eunny jang

I ate some leftover (unsauced) spaghetti frizzled in olive oil till crispy-chewy, with lots of salt, pepper and red pepper flakes. Topped with a fried egg, breadcrumbs, and a few drops of sizzling red wine vinegar swirled in the pan to catch all the oiled crumbs. Stirred together to cloak the strands in egg yolk.

Wow, thank you for all the suggestions. I could definitely dig on the Penn Quarter idea. My day is going to go something like this: Midnight, run out to oh-so convenient store across from my apartment. Purchase some sort of alcoholic beverage, consume. 8am: Go to DMV. Get license changed. Pay speeding tickets I've been putting off paying for ages Noon: Go to lunch/breakfast, probably at Trio, not because it's so good but because it's soo cheap and soo close. Will drink bloody marys with lots of green Tabasco. Afternoon: Some sort of non-alcohol related activity appropriate to a birthday. 7-8pm: Go to comfortable, no-pressure dinner. Will eat either steak tartare or the duck with green peppercorns at BdC. Will drink Ricard and waters. After: Go to drink. As the night wears on, will get sweet and talkative, then get too flirtatious, then get a touch belligerent. Will do my best to misbehave. Thanks for everyone's help

I ate apple pie for dinner With vanilla ice cream When no one was looking, I licked the plate to get all the melted ice cream/apple ooze mixture

No, but it is pretty funny that you are just turning 21 and all those places listed are not adult enough. Ah, I have no qualms about being grown-up or not grown-up - I'm just trying to avoid guys who think a great opening for a conversation is, "So, do you go to Georgetown or GW?"

Thanks everyone for your ideas... I guess I should have mentioned that having had four apartments within a 3-block radius of BdC, it is pretty much my living room at this point. Was actually planning to have dinner there. I guess now that I think about it, I've drunk (what is the past participle of drink??) at lots of the usual suspects, Fox and Hounds, Red, Lucky Bar, the Raven, Mackey's, the Childe Harold, the Big Hunt, the Brickskellar, etc. I was thinking less raucous party, more grown-up newish places with great bars (if it doesn't completely negate any maturity one might have to use the phrase "grown-up") I like old-school drinks, gimlets and proper whiskey sours, so no $1 shooter nights either :)

So, the Eunny Jang 21st birthday countdown has officially begun (T-minus 11 days and counting). My drinking thus far has been mostly 1) at home, 2) at ballgames or 3) at the happy-hour circuit bars. Nothing interesting. Given that, would anyone care to chart a route or offer suggestions for spots I shouldn't miss? The idea is to have dinner, then roam and drink for a pretty vulgar length of time. I'd like to stay at least within stumbling distance of home (17th and S), and am not a huge fan of Adams Morgan. Any ideas for really cool places everyone should have a drink at least once?

Spaghetti and big old meatballs Garlic bread Apple pie and ice cream for dessert (my first ever pie!) Coffee-table food for a repeat viewing of the Sopranos

Salad nicoise is my absolute favorite in the summer. Tuna grilled rare, cloaked in cracked peppercorns. Mustardy, shalloty dressing. Watercress as the greens base - stands up well to vinegar and capers and tuna and olives. Come to think of it, watercress in everything, with ceaser-ish dressings with lots of parmesan, with asian-ish dressings with sesame oil and rice wine vinegar...one of my favorite greens. Summertime barbeque salads of tomatoes and iced white onions. Potato salad with hot vinegar and bacon. Peak-season corn, almost raw, with red onion and cilantro. TABBOULEH, with more parsley than grain. Lots and lots of lemon. Eaten with romaine leaves. Perfect too-hot-to-move dinner.

The steak tartare at BdC is never over-done. Yum, think I'll go late tonight.

OK, I would like to play too: There has been some talk about how to select rice, but I'm befuddled when it comes to cooking it. My mother must never know, but I never paid attention to the rice/water ratio. Is there a rule of thumb for ratios when cooking short grain rice? How about long grain? Timings? White rice and brown? Uncover or don't? Simmer or boil? There must be general proportions and guidelines. Risottos and pilafs I do ok with.

My favorite hipster foodie post, I think, was the one many chats back who really had Tom going (mixed group, picky eaters, this ethnic ok, this ethnic not ok, waterfront view please! and a couple gripes about repetitious reccomendations thrown in for good measure) until the last line: something about "Oh, and one side of my body is significantly shorter than the other, so the restaurant needs to be able to accomodate that." Tom's chats seem to be getting rowdier and rowdier. Love it.

The Cyberstop Cafe (I know, stupid name) on 17th between Q and P (I think) has WiFi access all over, a patio out front with plenty of outlets, and allows smoking both indoors and outdoors. Pretty standard espresso and sandwiches/cookies, but if you're hungry, go to Komi or Sushi Taro near by. Otherwise, sit in the sun for hours (they could care less) and surf away.

That's exactly what they are! I was wracking my brain trying to remember the Korean word, since I'd never seen them before Sunday. Can't attest to the aphrodisiacal properties, but they sure taste good.

Sunday night: Oxtail and potatoes braised in soy and mirin. This was the reward for going to my parent's house and sitting down to plow through 6 50-packs of wonton skins with my mom and grandmother. We made mandoo (for lack of a better word, Korean wontons) for a couple hours. They had copious amounts of an interesting vegetable in them, marked as "chives" but much fatter and longer, like chives on steroids but not quite scallions. Boiled a bunch of these to eat with the oxtail. Monday night: big slices of turkey from one my boyfriend cooked on a whim. Mashed potatoes, green beans. Later, nibbled on the neck while watching the Daily Show and his roomates looked on in horror. Stole pieces of skin while no one was looking. Last night: big turkey sandwich with mayo, lettuce, tomato, onions, salt and pepper. Pieces of turkey skin stolen in secret. Tonight: (hopefully) turkey soup like he makes it, peppery and savory.

When I was small and sick, my mom used to make me juk, which seems to be the Korean equivalent of congee or okayu. She'd bring it up on a tray with a small dish of soy and a few slivered green onions. I'd eat it by dipping the very tip of my spoon in soy and then taking a spoonful of juk, flavored just a little with the drop of soy sauce. When I was feeling better, she'd crack an egg into the steaming hot porridge before bringing it up. Then shredded pork or fish would start going into it, until I felt well enough to eat real meals. Nowadays, I eat the spiciest things I can get my hands on, but try to avoid a lot of grease or heaviness to keep all my strength focused on getting better and NOT on digesting a five ton brick of butter and cheese in my stomach - lots of Thai take out.

Or drive into the city and stop at the Waterfront fish market in SW. Pick up a pound of Old Bay shrimp or a fish sandwich and eat right there on the river with your legs swinging over the side of the dock.

The hanging bits of skin around the neck and cavity of a roasted chicken, crispier, fattier and more heavily seasoned than anywhere else.

Thank you to hillvalley for putting all this together. Sorry I had to run early, but it was past my bedtime (well, that, and I had people coming over). It was great to meet everyone. The food was great - although I now have an entire vat of soup I'm not sure what to do with.

Oh, I'm so sorry! I hope he feels better very soon! I may have an extra person tonight - will it be ok? Should we do the whole "I'll be the mysterious lady with the red rose between my teeth" thing again, or does everyone (besides me) pretty much know each other?

It was rude (and wasteful) for the customers to do it (did they do it over and over?) but, perhaps, a bit off-putting for the owner to say anything to them (although I think a lot of customers take all-you-can-eat as though the is restaurant saying "we don't care about food costs or paying the dishwasher so it's a free-for-all where you can dispense with all manners." If I were the owner, I wouldn't have said anything, if only because no matter how it's worded, it seems as though you're ungrateful for their business. Of course, given how these guys acted, I might not WANT their repeat business. There is a (not very good) sushi buffet 'round here that has a sign posted reading "You will be charged $1.00 for each piece of rice you leave on your plate." I guess people were taking nigiri sushi, peeling the fish off, and going back for more.

Wow. Perfect for spring. Pcarpen: Was the squid stuffed? Last night, I ate a tiny (4oz) sushi-grade tuna steak tossed in a marinade of sesame oil, wasabi powder, rice vinegar, mirin, soy, and Korean chili powder. A pocket was made, and watercress sprigs, drenched in the leftover marinade, were stuffed inside. Grilled the packet crusty and rare. Ate with the rest of the watercress.

Umm. I guess I'll leave this alone, but...I am sorry if it does not agree with you, but sometimes, strong-smelling foods are a good thing, ancient and indispensable (fish sauce, daenjang, stinky cheese). Not everything is hermetically sealed with a "born-on" date printed on it.

My mom never pounded, but then, we loved our squid al dente , both in long-braised things and quick-two-minutes-over-heat things. She did, however, reminisce about our grandmother pounding squid and octopus against rocks every time she cooked it.

Oh, my goodness - I was wondering why I had all these PMs - just realized that I put my birthday down for the wrong month in my profile My 21st isn't till next month (so I have one more month before I take a long, long step on the road to liver poisoning) but thank you for the good wishes See everyone on Thursday!

Ribeyes grilled over charcoal, naked except for salt and pepper. Little french-cut green beans, also naked except for butter and salt. Perfect, crisp, fluffy-interiored, MAGNIFICENT fries, salted. Eaten while watching Montreal give Boston an atomic wedgie and say, "nanny-nanny boo boo" in the Stanley Cup playoffs.