zoramargolis

On Sunday, I went with a friend to her former landlord's home in Glover Park, where he has two different varieties of fig trees, which were loaded with ripe fruit. He doesn't know the varietal names, but one is pale purple--not dark like Mission or brown like Turkish figs. The other is quite small and greenish-white with tinges of pink. I picked as much as was seemly for a stranger. I ate quite a number of them fresh on Sunday. Yesterday, I dried a few pounds of them in my oven on very low heat, with the convection fan going and the oven door cracked. The house smelled divine all day, and the figs came out ambrosial. Not completely dry by any means, but with a slight tooth to them which is different than the mushy-mealy texture that ripe figs can have. The flavor is concentrated and intensified, with an earthy, floral note that is incredibly delicious. My husband doesn't really like fresh figs, but he loves these slow-roasted ones. Today, I am cooking some figs down in sugar syrup with tangerine and lemon peel to make jam. I have a fig tree in my yard which my mother-in-law planted as an ornamental. There are lots of figs on it, but they are still small, hard and green. This variety, whatever it is, is still green when ripe-- which happens quite late in the fall. I don't really care for the flavor-- sweet, but sort of vegetal. But I have been going on a real fresh fig binge this year, buying them whenever I see nice ones--usually Black Mission. I love them with cheese, and I also have been roasting them with honey and lemon peel, and making an oven-roasted compote of them with other fruits, like plums and sweet cherries. One of the best things I did earlier in the summer was to make a roasted fennel and fig slaw, which I served with duck leg confit and smoked duck breast. For many years, I could not eat figs because I had an allergic reaction to them. Mercifully, that allergy went away. Now I am making up for lost time.

For the second time in a couple of weeks, while walking the dog up the Battery Kemble trail, I found oyster mushrooms (Pleurotis Ostreatis) sprouting on a dead log. These were beautifully fresh, and I gathered about a pound in five minutes or so. I sauteed them with shallots in butter and then added them to a skillet full of chicken meatballs with tarragon, poached in chicken stock and finished with creme fraiche. They have a delicate 'shroominess that seems much more vibrant than commercially grown oyster mushrooms. Funny, I had bought some at Han An Reuhm and cooked them the night before, with a veal chop. The wild ones were definitely better. In July, I made wineberry jelly, adding some rosewater and almond extract to give it extra flavor. Wineberries are beautiful to look at, but to me they don't have a lot going for them flavor-wise and they have too damn many seeds. I also gathered wild black raspberries while visiting near Gettysburg and put them in pancakes. A couple of years ago, I found epazote growing wild near Fletcher's Boathouse. I haven't seen any since. I'd love to find it again. Anyone else into wild food gathering?

Is that Myanmar? I love their ginger salad. Any other dishes to recommend?

How does he keep them from cross-pollinating? I used to grow a big veggie garden in my backyard when I lived in Santa Monica. One year I planted bell peppers, mild New Mexico chiles, and jalapenos. I ended up with spicy bell peppers and spicy chiles. And spicy jalapenos, too. The Silver Queen corn had the occasional chalky blue kernel in it, thanks to the blue corn, even though I planted them as far apart as I could.

If City Paper is as smart and edgy as they seem to want to be, they'll offer the job to Joe Heflin.

A cousin of my husband's was coming to town for an annual meeting of Orthopedic Surgeons. About two weeks in advance, she asked me to make reservations on a particular night during the meeting, in a good restaurant of my choice. I called at least ten high-end places before I was able to get a table. At each place I called, I was told that there was a convention in town, which was why there were no tables available. I did finally get a reservation at Corduroy, and we had an excellent meal there--it was packed to the walls, mid-week. But the experience was instructive: when 10,000 or more affluent people gather in this town, they don't have any trouble at all finding the many fine restaurants we have here.

Check out this very interesting article in the NY Times by Amanda Hesser. You may need to register, if you aren't already. (It's free.) http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/14/magazine...html?oref=login

Starland Cafe on MacArthur Blvd. has half-priced burgers on Wednesday night.

After reading Joe's posts on Chowhound for about a year, I also found him to be opinionated, bombastic and hyperbolic. That's just what made me eager to meet him. I had a food-obsessed, opinionated friend named Joe many years ago in Los Angeles, and I missed him. So, one day I e-mailed Joe Heflin and invited him to come to my house for dinner, "sight-unseen." That was the beginning of a great friendship, and we have shared many meals together--at each other's homes and in restaurants, with other Chowhounders who have become a rather freeform group of fellow food-enthusiasts. As the post above accurately describes, Joe is different in person than he is when he is writing on-line and responding to challengers. He is personable, friendly and generous to a fault. He tells everyone who gets to know him, about growing up poor in Silver Spring, with a single mother who supported the family by working as a waitress. He is now quite a successful man, but knowing that about him helps to illuminate the roots of his sensitivity. For some people, strong opinions and emotions in others are difficult to tolerate. Me? I appreciate passion, even if I disagree with the content being expressed. I don't share all of Joe's likes and dislikes, and I am not blinded by friendship to his difficulties. There is no question, though, that he energises and enlivens the local food community. As I've told him many times, he is "the straw that stirs the drink." I hope Joe can find a home here, so that he can continue to write about his passions.

Pepperidge Farms makes a version, called "top sliced" and they can be found in supermarkets which carry the Pepperidge Farm line of products. Trader Joe's sells a whole wheat version as its hot dog buns.

I've known about this place for years, but I have always made my own masa or brought fresh masa back from California when I went to visit family. My cousin Peter Helfrich wanted to learn how to make tamales, and we planned an ambitious campaign--to make about twelve dozen tamales, four different kinds. So we needed more masa than I could make in my Cuisinart. Peter called and spoke with the owner of Moctec, Victor Vargas, who agreed to sell us as much as we wanted and took our order. We drove out on the Beltway and followed some fairly complicated Mapquest directions to find the place--it's at least five miles away from the restaurants in Little Mexico. In any case, we found it--a rather non-descript industrial building. The address is 3601 West St. Hyattsville, MD 20785 and the telephone number is 301-386-9090. They don't have any sort of retail sales capacity, one just enters a large office area. One of the clerical workers found our order and went to find Senor Vargas, so we could speak with him. It was a long wait, so we wandered down the hall and went through a door into the plant. Most of the workers were gone for lunch, and the equipment was not operating. But it looked well-worn and had been patched up here and there with improvised repair materials. Senor Vargas found us--he was a very pleasant, friendly man, pleased to tell us his story and show us around. There were five or six massive rectangular vats on wheels, full of still-warm nixtamal, the corn after it has been parboiled with lime. The corn is fed through a washer, which removes the gelatinous hulls by tumbling it through a spray of water. It goes through a big hose from there into the massive grinder, and is then fed into wide rollers with cutters that stamp out tortillas, which are baked or cut further and fried to make chips. According to Senor Vargas, his is the only factory on the East Coast still making tortillas from whole corn. Everyone else uses masa harina. He said that due to the influence of the corporation that owns Maseca, the biggest brand in Mexico, that a law was passed in Mexico that commercial tortilla factories must use masa harina, not whole corn. I find this difficult to believe, but this clearly needs more research. As a result of current generations having grown accustomed to eating tortillas made from Maseca, there is less demand for fresh masa. It is less labor intensive to use corn flour, which only needs to be reconstituted with water. But this is shocking-- it's as if a law were passed in Italy mandating that all polenta sold must be instant, or that all risotto rice be turned into Minute Rice. Victor Vargas is a Texan, who came to Washington in the mid-seventies, to work for the federal government. There were few Mexicans here at the time, and no Mexican food or products. The growth of his business in recent years has been dramatic. And somewhat overwhelming, judging by the somewhat chaotic appearance of the office and the factory. I asked him what his favorite local Mexican restaurant is, and he said Oyamel, which buys its fresh masa from him. When we asked for his opinion of the best local Little Mexico place, so we could go there for lunch, he said that the only place he can recommend is Taqueria Tres Reyes. That the other places (like La Serenita) aren't very good (!!!) He didn't have any fresh tortillas available to sell us, unfortunately. We bought our masa --$6 per five pound bag-- and followed his directions to get to Kenilworth Avenue and found TTR. Much more inviting than Taqueria El Charrito Caminante--it has tables and chairs. A limited menu with no platters or beans. Just tacos, tortas and soup. Peter and I both had tacos de puerco al pastor and barbacoa de chivo. The other choices were beef or chicken. The serving of meat was generous. The pork was very good--but didn't have pineapple,which I am accustomed to having in an al pastor-style dish. The goat was a bit greasy, which didn't stop us from polishing it all off. We had a rack of four salsas on the table, which were home-made, thick and spicy--two red and two different green salsas. A very good deal for $2.25 per taco. The tamales turned out delicious-- we had four teen-aged girls to help with assembly. Four kinds: vegetarian with huitlacoche, oyster and shitake mushroom; traditional-style pork and chayote with red chile adobo; modern-style duck, shitake mushroom and papaya with mole verde; and a dessert tamale with cajeta (goat-milk dulce de leche), dates, figs and orange.

Further distinctions: cultured vs. what? Uncivilized? Unenlightened? Cultured butter is made from, essentially, creme fraiche. Think of it as yogurt made with 100% heavy cream that is then churned into butter. The good French butters are all cultured. Vermont Butter and Cheese Company makes the best domestic cultured butter (which has a little bit of salt in it). It's very fresh-tasting and the flavor is deep and complex. The price takes your breath away. So I buy Trader Joe's Organic Unsalted Cultured Butter--there is no salted version. Or Plugra, European-style, also unsalted. I prefer unsalted, and my husband and daughter sprinkle salt on theirs. On a couple of occasions, I have made my own cultured butter, using heavy cream from the farmer's market and a spoonful of Total yogurt as a starter. After it thickened up, I churned it in my Kitchenaid mixer

1)I have not worked at BlackSalt since May 1st. 2)It never occured to me that it was a big enough deal that Jeff Black bought one, to announce it online. 3)It's nice that Dean has one of these machines--it isn't necessary for his to be the first and/or only restaurant to have one, in order for it to be something to kvell about. I was merely setting the record straight.

Charcoal grilled chicken marinated in lemon, rosemary and roasted garlic Fresh cranberry beans stewed with aromatic vegetables New Morning Silver Queen corn off-the-cob, stewed in sweet butter Charcoal-grilled broccolini, lemon olive oil Dessert: roasted sweet cherries and fresh figs, drizzled with macadamia oil, honey, balsamic vinegar, marsala wine and lemon zest, served with sweetened creme fraiche Kir-Yianni Akakies rose The roasted fruit compote was da bomb--one of the best things I've ever made. Before he tasted it, my husband looked at it and accused me of trying to feed him beets for dessert.

I think your research into this assertion could have been better. Sorry to have to break it to you Dean, but you are not the first restaurant to have one. BlackSalt got one about a month after they opened last November. There may be others. So what, if you aren't the first one? It's a very "cool" piece of equipment, in all meanings of the term.

BlackSalt has had one [a vertical hand-cranked proscuitto slicer] for a while. Not sure whether Cornucopia's preceded it. But Dino's definitely was not the first.

Sorry to say that Trader Joe's doesn't sell Teleme--I don't think the production is of sufficient size for a large chain to sell it. I used to get it in L.A. occcasionally--it's not really like brie, since it doesn't have a bloomy rind. It's very mild, more like a rich, soft jack. Last summer when my husband's cousins all gathered in Santa Cruz for a family surf camp week, we did a dinner featuring local products for the benefit of the east coasters. The NY contingent had gotten some peaches at the Ferry Building market, and for dessert I grilled peach halves and served them with Teleme and a Meyer lemon compote. You might like Saint Nectaire, which is a rich, soft mild cheese from France.

My modest contribution, written in the last five minutes: To the tune "Rockabye Baby" Rockwell for eating and drinking wine Don't feed us swill Our dining is fine (we) sniff out good cheese and cook with fresh thyme We make reservations And post on line

Take a look at today's food section in the Post, page F5. It sounds as if Natalia's Elegant Creations may be exactly what you are looking for. 571-239-0256/ www.nataliaselegantcreations.com.

I live near MacArthur Beverages, and have been shopping there more frequently, now that they take Amex, my credit card of choice. It's easy to browse there, and their inventory is huge--especially France and Italy. Their consultants are very knowledgeable and friendly. The time to shop there is when they have sales. There's almost always a tasting on Saturday afternoon. Rodman's in Friendship Heights has a very eclectic selection from around the world, and seems to focus primarily on lower-priced wines. How was an $8 pinot noir from Roumania made by a winemaker from Burgundy? Not bad. Lots of stuff from South America, South Africa, Spain, Portugal, even Russia. I just wish it wasn't so cramped--it's a challenge to browse, but I almost always find interesting things there. The two guys who run the wine dept. have been there for years, and are very helpful. They've tasted most of what they sell and can talk about and compare various wines you may be considering. I also like Paul's, across the street from Rodman's, which has good sales, although their selection is smaller than some other places. They will always match other stores' sale prices, if you can quote them. They have tastings on Friday evenings and have very good mixed case discounts. Arrowine in Arlington is an occasional stop for me. Doug Rosen is very passionate about wine. If you've seen Mondovino, he's very much in the Neal Rosenthal camp, and hates the "international" style, fruit-forward wines that I happen to like, though he sells them. I like Doug, even though he refers to fruit-bomb Aussie Shirazes as "pancake syrup". They have good e-mail sales. I don't buy much there because they don't take Amex. I love their cheese and deli department. I also go to Total in McLean, Magruder's, and Wide World of Wine.

When encountering pesto, I always have to ask whether it has been made with pine nuts or walnuts, because I am very allergic to walnuts. Since many people share this unfortunate affliction, be sure to let guests know, just in case. My secret for preventing oxidation/browning, which can happen quickly and looks so unappetizing-- I add some lightly cooked spinach with all the water squeezed out, to the basil, garlic, pinenuts, parmesan cheese and olive oil.

I like Randolph's in Arlington. It's on Lee Highway, east of Glebe Rd. in the same strip of stores as Arrowine and Crisp and Juicy. Unlike many commercial bakeries, they use only fresh butter in their cakes and pastries. A French friend of mine swears by Patisserie Poupon on Wisconsin in Upper Georgetown. What I've had was good.

I was chatting with a wine rep from Henry Group a week ago at MacArthur's about rose. He told me that his personal favorite this summer is 2004 Akakies Kir-Yianni from Greece. I found a bottle at Rodman's the next day, now I see it on the sale list at MacA for less than I paid. Anyhoo, I finally opened and drank it today--very nice! Deep pink color, plenty of strawberry-raspberry fruit, but bone dry and with enough acidity to make it a refreshing summer quaff that can hold its own with flavorful food. We drank it with chiles rellenos stuffed with ricotta, manchego and fresh corn in a garlicky salsa de tomate.

Avoid them. It's actually a Casaba melon. Cassava is a starchy tuber. Look for a melon called Sharlyn next time--it's my favorite. They look a little bit like Casabas, but the Sharlyn is intensely aromatic with tender, juicy flesh. But if you have leftovers of the one you have, I suggest turning it into a smoothy, combined with some other, more flavorful fruits.

Interesting. Are these new wine drinkers former beer drinkers? Were there more than 25% drinking other alcoholic beverages the last time this kind of survey was done, in other words does this indicate that there are liquor drinkers who have switched to wine? Did they ask what varietal, brand or price level wine these folks were drinking? My guess is the answer would be heavily weighted toward Yellowtail/Two Buck Chuck. Then again I shouldn't be snobbish--wine lovers gotta start somewhere. I used to drink Lancer's, Mateus and Gallo Hearty Burgundy when I first came of drinking age.