babka

congratulations!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! do we get to toast you at the kitchen?

huh? she named it. she shared the name. then she responded when eG exploded in six directions on it, and mr. fisher picked up parts of the explosion and her response. I don't think that controversy was her goal....but even if it had been, eG was the entity that ginned it up.

'cuz life's chaotic enough without inviting it in. if you've already said you're in for the 7th, then there's no need to say so again. current list for 7:30 pm on September 7: babka hillvalley laniloa Nadya Bilrus + 1 Al_Dente + 1 iamthestretch eunny jang Chef Shogun rhodegirl + 1 mdt edemuth +3 littlechinagirl [+1?] otello + 1 busboy mrs busboy silentbob gnatharobed + 1 [+1?] woodleygrrl roger troutman monica + 1 jpw [maybe] [dcmark?]

John, Could you talk a little more about produce sourcing, please? How do you find what you want? Do most of your goods come from the D.C. region? from broader? Do you have contracts with a few farms? with many? make friends at the markets? with friendly middlemen? --thanks

you're rejecting us, your virtual and imaginary friends, for a peanut that you can't even eat???

At the request of the Colorado Kitchen crew: Up to 45 eGulleters of PC, non-PC, martian, and other persuasions, are hereby invited to crash Colorado Avenue on September 7th for an evening of raging controversy and rambunctious food. The Chef's preparing a menu at $30 a head, plus tax, tip, and wine, and we will ask people to prepay, please. We'll get you the total cost and the menu in a few days. 20, more or less babka hillvalley laniloa Nadya Bilrus + 1 Al_Dente + 1 iamthestretch eunny jang Chef Shogun rhodegirl + 1 Hannah + 1 mdt edemuth [+2?] littlechinagirl [+1?] [dcmark?] edited to update response list.

wow. 31 very interested, plus another four who are interested but already said they can't make one or another of the floated dates....I'd say we're on. I'd also say that I'm in over my head--so everybody welcome hillvalley as the official co-coordinator. 1) I've asked the CK crew to suggest a good price point and to vet three potential dates: September 7, September 14, and September 21. If you've got a strong preference for or against one of those days, PM me. Otherwise, watch this space for the non-democratic decision. 2) Attendance: As we get closer, I'll PM my cell number to attendees. With a group this size and a restaurant opening especially for us, I'm sorta leaning towards pre-payment at whatever point the restaurant needs a hard number from us. If memory serves, Monica had several RSVP'd no-shows at her fantastic streetfood fest, and Ray's fell a couple people short. (think of it like a theater outing--we'll need to pay for our block of 'tickets' a couple days in advance to make sure we all have seats.) besides...I'd really rather not start the evening off by learning we've just messed with Gillian's plans for dinner because half the group failed to show. Anyone got a good argument against it? 3) folks who want to attend, date-dependent: babka hillvalley bilrus + 1 chef shogun nadya otello busboy mrs busboy iamthestretch silentbob mktye + 1 [+2] hannah + 1 mdt txaggie cjsadler monica + 1 rhodegirl + 1 mcjb2 + 1 eunny jang al dente +1 gnatharobed + 1 [+1] can't make one or the other date but wants to come: *tomdc *laniloa *hjshorter *jennyuptown *edited for new names & new analogies.

Rocks, you rock! a private dinner would be fantastic!! Tuesday night, so Nadya can come, and since they're coming in for us, we should have a good size for them. We could aim for Sept. 7, or 14 subject to confirming with the Colorado crew. (busboy--how much longer do we get to corrupt Mrs?) price tbd--pm me for a suggestion, as I haven't eaten there before. So far we have: babka hillvalley bilrus + 1 chef shogun nadya otello busboy mrs busboy

I'm ashamed to admit that I haven't been there yet, but it sounds like the Chef's food is as scrumptious as her stories....and she did offer deviled eggs to Morela. so who's up for an eG outing to the kitchen?

but she was! if you overlook the TV and the kids part, anyway.

Indique! & order a couple samosas.

There once was a joint called Tonic, whose critics weren't exactly all on it. Five beers soothed our cares, with two burgers quite rare, a tab of 30 -- symphonic!

vidalia's better. but the grits & scallops at Georgia Brown's were pretty damn good.

ah man, I just stumbled off of 8 hours of airplane hell to reports of this??? so glad it looked like a wonderful time!

How do you and your wife cope with job-mandated breaking of bread? When do you get to dish about your days, if not at the dinner table?

who the bleep decided to schedule D.C. restaurant week for the WEEK OF THE DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION IN BOSTON?!?!?!?! grumble. think of me and my stale sandwiches while you're reveling.

discovering, again, that salty lips makes cold beer taste better than a prime rib when drunk on hot sand in front of crashing waves...and that not even warm beer can ease the sting of the iridescent blue, green and pink baby portugese man-o-war. (vinegar, however, had potential.) eating baby back bbq ribs that forgot the meat's supposed to stick to the bones, washed back with lemonade and hushpuppies on the side... drowning the sorrows of inept attempts to waterski with sweet tea and hamburgers with deviled eggs and four-day-sourcream-coconut cake with homemade strawberry ice cream... and sipping a seven-seven while watching the boys make big, beautiful, and highly illegal explosions off the boat dock. i wanna go back.

sigh. I'll be in Iowa. again.

Dear Miss Manners, What is the etiquette for inviting mussels to one's home? I try to attend to their basic needs, providing a comfortable temperature and air to breathe, but many of them seem to lose their will to live long before we get to the hot pan. I suspect the problem creeps in during the pre-dinner phase. Books on their entertainment stress the importance of cleaning own's guests before cooking them, but the texts are distressingly light on the details of how to do that. I know my delicate friends dislike soap, but how do I clean them? The estimable Mr. Bittman advises the host to let them sit in a bowl of cold water beneath a slowly running tap for half an hour and then scrubbing individual shells and removing beards. Last night, some of them crowded to the top of the bowl, but a full three-quarters sank to the bottom and, upon examination after the requisite thirty minutes--replete with light taps to the knee--were quite dead. As they were all very cheerful and alive when I left the store earlier, where their previous host examined each one as he lifted it off the ice, this was quite distressing. Dinner went on without them--pasta with garlic and oil--but please tell me, for future invitations, how to keep my friends alive and happy until I can eat them? Sincerely, Gravedigger.

with the exception of Larry's & Sweet Licks, I've never heard of _any_ of these--thank you!! babka, who'd trying to calculate the number of calories burned in a ride up to max's versus the calories to be consumed on-premises...

no, we're just space cadets, sometimes. our fathers reconciled themselves to this fact years ago. and it's damn good bourbon.* not sure it's not-fancy, but my absolute favorite weekend brunch in the entire city is the dim sum at Cafe Atlantico. It's empty, so calm; and has way too much food, well-paced, so you drink a little champagne and bask in the sunlight and awe at the pretty food and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk... *to make up for the bottle I gave him for this birthday and then proceeded to finish with my brother over the next two holidays...

completely forgetting, evidently. so sending an electronic card and carrying a bottle of good bourbon on the plane home on Tuesday.

sanity will collapse, shortly, if the body doesn't escape the cubicle, but randomly hiking the sauna that's invaded this city doesn't sound so good either. Give me a reason to go sweat & stink up my day: Who's got good ice cream? Larry's, and...?

oie. Suzi, thank you for identifying and raising the interaction aspect of the minibar! Steve, thank you for the history. I've never eaten at the other restaurants discussed, never read most of the articles to which you pointed, and know the names only as names, not reference points in a strange and wonderful world. from my own experience, which was far too many months ago. (at least three ): For all the potential of two chefs and six diners, they were slammed, focused on the five, six, 10 aspects of courses they were preparing at once. When ours had a breather, we could ask about the dish that he'd just choreographed and his response was enlightening--he was happy to briefly discuss the tastes, textures, and colors that he'd just painted onto the plate. Lacking much of Suzi's dining context, it didn't occur to me to ask about the broader philosophy and influence of the art. I'm somewhat sad, but neither surprised nor disappointed that such questions weren't received in the spirit in which they were offered. When I'm writing, I can handle queries specific to the subject matter at hand. But ask me anything, anything else--about the philosophy of the field, what I'm writing next, or what I'm cooking for dinner tomorrow, and I will growl, at best. But Kats stepped behind the bar while I was there, playing with a new dish--an egg, softly cooked for hours--and that is my lead in recounting the tale of the minibar. While he was there, poking and prodding and thinking as the chefs swirled around him, we could talk. Not about the field, for I didn't know enough to ask, nor about the dish in front of me. The quivering white and yellow, not solid, not liquid, was entrancing, and we asked him why, and how, and what else could you do with an egg, and where was the egg going, maybe, what if you did this? Or that? and that experience--our journey posted by the jacketed chefs while Kats explained part of the navigation--was what I would happily, happily, pay twice, if not three times, as much money to repeat. He was there for just 15 minutes, playing, and thereby grounded it all. I had a cucumber sandwich today and caught myself wondering--what would Jose and Kats do with this? Because I had seen, a little bit, how they start to play. The journey alone, without Kats, was, for me, well-worth the $65.

City Lights has take-out, and I think Uni on P (to the west of the circle) has lunch boxes if you're cost-conscious, you can get most of the bento items from Teaism a la carte. would also second the notion of hoofing it down to the Greek Deli--enough food for two, three meals and the moussaka is moussavahalas. so's the yogurt.