ol_ironstomach

Continuing the exploration of Park Slope, Gubeen and I had dinner last weekend at Blue Ribbon Sushi. Excellent, excellent sushi, including two types of aji (horse mackerel) and possibly the creamiest, fattiest pieces of salmon I've ever had in any form. Fresh wasabi, not powdered, is standard. The menu divides the sushi/sashimi items into Atlantic and Pacific categories, and a fair variety of sake is available. Service was relaxed, but precise. We watched three sushi chefs work quickly and efficiently as they assembled some beautiful presentations using whole fish, lots of shredded radish, scallop shells (shucked moments before) and not a piece of green plastic "grass" anywhere in sight. They were also quite particular about not using any less-desirable portions of flesh. Bottom line - there might only be one or two places in the DC area serving better sushi, and this was noticeably better than the rest. This is the expansion location; Blue Ribbon group also operates their original sushi restaurant in Manhattan, along with their other ventures.

Meh. It's just not right to ship them on a truck...they're only good fresh off the production line. And I really wish they'd ditch those awful fake crullers for a proper choux. ...says the guy who, at a charity function, bid-on and won a Krispy Kreme t-shirt, hat, coffee mug, toy truck, boxers, and donuts for a year...

It's not much past midnight, but Etete (U St corridor) is open until 1am. Now if only we had something open late here in MoCo that doesn't have "Diner" in the name...

Nearly 1/3 of this week's chat given over to a preview of next month's print contents?! Must have been a slow week for questions.

Nah, we eat continental-style...fork in left, knife in right. The other eight were possibly children (who get things cut for them) or possibly nerds, who carry their own folding knife at (almost) all times. Because you never know when you're gonna need a sharp edge. And because you can't do everything with a Taco Bell spork. Lefty, the Nerd

Now two of 'em, I think...one about 10 mins north, one somewhat farther south. I usually hit the north Sonic on the way to/from VIR in Danville.

Angst, because the splurge sinfully pleasurable pork belly is not splurge a lickety-split item, forcing the splurge diner to consider the question "to splurge splurge or not to splurge?" move along citizen, nothing subliminal going on here

Perhaps you're merely trying to maintain parity with the mustard and pepper/chili/hot sauce shelves!

Incidentally, Batali's father, who set Mario up in the cured-meat department in the first place, does produce guanciale at his salumeria in Seattle.

Favorite? Nothing, or perhaps a drizzle of olive oil. Make mine au poivre, please

I'm having equipment frustration today. After only having used my KitchenAid Artisan on soft mixtures, I gave Reinhart's pain a l'ancienne recipe a go last night. 325 watts bogged down pretty early with the mixing paddle, and much to my surprise it stalled hard and jammed barely a minute after I switched to the dough hook as directed. I finished the kneading by hand, and then set about to unjamming the KitchenAid. Should this have been enough power? Would a Kenwood/DeLonghi/Hamilton-Beach 700 or 800 watt mixer have breezed through this task?

Mmmmm. My +1 brought me an assortment of things from Minamoto a few weeks ago, and they were delightful, particularly the sakura mochi, a super-perishable and fragrant mochi made with cherry blossoms that tastes like springtime. The small fruit jellies set with agar-agar were also delicate and sweet, but redolent of summer and the joys of taking a cold crisp draught on a hot day. Really!

Tried that combo once, but found the Blenheim's to be too dry for Gosling's, at least for my tastes. But I like 'em more stormy than dark...gotta have mah sugah!

Expanding the offal envelope... Alan Richman combs NYC for...specialties. (wondering if I should reconsider ironstomachness...heh )

aka in the little strip mall behind On The Border, just a couple doors down from Yekta kebab. Darn curious Post map. No Yuan Fu (vegetarian Chinese). No Maxim (grocery).

Almost always available...for some reason, certain common items will mysteriously vanish for a week or two, only to return in spades afterwards. Take February for instance. I hit a half-dozen groceries and supermarkets one day, and despite plenty of other Frito-Lay products on the shelves, nobody had Fritos of any shape or size (thus thwarting my attempt to introduce people to the concept of Frito pie). One week later, they were abundant again. The locals assured me that this sort of thing happens all the time. Speaking of which, a little birdy tells me that Chef Krinn has (temporarily) cornered the US market on a particularly unusual game meat, and to watch his menu specials in a week or two. edit: ventworm!

If you're going on an all-dog diet for the duration of stickball season, I'd say Chef Donna will be seeing a lot more of you that way - possibly two or three pounds per week more.

Homemade dough is the way to go. It's not difficult, and requires little more than measuring ingredients if you're using your bread machine's dough cycle. The things you'll want to vary to suit your taste and pizza style are the hardness of the flour, the amount of salt, and whether or not to enrich the dough. Although traditional VPN pizza specifies a lean dough, I really prefer the results when I use a bit of olive oil in mine. Let the dough rest, covered or well-wrapped, in the fridge for a few hours to stun the yeast and let the gluten develop, or overnight if possible. I crank my ovens up as high as they'll go (550-ish) and as the others say, give the pizza stone a good heat soak of at least 30 minutes. A friend of mine turned me onto using coarse semolina instead of cornmeal to dust the peel. The easiest way to distribute an even layer on the peel is with a salt shaker. Express any excess water from high-water-content toppings such as mushrooms and fresh mozzarella. Or better yet, select relatively clean fresh mushrooms to begin with, and dry brush them. You can't really go too wrong. For instance, here's the ugliest personal pizza I've made yet...too much sauce, and this particular dough was left in the fridge too long and became a bit dry (note to self, buy a smaller peel): lunch 15 Nov 05: truffled ricotta and oregano

Possibly going off on a tangent here... I remember reading somewhere last year that one of the challenges facing DC as a foodie city was the scarcity of good supporting players. That is to say, while we have some remarkably talented chefs, the pool of good supporting line cooks and service personnel is disproportionately smaller than in a big foodie city. And I have to admit, when I wander into even a common luncheonette in NYC, I'm often struck by the hustle and efficiency of everybody working in the kitchen, in contrast to the perfunctory indifference I often see at a comparable lowbrow place in the DC area. I can't imagine these (training) conditions make it easy to promote people up to fine dining kitchens. Are we suffering from being, as Kennedy put it, a town of Northern charm and Southern efficiency? As someone who has never worked in the business, I look forward to reading what the insiders have to say.

One possible nominee for the pioneer in this arrangement is none other than...Walt Disney. Since 1967, his formerly-secret members-only Club 33 has operated adjacent to the public Blue Bayou restaurant (Pirates of the Caribbean) and shared its kitchen, but offered a completely different menu.

Possibly old news, but NPR is reporting this morning that 40 DC-area Food Lion locations will be converted upscale into Bloom stores, and 15 will go downscale to Bottom Dollar. Bloom is described as being positioned to compete with Harris Teeter. Still no commentary on which stores are being converted to which. Also, very old press release here.

Uh, yeah, whatever he said. Actually, AmEx Blue holders are no longer set...they've been phasing out the smartcard versions for the past year, replaced with proximity RFID cards instead. No PIN, no signature, just a wave over the box (all CVS stores, for instance).

El Patio, Rockville: chicken empanada, chorizo y morcilla, pizzetta, alfajores and espresso. The morcilla was delicious - fatty and rich, and about the size of a bratwurst. The pizzetta was just a tad underbaked however. Can't recommend the espresso either; not much crema, and too thin. Two-thirds of the dessert list is laden with dulce de leche, so bring your insulin

Sorry, brain fade. Uncured; use lard for the initial seasoning...I didn't mean to say that lard was "okay in a pinch". I believe traditionally, woks were cured with a chunk of pig fat. That said, it's the continuous use that maintains the pan. So cook, and eat.

I've read that it's predominantly Caol Ila and Ardmore. According to the nice folks at Astor, John Glaser rarely vats more than three malts together, and was attracting quite a crowd of other distillers at the most recent Whiskyfest NY.