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From the post today:

"After sausage, the most common blood dish is soup. Czernina is a duck blood soup from Poland"

My mom just loves Czarnina (pronounced "chod-nee-na) and used to make it with dumplings or prunes. As a child I remember the soup being served on Christmas Eve. I just stuck with the smelts. Wasn't that adventurous. I'd give it a whirl now.

"Still, if you're in the market, he can get you a gallon of beef blood for about $20."

Now back the day, my grandmother would send my mom up the block to the Polish butcher with 2 quarters and a pint jar with some vinegar to get the blood. She's regailed me with stories of watching the butcher "blow the feathers" on the ducks neck, then slice and bleed it into her jar.

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From the post today:

"After sausage, the most common blood dish is soup. Czernina is a duck blood soup from Poland"

My mom just loves Czarnina (pronounced "chod-nee-na) and used to make it with dumplings or prunes. As a child I remember the soup being served on Christmas Eve. I just stuck with the smelts. Wasn't that adventurous. I'd give it a whirl now.

"Still, if you're in the market, he can get you a gallon of beef blood for about $20."

Now back the day, my grandmother would send my mom up the block to the Polish butcher with 2 quarters and a pint jar with some vinegar to get the blood. She's regailed me with stories of watching the butcher "blow the feathers" on the ducks neck, then slice and bleed it into her jar.

If you really need blood for a recipe, Super H has frozen pint containers of pig and beef blood in the meat case at the back of the store.
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Another shout out to Meaghan -- shabu shabu (I just like saying that)
...a clever way to keep the crowds at bay :)

(--this coming from a MD-er who was just today trying to navigate N vs S Washington St in Falls Church, looking for Elevation Burger.)

Bob's 88 Shabu Shabu, 316 N. Washington St., Falls Church, 301-294-5888.

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What do y'all think about the quality of the Free Range on Food and Lean Plate Club weekly online chats?
I really like the Free Range on Food discussions. They've got creative ideas, post a lot of good recipes and guidelines, and seem to really think about the questions before answering. Very refreshing considering how tired Kim O'Donnell has gotten. Does she still scarcely post two answers without suggesting white bean puree or urging the poster to "just go with the flow"?
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I also really like Free Range on Food. And I'm not just saying that because they gave me free broccoflower.

They're not perfect, of course, but they answer a whole lot of questions in the hour, and cover a nice range of topics in restaurant/shopping/cooking territory. And they hardly ever do the #1 thing that Kim does to annoy me -- answer a question with more questions.

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Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation, will participate in a Washington Post webchat this morning at 11:30. I think it's a great book, if you haven't yet read it. A major indictment against the American industrial food system. His points are further supported with evidence and insight from Michael Pollan in "The Omnivore's Dilemma" noting how Americans can either be armed with knowledge about where their food comes from, or continue to hide and dig in, but know in the back of the mind that it's not pretty.

Schlosser did us all a favor by making that knowledge a bit more mainstream.

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coming the master of your domain...by dining solo...everyone does it. right?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6103101065.html

There is nothing I love more than Sunday brunch solo at the bar at a certain popular U St 'hood restaurant with my book, a plate of perfectly prepared eggs and a bloody mary.

p.s. I'm talking about Cafe St Ex. As busy as they are on the weekends, there's always room at the bar for a singleton with reading material and a healthy appetite.

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On business trips, I often feel disappointed when I get roped into dining with people. After a day of meetings, I relish the opportunity to dine solo at a new restaurant away from home, often reading.
I couldn't agree with you more. dinners with work people = more work conversation = a day that is just too damn long! Plus, I don't want to be restricted to our per diem. I want to be able to explore some better places as I just don't have access to that at home. Or, on the flip side, I want a dive with a good burger.
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The Food and Dining section today is a complete guide to Thanksgiving, including where to buy a local turkey, and restaurants that will be open. I am heading to My Organic Market in College Park today to order a bird.

I have to say, the idea of a buffet at Citronelle, in lieu of wrestling a raw turkey at the crack of dawn, has appeal. :)

Thanks for posting this. I just ordered a bird from MOM, and you can do it over the phone.

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Today's Book World has an article by Judith Weiraub discussing some new food titles. Click. Mentioned are The United States of Arugula and Nigel Slater's Kitchen Diaries which is just delightful.

Has anyone read Danny Meyer's book Setting the Table?

I'm reading Setting the Table right now-I think Meyers' revolutionary idea is that 'serving' your staff comes first-that's right, BEFORE the customers-in order of importance-staff, customers, community, suppliers, investors (I think I have that right :) ). He calls it enlightened hospitality-there's more to it, of course, but he's pretty much all about service. An interesting concept, especially today, when every two-bit waiter or assistant GM thinks they're MFK Fischer, and can't wait to whine about their customers/establishment online in some anonymous forum.
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Todays Food section is the best I have seen in months. Perhaps I am biased as I love cheese, but I'd love to see more of this.

I actually thought it was the best food section I've seen in years in the Post. I read every word of every article and even went back and read several a second time. The dinner party and the "titles" of all the guests was interesting; still, it was a dinner party that I would have enjoyed being a part of, remembering tastes of raclette is Switzerland.

Kudos to those responsible!

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The post-holiday food section is pretty thin stuff, but this is a little ridiculous. Do we really need an article on molecular cuisine in 2007? Reading it is like reading about my grandma discovering hip-hop.

I wonder if molecular gastronomy articles would go away if people stopped writing about Alinea being so great? Alinea is everywhere.

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The post-holiday food section is pretty thin stuff, but this is a little ridiculous. Do we really need an article on molecular cuisine in 2007? Reading it is like reading about my grandma discovering hip-hop.

Phyllis Richman discovering molecular cusine (not to self: kill this phrase as soon as "foodie" is replaced) is your grandma discovering hip-hop. The news is that your grandma actually likes hip-hop. And, keep in mind, this is DC. While Rockers were dialing day and night to get a rez at some swell spot featuring goose liver ice cream and Cohiba-foamed Peruvian Cavy gelee, most Washingtonians were making partner at the firm; working 80-hour weeks to get earmarks into appropriations bills so the folks back home could get a bridge, interrogating prisoners in Gitmo, networking at Zatinya, etc., so this may be new to them.

To jump back a week, I plowed through the cheese special with much anticipation after acolades above. Found it full of such insightful hints as: "Buy wisely;" "Choose cheeses with a mix of sizes, shapes, textures and flavors;" "Cheese is best served on a flat surface;" and "Wrap any leftover cheese in aluminum foil, wax paper or plastic wrap, and store it in the refrigerator." If Post's readership is hungry for advice at this level, Phyllis's trip to Alinea it probably about as cutting edge as the Post needs to get.

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Phyllis Richman discovering molecular cusine (not to self: kill this phrase as soon as "foodie" is replaced) is your grandma discovering hip-hop. The news is that your grandma actually likes hip-hop.
No, she seems to like Grant Achatz, which is different.
I plowed through the cheese special with much anticipation after acolades above...If Post's readership is hungry for advice at this level, Phyllis's trip to Alinea it probably about as cutting edge as the Post needs to get.
True true. The cheese issue served its intended audience by letting the networkers, earmarkers and would-be partners seem knowledgable about a topic that was hot circa about four years ago. Like Phyllis Richman suddenly discovering foam. :P
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I wonder if molecular gastronomy articles would go away if people stopped writing about Alinea being so great? Alinea is everywhere.
The adorable wunderkind has an awesome publicist, no? He was very savvy in his use of eGullet to build anticipation for Alinea. And Ruhlman's book added an extra-thick layer of ganache.

The entertaining article was pretty weird too. Eating sauce-covered ribs in the living room while balancing a plate on one's lap? They should have instructed everyone to pick up a carpet steamer along with the chocolate tart.

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The post-holiday food section is pretty thin stuff, but this is a little ridiculous. Do we really need an article on molecular cuisine in 2007? Reading it is like reading about my grandma discovering hip-hop.

Let me edit your analogy, by adding: if your grandma had been a prominent music critic for three decades.

To jump back a week, I plowed through the cheese special with much anticipation after acolades above. Found it full of such insightful hints as: "Buy wisely;" "Choose cheeses with a mix of sizes, shapes, textures and flavors;" "Cheese is best served on a flat surface;" and "Wrap any leftover cheese in aluminum foil, wax paper or plastic wrap, and store it in the refrigerator." If Post's readership is hungry for advice at this level, Phyllis's trip to Alinea it probably about as cutting edge as the Post needs to get.

If you can tell me that you read that entire section and learned absolutely nothing about cheese, no ideas about which cheeses might go together, no insight into the life of a cheesemaker, no amusement at the round-the-table quips by Swiss and "semi-Swiss" raclette eaters, then, indeed -- and happily, actually -- you are not our intended audience.

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I'm happy to "stop by," it's nice to virtually meet you, and I wish you all the best eating, cooking and reading experiences you can find, wherever you find them. Of course I hope that many people find them in the Post -- and many told me that they did find them in the Food section that week, and others. Thankfully, every week we get another chance.

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Phyllis Richman discovering molecular cusine (not to self: kill this phrase as soon as "foodie" is replaced) is your grandma discovering hip-hop. The news is that your grandma actually likes hip-hop. And, keep in mind, this is DC. While Rockers were dialing day and night to get a rez at some swell spot featuring goose liver ice cream and Cohiba-foamed Peruvian Cavy gelee, most Washingtonians were making partner at the firm; working 80-hour weeks to get earmarks into appropriations bills so the folks back home could get a bridge, interrogating prisoners in Gitmo, networking at Zatinya, etc., so this may be new to them.

To jump back a week, I plowed through the cheese special with much anticipation after acolades above. Found it full of such insightful hints as: "Buy wisely;" "Choose cheeses with a mix of sizes, shapes, textures and flavors;" "Cheese is best served on a flat surface;" and "Wrap any leftover cheese in aluminum foil, wax paper or plastic wrap, and store it in the refrigerator." If Post's readership is hungry for advice at this level, Phyllis's trip to Alinea it probably about as cutting edge as the Post needs to get.

Let me edit your analogy, by adding: if your grandma had been a prominent music critic for three decades.

If you can tell me that you read that entire section and learned absolutely nothing about cheese, no ideas about which cheeses might go together, no insight into the life of a cheesemaker, no amusement at the round-the-table quips by Swiss and "semi-Swiss" raclette eaters, then, indeed -- and happily, actually -- you are not our intended audience.

Welcome, Joe. Delighted to see you in this forum.

(Oh shit. There goes my freelance career.)

Personally, I cut my teeth on Phyllis Richman and have tremendous respect for her. But the article, coming three-and-a-half years after the Times Magazine put Adria on the cover, felt a little...I don't know... un-fresh. As I said in my comments, not everyone is as up on these things as I/we/food freaks in general, and DC lags a bit on food fashion -- not a lot, but a bit -- so it may have had a relatively wide appeal. Nonetheless, it did have certain similarities to me signing off on my daughter's choice in music...it's a bit beside the point.

On the cheese thing, I've actually racletted in France (where they anal retentively scrape the skins of their little white potatoes, btw) but I thought it was an interesting article, I made some mental notes on the rest of the section and I enjoyed the piece on the local cheesemaker. But c'mon -- lines like "Cheese is best served on a flat surface" and "Wrap any leftover cheese in aluminum foil, wax paper or plastic wrap, and store it in the refrigerator" read like parody and that particular article was unhelpful.

A lot of people liked the section. But, you know, if you want to tussle over details, I'm here.

Seriously, though, good luck and I look forward to reading your section every week

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What's this? A dust-up with a local media figure and I'm not involved? :unsure:

:lol:

Seriously though. Yeah, the geeks on this board probably didn't get much from the cheese section but, then again, we're a much higher proportion of the clientele at Cheestique than we are in the total circulation of the Post. Yeah, I too had to check the date on the section with the Richman article to make sure I had the right year, but how many Washingtonians have ever heard of "molecular gastronomy" (speaking of terms we hate) or MiniBar, much less ever eaten there.

I've think the food section has improved under Joe. My request would be for greater coverage of food in DC's multiple immigrant communities and maybe something like the NYT's "$25 and under".

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Let me edit your analogy, by adding: if your grandma had been a prominent music critic for three decades.

If you can tell me that you read that entire section and learned absolutely nothing about cheese, no ideas about which cheeses might go together, no insight into the life of a cheesemaker, no amusement at the round-the-table quips by Swiss and "semi-Swiss" raclette eaters, then, indeed -- and happily, actually -- you are not our intended audience.

Or maybe he just didn't like the article. I guess your 'intended audience' includes only those who accept such writing uncritically.
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Welcome, Joe. Delighted to see you in this forum.

(Oh shit. There goes my freelance career.)

Personally, I cut my teeth on Phyllis Richman and have tremendous respect for her. But the article, coming three-and-a-half years after the Times Magazine put Adria on the cover, felt a little...I don't know... un-fresh. As I said in my comments, not everyone is as up on these things as I/we/food freaks in general, and DC lags a bit on food fashion -- not a lot, but a bit -- so it may have had a relatively wide appeal. Nonetheless, it did have certain similarities to me signing off on my daughter's choice in music...it's a bit beside the point.

As I said to my son Saturday night: "This Beck guy is pretty good." (Soldier Jane!) Ever been in one of situations where it's dark, and someone's sitting behind you, but you can nevertherless actually physically feel their eyes rolling? :lol:

I guess I'm just a loser.

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As I said to my son Saturday night: "This Beck guy is pretty good." (Soldier Jane!) Ever been in one of situations where it's dark, and someone's sitting behind you, but you can nevertherless actually physically feel their eyes rolling? :unsure:

I guess I'm just a loser.

I saw Beck at Wolf Trap a few years ago. :lol:

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Pork belly....... it's so.... 2006 :lol:

When I interviewed the suppliers--Bev at Eco Friendly, for example-- they had said that heritage was as important to how a pig is raised and what it eats, so I was surprised that that was emphasized in today's article. Whether genetics has alot to do with flavor or not-- it certainly seems to be a growing perception among organic and foodie consumers.

I really appreciated the piece in the Post, though. And, I love, love, love John Martin Taylor's work.

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From yesterday's "Free Range on Food" chat:

Raleigh, NC: How much do I enjoy these chats! My question is: I have a cookie recipe that calls for 1/2 cup of lard. Can I substitute butter for lard? Any idea how this will effect the dough consistency and cookies texture?

Thanks in advance for your answer.

Leigh: Oh, God yes! Lard is icky in baking. Butter has such a good flavor. If it is a cookie that is meant to have a crumbly texture, you might want to try half shortening, half butter to replicate the lard component while adding flavor.

:lol: (Emphasis mine.)

And I'm surprised no one had a question about the article on frozen dinners. :unsure:

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From yesterday's "Free Range on Food" chat: :lol: (Emphasis mine.)

And I'm surprised no one had a question about the article on frozen dinners. :unsure:

Trader Joe's has the best frozen dinners by far, and I am not sure why some of those did not make the list.

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