PollyG

Any chance Mr. Landrum might consider adding a veggie burger to the menu? There have been any number of times when our group of friends have wanted to go, but haven't been able to since I'm a vegetarian. I know people always say "why would a vegetarian want to go to a hamburger (or steak) restaurant", and the reason is simple-- if they're with someone who wants to go have a burger!

I believe I saw a portobello option on the menu at Hell Burger Too last Saturday. I'd call in advance to confirm that it is still on the menu before heading there.

We finally made our first batch of half-sours earlier this week and devoured them rapidly. After a consultation with my grandmother-in-law, who helped run an inn in Poland as a girl, we added another batch of cukes to the same brine. Is anyone else refreshing their pickle jar this way? I did some searching on the 'net and couldn't find any references to refreshing the pickle barrel, perhaps because pickling used to be done once a year at harvest time, not in conjunction with our extended produce seasons.

Has anyone seen tamarind paste in a tube form, like the European tomato pastes? My mother-in-law has me looking for it and says she found it superior to other forms of tamarind paste, but of course she didn't make any notes about the origins of the tube. A quick google search has not yielded helpful information. We struck out at the Sterling Grand Mart.

We took my 70-something in-laws and 10 year old yesterday evening and went with the spicy and chicken broth half and half combo. The kid had the chicken broth pretty much to herself, while the 4 of us worked on the spicy side, which was certainly not lacking in flavor or szechuan peppercorns. We should have asked for a second ladle for that side; 4 people sharing 1 ladle leaves too much empty plate downtime. We had: lamb, king mushroom (giant oyster mushrooms), watercress, taro, lotus root, chicken dumplings, wide noodles and fish. Of those, I might skip the fish and watercress in the future. The fish was too delicate and didn't have much flavor on its own, even when cooked on the chicken side. The lamb was exceptionally good, probably mutton based on the strong flavor. The taro and lotus root were good texture items.

My in-laws are an interesting mixture of seasoned international travelers and food-frightened Americans. They're fine with spicy food after a trip to Thailand, but offal and meat on the bone bother them. So there was no offal this time around. I think that honeycomb tripe would do particularly well with the spicy broth, and our daughter likes tripe.

Our server was very helpful in giving us estimated cooking times for various items and telling us which ones would be done when they floated to the top. She also guided us through the sauce bar.

Total bill was around $60 for 5 stuffed people. Oh, and my in-laws want to go back for the lunch buffet now.

Forgot to mention that in the original post. Yes, I make onigiri.

I gave in to temptation at Super H today (Fairfax store on Rt. 50) and bought a heart-shaped onigiri mold. We already had the triangle shapes. Our favorite filling for the kid is flying fish roe; for the adults it is umiboshi.

What is Chung Gai-Dam?! I thought I knew 'em all.

Cheers,

Rocks

It's the same location that used to have a giant golden cow on the sign. It is accessible from the Giant parking lot, and has its back to Columbia Pike---sort of across the street from Honey Pig, but facing away from it. We had lunch there today and enjoyed the black pork belly (#3) and a ojingu dosolt bibimbap, (#15). Both dishes were particularly nice. They don't seem to do table grilling at lunch time, but we can't complain because the pork belly slices made in the kitchen were so good. Some of them were so crispy you could have passed them off as deep fried. The dosolt dish came out with a nice crust of crisped rice already formed on the bottom. The well-oiled stone pot was so hot that it was able to crisp a second layer of rice. This was served with a soy/scallion sauce rather than the usual hot bean paste. We applied it judiciously; the entire dish of the sauce would have made the rice too salty for my taste. Banchan were decent, not outstanding, but considerably better than the sad offering at Honey Pig. (I love Honey Pig, but the banchan are weak.)

Grover's $4.99 lunch special didn't seem to exist on our menu, but the dishes were $7.99 and $9.99, very reasonable for what they were.

Grover, thanks for providing the address. We would never have found it with just the name--the sign is not transliterated yet.

The Whole Dog Journal puts out annual reviews of dry foods. They include an explanation of how to evaluate unrated foods based on ingredients lists. (Disclaimer--they're squarely in the camp that views corn, soy, and animal byproducts as garbage, and they are also against BHA/BHT.) We're feeding our 2 year-old standard poodle Evo, alternating between the red meat and poultry types. We occasionally feed a bag of Into the Wild or similar other high quality food, but it is hard to find anything with an ingredient list that stands up to Evo's. We did like Blue Buffalo's ingredients, and it is carried by Petsmart, but our dog won't eat the vitamin bits, so we had to rule that one out. Our small local pet store went under in mid-June, so we've been visiting the pet store that is in the same plaza as Duck Changs when we are in Annandale. Their prices are good and they have an extensive selection of high-end dog foods.

When you use a high protein food like Evo, you end up feeding a lot less, so it can often end up not costing much more than junky food that is mostly filler. Plus, less food=less poop.

We also give our dog marrow bones several times a week, using the 2-3 inch bones that you can find in the freezer section of every Asian market in the region at $0.89 or so per pound.

Edited to add:

Evo does not have a puppy formulation, so we didn't use it until Storm was a year old (fully grown for bitch standard poodles). We used Innova prior to that.

OK, not food-related, but tool-related....

I've been having a lot of fun with this type of re-usable sandwich bag.

If you wanted to go really green, you could probably find these in post-consumer recycled materials, but that's a topic for another thread.

I like the wrap-style reusable bags over the container or closed-pocket style. Easier to clean, more flexible with shape (everything from a bagel to a lavash-based sandwich will fit tightly), and it can double as a place mat. Seems like this could be a good option for school lunch totes as well.

If you want more attractive versions, the artist-to-consumer site Etsy.com has a huge selection, not to mention people who will happily personalize your kid's lunch box.

I wonder what the percentage of lunch-packers is these days given the pervasiveness of lunch programs in both public and private schools--and whether there's an unstated cut-off age.

I'm guessing a lot of parents send very young kids off with a little bit of home--or recognition of special tastes, favorite treats.

* * *

Great idea I heard today: hummus or dip in the bottom of a small, lidded container with thinly sliced vegetables standing upright in it.

My daughter despises the school's cafeteria. I've never eaten the fare from her current elementary school, but I can say that the Thanksgiving "feast" at Armstrong Elementary in Reston seems to be designed to convince parents to never make their kids eat the school's food again. Parents are invited to join the kids for lunch and it is largely inedible, consisting of sad shreds of turkey "loaf" drowned in gloppy salty brown goo, grey beans, and gluey potatoes. It must be depressing to work in that kitchen.

That being said, there are plenty of kids eating the cafeteria's fare at her current school, but there are also a lot of kids qualified for the free lunch program. Very few of the kids who aren't qualified for free lunch seem to buy the school lunch.

- Please do not send foods with trans fats.

I wonder how much collective eye-rolling that one has caused.

The older your kids get, the more they are likely to refuse any lunch foods that aren't mainstream. My daughter loved rice balls in her lunch at age 5, despite the confused classmate who thought they were raisins. (Sure, Marissa, they're three inch, white, triangular raisins.) At age 8 or 9, she started resisting them because they're not what all the other kids have in their lunch boxes, and the little white bread fascists other kids notice and are not kind about this. Last year, at age 10, I was still able to slip the occasional dish of cold soba into her lunch, and she seems okay with all types of soup.

Fresh fruit, especially berries of all types, continues to be a hit. I just need to clear things like dragon fruit before including them into my conformist's lunch pail.

Avoid glass-lined insulated soup containers. My daughter's helpful classmates managed to unscrew the bottom of one of them last year, dumping the glass interior and breaking it. There are some good stainless steel mini-containers (Target, among others, stocks them) and they seem to hold liquids hot until lunchtime if you pre-warm them with hot water.

I have a small collection of kid's bento containers. Most of the Korean markets in our area stock a few of them. They also have a lot of small serving sized plastic containers with a gasket and four locking flaps on the sides. Those have proven durable and liquid-tight.

We enjoyed the kaiseki menu at Makoto last night. It was our third or forth visit, but our first for the early summer season. The ten courses included:

Mussels in a rich dashi-based broth

Fried shitake mushrooms stuffed with fish cake, rolled in crushed rice crackers and served with two dry dips, one a red pepper mix (sansho?) and the other a mix of green tea powder and flaked salt

A steamed seafood course with scallop and shrimp, with an umeboshi dipping sauce

Vegetable course of avocado slices in a spicy mayo and flash-fried Japanese eggplant with miso dressing and garlic chive buds

Sashimi course with Spanish mackerel, tuna, and a third fish (flounder, perhaps), with freshly grated wasabi

Tempura softshell over seaweed and steamed snow peas, in a sweet yuzu sauce

Sushi course with tuna, yellow tail, and (we think) striped bass

"main course" of grilled salmon (other choices were beef, orange roughy, or yellowtail)

Soba in broth with a choice of toppings (I went for seaweed, the spouse had the wild vegetables)

Grape granita with grand marnier

The two standouts for us were the shitake mushroom and the grilled salmon. The texture contrast of the shitakes was excellent. The salmon was salt-grilled with and presented skin side up. This is a very simple dish, and it was just perfect, with the salt and grilling enhancing the flavor and texture of the salmon. The sushi in the sushi course look nothing like the large slabs of thick fish on flavorless rice that we find so often in this region. These were small, delicate pinky-sized (my hands are tiny) pieces supported by warm, properly vinegary rice. The skin of the Spanish mackerel had been seared so it didn't have that lovely shimmery color, but the flavor of the fish was excellent and makes you wonder why everyone else marinates mackerel in vinegar.

The only real miss for us was the sauce on the softshells. It was just too sweet. The softshells were fried to perfection and very meaty--over an inch thick at the body. Each person got half a crab. I just wish they'd gone with a sauce that was savory rather than sweet.

As usual, we were seated at the sushi bar; my spouse has long legs and we discovered on our first visit that he doesn't fit at the tables. The service was its usual efficient self, with the waitresses watching your pacing without seeming obtrusive. Our green tea was refilled often, as was my spouse's unfiltered sake.

The ill-effects of the shortage apparently continue.

Vets recommend canned pumpkin when your dog has the runs. Giant Food in Reston has organic canned pumpkin at $2.99 a can on the shelves, but nothing cheaper. My parents' exploding dog (currently visiting us) had better like the stuff, because I don't really need another early morning awakening like this morning's.

I enjoyed many group lunches with StephenB. He'll be missed.

IKEA's desserts are probably their strongest offerings. They tend to be a little stale tasting and a little too sweet, but still offers a rewarding taste and texture profile.

I usually go to the Costco across the street (this is for Potomac Mills) for food. I've never had any IKEA food item that beats a freshly made Chicken Bake chased with a hot churro.

The packaged food offerings include a refrigerated, citrus-enhanced pickled herring that is fairly addictive.

My husband reports that the staff will cheerfully put bulgogi on a bagel for him early in the morning--well before 6:30 am.

Is anyone still seeing Vita Coco at any of the Asian grocery stores? I used to get cases of 12 at Grand Mart for $11.88 but they've not had them in a while. I haven't ventured to H Mart to look.

It's gone from the Grand Mart in Sterling.

Do you want fermented or "fresh" pickles?

Both. I'm a huge fan of half-sours myself, but we like all kinds.

Does anyone have a beloved pickle recipe book they could recommend? We have a serious half-sour and kosher dill monkey on our backs at home and are convinced that we could be making our own.

This guy is like ferment everything, Dan Cole, mdt, chris sadler, xcanuck, adm, waitman, heather shorter and me, rolled into one. He's got a ways to go to equal Poivrot Farci, however.

The Post article did not overstate his abilities or creativeness.

I've known Tim and Dot for about 20 years now and have vacationed with them a few times. We've enjoyed a lot of meals together at both of our homes. Dot and my husband have the sense to stand back when Tim and I start planning and executing menus. My fondest memory of our cooking escapades together involved Tim's attempts to get a decently hot charcoal fire going at 9500 feet. It took an insanely long time, but the pork chops we'd stuffed with bourbon-soaked honey-glazed apricots wouldn't have been the same in the oven or on a griddle.

Well if this guy cant hack it do you really think you can?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75vm9ik5pjo

Absolutely. Not sure what variety he had, but it was much smaller than the ones that get shipped over here. The durian we get here tastes like a creamy custard, once you get past the DC sewer on a summer day funky aroma. If you want to try the taste, the tofu place at Eden Center makes a very good durian bubble drink. Just be warned--you'll be burping durian for hours.

Pink and regular Ting were at the Shoppers Food Warehouse in Sterling today. It tastes great even when you aren't roasting in the Jamaican sun.

I thought you were kidding...

I grew up in Lexington, KY, where the schools were out for a month straight in 1978 when I was in junior high school. It didn't have no impact on my learning.

We had chains on the car, so my parents were able to keep the larder stocked and get us to the public library. My mother encouraged me to bake. A friend who lived about a half mile away had a pizelle iron and we used that a lot.

My daughter is a few years younger than I was when that happened, but this still seems like a great opportunity to hand her a recipe and ingredients, particularly for a high value food like cookies.

Snow cones, maple syrup candy come to mind.

Make a simple sugar syrup and add your favorite flavors to make an adult snowcone. Your favorite liquour will also work. We're going for a green tea shaved ice today, but you need powdered green tea to get the full effect. You're going to layer snow, green tea infused syrup, and the powdered green tea.

The rings on the Calamari pizza at Willow are like this. They were so tender and lacking in any sort of rubbery chew that unless you looked at them you wouldn't guess they were squid.

The key to squid is that you either cook it for a very short time--until it has just turned opaque, or for a very long time. Chewy is what happens between those two time frames.

Guess it is time to start thinking about good snow day cooking! What are you planning? I am defrosting some brisket, soaking some black beans and leafing through my Mexican cookbooks.

We've offered to have my daughter's friend snowed in with us, so it will be all comfort foods to accommodate an unadventurous eater. I have the makings for a roast chicken, spaghetti and meatballs, and build-your-own pizzas. We also have a ton of milk and a recent cupboard reorg unearthed multiple canisters of cocoa. I'm going to make yeast-raised waffles for breakfast. The girls can earn their keep by baking a dessert for us all. I'm going to turn them loose with one of Maida Heatter's books.

Trader Joes in Reston was crowded but not impossibly so at 10 am this morning.