vengroff

Perhaps this page of vanilla extract facts will help. There is a minimum of 35% alchohol in anything sold as vanilla extract. I would think you will need a lot of casings to make up for the flavor lost with the seeds.

Just a quick note: I visited Zola for the first time the other night, hoping to sample Frank Morales' revamped menu. Unfortunately, most of what was on offer consists of holdovers from before his tenure in the kitchen began. Perhaps he's changed a few things; for example a lobster and swiss chard ravioli dish that Sietsema thoroughly panned was not half bad. It had a nice amount of fresh tarragon, and the lobster itself was well prepared. I'll have to reserve further judgement on Morales' efforts until he has a little more time in the kitchen. Outside the kitchen, though, Zola has quite a different character then most anyplace else in DC I have been. One gets the impression that an 8x10 glossy is required when applying for a front of the house job. It's a common practice in New York, where aspiring models and actors with rent to pay are a dime a dozen. Here in DC, the focus on staff as eye candy is not so prevelant. Minor note to management: lower the lighting in the bar to complete the look you are going for. At present, it's brighter than the restrooms. Service wasn't the stellar, but not terrible either. The napkin swapping ritual (my white napkin was taken away and replaced with a black one because I was wearing dark pants) didn't make me feel like I was getting better service, it just seemed wierd. We had a couple of menu and wine questions, which our waiter had to go back to the kitchen to answer. But he was enthusiastic and more than willing to do so. I'd go back for a drink and perhaps a quick bite at the bar, but I'm going to give Morales a couple more months to work on the menu before I try it again.

I am a fan of The Cook and the Gardener. I also think Hesser's Times Magazine piece on the trip to Craft was just phenomenal. The one about the family trip to Italy, and filling up on the hotel buffet breakfasts and then taking a light lunch was great too. I agree, though, that in later installments things got a bit too sappy.

Thanks for the report, Cuoca. I wonder if the name Espuma predates the widespread popularity of the ISI Profi Whip that has been discussed so extensively on these boards. Did they serve any foams, or was the name strictly a reference to the proximity to the sea?

Turns out that "Number 9" is the name of the bar at the Evening Star Cafe in Alexandria. Sadly, I may have to give it a skip, as my Freshman roommate insisted on playing the Beatles' Revolution #9 several times daily. Hollywood's post alone nearly sent me over the edge.

Marina, Thank you for joining us here on eGullet. My questions is about cheese. I've enjoyed Brebis from southwest France, which I understand the Basques have been making for several thousand years. I also like Idiazabal, from just across the border in Spain. Both are sheep's milk cheeses. I wonder if you could direct me to other cheeses from the region that are worth trying, especially any that may be available in the US. Are goat and cow milk cheeses produced in the Pyrenees as well, or are sheep the primary source? Thanks again.

A wine flight is a selection of small servings of wines that are related in some way. For example, they might be all the same grape, but different producers, or all the same producer but different years (sometimes called a vertical flight) or different grapes (a horizontal). Number 9? No idea.

I saw an ad on the side of and NYC phone booth this morning. It said It was an ad for nicotine patches.

So, if I understand correctly, 1. The original McD fries recipe is publicly available. 2. A small number of places are still using the recipe, or very similar techniques. 3. The places that are true to the original, unlike the modern McDonalds, are doing well. Sounds like the time is right for a clever entrepreneur to enter this line of business.

Thanks, Clay. Judging from your first couple of posts, I'm really looking forward to hearing more from you here.

All are within about a three block radius. If I were trying to hit all three in one night, I would do a couple of early tapas at Jaleo, an entree at Cafe Atlantico, and dessert at Zaytinya. I can be done, but it's not the optimal way to experience any one of them.

I think I finally have a cogent theory as to what the deal is with Kinkead's and DC. It's only been beaten into my head by dozens of other posts in this forum, but I finally appreciate it. The revelation occurred, strangely enough, not at Kinkead's, but at the oyster bar of its perennial challenger for the number one most requested table on opentable.com, Old Ebbitt's. How could that have happened? Well, here's how: Old Ebbitt's pumps out crab cakes, oysters, shrimp cocktail, fried calamari, grilled fish of various species, and all the other standard American seafood dishes. The place isn't awful; I had some issues, but they're not really worth going into here. What is worth discussing is that if you walk around the dining room, you'll see that most of the peoples' plates have a big pile of fries on them. Why do fries matter? I have nothing against a good french fry, but there is no arguing that they are about the simplest, cheapest, and easiest side dish any kitchen can produce. Now, suppose you want to climb up the traditional local food chain a bit and pay a few dollars for your dinner. What's the first thing that happens? There won't be radical new dishes. You'll still see crabcakes on the menu. But you will get something other than fries as a default side dish. You may, in fact, get a choice of several. Perhaps, as you move up the ladder, you will even find that certain main dishes are specifically paired with sides chosen to match their flavors. As you take these steps, the quality of the raw ingredients and the attention to how they are prepared will probably improve too. But, no matter how many steps you take, you are not going to make a dramatic culinary leap to something fundamentally different than your fish and fries at Old Ebbitt's. Chances are that if you like Old Ebbitt's, you won't be at risk of dropping big dollars and being thoroughly disappointed. Finally, when you've gone as far as you can go, you are at Kinkead's, or perhaps Kinkead's as it once was. If you don't want to be seriously challenged, that's it; it's the end of the line. The fact that everyone else is waiting weeks for a table only confirms that it is the place to go for that most special occasion or big deal dinner. So you join the queue, and go with the rest of them. So, am I on to something here, or am I missing the boat completely. Is there some other dynamic at work that I have yet to discover?

David Bouley is a genius in the kitchen, but he doesn't seem to have a great talent for building a strong, robust organization around himself. I think that is the fundamental reason his restaurant is inconsistent. Part of the plan when the new Bouley replaced the bakery was to put him back in the kitchen, where his greatest strengths lie. On a related note, does anyone know if he's managed to sell off the Mohawk building (his proto-restaurant/cooking school/boutique hotel/whatever else it was going to be)?

We stopped in at Thaiphoon's Dupont location after a visit to the Zoo this weekend. I thought the salad of green papaya was quite good. It was julienned, dressed in lime and chile, and served like noodles with some crunchy green beans and peanuts. A special of chicken with eggplant, bamboo shoots, and basil was very heavy on the bamboo shoots and light on the eggplant. Reversing the ratios would have made for a more interesting dish. Tofu drunken noodles had good crunchy-skinned tofu, but the wide noodles were a bit mushy.

I added the recipes to the eGRA. Here is guajolote's recipe for Tuna Ceviche. And here is Bond Girl's Tuna Tartare. Bond Girl, would you mind editing the recipe to be a bit more specific on quantities or ranges of quantities? Thanks!

Sushi with Ichiro Suzuki would also be great.

Bill Clinton. How amusing would it be to sit him down in front of a big plate of BBQ and a bucket of long necks and listen to him shoot the shit.

Awesome! All that's missing is the scratch and sniff component.

Here is an interesting article from http://www.chocophile.com which describes a ball mill constructed at the CIA. It's not overly detailed, but it gives the basic idea of what was done. There's also no mention of the quality of the final product.

I think cheffette is onto something there. Some of the equipment, e.g. conching machines, may not even be manufactured in the small sizes that would be required. I wonder if this isn't part of the reason Sharfenberger had to go with antique equipment.

I would guess 30-45 min. The bar gets crowded, but it's a decent place to hang out. When you go, tell them to consider getting on opentable.com. I don't want to be the only one who keeps bugging them about it.

I can't claim the level of expertise that many here have about the "best" wines. However, I do consume a fair number of bottles in the $20 retail range. I would say that less than 10% of what I drink is French, and that has nothing to do with any recent boycotts. Spanish Riojas, Australian Cabs and Syrahs, Oregon Pinots, and lately even Argentine Malbecs figure far more prominently in my consumption that anything French does. For most people who buy in the market segment I do, I think the war is over and France has lost. I may very well be mistaken, but I thought that at the top end Bordeaux was still attracting the most attention and highest prices at auctions and high-end retailers.

I think one of the single most useful items for something like this is a dual-burner sized cast-iron griddle/grill. It's got enough room for large searing jobs like yours and once you get it hot it stays hot for a good long time. And damn if Amazon isn't selling them dirt cheap at $27.99.

What's the most overrated place in the DC area? This question is a follow-up on an exchange that took place on Tom Sietsema's most recent Ask Tom chat on washingtonpost.com. Here is the exchange from that site: What are your thoughts? Interesting side note: later in the chat Tom praised Laboratorio.

So, we're heading out to Elkton for the International Ramp Cook-Off and Festival next weekend (26 April). Watch this space for a report upon our return.