georgesimian

I went to Bar Q last night. I thought it was excellent. It's not the Michellin starred restaurant that Annisa is, but it's not meant to be either. Judging from the crowd, this is looking to be a trendy, popular place. This was the first Friday it's been open and it was full, but the waiters all seemed to know what they were doing. The service was fine. We had a sample from the raw bar, including some sashimi. The scallops and the oysters were the best I've had for a long time. It came with some dipping sauces, which I guess was for the sashimi. I tasted them, and one of them was excellent, but they didn't really add anything. It was all really great without the sauces. For appetizers we had a pork belly dish and the lobster spring rolls. The pork belly came with some steamed buns, so you sort of assemble a sandwich. These were really excellent. As were the lobster spring rolls, which were sort of steamed spinach(?) spring rolls with the lobster served with it. So again, I sort of assembled it to eat it. They both came with sauces, and the sauces were subtle and really made the dishes different to what they would be. I mean, most of the stuff on the menu was stuff I've seen before at other restaurants, but these sauces made it a little different. I couldn't tell you what was in the sauces, or even the flavors, but they were good. The other appetizers all looked good, but you got to choose something. The main courses looked more familiar, so again the difference was with the sauce. We had a fish stew and the pork ribs. The fish stew was sort of a korean style boullebaise with tofu. It was very good, kind of tamed down korean food. The pork was a little weird, with a lot of peanut sauce on it. It was good (it has a few pieces of cabbage on it that were really great), but not at all what I expected. In fact, my biggest complaint was that for a place that is saying it is Asian style BBQ, there wasn't really that much BBQ on the menu, or it didn't seem like that. Even the BBQ ribs didn't seem like BBQ. We were too full for dessert, but there were two soups on the desert menu: a walnut and a coconut soup. The rest seemed pretty Asian style, like green tea cheesecake. That kind of thing. All in all this was a great restaurant. Anita Lo was there, talking to a lot of people. I think the one big drawback is the expectations. If you're expecting Annisa, or BBQ, you're going to be disappointed. Otherwise, the food is really good, with the lobster spring rolls alone worth the trip.

I'm going tomorrow night. Sounds awesome.

They have a great wine list. One of the best.

I totally disagree with most of you guys. I thought this place was great. It's fast food. You order at the counter, you pick it up yourself. The dumplings are great for a place like this. As far as value goes, this place is not that expensive. I had dumplings, a salad and an ice tea for about ten bucks. And the dumplings were big and overstuffed, not dinky at all. You're not going to get fois gras dumplings here, and it's not worth going across town for, but if you're in the neighborhood and want to eat, it's great. The only place I can compare it to is Man Doo Bar, which is good too, but even that's different. I don't know what you guys were expecting from this place. Annisa, but cheap and fast? Come on. This place rules.

Hasaki is excellent sushi, but it's always crowded. Soba Ya is one of my favorite restaurants.

Went to Babbo last week. The octopus was excellent, some of the best I've had. Then I had the rabbit, which was great too. We had house wine, I think it was called Gava, which was fine. Best restaurant I've been to in a long time. Can't believe I'd never been. On another note, had a great lunch, as usual, at Mary's Fish Camp. Grilled snapper, totally awesome. Good food day, obviously.

Good, but I think Balthazar is way better. Of course, they don't have that pizza.

I don't want to second guess you, kellycolorado, but that recipe at Mary's kitchen says to cook at 350 and everything else I've read says these Heritage birds cook better at higher temps, like 450. And I'm not sure what marinading the bird on the outside of the skin is going to do. All the ingredients seem right, but the process doesn't make sense to me. There's some other recipes in this thread that make more sense. Just my opinion.

I brined a turkey last year following Zuni Cafe Cookbook, then smoked it. It was good, but it tasted like ham. And I have to say, after I dumped out the brining water which it was in for two or three days, it wasn't so appealing. It wasn't rotten, but the smell of turkey water just put me off. This year, I've got a heritage turkey coming from FedEx and I'm planning on going the other way, ie, just cooking it in the oven. The only problem for me is the thermostat on my oven is acting up and it's not getting up to 400, so I might have to do it on the Big Green Egg. I'll probably rub some rosemary, thyme and salt and pepper under the skin. I might add some butter, or olive oil, like the article referred to above. I'll have to see what it looks like. I'm looking forward to this turkey. I didn't think about it last year until it was too late, I couldn't find any on the web. I ordered this one a month ago. I don't like normal turkey, so I'm hoping this has some flavor in it.

We ate at Lucy's the other night. The food was really excellent, but the service fell apart halfway through dinner. It's too bad. The food was excellent. I like Suenos, but I don't think the food is as good or as interesting as Lucy's.

I like Shanghai Cuisine on Bayard and Baxter. 888 for Dim Sum, under the bridge in a wierd mall, is definitely a scene and the food is good.

I ate there the other day. We were early for dinner, at 5 O' Clock, the place had just opened. We were the only people there, although a few people came in as we were leaving. The food and the service were great. The drinks were probably what I remember most. I had some margarita with chili in it and it was really good. The guac was good. My fish was really great, but prepared in a way I could have gotten anywhere: pan-fried with lemons, onions, capers. My friend had the shrimp, which I tasted, and it was more interesting. I don't really like big portions, but for the price of an entree you should get a little more than a little piece of fish with a half cup of rice. It seemed a little meek. Anyway, I'd go there again to try something else. Looks like it's not going to be around to long. I'm hardly ever up in that neighborhood, and when I am, the food always seems overpriced and not as good as downtown.

The chicken with figs is great. You can do it without figs and it's still good. I've tried the brining with pork chops and a turkey and a pork shoulder. The shoulder didn't really work, but it was probably my fault. The other stuff was really good, but tasted like ham - both the turkey and the chops. But it got me into the whole idea of brining, so now I'm working my own variations. It's a tough cookbook if you don't live where you can get really fresh ingredients.

Why should good Mexican food be any cheaper than any other good food?

I've tried a bunch of these internet coffee suppliers and these guys are the best. I'm particularly impressed with my last delivery which came on Monday after being ordered on Saturday. I'm trying some Nicaraguan now, but the Mexican organic was some of the best coffee I've had.

They all sound great. Maybe a little far. She's right on the canal. I'll try them all, though. Thanks

Hi, my mother just moved to Maida Vale and I'm wondering if there's a bakery or somewhere to get good pastries and bread. She used to live near Villandry, which had the best food around. Is there anywhere in Maida Vale that comes close?

I had lunch there the other day. The experience was a little weird. We came in around 12:15. there was nobody there, and we had to ask some of the waiters at the bar if they were even open. But once we sat down, the service was good. I thought the food was really good. There was a sort of green, hominy soup I started with, I can't remember the name, which was excellent. Between the three of us, we pretty much tried everything on the lunch menu. The octopus starter and the soup were really the highlights, the ceviche was just good. I would go back in a second. And it wasn't too expensive. After a while, a few others came in, but there were only about four tables with people. I guess that doesn't bode well. I'm all for these gourmet Mexican restaurants. I wish there were more of them. I think fad-wise, they're the next Japanese.