edenman

not savory, but Max's Ice Cream in Glover Park has Pumpkin Ice Cream now and it's delicious.

I also made it there last night, my first visit (a friend had a rental car so we did a whirlwind tour of all things not-so-easy-to-get-to-by-metro). Got there at 7:30, put our names down and went a few doors down to Cactus Cantina to bide our time, since the bar at 2Amy's was jam-packed. A few Dos Equis and some insipid nachos later, we headed back over and were sat almost immediately (the wait had been advertised as 70-80 minutes, but it ended up only being around 45-50, which for a saturday night peak isn't all that bad). I was very happy with the beer selection...a small list, but good ones. Weihenstephan Dunkel (!) on tap for a start, and Tupper's Hop Pocket also. We started with the Suppli al Telefono, which were fantastic, if a bit weird that there were 5 of them, impossible to divvy out with anything other than 5 people (or 1, I suppose). And then, pizza...

Actually, the whole [pizza] needed a hit of salt

which was exactly the opposite of my pizza, the Calabrese. The combination of the anchovy (salty) and the olives (super-salty) was definitely over the top saltiness. Aside from that, the pizza was great, the crust in particular being everything it had been hyped up to be. Oh and the service was very good, especially considering that the place was still hopping when we left at 9:30ish.

So yea, next time I have a car at my disposal, I'll keep 2Amy's in mind, but I will probably stick to a simpler pizza next time. Oh, and go try that Weihenstephan Dunkel soon...the hostess mentioned that they only have a few 5gallon kegs of it and distributor doesn't have any more, so when it's gone, it's gone. Definitely better on tap than I remember the bottle being, which is already pretty darn good.

6 duck legs, purchased at Cheesetique, are now curing in salt and will be made into confit on Sunday.

Where'd you get your rendered duck fat (or did you render it yourself)?

Either way, I salute you, sir.

I could only find one mention of this place on the site, and it was in passing. Anybody have a thumbs up/down opinion on this place?

The reason I ask is that I got roped, not all that reluctantly, into going to the following event at the Bethesda location:

"Nov. 1 is "Sushi Day". $20 worth of sushi for $11.01. Only from 5:30-6:30pm."

which apparently means you get:

"2 pieces of tuna, salmon, eel, and shrimp,
1 piece of yellowtail, flounder, salmon eggs,
3 pieces of california rolls and salmon skin rolls,
and miso soup."

Which certainly sounds like a healthy amount of sushi, and I'm wondering where on the spectrum of sushi quality it will likely land. Specials like this make me skeptical about food quality, but I'm also a sucker for a good deal, so...

Also wondering if anybody else was planning on attending. The 5:30-6:30 thing is definitely a hindrance, but might be less of a problem if you're already out near Bethesda for work.

simple roast chicken with sauce made from the drippings. i oversalted the skin, but otherwise, pretty tasty, even for a safeway-bought bird.

Before swearing off the stuff, try a real one of Asti. We pour Moscato d'Asti from Marchesi di Gresy and its pretty fantastic. Another great ones is Marcarini.

duly noted. I think my palate is generally just more accepting of drier white wines...not sure the acidity would even be enough to make me accept the high sweetness. Will keep that in mind, though.

Anyway, I should've known that wine brought to an Oktoberfest party (read: lots of beer) probably wouldn't be very good

In Asti, Italy Moscato is low alcohol, fizzy, sweet but had balancing acidity to counteract the sugars. If this is a discrtiption of your wine, then you porbably don't like Moscato. If not than your Moscato may be unworthy of the name.

Thanks dean, exactly what i was looking for. I didn't notice any acidity (so it's probably just a not-good version), but I think I'll steer clear of Moscato in general anyway.

polishing off a glass or two of Twin Valley Moscato that somebody left at my party over the weekend. Is muscat always this cloyingly, terribly sweet? I'm having quite a hard time drinking this, and I want to make sure it's just a bad wine (rather than something I just need to get used to because I'm primarily a beer drinker). I'm gonna go out on a limb and say it's just a crap wine, but can anybody with some actual wine knowledge back me up?

1st batch of chicken stock for the fall cooking season yesterday.

I'm looking to try my hand at this: never made my own stock. I'm thinking about just roasting a chicken, carving it, then using the carcass to make stock. Any particular recipe recommendations? A few spots on the net recommend the normal trio of carrot/celery/onion, plus a bay leaf or two. Any need to do anything more?

had a ridiculously good food weekend, and since at least some of it was "cool stuff i make" related, i'll recap here:

wednesday:

• dinner at the circle bistro bar. hamburger and duck confit: quite good, although the burger wasn't as good as i'd anticipated from reading the CB thread.
  

thursday:

• spent all afternoon making bratwurst (11 pounds, all told)
  
• burger at rustico. awesome. fantastic beer selection = very happy.
  
• late night at brickskeller
  

friday:

• road trip to dogfish head brewery in delaware, bought a couple backup kegs for the party
  
• hosted oktoberfest party. made everything: festbier, bratwurst, mustard, cheese, buns, big pretzels. the sauerkraut was terrible so i didn't serve it. that's one thing i'm going to give up on for a while, at least until i have a shed or something where i can put it. my kitchen is very happy now that it doesn't stink of fermenting cabbage.
  

saturday:

• brunch at belga. broodje ei (eggs in a basket, essentially). la chouffe.
  
• dinner at bistro du coin. hanger steak and mussels. everything was good, but the lemon custard dessert was the standout. simple, but very good.
  
• beers at pharmacy bar and dan's cafe
  

sunday:

• grill some leftover sausage
  
• post on dr.com
  
• realize i'm broke and it's a week til payday
  

I'll probably be at work late-ish (i went out for lunch and then to the gym so i have gotten very little done), but I'm thinkin about getting a late dinner at the bar at Circle Bistro....probably like 8:30? Anybody else is welcome to join, just lemme know.

Jamie: "If you can fit more fat into the pig, you should."

So fun. I had my doubts about the amount of fat we larded that piggie with, but the man was right. Not an ounce too much.

The stuff I brought:

Beer-Thyme Mustard (almost verbatim from A Pinch Of

1/4 cup brown mustard seeds

1/4 cup yellow mustard seeds

3/4 cup flat amber beer

1 Tablespoon mustard flour

1 Tablespoon dried minced onion

2 teaspoons dried thyme leaves

1/2 cup cider vinegar

1 teaspoon salt

Soak the mustard seeds in the beer overnight. About 20 minutes before you are ready to make the mustard, stir the mustard flour, minced onion and thyme into the soaked seed mixture and allow to sit. Place the mustard mixture to a blender (or food processor) along with the vinegar and salt. Grind until the consistency of a paste, with some seeds remaining visible. Transfer to a glass jar, cover and refrigerate 4-5 days before using.

Gouda (from Home Cheese Making)

I can't find my copy of this for some reason. It's basically a washed-curd, brined cheese, which means the curds are rinsed with warm water prior to pressing, then after pressed, brined for 12 hours. air dried for 3 days, then waxed and put into a 50F fridge to age (in this case for 5 months)

Homebrew Beer: Oktoberfest (there wasn't much of this so only a few ppl got a taste)

My recipe, a hoppier, slightly higher alcohol german-style ale (festbiers are supposed to be lagers, but I have no way to lager my beers).

Homebrew raspberry mead:

Was my first attempt at mead, and the raspberry puree was added in an attempt to rescue what I deemed to be an undrinkable normal dry mead. The result turned out ok, but nothing to write home about.

If anybody wants more details on any of the above, just let me know and I'll talk your ear off.

pork porn

As always, if I took a picture that you want me to take down, just PM me. I tried to minimize faces, but there are always some.

Thanks to zora and all the others responsible for making this event happen. What a thoroughly excellent time.

more pig skin, please.

ETA: have removed any pictures with faces in them. sorry 'bout that.

OK, teams--you must name your pigs!

We get first dibs on "Babe"

I've seen sausage casings at the Big Meat counter at Eastern market...easy to get to from Arlington. best call over to see if they have any in stock.

Union Meat: 202-547-2626

http://sausagemaker.com/ is where i get my casings. i'd recommend going with actual hog casings because the collagen ones have been a bit more easily broken, in my experience. i've just been focusing on making coarse-grind sausages and just grilling them (i don't have a smoker yet).

http://schmidling.com/saus.htm is one of the resources i've been using for recipes...i've mostly been making stuff based on the bratwurst recipe but tweaked a bit.

I also bought this book: http://sausagemaker.com/index.asp?PageActi...PROD&ProdID=413 off sausagemaker, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it. It's incredible disorganized. Has a ton of recipes, but most of them are for larger quantities than I'm making, and I haven't yet tried scaling any of them down.

As far as the actual stuffing process, i definitely recommend having an extra person to help. I sometimes do it solo, and it's a pain to try and manage the input of meat as well as regulating the output into the casings. And make sure you remove the grinder plate and blade (and replace with spacer) when you're stuffing...thanks to mdt for that crucial tip.

We should all follow this same philosophy for booze.

I'm going to get wicked "stewed" saturday night.

Some buddies and I are planning to go to Rustico next thursday night around 9:30...is the bar typically full around then? The website says they take reservations after 9:30, but one of the buddies is flying in, so I'd prefer to just show up, as long as we're likely to find a spot without too much hassle.

(ETA: thursday rather than friday)

edit:

ferment everything+2: 5month-old homemade gouda, homemade mustard, beer (possibly including homebrew if i feel like tapping it off into a few champagne bottles before leaving). oh and maybe a side or two from the +2, they're still deliberating.

If there is one thing I love almost as much as my wife and food, its heavy metal. Please, please tell me where you have been going that plays death metal (though, sadly, I fear you are just joking).

Darkest Hour was on Pharmacy Bar's jukebox last time I was there. Definitely not suitable for book clubs, just a cool bar (with a decent bottled beer list). Not sure what else is on the juke, it's been a while...and the Darkest Hour may only be on the jukebox because those guys are reputed to frequent the bar. Regardless, it's one place to get your metal fix...not sure if Blackcat has any on their juke.

To bring it back on topic, what about Kramerbooks? I've only eaten there a few times, but they have a good tap list, and the food was good when I tried it. And it's a bookstore, so you can buy next meeting's book on the way out. The noise level might be borderline, though.

Personally, HECOTB works best for me. But I'm easy.

Ferment everything - I can give you a lift to HECOTB (we live directly across the street from the Forest Glen Metro).

Thanks, but the map looks like it's really close to wheaton, i'll just walk it.

Heading out now, see everybody there.

Despite spending a fair amount of time in that area of Adams Morgan, I had never gone (or even thought of going) to Cashion's until last night. A couple friends and I had an extensive meal that was very very good. The play-by-play follows, but forgive me for forgetting the details of what each dish was called:

split a couple appetizers:

lamb short ribs (not sure if that's right): good but nothing to write home about

exotic mushrooms with cornmeal cake (not sure that's exactly right): almost stole the entire show. incredibly tasty, perfect balance, and the texture of the cornmeal thing was excellent: soft and creamy inside, lightly seared and crispy on the outside. a delight.

new orleans filé gumbo: moderately spicy, with good chunks of seafood. please sir, may i have some more?

hanger steak with broccoli and potatoes au gratin: the hanger steak was amazing. perfectly cooked to medium rare, and an absolute delight. The broccoli was a complete afterthought, but the potatoes weren't bad. Just hard to stand up to such a beautiful steak.

cheese plate - some very good cheese, a nice way to wrap up the meal

port - i don't remember what kind it was, but they only had one on offer, and it was very disappointing. I really like a glass of port, especially with a cheese plate, and what we got was a thin, overly-boozy version.

All in all, a top-notch meal. The steak and the mushroom appetizer were the highlights, but everything was well-executed and the service was impeccable. Now, if only the beer selection wasn't so terrible (no draft lines, 4 in bottles: bud, heineken, amstel light, and redhook ESB, the only acceptable choice)...

I'm headed to the Cap City Oktoberfest in Shirlington today. If anybody else is going, come say hi. PM if you don't know what I look like.

Of course! We love noobs.

I think I'm game, but are either of these places near a metro that I could (hypothetically) be picked up at, and is anybody willing to do the picking up? I'm coming from dupont...shady grove looks like the best option (at least for new fortune...i'm not sure what HECOTB is)

All Beers tasted will be available for order/purchase at special prices!

1) Brasserie De Glazen Toren

2) Brasserie La Rulles

3) De Dolle Brouwers

- Oerbier Special Reserva (Matured in Bordeaux Casks)

4) Brasserie Des Franches-Montagnes

1) This is on my birthday.

2) This is the day before the friday oyster riot session.

3) I have never had any of the beers from #1, #2, or #4, and that's not a statement I'm used to making about belgian breweries.

4) The Oerbier Special Reserva is one of the best beers I've ever had, hands down, and is reason enough to go to this tasting.

And I was doing reasonably well on rationing money. There goes $70 + as much oerbier reserva as I can carry.

Anybody else thinking about going?

I'll bring corn sticks and a case of White Stag IPA, the perfect accompaniment to chili.

there's only room for one white stag in this neck of the woods!

seriously, though, what is this beer? google turns up nada.