Malawry

Yes, the proliferation of non-fresh food products and non-food products seems to be getting greater both at the Dupont market and at my neighborhood Takoma market. I was surprised by how much there was when I visited Arlington's market a year ago but I think I'd just not been noticing it at the more familiar markets. Is this the only way for a farm stand to make a go of it when the produce can't yet be the star? I picked up some lovely red potatoes during our stroll with the Shorter lady, which we roasted as part of last night's dinner. Mmm. I look forward to future jaunts. This time of year is so exciting at the farm market, every week there's something new. I dreamt last night of finding asparagus and getting all excited about it. Too bad asparagus is a few weeks away still. Thanks Hjshorter for suggesting the trip.

Roasted asparagus Roasted red farm market potatoes with evoo and rosemary Grilled shrimp skewers with thyme-cayenne-evoo marinade, red pepper and onion Grilled cremini mushrooms Grilled pineapple with black pepper-rum-butter-brown sugar sauce, vanilla bean ice cream

So, are we still on? I'm planning to go, and it looks like my esteemed partner Erin will be joining me as well.

Rockfish with an almond crust sauteed meuniere style, lemon-thyme beurre noisette Fried corn Steamed Asian cabbage

Sounds good to me. It'll be worth dragging my ass out of bed after Saturday night at work if there are some fellow food geeks there. We don't count as tourists from the burbs. We're honorary Dupont residents. We lived there back when it was affordable!

Sounds like fun to me. Anybody else? Also what time would you want to meet up, and where? I usually try to get through the market quickly right when it opens so I can snap up any scarce goodies. Then I take my time going through it again, or stop for breakfast before doing the serious shopping.

YES. Name the Sunday and I'm there. I usually visit the Takoma market in my own little 'burb but I love visiting Dupont periodically. Nobody else has McLean butter or Sunnyside Farm eggs. I used to live around the corner from that market. I miss those days sometimes!

A Li'l Varmint! Guzzling Orange Nehi, at that! Oh my! Cute kid. I love restaurants like See Wee. Sounds a lot like ye olde Fran's Front Porch in Jillian, NC.

It's almost that magical time again. I love Passover! This year, I want to prepare a fish entree as an alternative to the usual brisket (which Mom will be handling). We already have gefilte fish every year, but my partner does not eat meat or fowl and I'd like to present something besides eggs and veggies that he can enjoy this year. All the Passover dishes in my parents' household (where I will be cooking) are fleishig, so I can't do something with a beurre blanc or a sauce finished with butter or cream or anything. Roasted salmon is delicious, but we eat it often enough at home that it doesn't seem like anything special. I'd rather the fish be lighter than a matzo-meal meuniere type thing, and was considering perhaps something en papillote with a dairy-free sauce. Any suggestions? I rely so heavily on butter and cream for my schmancy-meal saucemaking that I'm having a hard time thinking outside the box.

Who writes about Southern cuisine that you respect? What do they write about? What are your favorite Southern cookbooks, and why? Despite being a native of the South and an avid food geek and cook, I have very little sense of Southern food media. It seems the best-known influences are Southern Living magazine and the New Orleans TV chefs but there has to be more out there. Are there respected authorities on Southern cuisine along the lines of Joan Nathan or Deborah Madison for Jewish or vegetarian/freshmarket cuisine? I'm especially interested in specific Southern regions like Charleston with its lowcountry influences. Who do you turn to?

I once bought some crackers that were packaged with a packet of silica gel. I think they were called Nut Crisps and they were hazelnut-rice crackers. They were pretty good, too, and we justified eating them quickly by surmising they'd go stale in an instant if they had to package them with silica gel. I like Plugra butter partly 'cause it's un-user-friendly in its packaging. (I buy the 1lb foodservice bricks from Trader Joe's.) Now the sticks seem really weird to me. As I think about this I realize how unintelligent most packaging is. Why aren't chips and pretzels sold in a bag with a vertical velcro strip for easy resealing? Why are there canned anchovies...does anybody eat a whole can at once? (I usually buy them jarred for this reason. And yes, I love anchovies.) Why are olive jars so slim?

I presume this is different from Udupi Palace, which is an all-vegetarian restaurant with twin locations in Langley Park, MD (near DC) and Chicago, IL. Where is this place located? Sorry about your terrible experiences.

No, but my kitchen sports a CD player frequently loaded with mariachi music and (worse) Mexican lounge-singer type music.

But I LIKE mariachis. See how you feel after working in a restaurant for a few months. Muahaha.

I am curious as to Wegman's wine and beer offerings. I assume they sell these products in most locations, and I wonder if they didn't plan a Montgomery County, MD location partly because of the byzantine liquor laws.

Monday night: microgreen salad, red wine vinaigrette roasted salmon with balsamic glaze asparagus with evoo and maldon salt ciabatta Tuesday night: vegetarian "sausage" subs with tons of peppers, onions, mushrooms deli pickles Tonight: shrimp pad thai gingery green stir-fried vegetables: bok choy, asparagus, broccoli

I'll be there April 2. And I'll be thinking of the rest of you on the 3rd!

I saw the site of the Loudoun County Wegman's! It's where a Wal-Mart used to be in Sterling, VA, very close to Dulles Airport. It's at the intersection of Sully Road (VA-28) and Waxpool Road. Not too far off the toll road. They're working on the foundation right now but there were signs up which made me very happy. Thought you'd like to hear about it too.

My favorite prop comment involves the mushroom family gathered around the aspic to show the child mushrooms what happens to them if they go wrong en route to becoming grown-up mushrooms.

Click here to visit Poundy's hilarious weight watchers recipe card site. Take the full tour, I really enjoyed the commentary.

Really? So you can just, like, buy ramps and ramp-related items in Berkeley Springs? I wonder if BS is doable, there and back, in a single day.

The article made a trip awfully tempting. Normally, around now, I'd be planning the first camping trip of the season with my partner, my housemate, and whoever else wanted to come. Now that I work weekends, though, camping trips are unfortauntely on hold. I may be able to get out this summer, but the ramps will be long gone by then. Maybe we'll wait until fall and look for morels instead.

In my college days, I was a pro at removing the wire handle without letting the carton fall apart. That way I could put the carton in the microwave. In this fashion, the carton was good for two meals (how many I got from a standard sized carton) AND two episodes of plate-washing!

I liked the one meal I enjoyed at Spezie quite a bit. I remember getting an Italian flag-like salad of arugula and radicchio with parm, and then a ravioli dish. It wasn't a compelling meal but it was nice, comfortable but definitely classy. Their bar has a great view of L Street and seems ideal for a glass of wine with a coworker. If I still worked a day job near there I'd probably have lunch there occasionally.

Surely, somebody on this board has dined at the Victoria and Albert's restaurant at the Grand Floridian resort. I've done a little poking around online and it sounds like it has an odd blend of "classic butler" service (does this mean things like deboning dover sole at the table and flaming crepes suzette, or am I missing the meaning here?) and the sort of menu I expect to see at the higher-end restaurants (with plenty of fresh ingredients and the goodies like an amuse-bouche and pre-desserts). (Apologizes for my run-on sentence. ) I've also read one place that all the servers are to be called Victoria or Albert depending on gender, but I sincerely hope this is a joke.