teutonic tastings..

While Newport News doesnt strictly qualify as Richmond area dining (clocking around 75 miles from my house !), a recent visit to Das Wald cafe for some almost good old fashioned Bavarian cooking was quite satisfactory, especially considering that I havent found any such places around this area.
In a rather hard to find (GPS saved us), non-descript location, the only thing that seems to suggest its food heritage is that the waitresses are in dirndls .. they have most of the usual s-s - schnitzels (good), sausages (a bit chewier than I would have liked), (potato) salad, spaetzle, soup, sauerbrauten, sauerkraut etc. Their potato salad was quite good, vinegary and not unlike ones I've had in the Rhineland. So that was quite nice.
Bottomline - nothing flashy but simple, hearty Bavarian cooking and staples in a very casual environment. The main room was sporadically loud (courtesy of some large groups) but conversation was easy. Extremely reasonably priced - Dinner for two with a couple of drinks each + t&t (no dessert) came to ~ $60. Service was very slow since they only had 2 waitresses for the entire restaurant on a weekend !

The other knock on Das Wald is its rather pedestrian offering of beers. Bavarian food and beer go together like well....Bavarian food and beer. They have the usuals - paulaner, weihenstephaner, franziskaner etc but I wanted to try some of the better brews from Deutschland, preferably served in a stein ...alas...

If you're willing to add another 50 miles to the mileage (rt from RVA) and a 1.5-xing of the check, Old Europe on Wisconsin Avenue near Georgetown is a better choice, but if you're in the NN neighborhood....
(Edit: This OE dinner may be nicely followed by dessert at Leopold's Konditorei down the street in G-town)
Das Wald cafe - Newport News - map

rankings....

I am not a huge fan of ranking restaurants but this recent blog post deserved a thought -
The Richmond Goodlife has taken an ostensibly* meta approach to ranking restaurants in RVA using ratings from other "recognized media sources":
http://richmondgoodlife.com/bricabrac/?p=88

(TRG has a bunch of links to other rankings that I shall not repost) - the top 3 by this approach - Edo's Squid, Mamma Zu and Millies....
For obvious reasons, including wildly differing tastes and opinions, specific positions on the list are not something worth debating, but..(yes, contradiction)... ES @ #1 is a bit head scratching !

*- I think it can be reasonably argued that this specific approach has intrinsic error via a biased sample with nonprobability sampling.

Open Tables

Recent bits of time-wasting made me think of dining in the 21st century. A visit to a certain (anonymous) restaurant that didnt accept reservations of any sort was a particularly curious event. Typical waits ranged from 1-2 hours and there were groups of people just milling around. And, this was just one of many such "waits" experienced at restaurants in RVA. Now, forgoing discussions on time utilization, the (social) value of time, putative laziness and other factors, I think at a fundamental level, the "Smith, party of 4" paradigm is one that can be disposed of, or at least minimized these days.

A perusal of Opentable showed only 20 or so restaurants (a dozen of them are chains) in Richmond that are part of it. This is quite surprising. When practically every restaurant worth visiting (across all price ranges) in most cities are part of some sort of online reservation system, why is Richmond so far behind? And this is hardly a new phenomenon. OT, for example, has been around for > 10 years.
There may be certain economic constraints but I wonder if I am incorrect that the financial incentive generated from enabling a customer convenience or even employee scheduling should justify the capital expense. Isnt there a critical mass of people who would rather make a quick online reservation/ check availability online than call or worse yet, show up and be told that there is a long wait ?! Or is it related to a sort of buzz factor (clearly RVA diner centric)?
Dining points (as on OT) help as well !!

Beards 2010

It was good to see that Richmond was represented on the James Beard Awards semifinalist list.
http://bit.ly/cCUaMm
Best Chef - Mid-Atlantic - Dale Reitzer, Acacia, Richmond, VA
I think this is a nice thing for RVA dining.

I've previously had the pleasure of noting that Acacia appeared to stand out from so many on the RVA culinary stage...
Going through the DC list and finding so many of my favorite places on there brought back some excellent dining memories:
http://bit.ly/9ihzNV
The inclusion of Rasika is terrific (since so many of the others are the usual suspects, a set Rasika has been asymptotically joining for some time now !).

Noise levels

I think in terms of dining parameters, an important one that doesnt seem to get much coverage here in RVA is the noise level (something we were acutely aware of on some of our recent experiences). Its rather surprising that I havent seen many RVA food sites (blogs or other reviews) quantify this in any way. The Times and the WaPo, for example, have been doing this for a few years now, with Tom Sietsema using a nicely scientific scale that I like - http://bit.ly/9dzwJk

Quiet (under 60 decibels)
Conversation is easy (60-70 decibels)
Must speak with raised voice (71-80 decibels)
Extremely loud (over 80 decibels)

As someone who loves the log-scale, it is useful to point out as Tom writes - "The brain registers every 10-decibel increase as a doubling of loudness. Thus, a restaurant that measures 80 decibels sounds twice as noisy as a place that measures 70 decibels."
I wish I saw more of this sort of thing on reviews here. I will try and parametrize (albeit subjectively, lacking a db meter) this in future - the QCME scale.

Edit: A little science detour - while a 10 dB corresponds to a 10x power increase (2x power = 3 dB), the brain views things differently. Consequently, there are different units called phon and sone which are related to dB by the psychophysically measured frequency responses of the ear (ie how we actually perceive the sound/loudness). Hence this little mathematical discrepancy.

VCU lunches

Given general travails in this department...somewhat in time for the start of the new semester - I add a couple of good, cheap places that are worth a visit near the VCU campus (other than Elephant Thai that I wrote about earlier).

The first is an old favorite - Ipanema cafe with excellent vegetarian options. Truly, its probably because of the sweet potato fries !! Its quite a testament to the place that they maintain a fairly decent range of options in the lunch s3w - soups, salads, sandwiches and wraps without being confined to tofu !
I particularly like the veg chorizo and the smoked gouda.
The only (sort of) knock against Ipanema is the fact that its so small - Arriving at a bit of a "wrong" time ends up making lunch rather prohibitive, time-wise. Also they could perhaps make another copy of their chalk-board menu, which is snuck up right against the door, which makes it difficult for absent-minded people like myself....!

The second is Taste of the Far East, another somewhat hidden gem. I think that for some reason, its neighbor Saigon is better known but TotFE has proved to be a very nice choice the several times we've been there. The noodle options are quite authentic and comparable to something you might find off the street in Singapore....I havent liked the rice dishes as much. Portion sizes are quite hearty and the fish sauce is a bit of an acquired taste..They have some lunch specials which I've never tried, but a typical lunch with t&t runs less than $10...

There is also Nate's Taco Truck - a staple @ First Fridays, Farmers mkt and assorted RVA locations...The $2 tacos make it a good eat but I've found that unless you eat >= 3 tacos, it ends up being a nice snack more than a lunch! I'm always amused with the seriousness at which the duo go about their work!
I like the fact the Nate has a twitter feed advertising his location and times (which has saved me from making futile taco trips on a couple of occasions)...Not a twitterer myself but can see the value of this real-time information dissemination.
http://twitter.com/NatesTacoTruck

I was somewhat tempted to add Cous Cous to this list but their menu (also slightly more expensive than the places above) tends to be rather inconsistent tastewise.
The VCU Dining Commons, in contrast to the one at the Univ of Richmond is quite a place to be avoided.

A lunch at Ipanema is also under $10 (only if you resist getting one of their desserts - in the interest of having a productive, non-drowsy afternoon)....

Back home after some more map-trotting adventures with some interesting tongue twisters and pleasers including xochitl soup.

More restaurants closing in RVA (including one i've been meaning to try for some time) ! the comments were rather interesting...
http://www2.timesdispatch.com/rtd/business/local/article/REST06_20100105-221409/315598/

I noticed that I had written about 5 of these places on this blog !! Is it a bad sign :)? I guess in some minor way, I got to document fragments of recent richmond dining history.
The RTD piece made me think of my very first post, when, prior to moving to RVA, I was quite bothered by the proliferation of chain restaurants on the "best of" lists on Richmond magazine. These closings do not portend well for a locavore either ...

Some changes noticed around campus - Nara Sushi is no more. Replaced by City Dogs (which also has a place in Shockoe). Not a big loss but there is now no sushi place within walking distance of campus.

The Common Cup on Main Street is now under new management and called Rev it Up. Visited there a couple of weeks ago for lunch. They have really spruced up the place but it is still quite inviting. Need some more data points.

[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin opīniō, opīniōn-, from opīnārī, to think.]

This was a somewhat interesting column I read a little while ago:
http://www.richmondmagazine.com/?articleID=69cce3f2b5b17c701d9e346b585107d3

While I appreciate the general sentiment of the article and the associated caution(s), I'm not so sure I quite agree about the (implied) power of reading either an "effusive" review or a negative review, especially on a blog.

Online anonymity does give a forum for people to express opinions rather "freely". I would rather read them just to get an idea of what the place is about and/or what someone somewhere felt when they ate there. I sort of draw a parallel (rather humbly) to teaching evaluations, which are also anonymous. I have had vile comments on some and some truly wonderful comments on others. Many of the former have been largely unsubstantiated so I take them with a healthy dose of salt (I like the word ad hominem that I've especially seen in several grant proposal reviews as well). Some of the other critical comments have helped me tweak my general approach. Similarly the positive comments help one know what they are doing right.

Chefs and restaurants obviously have much more at stake and a larger and diverse audience with wildly different palates to satisfy, but the principle is the same. A perusal of just about anything online shows a diversity of opinions. People love things, hate things or otherwise straddle the middle. I freely spew my opinions on different fora, this blog included. Similarly I read other opinions on other places. It is almost up to the reader to take what they will from a general review. To be a bit nerdy, it is about the ability to gauge the statistical significance of a review and note if it is an outlier (in either direction).

What I do agree with is the philosophy that this article also mentions that many of my favorite food critics follow (which is one of the things that separates a opinion from an informed opinion). Multiple visits on different occasions and trying different things and writing a comprehensive review that encompasses this overall view (in mathematical terms, higher n and corresponding standard deviation).

Now I guess I must visit Balliceaux and see what the fuss is all about :)

Checking off a couple more places from my backlog - A couple of very decent sushi experiences - Osaka Sushi near River Road - I thought the interior was very cool (a nice date spot if so inclined), good sushi, aside from the usual sushi staples, the power roll was interesting.

Momotaro sushi in Carytown - The benefit of talking to the sushi chef and having him make some special rolls, made the dinner more interesting than it probably would have been. A sparse and casual interior and a bit less of a college crowd than Sticky Rice.

A recent re-visit to Ginger Thai in Carytown also made me reconsider my previous low grade I had assigned. The Tom Yum soup this time was much more "potent" and the dishes more aligned to a Thai taste than a generic east Asian one. I still prefer Elephant Thai !