Hannah

I know of sites that have received cease-and-desist letters from the Times; they might not be going as far as litigation in most cases, but they're certainly keeping an eye on things. Best not to poke them in it.

Personally, I think any chef who puts a "sherry scented apricot white sauce" on steak deserves whatever opprobrium any reviewer chooses to hurl at him. Because damn, that sounds nasty. (As an aside, y'all really shouldn't be pasting entire articles from the Grauniad and the Times. Whole articles are far outside what can be considered fair use for discussion purposes, and I think all of us would prefer if our fearless leader didn't get sued. A link and an example paragraph are generally enough for people to get the gist of what's being discussed.)

We took my parents here yesterday for Father's day breakfast, and it was most excellent. There's a good choice of a la carte dishes, including impressive looking eggs benedict, various omelettes, crepes, etc., or the buffet. Gotta love a buffet that includes charcuterie, blintzes, and really good pastries along with the typical eggs/bacon/sausage/potatoes/waffles (along with the opportunity to watch the narrowly avoided Gallic punch-up in the kitchen. ) I thought the price ($21.95) was eminently reasonable given the quality of the food - and, most importantly, my dad loved it.

The Dulles Wegman's has a large display of them, just inside the main door.

I'd certainly rate the food I've had at Pain Quotidien locations in New York above what I've gotten from the bakery chains we have now (Firehook, Cosi, Bread and Chocolate, etc.) Breadline still doesn't quite fit the "chain" definition - yeah, it's corporate owned now, but there's only one, and the menu there bears precisely no relation to the menu at any other Brioche Doree outpost other than that they're all serving some kind of bread. Assuming you can call the parbaked squishy stuff the Brioche Doree in Heathrow was flogging at 6am "bread." Breadline might have lost a little of its indie cred, but compared to the rest of the corporation? It's the Temple of Breadly Delights.

Observations from tonight's dinner at American Flatbread: 1) That's some seriously good pizza. Nice, chewy crust with about the right level of char and great toppings (the maple-fennel sausage is out of this world). Definitely better crust than Paradiso's - no soggy middles to worry about. 2) The no-carryout policy seems to have bitten the dust - we saw at least 10 pizzas leave the building while we were there. This may or may not vary with the level of business in the dining room - it was slightly less than half-full when we got there. 3) There didn't seem to be any shortage of families - the place wasn't packed, but there were several families with kids of various ages in tow. At the same time, there were a few more families who came in, looked at the menu, and left. 4) I suspect any variance in char level noted over the previous few days is based on them still getting used to the oven. There were a few "test pies" being made that would go in for baking, come out of the oven, and get a good looking over and under before disappearing into the back of the house.

I don't think we're going to be able to make it either.

I think awful's a little strong. Sure, JR's is a throwback, and it isn't as good as it used to be, but I'd still go there before a lot of the other pseudo-steakhouses in Tyson's. The steaks aren't Ray's quality, but they're good meat, and they're not terribly mistreated during cooking. The bread is good, and they bring a particularly crack-filled potted cheese to the table before the salads. The one real standout on the menu is the prime rib, and they do a bone-in cut of Flintstonian proportions that's good for a couple of meals and warms over wonderfully. If you're expecting modern space, menu, and presentation, or servers under 60, JR's is not the place for you. For a social outing where the food isn't necessarily the primary reason you're going, it's fine.

After 3 visits, I have to say we're hooked. It's a nice, open, light-filled space, they've got solidly good food and a great beer list, and everyone seems really happy to be there and excited about what they're doing. And whoever is on their vegetable station is an artist, because the root vegetables that come with the rabbit are absolutely fantastic. Seriously. I had no idea you could make rutabagas taste that good. The other vegetables are good too, but the rutabagas are awe-inspiring. I'm not convinced by the frites, but I tend to prefer the thicker-cut style. The Ghent mustard (curry mayo) sauce is most excellent though - if there was a way to combine that sauce with Eamonn's chips, I think we'd have the overall winner.

I have a glass-topped stove, and I like it just fine, but be aware that you can't use standard (ie Lodge) cast iron on it because the bottoms of the pans aren't flat - there's a ridge on them that keeps the bottom of the pan from making full contact with the stove surface. According to the brochure that comes with the stove, if you use non-flat bottomed cookware, it can cause hot spots that will crack the stovetop. This is generally not a good thing. I am not willing to find out the hard way by using pans that don't have a flat bottom. As far as cookware, I have a mix of Sitram, Cuisinart, Le Creuset (which is OK for the stove, enameled or not, because the pan bottoms are flat) and some ancient Farberware that I've had since college, all of which works perfectly well. All-Clad would also be fine, but I doubt you're going to get more than 2 or 3 pieces, even at outlet prices, for a budget of $350.

Courtesy of a strategic acquisition of various accoutrements on Friday afternoon, a Jack Rose and a vodka rickey, and an acceptable Pimm's cup for the spouse.

Schneider's has Laird's Applejack; VA ABCs carry the "Captain Applejack" label, which is the equivalent of Laird's Bonded (apparently under a different label for the state stores in Virginia and North Carolina).

Eh, well, Oxford Street's essentially an open-air mall, and the food offerings on the street (except for the chestnut roaster outside Debenhams in the fall) are basically no better than you'd find in your average mall food court. You've got to get a block or two off Oxford St. either side before you find anywhere worth eating. Subway's only been in the UK for a year or so, so the new hasn't worn off yet. They'll get over it.

The food at the one in Chantilly is pretty good, despite their inability to fully comprehend "eggs scrambled hard," but the service ranges somewhere from inattentive to teeth-grindingly bad. Which is a shame, because I liked the crepes bretonnes I had last time we were there; I just lack the level of patience required to deal with bad service when the primary indicator of that bad service is not bringing me my damn coffee.

The various Belgos encourage kids, and are pretty good/moderately priced. There are Pizza Express locations all over; they're good, reasonably quick, and as I recall don't dumb down their kid's offerings. If you're over around the Eye, the Globe, and the Tate Modern, and need to stop before or after venturing over to Borough Market, the Founders Arms has entirely acceptable pub grub, Young's on tap (mmmm, Waggledance - or if you're there late enough in the fall, Winter Warmer!), and a great view up and down the river.

Are these what you had in mind? If so, I know for sure Wegmans carries them; I think Whole Foods may as well.

Oh, for God's sake, people. It's a burger. Assuming it hasn't been cooked to the carbon-14 stage, there's going to be juice involved, and you might possibly get something that resembles grease on your fingers, whether it's from the burger itself or from the butter on the bun. The slide-around-the-bun effect is the same as you'd get anywhere else that's using a hand-formed patty, and that goes for Central, Palena, Mendocino/Sonoma, the Spotted Pig, and my grandmother's back yard.

A pint of Dry Blackthorn, bless Whole Foods Fair Lakes' little organic cotton socks for having it.

We had dinner here last night, and everything was very good. The spinach pakoras are essentially a fried-finger-food version of the palak chaat at Rasika - super-crispy fried spinach in gram flour batter. The paneer makhani is the best I've had in a while; it tastes like they're using substantially more cream in theirs than most of the other places around (Supper Club, Saravana Palace, Banjara, etc.), and more cream is definitely a good thing. Angeethi is the only Indian restaurant we've run across this side of the Atlantic that has balti on the menu, and the goat balti was really a thing of beauty - goat simmered until super-tender in a savory curry sauce with lots of sliced onions. And, the management gets extra brownie points for having made a deal with the church next door to allow overflow parking in their lot. I'm pretty sure that's what killed off all the previous occupants of this building, because there's very little parking available in the restaurant lot, and there used to be signs up in the church lot saying "no restaurant parking." Now, there's a sign at the front of Angeethi saying that it's okay to park in the church lot, and the no restaurant parking signs have disappeared. We will definitely be back (particularly since we pass it on the way home every night!)

We had a very pleasant dinner here on Saturday. They're not doing anything particularly innovative food-wise, but there's a lot to be said for simple things done well. I had the cream of carrot soup, which was remarkably light for a cream-based soup, and had just a hint of cumin, and a tomato and mozzarella salad. Yes, tomatoes are out of season, but they did pretty well with what was available, and the balsamic-fennel vinaigrette worked really well with the cheese. The spouse had a grilled portobello with blue cheese, and a burger. I'm assured that the mushroom was good, and the burger and fries were both entirely acceptable - non-greasy fries, and caramelized onions on the burger. The real standout, though, was the dessert - poached figs in a light custard. They somehow managed to get all the flavor of Christmas pudding with custard, which tastes great but is slightly denser than your average neutron star, into an infinitely less dense and far more appetizing form. I'd go back just for this - although having a reliable source of Dry Blackthorn on tap is a definite bonus.

All you have to do is call or send them an email, and they'll send you copies without the stinky inserts. I find them a lot easier to read now - and Apprentice the paper-munching cat no longer tries to eat them. I was starting to think that catnip was a major ingredient in all the perfumes they were advertising.

Someone needs to beat Gourmet's cover photographers over the head with the concept of color saturation. The cover photos for the last year or so have all been really washed out - very few warm colors, lots of pastels/grays, low lighting. Not really what you want when you're trying to make something look even remotely appetizing.

Not surprised at the response from O'Faolain's - they're good people. It's not in Ashburn though, it's in Sterling.

Edinburgh; Heriot-Watt's a lovely place (although I have to confess more familiarity with the student bars than with the brewing department).

Okay. It would have made more sense to use the word "review" as the link, since that's the subject of the sentence (and the post as a whole.) Also, the purpose of the meatball reference is not to enlighten the people who read the Anne Arundel Extra about the wide variation of Italian regional cuisine, it's to provide one example and move on to the substance of the review. Editing has nothing to do with it - in fact, an editor is just as likely to whack multiple examples like that for space than they are to leave them in. Plus, if I'm not mistaken, the reviews that appear in the Extras aren't coordinated with or approved by the Food editor, so they're even less likely to include the background information you might expect from a Food section feature.