mattohara

one of my top 5 faves at Ansill is the venison tartare. it's absolutely perfect and it does have a raw quail's egg on top.

i like that at Pif chef walks the fine line. we ask for 24 hours notice but he always keeps a few extra ingredients on hand for the surprise tasting that walks in the door. in that case he does improvise. but even the regular tasting menus that we have on the books he starts putting together early in the day but aren't finalized until around 5 when we have to get the menus for that night printed up. sorry, off topic! edited to add that i also had the corpse reviver 2 and it's a really refreshing and tangy summer drink everybody should have (katie make for them) at least once this summer!

marc, there's no stress here. i felt genuinely bad for the guys and we gave them a nice tip anyway. i'm a waiter myself, i'm nothing if not empathetic. this was beyond a normal bad experience or meal though, this was a disaster and there were only three other tables in the restaurant. i was just pondering the idea that maybe something really bad happened recently, like the chef walking out or all the trained waiters walking out. holly i had not thought of the possibility that "deliveries" were for takeout customers. i was thinking it was vendors delivering food at 8 on a sunday night. your explanation is a lot more plausible cause i did see a guy walk out with three huge bags. i think there a some really good fiction short-stories in here somewhere.

what am i, chopped duck liver?

(There is probably already a topic for this somewhere, if so please point me to it) My girlfriend and I had a tough time looking for a place to go out to eat on a Sunday night. We were going to hit Horizons, but they were closed, Ansill is now closed on Sundays and we were walking aroud the South Street Area. We finally chose Pad Thai because thai food sounded right. We walked into a nearly empty restaurant and got a table for two. Everything was a bit in slow-motion from then on. Service was very slow for a relatively empty restaurant. The waiter later explained that this was because they were getting slammed with deliveries in the kitchen (at 8PM on a Sunday? I guess that's possible). There was no bartender but I saw a magnum of Grand Marnier behind the bar and decided it looked good. I asked for a glass and the waiter (instead of waiting to talk to us more and answer questions for us) walked off to ask another waiter who was behind the bar to get us a glass. What he returned with was at least 3 times the pour I've ever had when ordering a drink in a snifter. Our waiter was already sweating heavily at this point (possibly because he was doing all the cooking too) and he explained about the goings-on in the kitchen. He also noted that it was his second day when Karen asked him about the lychee wine. He didn't know anything about the food or drinks in the place. I ordered a Tsingtao and got a Singha. This became doubly interesting when at some point later in the evening the only other person apparent on the floor responded to a different question with the same response, "it's my second day." We split a duck salad. It was ok. Then our entrees came out and Karen's was wrong. It was chicken with thai basil instead of fried tofu with thai basil. The dish was taken away and replated with what looked like an unadulterated hunk of tofu that was thrown in the fryer for 60 seconds. The whole replating and delivery took about 2 minutes. Either everybody that was working there left suddenly or the restaurant is flailing hard. We kept our game faces on and didn't give anybody a hard time. We laughed a bit at the ineptness but mostly felt bad for the staff. The Grand Marnier was free at the end. Who knows if they felt bad or the poor guy forgot to ring it in. We tipped well (extremely well, considering). Has anybody else ever been inside an establishment that is obviously falling apart around you while you eat?

anybody been to the Peking Duck place on 8th right above washington? we got a duck there last night and took it home to make with some fried rice. it was only 13$ for a whole duck! delicious flavor and texture and i'm saving the fat for duck confit. have them cut it up for you though as trying to butcher one of those oily ducks yourself (while fun and kinda gross) is a recipe for disaster. they have a MUCH larger and sharper cleaver there and will cut it up into some manageable pieces.

The only downside to living a block away from the market is the traffic on festival days! Lots of honking helped me to get up early and beat the crowds on both days though. We had some Mango-on-a-stick (Mango Florettes? Stangos? Micks?) with lime and chili powder. Lovely. We had a crabcake from Anastasi that was more like a giant Crab Sphere. Pretty good and the sauce was very good. We went allll the way to the bottom of the market and had some Horchatta and Limey Drink from the Taqueria while we waited for the tacos. SO DELICIOUS. (We went back Sunday morning to score some more) On the way back up we scored a funnel cake from George's and a canolli from Isgro's, Termini's and Cosmi's. We did a taste test back at the apartment and concluded Termini's had the lightest, thinnest cripiest shell and smoothest filling.

of course i recommend the private room at Pif (i work there ) but it only seats up to 12. i also thought of Effie's. the upstairs room (i know, stairs again) has a really cool huge table upstairs and the atmosphere is really cool. they also have the great courtyard and carraige house out back. very good greek food, family-run, great atmosphere.

i'll be there at 7am with camera

two of the best kept secrets in the city are the private room at Pif and the BYO night at Ansill on Tuesdays. david did the BYO night to thank his regulars from Pif, but i used to work there on Tuesdays and i think maybe twice i saw regulars from Pif. there are two waiters on and the restaurant is mostly empty. we should be going to Savalo on Monday and Ansill on Tuesday!

just north of washington between 7th and 8th is a municipal lot that's free for 3 hours but i'm sure it will fill up quickly

Vic Sushi just opened up where Sansom St Sushi used to be. Vic and his wife remodeled the place and opened it up on their own dime. The selection isn't huge but it's fresh and good. They don't have a liquor license but there is some sake behind the counter... They also don't have tables (it's a tiny spot) but there are some seats by the bar. They're the nicest people in the world and I highly recommend it for an intimate eating experience. And yes, Tinto was one of the best meals I've had in a long long time, but I spend way too much money and had both foie gras options.

i just had pistachio and chestnut. /me drools on self. gah i think i'm gonna have to go again today.

i just wrote a little post on it at my site. i think i embarrassed myself the night we were all sharing and tasting the manhattans. kip and george were patient with us though and we had a great time. you know a place is good when there's a very regular crowd and there certainly is that there. when it's restaurant folk that you know/work with (katie/everybody from Ansill), well then you KNOW it's good. p.s. george took the pic of the rye collection in the post.

tech support genius that i am (it was my career for 4 years) i couldn't figure out how to use the flash on the disposable camera. all the pics came out horribly.

i used to go to the Altland house with the family. http://www.altlandhouse.com/Altland_House_Directions.htm very classy when you're a little kid. no recollection of the food though...

another yorker here. is there any good food in york right now? my parents still live there and i think they only know about the Left Bank and Blue Moon, but the latter just changed ownership again. perhaps we should start up a York thread?

we also agreed that the turkey scrapple KILLED it. so good. i got lots of pics but my digital is broken so i had to get a disposable and now i have to get it developed. i wanted pics of the t-shirt guys but we passed each other in an unstoppable sea of people and i couldn't find them again after that.

i'm on it bob! my girl is not REALLY excited about it but she's adventurous. i will try to take lots of pics for you!

/me apologizes for bringing said article to the moderator's attention. killer drink last night btw. Parisienne? glad i stopped drinking after just one.

siam lotus here i come!

yes monk's is over on 16th and locust. great food there as well. and Zot just opened on 2nd and Lombard. hey what BYOB did you go to?

fixed!

how much is it Todd?

which Erawan is that? oh wait, THIS Erawan?: (edited to correct the soup names) Tom Khar Kai Tom Yum Shrimp Prik Something Crispy Duck Please let me never run out of inspirations for places to eat! Thanks eG! I know i've had great Thai before (Holy Basil in NYC is one standout) but like i said uppost it's been a long time. and Smile i really like but the four dishes i tasted at Erawan today really set a great standard for my future Thai tastings. Man that Tom Yum kills it! Creamy and sour and spicy! Tomato, oyster shrooms, chicken, coconut milk and... The Tom Khar Kai! Hot and sour soup with lemongrass shoots, scallions, kaffir leaves, fresh galangal and... The shrimp dish had the most garden-fresh green beens i've had since we picked them in my grandmother's garden. Red peppers, shrimp and sauce. straightforward and delicious. The Crispy Duck was great! nice anise flavor from the star anise, Thai basil and broccoli. Karen was worried that the cream sauce would have actual cream in it (she's intolerant) but our waitress told us that it was just coconut milk so we went at it. It's nice for her to get a cream sauce that she can eat! I'm super-happy this thread came up and we found Erawan. It's just a few blocks from Karen's house and we'll be happily comparing it with Smile Cafe all summer long. Thanks for the notes V and i'll check that cookbook soon! -matt p.s. this was my second lunch after trying the rabbit empanadas at Rae (very good) after an interview i had today. hooray for 2nd lunches!