Srchap50

Very disappointed by the renovated Ardeo+Bardeo. The restaurant looks nicer with less stodgy with the redesign, which basically opened up the space. But the food has taken a turn for the worse, going for a much younger crowd, which is fine (we were growing tired of seeing older codgers like us, who are in our 60s, dominating the place. The menu was enlarged and includes pizzas, a burger, and a number of small plate selections into addition to about 15 or so entres (pasta, meat and seafood), but the dishes we ordered were pretty uninspired and tasted as if the chef didn't know how to balance flavors or ingredients. There was no subtlety at all to our food selections. After years of going to Ardeo-Bardeo, we will not return.

My advise for a new cook is not to dumb down your first cookbook selection with basic fare and often dull generic cookbooks. Here are some "classics" in my mind that are easy to follow and where ingredients are easy to get. My first suggestion, would be to avoid James BIttman. In my opinion he is overrated, and his recipes very dull and unimaginative. For seafood: The Seafood Cookbook: Classic to Contemporary, by Pierre Franey and Bryan Miller, and Fish & Shellfish by James Peterson. All around cooking: any of Jamie Oliver's cookbooks, particularly the new Jamie's Food Revolution, Cook with Jamie, and Jamie's Dinners: The Essential family Cookbook. Cooking bibles: Joy of Cooking (lastest 75th anniv. edition), James Beard's American Cookery. Italian: Marcella Hazan's Classic Italian Cooking. Asian: : Simple Chinese Cooking by Kylie Kwong.

Apparently, the outstanding Tupper's Hop Pocket is back after an absence of several years since Budweiser bought out and eventually closed the Old Dominion brewery in Ashburn, Virginia, where Bob Tupper had his very special beer brewed. Because of the higher cost he now faces in its production, the beer is being sold in 4-packs. Probably for about $10.99, I'd guess. Has anyone found any stores in Washington, D.C. or neighboring Maryland or Virginia who are selling Tuppers? I haven't had any luck locating it.

Good day all. I'm simply an amateur cook who loves food -- both in the eating and preparing. I look forward to www.DonRockwell.com, having first heard about it a couple weeks ago in a New Yorker magazine (March 1, 2010 issue) profile about food.