Malawry

I know this is the sort of problem everybody wants, but... I am moving in a month. The move will not be one of those seamless one-day dealies; there's a week between closing on our sale and closing on our purchase, and we're staying with friends who live in an apartment with no chest freezer. We're traveling for 10 days this last month in the old house. I don't generally eat a lot of soup when the weather warms up, which it's doing now. I've been cleaning out our chest freezer, trying to eat things up. I'm attending a potluck this weekend and thought if I brought some gumbo, I could use up lots of odds and ends that way. Plus I had 4 duck carcasses sitting in the freezer--perfect, I'll make duck stock and use that as the base of the gumbo. Then I saw a whole chicken sitting in there with the carcasses, and decided to poach it in the stock and pick the meat to make chicken salad. Are you with me so far? By covering 4 carcasses, 1 whole bird, and a bunch of mirepoix and herbs with fresh cold water, I ended up with about 3 gallons of stock. I was planning to make about 2 gallons total of gumbo for this weekend--which is, what, about 50% stock? To add insult to injury, I found 2 large tupperware-type containers of turkey stock (about 1gal) in the freezer when I pulled out the duck carcasses and whole chicken. I'm trying to reduce a bunch of today's stock into duck demi to compress it, but I already have 3 2-cup deli cups of veal demi hanging about. How much demi does a girl need? How long will it keep, anyway? What on earth can I do with the rest of this stock to get rid of it? Does anybody in the DC area wanna buy some or something?

If you're willing to venture into downtown Baltimore, check out Faidley's in the Lexington Market. Best. Crabcake. Evah.

Quick update: We did not make it to Iguana John's, but hopefully their opening went well. Hilton Head seems to be filled with similar combination retail-bar-restaurant operations--we checked out the ubiquitous Salty Dog Cafe of course, which is probably the best-known of these. (Salty Dog is a pizza place, a bar, a cafe, an ice cream shop, and a souvenir shop in Sea Pines at South Beach.) We picked up most of our seafood from Captain's and were pleased with the quality and gentle prices. I grilled shrimp from there almost every night, and we enjoyed some plump scallops, fresh tilapia and small but tasty pieces of cod. I wasn't so enamored of the devilled crabs we picked up from there, but everybody managed to finish them easily anyway. I only had dinner out twice, and only one meal was somewhat memorable. Red Fish is a restaurant (with a wine shop and a gift shop within, of course) on the Cross-Island Expressway. Fans blow a fine mist of cool air over the outdoor patio (perfect for August nights), while the inside is friendly with substantial wooden chairs and black-and-white photography on the walls. The menu here is Cuban-influenced and heavy on the seafood. I couldn't resist the Kobe beef burger with foie gras and truffles though (I'd been eating a lot of seafood at that point in the vacation). It comes with a wonderful Vidalia onion relish, a port wine demi-glace, and house-made yellow tomato ketchup. The foie filling tasted a little stale somehow, but the burger itself was absolutely top-notch. And at $25 I felt it was a great deal. I had a taste of a clam chowder that even my New England husband admitted was pretty good--it was very thick with clams and flavorful. There's a blackened grouper entree with a tasso-shrimp sauce that's terrific. The tuna was a bit strange, graced with nondescript sauteed Asian vegetables and an "edamame hummus" that lacked in flavor despite its vibrant green color. Considering how tame most of the menus were on Hilton Head, I was pretty impressed with Red Fish and would gladly return there on future visits. It's amazing to me how uninspired most of the menus seem to be on the island--there really isn't much that's special most places.

Katie, your job is to bring fixings for Dark and Stormys and some more of that magical limoncello. Pwetty pwease!

Tom Sietsema reported on a new cafe-type setup on the beautiful terrace at 2941 in today's Weekly Dish column. I'm pleased to see this at 2941 since it will make the restaurant accessible to more people, and since it makes use of that gorgeous terrace. I may have to check it out soon.

Thanks for the rundown! What's Iguana John's--a bar or a restaurant or both? Sounds kinda tex-mex-y, right? And what's your involvement with the project?

I wouldn't miss it for the world. Varm, can you arrange a turkey fryer again? If so, I would be glad to reprise my hush puppies. I'll also help with absolutely anything and everything, just like I did last time. The first Pig Pickin was the most fun I ever had in a weekend except for the weekend I got married.

Steaks, I only flip once. I usually sear on both sides on grill or in a pan, and then finish them by throwing in a hot hot oven for a few minutes. Burgers, I flip twice. They cook almost all the way on sides 1 and 2, and then I flip them again and cover with cheese. When the cheese melts, they're done.

It's a couple of years later than the last post, so I am hopeful that somebody has some interesting ideas of where to eat around Hilton Head. Good seafood shop recommendations welcome as well.

That sounds wonderful, VH. Where did you buy the tofu again? At the tofu restaurant Soup mentioned?

There were plenty of leftovers, Chris, but this was many weeks ago. The cold fried chicken went into their fridge, where most of it was consumed after alcoholic binges around 3am in classic collegiate style. Dem's my girls...

Way way after the fact, I finally have images of my fried chicken fete for my 34 hungry college girls to share with you. First, I cut up about 10 whole chickens and made up a brine. The chicken brined overnight in the fridge in this Giant Cambro from Hell. In the morning, I drained the brine from the Cambro. I mixed buttermilk and hot sauce to pour on. This mixture rests in the fridge for about 3 hours, while I prepare lunch for the girls. What's fried chicken without biscuits? During lunch, I used the industrial mixer to cut fat into the flour/baking powder/salt mix. I used butter. I prepare a double bag with some paper towels in the bottom to absorb excess moisture. I fill it with AP flour mixed with salt, pepper, dried thyme and some cayenne pepper. The buttermilk is drained off the chicken. I add a few pieces of the meat to the bag and shake well to coat. Note these are all drumsticks--it's impossible to keep track of what shape is what sort of piece unless you separate them as you flour them. So I just root around until I have 5 breast pieces or whatever and then shake them in the bag together. Then I divide them into separate pans. This way I can control the cooking time by only frying one type of piece at a time. Ideally, each piece will be perfectly cooked since all wings/thighs/drumsticks should cook in the same amount of time. Into the fryer with you! And stay there! While early batches fry, I add buttermilk to the biscuit dry mix and pat them out. Then it's time to cut them... And line them up in the pan. They're then brushed with butter and baked in a hot oven. Sorry, in my busy-ness I neglected to photograph them when completed. Trust me, they were goooood. As was the finished chicken.

This is how I feel at the sorority when they have 50 fraternity brothers over--in addition to the 34 girls who live in the house and the 25 that don't. This menu is much more ambitious than those I complete at work, though. You're right that lists are key, and I'm fortunate that I'm capable of estimating how long something will take me and then sticking to that. Makes it much easier to plan. I'm going to enjoy watching somebody else do this--I don't get a window like this too often.

Who has them on the menu so far? I saw them at Buck's last night--they came with fried lemon and tartar sauce--but I didn't end up ordering them.

It was called something like fried chicken and scallions with spaghetti, I think. It was a lunch special, and the soup and tea came with it for only about $9 or so. The noodle dish was okay but not what I was expecting and not anything special tasting IMO--sort of indifferent sauteed chicken, scallions and noodles. "Lo mein" may not be the right description, and I acknowledge I have little knowledge of this sort of food. I only know what I like, and the spaghetti was not high on the list. It was higher than the soup, but I admit I detest brothy mixed-vegetable soups with tomato as part of the base, and if I'd know that's what I was being offered I would have declined. Next time, I'll take your list along.

This thread has some advice for you. Stamey's is the best-known BBQ in the Greensboro area. It's not the best in the state, but it's pretty damn good anyway.

I've long felt the best thing about food in Rockville was the food shopping, not the restaurant dining. I regularly hit the Trader Joe's up there. I also stop by My Organic Market, Lotte and Katz's Koshermart around the intersection of Boiling Brook Parkway and Nicholson once a month or so. One of my L'academie classmates pointed me to Yekta, a middle eastern market with great prices on spices and dried fruits and nuts--I think it's in the same shopping center as Joe's Noodle House.

A&J in Rockville. Pork dumplings, the pork and mustard green soup, the garlic cucumbers. I think the dumplings are the most expensive thing on the menu at $6.50 or so. I've not been to the Annandale location, but hear it has better ambiance. Gastro888, I tried Maria's a couple of months ago on your recommendation. I think I didn't order well--the only thing I remembered you mentioning was the toast with milk jam, which was awesome. I had an uninspired lo mein-type dish, "milk tea" (plain black tea with milk), and a vegetable soup. But I am open to the idea of Maria's.

Are you looking for a restaurant chef or chef-owner? Or just any type of chef? "Chef" can mean a lot of things.

I make a nice five-onion dip with creme fraiche. Combine brunoised shallot, scallion, chive, red onion and sweet onion (like Vidalia) with creme fraiche and a little sour cream. Salt the hell out of it and let it sit for a few hours before consuming. It always gets consumed rapidly. I like creme fraiche to finish soups and stews, but not enough of it to use 4 kilos.

I shop for ingredients in Wheaton--Han Ah Reum and Shalom Kosher are regular stops for me. But I've not been that impressed with the dining up there. I thought Suporn and Hollywood East were both quite overrated--greasy oversweetened not-hot-enough unbalanced food at both places. Max's Kosher Cafe is pretty disappointing--best to get your Jew Food fix at Parkway Deli in Silver Spring (which itself is not exactly world-class--and it ain't Kosher, whereas Max's is). I didn't much care for Dusit, but thought it was better than Suporn. I liked Thanh-Thanh a lot, especially their lemon sodas, but they closed. Am I just not ordering well?

Damn, and I was all excited to send you to Taberna...who I think may be the only place in town with an actual paella menu (as opposed to just one or two types). The Salvadorean restaurants near Langley Park (Samantha's, El Golfo) have respectable paellas. But they're not likely to approach the league you're talking about.

I make hot browns for my girls for lunch once or twice a semester. They love them. Mine don't look nearly as nice as yours, though, Zilla. Thanks for the wonderful blog and photos. It is an ass-kicking experience, but also a worthwhile one.

Field greens with asparagus, proscuitto and sherry-walnut vinaigrette Braised pork belly with mashed garnet yams and rainbow swiss chard Coffee

OK, so I have some pork belly braising right now. I seasoned it, seared it, and then have been simmering it with white wine and aromatics for some time now. It still looks extremely fatty. Is more fat going to continue to render out? How much fat should I be leaving on--should I be cutting some of the fat away? I like pork fat as much as the next girl, but I don't remember ever being presented with a chunk of mostly-fat when eating fresh bacon or braised pork belly in a restaurant. I didn't think to score the fat to encourage rendering, nor did I trim it before I started. I don't want to lose the skin, which I was hoping to crisp up before serving. Help me out here, folks.