David Mihalcik

we stopped in and got a potato and cheese, then came back for lunch and got a beef and onion, salmon pate and a poppy seed. All really good. The beef and onion was our favorite.

We had the pork gyoza and some cheap, unfiltered sake. Good stuff, but the sushi is for lightweights. However, they do have a pretty interesting menu, and it is a lot of fun. I don’t mind eating pretend sushi if it is tasty, and this stuff is. It is heavy on the mango and the fried stuff.

I got married! Also, we swam in a cenote, went snorkeling, and got really tan for January.

their menu changes daily to take advantage of local, fresh ingredients. Wednesday is fried chicken night, I think.

The chef, Fabio Trabocchi, is no longer there. http://www.zagat.com/buzz/Detail.aspx?SCID=41&BLGID=4555

He raided the staff, too, so it probably won’t show up on next year’s 100 VB list.

They have Strongbow on tap.

In DC, several of my favorite restaurants (Jaleo, Mini Bar, etc.) are staffed by chefs who have trained here. Open from April to October, closed on Monday and Tuesday (a chef’s weekend), El Bulli has only a very small number of reservations available per year, given the demand. Instead of charging usurious fees for their meals, they essentially have a lottery that is seems to be biased to returning customers. The email is on the web site, where they suggest requesting a reservation in ‘Mid October’. I just sent one in (again). Perhaps this year I will be lucky.

We finally went to Ben’s yesterday. They open at 11am on Sundays (no breakfast), and we showed up around noon. I had the chili half smoke with mustard and onions for $4.80. Good stuff!

Wheaton, an unincorporated township that, as far as I know, is technically part of Silver Spring, has at least four Thai restaurants, and they are all pretty good (and cheap). Lauren and I went to Ruan Thai last weekend.

The meal started great, with the special Yum Watercress, a pile of crispy fried watercress with seafood and sauce, and a really good Tom Kha Gai. The entrees, Ruan Thai Steak and Kha Prao Gai, were unremarkable. I’ll have to go back for the curries, which are well reviewed.

• Washingtonian Review
• Chef Moz

They were supposed to have homemade dogs and an awesome fixins bar, but I heard management difficulties have removed a lot of the options.