Hannah

That's more or less what I was thinking when I bought it - it looks like it will go really well with cheese.

It's hard enough finding a bar that serves reasonably sized drinks - try finding 4-5 oz cocktail glasses for purchase! I finally did find some at the Fortessa (restaurant supply) outlet, but I was even striking out online and at antique stores.

A very nice writeup in the Guardian.

He was at Vermont Ave. this afternoon. I got some of the peach and prosecco jam but haven't tried it yet. I can say it looks more like a chutney or a fruit butter than a jam - more like fruit that's been cooked down for a really long time. As far as the non-jam or sauce offerings go, the Virginia ham and parmesan tortellini is very, very good.

Hee One of the spouse's former coworkers made the mistake, on her first visit to England, of assuming that Colman's was the same as French's, since it does look pretty similar if you don't know any better, and when presented with a hot dog someplace put a French's-size splodge of Colman's on her hot dog and took a bite. Apparently there was much screeching.Oh, and you have to keep an eye on the prepared Colman's, as well - some, but not all, of the prepared stuff in the little glass jars is made either in Canada or New Jersey and is not as potent as the mustard made in England. We've been getting squeezy bottles shipped over since the spouse deemed the North American prepared version unacceptable and we couldn't find the English version at a reasonable price.

Folks, the damage was done years ago when they glued a mall onto the Louvre - the McDonald's is just window dressing at this point.

I think I've seen it in our nearest VA ABC store, which means any of them can get it - will pop in this week and check.

At what's become normal slaughter age (15-18 months), yeah, there can be quite a pong; if you're slaughtering at 9-10 months, you probably are not going to notice a significant taste difference. It's all in what you're aiming for. Because my parents raise cattle for breeding stock, they don't castrate any of the calves, but the male calves that aren't good enough usually end up in their or my grandparents' freezer before the point where testosterone levels become an issue; the calves' voices are changing, and girls have started to look interesting, but the BO really hasn't kicked in yet.

Cutting their nuts off doesn't make them female, and they still display social mounting behavior - the only thing castration really gets rid of is the "fight it or screw it" impulse common to male teenagers of any species.

Oh, good lord. They don't "become heifers." There's some observable mounting behavior, but it's the bovine equivalent of locker room butt slapping, and that's certainly not limited to the males - the females do the same thing to establish pecking order. The average mature bull is really only aggressive toward other intact bulls. Unless there are females in season immediately nearby, they're as easy to manage as any other animal - show them food, and they'll follow you wherever you want them to go.

Glad to help. Once you're ready to venture a little further afield, Angeethi and Saigon Pho Style are both excellent, and if you take the back roads they're actually pretty close to where you are.

Yes, but that was in one of his particularly testy periods, when he'd had a falling out with the BBC and had to move the series to Channel 5, with a corresponding loss of prestige and presumably money. It's a real shame - he'd been diagnosed with colon cancer about a year ago, had just gotten the news that the treatment was going very well, sat down to watch a new TV bio of himself, and boom. (He also wins the prize for the best cooking show theme ever - the Stranglers' "Waltzin' Black".)

The Village Center at Dulles, aka the Bavarian Nightmare, has a few places for quick, cheap lunch. Sorrento Grill, despite the name, is a kebab place with some excellent lunch specials. Chutney's, which is vegetarian Indian, is always crowded - I haven't been there, but they seem to be doing something right. I think Patisserie Lille, which is through the archway past Sorrento Grill, has started doing savory croissants and such at lunchtime - it's worth a look, anyway. Hama Sushi is wonderful, but probably doesn't qualify as either cheap or fast (unless you call ahead). Of the chain offerings, Fresh City seems to be pretty good - the salads, wraps, etc. are reasonably priced and pretty tasty. I'm not averse to Red Hot & Blue, either. Going the other direction on Sunrise Valley, there's a small shopping center with a Harris Teeter - they have a pretty good-sized takeaway area with sandwiches, sushi, salad bar, pizza, hot buffet, etc. - a Pei Wei, and probably a few other things opened since the last time I drove by.

Keith Floyd. Dammit.

Dr. Borlaug was one of my graduate school professors, and was an incredibly gracious and enthusiastic teacher despite the huge demands on his time from multiple sources and directions. He had a marvelous sense of humor as well. I'll miss him.

Um, it's not like they're planning on closing the entire length of Vermont Avenue. It'd just be the block between H and I (DCist has a map), which, despite the level of traffic on the streets either side, gets remarkably little through traffic - if any street in downtown DC has to be closed, that one will probably cause the least amount of mayhem. It's also basically right on top of McPherson Square metro, which is going to make it a pretty tempting stop on the way home for Blue and Orange line commuters - much more so than the Penn Quarter market.

The $11-14 cocktail isn't even remotely going to come as a shock to someone who's used to drinking at the PDTs and Pegus of this world, which are brilliant, but ain't cheap. I'd add the bars at Eve and the Tabard Inn to that list. Eve gives one the option of having an excellent dinner, or at least some really good charcuterie, along with the cocktails. We don't quite have anywhere yet that does that perfect high-low PDT/Crif Dogs combo (mmm, waffle fries), but PX comes close. Tabard Inn is a lovely place to meet people for a drink, and happens to turn out great cocktails besides. In terms of who's doing what, PX/Eve are going to be more experimental - you'll see unusual infusions, foams, flavor combinations you may not have thought of that turn out to be utterly fantastic (like the Pickled Martini - everyone either loves it or hates it, you can guess where I fall). The Gibson is serving some serious classics and riffs thereupon. I haven't seen the list at Proof, but based on what their cocktail guru was doing at his previous stop I expect it falls somewhere between the two.

I know I've seen it at the Total Beverage in McLean before - it's worth giving them a call.

No kidding. How do they manage to find so many people every season to be contestants who have obviously never watched the show?

St John is still a must-go; there's nothing else like it, and even if you're not big on innards there's plenty on the menu to choose from.

Wong Kei is legendary, and I don't think it's changed in years but yes, it's decent food, cheap, and fast. New World, a block or so away in Gerrard Place, is good for dim sum (which I'm pretty sure you can get anytime) and also reasonable. Busaba Eathai is a few doors down from Wong Kei in Wardour St., and regularly shows up on the best cheap eats lists. If you just want to grab a pub lunch, De Hem's in Macclesfield St. is a great little Dutch pub that has some interesting stuff on the menu.Over in Oxford Street, besides the fabulousness that is the M&S food section (try the onion bhajis!), John Lewis and Selfridges both have big food halls that are great places to pick up lunch, or groceries after work for that matter.

Lime is probably a better instant hit for blossom end rot than eggshells or anything else; you should be able to pick up a small bag at any garden center, and just sprinkle a good handful on the soil and water it in. It should help with the small fruit that's already set but hasn't started turning brown, and anything else that sets from here on out.

We're not wine drinkers or collectors on the scale of a lot of folks here, but over the years we've consistently ended up seeking out the recommendations from the sommeliers at Esca and Babbo for purchase after trying the wines at the restaurant - they are all incredibly enthusiastic about the wines, and they also seem to have a real knack for matching what you say you feel like drinking with what they have at any given time.

I'm guessing Pastry Xpo's thyme savories are closely related to the thyme croissant goodeats mentions - they're bite-size puff pastry bits baked with a thyme spread in the center and sesame seeds on top, and they're very, very good. They also do a pretty good strawberry tart, with a chocolate cookie crust that made it a little more interesting than the standard summer offering. I'd certainly like to see more people in Pastry Xpo than the Cold Stone Creamery next door, but at least there have been two or three people sitting down for lunch or dessert and coffee every time I've been in - that's got to be a good sign.

Yeah, I did the "mark all posts as read" thing already. I didn't realize the orange thing was supposed to be clickable, since it's not what I was clicking on in 2.0 to get to the new content - I was clicking on the thread title.