mrbigjas

yes it was. except! the first course there were four turnovers, and they were happy to split between the two varieties. the soup/salad course was individual (we got lamb consomme and the salad). it was a ridiculous amount of delicious food. we have leftovers. i seriously love that restaurant.

omg i hope so! there are two choices for each course, and that way i'd get to eat everything on the menu.

i'm hitting up that NYE special they're rockin tomorrow night. but it looks like everything's family style, so do two of us have to come to an agreement about each course? this is going to entail some serious negotiation...

no offense to halteman's, which i like for several things, but their fruitcakes suck. they're all shortening-y and not heavy/dense enough. just... not great.

i went to pho saigon today and had a nice time. their pho broth lighter than some places -- it isn't as meaty or anise-y as others i've had. also they go a lot heavier on the meat and lighter on the noodles than most places. good food.

that herb is called culantro. in vietnamese, it's ngo gai.

very good point. and really, making brisket, ribs and sausage a little more prohibitive, price-wise, is probably a good thing for all of our cholesterol. i sure hope it is good. you can't get sausage like hill country sausage anywhere else. in some ways i like it almost as much as the brisket.

i think you're pissing in the wind, there, holly. after all, this is the same crew that charges $8 for a dish of hummus over at zahav. doubling standard hill country prices strikes me as pretty much par for the course, if not relatively inexpensive. gonna have to be a sausage flown in from smitty's or kreuz's themselves to be worth $11, tell you what. and even then it won't be. otoh, i miss that stuff, a lot. and i might indulge myself. and i am prepared to be disappointed, and feel ripped off. damn you, food memories.

i didn't go to the thing yesterday, despite my plans, but that sounds to me like pretty much basically how teaberry ice cream rolls, and i've been eating it my whole life. it really works well in a milkshake.

$3 hop devil and gerrish island oysters like little shots of ice cold salt water; tipping prohibited. there are worse ways to take a break on a sunday afternoon in the exurbs.

oh yeah, i didn't mean to imply that it was overpriced at all. i don't think it is. it's just that tackling a large $27 mound of food means you have to come to an agreement on what you want to eat, if you don't want to end up with a ton of leftovers. i will point out, btw, that the duck rice is excellent left over.

me too. i hope their family style servings and the associated price points will allow them to. it's not that fun to go with just two people, for instance, because you can only have a couple of apps and one entree without spending a mint and having a ton of leftovers -- it makes it hard to decide what to get. Hmm, I made reservations a few days ago, and was glad to see Phil A's positive review. But there are just the two of us... worth it? Or should we invite some friends along? oh no, it's totally worth it. go!

me too. i hope their family style servings and the associated price points will allow them to. it's not that fun to go with just two people, for instance, because you can only have a couple of apps and one entree without spending a mint and having a ton of leftovers -- it makes it hard to decide what to get.

vegemite's australian, is the thing. hahha

i think it's the fishcake itself that makes the difference, more than the general concept of the sandwich. the one i had at texas weiners on snyder had a much more strongly flavored one. it wasn't like the fish was bad or something, but more like they made the fishcake out of mackerel or bluefish or something. or threw a couple sardines in with the pollock or whatever they were using. i didn't like it as much... johnny's hots has a really mild fishcake, that yes, is mostly starch. i think moe's is too, but also moe's hot dogs are so big that the sandwich kinda gets out of control for my tastes. and they are indeed always ridiculously nice at moe's. i've never been there when they're not, and i've been numerous times.

johnny's hots is alive and well, and now open on saturdays. gfweb, you never went to levis at 6th & south? they had the combo. johnny's hots still does it, as does texas weiner. i've never heard of it anywhere else, but also i've never lived anywhere else.

i haven't been to locanda for years. years! and also la buca, which i remember being fine, but that was so long ago, who knows? capaneus has raved about la buca's relatively inexpensive higher end wines for a while now.

speaking of italian places that might or might not be closed, is that place at the inn at penn still there and still making awesome pasta? i haven't heard anything about it for a couple years now.

its quality is 'nonexistent' at the moment.

i loved that scallop. i get so tired of seared/raw scallops; the double cooking was exactly what i'm looking for. and i couldn't get over the flavor of the beef. so much of what is associated with great beef flavor is the salty/charred outside, and this had almost none of it, and yet it came through in spades. the hiramasa and eggplant dish was a standout as well.

i'm powering through the remnants of a miserable cold to be there tonight. hope i can taste anything.

oo look, the 04 screaming eagle is marked down to only $6K a bottle. how many cases you in for?

they had some of the early ones today

finishing off my first half gallon of peanut butter ripple. FANTASTIC.

you forgot to mention his amazingly cool variety of hot peppers, including goat horns, bulgarian carrot peppers, some little variegated ones, and one that he said is called maul's philadelphia, and told a story about thomas jefferson's gardner -- i can't find any info on the internets about it, though, so i must be remembering it wrong. oh and some scotch bonnet type of thing that he said gave him a nosebleed when he ate one. the goat horns are great -- nice and hot with a pretty neutral flavor. the carrot peppers are really hot, but aromatic and fruity like a habanero but not as sweet.