rosebud

So tell me: how do you manage to eat the crab in the soup with those plastic spoons? On the basis of your review, I believe Mr. Rosebud and I would be available to continue the exploration of the menu with you and Mrs. Waitman.

Ask and ye shall receive: Click

I only tried FIVE of the kinds of crab cakes--didn't realize there were SIX. That Busboy's were the only ones left had to do with the fact that they were last. I personally voted for his "French" ones, followed closely by Heather's "Asian" version. Carol's salad, however, was a revelation and I would particularly like her recipe.

We went there last year and took a very elderly neighbor with us. None of us was particularly interested in turkey. For $40 (before tax and tip) we got a three-course meal, with several choices in the Apps, Mains, and Desserts. There was also a Turkey Dinner, with appropriate sides.If you like the food at Corduroy (and who doesn't?), you will like it on Thanksgiving. The Apps and Desserts were all from the more-or-less usual choices, the Mains were a little simpler. My husband and neighbor both chose the beef tenderloin, which was accompanied by haricots verts and a potato gratin, IIRC, and I had the fish (can't remember what kind it was). DH had a very nice apple tart, neighbor had the creme brulee, and I had the chocolate tart. The usual wines-by-the-glass were available at their usual prices. Our neighbor thoroughly enjoyed the food and the atmosphere. Highly recommended. ETA: Rissa brought out a plate of the turkey dinner for us to sample because Chef Power knows us and he said we HAD to have some turkey on Thanksgiving. We were all too full to do it much justice but for somebody looking for a "traditional" meal, this will certainly qualify.

I haven't read through the entire thread, but I make Limoncello and give it away as Christmas presents. I use Everclear and dilute 3:1 according to a recipe that appeared in the Washington Post several years ago. I won't get into the vodka vs. Everclear debate. I want to talk about lemons, instead. At my local Safeway very large, beautiful lemons are available for 59 cents apiece. Fortunately, I have access to lemons (and limes) at a couple of ethnic stores in my neighborhood for either 3 for $1 or 4 for $1. Guess which ones are full of dye (which is almost immediately evident once you steep the peel in the alcohol)? Yup, the expensive ones from the Safeway. To get rid of any wax which might be present, I simply drop the lemons in boiling water for about 10 seconds or so. Gets rid of the wax, and whatever other nasty stuff is on there without changing the essential part of the lemon.

I always use dry marsala for cooking anything other than a dessert. The exception was a Cook's Illustrated recipe where they INSISTED that the sweet variety worked better than the dry in a "Chicken Marsala" recipe. THEY WERE WRONG! That recipe looks very good and wouldn't hesitate to use what you have.

When my brother first move here with his family, Clyde's in Georgetown was the most "kid friendly" place we could think of. Now, there is a NEW Clyde's on Seventh Street, just above the MCI (Verizon?) Center. Go there. An amazing transformation of what used to be a very moribund part of town. Lots of excitement and action.

Word.

Busboy, Honey, I love you to death; HOWEVER, you are trying to push the ocean back with a broom. Because our native language, Modern English, is a bastard child of two traditional languages (i.e., the dead Old English and the equally dead Latin), it just can't help but evolve at the speed of light. I have heard more non-English speakers than I can count complain about the multiple meanings of a single word. Just think about George Carlin's observation that over the public airwaves you can say "I pricked my finger." But, you cannot say, "I fingered my p**ck." YOU worry about the verbalizing of nouns, such as "source," and I worry about the complete breakdown of grammar and spelling because of the urge to abbreviate EVERYTHING, thanks to technology, BTW One thing I have learned is that, like perfect (and disappearing) manners, use of language will separate the wheat from the chaff. It has ALWAYS been so. Your job is to get that across to your children.

Ditto, ditto, ditto.

I was actually going to make some of the same points as Brooks, but he beat me to it and said it better, anyway. One thing to remember about Vietnamese food, which separates it from other Asian cuisines, is that there is a considerable French influence there--perhaps making it a bit more approachable to non-Asians. Plus, the largest part of the Vietnamese community in the US came here in a big hurry, with little other than the clothes they were wearing. Setting up a restaurant and selling "home cooking" to those who followed must have seemed a no-brainer. Of course, the rest of us benefitted from it, too.

Mr. Rosebud is far more adventurous than I am. There are just some things I can't bring myself to eat--if I know what they are . I expect we will find things to make all of us happy. Barbara

And tasted even better. ← Send over more Limoncello and we'll ferry you back out for more. ← Hey, I'm easy.

Thank you Andie and Fifi! This makes perfect sense (and you proved its efficacy, Fifi). The next time the soup's too salty (or something), I won't have to throw it out.

And tasted even better.

I managed to peruse the wine selections, at least a little bit. Unless there was something parked in an obscure corner, they seem to have a rather run-of-the-mill supermarket selection. I believe that prices and liquor taxes are a bit higher in VA than in DC (could be wrong), so I didn't see anything unusual or particularly a bargain. I bought a duck, which sold for $1.99 @lb. and seemed to me to be a pretty good deal. It is in the oven as I type. I wholeheartedly agree with Busboy that the fish tanks looked a lot better than they did the first time I was there. The cauliflower was 20 cents a head more expensive than in November but, at $1.19, I still consider that cheap. I bought a whole pineapple for $2.49. In the bakery department, they sold several types of pre-wrapped "Swiss Rolls." Now, I normally wouldn't give them a second look, but one of them was "Green Tea," so I picked some up. As inexpensive as it was, I wouldn't get another one--not even for the novelty factor. It will be interesting to see the place when it isn't prepared for a holiday mob scene.

Charlie, Your wife's pictures are beyond description. The rebuilding efforts seem, to me, to be so ad hoc, that I wonder if the collective brain-power of a foodie group like this can't come up with something more effective. I'm all ears. Barbara

I directly asked the man this question a few years ago when he was in Washington at a bookstore a couple of blocks away from DC's outpost of Les Halles. Bourdain was doing a book signing when the paperback came out (and, since he himself had sorta disparaged his own novels, I grabbed a new, little book he had written about "Typhoid Mary." It was a quite fascinating, non-fiction book which got almost NO publicity). I asked the question because I ASSUMED everybody in NYC knew who he was writing about. Not so, apparently. And, he declined to answer because the guy is still working and Bourdain thought that he would be hurt by "outing" him as Bigfoot. I can live with that.

There was a time, about ten years ago now, when I wanted to go to Timberlakes and drink a beer and smoke from 4 to 600 cigarettes (Busboy, I stole this from you ) and found that it was closed for renovation! Really. So, I walked up the street to Food for Thought. The SMELL in that place was nauseating. I couldn't believe it. There were people in there (this was in the afternoon), staff members and hangers-on from what I could gather, but MY GOD! How could anybody stay in that place for longer than five minutes! Needless to say, I was THRILLED when Bistrot du Coin took over the place. For the longest time, there was a sign saying "French Food Without the Attitude." What an improvement! And absolutely NO pretense to being "healthy."

Aside from the hunt for crabs (see original comments above), part of what had me stunned from the git-go was the price on the produce. The FIRST thing I grabbed was a cauliflower for $0.99. They sell for $3.49 at my local Safeway. Then there was the cabbage. At that point, I went back and looked for a cart. Busboy was already exploring the seafood department. The problem is that I live in the inner city and don't have wheels, so am dependent on fun folk like the Busboys (who do own a car, even though they live in the inner city, too). In the "Too Soon Old, Too Late Wise" category, there was a large Asian supermarket in "Chinatown", which has recently closed because there are almost NO Chinese or Asian people living in that rapidly gentrifying part of town. The thing is, when I first went there I had no computer and wasn't aware of any foodie websites to educate me. Ergo, I had NO idea what I was looking at. Or knew what to look for.

While I'm no great fan of Martha Stewart's recipes, I have to admit that I appreciate her method for boiling live lobsters: When you bring a lobster pot full of water to the boil, she recommends throwing a shot of vodka into the pot because "If YOU were going to be boiled alive wouldn't YOU want a drink, too?" That's as far as I am willing to go to accommodate a lobster, or crab, or whatever.

Happy New Year, Charles, and thanks for another thoughtful post. I worked near the corner of 21st and M Streets back in 1975 and, because I was the new and enthusiastic member of the company, I foolishly took on the task of organizing the company's Christmas party. We went to Blackie's for steaks and wine. I just remember thinking that all my hard work was for really unmemorable (but expensive) food and drink. Speaking of late, lamented restaurants . . . San Marco isn't gone yet, but DH and I went there for NYE dinner last night, just in case the owners make good on their threat to retire this year.

I've made a few Buche Noels in my time and went straight to the source, Jacques Pepin's "La Technique" for the recipe. He bakes the separate parts at 180 to 190 degrees for 75 minutes. I have simply stuck a few on the cake before serving and passed the remainder in a basket. Never had a problem with "gumminess." I even made these for a dinner based on mushrooms (these were the dessert). Simply put them in a linen-lined basket and passed them around. Works every time.

Exactly. Does anyone else remember when Kraft sponsored TV shows and demonstrated various "Holiday" recipes using Kraft products during the commercial breaks? This was when there was no cable and only 3 television networks, so you could figure that most people in the country were watching this at one time or another.Tuna Noodle Casserole is a Catholic thing, people. Used to be that Catholics were not allowed to eat meat on Friday, fresh fish was unavailable in most of the country, and was expensive if you COULD find it. Thus, the cheap-to-make casserole was born. I ate tons of this stuff growing up. Along with "fish sticks."

At lunch the soups are $5 (at the bar) and come with some wonderful bread. FIVE MEASLY DOLLARS for the fabulous Red Snapper bisque!On another website, Michael Landrum of Ray's the Steaks pointed out that the Wagyu Strip Streak that Tom Power charges $28 for is sold in another restaurant a couple of blocks away for $68. For the exact same thing. If you are here during Restaurant Week (Jan 9 - Jan 15), Power puts the entire menu up for grabs (with extra charges for the expensive stuff) and it is one of the truly great bargains in this town. (I will be eating dinner there TWICE that week )