cjsadler

LC's BBQ -- Clearly some of the best BBQ on the planet. My dining companions all more or less declared it as the best BBQ they have ever had. By the slimmest margin, I rate Smitty's in Lockhart, TX better (but this is splitting hairs and seriously, who cares? This BBQ was insanely good!!!). 500 feet away driving up in the sleet, you could smell the smoked meat smell emanating from the smallish restaurant. We ordered way too much -- burnt ends, and a ribs and two meat combo, but you only live once, right? I think we all sat back at various times, drool running down our chins, mouthing the words 'Oh my f#$^@&ing gosh!' followed slack jawed befuddlement that only zombies could look like. Were we BBQ zombies? I have no idea. If zombies crave human brains as much as I crave LC's BBQ, I think I understand their obsession.

Yeah, this place was crazy good, especially the sliced beef BBQ sandwich. If you're in KC, you need to go here.

Ate at the Girl and the Goat this past Sunday. It just got a glowing write-up in Saveur, but we thought the dishes (which are all small plates) were hit or miss. Highlights were the cauliflower with hot peppers, chickpea fritters, shishito peppers with miso, and the breads. Their selection of interesting housemade breads are each paired with both a flavored butter and a flavored oil. There seems to be a growing trend of charging for bread ($4 each here), but I think it's a great idea if it gets you bread that's so much better in quality. A dessert of parsnip (?!) pot de creme with pistachio cake and blood orange sorbet was quite good too.

Here is one of the responses this article has generated. It is important (I think) to note that B.R.Myers is a vegan. This explains a great deal of his disdain and negativity.

B.R. Myers is indeed a vegan, as this response from food critic Robert Sietsema notes a few times.

As a supposed "author", he needs a bit of hand-smacking. To quote, "These include a sort of milk-toast priest". It's MILQUETOAST you pretentious, self-righteous prig. Hmmmmphhh!

I think that was supposed to be a pun of sorts, as the "priest" he was talking about had written an article about toast.

Going to Philly for the first time next weekend. Have always heard the city is full of good neighborhood spots where you can BYOB. Can someone please recommend some that are convenient to City Hall or otherwise?

I'm a little late on this, but in addition to Cochon, other BYOBs I like:

Matyson (always been great)

Lolita

Pumpkin

Bistro 7

Hear good things about a couple of newer ones: Fond and Bibou.

I believe Left Hand is only distributed in VA. In Clarendon, both the Whole Foods and the nearby Best Cellars usually have a few of their brews. In DC, Chevy Chase Wine and Rodman's usually have Avery and Boulder.

Now if we could get Odell here...

I can't quite joint the Alleluah Chorus on this place. Best Chivito I ever had, of course, and it's a pretty decent sandwich. But it didn't change my world and, in an age of 10-oz burgers and overstuffed sandwiches, it didn't strike me as particularly large, either.

Fine stuff, and I'm sure I'll be in the mood again, but it didn't make my leg quiver or anything.

I'm in the minority with Waitman. The Chivito was good, but wasn't blowing my socks off or anything (In other words, I didn't think it was worth $14). Maybe I just didn't get a good one-- I'm sure I'll be back to try it again at some point.

Made a macaroni and cheese recipe from Ideas in Food (I haven't read the book-- found the recipe online). What was interesting was the technique: pre-soaking the pasta for an hour (then putting it in the cheese sauce to finish cooking). Pre-soaking pasta is something I never would have thought of. It works. I could see this being useful in the summer, where the last thing I want to do is boil a large pot of water. Or for dinner parties-- the pasta is ready to go whenever. They also use various pre-soaking liquids to flavor the pasta, and have some other tricks up their sleeve too, like roasting pasta in the oven for a toasted flavor.

What I have been trying to find is not represented in the photo of a bag from Bob's Red Mill. Instead, I want the kind of big, thin, wide flakes that look like shingles on a house in Cape Cod or pencils shavings. (Recipe by Alice Medrich for snazzy macaroons.) Anyone seen something like that?

That's a picture of shredded. You want flaked as shown here.

Hey, does anyone know where I can find frozen sour cherries?

Frozen sour cherries are tough to find-- I've never seen them in stores around here (I usually pick a bunch at Butler's Orchard in the spring and freeze them). You will find jars of sour cherries in syrup at Trader Joe's, though. They'll be labeled as "Morello Cherries".

I remember watching an episode of Bizarre Food where Zimmern goes to a place in Vietnam that does only one dish - Cha Ca La Vong. I've never had it and was recently inspired to try it. I found it on the menu at Present, for $13. A relative large piece of fish filet, grilled with scallions and dill was served on a sizzling metal plate. In another tray I was given peanuts, warm vermicelli, cilantro, mint and some other herb, lettuce leaf, big shrimp cracker with sesame seeds, and two sauces - hot sauce and the purplish shrimp paste. I was told to mix everything in a bowl but that made very little sense to me, so I wrapped some fish, vermicelli, herbs and hot sauce in lettuce and added some hot sauce too. The result wasn't spectacular. I read that at the restaurant in Vietnam, the fish is cooked tableside with a vat of hot oil. Adding other items into that pot would cook the other items as well - which makes much more sense to me. I tried the shrimp paste but just don't like it so I didn't put any on the fish. I suppose I should have sucked it up and added it. Anyway, does anyone else know where to find good cha ca?

Video of Cha Ca La Vong

I ate at Cha Ca La Vong a few years ago. Interesting place that you had to climb up a very rickety staircase to get to. Haven't seen anything here that's like the way they did it there. It was prepared tableside as in the video, and was basically a saute of greens and fish. I don't remember that much oil being used-- at least it didn't seem oily when you ate it. The greens mix seemed unusual and I've read the fish used is snakehead, but they only called it 'river fish' when I asked. It was kind of underwhelming to me (I did have some high expectations for it, though), so I don't know if I'd expect 'spectacular' if you find it.

I like the "Wine With" column at Wine Review Online. Every couple weeks they pick a dish and throw a bunch of wines at it to see what works. The results are often interesting.

Ma Po Tofu (per Fuschia Dunlop)...served up with some steamed broccoli and rice.

Looks good. I did a little recipe comparison with Ma Po Tofu the other month. I liked the Dunlop version, but thought this Kenji Alt recipe topped it (This blog post also compares the two). The chili oil made a difference.

From the NY Times's "Heathens Outside of NYC Finally Have a Decent Restaurant or Two" File - Philly Edition.

"Beyond Cheese Steaks: A Tour of Philadelphia Restaurants" by Ingrid K. Williams

mini reviews of Supper, Barbuzzo, JG Domestic, Fish.

"Beyond Cheesesteaks"? It's like writing an article about NYC dining and calling it "Beyond Pizza Slices".

Definitely looking forward to getting to Fish. Its predecessor Little Fish was fantastic.

"Marcel + Auto-Tune = INSTANT CLASSIC

Could Marcel be Bravo's next musical talent? God, we hope so."

Ha

So wait a minute - are you saying that Blue Ridge has been closed? FWIW, I was there the first week in December.

Cheers,

Rocks

Here's the story.

Churchkey is tapping a keg at 4pm today....

Don't think I want to brave the crowds that this is going to draw. Has anyone seen it on the shelves yet?

announced today on their Facebook page that they will open at 3 p.m. this Saturday, January 8th.

I can't go on waiting for this place.

I'm in.

Have been wanting to try Trummer's for awhile and finally made it here last week. The appetizers were the high point: an excellent Black Trumpet Risotto and Beef Tartare with Ketchup Sorbet. The ketchup sorbet was a bit too sweet, but really did work well with the tartare-- an inspired idea. The entrees were disappointing. The Roasted Red Snapper was a bit overcooked. It came with a bit of duck confit and oysters underneath it. Nothing wrong with those ingredients (favorites of mine), but not a dish I'd order again. The 12 Hour Oven Roasted & Honey Glazed Pork Shoulder was a solid slab of pork that required some sawing with a knife to get through. It wasn't exactly tough, but was fairly dry and lean-- a chore to eat. If it was cooked for 12 hours, the cooking temp was off.

The dessert were disappointing and with a recurring of chopped garnish or powdered garnish

Still a bit puzzled by dessert. The menu was divided into two sections: "Churned" (ice creams, sorbets and such) and "Pastry". We decided to try the "Pistachio" dessert from the pastry side. It turned out to be... pistachio ice cream. I asked the server why this dessert was in the "Pastry" section and she said she didn't really know, but that was the pastry chef's signature style: an ice cream or sorbet along with something crumbled (in this case, oreos). So the entire dessert menu, with the exception of the chocolate cake and possibly the "Cranberry" dessert is either ice creams or sorbets.

Put me on the waitlist. Thanks!

They have a new Imperial version this year too (in 22oz bottles). Shared one on Friday-- pretty good.

I'm in.

I agree with everything Adam23 said... damn, these are good empanadas. I'm not a fan of Julia's either, and didn't really know what to expect, but these things were so tasty I scarfed down three of them in no time flat (traditional beef, chipotle steak, and brie and mushroom).

I thought I read in the Post that there was going to be an auction related to its closing tomorrow, Oct 22.

Anyone know anything about that?

I was curious what happened to their stock. Anyone have the details on this?