vengroff
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Posts posted by vengroff
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Call your landlord immediately and ask that the stove be repaired or replaced. I don't know where you live, but in most places the landlord will be legally obligated to fix this dangerous problem. This is not supposed to happen with gas stoves, and it doesn't happen to properly functioning ones.
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Why does chicken need an anti-foaming agent?
That's got to be proof, as if we really needed any, that Ronald McDonald is the anti-Adria.
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Any new and improved dipping sauces to go along with them?
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I had lunch at Full Kee. Their HK style noodle soups and other specialties were not on the menu that was handed to me, but there was a menu in the center of the table that listed them. Looking around the room it's clear most people ignore the special menu. This place does a booming lunch special business in General Tso's chicken, sweet and sour dishes, fried rice, and egg rolls.
I had the shrimp dumpling and noodle soup. The noodles were good, but the broth didn't have much depth and the dumplings we only OK. Next time I'll probably go for roast pork and wonton noodle soup, which looked quite good.
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Chinese chefs make the best lobsters. That's my opinion, what's yours?
I think that can be applied to all shellfish, not just lobsters. They are a tough bunch to beat, for sure.
I would say the Spanish have a certain way with many shellfish as well.
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Well, I certainly can't argue with the lobster noodle dish I recently had at Ping's on Mott St.
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Bouley may be more casual than some, but I have repeatedly noticed that how one is dressed as a guest affects the level of service there. In the bakery days, they used to routinely seat those less formally dressed in the bakery room to the right. I also had an experience where we were wisked past two couples who came in just ahead of us with reservations for the same time, and taken straight to a lovely corner table. One of the other couples was not seated for another 30 minutes.
Based on past experience, I would never think of going there without putting on a suit.
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Any idea of hours for the "Farmers Market"...and Litteri's?
Thx
The Farmers Market is Tue-Sat, I'm not sure of the hours. A. Litteri, it turns out, has a web page which lists their fairly limited hours.
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I've driven, well more like crawled actually, through the crowded wholesale market between New York and Florida Ave. NE a few times. It's seven or eight square blocks occupied mostly by wholesale suppliers surrounded by double parked trucks and delivery vans. Fully loaded forklifts dart to and fro, but any larger traffic is at a virtual standstill. Recently, I decided to explore the market on foot, which turns out to me a much better way to get around. There's a lot to see, plenty to buy, and a couple of gems waiting to be uncovered.
The one part of the market that is specifically geared towards the retail buyer is the not so aptly named Farmers Market, which occupies a large building on Neal Pl. between 5th and 6th streets. Inside, the building is divided up into stalls selling anything and everything--fruits and vegetables, meat, run of the mill boxed cereals, fresh fish, CDs, DVDs, fast food, and tremendous selection of hats.
Despite the connotations of the name Farmers Market, the produce is singularly ordinary and skippable. The real find is the five separate butchers. The pork products, in particular, are fascinating. No shrink wrapped styrofoam trays here. This is the place where every part of the hog, from hock to ear, jowel to tail, fresh, smoked, and salted, is for sale. Pork shoulder is 99 cents a pound whole, or $1.19 cut to order. I picked up a pound of thick cut hickory smoked bacon for $2. You can also find treats like smoked turkey legs, beef tripe, and fresh goat. There is a fish stand called the Baltimore Fish Market that has a pretty decent selection of whole fish under ice, with menacing signs warning customers not to touch. They also had some good looking bacalao. On the west side of the building, I noticed that there is a Mexican fruit specialist and a Latin grocery store, but I didn't have time to check them out.
Walking around the rest of the market complex, I saw importers and wholesalers of Chinese, African, and Mexican goods, and was almost run down by a forklift loaded with half a ton or so of queso fresco. A number of the places, despite being wholesalers, have small retail-style area where ordinary people can shop. One shop run by Ghanaians had an overwhelming smell of dried fish. The scent was just like the markets I used to go to when I was a child and lived in what is now Burkina Faso. I would have bought some if I had any idea of the proper way to reconstitute and prepare it.
My next stop was Best Kitchen Supply on Morse St. This is the kind of kitchen supply shop that exists in every large city. For some reason, only the ones along the Bowrey in New York are well known to those not in the food service business. In any case, this is the place where you can get reliable everyday glasswhere for $20-30 a dozen. These are the kind of functional water, tea, juice, old-fashioned, long, and martini glasses that sell for $4-8 each at Pottery Barrel. I consider a certain rate of glasswear breakage inevitable, so I like this kind of price point. You can also get things like a 6 gallon heavy aluminum stock pot for $50 or a bamboo and brass spider for $1.59.
Just down the Morse St near 6th St, across from a curiously placed Subway, is the legendary A. Litteri. They have been importing, distributing, and retailing Italian food products for over 75 years. I had heard they had great olive oils, but what I was not at all prepared for was the extensive selection of Italian wines. It's heavy on Chianti and Barolo, but has good coverage across Italy. In addition to the standart Ruffinos and Gabbianos that everyplace stocks (Is it because that's what Tony Soprano always seems to be drinking?) they have a pretty good selection of smaller producers. I chose a smattering of moderately priced bottles from Castellos I've not heard of before, in an effort to further my education as to what's out there.
Once past the wine, I arrived at Litteri's oil and vinegar section. Most of the olive oil is Italian, but they also feature Spanish, Greek, and California product. The most curious offering was a bottle of oil pressed in California from olives grown in Tuscany. There was a wide selection of balsamic vinegar, but the choices at the top end (the good authentic 12+ year stuff) were thin. Beyond the oils is a selection of essentialy every product that the Italians put in a jar or a can. Tuna, capers, olives, peppers (roasted red, orange, and yellow, hot, sweet, stuffed, and peperocini, to name just a few), mushrooms, and tomatoes. Some of the products are handled by importers in the Bronx, leading me to beleive they may not be so different from what one sees on Arthur Avenue. Pasta is next, in dozens of shapes, both dry and refrigerated.
Finally, at the back of the store, is the deli counter, home of an array of cold cuts and sausages. I picked of pancetta, and prosciutto di parma. For lunch, I had the thinly sliced proscuitto with a drizzle of fruity EVOO and a twist of pepper on slices of yeasty Italian bread from the Catania Bakery. One can only imagine that Catania has been supplying Litteri's since it started baking in 1932. The bag proudly proclaims the list of ingredients: flour, water, yeast, salt. Besides the meats, there is a pretty broad international cheese selection. Mozzerella, scamorza, gorgonzola and parmigiano-reggiano from Italy, of course, but also English cheddar and stilton, and some French and American options as well. The deli counter also offers made to order sandwiches. I don't know how the Subway across the street manages to stay in business.
Overall, I very much enjoyed my visit to the market, and consider it a very good resource to know about. I recommend other area eGulleteers stop in for a look see. I'll certainly be a regular visitor now that I know my way around.
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I don't think I really understand this dish. Especially the milk gravy. Can citrus fit in here anywhere to cut the glueyness?
Some of the fancier dining establshments in Texas do incorporate citrus into their chicken fried steak presentation. They take a single slice of an orange, make an incision from the center to the edge, and twist it into a neat little garnish. It goes on the plate right next to the sprig of curly leaf parsley.
Seriously, though, the only thing that flavors an authetic cfs cream gravy is lots of black pepper.
[Edit] And you don't know the meaning of gluey until you've had the leftover gravy the next morning, warmed up and poured over a couple of biscuits.
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Rather than doing all that pounding, have your friendly neighborhood meat guy run it through the tenderizer for you.
Gotta get yourself one of these
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Sure, I can do crab cakes and baseball Thursday.
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and maybe i just don't get it, but those pan roasts are horrible. thick, gummy, raw tasting. yuck.
The oyster pan roast at City Hall is in every way superior to the one at the Oyster Bar. Does any place else in town still make them?
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Any interest in a late lunch followed by a trip to the see the Orioles vs. Cleveland at the yards that night? It's the second game of the season, so it's not out of the question we'll get to see them with a winning record.
Sadly, my beloved Mariners don't visit until September.
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Trader Joe's also stocks B.
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Thanks, everyone; this is great. I am now eagerly awaiting the start of Maryland blue crab season next month.
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For my own personal use, it's grade B. I usually keep a small amount of A around for the occasional visitor who prefers it.
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Here is nightscotsman's recipe for Pineapple-Maple Ice Cream. It's now in the recipe archive.
nsm - Feel free to edit it in the archive if my cut and paste job is not to your liking.
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Chef Achatz,
Thank you for joining us here on eGullet.
My question is not about dishes that have appeared on your menu, but about dishes that haven't and never will. You are working with a lot of variables--taste, texture, temperature, technique, and even technology. There must be experiments that end up failing to work out as you planned. I wonder if you could share with us some ideas that you had high hopes for that never made it out of the experimental phase and onto the menu. It would also be insightful to hear what went wrong.
On a related note, do you think there is a danger that if large numbers of restaurants begin to attempt a more experimental brand of cuisine that too many radical yet unworkable dishes will be created and put before the public palate? Is there a danger that this could lead to the dining public at large eventually dismissing the movement as a whole, instead of continuing to support the bright spots?
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28 can't really be an exact number in practice. It's hard to imagine that most steakhouses can so accurately predict demand four weeks out that they never have to dip into the stuff that's only been aging 27 days or sell some left-over 29 day aged product. I doubt that +/- 1 day is the limit of this practice.
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People around this area get quite excited about crab cakes made from blue crabs. I want to find out what all the fuss is about.
Before I begin, I should admit the biases I'm coming in with. My wife is from Seattle, and that's where I learned to appreciate seafood. For me, Dungeness Crab has always been at the top of the crab heap. A sweet, tender 2-1/2 pounder is hard to beat. It's great in a number of ways, ranging from simply steamed to a gingery Thai preparation. That doesn't mean I'm not willing to give the blue a fair shake, but I do need some guidance.
So, where should I go to experience the best crabcakes? Can I get them right in and around DC, or do I need to take a day trip to Baltimore or elsewhere? What's the proper crab to bread to spice and herb ratio? Is Old Bay the only way to go, or are there other good flavors for blue crab? Perhaps the best crab cakes I ever had contained sambal and were coated with panko before frying. I assume this is not traditional.
Moving beyond cakes, do you enjoy eating blue crabs whole, or is that more about the experience of whacking them to bits with a mallet? And what about soft-shells?
Finally, once I've tasted what good crab cakes should be, where should I shop for crabs or crabmeat so that I can make my own?
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Another big thumbs up for the crunchy refrigerated half-sours. In my opinion, they put all other pickles to shame.
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I can tell you one candidate that clearly falls short: Roberto Donna's low end Il Radicchio.
I ate at the Capitol Hill branch recently and it was dreadful. Of the seven dishes our group ordered, two were damn near inedible. The first was a tuna, egg, and potato salad that had a disctinctively off odor and flavor. One small bite each and back it went. The second was a clam sauce that was like some new liquid form of pure salt. There was so much salt that it was essentially impossible to taste what else might have been in the sauce. Some olive oil perhaps? Even canned soups and broths aren't nearly as salty as this was. The rest of the meal was better, but only by comparison. The pears in a special pear, gorganzola and walnut salad were hard, dry, and tasteless. The dressing lacked any distinctive flavor of any kind. Pasta was served well beyond al dente.
We didn't try the pizza, but I'm not eager to go back and chance it.
Cafe Atlantico
in D.C. & DelMarVa: Dining
Posted
I've only been to Cafe Atlantico for dinner, but I'm absolutely going to have to give the brunch a try. We have vegetarian guests coming to town this weekend, and this sounds like an ideal brunch option.
As for the difference between CA and Z, I think Z is the kind of place that is best experienced as a free-form experience with a group of 4+, holding onto the menu and ordering several rounds of dishes in sequence, as the mood strikes you, with some good wine. Indeed, the only service complaint I have about Z is that if you order a bunch of dishes up front, they will bring them all at one time, rather than in courses. CA, at dinner at least, offers a more standard progression.