- Chicken Mania’s signature dish is a hit
- La Grotta’s understated Italian fare holds its luster
- Ruang Tong excels in nuance
- CinéBistro's food is hit or miss, but the sophisticated setting is a treat
- Bistro Bobette welcomes diners with great food and subtle service
- Belle Vie European Bistro
- With strategic ordering, you can eat well at Basilis
- Bocca Toscana’s fresh food is unpretentious
- The VMFA’s Amuse pleases the eye and the palate
He’s a cult figure who’s opened restaurants in Fairfax, Alexandria, Atlanta, Knoxville and Charlottesville. Fans have traded clues about his whereabouts on the web, and he’s been tracked from restaurant to restaurant by Todd Kliman of The Washingtonian, who wrote about his own obsession with Chang’s food in the March 2010 issue of Oxford American. That same month, Calvin Trillin wrote a profile of Chang for the New Yorker.
Last week, you could find Chang at the James Beard House, cooking his superb Sichuan cuisine for a sold-out crowd. On Monday, his new restaurant in Short Pump, Peter Chang Café, opened quietly at 11424 W. Broad St. near Walmart. I spoke to Chang and his business partner, Gen Lee, yesterday — or more accurately, I spoke to Gen Lee. Chang doesn’t speak English and Lee translated for him that afternoon over a banquet of duck, cumin lamb and exceptional fried eggplant (among other dishes).
Chang is a small, youthful-looking man with a wide smile. His partner Lee, older and grayer, and Lee’s wife, Mary, are warm and welcoming, and provide a polite but firm buffer between Chang and his ardent fans. The first incarnation of Chang’s restaurant in Charlottesville descended into chaos as customers overran and overwhelmed the place, and fans “accidentally” walked into the kitchen where Chang was working. Read full story
It’s a wild, wild food world out there, and it’s easy to get lost. I love cookbooks so much that it’s almost become a borderline hoarding disorder, but sometimes you have to venture beyond their pages and see what else you can find to inspire you. Not too long ago, that meant turning on your computer. Now, all you have to do is check your phone or, better yet, your fancy new iPad. And some Read full story
Of course I got lost, but it was a lovely three hours driving around Loudoun County. I recommend it, really: rolling hills, green farmland, sunlight filtering through tall trees.
I was trying to find my way to Catoctin Creek Distilling Co. for a bottling workshop. I’d been given a bottle of their Roundstone Rye for Christmas, and though I hadn’t been a whiskey drinker before that, the smooth, fragrant fire of Catoctin Creek’s version converted me. Read full story
