K_A_S

I'll have to give Mamma 'Zu a try. And thinking about Kuba Kuba's tres leches cake is making me hungry; although I really like good tres leches cake, I'm very often underwhelmed by what I get in most restaurants -- Kuba Kuba makes a pretty darned tasty one, though, and I always order it when I eat there.

Thanks for the comments! I've been to the wine shop in Carytown (and like it), and I thank you for your comments about Mamma 'Zu, Edo's Squid, and Franco's. I'll have to give them a try soon. As far as other threads on the topic, actually I did a pretty thorough search of the fora before I posted this, and I didn't find anything at all about shopping in the RIC area. Thanks again for the response!

I'll have to stop by and have some confit de canard one of these days; when it comes to French cooking, you can keep the fancy stuff and just give me a good steak/frites or some confit de canard...

I moved to Farmville (a little over an hour from Richmond) a while back, and I'm still learning where to go in Richmond. I've found a couple of restaurants that I like (Emilio's for tapas, and Kuba Kuba for Cuban), and at least one that I don't (Pasta Luna for pretty mediocre Italian). I've been to the Sur la Table for kitchen goodies, but it's the only kitchenware store that I know. And I don't even know where to begin buying high-end grocery items that we can't get in Farmville (not that we can get much of anything high-end in Farmville ) . So here's my question: where do the Richmond eGulleters shop for all the cooking-related things (food, and the gadgets to cook it with) in Richmond? How about wine shopping? Also, any recommendations about good Italian restaurants are welcome.

So, how was it? Are there any Can Can fans out there? I've walked by it a couple of times, and it looked a little... touristy. I'm a fan of French bistro/brasserie cooking, but I just don't know about the looks of this place. Any comments?

From all that I've read and heard, Mamma Zu's tends to get quite mixed reviews. Maybe I'll have to give it a try. The only Italian restaurant that I've been to in Richmond so far is Pasta Luna, which seems to be a Richmond Magazine favorite. I tried it twice and was disappointed both times. Can anyone recommend a top-notch Italian place in Richmond? Or maybe even more than one?

I ate incredibly well at Ceviche, which, as the name suggests, has lots of types of ceviche, as well as other Latin-inspired food. And just down the road, Palermo Viejo is an amazingly good Argentine restaurant, one of the best I've been to in the States. In fact, there are a number of places on Bardstown Road that look good. I've eaten in the upscale dining room at the Brown Hotel, and it was also quite tasty; the Brown is far and away my favorite place to stay when I'm in town.

Cville has lots of pretty good dining options, and the competition is so fierce that less-than-good places usually die fairly quickly, with the occasional notable exception. Now that I've moved an hour and twenty minutes down the road, I find that I miss a few places: The Tavern: good diner-style breakfast; the pancake of the month is often good, but the omelette of the month is usually scary. Bang: Asian influenced tapas and designer cocktails, and despite its trendiness, the food is good. Le Petit Pois: a nice little bistro on the Downtown Mall. Guadalajara: not all of the food there is great, but it's a local fixture of sorts. When they have carnitas, though, you'll be glad. If they don't have carnitas, order tacos. Revolutionary Soup: good soup, as the name suggests. Duner's: maybe not quite as good as it used to be, but still pretty darned good. If Hollywood types are in town, they seem to turn up here (whether that's a good thing or not is up to you). It's all about the food, though, so while the decor isn't shabby by any means, the food is the reason to go. The Shabeen: a South African restaurant that has, in my opinion, the best fish and chips in town. If I spent more time thinking about it, I could come up with others (but I'd probably start getting depressed ) Although it's not technically a restaurant, I do find that I miss Mona Lisa Pasta (fresh pasta, good cheeses, other goodies). Also, Foods of All Nations (foods of all inflations, I might say) and the markets in the Main Street Marketplace are all quite nice. The Albemarle Baking Company (in the Main Street Marketplace) makes the bread for lots of local restaurants. And then Greenberry's Coffee is a locally-owned coffee shop that's worth a visit. As I look back on it, there's only a couple of places that I would really give a bad review to: Mas: for starters, they don't know Spanish food (for example, if you order patatas bravas, you'll get patatas al ailoli), and the service is almost always bad; if you want to feel hip, though, you can safely go for a drink, some merguez, and bread--just expect it to take a while for it to show up, and double-check your bill to make sure they get it right. Sal's (on the Downtown Mall): imagine the worst sort of red sauce Italian-American restaurant you can think of -- it could be Sal's. The only thing that it has going for it is that it's on the Downtown Mall and you can sit outside, which is nice. Go to Rapture (more interesting food), Miller's (for a beer), Cafe Cubano (for coffee), or any other place with outdoor seating instead.

I've had expanded cable on and off over the past few years, so I don't know all of the current food "celebs." Of those I know, here are some faves and less-than-faves: FAVES Julia, Jacques, Martin, Jeff Smith, etc. (gotta give props to those who made all the rest possible) Iron Chef (Japan and USA) Mario (I liked Babbo, I like his food, I learn from him) Lidia (I learn, the food looks good; I do admit that it's not great theater) Alton Brown (he's a food geek, but then so am I) Bobby Flay (I give him credit for the smackdown thing -- everyone slams him for being arrogant, but he seems plenty willing to be humbled most every show) America's Test Kitchen (they're geeks, but I am so glad that they'll try something 87 ways to find out the ideal way of doing something so that I only have to do it once) Rick Bayless (I like his restaurants, and he knows his stuff; he does seem awfully mellow, though, to the point where I wonder if he's meditating or buzzed on his shows. Maybe he's just an incredibly laid-back guy) LESS-THAN-FAVES Emeril (he may have great chef skills -- I can't really tell from the show -- but my dislike of his style can be expressed in one word: "BAM!") Rocco (if he is only 1/4 of the jacka$$ he seemed to be on that show, then he's still 3 times more of a jacka$$ than I can stand) Giada (her food strikes me as OK, but just OK, and her cookbooks seem about the same; I don't want to diss the woman, but I can't help but think that if she weren't an attractive woman who wears low-cut, snug-fitting shirts, she'd likely be out of a show) FOOD WRITERS Tony Bourdain (good stuff, written from a strong point of view) Michael Ruhlman (I like his work, even if he seems to repeat himself a bit -- the whole chefs as artists vs. craftsmen thing keeps coming up every time, even after he seems to have answered the question) Bill Buford (the man writes very well, notably better than most food writers I've ever read; he tells a good story, too) M.F.K. Fisher (hit and miss, in my book; when she's on, she's one of the best there is) Ruth Reichl (the less she talks about herself, the more I like her writing)

I teach French at a small liberal arts college, and when I teach a lower-level course, I bring in some menus for the chapter that has food vocabulary. The students always get a kick out of the use of the possessive -- you have to love it when something is served "with its toasts" or somesuch. I could fill pages with funny/embarassing mistranslations made by my friends, my students, or me, but that would be another forum...