The Hersch

Braising is the cooking technique used for stews.  But other recipes also call for braising, such as pot roast and lamb shanks and short ribs.  I tend to agree that a stew generally has a thinner liquid than say a carbonnade or a goulash.

And HERE is the recipe I use for goulash.  My kids beg me for it.

I believe that strictly (or perhaps over-strictly) speaking, the difference between stewing and braising is that stewing is a single process of simmering in liquid, while braising is a two-part process of browning in fat and then simmering. Thus, the meat in your goulash recipe is stewed, not braised, as it isn't browned (and I think not browning the meat is the traditional way of doing goulash in central Europe). All of that notwithstanding, what people usually mean when they call something a stew is a braised preparation (which might more over-strictly speaking be called a fricassee rather than a stew).

I base these remarks on a discussion of these terms in one of Julia Child's books--I think one of the Mastering books -- and I may have misremembered all of it.

Quick, wonderful roast chicken (not like Palena's, though). This is roughly based on something Julia and Jacques did on their program, although they used a great big chicken.

Set the oven to broil. Take a three-to-four pound chicken and cut out its backbone. Partially cut through the breast bone (from the inside, not the skin side) so the chicken will lie more or less flat. Salt and pepper the inside, and run it under the broiler, skin side down, for about ten minutes. Remove from the oven, adjust the oven shelf, and set the oven to bake at 425F. Flip the chicken over, and rub good butter all over the skin. Sprinkle the skin generously with salt and modestly with freshly ground black pepper. Put it back in the oven for about 30 to 40 minutes (depends on the size of the chicken; test for doneness with a thermometer), baste after the first 20 minutes or so if you want. Beautiful roast chicken (with wonderful skin) in less than an hour after you take it out of the fridge. Excellent pan drippings for a sauce, too.

This is going to be my dinner tonight. I do this in a big cast-iron skillet, which works very well.

This is too over the top to have happened the way the wife was told it did.

Note that the bulk of what the wife posted was not her second-hand account, but rather an "excerpt" (what, there was more??) from her husband's letter to the manager. At least supposedly. There is something fishy about the story, and I agree that the "clean event" terminology is the clearest indication of its fishiness.

The Golden Booeymonger was located on the corner of Connecticut and R

Strictly speaking, that's the corner of 20th and R.

After Golden Booey's went belly-up, it went through another incarnation, as Fourways. 

Wasn't it also the Golden Parrot, maybe before Booey?

Speaking of which, anybody remember Cafe Rabelaise, just across the street, where the Cosi is now? 

Cafe Rabelais, in its day, was possibly the worst restaurant in Washington. Remember before then, when it was the Crystal City (I think)? Fairly good dive bar, which some folks sort of migrated to when the Benbow, across the street, closed its doors forever. Then when the Crystal City also bit the dust, some started hanging out at the Cold Duck, up where Mourayo is now.

One thing that immediately pops to mind is the tripe dish that I recently had a Eve.

The slow-braised tripe with merguez sausage I had at the tasting room at Restaurant Eve (for my birthday) was probably the single best dish I had in all of 2005, at least so far. And the wine Mr Thrasher paired with it was a brilliant accompaniment. Too bad I don't remember what it was.

Little Tavern, College Park (after 1 AM (Deathburgers))

Little Tavern in general. Long ago, I used to sometimes carry the US Mail in Clarendon, and would generally time things such that I would be in the neighborhood of the Wilson Boulevard Little Tavern around lunchtime. A handful of their tiny burgers and a beer from the 7-11 made a fine repast. Or, if I didn't have time for such an indulgence, I would buy a couple of LT burgers and eat them as I delivered the mail. Not that they were particularly good food, but I'd still choose them over McD's in a (clogged) heartbeat.

The Benbow. Not much of a restaurant, but the best neighborhood bar Washington ever had.

The old Old Ebbitt. Those potato chips.

Lauriol Plaza of many years ago (long before the new location) was really pretty good, as was the original La Plaza on Columbia Road.

El Caribe on Columbia Road was a big favorite of mine for many years.

The old National Gallery cafeteria (in the basement of the West Building long ago, before they built the East Building). It was a wonderful, clattery, busy, cheerful place with surprisingly good food.

The Blue Nile Ethiopian restaurant in the Chastleton on 16th St., before they renovated the building and kicked them out. (They reopened on, I think, 17th St., but never made a go of it.) My introduction to Ethiopian, and a nice place.

Schwartz's Drugstore...more than breakfast, they served very bad food all day long. But always somehow comforting to know it was there.

Others have also mentioned: Fio's...yes! I loved that place. Omega...yes! Great cheap Cuban food.

I could see one dish being like that (in fact I had it happen to me).  But not every single dish unless the diner's tastebuds were really susceptible to salt that day. 

To be fair, the complainer didn't actually say everything or every dish was oversalted. To quote:

Several courses were so oversalted that they were almost inedible. We didn't say anything at the time because we didn't really want to make a scene.

I'm sure a quiet word to a server or the manager would have resulted in everything being put right, with no scene, if this really was a legitimate complaint. On the other hand, I had dinner in the tasting room a couple of weeks ago, and every dish was as near perfect as I expect any dish to get. The only hitch in the entire evening was that the server who brought our drinks order delivered each and every drink to the wrong person, but that is easily forgiven (especially in light of her enormous embarrassment).

Someone ate in the tasting room at Restaurant Eve and everything was so oversalted as to be inedible and they'll never return? (They didn't say anything at the time, of course.) Can that possibly be on the level?

The books I turn to most often for inspiration and instruction are the two volumes of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, by Julia Child et. al., and the Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, by Marcella Hazan. Because the authors of both books go way beyond presenting a collection of recipes and devote a lot of space to discussions of technique, of philosophy, of ingredients, and so forth, I think these would be excellent reading for anyone, from rank beginner to kitchen wizard. Another excellent book that I think an aspiring beginner would get a lot of support and help from is Julia Child's The Way to Cook.

So what is the Duram Wheat flour for? Isn't that supposedly better for pasta? Is Duram also a softer type of wheat?

Durum wheat is the "hardest" type of wheat; i.e., the flour derived from it has the highest proportion of gluten-forming proteins. (The word "durum" derives from a Latin word meaning "hard", the same root behind "durable" and "endure".) Semolina, which is milled from durum wheat, is the flour used in factory-made dried pasta, a very different product from fresh pasta. Most fresh pasta is made with softer flour (i.e., lower protein), although some people actually do use semolina to make fresh pasta. I've never tried doing this, and have no idea what the finished product would be like. I gather that dough made this way is difficult to work with.

I looked on the King Arthur site and it is listed as Italian style flour. It has a higher protein % than normal flour. They also have Pure Durum FLour available. I think I will order it as I am too far out to make the trip Downtown for flour.

Actually, the flour that King Arthur calls Italian-style, which they also call their American clone of 00, is a lower-protein flour, approximately 8.5%. King Arthur All-Purpose, by contrast, is 11.7 % protein. It's not made from durum wheat, but I don't know exactly what kind of wheat is used. It is excellent for pizza (all-purpose or, worse, "bread" flour make a tough pizza crust). It's also superb for fresh pasta, which comes out supple, elastic, tender, and luscious. It's also ideal for pastry, especially for an all-butter pie crust, which can be quite brittle and tough when made with all-purpose flour. This is, in fact, my favorite flour. I've never seen it in a store, unfortunately, so I have to pay for shipping from Vermont.

A "martini straight up" is a martini without ice, not without vermouth. That would be a vodka straight up, with olives. Thank goodness my parents raised me right.

A martini without vermouth would be a gin straight up, not vodka.

To get back to La Fourchette: They don't have the best food or service in town. Sometimes an individual dish might even be pretty wretched. Sometimes the waitstaff is so overstretched that no one is well served. But still, in a way, La Fourchette is my favorite restaurant in Washington. Generally dependable, well-conceived, moderately well-executed, basic French bistro food served without a whisper of pretension, at a very fair price. For decades. La Fourchette, I love you.

The one in Bethesda is right off Wisconsin.

I

Oops...I didn't know there was one in Bethesda.

Vace is on Connecticut.

The Iron Gate Inn has certainly been there for a very long time, but I've googled in vain trying to find a date.

As for the Trio, perhaps we should adopt 1950 as its opening date, as the eatery that was there before then was a "luncheonette" rather than a restaurant per se. You can read some of its history HERE. (I can't vouch for the accuracy of this.) That article also gives us 1967 as the opening date of the Fox and Hounds, which shares Trio's kitchen.

Another addition is: Mario's Pizza in Arlington, which opened in 1957.

I was going to suggest two others in Arlington, the Broiler on Columbia Pike and Pizza Pantry on Walter Reed Drive, which both date (I think) to the mid-1950s, but I can't find dates for either and I gather that Pizza Pantry finally closed recently.

mmmmmmmmm.....

Bavarian Chef!

Are you saying that this place really is worth the journey? On the basis of the perennial Washingtonian listing (foolish, I know) I went to the Würzburg Haus a couple of years ago, and that wasn't even worth the journey to Rockville. Bavarian Chef is the real deal?

Has anyone been to Taco Baja on Route 50 near the Greatlands Target?  Curious...

I've eaten at Taco Baja many times. It's a rather peculiar place. It's a pretty mediocre Tex-Mex place with counter service, and a pretty good Salvadoran place with table service. The Salvadorans who eat there sit down at a table, and a waitress brings them menus, chats them up, takes their order, brings their food. The gringos who eat there walk up to the counter, order enchiladas or tacos or whatever, go sit at a table, and then retrieve their order from the counter when called. As a gringo, and a solo luncher, I've never quite had the nerve to walk in and sit down at a table and see what would happen. I have ordered a Salvadoran dish at the counter, however, and when I go sit down at a table, the waitress then brings my order to the table. It's very weird.

eGullet still exists for stuff like this. Why not use it?

Is it me, or do others find that the way the posts and responses are organized was not designed for human readers?

Starting next week, we will be adding some fun salumi: gunciale, and flat pancetta with herbs and spices are the first two.  We may be able to get some lardo soon as well.

Would you mind revealing who your supplier of these things is?

Kelley's Katch for wonderful, affordable domestic caviar.

Bavaria Sausage for, well, Bavarian sausages and Aufschnitt.

Buon Italia for the wonderful Italian things you can buy in their shop at Chelsea Market in Manhattan.

Usinger's for more wonderful sausages and Aufschnitt

ChefShop.com for a panoply of goodies.

King Arthur Flour and Penzey's Spices, mentioned by others, have my enthusiastic endorsement as well (although Penzey's new magazine One leaves me positively frigid).

We occasionally eat at Nova Europa whenever I want a Portugese food fix.

Gosh, I had no idea that place was still around. I haven't seen or heard it mentioned in years, and assumed it was long gone. I ate there a couple of times back in the late 80s, I think, after having visited Portugal but before living there for a time. I thought it was pretty good back then.

(I like the pork and clams, even if isn't as good as what I had in Portugal)

This dish, carne de porco alentejano in Portuguese, is one of my very favorites (in any cuisine). I don't think I ever had it at Nova Europa, but I've tried the versions at both Tavira in Chevy Chase and Caravela in Tenleytown and was disappointed greatly by both. In both, the potatoes had been stewed along with the pork, which I've never encountered in Portugal, where the potatoes are fried separately and added, crisp, to the dish on the plate just before serving.

(Lulu in Portugese)

Lula.

Actually, just this past Saturday I was at the Tenley WFM, and noticed that some of the parmigiano reggiano had been mislabled parrano, for a $4/lb discount. I bought a couple of chunks.