thistle

I just realized that I should add this-An excellent Vietnamese restaurant in old town Fairfax (right next to Havabite Eatery, old school Italian/Greek/homey, also very good).  We went here last Sunday w/ a group of 6, since it was cloudy & cool, we went for pho.  1 beef, 3 chicken, loads of spring rolls (don't judge) & chicken & veg for my Mom who is doing a whole 30 (& driving me mad w/ her queries about the miniscule amount of sugar in sauce?).

i think this is the 3rd or 4th time I've eaten here & it is wonderful-great food, great service. This is the first time we ended our meal w/ sticky rice pudding topped w/ coconut cream & sesame seeds, & mango slices (gratis). It was the perfect choice for a celebratory lunch & I look forward to more meals here.

Funny/ not funny addendum to the street tacos-my husband ate one of the large peppers, because he thought they must be poblanos instead of jalapeños (wrong) & was suffering.  I thought he was being a wuss until the day after, I tried to make a chicken soup w/ various leftover items & put in 1.5 peppers.  My niece tasted & turned red, I tasted & started swearing (even though I have a high tolerance for heat). I kept dumping out broth, diluting w/ more chicken broth & water, & finally conceded-it was unsalvageable.  I have never made inedible chicken soup before.

I had lunch here today with my daughter.  We ordered too much food, because we wanted to try all our favorites-chicken ka prow, chicken pad see ew, chicken larb (yes, we overdid it on the chicken) & a spicy salmon roll.  We were the only customers at around noon, service was great, & the food was very good.  I prefer the larb from Thai Nakorn because it's spicier (& Le Thai, which replaced ThaiBox near Ft. Belvoir, has a great crispy tilapia larb w/ cubes of fried fish), but this was good, tart w/ lime, & they brought out the condiment tray so I could spice it up.

i should have tried the papaya salad, because they have some interesting variations, but we went w/ our benchmarks (& my dining companion isn't fond of papaya salad).  We now have tons of leftovers to get us through the weekend.

Our other food related event was my son's graduation from GMU this weekend-I had incoming family from across the country, smoked 30+ lbs of pork, had various salads, veg, fruit, & poundcake & ordered street tacos from El Paso (a huge hit w/ the fam). I am recovering & get to do it again in 2.5 weeks for Lizzy's HS graduation.   & now I realize I should edit, because the giant picture is El Paso's street tacos, I didn't take pics at Nua Haus-maybe later

Which location of Jaleo? I'm a lazy sod & prefer not to cross the river, if I don't have to.

Thanks, this is exactly the kind of response I was hoping for.  I think I will try to plan a dinner at Nasime in Old Town, as long as uni is on the menu somehow.

I had a dream about eating uni last night (it was scattered like bacon bits on top of a rice bowl, which didn't seem right).  I have never had uni, but if I want to live my dream, where should I try it?

That chicken sandwich looks the best-(of course, as a home smoker, I feel free to say that brisket does not look appetizing at all). What's the stuff in the lower left corner of the photo?

I'm trying to get back into baking myself.  I (on a whim) replaced my broken Zojirushi bread machine w/ a Hamilton Beach model (I like to use it to make dough & proof starters). So far, I've made sour corn rye bread & pain ancienne (recipes from 'Rustic European Breads from your Bread Machine" by Linda Eckhardt & Diana Butts). Although I keep a stone in my oven, I've never tried the peel transfer (I think once I used the bottom of a sheet pan w/ cornmeal).

i also went on Chowhound the other day for the first time in ages, & the baking cookbook of the month for March is 'Classic Home Desserts" by Richard Sax, which I've had for ages. I made the Piernik (Polish Honey cake) last T'giving, wasn't overwhelmed w/ the first taste, but after a couple of days, it was very more-ish, not too sweet, perfect w/ a cup of tea.

Lizzy & I had lunch today at Afghan Bistro- delicious, 1 beef tenderloin & 1 chicken thigh kebab, rice, eggplant, potato, rice, the delicious bread & all the spicy sauces. I'm definitely going to try a version of the avocado/yogurt/garlic sauce.

No tips on Ashburn, but try not to be too dispirited before you settle in.  We live on the southern fringe of Fairfax county, out of the way , but you will eventually find local places.   Also, probably more CSAs, farms, wineries out that way...

I'm rewatching "Foyle's War" on Netflix to escape from current news, & this looks like a book that I would enjoy reading.

I vote for "A Train in Winter" & have put it on hold.

And this

I just got my Anova circulator & I can't wait to experiment with it.  My first item is a tri-tip roast (6 hrs, 130), I don't have the energy to mess w/ it tonight, but I'll sear it tomorrow to add to a salad.  Next up, chicken thighs & salmon.

"José Andrés to Trump: Let's End This Legal Beef with Donation to Vets" by Louis Nelson on politico.com

at least someone's taking the high road...

Sounds lovely, but still outside my price point for dining out. It's great to read about this kind of food, but I'm happy that I can cook at home.

Not sure how it happened, but my daughter & her friends were supposed to go to Columbia Firehouse for dinner before homecoming at Mount Vernon, but it was closed (or not available for a group that size) & they were redirected to Los Tios.  She was not happy, (& she said the DJ sucked, too).

On the day I met my husband (who is a Citadel graduate) I asked him how he felt about women at the Citadel & gays in the military.  Despite the fact that we disagreed on these issues (not sure if he still does), reader, I married him anyway.

On 9/8/2016 at 3:48 AM, DonRocks said:

And here to think I'm in Season Two of "Narcos."

My son says I need to watch 'Narcos', & I tried Arepas Capitol down in Woodbridge & it was awesome-fresh & delicious.  My only experience was years ago at La Caraquena, & this topped it!  

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I lucked out again yesterday- I had to meet a friend down in Woodbridge (she lives in Montclair) & I picked Arepas Capitol off of Yelp.  It was awesome, & I don't understand why it was not packed at lunchtime yesterday.  Next to BJ's, small storefront- I ordered the Reina pepiada (chicken salad w/ avocado) arepa & the empanada pabellon (shredded beef, cheese, plantains) .  They were both amazing, delicious, my friend got a regular shredded beef & cheese empanada, but then ordered 2 empanada pabellon for dinner that night.  Service & food were excellent, & I'm looking forward to heading that way & trying out more stuff (but I think I ordered the perfect items, if that makes sense).

I am so sorry to hear this- we met him at the Peking Duck lunch & thought that he was wise beyond his years (especially talking about food). I'm happy that I talked to him briefly, I really enjoyed his posts,& my thoughts & prayers go out to his friends & family.

Astrid,

 while all of my poms were decimated (by weather & squirrels), some of the ones I mailed to my sister in NC have survived-hope springs eternal!

I thought this was an excellent article-http://www.tampabay.com/projects/2016/food/farm-to-fable/restaurants/

My favorite dish is chicken soup- onions, celery, carrots, garlic, 1/2 hot pepper, sometimes mushrooms & green beans, chicken thighs, water & various seasoning- lately it's been golden paste that I also give to my dogs-turmeric, cinnamon, black pepper, & coconut oil.

I didn't usually cook more than a day in advance, because I don't have as much freezer space as frig space, & didn't want the hassle of freezing, defrosting, reheating. Definitely the most popular non-pork dish was chicken thighs, cooked in either the smoker, crockpot, or instant pot, with a mojo criollo, adobo (soy & vinegar) or jerk marinade. Another favorite thing is jerk beef, chuck cooked in the crockpot (this actually works better then the IP for this dish)w/ onions & St. Ann's Bay Jamaican jerk marinade. I love this stuff, when they briefly stopped carrying it at the Belvoir commissary, I wrote in to try to get them to stock it again, & when they did, I loaded up about 5 bottles, just to be safe. My daughter, who is a very picky eater, loves this jerk beef. & trays of baked ziti were usually pretty popular, too.

My son & I had lunch here yesterday, after car shopping (anyone have a gently used vehicle for sale? I'm in the market)-we got there at noon, it was crowded, he said he'd never been there before, I thought he had. We got the buffet,because we were not being picky- the Tom yum soup (at first I thought it was too sour) was great, the larb was much milder than I prefer (Thai Nakorn makes it spicy), Tom liked the crispy chicken w/ basil (I got a lot of crispy, no chicken), the spicy pork & eggplant was spicy, I managed to scoop out some shrimp w/ the seafood dish, spring rolls were wonderful, & it was a good lunch.