ol_ironstomach

Gubeen and I have been meaning to put together a piece on our not-quite-week in Montreal last month...I spent nearly the whole time in my capacity at the Grand Prix, and she spent an equivalent amount of time exploring the food scene across the Plateau and Centre-Ville. First, the Metro is compact, convenient, and indispensible. A three-day tourist pass runs something like CDN$17 and gets you unlimited rides...just display it to the station attendant. Note that some Metro stations have multiple entrances, of which one will always be staffed but the others may be automated and cannot be entered with a pass. Au Pied de Cochon also came very highly recommended, but something got botched in our reservation so we were unable to partake. We did have two lovely dinners at Au Cinquième Péché, a bistro on Mont-Royal towards the top of the remarkable restaurant district. Their carrot soup, served just warm, was quite refreshing amid the hot June weather, and probably gave me the respite I needed before attacking the veal sweetbreads one night, and the duck confit baked in clay the other. Save room for dessert; they make a gorgeous chocolate "bar" on a crispy flaky base, served with a sweet pepper granita. I think the Plateau Mont-Royal makes for a much more interesting wander than in Centre-Ville. If you wander down either Rue St Denis or Boulevard St Laurent, you'll encounter wall-to-wall restaurants for the better part of 1.5 miles, from a remarkable variety of cultures. Between the two are a surprising number of Brazilian and Turkish shops. Also, despite the concentration of tourist traps, Old Montreal is worth walking through, for both admiring the old architecture (especially the mansard roofs) and noodling around in the smaller boutiques. Definitely, definitely take a short subway hop (and walk two blocks north) up to the Marché Jean-Talon early in your trip; it's row-after-row of outdoor produce vendors with a scattering of maple sugar items, conserves, and cheeses throw in for good measure. One of the permanent storefronts houses Qui Lait Cru, a fromagère who specializes in local Quebec cheeses, and especially in the raw-milk varieties. In the mornings, they also carry fresh breads from Boulangerie Le Fromentier (1375 Ave Laurier Est), the bakery mentioned in Gourmet's Montreal issue last winter as making possibly the best breads they've had anywhere. However, Qui Lait Cru is not an affineur...all of their cheeses are fresh from the cheesemaker's cave. If you want something with a bit of proper aging to it, you'll have to venture into one of the French neighborhoods to find the Fromentier bakery itself, on Avenue Laurier about a dozen blocks east of Rue St. Denis. Look for the wrought iron arch over the alley on your left. In the same space are three vendors: Fromentier takes the lion's share of the space, there's a cheesemonger and maître affineur across the aisle, and in the corner is an even smaller counter selling cured meats, terrines, patés and head cheeses. Somewhere not far from that location is a shop that sells only poutine...15 or 20 variations of it. Gubeen will have to tell you more; she was directed there by both the cheesemonger and several little old ladies waiting in line. She'll also have to be the one to give you directions to the shop that sold only mushrooms of all - well, almost all - varieties, and so on. Of course, there's Schwartz's. You'll enjoy it more if you go with a relaxed attitude and a willingness to chat with the people sitting right next to you...the tables are abutted cafeteria-style. They'll give you your choice of lean, medium, or fat when you order your smoked meat. Medium is like what most people think a good pastrami should resemble (except that smoked meat is NOT pastrami, but resembles pastrami minus the pepper), but fat is gorgeous and reminiscent of the ridiculous pastrami sandwiches I used to wolf down at Elsie's in Cambridge. Soda-hounds like myself will enjoy the fact that the bottlers of Montreal use real sugar. It all tastes better, especially the Dr. Pepper Mr. P might object, but I would highly recommend a leisurely visit to the Jardin Botanique adjacent to the Olympic stadium complex. Their rose collection is incredible, there's a garden dedicated to poisonous ornamental plants, and I seem to recall a very calming Japanese garden as well (which I didn't get to visit on this trip).

Perhaps somebody has already answered this question, but does this recent law have any provisions for accommodating Stel-Vin closures?

Quick takes: It was Gubeen's birthday last week, so we headed off to Mas (farmhouse) at 39 Downing St. (west village). Tasting menu ran about $68 each for three courses plus dessert. My main (Flying Pig pork loins, over polenta etc) was tender and delicious, but paled in comparison to the two remarkable courses preceding it. First up were pieces of thinly pounded wahoo given a sort-of ceviche treatment, and topped with just a dab of American caviar. Eaten more like a carpaccio than a ceviche, the wahoo was meltingly soft, but fortified with the bite of the lime juice and cilantro. I could have killed a couple plates of this alone and been satisfied. Second up was a single, large divers scallop, well-seared, then placed in a bowl of an intense corn soup, with some peas and other nominal vegetables. The scallop was delicious in its own right, but the corn soup was like the proverbial bowlful of summer...that summer you imagine in a Winslow Homer painting, not the summer where your dad has entrapped you in the back of a station wagon for the length of I-95 to Orlando. For dessert, I selected the molten chocolate cake, served with a scoop of housemade vanilla ice cream. Well-executed, with a dark, bittersweet sauciness to the molten cake that avoided the usual batter appearance, but I think I was too full to really get into my dessert. Still, two good courses, and two outstanding courses. Service was excellent (except that they refold napkins ) and inobtrusive; servers coordinated to present each course to both of us simultaneously, flatware was continually replaced with surprising ease on a precarious-looking little flatware rest at each setting. Joe's of Bleecker Street Pizza at Carroll St. and 7th Ave. (Park Slope). Apparently this place was famous once. What for, I don't know...possibly for feeding tourists. After being chased out of their original location by skyrocketing rents, they've reestablished a foothold in Brooklyn. They fared well a couple years ago in a Slice NYC comparo, but I found their pizza to be lackluster and pedestrian. Meh. Lunch Friday at db Bistro Moderne at 55 West 44th St. (midtown). We had actually made reservations for Restaurant Week, but decided to order off the regular lunch menu after all. First up was a refreshing and thick gazpacho, strong with tomato, cucumber and basil flavors, a sheen of olive oil, and only a very mild spicyness. Perfect, really, for the kind of sweltering weather earlier this week. It was served with a good-sized dollop of smashed Haas avocado in the center, and bits of basil floating on top. I'd swear he's actually using the tiny blossomy tops of basil that has bolted...in any case it was brilliant, and captured that smell on your hand when pinching back basil plants, unlike the more conventional smell you get with microbasil. Unable to resist, I ordered the infamous $29 hamburger. At least, he calls it a hamburger, but what you get is a ridiculously thick patty (formed to approximately the shape and size of a filet mignon) whose center has been stuffed with braised shortrib meat, a small chunk of foie gras, and black truffle slices. It's served on a parmesan roll that's been spread with a smear of tomato sauce and dressed with frisée, and with a side of frites. Before any of this comes out, they set out a small tray with three small porcelain bowls of condiments: Heinz ketchup, Maille dijon mustard, and a fresh mayonnaise. The burger, I am happy to report, was cooked exactly as requested, and was thoroughly delicious, if a bit precious. Try it once in your life. Also worth noting, db's bread baskets contain some very good rolls, but also slices of the best olive bread I've ever tasted. It has a thin yet substantial crust, around a very soft and moist crumb with flavorful dark olive pieces. I wish he'd sell these loaves to take home. Shake Shack in the corner of Madison Square Park at 23rd and Madison Ave., is Danny Meyer's tribute to the hamburger stand. And what a tribute. They serve burgers, dogs, shakes, sodas, and frozen custard. You stand in one line to order, then move around to the other side to wait for the grill to catch up. The burgers (about $6 for a double Shackburger) were excellent - each patty is a quarter-pound, loosely formed to keep the juice inside, with a good bit of char for a flat-grill operation. Seasoning was a tad on the salt-heavy side, although part of that was attributable to the American cheese on mine. The buns are your typical squashed potato roll-type, flavorful and just sturdy enough to survive the juicy meat. Definitely order the fries. They may look like ordinary Ore-Ida krinkle cut fries, but they seem to have been properly double-fried, with a good crisp exterior and a well-cooked interior, and a good shake of salt. Better, in my opinion, than the db Bistro fries. My strawberry shake was very good, although with a frozen custard base it melts more evenly but is also clingier on the palate than if it were made with a non-custard ice cream. Not involving an actual meal: the Cooper-Hewitt Museum (admission is charged, but free to Smithsonian Associates) is currently running an interesting exhibition of dining utensils from 1500AD to the present. There are many glaring omissions (no sporks or runcible spoons, no barware, no straws, none of Martin Kastner's precious toys from Alinea, only a glimpse of the height of Victorian extravagance, little attention paid to non-European cultures) but what IS on display is fascinating. Seventeenth century traveling sets, ice cream saws, and a dinner ledger written by George I that includes a half-dozen varieties of game plus ortolans...it'll make you wish for a bigger silverware drawer. That's enough for now. I'd better get some exercise in tomorrow, or I'm going to need to book two seats for the ride home.

Salad of romaine lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, nicoise olives, basil and bleu cheese, dressed with a Rozendal vinaigrette Cheeses: Rassembleu (lait cru, biologique), Ste. Martine (lait cru brie), with a baguette Avondale CS Rosé

Thanks for posting that link; I hadn't checked on its seasonality. April and May (sometimes late March), so perhaps next year.

Reminded of a comment that Don made in a recent beverage article, has anyone found the much-anticipated Alphonso mangoes yet?

It's actually challenging to sample a cross-section of their menu when you know beforehand that two of your small plates will be dedicated to the croquetas and the patatas bravas. Need bigger stomach. I haven't had paella in Jumilla yet, but easily half of the paellas I've ever eaten were prepared by my friend and former boss, a slightly mad Catalan math professor. Every last one was cooked over fire, and I don't think we ever took less than 90 minutes from warming the pan to squeezing the last lemon when the shrimp on top were just barely done. Some of that is probably my fault, because I'm kind of slow at cleaning whole squid. I would say that the Bethesda Jaleo's was passable but not remarkable, and nowhere as good as what the Taberna del Alabardero used to turn out under Zubikarai, partly because I prefer paella with more of a seafood emphasis than a meat emphasis.

Some of these questions have already been answered in the various news clippings linked to both here and on Agraria's website. Among their stated reasons for being, the two that stand out in my mind are the emphasis on using only small-producer suppliers, and the elimination of several layers of middlemen who would otherwise aggregate, warehouse and transport ingredients. I believe the theory is that the diner will benefit from fresher, superior-quality ingredients, and the farmer benefits by taking home a higher percentage of the final fine dining revenues. Whether this model actually works remains to be seen. I know we shouldn't judge a work-in-progress based on unreleased fragments, but speaking to didacticism, the preview menu we saw prior to the restaurant's opening was surprisingly devoid of references to the small-producer origins of the ingredients. I really expected to find a dreary, heavily trademarked, over-detailed explanation of the ingredients in each dish, but it simply wasn't there. One item, the chicken, had a brand name without further explanation. Nothing screamed "made in North Dakota", not even the red meats! It seems to me that to serve as a vehicle for their message, it has to be communicated on the menu that this is something special that cannot be duplicated with factory foods, but without over-commercializing the message. Moreover, the entire concept is utterly dependent on a kitchen and menu that are able to express the finest attributes of these ingredients. Touting the food's origins and then presenting a ho-hum dish would be counter-productive, so Chef Moore has quite a task set before him, and I'm eager to see what he comes up with. I don't know whether the subtlety of the prototype menu was due to incompleteness, an intentional soft-pedal of the message, a lack of confidence in the original menu, or some other reason. But like Anna, I am curious to hear how Agraria plans to tell their small-producer story to the typical diner wandering in from the Georgetown waterfront, if in fact they do.

Botanically, the banana "tree" is actually a giant herb...a pseudo-trunk and flowering spike that dies off periodically and is regenerated by the underground portion of the plant. Contrast with true woody plants, which grow permanent above-ground structures. The edible banana itself is clearly a fruit, albeit a mutant, sterile one (like the navel orange) which has been dependent on human propagation for some 6000-7000 years. The black streak you see in cross-section when you slice the fruit is all that remains of its seed. Wild bananas apparently have quite large seeds and relatively little flesh. The answer to Meaghan's question is of course One Happy Herb.

Consistent, yes, but middling? I think you might be confusing restaurant reviewer stars with ratings of the on-a-scale-from-zero-to-ten-with-zero-being-poor-and-ten-being-excellent variety. Most reviewers, as far as I can tell, use stars approximately the same way your first grade teacher might have used stars. Do well, get a star. Do exceptionally well, get a gold star. Etc etc. On a four-star system, a rating of two stars does not mark the halfway point between epiphanous and inedible. Do so-so...that's a bit trickier. Michelin simply ignores the existence of such restaurants. A zero star rating in a newspaper, however, might mean anything from "meh" to "avoid like the plague", depending on the reviewer. I blame professional food critics everywhere, and Michelin in particular, for using an information design that is short on intuitive context and is easily misinterpreted. I wonder if Edward Tufte has ever suggested an better alternative...

Late Lickety Split at Eve? I'll be getting there probably around 1:15.

Oh hey, it's the 17th! And I need lunch. Any updates on Eamonn's, or should I plan on having another Lickety Split?

Fair enough, although it wasn't the vile garden-variety Triple Sec. Luxardo Triplum is regarded by many to be the equal of Cointreau for considerably less money. It's certainly nothing like the usual Bols or DeKuypers. YMMV.

On a minor tangent, I usually only see dry/powdered nonfat milk in the grocery store. However, you can find powdered whole milk in most Indian markets. FYI. It does have a shorter shelf-life, on account of the fat.

Sweet mercy, somebody take a video camera when you go, and capture this frozen dairy tongue-lashing for posterity, willya?!

As promised (or threatened?) I conducted part II of the experiment today, and mixed one with triple sec instead of maraschino. Still tasty, but without the maraschino the orange flavor was considerably more concentrated, and I think I prefer the first version better. FWIW, the Carpano was obtained out-of-town, in Brooklyn.

Based on my very limited sample size, I have yet to find something actually good in a domestic airport, with one memorable exception. There's a little diner in the terminal at Sitka, Alaska, that serves up some terrific pies. I love to sample the pies at most established diners and greasy spoons, but the ones at Sitka were really, really good, especially their banana cream. The pubs at Heathrow are actually fairly tasty if you like English food (which I do). The kitchens can be quite slow however, so don't expect to eat in a hurry. I also seem to recall an interesting pan-cultural set of lunch counters on the upper level of Rome's Fiumicino airport, where I ended up choosing a panini anyway. Not precisely in the spirit of this thread, lunch expeditions to local general aviation airports have yielded some interesting meals. There's the gourmet Citgo behind Bay Bridge airport, worth a visit if you're on Kent Island and not looking for crabs. There's the unreliable-but-occasionally-good 94th Aero Squadron behind College Park airport. I'm told that the restaurant at Frederick airport cooks up a great burger, but I've never had the pleasure. SIT LHR FCO

Steve, thank you for sharing. Your timing couldn't have been better. Inspired by the agrarian Brothers Brown, I just happened to have recently acquired bottles of Carpano Antico Vermouth, Luxardo Maraschino, and Regan's #6 Orange Bitters. Mixed with Bombay Sapphire in the proportions you suggested about 5 minutes ago, the resulting cocktail is a beautiful dark honey color with long legs and a nose-filling sweet, orangey, faintly bitter aroma. And just a wee spicy bite. Tis a thing of seductive beauty. I'd do the comparison back-to-back with the Luxardo Triplum Orange liqueur right now, but there'd be no point; this one is gonna kick my lightweight butt. Tomorrow..I'll mix it the othre way tmorrow Note to self...buy some interesting gin next week.

The question I really intended to ask was if anyone had an opinion on the Schmankerl Stube in Hagerstown, and in particular their schweinshaxen...I get to craving this stuff periodically, but haven't had a good one outside of Bavaria yet. Likewise, what's the take on The Bavarian Inn in Shepherdstown? Where else do you go for good German (or in a pinch, Austrian) food near DC? I've hit Old Europe, Cafe Mozart, Cafe Tirolo...all good in their own way, but not quite what I was hoping for. I've heard very good things about The Bavarian Chef, way down Rt 29 towards Charlottesville. And then there was the now-defunct Wurzburg Haus. Ve need...informaaation!

I hadn't noticed the ad with their coupon before, but there it was in the WaPo today, good through September 13. Any appetizer, any entree, any dessert, but $10 supplement applies to lamb, beef and foie gras. Also printable from their website.

Well, we'll continue to disagree on this point. I still eat happily at both. FQC is a close relative of LE, and foodwise I often find the fried items to be a tiny bit better at FQC. Against this, I have to balance the complete absence of my beloved veggie Creole, and the fact that the staff at LE are soooooo much nicer. I would compare them to the relationship between Pasta Plus in Laurel and the now-defunct Mare e Monti in Bowie. DanielK, bringing Sichuan into the spicyness conversation is as perfectly appropriate as if you had invoked hot bowls of chili. There are many different avenues of hotness, and simply tossing in more habanero is one of the least useful if you actually want flavor! (says the guy who used to sit around campfires chewing on dried habanero flakes with his buddies...don't even ask about my hot-sauce-and-pepper shelf)

I had actually written a comment about this but deleted it when I decided to focus on Gaithersburg. But since the topic has come up anyway, I'll volunteer that based on several "I'll give them another chance" visits over the past two years, I am still mystified as to why Agrodolce is held in high regard. The space is yuppified (for a new strip mall overlooking 355) and the menu is fancy, but my entrees were merely okay, and the pasta was very disappointing...both overcooked and boringly sauced every time. Bzzzzzzt. Thanks for the additional wing sauce info, DanielK. I'm an ordinary Frank's Red Hot + butter kinda guy myself, but what's the preferred method for taking a wing sauce to atomic spicyness?

It was probably my Madras Palace comment in the Strip Malls thread. Not bad at all. Like Chris, I too have found Tandoori Nights to be hit-or-miss, and for the price I'd expect better. Dogfish Head's food has been rather mundane on my visits, even though their beer is stupendously good. The entrees aren't appreciably better than TGIF or Ruby Tuesday or any other variant of "the restaurant". Their fried calamari appetizer is good, although you have to be adaptable to the slight sourness of the veggies bits in there. There is no good bread in Gaithersburg. Sorry. Just sticking to Gaithersburg, a few other suggestions come to mind: To the north, Negril, on 355 a little north of Costco and King VW, serves up a pretty good variety of Jamaican food. They don't seem to be as consistent as Caribbean Feast down in Rockville, but on a good day they're really, really good. Some of the best spicy beef pattys around. For lunch, don't forget the row of taco trucks lining the street directly across from the Gaithersburg MVA parking lot. Skip the carnitas and go for the adobo or the lengua. In Old Town Gaithersburg, apart from quirky and lovable Roy's Place (which I'd go to for decent mainstream pints on draft, even moreso than for the legendary sandwich selection), there's a great hole-in-the-wall West African place called Rainbow, directly across from the historic train station. I forget if the owners are Senegalese or Ghanian, but they make some deliciously mean pepper stews, and several starch options beyond the obligatory fu-fu. There's New Fortune off 355 just north of Shady Grove, with some of the DC area's best dim sum. Along Shady Grove Rd, Pho Nam is a worthy alternative to standard-bearer Pho 75. Way off to the east heading towards the MoCo Airpark, surprisingly good Buffalo wings at Buffalo Wings and Beer on Snouffer School Rd. I've also enjoyed the Salvadorean food at Acajutla, which used to have the good graces to present itself as principally Salvadorean. Two doors down is The Nibbler, a long time Cheap Eats denizen that I've always found a bit puzzling, if tasty. You have good-but-not-superlative kebab options all around. Caspian has a new-ish location in the Kentlands in addition to the 355/Germantown one, and is on a par with Moby Dick. There was also pretty good Indian kebab place, Skewers House of Kababs out in Traville Center, although it's been a while since I was there.

Time to update my opinion. Recent visits to Madras Palace have been increasingly impressive; the dosas have been consistently excellent, but the supporting items have come up a notch. The sambar was particularly good today - spicy, appropriately thick, and flavorful. We were among the very few non-Indians in the mostly-full dining room. Now that Woodlands Gaithersburg has flown the coop, this may be the best South Indian option in central MoCo, and it remains absurdly inexpensive.

You obviously haven't seen very many episodes of Iron Chef. That poor, poor PacoJet machine. And I don't think that there's any part of any plant or animal that Michiba wouldn't have used. Still, at some level I agree with you, and this remains one of my main gripes of the US version - that the theme ingredients are often hopelessly unremarkable.