bilrus

I forgot to post about my nice brunch at Bistro Bis on Saturday. The menu offered broad selection of brunch/lunch options about 8 for each course. We opted for a frisee salad with a warm vinagrette and meaty chuncks of bacon and a salmon and scallop terrine served with lightly dressed greens as our first courses. For our entrees we did a hazelnut battered French Toast with apples and cinammon cream and a Quiche Lorraine which was the highlight - creamy, loaded with bacon in a delicate crust. It was a little on the small side but was as rich as could be. Dessert was a standard, but simple and delicious creme brulee and an intensely flavorful passionfruit and white chocolate mousse. This was my first time at the restaurant and I'm looking forward to going back. The feel was refined, but not stuffy or fancy. I like that.

I had one or two meals there that made me say "eh". But my last two over the course of a few months have been as good as ever. Its never going to wow as much as the first few times you go, just like any other good, new place. This leaves room to look more for the individual misses rather than the overall good impressions. You can only taste the Hunkar Begendi for the first time once.

I am often surprised when reading Hannnah's posts at the things I miss on my scan through the Food section every Wednesday morning.

I'll go along with this one. No views, in fact, no windows at all. But that just adds to the dream-like underwater feel they are trying to achieve. And the food and service on my visit last year was excellent. I'll keep plugging this place, as it more than held its own on a trip that included stops at French Laundry and Chez Panisse.

My wife and I had a nice late dinner at a place in St. Helena called Market. Doesn't get much mention among the other big names, but both the Fish and Chips and Mac and Cheese were among the best I've had anywhere. Oh, and one other recommendation - don't go to Taylor's refresher in the afternoon if you are going to French Laundry that evening. My wife and I had a late lunch before a late FL dinner and it took us several courses into the FL menu to recover completely. Good food and a fun place, but I would have rather fasted before going to French Laundry. Or at least don't have the Chili Dog. And no one's said it, but I would say French Laundry is on the "Can't miss list". This is probably assumed, but go for it if you can.

I actually consider this thread to by your fault Mr. Dente. Just yesterday you said things were too quiet around here.

Up until this point I've reserved judgement on this thread, but this quote: "I am a former English teacher. I have given up correcting people. When in Rome......" strikes me as being just as condescending as the idea of my-admittedly-white-self expressing outrage and offense on behalf of the black community as a whole.

Earlier this year, someone called us "hipster foodies". Now we're "politically correct foodies". What's next?

Forget Restaurant Week. I had one of my better DC meals of the last year last night at Yanyu. My wife and I went with the five course tasting menu listed above and we went four and half for five. 1st Course - Lily Bulb Dumpling (Delicate egg white wrapped with minced chicken & Asian vegetables) - This was the half. This is a steamed (or poached ?) dumpling with a loose chicken/veg filling topped with a delicate egg-drop soup like sauce. Good flavors but not quite as hot as I would have liked. 2nd Course - Big Duck (yanyu signature item. Peking roast duck served with pancakes, scallions, cucumber and homemade plum sauce). This was as good as advertised by Sietsema et. al. The whole golden duck half is brought to the table then taken back to be carved. Each pancake had several nice slices of the tender meat and a shard of the crackling skin. 3rd course - Crab Cucumber Sunomono (Tossed with chef special sauce). I had no mental picture of what this would be, but it was a slaw made of finely julienned cucumber tossed with a light, sweet dressing, small pieces of crab and a bright red roe. This was a surprise highlight of the night. 4th course - Honey roasted Seabass (Roasted with bed of scallions, Shanghai style). The word on this is succulent. Maybe the most moist piece of fish I have had that was fully cooked. Simply served with a honey soy sauce and rice. 5th course - Crispy Garlic Shrimp (Jumbo shrimp flavored with garlic, spicy salt & pepper) A simple presentation of three large breaded and fried shrimp with some microgreens and fried garlic sprikled over the top. The breading was salty and flavorful. The service was fine, although a little harried. All levels were full and we were near the entrance to the kitchen, so we probably so more activity than most other tables. But this is understandable, serving tasting menus to probably 30 or 40 tables. We have only been to Yanyu once before, about four years ago and we really liked it then. I am kicking myself that I haven't made this a more regular experience. It won't be four years before I go again.

That's not necessarily a good business plan.

Last year I went with a fish dish at Tosca and regretted not having a pasta. The fish was OK, but paled in comparison to my wife's crab pasta dish.

This is the place that replaced Le Tarbouche?

I snuck in a lunch at the bar at Colvin Run Tavern this afternoon. Interesting selections, probably five or six for each course (although I didn't think to remember what the others were). For my first I went with a Rosemary Biscuit with Chicken, Mushrooms and Peas - a deconstructed pot pie - which was very good and hearty with a very light biscuit and more chicken than I would have anticipated. My entree was also a hearty one - garlic braised brisket with gnocchi and large white beans. This came with an intensely wine-y tomato sauce. Both of these were very good, although the entree portion was a little small (four slices of brisket and four gnocchi, along with a lot of beans). And in retrospect my first two courses were more appropriate for a winter restaurant week, but that was more due to my ordering the two heaviest, warmest dishes on the menu. Dessert was just OK - a chocolate souffle with vanilla ice cream. My neighbors at the bar had the berry shortcake which looked much better. Service was pleasant, but painfully slow. I was at the bar for nearly an hour and half, which is not the pace you are looking for when you are ducking out of work. The excuse was generally, "Its a crazy week around here." Edit - I forgot to add that it seems like desserts have been the weak link in most of the restaurant week experiences I have had and the reports that people have posted. Anyone have any thoughs on why that would be? Are desserts that much more expensive and/or time consuming to produce that not much effort can be out into them? Is it because good desserts usually are used to bring in extra money and these are already part of the deal?

Just got back from Corduroy and had a very good meal with one big disappointment (more on that later). When we arrived at 7:30 the room was about half full, but by the time we left at 9:15 it was pretty much full. Not crazy, but bustling for a Monday night. We started with a beet, baby carrot and goat cheese salad and a lobster salad. The lobster salad was a highlight for me, a nice portion of small lobster chunks with a chervil mayonaisse, some microgreens served over a thick slice of tomato. Worth the $5 supplement. Entrees were scallops with a thai curry sauce and lamb sirloin with goat cheese ravioli. Both were very good, especially the scallops, which came with some tender delicate green beans. In looking back at my post from our visit last year, I realized that my choices - the lobster salad and the lamb were the exact same things I ordered then. No regrets - both were darn good. The disappointment was that they aren't offering the "Michel’s Chocolate Hazelnut Bars" any longer. And I thought the two desserts we had - a peach tart with peach ice cream and a warm chocolate souffle type cake with vanilla ice cream were just OK. This was a bit of a surprise given Chef Power's background as a pastry chef. The gentleman who took our order said that the fact that the background of the dish (from his time working at Citronelle) had made it into several reports about the restaurant, made him decide to take it off the menu. All in all though it was a good start to RW and a good value.

Like a dreamsicle?

I have five in mine on a fairly regular basis. Marie's Blue Cheese - as many have said for Buffalo Wings Marie's Thousand Island - For saucing Ruebens and or other corned beef / pastrami sandwiches Hidden Valley Ranch - I combine this with Hot sauce as a dip for some "Southwest eggrolls" I like to make I make my own ranch too (from the CIA Professional Chef's book), but it is too much hassle for the one ramekin I need for this. Kraft French Dressing - I like it on tomatoes sometimes - you got a problem with that? Peter Luger's steak sauce - Hated the one bite of steak I had with it at the restaurant, but really liked it with the Tomato and Onion. So I guess I only bring down the average a little bit.

I'm glad to see that menu. I have Saturday lunch reservations there and that menu looks very good. My first res is tonight at Corduroy. Mmmm... "Michel’s Chocolate Hazelnut Bars". I think last time I actually liked this version better than the original at Citronelle.

I think its a nice touch that the computer in the picture is on the Daily Gullet. Good work. And good luck.

There is a similar thread on Chowhound claiming that they are obviously the source of inspiration for this article as well as many others in the Post.

I've only been for brunch, but the best thing to recommend the brunch is the sheer quantity. Huge buffet, desserts and a full, huge entree. The food was fine, but not great. If I was looking for upscale Southern food around here I would problably look to Vidalia. Although Vidalia may be more "upscale" than "southern".

This isn't just a case of "big corporation = bad food". There are thousands of local Italian places in strip malls around the country run by 1st, 2nd or 3rd generation Italians (or Greeks) that serve food much worse than Olive Garden. Its not very good, but it could be worse.

When I read this I pictured Emeril.

We tried the Dry-Aged beef from Wegman's for dinner last night and it was damn good. We bought two strips and I seared them in a pan and finished in a scorching hot oven. Not to pat myself on the back, but they had a nice crust and were done just right. But that could be done with any steak. The steak itself is what makes me post this. The taste was perfectly "beefy" and the strips were very tender while still retaining the texture you would want. Not cheap - $24/lb - but worth it when only a good piece of beef will do.

I laughed at that too. I thought it might have been a Chinese phonetic pronunciation of Loyal.

Yanyu update - This new e-mail came in today: Dear All, Due to great demand from our royal customers, yanyu Restaurant will serve full weeks on restaurant week festival. We will open on Monday the 26th of July instead, to serve dinner. Also, yanyu executive chef - Jessie Yan will design a 3 course menu(as restaurant week menu) with choices along with the menu that I send out on last week. So, you will presented with 2 special menus on the night to review and make decision. Even more tempting right? Yanyu business hour during Restaurant Week will be the following Lunch Hour Tuesday To Saturday 12:00 noon to 2:30p.m. Dinner Hour Monday To Thursday 5:30p.m. to 10:30p.m. Friday and Saturday 5:30p.m. to 11:00p.m. Sunday 4:30p.m. to 10:00p.m. If you need further asistant please feel free to call the restaurant and ask for the Manager - Yennie. We will be happy to assit you. Hope to see all of you at yanyu. Have a wonderful weekend. Regards!