zoramargolis

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.

Blueberries were definitely part of it, but I think some other kinds were also included, perhaps rasp- and/or blackberries. (I wish I had taken a menu with me!)

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.

Is there some store in DC or nearby that sells canning supplies? Sometimes

I read "your local farming supply store will have ...". I have to go a good ways

to find such an establishment.

I have an assorted collection of empty jars, mostly traditional Ball type.

Checked out Sur La Table on-line, and see that they start with an entirely

different type of jars.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

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.

Anyway, so far I find that the original author loved pectin, and M.F.K. Fischer

is definitely anti-pectin.

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.

Thanks for tip on Butlers - I'm ordering a flat (14 lbs!) of already picked sour cherries for canning - $30. I will supply the drinks for anyone who will come over and help me pit the damn things.

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?

This morning at Dupont:  asparagus, hot house tomatoes, purple broccoli, beets, eggs, 2 loaves of Atwater bread, 3 Thai basil plants, blueberries, alpine strawberries, and Montmorency cherries. 

Toigo says they will have sour cherries in 2 weeks. 

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.

Our distributor reps a bunch of roses...the one that really caught my eye (and wallet) was the Sorin 2004 "Terra Amata" rose, which is primarily mourvedre.  Don't know if any is left, though--the distributor is Roanoke Valley Wine Company.

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...

OK -- but, really: "grading on a curve"?

It suggests a granting of indulgences -- a tacit acknowledgment of subpar work. Uh uh.

I try as best I can to judge places against the standard they set for themselves. Objective standards? You can only compare apples with apples, oranges with oranges. Should a pupuseria be held to the same exacting standards as Maestro? Of course not.

And since we've been talking all this time about expectation and fulfillment: The restaurant that ought to bear the great burden of your expectations (and the greater scrutiny that comes with those expectations) is the exhaustively researched Oyamel, not La Sirenita or El Tapatio.

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.

Sure, I could talk about some of those tiny, tasty Oaxacan places you can turn up all over Southern California, but so? The people i'm writing for, they're supposed to hop a plane to go eat there?

I'm supposed to seek out and write about what's good and worthy in the area, and these are good and worthy places -- the best mexican restaurants in the area. Without question.

Not to mention -- stunningly good values.

Where is the disservice to my readers in telling them about something delicious and tasty?

I did not say: These are the most delicious, most tasty tacos you will find anywhere in the country.

And to call something "great" is not to say that there is none greater.

I tried to provide a little contextualization when I wrote about these places -- see above. Why? Because, having eaten widely, as you have, in Southern California -- a Mexican food lover's dream -- I wanted to provide some perspective for afficionados. I knew very well that had I been writing for an L.A. audience, i likely would not have been writing about La Sirenita and El Tapatio.

Foodies are always looking for these kinds of disclaimers from critics. It's as if there ought to be paragraph-long, all-caps warnings at the start of every review:

THIS ITALIAN RESTAURANT, WHILE QUITE GOOD AND, PERHAPS, THE BEST WE CAN DO AT THIS MOMENT IN THE CITY, CANNOT HOLD A CANDLE TO THE APPEALING LITTLE TRATTORIAS THAT YOU FIND DOTTING THE COUNTRYSIDE IN TUSCANY -- PLACES THAT WILL PROVIDE YOU WITH A GORGEOUS, KNOCKOUT VIEW THAT YOU WILL SWOON OVER THROUGHOUT YOUR MEAL AND RETURN TO AGAIN IN MEMORY, WHILE ALSO CHARGING YOU HALF AS MUCH AS THE CROOKS WHO COMMAND THIS THREE-STAR JOINT.

I think it's worth pointing out that 9th St just below U has some of the best Ethiopian food I've had in this country. I wrote about this area almost a year ago. Walter Nicholls of the Post followed with his report several months ago. Yet the crowds have not come, and there is little discussion of these places among the lovers of food in this city.

Why?

And why hasn't Little Mexico attracted the white foodies the way that the Eden Center has?

My original point in this thread was about how most people -- food people, supposedly -- still don't know about this place.

You seem to be suggesting that it's about the food. I really doubt that. Just as I doubt that it's the food that keeps white people from flocking to 9th St. I think that it comes down to a sense of security and comfort and ease -- which is what eating out so often comes down to for so many people.

Little Ethiopia is near the booming part of U, but it's still in an identifiably black part of town. Little Mexico is in Prince George's -- bad enough for a great many people. And then there's also the prospect of feeling your way through a part of town that's full of immigrants who don't speak English.

Oyamel, sure, is a lot less daunting.

But they're entirely different experiences.

I don't want to pooh-pooh the notion of convenience. Convenience counts for a lot when you're making your mind up about where you want to eat when you're out and about or when you're tired. I find it interesting, though, to observe the way certain places get decreed, in the public mind, as being worth or not worth the trip -- Northern Virginia and Upper Northwest, of course, being the locus.

It's not just a geographic locus, either -- but a cultural locus, an ideological and even philosophical locus.

But that's not my locus. And I couldn't do my job if it were.

Expectations change when people are pulled far from home, or far from where they feel most comfortable. And for you, and maybe for others, too, Little Mexico will only ever be a pilgrimage kind of a place. Which is, I think, too bad. Because it burdens it well beyond the load it can carry.

If it were closer, you might have gone more than once, and done a little exploration of some of the stores. Where, by the way, you can buy some of the Oaxacan spices (corn tassels, epazote, etc.) that I'm sure find their way into your cooking.

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"?

Interesting remarks, Zora.

In light of your comments about my praise for these places -- and in light of my most recent endorsement -- I think it's worth digging into the archives to excerpt a little of what I wrote a year ago:

"In Southern California, La Sirenita and El Tapatío would be generally regarded as nice places, but no different, really, from the many other worthies that blend unobtrusively into the vast ethno-culinary landscape. Here, though, they are standouts."

Which is to say, I understand your point and I hear you. But what gets me about your post is the notion that just because something is not national-class it's not worthy of attention and praise. It's a trap that far too many in D.C. and New York succumb to. Ferreting out the best, most exquisite expression of something can be a lot of fun. And it makes for great conversation, and maybe great writing, too. But eating, then, becomes chiefly about the quest to find perfection. How limiting, how dull.

I also am curious how many times you have been to these places. I say that because, for one thing, the tacos I had my last time out at La Sirenita were even better than what I'd tasted a year ago. And because what these places are serving, chiefly, is homecooking. I've had the chilaquiles at La Sirenita maybe six times now; each time, it's a little bit different. But still very good.

The population of Mexicans in Little Mexico is small, still. It hardly compares, in size and scope, to what you'd find in L.A. But something, clearly, is taking root. I think it bears watching. And I think it deserves support from those of us who love to eat and explore.

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.

Wegmans is also good -- they carry Sunnyside Farms beef.

Wegman's has a huge markup on Sunnyside beef--you can buy directly from them at the Dupont Market on Sundays. Also Polyface pork--they're at the Arlington Market on Saturday mornings.

Another great place is Halalco in Falls Church for lamb, veal and goat, as well as beef and chicken. Very old world sort of place with excellent prices.

I forgot the name of the place but there is a Belgian chocolate shop up on Wisconsin - upper G-town.  It's on the right hand side if you're driving up from M Street, a block and 1/2 above Marvelous Market.  Very good.

I believe you are thinking of Les Delices de Isabel, which sells Leonidas truffles and filled chocolates, which are delivered fresh from Belgium. The address is 1531 Wisconsin. I love that place!