Hannah

Cakes are lovely. But pies are exalted! Fruit pies, custard pies, meat pies...

Looks like the Distilleries et Domaines de Provençe folks got tired of their Absente product getting slammed as fake absinthe and decided to join in the fun of producing the real thing.

It is possible that the stuff from Wegman's is just not that good. I like the stuff from the Whole Foods in Fair Lakes.

The Reston Whole Foods now has Moorenko's as well. The Rice Pudding flavor is kind of interesting - unlike their other flavors, it doesn't come across as super-creamy. Basically it's frozen rice pudding - very good frozen rice pudding, to be sure, but not really ice cream as such.

DiBruno's in Philly sent out an email on Friday saying that they now carry it.

I just can't believe it, but here it is: $200 Burger King burger

I'll bet it STILL doesn't compare to the burger at Central or Circle Bistro, either of which you could buy several of for the price of this one B.K. economic monstrosity.

Yep. Published reports of his whereabouts seem to prompt a more-or-less immediate move.

I've refrained from commenting on the Post's wine column up until now, but this is unbelievable.

It's also pretty clear that the only reason they mention the Henriot (which is gorgeous) is because they got invited to the schmoozefest tasting. Feh.

I need to be mentally prepared for it, and not be expecting, for instance, aged bourbon.

There's a fairly involved thread on eGullet's Spirits & Cocktails forum about Campari's transition from carmine/cochineal to artificial color - according to the vast majority of people who've tried both, the manufacturer appears to have sacrificed taste in favor of cost savings or caving to the vegetarian lobby. Carmine color was not and is not banned.

As far as Angostura, the label says "Colorant Caramel E150a" - that's standard burnt sugar/corn syrup caramel color, no bugs.

I'm still looking for confirmation about Reeve's, JR's Stockyard Inn (their website says "over 25 years"), Iron Gate Inn, The Broiler, Pizza Pantry, Blue and White, Hovermales, Churreria Madrid, Hodges, Leesburg Restaurant, Green Tree, Red Fox Inn, Pho 75, United House of Prayer for All People, Middleton's, The Alamo, The Railroad Inn, Calvert House, Golden Bull, Johnson's Charcoal Beef House, Iron Gate Inn (when did it change names?), Quarterdeck, Marlo's, Majestic Cafe.

A lot of new members have never seen this thread - would anyone like to research the establishments listed in the previous paragraph, or maybe chime in with some new ones?

Cheers,

Rocks.

Red Fox Inn's current building has been in use as a tavern since 1830, but there's been a tavern on that site since 1728 or so. National Register of Historic Places confirms the dates.

Wasn't it Dr Dremo's that used to have that big circular metal urinal thingamajig? It was a very weird experience standing in a circle and... well, you get the disturbing picture.

Am I supposed to understand the name of this place?

If you are wondering the meaning of Breadsoda, it was nicknamed for a beer brewed during prohibition made from baking soda that was served in the speakeasies.

As an aside, if you can find a cattle farm that has a wooded area with a patch of perilla/shiso, they will be more than happy for you to help them get rid of it - while it's harmless to humans, it's pretty bad for cattle if they get into it.

Got takeout last week, and certainly didn't notice any dropoff in quality or reduction in the number of people in the restaurant. Any place can have an off night.

Hi there. I made a reservation at Rasika for my brother and I. He lives down South and doesn't get a chance to eat Indian there. I did a search on Rasika on DR but didn't find a thread for it. So here's the bottom line: should I keep the reservation or go somewhere else like Heritage India or Indique?

I live in Rockville and both of us have eaten at Bombay Bistro many times, so that one is off the list.

thanks,

rob

Colon Blow

Count me as part of the "still don't get it" contingent. One of my dishes at Proof on Monday featured grilled ramps*. They struck me as a less edible scallion - tough and without much flavor - truly the "Emperors New Clothes" of the allium family. Almost as if they were something found by the side of the road.

The one in Herndon, which may or may not still be open (it's been a while since we were by there) is okay, but the food was kind of creepily perfect.

You know how you'll occasionally catch a glimpse into the kitchen of IHOP, Denny's, etc. and see the pictures of each dish posted next to the pass to show how each dish is supposed to look when it goes out? Well, all the food at First Watch looks exactly like one of those pictures; like each plate has been carefully arranged by a food stylist before it's carried out to your table. If I hadn't been able to see that there were actual people in the kitchen, I would have been worried that there was a giant replicator in back - push a button, get your perfectly formed Syntho-omelet and Tea, Earl Grey, Hot.

The food was fine, but honestly, I'd rather go someplace like Virginia Kitchen where the waitresses are a little cranky and the eggs come from an actual egg, get bashed around on the griddle for a while, and come out looking different every time, rather than First Watch where someone's clearly been instructed to use the Perfect Eggotronic 9000.

Thank god B&J never opened a location out in the boonies of the Dulles Tech corridor (and if there is one nearby, don't tell me where!).

As with most of these things that get passed around the interwebs, the vast majority of it is complete bumf. A point-by-point rundown of the full thing is available at snopes.com, but here are the highlights for the food bits:

Pease porridge:

Even some cooking practices of today call for tossing whatever's on hand into the stewpot, with new ingredients added each day to whatever is left over. French bouillabaisse, for instance, is sometimes made this way, as are any number of "peasants' stews."

Bacon:

Surprisingly, one authority states the saying predates the 16th century, asserting it comes from the 12th and refers to a time when a slab of bacon was awarded to the happiest married couple. A man who therefore "brought home the bacon" wasn't showing how good a provider he was but rather the success of his marriage.

Another authority believes the "bacon" refers to the pig used in the greased pig chase common to many local fairs. The winner's prize was the pig itself, thus the skilled pig catcher got to "bring home the bacon."

The term chewing the fat doesn't seem to have been around prior to the American Civil War. One theory links it to sailors attempting to chomp on the tough rind found in salt pork sea rations. As Richard Lederer puts it, "What seems clear is that chewing the fat, like shooting the breeze, provides little sustenance for the amount of mastication involved."

Tomatoes:

Tomatoes were generally shunned by many Europeans until the 19th century, but not because they had discovered that tomatoes were acidic and lead from pewter plates therefore leached into them. Many people believed tomatoes to be dangerous to eat because they resembled other plants known to be poisonous, such as henbane, mandrake, and deadly nightshade. For a long time the tomato was considered primarily an ornamental plant; eating its fruit was considered to be distasteful and potentially harmful.

Bread (the one they actually got right, ish):

Even a blind squirrel can find an acorn once in a while, and that appears to be the case here -- the wag who thought up this e-mailed leg pull accidentally stumbled onto an actual origin. "Kutt the upper crust (of a loaf of bread) for your soverayne [sovereign]" was good manners in 1460. The custom at the time was to slice the choice top portion off a loaf and present it to the highest-ranking guests at the table. Centuries later, this practice led to calling the elite who ate the upper crust "the upper crust."

The rest of the bread was not apportioned out by rank, though.

Wakes:

Waking the dead is an ancient custom that extends around the world and has existed in Europe for at least the past thousand years. The term refers to the practice of watching over the corpse during the period between death and burial. Partly, this had to do with making sure someone was always around in case the corpse woke up, but the watchers were also there to make sure household animals and assorted vermin were kept off the deceased.

Some so feared the possibility of live burial that they left instructions for special tests to be performed on their bodies to make sure they were actually dead. Surgical incisions, the application of boiling hot liquids, touching red-hot irons to their flesh, stabbing them through the heart, or even decapitation were all specified at different times as a way of making sure these people didn't wake up six feet under.

My German experience has been overwhelmingly in Bavaria, where I've never encountered anything like the warm potato salad with bacon that is what most people in the US mean by German potato salad. I think maybe they do that style in Northern Germany, though.

Sonoma has a small but pithy selection of beers on tap (the Brooklyn Pennant '55 is a particular standout at the moment), so it's puzzling that Mendocino doesn't offer an equally good selection, even if it's bottle-only.

If you're a scotch fan, you'll love the Ola Dubh.

Dang. I was happy and then you crushed the joy out of me.