Cooling off for the summer

My Express article about icy treats in the DC area: Finding Imported Icy Treats Inside the Beltway

As for the hysteria about DC getting two Pinkberrys. Gross. Go here for my impressions… Pinkberry Review

Review: Comet Ping Pong Pizza II

I should maybe stop calling these reviews, since there are more like vignettes or single visits. I stopped by Comet Ping Pong Pizza yesterday for a simple Friday night takeout pizza. I’d been continually hearing about how good the soft shell crab pizza was, and have been wanting to revisit for a few months. At $17, the pizza is well worth the money, and so delicious. I’ve made my comments about things we’ve been hearing about the service, and I believe, in general, those issues were resolved. The bartender and the hostess were quite nice and look like regular people compared to the (and I am making a summary judgement here) the servers who still look like some mean hipsters (And don’t get me started on the idea of hipsters!).

Anyway, as Don Rockwell recommended, break the crab up into bits so you get a bite of crab in every piece. Crust was maybe a little too thin to withstand and contain all the elegant, drippy sauce, which I wanted to lick off the bottom of my box. But my goodness if this isn’t a great combo of salt and sweetness with caramelized leeks. Not to mention a little bit of kicky spice on the crust. It’s hard not to want to go back tonight and order another or similar. Yes, $17 is a bit much for pizza, but given that you’ll pay about that much for a soft shell crab at most other restaurants, it’s a steal!

Blues Alley: You’re definitely only there for the music.

Went to Blues Alley tonight to see my friend’s brother, Jon Regen. The music was lovely, but the one food item I had there was abysmal. I have no qualms totally trashing it, since most people go for the music. Imagine taking the white bits of Wonder Bread and soaking them in a mixture of milk and water. Mix in some raisins and pancake syrup (not even maple syrup) on top of the soggy clumps, and then pop it in a microwave. Then make some really terrible whipped cream with what may have been more like 1/4 and 3/4 instead of whipping cream, and put a small spoonful on top. Serve it to people and call it bread pudding. Charge $6.50 for it. When the customer doesn’t eat more than two bites, recycle it for somebody else. And that, ladies and gentleman is probably the second worst dessert I have ever tasted. Number one goes to the the apple tart in Germany that tasted a lot like potpourri or bathroom air freshener.

Say it ain’t so Titi

So it looks like Thierry Henry will be leaving Arsenal for Barca. I don’t know if I can cheer for Arsenal much anymore. It’s an entirely different team than it was when I was first a fan in 2002. The only thing that has remained consistent is Arsene Wenger, the manager. I’m just not comfortable leaving our fate in the new kids coming up. I was at Lucky Bar this past week, and they were replaying the FA Cup Final from when they won the double in 2002. It was the good days when the team was really cohesive, and Bergkamp was still paired up in front with Henry, and Pires and Ljungberg were in good form. We had a great defense with Martin Keown, Ashley Cole, and David Seaman. We also had strange folks like Kanu and Ray Parlour. And then after that glory year things just started to go down. Of course there was the year where Arsenal set the streak for games undefeated, but even then you could tell that things will never be beautiful the way they were in 2002. Everyone was getting old, and we struggled to find a solid keeper. So now Titi is leaving. The team that I knew is no longer.

The Vapiano Story

The latest on DCist: Plea from a Cafeteria Tray Named Patience

I really struggled with writing a review of Vapiano. It is a new restaurant, and despite being a chain is new to the country so there perhaps need to be adjustments for taste. However, the intent of a chain is to create a certain degree of consistency between the different restaurants. So most companies will train employees with a strict set of rules and install “professionals” at opening to ensure high quality control. In fact, Vapiano sends employees to Germany to get trained so they can maintain that level of consistency. Therefore, the best time to evaluate the level of taste at a chain is right when they open and haven’t had turnover and trainers are still on the premises. My experience there was not good, and I don’t really like panning anyone. But at the same time I felt obligated to share some aspects of my experience.

Unlike most people I was not praying for the concept to not succeed. Some of the finest pizza that I have had has come from auto stops in Italy, so I wasn’t that skeptical about Germans making an attempt. So how could I possibly convey that information? I realized that the way to convey my feelings was by alluding to a song by The Weakerthans – Plea from a Cat Named Virtue. It just seemed like a very natural fit. Anyway, a hat tip to J.L., and GQ for helping me work through this piece.