ol_ironstomach

I decided to seek out some magnification for this event, and picked up a pair of Lunt Sunoculars earlier this year. These are a fairly normal set of ruggedized 8x32 roof prism binocs, but with a glass solar filter installed internally, from a company that specializes in solar telescopes and observation instruments. If you do choose to splurge on what is, after all, a single-purpose piece of equipment, (or if you're looking to add a filter to your existing fancy optics, or if you're going whole-hog and taking the plunge on hydrogen alpha equipment) then I would encourage you NOT to buy these things online, but instead to drive out to Laurel and patronize the fine folks of Company 7. A longtime fixture among local astronomers, Company 7 is one of the last of a vanishing breed of specialty shops that actually possess genuine expertise *and routinely use it with conviction*.

For a two-hour sous vide with butter and balsamico, to heck with peeling or scrubbing with a brush...a piece of ScotchBrite worked great.

A tale of whisks. On the left, a stainless wire balloon whisk from a retail housewares store. Had it for ages. Eight wires. Probably slightly more expensive than either of the other two. In the center, a generic stainless whisk from a restaurant supply warehouse. Twelve stiffer wires. Night-and-day...this sucker gets things WHISKED. Lacks a hanging loop. On the right, a medium-sized stainless whisk from a French supermarket chain. Eight stiffer wires, same number as the much larger whisk, but working a much smaller volume. Caveat: where the tines meet the handle, there is no conformal sealant as on the other two. Don't know if sealing is an NSF thing, but it would seem like a good idea for sanitation reasons. The diameter of the handle is somewhat proportional to the number of wires that can be anchored, so svelte means you won't be getting much whisking action. Conclusion: skip the fancy stores and go straight to where the professionals get their working tools. I should probably chuck the first whisk into the metal recycling pile.

<3 The Onion.

When life gives you most of a can of Coco Lopez, nuke some mochi blocks.

Do yourself a favor and never, ever watch the extended Director's Cut. It will crush too many things that one holds dear about this film, or that were better left to the imagination - and indeed that the viewer was pushed to imagine by the awkward edits of the original US release. Remember that sense of unforgivable betrayal when you first watched _Highlander II_? Or the midichlorian scene in _The Phantom Menace_? Same.

Yes, I snoozed through the mid-February announcement of restaurant and chef semi-finalists, but behold: the media and design nominees, as well as the restaurant and chef finalists!

When I finally ran down a few pints last year, I didn't think it lived up to its advance billing. The high protein content was supposed to boost mouthfeel, but I'd describe it as adding weight but not creaminess. If your normal ice cream is a big brand like Breyers, Turkey Hill, Blue Bunny, something like that, Halo Top may seem like a fair replacement. If you're accustomed to dense superpremium (high milkfat) ice creams, or gelato (low milkfat, but minimal overrun), it's not even close. IMHO. (Elsewhere this week I saw a photo of a scoop of Chesapeake Wild Berry Ripple, and felt a longing for an overdue visit to the UMCP Turner Lab scoop shop...)

Since Don answered, I guess I no longer have to toss out a snarky guess of "DC medical examiner's office".

Mezcal is, IMHO, an incredible tradition whose image has been crippled for decades by the misunderstandings of just plain cultural distance. It is a wild thing, made in small batches in remote locations often using pre-industrial equipment, and anchored in American minds by inappropriate references to other more commercially-mature agave spirits. Random mezcal is a game of low-proof Russian roulette. Well-selected mezcal is everything you felt when you first discovered a world of single malts after growing up with blended Scotch, except that the Technicolor of mezcal and its esters, drawn from dozens of species of agave with completely different growth and maturation habits, makes single malt seem sepia-toned by comparison. As with Scotch, it isn't all super smoky...but unlike Scotch, the geographical traditions aren't as easy to suss out. You can't just pick "Speyside instead of Islay" with mezcal. And yet right now, thanks to growing awareness of its desirability, traditional mezcal is under threat of house-style industrialization by large commercial interests, mainly the large tequila conglomerates. And worse, as measures have been introduced to use government regulation to hijack the name and prohibit its traditional use. This is the brief golden age of mezcal, its availability here on the rise, and before it's completely ruined. This is the moment American whiskey enthusiasts enjoyed 12-15 years ago before Wall Street moved in. I probably would have missed it too, if not for our own Jake Parrott. When you order mezcal at a bar, ask to read the label, and do read it closely. Note the style, note the name of the mezcalero, note the village where it was made, note the agave(s) used, note the method and materials of distillation, note the dates. Espita's flights are a good starting point, if expensive. Maybe like gubeen, you will decide that you have a fondness for youthful joven mezcals made from the madre cuixe agave. But to capture the moment, you're probably going to have to go to Oaxaca, to a bar like In Situ, where you have a chance of buying a bottle from the exact same small batch that you tasted. No other will taste exactly the same. IMHO.

In addition to their usual nice fresh produce, Almaala Farms (Union Market, DC) carries imported braids of ail fumé d'Arleux (Arleux smoked garlic) near the register, conserved through a 400-year-old northern French tradition of smoking over peat.

How I miss Tony Chittum's work; our return to Vermilion this weekend was disappointing. Hushpuppies were heavy and sodden with oil. Brunch mains were astonishingly scanty on the featured proteins, none more so than the "crispy chicken and grits" ($14), which gets you maybe a half dozen popcorn sized (!) nuggets that appeared to have been beer battered, along with the grits and two eggs. Mine was the lowest-cost entree chosen and I'm not expecting a place to fill you up in this neighborhood at these prices, but only one person in our party ended up with a plate that seemed commensurate with its description.

Possibly it's been this way for some time, but I just noticed that the Lotte near me now stocks both the 3-year and 6-year aged premium versions of Zhenjiang black vinegar (made by Jiangsu Hengshun) in addition to the common yellow-label variety; presumably all of their locations would carry it.

Caldwell crashes car after attending MGM National Harbor Casino grand opening last night, refuses breathalyzer, fails field sobriety test anyway. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/head-of-liquor-commission-charged-with-dui-near-mgm-casino/2016/12/09/d1d0d0ac-be34-11e6-91ee-1adddfe36cbe_story.html?utm_term=.52ac9c514ca8

The RW Restaurant Group has now converted Boulevard Tavern into a second location of Tommy Joe's (Bethesda). More here.

Pedestrian, 80 proof, 3-year-old, white-label Pikesville Rye is being discontinued; only the recently-released premium version will remain. Although the contents weren't that special, it marks the end of the traditional label style, which was adapted from the old Pikesville Maryland Rye design.

Update: after a seemingly brief and strange period of signage as "Adam'z Pizza", including some realty signs offering the site, there was some interior work going on this weekend, while the sign out front has changed to "Taste of New Orleans". Curious. I did find a recent job ad of theirs on Craigslist.

RIP, Chef. DC restaurantgoers are forever in your debt for graciously keeping the bar high, and especially for your playful emphasis on textures. Thank you for so many moments.

Amazon has the Cuisinart Custom 14 food processor (DFP-14BCNY) in the brushed stainless finish for $156. It's about $200 everywhere else. This is the large (14 cup) version of Cuisinart's traditional paddle-switch layout, and perennial winner of thesweethome's food processor comparo (caveat the enormous Breville Sous-Chef, which does everything but costs more than twice as much).

On an aside, the story that nobody cares to ask, yet is most relevant to this site: in which pizzeria in ORD was the Brexit referendum born? "Brexit was Born in a Crappy Chicago O'Hare Pizzeria. But Which One?" by Osita Nwanevu on slate.com tl;dr answer: likely the Uno's in Terminal 3.

This Saturday on the grounds of City Hall in old town Gaithersburg, the Gaithersburg Book Festival. Of particular interest to the food-obsessed: Patrick O'Connell speaks 12:15-1:05, followed by book signing. John Shields (the Chesapeake Bay chef, not the former Town House chef) speaks 1:15-2:05, followed by book signing. "Eric Ripert In Conversation With Bryan Voltaggio" is at 2:15-3:05, followed by book signing. More info here.

I must have missed the news that the FDA red listed Tiparos in May 2014 after the manufacturer, Tang Sang Hah Ltd., failed to respond to a warning letter after violations were found during an inspection. They are still listed in the current relevant FDA Import Alert. Frankly, it's hard to see the manufacturer choosing to alter their production methods to satisfy the FDA. So long, Tiparos...I guess we'll have to make do with our remaining stash. If you're not up for reading FDA CFSANese, here's a recap from an online sauce vendor.

Pedestrians along Takoma Park's Carroll Avenue can enjoy a bit of public art that would be hard to notice from a passing car: for some six or seven hundred feet between Columbia Ave and the firehouse, the sidewalk on the south side has a decorative border of thousands of colored tiles of various shapes and sizes, pieced together in various seemingly nonrepeating patterns, as if someone has transplanted a two-dimensional ribbon of pebble beach into the urban landscape. This is the work of Silver Spring's Adriana Baler, an art professor at Montgomery College and also at the Corcoran, whose other work includes ceramic wall collages, the Escher-esque solid-surface Peeps tiles in the flagship Peeps store at National Harbor, and the faceted chocolate molds at Fiola Mare. Baler's design was selected in 2005 by the city's Arts and Humanities Commission from a field of twelve proposals for the "Carroll Avenue Sidewalk Public Art Project". [artist's signature at "left end" of the artwork, near the firehouse]

These reports of inconsistency are kind of unexpected to me, because we thought the Gaithersburg location did a surprisingly good job across the board when we went yesterday for dinner. Gubeen's burger was as rare as she had requested, and the fries were good too. I opted for the CFS, which was hot and crunchy beneath the gravy, and even the vegetable of the day (a savory roasted dice of sweet potatoes with onions, a bit of garlic, and fresh sage) was a pleasant surprise. Really, the weakest links were the somewhat flat and overwhipped-into-butter cream layer atop the banana cream pie, and the squeeze-bottle consistency of the mayo we requested to go with the fries. I'd previously only been to the original location, and then only really for the milkshakes and pop tarts. The "cleaned up" chain version feels a bit more spartan, yet it's still ahead of a lot of vernacular suburban comfort food options. It's no fancy fine dining destination, but I dug the retro decor, the 1950s TV reruns, and it was an excellent value...barely more expensive than the usual forgettable nationwide instantiations of "the restaurant". I'd totally take our non-foodie houseguests to Ted's Bulletin, particularly ones with kids.

I think that Riedel Somms were the most fragile glasses I'd ever held, but just try drinking from Zalto Denk'art. They're actually tougher than the Riedels - indeed Zalto claims they're dishwasher safe - but the stems are so slender, you wonder if they'll snap just from lifting the weight of the bowl. Otherwise, the phrase of the day is "retronasal olfaction".