porcupine

On 8/18/2016 at 9:52 PM, DonRocks said:

What are *your* favorite memories? 

I love the American women's gymnastics team but also love it when an underdog does well, so my favorite moment was Sanne Wever's completely surprising upset on balance beam. The routine itself was so very different from what all the other gymnasts were doing. From mount to dismount it was unique and creative. And of course beautifully executed.

"Netherands' Wevers Wins Balance Beam Gold; Hernandez and Biles Take Silver, Bronze" by Bill Chappell on npr.org

8 hours ago, saf said:

I love Iceland Air. Keflavik is a nice airport, easy to navigate, the airplane staff are lovely, and I really appreciate a chance to get off the plane at that point. I HATE long flights. (OK, I hate to fly in general, but I like to go places, so I force myself onto planes.)

See, we got a cheap fare to Paris, where we had never been, and it was on Iceland Air. It was lovely. And the airport transfer was easy. And I got to GET OFF THE PLANE before my brain melted. And the view from the airport was amazing.

The next time we went to Paris, we added on a few days in Iceland (love that free stopover thing.) It was really cool, and I would like to do it again. 

If it is not TOO far out of the way, it's an easy connection, and if you have time, a stopover in Iceland is excellent.

I've been to Iceland twice this year. I loved it, but don't feel the need to spend another day there. And I loved flying on Icelandair, but we saw how connections were in Keflavik and it wasn't pretty. The scuttlebutt about all this is near the bottom of page 8 in the Dining in Airports thread.

There's a purely subjective price:value threshold that has to be met for me to consider a connecting flight through Keflavik.

At any rate I'm unlikely to do it because we want to stay in Copenhagen for a few days on one end or the other of the Faroe Islands trip, so it makes sense to just fly non-stop there and pick up the very inexpensive Atlantic Airways flight to Tórshavn.

I like Icelandair but I don't know that I want to make a connection through Keflavik! They do have very attractive fares, though.

I'm considering a trip to Copenhagen next summer. What's the best part of town to stay in? How many days should I allow to really get a sense of the place? What are some good food options (OTHER THAN Noma). I'm a bit of a design geek and am attracted to Danish/northern European design*, so any interesting places to go to see such? Any recommendations greatly appreciated. Thanks.

*please hold the IKEA jokes, I've heard them already

I'm in the exploratory stages of trip planning for next summer. Top of my list is the Faroe Islands. Has anyone here been? If so, I'd be grateful for any recommendations. 

If you want to try something different with chicken cutlets, look to Marcella Hazan's recipe here. It's straightforward and delicious. If you don't want to fuss with filleting the breasts yourself, a butcher could do it for you. The only trick to this recipe is that the meat must be uniformly thin; if it isn't, one part will be overcooked and another will be undercooked.

Sauerbraten is traditionally served with a pan sauce thickened with gingersnaps. There's some discussion of this in the S&C forum; I think there was a thread about marinating foods awhile back. The Baltimore "thing" is likely adopted German cuisine.

Agree with Tweaked and Ericandblueboy about KEF. Not bad as a destination, but departure is awful. If you're going to KEF after a stay in Iceland (as opposed to a connecting flight) and have access to the Icelandair lounge, life is pretty good. The lounge is quiet, has free wifi, comfortable seating, and really good food. To get to your gate from the lounge allow enough time to get through customs (the line goes quick), and if you're flying to the US, you have a loooong walk to the gates. And the boarding areas are a mess, and they don't control boarding the way US airports do - they just open it up.

Also, on the homeward leg of our last trip, we noted HUNDREDS of people in lines at the WOW Air counters, maybe two dozen at Icelandair, and nobody at Icelandair Economy Comfort. Totally worth the money.

Actually, Mr. P and I are planning a trip for next summer to a destination with limited access; KEF is one of only a few places with a connecting flight. We agreed to never plan a trip that requires a connection through KEF (unless we add a day in Reykjavik), even though we love Icelandair.

KEF

I don't want to post them here, because I'd have to reprocess them and lower the picture quality (this site has size limits), but please do visit my smugmug site (link in sig line). There's a gallery of Reykjavik street art there. I haven't yet added the photos from my summer trip, though.

Also, I have plans to go hunting/shooting DC murals with a friend today. Any neighborhood recommendations?

cartoon by Ken Brown

21 hours ago, silentbob said:

FlyerTalk, AINEC.  The signal-to-noise ratio could sometimes be a bit better on certain forums, but folks there are as (knowledgeably) obsessed about travel -- and gaming the airline, hotel, or credit card "loyalty" programs -- as people are here about food and cooking.

AINEC? A google search yielded a lot of poker talk. There is no "ainec.com". Please elaborate.

In addition to this forum, what travel-related websites do you go to for detailed, in-depth information when planning a trip? I'm tired of sifting through tripadvisor and lonelyplanet and all the other travel sites that pop up whenever I'm trying to research. I'd love to find a forum that is to travel what dr.com is to the DC dining scene! Thanks.

6 minutes ago, DonRocks said:

Yes, why?

Because I expected "to discuss to learn", but instead you seemingly ignored it to jump on a wikipedia article. I though "Shattered Myths" was a real eye-opener, because the conclusion is not what you're expecting, but the reason why makes total sense.

I rarely make waffles, for the simple reason that my waffle iron is difficult to clean. But when a long-simmering fascination with liège waffles came to a boil, I bought a Croquade. The irons are removable, making cleanup easy. I can't report on its longevity yet but so far I love the waffles it's producing.

ps about liège waffles: they're sweet brioche dough baked in a waffle iron. I've been working with this recipe, which with a bit of tweaking gives a fine result. It helps to be familiar with brioche.

18 hours ago, DonRocks said:

Yes! The Wikipedia article on "The Backfire Effect." The one that says, "The backfire effect is extremely strong. But there are some proven ways to bring someone around to your point of view." 

The one that should be required reading in Law 101 - for those whose sole ambition is "to argue to win" instead of "to discuss to learn."

I don't see how "The Backfire Effect" is relevant to the size, shape, and thickness of wine glasses and ones perception of the wine they're drinking, and I didn't agree with much of what Joe said, but his post isn't entirely wrong, either. What I can't tell is whether he's advocating for thick or thin crystal, because the Riedel Sommelier Series - especially the Red Burgundy glass which can hold an entire bottle of wine - is possibly the thinnest crystal I've ever seen, and can break just from *swirling the wine* much less cleaning the glass. I have unopened boxes of them in storage, and have no desire ever to use them again. At the other extreme, serving a nuanced wine from a ceramic coffee cup is a complete waste of the wine.

...but did you read "Shattered Myths"?

Read this article. Read the whole thing, it's worth it. The answer is near the end but don't skim looking for it. Also the "tongue map" thing is a myth that was debunked decades ago.

17 hours ago, Deac said:

I can't see them doing it in the U.S. unless service charges become much more standard, because of the awkwardness of having to tell the tip amount to your server before they charge the card.

It works just fine in Canada. I could be remembering wrong, but they come to your table with the device, scan your card, hand you the device and you add desired tip, you hand it back, they print a receipt which you sign, and it's all done. (This was chip and signature system, not chip and pin; it's been a few years.) A great time saver and not at all awkward. One of many reasons why we love Canada.

15 hours ago, Bart said:

 don't have a P&P visit planed yet.  All the talk upthread scared me a little.

That is the reason why I posted about it.

On 4/25/2016 at 8:08 PM, ALargeFarva said:

There's a part of me that wants to try P&P, but there are 3 reasons I probably won't.

1) I don't drink alcohol and I'm not going to spend $75 on a mocktail pairing.  I find it offensive.  I know I can avoid that by sitting at the bar, but why require people who don't drink to sit at the bar??  

2) They aren't open on Saturdays. I believe it's a terrible business decision and they will eventually realize it.   My work schedule isn't predictable enough to make a weeknight reservation with 100% certainty, and I'm not going to risk $250 on it.

3) I ate their spicy fried chicken sandwich for lunch and, maybe I'm just clueless about acceptable ways of frying chicken, but it was burnt to a crisp on the outside (to the point where it was black in color and the outer 1/2 centimeter of the chicken had zero moisture and was stringy.  Maybe I'm just ignorant and this is a perfectly acceptable way to fry chicken, and I'd be curious if that is in fact the case.  Even if I am wrong, if the chef can't cook a fried chicken sandwich to my taste, I'm not going to trust them enough to drop $250 on dinner.

I won't wish failure on a restaurant, but I do worry that if Aaron Silverman succeeds with P&P in its current form, he will push the envelope even more on his next restaurant and require guests to eat blindfolded standing up, cook their own food and clean their own table, charge $25 for special filtered water, or something similarly absurd.

1) I can't disagree with this point. I would love to have dined at the kitchen counter. 

2) I think you're wrong.  Of course I'm only speculating, but I believe Silverman et al have built enough of a following that they will have no problem filling tables Tuesday thru Friday.  Having the other days off means Rose's Luxury won't be playing second fiddle to P&P, so quality won't suffer. Not just the quality of the food, but the quality of the staff and therefore the quality of the experience.

3) Sucks about the chicken, but mistakes happen. If mine had come out that way I would have politely asked them to make me another. The one I ate today was nothing like what you described.  I hope yours was the aberration, not mine!

One other thing: today I was working in the area (kinda) so decided to go for lunch. That chicken sandwich is outta this world, and the cappucino is fantastic, too.

On 2/10/2016 at 9:50 AM, Tweaked said:

please let us know how it turns out, your technique etc.  Sounds like a fun project! 

It was a disaster. The mesir wat I made the same night was decent, though in the future I'll make my own berbere. I don't know what to try next for injera, though.

Closing dessert menu.

Closing menu.

No more signature lines?