Tweaked

Beats Safeway...I was planning on making some banana ice cream ala Circle Bistro over the weekend and was going to use a vanilla bean base...two, count them two, vanilla beans for $18 at Safeway. I made chocolate ice cream instead

Sorry I missed it (and didn't tell anyone I wasn't coming) I was bedridden with the office flu that has been making the rounds at work :-(. Seriously people if you are sick, don't come to work and give me your germs...that's why we have sick days! GRRRRRRRR

No... if you are buying Old Navy versus Banana Republic (both owned by the same company), I would expect better quality out of Banana Republic. If BR is having a sale then I still expect BR quality. Idealy, a restaurant that participates in RW should strive to produce food with the same quality and care as it strives for the other 50 weeks of the year. Just because they are offering a RW "special menu" at prices below what they normally charge should they just mail it in during RW? Now I realize that at some restaurants, esp. the high end restaurants, they might use less luxurious ingredients during RW, for example, Corduroy doing a confit of chicken v. confit of duck, but I expect Tom Power to cook with the same skill and care. RW provides me a snap shot of what Corduroy is about as a restaurant and if I like it, then hopefully I'll go back. Contrast that with DC Coast last night, where the pumpkin soup was flavorless and had the consistency of dish water. I might forgive a kitchen at prime time during RW if my steak comes out medium instead of medium rare, they are probably slammed, but soup...clearly something that is not made a la minute...flavorless and dish watery soup tells me the kitchen can't make soup!

I had drinks and some snacks at the bar before x-mas, I found it overpriced and fussy.

I could be game for this...how the hell does one get to Rockville?

I still wash my dishes by hand...but that's because my apartment sucks and I don't have a dishwasher. I hate the Saveur 100...worst issue of the year.

any of the Hill staffer bars...Cap Lounge, Hawk & Dove etc.

I'm going to Singapore for a couple days this summer so I was busy taking notes!

well so far it looks like we have people eating a lot of canned and preserved food cooked in lard!

Tater Tot - 1953

The point is that Pollan's "guide" to eat only what our great- and grandparents would recognize as food, if you really investigate what was being eaten by our great- and grandparents, is probably naive and simplistic.

Twinkie invented 1930 Oreo invented 1912 Frito Corporation founded 1932 Now I'm willing to bet that "junk" food is more highly processed and more available to more people today then it was during the 1930s, but I'm sure many grandparents would recognize what is being sold in the snack food aisle of your local Safeway. Anyone have the ingredient list of a 1930 Twinkie to compare with the ingredient list of a 2008 Twinkie?

Apparently my grandfather on my Dad's side had all his meals cooked using lard and he died of a heart attack in his 60s.

Maybe people were being late risers, by the time I rolled through EM around noon, the line was reaching around the block status!

Nice Wheel of Fortune reference!

I feel like pig spleen today.

Being a non-profit, we have a number of vendors and donors who send us holiday gift baskets...usually some sort of food item...sometimes it's yummy sometimes it's crap...so what tasty (or tasteless) treats has your office received. I'll kick it off... One generous donor sent us a Cowgirl Creamery Gift Basket...and I'm not talking 1oz samples but 1 pound chunks! Should go down well at the office luncheon on Thursday!

I tend to go with Uncle's green hot sauce, which I believe is #9...smoked turkey sandwich with a smear of mayo and #9 very tasty!

For the hot heads on the board, next time you are on the Hill, check out Uncle Brutha's (Eastern Market area, on 7th Street, SE very close to Montemartre). Large collection of hot sauces, spice rubs, BBQ sauces, and other hot head related products...his house made Uncle's Brutha's hot sauces are award winning for bringing the heat AND the flavor. Uncle Brutha and his family are one of those cool small business success stories. He started making his own hot sauces at home, then started selling from a stand outside Eastern Market and has now opened his own store. And he and his family are super nice to boot.

Their pizza is solid...not the high brow, wood fire, pizza that has been the craze as of late, more like good old fashion pizza palor pizza...get it with the sliced meatballs on top. All of their sub sandwiches are good...I don't think anything was bad...again, you need to think this is all deli, pizza palor, take-out style food that's going to cost $5-$7. It is what it is...I think mostly I like the place because it reminds me of the little corner family run places that dot upstate New York (Albany, syracuse etc. where I grew up and went to college).

I love La Casa, solid inexpensive food from a family run business...I use to be a regular when my now ex-girlfriend was living around the corner. It's defiintely one of those fall back, what shall we get for dinner, I don't know, lets order La Casa, type places. The kind of place where eventually they don't even ask for your name when you call in an order because they already know who you are.

According to the NYT food section, Jose Andres will make the official first slice of Jamon Iberico tomorrow at Jaleo. 300 hams have passed USDA inspection...Jamon Iberico de bellota will debut this summer.

Restaurant K by Alison Swope? http://www.restaurantkbyalisonswope.com/Sa...taurant%20K.pdf

Malaysia Koptium? At $30 a head for 10-15 if you called I bet they would put together some sort of menu for you, selection of apps, selection of their best dishes etc all served up family style.

I find the same thing has happened to Doritos, the up front nacho cheese flavor is the same but now there is a weird funky after taste...I suspect that they reformulated Doritos, no doubt some anti-transfat thing. It's pretty much ruined Doritos for me.