bilrus

They could do a light show on the roof, just like Vegas. The M St. Experience.

Tonight we took several shots of our dinner, moving the lighting around and using a primitive reflector (mainly because I was too lazy to go upstairs and get the real reflector tonight). These were two the better shots - one pretty straightforward and one with a different perpective. Both of these were taken with the lighting above and behind to the left, not directed at the plate, with the reflector (a silver cardboard box in this case) in front.

Inspired by pcarpen's post a while back I made a take on Mario Batali's 2 Minute Calamari - Sicilian Lifeguard Style, except I used shrimp instead of Calamari because I only really like Calamari if it is breaded and fried - and then barely. Oh - I also misread the recipe and used 1 cup of uncooked Israeli Couscous (it cooked in the sauce) instead of 1 cup pre-cooked - so this was a little heavy on the couscous. Interesting mix of savory, spicy and a little sweet.

This may be why Marzapane's boyfriend likes Ribsters - St. Louis Barbecue sauce is typically pretty sweet.

Here is my first pic using the new camera and dedicated lighting. This was my handy work, rather than my wifes. It is a little washed out, but the dish itself was a little washed out too. I think the whites are maybe a little too bright as well.

Tonight I made Rigatoni with Five Lilies and Ricotta Salata from the Babbo Cookbook. Unlike most recipes I've made from this book, I didn't love this one. It was good, but a little too much onion flavor as you may suspect from a recipe that includes sweet onions, red onions, leeks, scallions and chives.

Pete, I've done a take on that recipe of Mario's much like yours. It's very good. We used to eat lots of squid and I found it searching for recipes using squid. I bought the fixin's for that one too, although I'm not a big calamari fan, so I am using shrimp instead. You'll be seeing a picture soon.

Jenrus and I used the gift certificate I mentioned in the previous post and had an excellent dinner. As mentioned the room is very cool - modern while maintaining a certain level of comfort. The views of the Capitol are magnificent and remind me of one of the reasons I love living in this city. This is my new answer for the question of where to take an out of town visitor for a "DC" experience (as long as your visitor is willing to drop a few bucks). We started with salads (the appetizer portion of the menu is a little weak) but both salads were good, especially mine - a spinach and frisee salad with a smoked bacon dressing, poached egg and marinated mushrooms. Actually we were really started with an amuse of a consomme with basil oil and a shrimp. I alsways like seeing an amuse come out - it just seems to make the meal jump up a notch. I had the hanger steak that came with fried oysters (these were a little heavy on the breading - nothing like the versions at Firefly or Blacksalt - I guess I've been spoiled on fried oysters lately) and a dijon/mayonnaise sauce. Jen had the Filet with butter poached lobster. We had three sides - goat chees tubetti (a delicious take on mac n' cheese), chanterelles and an impressive looking plate of fries. The fries had nice flavor with their chipotle mayo dipping sauce, but weren't quite a crisp as they looked on the plate. Other than that slight misstep, everything was excellent. Even though it is a whimpy cut - the filet was great - more flavorful than a filet should be. Desserts were a glass of icewine, a sampler of six sorbets and ice creams and hot chocotalte made tableside with house-made marshmallows. Two large chunks of chocolate in a glass and a pot of hot milk/cream. Hot chocolate for dessert is another one of those things I've been seeing more and more at restaurants - I must like it because I order it every time I see it, but is this becoming the mini-burger of the dessert world? Service was fine, although courses did come out pretty quickly although we never were conscious of feeling rushed. All in all, a very good meal with few issues - and surpisingly, even without taking the gift certificate into account, we got out of there for about $200 even with a few glasses of wine.

In my experience, Colvin Run Tavern is very good, but by reputation, service can be spotty. And it's nowhere near as good as Maestro -- hands down, the best restaurant convenient to Tyson's. ← I agree - I completely blanked on the fact that Maestro was there when I posted that. Colvin Run is good, but Maestro is one of the two or three best meals I've ever had.

I'm one of those who has been posting in the dinner thread. I've progressed in my lighting moving from just taking my pictures under the halogen under-cabinet lights in my kitchen - this was causing a strange, yellowish glow in my pics. I then moved to the dining room table, but that was a little dark. So I turned a reading light to point towards the dining room table. This helped bring up some more contrast. I have been using Photoshop to make adjustments to the Levels and the brightness and contrast. These are a few of my recent shots (of course any comments would be helpful): I've been using a Canon Powershot A85 in Macro mode without the flash. My wife, jenrus, is a much more sophisiticated photographer than I am - she has plans to begin selling her macro photos of flowers this summer. I've convinced her to start taking our dinner pictures using her set up - both to give her more practice, and to make my pictures on the dinner thread better. This will include a tripod, actual lighting with filters and she uses the Canon EOS 20D digital SLR. I'm hope she'll start posting on this thread with her experiences and get some feedback as well.

USA Today runs excerpts of Sietsema's review of Jackies today. Based on the 2 Amy's thread - expect longer waits than usual.

With all due respect to Imo's, that is the most disgusting excuse for pizza I have ever tasted in my life. I live in St Louis for several years and never got the attraction of a cracker topped with sugary tomato sauce and processed provolone cheese (think white velveeta). I shudder even now to think of it... maybe you have to be born there to love it. ← Definitely true - I was born and raised in St. Louis and love the stuff - although there are local independents that make a better St. Louis style pizza than Imo's. I even order the fixin's from their website to make it here at home. But it is hard to explain the appeal to others. That said - it is a completely different items from what is served at 2 Amy's. Which is also quite different (more authentic? - I hate to use that word. Maybe more Italian) than the New York style pizzas it is being compared to.

Resurrecting this course: For a recipe only contest - how "original" is original. I have a Gumbo-Style Soup soup recipe that I make on a regular basis that I have adapted enough that I really consider it my own. It originally ran in the Washington Post. I'm now considering entering it in a contest sponsored by a cooking magazine and several manufaturers (at least one of whose products need to be included in the recipe). The original recipe had nine ingredients. I don't use one of those ingredients and have added four other ingredients (andouille, chicken, green chiles, tomatoes) changing the recipe significantly, but not changing its basic character. I've also changed the way the recipe is written. Any thoughts on how this would fly?

But it isn't really all that surprising that places like that don't get mentioned on here or Chowhound. Their reputation isn't entirely based on the food (with the exception of Kinkead's). This is different because it is getting praised for the food. A restaurant broke out of the two-star parade and we haven't picked up on it. We're slipping.

Tonight I dug deep in my recipe binders for one of the first recipes I made when I started getting into cooking - Jagerschnitzel. It is pork tenderloin cutlets seared and served over a sauce of mushrooms, onions, tomatoes and red peppers along with some egg noodles. PS - I've finally figured out how to properly size my photos coming out of photshop. No more "objects may appear closer than they really are" pictures of my dinners.

Actually, Joe was the principle ""some people" who like Shamshiry" that I was referring to above. I had the boneless chicken kabobs.

We had a thread on this last year that might give you some insight - DC Wine and Food Festival 2004 Summary - Public drunkenness, mass-produced wines, 20 minute wait for cheese cubes. Sounds like some weddings I've been to.

Nope - but I'd be interested to hear more.

There is a branch of Lebanese Taverna on the Lower Level of Tyson's Galleria (AKA Tyson's 2 - the more upscale one) that I like better than some of their other locations. They have more of a focus on Mezzes there. Also over there are other less decent chains (but better than Silver Diner) - Legal Seafoods, PF Changs, Maggianos, Daily Grill and everyone's favorite Cheesecake Factory. There is a Cafe Deluxe in the building with Crate and Barrel, which is OK. Closer to the toll road is a Persian place called Shamshiry that some people really like - I had one OK meal there but I may have ordered the wrong thing. In a strip mall with Staples and Tower records is a place called Thai Pillin. Hole in the wall, but pretty decent Thai. Word is that there are plans for Masaharu Morimoto to open up a place in the new addition being built onto Tyson's 1 - but that is a ways off. Colvin Run is the best of the area by far, though.

I think I would take the opposite side of that. I went into my visit to French Laundry expecting perfection and it came up just short of perfection. Despite being one of the best meals I had had up to that point, it wasn't THE best. And I was a little disappointed, although my disappointment waned throughout the evening. On the other hand, having had that experience, I went into my dinner at Per Se six months later not expecting perfection and the meal far exceeded my expectations. My understanding of lunch at FL is that it is the same experience and menu as at dinner. I'm sure you will enjoy yourself.

As an example of what I am talking about - a recent new thread was started titled "jackie's in silver spring" and asking whether anyone had been there lately and whether the service has improved. I'm not being critical of negroni, a brand new user - welcome, negroni. But wouldn't this be better included in a thread that allows someone to learn about what Jackie's is, what the service complaints are, and whether the food is any good.

I would disagree with having several separate threads on the same restaurant for the same reason I personally find Chowhound hard to deal with. It is too much work to find a comprehensive overview of a particular restaurant. On CH you need to scroll through months and months of posts to find relevant information. On eG, it is all in one thread. I don't think there are many restaurants on the board that have enough threads to warrant any splitting. This is related to the reason that I like the idea that a thread on eG can be a little more free-wheeling and occasionally veer off-topic (often against the wishes of management higher up than DonRocks). What one person might view as thread-drift, others (myself included) might consider thought-provoking and often leading to more nuanced discussion. Of course sometimes it is juvenile and completely useless chatter by a bunch of asshats - but you take the good with the bad.

Put me in the category of wearing a jacket when I would be out of place without one, but not if I'd be out of place with one. I'd say 98% of the places in DC qualify as the latter. That said, even when not wearing a jacket I feel overdressed compared to the other diners in a lot of what I would consider nicer places when wearing a nice shirt and dress slacks. There are several layers of appropriate dress between suits and jeans.

Tonight I made a vegetarian chili with onions, tomatoes, corn, zucchini red pepper and black beans w/ a touch of sour cream and cheese.

I'm guessing that as college students, high end or expensive isn't what they are looking for. They'd probably be more interested in brand name foods - Captain Crunch instead of SWEET CORN CRISPS or Starbucks Coffee instead of COFFEE.