Cooter

We went on the first and it was also goat night for me. I agree with Pete that both were fantastic. The wife had the black truffle risotto, which was very good, but not great, and the duck and foie gras ravioli (?) which was awesome. Our favorite mezze was the oxtail on puffed pita. The roasted dates stuffed with mascarpone and something else were delicious, too. I highly reccomend the doughnuts for dessert. These are delicious and warm puffy yeast bastards and come with a chocolate mascarpone thing. The wife had the chocolate and olive oil ice creams which were also good. I enjoyed the wine pairings and found the sommelier (Andy?) to be very engaging and informative. I wish that, during the mezze, he had let me know how many plates an individual poor was paired with. Actually, I wish that they had explained the mezze a little better before we ordered. We were expecting a plate of different stuff and were surprised when single plates just kept coming and coming. Nothing wrong with this presentation, but we just weren't expecting it.

Taqueria Poblano might fit the bill. Plus, it's got two locations so you can tell your friends that it's a chain.

Do I get a special cheese bonus for mentioning you before you got in here?

RESPECT CHEESETIQUE'S AUTHORI-TAH!!!!

I don't think this is a fair comparison. I'd say a fairer comparison would be, "Which does more for music knowledge, Pachebel's Canon in D or Rachmaninov's Symphony in F Major.*" Sure, the Rachmaninov is more complex with nuanced and complicated interplay, but Canon in D will get you to say, "Hey, I kinda dig this classical piece" and begin working your way up to more 'mature' classical pieces. *I know nothing of classical music. For all I know, Rachmaninov is the Britney Spears of classical music (just with less crotch shots), but I think you all get my point.

Certainly the bottom line is the bottom line here. But, I think that they should be commended for offering up at least some sort of variety, even if it's mass-produced and, well, cheap. But, again, consider the audience. The most impressive thing, to me, is that they have at least a minimal education program in place and that they have a very liberal policy of allowing people to sample what they have. This is the first step in getting folks to think about the differences in different types of wines and figuring out what characteristics they like and should look for. Of course in this case, the characteristic they might like best is the added sugar to their yellow tail, but it's a start. Having said all that, it seems like a stretch to call these guys the wine persons of the year.

I've never set foot in an Olive Garden and have no intention to anytime soon. But, if the above is taken at face value, then color me impressed. Ok, maybe wine persons of the year is a little inappropriate, but I can set aside my snobbiness for a moment and actually appreciate what they are, or are claiming to, trying to do. Consider that the average OG customer probably doesn't know a pinot gris from a sauvignon blanc and judges the quality of a bottle of chianti by the weaving of the basket it comes in. OG's (claimed) program is trying to educate these folks and we should all appreciate this (claimed) attempt.

Not sure if it's still offerred, but I took a combined essential and advanced knife skills class from Frank Linn at Sur La Table. It was 3-4 hours long and cost, IIRC, around $100. The first half of the class dealt with how to hold a knife and how to cut veggies in various ways. This was worth the price of admission for me as I had always held a knife with my fingers along the 'spine' not grasping the end of the blade as one is supposed to. Anyway, we peeled potatos, peeled and segmented oranges and diced/chopped/brunoised various veggies. The second half of the class, we gutted and filets croakers and also carved roasted chickens. Mr. Linn also showed how to filet an entire pork loin. Mr. Linn was informative, but also fun and relaxed. He kept up a virtual stream of conciousness patter throughout the class which was always entertaining. I'd recommend the class to anyone who's never worked in a kitchen or taken a skills class before. It may be too basic for some folks, though. Bonus fact from the class: You can put plastic wrap in the oven up to 325 degrees before it melts. Who knew?

I broke a barstool in there last friday. So, umm, if you don't have a place to sit . . . my bad.

I accidentally lit the napkin in the bread basket on fire with the table candle the first week this place was open. The strange thing was our waiter said that this was the third time it had happened.

mmmmmmm, bum stew.

Awesome! Thanks. This gave me the kick in the ass to get a reservation for Friday. Fried rabbitAnything but the fried rabbit, here I come.

For the love of God, everyone must go to the Dreamery tonight for their awesome pepita, or pumpkin seed, custard. Unbelievably pumpkiny and delicious. Wish I could describe it better, but I can't. It is just awesome.

Baby steps, Jacques. My jacket with leather elbow patches is in the mail.

I hope this is thre right place for this . . . the PX and dive bar threads are here, so . . . Since growing a beard has failed to make me look like a completely pretentious asshole, I've started smoking cigars. With the weather getting brisker, I won't be able to smoke in my backyard. Can anyone suggest any good bars/restaurants that allow cigar smoking, preferably in DC (for the next few months anyway) or Northern Virginia?

Smoked four racks of spares in the weber bullet for the Redskins game yesterday. Rubbed 'em with BRITU rub about 1/2 to 3/4 before they went in the bullet. Lit the coals using Minion and put in four chunks of hickory and a large handfull of pecan wood chips. The temp stayed around 180-195 for most of the smoke, measure with a probe in a cork on the top grate. Every now and then I'd open the door and stir up the coals and the temp would jump to 210-230, but go back down to 195 or so in a few minutes. Still, I took them off after five hours and they were pretty tender, if not a taaaaad bit dry, soaked in my secret cooter sauce.

Not as much as cho . . . Never mind.

While I wouldn't call it the best, the burger I had there about six years ago was pretty good. IIRC, there was no drink minimum at lunch and the food prices were the same as any local lunch places. Thus, it was like a regular lunch with a few extra bucks thrown in for the, umm, talent. Apologies for answering this post sorta seriously. Perhaps this would be a good $20 tuesday?

You know Ann Coulter?!? Can you ask her what the deal is with the Adam's Apple?

I do the same thing, but I use a wine cork instead of a potato. I plan on retiring on the pennies I save using something I would have thrown out anyways instead of buying a potato. I bought a used weber bullet off of Craigslist this summer. So far, I've used it twice; once to do three racks of spareribs and once, this weekend, to do a 14# turkey. I think that the ribs took about five hours. I used the minion method and had no problem keeping the proper temp, with the vents 1/3 open, the entire time. I also used some mesquite chunks, but wouldn't do so in the future. The mesquite flavor was too overpowering. With the turkey, I used the standard method. I think that I was a little impatient waiting for all of my coals to get hot as the temp never got above 337, even with all vents fully open. Still, the turkey meat was absolutely fantastic. The skin, however, was rubbery and inedible, due to the lower temp in the cooker. I was aiming for 350, but it never happened. I brined the bird over night in a simple salt/brown sugar mixture and used pecan wood for smoke. The flavor, and juiciness, was awesome. xcanuck, you might try keeping all your vents open and unblocked when you pour the hot coals over the unlit ones. Also, make sure that all the coals in the starter are covered with gray ash before you transfer them to the cooker. Please let us know how your brisket turns out . . . I'm dying to cook one myself.

It works for cheese . . .

My parents use them as mulch. I keep them in a drawer until my wife yells at me to, "Throw those goddamn corks out!"

Jill, what kind of cheeses are you going to be using? Please say lambchopper . . . please say lambchopper. Thanks! Blaine

Thanks for the reply and welcome to the board, Neil. We serve your Cab Franc as our "house wine" and always try to bring a couple of bottles when we visit my parents in the bay area. I think that they enjoy pouring Virginia wines for their California wine country friends. The wife and I had a great time visiting the winery. Talking to Mr. Horton was a hoot.

Looking at my cellartracker, we got a bottle of the 2005 for 11.99 at Safeway back in June. I seem to recall that it was on sale. We also sent out to the winery in July and I'm pretty certain that they were pouring the 2005, but I'm not 100% sure. In any case, it's delicious! I've also found Horton's Cab Franc to be consistently excellent in the $10-$12 range. I think that their latest release is the 2000 vintage, but I find the 1999 mixed in pretty randomly at area grocery stores.