JPW

Exactly, but I'm trying to be optimistic to compensate for the absolutely shitty week I've been having at work (Joe's Reminder of the Day - It is better to envision throttling co-workers than to actually do it) The only hope is that some of the places own the buildings that they are in and they decide not to sell out. I guess as long as people continue to get mugged on a regular basis around the corner of Piney Branch and Flower, el Golfo and el Gavilan are safe from the chains.

The one thing that I find interesting is the relative ignorance of a lot of people about the options that have been in SS. People now want to go down to see the chains and miss all of the very good ethnic restaurants that are within three blocks of the corner of Colesville and Georgia (Thai Derm, Roger Miller, el Cubano, Bombay Gaylord, Negril,Addis Ababa, the little Cuban place directly across Colesville from the AFI to name a half dozen of the 2 or 3 dozen that there are). These are not the people that will go to Red Dog, much less Cashion's soon to be joint. My lament is pretty much the same as Rocks' in that sense. But if even a small portion of the crowd that will go to the new 20 theater megaplex, or AFI, or the new Pier !, or Ann Taylor loft, or Borders, etc. find their way into my favorite cheap ethnic places then I will view it as a culinary success. I just hope that their revenues go up faster than the rent will.

Mark, If you've been drinking you should probably stop now as you've obviously already had too many to go to work. If you haven't been drinking, perhaps you should start.

I used to live on East Luray, but couldn't afford to buy in Del Ray, so ended up in SS.

All of the studies I have seen on the effect in Montgomery County are too politically loaded to trust. However, I do notice now that when I go out in DC to a smoky bar I want to leave much more quickly.

One of the things that some people on the board have said they don't like the about the show is what I tend to like the most - the backstories that you use. My personal favorites have been the "Misery" (potato) take off and the pot roast episode with Chuck (?) in the trailer. Do you come up with these mainly on your own? Steal them from underlings? Glean them from the e-mail sent to your website? What were your personal favorites?

Thanks for bumping this back up sara. I gotta start by saying I hate Bob and Edith's - YUCK. Many better diners around. SS is crawling with them (Woodside, Parkway, Tastee). Other low brow for me is from my days in Reston - Philly Mike's on Sunset Valley Drive in the strip mall with Champps. Best cheesesteak I've had around DC. I also love the half smokes served from the truck at the Home Despot out Rt 29 (Colesville Rd.). Not to mention the crab truck that used to park in an empty field right on 29 just before the Home Depot turn.

FIREFLY The bar can get a little overcrowded later on, but I've seen several bar diners enjoying meals there.

Don't forget Timberlakes! I thought they only served Scotch, Gin and Rum. Naw, they actually have decent beer on tap and edible burgers. Just don't piss off the waitresses (esp. Fiona), they WILL beat you down like you were an Iraqi prisoner.

Perhaps that it wasn't a quote from the article, but Morela's own idiosynchratic musings.

170! Wow! That's great! Congratulations. Some moderate hypertension caused me to rethink my junk food habit. As a result I gave up all fast food. With adding only a little more cardio to my weightlifting and being more careful in what I eat in general, I have gone from 210 to 193 since mid-January. A few weeks ago, I caved and had an order of McDonald's fries. It was like starchy crack. It felt so good going down. But after about 30 minutes I thought I was going to retch.

Thanks for putting a smile on my face on a gray Friday morning.

Great (or perverted) minds think alike.

Sure, it's called breakfast.

trying?

Not really. The descriptions sound pretty much in line with the Kinkaed's tradition. There is however a new chef (who was promoted in October just before shutdown), so there may be some differences.

Mmmmmmmm. Snakefish that has slowly been marinaded with all of that good yummy Potomac River toxic sludge. Mmmmmm.

Mrs JPW and I stopped by Red Dog again Thursday night early. Again the food was very good, but the service stinks like ammoniated Reblochan (I don't even know what that smells like , but it's great to say). No more than 5 tables in the place = no excuse. Granted, it was early (just before 6) and people were still setting up, but someone really needs to have an eye on the door at all times. Our waitress seemed terminally confused. After waiting for about 10 minutes for my fresh RedDog Lemonade (with fresh extracted apple juice) I asked her where it was, and she said "Oh, they've been cleaning the extractor, it should only be a few more minutes." Would have been nice to know that before. A couple of side salads, a margherita pizza for me, and the chicken riphigi (aka open faced pita sammie) for Mrs JPW. With the oven not being overcrowded, the pizza turned out spectacularly. Just the right flavor in the crust, excellent toppings, maybe could have used another few seconds in the oven, but very satisfactory. The chicken was a tiny bit dry, but overall very good for a $9 plate. The liquor license looks set for next week. I had hoped to ask about the incipent beer and wine lists, but unfortunately we had to get moving before I had a chance to talk to anyone about it. I really like the food in the place, but the service continues to need some help.

What is it about Georgetown that it seems to attract more than its fair share of crappy food? Is it sheer gravity pulling all of the city's waste into the Potomac? Just a thought....

PPS- Nor have I gone on a radically low sodium diet. That's one thing that I've seen that just about everyone agrees is bad. I just aim to stay at or somewhat below US RDA of 2400 mg.

Well all, I went back and did some screening of the old thread on sodium and wandered around some other sites looking for the most recent studies and came to the conclusion that the jury is still pretty much out. Most of the articles that I found through Medline and national medical bodies on both sides of the Atlantic say that excess sodium leads to high blood pressure (start herefor example) . I haven't completely read all of Steingarten piece or his sources, nor have I talked to your father K, so let's say that I'll just watch my sodium until I do and am convinced by the preponderance of the evidence. No I don't think salt is necessarily bad. French fries would not be french fries without a nice sprinkling of the stuff. No, Chipotle are not directly advertising that their stuff is healthier than McD's. I do however, feel that their PR and the media in general have done a good job of implying that "fresh" and "Food with Integrity" IS related to healthier. Just my opinion, I'd want to do a real survey/market research before claiming that many others felt that way. Given these assumptions, I do view that Chipotle has somewhat of a problem not by having high sodium levels, but unnecessarily high sodium levels. There are no real taste difference between supermarket tortillas with 190 mg of sodium and 800mg. Why does their lime-rice need 800 mg of sodium per cup? As several have mentioned, it's still fast food and no one should expect a Chipotle diet to be healthy. PS- I loved the burrito when I had it, but had recently been put on medicine to treat hypertension and needed to start eating better. However, I'm hoping that better diet + more cardio exercise + having lost 18 of the 30 pounds I want to lose will allow me to eventually be weaned of the medicine and once again become drug free.

?Donde esta Taqueria Poblano? Mt Vernon Ave in Del Ray (Alexandria) and in Arlington (can't recall exact address)

mnebergall - go to Taqueria Poblano. Salt. I think that there are distinctions to be made. There is a big difference between the use of salt as a seasoning on a dish (although too much there can definitely hurt a meal, see the Bethesda thread for my experience at Grapeseed) and the hidden use of salt in preparing meal components. For example, tortillas. In the local grocery store, you can get tortillas with everything from 190 mg of sodium per tortilla to 800 mg. Hard to really tell any taste difference, but the ones with higher sodium have a longer shelf life. The fact that Chipotle's food contains a lot of hidden sodium doesn't bother me, it's that it runs so contrary to their marketing of "fresher better" ingredients. Look at a typical McD's meal (ok, what I used to eat, not so typical) - 2 double cheeseburgers and a large fries. From this I expect the 2500 mg of sodium it contains. Look at a Chipotle burrito, you don't expect it to have the same amount of sodium. If I hadn't written away to them, I never would have guessed. As I mentioned elsewhere, to their credit they responded to me quite plainly and forthrightly - "If you're watching sodium, our food is not for you. Sorry." I don't so worry about Chipotle quality going down as they grow, they at least have the ability to manipulate their flavor. I'm much more worried about the quality of Niman Ranch products going down preventing me from gaining as much pleasure from the herb rub pork tenderloin I make at home as I do now.

Unfrotunately, I can't find the pdf from Chipotle with their nutrition info, but I wanted to put some numbers to my earlier post. A chicken burrito with rice and salsa = @2500 mg of sodium or 100+% RDA. The tortillas had around 800 mg (up there with the worst of the supermarket brands). The chicken was the least salty of the meats at about 400 mg. The RICE had 800 mg of sodium per serving. I e-mailed for another copy of the nutrition sheet and will post additional details later.

Ya want edge, Don? Request a nutritional breakdown from them via e-mail (unlike the other chains they don't have it on their website). They put enough sodium in everything so that they don't EVER have to worry about spoilage. Maybe a little less fat and better quality of meat, but Chipotle (and Baja Fresh) are not really any better for you than grabbing some McD's. OK, sorry but it was the best I could come up with. I like the place, but won't eat there very often.