Malawry
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Posts posted by Malawry
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I had a great time at Elysium, and have thought a lot about the foods we ate since the night of the dinner. It was impressive that even Steve and I, who stuck to fish dishes, didn't get the same foods or similar progressions of dishes. I got one dish nobody else got in any form: two large shrimp atop a pan-fried ravioli (I'd asked for ravioli after hearing Chefette's recommendation). There were also some concepts I'd read about but not actually sampled since I thought they wouldn't work, such as risotto with avocado. I was pleasantly surprised that the creamy avocado wasn't lost in the risotto, and that the flavor worked with the rice nicely.
The company couldn't be beat, either. Wilfrid clearly enjoyed all the Ting humor that came out that evening. I'll have to remember to bring it to future dinners out. I enjoyed chatting with him about musicals. Chefette regaled us with tales of learning pastry arts, and Steve offered some suggestions for Wilfrid to use when exploring the BBQ cook-off. After the piano bar kicked into high gear Wilfrid and Chefette seemed to have difficulty not singing along. (Maybe I should have ordered wine pairings with everybody else. Then again, maybe not.
)A few days ago I was sitting in a waiting room and flipped through a recent copy of Southern Living magazine. There was a one-page feature about Elysium. Basically echoed the pleasant experience we shared.
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I had a meeting in Bethesda yesterday, so of course I had to go to Gifford's afterwards since we've been discussing it recently. I ordered a one-scoop hot fudge sundae with nuts, whipped cream and a cherry. I got coffee chip for my ice cream flavor. It kicked ass: rich, creamy, cold, and the fudge hardened where it sat against the ice cream like it's supposed to do. I also purchased caramels and brought them home. They only had the vanilla kind (they said they'd get chocolate caramels in shortly), which was ok by me. The caramels are sticky, soft, and a little gooey. They're not as hard as Amernick's caramels. They're very good, very fresh tasting.
The new location is around the corner from the Bethesda location of Jaleo, at the same intersection as Thyme Square Cafe, Mon Ami Gabi and Barnes and Noble. It's tucked between Mon Ami Gabi and the new movie theatre back there, and I had a little trouble finding it. The space is very modern and clean and Ikealike (looks a lot like F&B in NYC, only more lighting).
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I've been making tofu "reubens" for years. They're a favorite.
Onion rye bread from the Kosher store
Sliced, prefrozen tofu
Batampte fresh sauerkraut
Gruyere
Homemade 1000 island dressing
A spicy homemade vinaigrette
I cook the tofu slices in the homemade vinaigrette until they are brown and crispy on both sides, and then I assemble my sandwich in the usual fashion and grill it in butter or olive oil till the rye is crisped. It's terrific.
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Campari is your warm weather friend. Campari and grapefruit juice, as Wilfrid said. Campari and Wink. Campari and Ting. Campari and soda. Mmm.
I echo the rum drinks. I used to take my blender to parties along with a big bottle of Bacardi and make girly drinks like daiquiris with it. Hmmm, I got invited around a lot in those days.
I drank stuff like mudslides when I was in college but now it's just too much for me.
Absolut Citron sours are pretty much a year-round favorite.
Limoncello sounds about right for summer, too.
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Lucky 32 is a decent place to grab dinner. I always liked the regional menus they did, which were new to Greensboro when they were introduced. Once they did a North Carolina menu and offered an RC Cola and a Moon Pie as a dessert selection. They have a location in Winston-Salem too, and possibly others, but the Greensboro one was the original. I haven't eaten there in some time but we ate there often when I was in high school.
How is Sofia misunderstood? I didn't realize you were in the Madison Park space till I checked out the menu...lovely location. The menu looks interesting but doesn't seem especially French or bistrolike in concept.
Mosaic can think of itself what it wants. For Greensboro, it probably counts as serious food.
I was happy to eat there and I live in a fairly large city. The price points, decor, service, plating and so on weren't in the "serious" category, if that's what they think of themselves. Yes, I start culinary school July 1. For now, I'm just a passionate amateur when it comes to cooking and dining.
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It has to be difficult to attract national press when you don't have the benefit of a dining reputation or big-city amenities to pull folks into your restaurant. I think your larger question about getting food press for small-town and suburban-town chefs would get good response in the Food Media and News forum.
What do you like so much about Bistro Sofia and Mark's? I haven't yet made it to either, since as I said I'm only in town two or three times a year (and it's usually Thanksgiving and Passover, so there's lots of meals at home rather than meals out on those visits). Didn't you say somewhere that you cook at Sofia? In what capacity? I asked my parents, who dine around a lot, and they said Bistro Sofia is just lovely, a really great place to dine.
I might agree with you on Mosaic if they were trying to do serious food, but they aren't. They're trying to do very good casual food, and in my opinion the team minus the pastry chef was doing a good job. It helped that our server was so wonderful, knowledgeable and passionate. I haven't had much service like that in Greensboro, or in any other city for that matter.
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I don't know how to get people in the door in Greensboro. I'm an occasional visitor to the town myself, and I enjoy dining in the town, but I admit to not thinking it's any great restaurant city. Still, there are some great places to eat in Greensboro for a town of its size and caliber.
For example, I just returned from dinner at Mosaic, 4608 W Market Street. This place is housed in the space that once served as home to the legendary Sunset Cafe (the first upscale restaurant in Greensboro that wasn't a steakhouse...indeed, they didn't serve beef at all!). It's owned by the same people who run the beloved Bert's Seafood Grill on Spring Garden (ironically also a former home of Sunset Cafe, leading the pedigree full circle...or was Sunset across the street? It was at the same intersection, in any case).
I ordered the corn fries with poblano ketchup and a smoked trout salad. The fries were terrific...our server, Brian, described them as "somewhere between Fritos and hushpuppies." They had a little of the "doggy" sense of a Frito but they were crisp, hot, and corny-sweet-salty like a good hush puppy. The ketchup was appropriately thick and sweet and a little spicy from teensy bits of jalapeno pepper. My partner and my dad seemed to have trouble keeping their fingers out of them. So did I.
The salad featured a whole home-smoked trout fillet. It was softer and more delicate than other smoked trout I've eaten, but it sported plenty of smoky-rich-oily flavor and it didn't fall apart when I broke off bites with my fork. There was a light lemony vinaigrette on the salad, plenty of mixed greens, and a few small bits of unseasoned fresh goat cheese scattered across the plate. There was also half a poached pear and some pickled baby beets on the plate, offering sweet notes to play against the rich fish.
For dessert, I ordered the banana bread pudding. It's actually made with banana bread, not with regular bread and sliced bananas. It seemed like a great idea, but it was a little too much. Too rich and too sweet and too cloying. Even the caramel sauce was more about sugar than about that lovely burnt-brown flavor. I think it'd be better at half its size.
I only visit Greensboro a few times a year but I'd gladly join in a discussion of its restaurants. There are things you see everywhere in Greensboro that are almost impossible to find in Washington, DC, where I live. And not just sweet tea, either. The Ham's influence is sorely missed by yours truly...a hot freshly-fried potato chip is rare in Washington...and I can't ever remember seeing hushpuppies around town. (Why am I only thinking of fried foods here? Hmm.) Also a lot of Greensboro restaurants, such as Cafe Pasta, offer an incredible value for a jaded city diner like myself.
Why do you think national recognition will help? What national recognition would you like to see?
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Awww, Bolivar, I had no idea we were in Charleston at the same time! Wah.
I enjoyed meals at Peninsula Grill and Hyman's seafood place while I was there this week. I also thought the chocolates from Charleston Chocolates were terrific: fresh and recently handmade treats. I also enjoyed the she crab soup at AW Shucks. Full reports to follow.
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I've never eaten at another Ledo's. I happen to be geographically most convenient to the original. Is there really any difference? Yes, they still serve on cafeteria trays.
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I don't like raw tomatoes either. I probably would have worked around that by now, except I am genuinely allergic to them and so I have a reason not to develop a taste for them. I don't order or prepare dishes based on raw tomatoes (gazpacho, panzanella) and I pick them out of salads and order sandwiches without them. I dislike the texture and the flavor both.
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Hey Nina, not too long ago Edemuth and I did a souped-up version of tuna noodle casserole for a dinner party. Homemade pasta, a bechamel, Italian oil-packed canned tuna, and I fried up onion rings to put on the top. It was good but the Campbell's kind is almost as tasty and WAY easier. Easiest: the Stouffer's sort, which I sometimes eat for a quick lunch.
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Welcome to eGullet, Terrie.
I live close by the original Ledo in College Park. I eat there occasionally. It's the home of the whitest-trashiest pina colada I ever consumed. Once I went with a friend when we felt angsty and we ordered a pizza with extra garlic and green olives since neither of us planned to kiss anybody that night. It was greasy, the crust was biscuity, and we were happy.
My partner has made me swear I will never bring home a Ledo pizza for our dinner again, but I suspect I will do it once he's out of town without me for some reason. It's convenient and it's not "authentic" but dammit, I like it!
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Cakelove does a great job with what it's trying to do, if the cupcakes and crunchy feet I sampled are any indication. I especially recommend the ginger crunchy foot with caramel topping. Sticky crunchy cakey goodness. This isn't a formal cake type bakery, it's where you go for a birthday cake for a grownup or a kid with good taste. And Warren is incredibly personable and down to earth for a guy who's as sought-after (yes, he really is as cute as his picture, and I know he's been on lots of top-ten bachelor type lists).
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Thought I'd better warn you... my brother-in-law opens and eats, at one sitting, an entire can of Eagle Brand Milk. He and my sister have a cat and although sugar is not a natural part of a cat's diet, he also likes the sweetness of Eagle Brand. So my bother-in-law and the cat sit there eating it together.
Now the cat has diabetes, and has to have insulin shots daily.
Jaymes, thanks for your kindly expressed kitty concern. Diana only gets less than a spoonful of milk when I eat a bowl of Smacks, 'cause I know that milk and sugar aren't good for her digestion. So I think she'll be okay.
Lately I'm less on Smacks as a guilty meal. Now I eat toasted baguettes with Plugra butter and jam if I'm so hungry I must have food immediately and can't be bothered about fixing something decent.
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I still want to go to that gelato place in Vancouver that Mamster's posted about.
But that has nothing to do with a DC and DelMarVa discussion. Suvir, let me know when you want to come down and I'll be ready for our sugar blitz.
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I ate at Two Amys not too long ago. Very good stuff. The sauce is a little too runny for my tastes...it's the hand-crushed tomato kind, like you get at Lombardi's in NYC, and like Lombardi's it's too watery. But other than that it kicks butt. We got one with black olives, anchovies, and a few other things on it...don't remember exactly...and one with cockles. The anchovies were the really good silvery kind, and I was jealously possessive of the two cockles deemed my share. The dough is appropriately salty/chewy/blistery and the cheese is top quality. I'd go back in a heartbeat.
I second (third?) Pizzeria Paradiso. And Bertucci's isn't so terrible either, to me at least.
I used to grab a slice at Chef Paulo's (not sure that's the exact name) in International Square, 19th and K, during lunch breaks periodically. It's a lot like the cheap/crappy NY folders, salty and crisp and greasy.
DC isn't a pizza town, but you don't have to totally go without just 'cause you live here.
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Well, you two are the ones who don't live here.
Let me know when you come into town and we'll get together.
I think my heart would plotz if I ate at Ben's and then went on a sugar blitz. I mean, one or the other is bad enough in a single day. The fact that the chili burger is vegetarian doesn't make it much more virtuous.
For what it's worth, Edemuth and I did hit both Ben's and the new bakery Cakelove in a single lunch break a few months ago. I ate my chili veg burger and a ginger-caramel
crunchy foot" after I returned to work. Oh man was that a good lunch!
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When I return to town, I'll case out the locations you mention and tell you what I find there.
I'm embarrassed to admit that I have no idea what goodies are available at the Library of Congress in terms of food. Perhaps that's a subject for the Food Media and News forum? Surely somebody on eGullet has cased out their offerings...
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Suvir, we should go on a sugar-blitz tour of DC together. It'd be fun! And, see, it really isn't a private conversation if Suvir's pitching in.
Meanwhile, my mother must not love me since she NEVER took me for ice cream after the dentist. And the only prizes I got were from the toy chest, and being a girly girl I usually chose a paste ring.
Damian, I adore Swing's coffee. They sell it at the Coffee Espress, which is around the corner from the office I worked in until last Wednesday (it's at 20th and L). The best French Roast I've had...far superior to the stuff they carry in chains like Starbucks and Xando.
I think I've mentioned my adoration of Ben's on this board before. Their veggie burger with veggie chili is a delightfully sloppy treat. I like their milkshakes, too. Walking into that place is like walking into an entirely different world, one that's long passed, one where people watch one anothers' backs and where the guy behind the counter actually looks glad you came in for a bite.
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Nope, sorry. Matzo meal is just ground up matzos, which are made from wheat flour. I don't think there's a way to mimic matzo balls without wheat, unfortunately.
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Yes, the "v" sounds like it might be right. Not sure though.
Polonez is a couple blocks from the intersection of Sligo and Georgia. I don't remember offhand which corner it's on but it's about two blocks south of that intersection. I'm well-familiar with Sligo and Georgia since Silver Spring's Thai grocery is right by there, and since Dale Music is right there too (my partner is a choral conductor, and buys all his music at Dale).
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Wow, what a great post. I've only lived here 6 years and I bemoan the lack of some of those classic places which I have heard so much about.
I used to eat at Reeves periodically when I worked on-site at the FBI. I like that they make their own mayo. And the strawberry tallcake is a cardiologist's dream. The women who work there seemed like they'd been there for decades. I liked the table with a million dessert plates of pie slices begging to be ordered in the downstairs dining room. Trying to get through that bakery upstairs around Christmas was totally futile. Made BreadLine look like a funeral home!
Since I live in Takoma and often run errands in Sil Spring, I've seen Crisfield Seafood. But I've never eaten there. What's the schtick, should I check it out?
You are making me want ice cream and a chocolate leaf. Bad.
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One of my favorite aspects of Washingtonpost.com has been the Live Online discussions, where staff writers and special guests come respond to questions on set subjects for an hour. Tom Sietsema does a regular Live Online weekly chat, and Kim O'Donnel (who works for washingtonpost.com and is not a Washington Post staff writer) hosts "What's Cooking?," a discussion on cooking issues. In Tom's case, the Live Online chat has clearly directed the way he writes his restaurant column, and he even based his last Dining Guide on a Live Online type format (Where do I take the kids? *bam*, here's three good choices with a short review each.)
There was a weekly cookbook author chat for a while. Was the Food section involved in this at all? Any idea why it folded?
Does the Post Food section intend to get more involved in Live Online? Why or why not?
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Not to mention, you could give us somebody else to chat with on the DC board.
greensboro nc restaurants
in Southeast: Dining
Posted
I remember reading that story and saying, "Bwah?" I'd never eaten there. Still haven't, actually. It's out Battleground Ave, IIRC. I asked John Batchelor, Greensboro News and Record's reviewer, about it when I met him over dinner a few weeks ago. He laughed and said he kept a copy of that thing around as a joke. I'd be interested in hearing if anybody else has been there. If it's actually any good, maybe I'll make time for it the next time I'm around town.