bbq4meanytime

Hey Monica, looking forward to your blog! Do you cook everyday? Do you ever cook other cuisines? I note that you are going to make a Malay Chicken (sounds wonderful), but do you ever cook say, thai green curry chicken?

Its interesting (and underscores the food issue) that you refer to a thai restaurant and (presumably) a jamaican or carribean restaurant on Guam as recommendations. Anyways, Guam food is so bastardized, you'll only get good authentic eats at home (or at a party).

Embarrasing...almost as bad as Redskins loss... Only 2 plates, one was raw and the other was scrambled eggs. Frankly he's lucky he didn't go up against Batali. Batali would have rolled him up and smoked him like Snoop Dog and bag of Chronic.

If you are truly a wine-geek, there is not one single store that can be declared the *best* store in the greater DC area. They each offer different wines at different prices and each have "gems" if you are there at the right time. The best in the group are listed above, but it also depends on if are you shopping for hard-to-find highly rated wines, best values, depth in a particular region, etc.

I've made the Bayless version Teleloapan Red Mole and his Black Mole. Both are nice but I prefer the Black mole recipe. You basically can't go wrong with either receipe.

There are at least 5 sushi bars within 10-12 minite of your location but the 2 closest by far are Yoko and Matsuri (addresses in the above post). The other two not mentioned off the top of my head are Hama (in the Clocktower) and Obi (in Reston Town Center). We rotate among the 5. For the closest and best, I'd give the edge to Matsuri. Yoko has its fans, but Matsuri is pretty good and serves a decent sukiyaki too (which is pretty rare on menus these days). Edit: "above-average bar food" is somewhat an oxymoron to me. For local Herndon ambiance, I might suggest Jimmy's in Old Town Herndon, Car Pool or Hard Times Cafe (all on Elden St).

I made tamales this last week, both with banana leaves and corn husks with identical fillings. The banana-leave tamales were much better, albeit in a sublte way. A tad bit sweeter with very slight herbaceous tones.

Chris, according to my mom, her mother was fanatical about her grated coconut and that the brown flecks from the shell do not affect the quality or taste of the milk or cream (other than perhaps aesthetics).

freeze leftovers in 2 cup and 1 cup Ball jars, solves the portion, evaporation and odor absorption problem. For cooking, frozen wine is fine.

Chris, you must have a lot of time on your hands. Fresh grated coconut and fresh coconut milk do make a difference, but IMO not to a degree that warrants the effort although it depends on the dish. For Thai curries, I find the canned milk/cream works just fine. If you are making kerisik for Rendang, you pretty much have to go with fresh grated (i.e. see http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...717&hl=rendang) Back on the Island, my ancestors (my mom would appreciate that reference ) used a contraption called a "kom-jo" (that's a phonetic spelling, not actual), and it is very similar to the thing Andisenji mentions above. One can get pretty efficient at using one of these to grate coconut. Baking and removing the meat with the brown skin was not acceptable way of making grated coconut and coconut milk so I can't speak to that method. When my grandmother grated coconut and made milk, you'd get scolded for producing nothing less than pure white grated coconut. Try one of those contraptions, and see if that makes things easier.

I spent one summer making curries every which way, using all the differnet pastes , panang, red, green, yellow and massaman, both homemade (from Thompsons book) and store bought (mae ploy). I'd highly recommend doing that until you've found your balance. It was a ton of fun too. Keep notes on proportions, you'll find some recipes better than others. And buy coconut cream too (as opposed to coconut milk). Some recipes call for higher amounts of coconut cream and you can only scrape off about 1/2c from a can of coconut milk.

The clerk and her husband excited told me that sona massori was "finer" (not sure of their intended meaning) and was better for plain steamed rice than basmati. Perhaps I misunderstood or perhaps they were regionally biased, but that's why I posted the original question. They actually has a couple of different brands. Maybe I'll go back and pick some up.

I was picking up some spices at the Indian grocers and saw sona masoori rice. I asked the clerk about it and she said it was different from basmati and gave some suggested uses, but I never knew it existed. What is the differecec between masoori and basmati and in what types of dishes are each used? Regional preferences?

Potato puree with smoked trout. Conceptually, it sounded ok, there is a greek appetizer where you pound smoked trout and add it to potatoes to use as a dip. Anyways, tasted kinda scary...too much trout, and it didn't seem promising enough to retry the experiment.

Monica, both Whole foods and Sutton Place have the dried. Not the best prices but it won't break the bank either if all you need is a few. If you were going to stock up, I'd mail order dried. Lots of sources on the internet. As pointed out above, fresh are seasonal but the dried will work great for most everything.

NulloModo, my wife bought me that same exact (or nearly exact) stone like a year ago. We used it for the first time last week and made the best pizza I've had in a long time. Works just fine. I cranked the oven up to 500 degrees and the pizzas were cooking perfectly in about 8-10 minutes.

When you say "mature". approximately how long do you mean? When do you notice a change? My confit rarely lasts longer a few weeks in the fridge before I eat it.

We ate there tonight and the waiter confirmed it was sold.

Been there 3x in the last 6 months and our experiences have been fine. Yes its loud and crowded, but hot chicks there too each time. Maybe we just got the better servers. Twice we brought our own wine so we did not have to worry about wine service. Food was fine each time.

yep, I've been substituting the Poche's tasso for pancetta, bacon, and other hams in my recipes lately. A little bit goes along ways for flavor.

We're going tonight. If dinner is anything like lunch, should be one of the best in town.

I'm partial to the shredded beef burrito at Teocali Tamale in Herndon, nothing else like it. What we need here in DC are California style carne asada burritos.

Sorry to have missed this one. looks great. Next time!

Serious question is it PEE-can pr pee-CAHN?

This will have to be game time decision for me, but I hope to make it.