I was back at my parents for the ThanksGavin and I noticed the magazine cover to the right sitting in their powder room. This ceramic dog head, it turns out, is an late 18th or early 19th century British object…
Restaurant: Ortolan Location: 8338 W. 3RD STREET, LOS ANGELES, CA 90048 (323) 653-3300 Date: Dec 11, 2010 Cuisine: Modern French Ortolan, named after the finch the French like to eat, has been around for a few years. It’s always been…
Line editing and polish is an interesting part of the process of professional writing. It bears a lot of similarities to optimizing code as a programmer, but more fun. One of the weird things is that no mater how many…
Restaurant: Taverna Tony Location: 23410 Civic Center Way, Malibu, CA 90265, Tel: (310) 317-9667 Date: Dec 10, 2010 Cuisine: Greek I have a weakness for Greek food. I spent big chunks of the summers of 1990 and 1991 in…
Hmmm. The voice is engaging, and it’s certainly easy to read. The idea is great. The characters fine, not good but fine. The writing is stiff, and the plotting… oh the plotting is pretty awful. I really don’t understand why it sold so well.
Restaurant: Osteria Latini [1, 2, 3] Location: 11712 San Vicente Blvd.Brentwood, CA 90049 310.826.9222 Date: Dec 03, 2010 Cuisine: Italian _ LA is full of good Italian places, and, well, it was date night and my wife loves Italian. So off we…
A bit of a silly high concept dystopian future, where at 16 teenagers get an operation that promotes them from “uglies” (normal people) to super improved “pretties.” However, the voice is solid and captivating and the action well written.
Some old friends invited us over to their place for a Chanukah party. Now, as many of you may know, the traditional food for this occasion is potato latkes. These are basically shredded potato and onion deep fried. Like any…
The Thanksgiving feast contains many useful components for a great sandwich, and in this day and age when the only food available on airplanes is a box of randomized vending machine junk, what better way to eat and fly. This…
Restaurant: Panjshir Location: 924 West Broad St.Falls Church, VA 22046703-536-4566 Date: Dec 01, 2010 Cuisine: Afghan Washington has a good size population of Afghans as a legacy of our involvement after the Russian invasion. We started coming to this restaurant when it opened in the…
Restaurant: Ping Pong Location: 900 7th Street NW. District of Columbia 20001. 202-506-3740 Date: Dec 01, 2010 Cuisine: Chinese Dim Sum I’ve been going to Dim Sum for thirty-odd years, and it’s long been one of my favorite cuisines. Basically, this follows…
Restaurant: Coastal Flats Location: 7860-L Tysons Corner CenterMcLean, VA 22102(703) 356-1440 Date: Nov 30, 2010 Cuisine: Southern Coastal American This place is part of a small local chain of one-off’s. That is, each restaurant in the group has a different name and menu….
Restaurant: Mon Ami Gabi Location: 7239 Woodmont Ave. Bethesda, MD 20814. 301.654.1234 Date: Nov 29, 2010 Cuisine: French Bistro Out with friends in Bethesda we checked out this small chain French Bistro. After 10-20 years out of favor the bistro seems to…
A simple breakfast snack made with ingredients from the Philadelphia Italian Market. Prosciutto on top of a fantastic Manchego cheese. Simple, but delicious. For breakfast snacking cheeses I really became a fan of the Iberian cheese during my month in Spain earlier this year….
This is the kind of film they rarely make anymore where it’s essentially a character movie woven around a romance. The script is great, the acting’s great, and the direction is great. It’s a funny movie, but not in the laugh a minute kind of way, but in a wry more or less real way.
Every year we Gavins gather in Philadelphia for four days and nights of massive gluttony. The party then moves down to Washington DC. I wanted to create a central post to document this parade of food and Thanksgiving. Also don’t miss…
Restaurant: Little Saigon Location: 6218 Wilson Blvd, Falls Church, VA 22044-3210 (703) 536-2633 Date: Nov 27, 2010 Cuisine: Vietnamese ANY CHARACTER HERE One of my favorite places back “home” (Washington D.C.) is Little Saigon, a local hole in the wall Vietnamese…
Traditionally, the ThanksGavin continues on Saturday with the deli brunch. In LA you just can’t get deli like you can in Philadelphia, with the partial exception of Brents. The locale was moved this year to cousin Abbe’s downtown. A…
On our third night of ThanksGavin craziness, after Wednesday, and the incomparable thursday, we move into our traditional Friday evening at my cousin Abbe’s. This year Abbe settled on roast pork sandwiches — a meal with deep South Philadelphia roots. We begin…