dennisp

I’m always curious about the notion that “the Provinces” can’t support either the experiments or the tabs of the more adventurous destinations we drive into the city for. We’re willing to drive to the Inn at Little Washington, an extreme example for sure but in the reverse, we drive into the city to eat. And demographically Alexandria can hold its own against the income levels of most of the metropolitan area. Surely we don’t think that people in McLean and Potomac and Old Town can’t afford the cost of a dinner at the Minibar. But we don’t perceive Alexandria as a restaurant destination the way the Penn Quarter is viewed. It isn’t. Obviously it has as much to do with buzz and the hip quotient as it does with income levels. But it also has to do with local government making small businesses a priority over chains. Business diversity just isn’t valued over the mall culture mono-crop and its sales tax revenues. The parking issue in Old Town has been going on for as long as I’ve been around here (20 years). The Clydes owners purchase the old George Washington Club property on Washington Street almost 20 years ago and the city parking requirement were one of the factors in preventing them from using the site (still vacant and for sale). The City Council has been willing to make retail and commercial concessions to allow The Gap and the Federal government to put cars on the streets but they have been unwilling to support small businesses like restaurants that are perceived to bring late night parking problems. Alexandria is the 15th most dense city in the country and its density has increased dramatically in the past 10 years. I think Alexandria has more in common with Georgetown. Both have extremely strong residential housing values with vocal ownership, tourists (if you want to call urban street shopping malls that), and parking problems. Most homes in Alexandria and Georgetown do not have private parking spaces. Alexandria treasures its pedestrian past and values the proximity residents have to services. It is why so many people (myself included) want to live or work here. Sure the housing stock is expensive and totally mature, but in its pedestrian nature Alexandria has more in common with center cities than the suburbs. Walking is a necessity of living here. And then we have to get in a car to drive to Washington for anything worth dinner.

Here's a link to the Wash. review. ....http://www.washingtonian.com/dining/Profiles/majestic.html Susan Lindeborg, chef, is active in Slow Food, (served heritage turkeys last year) and tweeks Southern without being cliche. We find it always consistently good at lunch and dinner. My only complaint is that I can't go every day. Plus, Alexandria is a fine dining wasteland. We needed the Majestic. What makes Bethesda different politically than Alexandria? Why is that? Certainly the demographics are there. A lot of people blame it on the Old Town Civic Association and the parking restrictions. The Majestic is a island in a sea of has been mediocrity.

Now we're talking! Two or three pigs would be a party.

I think those are both possibilities...although anecdotally I was told it was only used to render lard...which easily could have lead to making lye soap. Probably needs 12 hours of boiling over a roring fire. I've had another big black pot that was used for making soap. It never cleaned up. Thanks for reminding me....(spoilers). Looks like I'll spend the weekend sitting at a fire boiling water.

Hmmm....mulled wine in a cast iron pot that has been used to render hog fat for 185 years raises a few flavor issues....thanks.

Thanks Dave...yes "stew", as we call it here in VA would be a good possibility. Squirrel are aplenty as well though they usually scare off the women folk. My Aunt Gertrude down in Monks Corner South Carolina cooks them fried and delicious but the form is still a difficult one to wrestle with. Brunswick Stew is indeed meant to be cooked in a Big Black Pot. I think more for the fact that stew was usually a crowd served dish (and needed a big cooking pot) than for the cooking qualities of cast iron. By the way, how did your stew turn out at the pig pickin'? Did you use a Big Black Pot? Dennisp

BIG BLACK POT Recently when we were out at Rucker's Farm (picking up some of Heidi's great goat cheese) near Flint Hill VA, I bought a giant (20 gallon +/-) cast iron pot. Came right off a farm where it spent its years rendering lard. It looked destined to rust out as a flower pot (and since I believe that cast iron is America's copper) and needed to be saved. I wiped out the dust, cleaned it up and put it in the basement. Now it needs a proper breaking in. Some sort of event. What should I cook in a thing so big and beautiful and ceremonial? Something that just oozes the history of rural Virginia. Has to be outside, serve lots and be worth the effort of keeping a fire burning all that time. Could kill a hog and render lard (like home in Tennessee) if there were enough people who wanted to share.