eunny jang

Everyone, please bear in mind that in a lot of those "mid priced, casual" places are corporate chains with strict, super-detailed, sometimes arbitrary service "policies" and "standards." Some of the things mentioned are things servers are actually taught and encouraged to do, and can be fired for not doing. In particular, a lot of servers (and not just at corporate chains) are in for a world of shit if they're caught not making an effort to go through a spiel about xx promotional drink or xx side with your entree. It hardly seems fair to punish the server for this - not everyone's out to screw everyone else.

Kim O'Donnel drives me nuts. Today, she told someone who was cooking on his birthday dinner for a large group of his friends to make risotto, because it's "so festive". For a main dish. For a lot of people. On his birthday. As far as I can tell, she routinely misunderstands questions, has no answer to others, misdirects innocents, is downright wrong a lot, and in general bumbles about with little charm or wit to mitigate. I can't be the only one - anyone else have an opinion on her and her "widsom"? A valuable resource, or a case of knowledge and a wooden spoon being a dangerous thing? Please note that I'm not intending to start a bash-fest. Just wondering if other people have found her valuable, or if I'm totally missing something.

I would like to take a moment to give major props to Giant Food for having a giant tub of sliced hard boiled eggs on the salad bar wherein not one slice of egg has even a tinge of green sulfur. That is all. (Getting desperate for things to be thankful for).

A not-very-substantive post just to express my appreciation for the wonderful hillvalley and babka for putting this whole thing together. See you all on the 7th.

When I ran nine or ten miles every weekday in high school (All-States cross-country, whooo!) I ate a LOT of spaghetti with ground meat sauce (dump pasta in pot. Dump jar of Prego into pan of un-drained ground beef) as a snack. Maybe if you provided whole-wheat pasta? Even the dreaded Blue Box would probably be ok - it's easy and quick to make, cheap, and (reasonably) tasty, and easy to doctor up with additions to balance it a little. I ate a LOT of this in high school, as well, and let me tell you, Lady EasyMac is a harsh mistress. He probably eats enough of everything that you don't have to worry too much. A vitamin and plenty of good choices and you're set.

I really, really really really really hate to say this. I don't really like 2 Amy's anymore, and don't often think of it when trying to come up with someplace to go to dinner. Those risotto things, so delicious and marvelously swollen with goodies inside before...have come out damp and oily and hard rather than crisp the last few times I've been there. The formerly lovely roasted olives have become awkwardly seasoned with herb, with whole sprigs of almost-raw stuff lurking about to leave a nasty, lingering woody taste. The cockles on the vongole pizza have been dried out and a little off. Last time (a couple months ago), I was positive I detected sand in one. The anchovies on the puttanesca have been off-puttingly salty - enough that I wondered if someone forgot to rinse them or if they've started using the Reese tins of anchovies wrapped around capers. Pizzas have come back uniformly burnt on the bottom with soggy, doughy centers. Everything has been awkward and unfriendly to eat, right down to the wet, slick calzone-thing my boyfriend picked at, with clumps of damp, unevenly heated ricotta and unmanageably big, salty wads of lukewarm proscuitto. Service has ranged from perfunctory to downright obnoxious. I used to LOVE this place, going there a couple times a month for a while there. I've probably been four times this year, and been dissapointed each time. Hopefully it's just me.

I love this topic. I like dried non-fancy spaghetti with a long-cooked red meat sauce, topped with one or two firm, ENORMOUS beef/pork/veal meatballs per person, browned and simmered in the sauce. The meatballs have lots of onion and parsley, and are plenty lubed with fat and dairy. To drink: a tall, cool glass of milk.

What a coincidence - I'm starting a boutique organic-food-based skincare line called Panface.

Maybe we should start a new thread for people who hate this thread.

More or less any fruit that works with dairy - fruits you see in ice cream - would work well, I imagine. Mango/ginger - delicious. Watermelon - probably not so much.

Ikea should be renamed daSto - didn't G. Clark mention that a couple people had asked her if the name was Swedish?

OK, listen up people - Sorak Garden should be SoROCK Garden. Because, well, they rock. Great, varied and delicious panchan, even for a single diner. Excellent, fresh-tasting kimchi. A very, very generous hand with the hwe in the hwe naengmyun. Pretty, if sort of cheesy, interior. Sweet waitresses. GREAT prices. My only complaints: the yooksu (boiling hot, salty beef broth served in a cup with cold bibim naengmyun to tame the chili in the sauce) was sort of wan; and maybe that it was a little too authentically Korean - they don't seem to have a non-smoking section to speak of, and people were lighting up all over the place.

I just called Hee Been because this thread brought on a sudden, fierce little hwe naengmyun craving. They don't have any naenmyun, bibim or otherwise, until Saturday It's the middle of summer! What are they thinking?! Edit: ok. Sorak Garden and Han Sung Oak both have it. Which should I go to? never been to either one.

The wayback machine... Friday night - a big pan of chicken enchiladas (half tomato/bell pepper and half tomatillo). This was supposed to be a quick thing I could assemble and tote up to Jeff's house for final baking, but it turned into a debacle - no tortillas at the store; so had to make my own; was originally planning to make a spicy pumpkin sauce, but didn't find the ingredients, so improvised with some sad tomatoes and bell peppers lurking in my fridge. My broiler kept going out with no warning, so charring the vegetables took forever. The stick blender didn't like the big chunks and kept spitting at me. By the time I finally had the thing sprinkled with cilantro and wrapped up, the corn salad I was going to make went out the window and turned into a corn saute with some hastily chopped onion, tomato and arugula folded in. But ohhh, man, were these enchiladas beautiful, and good - smoky and tangy with lime and fresh with herbs, and a distinct difference between the two sauces. Sunday night - exhausted from wakeboarding all day, we came home and grilled waaay too much food. It was one of those things where we wandered into the grocery store starving and bought a truckload of stuff Enormous fat shrimp wrapped in bacon and grilled; potato pancakes; grilled tomatoes and onions, and flank steak with an incredible chimichurri I could have drank (have drunk? What is the past participle of drink?!) by the cupful. Since then, it's been dinner out. Edit: by the way, this is my boyfriend's kitchen. My kitchen is spotless

I think I love you.

I decide what to make for dinner while I'm at the office and make a little list. Usually I get bored and draw little illustrations too: a trussed and roasted chicken in a thicket of rosemary saying a plaintive, "Cluck cluck?!" Because I'm trying to get better about timing dinner (and NOT eating at 10pm), I write myself instructions, too: 1) get potatoes in oven; 2) make chimichurri; 3) prep shrimp and bacon; 4) put steak on grill; 5) prep onions and tomatoes; 6) put steak to rest; put shrimp and vegetables on grill. So my list looks like a little anal, but it helps me a lot. My only problem is, I have to guess at what I have in my pantry - do I have a lime at home? Did I use all the flour on that last pie? This is how last month I ended up with two 5lb bags of white flour and four tubes of toothpaste. Edit: this is my list for tonight. Can you guess what I'm making?:

You might add a thin-ish stream of mirin to sweeten it a little. A bokkum means something close to "stir fried" or sauteed in a pan, while a jorim or a jjim is more of a braise - meat or fish cooked slowly with vegetables in a sauce.

Why didn't you just let the server know you were in a hurry?. She shouldn't have gotten "huffy" with you, but she might have just been flustered. Lots of things go wrong in all sorts of places, and observing the ticket time of the table next to you is usually no indication of where your food is. The kitchen could have dropped a plate, a ticket could have been lost, any number of things. Your server could have been more graceful when trying to make up for the inconvenience, but I would have tipped her.

Thanks for merging, Don. Just got back from Pho Tay Ho in Bailey's Crossroads (which I really wish they'd rename PhoTayTo in deference to the Atkins thing). A broth fiend, I really liked the savory and not-too-well-defatted liquid (though it could have been hotter. Some of my eye-of-round just kind of stayed pink and started giving off a little scum in the rapidly-cooling broth). They were also awfully stingy with the bible tripe, which seems odd since I always thought tripe was cheaper than dirt. The rice noodles were good and fresh and springy, with none of the mushiness that comes from a vat of noodles idling too-long in tepid water. All in all, very good pho, and a nice little fix. I was busy stuffing my face with enormous spoonfuls of meat when I looked up, at the jaw-almost-unhinged midpoint of a big bite of tendon and noodles, and saw someone I vaguely recognized as a DC eGullet-type. I couldn't for the life of me put a name (screen or otherwise) to the face, but I was positive I recognized this person - black shirt, cargo khakis. Or am I just seeing eG everywhere I go?

It's hot outside, my office is freezing, and my stomach feels puffy and uncomfortable from too much booze and fried chicken last night. All excellent reasons to eat a big bowl of pho. Who has the best down here in Alexandria (we're at Seminary and 395)? I wish I could take a long lunch and go to my tried-and-true spots in MD, but really want to try something around here. Should I drive to Seven Corners? I need salty, hot, fragrant, herb-y, beefy pho, people! [Editor's note: Eunny, I merged this with an existing thread - hopefully, you'll find some of what you need here. Rocks.]

Blech, from the picture on the package at least, you'd have to add so much fresh stuff (sauteed vegetables, meat) you might as well go ahead and just make jja jang myun or jap chae from scratch. Why do the net weights on the similarly-sized bags differ?

I think a lot of people view PCness as being born of arrogance: a way for self-righteous people to judge and correct others. I thought I saw some of this coming out when G. Clark made a remark to the effect of "White people think they have to 'protect' blacks from themselves and from the way they talk. In doing so, they are saying it's wrong to talk that way," and by implication, that the way "white people" talk is better. Is PCness the new "uppity"?

Upon my ordering a perfect Manhattan, the bartender smirked at me and said, "All the drinks I make are perfect" with no hint of joking or cuteness. Then, the scraped his shoe into a shaker to make a dirty martini. (Ok, ok, only the first part really happened)

I would call it a "PB & J & CBH - PB". I would also call it off-topic (sorry!). Back to your regularly scheduled PBrogramming.

I never cared for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Now, buttered white toast spread thickly with blackberry jam and piled with crisp-cooked, Tabasco-doctored corned beef hash in a diner booth - that is the food of the gods.