carpetbagger, esq.

alton brown has done fried mac and cheese in the past as well.

Lindy's Red Lion 2040 I Street Northwest/Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest Washington, DC 20006-1805 202 785 2766 burgers...lots of 'em. get a double ___ and some cheese fries. it's popular with the gw crowd as it is practically a stone's throw from the dorms.

it's pretty fun to read some of the posts in this thread. I don't know if you just always eat out by yourself, really embrace the idea of food snobbery, or maybe some mix of both. Does CF meet my hopes of a melded cuisine? Well, that's a somewhat loaded question, presupposing a goal of wanting a melded cuisine as a good thing. why don't you state your opinion? you seem unhappy that nobody is replying to your question...give them something to reply to. I think CF works for what it is - a place where anyone can find something to eat. It certainly meets CF's goals based on the lines out the door. LPM was being generous with his 60 minute comment at the Green Hills location. It's usually 90 minutes and can get up to 3 hours on Friday and Saturday night. Likewise, Maggiano's hovers in the 2+ hour wait on weekends. because of this, i have not gone to this maggiano's yet, and have only been to cheesecake factory once or twice (usually when it was an off-peak time or i had shopping to do). i won't wait 3 hours to eat ANYWHERE, be it CF or el bulli. Why are people waiting this long? Well, it's certainly not because they think it is akin to a "walmart" as someone put it. I think it's quite the opposite. Places like applebees and ruby tuesday's are the bottom rung of chain dining. Macaroni Grill is probably in the middle rung, and PF Chang's, Maggiano's and CF occupy the upper echelon. It's visible in the exterior and interior of the buildings themselves, the service, the menus, etc. hell, the service at pfc and cf can be better than a lot of the independent restaurants *cough* bound'ry *cough.* For what you get, the prices are more than reasonable. Like the Time article said, not everyone can have fine dining all that often. it seems like everyone walks out with a leftover box. i say good for them if they can get a sandwich for 10 bucks that is reasonably good to very good and will cover two meals, score! Will you be having the most authentic pad thai or cajun food? No, so what? It's not like if I go down the road to Patrick's (a New Orleans/Cajun place), the quality will be exponentially better. Plus, there are always groups of 4 or more dining at CF - for the very reason that everyone can find something. What is so GD wrong with that? the menu is something like 20 pages long. surely there is one thing that some of you would find acceptable. then again, i probably would not be surprised if someone had a problem with their nachos for being too safe...becasue nachos are such an inherently exotic food. *rolls eyes* that's great that you go to the italian place when you want some pasta. what would you do with a party of six? take your ball and go home because you don't get your way? maybe be a pain in arse and just whine until everyone else caves? CF is the ultimate compromise place. more importantly, they actually have some things you simply cannot get at other establishments. here's a prime example - the buffalo wonton. i ask you to find me another restaurant in nashville that makes it. i bet you can't...because i have never found one. guess what? it's actually good! fancy that. and their cheesecake...is it the best? no, probably not...but who is to say? some people like real creamy cheesecake while others like it a little more "sharp." i'm perfectly happy with the oreo cheesecake there...it rivals that of bronte, another green hills restaurant. as an added bonus, it's about the same price but you get more. well, that's good for my appetite and horrible for my waistline...but such is life. tryska, the story about your ex is funny. he should never eat at some of the places here. i am positive that the chips and queso to go order from casa fiesta is only about 2/3rds of what the dine in version is. oh, and what cf are you seeing long waits at? i've found that the perimeter mall location isn't as bad as the buckhead one.

You're thinking of Hog Heaven, imho the best bbq in Nashville proper. fwiw, I think Whitt's is the second best. Once you get out of metro Nashville, Smokin' Ed's way out in Smyrna is excellent. There are a couple of other places in Nashville for a burger that are not as well known, and also very good. I think Rotier's is a little too in the know to be considered off the beaten path. But a burger on french with a chocolate shake and some deep fried pickles are definitely good easts.

chicken wing pizza from lorenzo's (now closed) and san remo's pizza in liverpool and north syracuse, ny. i'm so bad about this pizza that i pick up one on the way from the airport to my parent's house and again on the way back to the airport, before i head back to nashville (this time with ziploc bags so i can bring it home).

thanks for the reply... i enjoy reading some of the stories on the sfa. i've read the barbecue oral history project on more than a few occasions. in fact, next time i head towards memphis, i will be stopping by a few of those places. i'm not doubting that it would be enjoyable... it just seemed like a lot of money for two people. granted, it's not as ridiculous as the $400 PER PERSON to attend paula dean's august event at opryland (and that doesn't even include a room!). maybe when things turn around i'll be able to attend something or join. hijack - did you ever do a write up on your worlds of flavor trip?

impulse candybar - whatchamacallit impulse ice cream - ben & jerry mint oreo or blue bell cookies and cream impulse potato chip - utz carolina bbq and md crab chips. impulse grocery store item - helluva good dip. especially good with terrell's chips. for better or worse, the grocery store and potato chip items aren't available where i live...otherwise i'd weigh 600lbs. i seriously can't pass them by without buying them. it's sad, really.

sounds cool. i'll be happy to help with dc and nashville. i doubt you'll hit the smaller places i've had the pleasure (charlottesville) and displeasure (syracuse) of living in...

congrats to you! sounds like it should be fun. are you leaving the force, or just taking a leave of absence so you can go shoot for a few months? i have a couple of show-based questions: first is about the basis for the show. you said that the food network is listening to what we want, but don't they already have eleventy billion similar shows? between food finds, foodnation, rachel ray's two shows, best of, roker on the road, and that new show that paula dean's kids just landed, how is yours really going to separate itself from the pack? they all seem to touch on where to eat in x city, and all go off the beaten path to some degree. i guess in some ways your show kinda sounds like mark decarlo's show on the travel channel. second, when you thinkabout the list of places to go in your head, are you trying to hit just the typical big city places - nyc, chicago, boston, etc., regional favorites like austin and charleston, or are you going to go to smaller cities/towns? in fact, thinking of places to go just led me to think of my own concept for a show or book. hmmmmmmm..... i look forward to the list of cities and hopefully being able to suggest a place or two along the way. hopefully y'all will hit nashville. at a minimum, it should be interesting to see what everyone lists.

i think i just learned that the sfa is charging $350-450 for at most $100 worth of food and drink. that seems a tad much. participating more often would probably require being made of money, which unfortunately, i am not. i can't even afford a caps lock key! so what do you get for the extra money? would they do a lecture on the history of hot chicken in nashville? are you supposed to get face time with the owners of the establishments you go to? what about some face time with the master distiller or taster at the jd distillery? i'm not trying to flame you, so don't take it that way. i'm just not seeing the need to drop up to $450 to be with nice people as of yet.

well, let's see... 1) they would bundle the lettuce, tomato, carrots, dressing and croutons. don't want croutons? too bad. they're out to win the crouton war. coincidentally, the lettuce spoils really easily, and sometimes the dressing won't leave the packet. a few fixes are released to help this, but people still get nasty lettuce. it's simply dismissed as part of the experience. besides, if the lettuce was so bad, why is it in 90% of kitchens??? 2) when it came time to introduce a new salad, they would come up with some codeword like "wedge" to get some buzz going in the produce world. after a few years of people wondering where wedge was, they'd say "you must be thinking of iceberg, the new salad we have coming out." of course it will sound like the greatest thing ever, yet somehow remind you of salads that competitors brought out a few years ago. oh and that release date? don't worry. it will get pushed back. they have to make the croutons especially delicious for you. oh wait, they dropped croutons. and carrots. and a bunch of other neato feature that were originally part of both wedge and iceberg. meanwhile, people migrate over to see what the competition has. look at that - they have designed salads that are paired with meals! how's that for an integrated meal. the lettuce is of much higher quality and doesn't spoil nearly as easily. they also come out with innovative things like spork, knork, and the knoon. they also work with 3rd party companies to bring out nifty looking salad storage transportation devices. you can even download recipes off their online grocery store.

I thought they were calling it famous because it relied on the fame of their mashed potatoes and gravy as well as their all white meat fried chicken pieces. oh, and This guy at the Houston Chronicle seemed to like it.

quickie lunch: a texmex-oriented cheese omelet topped with leftover roasted garlic, corn and green chile sauce and leftover onions and peppers.

i feel sorry for the toy dogs that are this much needed "emotional support." when carrying a little toy dog in you lv tote gets old, what are these people going to do???? maybe paris hilton will take them all in, as she's probably considered the source of this latest trend.

CNN story Do you get annoyed when people bring their pet to dinner? If so, is it something that bothers you in principle, or only if the dog is barking? Me - I'm okay with it. Hell, our dogs were fine when we took them out. I only wish the same could be said for those who bring babies and children to restaurants.

for starters, a pulse.

"chef wong" was a hyperlink to her blog. don't bother clicking on it now though - it was taken down a while ago.

I got this Tyler Florence (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) cookbook as a gift, and have never made anything from it. I'm just not inspired when I flip through the pages.

if you have a chance to get out early for some breakfast, i highly recommend The Flying Biscuit

yes, pizza hut made the stuffed crust pizza.

It seems like the disgust is more about it being from KFC than the fact that it's layered food. Hell, seems like plenty of things are layered - so the hate must be coming from somewhere else. I truly think KFC missed the boat by not including biscuits somewhere in the layering. In fact, I plan on making a thanksgiving bowl filled turkey, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, stuffing, etc this year. What's so objectionable about that?

"Thanks. Just wondering if you have been to all three of Peninsula Grill, McCrady's and Charleston Grill? Also, I heard of people going to the Peninsula Grill for just the cake after dinner. Is this common? Might consider the same. Thanks again for all the suggestions. I could spend a week in Charleston and never go to the same place twice." No, I have not been been to them. I try to do one or two higher end meals while on a trip (ex. Magnolia's and Circa 1886) and spend the rest of the time at more reasonable places that also have a little more laid back (Poogans, sticky fingers, charleston crab house). Sometimes my plan works out, sometimes it doesn't. Peninsula is on my list of places to go next time, and I'll try to work in dinner and coconut cake. If they ship their coconut cake across the country, I wouldn't be surprised if people just pop in for dessert (I would probably get it to go and take it back to my hotel room). There's enough options in Charleston that I think I can skip out on McG and CG for at least the next 2 or 3 trips. It just doesn't seem all that low country to me- and that's the biggest draw foodwise for me in Charleston. I'll take a bowl of she crab soup and some shrimp n' grits over a fancy shmancy liquid-nitrogen frozen foie gras ice cream. I guess I'm just unrefined and boring.

Many thanks for your input. Already went to Poogan's last night which was fantastic. We went to Sweatman's last Saturday so we do not really need a BBQ fix. Will go to Hominy Grill this morning. I have looked at your posts but can not seem to see any alternate suggestions. Let me know if you have some but we would like a fairly high end place as this will be a spcial event PG seems to have marginal reviews lately. ← Circa 1886, Magnolia's and Peninsula Grillwould be higher end places to check out. The shellfish over grits dish at Magnolia's is excellent. My trip to Circa was on Valentine's Day and was a special menu, so I can't recommend anything there. Their vegetairan southern sampling looks good. The Shrimp, chicken and pork dishes at Peninsula Grill sound solid...and of course, the coconut cake.

Speaking of junior leauge cookbooks re louisiana, everything i have made from the Roux to Do cookbook that hte JL of Greater Covington put out has always gone over well. It also gets the nod for best cover in my small (but growing) cookbook collection.

Based on the menus, Charleston Grill. Honestly, I wouldn't go to either of them if I were going to Charleston.