Ilaine

Which baffles me. There are a lot of fad diets (gluten-free might be nothing but a fad for some) but this seems to be the only one that pisses people off. Chefs don't get pissed off at vegans, vegetarians, Paleo, Atkins, why gluten-free? The woman who set off Chef Vetri was ignorant, but ignorance isn't a cause for self-righteous anger. Not a just cause, anyway.

The story about the woman sending back the risotto because of gluten was funny, but most people who avoid wheat and other sources of gluten are well-informed because they have to be. Case in point, I wanted shrimp and grits from Mezzanine, a trendy "clean" restaurant in the Fan district in Richmond. I asked the waitress whether it was gluten free, and she said yes, but it was readily apparent that, while the grits did not have any wheat, the sauce binding the shrimp was wheat based. I was dumb to even try it, but she was negligent in not asking the chef. The writer makes a good point, if you need to avoid wheat, say so, but he's also wrong, there are other grains that have gluten that people with celiac should not eat, including barley and rye. An educated, intelligent chef ought to know that. The writer is incorrect that people need to eat grains in order to be healthy. Obviously wrong, people with celiac do NOT eat grains to be healthy. Finally, the writer as chef makes an excellent point that if one is avoiding wheat, why eat fake wheaty food? Well, it's true that most ersatz foods like gluten free pasta suck. I have yet to eat one that wasn't an abomination. But, sometimes you just gotta have a slice of gluten free bread, for example, in the summer time, for a fresh tomato sandwich. For example, the Happy Tart on Mount Vernon makes some pretty decent gluten free brioche loaves that are great for sandwiches. Their pie crusts are excellent, and they make a very fine quiche. I wouldn't expect the same from a restaurant that serves the general public. By the way, avoiding wheat is, as we all know, not at all the same thing as genuine celiac disease. I don't have celiac but wheat causes me to have IBS. I don't have an anaphylactic reaction, but pain in my gut. Beer does not contain wheat unless it's wheat beer.

Miracle Whip anecdote. In my older formative years, I lived and worked in New Orleans. I always kept my Hellman's in the refrigerator at work for fear of botulism. A co-worker informed me that one must NOT keep one's Hellman's in the fridge because it would CAUSE botulism, but, contrariwise, one MUST keep one's Miracle Whip in the fridge. She was a member of the species Yat, genus Homo New Orleansis. Not entirely sure if I ever ate Miracle Whip, surely I did, but we always have a big jar of Hellman's IN the fridge, today and every day, thank you, Best Foods. If there is anything better on a homegrown Brandywine tomato, please let me know. I worry about the Hellman's because it's made with soybean oil, an industrial oil, and I worry about my LDL, but it tastes really good to me. If you turn your nose up at something not because of the way it tastes, but for some other reason, be it political, medical, social, economic, or political, that's not food snobbism. Far from it.

First, I'd say keep them in the fridge so they don't grow green fur quite so fast. Second, what about bringing them to the picnic? Can we have a pantry cull? We can't donate used food to the food bank but can we give it to each other? After my mother moved into assisted living, I donated every intact box, jar, can and bag to the local food bank but there were so many items which were not intact but still good that I had to throw away. Such a waste.

Oh, shoot, it doesn't cost much to feel like a big shot! Actually it makes me feel kind of cheesy thinking about a couple of bucks.

I always tip what I consider to be well. I never punish the wait staff for things beyond their control. If I am really, really pissed off at the wait staff, I still tip 15% on the total after tax. Otherwise at least 20% of the total after tax, sometimes 30%. When you think about it, an extra five or ten percent on a $50 check is $2.50 or $5. I spend that much, at least, on gas getting to the restaurant. If I can give it to Exxon/Mobil, I can give it to a human being with sore feet.

Hersch, Restaurant Eve has really good sweetbreads. I was tricked into eating them by the waiter, but it was a happy occasion. I couldn't decide between the sweetbreads and something else, told the waiter that I had never eaten sweetbreads and was afraid to try them, so I ordered the something else. The waiter brought me the sweetbreads and winked at me. They were just as you describe, crisp on the outside, pillowy and yielding on the inside. Victor's sweetbreads are not that.

After reading Ferguson Henderson's Nose to Tail, I wanted to eat some innards. I have eaten tongue, heart, kidney, liver and tripe, but wanted to branch out. Researched a bit and decided to try Victor's Grill. It's allegedly. Bolivian/Argentinan churrascaria. Well, maybe so. When I think of churrascaria, I think of men in gaucho costumes carrying around meat on swords, sliced at the table. This is not that. It's an old fashioned family style restaurant, serving enormous portions of adequate food at reasonable prices. It's one of those places where the salad is mostly iceberg lettuce, slices of onion, and slices of sad tomatoes, which is especially sad in July. They were the type of tomatoes one puts up with in January. Verdict: I have always liked tongue. Cold tongue in vinaigrette is not an ideal dish. I have always like sweetbreads. Plain fried sweetbreads is not an ideal dish. I have never liked kidney. Victor's kidney soup did not change my mind about kidneys, although the rest of the soup, the broth and potatoes, was quite savory. I have never eaten blood sausage. Too bad you can't get boudin noir in Louisiana anymore (why?) but plain blood sausage is boring. Next try, Korean soondae. I have never eaten intestines. Now I have. It was bitter and gritty. No mas. The tres leches cake was an excellent version of this dessert. The wine barely adequate. The large margarita the size of a birdbath, and after persuading them to make it on the rocks, not frozen, with good tequila it still was made with sour mix but drinkable and after two I felt no pain. My son had to drive us home. There was a lot of meat on the Argentine parrillada. If you want a lot of meat for your money, this is a place for it. Not excellent quality, but a lot for the money. I won't go back, but everything was perfectly ok. Actually, if I ever have a craving for tres leches, this is where i would go. Surprisingly, the chimichurri was excellent. It was red, not green, and I was apprehensive, but it was the best thing I had. That, and the little hot rolls in a bread basket, fresh and hot. I usually avoid wheat, but after two giant margaritas I succumbed. Dip them in the chimichurri. You won't be sorry.

I found several versions of parm broth using nothing but cheese rinds and broth vegetables that I will turn to in soup weather. In the meantime, I keep opening my freezers and looking at them admiringly. Haven't been this clean since the Derecho. Now I need to work on the pantry.

Not exactly a 911, but not sure where else to put this. Cleaned out the two refrigerators and freezers today, and discovered that I have a couple of gallon sized Ziploc bags full of rinds from Parmigiano Reggiano. What to do with them? Edited to add: we are making bone broth today. Wonder how parm rinds would go in bone broth?

I did something wild and crazy for me, who almost never leaves my comfort zone. Drove to Homestead Farm, a pick your own place in Poolesville, MD, from Springfield, VA, and back, on my lunch break, using all my lunch break and 50 minutes of personal leave, hoping to buy tart cherries without having to pick them in my lawyer duds. Got lucky. There were two quarts on the counter. The cashier said I could not have them, they were spoken for, but the putative owner said he actually did not want them, so I scored them. It was a beautiful day, bright blue sky and fluffy clouds, hardly any traffic, and I listened to Brian Eno as my soundtrack there and back. We've already eaten about 3/4, and they will be gone tomorrow. They are really, really good just plain, much better than sweet cherries, reminiscent of cranberries and gooseberries but sweeter. Tomorrow I will try the Fairfax and Lorton farmers market, but if I come up empty handed, I won't cry. These babies are seasonal.

Just started reading Odd Bits, by Jennifer McLagan, and find myself wondering where to buy the strange meat parts she is talking about. For example, and this may be a bridge too far, boned and rolled calf head. Who but our own Julien Shapiro would make one? How about brains, sweetbreads, and other more common things? Especially from humanely raised animals? Sadly, the former owner of Let's Meat on the Avenue retired. The lady at the counter said he got married and his wife inherited $14 million, and he moved away. I deduced that the people there are not skilled butchers when they could not tell me which part of a brisket was the point and which the flat. So, looking for an uncommonly good butcher shop with a good, old-fashioned butcher. Do they still exist?

Bumping this thread. I bought a quart of sour cherries at the Wakefield farmer's market Wednesday July 9, 2014. OMG, they were soo delicious just eating out of hand, we ate all of them by Thursday and I am craving more. Any recent sightings elsewhere?

Some things about baking you can improvise, some not. Or maybe you can, but I can't. I can improvise pie filings but not pie crust. I can improvise cake toppings but not cake batter. And if you can improvise strudel dough, croissant pastry, puff pastry, phyllo dough, or any other dough where the ratio of fat, liquid and flour is very precise, including type and temperature of fat, temperature of liquid, and type of flour, you are a better baker than I ever was. Tart pastry and crumb crusts are not all that hard, but they don't depend so much on structure.

Yesterday Society Fair had a crawfish boil that was actually quite pleasant. A pound of boiled crawfish, which is a small amount for a crawfish boil, served the correct way, with boiled corn, potatoes, cipollini onions, and andouille sausage. Drinks for the occasion included Abita Springs beer and a very well made Sazerac cocktail. Louisiana music, of course. We haven't been down to Louisiana for a crawfish boil in a long, long time but annually attend the Louisiana State Society crawfish boil at the Navy Yard park. This year the Louisiana State Society crawfish, while much more plentiful, and, indeed, all you can eat, were not very tasty, well seasoned but overcooked, and many of them had a sort of blackish patina that I associate with roadside ditches. Very high percentage with straight tails, which means they were dead or near dead when boiled, and had to be discarded. In contrast, the Society Fair crawfish were sweet, fresh, and clean. Only one with a straight tail out of two servings, which happens even in Louisiana. They may have even been purged, they were that clean. I don't think they were Belle River crawfish, which is the epitome of crawfish, but much better than I have had in years. Larry, apparently a chef?, is from Slaughter, Louisiana, not far from my home town of Baton Rouge. He definitely did it right. I believe the corn was local Silver Queen, much more delicate and sweet than the tougher yellow corn one usually gets. The andouille was better than average. The cipollini onions were a nice touch. Everything well spiced. We would definitely do this again. Our waiter said that Larry was thinking about doing this again in November, which seems odd. Crawfish season does not really start until January, and corn will not be in season. They are small in January, don't get to a good size until the spring, and by June and July, tend to be tough. Nevertheless, if they cook it, we will come. I hope they consider getting Belle River crawfish next time, and ordering andouille direct from LaPlace, the andouille capitol of the world. Also, it would be nice to be able to add more crawfish to the order rather than a second order. Corn and potatoes are all very nice, but the point of a crawfish boil is crawfish.

Now with microwaves who needs to defrost?

I used to be ambicooksterous. Baking and cooking use very different skill sets. Baking you need to follow the recipe until you learn ratios, and even then, for the harder stuff, I would follow the recipe more or less precisely. Cooking, eh, we don't need no stinking recipes. Just wing it, baby. Now, alas, I must eat gluten free, and there is no way to make croissants or puff pastry without the miracle of stretchy, clingy gluten. The stuff is genius. I can bake approximations of many things using non-gluten flour, but nothing challenging or ambitious, just the basics like muffins or cupcakes or pie crust and then I run into the carb issue unless I use almond flour or coconut flour. I could, and sometimes do, weep.

Some cultivars of pomegranate are more cold hardy than others, apparently the hard seeded ones. Plants fruit after three years. My south sided wall is protected enough but probably not enough room or sun. I guess I will pass but look forward to your reports on how you did.

Apparently October 28, 2014 won the poll, so it's a go. For what it's worth, I voted for all three dates. But I do like late September better than early September. Coming from Louisiana, I never saw any difference and never understood why "fall" starts on September 21. Here, I really see something mysterious happen in September. There is a day, not exactly September 21, but near enough, where the nights start getting cooler and the air starts getting crisper, and you know, you KNOW, that your green tomatoes are not going to ripen, ever, and your figs, neither. And then it's fall. It fell. Well, not exactly, you start sliding from the dog days into Indian summer.

Don, anybody who wants to do so can take a poll, and anybody who wants to do so can reserve the site. It's only $200.00. Never too late, until it is. I just don't have time for it, myself. Like herding cats, it is. If someone wants to take a poll, and the site is still available for the voted-on date, let me know via PM and I will reserve it, and cancel the one I already made, just $10 to cancel which is nothing to me. Seriously. www.recreation.gov

OK, someone please just make sure I have this right. Fort Hunt, C-2, 9/28/14. RESERVATION DETAILSCampground: Fort Hunt Site: C-002 Site Type: GROUP PICNIC AREA Loop: Group Picnic Areas State: Virginia Region: NCR Arrival Date: Sun Sep 28 2014 Departure Date: Sun Sep 28 2014 Length of Stay: 1 Primary Occupant: L ILAINE UPTON # of Occupants: 120 Equipment: # of Vehicles: 40 # OF PETS: Check-In Time: 10:00 AM Check-Out Time: 6:00 PM

OK, I just took the bull by the horns and did it. C-2 reserved for 9/28/14. I learned this from Daniel K, if you plan it, they will come. No date is ever going to be perfect, but don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good enough. If y'all want to take a poll and pick another date and somebody else reserves it, no skin off my nose, I can cancel for ten bucks, but at least we have the 28th. Right now, every Sunday in September is still available, but step lively if you want to go another date.

The food was excellent, especially the ribs. The ambiance was beautiful. The staff unexpectedly gracious and charming, attentive for what I thought would be just BBQ. We really had an excellent time, once we got there. The traffic from Springfield was horrendous. Clara Barton Parkway too. When I got out of the car I nearly collapsed into a puddle. If you commute every day on heavily congested DC highways you may be used to it. I am not. Nor do I want to be. For my own purposes, ease of commute and parking and wait time are all important factors in deciding whether to put a restaurant into my rotation. Old Anglers Inn is accessible for us mobility impaired. No wait time at all. The drive sucked, which is not the fault of the hosts.

I would love to go to Rose's Luxury as this may be the only way I ever go there (a two hour wait is out of the question) and I am leaving the husband out of this because he will complain to the rooftops over $125. He will cry afterwards but I will let him smell my breath. Prefer that we go before the end of July while I still have my handicap parking pass.

Put me in +1. Thank you. Are we supposed to bring booze or can we buy it there?