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jmc8y

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Posts posted by jmc8y

  1. I ended up one lunchtime, dining solo at Feenie's on Broadway.  I was hesitant going in, but was made to feel very welcome by my server (and actually the table beside me as well!). 

    I've never dined solo at Cru, but agree with Mooshmouse that you would feel welcomed there as well and the food is excellent.

    i'm new to the area but was thinking of trying feenie's. how far in advance would you guys suggest making reservations for dinner? is there generally a wait at lunchtime?

  2. I always really want to like California Tortilla - friendly, small local chain with nice people running things - but nothing there tastes good to me.  Sloppy novelty burritos - ceaser salad roll-up with Mexican rice and mango salsa anyone? - that aren't particularly coherent OR tasty; chips that, sadly, suck like my boss' secretary, and the pico de gallo in the little plastic ramekins is always oddly frothy and tangy-verging-on-sour in a weird way.  I have probably eaten thirty of their burritos (29 of them against my will) and not liked a single one :sad:

    edit: punctuation is a good thing

    you know what, having grown up on good tex mex, i know what you are talking about. the first few times i went here i was very underwhelmed. I'm still not crazy about the novelty burritos. and their rice sucks. what got me was the "wall of flame." i'm a huge hot sauce freak - i have a minifridge full of them - and this placee gives the chance to try them before i buy them. i only really order the honey lime burrito now, which is a good canvas for hot sauce.

  3. I'm talking places like Chipotle, bajafresh, and California Tortilla.

    My favorite is california tortilla. The people who run it seem really nice and send out a great newsletter every month. They also have frequent specials, like a roulette wheel on monday night that determines if your burrito is free, or cheaper, or if you get free chips or something. Also they have like 50 different hot sauces to try.

    second would be baja fresh because they have that pepper and salsa bar.

    chipotle, to me, sucks ventworm nut.

  4. I was gonna say Indique, but Morela beat me to it!  You can definitely eat on the cheap there if you watch your drinking.  Also, if you're considering sharing entrees, don't.  Although the portions are often quite shareable (at least IMO), the sharing cost plus the cost of an extra plate of rice and daal add up almost to the cost of an extra entree.  Personally, I like to take home my leftovers anyway.

    Bardeo is also open on Sundays, though their charming host is off-duty that night.

    So many other "good deal!" spots are closed including Kuna and the beloved Palena.

    "sharing cost"? this ain't russia.

  5. Thanks Mark, that's a great list... I love Cashion's and New Big Wong (thanks to John and Alex), and I've been wanting to try Ray's the Steaks for a while.

    But I forgot to emphasize - nothing very expensive.  I'm a twenty-something waitress.  I go to the nice places, but only when I have some money to burn or its a special occasion.  So, preferably something equal to or less than $60 for two people, not including wine and drinks.

    Where is The Guards? And Ray's?  Are they in the District or Metro-accessible or not too much cab fare from Adams Morgan/Columbia Heights?

    Oh, and please include places that do carry-out (good quality carryout) for when I don't want to get out of my pajamas on my day off :biggrin:

    Thank you people!

    Ray's is not far from the Rosslyn metro station.

    A lot of the information you seek can be found via google. or google + mapquest. or google + mapquest + the wmata site.

  6. I saw the sign at Pho Thy - "Vietnamese sub - $2.50".  I thought "what the hell kind of sub can you get for $2.50?"  Maybe more than I think...

    OK, I can now hear in my head Don Cherry bellowing "Ba-hani my eye!  Beauty!!"

    thanks for the advice guys. looks like i will be going to kim phong!

  7. Shao Lin noodle house, 1/2 block west of cambie on broadway. south side. Damn fine soup and noodles.

    this thread is a little dated, but I was hoping for some pho reccomendations. I have a pho passion, and I just moved from northern virginia where pho shops are a dime a dozen and they are amazing.

    I'm living on the UBC campus so places close to there are preferred. But I will travel great distances for great pho!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  8. As expected, it lived up to its pre-billing.  I had the house special (NY Strip au poivre with brandy mushroom cream sauce with blue chese).  So many things happening, but so good together.

    The crab cake appetizer was a surprise.  I was expecting maybe two small balls of crab cake.  What they brought out was a crab cake the size and shape of a good sized pancake, not too much filler and a distinctive mustard flavor.

    One taste of my Strip made my wife vow never to order a filet in a restaurant again (which she did last night).  Not that the fliet was bad, it just didn't measure up to the strip.

    The taste I can't get out of my head is the creamed spinach (or should I say spinach flavored cream?) 

    We left with one question - how much cream must this place go through on a daily basis between the sauces, the bisque, the spinach and the potatoes?

    i moved to vancouver recently and the thing i miss most (besides family) is RAYS THE STEAKS!!!!!!! if you are reading this Ray/Michael, please send me steaks and get me out of this godforsaken salmon loving town!

  9. I went here last Friday and was very happy with my meal.

    We started out with the aforementioned deep fried lamb kabobs with cheese in them. I was a bit disappointed, but this was probably just because I had built them up so much in my head. They were tasty though.

    My dining companion had some chicken kabob entree. It sounded kinda boring, and I wouldn't have ordered it but she seemed to like it after she had drenched it in their respectable raita. I had the butter chicken, at the reccomendation of one of the above posts. It was deliciously smooth and had a nice spicy background flavor. There was a lot of extra sauce so I used some naan to sop it up.

    This was a very good meal, and at just $30 it was quite a bargain.

  10. From watching the culinary school series on foodTV, and the restaurant on NBC, I had just assumed it was custom for subordinates to call the head chef, "chef."

    That said,

    Chef,

    Are there any knowledge, skills or attitudes that you gained through teaching English that have aided you in your culinary career?

  11. Todd hit the nail on the head. Unfortunately there was really nothing behind the name, or perhaps subconsciously. Here is the funny part for all the over-thinking on this thread.....it was the first thing that came to us, and it seemed to fit.

    As far as the Tom Sietsema letter and Candi Saigon article, which seems to keep coming up, I'm impressed at the general lack of understanding of the press. Candi Saigon made me a cartoon to set the record straight. And Tom didn't print my whole letter. My customers know who I am, and those of you that want to believe that I'm a raging bitch lunatic that won't change my food you'll probably never come here and see what I'm really like. But the customers that live in this neighborhood, who live in Centerville, Gaithersburg, Rockville, and Alexandria and eat at Colorado Kitchen 4 and 5 times a week know who I am. And the funny thing...they call me "Chef".

    See you all Monday,

    Chef

    Chef,

    I like dasto as a name, i think it's funny. and if i were a chef, i'd probably be very sensitive to people making requests that changed the way i had designed the dish, not to mention people ordering well-done meat. heck, it pisses me seeing people do that as a customer.

    i only meant to remark that your note came off as a bit agressive, and that probably doesn't help things.

  12. i'm not white, but then again, i haven't replied to the thread until now.

    I have no problem with the name of the store, nor do i have a problem with her control over the way her dishes are prepared. Shit, dog, no one is forcing you to eat there.

    However, judging by the letter she wrote to Sietsema and the above message, she comes off as quite defensive and a little bitchy.

  13. Hi, it's the newbie again with another "where do I go?" question. Last night I had the worst mexican food in my life: gooey tamales, dried out rice, flavorless beans. :huh: Where's a good place to go around here? I'm from California and lived in downtown Los Angeles for four years so I'm pretty spoiled and after a year in Boston I'm really missing Mexican food (or, according to the recent eGullet article on tex-mex, maybe what I'm missing is CA mexican). I want a taco that's on two un-fried corn tortillas, with some carne asada or pork, a searing hot sauce, onion and cilantro, limes, and a salsa bar.

    And if someone has a restaurant suggestion, would any of you like to come along to try it?

    where did you have the crappy mexican?

    The tacos you describe (2 unfried corn tortillas + choice of meat + spicy sauce, lime, cilantro) can be found at a restaurant on Washington Blvd in Arlington called El Charrito. They are amazing.

  14. What makes you think its a joke? I found it perfectly believable. I guess you have to experience Ray's the Steaks in order to fully understand.

    i've been there.

    i thought that it was a joke because of the eggs. i thought chef michael wrote that post about eggs in jest, and i still think that. so why would he serve it to woodley girl? also how did he know you were from egullet? did you reserve with your egullet name?

    btw, i'm pretty stupid.

  15. It is nearly 2 in the afternoon, the day after my Ray's feast. I woke up about 2 hours ago and I am not sure that I am going to be much good to anyone today. I am still stuffed from my Ray's the Steaks tasting menu that I was lucky enough to have with my boyfriend last night (Roger Troutman). Lemme tell you a bit about what I consumed.

    Let me preface this by saying that I am a DC snob. I try to never leave the District. Ever. Go to Veerginny?? Please. There is no reason to in my mind because there are perfectly good places to go in the District. I now will say to you all: I have found a reason to go to the Great State of VA. Steak and Devishly Good Eggs.

    Chef Michael had called me earlier in the day to double check that we were going to honor our reservation at 9:00pm. I said yes of course when he called and then he asked me, "are you WoodleyGrrl?" Obviously he reads all our comments here.

    We started with a glass of the Pinot Noir. It was ok. I really wanted to try a bottle of something else but I was driving so I knew that if I ordered a bottle of something you would would have found me a couple of hours later driving down 66 in the wrong direction, with Metallica playing at full blast on my radio, and me with a couple of smokes hanging from my lips. Anyhow, the wine was good.

    We had decided before we left that we were only going to have entrees because we are watching what we are eating (atkins diet. please give me some pasta and a jumbo slice, STAT) so I had decided to get a filet done really really really rare and my boyfried decided on the Ribeye Diablo done medium rare.

    There was a tasty bowl of spicy cashews on the table to start with. Highly addictive and I think that my boy and I were fighting for the last crumbs. We were then enjoying our wine when Chef Michael came by and introduced himself. He told us to pick our steak and then disappeared into the kitchen.

    Out came a plate of Devishly Good Eggs. WHAT THE HELL IS IN THE EGGS? I know Chef Michael has described in detail how he creates these things in the other tread, but I think he must have failed to mention that once you have one of these you may not want to have the steak. Because they are so fucking good that you could have them in place of the entree. The spicy spicy relish that comes with them is a great contrast to the velvety eggs.

    After the eggs, out came a cup of the onion soup. Now here is the thing: I know french onion soup. It is only one of my favorite foods in the whole world. The soup that Michael served us was nothing less than fantastic. It was meatly, with some great cheese, and the onions where sweet and tangy. There was a crouton floating on the top that I think was made out of the same bread that comes out at the beginning of the meal. It was this great rosemary bread that was a great contrast to the salty/spicy soup.

    Then when we were considering laying down on the floor in a fetal position and having the steak brought down to us only after the wait staff had cut our food into little pieces just like ma used to do, out came a piece of grilled calamari served with some lemon and onions. The squid was fresh, tender and perfectly opaque.

    After that was cleared, the waiter came back and said next are the steaks, I promise. We were so happy to hear that I think I cried a little.

    The steaks were perfect. Sadly, I could not finish all of mine but my boy was able to hammer through all of his. He declared it, "the best steak I ever had." His cut was the clear winner of the two with the smoky pepper, roasted garlic, and ALL THAT MEAT.

    All in all it was a perfect way to celebrate a special occasion. So I will end it fellow posters by saying this: Fuck all those fussy steak joints in the District. Get yo ass to VA and have some real meat. You will be glad you did.

    i can't figure out if this is a joke, or if it really hapenned.

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