Principia

Super H in Fairfax carries a plethora of clam types.

The +1 and I will be having our traditional repast of pizza. We're trying the breadmaker's pizza dough recipe, and if that doesn't turn out then we'll head out for the pie.

By popular demand. In the interest of brevity, I'm going to keep this out of a narrative format. Since the Japanese snack foods/rice cookers/bento box discussion was something of a digression, rather than germane to the tour, I've omitted it. If anyone's interested, let me know and I'll spin it off. --------------------------- Why did Super H have a large display of shelled nuts up in front of its entrance? Chongwol Taeborum, the Korean festival celebrating the first full moon of the year. One of its culinary traditions is the eating of hard-shell nuts. Peanuts and walnuts are traditional; pecans and almonds (also displayed) are not culivated in Korea. Mixed rice (i.e., with different types of grains and beans mixed in) is another traditional dish for this festival. Korean Pears are rounded, sweet and crispy. The hardest pear is the ripest - the firmness indicates juiciness. Koreans do not cook their fruit, except for the benefit of babies and the elderly - although if your pears are too soft, they can be used as part of a bulgogi marinade. Persimmons come in two different styles. The round/flat type is firm, and very tannic. The pointier type is soft. The Fuji apple is in fact a hybrid of an apple and a Korean pear. Sesame leaves are equivalent to shiso leaves, but are a bit stronger. They can be used in pressed sushi or to wrap around sashimi. They should be used within a week. The larger Korean radishes are suitable for making kimchi, but daikon (Japanese radish) are not (they're significantly drier). A typical kimchi ingredient list: radish or cabbage, scallions, chili powder (dried Korean red pepper), garlic, ginger, fish sauce, and for a sweeter kimchi, sugar and pear. Scallions go in or on just about everything in Korean cuisine. Firm tofu can substitute for the ricotta in lasagna Fresh tofu is much better than the shelf-stable type, but is only good for about a week. A good brand is Pulmuone. Chinese Mabo Tofu is the rough equivalent of Hamburger Helper. There are two different types of seaweed (and one pseudo-seaweed) commonly used in Korean (and/or Japanese) cooking. Konbu is the thickest seaweed, from the deepest part of the ocean, used for stock-making. Wakame is a shallow-water seaweed that is most commonly used in soups (e.g. miso soup), and is an excellent source of iron - it's commonly served straight up to new mothers to help them recover from the birthing process. Nori, which is used for sushi wrapping, is not seaweed but is in fact made from algae. Dried seafood is commonly used as an ingredient in soups and the like, but some types like dried shrimp are also sauteed in oil and served with soy as a snack. Shanghai bok choy is the same size as baby bok choy, but is sweeter and is distinguishable from its all-over light green color. Lotus root would be sliced, then cooked in soy sauce, sugar and sesame oil. Korean red pepper is hot and sweet, and is available powdered or pasted in addition to fresh. Green pepper is less spicy, and is often served stuffed. Neither is anywhere near as spicy as Thai pepper. Whiting = pollack Saury is roughly equivalent in flavor/texture to sardines . The thinly sliced beef in the meat case is intended for shabu shabu. There is no appreciable reason for buying Angus beef oxtails. Never over-marinate bulgogi. Don't let it go more than 30 minutes: grover marinates hers only for about 10 minutes. The skirt steak chops are intended for bulgogi. If you see a Korean packaged food and the container is red, that means it's very, very spicy. Orange, still spicy but not as spicy. Green would be mild. Nong Shim is a good brand of ramen. grover uses Samsugabasan 'New Crop' rice. When using frying mix for tempura, ice water in the batter will make it crispier. Korean nori is not the same thing as sushi nori. It's much thicker, and also tends to be be salty where the Japanese nori would be sweetish. Yaki nori is roasted nori. Teriyaki nori is meant for snacking. When buying dried mushrooms, get sliced ones. They'll reconstitute much better. Chinese prunes are very sour. Natural salt is sea salt, greyish from the minerals. It would be used for brining or salt packing. White sea salt is just more refined. Use crushed sesame for bulgogi. Black sesame is an excellent source of antioxidants. Marukan is a recommended brand of rice vinegar. Lee Kum Kee is the Kraft of the Korean/Chinese market. For kimchi paste, anchovy or shrimp sauce are the preferred type of fish sauces. Black bean paste would be used to top bulgogi, or spicy soybean paste, which is a little reddish. Do not use pepper paste. Plum extract is a tea concentrate. Korea was not historically a producer/user of tea, since its water sources were sufficiently clean to be used as-is, versus having to be boiled and flavored. Pork belly is unsmoked/uncured bacon. If you're making oden for two, there is a suitable assortment available in the freezer section, which even comes with the soup base. Hai Reum and Pulmuone are good brands of frozen dumplings. When pan-frying dumplings, fry one side first, and then steam the other side by pouring in some water and covering the lid. This will keep the dumplings from drying out too much or becoming too chewy. Sampo Foods and Chongga are good brands of refrigerator-case kimchi (et al). If your container of kimchi is puffy, do not use it. There are three types of miso: red miso, regular miso, and white miso. Koreans eat their rice and soup with regular spoons, not chopsticks, and not the Chinese/Japanese style of soup spoon.

Many thanks to grover and Escoffier for leading this very informative tour through the aisles of the splendiferous Super H. I enjoyed meeting everyone, and look forward to seeing y'all again soon! If folks are interested, I would be glad to type up my notes into a post... although it's likely to be a tad lengthy.

Just getting out the door now... see y'all in a bit!

Hey, better than getting bought out by La Madeleine, one of M. LeDuff's other properties...

I don't think I'd mind if I got a paper back with some tomato sauce on it.

According to their website (http://www.eatyourpizza.com): $4.25 pizzas - One half of selected eight-inch pizzas Antipasto plates - Your choice of three of our altre cose, small plate $6.95 and large plate $12.95 $3 selected draft beers - Fordham Helles Lager, Rogue Dead Guy Ale, Jever Pilsener $3 selected bottled beers - Corona, Moretti Lager, Moretti La Rossa, Amstel Light, Miller Lite Chimay on tap ----- I would imagine this may be slightly different in the Birreria - additional drinks specials or somethin'.

I work just a few blocks over, so I'll definitely be there. I just wanted to know when we were trying to meet up. So, is there a secret handshake or something else we want to identify ourselves by?

Birreria Paradiso, today, 10 Feb: The HH runs from 4.00 to 6.30. What time do folks think they can get there?

Cosi (in Reston Town Center) caters: http://www.getcosi.com/

Oooh, if it hasn't started snowing yet, I'm in. Just remember they have a pretty early HH at Paradiso - it's 4-6.30.

Turkish Coffee Chocolate with Cardamom Espuma at Zaytinya is most excellent. Their other desserts are good, but not as good. Indebleu looks to have both tasty and cute desserts, if the photo in the Washingtonian's Top 100 is anything to go by.

Why does this remind me of the giant fireball-producing icebox rolls recipe from that one issue of Southern Living? I actually managed to get my hands on a copy of that issue after it was recalled, due to the negligence of a nearby convenience store. Of course, in that case it wasn't a typo, it was just a group of editors too lazy to retest their recipe when they switched from lard to Crisco.

Isn't that what OT is supposed to make easier - since it's all there in black and white? Of course, since OT doesn't let you add requests after the fact, I suspect that may gum the works up a bit.

We'll see if my comment gets through. From the customer end, my points were these: one, I've never had a problem with OT and two, having seating issues/miscellaneous problems at a restaurant and having booked said restaurant on OT are two unrelated data points that do not necessarily correlate with one another. For the restaurant end: the number of reservations and the timing of reservations in OT are completely up to the restaurant. If staffing/planning decisions were made assuming that certain slots would not be booked, but the restaurant failed to block those slots, that's their own fault - not OT's and certainly not the customer's. Sheesh, what a bunch of sour marys.

Their creamed corn is very nifty too!

I'll second the recommendation for Neuhaus. They at one time were available from Balducci's - you can also order them directly online from http://www.neuhauschocolate.com/

Just think how much better you'll be able to taste the dinner at Corduroy! Congratulations on both fronts, and good luck!

Huzzah! I think we can do it - wasn't the list up to almost 120 people when we did the lottery? If there's anyone who wants to swap nights, Tuesday works slightly better for me than Wednesday...

Hey, you're not that far down. If the experience with Ray's cancellations was anything to go by, you may well end up making it in - I was fairly far back on the waiting list for that one and finally lucked out.

Ooh, by the skin of her very teeth! I guess you weren't the goat this time, Barbara! Congrats!

Oh, I know, that's what I was trying to convey... that it seems like he's comparing apples to oranges. So you wouldn't even put J or Z on a par with Palena's bar menu? Harsh!

Jaleo or Zaytinya spring to mind, if we're sticking to the same level of dining. Not having had the pleasure of being to Palena yet, though, I can only conjecture that we're talking a difference in orders of magnitude when we're talking about the size of the individual courses in question.

Here's another doozy: Pizza Fork. Oh, and even better, it comes in a set of two, so you can make sure you and your +1 look utterly ludicrous.