Welcome to Talk to Tom, the dining-advice column that aims to point you toward good meals, steer you from the dross and solve your pressing restaurant queries. Look for a fresh Q&A every Thursday in this space.
Questions and comments can be submitted to TalkToTom@washingtonsun.com. Submissions may be edited for length and clarity.
I was the host at a restaurant lately and was disappointed to watch our server pretty much empty a full bottle of wine for four at first pass.
That’s bad form, and it sounds as if your server filled the wine glasses to the brim, a definite no-no.
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The proper pour is about 5 ounces, or a third of the glass. The practice allows diners a chance to swirl the glass without splashing and prevents the wine from warming too fast.
More than once, I’ve watched sommeliers serve six people from a bottle of wine, leaving a little grape juice in the flask on the table. That shows class. The unspoken message to the host is, “I’m not immediately pushing another bottle on you.”
My wife and I went to Baan Mae for our anniversary last weekend, and all we wanted were platters and platters of the chef’s riff on McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish. But poof! The restaurant’s signature wasn’t on the menu! What gives?
Count me a whale of a fan of the $9 sandwich, too, which chef Seng Luangrath makes using invasive blue catfish.
Reached for comment, the Laotian native said, “I’m sorry to hear that. I took it off the menu for a bit because we didn’t have a real deep fryer,” relying instead on a countertop model with an induction burner.
Good news, she reports: “We finally got gas fryers.” Fi-Lao O’Fish — made glorious with a brioche bun, a cilantro chile sauce and tofu mayonnaise — is back. (Here’s hoping you and your wife are up for do-overs.)
Lots of chefs use squid ink in pasta and paella for color and flavor. Should I worry about staining my teeth?
I investigated your concern for another reader eons ago, turning to the guy to whom I trust my mouth: D.C. dentist Keith Progebin. “It depends upon how porous the teeth are,” he said at the time. Plastic dentures, for example, discolor easily. Tooth enamel and glazed porcelain “are not so easy to stain, and if they do, they’re polishable.” Progebin added that “duration and dose” also determine whether a food might tint teeth.
I had occasion to see my dentist recently (for a crown! After my tooth cracked in a restaurant!) and asked if I needed to update my response. “The science stands,” Progebin said. He reiterated that surface texture (tiny pits and such) and food quantity play a role in how much a food can stain teeth. Duly noted, says this daily coffee and berry consumer.
I’m a longtime reader from The Washington Post and now follow you at The Washington Sun. Since the Washington National Opera is performing at DAR Constitution Hall, I am looking for dining recommendations nearby.
Thanks for following me to my new home! Let me suggest you sup pre-performance at Rasika West End for modern Indian cooking, Old Ebbitt Grill near the Treasury Building for solid American fare (and great oysters) or Casa Teresa near Farragut Square for very good Spanish. The more rustic the dish at Casa Teresa, the more I’m inclined to try it. Go, then, for the coarse pork sausages with navy beans, and the golden chicken croquettes, based on the chef’s mother’s recipe.
The recommended venues are about 10, seven and five minutes away by car, respectively.
How do you choose restaurants to write about?
When I was reviewing full-time for The Post, where I wrote for a general audience and ate out as often as 10 meals a week, I aimed for a balance from week to week by mixing up new and old restaurants and city and suburban places. I was also mindful of covering different cuisine styles and price ranges.
It was important to me to throw in some surprises now and then, too. I was the first food critic to review the dining room atop the CIA in Virginia, for instance. And one of my more meaningful subjects was the nonprofit Miriam’s Kitchen, dedicated to ending homelessness in D.C. I visited the social services provider three times, as I would with any restaurant, and left marveling at the restaurant-quality food and genuine hospitality I encountered. Miriam’s Kitchen referred to those coming for free meals as “guests.”
My mission here at The Sun is a little different, and evolving. My first essay looked at the private Ned’s Club, and I followed that with roundups of my favorite budget dinners and breakfasts in the area. Restaurant news also appears in The Sun’s Metro newsletter. Did you catch my recent dispatches on the once-a-week a la carte dinners at Rose’s Luxury or how a popular D.C. restaurant is serving a controversial dish by other than its name? The Sun has plans to include more dining reviews on a regular basis. Stay tuned. I, for one, am very excited for readers.
I’m going to be in Tenerife in December. Do you have any suggestions for places to eat there?
For the curious, Tenerife, which is part of Spain, is the largest of the Canary Islands and sits off the northwest coast of Africa. My food-loving tipsters suggest La Mordita (“the nibble”) for lunch on the square for Spanish tapas; Kiki Restaurante for creative Japanese; Bodegón El Puntero for prime fish and seafood — fresh octopus, shrimp, sardines — in a rustic, no-reservations tavern; and Etéreo by Pedro Nel. The last offers modern fine dining — a fusion of Canarian and Latin flavors, with a focus on premium meats — from a Colombian-born chef. (All the establishments are in Santa Cruz, the capital of Tenerife.)
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