Hannah

Too long since anyone's mentioned this place. Marvelous hot dogs and surprisingly good french fries from the brick-and-mortar location in downtown Leesburg; haven't sampled the wares from the truck but can confirm that it's still at Blue Mount Nursery, at least on weekends.

Only this morning did we decide to go out for dinner for our anniversary tonight and the one thing I'm craving is a soft shell crab dish (not a sandwich). So, if you know of a place with a decent atmosphere, please post here and I'll see if a last minute reservation can be made. Thanks.

Pax,

Brian

Also, it's Loudoun, and has been that way for a couple hundred years.

This is a wonderful, I do wish that some of the songs were available fully remastered (along with the original), I know I am asking for way too much, but a perfect example of this is the difference between an unremastered version of Jelly Roll Morton's "The Crave" and a remastered version.

For a lot of these records that aren't in perfect condition, they're having to make a choice between preserving as much of the original audio as possible when they're digitizing, and "remastering," which does technically involve choosing to remove some of that original audio. I asked the same question when I was out at NAVCC a while back, and they said that they're always going to choose to preserve more of the original audio, even if the finished product ends up with additional artifact as a result.

It's pretty darn cool. Been listening to for a few days now. Do you know if they will be expanding the recordings into the 1920-40s?

I watched the online video for the restoration process and have to applaud the hard work of the entire team. That's a lot of painstaking intensive work.

There's definitely more on the way - including lots more from the 1920s, although I haven't heard specifics on what they're planning to include beyond that.

Full article This is pretty amazing and so accessible! This post even has some cool samples.

Our Recorded Sound and Web Services folks are justifiably very proud of this launch; the interactive Book of Opera is especially impressive. Yay, team.

Honestly, the only thing I thought was really worth returning for was the Singapore slaw, which is apparently Lee's signature dish; if that's an example of what he can create when he's on form, then there might possibly be something to the hype. The rest wasn't bad, it just wasn't particularly memorable (a couple of the maki, the veg dumplings, I think maybe the duck?)

Picked up an NY Coney (standard dog with chili/onions/mustard) the other night and was favorably impressed; the dog has that great snap when you bite into it, and the chili's excellent. The bun was toasted, too, which was a nice touch. I saw several of the options at other tables, including a pretty good looking Chicago-style dog, so it's going to take several visits just to work through the menu. No problem with temperature on mine, but I'd agree that the service speed could use some work. I think that'll just take a few more weeks of settling in though.

I'd have to agree that the local/sustainable revamp has helped; their food used to be really pretty awful, and it's improved considerably since the menu change. The blueberry pancakes are actually worth going there for, which is saying something since SD used to be on my "avoid unless there's no other alternative" list, and the Greenberry's coffee is a huge, huge improvement over their prior coffeelike substance.

I have a very recent report (Sat. night) from the Oak Room at the Seelbach; maybe a little posher than you're looking for, but sounds like the kitchen's back on form after a year or so of staff changes.

Thank you all for the calls, emails, and PMs offering support and good wishes - they're very much appreciated.

A month or so on from the last post, sounds like they may have addressed some of their consistency issues. The crust on both the slices I got was appropriately chewy, the white pizza had plenty of roasted garlic flavor, and the sauce/crust/cheese ratio on the roasted tomato and mozzarella pizza seemed right on. I've been to Good Stuff once and haven't bothered returning despite the fact that I work a block and a half away, but We the Pizza is worth a return trip.

That's great news - congratulations to Kathy!

Still not sure about the "beans" aspect, even after looking at their website. Are they coffee beans? Or cocoa and vanilla beans in the cupcakes themselves?

I got cupcakes from there the other day, and I'm not sure either, although there is in fact a coffee bean on top of the choco-mocha cupcake if you really have to find a bean someplace. As far as the cupcakes go, they're kind of small for the price; more your standard-size paper muffin cup size rather than the larger size that Curbside and Georgetown Cupcake use. The household verdict is that Curbside's are on the whole better, although if I happen to be over at the mall and in need of a snack I might grab a red velvet.

About the only thing that surprised me was the lemon wedge perched on g's Erdinger Hefeweizen.

Nope, that's very traditional serving style for a hefe in Germany. It has to be lemon, though; no substituting other citrus fruit for no apparent reason.

As far as Euro Bistro goes, it's still open, but I have never once in all the years I've lived in and around Herndon seen anyone IN there, and I have made a point of looking. They must get business at some point or they wouldn't still be open. Maybe they're all retirees who eat at 5pm or something.

Sonoma and Bistro Bis are generally pretty good bets for random member sightings when Congress is in session; Hunan Dynasty on Penn Ave SE is apparently Chuck Schumer's favorite, so you're likely to see him there.

Again, restaurant economics - we can't keep paying our website designer to update our menus because they change DAILY

I can't help but point out here that the utterly fabulous St John and its sister restaurant St John Bread and Wine both update their online menus for lunch and dinner every day, without fail; granted, their website's pretty minimalist, but if you're printing the menus out in house it's a very short step from that to uploading that same file with the day's menus, and your web designer should be able to set that up for you very easily.

We had reservations for tonight, and got a call letting us know that they'd closed, so it's officially official.

This actually sounds pretty similar to the progression a friend of ours had; for years he wasn't really allergic to anything, then a couple of years ago started reacting to fish and shellfish with progressively stronger reactions (first itching, then hives, then lip swelling, tightness in the throat, etc.) The real kicker was a couple of months ago, when he was cooking lamb one afternoon, chomped on one of the pine nuts he was planning to use for the crust and had a full, classic anaphylactic reaction - fortunately he was able to call 911 while he could still talk, and they got him to the hospital before any lasting damage was done.

Basically, the upshot of all this is (like everyone else has said in full or in part): a, take this very seriously; b, don't assume that because you weren't allergic to it the last time you ate it that you haven't developed a new allergy to it, particularly if you've started reacting strongly to something else in the meantime; and c, get in touch with your allergist.

We just inherited a jar of Vegemite, courtesy of an Australian friend who feels compelled to bring it to Azami's "Trains 'n' Scrapple" event every year. I'm a little disturbed that it has no expiration date. . .

It would be a brave and hardy pathogen that took on a jar of Vegemite and survived. The Marmite XO does have a "best before" date, but that's August 2011 for a jar that was purchased the last week of April 2010.

ha-wasabi (the leaves of the wasabi plant, parboiled and eaten with soy sauce). . .

Wow, those sound spectacular - anybody know if they're available at any of the local Asian supermarkets?

We are now in possession of 2 jars of Marmite XO. It's simultaneously stronger-smelling and mellower-tasting, which is very weird. I dislike the regular stuff, but I could definitely see developing a taste for XO.

i think you're thinking of sambar, a lentil based soup that usually accompanies dosa and idli. but even if that was what he was thinking of, as you said, it'd be odd to serve it with soup, as sambar is itself a soup.

It may be worth going back and watching this one with the captions turned on. It sounded like he said sambal, what was presented looked like sambar, and it's not clear that either one is what he intended.

was i the only one a bit bewildered by Marcus' "indian" tomato soup with what he said were the "traditional garnishes" of nuts, melons, chickpeas and sambal? granted i'm mostly used to gujarati food, but i'd never seen those all together in an indian dish before, certainly not tomato soup. and i was under the impression that sambals were from indonesia and other places but not india?

Sambal's a pretty standard accompaniment to dosas, but I can't say that I've ever gotten any with soup, seeing as how sambal's kind of soupy already. The chickpeas and melon didn't seem out of line though.

The dog itself is a mystery meat, unusually homogeneous and smooth, and surface-dyed to an eery red color. The slaw is finely-chopped, stinky and sweet. There's a smear of mustard too, and a bit of chopped onion. But the guest of honor is a thin streak of dark brown beef chili that's carries an up-front peppery burn. I wouldn't rank it among the spiciest foods I've eaten, but the heat-timid should probably look elsewhere on the menu.

This sounds like a very close relative of the infamous Martinsville Speedway Hot Dog (note that they've "interviewed" the hot dog itself, which is a little scary. Also note that the race is sponsored by Tums. )