CrescentFresh

Charlie Palmer will be speaking at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival on the Mall at 3PM today. That's if anyone wanted to ask him what medium rare is, ask for a cheese plate or see if he likes Rhone wine, too.

SUPERIOR TO CHIPOTLE??! 'Dems Fightin' Words!

Tonight I made pizza using mktye's recipe. In saying "Try it, you will be happy," mdt is correct. I used to ALWAYS get my dough from Vace and now I see no need nor knead to do so anymore.I made the dough from the recipe, as written, yesterday in a KA mixer. Left it in the bowl overnight and this morning moved it to a smaller, floured bowl to sit outside while I was at work. mktye is right when she notes how wet and sticky this dough is, as it poured out of the mixing bowl in a very unsavory manner, looking like it had been a prop in "Ghostbusters" and was just "slimed." Came home to see my dough had risen nicely and had the same issue removing it from the bowl. I proceeded to flour my countertops, my hands, the dough, the bowl, several small neighbor children and our pet rabbit before I attempted to turn the dough out for "processing." I did not do a pre-cook in an attempt to do a deep dish or focaccia. I cut the dough into quarters and used them to make 3 small pizzas. (one quarter I bagged and put in the freezer to see how it holds up for future use.) The dough was tough to manipulate because of its stickiness, but not frustratingly so. I'll need to figure out how to make the dough more easy to work with. (Attn: mktye. Expect PM barrage.) The first pizza was a basic cheese, made with a certain butter sauce made from a certain brand of canned tomatoes. (See thread on pasta making/tomato tasting for the recipe). The cheese was the low moisture pizza cheese that I got from Paul at Blue Ridge Dairy at Dupont market yesterday. (did anyone go see his mozzarella making demonstration at the P Street Whole Foods last week?) When it was done cooking, I simply added some torn basil leaves from my herb garden. Cooked it on a stone in my oven, which I had turned up to 11. This is the homemade pizza I've been waiting for. In my 5+ years in DC, I've essentially given up looking for that NY pizza that I grew up with. This dough did it. It was the EXACT texture, the EXACT flavor, the EXACT crunch, the EXACT snap when I folded the piece in half. (You do fold your pizza slice in half, don't you?) The second one I made had some italian sausage slices, and chunks of the onion that was pulled from the tomato sauce I made. The third one was a copy of the first pizza, and was made specifically to be cut into slices for tomorrow's lunch! Anyway, I for one will no longer need Vace, nor Trader Joe's for pizza. And I encourage others to try it too. I'm anxious to hear what other first-time pizza dough chefs encounter.

I think that depends on the nature of the complaint. There are a number of restaurants that I've had bad experiences with that still had some redeeming qualities. I make note of them in my posts, even if my experience was poor at that venue. But there's the potential I'd try them again, particularly if others can relay to me that my experience was out of the norm. There are others, though (Chef Geoff's), where I feel the comedy of errors is so blatant and across the board of food, service, courtesy, etc., and touches every nerve, that I'd never go back, even after one visit. Fact is, I rely upon this place to help set me straight on knowing that my mileage may vary. Thank you all for being the check to my balance. Now, maybe if you could help me balance my checks, I'd have more of an opportunity to eat out.

My server must be at the far end of a different galactic spiral arm. I came for lunch on Friday at Aria. I'm still here.

Buy one get one free with this deal at Chipotle tomorrow.

Slavin. Glebe Road at I-395 in Arlington. Rarely will I get it anywhere else unless desperate or far from Arlington.

Derek and Chef were kind enough to uncork a few of the sparklers by the glass for our dinner last night. With the starters we had glasses of Luxe, which according to said management is: Chateau Ste. Michelle, spends 11 months in new French barrels and 5 years on the lees (current vintage is 1998). Straw-colored, dry, crisp, definitely tasty, but perhaps a bit to sharp for my oh-so-particular palate. With the entrees we had glasses of Cerdon de Bugey, a blend of Poulsard and Gamay. This was a hit. Pinker, sweeter, but not overly so. Great flavor, very well-balanced, slightly yeasty to make it fun. We enjoyed this one a lot. We probably would have sought out another bubbly for dessert....but we opted for the liquid desserts...and I don't know if it would have been easy to pair one with a sauternes, a grand marnier and a Madeira. If you're going tonight, enjoy them. I'll have to catch them on a differently bubbly Firefly Friday as I will instead be feasting happily at Corduroy.

I haven't been there, but my wife has a few times. Probably not since last winter, though. She's always enjoyed it.

Mine are the boneless center cut chops, also from P St. I did get their bone-in rib chops once or twice and didn't seem to think they were too thin. The bone-ins take up too much room in my pan, though. And if they had a problem cutting your meat to order, we should find someplace else to get them.

Chris, I've been doing a lot of stuffed pork chops too recently, and this stuffing you've got here is one I'll have to try. I've been most recently going with corn bread, carmelized onions, sherry soaked raisins and chile powder. I've been saucing them with a reduction of the leftover sherry cut with cream, which I haven't been thoroughly happy with. Wabeck suggested I try stock/demiglace for a little less sharpness which is my next plan. It doesn't look like it from the image, but are you putting a pan sauce on yours?

Did anyone happen to see this program on Julia Child on American Masters last night on the local DC/DelMarVa PBS affiliate WETA? I didn't see it and am wondering what folks might have thought.

It sounds nice. But I think I'm gonna hold out until the hot chocolate hits the to-go menu.

This isn't what's being served now, is it? I'm having dinner there tonight.

The revolving restaurant on top of the Doubletree in Crystal City also has great views. It's closed though for a private party by someone who rented the whole thing.

I consumed one of those tea smoked lobsters last RW and was very impressed.

There's been some praise of the brunch at Cafe Atlantico on DR recently. I haven't done it myself, but am thinking about it.

What the hell was that thing about Bistro Asiatique? I didn't understand a word of it. Am I the only one who didn't have a ticket for that train of thought?

Mayor Williams and the city council are now on board and the Post reports it could be enacted by the end of the year. Click here to read it.

Now we know what we can do with those lousy DOP tomatoes.

I think I've heard something about this grilling thing before, but it's probably like Alar on the apples, where you need to eat several bushels a day for there to be a negative effect to your health. But, if/when Smokefree DC is successful in keeping smoking out of restaurants, they may want to take on grilling, based on this Post article.

Frere Jacques, did the servers properly identify the cheeses in your cheese course? This was a problem on my earlier visit which was CLEARLY excusable then, but hopefully is something that should be close to worked out by now.

I hope, then, you'd all dole out guest passes.

I only hit Sonoma once, a few weeks ago during the preview meals, and one of the few things that hit me as being wrong with the food were some of the combinations on the plate. I thought the compote completely overwhelmed the salmon. Each on their own, the salmon and the compote are wonderful, but I didn't think they worked well together. That salmon should be the star of that plate and I thought the flavor of the compote was too over-the-top to be a team player. Mentioned it to Eli that evening, as they requested immediate feedback and impressions.That said, I still have every intention of going back again.

Ok, I'm game for hearing the details on this transaction, if you're willing to share.