DanCole42

"The cook whom the ancients regarded and treated as the lowest menial was rising in value, and what had been a servile office came to be looked upon as a fine art." -Livy; History of Rome: Book 39, Chapter 6.

My wife and I have been going here for years, and not just because it's walking distance to my office. The staff is always extremely bright and friendly, and remembered who we were after just the first visit. The office itself is gorgeous, and their waiting room boasts a well-stocked Keurig (for when you want to really stick it to your dentist with coffee breath) and a ample magazines... not that I've ever needed to wait! Some of the more unusual requests that they've obliged over the years: Provided me with a large stock of Debacterol whenever I run out for self-treating my recurring, stress-related canker sores. Obliging my request to not use anaesthetic during cavity fillings, and working quickly thereafter. For me the grill is less painful than the shot, and a few minutes of discomfort is worth avoided several hours of numbness and tingling! There's something to be said for getting me from my desk and back in about thirty minutes! Scheduling my appointments at the same time as my wife for our morbid "dentistry dates"! Check them out: http://www.dcsmilecenter.com/. We've referred half a dozen people to them over the years, and everyone says that it's the best dentist they've ever had! Dan Cole

Who wants to read a newspaper article without pretty pictures?

I will say that the one time I had the Palena burger years ago that it was not too thick, and in fact had wonderful greasy crust.

I never said it should be overcooked. Just that the red in the middle should not overdominate the char. It doesn't take very much. Tartar should only be seasoned at the last minute for this very reason. I should say that a "properly seasoned middle that's not rubbery" is not the holy grail here. I would still prefer a burger with more crust.

Weight's not so much a factor for me as thickness. For me, Ray's would be ten times as good if the same quantity of meat were turned into a double burger.

Here's my problem with the way a lot of "upscale" chefs/cooks do burgers: they treat them like steak. Meaning, they make a patty that's an inch thick or more, then sear it until medium rare (or seared and pan roasted). This creates a center that's a lot closer to beef tartar than "hamburger." I have no problem with beef tartar, or any raw beef preparation - prepared right, they can be a singular luxury. But in order to prepare tartar properly, you need to properly season the beef. The reason this doesn't work in a hamburger is that, if you season ground beef and then toss, you end up seasoning the inside of the patty. Cooking ground beef that's essentially been seasoned from the inside out causes it to seize up and you end up with a rubbery burger (the salt denatures the proteins which then glue together in the heat). The alternative is to only season the outside, but then you end up with a flavorless tartar center if you have a thick burger. A burger should be thin and cooked to the point where the outside goes from red to light brown to dark brown to golden charred. It should be seasoned only on the outside. It should be a vehicle for char. A more perfect burger is the double burger. You still get the satisfying beefiness that comes with an inch's thickness of meat, but instead of having a flavorless or rubbery center, you double your char and end up with a beefy, salty, greasy, golden-brown and delicious center. I declare war on thick burgers.

Hopefully the chef swallowed their pride. A human being who would pull the shit that the critic pulled would probably give the restaurant an unfavorable review if treated as deserved. Sure, it sucks for the chef to have to swallow their pride like that, but it's not just their pride that's riding on that review - it's the livelihood of their staff. What a prick. His judgement cometh, and that right soon.

Pizza is the pizzaiolo. I can think of few food-related items where the skill and craft of the artisan is as directly reflected in the finished product. Neapolitan especially. I think a great name for the place would be "Arte Factum." It's where we get the word artifact. It means, "Something made with skill."

+2

I've been going to Trummers a lot, but only ever during the week, really. Can anyone give me a sense of what the bar/lounge would be like on a Saturday night, say around 7:30? Any trouble getting a seat?

I think there's a culinary ley line that runs beneath the ground from the Ashby Inn in Paris to Trummer's on Main in Clifton. These are two restaurants that are in the middle of nowhere and just consistently put out some of the best food around. Every dish we had was prepared exquisitely. This is the passion that we found so lacking at Tuscarora Mill. The toast on the brandade, toast, and vinegar "snack" ($4) was toasted so goddamn evenly that it was like the chef had taken a spray can of "golden brown and delicious" paint and given it an exactly even coating. The crust on our sandwiches were well-developed in terms of flavor but without being overly hard for a sandwich. The tabasco butter and tomato water risotto was done so well that I felt like the chef was treating us like the Queen of England on a Saturday night, rather than Dan and Jordana on a Wednesday lunch. Also, hands-down the best fries ever. Service was outstanding. Neal even came over with a map to recommend some great nearby wineries. Let's see... Brandade, toast, and vinegar snack... Warm apple cider with spuma... Ashby Mule cocktail (featuring foraged sumac syrup)... A generous pour of Delaplane Cellars "Cinq"... Tabasco butter and tomato risotto... Crab cake... Smoked beef sandwich with goat gouda and fries.. Chicken sandwich with dijonaisse.. Brown butter cake and ice cream... Complete composed cheese course... Deliciously brewed, hot coffee... Tax... Tip... $125 Incidentally, that's only two dollars more than I paid for less food at Tuscarora the night before. And it sickens me to even mention them in the same post. Before the check even came we'd booked our reservations with Neal for our anniversary dinner in October. Three stars. Worthy of a special journey.

Is it even possible to find a business in Middleburg that doesn't look absolutely charming? I double dog dare you. Anyway, the peanut soup was really, really, rich. I definitely paid for it later. That's what I get for eating 300 year old soup. The burger was dense and unremarkable, but the fries were perfectly greasy and salty, and the beer list was a blast. This is definitely a place I would come back to on a snowy February day, order a pint and some fries, and just cozy up at the bar, wondering how many Confederate soldiers bled to death under my coaster.

Fair warning: this is a pan. Pan disclaimer: I went in with very high expectations. Where to begin? Seared beef fondue ($9) with blue cheese sauce and truffle salt. I can't think of a better word to describe this than bland. I actually had to add salt to it from my tableside shaker - I haven't done that since I was eight. I got no hint of truffle, the beef tasted like nothing, and the blue cheese sauce had zero blue cheese bite. Totally insipid. I have never had bad (tasting) oysters. Maybe it's because I only ever order them at places like Passionfish, or where I can literally throw the empty shells back into the Atlantic, or maybe I'm just lucky. The oysters we had at Tuskies were awful. I think of oysters with mignonette and I think: bright, fresh. There's just something zesty and zingy about them. These were flat and maybe even a little pink. My grilled duck with port mole sauce ($24) was okay. But just okay. My wife's steak was also "just okay." For dessert I had some really good chocolate ganache that was fried in some really bad (read: flavorless) breading. One thing that surprised me was that this place was packed on a Tuesday. Anyway - it's really hard to complain about something being "just okay," but we did mention about the oysters and beef fondue. The waiter was apologetic, and in fairness did comp the oysters (I guess they noticed something a little off, too). We really wanted to like the place, too, but the bottom line is that it would take a lot of really strong endorsements - I mean like Don bolds it in the dining guide - for us to go back. If you ask a lot of chefs (or any professional) what the most important quality is in a new chef, that bit that can't be trained, it's passion. I define passion as, "do you fucking CARE"? When you toast bread, do you toss it under the broiler for a few minutes and just say, "eh, it's toasted," or do you really pay attention and toast the fucking bread like it's the most important piece of bread that's ever been toasted in the history of the universe and oh shit, that end's a little more golden, I better stay here and make sure it comes out just right? Our meal came across like it was cooked without passion.

Go on.... <grabs popcorn>

http://www.paradisespringswinery.com/wines.html

I'm thinking of flying my wife and me first class out to Napa for her birthday. Does anyone know of any good domestic first class dining experiences? Anyone have any tricks for paying less than $2,000 a ticket?

My wife and I will be doing a little staycation at the Briar Patch B&B in Middleburg on a Monday night and Tuesday night in September. Any other day of the week, dining would be a no-brainer: the Ashby Inn. Unfortunately, they are closed on Monday and Tuesday! Does anyone have any recommendations? The Red Fox Inn seems more about the ambiance then the food, and as much as I like the IDEA of the French Hound, I hear it kinda sucks... What about trucking it up to Leesburg for Tuscarora? Any other recommendations about hidden gems (food or otherwise) in and around Leesburg are appreciated!!!

Clearly I haven't been driving near any of the fun places.

Body cleansing and detoxification have been referred to as an elaborate hoax used by con artists to cure nonexistent illnesses. Some doctors contend that the 'toxins' in question do not even exist.[1][15][16] In response, alternative medicine proponents frequently cite heavy metals or pesticides as the source of toxification; however, no evidence exists that detoxification approaches have a measurable effect on these or any other chemical levels. Medical experts state that body cleansing is unnecessary as the human body is naturally capable of maintaining itself, with several organs dedicated to cleansing the blood and gut.[17] Professor Alan Boobis OBE, Toxicologist, Division of Medicine, Imperial College London states that "The body’s own detoxification systems are remarkably sophisticated and versatile. They have to be, as the natural environment that we evolved in is hostile. It is remarkable that people are prepared to risk seriously disrupting these systems with unproven ‘detox’ diets, which could well do more harm than good."[13] The apparently satisfied testimonial and anecdotal accounts by customers can be explained by either disguised employees creating false anecdotes, or actual customers who are experiencing the placebo effect after trying the products, natural recovery from an actual illness that would have occurred without the use of the product, psychological improvements on illnesses that are psychosomatic or the result of neurosis, and the fact that a large number of dissatisfied customers have not posted equally applicable anecdotes about their poorer experiences.[18] From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detoxification_(alternative_medicine)#Criticism

I hope my wife doesn't see I posted that.

See? You don't need a book.

I'm 80% certain that he doesn't cover autolysing, but it'll change your life.

This is a modified version of the "NY-style" dough used in Peter Reinhart's American Pie. I used Caputo 00 flour, no oil, and my own wild yeast starter (started about a year ago with red cabbage - given a little rye on every feeding). I did a twenty minute autolyse right after mixing before adding any salt, and a twenty minute rest before sticking it in the fridge overnight. Removed to room temperature five hours before cooking. Baking was done in a 550 degree oven on "Convection Roast" (fan on, broiler on), using a 1/2-inch hot rolled steel plate as the cooking surface. Rotated 180 degrees during cooking. Topped with salt, a puree of roma tomatoes and basil from my garden (plus oregano, garlic, and red wine vinegar), and a cheese blend of Cappiello low moisture/whole milk moz, Collier's Welsh cheddar, and Parmigiano-Reggiano. Finished with a roasted garlic, red pepper, basil, thyme, rosemary, and oregano herb oil.

Boy it's been a long time since I've posted here, but I'm just so darn excited that I finally got leopard spots on my pizza that I just had to share!