JPW

Rum and coke. 1st time I ever got sick from drinking too much. A score of years later, the smell of it still makes my stomach churn. In terms of food, a bad dish just makes me want to run off to the store to get the ingredients so I can make it at home the RIGHT way.

I'm often accused of being a few sandwiches short of a picnic. Most of my family is drier than burnt toast.

No, those certainly can come into play, but that's also ignoring the fact that people, in general, have more money, more access to a wide variety of ingredients, good food has become cheaper when eating out or eating in and some choices, say, supermarket tomato vs vine ripened have nothing to do with time pressures. Someone had to be the first person to buy Walmart pap bread instead of real bread from the local bakery and someone had to be the last person to switch over from bakery bread to Walmart pap before the bakery became uneconomical and shut down. Now both of these people understood what real bread tasted like yet chose to go for the Walmart pap, My question is why? And, more importantly, does the reason you provide make sense if you scrutinize it carefully? ← Shalmanese, Your response to lala's post makes me wonder if you are bothering to read all of the posts in the thread. If you are, then we are reading two different threads. All of the factors lala mentioned are parts of the answer to the question you ask at the end of the post that have been mentioned here. Perhaps the one that hasn't been mentioned is that it's easier to buy at WalMart. You can buy your underwear and your Wonder bread in one place. What exactly is it that you are trolling for?

I would imagine that three stars is somewhat of a disappointment for them and the Mandarin.

Enjoy it while you can... Well, I guess by this point Mrs. Stretch should be past the hurling point. Now, it's his turn!

Almost 100% marketing. The whole goat story and colorful labels appeal to non-wine drinkers and were pushed very hard. However, they did also have the "first entrant" advantage, being amongst the first in upstate to place themselves as a positive alternative to jug wines from the big "evil empire" Taylor wines. This got them shelf space before the making and drinking of good wine became "hip". To me, the product itself is pretty consistantly plonk.

Many, if not all valid points. To add a further dimension one must consider the money factor. To my mind, of note are the increasing growth of both income disparities (opportunity) and segregation of the rich and poor (access). These two trends take place on all different levels of the nation. Wealth in America is highly concentrated in the coastal areas with pockets of wealth around some large internal cities and resort communities. There simply aren't enough wealthy people in, say, Salt Lick IN, to support the necessary infrastructure for a "foodie" life style. Sure, you'll have farmers' markets, but you won't see a Whole Foods or Balducci's opening there anytime soon. You will see plenty of fast food outlets. Look within the big cities. At first, before the car, everyone had to pack within a tight space. Poor people had access to the same markets as the rich (whether or not they were actually able to shop there is a different matter). But the invention of the suburb and, subsequently, the white flight of the 70s and 80s, created a physical separation between the rich and the poor. The good markets and other food sources followed the people with money, leaving the inner city poor to fend for themselves. Today, American cities (especially DC where I live) appear to be turning themselves into more European cities where the rich are moving into the cities and pushing the poor out into suburban ghettos (think the banlieues of Paris). The end result being the same -- the good markets are following the money. The poor never really had the opportunity, now they don't even have the access. I think that Shalmanese has identified two of the main proximate causes (people don't know, if they do know they don't care); and mentioned the third proximate cause (money). If we are considering only those with the means to purchase healthful and nutritious food, I can't really add much. The libertarian side of me says of those with the access and opportunity to eat well, but choose not, "Fuck 'em". But let's not forget that a fast food hamburger costs a whole hell of a lot less in time than a home-made burger made with the best ingredients for those with limited access and opportunity. There are three solutions to this that I see: 1)Pressure the fast food industry to become more healthful. There is now at least the appearance that they are bowing to pressure to do so. 2) Educate. See for example, DC Central Kitchen. 3) Subsidize access and opportunity through business incentives and/or greater funding of programs such as WIC. As a final side note, for the purposes of our discussion, this would really require the Dept. of Agriculture to really cut back on the crap food in grocery stores eligible for purchadse with food stamps. Just a couple of thoughts on a topic that comes up every few months around here. By now there is probably enough in the eG archive that someone could publish a book or 3. Hmmm. "eGullet Press"?

Yes, this will be fun. Great idea, especially for us on the starter/intermediate slopes of the wine learning ski hill. Unfortunately, I am stuck in a state that prohibits (for now) the direct shipment of wine, so my participation will be limited by my ability to track down the selected bottles.

It wasn't: the only thing glowing was me as I dug into that heavenly chicken.

My Palena fruit fly count a week ago Monday was exactly 1. Unfortunately, I did not get to have insect carpaccio; coming out of that kitchen, I am sure that it would have been quite good.

I've had that dish. It is even more delicious than it sounds.

My favorite description of Parisian winters is Baudelaire's simple use of "la grisaille" to describe not just the overall greyness of the color of the sky, but its general lifelessness. Br. Lipp sounds like a great idea, or you can hit some of Hemingway's other favorite brasseries such as Le Dome, La Coupole, or La Closerie de Lilas (great people watching, or at least it was last time I was there xx years ago).

Well, I'm really more JPW + 1 and 1/4.

Having lived in Binghamton for 7 years, I became a big fan of Finger Lakes wines. Just to name a couple -- Hermann J Weimer makes some excellent gewurtz and riesling for the price. For an every day summer quaff, I would love to be able to get some of the Seyval Blanc again (fave producer was Lucas). Upstate prices are much more reasonable in terms of QPR than Long Island prices

Me, Mrs JPW and Peanut are in.

Hmmmm. Still trying to remove the heat from my mouth of the take-out last night. Ordered spicy as I had before here, but -- WoooHa! -- much hotter. Mrs JPW had the pork and eggplant in onion curry, I had the chicken with bamboo and onion. Both delicious. We also had the mango salad. Bit of advice if you go spicy, get your salad at the same time as your entree. They're cool and crispy and tangy and have just the right amount of sugar to help knock the capsaicin down to size.

Steve, I disagree with you only on the reasoning for my objection to mini-burgers. I'm a huge fan of small plates, and I'm thankful that I was introduced to them largely through Jaleo. I'm glad that there are more places where I can just load up on apps if I so choose. I'm glad that more of the cuisines and their chefs around DC are adapting themselves more towards the Asian style of shared plates. My objection to mini-burgers isn't about wanting a big burger versus a little burger, my objection is to the sheer hipster foodie trendiness behind it all. In this sense I view mini-burgers as being no different than pet rocks, Cabbage Patch Kids, Pokemon, or whatever "must have" toy of childhood that I will inevitably have to hear about over the next 20 years. Such wide-spread adoption of the mini-burger around area restaurants inevitably results in their commodification. It becomes not "Hey, Matchbox has these really great small burgers to have as bar snacks", but "I'm in the mood for McMini-Burgers, where can I grab some?" Some places that have adopted the mini-burger late have tried to do something different with it, see Jackie's with the pimento cheese to honor Elvis, but on the whole I think alot of them might well be purchased from Sysco. The late adopters strike me not so much as responding to customer demands, but as lazy chefs/restauranteurs. It's the mini-burgers that are the fad of the month, I think the small plates concept represents more of a long-term evolution that (hopefully) will continue to develop and evolve.

You may see Peanut there.

Just finished a quite good book on Bordeaux called "Noble Rot". Can't recall the author's name off-hand, but I believe he is European editor for the Wall Street Journal (?). The centerpiece of the book was about the Yquem ownership struggle. Very interesting.

a.k.a. kabobs or souvlaki They only count as mini-burgers if they come with buns and no sticks. I do ground meat souvlaki, I do fondue, I never thought of combining the two. Brilliant!

If they've hit Cheesecake Factory then they are most definitely a fad that has jumped the shark.

Adega pops to mind. Let me ponder more.

THe Open Table e-mail contained a link to their list New Year's on OpenTable

Of course, but only if they are bought at White Castle! The original always gets a pass.

Just don't let any locals hear you say that end of Mt Vernon Ave is DelRay! FWIW - it's really Arlandria.