JSnake

I feel like a variation on "the dish is engineered to appeal to a human's primal sense of taste" has probably been used to describe dishes prepared by the best chefs in the world.

You know, people keep telling me about the existence of Budweiser beer but all I've ever found is their bottled water.

Ron continues to blow me away with the quality of his smoked meats. Ron dropped off a sizable rack of pork ribs two days before the Super Bowl. As usual, Ron was a perfect gentleman towards my mother and stuck around for a few brief moments to discuss what he's been up to, interesting things he's been smoking (Ron, you have *got* to let us know when we can taste your smoked oysters). After he left, we stuck the foil-wrapped ribs in the fridge. We were saving these for the SB after all. I followed the reheating instructions on AmazingRibs.com, which has you wrap the ribs in two sheets of aluminum foil, drizzle about 2oz of chicken stock on the ribs and then seal the foil sheets. Roast in a 225 degree oven with the rack you're cooking on positioned in the upper-middle section of the oven. Heat until ribs measure 155 degrees in the center with an instant-read meat thermometer. The ribs turned out perfectly this way, as if they had just come hot off the smoker. The smoke flavor was there in full force, and the ribs had a gentle, but solid bite to them. Not falling off the bone, but a real meaty sink-your-teeth sensation that still provided the distinctive melt-in-your-mouth texture that only expert pitmasters can do. I expected the texture of the bark to suffer a bit from reheating, and it did, but only a bit and it certainly isn't any fault of Ron's. The bark still provided a solid punch of smoke that good bark should. I'll experiment in the future with different reheating methods to preserve the crunch of the bark. Ron had graciously accepted my request of a dry rub applied to the ribs instead of sauce. P.S.: Ron, I'm not sure what your normal procedure is vis a vis dry rubs vs sauce, but I got the impression from the spot-on seasoning and flavor profile that the dry rub is your normal method. If I'm wrong, please correct me! Overall it was a hearty and immensely satisfying meal that had me and my party guests chowing down to the very last scraps of meat on the bones. I continue to recommend Ron for anyone in the area looking for expert barbeque by an expert pitmaster.

This little beauty: http://anovaculinary.com/

Now that I can make pork chops at home that are better than what the best restaurants in the world can put out, I'm never ordering another pork chop again. Same goes for steak, fish and most other proteins.

"What the Stars Mean Ratings range from zero to four stars. Zero is poor, fair or satisfactory. One star, good. Two stars, very good. Three stars, excellent. Four stars, extraordinary." That review certainly didn't read like a "very good" verdict.

I'll take it!

I remember enjoying Fiorella on an impossibly chilly night in National Harbor. I was desperately looking for somewhere to warm up and walked in and enjoyed the most comforting blast of warm air I had ever felt. That's my biggest memory of it, it was many years ago. I also remember hungrily scarfing down the fried mozzarella balls.

You do if you're a northerner!

In for a rack of ribs, too! But unlike Don, I do want them for the SB. We will file an order within the next few days.

Definitely the meal we had at Convivial a week or so ago. Cedric Maupillier stopped by at our table and went over the entire menu with us, answering every question and telling us about his vision for the restaurant. I think we talked for almost an hour. The food itself was amazing too, especially the celery root latkes, beef tartare and fried chicken coq au vin. We left pleasantly full and can't wait to go back. Meeting the chef made it all the more special (thanks Don for setting that up)!

I highly recommend Ron for any BBQ needs you might have. He did a full hog roast for my last birthday with over 30 people attending and everything we ate was delicious. Ron handled every request we threw at him and answered questions, making the process both fun and informative. Ron, you'll be getting an order from the Meyer clan for some ribs and pulled pork very soon, I'm sure.

Ratio of dark meat to breast meat has to do with breeding methods more than anything. Some time ago -- before I was born, probably -- mass-consumer poultry farming companies got the idea in their head that we love breast meat. One only has to sit at a Thanksgiving table and witness everyone and their dog hoarding the dark meat to know this isn't entirely true but if you look at sales numbers for chicken breast compared to legs or thighs at the supermarket, you can see where distributors got the idea. So ever since then, the average birds you pick up at the grocery store, whether it's a chicken or a turkey, has been specifically bred to maximize breast meat. So next time you're shopping for a whole bird, compare the breast on a generic Butterball to that of an organic, free-range, heritage, whatever you want to call it, bird. The mass-market one will have a breast that looks almost engorged, oversized to the point of ridiculous. The other, more expensive, bird, will have a more even distribution of white and dark meat, without a breast that looks like it's been injected with botox.

If you're reheating at home, always reheat your pizza in a lid-covered skillet. Never the oven. Never the microwave. Always a skillet. As many slices as you can fit at a time.

Man, a 12oz ribeye isn't even enough for one!

I find that brunches are more often than not far worse than other services at restaurants.

Throwing my hat in the ring here, too. Without this website, I wouldn't have found a new, awesome friend and I certainly wouldn't be nearly as food savvy as I am now (still not as savvy as the rest of you, though)!

I make these chocolate chip cookies every year around Christmas. They are the best cookies you will ever have in your life.

I love the grilled octopus appetizer at Osteria Morini. I order it every time I'm there.

Can you say what dishes he recommended? I'll be going with my family near the end of the month

I think you guys are missing what's really important: Is it "gif" or "jif"?

Cilantro tastes like soap to me. I can handle dill in sparing amounts but not when it's piled on. Same with black pepper (I love spicy food so that's not the issue). I'm used to Parmiggiano Reggiano so domestic Parmesan tastes like crap to me. Store bought gnocchi is by and large worthless but I love the handmade stuff. Barbecue sauce -- dry rubs only on my barbecue, please. Those burgers piled with so many extraneous toppings that you can no longer taste the beef. Chicago "pizza." The big one, though: Alcohol in any form. Not once have I had an alcoholic beverage that I didn't want to spit out. Okay so most of my dislikes come down to regional or style preferences.

I always felt Faccia Luna in Alexandria did a good chicken parm. It's not a sub though

Does anyone know where one can get a good city ham around these parts? Looking for hams cut from the shank-end, spiral-sliced, bone-in with no added water or "natural juices" labels. They should also already be cured and smoked so I can just roast to serving temp and carve. I know there's always the option of a butcher but I'm wondering if there's a supermarket that will give up the goods. It's very important that the conditions I laid out are met.

I started out with a 14-pounder from Maple Lawn, which I got for $1.99 a lb from MOM's. I used Kenji's dry-brining method, using 2 tbsp of baking powder and 6 tbsp of Morton's kosher salt. I mixed them together and sprinkled the mixture all over the bird, making sure to get every last inch of skin. I ended up using the entire bowl. I then put the bird in the fridge uncovered to sit for 48 hours. Then I set the turkey on a v-rack set inside a roasting pan, making sure the turkey sat high above the pan where its legs and thighs would not be shielded by the sides of the pan. Then I put a pizza stone on the lowest rack in the oven and preheated the oven to 500 degrees for about an hour. Then I put the roasting pan, with the v-rack and bird, on the pizza stone, shut the oven and immediately lowered the temp to 350 degrees. Set my timer for one hour, after which I started checking the turkey's temperature with a Thermapen every 20 minutes. When the deepest part of the breast registered 145 degrees (the thighs having reached 180 at this point), I pulled out the bird and transferred it to a cutting board to rest uncovered for 30 minutes. Carved and served. Perfectly moist white meat with an abundance of turkey flavor and skin so crispy I had people asking "did you fry this?" It was the first time I had ever cooked something in my life (yes, really). After the meal, my older brother -- who is nothing but ever brutally honest -- came up to my room to say goodnight and said "oh, and that was the best turkey I've ever had."