tenunda

I have two favorites: The Best Recipe: Here it is on Froogle and one that is from the Surprise Valley Chamber of Commerce from Cedarville, CA. It's full of recipes from folks I know, and has some surprising (ha ha!) variety (i.e., recipes from people's "old countries"). You have to watch out for the numerous recipes that use cream of mushroom soup though...

The 18th is already full. I think she's adding a 25th tasting, though.

I had the pork shoulder today as well, and got some extra-fatty pieces that I didn't love. I just picked the fat off though, no harm no foul. I've noticed that the sauce is a little less piquant the last two days. I liked the old way, but the new way certainly isn't bad. In re: peppers, they are already on the bread before it's loaded with meat. I've never even seen non-peppered sandwiches. I suppose you could ask them to scrape them off for you, but you might get dirty looks from the rest of us in line...

Other than being a little MIA at the end, I remember the waiter being supremely capable. The food was good too. No complaints there at all. I remember my soup being excellent. Even the squab was delicious. I think the crazy diners can be seen everywhere in DC. We're in a place where people seem to be particularly insecure and choose to reinforce their egos by shitting on their waitstaff.

At the (thankfully) now-defunct Rupperts, off of Mt. Vernon Square, I was a partial victim of a gigantic scam. We held a friend's birthday dinner there, and upon making the reservation a week before, asked that they prepare a birthday cake (which we planned to pay for). Confirming the reservation for our group two days before, I asked about the cake, and they said a cake would be ready. We got there, all 15 of us, and had a very good--if a little overpriced meal. When it was time for the cake, the waiter walked out with this teetering stack of individual cakes. It looked like an 18-inch tower of fat pancakes. Mouths agape, we stared as he started around the table giving everyone a cake, which turned out to be just puff pastry with whip cream and chocolate on top; it was totally pedestrian. We were disappointed, and I was mad at myself for not requesting a particular cake, but when the bill came, that's when it started. By "it," I mean the shitstorm. The place had charged us 12 dollars for cake--for each cake. That means the cake was $180 bucks, plus tax. FOR PUFF PASTRY. Maybe the chocolate was made with some kind of endangered animal, but I doubt it. This was, obviously, outrageous. Incensed, I went into the kitchen (since the restaurant was otherwise empty), and asked for an explanation. They said "you ordered a cake." What?! Great answer, assholes. Huge scam. We ended up paying $40 dollars for the "cake." We should have stole things from there; what a rip-off. I still refuse to eat at Perry's, which scooped up the owner/chefs from that place. Edited for misspellings, again. I misspelled "misspellings."

Given the impending opening of Acadiana, I'm surprised I haven't heard much here about the Jeff Tunks/Chris Clime project. Does anyone have news?

There's a Popeye's across the street from best friend's apartment, and we constantly find ourselves sitting on her balcony staring at it, smelling the smell of fried, and watching how many cops run through there. It's like that scene in The Dark Crystal where they strap that girl gelfling to a chair and hypnotize her with that weird light-emitting furnace. Anyway, it's always a struggle not to go in. Since she's a vegetarian, we can usually manage, but sometimes we cave. The food is actually pretty good, but it definitely gives you that *ugh* feeling one gets after eating fast food. We've dubbed this the "Baja Not-So-Fresh" feeling. This alone keeps us away for a couple months or so, but their popcorn chicken is the secret weapon against my defenses.

I've had a bunch of great Cap Lounge moments, especially because it tends to be the end of many a Hill pubcrawl. One particularly fine moment was owning my drunkenness and allowing my pool cue to find its own errant path directly into the kidneys of a particularly vitriolic Senator's staffer of the other party (I'm being purposefully vague, as I fear DonRocks' rabidly anti-partisan delete key ). Good times, good times.

Just called over there and they said they were just fixing the A/C. Damn.

Toscanini's is definitely the best ice cream in Cambridge. There is some amazing eating within a 20 minute walk of Inman Square, too. Harvest in Harvard Square (120 Mt. Auburn) for upscale American, Darwin's (160? Mt. Auburn, and new Broadway St just off Harvard's Campus) for incredible sandwiches, Bartley's (1500 or so Mass Ave) for good burgers and rickeys, Henrietta's Table in the Charles Hotel for great brunch and homestyle food, Tanjore (18 Eliot St.) for sublime Indian, Pinocchio's ('noch's to the locals. corner of JFK and Winthrop) for the best pizza I've ever had, and cheesesteaks to match, S&S (across from East Coast Grill) for matzoh ball soup, Dalí (Beacon and Kirkland) for good Spanish, and the list goes on. Wow. I really miss Cambridge...

Just went to Millie and Al's in AM (again), and can vouch for its dive-iness. The pitchers were so cheap, and if you arrive before 8:30, you can totally snag the window seat, which is one of the best people-watching locales in Adams Morgan. I'll also put my two cents in for Brickskeller on 22nd and P NW, Mr. Henry's on 6th and PA SE, and Trusty's (can a new bar be a dive? they serve brews in mason jars...) on 14th and PA SE. Should we be putting together a DR.com dive happy hour? We can call it the Belly Flop Hour, or maybe even just "The Bends."

I'll be there. Probably with some sort of cake and/or pie.

One thing I forgot to mention was that they presented me with my lunch in about 45 seconds. I was there, fooded, and back all in less than 3 6-minute increments.

Doc, if we meet up someday, I'll tell you a great story involving a friend of mine, a religious conference, and the jist of your pun.I was in Cheestique last night just before closing and Jill was setting up for last night's tasting. She said that she had filled over 100 spots for this tasting over the next two weeks! Who knew there was so much love for the ghastly stinky cheeses? I managed to weasel into an open spot on next Tuesday's (23rd) tasting, and was wondering if anyone went last night? Spill it, folks.

I dropped by CousCous today just before the noon rush and, as always, am full and satisfied. I went for the Chicken Tajine (sp?), which is a simple dish of chicken, basmati rice, and green olives in a tasty garlicky yellow sauce. I also had a side dish of the hummous, which is great! Their pita taste a day old, so you may want to just eat the hummous on top of your entree, or with a spoon. The service there is impeccable, and I would recommend the falafel, the mint tea, and the baklava to anyone who hasn't been.

Do you think it has something to do with the smoking ban? Maybe they're taking a pre-emptive strike on cryovac-ing.

Perhaps Palena's chicken isn't really chicken at all...

I think venison is best with little marinade, as I really enjoy the flavor. I usually go just for garlic, salt, and pepper. I suppose it depends on what the deer has been eating...

I had the meatball today. I think it can use a little more garlic.

Generally the piadine are fairly underwhelming (too few ingredients with charred flatbread), but the daily specials are pretty good most of the time. I'd stay away from the Toast Tite, as the cheeses don't really go with the sweet bread, but the chicken dalliah on Wednesdays--spicy, with peanuts!--is delicious. On a semi-related note, I really enjoy the soda selection there.

Despite being a Hill-Rat, and oft-vistor of the House side corridor, I ate at Sonoma for the first time last Thursday. I had reservations for 7, but had to wait until 7:30 for my dining associates to arrive, so I grabbed a glass of whiskey (i know i know, shame on me for whiskey at a wine bar) and relaxed. The bar was teeming with twenty and thirty somethings, and there appeared to be a fundraising happy hour going at the other end of the place. It was deafening in there. Space shuttle loud. I pictured the sound waves flying all over the place, doing gleeful little backflips from one hard surface to another as they celebrated their unchecked existence. It fit the crowd though, so I went with it. The guy behind the bar, the waiter I chatted with, and the hostess were all really nice. The hostess wasn't at all ruffled about the tardiness of my companions, and the bartender--even though he was in the weeds--was laid back but efficient. This lent a real No. Cal. feel to the place. Is there a name for attitude terroir? When we sat down to eat, my friends both got the pizza, and I had the burger medium-rare (with the taleggio and wild mushrooms). We shared one of the wines (Red and mildly spicy. i can never remember the names of wine, but it was something three words and italian. it was between the sangiovese and the pinot on the redness scale), which was great for sipping through our attempted conversation. It was still really loud. Our food came, and we laid into it. The pizza, according to my friends, was really good. Not too greasy, appropriately cheesy, with a great red sauce. The burger? Not so much. I'm the sort of guy that delights in meat's meatiness. I think the only purpose of cooking meat is to get its juices flowing. I would eat most meat raw if it were socially acceptable to do so. We used to make venison jerky under a sheet of glass in the sun, and I would let the meat barely warm up and then eat it, despite my grandmother's shit-fits about me getting "bugs." Anything above medium rare ruins the meat. You can probably see where this is going. Friends, it was a disaster. My medium rare burger came out well done. All I could taste was the cheese. The meat wasn't pink at all. It was hot in the middle. It was sandy dry. The only difference between it and the bun was density. It crushed my soul. I probably should have sent it back, but didn't. We were running late and the waiter was overtasked. I'm really disappointed about it, but am willing to go back, since the menu looked really incredible, and I don't think my heinous burger is a symptom of a larger problem.

The green sauce is incredible. I'm still floored that Chef Donna stands right there and makes your sandwich. Unreal. The grill is off this week, BTW, presumably for Resto Week. [This is a fine example of the triple-spacing problem. Rocks. *(#&$)(*@#$&]

I don't think you should use RW time on Belga. It's great for an everyday sort of place (fantastic for lunch, when it's a little less busy/cacophanous). Their frites are superlative, especially with a glass of delicious ale. Their beer list, by the way, could have a hundred options, but I would return every time to one: DeKoninck, DeKoninck, DeKoninck (also available at the Reef).

I sometimes use preserves as part of my recipes. You can remove an equal amount (or even 1.5x the amount, if you want less sweet and a little icier) of sugar as the amount of preserves you put it. The pectin really helps. I also find that you need the mix to be really really cold before you put it in the freezer if you want good texture.

Just went to the Grill. There is NO line at all, and Chef Donna is in a chatty mood. Pork Shoulder and Canoli Heaven.