Ilaine

This year we are going to plant garlic in our garden. There is a bewildering variety to choose from, yet I have only experienced the silverskins you can buy in any and every grocery store across America. Does anybody have experience with more exotic varieties of garlic?

My favorites were the Martian Pig Slop from Hell and the couscous. Yummy. Beautiful weather, nice people, excellent food.

Will there be a grill? I was looking through my freezer and see I have some unidentified sausages -- could be brats, could be some kind of fancy chicken sausage (basil? sun dried tomatoes?), I just don't know -- which I could bring. If I brought a durian, would anybody eat it? I am afraid to try one myself but would like to experiment on someone brave.

In the evenings TemptAsian was jammed every time I went there, before the chef moved to Szechuan Boy/China Gourmet.

The Lake Windless Prawns are (were?) not breaded but served on a bedding of some kind of carbohydrate, which reminded me more of couscous than rice but was maybe panko?

Ya'll are putting me in the mood to try my own Passover this year. But we're not Jewish. Is there a good guide to Passover on the Internet?

I took a look in the woods behind my own house earlier today. Nothing. There are a couple of parks nearby that are densely wooded, will try those tomorrow. After googling some more it does appear that the third week in April is the traditional week for the Fairfax area, so there's still time. If I don't find any nearby will try one of the many parks that are near the Potomac this weekend.

Found this on another website, from last year: April 12th, 2005: CC&C, morel - general location: Fairfax County, virginia. Growing Conditions: creekside hardwood forest. Additional Comments: We found 20 black morels in our favorite spot in less than an hour. The first ones of the year and very fresh. http://morelmushroomhunting.com/archives_january2005.htm I have never looked for them either but decided to give it a try this year.

House of Lion, Comfort Inn, Fairfax City, corner of Main St. and Jermantown. The Chinese menu is much more to my taste than Americanized Chinese food, but it's not Szechuan.

How about using green tea ice cream? I've seen it as Super H Mart. They also have adzuki bean ice cream. And mango mochi ice cream balls. Oh, yum.

50-50 frozen whole strawberries, and Stonybrook Farm whole milk vanilla yogurt. I am obsessed with this. Not low cal. For low cal, use low fat but it won't be as good. The vanilla has plenty of sugar and makes it taste like wonderful strawberry ice cream and I don't even like strawberry ice cream. But I love this. Lurve.

Tonight I bought four traditional style shank bones from Super H -- that is to say, sliced across the leg, roundish, roundish bone. And also what they call "shank" that looks like it was cut lengthwise down the leg, no bone. Like someone cut off the calf muscle from a human leg. I have no idea what cow legs actually look like. Never tried that, wondering how it will work. Will try this for braised beef this weekend. Roasted first will also roast the bones. I will try a mushroom broth.

I brown the meat in the oven because I am lazy and this way I don't have to turn it. It browns evenly all over. Waste of an extra pan but I line it with aluminum foil. 450 degrees, you don't have to pre-heat. I use the extra time to prep other stuff, like a roux (flour and olive oil). How do you make your mushroom stock, pray tell?

Took the boys back there tonight because they were miffed about being left out. Unfortunately left the "cheat sheet" in the printer so had to wing it. The manager came out to make suggestions. Ben, the son who orders off the Chinese menu, ordered the five spice beef tendon. Unfortunately we did not insist on "hot" so it was mild. Good but not as good as it is when spicy. We need to let them know we're serious. The manager suggested a beef stew dish which Ben said had a very nice flavor, especially over rice, but the beef was rather soft. I ordered the cold smoked chicken (great) and the chili oil wontons -- one side slightly undercooked so it did not have the marvellous silky texture that this dish usually has. For the table, the sauteed spinach which everybody loves. Nick, younger son, ordered off the American menu. Enough said. Not many people there, all ordering off the American menu. Come to think of it, two menus is probably a good business plan if they can carry it off. There is a Chinese restaurant in the Comfort Inn in Fairfax that does that. They get a lot of Chinese tourists coming in busses, and rake in the cash. Most Americans have no idea they even have a Chinese menu.

I want to try your pot roast recipe. We are all pot roast fans around here. Re: dry mustard -- how do you add the dry mustard? And how much? Re: mushroom stock. You can buy aseptic boxes of mushroom stock -- IIRC, Trader Joes, Whole Foods and Wegman's. Ever tried these? Re: cut of beef. We get very good results with chuck blade roast, which is not always easy to find. Weird cut of meat, hard to carve, great flavor. I like to brown in the oven in a roasting pan -- and then braise in the oven as well. 225. Le Creuset.

Thank you so much for the translations. Do you have a list of what we ate last night by number? I appreciated the photos -- just can't remember everything we ate. My faves - Five Flavor Beef Tendon #7 - this is a carry-over from Temptasian and a family favorite. I think everybody who likes beef and Szechuan flavors would love this as an appetizer. Cold. Oil Braised Vegetable #14 - this is new to me. Probably not for everyone due to the texture, which reminds me of fiddler heads (ferns). I liked it. Again, cold, or room temperature. Smoked Sesame Chicken #1 - very nice cold dish. I was surprised at how many of the dishes are served cold. Indescribable taste in the marinade - a seed oil or nut oil I can't identify. Beef hot pot - no number? Reminds me of my all time favorite, the fish in basket. If you like the fish in basket and you like beef you will love this. Lots of cumin. This is hot. Thought I would like the Immortal Duck Soup more than I did. It's good but many other dishes are much better. Has a healing sort of flavor, like it would be good if you had a cold.

My husband and I would like to attend. I could shuttle people from/to the Vienna metro, which is the nearest station, in my mommy-wagon (seats 7).

I used to hunt wild persimmons on the W&OD bike path, just west of the Dulles Toll Road. Until I noticed a wild persimmon tree right in the middle of Fairfax City. They are very small, and the seeds are huge, but the fruit is very nice. This particular tree is quite tall, so there's no way to pick them, you have to pick up the ones that have fallen. And they're no good until after the first frost, but then they're very soft, and tend to split when they fall. Short window of opportunity. Wish I knew how to clone/graft a tree, this one seems worth replicating.

Riverbend Park on the VA side of the Potomac. Park by the visitor center and walk upstream on the trail closest to the river. They are shiny green and sort of potato shaped. You may need to use a stick to knock some down. Honestly, I did not like them all that much, and will leave them for the raccoons in the future. Wild persimmons, now, that's another story!