edenman

Had a great meal at the bistro last night. The veal sweetbread (which I'd never had before, and only found out later what it actually is) was excellent, and the fried oysters were an excellent touch. Split a crabcake appetizer, which was also quite good. My only gripe is that the pint of Old Rasputin Imperial Stout that I had to drink was $11. Granted, it's a high-alcohol beer, and one you don't see much in the area, but still....$11? When Bedrock had it on tap, it was $6 a pint (which admittedly, was a steal).

Anyway, beer price aside, Eve is not someplace I can afford to return to frequently, but definitely keeping it in mind the next time I need a really good meal...the tasting menu would be perfect for a special event.

(considering they close on what, saturday?)

Apparently I just pulled that date out of my ass (no idea where I thought I heard Sept 2, but I definitely thought that was it). The grill is indeed open tomorrow and friday. All's well that ends...with a pork shoulder sandwich.

I just got mine for friday night. can't wait.

the takeaway message for me from last time is to take notice of which ones are the most popular, and make sure you hit them before they run out.

here's hoping they have some decent beers this time around...I'm not holding my breath, though.

Trekked out to old town this afternoon for some fried food at Eamonn's. Had the batter burgher (a generic hamburger patty coated in batter and deep fried) and a small fries, and split a fried snickers with a friend. Add in a Harp (they're serving beer and wine, but the PX isn't open yet), and I had a filling lunch for ~$16. The burgher was good, but the fries were the highlight for me, and I felt like I should've gone for the cod, it looked awesome. The various sauces were great, although the one that came by default, the curry, was not that great. I had the Chesapeake (simple, old bay + mayo), and my friends tried some of the others (Kitty O'Shea?) and also quite approved. And the fried snickers was a melted mess of absolute deliciousness. All in all, a winner, and I dropped off my knife at La Cuisine a few blocks away for sharpening. Now, I just have to return tuesday to pick it up, and decide whether I want to try Eve or just hit the Chipper again and try the cod this time.

It's a good dilemma to have.

I wonder if theres a correlation between liking good food and liking good music.....I'm seeing more and more familiar looking screen names from the 9.30 club board on here in recent weeks.

and thats great news about a second Birchmere.....my aching bones find it harder and harder to stand for hours at gigs

I find that after I drink a couple North Coast Old Rasputin Imperial Stouts at the 9:30 club, my bones ache less (or maybe they're still complaining but I don't care enough to listen).

In my experience, people that like good food tend to be much more exploratory about things in all other areas of life, music included. Of course it doesn't always go the other way...plenty of my music nerd/snob friends are not at all interested in coming with me to good restaurants. Could be the budget thing too, though...they spend too much money on new albums to really eat out that much

I've never been to the Grill (though I have been to Galileo and the Lab a few times), as my office was up in Columbia or Baltimore for the previous 11 years. And an hour each way was more than I could really afford for lunch time. But now that I am downtown, today the stars aligned, and I had a break in my day during the open hours of the Grill.

OH.

MY.

GOD.

Pork shoulder, provolone (broccoli requested but not present), green sauce, peppers, onions - this would have been worth the 1 hour drive from Baltimore. And the cannoli...

Now it's time for a food coma.

Today's dilemma: scheduled to play racquetball at 12:15 (near impossible with a pork shoulder in my belly) and not enough time after racquetball to still make it to the grill.

Solution: go buy sandwich at 11:50, head back to office, deposit in fridge, go play racquetball, return. Microwave the pork, throw the top and bottom roll on the foreman grill. When both have been rejuvinated, unite, and eat.

Verdict: not as good as it is when fresh, but a damn fine approximation.

Oh, and I heard Roberto say that the bread this week was purchased, not baked on the premises. Experimentation, but not in the kitchen...maybe trying to find a good supplier for when he may not have the facility that can bake bread anymore? Anybody know if the new space has a smaller kitchen?

Heard of Google? Check out ask the meat man.

Bottom line, not really.

from that article: "Wrap the meat in immaculately clean, large, plain white cotton dish towels and place it on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator - which is the coldest spot."

this might be answered elsewhere, but I've heard conflicting reports as to what is the "coldest part" of the fridge. I understand that cold air is heavier and thus gravity tends to make the bottom of the fridge the coldest, but my mother (a nutritionist) had told me that the top shelf, just near the place where the cold freezer air enters the main compartment, is the coldest in most fridges.

I suppose I should just leave a thermometer in each spot and check them to see, but does anybody have any insight into this discrepancy? Mom has been wrong before, but I get the impression that this is a much more fridge-model dependent thing than the normal literature would make it out to be.

Wednesday and Thursday this week

For what it's worth (considering they close on what, saturday?), looks like they're experimenting with yet another new bread this week again. Contrary to last weeks (which was an artisan bread, very open crumb with hard crust), this one is much more sandwich-friendly, resembling a kaiser roll, and thus able to contain all/most of the sauce from a pork shoulder + mustard. I think I even prefer this bread to any of the previous ones...it's better sandwich material than last week's, and it's less greasy than the one from circa 1 month ago.

Get your fix while you can.

Wednesday and Thursday this week

So I have the idea of having a pig roast this fall, but I have no clue how to go about either ordering a whole pig or cooking it. If anyone has any/some experience, I would greatly appreciate some advice. Thanks

I've done this once, and we went with Union Meat in Eastern Market. I called ahead a few weeks just to make sure they could secure one, but I think you can get away with ordering as little as a week beforehand. The pig I got was frozen but they thawed it for me, so it was ready to go when I got it.

As for cooking methods, I rented a rotisserie from Brooke Rental (they have a few locations, we got ours in Arlington). It was $75 for the weekend, and they didn't require any rigorous cleaning of the thing afterwards, just that we got rid of the charcoal.

It took us 11 bags of charcoal and about 13 hours to cook an 80lb pig (which cost around $200 at union meat, although I think prices have gone up since then). I highly recommend it, although if your friends are as cheap as most of mine, it's not a cheap weekend

I sure like the Reuben at So's Your Mom, in Adams Morgan. It's not on the menu but they're happy to throw one together. Post Pub and Luna Grill both have decent versions as well.

Yea, I second the So's Your Mom thumbs up. My only gripe with them is that they close at 3pm on Sundays, so when heading up to Bedrock for some Sunday afternoon pool, they're usually closed. And I suppose that's why the peruvian chicken place across the street (Granja de Oro) is my go-to on those days. mmm, fried yucca.

I smoke my Thanksgiving turkey every year. I wish I had a real smoker, but I have to improvise with my Weber kettle. A 14 pound turkey is about the biggest I can do. I use a 24 hour herb brine in advance (in an ice chest, since there's no room in my fridge). I always rinse, dry and oil the turkey before putting it in the smoker. I put it in unstuffed, though a loose aggregation of onions and herbs probably wouldn't affect the heat/smoke penetration to the interior too much. I make a circle of charcoal around the perimeter of the fire grate, put a drip/steam tray filled with white wine, onion celery, carrot and herbs in the center, drizzle wet wood chips on the coals and set the turkey above the drip tray, breast side up. I seal the seam between the lid and the base with foil for the initial smoke period and leave the top vent open partway.

After about 45 minutes, I remove the foil, add some more charcoal, and assess the color of the bird. If it doesn't seem smoky-looking enough, I might add some more wet smoke chips, but I usually don't because I like lightly smoked meat so the turkey flavor is still there. Basting is a waste of effort, because the skin gets kind of crusty, and the liquid just runs off it. The liquid in the tray is what keeps the meat moist anyway, so I'll add a little bit of hot water to the tray, if it has boiled down too far. I don't turn the bird.

Once the bird is done, I strain what is left in the drip tray and add it to the gravy. Never had any complaints, and often have heard: "This is the best turkey I've ever eaten."

Zora, what do you use for the "drip/steam" tray?

I'm definitely going to have to start using my "I didn't want to pay for a real 22inch weber" grill to do some smoking, and this definitely sounds like the sort of thing that it would be perfect for (although I want to try making pastrami at some point)

I've always enjoyed the reuben at Childe Harold (downstairs) -for a belly full of grilled gooey greasy goodness.

Just found this thread. The reuben is one of my go-to order things when I'm looking for lunch joints. The Luna Grill version is currently one of my faves, but for takeout, there are several that are accetable: Best Sandwich Place, Capital Grounds, and Sunrise Cafe are all pretty good. More details at the site in my sig (just do a search on "reuben") </plug>

First of all, a huge "Thank You" to gnatharobed and the wonderful people at A&J for hosting us this evening. The staff was so very welcoming and the food... Wow! Great food at a great price.

Everything I ate was delicious. Favorites at our table included the Wonton Soup, Kao Fu (Vegetarian Delight w/Gluten, Dry Bean Curd & Mushrooms), Ma La Er Si (Sliced Pork Ears w/Hot & Spiced Seasoning) and all the assorted dumplings. And the Dou Sha Su Bing (Red Bean Paste Pastry) was the perfect finish to the evening.

Lastly, it was great to see everyone and put faces to screen names. But I will refrain from naming names (real or screen) as to who had too much to drink at the last picnic to remember who they met and who is simply too much of a Texan to walk a few blocks.

Hey, I resemble that remark

But seriously, good food, good times. The veggie delight may well have been the highlight for me, although those potstickers were pretty excellent (and the spicy cucumber was a nice start). The value for the dollar at this place is the real story for me. You can eat well for $10, and you can feast, as we did, for $15.

I can still taste that smoked chicken

It was listed on the chalkboard (bottles only), but you might want to double check that they still have it.

I've got no idea about the Gaithersburg location, but the only place I've been able to find it was at the P st Whole Foods. I heard reports that even Chevy Chase liquors didn't have any (granted, this was around a month ago). Probably best to call WF before you make the trip, though. I only saw it there on and off and I haven't looked recently.

As for the beer, it's not my favorite of theirs (and I liked it much better in its previous incarnation, Prescription Pils), but it's not a bad imperial pils. Still got a bottle in the fridge, waiting for next time I have somebody over who will appreciate it. Or maybe I'll just keep the bottle as a collector's item, as I've heard that the name's approval has been revoked for the next round. Anybody suprised?

My 71 year old mother wants to use irradiated eggs for making fresh mayonnaise, but I haven't been able to find any.

Does anybody know where to find them?

(This isn't my idea.)

When contemplating my first batch of mayonnaise about a year or so ago, I thought about using irradiated or pasteurized eggs...though a little research doesn't seem to indicate they're the same process, the results on salmonella seem to be the same. Anyway, I looked at Safeway and Whole Foods, and at the time, neither carried them. I used normal eggs and they were fine, but if I were making mayo for a 71 year old, I might've hunted more. Haven't noticed recently if any have started showing up in stores.

Anybody willing to pick me up at the rockville metro? (it's 1.7 miles, dunno if i really wanna walk it)

or even better, anybody willing to pick me up at dupont?

Well, mark me down as coming...I've got one offer for a ride from rockville. Still soliciting offers from somewhere closer to Dupont, but I'll be there regardless.

If we can get a group of 6 the price is only $71 verus $85 (They are also available at King Arthur Flour).

Anybody else in on this? I'm tempted to get one at $85, but if we can get em for $71 I'd obviously much prefer that.

Anybody willing to pick me up at the rockville metro? (it's 1.7 miles, dunno if i really wanna walk it)

or even better, anybody willing to pick me up at dupont?

The Glover Park store of WFM was the first store in DC and it offered beer and wine under the one liscense per owner law. When the new store at P was in development, WFM lobbied and got the city council to pass a law allowing multiple stores in the city to have a license if they met certain criteria regarding redevelopment. The conditions are quite specific and I was not part of that negotiation. I was the person who negotaiated the restrictions at WFM P Street which is why the store cannot sell single beers. I tried to get an exception for Belgian beers... ie WFM P would not sell any single beer for less than $2.49 a bottle. The opposition just thought we meant to sell Mickey's big mouths for a huge profit I guess, but no single Belgians! Or 22oz Microbrews. And the liquor store next door continued to sell its cheap crus large bottles well after we opened!

Ah, now it makes sense why the P st WF always has two-bottle packages that involve the bottles being wrapped together with tape. Always confused the heck out of me since I had seen single bottle sales at other locations. It's sorta annoying when you just want to try a new beer that is packaged in 22oz or 750ml bottles, but heck, the convenience of being able to get good beer at reasonable prices is well worth it. Whoever runs the beer selection at the P St location gets a tip of the hat from me: they've almost always got something that I either haven't had or just haven't had in a while. Yesterday it was the Lagunitas Sirius, a "high-gravity cream ale". Not the best Lagunitas offering, but not bad.

1. The best places I've found to get "fatty" ducks are Great Wall Supermarket on Gallows Rd. in Merrifield, or Super H on Lee Highway in Fairfax. They are both reliable sources of fresh ducks at $1.99 a pound. You'll pay 2 or 3 times as much for a fresh duck at Whole Foods. Frozen ducks are available at most supermarkets and Asian markets, cheaper at the latter.

2. For a "new batch" of fresh duck fat, I buy a whole duck and 4-6 legs. You can find duck legs for sale at Han ah Reum at the corner of Lee Highway and Gallows Rd. in Merrifield. They usually only have frozen whole ducks at HaR, so I buy the legs there, and get a fresh duck at Great Wall, down the road, which may or may not have legs that they sell separately. Render all of the skin from the whole duck and the skin from the duck legs, and you will have enough fat to confit all the meat. Then you'll have a nice big tub of fat in your fridge for future batches of confit. I boned out the breast meat, salted and smoked it in my stovetop smoker and then made duck stock from the wings and the frame. Be sure and smell the duck legs before you buy at HaR, to make sure they are fresh. I've gotten burned a couple of times.

3. When you make a beef roast and Yorkshire Pudding, the pudding is cooked in the rendered fat from the roast, so I don't agree that it has no flavor. However, the best use for rendered beef fat is to pour it over peanuts and sunflower seeds in a mold and then hang it up for birds to eat in your yard, in the winter. Cardinals and woodpeckers love it.

4. I have rendered pork fat trimmings to make lard, but pork belly works a lot better. The Asian markets where you get ducks and duck legs are the place to get pork belly. Cut it into small cubes and render in the oven. Fat will keep for a long time in the freezer, as long as it is well-wrapped.

Wow, that's excellent, thanks for the info. I see a zipcar trip in my future.

3) One downside of living in the city is having no "yard" as such I've got a courtyard but my neighbors might not approve if I started installing bird feeders in the common area.

4) A friend of mine undertook a project to make bacon, and she got her pork belly from Wagshall's (they had to order it for her). I imagine it's cheaper to get it from the Asian markets, I'll tell her to try there next time too.

Again, thanks. Google only gets you so far, and then local expertise is really helpful in getting started in these sorts of things.

I've never actually been to chicago, but I've been to the airport a few times now, and if my layover is long enough, I always head to this little hot dog stand in between two terminals where they have Goose Island Honker Ale on tap. It's a bit dumpy, but for that two hour layover, it's not a bad spot to hang out. The hot dogs aren't great (they don't have sauerkraut either), but they could be worse. And the beer's good

My info is the same as Chris's. I CAN'T WAIT. I live at 26th and K and cannot wait to abandon that ratty Watergate-GWU Safeway.

Ah, watergate safeway, could you have been any worse? Terrible selection, useless produce section, and very questionable meats...thank god I live near a Whole Foods now. That place is awful and I imagine it will take a huge hit when the TJ's opens up...the only people that will still go there are the elderly folks who live in the Watergate and don't want to walk the very few blocks to the TJ's. If the TJ's takes Colonial Cash (the GW food points, might be called something else by now, who knows), the effect will be tremendous.

Signed,

BS/MS-CS, '04 (lived on campus the whole time)

Yes, although they didn't have a jar lifter when I needed one (said they would get more). I found one at Ace Hardware in Chantilly. They don't carry Pickle Crisp, I found that at the Food Lion in Fair Lakes. Pickle Crisp is calcium chloride, if you look on the label of your favorite Kosher dills you'll probably see it as an ingredient. In addition to Fishers, Ace, and Food Lion, you can find stuff at Walmart, Giant and Safeway. This is seasonal for most stores except Fisher, who seems to carry stuff year 'round. Or buy online.

...

I used the hot water method for pickles, even though the best ones are fermented. I am a coward.

I got my mason jars at the Ace hardware in Dupont (on 17th south of R), and pectin at safeway, when I tried to make orange marmalade. I also use the "quick process" method for my pickles, although fermenting them is obviously on the horizon. I'm not particularly into sweets, so my canning needs are fairly light, although I do need to get a jar lifter at some point...I haven't done any boiling of my jarred goods.

I render and save two kinds of fat--pork lard and duck fat (any available bacon fat goes on my dog's dinner, because I love her so much). When I buy duck legs for confit, I often remove the skin before salting the legs, then cut up and render the skin in the oven, which gives me both duck fat and cracklings. I pour off the fat as it renders out, so that it doesn't get too dark, and roast the cracklings until they are crispy. Then I cook the salted legs by submerging them in rendered duck fat (in the oven at a relatively low temperature for a long time, so there is no risk of burning the fat) to make the confit, which I serve with the cracklings. Duck fat that has been used to cook confit can be saved and used again, and will keep in the fridge for months, though it does become salty.

Pork lard can be made two ways--kettling or roasting. Kettling is best for lard that will be used for pie crust. It is made by grinding pork fat and cooking it in water. The fat melts and rises to the top--cracklings should be skimmed off, and the water can be boiled off, or the pot chilled and the fat lifted off the next day. Oven rendered lard has more of a roast pork-y taste and is best for savory uses, like in refried beans, tamales, or sauteeing meat, like schnitzel. I make it by buying fresh pork belly (not salted or cured) at one of the Korean markets, then cutting it into cubes and rendering in the oven. As with the duck skin, I pour off the fat periodically as it renders out, and roast the cracklings until they are golden and crisp.

I generally do not save and re-use fat that has rendered out during meat cooking-- sometimes I pour a little bit onto the dog's kibble.

So I had lunch at Kinkead's for Restaurant Week today, and had a soup that had duck confit in it (which was tremendous). I wasn't familiar with duck confit except by name, so I looked up a ton of recipes online and plan on making this one of my next projects (it's not fermented, but cured is close enough, right? ) A few questions:

1) Raisa or anyone else, do you have any particular recommendations for places to buy the fatty ducks necessary for confit? I live in Dupont and have no car, so something metroable is preferable, although I can zipcar if there aren't any metro-friendly options

2) Zora, how much fat do you generally get off a given duck leg? In particular, how many do I need to make in order to render enough fat to cover the legs?

3) Whenever I buy chuck roasts, I tend to trim off a portion of the fat as I'm cutting the roast into smaller pieces, and I have been saving the fat in the freezer. From reading around online, I've found conflicting reports on the culinary value of beef tallow (rendered beef fat)...most places say it has no flavor and thus doesn't contribute much, but then I've found a few places where people claim it is useful when frying, etc. Anybody tried this? If not, apparently tallow makes great candles

4) If I were going to make pork lard, would it be better to just buy the pork belly, or would it work to just save my pork fat trimmings for a while in the freezer and do the rendering once I've got a respectable amount? (or: how long will pork fat keep in the freezer?)

God I love stuff like this. Food project!