bilrus

What would you retool Soba? From the sounds of it the menu in the summer is different than in the winter aside from a few common ones - the Pyramids and the Bolognese. We did have two different courses with a similar sauce (brown butter sauces), but I'm not sure what you can do aside from tweaking the various forms of pastas (wide noodles, thin noodles, raviolis, etc) and sauces.

That seems simple enough. This may be the first thing I make with my new gadget.

I have the pasta making plates for the KitchenAid stand mixer on order from Amazon. As I was eating Pad Thai and Drunken Noodles at my local Thai restaurant last night, I realized that I could probably use the device to make rice noodles as well, but I know nothing about how they are made. I am dreaming of all sorts of noodle stir-frys and soups. Does anyone have a simple recipe for rice noodles (are there variations)? Can these be made using a pasta maker like this?

Yes. And for dating P Diddy (Puff Daddy) and being present when he was implicted in a shooting death. And for having a big round rear end. She really is one of the bigger entities in pop culture (which may say something about the state of pop culture.) She is to singing and acting what Emeril or Rocco (to help get things back on topic) is to cooking. Servicable, famous, but not exactly the best.

My one time there was in the back right corner banquette on the first floor, near the door to the kitchen. I personally liked the spot, as it gave us a good viw of the lower level and was pretty comfortable. As I mentioned in my original post (oh so many posts ago) my wife and I were originally slated to be seated side by side in a banquette. We don't really like this arrangement, mainly because we like looking at each other when talking, but also because we are both larger than average and are more comfortable across from each other. I would have liked to see the upstairs and am curious too as to others opinions if this seating was some sort of slight or if it we did have a good spot.

Sam, I think it is all water under the bridge. In fact the water is a day or so downstream now.

For fuck's sake, people. Get a grip. If you want to interpret what I wrote as saying that "Midwestern = Rube" then you're on your own there. That's your own interpretation. Nothing I have said in this thread necessarily lends itself to such an interpretation... unless you are highly invested in taking offense at my suggestion that the "restaurant experience" paradigm of most visitors from the Midwest is not the same as thhe "high end NYC restaurant experience" paradigm of most New Yorkers who patronize such establishments. And, frankly, I think one would have to be completely oblivious to such differences to suppose this were not the case, which of course runs in the opposite direction as well. And that's all I have to say about that. Back to the topic. Sam, This wasn't directed at you or this thread in particular, just the overall sentiment. If there is a non-restaurant equivalent to "being in the weeds" at work, I am in them the last two days and am a little touchy in general. Why am I spending my time on eGullet if I am so busy at work, you might ask? Not sure I have an answer to that one OK, enough midwestern rube vs cosmpolitan NY stuff. QUOTE (macrosan @ Aug 12 2003, 05:25 PM) I'm waiting to hear an explanation of how and why a restaurant of the pretension, standing and price-point of Babbo might deliberately or inadvertently "cater for" a "New York crowd" and not be able to provide high quality service to the "non New York crowd". As for this point - I didn't get the feeling at all that they were catering to a New York crowd as opposed to an out of town crowd. THey are catering to a crowd that has the money to afford the bill at Babbo (and for out of towners, those who have the money to travel to New York City). Besides, part of the allure of going to a high-end restaurant in New York City for an out of towner (speaking as someone from out of town who just spent five days dining around New York last month) is the feeling that it is a little different experience than eating in your home town.

Stone, In another recent thread, I mentioned that I hadn't gotten pissed off at many things I had read on eGullet and you said that i hadn't been reading your posts closely enough. This time you got me. Who is to say those people were from the Midwest? Who is to say that any of the so-called 'TOurists' everyone so easily identifies as being from the Midwest are indeed from the Midwest. I am from DC now, but lived in the aforementioned St. Louis for 22 years. I was raised properly as were most, but not all, of my friends and certainly know how to act in most social situations. I am sure this is the case in cities and towns all across the midwest (and West, Norteast, Southeast and proablably Europe, Asia and everywhere else. Some people have social grace and some don't. Aw, come on. I was just joking. All of my cousins in St. Louis dress and act very well. (Except my Aunt who still thinks that gold lame (sp?) track suits are appropriate to wear out of the house.) It's funny, New Yorkers take a lot of shit from everyone else in the country. We're rude, overbearing, obnoxious, frenetic, impolite, unfriendly, demanding, narcisistic, degenerate, criminal, pompous, egotistical, and basically destroying the moral fabric of society. But when we try to give it back a little, I'm not really pissed, just more annoyed that there is the sense that Midwestern=Rube.

I'm glad that my parents moved me out of St. Louis when I was 1.

I can see that about the host. While we were waiting at the bar, and eavsdropping on his conversations, he seemed more interested in what "names" were there - the aforementioned David Blaine, Kim Cattral's agent, etc. He was also the only one who expressed hesitation about our table move.

Although it is not quite up to the 50 unit measure, Potbelly Sandwich Works is very good (just had the Wreck tonight - Ham, Turkey, Roast beef on a toasted roll). THey have locations in DC, Chicago, Michgan and Wisconsin. And they have the best peanut butter and jelly sandwich I have ever had outside of my own kitchen.

I may be past the point of giving Rocco the benefit of the doubt that he was in this for the right reasons: From the Yahoo article: ""I kind of put my energy out there and hope things work out," he said. "It's always great when people talk about you. Everyone loves accolades. Everyone loves to be loved." " He might want to rethink that now, especially if he checked out this board.

I'm sorry to hear that you had this problem at Babbo. My wife and I recently had the exact opposite experience. No problem making the reservation a few weeks ahead. When we arrived and were shown that we were going to be seated side by side on the same side of a banquette (next to the magician David Blaine who was canoodling with a long-legged model and seemed to be enjoying the setup), we asked for a different table. They immediately seated us at a cozy corner banquette without any hassle. We proceeded to have one of our most enjoyable meals in memory (the pasta tasting menu) and I reccomend Babbo to anyone who will listen. I doubt that if they had insisted that we stay at the original table, next to the amourous magician, we would feel the same way. It just demostrates how a little effort by a restaurant can go a long way to making a customer happy.

Speaking of hotels - another one in the burbs, Market Street Grill at the Hyatt in the Reston Town Center does a very nice brunch with an extensive Pastry table for about $25

My wife and I took my mother to brunch at 2941 last weekend. It was very good, but at $26 its not something you would do on a regular basis. Pretty extensive menu of meals - probably 10 non breakfast items (fish, salads, sandwiches) and 10 breakfast items (pancakes, french toast, eggs benedict, omelettes). Baskets of fresh donut holes. And a buffet of small bowls of salads, pastries and desserts that changes eveery 15 minutes or so.

Maybe I overreacted a little, but that's not the first time that has happened on here. Jaymes, I thought your original post was very thoughtful. I wasn't thrying to reprimand everyone (or really anyone). Elyse, she did mention health related issues, I assumed that was what we were talking about, but you're right there are certainly other things that could be at issue. Sorry about that, everyone. I am going to shut up and go watch The Restaurant now.

For the first time since I have been a member of eGullet I am really pissed off at some of the responses to this thread. Crinoidgirl is a new member with a serious food related question. Her (?) girlfriend is not a child or an emotional basket case that should be dumped on the street. She is someone who needs help learning better eating habits. Usually I would say that eGullet would be a good place to get good advice about food related issues, since there have been serious discussions about weight loss issues on here before. But that obviously isn't the case here. Crinoidgirl, I don't have any specific thoughts on this right now, but there has been some discussion and progress (albeit slow) about adding some weight loss content to the eGullet system. This might be helpful in the future. In the meantime, how about some supprt from people. There's a time and a place for the trademark eGullet sense of humor, but I'm not sure this is it.

After reading the comments here about Crab Rangoon, I am a little embarassed to admit that this is my favorite appetizer at my local Chinese - (American) restaurant here in Northern Virginia (and at many others I have been to in other parts of the country (I have lived in thirteen states in the past ten years). At my local China Town Restaurant, they are called Crab Wontons and do in fact have crab along with the requisite cream cheese. This is the first place I have had them where they weren't called Crab Rangoon, but nearly everyplace has had crab, or at least some facsimilie thereof.

Do you need reservations for the Bar Menu?

Anyone know anything more about this one? The Beard Foundation event sounds REALLY cool, but $300 might be a little out of the price range. $60 sounds pretty reasonable, but I don't know what to expect.

I am one of those people that if I am cooking a main course of a particular ethnicity (in this case, Thai), I like to have the starters, sides and desserts all from the same ethnicity of at least have those flavors. How about an appetizer of Kanom Jeeb (Thai pork and crab dumplings) or I also like the Laab idea. For dessert, something with coconut (although if I were your guest, I don't like coconut myself) or maybe Lychee.

That's OK. We'll let you slide on this one JRage. The menu I found online looked good, but it was five years old.

I want to bump up this thread, since my wife read the article in the Post Home section today and now wants to go to Richmond this weekend. I figured there might be others who may have similar plans. Any suggestions other than the few already listed here?

You can't let that bacon go to waste. Maybe a side of bacon? Or dessert? Edit - I see i misread another post. Your version sounds right on.

That was actually a pretty revealing article. It answers a question I had raised earlier as to whether Rocco knew what was coming. It sounds like he is genuinely pissed off at how he is being portrayed and that even Burnett is helping with his damage control. Plus, it is a little un-Burnett like to reveal the arc of the story like that.