vengroff

Splain please. Serbs are well known for their burek clubs.

Here's an idea what the menu is like, but they change seasonaly, and tweak regularly, so it's not their current menu.

My local Giant Supermarket certainly carries it, but it's in small blocks in waxed paper. I got the impression Al was looking for serious volume. Excellent idea. There's one on the west side of the aforementioned farmer's market.

I will shortly be spending 40 hours or so in Seattle. Chances are good, but not certain, that I'll have one evening to kill while I'm there. I'd like to do so in the presence of a seafood meal that I wouldn't find back here on the east coast. I'm looking for Dungeness crab, local oysters, geoduck (is it in season?), coho, or maybe a nice piece of halibut. Simple preparations are fine, but the seafood should be fresh and of high quality. I'll be stopping in at the last minute, solo, so I'd prefer a place where I can get the full menu at the bar. So where should I go? Downtown, belltown, or pike place would be my preferred neighborhoods.

I am so there. Everything else sounds great, but this puts it over the top.

I bet you can find lard by the tub for a good price at one or more of the butcher shops in the farmer's market off 6th and Florida NE.

It seems to me that there is a real opportunity here for a restauranteur who is savvy enough to position good espresso properly and not alienate those who are accustomed to the Americanized version. At the bottom of the dessert carte, offer Espresso for $3 and "Caffe Espresso D'Italia" for $4 (adjust prices to meet local market conditions and restaurant niche). The description of the latter coffee would be along the lines of, "A bolder espresso, concentrated flavor and rich smooth crema, reminiscent of the finest Italian coffee service." It would appeal to both the status seekers and the afficianados. Servers would be instructed to explain that the serving is smaller, but the same amount of coffee is used, as opposed to saying that the extra dollar is for shutting off the steam valve before the coffee becomes a bitter overextracted mess.

Thankfully the list has been filled. I was having a hard time fighting the impulse to purchase a transatlantic ticket so that I could join you. Have a great time--I'm sure you will.

Chances are it was also used to make soap in its day.

Another trip to Nectar, another stunner of an evening. It was Jared and Jamison's night off, but the ship was in the very able hands of Alex in the kitchen and Brice up front. The great thing about Nectar is the intense focus on creating extraordinarily satisfying combinations of flavors on every plate and in every food and beverage pairing. I say beverage instead of simply wine, because over the course of the evening we enjoyed not only wine, but also sherry, bourbon, and calvados, paired with the various dishes we were served. A couple of the highlights of the evening have already been mentioned by others. We began with the oyster shooters with cucumber gelee and mustard oil. The oysters were served with a wildly refreshing Schumann Nagler sparkling reisling from Rheingau. Plenty of other places would offer a safe yellow-labeled champange with this dish, but not Nectar. Champagne shmampagne--sparkling reisling is where it's at. I learn something new and exciting every time I set foot in the place. Next up was the creamy squash soup poured over crisp sweetbreads. The sweetbreads remained crisp and crunchy through the course, adding a beautiful counterpoint to the warm velvet texture of the soup. With the soup, we had the pairing of the evening, from my point of view, a rich nutty Lustau Escuadrilla Amontillado Solera Riserva sherry from Jerez. This was the first of two sherries we had, both of which I appreciated immensely. Once again, Nectar comes through with something you absolutely don't expect, and it's just fantastic. From there we moved on to perfect rectangles of sashimi tuna with a garden of micro-basil shoots, a salad of baby beets, asparagus tips, fingerling potatoes, blue cheese and greens dressed in walnut oil. In the glass with the salad we had the biodynamic, but unclipped, Nicholas Joly "Becherelle" 2000 from Savinnieres. Does the biodynamic approach bring more minerals in from the soil? Or do they come through because the winemaker is willing to abstain from oaking them to death? Well, Joly wrote the book on biodynamic wine so we can all read and decide for ourselves. With the salad, we had a Brundelmeyer Gruner Veltliner 2002 from Kamptaler, Austria. Needless to say, no evening at Nectar is complete without a gruvey--the ultimate asparagus wine. My main course was a hangar steak with wild mushrooms and fingerling potatoes. What's the point of going to a dark-paneled steakhouse and washing down a pound of charred beef with a bucketful of pure liquid tannin, when Nectar can make you a steak like this one? The beefy goodness of the center of the steak stands on it's own, warm but red. The carmelized surface marries the meat to the mushrooms. In the glass, Finca Sobreno, Selection Especial, 1999 from Toro. Made from tinto de toro, a.k.a. tempranillo, it's a full rich cherry ice-cream experience. Scallops were, as usual, a big hit. The term diver scallop has gotten genericized to the point that it is now used to refer to any large scallop. Nectar makes it clear that these are still the real deal, by noting that theirs are hand-harvested. The scallops were accompanied by Flowers Perrenial 2001, a blend of pinot noir, syrah, and pinot meunier, rounded out with just a bit of chardonnay. The cheese course has got to be my favorite in town. Sitting down with it is like seeing an old dear friend after a period of time apart. You know the basic parameters--five cheeses: a goat, a soft creamy cheese, a sharp aged cheese, a blue, and an oozy stinky cheese-lovers bomb--but you never know how Jared will have worked within those parameters. Maybe he'll take you to Normandy, maybe Vermont, or Gloucester, or perhaps the Basque country or Piedmonte. And the toasted rasin nut bread, in slices just a few millimeters thick, is the perfect accompaniment. Finally, dessert. Each of the four of us had something different, each matched with an appropriate beverage. Deconstructed apple pie with Daron XO Calvados, Baked Alaska with a bourbon sauce and Basil Hayden Bourbon, pumpkin three ways (creme brulle, spice cake, and ice cream) with Lustau San Emilio Pedro Ximenez Solera Riserva sherry, and a dark chocolate tart with Rolet Vin de Paille d'Arbois 1999 from Jura. I know I'm sounding like a broken record when I say this, but it's impossible to overestimate how important it is that DC has a small-scale (I hesitate to say "neighborhood") restaurant like Nectar with a staff so deeply committed to quality food, drink, and service. My next visit can't be soon enough.

So is this the place that is where Vivo! used to be? If so, how does it compare to the former tennant?

Was it perhaps the new Kumi?

Hot-smoked salmon, of the type you find sold in mylar pouches in Alaska, BC, and Washington State, is completely different than most canned salmon. It's infinitely better. Sadly, one almost never sees it on the east coast, where cold-smoked salmon is king. To answer the original question, canned salmon exists because it's a cheap way to process salmon so that it has a long shelf life. But again, hot smoking is much better.

I think you can get away with it if the mussels are cool when you stuff them into the ravioli. Thin fresh pasta will cook al dente in a minute or two, just enough time to warm the mussel inside. What about starting with smoked mussels and putting some sweated diced shallots inside the ravioli with them?

I've only been once, but it was four hours of bliss. I'll add to the above that no trip to the Square could be complete without sampling the extensive cheese trolley.

A few days ago I saw a red pickup driving around capitol hill with a big sign on the side advertising the impending arrival of Wegmans in our area. It was also advertising jobs, but there were no specifics other than to call 1-877-Wegmans to apply.

Matchbox for miniburgers and beer is a great choice, but pre-game on a Friday it's probably going to be a zoo. I went last night and the miniburgers ruled as usual. The only thing I would change about them is that they should bring out a little ramekin of mustard along with the default ketchup. I always forget to ask for it when I order, and then they have to run and get me one after the burgers arrive.

Damn, if a UK tapas place wants to open up here, why can't it be Moro?

Welcome to egullet then, salivate. Perhaps you can post some thoughts on some of the best of those 200 on this thread.

Salivate, I took the liberty of merging this with an existing thread on Mendocino.

Damn, you guys could have saved a heap of time and money if you had just bought a couple of magic bags and a $7 toaster instead of redoing your whole kitchen.

I'm thinking nuclear fission and the transistor are way up there, but the Toast-N-Serve is pretty close. Both were last century, though. So I think the magic bag is still in the lead in the 21st century.

But once you head down the bacon road you are already commited to a greasy pan, aren't you? Or do you use leftover bacon from breakfast?

Joe, Since you are in the DC area, you might consider a lower risk introduction to Adria-influenced cuisine at Jose Andres's new minibar. Jose is a disciple, and at $65 it's a lot cheaper than a trip to Spain.

I've been. It's called Best Kitchen Supply or something like that. If you go, absolutely stop in at A. Litteri on the next block for some serious Italian groceries and wine. Best stocks exactly what you would expect from a restaurant supply store--bulletproof pots, pans, dishes, glassware and supplies aimed at high-volume restaurant kitchens where function comes way ahead of appearance. If you need a big stock pot, or two dozen old-fashioned glasses this is the place for you. To the extent their inventory overlaps with Pottery Barrel, they are on the order of half the price. For glassware, it's even lower.