Myrtle Beach Sun News: 2001 "Carrabba's Italian Grill shouts, ‘Buon Appetito!'" Ahwatukee Foothills News: 2001 "Menu is a crowd pleaser at Carrabba's Italian Grill." Miami Herald: 2001 "Carrabba's scores with its great service, its very good wine...and an accessible menu of updated Italian-American favorites." Lexington Herald-Leader: 2002 "...Carrabba's Italian Grill continues the tradition of time-tested family recipes." Tulsa WORLD: 2003 "Carrabba's is Highly Recommended." Tulsa Broken Arrow Express: 2001 "It's a darned good restaurant..." Gainesville Sun: 2002 "...Carrabba's Italian Grill is not your typical restaurant..." Las Vegas Review-Journal: 2001 "...ay Carrabba's!" The Detroit News: 2003