PollyG

Aprhrodite Market used to have quite the selection--but we have not been there in quite some time so no guarantees.  It is in Falls Church near Columbia Pike and Route 7.   They had it in bulk and I recall getting slivers to sample, much like a cheese shop might offer. 

We tried both in Annandale this afternoon. For those who have yet to order, 1 order of the Peking beef roll would have been enough for our party of 5. My 15 year-old is delighted to have the leftovers from our double order for her lunchbox. We really liked the Peking beef roll. The addition of cilantro to the preparation is what made it shine for us. We thought the amount of beef in the roll was fine. My in laws liked this dish the best of everything we tried.

We liked the noodle side but felt as if it needed a little something extra. We bandied around the ideas of more scallion or some shezuan peppercorns. Being totally ignorant of the region's cuisine, we can't tell whether those would be a major deviation from the intention of the dish. We went for the thin noodles at our server's suggestion.

Okay, no grill.  I was thinking of grilling shrimp, but that would require a larger grill.  I've developed an allergy to them (don't get me started about how I feel about being allergic to shrimp, lobster, and crab) and I believe I have some very nice shrimp in the freezer that need to leave my home.  But I'll bring my little propane camp stove and do a steamed preparation instead.  Benefit--I can use a LOT of the garlic chives that are infesting my herb garden. 

Debbie, we look forward to sampling and providing feedback on Sunday unless we can swing something earlier.  When are you opening a branch in Reston/Herndon?  

Does the pavillion have a grill?

Should you live/work anywhere near the Herndon/Reston area, you are welcome to either harvest or dig up some of my garlic chives.  Just PM me for info.   They are really amazing steamed or stir-fried with shrimp but since shrimp started sending me to the ER, there is no way I will get even close to consuming them all.

My lavender is looking pretty dead; the sage and rosemary both survived winter, and I am still hoping the figs did; they got quite the wrapping this year.

Debaggio's run for heirloom cherry tomatoes is scheduled for this weekend.  Matt's Wild Cherry volunteers will show up in a few weeks.

I can't wait to try this place next visit. Barney Greengrass has always been my favorite breakfast place in NYC.

The wine list might be a bit lacking.

My daughter now reports that the chocolate babka French toast is the best French toast she's ever had.  Battering on it was very light, almost un-noticable visually.  Now we get to try re-creating that at home.  The blueberry/basil soda my husband had was very intensely flavored; had it been my drink I would have watered it down with the free seltzer.   I enjoyed the very generously portioned kasha varniskas with a poached egg on top, while the spouse went for the herring platter, which had 3 types of herring and 3 sauces. I'm of the opinion that you have had to grow up with sauced herring for the sauces to make any sense, none of these sauces improved the herring for me.  The potato knishes are appetizer knish sized, served with a jumping hot horseradish mustard.  The mustard was frankly better than the knishes; it is an outstanding mustard and the knishes are merely good.  The three of us all think my knishes are better, both for the flaky dough and the better-seasoned mashed potatoes.  The good news is that my daughter is now interested in learning to make knishes. 

We will try to make it.  The location is a bit remote, but I know from experience that it is not easy to find a public park that allows booze.

Assuming we make it, we will be armed with several gallons of home-made ginger ale and some form of meat.

For what it is worth, Mitsuwa market in Edgewater, NJ, has rhizomes for sale in the produce department.  I am trying to remember if there are ever leaves at the top, but I am failing.  That's the closest to here I've ever seen them.  We hit Mitsuwa up about every third time we go to NY to visit the relatives; their carry-out onigiri and sushi rolls are often our meal on the way home. 

Has anyone tried the custom-made retrofit pull-out drawers from Costco?  http://www.costco.com/Made-to-Fit-Slide-out-Shelves-For-Existing-Cabinets-By-Slide-A-Shelf%09.product.11262818.html

These would make my "why are kitchens designed by people who don't cook" cabinets a lot less obnoxious, but I am not sure that the crappy particleboard interior walls of my cabinets could support the mounting hardware.

DaveO, if you want a rough horseradish experience, grind your own.  Use a blender.  Stick your face into the blender to see how well the grind is going.  It will be a memorable experience.  I did this in college, and I knew better than to inhale, but the next thing I knew I was outside the little 5x7 kitchenette, clinging to the trash can. These days, we grind outside.  We also use a rasp grater to grate at the table, similar to restaurant applications of parmesean. 

I grew up in Lexington, Kentucky, the child of a UK faculty member.  The whole family will be together in Colorado on Saturday to watch the games.  It's also Passover, which puts a bit of a crimp in themed food plans.  What flour and booze-free foods would you serve to represent each team?

• Wisconsin is easy--it must be cheese.  Or cheese and brats.
• Michigan is probably something with cherries.
• Duke is far harder for us because NC 'que is all about the pork. (In our family we might opt to ignore Duke because if you grow up in Lexington, your second-favorite team is whoever is playing against Duke.)
• Kentucky also poses a bit of a problem because our native "snappy beer cheese" has, well, beer, and the recipe won't fare well without it. Bourbon balls are similarly off the menu for passover.  I'm left with the various pies associated with the state, made without booze and with matzoh cake flour. 

Thank you, Don. 

The recommendation from my conservator friend is Nancy Pollak, NRPollak@aol.com, who lives in Frederick.

I have a friend who was chief conservator for the State of Maryland for a number of years and has a private conservation business now.  I'll see if he can suggest anyone (I think he is not doing oil paintings right now.). 

Thank you!  You're nuts, but thank you. 

Wow, is this topic old.  But as we all get ever older, I suspect many of us will be facing our special age 50 checkup.  I just did mine with a friend, which I highly recommend.  We bitched to each other over the phone while we gulped down our vile laxatives and we scheduled our colonoscopies back to back so we caught up with each other in the recovery area.

For me, the liquid-only diet was made more bearable by unflavored gelatin.  You can turn nearly any liquid into jello.  I went with coffee and cinnamon-cardamon, but whatever will keep things interesting for you and is not on your forbidden (alcohol, alas) list is fair game.

A good Vietnamese lunch at Huong Viet afterwards met the "not too spicy and not too fatty" recovery parameters.

We had a short wait at 12:30 today.  In addition to our usual order, today we tried the Basil Squid.  The basil and the squid themselves are unremarkable; the basil is stir-fried rather than flash fried.  However, the dish also comes with a very generous portion of sliced fried skin-on ginger and some roasted garlic cloves.  They make the sauce better than the squid.  The ginger is particularly addictive; I suspect it was briefly simmered in syrup prior to frying. 

I have been taking pork belly (seared prior to simmer) and simmering it in what is essentially a tea egg marinade on steroids.  I am adding cinnamon and a lot of extra star anise.  This week I served it on a bed of garlic stirfried spinach.  

To be fair, their Hoi Obb (lemongrass mussels) tend to be excellent.  I have zero idea about authenticity, but they are tasty.  That's where I'd concentrate if co-workers wanted to drag me there.  We tried their newish Herndon location not that long ago and have concluded that, short of being dragged there by other people, there is no reason to visit again.  Nothing was bad as such, but we have a lot of decent to excellent Thai places in Herndon, at a lower price point.

I am a big fan of Carol Field's original Italian Baker.  I have not read the revised version, but she has good, detailed directions and we have not had a failure from her book.  We are particularly fond of the Rosemary bread.  Many of her recipes involve an overnight sponge.

http://smile.amazon.com/Italian-Baker-Carol-Field/dp/0061812668/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1425060638&sr=8-1&keywords=field+italian+baker

The Sterling location has an updated "secret" Thai menu.  Today I went for the spicy fried pork with rice and chili.  This is slivers of pork belly (similar to the fried pork belly in the chinese broccoli and fried pork dish) fried until crispy with green beans, sliced sweet red peppers, and sliced hot green peppers in a fairly dry lemongrass chili paste over rice.  I didn't mean to eat the whole thing.  But I did. 

I didn't mean to buy maple bacon.  Goodness, it is really maple flavored bacon.  I grabbed it because it was thick cut and I thought it was just regular thick cut bacon.  How should I use the stuff?  It was gross on a sandwich with turkey and avocado, too sweet.  We don't eat a lot of dessert, so I would prefer to eat it in a savory application, but I think some of it might have to be used in a dessert.

Google "bacon brittle" and you have a dessert solution. I made that a few years ago and it was okay as a novelty dessert at a big party.  Do NOT, I repeat, do NOT put it in maple ice cream.  Once upon a time in the Amherst, MA area, the rest of the family enjoyed their plain maple soft-serve while I went for the bacon maple ice cream and enured the horror of the wet cardboard texture of bacon that has been sitting in ice cream.

A&J (Annandale, though the Rockville location tends to be remarkably consistent) does a fried chicken and rice dish (or fried chicken and noodle soup) that is dark meat chicken, lightly breaded and then sliced after frying.  It is juicy and delicious.  And I do love the HKP dish Don described, which has the added bonus of being "breaded" in corn starch and accessible to those who have to be gluten-free.