Mark Dedrick

My energy and excitement over cooking dinner every night has definitely taken a bit of a hit. Early on during stay at home I found myself getting into a bit of a rut with my cooking. This led me to turning to looking at, and cooking from recipes, which is not something I really do normally. But it took me in different directions, and got me more excited. But the past week or two that excitement has waned a bit again. I think going nine weeks where I cooked every dinner I ate and most of the lunches was likely responsible. We're going to try to mix in delivery a bit more going forward so I don't get burned out.

We got Tail Up Goat delivery last night, and it was delicious (it was also nice to not cook dinner, as I have every day since March 6, when I dined at Tail Up Goat). Menu was beef brisket in a red wine and gravy, broccoli rabe with an asparagus vinaigrette, a cucumber salad, and bread. We also bought one of the bottles of wine they recommended to pair (A delicious Rioja), as well as a cocktail. They had very clear instructions on how to reheat everything, and it was all delicious. This isn't an every day thing, but it was nice for a special occasion. If you're looking for a treat I'd recommend it.

Yes, they used to park with the Mass Ave food trucks by Union Station (and my office) and I ate there a few times as well as at last year's H Street Festival. I've really liked what I've had. They were going to open their brick and mortar on H Street this summer, but I'm sure that's on hold.

Oh, interesting, thanks for sharing. I'll check this out.

This makes me really sad. When we lived closer to there (we're not too far now, but we used to be a lot closer) we went all of the time. That's where I took my wife the night I proposed. We celebrated a lot of friends' birthdays there. And I have many memories of closing the place down, with a friend grabbing a bottle of Calvados and pouring for all of us. It was a special place for us.

It was not exactly this recipe, but this is an approximation. I cut the pork shoulder into chunks rather than braising it whole. And I used canned hominy because that's what I had in my pantry. https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchen/posole-rojo-recipe-2119122

Ordered from the sandwich place based out of the Columbia Room today. My Char Siu sub was delicious.

I have not eaten here in many years. I used to love their happy hour in the bar, and I've had some good times here. I will admit, however, that I'm going to be hit a lot harder when a non corporate/chain restaurant closes permanently. Well, like Sushi Taro.

Tell me about these Campari tomatoes.

Well, not to disagree with Rocks, but I always enjoyed it. It was never in the top echelon of DC restaurants, but I never had a bad meal there, and had many very good and memorable meals there. It was really good for lunch and was a go to spot when meeting somebody closer to downtown than my Capitol Hill office. They did interesting things. I had a couple of very memorable meals there, including one of my best friend's bachelor party dinner for ten of us. I liked it, I'm glad it was there. And I'm sad it's not. In part because it's part of the host of restaurants who won't make it through to the other side. If I had to pick like 10, 20, 30 restaurants that I would protect to survive if I could would it be on there? Of course not. But so many spots will close, and having a place that was good close makes me sad. It also makes me concerned because I had dinner at the original Momofuku in the East Village relatively soon after it opened. It was one of the most memorable and eye opening meals of my life. I ate things there that I had never tasted, and it really opened my mind. Some of this stuff, like ramen, is now commonplace, but it wasn't then. And Ssam Bar, when it first opened, was also a mind-expanding experience. Stuff like ramen and bao that I now take for granted were not part of my life before then. I know he didn't invent them, but he introduced me to them. We had dinner at Ko in the original Noodle Bar location shortly after it opened. I think David Chang has been a real force for good in the American dining scene, and I'm sorry to see him in what he has described as crisis. I hope things in American dining aren't as bad as I fear, but no matter what I'm sorry to see this restaurant close.

The "Not having bread because I didn't plan ahead enough to bake it" has been a consistent theme for me the past two months. A number of days of "Oops, we can't make sandwiches today for lunch because I got tired and didn't bake last night."

I smoked a lamb shoulder on Sunday for the first time. Served it with kind of a faux mint chimichurri. It was fantastic. I'll definitely be doing that again.

Flour seems to be more widely available these days, but wanted to let folks know that both District Fishwife and the Creamery at Union Market have started carrying it. Just bread flour for the Creamery, and bread, AP, and wheat flours at the Fishwife.

On Wednesday night I made pozole. It was really outstanding, and we'll get two lunches out of it as well.

I was able to grab some soft shells yesterday from District Fishwife, and grilled those along with some sauteed pea shoots. It tasted exactly like spring.