Nosh notes: Eating Out
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Latino menus - what's is that stuff? - 28 Jul 2010
Que? Some of the terms on Latin American menus may be confusing enough to discouraging ordering. And you'd miss a treat. read more...
Ren's Ramen - 17 Jun 2010
It's a real shame that Daruma, that bright, clean and well-stocked Japanese market in Bethesda, closed. But in its place is Ren's Ramen, a noodle house. It's simply decorated, with those vertical blue and white fabric streamers printed with characters you see at similar places in Japan. The noodles are imported from Sapporo in Japan's Hokkaido Prefecture. read more...
Nosh Notes - Hollywood East Cafe - 2 Jun 2010
Mother's Day was not the best for dim sum without a reservation at Hollywood East Cafe. The lobby outside in the mall was mobbed. But here's the trick for any date's that going to be packed: ask to eat at the bar. Or make a reservation. Or bring a book and stand in long line. The food is worth the wait. read more...
Nosh Notes: Song Phat - 17 Mar 2010
Walk through or make your way round the back of Hung Phat Asian Market and you'll find a simple Formica table-topped restaurant serving really good Vietnamese noodle soups, dishes and grills. read more...
Nosh Notes: Domku Bar and Cafe - 8 Jan 2010
Fed up with diners serving burgers and steaks and hot dawgs? Looking for a change? (This recommendation is not strictly a market - though if you got your food to go it would qualify - but a suggestion for winter warming food.) Visit Kera Carpenter and she'll introduce you to a neighborhood not known for restaurants as well as an unfamiliar cuisine: Eastern European food, in...Petworth! She's the owner chef of Domku Bar and Cafe. read more...
Nosh Notes - Present Restaurant - 3 Dec 2009
The differences between eating in a restaurant serving a Western cuisine and one representing the cooking of an Asian region begin with the length of the menu. Once I've turned a couple of the - usually - laminated pages, I'm in a dither of indecision and a quiver of vacillation.
This is not a problem you'll have at Present, a Vietnamese restaurant. read more...
Nosh Notes - Mandalay - 24 Nov 2009
You certainly don't go to Mandalay for the interior design and the intimate atmosphere. It's the kind of restaurant you might stumble into after hours of desperate driving across the mid-west, only to find yourself in a beige meeting-hall kind of space, surrounded by wrinkles and disapproval.
You go to Mandalay for the food. It's good, interesting and reasonably priced. read more...
Nosh Notes: Turkish restaurants - 5 Aug 2009
This web site doesn't cover many restaurants. But the following come highly recommended by a number of Turkish eatWashingtonians. They should know. And summertime is the perfect season for this kind of food. read more...
Nosh Notes: Crabs & clams - 5 Aug 2009
Crabs and clams are a local treat worthy of serious foodie consideration. Where to observe - and experience the treat. read more...
Nosh notes: The Fearless Critic - 1 Jul 2009
I don't feel particularly well served by restaurant reviewers who believe they shouldn't put pen to paper until they've given a place a go three times. If I eat a poor meal the first time round, why, as a general punter with plenty of dining choices, would I give them a second chance? But I can't write a Nosh Note this week because I spent my noshing money on a new swimsuit. So you might consider giving this new DC restaurant reviews book, a look over. Its reviewers have to have some educated connection with food, either in training or career. (Here I go, doing myself out of a job...) read more...
Nosh Notes - M Café & Bar - 24 Jun 2009
Ladies who like to lunch in style like to lunch at M Café & Bar in Chevy Chase where one side of Wisconsin Avenue is still rooted in medical centers, gloomy estate jewelers and the Gap while the other glistens with outposts of Jimmy Choo, Tiffany, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Bulgari, Dior, Ralph Lauren and other brave adventurers from New York.
M Café & Bar is a rare, in Washington, taste of Manhattan glamour. Somehow you imagine the conversation is more likely to cover the kind of behavior that Mother wouldn't approve of than the lastest news from the PTA. read more...
Nosh Notes: Everlasting Life/Eternity Juice Bar - 10 Jun 2009
When I drove past the Everlasting Life/Eternity Juice Bar on Georgia Avenue, I had to stop. Can there be a better name for a place to revive? I felt better, more vital, taller of limb, tighter of skin, just reading the name. It is surely what the origin of the word 'restaurant' was all about. read more...
Nosh Notes: Cuban sandwiches - 10 Jun 2009
Until we're allowed to fly into Havana, we're being deprived of a true Cuban sandwich. There are sandwich bars that trumpet their Cuban sandwiches. But it's hard to find one made with the right bread. But even the not-quite-real-McKoy is a great summer chew for picnics in the park. Here's where to find the close-to-genuine article. read more...
Nosh Notes: New Heights - 28 May 2009
I'm fond of New Heights. It was one of the few upscale yet relaxed restaurants I could afford when I arrived in Washington from Moscow decades ago. Those were the years when, if you didn't have a bank account to buy your meal for you, the best places to eat were in the 'burbs. They knew what they were doing better than some of the in-town chefs of the early 90s with all-too-brief kitchen resumes. read more...
Nosh Notes - My backyard pig roast - 20 May 2009
Thank you for a wonderful feast, Harvey the Pig. Harvey is how Pam Ginsberg, the super-enthusiastic butcher at Wagshals introduced my roast to me when she hauled his carcass out from the back. Getting to know your food takes on a whole new meaning. read more...
Nosh Notes - Bob's Noodle House - 6 May 2009
One of the most delicious dishes at Bob's Noodle House looks like an early generation breast implant. It's an upturned teacup of gray-toned rice surrounding a stuffing of chopped meats.
You'll find it in the appetizer section of this Taiwanese restaurant whose clientele is almost entirely Asian. read more...
Nosh notes - Central - 29 Apr 2009
Japanese chefs in Washington, like Kaz Okoshi of Kaz Sushi Bistro and Hisao Abe of Kotobuki will tell you that when they first arrived in the capital in the 1980s there were no decent places to eat sushi. Now sushi outlets proliferate almost as widely as do Starbucks outlets. How did we ever manage without them?
These days you might begin to ask the same of brasseries. read more...
Nosh notes - Brasserie Beck - 22 Apr 2009
The joy of being able to eat a Belgian meal without having to be in Belgium is hard to describe. No, it's not. I spent two years in Brussels and it was one of the most beastly periods of my life. And I speak as someone who was in Moscow for four years as a foreign correspondent during Soviet days. That was a piece of cake by comparison.
So a meal at Brasserie Beck is a real treat. read more...
Nosh notes - The Tasting Room - 17 Apr 2009
I'll be upfront about this: I love Robert Weidmaier's Tasting Room. It's the kind of place that litters the streets of European capitals - a relaxed environment with style where you can eat simple but well-sourced ingredients cooked without complication. While Ladies Who Lunch in America toy with a Caesar Salad ("Dressing on the side and hold the croutons"), this is where you'd find the French. It's the kind of place women will dress up for, pretending they haven't, yet men can feel comfortable in. read more...
Falafel - DC's best - 11 Feb 2009
Ground and fried chickpeas molded with spices into a mini Zeppelin and fried may not sound like much to celebrate. But pushed into a warmed pitta along with shredded lettuce, fine slices of tomato, onion and maybe some turnip pickle then drizzled with tahini or a garlic-yogurt sauce, it becomes heaven. DC boasts a number of good places to find it. read more...
It may be sacrilege to say so, but I did have a moment's wonder at Julie Powell dedicating a whole year to cooking out Julia Childs. Life is surely too short. But I admired her staying power. Most cookbooks contain only a handful of recipes you actually want to tackle - though heaven forfend that I should level this criticism towards Mastering the Art of French Cookery.Anyway, here's someone who really slackened my jaw. Meet Todd Wilbur, who spends his time to trying to recreate food made by the industrial giants. He wants to cook Krispy Kremes just like the factory. He wants to clone Big Macs, Yoo Hoo chocolate drinks, and dozens more junk foods, to taste just like the real (or unreal) McKoy.
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Chew On This: Chicken can make you fatter than red meat
Rice - the long and the short of it
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Risotto - the grains of truth
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