babka

in my head now, the evening was a gently raucous candle-lit dinner party in somebody's home. Chef, Robin, and the servers (I'm sorry, I've forgotten your names!) knocked themselves out in the cooking and the hosting. I'll stay silent on the food until the euphoric-daze passes out of my brain--how did that second helping of upside-down cake land in my gullet?--but the hosting was brilliant. They enticed us in with finger-food bits of green eggs & ham and corn chowder, to be eaten while mingling and matching names with unexpected faces. They ushered us out with two tables of dessert--grab yourself a plate and chat up a far-away table. and--to make sure expanded-rears left seats--opened up DaSto' a few storefronts down for poking and nibbling. it backfired, of course--by that time, we were so comfortably and happily at home in the Kitchen that we kept returning to seats to talk instead of continuing out to cars for home. thank you, all, for a wonderful evening!

the food starts moving at 7, but we'll be happy to see you into the mingling stage and beyond. so please feel free to arrive alive and late and not dead and early.

Many bright and lovely things spring to mind when I think of Amsterdam, and falafel is not among them. but I've never been--explain, please? why amsterdam is a point of reference for falafel, not its relative retail hierarchy?

babka here--pm me to join the merry crew this evening. or to send an entertaining reason for your absence.

Omelet in a Bag has potential.

special onion rava masala dosa....the good mr rocks waxed wonderfully about this some time ago, I think, and it was on the tip of my tongue when I sat down for lunch today....then one of my friends noticed the coconut upami on the buffet and good intentions promptly lost--again--to a rainbow-plated meal, with spinach melted into a shimmering puree and the salad-like-crack I want Monica to teach me and okra swimming in yellow paint....and a bonus of mango ice cream from the grocer's next door, which we ate for dinner tonight.

Cafe Atlantico is my favorite mall respite--morning at the national gallery, two hours for the tasting 'brunch' (late lunch) at Atlantico (casual dress that time of day, with more food than you ever wanted to see but it's a wonderful smorgasbord of talent), afternoon at American History with Julia's kitchen. also: the Woodley Park restaurants are both numerous and numbing--walk, bus, or metro up or down connecticut avenue to either Cleveland Park (maybe a mile?) or Dupont (another mile--this one down) for food. and hilllvalley's right--do the monuments at night. It's safe, they're beautiful, and you'll avoid all the tourists. You can park either by the FDR or the Lincoln and pack snicky-snacks for consumption beneath the cherry trees on the basin.

there's a good thread on shopping, with a roundup on the second or third page.

hathor, I've never heard nor thought of this--what does the whisky do to the mushrooms? (and that picture makes me hungry--and I just ate the summer's second BLT!)

get a vanilla milkshake. actually...my favorite Ben's meal is breakfast. classic diner food done good.

summer's first BLT: Niman ranch bacon and real mayonnaise and a tomato so red it could have been a bowl of paint....

my mother and I very, very much liked our crabs--and the company--at Cantlers

for me, it's because I was taken there (Nora's) once for my birthday dinner four years ago, and while the cooking was sublime (pot pie as only a gourmand could dream), the service from everyone in the room was so awful--rude, no smiles, pushy, poured the wrong wine to us and then yanked it back off the table with nary an apology, and they left me close to tears on my second-favorite day of the year--and they _knew_ it was special--and so I have not and will not go back. ever. and that's the only restaurant in town about which I would even think that, much less declare it. if memory is true, I was later told by a friend who had waited tables there that their then-turn time for tables was a half hour less than the standard (1.5 instead of 2?) and that tips were fully pooled, leaving everyone responsible for turning tables and nobody individually responsible for a table. not sure if the same policy still holds, nor if it holds true at Asia Nora's.

I went around 6 in the evening. There was a line, though it was confined within the store, and it evaporated the instant a nice woman came out with a tray of hot doughnuts and handed them out. Communication was a little problematic, as we grabbed our handwarmers and then tried to pay two women at the front door. "They're free," they patiently explained, over and over again. so I took my saved $1 and went to blow it at Olsson's, which I left $30 poorer. funny how a sugar rush helps rationalization along....

tonight's dinner started with dessert....a hot bubble of sugar wrapped around a gushing mouthful of air and oh but it was _good_! anyone else give into the Krispy Kids today? now, onto the stove with the corn.

rough life... we cooked Vace sausages and ate them with mustard and and an unholy number of tomatoes from the farmers' market. and baba ghanouj with pita. and garlic olives. and carrots. and belgian beer. and I'm not eating again for a while....

happy, sane, calm, sunshine-filled travels, hillvalley!! two addendums to make life a little easier: I'm here for another week yet, so PM me your queries and communication problems--I'll try to sort 'em out. and if, for some reason, you really, really do not want to use PayPal, PM me--soon--about setting up an alternate arrangement. very much looking forward to seeing everyone!!

off the ears and sauteed with a bit of butter, a couple dried chilis, some salt, a nibben of garlic...

ah no squids, you get your own--very sorry we missed you on the first go-round. (see what happens when you immediately settle in as one of the crew?) Welcome! and have a wonderful time in London!

I'm imagining taut intestines splitting between my teeth and I open my mouth to order the pork sausage-- and 'sausage' somehow gets pronounced 'shoulder.' Again. has anybody made it past the pork shoulder? My intentions keep melting away as I look at the hunk of marbled meat roasting on the grill. Chewing optional--it's that tender. (also--roberto said today that he's going to expand the grilling station---which is separate from Oseteria, according to the hostess. He'll add a nice soup, maybe a big--and here he stretched his arms wide, scooping the counter space--pizza, and maybe a nice fruit tart.)

hillvalley's out of town for the weekend and so she's not reading her egullet. shhh.... Welcome Rosbud! and squids--not welcome, but welcome to the thread. there is still room, but I'm going to wait until she gets back and goes through whatever PMs ya'all have sent her to update the list.

hey ya'all, do me a favor, please? The lines between good spirits, high spirits, parody and insulting ignorance can evaporate in an online forum, where your readers don't necessarily share your context or perspective, and I want to draw a line before we dive right over it. please, please, please: This thread is for organizing an eG dinner in Colorado Kitchen on September 7th at 7:30. If you want to continue references and in-jokes vis a vis daSto, do so there (and even there, please be mindful of avoiding individual attacks!) thanks!

so you're coming then???

er--no. chef initially said the 7th was best, and we promptly got 20-some responses saying yes to the 7th. Then, a couple days later, chef OFFERED the 21st if that would work better after all--which was very kind--but with a lengthy RSVP list already in place, we decided to leave it right where it was, on the 7th. this place breeds enough chaos as it is. :).

in November, our hostess said that it was. here's a thread speculating on the magic.