Tuesday, February 15 2011 at 11 AM

I haven't been, but three stars out of five doesn't sound like a rave to me. And especially on Yelp.

Has anybody out there tried 1910? 

You all know I'm dubious of posting anything that smacks like an owner — or manager, or server, or friend of the house — shilling for an establishment.

But you know? I'm not so sure I feel the same sense of needing to guard the gates when it comes to a small ethnic spot like this.

I know of Enat, and have yet to go. What I do know is that it's a small, indepenent operation, and that small, independent operations don't have the resources of big outfits that can hire publicists and get out the word about their cooking and their chef and their research trips and their special promotions for the month of February and their newest twist on the mojito, etc.

How about the rest of you? What's your take on this?

I don't think you can go "wrong" with any of those. Of those three, I might be inclined to give Poste's 20 Bites the nod, personally.

Another I would add to your excellent short list is Palena Cafe. I loved the meal I had there not long ago, from appetizers and drinks right on down to dessert.

I'll be curious to hear where you end up, and how things turn out. Swing back around and give us a report, OK?

And thanks so much for reading! 

The thing is, I used to love Sweetgreen. I really thought it was special. And when something is special, I don't mind shelling out for it.

My Bethesda experience may have been an aberration. Who knows? All I know is that it wasn't the superbly creamy yogurt I thought I was paying for. 

I'll have to look for that Haagen-Dazs. I'm a fan of their line. Much prefer it to Ben & Jerry's, which is denser (even after softening) and not as flavorful. The ice cream, I'm talking about — the add-ins are all pretty flavorful, and definitely fun. But I'll take a Haagen-Dazs vanilla or dulce de leche over a Ben & Jerry's anything, any day.

How about the rest of you? Which do you prefer, and why? Or is there another brand out there that you like better? 

I'm so glad to hear you enjoyed it — thanks so much for the kind and generous words!

In Virginia, I'd recommend the Nortons made by Chrysalis and Rockbridge, and there's also a Norton at Paradise Springs that I haven't tried that I've been hearing good things about and am curious to try. Horton Norton is a good table wine Norton, and especially for the price.

As for Missouri — Stone Hill Vineyards (their Cross J Norton is one of the best Nortons around) and Adam Puchta Winery are two good ones to try.

Norton is a wine that needs pairing. It's not a sip-by-the-fireplace kind of wine, and it really does need about half an hour to just sit in the bottle after the cork has been popped. There's something alive, something feral, in that wine, I sometimes think.

I think it goes well with things like enchiladas in a mole sauce, or a duck breast with cherry sauce. It's great with roast turkey, with venison, even with a good, well-charred, medium-rare rib-eye. It's a rusticky sort of wine, and it needs big, bold flavors.

Give it a go, and have some fun with it. I'll be curious to hear how your meal turned out …

Awful.

And at those prices, unacceptable. I hope you'll consider dropping me a note at my Washingtonian email (tkliman@washingtonian.com) with your contact info, in case, as I hope happens, a manager from Kellari reaches out to contact me.

Unlike you, I've never been a fan of the place. My experience with the service has been bad — extremely pushy, constantly upselling — and the cooking doesn't warrant the high prices. Kellari comes on as though it's a personal, big-hearted sort of place — the display of fish on ice, the controlled bustle — but that's an illusion, it turns out. It's actually one of the more impersonal places around.

Speaking of pushy … What is it lately with servers and drinks?

Twice at one meal not long ago, a friend and I were told about the cocktail list, and how good the concoctions were.

Three times in the past month I've been asked if I'd like another glass of wine when there is clearly a good ounce or more left in the glass. 

A couple of weeks ago, I was out with a friend, and a server asked him twice whether he wanted a glass of wine — this after my friend explicitly said the first time: No, sorry, I don't drink.

This friend, by the way, is convinced that if you don't drink, you don't get good service. And lately, anyway, I'm not inclined to disagree with him. 

Jersey guys, right?

It's pretty hilarious.

And it's not just that it's foreign-sounding: It's European-sounding. Like Evian. Which is, of course, "naive" spelled backwards. 

Does anybody else hate paying for water??? 

It's astonishing, if you think about it — all the things we pay for these days that we didn't 20 years ago. Water, TV, phones …

Good to hear it. I want to like Taberna again, and I hope your words will be true for me, too.

Thanks for writing in again … 

I wouldn't do the wine pairing, no — much as I love dining at Komi. And I say that because I think with the variety of flavors in the meal, it's really hard to come up with a perfect sip for each bite. I wouldn't go for the wine pairing at Minibar, either. Same reason.

If you want to know the truth, I think wine pairing, generally, is overhyped. There are times when a sommelier matches a wine with a dish and it's perfect, and you see the way the wine changes the way you taste a certain dish, and vice versa, but it doesn't often happen. 

If I'm paying for a wine pairing at a five-course dinner, I want five perfect matches — gastronomical alchemy — not five matches that are nice. And nice is what you often get.

As for Komi and whether it's worth it … I think a lot of that depends on your expectations, and also on your eating preferences. I know people who aren't all that enamored of raw fish or treated fish, and I wouldn't recommend they go. There are people who hate sharing, or passing plates, and again — I wouldn't want them to go on my reco.

For me, personally, it's one of the most exciting nights out you're going to find in the city right now.

You don't know about the "signal"? You're supposed to blink three times.

They want people to know about it, but they don't want people to know about it, if you catch my drift …

Blame the server — or blame management?

My instinct is to blame management.

Management establishes policies and sets a tone. I think things like upselling and the pushing of cocktails and drinks are generally the result of managerial directive. 

Well, here's the thing …

Even though I'm excerpted out of context; even though my words that gently mocked gluttony, are being used to support the point that I celebrate gluttony; even though the anti-foodie essay I wrote is being twisted into an example of foodie-ism — I still think it's a worthwhile read.

B.R. Myers's attack on piety and elitism is right on. He's out of his depth, however, in ripping into these celebrations of gluttony, as he chooses to think of them; they're occurring, now, because our previous, Puritanical food culture is being upended: eaters are having fun, indulging in all sorts of cultures and cuisines and styles — the great buffet now spread before us.

I think seeing it as (mere) sinfulness is silly and self-serving.

Myers, some of you may recall, wrote Reader's Manifesto, a chunk of which was excerpted in The Atlantic about eight or nine years ago. He was attacking what he saw as the creeping pretentiousness, pomposity and poor prose in contemporary American literature, and went after Don DeLillo, Cormac McCarthy and Paul Auster, among others.

I really don't doubt it.

Thanks for chiming in … 

There isn't, no.

You can hit up a place like Yuan Fu, however, in Rockville, and get a tasty vegan Chinese meal. Or Sunflower, in Falls Church. 

You could drive out to Curry Mantra, in Fairfax, which has some of the best Southern Indian cooking going right now. 

Superb dosas filled with an irresistible mixture of potato, onion and curry leaves and served with coconut chutney, excellent saag paneer (with fresh, not frozen, spinach), and one of the best versions of baingan bhartha (blistered eggplants in a gravy of tomatoes, onion and ginger) I've had in a long time. 

Hey, I hear you — I ended up leaving last week, unable to score a table after 15 minutes.

Contrarian Valentine's Day — that's pretty funny.

I've got a friend who has always told his girlfriends — and there have been many — that Valentine's Day is nothing but a corporate game, an endlessly commodified holiday with no real center and no real soul, and that he does not need Hallmark to tell him when and how to be romantic.

Works like a charm; he never, ever shells out on the big day.

I'm not saying he doesn't believe what he says — he does — but it's amazing how it completely cows the women he's with. After all, who wants to be seen as a sucker of The Man?

It is. But it also spells "naive," backwards.

Can't you just imagine the discussion that took place in the board room?

We'll call it … Evian.

Um, in America, that's "naive," backwards.

Perfect!

It reminds me of the story of when Chevy first went into Mexico, and how it changed the name of the Nova — for obvious reasons. No va in Spanish = no go.

Most aren't homemade.

The mandu at Da Moim, in Koreatown (aka Annandale), are, however. I haven't been back in a bit to eat them again, but they were memorable. In this case, I prefer them fried, not steamed. Beautifully thin skins with great crunch, and with fresh chopped greens inside.

Great.

Thanks for the tip …

There's tons else I can recommend.

You've had bun cha, which is a dish of the north. There's also a southern-style grilled pork, and it's fantastic, too.

Other dishes I love: the shrimp-and-yam fritters, which are designed for bundling into lettuce leaves and dunking into fish sauce; lusciously tender short ribs marinated with lemongrass; the clay pot of pork or chicken in caramel sauce; charred grilled pork with vermicelli; and a sizzling platter of dill-strewn catfish.

And don't miss the Vietnamese coffee, which is made fresh.

And now I've made myself ravenous … ; )

Be well, everyone, eat well and let's do it again next week at 11 …

[missing you, TEK … ]