smithhemb

Just read they’re re-opened on Grace Street in G’town.  Hope to stop by next week after my trip to the DMV to renew my identity (which expired during the pandemic).

Thanks, Don!  I really appreciate you doing this!

On 4/15/2020 at 9:53 PM, deangold said:

I made a margarita rocks with 2 oz lunazul 100% tequila bianco and 1 oz each lime and triplum Luxardo.

Thanks, took me this long to acquire the tequila, but that was a very good margarita!

On 4/22/2020 at 8:19 PM, Ericandblueboy said:

Post your latest restaurant meal.

Moby Dick (Bethesda) — tonight.  

Ground-floor birdwatching was driving Veggie Daughter’s cat crazy his first few days here.  He has been a Chicago apartment cat and has always lived upstairs.  Birds love our backyard and they were so-close-yet-still-out-of-reach from him as he checked out the action from every available window.  3 weeks later, he’s more blasé.

9 hours ago, deangold said:

Spot picked out a nice water to go with some cat chow. He was thinking about eating one or both of us, but that would cut into his birdwatching time.

Broccoli* and cheese pasta (with mild Italian sausage for the carnivores).  Fast, easy (including clean-up), and tasty.

*actually a mix of broccolini and broccoli rabe.  Regular broccoli is too bland and not as easy to cook with the pasta.

Veggie pan bagnat from the Greens cookbook. Damn, it’s good! Alas, no leftovers.  
 

Basil and pine nuts were relatively scarce.  Basically, the larger quantities were OOS.  Snagged the last medium-sized container pinenuts (4 oz) and had to buy a live basil plant to get 1 cup.  

Re coconut cream. Licuados?  Milk, ice, and a tablespoon or two of the coconut cream in the blender makes a nice one.  Especially good with freshly grated nutmeg on top. 

Rigatoni with a tomato/garlic/spicy Italian sausage/Parmigiano.  Veggie daughter got leftover paneer & cauliflower tikka masala.

Barbacoa tonight!  Frontera’s slow cooking sauce is really tasty (not to mention cheap and easy).

Moby Dick for dinner on Saturday, but the big delivery treat was ice cream flights from Sarah’s Handmade!  5 small scoops, all different flavors (your choice), nicely presented in a row.

The kids were delighted (and by kids I mean 22 yo refugees from college)!

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The Red Hen (sandynva)
Komi (FranklinDubya)

Raclette!  Surprised to find the cheese restocked @ Rodman’s earlier this week.  Sausages rather than proscuitto/capicola for the meat-eaters.  

I suspect that I’m violating forum norms with a general post, but I just wanted to point out that Kanopy is a great free streaming service available to anyone with a DC library card (not sure if MoCo or NoVA libraries subscribe, but it’s worth checking on).  6 films per month per card (so HH limit will be higher if multiple members each have their own card).  Mix of oldies, indies, international, docs, etc.  

Also, if you’re looking for recommendations, BFI puts together some great lists.  They do a series on specific directors (where to start, what to avoid for each) and also have a best films streaming list.  What’s available for streaming on Prime or Netflix in the UK is not always the same as what’s available in the US, but there’s enough overlap to make the lists worthwhile.

Made a variation on that peas & cheese pasta for lunch.  Dinner was Shaking Beef and/or Tofu.  

James Beard’s Pleasant Pasta (but made with small shells and with the prosciutto as an optional add-on).  Excellent meal for college students, I think (we have 2 in-house right now, both eager to expand their recipe repertoires).

Grabbed pizzas from DaMarco’s last Sunday on the way home from a mad dash to Chicago to pick up kid/cat/stuff from college.  Stroganoff from Uptown Market on Wednesday.  Here looking for ideas for tonight. 

Anybody been recently?

Alas, Ivy City/NoMa was our most recent field trip!  (Stellina for lunch). 

Similarly, lunch in areas that are emerging as foodie havens can be hard to find, especially when there’s no base of office workers. Most of the places I looked at just have dinner service (and maybe brunch on the weekends).

Both simple requests are harder than they look because there are elements that work at cross-purposes.  A really good restaurant is likely to be crowded and noisy on a Friday night (unless it’s deliberately designed never to be crowded/noisy (e.g. the back room at the original Palena) or is failing.)

I’m the only participant in both (and want the meals to be different/complementary rather than same-y).  In each case, I’m looking for an atmosphere conducive to talking/lingering.

lunch:  friend is a DC (upper NW) resident who is interested in urban planning.  So we try to combine lunch with field trips.  Thinking maybe Navy Yard (Osteria Morini), Brookland (?), or SW Waterfront (Mi Vida, Officina) Friend is skeptical re waterfront because has heard everything is overpriced and underwhelming and is there any place to park there that isn’t ridiculously expensive?  Also open to good restaurants in other areas (Shaw?).

dinner:  out of town friend, low carb.  Zaytinya would be ideal except for the noise.  I think she (and DH) will find it hard to hear there on a Friday night.  No geographical constraints or desiderata in this case.

https://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/mexican-chicken-pozole-verde

downside is it benefits from some fresh accoutrements — red cabbage, radish, tortilla chips, cheese, sour cream, avocado, and cilantro.  But we always have chips and cheese and those are the essentials IMO and cabbage/radishes keep pretty well.

http://www.shockinglydelicious.com/green-chile-stew-from-the-pink-adobe-hatch-chiles/

https://food52.com/recipes/39733-andy-ward-jenny-rosenstrach-s-pork-shoulder-ragu

Had an excellent one at Tout de Sweet this morning.  Bethesda though — not DC.

Convinced DH to drive to the H Mart in Wheaton, only to discover that they were out of the main thing we came for (Laoganma’s Spicy Chili Crisp). But I have jury duty tomorrow and probably Wed, so I figured I’d search for it in Chinatown if there were any Asian markets left. Any recs (positive or negative)?

In other news, Bantam King and Red Apron have joined Oyamel (at the bar) on my great juror lunch spots list!  Which is handy since I got stuck with both DC and fed summons almost back-to-back.

BEST. THANKSGIVING. EVER.   First one that was just the three of us (me, spouse, college-aged veggie daughter).  We had raclette and cider, and then went to a vintage James Bond movie @ AFI.  A welcome change of pace from our usual cycle of hosting or visiting.  Full house for Xmas to New Years (and then some).  Shaking Tofu will be the designated Xmas veggie option (must be red and green).