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weezy

Farmers Markets Forum Host
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Everything posted by weezy

  1. I've been buying tableware for our wedding reception and got a huge lot of stemmed glasses from an embassy, their public hospitality glassware that was being replaced (probably 5-6 oz. bowls), and among the lot was a group of larger 25 Zweisel Glas stems (new old stock -- half still have tags on them), not particularly elegant pieces, but still nice. I would consider them more likely barware wine glasses, but I can't find an exact match online. Since I'm using the smaller wine glasses for the reception, these are just using up valuable space. I'll sell the whole group for $50. I've attached a picture of a very similar stem. My glasses have a faceted stem. PM me if you're interested.
  2. There was a fire in Annandale on Sunday morning that took out To Sok Jip and Bonchon Annandale, as well as a hair salon and another business (maybe a sushi place? I wasn't familiar with it, a storefront just east of To Sok Jip). At any rate, driving by today, To Sok Jip at least looks irreparable, unsure about Bonchon. Not a lot of information on the cause, but perhaps a gas line issue in the hair salon. Fire alarms did not sound from the buildings, a passerby saw smoke and called it in, and the FD is maybe a block away. https://www.dcnewsnow.com/news/local-news/virginia/fairfax-county/community-mourns-loss-of-businesses-destroyed-in-shopping-center-fire/
  3. I haven't been active here for quite awhile, but I've been busy being in love. We're getting married next fall, and I came here and saw nothing recent at all for caterers. So, we've picked a venue in Arlington that has the rooms, tables & chairs and a catering kitchen, but that's it. We will need someone who can bring all the silverware, china, linens, glassware, etc. Beer & wine, no liquor. Finger foods followed by a dinner... buffet? plated? Unsure. Thinking there will be 100-120 guests. Wedding style will be on the simple side, budget is on the lower end, hoping to be a little more elevated than BBQ & beans. Any recent experiences to recommend? To avoid? Thanks for any aid & direction you can give.
  4. Hockey's second season has started. Playoff hockey is very different from the regular season game. Caps come into the playoffs the underdogs of division, playing the League points leader. But FL Panthers are built to earn points -- speedy and score on the rush -- and are not built for the heavy, tight, slower game that is playoff hockey. Caps are built for playoff hockey and it really showed last night. Of course, it will be a battle, but and the Caps are one of the 2 oldest teams in the League, so we'll see if age and treachery really can overcome youth & beauty in this series. On a happy note, if we do get through Round 1, the Rangers and Pens look to be very evenly matched -- went to triple overtime in their game last night -- so let them grind each other down before we have to face either one.
  5. Big meeting at the office this morning, I had heard good things about Chewish Deli, so I pre-ordered an assorted half dozen (you can get them sliced or unsliced) and some plain cream cheese. I'm no expert on bagels, but the half of the asiago bagel that I had was very good. Tender, somewhat dense interior, chewy but not rubbery crust. Cream cheese was whipped but not airy, so a good schmear that didn't tear up the bagel. Plus, they have an assortment of flavors of cream cheese, lox, whitefish salad, and make bagel sandwiches for breakfast and lunch. https://chewishdeli.com/ Open 8-1 Weds - Sunday. I'll be back. Also, they are next door to MAS Seafood, where I picked up some excellent fresh flounder last week. Unfortunately, MAS wasn't open yet.
  6. BF and I were up in the city to see NRBQ at the Ottobar on Friday night. This place is catty-corner across the street and we stopped in for dinner before the show. Very solid place, very good service, a lot of outdoor dining space and a firepit, although we ate inside -- pretty chilly that night. Inside is what I would call warm industrial style, pleasant but I could see in non-pandemic spacing it could get pretty loud in there. Wood burning pizza oven and the pies that came by looked good, about 16" or so. I had the butcher's case sausage with collards and spaetzle, and that night's sausage was a spicy Italian. Well cooked, although I found the sausage itself a bit on the dry side, and the collards could have stewed a bit longer, but both nits were minor. The spaeztle had been pan fried after boiling and had a nice crunchy-chewy texture. BF had the rigatoni with ragu and it was a very good ragu, pasta cooked al dente. The serving sizes were appropriate -- we were neither stuffed nor hungry after finishing our plates. Split the ice cream sandwich for dessert -- a peanut butter frozen custard in between thin layers of chewy brownie -- and how do you go wrong with PB & chocolate? The two of us, an IPA and a glass of house red plus tip, we were out of there a little under $100, so that certainly seemed a fair price for a good meal.
  7. Went to Baltimore over the weekend and lunched at Matthew's a bit on the late side on Saturday. About 3/4 full when we arrived, only us and 1 other table when we left about 2:45. Got the spinach salad (really, enough for 4 ), very fresh, with thinly sliced red onion and lightly candied walnuts with an excellent bacon mustard vinaigrette served on the side -- which also made a tasty dipping sauce for the pizza bones. Got a crab pie, which is a cheese pizza with blue crab shreds scattered across. With the crispy-edged almost buttery crust, this was a very tasty pizza and, like others mention, very unlike the pizzas I'm used to. Also ordered was a pepperoni pie that came out quite brown on the edges and the waitress took the paper plate off the top and instantly said "Oh hon, that's no good, I'll get another one cooking for you" without us saying a word. They've upped the amount of pepperoni from what's said upthread, with 2 pieces per slice. It's not the gooey pizza or Neopolitan pies I'm used to, but I enjoyed it, I'd eat it again when I'm in Charm City.
  8. They have opened a branch in the north end of Old Town on Montgomery Street and N. Washington, a couple of blocks north of the Trader Joe's. Had dinner there last night. It has a bright boho-Modern decor, and there's a dessert shop called Magnolia's tucked inside. Tables are well spaced and there's an uncovered patio for dining outside when the weather cooperates. Didn't stray from the basics. Rice paper veggie rolls with garlic dipping sauce were fresh with a little heat and very assertive Thai basil and the rice paper wasn't overly rubbery/sticky. I got the chicken penang curry and my dining companion had the crispy duck curry, both were served in attractive handled brass bowls on a small stand that probably was supposed to have a tea light candle to keep the curry warm, but wasn't utilized that way. Rice came on the side, maybe a generous 1/2 cup serving each. The chili peppers were cut fairly large so you could avoid them if you wanted. The sauce was very nicely balanced and fairly mild heat -- I could actually have had it amped up a bit -- and the chicken and veggies were properly cooked. I think $16 for the chicken and maybe $18 for the duck. Seemed reasonable for the portions and the quality. There were some other interesting things on the menu under the street food section that I'll try another time.
  9. Why not use the shiso leaves to make an Asian-flavored take on dolmades?
  10. Looking at the Carderock pavilion, the first available weekend dates are in October. Pavilion D at Fort Hunt has lots of weekend availability and is $100 less to rent.
  11. Dinner with friends at Ada's last night. We ate inside b/c it was an early dinner and oppressively hot & humid weather out with the sun still beating down. A lovely space with an open kitchen that uses both coal fired and wood fired ovens. menu: https://www.adasontheriver.com/menu#all-day We started by splitting a bottle of a Brut Rose and then moved to individual glasses with our entrees. Sharing things around the table, we got the octopus and the foie gras donut. The octopus was well cooked and tender, but with as much potato (not in the menu description) as octopus, so tucked under some greens, what looked like an extremely generous portion of seafood was really an average tentacle. The foie gras donut was literally a freshly fried donut atop the compote with a seared rectangle of foie gras balanced on top. This was more interesting than the octopus with a better balance and contrast of flavors. Entrees were the jumbo crab cake, grilled lamb rack and burger, with the sides of fries, charred cauliflower and creamed spinach. The crab cake was made in a ring mold and was quite large, so Im sure the ring mold kept it together while cooking. It had a good sweet flavor that wasn't overpowered by the other ingredients. Probably not Chesapeake blues -- I grew up on them and this crab was much milder in flavor -- but still very tasty. The lamb rack was cut into 4 single chops with a lemon-forward chimichurri. Asked for med-rare and got it more on the rare side, and although the bones had some char on the ends, the meat didn't have much grilled flavor. Burger was cooked to order and was nice and juicy and properly fatty and grilled. The cauliflower side was I think the best dish of the night, plenty of charred bits and good contrasts of flavors and textures. Good fries, fat and creamy inside, crunchy outside, well seasoned. The spinach was a little cheesier than I expected...any leftovers would make an excellent omelette filling. The desserts didn't look too interesting, so we strolled over to The Creamery on King Street and got some ice cream to finish up the evening.
  12. I've got the picnic supplies in my basement. I'm good for a gathering.
  13. Well, we get to see some new faces for the next few games....if they don't all get postponed as Covid is probably going to rip through the team starting any minute now. Looking forward to seeing the prospects that have been held apart in the taxi squad. There's a lot of good buzz on Forward Connor McMichael. Vitek Vanacek will be starting in goal with vet Craig Anderson backing him up, as Samsonov is out for a couple of weeks at least with Covid.
  14. the shortened season starts tonight for the Caps. Two very young, albeit promising, goalies without much NHL experience behind the oldest and one of, if not the heaviest teams in the league for a short 56 game (vs. 82) game season. No room to work out a losing streak. Most interesting off season addition was Zdeno Chara, Big Z, from the Boston Bruins, a 6'8" wall of a defenseman, but old and slow on his skates, but with a wingspan that can stop anything within about 30 feet of his body if his reflexes are quick enough. Yet to be seen. Also a new coach in Laviolette known to be demanding, so can he get them off their laurels? At least he doesn't use that awful power play slingshot to move the puck up the ice. Can they bring medically sidelined King Henry a cup? Let's go Caps!
  15. These are the best rated on the internet Vanilla https://lovingitvegan.com/vegan-vanilla-cake/ Chocolate https://www.noracooks.com/vegan-chocolate-cake/
  16. I've been watching the storefront while stopped at the stoplight nearby and it finally opened, so I called in an order to pick up on my way home tonight. they're in the Pinecrest shopping plaza with the new Lidl Ithe old Whole Foods location) and the 5 Guys across LRT from Home Depot. It was pretty busy inside, done in a gray/dark industrial decor that looks like a moody Chipotle. It seemed pretty busy with customers, so I didn't linger with so many unmasked eaters inside. They do have tables and patio heaters outside but none were in use when I breezed in and out. I ordered beans, an al pastor, a lamb barbacoa, and a chorizo & potato to get a good sampling of the standard style tacos. Beans were black beans, no pinto on offer, apparently. Soupy and tender but not much flavor except a little fresh onion that I think was actually a splatter into the cup as they were packing it up. Nice packaging for the tacos with a container with basically 3 troughs. The tacos themselves were all served on single blue corn tortillas that were basically flavorless, and retained zero heat on the 10 minute drive home. From the lack of texture, I'm not sure they were ever heated at all. They did hold together. The chorizo potato taco had a few tiny shreds of cilantro and I finally figured out what it was by process of elimination since it didn't have pineapple and didn't taste like lamb. It didn't taste of anything specific; they really need to improve that taco with some good spicy chorizo and nice roasted crispy edged potatoes. This was a taco I'd expect to be offered at IHOP. In the barbacoa, the lamb was moist and tender, there was plenty of meat, but the toppings added very little zing or texture. The al pastor was the best of the group but that's only because the little cubes of pineapple added some brightness to the taco; the meat was cooked well and again a generous portion. $13 and change for the meal. I'll try them again in a month or so when they've got their legs underneath them, but a very decidedly Meh meal tonight.
  17. New favorite way to do zucchini. Cut into strips or wedges, toss in olive oil, s&p and za'atar, roast in the air fryer until golden. So damn good. Now I have to buy more zucchini
  18. Try Whole Foods. The website shows them, I don't know about in-store, but a phone call can save you some driving.
  19. I would check the Amish markets in Maryland. Here are a couple with some phone numbers / twitter feeds you can check out http://www.laureldutchmarket.com/specials, https://www.lcdutchmarket.com/,
  20. I was at the Giant this morning checking out butters, and Land O Lakes now makes an extra creamy butter in black packaging, salted and unsalted, that is a higher fat butter, higher than Plugra at half the price. I bought a couple of pounds and will try it out. On sale this week @ $3.50/lb.
  21. I was using the same parchment paper that I always have. I'll just have to tinker with the recipe.
  22. weezy

    Delivered Treats

    Join this group and you can probably find what you need delivered or can use a service to pick up & drop off for you. I've heard good things on there (from people whose palates seem to be better than average) about Chewish Deli, Aubrey's Cakes, MB Bakery On the Go -- especially their pop-tarts. I know I'm forgetting lots of solid players, so that's why I'm suggesting to join the group. https://www.facebook.com/groups/alexandriacurbsidedining/
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