laniloa

What he said. The pork was wonderfully moist and flavorful. It was so tender it melted. Had I stopped there I would have been perfectly happy. But the cherry fritters sounded too good to pass up. The cherry flavor was pervasive without being overwhelming. I particularly liked the texture of the fritters -- nice crisp crust with doughy inside.

I'm fickle about tea and can go with or without sugar. For a mint tea I'd prefer no sweetner so this is very good to know. And to correct my oversight, welcome to entropy too!

Welcome foodandreason and great first post. I enjoy mint in my tea so I'll have to swing by sometime soon. Was it sweet tea?

Jacques Gastreaux, mdt and I will be meeting at Eve tomorrow at 12:15 for the lickety-split lunch deal if anyone would like to join us.

Are there people who don't fold their slices??? I wasn't going to give this a whirl because no matter how good it is, it isn't *really* pizza based on this same standard, admittedly subjective but it happens to be my baseline, but you have piqued my interest. I have to trust the word of a man who quotes Cookie Puss. I'll give it a try this weekend. Dinner last night was some braised buffalo short ribs in a tamarind sauce, polenta, roasted zucchini from the Dupont market.

The woman at the stand told me that Wegman's has been claiming all of their hanger and flat irons. Hope is on the horizon as they have some new butchering arrangement that should lead to more regular appearance of these cuts at the market starting in a few weeks. She told me this change was in large part due to the many complaints they've been getting from regular market customers so we all need to keep complaining even as we buy other stuff!

I'll see you guys at Circle Bistro shortly.

I've noticed an increase in local produce at the Balducci's in Glover Park. Westmoreland strawberries, MD hothouse tomatos (including heirlooms), PA and MD lettuces. A welcome change.

Thank you so much for doing this chat and for opening on Saturdays. While my office is only a few blocks away from BreadLine, I don't often get out of the building for lunch. I'm selfishly glad you are getting more accessible. How do you decide how to expand your accessibility? How did you decide to start at the Mt. Pleasant farmers' market and will you be going to others? I'm counting down the days until the BLT is back in season. laniloa

I've been presented with this too. I managed to escape without trying. But my host was quite proud of it and had requested the "recipe" from a friend who'd served it at a party.

Let me add to the chorus praising mdt and mktye for pulling off such a wonderful event. It was enlightening to all. Throughout the tasting you could hear people making a variety of interesting sounds as they contemplated the far greater range of difference then we all expected. While we all thought the raw tasting would showcase the difference we expected the sauce making process would cover a wider range of sins. It didn't. Thanks for the graphs mktye, they really highlight that some of the samples were bad to everyone (objectively bad) and others had a wide range of opinion (subjective). It reminds me of the discussion on the can you be too serious about food thread. All in all a great day of tasting tomato, wine, pasta, and good conversation while very patient teachers helped us make fabulous pasta even with our best efforts to trash mdt's kitchen.

I had a very pleasant lunch at Palette yesterday. The space is very attractive with a bar area with a decent looking lounge menu worthy of a happy hour. The lunch menu offered a nice mix of options. My companion and I both went with the yellow tomato bisque with lump crabmeat. I was expecting cold soup and I think this would be better this time of year cold. That said, it was tasty with a nice swirl of chive oil to brighten the flavor. I had the pulled duck spinach salad as an entree. There was far more duck then I would have expected. It was nicely seasoned with an apple peppercorn dressing that accented rather then overwhelmed the duck. My companion had the grilled ahi salad that was more sliced ahi with noodles then salad. He commented on how quickly he inhaled his lunch when I asked how it was. We skipped dessert but with the check comes a large bowl of cotton candy. They have a nice bread presentation offering several selections. I had lavosh that was somehwat bland. The others looked better and I'd get one of them next time.

I just blew past the question of what I was looking at and showed them some of scenes so they'd laugh with me. It was entertaining for the entire office.

You can order off the bar menu or the dining room menu. I've eaten there by myself several times and while I can't tell what people think of me, but they haven't approached me with either of the two possibilities you mention! So go. Or tell us that you plan on going in the on a whim thread and someone will more then likely join you.

I picked up snap peas, asparagus, and strawberries at Dupont yesterday. I spent about $3 more then I did for the same things at Arlington last week.

Bring one with you to work and enjoy with your sandwich du jour!

Sutton Place/Balduccis carries a lot of the Boylan's flavors including black cherry.

The line for me is when you start expecting everyone else to hold to your standards for taste, ingredients, etc. Do whatever you want in your own life but don't expect from others or judge them for doing differently. This includes knowing how to be a gracious guest (or host) when around those who don't share your inclinations. Taste is a subjective thing. Opinions are not facts.

Thankfully they didn't present me with an eel with a birthday candle because I just couldn't handle that!!

I'm a little disappointed that the monkey doesn't have mini rubber gloves for the washing the dishes pix.

This was my inaugural outing to Eve and what a wonderful introduction. I am at a loss to explain why I haven't been there before considering all of Mssr. Gastreaux's words of praise. The asparagus soup got better with each spoonful. Like hillvalley, I thought it would be served cold. The creme freche gave it just the right amount of tang without detracting from the taste of aspargus. You all must go and have the BLT. I'm trying to figure out if I can disappear from work for a couple of hours tomorrow and get another. The tomato compote? chutney? remoullade? (whatever you want to call it) was made with oven dried tomato that matched the smokiness of the ham just perfectly. I love a lush in season tomato, but I'm not sure I'd want to swap a tomato slice for this spread. In the name of science, I'll have to go back at peak tomato season and compare. Dessert was a tough choice. Hillvalley was quick to flag the little yelp of happiness that escaped my lips at the mere description of one of the desserts. The birthday cake would have been the natural choice but they had this chocolate tart with lemon mousse. Which I needed. After my dining companions finished giving me crap for not getting the birthday cake, the kind folks at Eve brought me both desserts. This was dense, dark chocolate paired with light, tart lemon. Fabulous. The cake held its own too complete with the light sugar crust on the top of the frosting that recalls so many birthdays past. Lively chatter with both my fellow diners and the stellar staff. A perfect addition to a great birthday. I'm loathe to eat dinner because I can't imagine anything comparing to this lunch.

Risotto with basil and roasted zucchini, sauteed chicken.

I think the ventworm cake could be a hit in the 10-12 year old birthday party circuit.

What more can be said other then to thank everyone who came, cooked, ate, and enjoyed and especially to those who organized!

I can easily turn my green bean salad into a pasta salad since I was going for a basil dressing anyway.