FunnyJohn

Yes, this is sad news indeed. Not only was (is still) Willow the best restaurant in that part of Arlington, but it was a great training ground for many young wait staff and chefs. I think that location, because of the very high rent, is a challenge for any restauranteur, and if I am not mistaken, Tracy and Co. kept Willow going longer than any of the previous establishments that have opened and closed there. I wish Tracy, Brian (who were married at Willow just before it opened to the public), and Kate all the best in whatever they are contemplating for the future. Oh, and as I cast my mind back through the mists of time: there were 3 other restaurants that tried and failed at this location: #1 was some kind of Italian pasta joint, #2 was Bistro-Bistro and #3 Gaffney's. Anyone with more intact braincells may feel free to amend this list if I am missing something.

"The Reputation Economy and Its Discontents: http://fortune.com/2015/06/02/reputation-ratings/ "Restaurant quality and the dining experience are both more subjective and also have fewer consequences than choosing the right doctor or getting a good teacher. Michelin has, since 1926, employed anonymous, knowledgeable, experienced experts to go to cities all over the world and find the very best places to eat. We can compare how Michelin rates restaurants with the same restaurants' ratings made by the general public on sites such as TripAdvisor. "I selected two cities, San Francisco, near where I live, and Barcelona, a place my wife and I recently visited. I looked at the 2015 Michelin lists of the places that earned stars (in San Francisco, I considered only establishments located in the city itself) and also ratings on TripAdvisor. Here's what I found. "Barcelona has 21 one- or two-star Michelin restaurants. Of the Michelin-rated establishments, presumably the very best in the city, only one is in TripAdvisor's top 10, only 2 are in the top 50, and only 7 of the 21 ranked in TripAdvisor's top 100. Nectari, with 1 Michelin star, ranks 2,262 on TripAdvisor, and Enoteca ranks 1,333. Diners/raters in San Francisco agree with Michelin only slightly more. Of San Francisco's 24 Michelin-starred restaurants, one, Gary Danko, is in TripAdvisor's top 10, but 6 are in the top 50. However, Coi, one of four places in the entire Bay Area that earned two Michelin stars, ranks just 562 on TripAdvisor. "At least for these three domains, and quite possibly many others, ratings by consumers"”of restaurants, academic instruction, or medical services"”are quite uncorrelated with either expert opinion or objective measures of performance. This fact, of course, is precisely why companies in the reputation management space can be successful"”reputations can be "managed" in the best and worst sense of that term, regardless of actual quality." " One study estimated that 16% of the restaurant reviews on Yelp were fraudulent, that fraudulent reviews were more extreme, and that restaurants with weak reputations were more likely to commit review fraud. A 2012 study by IT research firm Gartner estimated that 15% of online reviews were fake. In 2013, New York State's attorney general "announced a deal with 19 businesses that agreed to stop writing fake reviews."

There will be no Beef on Weck this Friday (the 30th) at Willow due to restaurant week. The last Buffalo night prior to Lent will be on Friday Feb. 6 and then the Beef on Weck will be offered again at the end of April.

There will be no beef on weck at Willow this Friday (the 30th) due to restaurant week. The last offering prior to Lent will occur on Friday, Feb 6 and resume at the ed of April.

I encounter Michael occasionally as I stagger around outside Liberty.

Yeah, when I saw this I had to send it to some friends of mine in lieu of a Christmas Card -- she is a fabulous home cook and I know she at least looks at the catalog from time to time.

Beef on Weck at Willow is more than just a roast beef sandwich. The weck is basically a kaiser style roll, but it is impregnated with sea salt and caraway, and made in house. The condiments served with the more than generous amount of meat include sour cream, caramelized onions, au jus, and horseradish. I generally get mine to go, because it is difficult to eat the whole thing in one sitting, and I usually take some of the meat out and use it in a separate simple roast beef sandwich. Last Friday of every month is "Buffalo Night" when the Beef on Weck is available at Willow. Tracy O'Grady is a native of Buffalo, so I accept her assertion that they serve the genuine item.

I like Fieri in small doses, and enjoy DDD. To my mind, FN's troubles began when they got away from the Alton Brown kind of instructional cooking programs and started featuring Chefs that showed you how they cook, but didn't offer much in the way of teaching. Plus all the competitive shows get repetitive and not very entertaining. I will resort to Ina Garten's recipes on occasion because she has figured out ways to reduce the work involved in producing a nice meal for entertainment purposes. And I still love Giada!

Not yet planned your Christmas Day feast? Here are some ideas: A BILL OF FARE FOR CHRISTMAS DAY AND HOW TO SET THE MEAT IN ORDEROysters 1. A collar of brawn [pork that is rolled, tied, and boiled in wine and seasonings]. 2. Stewed Broth of Mutton marrow bones. 3. A grand Sallet [salad]. 4. A pottage [thick stew] of caponets [young castrated roosters]. 5. A breast of veal in stoffado [stuffed veal]. 6. A boil'd partridge. 7. A chine (a cut of meat containing backbone) of beef, or surloin roast. Here's May's recipe: To roast a Chine, Rib, Loin, Brisket, or Fillet of Beef Draw them with parsley, rosemary, tyme, sweet marjoram, sage, winter savory, or lemon, or plain without any of them, fresh or salt, as you please; broach it, or spit it, roast it and baste it with butter; a good chine of beef will ask six hours roasting. For the sauce take strait tops of rosemary, sage-leaves, picked parsley, tyme, and sweet marjoram; and strew them in wine vinegar, and the beef gravy; or otherways with gravy and juice of oranges and lemons. Sometimes for change in saucers of vinegar and pepper. 8. Minced pies. 9. A Jegote [sausage] of mutton with anchove sauce. 10. A made dish of sweet-bread (Here's a recipe from A New Booke of Cookerie by John Murrell, published in 1615: Boyle, or roast your Sweet-bread, and put into it a fewe Parboyld Currens, a minst Date, the yolkes of two new laid Egs, a piece of a Manchet grated fine. Season it with a little Pepper, Salt, Nutmeg, and Sugar, wring in the iuyce of an Orenge, or Lemon, and put it betweene two sheetes of puft-paste, or any other good Paste: and eyther bake it, or frye it, whether you please.) 11. A swan roast. 12. A pasty of venison. 13. A kid with a pudding in his belly. 14. A steak pie. 15. A hanch of venison roasted. 16. A turkey roast and stuck with cloves. 17. A made dish of chickens in puff paste. 18. Two bran geese roasted, one larded [larding is inserting or weaving strips of fat in the meat, sometimes with a needle]. 19. Two large capons, one larded. 20. A Custard. And there's more at the link

Correct, on his first U.S. Tour as the Experience, but we should not forget that, back then, the Monkees were practically as big as the Beatles -- Hey, Hey! [sorry for the off-topicnish of this comment]

Batali's father, Armand, runs a nice salumi operation in Seattle. I occasionally score a sausage from him through Heritage Foods USA. And did you know that Jimi was a paratrooper in the Army -- after playing with Little Richard

Here's a nice piece on the legendary cookbook editor: "NEXT TIME YOU'RE feeling uninspired or too lazy to cook, think of Judith Jones, the book editor who introduced the world to Julia Child as well as food legends James Beard, Marcella Hazan, Edna Lewis and Madhur Jaffrey. Her legacy also includes three books co-authored with her late husband, Evan Jones, and three of her own. At 90 years old, she continues to make supper nearly every night, and to eat it at a table beside a wall of hanging pots in her kitchen on New York City's Upper East Side. "It's sort of indecent," she said, "because sometimes, I begin to think around 4 o'clock, "˜Hm, is it almost time to start cooking?' " These days, she cooks mostly for herself and her Havanese dog, Mabon. To help others do the same, she wrote "Love Me, Feed Me: Sharing With Your Dog the Everyday Good Food You Cook and Enjoy," published last month by Knopf. Even those without canine companions are sure to find Ms. Jones's simple recipes"”and her delight in sharing them"”highly motivating."

And here's a Detroit News article on this

Essay by Rachel Lu "As slow-food advocates go, I'm not obsessive. My kids are familiar with fruit snacks and Kraft mac-and-cheese. Michael Pollan has his charms, but don't let him fool you with his idiot-savant persona. He has multiple best-selling books and only one child to feed. Reading his books, it becomes obvious that he does not understand that, for a harried mom of three, a McDonalds drive-thru can be an absolute life-saver. There are days when French fries are, in fact, a desperate necessity. Sometimes they aren't, though. And while I'm not bothered that Pop Tarts exist (even though I personally find them gross), I think it's borderline tragic how people are reduced to processed-food peonage by their lack of culinary knowledge. I don't say that out of high-minded moralism. It's just sad to think of how much they're missing. In so many ways we live in a depraved, modernist hell-hole, and yet the food is just absolutely incredible. Or can be, if you know how to take advantage."

"Baijiu is a general Chinese term for spirits made from grains. Whiskey and vodka are also loosely classified as such, but the base of baijiu is sorghum. To demonstrate just how important the spirit is in China, take a look at the numbers. There are 14,000 baijiu distilleries in the country, according to a report by the International Wine & Spirits Group. The IWSG also reports that around 1.25 billion 9-liter cases of baijiu were consumed in 2012. To put this in perspective, the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States recorded American consumption of all spirits in 2012 at just over 1.8 billion liters. Baijiu sales were a whopping $92.4 billion in 2012"”a 20 percent average annual increase since 2003. Consulting firm Frost & Sullivan projected baijiu production to soar to 17 billion liters in 2016, compared with 4.9 billion in 2007. " More here

Rather than start another thread, here's something that debunks (apparently) the whole concept of wine tasting. Make sure and read the punchline.

After reading this , I wouldn't use it to clean my toilet bowl: "And that means these large tractors with huge claws go down the rows of vineyards grabbing the grapes and depositing them in its huge receptacle. And it not only grabs ripe grapes, but unripe and down right rotten ones as well and throws them all together. Add to that leaves, stems and any rodents, birds, or insects that may have made those vines their home - they all get thrown into the bin as well. And guess what? You think there's going to be any sorting when that truck arrives at the winery (or should I say processing facility)? Nope. Everything, and I do mean everything (including all those unripe grapes, rotten grapes, leaves, stems, birds, rodents, and insects) gets tossed into the crusher and transferred to large tanks to ferment. So think about all the animal blood and parts that may have made their way into your wine next time you crack open that bottle of Two Buck Chuck! Hardly even seems worth the $2 does it?" And it's not even $2 any more. [and yes, I am aware of the general injunction never to use wine for cooking that you wouldn't want to drink. Rules are made to be broken -- at one's own risk]

Ok, I'll watch Alexis Garcia interview anyone, but this is pretty interesting. Dana Goodyear has written a book about how the food regulatory system established more than 100 years ago is coming into increasing conflict with the new food movement and attempts to innovate with new (or sometimes ancient) ingredients and methods of preparation. Here it is.

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE Office of the Spokesperson For Immediate Release June 26, 2014 MEDIA NOTE Tourism Promotion Through Culinary Exchange As President Obama recently announced, the Department of State's Diplomatic Culinary Partnership, in collaboration with Brand USA, supports the National Travel and Tourism Strategy goal of bringing 100 million international visitors to the United States by 2021. In July, five members of the American Chef Corps will travel to East-Asian markets to promote U.S. tourism and agricultural exports. The Office of the Chief of Protocol's Diplomatic Culinary Partnership, together with the James Beard Foundation, established the American Chefs Corp, a network of more than 100 of America's most renowned chefs, to participate in various public diplomacy programs. These programs engage foreign audiences at home and abroad by fostering cross-cultural exchange through the shared experience of food. Five talented and successful American chefs will promote American agricultural food exports, highlight regional American cuisines and tourism destinations, and participate in other high-visibility activities including U.S. Independence Day celebrations in China, Taiwan, Australia, Japan, and South Korea. July 4th activities will serve as a launch for an expanded, year-long BrandUSA-led global culinary tourism campaign that will culminate just before the 2015 World Expo in Milan, Italy. The participating chefs are: · Chef Rick Bayless, Chef and Owner of Frontera Grill and Host of "Mexico: One Plate at a Time"; hosted by U.S. Embassy Beijing · Chef Barbara Lynch, Founder and CEO of Barbara Lynch Grupo and Grand Chef at Relais & Cháteaux; hosted by U.S. Embassy Tokyo · Chef Bryce Gilmore, Executive Chef and Co-Owner of Barley Swine and Odd Duck; hosted by the American Institute Taiwan in Taipei · Chef Sam Kass, Executive Director of Let's Move!, Senior Policy Advisor on Nutrition Policy, and Chef at the White House; hosted by U.S. Embassy Seoul · Chef Tory McPhail, Executive Chef of Commander's Palace; hosted by the U.S. Embassy Canberra Brand USA will provide promotional materials including the Great American Food Stories culinary guide that showcases rich regional profiles, travel information and recipes from across the culinary landscape of the United States, and features the five traveling chefs among 31 members of the American Chef Corps. For more information, visit: DiscoverAmerica.com/foodstories. Brand USA is the public-private partnership responsible for promoting the United States as a premier travel destination and communicating U.S. visa and entry policies and procedures. Established by the Travel Promotion Act in 2010, the organization's mission is to increase international visitation to the United States while working in partnership with the travel industry and Federal government to maximize the economic and social benefits of travel. For more information, please contact Jessica Andrews at andrewsjj@state.gov.

Ranch Dressing is a good way to get the kids to eat their veggies, so here's a healthy way to make it:

Scratch Willow from the list. Although WiFi used to be provided, when I was there earlier this evening and tried to log on and asked for the password, I was informed that it was no longer available to patrons

I'm not sure if this represents an advance of civilization or not. "Ultra, which already operates in the New York City area and Chicago, is launching in D.C. this week, and will deliver any amount of booze to someone for a $5 fee. Customers can log on to Ultra's website,orderultra.com, type in their ZIP code, and scroll the beer, wine, and liquor options."

2nd that emotion. I didn't know you were at Bistro-Bistro, Josh. That was always one of our favorite family dining places -- my daughter loved it, and it had that train running along the ceiling.

No, there is a garage either around the corner or next door -- I forget, but it closes early. One of the irritating things about the time I went to Leek with my wife is that I called to ask about parking and was told there was a garage available, but when we got there for dinner, it was already closed.

Don't know if this should be posted here or in the News and Media Forum, so if the Administrators wish to move it... "A virus never before seen in the U.S. has killed millions of baby pigs in less than a year, and with little known about how it spreads or how to stop it, it's threatening pork production and pushing up prices by 10 percent or more." The market will ensure future bacon availability, but be prepared to pay more. The cafeteria here where I work has Turkey bacon, and its not too bad.