bilrus

You've got enough good stuff in Manhattan to worry about leaving just for Church's fried chicken. It's really not that good.

I am definitely a Popeye's man myself - although I have this strange thing that I don't like eating chicken on the bone. Roasted, fried, buffalo, tandoori, whatever - it just grosses me out for some reason. That said, Popeye's chicken strips are probably my favorite dish in fast-food land and their mashed potatoes, red beans and rice and cajun rice are all quite good. And during Lent, they carry a pretty good fish filet and shrimp basket too.

There is still at least one, and I think two, Roy's in Leesburg, VA.

My best and worst gift can probably be rolled into one. For our wedding, my aunt bought us a 9 piece set of Le Creueset from Chef's Catalog. This was before I was into cooking and we had already bought a decent set of Analon when we moved in together a few months earlier. We decided to exchange the set for a breadmaker/toaster oven/oven thing that looked like a big microwave. It made decent bread - for a year or two until the seal on the door stopped working right. In the meantime, I have spent the last five years pining after and buying individual pieces of Le Creuset. I still use the Analon, but the breadmaker is stored permaenetly in the garage.

I checked it out of the library over the weekend and did the chicken and bread salad last night. I can't wait to try the braised bacon. I haven't gone all the way through the book yet, but I am really hoping for recipes the perfect polenta and the caesar I had in the restaurant last year. Edited to add - if so I'll be using that Amazon link ASAP.

How about a tortilla espanola? Pretty easy to make and can be done in advance.

We went to Neisha at Tyson's last night and I have to echo the earlier post that the entrees are a little "underspicy" but still very flavorful - with distinct flavors rather than the muddle of flavors that are sometimes served at lesser places. The appetizers were all very good, especially the Larb. The atmoshere was defintely nicer than I anticipated right next to the Rainforest Cafe. Nice to know it is there.

I was just at Zaytinya today and the tables were out and mostly filled on their patio. Not exactly the nicest view, but good food in beautiful weather. Two out three ain't bad.

Citronelle is no longer open for lunch. The lobster burgers are available in the bar in the evening. My bad. I still want to try it sometime.

I've heard good things about the bar lunch menus at Kinkeads and Citronelle. I only wish I worked donwtown to be able to take advantage of these occasionally (or frequently).

My impression of Adams Morgan is that it is more happening for nightlife than food.

Unlike many on eGullet, I don't dislike most fast food places. But BK is at or near the bottom of my list. At McDonalds, Taco Bell and many of the other common places, there is at least some consistency between locations and visits. Burger King seems to have poor quality / consistency control which I would think is one of the two selling points of fast-food (along with convenience).

I can't imagine that any fast food places have actual people chopping onions, much less whipping mayonaisse. However, I understood from the article that onions would henceforth be freshly chopped. Thus my comment that making real mayo freshly would be safer and easier. Notwithstanding PoorLawyer's dark drift. Sorry - poor reading skills on my part.

I really like the floavors of Carribean cooking with the exception of plantains - I just can't do those , even the chips. Cuban sandwiches, Ropa Vieja, Jerk Pork - Need to find Carribean for lunch.

I can't imagine that any fast food places have actual people chopping onions, much less whipping mayonaisse.

Wish I had had the chance. Serves them right. Sometimes I find myself becoming a cranky old man and crowds bring out the worst in me.

I was there on both Saturday and Sunday. Neither made me think "empty". My only problem with the crowds is that in an effort to avoid the crowds in certain aisles I end up forgetting something that is on my list. I remember it driving home and end up still having to go to Giant (if it is something I can get there). This is more a problem with my organization than with the crowds though. I had a strange thing happen yesterday. One of the things I have learned about the crowds is that it is easier to get around the produce and other areas by leaving my cart in a completely out of the way area and go into an asile to get what I need. Yesterday I left my cart sitting while I went to weigh two produce items. When I returned, my cart was not there any more. I looked all around the produce and wine sections and had pretty much resigned myself to having to start my shopping from scratch. Then I see that someone had taken the 10 or 12 items I had accumulated to that point (including a 10 pound pork shoulder) out of my cart and stacked them on top of one of the scales. I wonder what they would have said if I had caught them in the act? I can't believe how ballsy some people can be.

I would go with Jefferson as well. There is an interesting nugget in Jacques Pepin's book, The Apprentice that Joe Kennedy wanted to have Pepin hired as the White House Chef, but Pepin turned it down to continue working at Howard Johnson's. Having already been the chef dor deGaulle and other heads of state in France as a member of the navy, he said he didn't fully understand the prestige and celebrity that was involved with being the White House chef. The one contribution the Clintons made was that Hillary insisted on having an American chef at the urging of Alice Waters and other proponents of American cooking. This was a departure from the standard French chefs in place since the Kennedy administration. I get the sense that a lot of the direction of food (and social life in general) in the White House is driven by the First Ladies rather than the Presidents themselves.

I might be interested in making the trek in from the 'burbs.

Do any fast food restaurants allow you to choose the level of done-ness you want for your burger? This isn't a thick, half-pound burger we are talking about here. And it's not like a Five Guys burger comes out dry and tired. It is still juicy, just cooked through.

I think in the last few weeks the content of the chat has gotten a little more interesting. There was a stretch where things were getting really repetitive and there was criticism (both here and in the chat itself). To Tom's credit I think he has taken the criticisms into account and made an effort to address a broader array of topics, which is undoubtedly more difficult than answering the same default questions each week. The chat may get a little repetetive for those of us who spend an inordinate (some might even think inappropriate) amount of time thinking and chatting about restaurants here and around the country. But I think back to before I found eGullet and Tom's chat was my main source for restaurant information - both here and in other cities. Tom gave me some excellent advice on places in Puerto Rico and Tampa in response to questions I posed. Now that I know about eGullet I know I can get more in depth information here, but not everyone knows about eGullet. Yet. It can't be all things to all people.

Since they were filling sixty days worth of resrvations instead of just one at a time, the first sixty days were relatively easy to get. I assume the same scenario will play out when FL re-opens and needs to fill 60 days worth of reservations as well.

When they call to rescedule, see if they will "trade" a Per Se reservation for a French Lundry reservation.

As one of those people who had reservations I concur. No need for any gifts or anything like that. Maybe a "thank you for your patience and support", that's all.

Joe, we know your feelings about the Inn's quality and the fact that it has slipped over the years. And having been to both French Laundry and the Inn last year I would agree that what Keller is doing is on a little higher plane than what is going on at the Inn. That said, the problem with stagnation is only a problem for the very small portion of the population who has the opportunity to go there more than once or twice in a lifetime. The food at the Inn is still very good for the first time or occasional diner(even if the decor is a little fussy for my taste). And even at the French Laundry, you see dishes like the Salmon Coronet amuse and the Oysters and Pearls and other stand-bys on the menu nearly every time someone reports back on their meal. Both of these dishes were also on the opening menu at Per Se and will probably still be once it reopens. That said, the point of this thread isn't the quality of the restaurants, but the difficulty in getting reservations. There are probably twenty or thirty restaurants in the area that are serving better food than a place like L'Auberge Chez Francois, but it is still harder to get a reservation there than at most places in town.