porcupine

Here's a link to my google map of restaurants serving ramen in the DC metropolitan area. No recommendations are implied, no rankings, it's just a map. If you know of a place that's not on the map please reply here and I'll include it -thanks.

Happened upon a low airfare so took advantage. Will be spending four days in LA in February. I don't know the first thing about the place so I'm not sure where even to book a hotel. Is Santa Monica a good area to stay in? How about West Hollywood? To make it even more confusing, we don't even know what we're going to be doing with our time, with one exception: we're going to head to Joshua Tree National Park for one day. Thanks for any tips.

I was there with a party of 8. The dishes seemed to be chosen at random, but were a good representation of the menu. Some were plated individually, some were plated for two people, some were plated for three or four. It was a good amount of food, but not an obscene amount (like the rooftop dinners). We let them know about allergies and a pescatarian in advance; all was handled smoothly. The pacing was a little odd but I bet they have that worked out by now. The whole thing took a smidge under three hours. Have a good time! Call and ask them to include the vadouvan curry -'s wonderful.

Through the Huffington Post article linked to above.

Then please start promoting coffee milk! This needs to become a thing in DC. For anyone not familiar with coffee milk, here's a little explanation. I've been drinking a homemade version of this for years, without realizing it's a thing with a name (I'm not from Rhode Island). Grind coffee beans and steep them in water in the refrigerator for two days, strain, freeze in ice cube trays, and store in a zipper baggie in the freezer. Two cubes in a glass, microwaved at 20% power for two minutes, will melt without warming. Add sugar and milk and there you go, awesome mid-afternoon buzz on days you don't want a hot beverage.

If you don't mind going through the effort, roast some turkey parts so that you have drippings to deglaze. It wouldn't take much to make a difference. I did this with the neck and spine (after spatchcocking the bird) and added the drippings to a flavorful chicken stock. Came out great. And you can do this a few days in advance, since gravy keeps well.

So prepare as written, except don't add the mushrooms until everything else is in; pull a mushroom-less portion aside and bake separately. Easy-peasy.

The Dabney.

Dr. Heywood Floyd was not on Discovery 1. Frank and Dave were the only two awake on board.

A long time ago I read a book, perhaps called The Making of Kubrick's 2001 (?), that was really quite informative. Kubrick was always known as a cinematographic innovator (eg the Big Wheels cam in The Shining, and the entirely candle-lit nighttime interior scenes in Barry Lyndon), and this film was certainly no exception. Although it's often said that the movie was based on a novel by Arthur C. Clarke, iirc Clarke and Kubrick actually wrote collaboratively, with Clarke re-writing parts after Kubrick had tried filming a scene*, for example. The source material was Clarke's short story "The Sentinel". Rocks, I totally agree with you about the breathing. Silence or near silence is incredibly effective for building tension. As well, I've always loved how scientifically accurate the film is (no sound in space!) The thing that stuck with me the most, though, is that it's something like 35 minutes before the first words are spoken, and (again iirc) those words are entirely banal. Kubrick said that one of his goals was to make a film that had to be watched - actively watched - to be understood. In 2001, very little information is gleaned from dialogue, and I think that's the problem most people have with the film. Despite movies being a visual medium, we gather what we need to know from dialogue (or narration). Consider how well radio plays work, if you've ever listened to one. It's entirely possible to follow the story in a radio play, but how many movies could you understand with the sound cut? At any rate, I'm not trying to argue that Kubrick was entirely successful, but just pointing out that that was his intent. Thanks for starting this topic. *I'd love confirmation of this; I think it was 35 years ago that I read the book edited to add: The Making of Kubrick's 2001

Your post got me to update my map of western Virginia restaurants. I haven't been to most of them so no recommendation is implied; it's simply a visual reference of what's where. Hope you find it useful.

In reference to DC City Center: Why do you love the area and why do you want to see more like it? (Obviously I have an opinion here but I'd like to know your thoughts before I go on about it.)

You're welcome. You're right - it is overplayed, and like anything overplayed is likely to become cliched, so it was a really good choice for "what makes it great". It would've opened your ears to new possibilities. Thanks for the links. Did you know that Emerson, Lake, and Palmer also interpreted Pictures at an Exhibition? Me, too. Especially Cole Porter. And Schickele is one of my musical heroes.

Hi kftrockville, and welcome. And thanks for reading our comments. Although I still think yours is the best tasting (black milk tea), I've almost stopped going to your shop. It takes too damn long. I understand when it's busy that it's going to take awhile, but twice (including this morning) it's taken ten minutes when there were only two other people in the shop. Is there a way you can streamline the process? Also, perhaps if you put the ordering station further from the front door, there wouldn't be so much crowding right there at the entrance. Please take these suggestions in the spirit in which they're intended, which is "helpful". I want to see your business succeed! I love the product, but the process needs a little work.

This past Sunday I attended a most delightful presentation at Baird Auditorium, in which Rob Kapilow spent an hour analyzing Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition"*, with the help of pianist Yuliya Gorenman. After this and a brief intermission, she performed the entire work. The performance was followed by a question and answer session. The title pretty much says it all. If you've ever wondered why a particular piece of music is well-regarded, Kapilow explains it. If you have some music background you'll get more out of it, but even my musically illiterate** husband was able to follow, enjoy, and understand it. Lots more information here. Tickets on sale through Smithsonian Associates. --------- *in its original form, as a work for solo piano **I don't mean that as a slam, but he is literally musically illiterate, not knowing what a "measure" or "minor key" or "time signature" or "grace note" mean.

Try looking at it this way: if you want to go to Rose's tonight, you can. It will take a sacrifice - time or money - but you can. If they took reservations then you'd be spending time at the keyboard trying to out-type all the other foodies (and bots) who are trying to get in, with no guarantee of success (like for Rose's rooftop, or Momofuku CCDC, or Minibar). I don't like lines, either, but I can't think of a more egalitarian system. It would be nice if they took some reservations but held tables for walk-ins (as Red Hen and CCDC do), but those reservations would still be damn near impossible to get. Here's another way to look at it: DC has such a wonderfully vibrant dining scene that we have several restaurants commanding lines. I'd rather have that situation than go back to the era of expense-account steakhouses or power-Italian.

Skysplitter, I love the details in your trip report - thanks so much for linking to it!

Wow, thanks for all the recommendations! Don, we are going; the trip is already booked. 4 1/2 days in January, for my birthday. Ericandblueboy, we are staying in downtown Reykjavik. Astrid, I don't know that we'll be able to fit an overnight outside Reykjavik, but the plan is to go back in mid-June for the summer solstice. Depending on what we discover in January, we might do a longer trip in summer. And sheldman, I remember doing that when we went to Scotland many years ago. I think my face was glued to the window for half the trip. I couldn't get over the long, long, long sunset. My idea of the perfect vacation: get up early to beat the crowds to someplace stunning for a nice hike/photography, go back to a reasonably lux hotel for a hot shower, eat a really good but not formal dinner; repeat. Maybe a museum when the weather sucks. Check out local contemporary art scene when there is one. Spend an afternoon in a local area where there aren't many tourists, trying to blend in.

Does anyone have recent updates? Restaurants, things to do, places to see. etc.

OK, for what it's worth, speaking strictly for myself and my husband. Mr. P and I don't like to spend more than about an hour and a half at table, perhaps two hours if we're with friends. We have both been on the weight loss/gain roller coaster for decades now. We keep it under control by eating less food. This usually means an appetizer followed by another appetizer (or half portion of pasta) for our main course. A tasting menu meal is a caloric extravagance, even if the portions are small. We've found that we both experience palate fatigue and fail to appreciate the food after four or five courses. I have several food allergies, one of which is bizarre, and I can't eat grapefruit (medication interaction), and I can only eat onion/garlic/leek/shallot/scallion in tiny quantities if I take medicine. As a chef I'm sure you know how pervasive alliums are in just about every cuisine. In a restaurant where I can pick and choose, it's easy enough to work around. With a tasting menu, it's not. I know at this point you're going to jump in with a generous offer of making something just for me, but try to understand: from my perspective it gets old and a little embarrassing having to explain this, especially since it's not so clear cut. Yes, I can eat onion - a little bit - and I've gotten good at gauging how much, but it isn't quantifiable, so how do I explain it to a server? Mr P is a bit of a squeamish eater, though he's gotten much better over the years. Still, the list of things he won't eat is long enough. Neither of us care for organ meats, though we'll eat foie gras if it's part of something we're served. I have a weird sense of smell that leads to a number of food aversions. Some foods - mustard is the best example - smell so horrible to me that more than a tiny amount makes me feel ill. As in, nauseated. Yum. So in addition to the already long and weird list of what I don't eat, I have to add several very common foods. Again, I really don't want to be explaining all this to a server, but I can read between the lines of a menu pretty well. Mr P doesn't drink. I'd love to drink - boy would I love to be able to have a cocktail again! - but one glass of wine or a beer nursed through a meal, about once every two weeks, is all I can stand without having a severe reaction. So, although I consider myself a foodie, any "you'll eat what we serve you" meal is a real gamble. I'm not a gambler. We ate at Rogue 24 once, a few years back when you offered (I think) 4 courses for Restaurant Week. It wasn't about the money - it never is - but we jumped at the chance to enjoy your cooking again on a reasonable scale, and had a lovely time. I see from your website that you're offering three and five course menus now. That's great! Of course, what's posted is from February. I understand how difficult it must be to keep a website current given how your operation runs (you'd be editing daily if not more often), but if I had some notion of what you're currently up to I just might make a reservation and take a gamble. Komi was for several years my favorite restaurant, but I haven't been since they went to the degustation menu. Last night we ate at Little Serow for the first time. It wasn't about the line, it was about finding a menu that Mr P and I both could handle. As it was, I had to really pick around (shitloads of onion and garlic in almost everything), keep taking medicine, and one dish I couldn't eat at all. I won't go back any time soon. It was fantastic, don't get me wrong, just really difficult for me to navigate. Oh, another thing: my list of new restaurants to try is so long that places are closing before I get to them. In other words, despite the fact that Rogue 24 is in a category of its own, you have a lot of competition. That's probably more of an answer than you wanted, and it's more than I wanted to share, so I hope you find it helpful.

Recently early in the week there were 4-5 people in line at opening; the restaurant was full about half an hour later.

I cut collards into thin shreds, then cook them fast in very hot olive oil until just tender and still bright green, then season with salt, pepper, and lemon juice. I don't like them cooked more than that unless they're cooked all the way, southern-style, as others have mentioned. The best collards I've eaten recently came from a roadside barbeque stand in southern Maryland; everything else there was so so but damn those were fine greens.

I rigged up a catch net under my persimmon tree and have been getting about a dozen fruit a day. I put them through a food mill then freeze the pulp until I have enough to make something. The first batch went into persimmon pudding (NYT recipe). Any ideas what to try next? I like giant shrimp's idea of pie. Any ideas welcomed. btw the tree is the native persimmon, Diospyros virginiana.

Need a thread merges, please: http://www.donrockwell.com/index.php/topic/1076-way-down-yonder-in-the-paw-paw-patch/

I'm hoping to compile a list to pass along to my relatives; a cousin is going to be there for weeks at least, and a lot family want to come visit. First question they ask me, of course, is "where can I get some lunch?" Also, hoping to bring carry out to the cousin once she stabilizes and can eat a wider range of food. There is a south entrance, and the whole area is ringed by highways; it's a bit of a nightmare getting in and out, on foot or by car. Rieux, thanks for the suggestions.