mighty quinn

time out- that's a trip down memory lane. agree about the chicken biscuit there-and it has to be after drinking at he's not here and about 2 am. the staff behind the counter would harass us as they took our orders. biscuitville is also a memory- i'd skip 3rd period study hall to go to biscuitville and drink coffee- great ham biscuit- not greasy like bojangles.

al- i googled it and it's MAS Tapas on monticello rd. i couldn't for the life of me remember the name-way too much sangria and other brain cell killers that nite.

definitely agree that the dining in old town is geared toward tourists-especially if you stay on the section of east king street near the water (the section with an overabundance of starbuck's) i lived in old town for 4 years and spent a good amount of income at southside (when i didn't want to cook) and at sutton place gourmet (when i did want to cook) i moaned that there weren't any good restaurants in old town and continued to go to the same joints over and over. or i went in to the district. looking back on my time there, the food in old town was "OK" it just wasn't $25 per entree "good." i cooked for myself because i knew that i could turn out a meal a bit better than chef boyardee at il porto and i went to southside because the food was cheap, filling and i could easily stumble home. so it's not d.c. dining- but don't you have to cut through some expensive deadwood in the district? there are plenty of places i'd not pay $5 an entree for let alone quadruple that (Kinkead's for example) so take the mediocre with the good in old town and be happy with the wide variety of places within strolling distance, if you happen to live in the area. note-evening star (in delray) has been consistently mentioned by gourmet magazine as a "best in d.c." restaurant- i just don't see it !

just some random notes/thoughts on my early-week food experiences... monday pm-went to Kuba Kuba for a small birthday celebration and i won't be going back. wasn't because my god mother is cuban and i grew up with proper flan and frijoles negros... uh-uh. the service, in a word SUCKED. i'm generally passive about restaurant service and will allow for alot of torment but this was bad...sprite instead of water ("really, i just don't know how that happened") offering the same table to my party-the one by the door in a very cramped space-3 separate times after we said we'd wait- then getting snippy about it...bussing tables while we were sitting, waiting to pay (already had the check and take away) and then just generally acting SURLY. the quality of the food wasn't good enough to offset the rotten service and the quality of the air in the restaurant was... Should the EPA get involved?? so that was monday. tuesday-got to buzz and ned's at 1130-good because the lunch crowd descended about 10 minutes later. it took awhile for the stoner counter boys to take my order and i almost fainted from the smell (NOT an EPA issue) but it was worth the wait. despite what regional bbq purists may think, i like the bbq at buz and ned's and the blend of regional styles. that's what they seem to strive for and it's good stuff. i love the mixture of lean pig with bits of crispy fat. the sauce isn't overpoweringly sweet-even to a vinegar-base bbq eater like me. i went home and fell into a bbq coma for 3 hours. i'd still like to try to get some of the richmond area folks together for drinks/dinner or both. i'm branching out and willing to try anything once...

man, liberty bar-that brings back some serious memories. i had my first celas wheat beer there ("make 'em jealous, drink a celas") what i came to realize was that it wasn't just me leaning after a few too many, it's the entire restaurant tilting!

and the place across the street from 4 p's. Nanny O'Brien's? Way too drunk to remember. if in old town-murphy's on king street, pat troy's (formerly ireland's own) on pitt st. also there's a murphy's in woodley park right near the metro station. guiness is good.

boneless, skinless chicken breasts ketchup/catsup starbuck's coffee foie gras beef brisket diet soda (except fresca, danny)

that would be the silver ring restaurant in ybor city. it was run by a bunch of guys who boxed professionally and the folks behind the counter always looked all beat to hell. best cuban sandwich around. also spanish bean soup, black bean soup, deviled crabs and cafe con leche. this place disappeared when ybor was revamped and became a mini bourbon street. there is, however, a silver ring restaurant on hiway 301 in riverview, fl (south hillsboro county) that has basically the same menu as the old one in ybor- minus the boxers and cold beers. my fave spot in ybor is naviera coffee mills on 21st street- you can smell it driving by on the crosstown expressway!

did anyone happen to mention a mexican influence in texas- "barbacoa?" i often wonder if the spanish word is actually spanglish instead.

i'll shoot for 1400 thursday at buz n ned's- i have to work wednesday night so it will be breakfast for me, if i can get my butt out of bed. hope to see y'all... cheers, victoria.

I'VE USED BOTH CLOVE AND ALLSPICE-IT'S REALLY DOES KEEP FOLKS WONDERING.

TYSON-SORRY I MISSED Y'ALL-I WAS JUST UP THE STREET AT HILL CAFE GLUED TO MY USUAL CHAIR. WE (RICHMOND) REALLY HAVE TO GET OUR COLLECTIVE STUFF TOGETHER FOR AN OUTING-WOULD YOU LIKE TO SHARE YOUR TRIP TO BUZ N NED'S?

BUZ-I DON'T SHARE TYSON'S VIEWS ON YOUR Q- I THINK THAT IT'S DELISH, EVEN THOUGH IT'S A STYLE THAT I WASN'T RAISED ON (LEXINGTON, NC/ GOLDSBORO, NC) AS A MATTER OF FACT, I MADE Q WITH SOME FRIENDS YESTERDAY WITH THEIR NEW SMOKER AND THE SAUCE MY GIRLFRIEND MADE (HER BROTHER'S RECIPE) WAS QUITE LIKE YOURS. WE DIDN'T HAVE THE LUXURY OF COOKING THE SHOULDER AS LONG AS WE WOULD'VE LIKED, BUT WE'LL HAVE BETTER PLANNING FOR THE NEXT FETE-ABOUT 45 FOLKS. I'D LOVE TO HAVE YOUR RECOMMENDATION FOR COOKING TEMP AND TIME FOR MEAT. WE'RE PLANNING ON ABOUT 1/4 LB PER PERSON AND WILL USE SHOULDER CUTS-3-5 LB.THE SMOKER IS A GRILLMASTER (I DON'T KNOW MUCH ABOUT SMOKERS) AND WE USED GAS AS THE HEAT SOURCE AND WE WERE ABLE TO KEEP THE TEMP VERY CONSISTENT. I'M TRYING TO CONVINCE MY FRIENDS TO USE HICKORY (USED MESQUITE-TOO UP-FRONT SMOKEY FOR MY TASTES) I'D ALSO LIKE TO BRINE SOME PORK AHEAD OF TIME TO MAKE SOME EASTERN NC-STYLE Q. ANY THOUGHTS?? FROM ANYONE OUT THERE?? AND BUZ-I'D LOVE TO HAVE AN E-G EVENT FOR RICHMOND AT YOUR PLACE AND IF THE D.C. FOLKS KNOW WHAT'S GOOD FOR THEM THEY'LL DRIVE DOWN AND PARTAKE.

FROZEN FRENCH FRIES, CRISCO, PURINA CAT CHOW, RAW BACON, BAKER'S UNSWEETENED CHOCOLATE-NOT ALL IN THAT ORDER.

BUCKROE ISLAND GRILL OUT IN THE SALTPONDS DEVELOPMENT USED TO BE PRETTY GOOD....

I'M GAME FOR SOMETIME SATURDAY PM-DRINKS AT KITCHEN TABLE WOULD BE FINE BY ME. VICTORIA

CORA'S RESTAURANT ON 21ST IN GHENT IS GOOD- A LITTLE ON THE VEGGIE FARE FOR ME THOUGH. PROBABLY YOUR BEST BET WOULD BE TO PARK ON GRANBY ST IN DOWNTOWN NORFOLK. BEST PLACE IN THE CITY IS TODD JURICH'S BISTRO- GREAT WINE SELECTION AND SOME COOL SPIN ON TRADITIONAL SOUTHERN CUISINE. ALSO A FEW TAPAS PLACES-ONE TRADTIONAL ONE MORE SPANGLISH ALONG GRANBY. JUST PARK AND WALK. DON'T BOTHER WITH HAMPTON. IT'S ALL FASTFOOD AND I-HOPS.

DIP MOLTINGS IN GUACAMOLE OR USE AS SUBSTITUTE FOR SHRIMPSHELLS IN FISHSTOCK. HAVE NOT SEEN OR HEARD A KATYDID HERE IN RICHMOND.

the cool bonus at buzz and ned's was the pork bones for $1 (about 6 in a bag) my dog worked on those for about a month. also decent wine/beer selection-maybe a little unusual in a bbq joint.

make the trip and got to litteri's.

ok richmond gulleteers-howabout this saturday am at the farmers market. i'll be going to the flea market in church hill and will be downtown. any takers??

this was the first "q" i had in richmond and i whole heartedly agree w/ the esteemed mr rocks... and this from a north-cackeylackian!

where's belleview?? i'll be relocating to churchhill the beginning of next month and will be pretty busy, but i'll be in town the weekend of the 15th of may-farmers market sounds good to me, then a brunch at kitchen table. anyone else??

ok-richmond now has a 2-pager, even though most of it was devoted to the lack of a decent grocer. this must means that there are enough of "us" in the area to have an event-eat out or maybe a pilgimage to wegman's in sterling (it really STILL is in the commonwealth, technically) anybody game?

Not to bore anyone with the not so gory details of my currently non-existent love life, but... last week I broke things off with the gentleman I'd been seeing for the last 8 months. It wasn't particularly ugly, but at age 40 (almost) I'm feeling like a relationship failure again. The first night after the breakup , I went out and had the ceremonial drunk- sambuca is good for this. The following day, I went to a book store, bought some new cookbooks and also purchased a hand-crank pasta machine (atlas, $50, at bed bath and beyond) I also bought a nice little bottle of vinho verde, got a new hairdo, bought makeup, etc-all with the money I was going to spend on a weekend away with said former boyfriend. Long story short, I spent a therapeutic, labor intensive 3 HOURS making portobello mushroom raviolis. My yield was about 6 pathetic looking blobs of glutanous mess, but I didn't think about HIM the entire time. All pasta tips aside (I'm sure there's a thread already) please share your tales of broken relationships and the cooking binges that have followed.