Busboy

For oysters I'd suggest taking advantage of your West Coast body clock to hit the Old Ebbitt Grill's weeknight Oyster Happy Hour -- come early or late (I don't know the time off the top of my head) and get half-priced bivalves. It's an odd definition of "local" but we do have the best selection of Ethiopian restaurants in the country. And some say half-smokes are a local delicacy, try Ben's Chili Bowl on the hip, historic U Street corridor. If you nose around, you may find some local soft-shell crabs in restaurants, the oyster guy at our market had them on Sunday. They are not cheap. Try ringing Pesce, Johnny's Half Shell or Hank's oyster bar. Another spring delicacy: shad roe, possibly available at those same places.

This thread reminds me of an old friend who worked Saturdays at a local gay bar. The first two hours of his shift were spent hacking literally hundreds of limes into eighths, in anticipation of the afternoon's 75-cent Cape Codder happy hour, and there were generally no customers whatsoever. My wife and I got in the habit of dropping by after our weekly grocery run, having a cup of coffee or maybe a Bloody Mary and a little visit with Keith, while our two-year-old watched cartoons on the bar TV. We generally cleared out before any customers (or any other staff) arrived, but every now and then an early arrival would open the door, see the breeder nuclear family at the bar and do quite the double take, often checking the sign to see if they were in the right bar. It was a fine tradition while it lasted.

Welcome, Stanley. Eager as I am to try your sausages, I am also eager to schedule another Busboy family sausage-making marathon at home. Got any odd new combinations I can try?(lamb, sun-dried tomatoes and feta just gets old after a while!)

Have you seen the number of fat professors in my University's Food Science department? Education isn't the issue, it's initiative. We want a quick fix. But, we fail to see that we got fat over a significant period of time, and it will probably take a similar period to get well. But, we lack the initiative to do anything about it, and we lack the self-awareness to notice we're getting a little doughy before we're busting the axles on our SUV's. ← Right you are, jsolomon. Yanno, I think it's kind of condescending to say that poor, uneducated people eat junk all day long and should be the main target of our nutritional education efforts. There are plenty of fat people in my town -- one woman sits on the committee to change the food program at the school, and she must go about 300 (and her kids as well). She's educated, wealthy, has a strong community and family network, and fat. And making decisions for others -- good ones, too. Just not for herself. ← But it's kind of rational to note that obesity is correlated with poverty and low education and focus on the poor and uneducated, isn't it? There are probably poor people living in affluent neighborhoods, and aflluent people living in poor areas, but if you can only fund one job training center, which zip code should it go into? Interesting article here, linking obesity with food prices, which I pass along with no comment other than "there are many factors, blah blah, blah... A bunch of links on this site. Note that some have found a link between obesity and federal nutrition programs. ← I would posit that obesity is currently linked and correlated with hundreds of issues--with hundreds of links to come. Someone --anyone--with an agenda can find some statistics or can initiate a study to come up with just about anything. The big hole in the argument presented in the link you provided is that there are too many thin people in "poor" neighborhoods that he can't explain away with his shoddy theory. The fact is--obesity is the result of behavior. A person takes in more calories than they burn off. Show me a person of any race, creed, economic status, "zip code", social status, anything you want to consider--who takes in more calories than they burn off and I will show you a candidate for obesity. (medical anomalies, genetics etc excluded of course). Inner city kids who spend a few hours on basketball courts can load up on MacDonalds and be thin. (I know this personally because I was an inner city kid). I also lived in Little Italy in the Bronx--want easily accessible fresh healthy food--it is literally within minutes of thousands of "poor" people. I would say that a large number of residents were obese. (my best friend was nicknamed "fat" Tommy). If we want to wallow in these side arguments (ie--statistics show poor people are more likely to be fat ergo money is a key factor in obesity....) we will never begin to solve the problem. There is risk involved in most everything we do--habits good or bad are reinforced by many things. We had an idea an inkling that cigarette smoking was possibly bad for us back in Mark Twain's time. Cigarette smoking--only recently-- has been in decline after years of education--coupled with the fact that it is pretty clear one can get some pretty bad diseases from smoking--and the fact that many people have personal experience--they either got a disease or know someone who has from smoking--watching uncle Fred die slowly from emphysema can be a powerful motivator. Obesity is just recently being linked to health problems--diabetes etc. It is all about understanding risk and reward. One doesn't have to eat whole grains and sprouts with wheatgrass juice to avoid obesity. One just needs to have a reasonably balanced diet and exercise. (Note reasonable is a key here). Yes--availability of a variety of good quality food products in all neighborhoods is an important issue. I also suggest that it is at best a minor factor (maybe even a red herring of sorts) distracting everyone from getting to the real causes. ← The old "anybody can find a link" argument is old, dull and incorrect. There is a significant correlation between obesity and income, and another between income and education. In fact, once you get rid of things like genetics and illness, they may be the strongest. If you want to try to change the behaviors that lead to obesity, it makes sense to begin your work in the communities in which obesity-linked behaviors (pathologies, diseases, market forces, whatever) are most common. If you decide to turn to a life of crime, are you going to say, "hmmmm, there are thousands of places to rob, almost anyplace has something to steal," or are you going to stick up a bank because, as the saying goes, "that's where the money is?"

I guess the ongoing on-line reservation controversy got to him. Not to mention the hassles of getting Rays The Steaks (Even Higher) open. Most interesting part of the recorded message to me: "Keep in mind we are a very small restaurant with no bar and no waiting area, and we do not recommend making a special trip to come visit us." But, if you're in the 'hood...

Have you seen the number of fat professors in my University's Food Science department? Education isn't the issue, it's initiative. We want a quick fix. But, we fail to see that we got fat over a significant period of time, and it will probably take a similar period to get well. But, we lack the initiative to do anything about it, and we lack the self-awareness to notice we're getting a little doughy before we're busting the axles on our SUV's. ← Right you are, jsolomon. Yanno, I think it's kind of condescending to say that poor, uneducated people eat junk all day long and should be the main target of our nutritional education efforts. There are plenty of fat people in my town -- one woman sits on the committee to change the food program at the school, and she must go about 300 (and her kids as well). She's educated, wealthy, has a strong community and family network, and fat. And making decisions for others -- good ones, too. Just not for herself. ← But it's kind of rational to note that obesity is correlated with poverty and low education and focus on the poor and uneducated, isn't it? There are probably poor people living in affluent neighborhoods, and aflluent people living in poor areas, but if you can only fund one job training center, which zip code should it go into? Interesting article here, linking obesity with food prices, which I pass along with no comment other than "there are many factors, blah blah, blah... A bunch of links on this site. Note that some have found a link between obesity and federal nutrition programs.

The great thing about poor service -- as opposed to poor food -- is that you can retaliate by giving the waiter exactly the tip they have earned through their incompetence and condescension.

← I'm hardly an expert but we did have a wonderful meal at Les Florets, a Michelin Bib Gourmand just outside Gigondas. Of course, anyone interest in wine would have a great time in that neighborhood. There's a co-op just outside of Gigondas and one actually within the village itself that offer tastings, and then you can drive to both Vaqueyras (with a wine-seller who offers tastings just next to the bell tower) and Beum-de-Venise within minutes. For cheeses, I'd recommend prowling the markets (assuming they keep normal hours in March). There has been some discussion regarding whether or not the sellers at these markets are "genuine," but I suggest that if the correspondant seek out smaller stalls selling a limited selection of cheese,s they are likely to be getting artisanal stuff sold, if not by the artisans themselves, by their neighbors. I recall fondly one gentlemen who sold only one type of goat cheese (In Isle Sur la Sorgue, I assumed it was his) but he sold it in four different strengths, based on the age, which made for a fine degustation later than day. Interestingly, the somewhat contentious Market Day in France thread is more than slightly relevant to your correspondant's request. If he or she has has a place to cook or can find a chef willing to prepare a truffle omelette or two, the Carpentras Market -- maybe 35 minutes from Chateauneuf -- that inspired the book has a truffle market, along with their regular market, both on Fridays. The wonderful Provence Beyond website has a detailed guide to markets in the region here. It is also well worth clicking through for anyone who just wants to check out towns and villages worth spending a lazy afternoon exploring.

I second the recommendation of Keller's recipe, but confess that I've never made any other version. Just finished up the last one we made on Friday night; the distinctive pine nut crust held its crunch for almost a week and the filling held its tang. Havng one of those things lying around the house is like money in the bank.

Make a lemon tart from one of the Keller cookbooks. Simple, delicious.

I laughed reading the original post because I've always thought that Thomas Keller -- Titan that he is -- was a little disingenuous when he goes on about the brilliant alchemy that turns a cheap cut of meat like short ribs into a brilliant dish. Not that his short ribs aren't brilliant, but after the wime marinaed and two quarts of stock you throw in, I thin a decent Steak Bernaise might be the cheaper alternative.

I was merely reading from the "dossier de presse" that Busboy kindly linked a few posts ago in this thread. Is this inaccurate information? ← Chez Jean has now had a star for about two days, it's on the "Nouvelles Etoiles" list. *** You know, you've got to love France. In the U.S., for a chef to make the front page of a newspaper, he'd probably have to bump off his sous and the Maitre d', or poison the whole dining room. But I logged onto Midi Libre yesterday (I'm "reading" it, if you will, for practice and in advance of a trip this summer to their circulation area) and there, just below the story about the Wine-growers Convention, was a front-page story about two local chefs who'd just picked up their first Michelin stars: Olivier Douet of Le Lisita, in Nîmes, end Jérôme Nutile, chef of Le Castellas in Collias. I think I want to live in places where this stuff is front page news, from now on. Shows a nice sense of priorities, if you ask me. And now I know where to have lunch after I visit the Pont du Gard.

Last Friday I landed in the Oval Room with my wife and a good friend (thanks again, Matt!) for a journey through newcomers Matt Secich’s two tasting menus and a long conversation with the chef himself, and came away very impressed -- if not entirely blown away -- by the experience. But first, who’s been putting what in Ashok Bajoj’s coffee? Bajoj made his reputation with a modestly-sized restaurant group (701, Ardeao, Bardeo, Bombay Club, Oval Room) that rarely seems to put any dining rooms on the various top lists but always seem to offer good food and professional service in classy, if not cutting-edge, settings. All the sudden, he opens up Rasika, the high-end Indian restaurant in DC most to make your thoughts turn to the Karma Sutra – especially after the Black Cod and a couple of custom martinis. Then, to shake up the steps-from-the-White-House power lunch place Oval Room he brings in a guy who, when he hears the phrase “thinks go better with Coke,” has a couple of lobes of foie gras delivered to his kitchen. Bajoj appears to be getting a little frisky these days. The man who served me seared foie gras with coke syrup and a coke ice cream sundae on the side, is Matthew Secich, late of the Inn at Erlowest in Lake George, NY. In addition to that Inn, he’s butchered at The Inn at Little Washington, and staged with Pierre Gagnaire and at La Manoir aux Quat' Saisons (two Michelin stars), as well. He appears bent on using all that experience to change speeds at a restaurant where diners have been, until now, more likely to be impressed by their proximity to power than what was put on their plate (no matter how good it was). In person Secich - close-cropped beard and intense eyes framed by rimless glasses – comes off as a cross between Thomas Keller and Strelnikov, the revolutionary-cum-Communist General in the film version of Dr. Zhivago: determined, passionate and perhaps a bit visionary. As he is wont to say, he “takes things very seriously.” The test, of course, is how that passion and vision asserts itself on the plate. Especially for someone still finding his way around town, I think they are translating themselves into some pretty good cooking. The Chef’s Menus – there is both a vegetarian and an omnivore menu – are precise demonstrations of wit and skill, a daring that didn’t always work for me, and a devotion to fundamentals that did. There was that foie gras, a dish that, days later, I still find bizarrely compelling. Less odd, but no less compelling, was the first-course crab Bloody Mary – bits of crab served in a glass with chopped tomato, vodka gelee, what appeared to be (and crunched like) Old Bay-flavored Jello, and a bit of celery. It seemed boring and obvious when set before me but -- as the textures and tastes began to pile up and contrast – it seemed instead refreshing and new. After the crab but before the foie, I was pleased to see my first sea-urchin in far too long arrive at the table. Actually, a sea urchin flan, cooked in the urchin’s shell and served with lobster and white asparagus. Stephanie started off with a vegetarian version of the currently-unavoidable Butternut Squash Soup aromatic and heady with black truffle and truffle oil, tasty. Her wild mushroom lasagna came off heavy and bland, though, the mushroom flavors all jumbled together to no obvious distinction. Both the main courses were home runs. The vegetarian entrée was a seemingly austere serving of cipollini onions stuffed with wild rice made rich by -- apparently -- a long simmer in vegetable stock. Even richer were perfect slices of lamb loin poised atop carrot cake, an unusual but strikingly delicious combination. Talking after dinner Secich more than once allowed that he was unfazed if not everyone liked every dish. “People are 50-50” on that one, he said about the Peanut Butter and Strawberry Monte Christo dessert, about which I found myself in the wrong 50. I was impressed that he was willing to go out on a limb – and that he didn’t act as though I’d called his (new) (second) baby ugly when I said I didn’t care for it. The Chocolate Five Ways, though? Chef Secich, you have a beautiful baby. Secich is committed to finding the obscure and delicious, testing the boundaries of his suppliers so he can broaden the horizons of his diners. He’s throwing himself into the local scene, already (he just arrived last month) planning a dinner in conjunction with Virginia’s Jefferson Winery, featuring five as-yet-unreleased wines. (Details Here, click "events"). He’s breaking in a new kitchen staff. He’s finding new ways to put together flavors, new and old, and trying to make sure that some of the delight of meals in mom’s kitchen comes through in a dinner eaten off starched tablecloths. I wonder what’s going to happen when he catches his breath. I know it’s going to be different. But, Secich is aiming at extraordinary. I think he has a chance to hit it.

This may be too vague to be helpful, but if you get to the No Name (where I spent a few happy hours once upon a time) and are heading back to Key West from Big Pine, keep your eyes peeled for a great little Cuban place around Ramrod or Cudjo Key. I know it's not much to go on, but I remember chowing down on pork and black beans and drinking cheap beer on formica table tops and being glad that there was one place that hadn't been taken over by the blender drink-drinkers yet. If it's still there, it's well worth looking up, so drive slow!

Decisions can't be made on the tiny possibility that some harm will come or the always invoked "fear of lawsuits". Perhapse recess, sports, chemistry, shop, and hormones should be forbidden as well -- all are much more dangerous, in my experience, than baked goods.

To add to Bux's comments on viaMichelin, it is a great thing. You will have to register to search by, say, stars or forks or Bib Gourmands, in return you'll get an e-mail about once a month. I don't think they have the stars in, yet, but you can find them on the Michelin website.

So how will they learn to make choices? and at what age? You are running a school and that puts you in a somewhat different place ... but I know what you mean ... ← As a former teenager and current parent of two, I've got no problem with something like this. Let them choose to do their dang homework, clean their room or get a job. I'll dictate lunch, thanks.

I would hope that anyone who even remotely credits moronic policies like this will refrain from criticizing people who make, market and consume the mass foodstuffs this policy supports. Because the lesson this policy teaches is that store-bought it better than home-made, now that we've officially endorsed the idea, we can't blame anyone for adopting it. I can't help but think there's some evil marketing genius for Hostess behind this: "why stop at advertising twinkies to toddlers on daytime TV -- we can have the school system do it for us, too." The store-bought-only bakesale is beyond parody. Not to get into to stereotypes (oh, hell, why not?) but I thought you Middle Americans (Go Soooners!) were the ones keeping alive traditions like bake sales where Mrs. Jones always donates the scratch cake made from her grandmother's recipe, while we obsessive east-coast types were stopping off at the bakery for a dozen plastic cupcakes.

Also, you might consider legging it five minutes up 17th Street to Komi. Very hip, excellent food. Not for the stodgy. Washingtonian's 100 Best Restaurants, while not as reliable as eGullet (criminally excluding Firefly) is a good resource, and it gives addresses and phone numbers.

My first choice would be getting a private room at the Tabard Inn -- which is more or less next door to the Topaz. Very good food and the rooms feel like somebody's parlour, (which they likely were) you don't feel exiled like you do in some private rooms. Just went to a birthday there and they offered the full menu to 10-12 people which is nice. The bar and the lounge are spectacular and everybody with any sense loves hanging out there. On steakhouses: my last meals at Ruth's Chris and Smith and Wollensky more or less sucked. The Palm is a cool "Washington" Place with good steaks, but better known for it's atmosphere. You may see Important People hanging at the bar. Ask for the back (main) room if you want to eat with the cool kids. I like Sam and Harry's, across the street from the Palm, both about 5 minutes from your hotel. I don't know if they have the facilities, or if you'd be comfortable booking a fish house, but both Johnnies Half Shell and Pesce, on N and 21st, are excellent. Firefly is excellent, as is the Circle Bistro, about a 15 minute walk from you, on Washington Circle. Nora is considered inconsistent and expensive, but I like it. They used to have a second room under a greenhouse ceiling that they used for large groups. I love Bistro du Coin but would never bring strangers or businesspeople there -- potential for disaster just too high.

Th curious -- Francophonic -- can go here for the winners and losers. Click on "Télécharger le dossier de presse (pdf)" at the bottom of the screen. Included is the list of all the starred establishments and all the changes -- it's a long release, so if you don't see what you're looking for, keep going. Glad to see some improvements in the direction of my summer vacation: two new one-stars in Nice and one in Nimes One interesting change for those of us soon to travel there, is the inclusion of a new category of hotel, the "Maison d'hote" which appear to me to translate roughly as B&B's: owner-occupied, largely rural, 3-5 rooms and dinner around a grand table d'hote, featuring local dishes, produce from the garden and so on.

Or in this instance, whether they have read the book before commenting on it? Busboy, when did you say the book is available in DC? ← March.

Washing Post resto critic calls Dukem and Etete the two best Ethiopian in town today, in his on-line chat (something to chech out here.

The Red Sea is long gone, but a new wave of restaurants has turned the area around 9th and U Streets Northwest into a veritable little Ethiopia in the last few years. Very convenient via subway. Dukem (12th and U) and Etete (9th) seem to be the favorites, I like Abiti, as well. Here is a sometimes spirited diuscussion of less expensive places. You can also look here and here. Good luck on the warm weather -- DC in March can be 60 and sunny or 40, with a wind whipping through the concrete corridors.

I hope that you have a chance to sneak out for something adventurous while you are here -- maybe some Ethiopian food - but for meat and potatoes I'd go with Capitol Grille, even though I usually urge boycotts of restaurants who spell grill "grille." Great dry-aged beef and very "Washington" feel -- you may see influence actually in the process of being peddled at the next table. Also close enough to walk to from the National Gallery (Cezanne and Dada) or the Hill. Morton's is well-regarded, too, but there's probably one withing driving distance of your house by now. Avoid Ruth's Chris at all costs. 701 is considered safe but boring. Georgia Brown's gets mixed reviews, but their Southern-style cooking was pretty good last time I ate it, and it has its devotees. What an odd mix of restaurants. I'm trying to think what they have in common to all be on the same gift certificate. Any clues?