edenman

Wow, misread that. I don't know whether to salute you or run away screaming. (side computer nerd joke: the mythical man month principle applies to mixing drinks, apparently)

Coke with red wine...........................kalimocho, anyone?

Chuck roast from whole foods, trimmed of a little fat then ground (+ kosher salt and pepper) and formed into a hamburger patty. Grilled over hardwood charcoal to medium rare, on a toasted bun with mayo on the bottom and homemade mustard on top. Sometimes, simple = good. Strike that. Most of the time, simple = good.

My interest in all things cooking began, not at home, but after college, when I started brewing beer at a more serious level than during college. It was this expanded interest that branched into the cheesemaking, which gradually expanded into other food areas and thus into the enjoyment of good food. I still don't do a whole lot of exciting cooking (mostly just fried rice, pizza, burgers on the grill), but the food projects are going strong, and I do cook the occasional random recipe when the mood strikes me. In short, I learned to cook from the internet. Thanks, internet!

Re: Iron City Rustico had it on tap last time I was there. There's definitely something to be said for these beers, if only for the nostalgia making them enjoyable. Hard to get nostalgic about miller lite. Me, I get nostalgic about the first time I had Aventinus, or my first Old Rasputin.

mussels and frites at Monk's, with their flanders red to drink...mmmm....how much is the chinatown bus to philly again? Nodding Head also has some great beers. You could spend several evenings in that city and never go to the same place twice but also be at a great beer bar or brewpub. In other beer-y news, I recently took a week-long brewery trip up through Maine, and had some really solid stuff at a few of their breweries...Andrew's, Bar Harbor, and a couple in Portsmouth, Smuttynose and the Portsmouth Brewpub. Lots of english brewing influence, so lighter on the hops than in other regions of the country (read: west coast IPAs). I'll post more details later, but suffice to say it was alot of fun and beer (and lobster!). Most of the breweries we went to don't distribute down this far, but Geary's and Smuttynose can both be found in DC. Good stuff on both counts.

re: marmalade...I had a candy thermometer, and I think the temperature was ok, but who knows. I think scaling it up was the problem...I had a whole case of ~25 seville oranges, and rather than do several smaller batches, I tried to just do the whole lot. Yea, I'm gonna try crushing up my salt next time...since I'm using kosher salt I theorized that maybe it was too coarse and wasn't leeching up enough water. For containment I have an old celery storage thing that has a wicker-like plastic thing that i weighed down with a couple jars of the marmalade. I keep my apartment at around 70, so I think the temperature is probably ok. Sadly, I live in a basement studio, so there's no basement for my basement. Yea, I just have a waist-high fridge for the cheese, and I had to get a temperature regulator to keep it at 50F. And adoption sounds good to me. Adopted kids always had the coolest toys.

Just found this thread, so i'll weigh in. Roughly in order of least cool to most cool: -Bake bread with spent grains from brewing beer. Also been making rye...still struggling with both recipes and procedure since I just started last fall and it takes me a while to get through two loaves of bread. -Pickles: quick process (not fermented). easy and fun to tweak. -Orange Marmalade: only tried once, and it was a colossal failure (didn't gel) and a huge batch (of then unusable orange syrup/sauce/meh). -Mustard: got a few pounds of mustard seeds from Penzey's spices and started making small test batches. Good stuff so far, but my blender is weak so they're still pretty grainy. Need mortar/pestle. Aiming for this to be part of a ridiculous Oktoberfest party. -Sauerkraut: as mentioned before on this thread, except the two times I tried it, I don't think I shredded the cabbage finely enough, as it didn't quite leech out enough moisture to submerge the cabbage in its own juices, and the smell of the rotting/fermenting cabbage made my kitchen reek to high heaven. Will be trying again soon, again for Oktoberfest party. -Sausage: a few successful goes at bratwurst. Planning on preserved/fermented sausages once I have a larger place (and some place to age them aside from my living room). For now, they are fresh and the grill is their destination. I'm gonna see if I can make some more of these, and maybe some hot-dog style buns for them. Anybody tried that before? (hot-dog buns) -Cheese: in the past, everything from brined cheeses, cheddar infused with oak barrel stout, and simple fresh cheeses. lately, been working on Gouda, trying to get the moisture level right since I recently got a cheese press. Once I work out the moisture level kinks, I'd like to mostly just make Gouda and age for 1yr+. I brought a block of 2mo old gouda to the spring picnic. -Beer: mostly high-gravity specialty ales. Imperial Honey Kolsch (making up your own style is fun!), Imperial Red, Double IPA, Imperial Stout, Belgian Dubbel with sour cherries, etc etc. The 3-tap keg fridge in my living room = awesome. Next on the brew schedule is a 7% oktoberfest ale for the party (I don't have a lagering fridge....yet). I'm sure i've forgotten something, but for now that covers it. Most of these came about from situations like "I wonder how you make ____" or simply an episode of Good Eats.

For the authenticity perspective, I just got back from a week-long trip up the Maine coast, where I made it a quest to try as many lobster rolls as budgetary and belly-filling constraints would allow. My favorite ended up being at Red's Eats in Wiscasset, which was a whole lobster worth of meat (a ton!), and very little dressing (maybe none at all, actually). Simple, delicious. I'm far from an expert on lobster (having grown up in Texas), but I had one roll that had a noticable amount of mayo on it (Kittery Point), and I couldn't stand it...it was also on a hamburger bun, however, so that might've played a part. fwiw.

Malbec - wine Malpeque - oysters. Learn something new every day. Mmmm, happy hour...

hit corduroy for the first time tonight with my girlfriend. summary: me: half-dozen oysters (malbec? can't remember for sure) with champagne mignonette - great, sweet and briny, nice and meaty half order of soft-shell crab. just great. succulent, over lettuce with a great complementary sauce vanilla bean creme brulee - no need to mess with a classic. delicious christina: beef strip loin - i had a couple bites, and this was perfectly cooked, and very tasty. blueberry tart - this was the only slight facet of the meal that wasn't perfect. it was good, just wasn't great. I was pleasantly suprised to find a quite respectable beer list full of semi-unknown beers and thankfully lacking the bud/miller/coors ilk. Had a geary's summer and an anderson valley IPA, then finished with a glass of dow's 20-year tawny. Volnay pinot noir for christina, and although I'm not a wine person, i quite enjoyed my small taste. Very drinkable, light on the tannin, earthy and mildly fruity. A bigger splurge than normal for us, but worth every penny, especially considering the number of courses and drinks. We'll be back. My only regret was that I didn't get to try the scallops (or a soup, this pea one you guys are talking about sounds awesome).

Ate at rustico last night for a friend's birthday. I shared the crab dip (i don't remember the details but it was good) and had a pepperoni and salami pizza with peperoncino. The pizza was good, but I wasn't blown away. I remember the burger being excellent on my previous trip there, and the homemade ketchup (smoked red pepper?) being truly great. All that said: the beer selection is fantastic, and the service was great both times I've been. Last night in particular, the waitress misheard my first beer order and brought the wrong thing (I ordered the stoudt's double IPA but she brought a pint of scarlet lady). When I asked what the pint was, she realized the error and let me keep the scarlet lady while she went to go get the replacement beer. I followed it up with the breckenridge oatmeal stout, not a common beer out here (i don't even know if the brick/RFD has this...anyone know?) which was great. If this place was easier to get to, I would be there on a regular basis. Ok, that's all. </rave>

Beer: The Horse Brass - English Pub, excellent ambience and great beer lineup Hair of the Dog - brand of beers brewed in Portland. If you see them, get them. Alameda - one of the few Portland brewpubs that stood out Tugboat - Live music, good beers (although they brew in plastic so lots of other brewers look down at them) Food: Higgins - Tremendous (and a great beer lineup to boot!) Awesome city. I want to live there.

For what it's worth, the Fantome Pissenlit is a Belgian beer brewed with Dandelions. It is truly excellent. Last time I was at the Brickskeller, they were out, but if you ever see a bottle (750ml) definitely give it a shot.

Anybody been to this place and/or heard if it's any good? I'm Looking for a place to try Bacalhau as I haven't had it before and sadly don't have the money for a plane ticket to Portugal or Brazil at the moment. The only other place I could find in the DC area is Tavira, but Caravela is a more metro accessible. Mmmm....salted fish...

Ate dinner at Georgia Brown's last night. My girlfriend had a buy-one-entree-get-one-free coupon, so we took advantage. Thoughts: Beer selection: terrible, but I didn't expected much. still, would it kill you to carry sierra nevada or something with at least a tiny bit of hops? I had a passable amber (J Paul's or somesuch) but it didn't stand up to the food at all. Fried Green Tomatoes (appetizer): quite good, possibly the best thing I had. nicely fried, crispy tomato inside, and the sauce ("Lemon-Cayenne Mayonnaise") was excellent Fried Catfish (entree): Good, but nowhere near as good as fried catfish can be (the cornflake-crusted catfish I had at kramerbooks was better, imo, and was much cheaper). The side of cajun rice that came with this was suprisingly excellent. Macaroni and cheese (side): not my favorite. a bit too oily and not creamy at all. Overall, a quite good meal (lots of food as well), but I'm not sure if I'll go back anytime soon without another coupon or the like.

Not a whole lot else that needs to be said, but I'll chime in anyway. First off, pictures are here. As always, let me know if anyone wants a particular picture taken down. As far as the food goes, it was pretty good. I thought the calamari was good despite not being hot, although I wasn't as much of a fan of the tiradito that I had (snapper I think?)...it wasn't bad, just seemed like the sauce was overwhelming any of the flavor of the fish. The strawberries were quite good, and the tuna sashimi was excellent. Quality stuff.

Nice. I'm also a sucker for the sandwiches at Tacos Pepitos II bakery in Adams Morgan. Delicious, and very reasonably priced.

The list as I can think of it at the moment: Lunch: Nooshi Greek Deli Capital BBQ (when I have time to get there) Chipotle (it is what it is) Galileo Grill (just started going but i can already tell) Beer only: Bedrock Billiards (love.this.bar) RFD/Brickskeller Black Cat Big Hunt The Raven Food only: Tacos Pepitos II Old Ebbitt (oyster happy hour) Dinner + Beer: Cafe St. Ex Kramerbooks & Afterwords Matchbox to clarify, places marked "beer only" or "food only" may also have the other, but I generally don't get them there. old ebbitt is much better at food than they are at beer, and RFD is much bettter at beer than they are at food.

Just had my first Galileo Grill experience (yea, I don't know why it took me this long). Called in to beat the possible line, and I was a little disappointed. First off, they messed up the order (got broccoli rabe instead of provolone on my pork shoulder) and as a result, I thought the sandwich was a little too focused on the greens. The pork was quite good, but sorta overwhelmed. For me the bread was the winner. I plan on returning thursday to try ordering in person to avoid order mixups, and to make sure the sandwich doesn't sit idle: a couple of my coworkers got meatball subs and theirs were decidedly soggy by the time we walked 2 blocks back to the office. All complaints aside, what a deal: $23 for 4 big, good, sandwiches is really hard to beat. I'm thinkin hot dog next time, spicy mustard and sauerkraut. mmm

I'm Eric. I have a nerdy food-blog-googlemaps-website (EricEatsLunch) which is more focused on getting decent food at cheap-lunch prices than on eating the actual best food. I used to be a bartender but I'm taking a break from that. I brew beer, bake bread with the spent grains, make cheese, have dabbled in making sausage, mayonnaise, marmalade (failed), sauerkraut (failed twice), mead, and I'm sure I'm forgetting a few others. I like to make food products more than I like cooking dishes. I eat fine dining when I can, but I'm on a limited budget so more frequently just end up eating grilled cheese in my apartment. I am addicted to Good Eats and owe my foodie inclination mostly to it. These websites are fun. I look forward to being a very effective lurker and occasionally chiming in.

Hey all, my first post. I was one of the Shogun crew, and I think I can speak for all of us when I say that the event was amazing. It was fun meeting you all, and the food was fantastic. My pictures from the day (with comments inline): http://synik.myvnc.com:8008/~eric/pics/062...ies/page01.html Let me know if any of you want your pictures removed.