Chantilly Bob

TJ and Wegmans are about equidistant from Udvar Hazy -- six miles to either sounds about right. For Wegmans you go north on 28, for TJs (and GrandMart) you go south on 28. I think Wegmans claims to be in "Dulles," which is a new made-up town name favored by businesses north of the airport.

Things are not beyond hope. Just south of the Air and Space Center (right across Route 50 from the "secret" entrance to A&S, in fact) is Chantilly Park Center, a nondescript plaza that contains some very good ethnic eats: Thai Basil, Picante! The Real Taco (good Mexican with interesting regional dishes), and Minerva (Indian, with a popular lunch buffet). There's also Rawal Kabob, which has Pakistani food. So don't despair! From the Udvar-Hazy Center go south on Route 28 about a half-mile, then west on 50 about a quarter-mile to the light at Airline Pkwy. Turn left at the 7-11 and you're there.

Ellie: For someone flying in to the Jetport, renting and car, and heading north towards Waterville, can you recommend a convenient spot for good Italian sandwiches before leaving the Portland area?

Unfortunately, on one of my rare visits to RI a couple years ago, a meal at New Rivers was a massive disappointment. My expectations were very high (not unreasonable given the accolades this place gets) and they were pretty much dashed. Mrs. Bob got a steak that was riddled with fat, and I got a fish dish from the "Lighter Side" section of the menu that might have qualified for the "lighter side" of the menu at a place in downtown Addis Ababa. Three bites if that. We both left starving. Thank god for my favorite weiner joint -- NY System up on Smith St just past the State House. This was one of the rare cases in which my usual thorough research utterly failed -- and in my home town at that.

One place everyone should check out is Wein-o-Rama on Oakland Ave. in Cranston, both for the weiners as well as the classic "space age" neon signage. Growing up in Pawtucket, I had no idea this place existed until last year, but it's been there since '62. Also, no has been able to definitively trace the derivation of the "New York System" moniker that adorns many weiner joints. Even the investigative reporters at the Providence Journal couldn't do it (true!). For the story of Wein-o-Rama, see http://www.quahog.org/attractions/index.php?id=67 Mmmmmmm, weiners.

I just found this thread (as well as the one on weiners), and once again Rhode Island cuisine makes for some interesting discussions. I am a Providence native (born at Lying-In Hospital, now Women's and Infants). Here is what I can tell everyone. Of course, things could be different today. Red chowder could always be found at restaurants in Providence, BUT as best I can remember that style was known as Manhattan clam chowder. This stuff has no particular association with Rhode Island. In fact, its closest relative is Maryland Crab Soup, with a more distant relative being conch chowder as found in south Florida. In other words, it's just soup. We never considered white chowder with a paprika sheen on top or even a few tomatoes thrown in to be red chowder. The dominant chowder in Providence was always New England clam chowder (i.e. Boston style), which often resembles library paste. A non-gloopy New England chowder can be a thing of beauty. Legal Seafoods' is too thick for me -- it's tasty, but a bowl fills me up now. Rhode Island clear chowder was pretty much limited to the South County area -- South County being what we call the southern part of RI near the shore: Kingston, Narragansett, etc. I'm not surprised the same thing can be found along the Connecticut coast as well. This is my favorite.

Well, they are rating chocolates, not chocolate. That last "s" is key. There's a substantial difference. But speaking of chocolates, here's a Web site that I think is one of the best food-relates sites I've ever seen: http://edp.org/chocolat.htm

There's also a GrandMart in Centreville. I used to buy the week's produce there until the twins came along. The produce dept. is fantastic -- in terms of both selection and price. Sometimes they have absurd specials, like bananas at $0.09/lb.

N.B. The Rail Stop is in the lovely little town of The Plains. There's a nice little gourmet food shop across the street -- or at least there was the last time we were there.

Faboo: It's on Catoctin Circle, right? And what do you think about Blue Ridge Grill? I ate there a few weeks ago and found the Brentwood Salad to make a very good lunch.

Fenwick's peach cake rocks too. If you like peaches, you'll love this cake.

Carribean Grill is my favorite place. It always tasted like peruvian chicken. I didn't it tasted like it had Jerk or even Pollo Asado. What ever it is I usually get my peruvian chicken fix there. ← Caribbean Grill has the best sides around here too. The yuca is crisp and the plantains melt in your mouth.

At least in Chantilly, Il Mee is also known as Yil Mi.

At least in Chantilly, Il Mee is also known as Yil Mi.

This was also in the Loudoun section, so my guess is it is everywhere. ← The reviews in the Loudoun section are of different restos -- all in Va. So the link to the Maryland reviews is helpful. Not that I'll be getting to any of those places anytime soon, what with my one-year-old twins.

Let us not forget the Route 11 Potato Chip factory in Middletown, at the northern end of the Valley, featuring AYCE samples.

We grabbed lunch last year -- carrying our 16 lbs of cherries from Cherries on Top -- at the Flint Hill Public House. It was very good. We got steak salads made with Sunnyside Beef and damn was that beef tender. IIRC dessert was quite good too.

Great travelogue! Regarding Stanleys, I thought I'd mention that it's located in the sad-sack one-square-mile city of Central Falls, RI (AKA "CEE-EFF"), a place held in such low regard that even people in Pawtucket (where I grew up) make fun of it. I was living so close to Stanleys all those years and never heard of the place and therefore never got to try a Stanleyburger. It will definitely be on the agenda for our next trip to RI.

RI chowder is vastly underappreciated. If you like clams, once you've had a bowl of this stuff, you'll equate NE chowder with library paste. Manhattan chowder is a joke and worthy of no further discussion.

One thing I really miss from my years in RI is grapenut custard pudding. It's just plain ol' custard with a layer of grapenuts underneath. We used to get it at Miller's, which no longer exists, and Davis', which still does, in the same spot on Hope St. in Providence. What is it with Rhode Islanders and grapenuts?

We generally like Willard's very much, but last time I found the brisket to be a bit dry and the cornbread was AWFUL. Dry and crumbly. However, the gumbo I got last time was OUTSTANDING. It was loaded with chicken, shrimp, sausage, and other goodies. Had I known the cornbread would be so crumbly I would have gone with the flow and crumbled it into the delicious gumbo. So definitely peruse the lengthy specials list before ordering.

Yo, your beloved P-Town came out swinging on me.. We travlers were looking for refuge, but found car porn and hooker boots.. I would love a tour... ← We were up in the Warwick-Providence area for a big dog show that weekend and saw no car porn or hooker boots, but I found some of the finest weiners on the planet at a classic joint called Wein-O-Rama in Cranston. You can find my trip report over on that other web site.

Rue De L'Espoir at 99 Hope St. will meet all of your criteria quite nicely. Make a reservation, and ask for a table in the room where the bar is located.

Now there's a great memory. I used to devour crunch pups and onion rings at an Arthur Treacher outpost in South Attleboro MA circa 1977. Those bad boys defitely KRUNCHED That batter could make anything taste good.

I think Eclipse bought Autocrat or the other way around. They also have a third brand, Coffee Time. Like the other two, it has a classic old-time label