V.H.

A little bump to this post.

I'm looking for cocoa powder - both dutch process and regular unsweetened cocoa powder - in largeish quantities.

I'd love to buy it in a larger quantity than the sadness-inducing tiny boxes I found at Harris Teeter and Whole Foods (with equally sadness-inducing prices). When I was in LA recently I tracked down a 16oz container (http://www.surfasonline.com/products/7519.cfm) that made my day.

It looks like La Cuisine might have something that fits the bill (8oz of Vahlrona for $12), and I have plans to ring/visit Little Bitts and Cakes Plus but if anyone has insight on this topic it'd be greatly appreciated. I'm happy to travel a bit into MD or VA for my cocoa powder needs, too.

I bought a deli tub of Vahlrona a little while ago at WF for 14.99 a lb, which would be cheaper than La Cuisine but no where near the sweet deal the Andelman's offering. Vahlrona's definitely the most intensely flavored of the cocoa powders among the four or five different ones I've tried in the last six months (experimenting with mousse in the ISI cream whipper).

You can also call Tallulah and pick up Red Apron products from there, based on availability.

Please understand that there are many factors not in control of either the much anticipated businesses or the farmers markets. You might be peeved (feel free to start a thread on the subject ), but imagine what it must be like for the small business or the market under such circumstances! Especially for a new business that needs the profits, I might add.

Second, it would seem that when BLB and I reported purchases made from Red Apron at a different market last week, our posts were not clear enough, so we both posted again to verify that Red Apron had, indeed, attended a farmers market last week.

Finally, please come prepared to be flexible about what you might find, especially if you are not standing in front of one of these charcutiers' tents at the time the opening bell rings. Though I may be mistaken, I don't think Red Apron makes prosciutto and it calls something like Roman pancetta (slabs vs. rolls) Tesa. (I am not sure why the web site for Crystal City lists prosciutto, so I am going to ask again.) Its products sell quickly, especially in good weather.

I would love to attend this class as well!

They may just get away with it because it's Whole Foods and they know their customer base. I have a friend who used to work in a WF cheese department (not in this area). I'll have to remember to ask him what he knows about this practice, if anything.

I've never noticed the price they charge for smoked salmon trim, which they have now and then. I should pay attention. I just know that I can get a small amount much cheaper than I can get it anywhere that sells it packaged in a fairly big portion, including Costco. I wonder if they do the same thing with that.

At the Clarendon WF, the price for the smoked salmon trim is not that huge, maybe $10 a pound. The problem is, at least at that store, the trim is packaged in pound-plus packages.

What I never understood about that bin was why they're selling the remnants for the same price per pound that the cheese goes for when it's normal-sized.

I was wondering the same thing. If you're paying full price for remnants, then it seems like you might as well go to a full service cheese shop like Arrowine and get small slices of what you like.

Mmmm... Haagen Dazs fleur de sel ice cream bars coated in dark chocolate, found at the Jenkins Row Harris Teeter.

Eventide was full tonight at 7pm. Obviously the secret is out about this place because when we tried it a couple of weeks ago, I commented to my husband about how great it was to be able to just walk in without reservations. Our server told us that rooftop bar is not open yet because of the rainy weather we've been getting.

I got around to getting the lobster taglietelle with lobster meatballs and thoroughly enjoyed it. My friend got the roast chicken and absolutely loved her meal, especially the stuffing that came with the chicken. Although we were too full for dessert, the chocolate mousse seemed like it would be a nice little ending to the meal. I thought the chocolate mousse was good but too firm. We used our spoons to not very gracefully break it into large chunks and shards and I was a little afraid that a chunk would go flying off the plate while we tried to cut it.

My five year old came to dinner with my friend and I and her kid plate looked awesome. Roast dark meat chicken on buttered noodles with sides of sliced bananas and sauteed peas, snap peas, and carrots. The noodles and veggies glistened with buttery goodness.

Is it possible to get dry pack scallops in the DC area without paying $20+ a pound for them? When I buy them from the fish market near my MIL's house in PA, they are beautiful and only $8.95 a pound. Even when they are advertised as "Diver Scallops", such as at Harris Teeter, all the milky liquid in the tray tells me they are not.

Every time I do the Lickety Split lunch I kick myself for not making it there more often. The mussels are gone from the menu but the maine diver scallop with mock risotto (potato and mushroom) and scallop veloute is an incredible replacement. The scallop is large and beautifully cooked and the intensity of flavors in the dish make you wish you had gotten two of these for your lunch. No matter though, because the salad of the day yesterday was pork rillettes. Served on a wooden butcher board, the pink 3 inch wide and nearly 1 inch thick disk of rillettes was a tasty and generous portion. The richness was the rillettes was set off nicely by the davon crest greens, cornichons, a grilled crostini, and some mustard sauce. How Restaurant Eve manages to serve this quality of food, with fresh ciabatta bread and Kerrygold butter to boot, for $13.50 is mind boggling.

I saw this article, and it got me thinking, in this economy, will people try to save money by making things rather than buying? Homemade always seems to cost us more!

http://www.slate.com/id/2216611/

I made homemade baby food for both my kids. Astoundingly cheaper than buying, especially since it was all organic.

I would never buy shellfish in the store, though. No ice under anything. Every time I pass by, the clams, especially, look dreadful: just about every shell open w wormy bits protruding.

HT quite frequently has fresh East Coast shrimp with the heads on for sale. The head on shrimp are not carried regularly and are always about $5.99 a lb when they have them. You owe it to yourself to get there on a Wednesday or Friday (delivery days) during weeks they have them and get a couple of pounds, take them home, and prepare them simply. They are so deliciously briny and a favorite of ours on the grill in the warm months. I do agree that their other shellfish don't ever look appealing.

Anyone know if Tallula has high chairs or should we bring our own little booster seat?

My daughter and I started our veggie garden inside a couple of weeks ago and all of the bean plants are getting big. Where can I find some cages or fencing appropriate for beans?

I bought two large fennel bulbs yesterday - cost me over $7 !!!!!

I intend to use them in a oven slow braised (sweet spice rub, wine, stock, capers, herbs, mirepoix, dried cherries, etc.) largish pork shoulder.

The big pork shoulder itself only cost about $11 !!! So the total vege/herbs/wine/etc. "condiment" component of the dish is going to DWARF the protein component of the dish?

Wasn't this the other way around once upon a time?

What's going on with produce prices? What the hell gives?

Scott

I made bouillabaisse a little while back and balked at the $3.50 a pound price for fennel bulbs at Giant. Went to Grand Mart and found them for $1.99 a bulb. Swiss chard can regularly be found for about $1.29 for a large bunch. The asian grocery stores are definitely the way to go if you are looking to save money on produce.

I baked a Martha Stewart ham from Costco for dinner tonight. Although it's a little pricier than the other brands at $3.49 a pound, it's hormone and antibiotic free and well trimmed. It's got a nice tender texture and is moderately salty. Most hams taste overly salty to me but this one was just right. Another bonus? It's not waterlogged the way most grocery store hams are.

While your quinoa is boiling in some chicken broth, caramelize a big frying pan's worth of sliced red peppers, zucchini and onions (or any other veggie that caramelizes well) in some olive oil. Add some finely minced garlic during the last minute or so. Toss in the cooked quinoa and stir to distribute the veggies throughout. I could eat this every day.

I don't know if this will be a permanent fixture, but J. Wen Farmers and Dairy was there on Saturday, making them the first to offer milk there in the last year or so that I have been going. They will still be at Courthouse, according to the one son at the stand.

There used to be another dairy there selling milk but i don' t remember if they were still there last summer.

Jeez, what're you going to Whole Foods for when Latino market in the area can sell you eight different brands of red beans (Salvadorans far prefer red to black when it comes to beanage) and all the hocks you can smoke for half the price you would have paid there?

I was at WF because I birthed a yogurt eating monster 14 months ago and we were picking up two 32 oz tubs for his fix since the two purchased on Sunday are GONE! Good point though about the beans, I should have checked El Chapparal across the street.

I don't know if the Clarendon location is going downhill or it's just my luck there. Tonight I bought an expensive dessert only to find it moldy upon opening it, and I had to return foul-smelling ground chicken not too long ago.

I was going to make red beans and rice but all 10 or so packages of smoked ham hocks had spots of white mold. I could tell it wasn't just salt crystallization spots because they were furry and some were blue/green. Also, no dry red beans to be found.

I noticed that the Clarendon WF has started carrying local beef from VA and PA. From PA I think the producer was Wolfe's neck but I don't recall the VA producer.

Additionally, the cheese dept has Cowgirl Creamery Red Hawk and Mt. Tam.

Seriously? Wow!

Steamed the two I bought and had one for lunch. While the body portion seemed a bit small, the meat was sweet and a bit briny at the same time. I've never had fresh Dungeness before, just previously cooked, and these were far superior.

Found at the 7 Corners Grand Mart this morning

Live Dungeness crab $1.99 a pound, about 1-1.5 lb average

Smoked whiting and smoked trout-I don't recall every seeing this here before. The whiting was 4 inch segments of smoked small fish, about 4 to a package. The trout was a smoked whole trout per package. These were in the fresh fish area and packaged by the store on styrofoam trays. I would have gotten some to try but I'd already picked up two crabs as my impulse purchase.

Pietanza has pretty inexpensive kids meals, $4, that include a drink. My daughter loves the "mini" cheese pizza which is actually an 8 or 9" pizza.

I just bought some eye round to make jerky.

The beef smells kind of funky.

One side has this weird prismatic yellow sheen - kind of like when you see gasoline on water.

Is that just what eye round smells like?

No, it should not smell funky. I use eye round for jerky and don't recall there being a distinctive smell.

Yup, they have descriptions of the dishes on the menu. Here's a direct link to the menu on their website.

Thank you! As a Camino user, their website pulls up only a picture with hard to read text stating that HTML content should be placed there. Your link worked though.

I believe this was the same gentleman who stopped me from munching on the radish rose garnish for my "cow wandering mournfully in the field" (the dish names are hard to remember, yes) because of the vivid red food coloring they used. The cow was fantastic- little marinated chunks of beef with a garlic and pepper sauce that has a nice slow heat to it.

On the downside, the house music seemed to be "Dr. Demento does the chart-topping hits of the 60s, 70s, and 80s in Esperanto with engine noises."

So are there descriptions of the dishes on the menu or are you supposed to know that "animals frolicking on a rainy Tuesday under a purple umbrella singing Broadway tunes" is pho?