Loosen that Belt, but Keep Your Surgery to Yourself
As we enter the final stretch-of-the-pants holiday eating season, perhaps we all feel a little tight in the trousers, but apparently not as much as the chatters last week over on TomChat offering their inane advice on what a poor patron who has undergone gastric bypass surgery should tell a waiter who wonders why so much of a meal has been left on the plate. The discussion dominated last week's last-of-the-year chat, thus crowding out any serious discourse on holiday cocktails or the pros and cons of dining out on New Year's Eve.

Sheesh. Smile and ask for a doggie bag. No need to agonize or apologize.

Mia's is Marvelous
Speaking of Tom, we have a little bone to pick with his take on Bethesda’s new Mia’s Pizza. The sloppy mac n’ cheese is not meant as a prelude to pizza. It’s for kids who won’t eat tomato sauce flecked with oregano because it’s “TOO SPICY!!!” We have witnessed this phenomenon first hand.

And we love the homey touch of the children's drawings on the wall. Besides, the pizza, as interpreted by Pizzeria Paradiso scholar Melissa Ballenger, is crispy, crusty, and terrific. And who orders a chicken entree at a pizza place anyway?

Suburban Showdown
D.C. and Maryland sure have their share of good eats, but the hot, hot, hot suburb right now for restaurateurs seems to be Arlington. With at least three new interesting places opening up in the close-in 'burb -- Yaku, Santo Pecado, Nena and EatBar -- is Arlington the new U Street Corridor?

City-centric snobs need to get over it and hop on the Metro once in awhile. Expand your horizons.

Restaurant Week Returns from January 8-14
If you haven't had enough to eat this week, start making reservations now for the next round of D.C. Restaurant Week. District and suburban choices abound for a three-course lunch at just $20.07 and $30.07 for a three-course dinner.

For more information, go to www.restaurantweekdc.com. On second thought, it looks like they've let their domain name expire. Oops. Not a great marketing strategy. Check out the information that our pal Jason Storch at DCFoodies has compiled on the event, or check out this list of restaurants.

Open Table, the online reservation center we've blogged about before, is taking reservations for most of the participating restaurants, making your next date with high calories easier than ever.

Cottonmouth Joe
On a final note, we have to say, why? After a recent lunch of agreeable sushi, beef carpaccio, and lobster salad at Gallery Place's (notice we eat in the District, too) one-year-old Finn & Porter, we were served a dish of fuzzy pink cotton candy. It tasted stale. We had heard it came in flavors, but ours was just pink and sugary.

Maybe cotton candy just loses its appeal when served out of context -- e.g., not out of a paper cone at a county fair or off a stick at the ball game. Nostalgic, perhaps, but an odd choice for a bouche amuse at an otherwise pleasant enough upscale steak and seafood spot.

Photo by Flickr user welovethedark.