Anna Phor

We are neighbors and big fans of Dino--we dine there once every couple of months of so. At the end of December, we ventured out for our first real restaurant meal with our new (6 week old) baby. My new-mother confidence was boosted not only by the fact that the restaurant is a couple minutes' walk from our house, so we could escape if there were a major meltdown, but also because I know Dino's has a children's menu and I have frequently seen a few families with children in the earlier evening hours. We went early (6pm--we were shooting for 5.30, but our young son cannot yet read time; also he objects to putting on pants and had to be soothed after the trauma), on a weeknight, and without a reservation, since punctuality is not our strong suit right now. We were escorted to a quiet upstairs table, and the staff ensured that other diners were far enough away from our table so that both we and they were comfortable. The boy was well behaved, the food, as always, was delicious, and we look forward to many more trips as our son grows up. Thank you Dino!

St. Martin I was in St. Martin this summer , and heartily echo the recommendation, particularly for Grand Case. Some specifics: Le Cottage. Excellent classic French cuisine with island ingredients. We had a multi-course lobster tasting menu which blended traditional presentations (a rich creamy soup) with more innovative dishes. Le Ti Coin Creole: mid-priced creole in a tiny house on the edge of Grand Case, this intimate restaurant has a half dozen tables which wrap around the verandah of the chef's personal home. There are also a number of excellent "lolos," or beachside kitchens in Grand Case. This is basically street food with picnic tables arranged to overlook the water. A couple of local dishes really caught our attention; the crabe farci is a crabshell stuffed with the meat and spices, and the stuffed josephine is the vegetable that I know as a choko stuffed with sausage meat. Ribs are also found at many of the lolos. Outside Grand Case, we had mixed luck. Marigot was mostly closed during our stay (which was during the off season), but we did find a very nice French bakery on the main drag (I don't recall the name but it was south of the market on the main drag with a yellow awning). There was nothing on the Dutch side worth writing home about except for trips to the supermarket, but shopping foreign supermarkets is to me one of the delights of travel). One final mention goes to BZH, in Les Etang aux Huitres. This is a charming family pizza joint run by a Breton couple who turn out fantastic crispy pies, (try one with an egg on top), plied us with Breton cider, and humored my high school French.

As a bona fide Cleveland Park parent, it's not so much eating refined sugar and food color number 5 that I object to*, but I wouldn't take my kid there because there isn't anything that *I* would eat. And yes, it's nice that there's a new business opening, but I really don't think this is sustainable. I don't think it will last more than a year (by the by, Cold Stone Creamery has been closed now for more than a year I think--I wasn't particularly fond of them, either). I think a neighborhood coffee shop would make more money and be a better long-term tenant for the space. But nonetheless, I wish the owners the best, and a little dramatic high dudgeon shouldn't dissuade them. *okay, well I do object to my son eating this, but he's only 5 weeks old. I was quite proud of the fact that I made cereal myself this morning, with the child in arms. (Couldn't get the plastic sleeve back in the box, though.)

Wow. Just wow. I looked at their "menu". I don't think you could make that shit up if you tried. The neighborhood is crying out for a place to sit down & have a cup of coffee (Firehook is fine, in summer, but there's not enough indoor seating to make it a viable coffeehouse to sit with a friend for coffee for an hour or two), and we get this?

I use the Julia Child recipe from French Cooking and regular long-grain rice, and it always works out a charm for me. And I believe she explicitly prohibits stirring after a certain point (furthermore it is finished in the oven, so stirring is moot). I generally use whatever kind of chicken stock I have on hand, which is either home-made if I'm industrious, or else something organic & low-sodium that comes in a vacuum-sealed box. I will say however that this does not make a creamy Italian-style risotto--the result is much more like a pilaf with individually separable rice grains.

You might try Harry's if you're looking for somewhere that's open late within walking distance of the Verizon Center.

I make muffins by using the Joy of Cooking muffin recipe and putting whatever I feel like in as additions. Bacon chunks, corn kernels & cheese is a popular combo, especially for breakfast.

I'm fairly sure that I've done a sweep of all the Dupont vendors. Nobody is doing back bacon, as far as I know. I'll check out Foggy Bottom next time I'm there.

I've definitely tried (at least) Cibola's bacon, the one from EcoFriendly, and at least one other vendor at Dupont. They aren't bad, but the one that Cibola used to produce had a lot of meat & not a lot of fat, compared to the other bacons available. I'm fairly sure it was a back bacon, and that's what I'm looking for.

Grown-up restaurants that give me a dessert menu that feels like it should belong to the kids' menu. If I want cookies and milk, I can have them at home. I don't need every. single. thing. on your dessert menu to be some sort of retro comfort childhood food.

Cibola has stopped making their hickory smoked bacon because the recipe included sodium nitrite. We are devastated. This was two years ago, and some of us are still devastated. I feel that we have now made a good faith effort to try all the other available bacons available, and nothing quite stacks up. Looking for a meaty back bacon that I can cook up a couple slices for breakfast without the family feeling like we have to subsist on low fat oatmeal for the rest of the week. Would prefer a farm where the pigs are happy, and local is a plus. Any online recommendations?

Echoing the advice above to braise. I ruined a pair of goat chops by pan-frying, despite that being the seller's recommendation. Note that I'm most definitely *not* a fan of chewy meat.

Many thanks--I will have to look out for these!

Could someone post a picture of the fruit you're talking about? The links above appear all to be broken, and the fruit that I call a "paw paw" is I'm sure an entirely different beast (well, it's a papaya).

My go-to dish for sick days is Banana Leaves chicken curry laksa. Which they deliver (although min. delivery is $25). It comes with the noodles in one dish and the broth in the other, and the broth is a wonderfully restorative chicken/coconut/spicy blend.

I don't know squat about Chipotle shareholders, but I do know that the company just came to an agreement with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers in Florida to pay more for tomatoes. The workers will now get 82 cents for each 32 pound bucket of tomatoes, up from the 50 cents they were previously getting.

For the beer, Welsh rarebit. For the spirits, how about a trifle, flambed bananas, or a whisky flummery?

So it's August, which means it's time for me to make my Christmas Pudding. This is an old, old family recipe from my great-grandmother, and this year it will be served to her great-great-grandchild for the first time. (Well, in a manner of speaking--said child is not due into this world until November, so the serving mechanism will be breastmilk, but still.) I've been able to manage most of the difficult ingredients. I have candied my own lemon & orange peel, and I have a mixed spice blend recipe that I've used with success in the past. But my trip to Brookville this afternoon for suet ended in defeat. They've come through for me twice in the past, but alas, no go this time. Any leads on where I might be able to get this in (metro-accessible) DC? I'm thinking Eastern Market, but if anyone has a particular butcher they'd recommend ... (And I do mean metro-accessible; it's easier and less hassle for me to get to NYC or Philly than to, say, Tyson's.) Also, if anyone needs candied peel, I have two jars of the stuff for a recipe that needs only two ounces, so if there are other pudding-makers out there who need some, I'd be happy to oblige.

I've been to events like this at Lauriol Plaza. Also, you might inquire at Marvin, also on U street. They have a nice rooftop bar.

They card everyone. Come September, when college students come back into town, there will be a couple of busts in places in the south Dupont/M Street area, a couple of bars will have to forfeit several nights of business, and I assume the odd bartender or bouncer will be on the hook for a couple thousand dollars in fines. It happens every year, but not to the Hunt--they are scrupulous about not serving underage patrons. They also have a nice beer selection, and I'd recommend the chicken wings.

It's not a food/restaurant guide, but I've heard high praise for The Eater's Guide to Chinese Characters.

I live in this neighborhood & Fresh Med is one of our go-to carry out places for nights we can't be bothered to cook. They are definitely better than Byblos (across the street). Yannis is a different kind of place--it's a sit-down restaurant with outdoor seating & a bar. I've only eaten there a few times; I had an excellent grilled octopus for lunch there once, but I don't have a good sense of the kitchen's overall quality or reliability.

UDC's farmers' market, at 4200 Connecticut Av NW (right on top of the Van Ness metro) opened for the first time last Saturday. The market is hosted by Community Outreach and Extension Services in partnership with the Mid-Atlantic Growers and Consumers Cooperative. The market will run Saturdays, 10-2, through November. You can read more about the University's involvement in their press release. We visited the market in its second week of operation. It's small, with one produce vendor and a baker. We bought corn, the first heirloom tomatoes we've seen this season (and delicious!), cucumbers, bell peppers, basil, and a cantelope. They also had eggplant, watermelon, zucchini, several kinds of peppers, and I think squash and onions. The farm is located in Westmoreland County, VA. The baker carries breads, some cakes and foccacia bread--I bought one of the foccacia and didn't love it, but the cake I sampled was tasty. The market is located right across the street from the Van Ness Giant, so if you are shopping at the Giant on a Saturday, step across the street and check these folks out!

I also had the pulled pork sandwich from Teddy's BBQ. It was meh ... the pork was a little fatty, the bun was stale, and there was no BBQ sauce in sight, BUT, they are also selling roasted corn on the cob, which is a great addition. One ear for $3.50.

The blue bus runs from Rosslyn to Dupont metro, via Georgetown. Their website claims that it stops at 25th & L and at M & New Hampshire, but I've never seen it stop between Dupont and 30th St. in Georgetown. From Foggy Bottom, I agree, take the circulator--or walk.