vengroff

This could become a real problem. I support Arsenal, and it seems Real Madrid is looking to steal Arsene Wenger from them.

I've heard about this project before and am very excited to try it once it materializes. Some of the items, like the mango and jicama as pasta dishes, sound like the evolution of things Cafe Atlantico already does. I wonder if some of the new dishes will make their way onto the small plate brunch menu, or if they will remain strictly at the bar.

I've taken to eating at the bar there rather than waiting for a table. Jorge the bartender offers great service. And I agree about the shish taouk. It's been one of my favorites since the first time I went there. They used to serve the pastrima with a soft cooked egg. The yolk complemented the beef nicely. But I don't recall seeing it on the menu last time I was there.

Tom Sietsema will be joining us on the 29th and 30th. We will open the board for you questions in advance of Tom's arrival. You can begin posting at any time. Tom has agreed to answer 40 questions, so we should have an opportunity to explore a wide variety of topics. Feel free to ask about dining in the DC area, any of the many other cities Tom covers in his Postcards from Tom series, general food writing questions, or pretty much any other dining or food-writing topic you can think of. Thanks again to Tom for joining us.

Tom Sietsema writes a weekly dining column for the Washington Post Sunday Magazine, a weekly restaurant news column for the Food section, a monthly report on dining in other cities for the Travel section, and two annual dining guides. He also is vice-chairman of the James Beard Restaurant Awards Committee. Previously, he wrote for Microsoft's sidewalk.com, the Seattle Post-Intellegencer, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Milwaukee Journal. His work has also appeared in GQ, Food & Wine, and Travel & Leisure. Tom got his start with the Post's Food section in 1983. He was a recent graduate of the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University slinging pizza for a living when a friend who was an investigative reporter at the Washington Post called. Apparently, food critic Phyllis Richman was looking for an assistant. Tom had interned at ABC News and the Chicago Sun-Times, and jumped on the opportunity to get back into journalism. The idea was that being an assistant would lead to writing opportunities, and the Food section would lead to Metro, then to national and foreign news reporting. The sky was the limit. In the fall of '83, Tom's first byline appeared in the Post. Richman had been planning to do an article on food newsletters. These were quite popular among foodies at the time, something like eGullet without the 'e' part. Tom had done all the research, so Richman suggested he go ahead and write the article too. This led to bigger and better things, such as an express lane column featuring recipes with no more than 13 ingredients (so that they could all be purchased in a single trip through a supermarket express lane), and a series of offbeat food features on topics ranging from what the embassy of Burkina Faso served its guests to a group of bread-baking Virginia monks. He researched and tested recipes, cooking anything and everything: French food, African food, cookies, cakes, recipes from top chefs, and down-home country treats. His grocery bills were double salary, but he, his roommates, and most importantly his readers were all eating well. After four years at the Post, Tom was looking for a new challenge and was offered the position of Food Editor at the Milwaukee Journal. This position exposed him not only to new styles of cuisine, but also to the rigors of managing a team of writers and interacting with the management of the paper as a whole. Four years later, in 1990, the San Francisco Chronicle called, and Tom answered. As a food writer and restaurant reviewer in San Fancisco, Tom saw the genesis of many of the trends we now take for granted in new American cuisine. He developed a passion for the fresh seasonal ingredients that local chefs sought out so religiously. He also saw new ideas, like the use of savory herbs in desserts, grow, evolve, and inspire cuisine not only in bay area, but all the way back to the East coast. In 1994, Tom headed up the coast to Seattle. He write food features and restaurant reviews for the Post-Intellegencer, quadrupling their food coverage in just two years. In 1996, while at the P-I, Tom interviewed Microsoft technical guru Nathan Mhyrvold. Nathan was not only a techie, but also a foodie. In fact, he spent one night a week working the line in a local French restaurant. Over the course of a six and a half hour dinner, Tom and Nathan discussed all manner of culinary topics. Only later did Tom learn that he was not only the interviewer, but an interviewee. Microsoft was on the verge of launching its sidewalk.com online site, and was looking for experienced writers from the traditional media to join its team. Tom was convinced, and returned to Washington, DC to cover the city for Microsoft. Of course, we all know how this ended. In 1998, Bill Gates pulled the plug, deciding Microsoft should refocus on its core technology business, at the expense of content businesses like sidewalk. Needless to say, a talented and well-respected food journalist like Tom landed on his feet. Jeanne McManus, the Post's food editor, offered Tom a temporary full-time position filling in for another writer who was taking a leave. It would be a great place to be for a period of months, in a city he loved, while he pondered his next career move. Six months after he returned to the Post, the landscape of available positions shifted radically. Phyllis Richman announced that she intended to retire after 24 years as the Post's food critic. A global search plan was announced. Writers from all corners of the planet were invited to submit portfolios of their work to a blue-ribbon panel charged with finding Richman's replacement. For a period of months, Tom felt as if every feature he wrote was a test. Would he or wouldn't he make the grade and be offered the food critic position? Obviously there's no mystery left in that question at this point. In the summer of 2000, Tom officially took over at the Post's food critic. His first review appeared in August 2000, and his first dining guide was published in October of that year. Since then, Tom has earned widespread acclaim from his readers, restaurateurs, and fellow critics, both for his palate and for his prose. He continues to travel extensively, and brings his global knowledge of cuisine and culture to bear even when covering the most local of dining destinations.

I don't like fennel or green pepper. I'm not a big fan of the taste of either, and they tend to dominate any other flavors in most dishes where they are used. I've had a handful of dishes from skilled chefs who have managed to use them in subtle ways that made sense to me. But most kitchens can't do them without overdoing them and grossing me out. I also can't say I've ever enjoyed a kidney of any sort. I'm shocked at the number of negative comments about oysters. But I guess that means there's just more creamy briney goodness left for me.

5 Guys is the one people always talk about when this question comes up. Who else put together a good burger around here? Low-end greasy spoons and high-end steakhouses etc... are equally welcome in this survey. Also, are there any innovative or unusual versions that are worth trying? I put the mini-burgers at Matchbox in that category.

Matchbox is pretty cool. They've done an incredible job with their long tall but very narrow space. It's divided into three levels, with lost of custom woodwork and a lovely little hand-powered dumbwaiter to bring drinks up from the bar. They have a good selection of American micro and macro-brews, and a few English imports. I really appreciate a place that has Newcastle Brown Ale on tap. I'll be back for that alone. It also strikes me as a great bar to catch a game. I was getting handshakes and pats on the back from strangers just for showing up in a Red Sox jacket. Upstairs in the restaurant, they are still going through teething pains. The service is alternately spotty and overattentive, but given time they should be able to work it out. They do a good job with their pizza, which I'll say a few words about later, but the real must-have dish is the amazing mini-burgers. These 2" angus beef burgers come 3, 6, or 9 to an order, for $6, $9, or $12. They're an ideal starter for the table, and they'd made a great snack at the downstairs bar. The exteriors of the thin patties are crisp charred, but the centers remain delightfully pink. We didn't specify a particular level of doneness--this was the default. They are served on beautiful buttery little toasted brioche buns with a slice of pickle. These burgers are what White Castles dream of growing up to be. A dollop of ketchup completes them. Dijon mustard would also be great. Next time I'll ask if they have some. Don't bother with the onion straws that come with burgers. They make for a nice presentation, but they are entirely too salty and covered with a totaly superfluous sprinkling of dusty parmesean cheese. They must be trying to make the point that this is still a pizza place. The pizza comes from a custom brick oven wedged into the back of the main floor. They've put together some very nice combinations, like spicy meatballs with bacon, and a nice veggie with roasted red peppers and mushrooms. The crust was thin, as advertised, and just shy of charred on the bottom. Absent are the big bubbles that ruin so many other thin crust pizzas. I would have liked it to stay in the oven maybe a minute more to get a fuller crisp crunch, but other than that I think they did a bang up job. Aside from the pizza, there are some salads and a few entrees. The spinach salad was overdressed, leaving a pool in the bottom of the plate, but that'sa minor offense that can easily be corrected. If you're in the Chinatown area, I'd recommend stopping in.

Pintos, absolutely. I love them. They are all to rarely seen these days. Black beans seem to have pushed them aside, for reasons I cannot understand.

Same time zone. And they even have electricity down there to power the clocks.

Note that one of the last-minute ammendments that was slipped into the tax bill that just passed makes travel expenses for family members who accompany you on a business trip tax deductible. It was inserted by a congressman from Nevada in order to bolster tourist spending in his state. It's amazing how living on Capitol Hill I end up knowing congressional trivia like this. I don't actually have anything to do with the congress myself.

The other day I had some fabulous fresh-baked pita bread. We ate them just as soon as they were cool enough to pick up barehanded. They were incredibly soft and light, with a warm fresh wheat taste. Honestly, they were on a whole different plane than normal pita. Thirty minutes later though, the charm was gone and they were like every other pita you've ever tasted. What other foods are best enjoyed immediately after cooking? Deep fried foods are an obvious answer, but I'm thinking more of things that are commonly consumed some time after they are initially cooked, but are infinitely better if you get them absolutely fresh.

Does the hog come by way of a local butcher, or will we get a chance to recreate the Portugal chapter from A Cook's Tour?

If you were underwhelmed in dupont, don't bother with the new one in Georgetown. See my reports earlier in this thread.

If you're doing the tourist thing and you find yourself in the White House/Washington Monument area around lunch or snack time, try the Sky Terrace on the roof of the Hotel Washington. The food is pretty standard, but the view is outstanding and they make a mean kiddie cocktail. A visiting young friend of ours reported that his tasted like, "a popsicle you can drink."

From the pics I've seen, the young brigs can hold their own at a lot higher class of place than most. Plenty of kids their ages don't know that the words restaurant and McDonalds aren't synonyms.

I haven't been to either Galileo or Laboratorio, but I have been to a couple of the Roberto Donna places that come in at a lower price point, namely Il Raddichio and Vivo. In neither case did I feel that they did anything that set them apart from others in their price range. In the case of Raddichio, it was downright awful. The comments I hear about Galileo lead me to believe that it comes from the same mold--underwhelming compared to what can be done it the market segment it occupies. All this makes me wonder what is going on that can make Laboratorio so great. Does Donna himself just not give a shit about the other places? Does he just allow them to languish in mediocrity while he concentrates on his flagship? Do they use his name, but not his talent? Or is the Lab not so great either? If there's anyone who has some insight, I'd love to hear it.

DuPont or Georgetown?

Has anyone been to Matchbox? It's at the west end of Chinatown next to the BBQ place. I went past it a few times while it was under construction, but from the outside it looked more like a bar than a pizza place. According to Tom Sietsema's Weekly Dish they've got a custom-built brick oven to do NY style thin-crust Pizza.

Now there's a plan!

Since you are asking where to go for one, and only one meal, I think you have to look at the whole package. Citronelle, at its best, can probably serve you a better meal than any place in the area. The question is whether you can show up completely unknown to the establishment, sit in the regular dining room, and have that meal. To me, it's not clear that you can. Steve is not the first person I've heard say that there are different levels of service for different guests. Personally, I would probably choose Maestro, but part of that is a matter of my personal taste, which runs a bit more towards the kind of work that Fabio does. With those two choices, though, I don't think you can really go wrong. I would happily dine at either one. Perhaps you should try to have them fax their menus to you, and then choose based on who is offering dishes most to your liking.

Venti - Starbucksese for supersize.

I could probably make it down. But Varmint might slow cook me when I show up in my Blue Devil regalia.

One of the tools you mention in that section is a kitchen scale, which you say, "is not essential, but as you progress in your cooking you will find it useful." I personally find a good scale an absolute necessity. Most European home cooks would probably agree. I find that weighing ingredients is not only more accurate, but often far easier than using cup measures. The problem is that most American cookbooks, unlike European ones, rely on cup measures almost exclusively. Do you think this will ever change? Thanks again for joining us here on eGullet.

Except there's NO sales tax in Delaware! But there is an excise tax of $3.75 per gallon built into the price of liquor. See here for details.