La Cuvée Americaine: The American Blend

Carrabba's Italian Grill, Cockeysville, Md.

2008-10-06T13:32:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I made an official visitation as grand commander of D.C. to Cockeysville, Md., where the Maryland State Association of DeMolay Chapters held its annual Honors Day to confer the Degree of Chevalier and the Legion of Honor. After the ceremony, Peter and his friends and I went to a nearby Carrabba's Italian Grill for a combination breakfast/lunch/early supper. I was surprised that none of them had ever been to a Carrabba's before. It's one of those national chains, this one based out of Houston, and I always think of them as being a little better than a Macaroni Grill or an Olive Garden.

Peter's friend's ex-girlfriend's boyfriend and I both had the manicotti. Peter's friend and Peter's friend's ex-girlfriend both had the mezzaluna, a half-moon shaped chicken ravioli. Peter had the lobster ravioli. All of our meals came with salads.

We'd grabbed little pastries at the reception following the investitures, so we didn't end up ordering dessert at the restaurant. The others were all driving back to New York and we were off to D.C.

Golden China, Washington, D.C.

2008-10-06T10:07:00.001-04:00

This neighborhood has a lot of places that probably do more business as carry-out, instead of dine-in, which is something I don't really understand, but I guess it's a holdover from pre-gentrification years. One of those places is Golden China, an unexpectedly good place on Georgia Avenue.

Here are some of the things they offer. They have a nice cold sesame noodle appetizer that's so large it's easily an entree. The noodles are, of course, cold, and served in a soy dressing with sesame seeds and chopped scallions. Surprisingly tasty.

They also cater to a Latino clientele, so deep fried plantain chips are on the menu. I got some and found them almost addictive, though they need to take a cue from the Latino community and provide a dipping sauce like bean dip or sour cream. And, one big surprise on the menu was "pato con arroz," duck with rice, a fusion of Chinese and Latino cultures. I had to get it. The duck was fabulous. And it only cost me $6.95.

Annie's Paramount Steakhouse, Washington, D.C.

2008-10-06T10:09:00.000-04:00

In a completely different neighborhood across town, it's a different world. I had midnight brunch at a neighborhood place called Annie's Paramount Steakhouse the weekend before this last one. I got a cheeseburger and fries. I particularly like their fries. They are thick, very crispy on the outside, and soft as air on the inside. Robert was in a more gourmet mood. He ordered the prime rib. For his sides, he got a baked potato and some steamed carrots (in big coins, or "bonne femme"). I was pleasantly surprised to see with the recent menu changes that the prime rib now automatically comes with Yorkshire pudding.

I always like eating at Annie's, and their all-night dining on Friday and Saturday nights is especially nice. They recently remodeled the dining room and added an upscale room upstairs, but I have to confess I really preferred the old, run-down place.

Eddie's, Washington, D.C.

2008-10-06T10:08:00.000-04:00

Another local Chinese carry out is Eddie's, a place that also includes some limited inside dining space. The owner has practically papered the walls with photos of him posing with various political and military celebrities and officials. I had a pork lo mein, and it was a very large serving.

Smith & Wollensky, Washington, D.C.

2008-10-06T09:52:00.002-04:00

Kevin and I went to lunch this past week at Smith & Wollensky, one of the top steakhouses in town. When we got there, though, neither of us ordered steak!

Kevin was feeling experimental and tried their chili shrimp flatbread, a sort of pizza made with a long rectangular piece of flatbread. It looked quite intriguing, but I don't think the spicy shrimp and avocado filled Kevin's saiety needs.

I had the chicken chopped salad. It was quite good, though I thought it was rather too sweet.

Beforehand, Kevin had a bowl of their soup of the day, a nice bacon scented pea soup garnished with croutons.

Afterwards, we split the sorbet, picking two scoops of pear and one of coconut. Kevin really liked the pear; I really liked the coconut.

Sushi Aoi, Washington, D.C.

2008-10-06T09:51:00.000-04:00

My friend Brian took me to lunch the other day at Sushi Aoi near the Washington Convention Center. I've been by the place innumerable times, but this was the first time I'd ever been inside to eat. It was fun.

Now, Sushi Aoi is a full-service sushi bar, and everything looked fresh and nice, but we both ended up ordering the very same bento box luncheon special, the pork syogayaki. The syogayaki is a large serving of thinly sliced pork lightly grilled then tossed in a sweet ginger sauce and served topped with cooked onions. Our bento boxes also included a California sushi roll, gzozas (vegetable dumplings), and a little iceberg lettuce salad, plus steamed white rice garnished with black sesame seeds.

The boxes came with miso soup to start. I had a hot green tea, and Brian had iced tea.

Here's Brian with his Kody Pose:

Taste of Morocco, Silver Spring, Md.

2008-10-06T09:09:00.001-04:00

For the contrast, we also tried and considered Moroccan food from Taste of Morocco in Silver Spring, Md. I've eaten before at their location in the Clarendon neighborhood of Arlington, but this is the first I've been to the Silver Spring location. Silver Spring is larger and the decor is more elaborate, but I missed the infectious enthusiasm and constant encouragements to taste new things from the proprietor at Clarendon.

The food is always good at Taste of Morocco. We opted to share a "Zenata" Moroccan feast for two.

The meal opened with a "royal salad," a combination of their four main salads, a cucumber and tomato in vinaigrette salad, eggplant and tomato sauce salad, baba ghannouge ( eggplant with tahini, lemon juice, and garlic), and hummos. The hummos was my favorite.

Next came a chicken bastilla, a delicious dish that I think is unique to Morocco. Using round disks of phyllo dough, they stuff the bastilla with chicken, almonds, and onions, bake the rounds, then dust them with cinnamon confectioner's sugar before serving. The combination is sweet but mouthwateringly good.

Next came the main course, the royal couscous. I've long been a fan of couscous, and what they make here in unusually fine and delicate. Couscous, of course, is tiny, tiny pieces of semolina pasta that is indigenous to Morocco, but it's been exported to France, where it's popular there much as regular pastas from Italy are here in the U.S. In this version, the couscous serves as a bed for a saffron-scented stew of lamb shank, lamb merguez sausage, roasted chicken, and seven vegetables. I thought it interesting that the vegetables included acorn squash—a vegetable indigenous to the Americas—but the squash was delicious in the combination.

For dessert, our waitress brought us a platter of assorted Moroccan pastries, the exact identities of which I have no clue. They were good, being mostly of the dry, crunchy cookie variety. The waitress made a show of pouring our Moroccan mint tea (a lovely but very sweet, hot, mint tea) into clear glass drinking glasses to have with our desserts.

I enjoyed our meal at Taste of Morocco, though I thought the service was a bit off, an unusual thing since it was hardly busy in there due to the heavy rainstorms that day. It's not that they were inattentive, because they were there tending to us often, I think it was just the finer points. For example, we had but one set of knife, fork, and spoon, and in between courses, even if they were dirty, the waitress would take them off our plates and set them back down on the table so we could reuse them for the next course.

Jyoti Indian Cuisine, Washington, D.C.

2008-10-06T09:08:00.001-04:00

We're thinking about doing Indian food at lodge for Columbus Day next week, so we're having to do some research, trying Indian foods and looking for a good Metro-accessible source for Indian sauces and/or spices.

This past week, we went to Jyoti Indian Cuisine in Adams-Morgan, and found not only good food, but some great prices. They had a special that amounted basically to a thali platter, and we were stuffed for less than $10 each.

The plates arrived with a mold of yellow and white rice in the center, surrounded by five little containers of various foods. Starting at the 10 o'clock position and proceeding counter-clockwise, we had:

Chicken Masala, a dish of tandoori-roasted chicken slowly simmered in sauce and spices;
Mater Paneer, green peas with little chunks of homemade Indian farmer cheese;
Chana Masala, chickpeas and potatoes cooked in sauce and spices (yet spicier and different than the chicken version);
Dhan Saag, spinach with yellow lentils;
Raita, a cooling yogurt and cucumber dish that's really more of a condiment than a dish

I washed mine down with a couple of cups of hot chai tea, a spiced tea and milk drink. Their version is milder than many I've had, though I think it would have been better just a little hotter.

With the meal, we were brought two enormous pieces of naan bread that were unusually good.

It was a great lunch, and very much well worth the price.

Fried pickles

2008-10-06T09:04:00.000-04:00

Every had fried dill pickle slices?

We had some the other day at Hooter's. I thought they were pretty good; Robert didn't find them to his gourmet tastes. I'm used to them, though; when I was a child, they used to be on the menu at Sonic Drive-Ins in several of the small towns in Oklahoma.

Hooter's version has very spicy dipping sauce. Yum.

Debate watch party

2008-10-04T17:56:00.000-04:00

Thursday night I got dragged out to watch the vice presidential debate at a watch party sponsored by RightNOW, Women Impacting the Nation (founded by Sen. Elizabeth Dole) and the Republican Jewish Coalition at the Washington offices of DLA Piper (a 3,000 lawyer international law firm). Needless to say, this wasn't an impartial group!

Usually I watch these debates at my desk while I either Web surf, blog along, or otherwise multi-task in confort and privacy, but this time I had to get all dressed up in my jacket and tie (and I wore a vested suit, since it was so chilly out).

The debate hosts provided us with a full open bar and some fabulous hors d'oevres to sustain us for the lengthy debate. As I walked into the firm, I entered the sunken lobby area where the hosts had laid out our repast. In the center, a round table was laden with about a dozen large white bowls of various dips, including guacamole, salsa, and hummus, but also more interesting and highly creative things like broccoli and goat cheese, sun dried tomato tapenade, spinach hummus, white bean puree with roasted red pepper, eggplant carbonata, and others. In the center of the table were colored tortilla chips, pita bread triangles, and toast. Running the length of the side wall of the room was a long table with slices of large sandwiches, crudités, more exotic meats such as mortadella and prosciutto, oversized cookies, and a huge American flag made of cupcakes frosted together as though it were one big cake. On the opposite wall was the bar, where bartenders poured premium liquors. In another corner of the room was a double table with several displays of French and Italian cheeses plus fresh and dried fruits, including some luscious fresh figs.

By the time the debates started, there were several hundred people present. We all crowded into the firm's conference center, where we watched on the big glass wall the equivalent of a small billboard sized television screen.

Everyone seemed quite pleased with the result of the debate, though I could tell that after an hour, attention spans began to wander. Maybe in the future, they'll have shorter debates, or at least consider some kind of mid-way intermission entertainment or break (perhaps the kids in Governor Palin's brother's third grade class could sing for us?).

GU Illness Update

2008-10-02T17:05:00.000-04:00

Over 170 students now have been sickened by the mystery illness that raced through the Georgetown University campus this week. Local District of Columbia health department officials stated today that they believe the illness was not caused by food poisoning, but by a norovirus, a highly contagious malady commonly known as the "cruise ship virus."

Leo's dining hall has been reopened as of dinner tonight after a thorough cleaning, and the university has developed a taskforce to thoroughly clean and keep clean for the next few days door knobs, surfaces, etc., which are the primary disease vector. Meanwhile, members of the university community are being encouraged to practice especially good hand-washing technique until the virus runs its course.

Mystery illness strikes Georgetown

2008-10-01T23:39:00.000-04:00

Some 88 students have been hospitalized yesterday and today as a result of a mysterious illness at Georgetown University, and an unknown number of others may also be suffering from the malady. While officials initially reported food poisoning from the main dormitory cafeteria was the likely culprit, today, District of Columbia health department officials stated that food poisoning had not yet been confirmed, and that an enteric virus of some sort could be to blame.

Striken students suffered a sudden onset of gastro-intestinal distress and severe shaking. Some students became so dehydrated, they had to be transported to the university's hospital via ambulance, rather than walking the two or three blocks from the main dormitory complex.

Meanwhile, the popular "Leo's" dining hall has been closed by university officials and will remain closed until further information on the illness is available and the problem solved. Students are being deferred to cafeterias and fast food eateries in the Leavey Center, the main campus's student union.

Thus far, the striken students seem to be limited to underclassmen. None of my students seem to be affected.

Salmeron Restaurant, Washington, D.C.

2008-09-27T17:50:00.001-04:00

One of our favorite restaurants in the Takoma neighborhood of Washington, D.C., El Tamarindo, recently changed names and ownership. The restaurant is now called "Salmeron Restaurant," and from what we could tell on a recent visit, the menus, food, and kitchen staff are essentially the same as they were under the old name, providing Mexican and Salvadorean offerings. The El Tamarindo location in Adams-Morgan remains open and in operation under the old name.

My dining companion ordered the Trios Burritos, a combination plate with a beef, a cheese, and a chicken burrito all covered in cheese, served with lettuce, sour cream, guacamole, and an orange half. The plate ended up being nearly licked clean, so I gather it was good.

I had the carne de puerco, a dish of fried chunks of pork topped with a tomato sauce and served with salad and Spanish rice. I thought the pork quite tasty, though I would have preferred that the dish come with fried yuca root instead of the rice. Both meals came with the hearty Salvadorean-style tortillas.

We'd also gotten there early enough during the evening that our first margaritas were really cheap with happy hour prices (I forgot how much, but it was cheap enough to entice me to have one). The margaritas were unusually good for happy hour, and they poured the tequila with a free hand, always a plus with me.

La Crêperie, Arlington, Va.

2006-08-12T00:03:00.001-04:00

In our last couple of soujourns to the mall at Pentagon City, we've ended up dining at La Crêperie, a French place in Pentagon Row just outside the mall. Ryan seems to like the place, and so long as he isn't eating hamburgers, I'm happy.

Trip number one was with Edward and Jeff. While Edward was getting his hairs cut, Jeff had a little McChicken sandwich at the food court McDonald's, so he wasn't hungry when we got to the restaurant for dinner and only drank water. Edward ended up getting a "pesto cavatappi," which is some kind of spiral macaroni dish they serve at Noodles & Company next door. It seemed simple enough, with a pesto sauce tossed with the macaroni, and there was supposed to be a diced up chicken breast in there somewhere, too, though I wasn't really sure I saw it. He picked up his meal "to-go" and then joined us on the patio to eat.

I wasn't terribly hungry, so I got the salade maison and the soupe tomate. The salad was your basic everyday iceberg and romaine lettuce salad with tomato, carrot, cucumber, olives, and beets in a typical French olive oil emulsification dressing. I love their soupe tomate. Not only does it have a nice roasted tomato flavor, it's rich and very, very thick—almost like eating a thin pudding. It's a great explosion of tomato flavor in the mouth.

Ryan ordered the crêpe monsiuer, a crêpe based on the classic croque monsieur sandwich that is a fancy French version of a ham and cheese sandwich, except with the cheese melted. They put a stripe of tomato sauce across the crêpe as a garnish.

For dessert, Ryan ordered two crêpes for the whole table, a crêpe nutella with extra bananas and strawberries, and a crêpe aux pommes, an apple pie tasting thing.

For trip number two, we were with Ryan's friend Gustavo. His English is a little limited, as is my French, but Ryan has some French but no Spanish, and I have a little Spanish still, so we managed to communicate all around. Our waiter was a French, Arabic, and English speaking Moroccan, so we were able to eek out a mutual understanding.

Gustavo had the hangar steak aux poivre avec pommes frites. He said the steak was good ("Es bueno."). It seemed to me to be two thin, little slices of meat in a pepper sauce. In addition to the French fries, there was a serving of what looked to be frozen mixed vegetables.

Ryan had a crêpe ratatouille, a little vegetarian thing filled with that nasty eggplant and vegetable stew (I don't do eggplant).

I did a series of little dishes to make up my meal, starting with a bowl of the soupe tomate (see above picture) for all to sample. Then I had some of their paté du maison garnished with cornichon pickles and little cocktail onions, served with a small, thin loaf of French bread, followed by the pommes du terre au gratin, a sort of French version of scalloped potatoes. The potatoes were disappointing and it was the first time I got something at La Crêperie I didn't like and didn't think was very good. The crumbs on top comprising the "au gratin" were dry, the cheese and bechamel sauce in the potatoes seemed grainy, and the thin layers of potatoes seems to be soaking in some kind of oil or grease. I couldn't finish it.

Ryan insisted on desserts for everyone, so he ordered another crêpe nutella with bananas and strawberries (see above picture) and a crêpe aux peches avec glace vanille (see the apple crêpe picture above and add ice cream). I liked the peach crêpe.

The best part of the meal came at the end when Ryan paid for everyone! Yay!

Panache Restaurant, Washington, D.C.

2008-09-28T11:56:00.000-04:00

Kevin, who already has one graduate degree, has been working on another, but I think he's been getting rather burned out, at least from the nasty looks I get when I ask how the PhD is going.... Nonetheless, he has a fabulous new job in D.C. that he just started earlier this month with offices near the world headquarters of the National Geographic Society (another place in D.C. with fun museums and stuff, but it doesn't always make the top of the tourist list with the embarrassment of riches we have in this town). We went out a couple of weeks ago to celebrate his first paycheck!

One of the many fine places in the immediate area is Panache Restaurant, a place I've always found quite an enigma. A lot of people think of it as a French restaurant, but they also have a strong Mediterranean feel to the menu, plus, they offer French, Spanish, and Mediterranean style tapas.

Lunch, however, is a bit simpler.

Kevin started with an hummus appetizer. I sampled a bit, and the hummus was quite good, being light and not having any strong olive oil, lemon juice, or tahini (sesame seed paste) flavors. What I found interesting about the hummus was that it was served with wedges of warm focaccia bread, instead of with triangles of pita bread, and the focaccia was very good, too.

For his main course, he had a turkey-avocado wrap, one of the daily specials. It came in a bright green, spinach, flour tortilla and was amply stuffed with both lots of avocado and turkey plus other vegetables. An order of long French fries, with mayonnaise as a dipping sauce, accompanied the wrap.

I got the "salad of rare steak," a tasty entree salad with an unusually large amount of hot, thinly-sliced pieces of flank steak served over a bed of fresh baby spinach leaves, field greens, and roasted shallot. Blue cheese crumbles topped the meat.

Desserts were glorious. Kevin selected a crème brulée, their version redolent with Tahitian vanilla and topped with artistically arranged mint, strawberry slices, and whipped cream on the warm sugar crust.

I wanted something simpler and lighter, so I got the raspberry sorbet, and it came in a huge art glass bowl with a sprig of mint and a warm biscotto.

Thus were our Mediterranean adventures at Panache. Looks like the place has a big, fun bar that's probably packed during happy hour, too.

Clyde's of Chevy Chase, Chevy Chase, Md.

2008-09-27T20:17:00.000-04:00

Sometimes Robert and I go to places a bit nicer, yet order basic food. An example was an evening when we went to some of the nicer stores in the Friendship Heights area, and dined at Clyde's of Chevy Chase. Now, Clyde's is one of those small local chains with some nice food that can be combined to run up quite a bill, especially with their seafood and more substantial beef offerings, but they also offer a plethora of moderately priced sandwich and salad items.

Robert had the steak and cheese sandwich with French fries. The sandwich was served on a long roll, cut in half, and had lots of thinly sliced beef.

I got the tuna melt, ordinarily served there on an English muffin, but I asked the kitchen to substitute something different, and they brought it out on toasted rye. This is definitely the Cadillac of tuna melts, with the mass of warm tuna salad being presented open face as though it were a crab cake sandwich on a large tomato slice, then topped with melted cheddar cheese. I also got fries, plus a dill pickle.

We couldn't resist dessert. Clyde's always does great ones, and this night was no exception. We split a "pavé chocolate cake," a fabulous creation with layers of flourless chocolate cake, chocolate mousse, and chocolate meringue presented on an elaborately chocolate garnished plate with decorative accents of mint sprigs, raspberry sauce, and fresh raspberries. Delicious.

Corner Bakery Cafe, Washington, D.C.

2008-09-27T20:16:00.000-04:00

Corner Bakery Cafe is another national chain with locations all over the District. We went to the one at Union Station. Robert had the "uptown turkey sandwich," which I thought seemed rather ordinary, but he likes them.

I had a very interesting soup. They look a little round country loaf of bread, hollowed it out, and filled it to overflowing with their cheddar cheese-broccoli soup. Filling and good. Couldn't eat all the bread. Washed it down with a big iced coffee.

Ledo Pizza, Takoma Park, Md.

2008-09-27T20:15:00.000-04:00

In the past fortnight, Robert and I have been out to dinner at a couple of inexpensive places serving simple but good fare. Here are a couple of them.

Ledo Pizza is a small national chain with a store in Takoma Park, Md. On our last trip, I tried the lasagne. It was okay. Nothing spectactular, but decent. Sauce was a bit sweeter than I prefer, but no real complaints.

The real star of the evening, though, was the pizza Robert ordered. A "personal" pizza—that means it's supposed to be for one. This "Ledo Deluxe Pizza" was covered in chopped pepperoni, ground beef, ham, and probably a full pound of bacon strips. Do you like meat? Order this. Robert couldn't finish it alone and had to take half home. Said it was good quality, too.

Logan@The Heights, Washington, D.C.

2008-09-27T18:01:00.000-04:00

I can't remember if I've written about a local neighborhood place before called Logan @ The Heights, or more commonly by Columbia Heights denizens, just "The Heights," but they've recently decided to open for weekday lunches. The "Logan" comes from its elder sister establishment, the Logan Tavern, and the menus and concepts between the two places are similar.

Taking advantage of the new lunches, I had a chance to pop in a couple of weeks ago for a late lunch.

I ordered one of the popular reimaginings of an old comfort food standby, their crab and shrimp macaroni and cheese. It's a good multi-cheese mac and cheese made with penne instead of elbow macaroni, with the addition of the seafood, topped with panko bread crumbs before baking. Tasty, assuming one likes seafood. It came with a mixed green salad according to the menu, but the waitress came back later and said it wasn't included. I didn't want to pay for a side salad, so I didn't have one.

My luncheon companion picked the crispy tofu and veggie stir-fry entree. It came, served over a big ball of jasmine rice. It also was preceded by a salad, but our waitress apparently was new didn't know all the rules, so she offered a choice of all the salads. My companion chose the iceberg wedge with blue cheese and bacon crumbles. The problem came at check time, when she billed us for the wedge. I called it to her attention, and after she checked on it, she came back to say that only the mixed green salad was included, and the other salads were extra. I expected her to at least adjust the bill to credit us with the value of a mixed green salad, but she charged us the full value of the lettuce wedge ($4 more).

So, it turns out I should have had a salad and we should have gotten a $3.95 salad credit for the wedge. I probably should have spoken with the manager about it, but I didn't want to spend the time to complain, as I was in a hurry to get back to work, so I just "adjusted" the tip.

So, while the food at The Heights is okay, you have to watch them on their bills. Caveat emptor.

McCormick and Schmick, Washington, D.C.

2008-09-26T22:32:00.000-04:00

Had a nice K Street lunch with Kevin this week. Strangely, especially considering all the financial legislation negotiations going on in D.C. this week, there were very few lobbyist where we went, a place normally very popular with the K Street crowd.

Kevin decided he wanted to go to McCormick and Schmick's, one of the top "casual," but very very pricey, seafood restaurants in town. Fortunately, their lunch menu doesn't get to the $$$$ level as it does during dinner.

Kevin started with a bowl of Maryland crab soup. This was the thin broth kind with a touch of tomato and hot spicyness (Old Bay Seasoning?). Then for his main course, he had a Maryland crab cake sandwich with fries. Musta been in a crabby mood that day. Pa dum pum.

I opted for the seafood Cobb salad. A huge salad, the traditional diced turkey breast was replaced by a wide strip of seafood featuring crab meat, popcorn shrimp, and little bay scallops. It was delicious. It could have used just a touch more dressing, and I would have preferred that they had diced the avocado and given it its own stripe as per tradition, but this are nit-picking complaints.

Washington Square Diner, New York, N.Y.

2008-09-26T19:40:00.000-04:00

Thursday evening I met up with Ian for dinner. He chose a neighborhood diner for our meal that he'd been wanting to try but hadn't yet sampled called the Washington Square Diner, located in the Washington Square area near New York University.

It's a basic, but pleasant diner. I couldn't quite determine the ethnicity of the place; the menu has a "Mediterranean Specialties" section, yet I didn't hear any Greek, French, or Italian being spoken; I did, however, hear the wait staff speaking New World Spanish.

Ian ordered a muenster cheese omelette with home fried potatoes and toast. He liked it, and the serving portions were ample.

I got the chicken pot pie. What a great choice I made! The pot pie came in a large au gratin dish with puff pastry covering and folded over the dish and baked to a flaky, golden brown. Inside the dish was a flavorful chicken sauce filled with lots of chicken meat, carrots, onion, peas, and potatoes. The whole dish was great, with a rich taste, and it was very, very filling! I almost gave up on it, thinking I might have to take some home, but I didn't want to waste a drop!

Now, diners are usually known for their pies, so I decided to order a piece of their banana cream pie for dessert, and Ian offered to share it. That was a mistake. This was just not their area of culinary expertise. There was a cream base topped by some brown banana slices and some crunchy sugar (did they top the pie with bananas and sugar and broil it? I don't know where the "crunch" came from), then a thick layer of commercial whipped cream topped that. If you go to the diner, skip the banana cream pie.

The nicest thing about our meal was the cost, with both of our entrees being under $10. And they say one can't eat in New York City on a budget.

Miyagi Japanese Restaurant, New York, N.Y.

2008-09-26T19:39:00.000-04:00

Last Thursday when I got to New York for my business trip, I found time for a late lunch in Manhattan's West Village at a little Japanese place called Miyagi. What caught my eye as I walked down the street was their blackboard out front announcing an $8.25 lunch special. Only $8.25? Well, that's as good a Washington prices, and I was expecting New York to be significantly more expensive. So, in I went.

It was late, with only two other tables occupied, and they were finishing up, so I got my choice of tables. A man who appeared to be an owner or manager waited on my table and saw to my needs. We had a little bit of communications challenge due to accents and languages, but we figured everything out.

I started my lunch with a fried baby octopus appetizer. Four baby octopi were breaded in panko breadcrumbs and quickly deep fried until just tender, and I thought them very nicely done.

Next, I ordered the tempura and sushi lunch box special. A generous serving of vegetable tempura came with a California roll in a laquered box, preceded by a choice of either miso soup or a green salad (I got the salad). The tempura was light and crispy, and the sushi roll was standard and tasted fresh. Hot green tea was served with the main course.

Thus was Miyagi, and it was a delightful find.

Heartland Brewery and Rotisserie, New York, N.Y.

2008-09-26T03:17:00.000-04:00

Our lawyer friend and Californian John came to New York City this past weekend, the same time I was there, except his mission was to watch the final baseball performance from Yankee Stadium on Sunday. Ian and I met up with John at his hotel after he got settled in Saturday night, planning to take him somewhere nice for dinner. It turned out, however, that this was John's very first ever trip to NYC, so we embarked upon an abbreviated nighttime walking tour of midtown Manhattan, including a venture up to the top of the Empire State Building.

After our tour in the chilly New York night, we stopped in at the Heartland Brewery and Rotisserie there in the Empire State Building for a late supper. John's a big beer fan, so it seemed like an appropriate place to take him. The place was busy when we arrived, but they were, nevertheless, able to afford us immediate seating in their downstairs dining room.

Service was rather slow both after we were seating and throughout the evening, though I liked our waiter, who seemed responsible but over worked with too many tables. The only real problem we had was that one of Ian's beer glasses came to the table with a large L-shaped crack in it, but the waiter immediately rectified the problem once we pointed it out.

John ordered the maple-cured pork loin, the pork getting a maple syrup and bourbon glaze and being served atop a bed of maple-glazed sweet potato purée. He reported the pork was juicy and very good.

On the waiter's recommendation, I got the smoked chicken salad, but substituting the smoked chicken for rotisserie chicken. The mixed greens base included dried cranberries, pecans, and a blue cheese-balsamic vinaigrette. It was fine as far as chicken salads go, though nothing particularly outstanding.

Ian ordered a Caesar salad with dressing on the side, a bowl of chicken noodle soup (the noodles were penne pasta), and then later an order of spicy fries. He also got a sampler flight of six of the in-house brewery's beers. I took tiny sips of all of them, and the only one I really liked was the India pale ale (IPA), a strongly bitter, hoppy brew that Ian didn't like at all, but I reveled in the bitterness. There was also an oatmeal stout that tasted a lot like espresso with hints of chocolate. John, having been a brewmaster in his past, took over the beer education lessons for Ian, since it's not an area of my interest or expertise.

For dessert, Ian and I split a chocolate chip cookie pie, or at least we were supposed to have. This was a warm, thick, chocolate chip cookie in a pastry crust topped with vanilla ice cream. The literally three small bites I got were tasty; Ian unapologetically snarfed down the rest of the pie as though he were inhaling it. I was rather annoyed that the waiter only brought us spoons with which to eat a piece of pie. Had to ask him for a fork. :-/

After dinner, we walked the tired John back to his hotel. I think Sunday after I left to return to Washington, John and Ian got together for a late lunch, but I've not yet heard a full report on that yet.

Winter's coming

2008-09-26T03:03:00.001-04:00

Roasted chestnuts from a New York street vendor.

Hooters, New York, N.Y.

2008-09-26T02:41:00.000-04:00

Ian needs to smile more and show more teeth.....
he looks a bit too determined to be standing outside a place like this

Just off Times Square near Broadway is another of those awful Hooters restaurant stores. Ian likes to go because he thinks the chicken strips/fingers are good. Robert gives me that excuse, too, though he claims it's because of the chicken wings (my ex David said this, too). I don't know why they think this. They've all made me go to the chain, and I've yet to be impressed by either the food or service.

Ian and I went to the Times Square place and had a surly waitress. I found the chicken strips to be overcooked. Ian was disappointed because this particular store does not offer the full range of sauces he's used to eating at other stores. We got a dozen strips to split, plus I got the tiniest little styrofoam cup of mediocre and bland potato salad and Ian got a small but expensive serving of curly fries.

The one thing I can say about the Times Square Hooters store is that they are by far the most expensive and most limited Hooters I've ever experienced. In their defense, though, unlike many of their fellow New York restauranteurs, I will point out that they offer free soft drink refills. That's a given in the rest of the country, but rather rare in NYC.

It does me no good to "review" these places, since obviously their patrons have non-culinary interests and they seem not to care about my opinions. And I've yet to see any owls.