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astrid

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Everything posted by astrid

  1. I don't know much about Yelp's business practice, but I do find it useful to get a sense of a restaurant. I can quickly scan through the reviews to get a sense of the place, ignore I'll-eat-anything folks and axe-grinder. The star system isn't anywhere near perfect, but generally speaking and if there is a critical mass of reviews, 4 star restaurants with lots of reviews will be good, 3+ stars restaurants might be very good or generically serviceable, less than 3 stars generally means there's some serious defect with the restaurant. Yelp generally gives me a better sense of a restaurant than reading restaurant critic reviews. It's like Amazon book reviews, you need to take the results with a bucket of salt, but it's far better than the alternative of no information at all. For better or worse, Yelp has become the key clearinghouse for ratings information. So I'm glad that someone is forcing them to be a bit more ethnical.
  2. I'm not saying that Bull Run customers are all unsatisfied, but based on what I read in this thread and elsewhere online, I would say a large portion of them were not satisfied, and worse yet, the poor experience may have caused them to give up on one of the best ways to get locally grown foods. I'm sorry that my comments may have came off as attacking your more positive experience. I'm glad to hear that you feel that you got good value from your share. However, I would say that people who want to try CSAs for the first time should stay away from Bull Run (even though they're among the cheapest and easiest CSA to get into), ask the farmer questions about how they process and pack their veggies, and consider splitting a share with a friend for the first year.
  3. Yes, definitely not my thing. From the other CSA, I got lovely recipes and useful reports. Leigh's emails just rambled on and on. I'm glad you made it work for you, but I really can't imagine how Bull Run would ever rank above a CSA that wash and bag their veggies, pick them at the right time, shelters their produce from the hot sun, and has twice as long of a tomato season.
  4. I don't think complaining would make any difference. Bull Run doesn't do farmer's markets, so what I got was everything they picked. Also, Bull Run has been around for a long time, so these are not rookie mistakes. They either couldn't get better or didn't care enough to do better. (Farmstead at Charlotte Hall actually does farmer's markets in addition to CSA shares, but I never thought I got castoffs from them.) I'm also afraid to complain to Leigh because I don't want to be on his bad side. Leigh's typical CSA share email might be 3/4 composed of a rant against a local bear. I suspect he has a nasty temper if he thinks you're against him (and I am). I think the reason why Leigh manages to get customers is that he's one of the few who deliver to the DuPont Circle area. I've tried for years to get onto the Claggett's Farm DuPont Circle CSA with no luck at all. Most Bull Run customers probably don't realize CSAs could and should be run much better than Bull Run. I think what aggrevates me the most about Bull Run is that it turned folks like Bookluvingbabe against CSA membership because of a bad experience with Leigh. If I hadn't tried Farmstead in addition to Bull Run, I would have given up too.
  5. I second the recommendation for Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient. It really helped me appreciate various animal fats and how I can use them in my kitchen. Cook's Illustrated's The New Best Recipes is also a good place for ideas and techniques. If you already have that, they also put out an annual compilation of new recipes.
  6. I tried Bull Run and Farmstead at Charlotte Hall last year (I committed to Bull Run early and then hedged when I heard bad things about them). Bull Run was a poor experience. Leigh, the owner, doesn't bag or wash his vegetables. Nor does he shade his picked veggies and they all bake in the late afternoon sun. This causes a lot of wilting in the summer and makes his greens largely inedible. He also tends to put off harvesting until his fruit and root veggies get really big, so you end up with woody eggplants and baseball bat zucchini. Other times, they're laughably inadequate, like the week when he offered 4 radishes per share. It's a shame that Leigh's veggies suck so much (and it's always one excuse after another for why his veggies suck, even though my other CSA and the local farmer's market had a great year) because he offers a convenient egg share and a nice fruit share. Leigh also grows a huge amount of pretty nice basil, so I was able to freeze a lot pesto last year. Overall, I'd advise everyone to stay away from Bull Run, it's the sort of CSA that turns people off of the CSA concept. Farmstead at Charlotte Hall was much better. They bagged and washed everything and I got a good mix every week. They manage their shares really well, I never got eggplants or summer squash twice in a row. Even for high summer tomatoes, they try to mix it up by offering grape tomatoes one week, beeksteaks the next, 6-ozers the week after. Everything I got was in pristine, farmer's market condition, picked right at the peak. I always got enough of a variety to make a dish or two. My only possible complaint about this CSA is that their selection is a bit too safe. The tomatoes seem to be well grown commercial hybrids (though pretty tasty) rather than heirlooms. Not too many herbs. No surprise veggies (say a bunch of dandelions greens or parsley roots). Overall, I liked what I got from Farmstead at Charlotte Hall. The farmer's markets around here are so expensive that their CSA was a relatively decent value (though it was pretty expensive at around $25 a week).
  7. I've been lurking in DR for a couple months, but a fantastic meal at the Ravenous Pig prompted me to post. I was in Orlando recently and tried both Seasons 52 and the Ravenous Pig. Seasons 52 was okay. TPR was on a completely different level, comparable to any meal I had in DC. I liked the flatbreads at Seasons 52 (they were almost as good as what I recently had at Willow) and liked the shotglass dessert options. The appetizers were a bit disappointing, decent but I'd say just a step above Bone Fish Grill. The entrees were serious disappointments. My dinner companion ordered crab stuffed shrimp and they tasted like cheap crabcakes. I ordered a duck and romaine lettuce salad, the first dozen bites were good but then the overly sweet dressing (seasoned with Splenda to keep under the 475 calorie?) became really cloying. The service was good. The atmosphere was very nice, with comfy seating and somewhat Balinese decor. The food at Ravenous Pig was much better. What amazed me was the quantity and quality of the food we got for our money. All the dishes were intriguing to read about, looked great, were generously portioned, and tasted delicious. They were really consistent. All hits, not misses (except for the "interesting" bacon flavored old fashion that I ordered, but that was my fault). Standouts for me were the Guyere biscuits (as fluffy and buttery as any southern biscuit, with veins of Guyere), the truffled fries (a beer glass full of shoestring fries smelling like heaven), the shrimp & grits, and the grilled octopus. We ordered so much appetizers that we didn't have any room for entrees or desserts, but they looked very good as well. The service was attentive and friendly, even though the restaurant was jammed pack. I would highly recommend reservations for both places. Otherwise you might be looking at hour+ wait to be seated.
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