Chef Shogun

My new scheme is to make large-ish pasta or stir-fry type dishes that I can eat for dinner one night, then eat at work for at least two days. Last week I did a citrusy beef with caramelized onion and bell pepper stir fry that came out relatively well. Tonight I did a pasta of zucchini, asparagus, peas, and breaded chicken chunks in an alfredo sauce. I'm moderately ashamed to admit that the sauce came out of a jar (Though I CAN make a killer alfredo, it was too much of an effort for tonight), seasoned and spiked with nutmeg, cardamom, and a little habanero powder for warmth. I had a little for dinner just now, and it's quite tasty, and should keep well for lunch, if I keep the chicken seperated so it stays nice and crispy, as long as the sauce doesn't seperate. I like how this scheme is going so far, and should work well one I get it streamlined a bit. Planning something big for the weekend, if I don't go away. Stay tuned!

For me, it begins and ends with the Chipwich, with an honorable mention going out to the Snickers ice cream bar. Anybody know if the Harbor Bar is still around?

Pho AND hardware?! I'm there!

Home-made Gooseberry Wine. Stand by to crack open a bottle, Richard!

The partner was just wondering what the trendy booze status symbol du jour was in Asia. One of his favorite stories is about how in S'pore back in the early 90s he insisted on drinking the XO cognac straight instead of mixing it with Coke or 7-up like any decent person would do. Quite shocking! Personally, I don't see the sin in Grey Goose and cranberry. There are so many worse crimes then adding something like cranberry juice to a liquor that is flavorless to begin with! regards, trillium edit: because I just can't type It's more a sin of waste. Putting down a non-trivial number of dollars for what is essentially a glass of alcoholic cranberry juice. Heck, probably not even good quality cranberry juice.

Ahh yes, the gimmick-tini. Reminds me of one I could have used in the opener: the sake-tini. It's kind of borderline, and maybe I should try one first, but at the risk of getting yelled at, it just 'seems' wrong to me. I'll let somebody else rail against the vodka 'martini', but sake is meant to be sipped from a little wooden box, sometimes warm, sometimes cold...it depends. It's not a martini base.

Ok then, how about a nice white zin? Blue Motorcycle? Go on...it's got all your basic spirit types in it, so it must be good, right? And it's BLUE! Perhaps the congealed, randid goodness of the Cement Mixer shot? Reading the Crimes Against Food thread prompts the next logical sub-question: what are some of the true crimes against drinks out there? And I don't just mean wine served off-temp, or merely poorly made (Too much lime in the old sidecar gets me every time) mixed drinks. I mean the really cruel things that you have seen done to perfectly good alcohol, that never did any harm to anybody. I've seen what can happen at college parties, but all you waitrons, bartenders, sommliers, and customers that love them out there in the real world must have some truely terrifiying stories.

Excessive cilantro. Grilled food that tastes like breakfast food, when you get there just after breakfast service ends. I'm looking at you, Lindy's. Your breakfast rocks, your lunch rocks, but my Robert should not taste like pancakes and eggs. Small bread in backstage luncheon meat platters. Burnt garlic. Burnt peppers, esp dried pepper flakes. Burnt coffee. Well. Done. Meat. Use of low-flavor veggies as filler. See: loads of cabbage in stir-fry and rice dishes. Don't go too nuts on the beans in a burrito, either, especially if it's not a 'bean burrito'. Things you can't chew. Stringy bits in meat, overcooked squid.

I'd almost venture to say that sounds like the 17th street branch of Capitol Grounds. I've never been in, but I've walked by, and IIRC, it's basically a storefront with a counter. Much smaller than the 21st and Penn. Any other distinguishing features/menu items?

Nothing to add, but watching with interest! Bonus points if they have Vietnamese iced coffee. Edited to add: Oh yeah, I think there's a Pho place on the 23rd street strip of Crystal City, across from the diner discussed in an earlier thread. I've never been, but I'm almost certain it exists. Any opinions?

I humbly submit (at least until I'm no longer worried about being totally overruled by more knowledgable and well-travelled forum-patrons) the 21st and Penn location of Capitol Grounds, who, I believe, do a tasty rendition of the sandwhich you describe. I have nothing to compare it to, having had no other such Cuban sandwiches in the District, and having somehow missed having one when I was in Miami last year, but as a sandwhich on it's own, it's in my regular rotation of favorite sandwhiches at this particular shop. You'd have to ask for the Swiss cheese instead of the default, though. I'd also suggest ordering the grilled sandwiches 'well done', as one of their pannini-toaster technicians has a tendancy to undergrill. They have a shop in the vicinity of 17th and Conn, but I've never been.

As a service to eGulleters, I will be organizing a class action lawsuit against this Steve, on behalf of those who can no longer drink Yoohoo without giggling, resulting in painful irritation to the nasal passage and sinus region due to 'snarfed' product. In other news: Natto is indeed the Infernal snot of the Devil, The Great Deceiver, himself. I am reminded of the Bad Candy Homepage. Similar concept, and some really great reviews. Keep this stuff comming!

Ok, so there's hope. Might be zipcar account time, though. Have to talk with The Roommates (tightwad, non-foodie engineer-types. Smell that? That's a sitcom!) Thanks for the pointers! Oh yeah, and Jaleo will be open over there soon, too! Definately looking forward to that.

There was a burrito cart parked occasionally outside Kogan Plaza at GW, with an impressive array of sauces and a lady running it, but I was always kind of creeped out by the prospect. We have Cart Pasta and Pizza Guy who seems to do very well, and Cart Coffee Guy, who is my regular stop on the way to work, but Cart Burrito Lady didn't seem to take off. From the positive things on this thread, perhaps I am all turned around on the subject of Cart Burritos. I would have tried Lawyer Burrito Cart Guy, because total respect for that. Plus, that'll probably be me in 15-20 years when I'm burnt out on computer science. --C.S. Planning His Mid-Life Crisis Since 2003

Yowch. I just moved to Crystal City from Foggy Bottom and had pretty high hopes for that strip. I still do until I see for myself, of course, but the poor reviews thus far aren't heartening. Other than that 23rd street strip, options seem pretty limited, unless I were to trek over to Pentagon Row for...what...Baja Fresh and The Lebanese Taverna (Do like the Woodley Park branch)? What's the deal on those places in The Underground? The tex-mex looking place, and the cajun place? Any good?

I recently moved into a new place with some friends, so for the first time I sometimes have people milling around when I cook (or do much of anything, really), and it's kind of irritating. "Hey Matt, you cooking??" --Roommate 'A', while I'm very obviously standing there cooking "...." -- Me Still though, I don't have this problem much. I'm usually alone when I cook. So alone...

Heh, you saw that site about the Orka oven mitt, too? There was something hot in THAT kitchen, and it wasn't the convection oven, let me tell you. I don't know, bit strange, but hey, whatever frosts your flakes. I think this is yet another one of the "It's a cool store, but do people actually SHOP there?" I'm sure like you I could spend a good two hours wandering around, looking at things, imagining uses for them, and sure, experiancing them a little. I'd probably never take the next step and buy something, though. For one thing, besides the expense, (or perhaps because of) I'd probably be too nervous to actually USE anything I got there, at least anything consumable. Maybe I'm just insecure, but the fish had *already* be doing pretty well before I drizzle the hypothetical rare olive oil on it. California gets all the fun stuff, and don't get me started on New York! I just moved near a Sur La Table, which is going to be dangerous enough. P.S., there is no website

I'll take that one further and offer that while bad service can taint an evening, fellow diner's reactions to the bad service can make it outright unbearable, far worse than the origonal service flaws. I was with family visiting from out of 'state', eating at Cafe Deluxe on Wisconsin up by the Cathedral. From the start, it was clear that our waiter more than likely had not learned his trade under Charlie Trotter or at The French Laundry. We had to ask about the specials, for example, after waiting for a while for him to come around. Nothing Earth-shattering. To this day I'm not even sure what happened. We got our entrees, and one of the people (a non-relative, but a friend, and a local) with us just begins snarling about something or other. I think he was overlooked for a wine refill (Possible Contributing Factor Number One: neither the first, nor the second) while another was offered one. All through dinner he was grumbling to his partner about this slight, making things fairly uncomfortable for the rest of us, between the complaining, and glaring at the waiter at every opportunity. Dessert and coffee was ordered, and again, some slip that went unnoticed by the rest of us sent this guy into into a fury. When the waiter returned, he was immediately torn into. It was horrible! I felt so bad for the guy I think I slipped an extra $2 into the tip just out of pitty. He really wasn't that bad, over all! Definately shaped up as we went. If I remember, our dining companion even brought the matter up with his good friend, the manager (PCF Number Two: Near-daily patronage of this restaurant). Now, I understand if a long record of good service sets up a high level of expectations, but there's no reason to overreact and ruin the evening for the rest of your companions. Take home message: The way a customer reacts to poor service is every bit as important as the reaction of the house.

I humbly submit "Cone-e-Island" in the 2000 Penn complex in Foggy Bottom (You know, where Kinkeads is!). They have some good things going on over there. Grab a Fantasy Bar while you're at it. Watching this thread with interest!

Ah, this brings me back. Though I only visited Japan a few weeks a year for a while in middle- and high-school, but I reserve my right to be nostalgic about school lunch time! I was in high school, so we didn't have this sort of kyushoku program, but the school cafeteria served many kyushoku staples such as the mapo-dofu, curry rice, and a really good tonkatsu. The best lunches were the ones brought from home in bento form. Typically composed of the previous night's leftovers, or little items like these sweet meatballs, gyoza, BBQ eel (Unagi..one of the best manifiestations of the bento), and of course plenty of rice! Ooh, and the furikake. Who knew a little packet of freeze-dried herbs and spices and sesame seeds could be so good on room-temp rice! I hadden't made this connection before it was mentioned in the thread, but I believe furikake shares an ingrediant with panang curry. A highly addictive ingrediant. *twitch* I still have my gaijin-sized bento box. Should start packing lunches for work in it... Just need to score some furikake. Itadakimaaaasu!