For weeks before I finally went, the amount of positive buzz I’d heard about Peter Chang and his new Taste of China in Albemarle Square was staggering: he’d cooked for presidents; he’d been all over the world; he could feed the masses with but a fortune cookie and glass of plum wine. Normally I’m pretty cool about such things, but I’ll admit, I got caught up in the hype.

Before the holiday season, I had no idea who Peter Chang was, and I was just fine for it. I had my regular take-out Hunan chicken and I was content. Over the course of December, however, as I heard more and more, I began telling my friends and family, “Oh, you’ve got to go eat at Taste of China…I hear it’s great!” What began as excitement, however, turned into outright hypocrisy by the end of the month. “What!? You’ve never eaten Peter Chang’s food before? Get out of my sight, you hay-chomping hick. Come back when you’ve had some real Chinese food.” Yes, I exaggerate, but as the holidays rolled on I knew I was getting past due for a visit to Chef Chang’s new eatery; thankfully some friends gave me the perfect opportunity to visit on New Year’s Eve. »Read More

A lot of you villains complain we focus too much on the downtown/corner area of Charlottesville and neglect that far corners of our elitist community.  I thought I would listen to some of you and try something new, and very far away from the welcome comfor the downtown mall has to offer.  Yes, thats right, I ate at a strip-mall restaurant (gasp!).  Not just any strip mall restaurant, Lime Leaf Thai Restaurant in the Rio Hill shopping center (same place as Crutchfield and Jo-Ann Fabrics & Crafts). What drew me there was a combination of hunger and that intoxicating wok/burnt sugar smell that was in the parking lot air. Nothing spells tasty food like tasty smoke…mmm mmm good.

I tried the three dishes any Thai restaurant should be judged with: pad thai, pad see ew, and the tom yum soup. The reason being these are easy to find street food picks in Bangkok, and if you can’t get street food right in a professional kitchen, you just gotta go…Lime Leaf can stay however. Find out what made all of these dishes zoom. »Read More

We have a hamster called Richard that just has to be sneaking anabolic steroids in from somewhere because that fluffy little bastard just will not stop growing. The other evening, I watched him running on his little wheel, and his nose was literally up his own ass so I decided he needed a new crib. I headed off to Pet Forum in Seminole Square (think Marshalls, Big Lots and Office Depot) on a mission to find an overpriced piece of fucking plastic junk, and that’s when I saw it. Big, white and flapping around in the wind (no Shen, not my arse) the sign on 29S said, “GRAND OPENING Asian Fusion Buffet Sushi and Grill”. It was right beside the pet shop. It was lunchtime. It was new. I needed a pee, so the decision was made. As I walked up, several cops came out. My four-year-old shrieked at a decibel rating that has to be illegal, ” OH NO…IT’S THE COPS”. They smiled indulgently at her as she made a crucifix with her index fingers and brandished it at them so thanks baby Daddy for that little parlor trick.

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While we are still waiting for the race results to be published online, you would have made a lot of money had you bet with our 2nd Annual Foxfield Race Picks from CvilleGossipGirl.  Besides cVillain being your real money-maker, we have some observations from 2009 FoxField that we think were unique for this year. We’ll also be looking for you to tell your drunken Foxfield stories, so feel free to add them below.

The Beastly Heat – With a high of 91 degrees yesterday, it was damn hot.  It was so hot, that we agreed that it was nearly impossible to drink.  We think there were probably more cases of dehydration than of alcohol-related sickness.  Those who were drunk, we salute you and your exacerbated inebriation. 

The Euthanized Horse - Seeing a horse fall never strikes well with the audience. It’s worse when you see a horse with a completely detached lower leg and its subsequent euthanization.  Sad day.

THE MOTHERF*CKING TRAFFIC »Read More

So Im chillin, post mulching, on the stoop with some of my neighborly Belmontonians the other day, watching Brick and Berries teach his Most Excellent Hound to catch frisbees. Grandfathers ChiHooaHooah, Cocopuff, is too small to get in on the game, but you know, he had to try. All in all a lovely spring afternoon.

Now my man Brick and Berries is a man who loves his food. Fairly soon, he will be in my yard consuming cherries at a rate that is most inhuman. Hell, he has even taught his Most Excellent Hound to enjoy such fruits. He has concocted salsas from the Yo Tomato and Pepper Patch that would make you weep. He may not be a butter obsessed cocoNUT, all well schooled in the Culinary Arts of Goddamnit I Know What Im Talking About, My Parents Had Tall White Hats, nor does he have the Yellow Belt in Free Liquor like señor Francesco, but he is a man among men, and as he is my bud, I trust his buds, tastewise – dig?

So when Brick and Berries starts waxing about “one of the best meals he has ever had in his life”, my lobes were knocked akimbo. Then when his discriptives trend toward “30 different distinct spices and flavors dancing around in his mouth in a distinct yet harmonious manner”, I am like a corn field, baby, all ears. By the time he gets around to the “nicest family and service and presentation and overall happy eating experience” I am waiting for the end of the bible – thats right – revelations! Where is this culinary mecca? And so he told me…

KOREAN HOUSE!

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Blue Moon has battled Bluegrass Bakery since before baby Jesus. But that was a breakfast battle…did you all know Blue Moon serves dinner too? And it is ridiculously inexpensive. I tried both the chicken pot pie and the apple cider braised polyface pork served on top of mashed potatoes and collared greens. Both of these dishes were $13.95 and came with a salad. I know, you think everything comes with a salad anywhere you go. True, you can probably get a salad included with an $8 entree at TGI Fridays, but this is prepared with spring/mesclun lettuce mix and has a real vinaigrette. Quality was tops for both. There were plates of their home cooked french fries coming out of the kitchen which I didn’t try. They looked amazing. Thick cut and nicely fried.

Dessert is another story. The special ice cream sandwiches of the evening were blackberry ice cream in between oatmeal cookies or chocolate ice cream in between peanut butter cookies ($4.95). Unbeknown to me, Blue Moon makes their own cookies, and they are unbelievable. We went with the blackberry/oatmeal combo. All I have to say is wow. Our waitress said it would change our thoughts on ice cream cookie sandwiches for the rest of our lives, and it did! I believe they use Chap’s ice cream which was really good…but the frikking oatmeal cookie. It is definitely the best I have ever had.

You had me at $13.95 dinner.

[pic from Blue Moon MySpace page]

We have more restaurants than we know what to do with in this town, spanning the spectrum of poor to excellent.  My dive into French cuisine in the area has been limited to the amazingly consistent Petit Pois and the extremely mediocre and now out of business replaced by Asia Fortune, Bohème.  I can finally add Fleurie to that list.  Its adjective is TBD, at least until the end of this review.

Perfect Date Environment

The first thing you notice about Fleurie is how tiny and quiet it is.  This restaurant is a little bigger than Petit Pois and contributes to a very intimate environment.  The lights are dim and the tablecloths are perfectly ironed.  The wood on the teeny tiny bar is dark and reminds you of those fancy pants lobby bars in boutique European hotels.  I must admit, our group was the youngest in the entire restaurant.  I saw more gray and white at Fleurie than what pours out of a McCormick ground pepper tin.  That is not necessarily a bad thing, just expect to be stared at whenever you laugh out loud….even the kids accompanying adults feel compelled to stare at you.  The ambiance can be summed up as soft, gentle, relaxing, classy and fancy.  All in, this makes for a terrific fancy night on the town with your significant other kind of place.

Impeccable Service

If there is one thing I hear consistently about most restaurants in cville, it is the horrible service.   I was pleasantly surprised that Fleurie’s staff was so on the ball.  Not a napkin or piece of silverware was out of place.  If you needed something, they were there for you.  They all speak in soothing spa-like voices and are very familiar with the intricate details of the menu.  If you are an aspiring waiter/ress in town, look to Fleurie as your service professor.

Insane Wine List

If you just inherited a lot of money, or might have possibly been part of a local ponzi scheme and swindled large sums of money from cville’s elite, than Fleurie might be a great place to drink wine. »Read More

If you recall, we reviewed Si Tapas in Richmond a few months ago.  Our conclusion was “if Si Tapas can overcome a difficult location, a very large venue and do a par or better job with service, then Mas should watch out, in fact, everyone in Charlottesville should watch out because small plates with unique tastes are winners in this town.  I’m really looking forward to Si Tapas and I hope you are too.”

So, what’s going on at the Charlottesville Si Tapas?  

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While not a dish per-se, this member of the wild cabbage food group is one of the tastiest sides at Maya and leaves nothing to be desired.  Roasted brussel sprouts are a joy to eat, but have a much hated stigma behind them.  I am sure we all had our fair share of nasty brussel sprouts at one point in our childhood that scarred us for life. SFist, our long lost west coast relative wrote about these devilish sprouts as well:

If you don’t like Brussels sprouts, you’re probably turned off by the bitterness, which is never popular with Western palates. There’s no easy way around it: Brussels sprouts are often bitter. As Harold McGee says in On Food and Cooking, “whether we cook sprouts rapidly to minimize the production of thiocyanates, or slowly to transform all of the glucosinolates, the result is still bitter.” Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Thiocyanates are tricky little devils.

McGee offers one strategy for taming the bitterness: Slice the sprouts in half and cook them in a lot of boiling water. The water leaches the offending compounds out of the center stem of the vegetable, where they tend to congregate. Alice Waters suggests a more time-consuming approach: Cut out the stalk’s core before cooking the sprouts.

Unfortunately our parents must have over cooked them releasing these delicious sulfur smelling/tasting compounds.

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Ventana means “window” in Spanish.  Rightly so, this little restaurant has big windows and a big vision for Charlottesville’s mexican cuisine.  I’m not going to lie, I heard many things about this place being pricey.  Dollar signs aren’t something we associate with Mexican in this town.  Between “eating” at Guadalajara to dining at the much better Aqui Es Mexico and Michoacana, I don’t think anything comes close to the prices at Ventana, but does the food live up to its price?

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