perrik

How is the non-crab fare at Mike's? My husband is happy to accompany me to crabhouses, but he doesn't eat crabs in any form. We'd like a place that serves decent ribs or fried shrimp or the like. It doesn't have to be brilliant - it just has to be better than Cantler's! Love the crabs at Cantler's, but even my husband - the man who enjoys Hot Pockets - thought the industrial frozen breaded shrimp there was nasty.

The Pyrex baking dish will be fine for the cake. The volume of one 9x13 pan is pretty close to that of two 9" round pans, so any standard two-layer recipe will work fine. I think you won't get the same level of browning that you'd get with a metal pan, but with enough frosting who's going to notice? I can't remember what the difference in baking time is - I think you'll need an extra five minutes or so, but wouldn't want to guarantee that's right. Do the toothpick test to make sure the cake is done properly, of course.

If I must die someday, I would prefer to die in the quest for clams in black bean sauce. Hemingway would approve. We'd better grab two platters at the dim sum outing. I'd hate to see a riot break out at our table! What are the lunch buffet hours? I'm thinking about heading there next Tuesday or Wednesday for a test run, and might as well eat as long as I'm there, but won't be able to arrive until 1:30 or so.

This sounds promising! What dishes did you particularly like?

I had four egg yolks and a cup of sour cream left over from Tuesday's baking, so I made Rose Berenbaum's Sour Cream Butter Cake and slathered it with her Chocolate Butter Glaze (both from The Cake Bible). Lovely, but a fruit glaze would have worked better - the chocolate butter glaze is fairly strident in its chocolatude. The cake itself is a keeper. The crumb isn't moist, but it's soft and melts on the tongue. Berenbaum suggests serving it with creme fraiche, which sounds like a fine idea. (my husband is more likely to prefer a raspberry glaze, though, so raspberry it is)

I thought the chocolate cupcakes came out a little dry, but they were still a big hit with both kids and adults. The chocolate espresso fudge cake's actual cake is my standard chocolate version, too. It makes very moist and decadent cupcakes. I didn't like the buttercream as much, it's a bit soft. For this cake, I like to fill with stabilized whipped cream (and perhaps some raspberry or strawberry preserves) and frost with white chocolate ganache. His chocolate chip cookie recipe (skipping the rum and increasing the vanilla to 2 tbsp) is the one that has made me very popular. When my husband's co-workers met me, they all said, "hey, you're the cookie lady!" Next on the agenda is pound cake and cheesecake. I've got a lot of lemons to use up...

My husband and his co-workers had to spend their Independence Day in the office (journalism is not a cushy job), so I felt it necessary to feed them. It also gave me a good excuse to hang out at the office, which has an excellent view of the Mall fireworks. The lemon jumble cookies went over well (all four dozen disappeared), but I was surprised that they also liked what were supposed to be cupcakes. Marcel Desaulniers' first chocolate book has a recipe for old-fashioned chocolate cake, which is a moist sponge-like cake with chocolate flakes. I've made this cake several times, and it's delicious (although its effort/flavor ratio isn't nearly as high as, say, his chocolate espresso fudge cake). After settling on this recipe, it dawned on me that cupcakes would be easier to transport and serve. Halfway through beating the egg whites, it dawned on me that this is not a good recipe to convert to cupcakes; half the batter will have to sit around, slowly deflating, while the other half is in the oven. (I only have one cupcake tin, why didn't I pick up another at the yard sale? D'oh!) Worse, the chocolate flakes started settling at the bottom of the batter, making it necessary to further deflate the batter by stirring it up. The cupcakes came out with a muffin-like texture - spongy and dense. They actually tasted very good, even though they came out wrong. I decided to re-dub the cupcakes "chocolate flake muffins." The co-workers fell for it, and they ate the entire batch. Chocolate covers all sins. But next time, it's back to a classic yellow butter cake recipe for the cupcakes...

That would be a waste of good spareribs. Can't you leave a trail of Panda Express sweet & sour pork instead? I'm going to do a test run from Silver Spring to Lucky Three's doorstep, and will post exceedingly detailed directions with landmarks for those of us not used to navigating on the south side of the river. It should be easier to find than China Garden was, though! (Dean, if you found your way to Gom Ba Woo, Lucky Three should be a snap) Any interest in doing a full circuit again this winter? Now that I have a decent camera I'd like to get photos of the more interesting dishes available around here (especially of HEOTB's dessert offerings). Perhaps we could do a more serious comparisons of the standards, too. Oh, who am I kidding, I just want more dim sum...

With a little fancy footwork, I can manage noon. So, is noon on 30 July okay with everyone else contemplating attendance? I won't call this time/date final until more folks return from vacation mode, though.

A tip from the greedy person who only organizes these things so she can stuff her face with pork dumplings on a regular basis usual organizer - if you subscribe to this topic, you won't miss any announcements for upcoming outings. All you need to do is chime in to say you're coming and how many people you're bringing, so we can grab a table of sufficient size. (and we can always squeeze in a couple unexpected attendees, no worries) A Fortune veteran, eh? Excellent! I kept thinking we were missing out on something at our visit, which is why I've been hoping to herd everyone back for another try. We'll hold off on scheduling the August New Fortune trip for now. Let's work on a date for Lucky Three. How does 1pm on Sunday, 30 July sound to the NoVa crowd? I can do this at noon if necessary, but 1pm is better for personal logistics.

They should have at least included a source for stain-resistant shirts. Cheez Whiz and cotton polos are a bad combination. (I opt for mushroom cheesesteak wit provolone, and South Street Cheesesteaks makes me happy) I've had Legal's lobster roll at the Tysons branch. No.

By popular demand, we shall return to our exploration of the area's dim sum palaces. 1. The Lucky Three outing never happened, and we do need to check this place out to see if it's on par with its sibling New Fortune. 2. Speaking of New Fortune, it's time for the MontCo crew to grab more platters of char siu and sauteed bok choy. 3. I'd like to revisit Fortune in Falls Church. It didn't show to advantage on our first visit (unless you like cold dumplings), but we may have just hit a bad day. I'm willing to cut them some slack and try again, if others are also in a forgiving mood. I propose a late July date for Lucky Three and early or mid August for New Fortune. My schedule (at the moment anyway) is quite flexible for the summer, so all weekends are fine for me. For those of you with actual lives, how do your summer weekend schedules look? Saturdays or Sundays?

Yet another Moe's sighting - it's one of the restaurants being built at Broadbirch and Tech Road (or is it Industrial Parkway) in northern Silver Spring. This is a site near the intersection of Rt 29 and East Randolph/Cherry Hill, near the emissions testing site and the new MVA facility.The other restaurants will include TGIFriday, IHOP, and some pizza place. Whee. Glad to hear that Moe's isn't all that bad.

Both, I would imagine. "Yum" is kind of salad. It also means "to mix together", in which context we have tom (= boiled) yum (= stuff mixed together) soups.And it's yum as in "pass that dish to me with all possible speed, please."

Ack, I can't get Photobucket to cooperate today, so here's a Flickr link: Gom Ba Woo photos I did not get a good photo of the soldier stew (aka the Cauldron Of Spam). It looked like, well, a red cauldron of Spam. I didn't taste it, either - what was the verdict?

That gives you a challenge, Dean - the Joe's meal will have to outspice this one! I'll post the photos a bit later. No guarantees that I can accurately match the photo with the dish, though. The stir-fried kimchi and pork was particularly excellent, but I could live on that mandoo/kimchi/bacon/bean thread soup. The only dish I found to be sinus-clearingly spicy was, of all things, the chicken salad. My tolerance for mustard isn't as high as my tolerance for chilies. Many, many thanks to Grover and Escoffier for organizing this delicious dinner! Now if I could only figure out who ate my spoon...

Okay, lunch or dinner? (in other words, do we move the planning chat to Twenty-Dollar Tuesday or On A Whim?) Either is fine with me, although I have a slight preference for dinner.

At least I can say one positive thing about the new Chowhound software. My secondary computer is a 7-year old iBook that I like to use for old games, and thus is usually booted into Mac OS 9. The old CH forums would take several minutes to load each page, or would simply freeze the elderly version of IE that I use. The new forum software loads quickly even on this antique laptop. Otherwise I'm hard pressed to think of any favorable comments on the change. (FYI, dr.com loads just fine in this configuration)

Don't forget the young twit's ambition. He didn't want to be a mere chef - he wanted to be the best kind, a TV chef. When Gordon caught up with Tim for the revisit episode, those aspirations had switched to pure showbiz. Ah, youth. Bet he still can't make a decent omelette. I'd love to see Gordon - or an American equivalent - do a similar show in the US without having it dumbed down for the American audience. Fat chance.

I used to love this place when I worked in downtown Rockville in the late 1990s. I haven't been back recently. Any interest in a Twenty Dollar Tuesday or some other such menu exploration?

On second thought, buy several of those 55-gallon drums of Pepto. You can lay down a pink trail from the Beltway to the chosen restaurant so Dean doesn't get lost in the NoVa wilderness again. I am so craving kimchee and pork soup right now... Hey Dean, when are you organizing the $20 Tuesday at Joe's Noodle House? Our new Canon PowerShot has macro mode, so I should be able to get some good food porn shots at the dinner. Escoffier, do you think any of the places would have a problem with a little bit of photography?

No allergies here, but I do want to put in a special request - or grovel, if you prefer - for a really good squid (or cuttlefish or octopus) dish somewhere in the final mix.

The 27th is fine for me, too.

Next Tuesday (13 June) won't work for me, but thereafter my schedule is clear at the moment. (although after reading Sarah Vowell's Assasination Vacation, I'm pretty tempted to get tickets for Assassins too!) Which Korean place are we spiceheads invading?

If the date fits my schedule, I'm in. Turn up the heat!