divalasvegas

Thanks so much for your insights and advice Busboy/Charles. That's exactly the type of guidance I was looking for. I have to admit to being a bit disappointed that the list of restaurants is not very diverse ethnically, but I chalk that up to the fact that a lot of "ethnic" restaurants are very affordable anyway and really can't justify participating in restaurant week. Kaz will definitely stay on the list. I've heard some grumblings about Galileo as well, so off the list it goes. La Chaumiere (mmmmm, cassoulet) sounds great. Rasika sounds like a winner as well. And any advice that keeps me from waiting in a long line (Hank's) is deeply appreciated. I vaguely remember someone mentioning Zengo; I'll check out their website. Thanks again.

I don't know if everyone from our area is out of town, has their nose to the grindstone, or passed out from early New Year's celebrating, but I humbly ask for/really need your guidance. I have chosen several restaurants from which I'll probably pick 3 or 4 that I'd like to visit during DC's Restaurant Week. They are: Courduroy IndeBlue Kinkead's Les Halles Taberna del Alabardero Galileo TenPenh Kaz Sushi Bistro Hank's Oyster Bar The only MUST GO restaurant on the list so far is Courduroy. My tastes are very eclectic and I'd like to have very different dining experiences at each of the 3 or 4 I choose. In other words American, American, American would be a definite no no. I know that many of you have dined at these establishments so please let me know which of the above in your opinion should be: - A Keeper - Jettison - A Roll of the Dice And most especially, say why you feel the way you do, pro or con. Feel free to be brutal as to my choices. (Slipping on my asbestos pj's as we speak.) BTW, WHERE THE HELL IS EVERYBODY!!!?? Edited for punctuation (how anal is that?)

Here's Julia's Empanadas' online menu jm chen and you're right they're $3.00: Julia's Empanadas Menu I must say though that they are definitely affordable and my coworkers really like them, I'm not too fond of their empanadas, at least the chicken one and the dessert one. The crust and filling were too sweet for the chicken empanada, the dessert empanada seemed to be filled with some tinny tasting fruity glop (mango/guava/peach/who knows?), and they were baked--I like mine fried. But like I said, my coworkers like them and they pretty much think I'm a food snob, so go figure.

Busboy I think you're assessment of what the magazine reviewers were trying to achieve for their readers/potential tourists was dead on as in: Please dear God, make sure I don't have to visit any "strange" neighborhoods with restaurants serving "weird" food and be surrounded by people that don't look "normal" or "talk funny" LOL. The only two places I've been that you've named above are Lauriol and Ben's Chili Bowl: Lauriol's -- I went recently with a bunch of co-workers; had a great time because of the company. It's pretty daunting to think that this place was ever voted best Mexican food in Washington, DC, especially after sampling Mexican food in California and Texas cooked by ACTUAL MEXICANS, something I've never come across in this area. Loved the rainbow margueritas, but I cannot wrap my brain around underseasoned Mexican food--bland guacamole and beans, so-so ceviche, truly dreadful flavorless fried plaintains (had to put my foot down and send those back), pretty good salsa though. Ben's Chili Bowl - I think I'm somewhere in the middle of you and HollyMoore. I really like their half smokes and what can be wrong with grits, eggs, and fried pork products for breakfast? And while I think their chili is decent I think a lot of cooks on this forum could give their chili a run for its money and in that aspect I have to agree that it's somewhat overrated and not as cheap as it should be. Pardon me, but I still think of its location as being in the "hood" in spite of the million dollar condos. But dear Busboy, Ben's chili is "nasty"? Say it ain't so.

Anyone want to weigh in on Tom Sietsema's best 10 cheap eats in the Sunday (12/25) edition of the Post? Tom's Sietsema's Top Ten under $10 Choices While they're not all in DC, six are and of those, several are Metro, a good walk or a short cab ride away from our "main attractions."

Beautiful photos ulterior epicure. Added to my ever growing list of resolutions for 2006: 1) Figure out how to post photos. 2) Dine in more restaurants/cook food worthy of photographing.

Thanks GG these look delicious. However, I was wondering why no usage of pear or apple flavors? I was thinking of some dry sparkling wine/champagne, ginger liqueur, pear eau de vie, maybe a little pear juice, with a garnish of orange zest? Not as gorgeous as these but perhaps a bit more seasonal. Now where can I buy those glasses used for the poinsettia cocktail?

Damn Sandy you been doin' some good eatin' lately--coleslaw with apples, no less. I think I'll have to make a trip to New Jersey and hang out with you and Gary. BTW, do you have any straight brothers? I mean, hook a sistah up why dontcha? Merry Christmas to you and yours.

Hello Ling, that recipe, along with the other tips here, sounds delicious. After reading your yummy description of eggnog creme brulee and I wonder if you could provide a little more information on how to make that dessert properly. I assume that it is baked in custard cups in a water bath. What temperature and for how long? Also, I have a crappy old oven with one of those broilers that is at the bottom of the oven (and no blowtorch, BTW). This is what I would use to create the caramel topping. How much and what kind of sugar do you use to create your topping. Lastly, after the custard bakes do you need to chill it before putting it in the broiler/blowtorching it to create the topping? Sorry to pepper you with so many questions, but if not on Christmas Day, I'd like to try this recipe soon. Thanks so much for any advice you may have.

My dad was the cook in my family, and I don't recall him making tuna casserole that often. (What I do remember is his buying frozen rabbit every so often and serving it fried. Yes, it Tasted Like Chicken, only a little gamier and much saltier.) BTW, your mom sounds like a wonderful person. ← Many thanks Sandy from both me and mom (Mae Alice). Now, where's that green bean casserole antidote?

Aw, s**t, Diva, now you're making me have to come out of the closet and reveal my Inner Oreo! My grandma on my Dad's side, at whose house I ate Thanksgiving dinner every year from when I was old enough to remember until the day I left Kansas City for good, fixed only pumpkin pie for dessert. I didn't taste sweet potato pie until my teens, when I went to a feast at my Aunt Elaine's (one of Mom's two sisters) where it was served. I must agree with you on the relative merits of the two, but I'm afraid the cultural imprint left by Grandma Smith is way too strong for me to overcome without concerted effort. However, you may contribute to that effort with a decent recipe. ← I don't mean any harm but, YOUR INNER WHAT?. Poor thing, no sweet potato pie until your teens? I happen to like pumpkin pie, but almost never saw it growing up (my mother never baked one). People would kindly but ignorantly give us a pumpkin pie and of course demonstrating our best Southern manners, we would thank the person (hint: they were NEVER Black) put it in the back of the refrigerator, where it would sit for a while (few weeks) until one of us "discovered" it after it had gone bad, so we had to throw it away. To throw it away immediately would have shown bad manners and ingratitude. But if it had spoiled, well that's another thing. It was sweet potato pie all the way growing up at my house, in my friends and relatives homes, our minister's wife's home, etc. My family still hates pumpkin pie to this day and considers it odd that I like it. But sweet potato pie captured my heart. I still make it the way my mother did--at least I try--but it's from memory. I'd be happy to try create a written recipe for it, but to be truthful it there'll always be something missing: her.

Au contraire, my fellow monotheist. Tuna casserole is a staple dish in the Jewish household as well, prepared with Creamettes elbow macaroni, tunafish cream o' mushroom soup and (of course)...frozen peas! I must have consumed this dish once a month growing up in the Tribal 'hood of West Rogers Park in Chicago. And yes, green bean casserole held its honored position at the Fresser Family Thanksgiving this year, with my sister preparing the back-of-the-label dish. ← Regarding the tuna casserole, just to clarify things Fresser and everyone else, indeed this dish is Minnesotan, Norwegian, Swedish, Lutheran, Catholic, Jewish, Baptist, Black and White. Not at all the line drawn in the sand that is green bean casserole. My mom made this for us growing up. She had been a cook (in hotel restaurants and homes) and a housekeeper. Actually, I really loved and craved this dish, but only when she made it. The only difference is--Sandy please back me up here--that Black folks "refined and perfected it." At least my mom did.

Thanks so much for posting this chappie. I kept trying to remember the name of the restaurant that put on a real oyster blowout event in the Fall. Considering your unfortunate dark alley incident, perhaps "blowout" is not the most best descriptor. Well, at least PETA would be proud, you setting them free and all.

Speaking of forays, mizducky please don't get me or Sandy started on sweet potato pie vs. pumpkin pie!

Ohmigod, no! NOOOOOOOO! Gimme your hand right now! Let me pull you back from the brink! Now go lie down while the urge passes. I'll whip up some macaroni and cheese for you; that should make you feel better. I'd rather die first. Or even eat Green Bean Casserole. ← Feeling weaker..... must hang on, must find antidote. Maybe these will work: grape KoolAid (with lemon), fried bologna/baloney "sammich," perhaps a few "skrimp," fried okra, hoppin' john, hot wings with "mambo" sauce .......................... DAMMIT nothing's working! Still want to make that damn casserole................... Wait a minute, where's that Colt 45?

Thanks Jonathan. I supposed the price brings the topic back to a point origamicrane touched on upthread about the community from whom the cuisine originated, especially if the dishes being adapted/updated are extremely more expensive to dine-on than the original. Say for instance the $100.00 fried chicken dinner.

Sandy like you, I didn't grow up with this delicacy, never had it at anyone's home even during holidays, and I've never made it. Yet................... I have to admit to having a morbid fascination with that Campbell's soup commercial, for years now: the way they lovingly pour the soup onto the casserole (always looks better than the way it looks in reality), those crispy onions on top, even the fake steam rolling off the top, served to a table full of happy, smiling C____________n people. I had only thought about making it but now................ ...............now you come along Sandy with this topic.................... and now I feel myself going over the edge..................... now I actually want to MAKE this for Christmas! Normally, it would be collards, or mixed greens, or old school green beans, and in addition to those, peas and carrots. But thanks to you I'll have to go out and buy frozen green beans, canned fried onions, Campbell's Mushroom Soup and whatever the Hell else goes in this casserole! Damn you, man, damn you! What's next brotha': telling everybody Black folks' secret handshake?

But apparently there were more than a few whose experiences left much to be desired: Pengelley Reviews BTW, how much is £55 (price mentioned in the review) in U.S. dollars? Seems to be the price per person.

Thanks for the information rosebud. Everything I've heard about this establishment has me really looking forward to restaurant week as well. Twice that week? Sounds great. Busboy, thanks, I've PM'd fero for more information. Can't wait to go.

Hot, greasy breakfast food, either cooked by me, Denny's or some diner. In addition to the grease, must include protein, fruit juice and butter/grease laden slathered starch. Some combination of the following, taking at least two from each group: Protein: eggs cooked any style but never overcooked and no crispy, papery bits; cheese -- nothing fancy. American, cheddar, swiss, jack. Ham, bacon, scrapple, sausage, steak (medium rare). Additions such as sauteed onions, mushrooms, peppers fine but not mandatory. Starch: Hot buttered toast or english muffin, grits with rivers of butter (cheese too sometimes), pancakes again with unholy amounts of butter and maple syrup, home fries (not those shredded potato things). Beverages: Cold orange or apple juice, coffee, tons of water, and--if eating pancakes or waffles--whole milk on the rocks. Appropriate amounts of Tabasco and Texas Pete hot sauce. Add a b-complex vitamin and a beer if in really bad shape.

Thanks docsconz. Even more of a bargain during Restaurant Week in January 2006, since they'll have a fixed price lunch of $20.00 and the same for dinner for $30.00.

Appetizers run about $7-11 Mains run about $18-28 Wines run about $7-9 Mrs JPW and I usually run up a tab of about $xxx with all courses, a bottle of wine, and an after dinner drink. More frugal and less gluttonous people can easily walk out at about $50/per person. Edit to add - the spring rolls are $4 during happy hour! ← Thanks JPW. That helps a lot. Now, if I can just figure out how to combine being more frugal AND more gluttonous, that would be awesome!

This restaurant sounds fabulous. Great reviews everyone. Does anyone know when they'll have an online menu? Also, I hate to be crass, but what the Hell. What is the price range at lunch and at dinner? In particular, say appetizer and soup (I've got to have a bowl of one of the soups everyone's been raving about), main course, dessert, wine by the glass? Thanks.

I think the Ascot has a pretty good buffet at lunch but, alas, it's on 17th & L Street, NW. We have a rather multi-national office and I've often dined there with people from India who really like and it's close to the blue line (Farragut West) on 17th and I.

This is a great thread and I'm glad it's been resurrected. I too wanted to address the original question of what should restaurant management do. I think Sugarella made some excellent/points and suggestions, especially letting the parents know up front that the restaurant expects them to control their children. I had the misfortune to experience the following a few months back (this is part of a post I made on restuarant pet peeves, but I think it's important here as well to allow me to explain what I would suggest restaurants do and how we as customers can help as well): People who expect waitstaff and other customers to put up with the poor/obnoxious/sometimes hazardous behavior of their unruly clan. I had a particularly lousy dining experience at an Italian restaurant downtown. I don't know who I felt sorrier for myself and the other diners, or the waitstaff. I actually settled on feeling the most pity for the waitstaff since I could always just throw up my hands and leave; they can't. It was two families (it seemed to be two sisters and their husbands and kids). As I recall, it was four adults and about eight kids. Now with that many children I know I won't be dining next to absolutely drop dead quiet, but the behavior of the adults and several of the children was truly revolting. Since I had already been served when they arrived and there were no more tables for a single diner available, I decided to tough it out. I'm sure you all know what's coming: loud, obnoxious parents, telling servers what they needed instead of asking, allowing their children to shout commands at the waitstaff with their darling little mouths full, tossing tableware to the floor, pushing over full glasses of water and of course, not limiting their kids choices and trying to tailor/modify each of their offspring's dish to their specific liking. On that last one, I'm afraid that I'm a bit old school especially when you have an extensive menu. I think with that many kids of different ages (the oldest was maybe 10 or 11) to make everyone's life easier, limit what they can choose from giving them a few decent of choices; kids often eat the same stuff over and over again anyway. Also, parents, I'm really not interested in hearing the name of your child repeated 50 or 60 times during the evening. I think I can still remember the name of the worst offender, let's see, oh yeah it was: Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart, Stuart. I AM NOT LYING. I especially liked it when the dopey dad, trying in vain to get this little brat to behave, reminded him of what he had been taught in etiquette class. Word to dopey dad: with the way the adults behave in your family and the fact that this kid publicly and loudly showed absolutely no respect for you, there aren't enough etiquette classes in the world to correct years of your very bad example. While the waitstaff behaved admirably, I really think there have to be times when management steps in to remind idiots like this that others are around them trying to enjoy their meal as well and that certain behavior will not be tolerated. Needless to say, I asked for my food to be packed up and left with a horrendus headache. - First of all, I've seen comments here that a lot of restaurants don't want to lose business. Well, sorry, but this establishment lost mine. Why the Hell would a restaurant want customers like that to return, yet don't seem to mind losing other patrons because of such behavior is a mystery to me. And yes I understand that restaurants have a thin profit margin, but I don't think I'll ever return and I've told this story to many people, warning them what to expect if they chose to dine there, so I've probably cost them even more money. - Let's face it: we have great parents out there, but many leave a lot to be desired. Many are dumb as a box of rocks, so restaurant management should go the extra mile when it comes to explaining what types of behavior would absolutely not be tolerated. Be excrutiatingly clear, since your understanding of the word disruptive and their understanding might be two different things. The establishment's policy should also be prominently displayed near the entrance as well as verbally communicated. - I know this next one is risky for some people, but sometimes you just have to say something yourself. I was in a restaurant with a steaming bowl of pho in front of me and you all know how hot that soup is usually served. Well this poor, stressed out mommy was having such a tough time with her apparently 2-3 year old--every answer was a loud "no" when she suggested/wanted him to decide on a dish, tableware tossed around, but the worst behavior was him running around the restaurant tipping chairs, climbing under tables, being underfoot with the waiters. Then he got to my table and began doing the same thing. I actually felt sorry for the mom since she obviously had no clue how to take control of this child. I looked at him sternly and said "no, you cannot play under my table; it's not safe for either you or me. You need to stop running around like that and sit down." He was quite cute actually but suddenly, those large brown eyes got larger and he actually went back to his table AND SAT DOWN! Sorry, but at that point I chose between pissing off mommy or making a visit to the local emergency room with second degree burns. I chose the former. Mom seemed to actually appreciate it. - If you've never dined at a restaurant--high end or not--then I'd call in advance and explain that you are looking for a quiet, adults only atmosphere and ask if they allow babies/small children. If they say yes, you can let them know that their establishment is not for you, unless they have a firm policy regarding out of control kids. Maybe if enough people do this, the restaurants will understand how much money these unruly families are truly costing them. - Like fifi I believe said upthread, I too do not believe that fine dining establishments where people would expect a quiet, adult atmosphere should not allow children below a certain age (I think the age of 12 was suggested), period. To be spending several hundred dollars per person and have to put up with unruly adults or children is unacceptable.