Busboy

A few years back, I spent six weeks in Greece and I don't think I dined inside more than once or twice the whole time. Here at home, I insist that the family dine outside on the front porch of our rowhouse as often as possible. Unlike Greece, we don't always dine between nine and midnight, so the heat can be unbearable occasionally and we're forced into the air conditioning, but -- given the proper climate -- I'm not sure I'd ever eat indoors.

You probably know this already, but if you're not, you should be aware that Citronelle (thread here) has almost nothing to do with Michel Richard's cookbook. That stuff's much more likely to be found at Central.

Finally somebody who works on the waitstaff of a restaurant who has some sense and realizes what the term gratuity mean! I'm sure you normally get great tips because you think like and respect your customers! I wish you were a waitress at a restaurant I am a regular customer of. ← Sorry, but this is BS. A tip is mandatory, assuming a competent level of service, whatever you want to call it. Going to the dictionary to play word games is just silly. Large parties get a mandatory service charge because large parties tend to stiff their servers. If you don't like it, blame the 83 million previous parties who tipped 3% after their deadbeat friends ran off without leaving enough cash to cover their beers, burgers and a reasonable gratuity.

An excellent and undeservedly deserted spot up Georgia Avenue: Moroni and Brothers. I feared that a place with a growing -- if underground -- rep would have a line out the door on Fathers Day but we were the only table yesterday afternoon. Started off with some excellent tamales and then I waded into a decent -- if unspectacular -- carne deshilada while the missus grabbed a pizza. And what a pizza! I think the dough couls have been a little yeastier, but it rendered into a perfect crust, crisp and bubbly. Toppings were excellent and I enjoyed the sauce quite a bit. There was some talk around the table that M&B may be the new go-to spot for fresh pies...I'm not quite willing to go that far (DC having become a bit of a pizza paradiso in recent months) but it is certainly a contender for best in town, in addition to being the only place I know of with quality pizza and quality Salvadoran food. Bonus points for them replacing my son's pizza when it came out with cheese, contrary to his order, within minutes and without hassle. Well worth the trip uptown. Website here.

I've been to Five Guys twice and am mystified by the cult following. The fries are decent, but the burgers are awful...fried to grayness and topped with something that barely even approximates cheese. I can see one from my office window but I'd rather go hungry than ever eat there again.

Pigtails can be quite delightful.

Not to mention the New Haven classic: clam pizza. Had a few slices tonight, in fact. Admittedly clams are a lot less subtle than say a nicely sauteed bit of cod. FWIW, the McDonald's Filet o' fich pairs something resembling fish with something resembling cheese to fine effect. If anyone wants to run with this: I'm having a hard time picturing cheese with fish in any cuisine, except maybe Coquilles St. Jacques (again with the traife!).

Cherries at Dupont last week, at Sunnyside Farms. Get there early, they went quick, people's heads snapping back Exorcist-like as they walked past by and caught unexpected scarlet gleam out of the corner of their eyes, pints snatched up as fast as they could be hauled out of the cartons. Also at Dupont, a smaller but equally fierce battle for fava beans at Next Step. I personally elbowed an aging vegan out of the way -- if she wants her favas, she should eat more protein -- to get at the pile. The supply generally lasts less than three weeks, so have a peeling party this weekend with a few of your finest friends and serve them with something Greek as all hell, maybe a little lamb shank braised hours and days in a burly Xynomavro and black olives, and eggplant stewed with onion and tomato. Speaking of lamb, I had a lesson is paying attention while buying at the Bloomingdale Market the other Sunday. Perhaps distracted by a group of middle-aged white boys practicing their interplanetary funksmanship (as G. Clinton once put it) with surprising aplomb (making them the coolest market musicians ever, by far) I not only bought two wildly expensive lamb loin roasts from New Asbury Farm, I failed to note that I was being charged boneless roast prices for bone-in roasts. Just to taunt me my wife weighed the meat left over after she boned the little bastards out and trimmed the fat cap. All agreed that it was excellent lamb -- and teenagers are nothing if not honest about this stuff -- but at $40/lb I'm not sure the cost/benefit works for me. In fact, while bitching, let me mention I was sold some pork by another vendor not long ago with an expiration date many months passed. It's easy to tell if a strawberry is rotten, but y'all take care when buying meat, especially the frozen stuff, hear? BTW, Brian over at truckpatch has had a couple of cuts he calls "pork steaks" and which I've also seen called "pork sirloin." This is an excellent cut for grilling or roasting, more marbled than your average pork chop and so chock full of that fine swine taste that even Jules might make an exception for it.

Finally got my peas at the 14th and U market today!

Some friends and I are thinking of copping a whole lamb and spit-roasting it, and one possible source is the local Halal butcher. On the other hand, I've always heard from friends that Kosher beef is dry and tasteless because of the way it is butchered and prepared. Now, I know that Halal is not exactly the same as Kosher (and that beef is not lamb), but I'd appreciate anyone who could make a more educated guess than I can, whether the same sad fate visited on a Kosher NY Strip will inflict a whole Halal lamb.

I've had waiters who were clearly trying to foist another bottle of wine on the table by grossly overpouring the glasses and then asking -- with look of almost cherubic innocence, if we might care for another (since this one is empty). Not a common practice, and one that rarely effects me since my friends and I generally drink faster than the waiters can pour. Hitchens was once a respected journalist in a classically British sort of fashion -- hard drinking, heavy smoking writer with an affinity for dangerous places and an ability to file meaningful reports while hungover. Now he's become a bit of a crank who's enthralled with his own celebrity. Still a legend, but his best days seem to have passed. Met him at a small gathering, once: just this side of pompous, but pulls it off with aplomb. Pity his deadline hit the day after the waiter screwed up his wine service -- Hitch (as we call him) might have written something useful instead.

So, where'd you go?

I was going to say Beck, as well, but you also might want to stroll a few blocks from the Foggy Bottom metro to Pizzaria/Birarria Paradiso. Opinions on the pizza vary somewhat but the beer cellar is well regarded. Make sure you go to the one on M Street, not the one on P Street, which does not have the same beer program. Also, either the Brickskeller (Dupont Circle Metro) or RFD (Metro Center) can offer a massive variety of beers. No one ever went to either place for the food, I think, but any beer lover should consider a pilgrimage to The Brick, which was -- at one point -- in the Guinness Book for its beer selection and was a big, early backer of the craft movement. Fact, you could have a couple of beers there and then re-acquire your thirst walking down to Paradiso.

Real, fresh sea urchin is seasonal on the East Coast, so this discussion is slightly painful for me (no more until October, I think), but this February we ordered a bunch fresh from an outfit out of Gloucester, Massachusetts called The Fresh Lobster Company. I'll leave the fancy cooking to the pros, (nice looking plate, Mike). We just cut the critters open with scissors and ate their guts out of the shell while knocking back crisp white wine. Just frighteningly good -- kind of like finding true love while the tide comes in, only a little more delicate. And, one of the few things you can throw at guests in this jaded age that they've never actually tried eating before. I am counting the days until the season begins again.

Nice piece in The Washington Post about New Heights' expanding gin list. I've been to the bar and out drinking with the chef and he is as serious about gin as he is about wine and cooking, making the bar an excellent place to drop by for a snootfull or two.

Perry street for brunch. A solid "B" effort. Arctic Char Sashimi, Steak Tartare, Lemon curd thing, amuse of pea soup with a parmigiano foam. Everything was well prepared but it seemed the elusive x-factor that gives a meal a memorable zing was missing. Churlish to complain, though: Pleasant space, good service, and unexceptional Arctic Char sashimi is surely better than Eggs Benedict once again. And, for $24, hard to beat. To a friend exiled to the culinary wasteland of Amherst, Massachusetts, it was a bit of a revelation, in addition to being a perfect place to catch up after too long. You gotta love New Yorkers: when he went to scratch his head and announce somewhat too loudly -- "Jesus, I just pulled a tick off my head," no one at the adjoining tables batted an eye.

Strikes me as just another overly cute marketing term -- trying to impress the masses or inflate their own importance. "Wildcrafting is the practice of harvesting plants from their natural, or "wild" habitat, for food, medicinal, or other purposes." Sounds like "picking" to me. Or "gathering." Which brings me to another peeve, the use of the word "harvest." Doesn't "harvest" imply a cultivated crop? You harvest corn, but you gather ramps.

Clark's gum -- "Clark -- the sourest man in town." If I could find a pack of Sour Orange, I'd be a blisful 6-year-old at the first chew. CAn't live like that all the time, but a little field trip to my childhood would be nice.

So what's the fix? Start calling before we go? That whole automatic gratuity added for parties over 6 or 8 or whatever reeks. If I call first we're either gonna get the entire boh's dna in the soup or we might get some service for the unfair automatic charge. I should call & say some chichifoofoo restaurant critic will be dining in cognito there that evening. Described as a crabby little grey haired lady walking soft & carrying a sharp walking stick. ← Speaking as both a former waiter and a current diner, I'd guess that the number of large tables who've screwed over a waiter outnumber the number of waiters who've screwed over a large table by a factor of at least two-to-one. It's an imperfect system, but it's there for a reason. Too bad the servers in Memphis are so quick to take advantage -- here in DC we generally get quality professional service (or no worse than usual ), and most servers I've ever known or worked with take enough pride in their jobs not to slack off just because the tip is guaranteed. And they know that every now and again a well-served table has added a little extra to the tip -- always a good incentive. I even slipped my waiter an extra $20 (not a fortune, but lifted the tip from about 18% to about 24%, I think) at the "service charge included" French Laundry because he was such good guy. Amy's point is well taken, but everybody's allowed to have a little bitch-space, I think, and most people here are surely polite even when annoyed. At least for the first couple of annoyances. Heck, there are plenty of websites around that would lead you to believe that servers hold their customers in utter contempt, so we're just getting equal time.

I do a similar potato salad, only with chives and parsley and little or no mustard. I also make an herb omelet with using a similar herb mixture, adding the eggs to a pan in which minced shallots are simmering. Finishing with a little Gruyere or Cheddar in the middle is not a bad idea, either. Also works most excellently in a chicken salad.

Too me this is the most painful time of the year...you pull yourself out of bed early one Sunday and you're greeted by the brightest shades of green you've seen for six months and Spring Is Here! and then you get up the next week to see what's new and they've got....greens. And the week after. And the week after as we wait for the strawberries and the cherries and the peas and the peaches. April is the cruelest month because it's such a tease. I don't care about lilacs breeding out of the dead land, I need fresh favas from Heinz. Some take comfort in the ramps at the Dupont Market...and last week there were wild morels, expensive and short-lived but hand-gathered in West By God Virginia, by genuine Mountaineers, another peasant food turned pricey by urban demand (don't get me started on the ramps). But it's finally May and this week, at least, my local opens up, the Mt. Pleasant market -- not as extensive as Dupont but enough to get us through Saturday night. Rumors are that the first strawberries have been spotted at other markets, and Reid Orchards is sure to have the first cherries of the season, whenever they arrive. And my buddy Brian at Truck Patch still deals some of the best pork in town. Looks like Spring is finally here to stay.

I have been persuaded -- reservations made and I'm washing all of my black clothing and having my attitude cleaned and pressed so that I'll look like a proper New Yorker.

That sounds like a winner. When you first mentioned it I clicked on the wrong menu on their website and thought I was looking at $50+ per person (I am incapable of going to a nice place and ordering just the cheap stuff) but the $24 is well within budget. Are they "small plates?"

Ducked into the soft opening for a few free slices and a long chat with Mike. Of course it's too early to Render Judgment but I was pretty pleased with the place - easily the best slice this side of the park. In his manifesto, , Mike suggests that the true test of New Haven-style apizza is the crust -- "without divulging any secrets, it turns out PERFECTLY CRISPY on the OUTSIDE and PERFECTLY CHEWY on the INSIDE, with the perfect amount of black on the bottom." I would have gone for a touch more char but the crisp/chewy thing was exactly right; it was an excellent crust. Toppings were understated without being stingy and the slices we had went down most excellently. I am looking forward to a more substantial tasting (they had been mobbed and were running out by the time we got in) later this week, but I'm pretty sure this place is going to be a player in the pizza wars once it hits its stride -- if it's not already. No liquor license yet, but beer and wine are coming. I can't imagine the smallish room not being filled most of the time, so a carry-out might be in order (or showing up late, after the Target closes). Menu here.

Just now got the estimate for the car repairs. Lets just say that -- while I'm always open to a good lunch, whatever the cost -- there's a new sense of frugality in the air. What must one wear to Aquavit or Perry Street? I am always in favor of dressing well, but I'm road-tripping and so is my friend, so we'll be in jeans, most likely.