winger1930

Question on deep frying... I'll be deep frying a bunch of things this weekend, mostly batter dipped things (veggies, onion rings, etc), and mostly savory. I had a recipe from long ago for a savory deep fry batter that was like a tempura, but also included some sugar to help with the browning - very light, but nice and golden brown. Unfortunately, I can't find this recipe anywhere and I'm trying to find a good recipe to use. Any ideas? I'm looking at this recipe for all the sweet things. http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/street-fair-food-week/how-to-make-battered-amp-fried-sweets-at-home-street-fair-food-week-092890 I love long weekends...

I'm going to the game this Friday, and I'm trying to figure out if tailgating is "allowed". I know, by law, there's no tailgating anywhere because of open containers, and nowhere can you have open fires, blah blah blah. But, if one were to tailgate, where would I go? I hear conflicting reports about what lots are pretty liberal about drinking with a red cup and won't hassle us. I usually park underneath 395, but there's always a cop in that lot, so I'm a little weary about drinking there. That, and it's under 395, so it's not exactly the most ideal place to tailgate. Then there's the issue of cooking out. I wasn't planning to bring a grill, but I have one of those tabletop portable gas stoves to cook a few burgers on. It sounds as if nowhere allows this, but I'd love to spend a few hours before the game just hanging out the back of my car. If not, I guess I'll settle for a giant pretzel and fried bologna...

Never ordered from this site before, nor do I know anyone who has, but I have thought about purchasing these (and other bugs) from this site before.

Thanks for the tips! I finished roasting them on my stove top, but I had a problem of making sure they weren't charred too much but also weren't undercooked either. I think I ended up with a few burnt peppers, but overall it was a success. Now I just need to find a good recipe to make some of that green chile sauce that they put on everything in NM...

So when you say peel the chiles, I'm assuming you roast then peel them? That seems reasonable - I just want confirmation that I don't screw this up! I don't have enough reds to do a ristra unfortunately. Just a freezer bag full of them. Should I keep them in the bag or take them out? I'm just worried that they go bad in the bag if I don't use them right away, and I'm dreading possibly seeing some mold in there. Thanks for the tips...

I just got back from New Mexico last night, and I have in my possession about 2 pounds or so of fresh green chile peppers and a bag of dried red chile peppers. I'm trying to find the best way to store both of them. I'm assuming that I need to roast the green ones ASAP and plan to do that over the grill, then freezing them. I was planning to follow this method: http://www.twentymile.com/Cookbook/roastinggreenchiles.htm I'll be roasting these over my gas grill. What I'm not sure about is whether I should freeze them whole and then peel/seed/de-stem them as I need it, or freeze them chopped up. My gut says that I should freeze them chopped up, but a lot of sources say that you should freeze them whole unpeeled. I just want to get it right while I have a "hot" commodity in my possession. And, I need to know how to store the dried red chiles. They aren't totally dry - they almost feel like sun-dried tomatoes so they're a little flexible still. I'm guessing the best way to store these is to freeze them too, but any tips would be helpful.

***BUMP*** I'm going to Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and Taos next week. Looks like there is a ton of good road food. Anything out there that I should be stopping at that hasn't already been mentioned?

Mmmmm...elk. Oh, live elk. I used to tell my wife when we went to the Baltimore Aquarium that it was like watching a buffet swimming in front of me. I'm staying at the Banff Centre so I'm guessing I'm close to all of these things. Apparently the Centre is only a 20 minute walk to town, and it's actually warmer there right now than here.

I have a trip out here for work next week, and I know nothing about the place. Pictures indicate that it looks a lot like Glacier National Park, which is fine by me. Beyond food, suggestions on anything else that I should see out there would be much appreciated. No car for me either - instead, I'm taking a $275 sedan from the airport because I don't want to drive off a mountain.

Check out Pat's BBQ. It's a little hard to find, but it is in SLC proper (and really, how big is SLC anyways?). It was excellent BBQ - a little bit of a mix of all styles, but I thought it was well smoked and tasty. Had ribs, brisket, chicken (moist!), and a bunch of sides (good sweet cornbread, greens) a few months back when we were passing through SLC. A friend of mine was there a few weeks ago and agreed it was some good grub. They also have a really nice outdoor seating area, and the place itself is really big for a BBQ joint. It's sort of in a warehouse district next to some train tracks, but worth the drive out there. (We had a car, so I don't know what the cab situation is like) http://www.patsbbq.com/index.php

Out by me (Gaithersburg), I've had good luck watching games at Dogfish the past few years. Not a Eagles bar by any means, but there are a handful of fans there, and it has great beer and pretty good food. However, this past weekend, we were shut out since there weren't any Eagles fans there and all the TVs were claimed. I tried Bailey's up in Germantown because we were desperate, and they actually have a good amount of Eagles fans there. Granted, this is just on one visit to the place, but they had a side room with multiple games on, but mostly Eagles fans were there and the game was up on the big screen. It helps that the manager of the place is a huge Eagles fan too, so while their main room showed many games (and lots of Steelers fans were there), this side room was perfect for us with plenty of fans yelling at the TV together. We plan on going back again on Sunday for sure. They have a good tap list (Arrogant Bastard, Dogfish 60 min were notable), but their food is pretty much standard bar food. We're hoping that they'll have the same setup this weekend. One thing to keep in mind about this Sunday, and something we're trying to debate too, is that the Eagles game is at 4:00pm. That means most bars will be packed with folks from the 1pm games (Steelers and Ravens are playing at 1PM, Redskins at 4pm), so anywhere you go will probably be tough on finding seats unless you go for the 1:00pm games too. You're following the same exact schedule as us - Eagles game Sunday, Phillies game Monday. Stubhub was having a fire sale earlier this week and we picked up 3 tickets 4 rows back from the field for $23!

So, I finally found a way to mix my professional interests with my personal interests. I've been working on getting my MBA part time from UMD's Smith School of Business, and I'm working on a project about local food hubs and how to make them more profitable. Basically, these hubs are distributors of local foods (mainly produce) to restaurants, grocery stores, etc. The idea is that by aggregating all the local produce, you'll be able to achive some economies of scale to drive down costs, while at the same time providing local farmers with a more steady stream of income. There are plenty of them out there that work, even in VA, but I'm trying to find ways to make them more profitable and sustainable (from a monetary standpoint). I'm looking to talk to anyone in the food industry that can help me out or that has some knowledge of the wholesale market. For example, I'm looking to speak with: -Chefs/Restaurant/Grocery Store owners - Talk about what you look for in a wholesaler, what kind of constraints do you have working with local food producers? -Distributors - Do you currently work with local farms? What type of scale are we talking about? What's your model to distribute? -Farmers - What types of barriers to market do you have? Is this something you'd be interested in? I figure, between everyone on this board, there's got to be a ton of people who might be able to help me out. I'm just looking for a few minutes to chat about this and help me to get a better sense of the market. Any help is much appreciated. Thanks! Paul Food hubs that are already out there... Local Food Hub (based in VA) Intervale Food Hub (in VT) Grasshoppers Distribution (in KY) Community Alliance with Family Farmers (in CA - of course)

I'm heading here Wednesday - hate to hear that it might be slipping. Any recent experiences that were positive and what to get? It's not often we get to go to places like Marcel's, so I want to make the best of it!

One thing I've done is basically create an electric smoker inside my Webber. It's a take off of Alton Brown's terra cotta smoker. Because the Webber doesn't have the same insulation that a clay pot has, I needed to have TWO hot plates in the bottom of my smoker. One is an old 750W and the other is 1000W. I put a pie pan full of a combination of wood chips and wood chunks on one of the hot plates, turned the heat up to medium high, and let it go. The other hot plate is strictly for keeping the temperature steady, so I've usually kept that one at about medium high, but it depends on the outside temperature. You do want to put a disposable pan on this hot plate to catch any fat from the pork. I think my goal was to get the temp to around 275 or so around the meat, and up to just under 200 inside the meat. I found that you can't put the two hot plates on the bottom grate of the Webber because it sits too high, so I actually had to put the hot plates on the bottom of the Weber with a few pieces of wood to hold them level. You then thread the cords of the hot plates through the bottom vents of the Weber and you're good to go (one one was threaded through - the other one was too big so I had to have it dangle out the side of the grill). Using these specs, this past March, I smoked a 9.5 butt for about 18 hours or so. I timed it so that I would start around 11pm the night before with a ton of chips and chunks in the pan, then let it smoke overnight. I woke up around 8am, added in more chips, and did my first mop of the pork. Checked on it every couple of hours until around 5ish or so. At that point, guests were arriving, they smelled the smoke going, and I pulled the pork off, wrapped it in foil, then a dish towel, and stuck it in a cooler for about 30 minutes. After that, I took it out, shredded it, and enjoyed some awesome pulled pork. I haven't done this since, but it really was pretty easy to do and the results were great. The pork wasn't dried out, it had a great smokiness to it, and everyone seemed to love it. Couple of notes: -I would be careful with the overnight smoke. One thing I did was I stupidly put the power strip (one of those ones that are made for outdoors) underneath the Weber itself, so some fat from the pork dripped out the bottom vent and into the power strip. Yeah....that shorted out my outdoor outlet and I lost probably an hour or two of cooking time. However, I did learn all about home electrical repair! -This does produce a lot of smoke, and if you have neighbors (like me in my townhouse), they'll either love or hate the smell. No one complained, so I take it they loved the smell. -I wanted to get a whole shoulder, with the skin, so that I could take the skin off PRE-smoke, and fry up some pork rinds to crumble on the pulled pork. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any whole shoulders in the sub 10lb range. -My 9.5lb butt probably could have fed 12 easily, probably closer to 15-18ppl.

I love a Dark & Stormy with Barritts, although I've not had it in bottle, only in cans. I'd love to get my hands on it in bottles to have it with cane sugar. Upon further research (your Moscow Mule story made me want to dig a little about the Dark 'N' Stormy (apparently that's the Gosling's way to spell it to - go figure)), turns out the Goslings folks have a trademark on the drink itself. Now, the way that I like to have a Dark & Stormy (so as not misrepresent the Dark 'N' Stormy) is with Gosling's Black Seal rum, Barritts Ginger Beer, lime, and a splash of bitters. I like the citrus and spice from the bitters to really turn up the dial on the ginger beer. That's the way I had it at the Beach Bar in St. John, and that's how I'll always like mine, no matter what Mr. Gosling has to say about it. As long as I don’t use the ‘N’, I should be fine legally to enjoy one that way tonight.

Couldn't find a thread on this... Four of us went out for an excursion in Annandale this weekend, and we needed a place to kill time between Bon Chon and late night Honey Pig, and we ended up at Cafe Tu Ah. It's right up Columbia Pike from Honey Pig. The outside of the building looks like a converted VFW Hall with lots of wood paneling and a giant wooden door, but the inside was actually really modern. There's a bar and some seating (maybe 40 or so) to the left, and some Karaoke rooms to the right. The place is REALLY dark, and has an upscale lounge feel to it. The karaoke rooms were all wood paneled, and were kinda creepy. They reminded me of a 70's porn den, complete with floral couches. Except this den was equipped with a 46" LCD tv and a gauze covered mic. We asked one of the servers, and they said that the rooms rent for $33 an hour, and I have no idea if that's a good price or not. We were here mainly for drinking, and ordered mostly soju, both plain and flavored. This was pretty much everyone's second time drinking soju, the first time being about an hour before this when we were at Bon Chon. We were fascinated in how they made the flavored ones. Take for example the grape one...they open up this little can of what looks like white grape soda (the can was the size of those old school V8 cans), pour it into the bottom of a plastic carafe, and then add in a bottle of soju, and top it off with a little clear soda (I'm guessing Sprite). At some point, they add in peeled grapes, and we theorized that the grapes were actually IN the can of grape soda, which may have explained their jelly-like texture. Their bartenders were all really nice, but there was a little language barrier. When we asked for some other flavored soju, the one bartender thought about it for a minute, and then you could tell a light bulb went off in her head. "Yogurt" she said, and we nodded. She brought out these five little drinks, and I instantly remembered the Yakult drinks I used to have when I was a kid in Hong Kong. We used to call them "little drinks", and I actually had to look up on Wiki to find out what their "real" name was. So, she mixed up five of these "little drinks" with the soju, and handed us the carafe. This was by far the best one, and it reminded my Indian friends of lassi. A little tart, a little sweet, and really dangerous. I think all soju was $9.99, but it's all a little fuzzy. I wouldn't call any of these drinks "good", but sweet and easy to drink seems about right. The menu was probably 2 pages long, full of some interesting stuff. We saw a $25 fruit plate, which was HUGE. But $25? There must be more to it. Someone at the bar ordered a big plate of meat, and what looked like another huge plate (think a pizza pan) of white noddles. They also have some larger private karaoke rooms downstairs. All in all, not a bad place to kill a few hours between Bon Chon and Honey Pig, and we'd go back again just to mess around in the karaoke rooms.

I always complained that the ride from G-burg to Annandale was too far, which was why I never went to Honey Pig. After running some errands in VA a couple weekends ago*, we had to drive through Annandale to get back to the Beltway, so we stopped here. Of course, it was awesome. But this was at 3PM on a Saturday. I wanted to try going for late night... So, Saturday night, a bunch of us drove out for a night out in Annandale. We finally got to Honey Pig at around 1am, and I was fully expecting a long line and an hour wait. To my surprise, we were seated quickly and the restaurant was only half full. We ordered the #1 pork belly, the brisket, spicy pork belly, and the pork/squid chulpan, along with an order of the seafood pancake and hangover soup, and an unnessary bottle of soju (we had WAY to much already). It was everyone else's first experience with Korean BBQ, and I think they all liked it - I know they ate it all! Couple of comments though... -I had to ask for the grilled kimchi with the pork belly. That pretty much makes the dish, and I was surprised that I had to ask for it. -They started to grill the chulpan on the same grill as the pork bellies and brisket, which I thought was odd. When I asked for the rice, they took everything off the grill (including the pork belly and brisket) and dumped it all into the curved grill pan, added in more sauce, and then the rice. While it was really good (and pretty spicy with the double dose of sauce), again I thought it was odd. -The hangover soup didn't prevent the hangover at all! Unless I'm supposed to eat when I already have the hangover in place....either way, no one else really liked it but me. Nice and rich broth with chunks of beef (I think) and some veggies (I have no idea what kind, just leafy greens. Probably napa cabbage if I had to guess). There were four of us, and I was the only asian (but not Korean though), so I'm guessing they did all this stuff because of that. Not that I really care or am upset by it, but that's just my assumption. *Ok fine, my wife dragged me to the Twilight festival, and my reward was finally going to Honey Pig. At least something good came out of it...

Rightfully called out.... I can't take and take without giving some back! I totally forgot about this! Waaay back when I lived in DC, I would take the metro up to Maxim to do my grocery shopping. Once I moved out to the 'burbs, I ended up going to the big Korean stores by me, and forgot about all the prepared foods at Maxim. I'll have to go over there again soon - I remember their food being really inexpensive and pretty good. I know my dad was a fan whenever he came to visit.

I've never been here, even though it's almost across the street from me. Ziki Japanese Steak House Look on page 6 of the menu for their hibachi menu. It's right next to the gas station in the Rio in Gaithersburg where the Taco Bar is. It is non chain (as far as I can tell), but I don't know if it offers better ingredients. In fact, I rarely see people there, and I honestly think it's a mob hangout where they pump rat milk, but that's just a theory.

Thanks everyone for the recs! I ended up at Sichuan Pavilion last night, and it was glorious. I was expecting a long wait for takeout, but when I arrived there, the place was only half full. Granted, it was 8:30pm but it was Friday, and I figured it'd be packed. Everything was great - here's the run down: Pork Liver and Kidney in Garlic sauce - From the specials on the website. Thick slices of liver with smaller chunks of kidney in a spicy sauce, but not too spicy. A bit numbing. Only downside was that the sauce was a little watery, probably from sitting too long (there was a difference of 1 hour between when I ordered and when I picked it up - all my fault). Beef jerky - Based on rave reviews, I got it, and I get it. A ton of jerky too for $4.95 (I think). Could not stop eating it! Spicy chicken gizzards - Funny story. I was so hungry in the car ride home that I took out what I THOUGHT was the beef jerky. Started munching on this, and ate most of it before I got home. When I opened up the bag, I clearly saw that this was NOT the beef jerky. What got me is that these gizzards were sliced thin, so they "felt" like beef jerky. Either way, they were really good. Pork intestines with peppercorns and peppers - Really good and spicy. Not chewy at all, and nice long cross cut strips of intestine. From someone who doesn't get to each much offal, I have to say all of these dishes tasted remarkably clean. I guess I was expecting to eat all these things, and eventually get tired of them because they'd have "muddy" flavors. But they were all very mild, just a hint of barnyard (of course in a good way), and I'm going back for seconds, thirds, fourths...might even give some to my wife! All this for $29, and I'd say it was enough to feed at least 3 people. While I don't post that often here, this is exactly why this is a great board. I trust all your opinions much more than sifting through a billion reviews from Yelp or Chow, and all your recs were spot on. Can't ask for much more....thanks again! -Paul

Is this at Joe's or Sichuan Pavilion? I think my wife will be glad she went out of town with all this spicy food in the house and how I'll be effected tomorrow morning....

Either or. I mean, I won't complain if I HAVE to eat more Szechuan and Joe's isn't a bad option at all....I also haven't been there in a while.

So my wife is going out of town this weekend, and most guys at this point will call up their buddies and invite them over to watch the Flyers try to win at least ONE game against Boston. I, unfortunately, have a ton of work to do tonight, so I'm going to order every type of food that my wife won't eat. I'm looking for some can't miss take-out offal between my office (Bethesda) and home (Gaithersburg). I'm thinking of the beef and tendon at Sichuan Pavilion, but I've already had it...so I'm trying to branch out a bit. Any ideas are appreciated. I just have to make sure that I clean out the leftovers before my wife gets back home so my fridge doesn't stink! -Paul

Check out my post above - all those places are in Cruz Bay (except Skinny Legs). I've eaten at Caneel Bay once and it was standard American food - expensive, but fine. I think I had a burger. The big draw at Caneel Bay, besides the resort itself, is the snorkeling. When you head down to the beach, snorkel to the right along the beach and you'll see some great stuff. Just don't snorkel to the left or the ferry may run over you. (I almost lost my wife of 1 day that way!) I would recommend that you rent a jeep though to see the rest of the island. There's so much to see, especially the beaches along the north and it is just so much easier with a jeep so you can go at your own pace and own schedule.

Sweet - can't wait until next Friday! Wish I could make it down there tonight for the trial run...