MC Horoscope

Ristorante Tosca is at Metro Center on the Red Line. Maybe their pre-theater menu would qualify? http://www.toscadc.com/menu-tasting.shtml I don't think it would scare off anyone. This thread discusses Tosca: http://www.donrockwell.com/index.php?showtopic=703

That's PANAM Latino Market at the corner of University Blvd and Piney Branch. It's shares a building with a thrift shop and a restaurant. In Adelphi Plaza on University Blvd is PANAM International Supermarket, which looks bigger. Close to the original Ledo Pizza place. I haven't tried either one.

You're a great resource, Elizabeth! Hope to meet you and thank you in person at a DR event one of these days for sharing your knowledge! Maybe the Fall picnic.

Thanks! That's a couple of suspects for me: low sunlight and too much nitrogen. I hadn't added nitrogen in years, so this year I probably added too much. I've pulled a few tomatoes before the squirrrels could get to them and ripened them in the house in a sunny spot. Think that'd work with a bunch of Romas?

I am just starting to get some ripened tomatoes and that's after 90+ days! I figured I wasn't getting enough sunlight because of shade from my trees and the neighbor's tall fence. I don't think it's the watering from below. Watering from above followed by heat like we had in June could have caused some disease but it doesn't sound like that's what is happening for you. Guess it's just a strange year! I don't know about 85 degrees but I hear you need at least 6 hours of sunlight a day.

Congratulations and good luck with your venture!

Our experience was a lot like laniloa's above. The Manchester location was nice and easy to find, popular, and the service was very good. But the flavor must have been lacking the day we went in August. I looked around the room and every table was vigorously shaking their containers of extras like cheese, oregano, pepper flakes, etc. We had the clam pizza with tomato sauce and garlic (by the way, the small one is big enough for two!), and while the tomato sauce was sweet and flavorful, we shook our heads ruefully and said to ourselves that it was no match for the tomato sauce at Comet or any number of other pizza places we've been to in DC, even in Louisiana. Truly no accounting for taste! The clams were freshly shucked and quite good. No problem there! Too bad we couldn't swing by New Haven to compare with the original. I am not a pizza professional but I approve this message. --MC Horoscope PS We got a piece of sausage by mistake on our pizza and it had the most flavor! Go figure! Also, our toppings were not distributed very evenly on the pizza. All the garlic was on a single slice, if you can believe it.

+1 Internets for you!

Yeah, something like dirty rice but different than what is served at Popeye's! What variety of okra did you plant? I planted Clemson Spineless seeds in pots and put them in the sunniest part of my yard --no flowers yet much less fruit. Still, the plants look healthy so I may see some in August after all! Hope I will have enough for a gumbo.

If you don't mind Cajun or Creole cooking, they do some interesting things with eggplant dressing. Usually a mixture of eggplant and seafood or ground beef and rice. You'll find a few recipes through Google on eggplant dressing. Also, the term "dressing" down there doesn't mean stuffing.

The quality of seafood here is very good! Last night my wife's appetizer was a bruschetta with crab meat and arugula and some sort of lightly creamy dressing. The bread had a nice crunch and flavor to it, and the crab was fresh. Her entree was monkfish roasted with endive, bacon, and garlic. She said it was too good to share! Never mind, I felt the same way about my dishes! For appetizer I had oysters on the half shell. Didn't catch where they were from but they were deliciously briny and cool! Entree was roasted pompano with fingerling potatos and oyster mushrooms in some sort of reduced sauce. Excellent! At some parts I peeled off the skin but at other parts I ate it because it looked toasted and crunchy! We arrived at 6:15 and were among the first people there. Snagged a nice table by a window. By 7:00 the place was full. The mango sorbet and pistachio ice cream were from Moorenko's. If it's still in Silver Spring we have to check it out!

The chili that comes with a Ben's Chili Bowl half smoke is much better than what you get when you order a regular bowl of chili. The chili in the bowl is flavorless by comparison. Or was it just the different batches we had on a recent night? Beautiful park, by the way!

Thanks! That's just what I needed to set my view to Standard!

Houston has a large Vietnamese population (second largest in the country), and the Texas shrimpers are mostly Vietnamese, so the idea of serving Vietnamese food was a good one but maybe not well done. I thought there would be chili at the festival but they stuck to ribs, brisket, and sausage. Anyway, this link covers the vendors: http://www.folklife.si.edu/festival/2008/F...oncessions.html I guess there was no NASA related food.

I felt bad for the Asian vendor in the Texas area. I passed by their area Sunday around noon and later at one and there were so few people eating that the vendors were actually calling out to the crowd passing by to stop and eat. I have never seen that before! I had the barbecue sausage in the Texas area and was surprised by how bland it was. Couldn't even finish it. I hope their ribs were better. I'll try the Bhutanese area next time I go. The mango drinks looked tempting!

Does this mean that the GSPOT or whatever it's humorously called in the Forest Glen area of Silver Spring is closer to opening? I hope so!! All the best to CK!

The subheading refers to country vocalist Roger Miller, the guy who sang Dang Me, King of the Road, Chug a Lug, England Swings Like a Pendulum Do, etc. In one of his novelty songs there's a line that goes Doo whacka doo.

Accessible to the Silver Spring metro are Sergio's and Vicino's. You may want to call them to check on availability. They should be in the Dining Guide for Maryland under downtown Silver Spring. At Sergio's I have had them sauteed. At Vicino's I've had them done Francese style. I guess Crisfield's down there would also be metro accessible.

I planted a variety called Perennial in late April. Found some at Johnson's Nursery on 108 between Olney and Laytonsville. They're already bearing a little (I just bought two plants -- should have bought way more!) I found a super sunny spot in my yard for some containers with okra. Clemson Spineless seeds. Keeping fingers crossed for that. The rest is doing well -- lettuce, arugula, parsley, basil, sage, rosemary, tomato, peppers (banana, green bell, tabasco, and jalapeno). Even trying some watermelon and cucumber this year! The recent sun and warmth have been very good for things. And it's alll enclosed with deer netting after a very disappointing experience last year.

Thanks for that link! I know that article well and I have been to some of the places mentioned in it. It's sort of well known, well discussed, and even revered down in southwest Louisiana for how truly it depicts the region! Suire's Grocery between Kaplan and Cow Island on HWY 35 is still there. The turtle sauce piquante sure was good when I tried it a few years ago. On my visit in 2006 the area south of Abbeville and Kaplan was all torn up from Hurricane Rita in 2005, but it all looks a lot better this time around. Houses built up on mounds or "stilts," and the livestock and crops have rebounded. Fema trailers no longer in use at Mouton Cove. If we had had time, we would have gone to Jeanerette to the Yellow Bowl mentioned in your link.

Made a quick trip through Lafayette, LA last week. It's where I am from and I miss the food a lot! I always try some old favorites when I visit. I can confirm that the Chris's Poboys on Moss Street on the northside is still as good as ever! Some people swear by Old Tyme Grocery on St. Mary Street by the university but I have always been partial to Chris's. I breathed the whole roast pork poboy. I wish Philadelphia people who are proud of their roast pork sub could compare it with what Chris's serves! So much flavor in the thinly cut, moist roast! Dressed with just some shredded cabbage and a combination of mayo and mustard sauce. We also went to Pizza Village on Moss Street -- first time in years and as good as I remembered! My wife thought the combination on the Landry Special was odd, but it worked for me! Pepperoni, hamburger, shrimp, onion, and jalapeno. Their pizza doesn't seem to have a lot of tomato sauce on it, but it's got a crispy crust that is just delicious. I wonder what the fans of Comet and 2Amys would think. The combination of ground beef and seafood reminds me of our cherished "rice dressing" dish. I had seafood gumbo at Don's Seafood Hut on Johnston street, at Shucks' in Abbeville, and at Gooloo's (Hebert's Steakhouse and Seafood) on Highway 14 between Abbeville and Kaplan. Don's was the winner! I think they must use garlic in it. It's just a bit different. Like so many of the places down there, they serve you a little dish of rice on the side so that you add just as much as you want to your bowl of gumbo. Don's also has our favorite bread pudding. The bread they use is the soft French bread, and the warm cream sauce has a bit of rum in it. Great! Had a surprisingly good lunch one day at the Palace Cafe in Opelousas on the main drag across the street from the courthouse. Roast pork with rice and gravy and a "casserole" of eggplant and ground beef with just a bit of a tomato sauce. I never had it with the tomato sauce before. I believe I will try that next time I make it at home. Another combination with ground beef to stretch it. Poor Boy's Riverside Inn on the Broussard side of Lafayette continues to be a pleasure, maybe the best Cajun restaurant in Lafayette! One of the simplest things on the menu is also one of the most popular --a crab meat sautee that is something like Crab Norfolk in Maryland, but not. Spiced more Louisiana style. Lots of shrimp and crawfish dishes on the menu. You know the place is good if it is on that side of town but still packed on a Tuesday night. Probably more of an oil center lunch favorite. Stocked up with a bunch of meats from Hebert's Specialty Meats in Maurice and we called it a successful trip! From the marinated pork strips (they call it grillades but it's not New Orleans grillades, which are veal I believe), to stuffed rabbit, stuffed brisket, quail, tasso, fresh sausage, and their gumbos of duck and andouille, chicken and fresh sausage, crawfish and corn bisque, etc. Those quail are good in a recipe like p. 144 of Chef Paul Prudhomme's Louisiana Kitchen. Roasted Quail. The sister business, Soop's Restaurant in Maurice, has served quail gumbo for years. Soop Hebert was the daddy of the men who run Hebert's Specialty Meats. I played little league baseball with one of those boys! The home cooking was good too! My sister made a great crawfish etoufee and my niece's husband threw a delicious crawfish boil. The etoufee in my family is done without roux or tomatoes, though I also like it done with a light roux too. There's never enough time or enough meals! You wish you could eat 5 times a day!

That was Gar-Rham at 5027 Garrett Avenue in Beltsville. 301-595-4122. I must have missed Da Rae Won! Had Yuk Gae Jang, very spicy beef broth with shredded beef, 10.95. Available as an appetizer for 4.95. Is this Gar-Rham a pricier place? The barbecue dishes ranged from 18.95 for pork belly to 21.95 for 12 other barbecue entrees. I would like to try it again.

Congratulations! This is a great place for restaurant recommendations, travel advice, and gardening tips!

Johnny's Half Shell does 'em well.

Yeah, he's a lot smaller and he gets around in some sort of wheel chair scooter thing these days. Saw him a couple of years ago at the Folklife Festival on the mall. I don't believe he finished a single dish but it was fun hearing his talk!