Hannah

I think I have to agree with Charles here. On all three points.

I thought the article came across as mostly complimentary.

It would have been really easy to write the article without the "look at how cool I am for breaking the rules" shtick.

However, I can't see any rationale for prohibiting people from typing on a Blackberry or phone.

I consider myself a pretty courteous person and if I had been given those rules, I would not feel prohibited from typing an e-mail or text message.

Having gotten the hairy eyeball for discreetly checking messages on a Blackberry in a couple of places with posted "no cellphones" rules, I tend to err on the side of "no cellphones means no cellphones." I certainly would not be snapping camera phone pictures - that's clearly far outside the spirit of the rule.

Clearly there was no problem with his writing about it, or he would a) not have been invited in the first place or b] specifically have been asked to make his visit off the record before he came in. What I do have a problem with is his blatantly ignoring the "no cellphones" rule and then making a point of his having done so - that's just rude.

The frozen croissant dough is also surprisingly good; haven't tried the pie crust yet, but it sounds like I should.

I see Ugol's Law is alive and well, along with its DC corollary (It doesn't matter what it is, there's an organization somewhere in town that advocates it.)

Guess it pays better than selling meatballs on QVC.

We stumbled over the Swift on E. 4th last time we were up there - it's tiny, but had a really nice selection of local microbrews and other acceptable selections on draft in addition to the bottle list. It's also about 3 blocks from D&Co and PDT, which is no bad thing.

Is "piccadilly" an American/Midwestern spelling variation on piccalilli, or was the article a victim of spell check? I've never seen or heard that usage - across the pond it's piccalilli (and oh, boy, will there be some spousal ranting if it's spelled that way on the menu at Commonwealth) and in the Southeast it's always either piccalilli or chow chow.

Maybe King Ranch Chicken? It's actually better made ahead, and is also easy to increase/decrease the level of spiciness in if that becomes an issue. (The link has two recipe variations - one scratch, one traditional many-cans-of-soup casserole.)

It was right around 2.5 hrs. Given that it was about 15 courses, I didn't really notice it took 2.5 hrs. I did a 10 course tasting at Citronelle and that was easily under 2 hrs. I guess the amount of time should be commensurate with the numbr of courses. The one thing that I've heard that's somewhat discouraging is that Eve is on the slow side.

One person's slow is another's comfortable pacing. They're not dropping one course on the table as they remove the plates from the previous course, which is as it should be.

As far as the length of time you're able to sit, I've seen them delay courses in the past for parties who needed to leave the table for one reason or another, and I'm sure they'd be happy to do the same for you.

32= Prince

That's about where I stopped reading...

Damn skippy he's a musical genius. Probably should have been higher on the list, really.

Apropos of food, I'm pretty surprised not to see Ferran Adria, or at least Heston Blumenthal on here given that it's a British list.

Fine, i'll put you down as a definite NO. Should the rest of us have the option?

What's this "us"? You've never even posted here before now. Tell us who you're shilling for (badly, as it happens), or go bother someone else.

Growing my own tomatoes and herbs is drastically reducing my market costs. That's a good thing.

Your local fauna must be smaller and less larcenous; they've taken out my entire crop of Early Girls. So far they haven't touched the San Marzanos, probably because they're taller, but I may have to pick those early if I'm going to get any tomatoes at all this year.

Boxed beef? WTF? "That's because we start with only the healthiest, most premium steer calves, chosen for their genetic superiority and low body fat. Fed a high-energy grain ration, these calves mature much more rapidly than those on standard diets...twice as fast, in fact ."

Yes, please come and enjoy some of our eugenic ubermensch mutant beef...

Sorry to harsh on your parody, but every piece of beef you've ever bought from a grocery store, with the possible exception of the dry-aged stuff from Whole Foods, is "boxed beef" - they break down the primals and put them in boxes to ship, since whole carcasses are hard to stack on the truck. The rest is standard marketing schlock - of course all the meat they sell comes from genetically superior bovine triathletes.

Anybody need a Stick in a Box?

Heh. The stick is new, but we had them beaten on the Octodog and the egg-and-muffin toaster by at least a year.

It's the right time of year for something like pan con tomate, and you can't get much easier than tomato innards and olive oil smeared on grilled bread.

Or, I'd agree, it's hard to go wrong with crab dip - there's a seriously good Emeril recipe for jalapeno crab dip floating around online.

Just so happens I live in NJ. I checked out wine library and didn't find it. Maybe I wasn't looking hard enough? Are you referring to somewhere in particular?

No. Just figured there might be a few more places stocking it up there since Bastianich is based in NYC. Worst case, call IWM and ask them if there's someone around New Brunswick/Edison/etc. that carries the rosato.

I had that Bastianich as well and it was most excellent. Anyone know where this can be found retail?

You can order any of the Bastianich wines direct from Italian Wine Merchants - that's generally easier than trying to find them retail around here. You might have better luck in NJ.

Jimson weed is ubiquitous in the West--I don't think it is all that common in this area, but I could be wrong. It was also quite popular in the heyday of Carlos Castañeda's "Don Juan" books, because it was supposedly the source of Don Juan's power. It's very pretty...

It's certainly all over the place in east Tennessee; I would have thought this was a little far north for it, but since the zones have shifted it might not be anymore.

I think in this case the jimson weed was growing among the mint that the woman had growing just outside her house by her front steps. I guess she just grabbed a bunch and didn't notice.

They look sufficiently unlike each other that it'd be really, really difficult to confuse the two. Even if the cook sent someone else outside to do the picking, the leaves on their own don't look anything like mint.

It's a change that wasn't in the original story. And not surprisingly, the culprit turns out to be jimson weed again.

Seems like another case of accidental jimson weed poisoning makes the news every year. Here's the one that went around a couple of years ago: What Made A Medical Resident Go 'Loco'?

Some people just shouldn't be allowed out of the house; jimson weed really doesn't look anything like mint. It also doesn't smell anything like mint. Surely as soon as you picked it you'd think "gee, this 'mint' I just picked smells remarkably unminty."

Mom and Dad just finished lunch at Hong Kong House, and we can add them to the ranks of the converted.

Okay. My mom and dad are on the case and will report back, assuming my famously spicy-food-averse mom survives the experience.

ETA: And assuming Chang is still there, seeing as how it's been a couple of weeks since that article appeared.

Leftover breakfast goodies from Balthazar. Mmm, raisin walnut bread.

For Eamonn's burger I'd probably rate it as Not Worth the Trip. I only had it once but it was definitely both dry and pretty salty, and yet didn't have a lot of flavor. Just not sure why you'd want to fry a burger :-)

It's called beer. The entire menu of your average chippie (not that Eamonn's is average, but the menu's pretty representative) is aimed what you'd want once the pub's closed, you've had a few pints, and you're hungry.