johnb

Seems like it's become so crowded that nobody goes there any more

Just a quick update. Janet and I dined at Riverstead this evening. About 14 courses of cutting edge preparations somewhat reminiscent of Alinea but, I would say, less theatrical and more substantial. Rather than the wine pairing that Neal spoke of above we brought along a couple Pomerols from home, one to drink and a backup just in case. The first was fine, but we went ahead and opened the second to share around the room. There were 13 in attendance, including Tony Conte (chef at the Oval Room) with his wife and a sous chef, and Trevor Moran, the new chef at Catbird Seat in Nashville (formerly sous chef at Noma in Copenhagen) with a group of four others, so it's apparent Riverstead is generating a lot of interest in the industry. John and Karen are the two nicest people you could ever hope to meet -- Neal too. We had a great time. Lovely Karen is about to increase the family size by one. Most importantly for all in DC, John and Karen are still actively looking for a location in the area.

My experience says otherwise. Until I discovered the steam method I used the classic "bring to boil, turn off heat, let eggs sit 15 min. method," but steaming just seems to work better. The finished product is excellent. Peeling is easy. The whites are tender, not rubbery. There is no green ring. But getting them out and cooled down quickly is critical, which is true irrespective of cooking method. It's probably the slightly higher temperature on the surface of the egg that makes the steamed egg easier to peel. It also slightly reduces the cooking time.

I have completely stopped boiling eggs. The trick is to steam them, not boil them. Easy in the extreme. The side benefit of steaming that I have found is that any egg, no matter how fresh or otherwise, will peel much more easily than if it had been boiled. I don't know why, it just does. To steam them, you can use one of those little steam racks if you want to go to the trouble. I have found it is easier and just as effective to simply put about 1/2 inch of water in the pot and put the eggs in that -- the water should come up about 1/3 on your eggs. No piercing, no nothing. Then put the pot on the heat, and when it boils, cover and steam for 9-11 minutes depending on doneness preference (I like my yolks a bit underdone). Medium heat is fine; just so the water keeps boiling. Then simply cool with cold water, and of course crack ASAP to let the sulfur out and avoid the dreaded green ring. Just don't walk away and forget them while steaming lest the water all boils away and then you have trouble. Works like a charm.

I won't offer a specific choice but would say the type that flip over in mid-preparation should be given a lot of consideration. It's arguably the key to the best waffle, and I believe many/most "real" waffle shops use them. Gravity is a wonderful thing but it can work for you or against you, so why not take advantage and go with the former. Note: Looking at those B Too photos, it appears theirs is indeed a flipper.

Well, perhaps I spoke a bit unclearly regarding the book part. I know he's been in the vineyards and the chateau (so have I and many others), but obviously that in and of itself doesn't confer depth of knowledge about anything. My point was that while his writings about vineyards and wine making may be fine, that is not what he is noted for nor what he presents himself as being all about. What he presents himself as is THE judge of wine, and that's where the problem arises. I don't think you meant to say we diverge on that -- I think our thoughts about this are pretty much in alignment. Are were you saying that you and I diverge from him? A vignette from my early days visiting vineyards. I was in Bordeaux during the harvest in 1970. Margeaux was still using horses. I have photos, including a great one of little old ladies sitting at tables and affixing labels by hand to bottles, and men shoveling the horse droppings on to a wagon. No doubt those contributed to the flavor of the wine -- I doubt Parker mentioned that particular nuance in any of his ratings.

Parker may be an "expert" on the book-lernin side, like all about the geography and the techniques, etc., but 99% of what he presents himself as is as a judge of the quality of wine in the bottle. What makes wine good or not good is highly nuanced. If you either can't or refuse to take into account those nuanced qualities in making judgements about the quality of wine (in the bottle), then you can't be an expert on the quality of wine in the bottle. So yeah, you're right that he (or his ghost writers?) may be expert in some aspects, but he is not and can't possibly be the expert he claims to be in the areas where it really matters for what he primarily does. Since I long ago stopped closely following the current literature of wine, I'm not versed on the folks you mentioned, but it sounds good and I wish them well. Parenthetically, in my own defense there was a time when I devoured anything about wine I could get my hands on, and I believe I owned the majority of books on the subject that were current then. That was when Harry "gobs of fruit" Waugh was grading wine on a five point scale, and people like Alexis Lichine were doing the same thing on various such scales. At that time (late sixties) California's "fine" wine selection consisted primarily of BV GLPR and some very few others that probably no longer exist. Producers like Sterling and Mondavi were just planting their first grapes and establishing their wineries. Bordeaux and Burgundy were pretty much it. Then from out of nowhere (Baltimore) along came this totally untrained (self-trained) lawyer with his 100 point scale and his self-published newsletter. It sold because, IMO, humans are hard-wired to relate to numerical ratings, and everybody who was interested in wine had tertiary education and was accustomed to being graded on a 100 point scale, and knew that in college at least the difference between 89 and 91 was highly meaningful. So everybody bought in to the 100-point scale for rating wine, and just assumed the publisher-taster-lawyer was of course an "expert." The rest is history, and wines had to be made to receive a rating from him, based on his preferences or "knowledge" or whatever, of at least 90, come hell or high water, or the wine-maker could kiss his multi-million dollar investment goodby. The perfect storm. And now here we are, with shelves full of alcohol and not a whole lot else. So fighting the 100 point scale is probably an impossibility; I'm actually surprised nobody (?) has started using a 1000-point scale. Why not -- "this wine got 913 points so it clearly miles better than this one that only got 907." What fools we humans are, and I'm certainly no exception. But that's what makes the world go 'round.

Worth viewing. Yes, Ms. MacNeil is naive. Otherwise I find most of the comments fairly reasonable. I believe Parker has pretty much destroyed wine for an entire generation. This is one situation where I'm glad I'm old so had the opportunity to learn a little about the subject before he muscled his way in, and didn't become beguiled by the numbers and the phoney "expertise". I am prepared to make a strong statement and damn what anyone thinks. In my (most humble) opinion, Robert Parker doesn't know what good wine is. And the saddest part is he probably doesn't realize it himself (although he surely understands why his schtick has been so influential, and it has nothing to do with his understanding of wine). What he thinks is good wine is super powerful fruit bomb high alcohol fermented grape juice. That is not good wine -- never has been. Good/fine wine, in my opinion and I think the opinion most of those who have been around appreciating the stuff for hundreds of years up until about 1985, exhibits subtlety, grace, fragrance, elegance, balance, and has finesse, among other qualities. Fruit bombs, and most of the wines Parker rates highly, are not any of those things even though he does sometimes pay lip service to those qualities. I will make an analogy with motor vehicles. A fine wine may be like a Ferrari, a Rolls, a Corvette, a Mercedes, a Duisenberg, a Mclaren, a '59 Cadillac Eldorado convertible, or maybe even a Jeep Rubicon. Fruit bomb wines are like a Peterbuilt, a Kamaz, or a Cat 797B -- they are great vehicles for what they are designed to do, but they are not fine motor vehicles. It would be wonderful if somebody with an actual good palate, perhaps some actual training, and who actually understood good wine were to come along and start rating wines on a 100 point scale. A good starting point might be wines that Parker has rated around 75-80. There probably have been such people, but breaking through the Parker/WS wall into mass consciousness is practically impossible. Meanwhile, speaking only for myself, I'll continue to avoid these ratings and look for something different, however hard it may be to find such things in this age that Parker has created for us.

Thanks. Might be worth a shot next time I'm in the area. I did notice that the one yelp reviewer who claimed he is Jamaican, however, didn't think the jerk was so hot, (with multiple meanings of that word).... Jerk aside, though, any place that has good patties is also worth seeking out.

Jerk is sort of like Cajun. The term caught on and everything associated with it became bastardized. Jerk is made over an open pit setup. If one is looking for the real thing, then one must look for corrugated roofing. If no corrugated roofing is found over the chicken, holding in the smoke and flavorings from the green pimento wood the jerk is cooking on and the slow fire below, then it's not jerk chicken. Period. Sorry, but that's just a fact. I seriously question whether the real thing can be found outside of Jamaica -- maybe in a few Jamaican neighborhoods where they can legally set up a pit and get the right wood -- if anyone knows of such a place, I for one would be pleased to hear about it. Meanwhile, all other "jerk chicken" is, at best, a pale imitation of jerk chicken, no matter what spices are involved. It could of course be tasty, but it isn't jerk.

Here's the latest on the topic. Looks like this thing is happening. I'm not sure how new this is. I recall Sheetz convenience stores having customer-operated computerized sandwich ordering systems over a decade ago.

Seems to me you pretty much are in agreement with Cowen. The "solution," if this really is a problem, is for the restaurant to charge more, and that of course takes us right back to the concept that charging money is a substitute for jumping through hoops (like standing in line).

Tyler Cowen, a food writer, and two restaurant owners weigh in on the issue. http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2014/06/18/should-restaurant-reservations-be-for-sale

I don't have specific information about the humane level of these chickens, but I do know that Amish are not necessarily known for their humane approach to livestock raising -- some of the worst puppy mill operations are run by Amish. Buyer beware!

For better or for worse, I'm sure we'll see more of this sort of thing, particularly as we old farts (you know who you are) age out and disappear from the scene, and the next gen comes in with their greater comfort using these devices. I would suggest it's best not to view these developments in absolute terms. There are many ways the devices can be used, and it doesn't mean that all human interaction with the staff is at an end. My personal experience with tablets in a restaurant was on a cruise I recently took, described elsewhere. This was on Celebrity, which on many of its ships has a high-end restaurant called "Qsine" that specializes in what they describe as "cutting edge small plates." Everything is very "high-concept." Anyway, they have replaced paper menus with tablets; the server hands you an iPad, you look over the menu on it, and place your order. It's part of the "fun." Nevertheless, you have a wait person who confers with you about your order, and handles any problems with allergies and so on. Even though the patrons could hardly be described as youthful, most (not all) seem to enjoy the idea. Just sayin' -- it doesn't have to be a negative thing -- everything depends on how it is executed.

We stopped in Mobile yesterday eve on our way to New Orleans. Made our usual stop at Wintzell's Oyster House (the original location on Dauphine) for some gumbo and oysters (in this case charbroiled) As good as ever. Made a quick followup by going over a few blocks to the Blind Mule for some beer and a chili burger -- they got featured recently on one of those Travel Channel top 10 shows. Anyway, the burger was worth the detour -- great black bean chili, a really good patty, although only a so-so bun. Great selection of local brews.

Seems reasonable to me for restaurants to just charge more for Saturday than Tuesday, and so on. That way they would keep the benefit of the higher demand -- there would be no, or at least a lot less, basis left to "scalp." I know this isn't a new idea and there has been great reluctance to do it, but the lunch vs. dinner model seems to be a good starting point -- maybe throw on a few truffle shavings Saturday evening and triple the prices?

It is routinely carried by both the stores in my little hillbilly town in the mountains of North Carolina (Ingles and Bi-Lo, the latter which now owns Winn-Dixie: we're talking real southernness here). Salted and unsalted. They even put it on sale sometimes. It surely can't be hard to find in DC. Plugra also produces clarified butter, available in five pound tubs at Restaurant Depot (one of my usual stops in Atlanta). I leave a tub out on the counter next to the range for sauteing, and use a lot of it that way.

To respond to your original question about the durability of glass teapots, I don't know of any from personal experience that last, and have never heard of one. FWIW, I had a similar issue related to glass french press coffee pots. I gave up on glass and found a stainless thermal one on Amazon that works pretty well. At least it isn't likely to shatter, or even chip.

Blue cheese is of course loaded with umami. I occasionally like to make an umami bomb salad dressing, consisting of sour cream, blue cheese, and fish sauce. Pour some of that on sliced tomatoes (another high umami food) and you've got tasty eating with no compromise.

Actually, UB is not par-cooked; it is "parboiled," which sounds kinda like par-cooked but in fact is a very different thing. This is much misunderstood. The parboiling process involves soaking and steaming the rice while its hull is still on, then drying it and only then de-hulling it. The result is that parboiled rice has far more nutritional value than normal white rice, 60-80% as much as brown rice, and cooks differently (less sticking). But it takes just as long to cook as ordinary white rice that has not been subjected to the process. It has no relationship whatever to pre-cooked rice (like Minute Rice).

Exactly what were you doing when you picked up this nugget?

Ben's????

I couldn't agree more.

My Mom didn't enjoy cooking too much and her food showed it, but her fried chicken was great and I've never been able to duplicate it. But my earliest food and family memory was during visits to my cousin in St. Louis when I was really young. There were other relatives living there, one of which was an aunt of my Mother's who we would occasionally visit. When we did she always made chocolate pudding for us kids. She timed it to our arrival, so it was always still warm and soft, each serving in its own little cup. So good. That was the one of the best things I can remember from that time in my life. Much much later in the mid-60's when I was in grad school in New York and getting interested in fine dining, there was a restaurant, well-regarded among the food cognoscenti of the time, called The Coach House. James Beard himself was known to often dine there, and I remember once seeing him, dining alone. It was the era of classical French restaurants, but Coach House was among the first to elevate American cuisine to haut level. They made these cornsticks, and were they good. Any meal there for me meant repeated orders of cornsticks. The place is long gone; its space is now occupied by Mario Batall's Babbo.