Waitman

Economists and bureaucrats who ventured out into the countryside after the Revolution were horrified to find that the work force disappeared between fall and spring. The fields were deserted from Flanders to Provence. Villages and even small towns were silent, with barely a column of smoke to reveal a human presence. As soon as the weather turned cold, people all over France shut themselves away and practiced the forgotten art of doing nothing at all for months on end. In the mountains, the tradition of seasonal sloth was ancient and pervasive. "Seven months of winter, five months of hell," they said in the Alps. When the "hell" of unremitting toil was over, the human beings settled in with their cows and pigs. They lowered their metabolic rate to prevent hunger from exhausting supplies. If someone died during the seven months of winter, the corpse was stored on the roof under a blanket of snow until spring thawed the ground, allowing a grave to be dug and a priest to reach the village.

"The clam, esteemed by gourmets highly, Is said to live the life of Riley; When you are lolling on a piazza It's what you are as happy as a." --Ogden Nash (who else?)

I just want to say this: I worked with a lot of servers who were trying to launch another career -- as I kind of was. And you know what? Most of them were the kind of people wanted to be very good at what they did, because they had pride in their work (even if they hoped to move on), they cared about their customers and they needed the money. Not that there aren't jerks and slackers out there, just want to stick up for some good people, who may or may not now be employed in the theater, the fine arts or politics.

...or Alaska, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Washington? Servers work for tips and, as a former waiter, I am sensitive to their economic plight and tip well. But if I go to California, where waiters will soon make $10/hour due to state minimum wage laws, -- a $7-and-change hourly "bonus" compared to DMV servers, which also does not have to be split with the busboys -- do I get to knock a couple of bucks off my tip? Further, since higher wages will mean higher menu prices, I'd be tipping on a higher bill. So, do I get to knock an additional percentage point or two off? This is largely theoretical -- since I have low self-esteem I tend to tip whatever it takes to make the server pretend to like, whatever if takes. But, as a question of etiquette and microeconomics, I am curious to here others' views.

Is it only cynics like me that think that the master plan for the market place is to squeeze out the diversity that they brag about here? Certainly Union Market, the wedge end of this whole project, is no bastion of multiculturalism.

With the exception of Five Guys, is there any local chain more undeservedly famous than Ben's? OK, I love the the original Ben's for its fortitude at being the only viable commercial enterprise for about six blocks of U Street during Metro construction (when I lived right around the corner from the place); it's history/general funkiness and the fact that its chili dogs caused my wife's premature labor to subside. But really, beyond a certain beer-sponging practicality to the food, it really doesn't offer much. In particular, the chili is awful.

Maybe it wasn't Slavins I was looking for, Miss Smarty-pants. Was actually hoping for something out Old Town way. Oh, well. Black Salt scrounged up just enough skate after all and so we were able to make this, which I try to make every year when the markets have both grapes and cherry tomatoes. It's spectacular, btw, y'all should give it a whirl if you can hunt down a wing or two.

So, my go to Black Salt is short in skate. I seem to recall a high end fishmonger round Alexandria way, where I'll be tomorrow. Any thoughts? Thanks.

What he said. (Damn -- we might have seen you and not known it.) Let me just add my couple of cents to a couple of places If I was feeling snarky I might say that Little Bird and Pok Pok stomp their DC "analogues," Le Diplomate and Little Serow. But I'm feeling accurate so I'll only say that if you like the bistro thing, Little Bird (aka Le Petittie Oiseau, sister restaurant of reputed Best Restaurant in Town, Le Pigeon) trumps Le Diplomate by being an actual restaurant instead of a Disneyfied recreation of one. Chief among its charms is a menu that, rather than echoing every other "bistro" menu on earth (not that there's anything wrong with that -- who doesn't love steak frites?), offers up original dishes that nonetheless feel as comforting and French as a crusty baguette and a cafe noire on Boul St. Miche. A concoction of bone marrow, confited chaterelles and baked garlic shavings was one of the best things I've put in my mouth all year. If you're traveling from East to West and staying downtown (West Side), this place has a late night menu from 10-midnight that includes the bone marrow thing for $10 (and no sales tax). We were fortunate to crash with friends who live three blocks from Pok Pok, whose chef is dueling Jouhnny Monis for title of "Best White Boy Thai Chef in America" and so ambled over to get in line and order a drink. It's a bit of a zoo, but the amiable sort, and we've been trained to stand in line for good Thai, so what the heck. The famed fish sauce chicken wings are fun but boring and obvious. I would take them back to Mike's place to watch the Ducks or the Beavers or the Mooses or Wombats play the Huskies in The Big Game, but I wished I had that tummy room left for other delicacies like the charcoal grilled eggplant, which was exceptional (they may be cheating by adding pork to eggplant, but I didn't mind) or the spicy flank steak, which I didn't think was quite as spicy as the menu (and others) seems to think. Though, like Little Serow, it is inspired by Northern Thai cooking, I think that the two are different enough that comparisons are inapt except to say that I thought the cooking was just as good (my friend liked Pok Pok better). I wonder if fishhinnards has been by. A couple of things to consider if considering Pok Poking: If you like that salty lime drink at Vietnamese restaurants, you'll love the drinking vinegars at Pok Pok -- many flavors available, I had tamarind -- instead of, or in addition to your adult beverage. If the line is too long, the chef owns another restaurant almost across the street, Whiskey Soda, which I did not get to try but which offers an equally adventurous Thai menu and -- instead of, or in addition to the drinking vinegars -- many kinds of whiskey. Instead of -- or in addition to -- your Thai dessert from either restaurant, you might consider walking a block or two, to cult ice creamery Salt and Straw for a couple scoops of mint leave, sea urchin and meringue ice cream (or something more mainstream, like honey balsamic strawberry). Finally, if you have access to a kitchen and you are in Portland at the appropriate time of year, you ought to -- instead of, or in addition to eating out -- go to the farmers market where in late August they still sell strawberries and shell peas at half the price they cost here when they were in season for three weeks two months ago, along with an extraordinary array of other goods. Not to pick on hardworking immigrant fungus gatherers, but I picked up a brown bag lunch-size brown bag full of fresh chanterelles for twenty bucks. There are probably a hundred stalls, including seafood, and it makes the NYC Greenmarket look like a 7-11. Oh, yeah: Nedd Ludd. Great interior, decent enough, but you can cook this stuff at home.

lperry, Thistle, Bart -- you nailed it. I visited for the first time last night and Route 1 seems to be the preferred route back into town (I noticed Peking Duck but didn't want to take a chance, so indulged my Popeye's weakness). Because of work, visiting hours and my early-morning workout habits, quick carryout that tastes decent reheated at home is the preferred culinary statement for these trips to the 'burbs though, Rovers and Pat, if we get a good night for the out-of-town support team to have a sit-down dinner, your suggestions will be appreciated. Thanks.

I was bitter when my cousin transferred from a hospital in the Little Korea/Eden Center corner of the earth and moved to some corner of Alexandria/Mt. Vernon that as far as I know has little to offer in the way of dinner, but I suppose her spine is more important than my stomach. At any rate, any help you can provide in terms of casual sit-down and decent carry-out will be helpful in helping me get my priorities back in order and making the vigils of the various visiting relatives (adventurous eaters, all) more tolerable. Note that, even though it is located on Mt. Vernon Avenue, Cheesetique (which might be a little fancy for these purposes) is about 20 minutes away from Inova Mt. Vernon, which is near Ft. Hunt Park. On the other hand, the quickest route from DC to the hospital seems to be down rout 1 through or near Del Ray and Old Town, so any quick pick-up spots with decent parking in those areas will be appreciated, as well. Thanks. She is expected to be OK, by the way.

What are you, the frickin' NSA rummaging through my deepest dreams and bitterest nightmares? I'll definitely cop to the last two charges.

I've reserved Tacconelli's Saturday morning for a Saturday evening pizza, so you don't necessarily have to order a day in advance, though it's probably a good idea. Several days, for larger orders. Also, keep in mind that you order for a particular time, so a 7:30 pie will be a harder get than a 5:30. Not only is the pizza good, by the way, but the couple times I've been there, everyone from the phone lady to the waitress as been as friendly as could be, and it's a BYOB, so the beer list is limited only by your imagination (or your ability to plan ahead and buy down here v. Philly's ludicrous beer sales laws). . My only complaint: the jukebox is a little pricy.

It's not like there's a shortage of cheap swilling wines and decent mid-priced wines around, if you know where to look -- the Chinese buy brand names and the rest of the market is relatively unaffected. And, even though the French can't plant any more La Tache, the Mexicans can plant a lot more agave, so premium distillers can easily expand production to meet demand. (Besides, according to you, there aren't any inexpensive tequilas worth drinking anyway. ) Tip: reposados.

Don't know if this place was ever good, but it kind of sucked last night. Limp salad, limp frites, meh beef and a sauce chiefly memorable for the floury texture of its thickener. You'd think it would be hard to screw up so simple a formula, but they did.

A bit of thinking too hard here. You can't buy a house without a kitchen, so that variable is moot (and if you did, how would that effect resale?). Since once generally buys more than one meal's worth of food during a grocery store trip, car costs are likely less for home-cooked than heading to a restaurant. Steaks can be pan roasted to excellent effect. It can quite easily take as long to drive to, await service in, order at and pay the check for a restaurant as it does to cook a steak. The ingredients and preparations for a home-cooked meal are likely of of higher quality than those provided by a price-conscious food chain. And, if you're a decent cook, the dinner tastes better, too, so there's that. The patty on a dollar burger is 2 ounces, or less than 50 cents worth of retail beef. A bun is about 15 cents. Though, affluent yuppie that I am, I'd suggest that when you're comparing $1 burgers against equally cheap home-cooked stuff, the price is not the determining factor.

As an employee of the Securities and Exchange Commission, which regulates The Big Board, I just want to point out that their pricing strategy runs contrary to the way an actual exchange would function. As demand increases, the price on the big board should increase, as well, while the price of other, less-popular beers decreases, rather than the other way around. Although the Chair of the SEC has, in fact, bought a round for senior staff at the Big Board, this does not negate the fact that our Division of Trading and Markets is looking into it. That is all.

May be out of my price range for this trip, Joe, even if -- as I'm going down to row for four days -- I won't be dipping into the wine list at all. But maybe, if one of those spandex-clad oars-babes catches my eye.... I will file this away, however, for a potential future trip, as my favorite (and very well off) cousin lives nearby and the family descends on occasion. And one of my teammates is in that phase of new romance where you make hormone-fueled bad decisions (some might say that this whole romance is a bad decision, but mine is not to judge) and he may want to throw some cash around, mid-life crisis fashion, to impress his younger babe. Thanks..

Off to Sarasota for four days. Anything? Will travel (some, not to Tampa) for grungy Hiaasen-type seafood and beer shacks passed by by condo developers.

Rocked into Malgudi Friday night for a fairly modest ware-sampling at the end of which my friend looked at me and said: "this place needs more customers, what's that food web thing you do? Write something about Malgudi." Since I always what I'm told.... And based on statistically modest sample of their dishes, she was right, even if only for the enthusiasm of the wait staff, all whom seemed not merely servers but proselytes for what I assumed was their native cooking, and each whom smiled with perhaps slightly sadistic glee when we explained that we'd asked about the heat not because we were afraid of it, but because a low pressure-induced sinus pain demanded a fiery meal as a possible cure. Towards the end of the meal, the owner came around, as well, for a chat, an affable woman suffused with enthusiasm, good cheer and, possibly, cardamom. (I claim no particular expertise in South Indian food -- no actual knowledge, actually, , prior to this visit, though my friend spent two years in London and that counts for something.) Our meal was brief, filling, and hot. We started with a Masala Dosa, a fried rice/lentil batter crepe the size of a medium pepperoni folded over on itself and stuffed with spiced potatoes. It tastes nothing like a proper french fry, but possesses that same crispy inevitability as you swear you can't finish it but do. Kothu Poratta was a bit of a let-down, and bland mix of bread and lamb topped with raita that seemed filling, wholesome and uncompelling (and under-spiced). The closer, a "Pepper Fry" curry brought the dinner back up to snuff and even above snuff, whatever lies above the altitude at which snuff thrives. The thick curry paste -- made with peppercorns, onions, ginger, garlic and curry leaves -- almost but didn't quite overwhelm the prawns and retained a fine, layered nuance despite the heat. I noticed some commentary on the heat at Little Serow -- this stuff made Serow seem almost tourist-level in its spicing. It cured the sinus headache and -- with the other flavors -- had us scraping the bowl for more paste to spoon onto the quite tasty tamarind rice as we abandoned conversation in favor of wiping our noses, swilling Taj Mahal beer and arm-wrestling for the last prawn. As I admit, I can't say that I've much experience with this food. I can say that if you like Indian food and have not been here you need to go -- for the change of pace and to keep these guys in business long enough for me to get back. And, if you and you actually know what you're talking about, I look forward to your posts.

"But the main problem with woman metaphors in food writing is the way they reinforce the objectification of women. All of the analogies cited above involve female archetypes: the femme fatale, the matron, the ingénue, the supermodel, the prima donna, the "it" girl. " -- A nettlesome, prune-faced old crab.

What I neglected to say is that this query was part of an ongoing series in which I pose questions the answers to which, for possibly existential reasons, become irrelevant before I have a chance to apply them to the task at hand (part one is here*). So, what happened this time is that none of the Meuniere-type fish (I didn't need sole, but something delicate seemed indicated) at Whole Foods seemed fresh enough for so delicate a prep (does anyone else think that the fish in the Glover Park location is consistently better than the fish on P Street?) and I swung the other direction with mahi-mahi dusted with hot stuff and a pineapple salsa and served with tarted up canned black beans. it was pretty delish, but the accompanying low-rent Savenniers proved disappointing. I do, however, now have a powerful craving for meuniere (I will go to Black Salt), Mersault, potatoes and haricot verts which I intend to indulge in the near future, so your responses were not for naught. Thanks. *Have suggested District Kitchen for dinner tonight so the value of your response to that query was not naught neither.

So, spill.

I wonder if a nice Kendall-Jackson would do instead.

And the classic accompanying wine?