zoramargolis

I had heard from friends that Super H in Fairfax was a much nicer, better-supplied store than Han An Reum in Merrifield, which is where I have been going. I decided to check out Super H and what I found suprised me. More so, because they are owned by the same company. The produce department at Super H is superior. No contest there. Better selection, better display, fresher appearance of the produce, and wider aisles, so it's easier to shop. I found fresh cranberry beans, and some very fresh-looking favas, and the selection of fresh herbs was exhilarating. But I looked in vain for duck legs in the meat department. A few frozen whole ducks only. And the fish department was not even half the size of the one at HAR. They had no fresh squid, an abbreviated selection of fish, and only four or five different kinds of clams and mussels. So I stopped at Han An Reum on my way home. And bought a dozen duck legs to make confit. And some beautiful whole fresh squid which became a sort of Tuscan-style improvisation with the cranberry beans. I served the favas with the duck confit. Now that I've seen how good the produce section is at Super H, I'll probably end up doing the two-stage shopping trip from now on. Gotta love HAR. Since I discovered the fresh duck legs for $1.99 a pound there, we have gotten totally hooked on confit.

I have an old-style gadget that I can use to scrape/shred corn off the cob and it makes instant creamed corn in less than the time it would take to cut the kernels off the cobs. I cooked the corn puree with some sweet butter and a little bit of heavy cream, a teaspoon of sugar and a dash of salt. It was incredible. After dinner, I found one of my dinner guests in the kitchen, using her finger as a spatula to get the last bits left in the saucepan the corn had cooked in.

I was out at the Le Creuset store at the Leesburg Outlet Mall on Wednesday, and got a great deal on a dark blue enamel cast iron covered casserole--round, 12 inches in diameter and about 4" deep. I think it will be very, very useful. It was on sale for an extra 35% off. The regular retail price was $200 and I paid $85 for it--not a second, either. They have a "color of the month" on special discount, usually an extra 15 or 20% off. For some reason, during July, all the indigo blue cast iron is 35% off. I have an 8 quart Le Creuset pot that I got as a gift 30 years ago, and still use often--though more in the Fall/Winter for soups and braises. It is a very worthwhile investment, and you will live with it for many years, so get a color you like. Blue just happens to be my favorite.

The most obvious "wild berry" is the local wineberries, which look like red raspberries, but don't have very much flavor, thus the obvious tactic of pairing them with another, more flavorful berry. The other one is wild black raspberries, which may be coming in from Pennsylvania. In past years, I have encountered an individual picking wineberries in large quantities near my home, who said he was taking them to sell to restaurants in Georgetown. I imagine that this year, with the bumper crop out there, industrious wild pickers are bringing them in to chefs who appreciate local foods. One year a long time ago, when I lived in L.A., my husband and I picked an unusually large amount of chanterelles (like about 50 pounds). We kept a few pounds for our own use, and sold the rest to a couple of restaurants near our home, and to a gourmet produce dealer in the wholesale produce mart downtown. I wouldn't want to try to support myself doing it, but it was kind of fun way for a wild food fan to make a few extra bucks, thanks to Mother Nature.

I saw an episode of "Food 911" on the Food Channel with Tyler Florence making mozzarella from cheese curds--he covered the curds with very hot water for a moment, then lifted them out, kneaded and stretched them. I would venture to guess that the archives on the Food TV web site would yield instructions from that episode.

Paul's e-mail sale this week includes 2004 Bonny Doon Vin Gris de Cigare (Rose) for $9.99. Regular price is $12.99. I cracked one last night and it is excellent. I stopped in to buy gin at the MoCo liquor store below Trader Joe's in Bethesda today. I swore I'd never buy wine in Montgomery County, because of the horrible system and prices they have regarding wine--though ironically I find that it's a very good place to buy liquor. But they had the 2001 Louis Martini Napa Valley Cabernet on sale for $14.50. I paid $17.99 not long ago. It's a really tasty, full-bodied, well balanced cab, and I like it a LOT more than the slightly cheaper Sonoma bottling. By the way, if you like Plymouth gin, it's on sale for $16.50 a bottle.

Every year, my husband gets me a nice big box of Leonidas chocolates, always a tasty treat. This year, I also got a gift certificate at Sur la Table. I used it to buy a Cameron stove-top smoker, which is way cool, and a Furi Japanese-style chef's knife, which I enjoy using when I want a break from my Globals.

Strosnider's Hardware in Bethesda, Potomac & Silver Spring sells jars by the case, in a variety of sizes. They also sell lids, so you can re-use your old Ball jars. Much as I admire MFK Fischer, I have to disagree with her here. Without using pectin, preserves have to be cooked for a much longer time, in order to get them to thicken. To me, the flavor of the fruit is changed much for the worse by the longer cooking process. In the many years that I have made preserves with all kinds of fruits and berries, both with and without pectin, I am solidly in the pro-pectin camp.

I picked 15 lbs. of sour cherries at Homestead last summer. Pitting them one at a time took many, many hours over two separate days. I vowed I would never do it that way again. Sur la Table sells a little hand crank cherry pitter, where you feed cherries into a hopper. It costs a lot, but I decided at the time that if I do a big batch like that again, I will buy one. I'm not doing cherry preserves this year, because I still have a few jars left from last summer. But I did make a big, lattice-crust cherry pie for my husband's birthday last week, which turned out fabulously. I bought two quarts at the Dupont market, and pitted them one cherry at a time. It reminded me what drudgery it is. If you do get people to help you and you are pitting by hand, a paper clip works as well as a squeezable olive-cherry pitter. Open the paper clip out to an S shape, insert one loop into the stem end, snag the pit and pull it out. I will pass along this other hint, which I discovered via the school of hard knocks re cherry preserves. When you chop the cherries and measure them for the jam pot, do not use all the juice. The first time I made cherry jam I included all of the juice, and despite using the indicated amount of pectin and sugar, the preserves never thickened up. Last year, the extra juice got used for a batch of cherry jelly, which is beautiful and delicious. And the preserves were perfect.

Reliable sources: Daruma in Bethesda, on Arlington and Bradley, behind the CVS. Han an Reum in Merrifield, Super G in Fairfax, Grand Mart in Seven Corners.

Whatever you do with them, they need sweetening. I generally use them to make preserves, which have a brilliant red color. I discussed wineberries with an elderly lady selling homemade preserves in Maine a couple of years ago. Her suggestion was to add a few drops of almond extract, to improve the flavor. So far, I've lightly cooked and pureed them, strained out the seeds, and now have about six cups of wineberry slush. I'll probably make jelly tomorrow. What I have now could also make beautiful sorbet.

Every once in a while, I do a blow-out Mexican meal. I owed someone a fabulous meal in return for one she cooked for us, and since my daughter is in camp, I had the time to devote to preparation. Botanas: Verduras en escabeche (marinated carrots, onions, celery, garlic cloves, cauliflower florets and jalapenos), guacamole and chips, salted pepitas Prosecco- Zardetto Ensalada: Jicama, naranjo, cebolla roja, confit y chicharron de pato (jicama, orange and red onion salad with duck confit and cracklings). Sparkling rose- 2004 Cremant de Loire Lambert Tamales: Uchepas con huitlacoche y hongos, mole verde (fresh corn tamales filled with corn fungus and oyster mushroom, green mole). 2003 Falanghina dei Feudi di San Gregorio Plato: Barbacoa de cabrito (leg of young goat marinated in citrus adobo, wrapped in banana leaf with avocado leaves and slow-roasted over charcoal), frijoles refritos, arroz con asafran (refried beans and saffron rice). 2002 Hartford Zinfandel, Russian River Vinyard 2001 Seghesio Zinfandel, Home Ranch Postre: Coconut flan, mango-tequila salsa, papaya-lime sorbet 2001 Bonny Doon Muscat, Vin de Glaciere

This morning, we picked three quarts of wineberries in a half-hour, within a five minute walk from our house. A perfect confluence of rain and heat has resulted in the biggest crop I've ever seen. I saw people picking yesterday along Macarthur Blvd. in Glen Echo, and in past years I have seen them growing along Little Falls Pkwy. in Bethesda. They are usually found in cutover areas on the edge of the woods, and paths and trails that are periodocally cut back. Go get 'em! I was at a family gathering at a Pennsylvania farmhouse on Saturday, and found a bumper crop of black raspberries along the road, which taste infinitely better than wineberries, IMHO. Too bad we don't have those growing in the city... I brought home about a quart of them, and we had a wild blackcap pancake breakfast with some of our neighbors this morning. Wow, were they delicious!

Hi Tom: I recently had a vigorous back-and-forth on this forum with a local restaurant critic. I disagreed with his rave review of a low-priced ethnic restaurant serving an under-represented cuisine in this area (in this case, Mex-Mex), which I am very familiar with. In my opinion, the place would be considered well below average in Los Angeles, where I'm from. My position: even though it may be better than Cactus Cantina or Guapo's, the local public is not particularly well served by overpraising the ordinary. He called it "great" Mexican food and it is not. His position, if I can portray it accurately, is that it is unreasonable to compare the food in a cantina in this area with similarly priced places in communities with large Mexican populations, like L.A., and that places should be judged primarily on the goals they set for themselves. I suggested that the difference in our approaches was that he was "grading on a curve" while I expected more objective measures of excellence to award an "A" to the place--he didn't buy that "grading on a curve" was what he was doing. I suspect that he may never have eaten truly excellent Mexican food, though he said he had eaten in places in L.A. and New Mexico. So how do you deal with this? Is it fair or unfair to compare the food in a local restaurant with experiences you've had of the same cuisine in other communities? How do you judge the quality of an ethnic cuisine you've had limited experience with?

Sunnyside Organics was MIA last week and this week had no flatiron steaks. I'll have to make do with hamburger. Sigh. Field grown cukes and sugar snaps at New Morning. Heinz had favas. I brought along my food-loving British next door neighbor, who had never been to the market, and she was ecstatic. It's fun to turn people on to this weekly treasure-hunt.

I bought a bottle of the 2004 Domaine Sorin Cotes de Provence rose at Rick's in Alexandria. If this is the same wine you are talking about, it was everything I look for in a rose, fresh strawberry-raspberry fruit, wonderful balance. Great summer food wine--I liked it better than the Grande Cassagne, which has been my house rose since last year. I need to find the time to get back there and buy some more.

I used to go to Vegas when I was a kid, in the late 50's and early 60's. The only food we ever ate was at $1 all-you-can-eat buffets, called Chuckwagons. I don't think there was much else there in those days, even if you were willing to pay a few dollars more.

I recall reading that before opening Marvelous Market, you spent some time working with Nancy Silverton at La Brea Bakery. I lived in L.A. and was a devoted LBB customer back then. Could you reflect on that experience as it may continue to influence you? Compared to the breads she used to make, the supermarket product now bearing the La Brea Bakery name is dreck. If a multi-national corporation offers millions for your brand, though...

If one can conjecture that a place has set modest standards for itself, and meets them, one can say that they are fulfilling their mission, which is laudatory, but is that "greatness"? You suggest that it is unfair of me to compare a cantina in Hyattsville to a cantina in Los Angeles. Okay, but I don't think anyone can let go of all previous experience and judge a place only by the standards it seems to set for itself. Decent, inexpensive, good-- no argument. Great? I have eaten frijoles refritos in many, many little Mexican cafes, and often cook them at home. Same with the salsa verde and the pico de gallo and the guacamole. Does the table salsa have depth and complexity? Are the tortillas made in house? How delicious does the food taste? I cannot make that judgement without referencing other times I have eaten those dishes. I'm not talking about comparing tacos and truffles. As a reviewer, you are going out on a limb and saying, essentially: "To my taste, and in my world, this is great Mexican food." And I taste the same food and say: "To my taste and in my world, which encompasses the many experiences I have had, this is fairly good Mexican food, but not great Mexican food." So there we are. You are a restaurant critic, and in this case I don't share your opinion and I have provided the reasons why. As far as Oyamel is concerned, I went once with a group of Chowhounds, and had tiny tastes of most of the menu. To me, the best thing about the meal was the tortillas made with fresh masa, the first I've had in a restaurant since moving here. I plan to go back soon and explore in greater depth, but it didn't knock my socks off. And I was really hoping that I was going to love it.

Well, Todd, I think we both have legitimate points of view and have about beaten this horse to death. You prefer to grade on a curve, and I maintain that there ought to be objective standards that earn one an "A" in this realm... You are entitled to your enthusiasms and I will continue to search for excellence in the cuisine of Mexico en mi cocina, and in restaurants.

Walter Nichols' article piqued my interest, and your subsequent review spurred me out of my geographic (not ethnic) comfort zone, which is: around twenty minutes or less from home. I know people who will drive 100 miles to try a crabcake they've heard about, but my life doesn't afford that kind of luxury of time very often. I met some friends from Chowhound at El Tapatio for lunch, and had great expectations, based on what you had written. You are a talented writer, Todd. I thought we finally had a place to go out to for great authentic Mexican food in the area. Granted, my life history may be different than many of your readers, but I anticipated wonderful, home-style Mexican food and the food we were served was actually just okay. It wasn't terrible by any means, but it certainly wasn't great. It doesn't have to be THE GREATEST I've ever eaten to be wonderful or really delicious. It was more authentic than Guapo's. But based on the superlatives in your review, I expected much better food than I was served. After lunch, we explored the neighborhood, went up to La Sirenita to look around, went into the grocery store, where I bought some fresh epazote, which was exciting to find. A couple of weeks later, I went to La Sirenita for dinner with some friends who live in University Park-- she grew up in California, he lived in Mexico for a few years after college. We had a nice time, but were not very impressed by the food. I'm sorry we didn't love it as much as you do. Does that mean that people shouldn't go there? Of course not. My friends may well have gone back, since they live nearby. I haven't been back because, frankly, forty-five minutes to an hour each way is too far to go for a taco, or for epazote, as much as I would like to have it on hand when I feel like making frijoles. If we lived in a community where, let's say, Panda Express was the best of the limited options for Chinese food, I believe that a critic might point out which of the menu choices there was likable, but one would hope that the critic had enough experience of Chinese cuisine outside of that small community to put the food into a larger context. I don't see why people should not be told that most of Panda Express's food bears little resemblance to the food served in China--even if they may never get a chance to eat in China. Maybe they will travel there, or be in a city with a large Chinese population. And there may be people in that community who have been to China, or lived in places where there are wonderful Chinese restaurants. Won't they be disappointed if they walk into Panda Express, expecting great Chinese food because the local critic wasn't clear about the distinction between "great Chinese food" and "the best of what we have in our area"?

Todd, the answer your question about how many times I have eaten at La Sirenita is: once. With my family and some friends, so that I was able to taste several different things. The reality is that it is a long way from my home, and I have not been moved to make the trek to return. Perhaps if it were closer to home I might. I've been to Guajillo and Tia Queta many times, even though I find both of those places are very uneven and leave much to be desired. The other part of it is that when I moved here and found only mediocre Mexican restaurants, I got out my Diana Kennedy and Rick Bayless cookbooks and started cooking Mexican food at home. And frankly, my home cooking is a lot better than La Sirenita's home cooking. I don't think that what I am looking for in a Mexican restaurant is perfection. I have liked several things I've eaten at Oyamel. I stop at El Charrito Caminante for a taco when I'm in the neighborhood, and regularly have tacos at Baja Fresh and even Chipotle. They're all okay. La Sirenita's tacos may well be better. But I do think that overpraising the ordinary, just because it is the best of a mediocre bunch, is a disservice to your readers. They're tacos. Street food. Mexico's regional cuisines are among the most complex and interesting in the world. I love to go to Chinese or Thai restaurants with people who have lived in those countries, or go to Indian restaurants that Indian friends praise, because they help to educate my palate about how to taste those cuisines, how to know what is really good. Many people I've met here have told me that they don't really like Mexican food, and no wonder. They have had very little experience of Mexican food at all, and what they've had has in all likelihood been cheesy Tex-Mex drek. La Sirenita is better than Cactus Cantina, to be sure. But there is value in discussing more specifically how the food compares with examples of the cuisine that may be found outside this geographic area, too.

I had a quick snack at a little storefront Oaxacan tacqueria in Mar Vista while I was in L.A. While they didn't serve ventworm nuts, they did offer tacos de chapulinas--crispy grasshoppers. I decided I'd have one of those next time. But the taco de cecina--thin, grilled marinated pork--was delicious.

I have eaten at La Sirenita and El Tapatio, and I agree that they are the most authentic cantina-style Mexican restaurants in this area, but that's not saying much. As a Southern California native, I find that these two places are like hundreds of ordinary little neighborhood cafes around L.A., and while they have a certain charm, I don't think they deserve the superlatives that Todd Kliman bestows on them. I found the salsas lackluster, the meats gristly or overcooked and dry. I just came back from visiting family in L.A., and dropped in to one of my favorite places in West L.A.--Guelaguetza, which serves Oaxacan food--not the generic Mexican of the local Hyattsville places. On the menu at Guelaguetza dishes with at least five different moles are offered. I had an empanada de barbacoa de chivo--a huge enchilada, really, with a homemade tortilla made with fresh masa stuffed with stewed goat in a mole colaradito of amazing depth, complexity and spiciness. Last time I went there I had enchiladas with chicken, mushrooms, squash blossoms and yellow mole, and handmade tortillas. This is not a fancy-schmantzy place. It is full of Mexican families and working people, along with lots of gringos. Banana leaf-wrapped tamales with chicken and mole negro, memelas con chorizo o cecina. I have to say that just about everything on the menu there blows La Sirenita out of the water. Don Rocks wonders why there is no one slapping out fresh tortillas as you come in the door at La Sirenita. This is a very important question. Because the biggest reason that these local places disappoint is because they do not make their own tortillas with fresh masa. They use factory made tortillas, which are dirt cheap, like all the other ingredients they use. Really good, regional Mexican food is labor intensive and requires ingredients that may be a challenge to procure. Also, tacos are snack food, and while they can be delicious snack food, to consider them a serious Mexican meal is analogous to going to a good American restaurant and savoring a main course of potato chips and onion dip. I'm afraid we are still waiting for a truly wonderful Mexican restaurant here in the DC area.

Costco only sells tri-tip sliced, not whole. An aggravation for a transplanted Californian. Finally, Trader Joe's started selling them. They're good. I buy them. To echo the post above: do NOT get the pre-marinated one. Dry rubs work better for a steak on the grill or in the oven--you can make a simple one with salt, pepper, garlic and Spanish paprika.