DCMark

The Formaggio website seems to be down.

Thanks for your input. Are you telling me that a restaurant buys it cheese from the same source as the grocery store? Aren't there specialty cheese shops (especially in NYC) that sell only to restaurants? Funny story. On our recent trip to france I bought about 5 lbs of cheese. I decided to put it into my checked bags as the temp would be lower. Certainly worried that the beagles would smell it at Dulles. At the baggage return pre-customs at Dulles. Bag comes out. No need for dogs there, you could smell the cheese from 10 feet away. WOW. Luckily our customs agent had a cold!

The Morels? Right behind the house....sike! The cheese tray is from the Fort du Pre in St. Bonnet, not at home

I saw that website before. Thanks for letting me know it works. Now did you order from the French site or the US-legal site?

So true about the amonia smell on the Reblochon. I do perfer the cheese at Dean and Delucca which is generally not pre-packaged. Has anyone ordered cheese from France? Not really legal but like overseas pharms....?

Hey, that was fun! I did get a bit out of it downstairs with the heat and the smell of a petstore (really). Food was....6 of 10 maybe. Frog was dissapointing since it was very hard to not eat bones. Oysters were excellent as was the soup. Will be at 'Eat This New York' then BdC, if you are out say hi.

Looks like this got moved (duplicated) over here. Good day~!

cheap boyfriends? ducks..............

I am not near a printer now. I will be at matchbox at 615ish. Where is matchbox?

Calling the Auberge et Clos des Cimes two stars may be correct, but in name only: this is one of the finest restaurants in all of France, and fully merits a third Michelin star. This post inspired me to dig out the menu that was offered when I was there in September, 2002. The chef (Régis Marcon) had gotten up at 5 AM and hunted the mushrooms which he prepared for dinner that evening. Nine courses, twelve different species of mushrooms (mousserons, lactaires délicieux, cèpes, two types of chanterelles (cibarius et tubaeformis), oxalis, craterelles, tanaisie, sparassis crépus, pieds de mouton, etc), three very strong stars in my book. A subtle reminder for me to maintain perspective whenever I start raving about a place such as Maestro. Cheers! Rocks. You must mean: FYI: We did not eat there.

Is someone doing the name spreadsheet?

In the interests of livening up the board, here are some pictures from my easter trip to France. As those who attended the Sette meet-up know, my wife is French and we go back there as often as we can. My in-laws live in Grenoble but most of the trip was spent at their country place near Voiron (Isere). We went for a weekend trip to St. Bonnet-le-Froid (lived up to its name with 8 inches of snow on Easter) to celebrate my brother-in-law's birthday. St. Bonnet is a culinary destination town with a 2 star restaurant and is famous for jambonnet, which is ham creation (not sure of the content) wrapped in string and boiled. Thankfully, its also a mushroom town and in the spring/fall has tons of mushroom outings. Our hotel had mushrooms in every meal which is fine with me! St. Bonnet: Cheese Shop I meant to take pictures of our meals but generally forgot (too much wine?). I did manage to snap this dessert (the mini milk bottle holds chevre ice cream) and the 'chariot de formage': For you Morel hunters out there (Mark!) these were found within an hours time. Went great with pigeon than night.

I was in France over Easter and went Morel hunting for the first time with my wife's parents. We went to the wood behind their house in Saint-Sulpice-des-Rivoires in Isere. This small town is near Voiron and about mid-way between Grenoble and Lyon. We found about 20 that day and enjoyed them with pigeon at night. I am hoping to find some in Virginia this weekend. Here are some pics. Enjoy

Do we have a Chinese speaker coming with us? I would be willing to add their tab to the table as it could be very helpful

No great loss, IMHO (written from etho-central, Adams Morgan)

Anthony, thanks for your input, its certainly welcome. Even though I defended DC Les Halles in this thread (http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=40896, it does have significant shortcomings. I first went there just 2 weeks after it first opened (93?) and have been a regular ever since. I really think the recent management is problematic and they have chased all the regular waiters, bartenders and at least one chef away. Continuity is key in any relationship-based business. Its cheesy but true: its nice to go where everyone knows your name. Well, unless your name is Senator SoAndSo, they don't recognize semi-regulars at Les Halles in DC. And I am not looking for a comp, just a smile now and then. Also, they have seemed to stop hiring French staff out front. Big mistake, they add charm and may actually know about food and wine just a bit. Mark

Delphine and I will be there.

I litterally just got back from France. Full report with pics to follow. No one has mentioned Les Halles which I think is the best of the Bistros. Like all the others it suffers from sometimes inconsistent service. However, the food there is again top notch. Besides normal bistro/steak fare Les Halles often has some hard to find and innovative special menus. I am talking things like raviol, a good cassoulet, rabbit, tounge....great stuff like that. The desserts at Les Halles are fabulous with their new pastry chef. I am a sucker for a grand manier souffle so maybe thats it. Open late too, parhaps not until 2AM but you will be cheerfully served up till midnight. Downsides are the occasional touristas and politico types. Also the management but which Bistro has good management?

My spelling of his name was intentionally so.

That would be Michelle, the most loveable asshole in the city. Almost knocked him out cold in 1996 at Les Halles but he has improved since then.

FYI, Full Kee does not take credit cards so bring cash.

I vote for Full Key in Chinatown and we all have to order off the chinese language menu.

Let me add a big thanks to Jenny and everyone who came. That was lots of fun. No one has talked about the food so I will. It was good but not great. The restaurant is still getting its legs I would say and the main issue it will have over time is that its too popular! The place was packed on a rainy and cold Wednesday night. Vino: The wines by the glass were fine but nothing stood out to me. I sampled a glass of the Vermiglio, Costanti and then the Piedirosso dei campi flegrei, Grotta del Sole. Both lacking a bit in the taste department but I usually do not drink wine at the bar. Perhaps the lack of food hurt the wines. For dinner, the west side of the table (cool kids) had two bottles of Nero D`Avola, Santa Anastasia. I was introduced to this grape in Positano last year and it did not dissapoint last night. Perfect with the meat and cheese plate, especially the gorgonzolla. Then Mike (Al Dente) ordered our third bottle which was excellent. Unfortunately I do not know the name. Nutrizione: The west side of the table had the italian meat plate with a cheese plate. The prosciutto was good and raves were heard about the gorgonzolla and pecorino. Funny note: the wait staff was not too up on the cheese selections, calling the gorg. ...'that blue cheese stuff...' My wife Delphine had Gatto’ di Patate app which was a potato cake with grana cheese and roasted red peppers on the side. Excellent and the bottom was nicely burned and crispy. I had the fried calamari which was extremely tender but a bit salty. My biggest complaint with the food was too much salt. For main courses I had the quatre formaggio pizza with addition of proscuitto. Good pizza (again too salty) which will give Pizzaeria Paradiso a run for its money. Delphine had the Paccheri Alla Genovese which was rigatoni with meat sauce. She seemed to like it and it was nicely al dente. Note to the field: Do not take the internet menu word for word. Both the pasta and dessert (canelloni) I was planning to order were not on the menu anymore and there was no suggestion by the waiter that the kitchen could make them for me Dessert: Both Delphine and I had the mini doughnuts with home-made nutella. The doughnuts are not going to give Krispy Kreme a run for their money but the nutella was fabulous. I was licking my plate if anyone noticed. All in all a great evening made so by the lovely company. Nice to meet everyone. It sounds like we have some good cooks in the crowd so perhaps a future meetup could involve home cooking? Other Mark: forgot all about the cigars, did you end up smoking them?

Yeah, but just barely. Look, more of the last of my twenties just flew by....... Am I the baby of the group? nope my wife is 26. I am feeling old today for some reason. see you all tonight. Will be there at 6:15. Wearing a black suit with blue tie and brown hair. Terrible with names so excuse me in advance.

anyone under the age of 30 coming?