smithhemb

I'm contemplating a kitchen remodel and while the cooktop looks relatively easy, I'm unsure about the oven. So I'd be really interested if anyone here has a strong opinion (either way) re residential ovens. I'm leaning toward (but could be swayed from) a wall oven. I've had a 27" GE double oven (electric, chosen by the builder) for the last 17.5 years. The bottom oven mostly stores pans. Perhaps that's because I've never really liked the oven, or trusted it to keep flavors separate (so I've had both ovens baking at once but I don't bake in one while roasting in the other) or because I have a bigger oven downstairs in the basement kitchen and/or because we're a family of 3 (soon to be a family of 2 -- the kid'll be off to college the year after next). At any rate, (a) anything would be an improvement (b ) I do appreciate not having to stoop to use the oven © I'm under the illusion that I might bake bread if I had a good place to proof it (d) I suspect that if I had convection (and upgraded to 30"), the second oven in the main kitchen would become superfluous (even heating/larger pans would give me more capacity in a single oven) -- OTOH, maybe a better double oven would allow me to diversify more, secure in the knowledge that I wouldn't end up with garlic-infused cakes. The only oven I see consistently favorable reviews of online is the Samsung Flex duo, but it's only available as a range and the range is induction, so that's out. Sounds like anything with electronics and self-cleaning can be problematic. Ditto blue enameled-interiors. I can't tell if all of this is just people who got lemons bitching on the internet or if these are systemic issues. It's odd to me to see people having reliability problems with oven so early, since I think I've only had a repairman out once for my oven (maybe never). (Of course I see uneven heating as an attribute of that oven and adjust accordinlgy and I rely on other thermometers rather than the dial, so maybe I compensate where others would call the repairman). OTOH, lots of the calls sound like they're prompted by an electronic board/circuit being blown. I'm somewhat tempted by the (very) new Blue Star Electric (single) wall oven. Infrared broiler, french doors (I burn myself reaching over the drop down door), convection/proofing, built-in baking stone (can't tell whether that's a blessing or a curse). And few (if any) electronics. But I'm wide open to suggestions. The CNet review of the Dacor double wall oven was very impressive, but I'm not finding backup for it elsewhere.

Watermelon, blackberries, mint, and feta. Idea stolen from Little Red Fox. With iced Earl Grey tea. Thus far, it's one of the few reasonably healthy breakfasts I've found that's tempting enough to lure me away from a latte and a pastry.

2/3 of us loved the baguette. Chocolate cookie was quite good. Blondie was bland, despite high-quality ingredients -- it was a whole-is-less-than-the-sum-of-the-parts experience. Strawberry/rhubarb shortcake was nice (but suffered, as all subsequent shortcakes have, from comparison with the ones that Amernick used to make at Palena). I pointed out to my daughter that she could walk there from school and Metro back on the day when she has a long lunch break. Then we walked home to earn our pastries, LOL! FWIW, the place was almost empty when we were there between 3 and 4. While Baked & Wired is my favorite DC bakery, I think Praline and Tout de Sweet in Bethesda are also quite good. And so is Patisserie Poupon (in G'town) for some things. But, of course, none of these are bread-oriented bakeries. (FWIW, I think that the baking at TdS is more impressive than at B&W. But B&W has much better coffee and a mind-blowing assortment of goodies at any given moment. And none of the sweets I've had at Bread Furst thus far have been as good as the pastries I've liked best at B&W or TdS. Of course, further research will be necessary....)

Well, not exactly. They make "loaf" cakes -- orange or lemon poppyseed, raspberry, strawberry. They're about twice as large (6 slices) as the carrot-maple-pecan one I bought at Bread Furst last week and very tasty. The orange cake (with a candlied orange slice on top) is great with fresh blackberries. They're pre-wrapped in the short part of the counter at the back near the register. One flavor per day, I think -- I don't remember ever having a choice. I don't know if there's any pattern/schedule.

Great news -- I love this place!! Lack of seating has typically made it a takeout destination for me. Agree that the poundcakes are a steal (one of my favorite weekend breakfast vices) and with the recommendation of TdS as a birthday cake source. My daughter and I share a birthday and were delighted to find a cake (a custom variation on Black Forest with raspberries and framboise replacing cherries and kirsch) that neither of us consider a compromise and that I don't have to bake myself (e,g. Pierre Herme's Reine de Saba).

Chuao Rocky Road or Three Nut Temptation (FKA Caracas). I'd been thinking that $5 at World Market was pricy, until I saw them for $7.95 at Chocolate Chocolate. And even though I'm generally not a milk chocolate fan, I like the Whole Foods brand milk chocolate with toffee and sea salt bar.

Veggie chili -- at veggie daughter's request. Not sure whether she realizes this is a mom-cleans-out-the-fridge dish, using whatever veg looks like it better be cooked ASAP. Didn't look like a promising start (e.g. no zuke and our current shrooms are shitakes that deserve a better fate) -- but the celery, carrots, roasted red peppers, crisp yellow peppers, canned green chiles, kidney beans, and the usual blend of garlic, lots of different kinds of dried chiles, and cumin has turned out surprisingly tasty (and pretty). She's voted to experiment with cheddary mashed potatoes as the base on which the chili will be served. So I guess we're having upside-down veggie Texas Shepherd's Pie

Any DC general contractor recommendations? (OHI, for example, seemed to be licensed only in VA and all their testimonials came from VA). I'd mostly be swapping out cabinets and appliances (not taking down walls) and I think that gas/electrical/plumbing/ductwork is pretty much in place. We bought the house just before they started construction about 18 years ago, so I had input on what goes where back then and, given the space, I think the original layout is close to optimal.. We've never done any renovation work and I really don't know where to start with a project like this. (Friends' kitchen renovations have always seemed much more complicated -- e.g. changing the footprint of the house.) Not surprisingly, what motivates me is the prospect of upgrading the cooking equipment (I'm coveting a Bluestar rangetop and Dacor Renaissance wall ovens). So maybe I'll try to start with a trip to ABW and set up an appointment with a cabinetmakier. Should I be starting with a GC or a kitchen designer instead? Oh and for anyone who frets about hardwood floors in a kitchen (I did) or wonders whether dark granite is the way to go, I have to say that, 18 years later (and with no absolutely effort beyond occasional sweeping/wiping with a wet cloth), both have held up amazingly well. I'd keep the granite if I could (probably can't) and unless the cabinet replacement process either mangles or reveals hidden problems with the floor, it isn't even at the point where it needs refinishing yet.

I went yesteday -- I liked the orange poppyseed muffin and my husband and my daughter both really liked the carrot-maple-pecan breakfast bread this morning.

Interesting about the chocolate chip cookie. I had a somewhat similar reaction to the chocolate cake. The coffee-flavored frosting was great (really light and very tasty), and the tiny malted milk balls were fun, but the cake was what I think of as industrial -- one of those moist/dense but relatively flavorless slabs that function as a vehicle for frosting delivery. Ok, I'm probably in the minority here (judging from the popularity of mediocre cupcakeries), but I really am IN IT FOR THE CAKE. And, hey, no one in the frosting camp will hold it against you if the cake is exceptionally good as well. Maybe that's a downside of doing home-y baked goods. Everybody has a benchmark that they consider amateur and if you can't beat that, they think "why bother?" Saturday was chaotic and lots of stuff was sold out when we arrived (I think that they were transitioning between breakfast and lunch -- which would explain why we got first crack at the cake!), but the staff was exceptionally good-humored. So our maiden voyage wasn't inspiring (my husband's reaction to the palladin was similar to Keith's reaction to the levain, although he through in "kinda dry' as well), but I look forward to trying other things, especially at off-hours.

Thanks for this recommendation! We went tonight and all three of us enjoyed it (since one of us is a vegetarian who is not a fan of soy sauce, this is meaningful). We didn't risk extra spicy the first time out, but probably will next time. I'm hoping they'll deliver to our house -- the limit is 3 miles and mapquest tells me we're 3.08 miles away. I can't say that anything blew me away but, expat Californian that I am, I'm typically disappointed by Chinese restaurants in DC and this one left me happy (and eager to try more dishes!). Morning after addition: I was surprised and pleased that the made-to-order (steamed) chicken dumplings held up well as a leftover -- which is a good thing since you get 10 (large) dumplings, (We might have managed them all but for the surprise (Mother's Day) gift of a free order of pork and napa potstickers.)

Just what I didn't need to hear! Lamenting the demise of Palena, I thought I'd take a moment to remind people of another neighborhood gem. Can't find the news on Eater (and, apparently, I can't read cough), so don't know where Drew is headed. Are you able to say more at this point?

Palena was our favorite Wednesday date-night destination when our daughter was of babysitting age. Mid-week, I generally wasn't up for a movie, so dinner was the event and we wanted a meal we could linger over. The dining room never appealed to me (too old, too serious), but we loved the café. I remember the first time that Kelli took us to one of the little red booths between the two spaces. My initial reaction was, great, a scenic view of the bathrooms. But in the end, they became one of our favorite places -- we felt alone and together. Our best meals were from the days when you could mix and match from the two menus and when Ann Amernick still did the pastries. I always loved the little things -- whatever pickle came with the burger, the lemon slices on the fry plate, the Wellington cookie that might unexpectedly grace a dessert plate. It has been a great run. Congrats, thanks, and good luck with your next ventures to everyone who made Palena what it was.

So sad re Palena. Came here after reading the WCP article, wondering if there was more/other/better news. Without Dino or Palena, my guess is we won't be headed to CP for dinner anymore.

So are the waffles still there? I don't ask for much -- just Liege and Brussels (with berries and whipped cream) on the weekends....

This was our first "favorite restaurant" in DC, back in the days when our student loan debt burden was toweringly high and I still missed California. Sad to see them go.

We spent a couple of weeks in London last summer with then-15-yo-and-taller-than-we-are-Julia (a vegetarian). Her restaurant faves were Dishoom (we went to the one near the National Portrait Gallery, twice) which is a riff on Persian cafes in Mumbai, IIRC and Wahaca (the Southbank one is convenient if you are doing stuff at the National Theatre or BFI -- it's made out of shipping containers and was a good people watching spot as well as having tasty casual Mexican food). We had a really mediocre experience at Wagamama (which, after years of "coming soon" to Penn Q, I couldn't resist trying). And NOPI (the Ottolenghi restaurant in SoHo) had such good food that it overcame her teenagerly resistance to "schmantzy" places. The pizza at Princi was good (we did the sitdown part rather than the cafeteria part). RE museums -- Soane's and Hunterian (across the park from each other at Lincoln's Inn) were both amazing. If you can avoid doing them in the same day, I'd recommend that. For me it would have been sensory overload. And if you have to decide between them, I'd choose Hunterian over Soanes, despite the fact that I'm more into architecture than medicine.

The red wine risotto is superb!

It's gone through a lot of owners (and a few name changes) over the years with lots of variation in quality. But it's always had a die-hard fan-base in the neighborhood (whose loyalty has mystified me because, IME (repeated every couple of years), the place smells bad, their food storage leaves something to be desired, and nothing I've had there (with the exception of pastries just delivered from Poupon) has been particularly good. Sounds like it's time to give it another try though -- I've stopped trusting the locals, but the Rockwellians are a different story, LOL!

Aw, damn! We'll miss you. Good luck with the new place.

And, in DC, the odds go way up if you wish for something stupid...

Thanks -- good to know (and, yes, I was in the grab and go part). The people who ordered just after I did (family of European tourists) seemed to have an even longer wait for their sandwiches but one of their kids ordered the fried chicken. The woman at the counter was friendly, helpful, and efficient. I think that the back-up must have been kitchen-related. The hand pies (kale and feta for veggie daughter; cherry for DH) were big hits at home, so I'll certainly be back, but I didn't know whether I was going to have to treat it as a bakery rather than a lunch place.

Question -- I waited about 25 minutes for a sandwich there today. It was a really good sandwich (the Merguez) so I'm not complaining. But it never occurred to me that getting a sandwich from a takeout shop would take that long. So is this par for the course, did I come at a bad time (11:35, it didn't seem to be very busy but did seem to be transitioning from breakfast to lunch), is it a place where you should order on line in advance of showing up (when I picked up my sandwich I saw a long line of sandwich bags being filled -- way more than the number of people in WTF at the time)?

Damn -- we'll miss her too. My husband jokes that when we park in the lot next door but head to Dino rather than Palena, he always feels like he's cheating on Kelli.

Is anybody following this? It's a bill in the DC Council to allow home-cooked foods to be sold at farmers markets or public events, subject to labeling requirements, complaint-driven inspections, and an annual revenue cap of $25,000. I'm not in the industry, but I was wondering what those who are think about this proposal. I wonder how it'll affect a project like Union Kitchen, but I don't know anything about the economics of start-ups. Text of the legislation is here: http://dcclims1.dccouncil.us/images/00001/20131003115456.pdf