KHT20

First, take a glass of cold water out to the grill to dip your finger in before you poke the meat. I do this because I am a wuss. Best way I ever heard this described was the 'face' method. Dip your finger into the water, then poke the steak. If it feels like the middle of your cheek, it's rare. If it feels like your chin (soft but with some bounce-back), it's medium. If it feels like the tip of your nose, it's well-done. I've heard the same thing about using your face for reference, but I've always used my earlobe to judge a rare steak - I find it works better since my cheek feels different every time I poke at it.

There's a new Jewish deli opening soon in Ballston called Chutzpah, on the corner of Wilson and Quincy-ish, I believe. Hopefully it will fill the void...

True--we just had some nice ones at their San Diego branch. Here in Philly M&S does a $1.95 happy hour--not on oysters I think, but tons of appetizers at that price. Do they do that at the DC location--anyone know? M&S's has oyster shooters on the HH menu - $1.95 per shooter.

Old Ebbitt does indeed have a great raw bar, and it's half price during happy hour

Legal Seafoods (not the one by MCI) has a $3 top-shelf martini happy hour. Sign of the Whale has free real roast turkey, actually carved off the bone and juicy as hell, on Thursdays and a free wing/nacho/assorted bar food buffet on Fridays.

any mung bean flavored bubble tea? might be a little dangerous for me if there is...

Try this: On Tap's Brunch Guide 2K4

AWESOME. when does it start? will I have to beat interns out of my way before I can get a seat at the bar?

On the hopeful side, I flew Heathrow to Dulles right after Christmas (when all those flights between the two airports were being cancelled due to terror threats) with two boxes of marzipan (one opened and half eaten, no less), a couple tins of tea, and various other sundries and had no problem - no one even questioned me about anything. Not sure what that says about security, though...

I have definitely heard Mario say "expresso," and get a quizzical look on my face every time...

I use it all the time - crack it open before i try anything (along with the dozens of other cookbooks I seem to be amassing) to get an overall feel for the dish - the Alton Brown "study-the-recipe" method. But his Simple Roast Chicken variations are great - even the SO who would never before touch chicken loves them (particularly the asian-marinated ones).

I'd just skip the cruise period. amen... what they said cruise food SUCKS And they are horribly bad for the environment - they all violate U.S. and international environmental laws by dumping millions of gallons of untreated wastes (human, fuel by-products, and otherwise) directly into the ocean every time they're out at sea.

A good friend of mine used to date this nutcase who claimed she was vegetarian, too, but ate plenty of chicken/beef broth-containing dishes and crab legs by the pound. Anyway, we would go out to a restaurant to eat with them and she wouldn't be able to make up her mind about what to order for at least 30 minutes. Then, she would just order a baked potato, plain, and keep the menu. 15 minutes later she would change her mind and make her boyfriend track down the waiter so she could change her order. Halfway through her "meal" she would order something else, then change her mind (and her order). My all-time favorite incident was when she ordered a side house salad (standard iceberg with assorted veggies), but wanted romaine instead of iceberg, nothing but the tomatoes, and ceasar dressing on the side. So the waiter asked: "Oh, so you just want the side ceasar salad with tomatoes." And she indignantly replied: "No! I want the side house salad with romaine instead of iceberg, nothing but the tomatoes, and ceasar dressing on the side!" Needless to say, they are no longer dating (thank God).

Sounds interesting, but I'm afraid all of this tapas/mezze stuff is giving my tongue a short attention span. I've started ordering a bunch of appetizers for my dinner instead of an entree every time I go to a regular restaurant! Needless to say, I'll be anxiously awaiting a perusal of the menu...

I went to HSF for the first time at the end of November and left absolutely starving! My pork shumai had hard things in it, my shrimps had the poop shoots full of... well, you know, and most of the other dishes were pretty unappetizing. We did get a good fried squid and some leek and vegetable dumplings with toasted garlic that were tasty, but all in all I will probably stick to Golden Unicorn.

You obviously haven't read Kitchen Confidential. I don't really have any good suggestions, but I can warn you to NOT go to the Front Page for brunch. I had an eggs benedict there relatively recently that tasted like vinegar. Like nothing but vinegar.

That is heartbreaking! Do you have any idea of who owns the pipeline? I realize there is litigation over this matter already, but I can pull a few strings (mine) at the federal government level to make sure the bastards never do that to anyone else. Poor, poor crawfish... I was looking forward to my trip out to NOLA to eat them myself.

Newcastle by the pump?!? I anxiously await your report...

Man, I drank so much PBR last Saturday that I made a complete idiot of myself at this concert I was at. Seems like more and more DC bars are starting to carry it - even on tap!

I like them fresh, too. In fact, I had never even heard of stale Peeps until I went to college. My roommates were distraught that they couldn't get them dried out enough. They were all , and I was all (sorry - I just sorta discovered the wonders of these little buggers.) Anyhow, I've always lived in swamps so I still have never had a proper Peep jerky, and the quasi-stale ones just don't do it for me.

I went a little over a week ago and had a so-so experience. We got a salad on special - grilled calamari and octopus tossed with a light citrus vinegrette over field greens. It was awesome - by far the best part of the meal. (That, and our waiter Guiseppe who told me stories of how his mother back in Italy used to beat octopus before cooking it to make it tender.) Then, the house salad came instead of the caprese; we sent it back but never got the caprese, which is just as well since winter tomatoes aren't exactly my favorite thing in the world. Finally, we split a pizza with capers, olives, anchovies, and escorole, which I remember as being fairly tasty at the time but nothing terribly special. And it certainly didn't survive a reheat the next morning. Would I go back? Maybe if I was with a big group of friends - the tables were waaaay too close together for any intimate conversation. There are better places for pizza. But if I had known about the cannoli before I went, maybe that would be a different story

They definitely have people at the door bright and early in the morning on weekends. Not sure about weekdays, however... I think it depends on what sort of rugby/cricket shenanigans are going on in the world.

I forgot the McCormick & Schmick's opened downtown - I've been to the 16th St. location and thought the food was such a great deal (tasty too). Oh well, we'll have to do it next time. We ended up at RFD and had a couple beers. I like the Brickskellar better, but what are you gonna do about it? Show was great though... a lot more high tech than the last time I saw them.

What/where is RFD? I can't ever remember seeing that place before. Yes. Yes I am.

Yeah, I took a look at the thread before I posted but wasn't too enthralled by any of the suggestions. I'm not really looking for a place with food, but more of a place to meet a couple friends for drinks before seeing the band that saved/ruined rock.