bbq4meanytime

I've made red curry paste a few times but not enough to know the subtle differences in the proportions of the ingredients, however I would second David Thompson's Thai Food cookbook. He actually discusses briefly the effect of too much or too little of certain ingredients in curry pastes.

I prefer boneless, for the convenience. I like both white and dark meat and have always wondered why some restaurants I've been to specifically make certain dishes with white vs dark meat that would otherwise seem interchangeable.

Indeed the Chinese began immigrating to Jamaica around 1860. I wouldn't say they've had a deep influence on Jamaican culture, but the influences exist.

BBQ, as in smoked or grilled meats w/ sauces, esp. ones that are spicy or high in acid (ie tomato/vinegar based sauces). Or smoked duck tacos, panca pepper-onion salsa, mango puree with a second tomatillo-jalepeno salsa.

This one will be difficult for me to attend, especially after the 'Skins game took me out of pocket from 8:30am to 7pm last sunday

Since my June 11 posting, I should add we've returned for lunch 3-4 times and service has much improved. Food is consistently good and on one occaison, the waiter suggested a non-published substitution (chicken korma for the butter chicken) on the lunch special menu since he noticed I often ordered the butter chicken.

Good notes on the food. The event was really fun, I had great table mates. Thanks to Hillvalley for organizing and thanks to the Chef, Robin and all the staff at CK for a nice evening.

Not that it really matters but I found it a little suspect that "spanish" and "mexican" are mentioned in connection with same restaurant. I mean, the connection is like 400 years old, the cuisines are entirely different.

I'd like to go if there is still room. I shot you a PM, Hillvalley.

Signatures 801 Penn Great evening of food and wine at Signatures. The regular menu had the RW week menu incorporated into it. We opted to start (not a part of the RW menu) with toro sushi and a bottle of Krug champagne. If we stopped there, I would have been just as happy. Fatty tuna and champagne are an awesome pairing. Soft-shall crab tempura, picked beets and a wasabi type sauce. Elegant presenatation and the crab was crispy and hot. Bison tenderloin, short rib risotto, carmelized shallot and prociutto jus. Buffalo is not so great overcooked and the restaurant cooked all three a perfect medium rare. Enjoyed thoroughly. Dessert was a vanilla ice cream & banana popsicle dipped in chocolate and served with sweet cherries and something else on the side along with a couple of breaded deep fried bananas. I'm not much of dessert person so this was ok. We were disappointed that they did not offer a cheese course, which we would have ordered in addition to the RW food. But then again, we were pleased to get very fresh sushi in non-Japanese restuarant. All in all, a good place to go if you're up by the Hill. Good service too, and no attitude about us bringing our own wines (although we ordered the Krug off the wine list). Also they offer 5 course tasting menus for $58 a 7 course tasting menu for $78, and "tell us when to stop" tasting menu for $123.

Signatures tonight for dinner. We'll be opening some Viader, Turley and Kistler plonk to go along with our $30.04 meal. Reduced dinner prices means we can afford to pay some corkage.

Restaurant Kolumbia 1801 K Anyone heard of this "contemporary American" fare restaurant? I had not but we tried it today for RW and was pleasantly surprised. Tomato Basil & Buffalo Ricotta Pave-I'm not a chilled salad etc. type but this appetizer of fresh red and yellow cherry tomatoes, mascarpone cheese sandwiched between toasted bread disks was excellent. The sprouts added a nice peppery counterpoint to the creamy sweet cheese and tomatoes. Roasted Leg of Lamb over Provençal Torte with Rosemary Jus. The lamb was a juicy medium rare and potato tart was a perfct accompaniment. Nicely prepared. Peach Tart: Topped with a meringue but very light and satisfying.

I had it once as a "tartare", with cornichons, capers, lemon & lime zest and a mustard oil. Fantastic. The only other times we had it as sushi, also pretty good. I'll admit, I've never had it cooked. We used to love catching them though, the best bait is a cut up bloody mackerel. Once they get in a frenzy, you pull up multiples on your line.

Nancy Lewis' Washington Post article here. C'mon, Nancy, give credit where its due...

If you want accuracy and the ability to replicate, you have to measure your ingredients the next time you make something. Its actually not a bad process, you often find that the "about 1 cup" really wasn't 1 cup. Also, I find it helps to fine tune a recipe. Sometimes when I make something from eyeballing measurements the dish turns out better than other times. I try to figure out what proportion of ingreidents gave me the best result and write those down.

Boutique zins in a DC winestore? Only if your lucky, the best ones (like all else) are had by being on the winery's mail-order list (or knowing someone who is). The best places (ie selection) are listed above: Calvert, Schneiders and McArthurs (Bassins). Bell's does't have anything good from a collectors standpoint, but is good in a pinch (lord knows how long those Dalle Valles have been sitting in there). BUT-they did have a one bottle of Turley on the shelf about 2 weeks ago and they had more in back - if you ask the right person. Go now if you want the marquee boutique California zin. Wide World of Wines is indeed the collector's secret, but it ain't cheap so don't go looking for release prices there but I have a few collector friends who have scored excellent juice there.

LA- San Diego portion is too broad, about 3 east coast states can fit between that section of CA. If you can be a littloe more specific that might help. If Santa Barbara is a possibility, go there.

Down here in DC we have a knife store (actually a few) called Chesapeake Cutlery or something like that in the malls. $5 per knife. Took me a while to figure out that they sharpen knives (like a few years). Too bad they couldn't sharpen me up for $5

My guess is that you have pot of chile colorado or carnitas going. Looks good in any event. What's with the Absolut along with the hot sauces?

Never ordered from the website or tried the Mayordomo mole, but gourmet sleuth sells it on-line here

Monica, nice article! I will definitely try some of the recipes. On another note, I saw your cookbook in Cape Cod, Mass. last week. Made me smile

A place called Augustine's opened up a year ago in the old town area of Fredericksburg, we had some appetizers and drinks there for New Years and would try it again. We had a 5 course prix fixe dinner at Merriman's (also in historic downtown, 2 blocks from Augustine's) and were pretty disappointed in the meal so I'd steer clear of there. Never tried the places you listed, though.

I usually tip on take out orders (anywhere from a buck for a $6.95 lunch to 10% on larger orders). Its just me, I'm a tipper. I wondered about this issue a few months ago and polled 2 friends who worked in the industry: one is a waiter who tips on everything (even his oil changes), and the other was a bartender at Chilis where the bar often took/packed take-out orders. Neither made it a habit of tipping on take-out orders. The bartender told me that receiving a tip on take-out orders was definitely the exception in his experience.

I was very pleased with the recommendation from The Man for Poches mail order. Big ol andouille sausages . Do yourself a favor and pick up some tasso ham and boudin too.

Toasters and toaster ovens are a waste of counter space. I use my broiler in my oven.