The Quintessence of Ham

Long lines, bland sandwiches, mushy pizza. What’s not to like?

My Korean-savvy informant tells me this place is Korean-managed, but they definitely play up the Japanese angle more than most other Japanese restaurants in the area. In addition to the usual suspects, for example, the sushi bar offers “Japanese” mackerel, “Japanese” snapper, etc. They run some mildly exotic specials: spotted sardines were excellent, [...]

There’s an entire aisle of dried seaweed!
This Korean supermarket has excellent (and cheap) produce, live blue crabs, and a freezer section whose vastness is exceeded only by its mystery. They also sell the Chinese black vinegar that keeps Sarah happy. There’s a regular H Mart in Merrifield, but I prefer the “Super H” [...]

Blacksalt normally carries three kinds of oysters at three different prices. Chesapeakes are the cheapest and not so great, but the annoyingly named “boutique” and “premium” oysters are significantly better. Unfortunately, Blacksalt only offers a happy hour discount on the Chesapeakes.
Fish is honest and fresh, though not terribly exciting. Seems to me [...]

Calvin Trillin famously derided “continental” cuisine, but I would argue that, for my generation, “fusion” is the single scariest word in the entire culinary lexicon. I think there’s a very good reason that Chinese food rarely involves Cheddar cheese and Spanish reds aren’t served with sushi: the result would – how shall I put [...]

Wow.
This place sucks! Everything was insipid beyond belief. Hello, flavor?
The Florida theme should have tipped me off immediately, since it is well-known to be the worst state (even Oklahoma has Meers). A place specializing in fish tacos should at least aspire to California or even Texas. Maybe Baja. But not [...]

Upscale junk food? Who would believe it?! So read the shocked reviews of this mediocre burger joint. The locally-raised “kobe” beef patties are small, dry, and overcooked. A bizarre combo veggie burger and kobe is equally disappointing, with the veggie patty’s strong crab-cake-without-the-crab’s taste overpowering the meager beef patty. Fries [...]

Sarah and I first discovered this place one afternoon while looking at real estate. “$1 Sushi,” read the neon sign. Who could resist? After a big day looking at little houses, we returned that night with a very hungry Veronica.
Once inside I immediately made a series of interesting discoveries:

Dollar sushi is only [...]

For Sarah’s birthday, I took her to Maestro, an Italian restaurant located in the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Tyson’s Corner. Since Sarah and I once actually lived in the Shanghai Ritz-Carlton, we figured we would feel right at home. But in our Chinese Ritz-Carlton, I don’t recall the fire alarm and safety lights ever [...]