lekkerwijn

Really? My dogs have been remarkable for their taste for strawberries, tomatoes, oranges, apples, peaches, but I've never tried broccoli or cauliflower or any other member of the mustard family. You give these to your dog plain and raw? (My current dog has been eating grass off and on for the last two or three weeks and also having diarrhea off and on for the last two or three weeks; I wonder if broccoli would be good or bad in this context.)

He eats it raw and sometimes gets cooked bits as well. He also really loves frozen broccoli and cauliflower pieces. I prefer to give him vegetables over fruits since they have less sugar and fewer calories than fruit. But he will happily eat banana or melon. He also likes to much on grass and has been known to hunt down tender bamboo shoots that travel into our lawn for our neighbor's unkempt yard.

Much like humans, I think the gastrointestinal constitution of dogs is pretty idiosyncratic. Dirrahea is different from loose stools (the former having the hallmarks of frequency, urgency AND consistency). If consistency is the primary challenge, a little bit of canned pumpkin in their food is very helpful since it is high in soluble fiber. The former warrants a chat with the vet. Broccoli and cauliflower are going to be more insoluble fiber, that can make stool looser and can come out looking much like it did going in. It definitely gives our dog gas, which could be equally as unwanted as diarrhea. And with that, I will turn off the clinical dietitian side of my brain.

They also make excellent dog treats. Our dog will do just about anything for some cruciferous veg stems.

I think this is a very amusing thread as a nearly identical one has been taking place on a listserv for dietitians that I am on. But that thread doesn't include the insight of a culinary paleontologist. It would be much better if it did.

Had a late dinner at Cityzen on Saturday night. The meal fully lived up to our expectations and the hype. The food was delightful- only real miss for me was the blackberry fruit pate served at the end of the meal that had too much thyme infused into it. Really just a minor quibble. I want to especially thank our very patient waitress. Birthday dinners in my family aren't known for being dull. My mother had a bit to drink and in a moment of exhuberant gesticulation threw a glass of red wine onto my husband's face and all over the floor. If the waitress had never seen this happen before she didn't show it. It was cleaned up and mother's glass refilled with a good natured laugh. I can't imagine what the couple at the table next to us who witnessed the scene must have thought.

At the risk of sounding like a big jerk, I am surprised they lasted as long as they did. The concept and location were a mismatch. There just isn't/wasn't sufficient demand for Jamaican food in Van Ness to make this business viable.

If you are willing to wait, BF Saul's new building in Van Ness (where they are knocking down the Office Depot and Pier One) could be perfect. 250+ upscale apartments, UDC and Howard Law students; lots of parking, and lots of rich neighbors. About 2 years away though.

It would be great to get something like this near Van Ness. This board has long speculated how much life 925 Cafe has in it. That could be a nice location.

FWIW, according to the National Retail Federation Walmart is actually the largest grocery retailer in the US, followed by Kroger which is the largest "grocery only" retailer with 2010 US sales of $78 billion (avg $22 million/store) followed by Safeway, Ahold, Delhaize, Meijer and HEB. Whole Foods is $8.7 billion. Wegmans is way down the list with $5.6 billion in sales. That said, when you consider sales per store Whole Foods is at an average of $30 million/store but Wegmans is a whopping $74 million per store.

This years balls have us perplexed: half are floaters and half are sinkers. They were made from the same mix at the same time. All were cooked in the same pot in two batches (little ones then big ones) without changing the water. Two of the large ones sunk right away, the other eight floated. Half the small ones sunk, the other half floated.

Any ideas why? Paging Zora...

FWIW my Bubbe, a maker of exclusively fluffy matzo balls, swore that the key to fluffy matzo balls was getting the mix very cold, not over crowding in a rapidly boiling pot, and keeping the lid on (no peeking) for at least 20 minutes.

Wow, you all have been a valuable resource!! Thanks to you, we've decided to go with a BlueStar rangetop (with griddle, although the consensus is that it's not worth it) and a Vent-a-Hood. Also, I think we found the sweet Delta faucet from monavano's picture above and we'll be getting that. I really like that particular design and the heft of it was much better than others we looked at. We're probably going to get a convection microwave/oven combo and the Bosch seems to be winning out over the KitchenAid at this point. We're still undecided on the flooring and the fridge.

Next questions:

-Do all wall ovens pump hot air into the room or do they just radiate heat like a typical range? Several reviews of the KitchenAid combi-oven complain about a fan blowing heated air into the room which made for uncomfortable cooking outside of wintertime. No one bitched about this in the reviews for the Bosch version

-Do you have a thought about Bosch oven reliability?

-Does anyone have a pushbutton switch for the disposal? This seems to be the new "hot ticket". Useful? Meh. If you have it, is it better than a wall switch? What happens when water gets into it?

Thanks for all the help!!

We have a pushbutton switch for the disposal. I like it a lot more than the wall switch. Never had an issue with water getting into it. It is totally a "wow factor" toy, but glad we invested in it.

This is a great point and more important than one would think. We initially were going to go with a free stainless sink from our granite company, but then I decided to explore different configurations and finishes. We have all stainless appliances and i thought perhaps a different color and texture would work with the sink.

That darn sink took more thought than all of the appliances put together. Function is such a big part of the sink. Double? Single? Depth? Finish?

I'm very happy with our Kohler single bowl (with DW to the left).

Our old kitchen had a totally non functional tiny sink in the kitchen. I joked with the contractor that I wanted a sink so big and so deep that I could bathe in it. We ended up with a 30 inch extra deep single basin 16 gauge stainless one. Basically we took 2 of our biggest bulkiest pots with us to look at sinks. We wanted to be sure they would fit. We also test drove them on stovetops, in ovens, and in refrigerators. We don't have a built in Liebherr fridge in part because it wasn't deep enough to fit what we needed to fit in it.

We're planning our kitchen remodel now for construction to start in September. We're changing our 40 year-old kitchen into a modern, two-cook style area (with counter space!!!) We have lots of question and I know people here can give me some answers...or at least educated opinions...or off-the-cuff smartass remarks.

-I think we've decided that the floor will be a thick linoleum/urethane in sheet form. Our designer says wood is used more often now and that wood will connect with the rest of the area better, but I don't think I won't stop worrying about water damage from the cat fountain, flour dust getting between planks (eventually), grease/oil damage, dents, etc. Newer sheet flooring can look very nice plus it has some cushion to it. Do those of you with wood wish you'd done something else? Do those of you with linoleum wish you hadn't used it? Tile is right out for us, FYI.

-I asked this in the current dishwasher thread too, but what are your thoughts about where the dishwasher should go relative to the sink. There are differing schools of thought, apparently, but our designer says it should go to the left of the sink if the user is right-handed. Currently, ours is to the right of the sink and I think that seems fine, although I can see the advantage of piling dishes to the left of the sink and having the dishwasher right there.

-How important is a warming drawer? It seems like a frivolity to me, but I've never had access to one, either, so I'm naive.

-Bluestar, Wolf, Viking, KitchenAid, GE. Which is your preference for a cooktop/rangetop? I'm pretty jazzed about Bluestar after reading some of the above comments and checking out their web site. We'll go to a showroom soon. There are several in the area.

-Do you have a brand preference for wall oven?

I'm sure I'll have more questions, so please stay tuned. Thanks for your help!!

We just finished a very extensive kitchen remodel this fall- doubled the foot print of the kitchen and moved it to a different part of the house.

Because the floors are continuous- we did hardwood and have kitchen mats in front of the range and sink. We have a large brown dog and the blonde floors match the rest of the house, it is what it is.

Appliances are KitchenAid, which after extensive research we thought they were a good mix of price and quality. Thus far we are very happy with them. Instead of a second oven we got a combo convection/microwave. We also have a small wine fridge that is in the butler's pantry. No warming drawers- we knew we'd rarely use them and didn't want to trade off the storage space.

We went big time on the range getting a 36 inch- 6 burner Capital Culinarian and a commercial hood. It has changed our lives. We love it. No built in griddle- instead we purchased a griddle that spans two of the burners and it just sits on the range at all times. We use it a ton and it allows for flexible use of the stove top. It also has a wok ring that we've never used.

Something to think about when picking appliances- do you need or care about all of the handles matching? Some people do and some people dont. If you are going to get a high end range you will need a high end exhaust hood. There are permitting and building code issues with them that you should sort out with your contractor ASAP. They can get really expensive.

He said in his chat that it was too late to pull it. The magazine has a longer lead time than the rest of the paper, so I guess that explains it. That is a hard review to read .

Hard to read yes, but having eaten at Suma I could totally relate to his commentary. In the same way that the molecular gastronomy trend was hard for some people to wrap their heads around and enjoy, I think the Noma-foraged-"dirt candy" trend can be equally if not more challenging. Speaking for myself, I had a horrific fossilized salsify experience at Mugaritz and every plate at Suma reminded me of it. For that restaurant to have broad appeal it needed to transcend the trends and do more than satisfy some sort of foodie-fetish for berries and moss. Clearly Tom thought it didn't taste good and didn't seem to want to go back either.

All three restaurants in the building are owned by the same people, right? Suna wasnt filling and turning tables but the adjunctive speakeasy was/is. Higher end booze with some snacks being more profitable than food and more aligned with the needs/wants of the neighborhood, I wouldn't be surprised if the speakeasy expands into that space.

My boss and I attended the Partnership for a Healthier America's annual summit today. For those unfamiliar, PHA is the private sector arm of Michelle Obama's Let's Move! initiative to decrease childhood obesity with healthier diets and more physical activity. We elect to attend the following breakout session:

Media’s Impact on Driving Demand

A discussion about what drives demand. Is it main stream print media, social media, TV or something else? And if the media has sway over demand, how can we leverage it most appropriately to help improve food choices?

Moderator:
Scott Mowbray, Editor in Chief, Cooking Light Magazine

Panelists:

Elisa Camahort Page, Chief Operating Officer, BlogHER

J. Kenji López-Alt, Chief Creative Officer, Serious Eats

Tanya Wenman Steel, Editor in Chief, Epicurious.com, Gourmet Live, Gourmet.com

Really great session with very interesting dialogue about how cooking websites and social media can drive demand for healthier food. This foodie inclined nutrition policy dork was in total hog heaven. But the best part of the session was the following (paraphrased) interaction…

Scott Mowbray: How can social media and websites/bloggers help moms get their kids to eat more vegetables?

Elisa Camahort Page: Great question! Moms really struggle with this. They aspire to make healthy delicious meals. Last night I went to dinner at this amazing Indian restaurant, you may have heard of it- Rasika. They make this incredible dish with crispy spinach. If all vegetables tasted like that, kids would eat tons of them.

Kenji Lopez-Alt: That is because it is fried!

Tanya Wenman Steel: (rolls eyes, shakes head, smirks)

My boss (who's in town from NYC for the event) turns to me and says, “Palak Chaat! We’re going tonight.” We got two seats at the bar around 7:30. The place was packed. We started with a Palak Chaat and the Avocado Banana Chaat along with a toast to Kenji for the best line of the day. For entrees we each had the black cod and shared an order of the Gobhi Matar. Dinner confirmed Ms. Camahort Page theory that if all vegetables tasted like that kids would eat lots of them.

Due to the impending storm, my extraordinarily picky and prickly client was in town 36 hours early for meetings not scheduled to begin until Thursday. He likes to be wined and dined but almost always find fault with where we take him. We really hit gold tonight with Corduroy.

It had just the right ambience for him- bustling on a Tuesday night but not so crazy as to appear (his words) "tragically hip" and not so empty as to suggest it was uncool. Quiet enough so we could talk business but not so quiet that we felt like people could eavesdrop. Service was attentive and professional but not cloying.

Even better, he really enjoyed the food. His bowl of snapper bisque was practically licked clean. The roasted guinea hen and maitake mushrooms nearly polished off. I had the shiso salad and big eye tuna, which was the perfect elegant light weekday dinner. Another colleague raved about the cauliflower soup and sea bass with thai curry. I tried the cauliflower soup and it gives the snapper bisque a solid run for its money- the Parmesan perfume
coming from it is something that should be bottled.

So thank you Corduroy for making me look good tonight. Luckily for you (and for me) the client has asked to go back again next time he is in town.

They pretty much always have octopus on the menu at Tosca. Both simply grilled and baby octopus as an appetizer. I was there last week for lunch and had the appetizer. It was lovely.

A question for the participants on the first two evenings. Did you make "reservation" or were you invited to dine there by Donna?

No invitation. Adam23 saw the posting and sent an email. We found friends to come with us and claimed all four seats and had a most enjoyable meal. Chef Enzo Fargione was sitting behind us the whole time. I hope taking notes on what his mentor was up to.

Meal was great. You can read our tweets with pictures. 19 courses. Adam23 will share a full write up. They told us they are now booked up through April. Make a reservation now.

We'll be there Wednesday for the first one -- we're very excited and hopeful, having been there for the final Lab in 2006 (http://laboratorio.lukefisher.com).

-- Monte

We'll be doing "Roberto's Four" menu on Thursday and will provide a detailed description. Our understanding is that we will be the second group to experience the special menu. When we confirmed our reservation they sent us a questionnaire- allergies, preferences on offal and foie gras, etc.

Given the tv show and long lines I was surprised to see that they had been shut down by DC for $189,000 in unpaid sales taxes. Given how smart they are on PR you would think they would be smarter on their business management.

Whoa! Lots of donuts in a 4 block area that has a checkered past when it comes to the delicacy. Wasn't there a Fractured Prune on that block for a hot minute a few years ago? There is a Krispy Kreme a couple blocks away and another donut shop opening on Connecticut Ave south of the circle?

Has anyone been lately? We're in the mood for Japanese dining excellence. Having never been we're thinking it might be fun to try to get a reservation for Friday night. Or are we better off with Sushi Taro?

Maybe because we are DINCs happy to go out to eat just about anywhere anytime with a flexible attitude toward evenly splitting the bill we get suckered into eating places we might not normally chose to go. Case in point last night we ended up celebrating a friend’s birthday over dinner at Co Co Sala. Having been there for drinks, brunch, lunch (when they had it), midafternoon hot chocolate fix, happy hour, and late night drinks/dessert I wasn’t averse to trying the place for dinner but I wasn't exactly thrilled about it either.

Bottom line- the savory food is fine but not standout. The entire menu is tapas-sized portions; we ended up ordering two or three per person to make a meal. It is really just an excuse some people need to go there for what is really the star of the show which is the chocolate. Save room for dessert by skipping it entirely.

While they still offer a three or five course dessert flight, gone are the themed flights from when they first opened several years ago. The desserts, hot chocolate and dessert cocktails are what make the restaurant really fun and really stand out. But be sure to have a reservation because the place turns into a bit of a scene at night.

FWIW: I actually really like their brunch. They are offering their regular $26 brunch menu for $20 during Restaurant Week which is a good deal.

From the Wiki page Don links above:

"The machine uses RFID chips to detect its supplies and to radio resupplying needs to other units."

They're taking to each other? Can a freestyle uprising be too far behind?

BTW, I mentioned bags above - I really thought I saw bags behind the maze of tubes but I guess they were cartridges. Or maybe the box/bags I saw hold the sweetner, Maybe the cartridges have bag linings and I was seeing some of the insides. Dunno.

All I know is that one of the great things about this design is that the interface simply doesn't have to display an option if it is sold out. I don't drink soda anymore but it used to suck to see (for instance) Fresca on the taps only to have none available. If this machine is out of Fresca it 'knows' and won't ever show it. That's a big help I'd think in the soda-machine-satisfaction world.

They don't just talk to each other. They gather real time consumer insights data. The Coca Cola Company carefully study purchases and blends by location and geography. They use this data to develop new flavors and products and test market new products. I wouldn't be surprised if at some point the syrups in the machine allowed you to chose what sweetener system you prefer.

Funny you should say this because my understanding is that she advised on the menu.

The Knish ($8) is strongly in red wine territory, with Sephardic, North African influences: lamb merguez, lentils, and raisin mustard, baked into an astonishing filo-like pastry. This is the type of dish that Joan Nathan might knock (and, in fact, did, because my friend overheard her knocking it), but the Jewish people, as far as I'm aware, live in other countries besides Israel and New York. A double-sauced dish, this is a powerful, spice-driven knish that is quite assertive.

Needed to find a last minute place for an early dinner with six adults (including two picky eaters) and a two year old near Rockville Town Center. For some reason, Asian was out of the question. So we end up at the American Tap Room. I wasn't expecting much and the food proved to be exactly what I thought it would be- solidly mediocre. The lone bright spots being the grilled Caesar, which was surprisingly tastey with a nice smokey and pleasant dressing, and the Moorenko's vanilla ice cream. Service was friendly and attentive but clumsy. They have on their cocktail menu something called "flash chilled iced tea", which is a Tea Forte brand tisane in a gimmicky pitcher contraption. No price listed on the menu. In fairness, we didn't ask the price but when ordering were told "no sharing no refills" and ended up with two of them. They charged $8 each.