Pool Boy

My office (pre-covid) ordered from here for the entire company maybe every 5 weeks on a Friday - the Pit Bull is my favorite pizza from there.

Some of us are at risk and simply cannot risk the exposure to possibly getting Covid19. So we sit here, biding our time, doing whatever cooking we can, carry out of the highest order as often as possible,but we still crave the full on dining experience.

It will come. There will be safety. A vaccine we hope. This will pass.

So then, where to dine?

Make a list.

First place will be Annabelle. Then Kinship. Then SO MANY PLACES.

You?

On 6/3/2020 at 9:58 PM, Pool Boy said:

We have such a list. Sicily or Sardegna or both. Japan. Spain. Finland. Poland. Croatia. Patagonia (OMG I want to go so bad). New Zealand.

Alsaka. Morocco. Portugal. Germany - to do it properly with my wife (we ended an Alpine tour for a day and a half in München, not long enough, especially for her - I've been there many times for family) - probably the Mosel Saar Ruwer region - or Berlin! - or Heidelberg - or Köln! The Maldives befre the succumb to climate change.

I could go on.

It's been a while. We lost Enzo back in June 2018 - pretty sure he had a major stroke. He was only 10.

Then we lost Gussie, the Grand Poobah, this past December - he was, hmmm, 17 and a third. Kidney disease.

Currently Gracie is fairly ill - still working out what is wrong and what we can do.

That said, the other 4 of the 5 current residents (of which Gracie is a part), are doing fine - Mathilde (Hilde (hill-dee)), June (former Patio Cat), Trixie (former Patio cat brought in at about 5 weeks of age) and her brother Nando. They are seeing after Gracie very thoughtfully actually.

The thing is, as hard as it is to lose a pet (a member of the family), unexpectedly or not, you go out sooner than you expect to bring another lost soul in to your hime and do it all over again, because the heartbreak is worth the lifetime of amazing memories with the lucky cat that joins our even luckier household are so, damn, worth it.

One of my wife's co-workers, after hearing what she was playing in her office, suggested she might like these folks. They were right, she does. So do I. Give it a whirl.
 

I gave up on this show maybe 6 to 8 seasons ago. It's one of the best of the format, but it is just over IMHO.

On 6/16/2020 at 5:39 PM, Sluggo said:

Lots of people out in Bethesda this past weekend, dining in the street, at actual tables!  Encouraging to see!!

They have blocked off some parts Norfolk Ave., and parts of Bethesda Row, so the restaurants can serve patrons at tables set up in the street at some distance from eachother.

They are calling this 'Bethesda Streetery.' I think I would have used 'ReStreetraunt.'  which explains why I am not in marketing.

Be advised if you have been relying on curbside pickup at some of these restaurants, since you can no longer do drive-bys.  (WhIch is how I stumbled upon the Streeteraunt.) 

Not interested in dining out - at all. Inside or out. Nope. I will continue to be a patron of carry out. I order way, way too much food and I tip 30-40%. That is what I am able to do and be safe. Eating out? Nope. And, if yáll have read my posts over, ummmmm, 15 years, you know there is almost nothing on the world that I love more than dining out with my wife.

Has anyone else tried the Monkey 42 Bavarian gin? It's not for everyone, but I enjoy it for a change of pace. Unusual. Floral of an Alpinian nature. It's wicked expensive but worth a try at some point.

On 6/4/2020 at 8:45 PM, MsDiPesto said:

Thank you and your neighbors for being so kind to these feral kitties! You're enriching their little lives, giving them engagement, love, food, medical attention if they need it, and reducing the feral cat population. 😸

4 of my 5 inside cats are ex-Patio Cats. My neighbor took 6 in. We also placed about two dozen more over the years. Fortunately, except for two newbies this year, everyone's been fixed and producing no kittens for years. Initial trap efforts on these two is not yet successful, but we'lll get them seen to for sure.

9 hours ago, deangold said:

Try it in a corpse reviver instead of the absinthe rinse. Use about 1/2 oz if it is St Germain or something gentle and aromatic. 

Or use it in a Wildflower

My wife and I have a tradition. We take each of our nieces and nephews to NYC with us for a weekend - they generally get to pick what we do during the day. Then, we ask them what kind of food they want to try because they love it, or if they are game for something different. Either way we go all in. Two down, three to go. One trip, this year, was cancelled because of this pandemic, but it will happen, just a TBD future date is all.

As for our time off, I am not sure when or if we'll do something this year. It's kind of sad. I'm very cautious about this pandemic because, while I may not be immunocompromised, I do believe if I caught this it would have its way with me given how I handle regular flus post-lyme-disease. I'm hopeful for science, data and a vaccine, but this will take time and I'm patient.

I think if we do not go away this year, I might take time off and plan to go all out making amazing (and difficult, time consuming, complex or some mix of these) food for a week at home. It would be a challenge, memorable and fun (and tasty).

21 hours ago, deangold said:

Have not tried Sipsmith yet. Heard good things. It's on sale for $34.99 this month at the VABC. What is it like?

What I drink most is Brokers by a long bit, as it is my choice for negroni, martinis and I like to play with it in other drinks. Then it is Bombay Sapphire for corpse revivers and the ocasional Martinez. Hendricks and Green Hat for a chance of pace. And really any gin can be used in a negroni if you just adjust you choice of campari-like element and vermouth-like element. We have not been drinking as many Negronis as usual lately. Have no idea why. 

It's got a bit of a punch, but is in balance and forward. Great overall cocktail base IMO.

I enjoy Hendrick's. But we have largely switched to Sipsmith. I love, love love Monkey42 I think it is called (Bavarian believe it or not). But my whole being pines for Isle of Harris Gin from Scotland - sean beansin the mix) - so damn good. I hear they ar enow exporting to Canada and am hoping it makes it to the USA soon.

We have such a list. Sicily or Sardegna or both. Japan. Spain. Finland. Poland. Croatia. Patagonia (OMG I want to go so bad). New Zealand.

On 5/25/2020 at 4:06 PM, MsDiPesto said:

I'd trap the neighbor and release him far, far away. 

An update of sorts, then.

We got in touch with Laurel Cats, a nonprofit that does TNR and now also does fostering and adoption in the greater Laurel, MD area. We managed to get all of the cats that we had not yet gotten TNRed and thus no more kittens. There were issues, but those settled down by early 2016 to a still in force uneasy truce with the Horrible Neighbor. I discovered 6 other neighbors in our neighborhood that help see to these ferals and we are all coordinated now and take care by supporting each other during vacations, health issues and the like - it's been great.

Sadly, we lose some of the cats over the years - we have foxes and even a coyote. Plus cars and asshole drivers. But we do what we can - good vet care. Excellent food and fresh water. Protection from weather and so on. It's been interesting to see how the outdoor cats have adopted to me being WFH for the past three months during the covid19 - they come around more and want attention too. It's a great relationship I have with these guys.

Netflix. Two seasons. Shrt episodes.

Trust me - this is the thing you need - it is the salve of our times. Subtitles be damned you must give this a go.

https://www.netflix.com/title/80113037

On 4/20/2020 at 3:52 PM, Keithstg said:

Actually, I do have some things to post:

1. Wine Consumption has increased exponentially.

4. Trying to do takeout 1x/2x week to support restaurants locally. Would do more with DC based restaurants if they had an option to pick up somewhere between Middleburg and DC, but don't know if that makes any fiscal sense (I suspect not)... 

1 - ditto.
4 - we do what we must to support what we can as much as we can and as often as we can

On 4/20/2020 at 4:25 PM, MarkS said:

My wine consumption is through the roof, cooking daily and takeout 1x week to get a break.  Wild times

Yeah, there is an absolute need to order out at least once a week be it carryout pickup (95% of the time) or delivery)

They need to rip out their bathrooms and in their place make unisex bathrooms (as many as they can manage) because I have to tell you, I have no desire to go to a bathroom that involves other people for the foreseeable future be it at work or out at a restaurant.

On 3/29/2020 at 2:31 PM, Poivrot Farci said:

Plenty of Mom & Pop’s are tragically and inevitably going to wither. If there is still a demand to eat out in 6 months, those who survived might recoil at the thought of expanding. In the interim, I hope the millions of people who feed themselves in isolation have (re)considered the merits of retail food stores and where that supply comes from. There is an infinite market for ingredients and my hope is that there is a modest shift towards smaller, independent specialty food and ingredient stores while keeping consolidation at bay. And the only way for smaller businesses to retain staff, survive and prosper is for the collective tax revenue to relieve them of the burden of providing fundamental benefits for the next hurricane, disease or whatever calamity.

We have shopped at an ethnic market (Super Best in Laurel) before and during the pandemic. We also discovered there is a M.O.M in Jessup of all places and since there is no serious amount of housing nearby and it is not a huuge store, we found we could take our time there and get 80-90% of what we need - great experience.

We also have shopped (as soon as they have opened) at Spicknall's, this is a farm and farm stand at the Powder Mill Road exit of 95 in MD one exit up from the beltway and highly recommended. Fresh stuff of their wn or nearby. When season is out they snarf up goodies from points south or nort from producers they have established 30-40-year relationships with to extend the season for certain produce. We spend heavily there whenever possible.

One of the things I miss terribly is Laurel Meat Market - it's been a challenge finding certain proteins during this mess and I know they'd have probably had an inside line on sources but alas they closed a few years ago.

Note - not sure where to post this so feel free to move as appropriate.

Here's a list of places we have ordered takeout from since the beginning of March, and impressions of overall experience  --

Pasta Plus (Laurel) got a last pizza or two in before they shut down completely. They were supposed to open up this week but in anticipation of this, they tested all workers and one was positive for Covid19, so they are pushing the opening a bit while they really deep-clean.

Facci (Fulton/Columbia) - Easy to order, easy to pick up. Really good pizzas. People need to figure out how to social distance while doing pick  up.

G&M (Linthicum Heights) - They did a serious, serious amount of carryout business (they always have) and had 3 people on crowd control, line management. Still, people need to learn social distancing. With all of that effort, it was still a bit of a mess determining if it was you they were calling to give you your food. Excellent food, though.

Annabelle (DC) - Twice. One time involved the buger and other goodies. The next time involved the chicken, steak with mushrooms and frites and also a pasta course to share, Each time the food was delicious and easy pickup. They did not have colored labels or anything explaining what things went with what things (there was a salad involved) so one of the dishes on one of the times was a dud as a result of our likely misinterpretation. But still recommended. We'd be there 1-2 times a week if we lived in city.

Kinship (DC) - Went for date night and reported in thread. Excellent all around exacept the stacking of pickup times involved some confusion and waiting. Still recommended. My wife recommends they get a proofreader before they send out emails though.

Amber Spice (Laurel) - Great Indian food. They set up a table in the door way so you could not walk in. They brought the food and the credit card stuff right there - super easy. Delicious.

Bella Indian & Italian (Laurel) - This was some folks that brought Indian and Nepalese food to a place that used to be Italian and they have blended the two. Had two pizzas - a plain margherita and a butter chicken pizza. Everything NOT involving the crust was fine (except my wife made me order the butter chicken pizza mild - I said we should order it a bit more spicey - at the end of dinner she told me I was right) - delicious even. But man alive the dough and crust is just awful, awful crap - food industrial complex rev A pizza dough. Ugh. Not sure about the rest of the food, but if you order a pizza, just scrape all of the toppings off and eat just that as the dough is just...no.

Thai at Laurel (Laurel) - Decent Thai - this ne we got as delivery and it survived the travel well and was solid.

Trattoria e Pizzeria (Columbia) - Very good pizza, easy pick up. Recommended.

Bertucci's (Columbia) - This was ordered because it is decent pizza that is deliverywhen we were lazy as hell.

Mintwood Place (DC) - Easy pick up and ordering and delicious food, held up pretty well. But the pickup was slightly complicated since they did not explain to not come in for pickup until they called you.

Kudos to DC for clearing parking near restaurants for pickup temporary parking.

We wished we lived near more better food pickup and delivery options so we could do more of it. That said, we've been tipping about 30-35% during all of this because hey, we NEED to.

We've had reasonably good luck with Instacart, usually an order can come the next day or two. We tried for the MIL at first, but she's in Annapolis and while the first go went well (3 days in the future) all future attempts are out 2-3 weeks in the future.

I make a foray out about oncee every two to three weeks to fill in the gaps that prepping and instacart and online orders cannot handle. Targeted, precise, no dawdling - well protected.

On 5/7/2020 at 9:37 PM, saf said:

I stopped at A. LItteri for some groceries the other day. Pasta is well stocked, as is olive oil, as is the deli counter. Sandwiches also available. Not crowded, very clean, and they have yeast, flour, wine, frozen and fresh pasta. 

Nice - I might need to swing by for a special wine run. I was impressed with their change of selection of late.

6 hours ago, dcs said:

Neapolitan Pizza Standby 2Amys Will Stick to Takeout for the Rest of 2020, by Tierney Plumb  Jun 3, 2020, on dc.eater.com.

Fine with me. I might need to order them not this weekend, but next. It's a schlep or we'd be there at least once a week.

On 4/8/2020 at 11:55 AM, curls said:

2nd Clarity order! Picking up a brisket dinner tonight.

If only we lived closer, we'd be doing this too.