Chef Shogun

DG Happy Hour Menu: Not bad at all!

I'm a fan of their tuna bento. I'm a big fan of walking into a place during lunch, and walking out with a block of seared tuna and some rice! That's good lunch in my book. As far as desserts go, I join everybody in their salty oat cookie-love, and add mochi. Mooochi. As fun to say as it is to eat. Good sub-topic line.

Cantal.... It's been a while...

Yeah, squash soup seems to be everywhere. Thankfully, I've yet to meet one I didn't like. The difference between squash soup and mini-burgers is that eventually the squash will go out of season and be gone for the rest of the year, for better or worse, where mini-burgers never leave!

Anybody up for anything Friday? Bit of the old happy hour perhaps? Seems like it's been a while!

Don't think they personally coined the term, but I'd like to slap them if they did. Party on, Wayne!

Think I'm going to hit Oyamel tonight. Don't think I've been all month! Going to have to be a 'dry' run, since I'm sick and taking stuff for it. Ah well, can buy more food with that money!

Is Rowayton Seafood still a seafood market, or just a restaurant now? Haven't been by there in a long time. Was in Rowayton Market the other day and saw they redid their layout to include seafood (and cheese!). Probably get their stuff from somebody local (or indeed, from Rowayton Seafood).

Oh man, some tonkatsu would be so sweet right now! Or better, katsu-karee. With lots of rice! Yes, I know it's 9 am. Why do you ask?

I would be all over Oyamel tonight.... So close, yet so far away: I'll be a block over and down the street (None of this 'Jefferson Davis Highway' hooey...that's the Boston Post Road!) from Oyamel, albeit 400 miles away. At least I found a cheese shop. Have some oxtail tacos for me!

Oh man, do I ever need to go out tonight. Something about being home... none of you happen to be in the Fairfield County, CT area, by chance? Anybody know of a cheese shop in this area? Jill's got me hooked on the good stuff, and even though it's not my assigned duty, I am NOT doing the Shop-Rite cheddar (Yellow AND white) again! The nut-encrusted port wine cheese, ok...afterall, what is Christmas without family tradition? Alright, video games and Post Road Diner (Haven't been home 24 hours and already I've been twice!) it is!

When I was growing up in Norwalk, South Norwalk (SoNo) always had a few restaurants and sleezy-looking bars and things, but all the sudden now it's starting to be developed (Ok, in the last several years, but I moved away!) and has a lot of interesting-looking things going on. Anybody ever been anywhere in that area? A search of the forum didn't turn up much. I've been to Donovans and The Rattlesnake Cafe with the family a couple of times, and liked Caffiene, but it's too expensive now that my sister doesn't work there anymore! I'm heading home for the holidays (right after this!)...what should I add to the list after Angela Mia and Super Duper Weenie?

Bah, missed out on the MD 20/20 reference by minutes...eating breakfast over here (Mini Off-Topic Review: Lindy's does NOT run their first-stringers during breakfast. This stuff is practically lunch by now! Not that it's not tasty, now.) They can be serious about wine and still use it in a cocktail. They're just not using the good stuff. With the right (as in brings some interesting flavor) wine, and a good, taste-free vodka it might even work. You're just a few herbs away from a 'vodka martini', afterall.

That's one thing I've always wanted to try but never have: alcohol-jacked jamba juice. Yeah, that's pretty much how I used it at work, typically to replace lunch. All this talk makes me kind of want one, but I had my heart set on Thai today!

We have one here on campus in DC, and I used to go before work for a Razzmataz or a Strawberries Wild. Haven't been in a while, though. The prevailing wisdom here seems to be 'It's a smoothie, it's healthy! I'll have one with lunch [they are on the meal plan here] and it'll be better than soda!' I always thought that was kind of funny. There might be something to that 'Coldbuster', though.

Let's hear it for the Bourbon Club!

I didn't think it was bland nessesarily, but some of the dishes were missing something. Shrimp in coconut sauce, I'm looking at you here (Probably the catfish, too. Not that I didn't like both dishes, now!). Probably all the aforementioned spices that the discussion did away with! I know...it depends on what the 'default' levels are and what adjustments were made. The bitter melon was pretty bitter, but it wasn't as lethal as I had been lead to believe. Still though, I can see why they were completely packed on a Tuesday night! I'd go back.

Restaurant week!!

As a nerd, I would like to add my enthusiastic support for Bistrot du Coin.

Heineken does the same to me: Tequila Grill on 18th (19th?) and K has/had a 'Free Beer Night' on Thursdays. Ok, there was a $10 cover, so you had to drink a few to break even. Long story short, we get there a little closer to the end then usual, and have to play 'beat the clock' because hey, you have to break even before the Heineken is free, if only as a matter of principle! Then of course after that it's HELLO! Free beer! Now I can't go near the stuff. Think the same place has Free Margarita Night, too. Never been.

I don't know if 975 or 775 is a good ammount of business for a store that's only open ~five hours a day to do, but the place is always packed, so I just assumed they were doing well. And sure, they're losing business to the Potbelly at the end of the block; you can eat for three days at Potbelly* for the price of most lunches at Breadline. They win big in quality, but can't compete on price. I love Breadline, I'm in there all the time (more than I should be, from a financial standpoint!), but reading that they are losing business to Potbelly and company, while I was sorry to hear about, was kind of a "Well DUH" moment. * Kind of the the pathological case, being the cheapest sandwich in that immediate area. That said, I pretty much stopped going to Potbelly when I got into Breadline!

That's pretty much the sense I got from them, the one time I ended up in one. What makes it 'gourmet' exactly? The shaker of paprika-cayenne-salt you can buy from your waitron? This place seems to hold the same unexplainable mythical position as Chick-Fil-A.

Sommelier fight!! Sommelier fight!!

Yeah, late-night drinkers with decent food are fine in my book!

Tempted too....when?