bilrus

Modeling a menu to complement your personal CD collection? Maybe not done, but my guess is that it should be. Although maybe the NY Times will think we are cool now.

After seeing your picture, I had to make this dish myself. ← This is one of my favorite Thai dishes in general. I use the recipe from Hot Sour Salty Sweet. I prefer my own version to those in most Thai restaurants because I can control the spice and especially the sweetness. I made this with chicken a week or two ago and posted it elsewhere and your pics have made me want to post the pic again so i can jump into the Thai fun:

Upload your picture the same way it has been done in the past. View the full size version of the picture and right click on properties (this is assuming Windows and IE). The actual URL of the picture will show up there, which you can then cut and paste.

Tonights dinner: A variation on yet another Cooking Light recipe - Broiled Sea Bass with Pineapple-Chili-Basil Glaze - that I adapted to Scallops because the U-10 day-boat scallops at the fish market this weekend were irresistable. In looking back at my pictures of my dinners from this month, I noticed how many of my meals were served over a cup of rice - Asian, Latin, Middle Eastern, Indian. I would normally serve this over Jasmine rice, but thought I'd go for the green again. Plating wasn't very original - if it looks a lot like last night's crabcakes - it was. This time I made the dressing with sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, soy sauce and a little of the pineapple preserves and tossed in some peanuts.

I would imagine that a mention like that goes over differently at some places than others. A "mention" in conversation is a different thing than saying "I'm from eGullet" or implying that you are going to be posting a good or bad "review" on eG. It is the difference between appearing interested and friendly vs. arrogant or pompous. Plus, I think representing yourself as being "from eGullet" is against the user agreement. We have our fans and our detractors. Its pretty clear that Eve and Ray's are usually among the former. Others are a little suspicious of any medium where people can anonymously criticizew their work. That said, I have always felt that as posters here, our obligation is to the people who might be reading the posts and not to the restaurant and their staff. If a place deserves criticism, then criticize constructively. But being open-minded and fair are the best way to go.

Jenrus and I went for lunch yesterday and had a very nice meal. I liked walking in through the fish market and seeing some of the thing I knew I was going to be buying on the way out. And smelling the fresh seafood - no funky odors here - made me excited about what was ahead. Past the market is the dining room with a modern, fairly spartan decor. The lunch menu reminded me a little in style of Johnny's Half Shell. Although the huge platter of glistening oysters at the next table really turned my head, we ended up with a very fresh butter lettuce, pear, walnut, and gorganzola salad, the fried Ipswich clams, the Oyster Po'Boy with thin little house-made potato chips (I agree with an earlier post that the oh-so-delicate batter on both the Oysters and the clams was a little on the salty side, but still very tasty edited to add - I just realized that comment was on Chowhound) and a sugar cane shrimp with a citrus glaze on mixed greens. Dessert was an OK Chocolate Hazelnut cake and the best Hot Chocolate I've ever sipped with house-made marshmallows and two plump sugar cookies. Aside from the cake, and the slightly heavy hand with the salt, everything was well done. Even the basic bread was warm and crusty and chewy. Unfortunately, service was all over the map, with several waiters working out table, but none of them being on top of everything. But that certainly wasn't enough to detract from a nice afternoon meal. We picked up some awesome looking scallops (dinner tomorrow) and some crabcakes on the way out. See this post on the dinner thread to see how the crabcakes turned out.

The version I had for dessert at Blacksalt was probably the best I've ever had. Huge cup topped with whipped cream served with a small dish of homemade marshmallows and two sugar cookies. Creamy, chocolatey, and the marshmallows almost melt on top. Not cheap at $7, but it is a full dessert, not just a drink.

Last year I made a lamb curry from Cooking Light that I remembered really liking. I decided to try it this week with a recommended substitution of shrimp instead of the lamb, hoping it would turn out like a Shrimp Masala dish that I really like at Indique, a local DC Indian restaurant. I made my adjustments for the shorter cooking time for the shrimp. I made raita to go with it and toasted up a piece of store-bought flatbread. And here is how it turned out: Looks good, huh? But it ended up being one of the worst things I've ever cooked. Either I misread or mismeasured or the recipe just sucks, but it had too much of something, turmeric, coriander, cumin, something was horribly amiss. I promptly put it down the grabage disposal. Fortunately, we had lunch yesterday at new restaurant called Blacksalt, which is a seafood place attached to a very nice, small fish market. I bought some scallops for tomorrow night and some crab cakes that we had planned on having for lunch but didn't get around to. I put those in a skillet, made a champagne and dijon mustard vinagrette, light on the oil and tossed it with some mache mix. OK, so I didn't make the crabcakes from scratch but they did come out of my skillet looking pretty good. All's well that ends well.

I always thought that the Japanese steel is harder than the steel used in the German knives, allowing it to hold an edge longer. That certainly seems to be the case with the Shun Santoku that I have.

I had a different soup last night described by the waiter as simply "Cabbage Soup". But the flavor belied that lowly description. Tasting of cabbage, but not "Cabbage-y" if that makes any sense.

How was the salmon? ← The salmon was pretty good - I left it on the grill a few minuted too long. To the touch it felt like it wasn't cooking through, but when I took it off it was a little dry. I wish I had some of the raita that I had originally planned on making.

I've been posting about my dinners for the last few weeks on the Weight Watchers thread, but I thought I would start adding my measly offerings over here as well. Tonight was Tandoori Salmon (on the grill seeing as how I don't have an actual tandoor handy) and green beans cooked with the reserved salmon marinade. I don't recommend the bean preparation - it tasted OK, but kinda strange. Anyway, here's a pic.

Probably Tamarind and Mint.

I bet this weekend dozens of tables will be screaming "I'm from eGullet, too. Where's my hot chocolate?"

You might want to consider getting a different cut at Ray's. The first time we went my wife ordered the filet and, although good, she liked my strip better. The second time we went she ordered the flat-iron and loved it. In fact I liked it better than my strip. It was more flavorful than the filet, but still had that slightly less chewy, filet style texture. I guess I am saying that if you like a filet, you might REALLY like the flat-iron. But you can't really go wrong with any beef there. Or the scallops. ← You may have sold me on the flat-iron. I tend to be not adventurous with food, but I've been successful of late. I'm not into cuts with a lot of fat on them, just from a texture standpoint. I'll still enjoy this? (I imagine I will) ← I don't remember any visible fat (aside from the internal fat that makes meat tasty). But my wife consumed most of her steak by herself. Someone else could back me up on this.

You might want to consider getting a different cut at Ray's. The first time we went my wife ordered the filet and, although good, she liked my strip better. The second time we went she ordered the flat-iron and loved it. In fact I liked it better than my strip. It was more flavorful than the filet, but still had that slightly less chewy, filet style texture. I guess I am saying that if you like a filet, you might REALLY like the flat-iron. But you can't really go wrong with any beef there. Or the scallops.

The impression I took away from my meal of Mesa Grill in New York was that Flay's menu read better than it tasted.

That should be the basis of their next add campaign.

Seeing as how I am going to be in the same weather as Monica, I know I'd be interested in seeing a good braised recipe.

I've never actually seen either of them together or apart. So I'm still not sure I believe either exists. But I do get a lot out of their insights into DC dining. Although one is a little more twisted than the other - or maybe just one of them has a better editor.

Also near Shirlington is Pentagon Row - mostly avoidable places, but I think the Lebanese Taverna there does better food than most of their locations (although the new Tyson's one is pretty good too.)

I thought that was a pretty lame article in general - "Restaurants in DC are going to be busy with fat-cats this week" - oh really?

The warning sign for me might have been the fact that they advertise "Chops". That almost always indicates the type of place that claims to specialize in "SteaksSeafoodChopsSaladsSoupsandPastas" and advertises on Sports radio stations.

I wish that there was a place like Tonic in Loudoun County. I'd be there this evening if there was. Or if I lived a little closer to the city. It almost feels like my patriotic duty to go there on a day like today. I'd love to hear about the dishes they serve and anything else that is discussed that furthers food discussion on eGullet. Either in this forum or by PM, if necessary.

Joe, I can see questioning someone's opinion about a restaurant, but I can't see questioning the truthfulness of someone's post like that. It wasn't as if this was a "This place sucks" type of post - he included a lot of detail. I haven't been to BlackSalt yet (I do have reservations in two weeks) but, regardless of the level of cooking, is it really a "four-star" type of place with all the trappings - service, decor, even price? If it's max is really three stars and it isn't quite fulfilling its potential, wouldn't that make it a two-star? This isn't that different from a place like CityZen getting "only" three stars even though it has the potential to get four eventually. It is the rare restaurant that is ready to get its full complement of stars early on in its life. But however you fall on the question, you shouldn't personally attack other users.