Busboy

Ahhh...I believe the Lafite he was eventually served was a '61, though. (Or was that the LaTour?).

Don't know if this helps or not: Full article here. Survey is here. . Unfortunately, they don't seem to break the DC numbers out, but it might get you a feel. Good luck! I had dinner there they other day and it was spectacular.

Washington Post critic Tom Sietsema is seduced by Comet's innate coolness, likes the pizza, too.

A billion dollars is spit in the ocean compared to the money that is spent marketing junk to children. School cafeterias are increasingly given over to fast- and junk food because that's what the kids say they want. Soft-drink manufacturers buy exclusive access to school systems desperate for cash. Physical education programs are cut back because of the new emphasis on hitting test scores. Video games. It is apparently now illegal to release a kids movie without tying the to hundreds of lloathsome products. Parents are too stressed or too ignorant to cook right. We pay vast subsidies for a monoculture farming that fights to find new ways to inject sugars, fat and starch into the our meals (guess what book I've been reading). We fear of unstructured play. We set bad examples ourselves. We spend a billion dollars a year on ineffective programs because its easier than actually doing something.

Gusteau certainly reminded me physically of Fernand Point.. ← I htouhgt the face was more Bocuse-ian, though. Great flick.

Brandade. Stockfish. Actually, one of things I love about being in that part of the world is they do fish so well.

Best of luck to you. My wife and I get down that way every now and again and the restaurant pickins are few. A couple of decent barbecue shacks, and there's the bar where we had Budweiser and the bartender's crabs and gravy for breakfast one day (in downtown Leonardtown) but beyond that, it's hard to get a decent meal. You could check out Captain John's crab house over on Cobb Island, along the Potomac, or Captain Billy's, but they haven't really blown me a way in the past.

Randomly bumped into one of DC's top local chefs, Robert Wiedmaier of Marcel's, on a cooking show. He was ostensibly teaching his sons to cook fish and kept saying "if you're not tasting, you're not cooking." I don't see how you can rise to the top of the profession without honoring that dictum.

Exotic garlic from Audia's Farm at Mt. Pleasant. My wife bought it and all she could remember was "Khazhakstani" but there were a couple other varieties. They can bring stuff to Takoma Park on sundays if you call them an ask 410-489-7117.

Just when I thought I'd have to throw away the courte bouillon in my freezer for having missed half the two-week pea season, Reid Orchards showed up with the lovely legumes this AM at Mt. Pleasant -- back like an old friend on an unexpected visit. If you have access to The French Laundry Cookbook or just know how to make a courte bouillon, you owe it to yourself to make pea soup this weekend. (shell peas, puree, add bouillon, puree again, mush through fine screen, correct for salt and viscosity, top with drizzle of truffle oil and ground pepper, add crunch with parmesan crisps (TK) or cute weensy rye croutons (my wife)). Peas tomorrow at Bloomingdale (1st and R) and maybe Dupont.

You should know that Babbo also sets aside a few tables for walk-ins. My wife and I went about an hour after opening on a holiday Saturday and were given a table -- with an expiration date, but fair enough -- before we'd finished our first glass of wine. If we'd gone earlier and perhaps on a different day (holiday Saturdays are slower for wealk-ins, I expect, but a Wednesday would probably be even better) the wait might even have been shorter. If you can't get your rezie, you can check if that's still the policy while you have them on the phone, and they'll probably give you better hints than I.

Checked it out this evening: the Salvadoran place in Columbia Heights is La Molienda, on the 3500 block of 14th, at the corner of 14th and Perry Place. A little further south (closer to the metro stateion) is Taquerio Distrito Federal, a good, cheap, authentic Mexican place at 3463 14th. Be aware that neither offers fine dining and that, if you're with friends, them as ain't used to urban living uin a transitional neighborhood might feel a little uncomfortable walking there. PS: If you go to Mt. Pleasant, one of the great remaining dives in DC still does a booming business as The Raven. Just look for the neon sign across the street from the 7-11. Something to wash back your pupusas with.

You're an outlaw, man. I think a tattoo and a Harley will make you feel better. You can take (Southern?) comfort in the fact that bureaucrats hate everyone. Why do the police despise you, though? We're fortunate in DC, a very friendly place to buy wine.

First, sadly, there was a fire in Eastern Market and Market Lunch will be off-line for many months during reconstruction. Given your budget, I might recommend the sammies for lunch and saving the difference for dinner, there are few meals in DC available near the metro, for under $10 that can't be supersized and don't involve Ethiopians. Zorba Cafe is a competent little Greek place steps from the Dupont Circle (north exit) that offers cheap wine and possibly the best and most overlooked outdoor eating (and people-watching) in the Dupont Circle neighborhood, near movie theaters, all-night bookstores and beautiful people. If it's fries you want, about 400 feet from Zorba's is Bistro du Coin. The fries can be a bit inconsistent, but when they're good they're very very good. If you're in the mood you can get a decent bowl of mussels to go with the fries, otherwise you might just want to get a Stella at the bar. Do not go here between 7 and 9. Some people hate this place and service can be brusque, but others take to it immediately. If you get off at the south entrance of the Dupont Station, you might head toward Malaysia Kopitiam for excellent Malaysian. Over by the U Street/Cardozo stop, you might want to try Bar Pilar for small plates amongst the terminally hip. There's also a Salvadoran place in the strip mall/storefront across the street from Pilar, whose name escapes me, that a friend of mine in the neighborhood quite likes, and a few other storefront operation (kebabs, etc) that may be worth checking out. As with the Dupont recommendations and with Eammon's, below, these are in a very busy nightlife area, with all the attendant good and evil such places attract. If you want to take the train to Old Town, you have a ten minute walk down King Street befiore it gets fun and if it's cheap fun in Old Town you want you may want to try Eamonn's for fish and chips. Eamonn's is run by one of the area's best chefs (one of Food and Wine's 10 Best New Chefs last year), Cathal Armstrong, who also happens to be an old Doublin boy with a taste for fried, as well as fine, dining. If you want to swank out in your ballroom dancing clothes, you may want to try upstairs at the extremely limited-seating neo-speakeasy PX. Finally, if it's Salvadoran you're after, get up to the Columbia Heights station and wander over to Mt. Pleasant, where there are six places on Mt. Pleasant Street. Erecilia's Pupuseria on Mt. Pleasant and Irving is regarded as the tops for pupusas, Haydee's, just up the street, offers a broader menu and a slightly more refined atmosphere (Erecilia's is a kind of florescent lighting and Formica place). There's a couple other places on the street I haven't checked out, as well. If your friends are comfortable in an urban environment, you might want to walk up the 14th Street past where Yuppieland ends (you can't miss the transition), to Salvadoran place where I just had some decent pupusas and chicharons with yucca, but whose exact name and address escape me now.

Are you letting it cool before you see if it's solid? I'm no Jacques Pepin, but I've never made a stock that didn't turn into meaty jello at room temperature and I never even really tried, it just seems to come out that way. Tim's suggestions seem spot on and another to bump up the gelatin is to add a sliced pig's foot or two into the mix -- also adds a little flavor. Thomas Keller does this, (and chicken feet in his chicken stock) so it must be OK.

Although I do use my Magical Editing Powers to return to posts made years ago to correct grammatical errors, to fix typos (though, since this is not my forum, I cannot add the needed "a" to the title) and to make myself look prescient in matters including sporting events, restaurant openings and "Best Director" Oscars, my OP here is unedited and uses the words "pasta" and "spaghetti" more or less interchangeably in getting at the broader concern, which was restated admirably by Mr. Kinsey. The spaghetti in question was egg pasta, rather than undried pasta asciutta and, rather change to penne when I went back to the store to get the dried stuff, I stuck with the spaghetti based on a strong statement by Dean Gold, proprietor of the well-regarded Dino's Dino's a few storefronts down from my deli, whom I encountered unexpectedly.

But I would never put butter or cream in carbonara, right? I'd be flayed alive by the traditionalists. Can I use soft pasta now?

Apparently all the world uses dried pasta in making carbonara and, for all I know that's the authentic way. Nonetheless, the spaghetti at the Italian deli looked too good not to buy so that's what we're eating. But, as I Google recipes and scan eG in search of a good ratio of eggs, cheese, cream, peas (just kidding! back off!) to one another and to pasta, it's clear that the recipes are based on dried pasta. So, anyone know a good rule of thumb along the lines of "1 pound of dried pasta equals 1.x pounds of fresh?" Grazie.

Bouillabaisse!

A related question is how do you handle farmer's markets? There it's not so much a question of whether this peach is better than that peach but are this grower's strawberries better than that grower's? A lot of stands put out samples, but a lot don't, so I've become pretty brazen about just looting a cherry at every stand until I find which I like best that day. The variations can be quite extraordinary. With larger fruits, I stiff compulsively, and I was never so proud as when I saw my young daughter imitating daddy, holding cantaloupes almost as big as her head up to her ear, listening carefully for the tenor of the "thump" she administered, and then giving the things a great sniff before settling on the one she wanted. How do others choose?

The website. Elsewhere in the world, folks are apparently fixated on Roger Clemens' return to the New York Yankees, but here in DC Foodworld we're much more interested in former Firefly chef John Wabeck's return to New Heights, a restaurant that has been considered consistently good but only rarely excellent in its going-on-twenty (?) year run. First reports are that Wabeck's comeback is going much better than Clemens'. As he begins to hammer the menu into his own image, highlights include a lamb carpaccio with tomatoes and cilantro mint chutney, softshells and anything else with an Indian hint to it (the owners, the Singhs, have some influence here). A bar menu is to be unveiled momentarily and slated to include the truffle fries that were something of a signature at Firefly; the cheeses have been upgraded with fermented curds from Artisanal in New York; and Wabeck -- who doubled as sommelier at his previous gig, is studying for the Master Sommelier exam and who did time in Napa both as a chef (Brix) and barrel washer (Darioush Winery) -- is working on the wine list as well. Look for lots of summer pinks and good well-priced Burgundies to start showing up. A couple of years back, Wabeck chatted with eGulleters here. My recent conversations with John -- who was once likened to a serial killer by Tony Bourdain -- have been less philosophical and more along the lines of "we're gonna kick some [expletive, deleted] ass." That's a good thing, too.

Meh. There's always one of the little darlings in every group that won't eat anything but a hamburger. And while my only Five Guys experience was decidedly so-so, I would still put it above Phillips. ← You know, I'm so sick of that little whiner ruining it for everybody else. Let 'em go hungry just this once. If this is true, you may want to consult this topic. This is an excellent idea, especially if it can be arranged to have the group come in for an early dinner. Then take the kids on a night tour of the monuments -- much more fun than the daylight stuff, and you can make 'em walk off all their excess energy. And, according to the website, they have a private room. Both my kids were picky eaters, but they always found something to like at Jaleo. Much better -- and cooler -- than Phillips, IMHO.

Make 'em spend a year on the line. Heck, every kid could benefit from a year on the line (or in any other job marked by stress and responsibility) before they went off to school, whether that school is the CIA or Balliol.

Im buying rye bread tomorrow..... ← I think that is a reference to the Salem Witch Trials- all that twitching & hallucinating has been theoretically tied to crazy spores in some rye or similar grain. ← Symptoms are not as much fun as they sound at first, apparently. Salem witch trial connection is at best conjecture, but it makes a good story so I'm going with it. To the original post, I am quite careful with stocks and egg sauces, but will eat almost anything else the morning after. Had a big chunk of raw mackerel the other day because the texture looked ewww-y. (Decent taste, but the texture problems only compounded when the stuff was chopped and set up with lime, so we chucked it anyway).

Speaking not as a resident but as a regular visitor, I second the Greenwich Village suggestion. I can spend many days in New York and -- save for the occasional museum run-- never venture above 34th Street.