JPW

Good idea, Mark. Especially for those of us who have not previously met IRL and never bothered to put up bios. Me- Joe, 33, Analyst at Westat, born in Pittsburgh. Undergrad at Northwestern. Grad school (PhD Political Science) at SUNY-Binghamton. Have also lived or spent lots of time in Paris, Quebec City, Martha's Vineyard, St Thomas USVI. Here because I like to eat. Learned to cook as last child of single mom who was a nurse and hence was often on duty for meal times. Simple equation -- make own dinner or starve. Spent much of my youth in and out of restaurants. Only restaurant jobs I haven't had are head chef and owning one. Mrs. JPW - Leigh, are you kidding I would never tell her age without express written permission, Graphic Design Coordinator at Westat, born in Atlanta. Undergrad at Sarah Lawrence, Grad School (PHD Graphic Design History) SUNY-Binghamton. Spent some time living in NYC and has traveled a lot (Korea, USSR, etc.) We have a beautiful little house near Sligo Creek Park and Colesville Road in Silver Spring that we are trying to finish fixing up before the arrival of "Peanut" (our first). Good question. I'm 5'9" about 190. Balding blondish crewcut and wire rim glasses. Today wearing white shirt and orange tie with a narrow gray stripe. As for Mrs JPW, just look for the most beautiful woman in the room.

Very well said, Rich. Amen.

yup, what he said (i should just post that after everything mark says). but i'm sure he is far from the first warm and folksy tv personality to be that way. more to the point, i honestly always found his food to be second-rate and much of his information even worse. still, that so many people who have now graduated to this website got their start watching him does say something for his contribution. maybe we should regard the frug as cuisine's "gateway drug." yup what he said. I've had several recipes from his Italian cook book fail miserably, but it was the first cook book I owned. Plus, I had an absolutely violent revulsion to the Galloping Gourmet, so I learned first from the Frug. Unfortunately, my graduate advisor could have been his evil twin. Just twice as mean and nasty. As for others, I met Mr. Rogers a couple of times growing up and always thought he was an ass. Captain Kangaroo on the other hand was just like he was on his show.

Well, my secret vice is SweetTarts. But my disgusting food habit involves dried pasta. I like to taste my ingredients. So, if I'm making pasta using store bought, there's nothing like chomping on a few strands of dry linguini or penne. Rotini is my favorite dry pasta for chewing. Hmm.........

Joe, have you tried Mama Lucia's (either location) in Rockville? Sorry for not responding sooner. Haven't tried Mama Lucia yet. It always scared me away as an Olive Garden type place. Speaking of which is there anything that looks nastier than their ads for the "new Gorgonzola Steak Alfredo"?

Shirlington has quite a collection of places that will fulfill most of your dining/drinks needs. I used to live right across 395 in the Park Fairfax. As I recently posted, THAI is my favorite Thai place around. Toro Tapas has pretty good tapas and decent sangria. I can't recall the name of the place, but the pool hall is a fun place to hang out. There's a Luna Grill which is always a great informal meal place. The chinese place, the Indian place, the Mexican place are all, at best, average IMO. Not a sushi fan, but there is (was?) a sushi bar there. There's a Capitol City brew pub - always fun. Bistro Bistro is nice for a drink and desert. Never had dinner there. I always thought Carlyle Grand was incredibly overrated. Across 395 and up the hill on Quaker Lane, there's a little strip of stores that has a good neighborhood bar, a decent pizza place, and a nice gourmet store/wine shop (i wasn't a big fan of the wine store in Shirlington). Head a little bit out Rte. 7 and you'll get to Five Guys. You're about a 5-10 minute drive from Arlandria and Del Ray where people have mentioned lots of favorites throughout many threads (Taqueria Poblano, Bombay Curry Company, etc.). You're about 10-15 minute drive from Clarendon and its bars and restaurants. Same for Old Town Alexandria. HTH

My 2 cents. THAI in Shirlington is about the best Thai I've ever had. Thai Derm in downtown SS is my favorite amongst the "neighborhood" Thai places. Thaiphoon in Dupont is fun and pretty good. Just watch out for the drinks. Not a big fan of either of our local chains -- Tara Thai or Sala Thai.

Along these lines, I have yet to find better Latino food in town (at the neighborhood/low-end price range) than what I get in the places around my house in SS. Is there Cuban food anywhere that is better than Cubano's? Is there better Mex/Salvadoran than can be found at el Golfo or el Gavilan at the corner of Flower and Piney Branch? Looking forward to trying Sergio's before too long. In Pittsburgh, where I grew up, you couldn't swing a dead cat without hitting a decent Italian place. Have yet to see neighborhood Italian around DC in which I would let said dead cat eat.

Logic tells me that the heavier, hence older, birds will tend to be a little bit tougher. Mrs. JPW and I generally find a 4 # bird to give the perfect amount of food and leftovers (and carcass for stock). However, and I may just be nuts but, I find that certain brands and certain stores just have better birds. I pay a ransom to Whole Paycheck to get the Bell+Evans fowl.

Next up..... Phaelon: the dietblog

Yes. metro map

Rosa Mexicano BAD Andale GOOD

Jenny, YOU ROCK!! Having so far only met the estimable JohnW in real life, Mrs JPW and I are also looking forward to meeting all of you. She's very interested to see the people behind the amount of time I waste at work.

John, You're not a genius. According to the e-mail, you're a "genious". Not quite sure what that means.

It's not just NYC that is experiencing this craze. Following the huge (and well deserved) success of Jose Andreas in DC with Jaleo, and more recently Cafe Atlantico and Zaytinya, it seems as if everyone and their grandmother in the capital is offering a tapas/meze style menu.

Only idiots, children and Randy Jackson (of American Idol fame), that is. The funny thing to me is that the accepted spelling for this particular colloquialism is "dawg". It kind of makes you wonder.....

I've got to say Phaelon, that the thing about your cuisine that impresses me most is your ability to actually serve yourself real breakfasts. While I do more home cooking for lunch and dinner than just about anyone I know outside of eGullet, motivating myself to do a nice breakfast is the one thing that has eluded me. Usually it's just coffee and a breakfast bar. Thanks for the inspiration.

In my experience, not to the degree or ubiquity of some of the SE Asian cuisines. You can find the occasional nice kick in West African food. (Cameroonian, Senegalese). That said, I'm sure that someone else here knows a lot more than I on this subject.

Healthy is about the last thing that crosses my mind when I think of Dinosaur..

Deep fried bacon? Now that's what I call inventive cuisine. Move over Jose, get out of the way Ferran, you've got some competition!

I disagree with one major thing in your missive -- the only change will be the replacing of their logo with the Golden Arches as the Microsoft-ification of the fast food industry continues. I think that the only real hope is for McD's to drive enough of the other companies out of business that their monompoly position begins to attract the interest of the FTC. Only they can stop the Clown. Yeah, right! I do agree that BK's recent thrashing shows a company with real problems. The corporate parent has been adding and deleting brands more than just about any other food industry company in recent years. They don't have the supply chain efficiency of McD's and also lack the leverage over their franchisees that McD's does.

Stolen from Mario (recipe is on food network, but I'm too lazy to look up) Chicken saltimbocca. Briefly -- Flatten out chicken breast (paillard). Place slice(s) of prosciutto on and sage leaf(ves). Fold over and secure with toothpick. Dust with flour. Pan Fry. remove. Make red wine reduction sauce with oyster mushrooms. Return chix to pan to cook through. Yum.

Phaelon, Thanks for the visit to Dinosaur. It's one of the few things I miss from my time in upstate NY. (Others being the finger lakes vineyards, cheap molson and cheap golf). I would usually end up in Syracuse (and Dinosaur) about once a year and searched out Dinosaur at whatever local festivals I went to. IIRC, they always showed up at the Utica Blues Fest.

While Billy-boy Clinton was a large man, he had nothing on President and Chief Justice Taft. Taft weighed well over 300 pounds in his prime eating years. I'd love to see one of his menus.

As the Red Dog opening seems to be coming up soon, we should arrange an outing. It may not be inspiring enough to bring people up from elsewhere around DC, but there are more than enough SS/TP people around here so that we could probably get at least a few of us together.