bbq4meanytime

Although I don't really care for anything else there, McCormick & Schmicks always has a variety of fresh oysters.

In my house, the kids and I call them the "good kinds" As in "do you want a bite of the good kinds, I saved it for you?" It started with the center bite of a piece of french toast, soaked with butter, maple syrup and powerder sugar and has evolved to almost any of the best bite of food one has.

If you've ever been fortunate to eat at a Chamorro (Guam) party, they make "red rice" for special occaisons. Traditionally, whole achiote (annato) seeds are soaked in water and gnashed by hands to extract the color through several rinsings. The colored water is added to the rice. Doesn't taste too much different from steamed rice, but its considered the fancy way to make rice on the island. The end result is an orange color rice. The powder can be used to obtain the same results by mixing it with water. One theory regarding the origin of making red rice is that the Spanish introduced it, but not directly, since the Spanish use saffron to color (and flavor their rice, ie paella), but by way of Mexico, where achiote is common.

If Mortons is serving those little filiet mignon sandwiches, its a home rum.

The real estate comment above has been raised by my real estate agent (with respect to cooking "odors" of a few ethic groups, not just Indian households) in a few discussions. What I find interesting is that many new home builders do not vent the stove exhaust to the outside of the house. Instead, the exhaust is channeled through "filters" in the vent and circulated back into the kitchen. We actually paid extra to vent to the outside when our house was built. Our neighborhood is probably 75% Indian and Chinese and most did not order external kitchen exhaust (we know from the construction manager). Maybe its just not an issue for their households. edit typo

Actually, I passed Smokey Joes (ot by Warrenton) yesterday but didn't stop. Its one of my next places to try. My belly was full from eating BBQ down in McGahesville, VA (near Massanutten Resort).

phaelon, thanks. I understand the distinction now. Plus I just got some more fresh roasted beans over the weekend. Don't think I could edit typo

Isn't anyone here form the anti-freezing shcool of thought? I was always told to NOT freeze your coffee baens. I drink pretty fresh roasted (usually no older than 10 days from roast date) that I get form a local artisan roaster and grind my beans fresh for each pot to the extent that matters. I have several friends serious coffee friends who roast/blend their own coffees and they too said to never freeze it, that airtight sealing at room temp was the recommended approach . I don't recall the technical rationale for not freezing (I suppose I can find out), but they were pretty adamant and said the coffee aficianado publications recommend this. Anyone else here?

First off, can somebody edit my spelling of "chicory" in the title? I had another cup this AM and figured out what I was tasting: tastes like a cigar and coffee, not the cigar soot, but the tabacco flavor you get when the wrapper starts to fall apart from your saliva. Mayhaw Man, Joe Canizaro didn't buy me anything. But he did send a car to pick up his lawyer to take him out to dinner whilst we suffered away at getting the deal signed up. It was indeed the Tchopitoulas property and another large office building. When we closed the deal in Chigago a few months later, our local New Orleans lawyer later told me that Joe offered him a hitch back from Chicago to NOLA on his private jet, which they guy accepted. Said they celebrated the closing all the way back w/ Dom Perignon and "the biggest shrimp" he ever saw.

I cracked open my bag of Community Coffee-Chickory Coffee this morning. The last time I had it was back in 1997 in NOLA when a guy named Joe Canizaro sold $140M worth of real estate in downtown NOLA to my client. But I digress.... Mr Mayhaw, I tried to raise this in your blog and think it was lost, but what exactly is chickory and why do y'all mix your coffee with it? When I tried it this AM, it was..well a little herbacaeous tasting. Not unpleasant by any means, just different. Can you 'splain?

Sincerely yours, Peter Poshpastries, Publicist, Palette Restaurant That's the response I WANTED to post, but whenever I post something even close to snarky, I feel bad. Maybe I need to give up some of that feeling-badness. Jenny, somebody has to keep some decorum, otherwise it would turn into romperoom.

Sincerely yours, Peter Poshpastries, Publicist, Palette Restaurant tsk, tsk tsk Rocks, are you always this cynical?

Sure it can be intellectual property, but the questions is can you legally protect it as such. Intellectual property (IP), depending on its nature, is legally protected in one of three ways: copyright, patent or trademark...this is long legal discussion and its outside my legal expertise.

I have accepted the poor and inconsistent selection. I shop at numerous places depending on the item quality/cost: Safeway/SFW for grocery basics Latin/Thai/Korean/Japanese/Indian markets for specialty ingredients, some produce Sutton Place for specialty ingredients, sometimes beef and duck Whole Foods for quality produce and fish Maine Ave in DC for some fish/seafood American Seafood in Arlington for certain seafood On-Line sources for specialty ingredients; game meat & duck DC farmers market in NE for bulk meat, some other misc. stuff Costco for bulk things I buy my wine at several shops, from brokers in CA and off private lists w/ friends Once single store will never offer the selection, quality and price that I'm looking for. edit typo

As I near my professional crossroads and have to decide which road to take, I will be reminded of you. Thanks for sharing.

We sat at the chefs table, nice experience, esp. if you're into food. Sure the kitchen's loud but we were still able to have some conversation among ourselves. A woman was the som that evening and I assume you weren't her, Mark.

IMHO it should be a sin to even mention these two restaurants together. For those of us who have missed one or the other, why? Minerva is vegetarian only, right? Jenny I dunno either, I just eat at these places, pay my bill and give my 2 cents. Minerva in Herndon is not veg-only, other locations might be.

Heritage in Dupont this week opened and we did lunch. On one side of the menu they offer "traditional cuisine" and on the other, sort of a "tapas" and self-described modern approach. They also offer a handful of daily specials. The food is fantastic. I ordered butter chicken, and it came with a side of fresh roasted vegs, a side of lentils, a side of mushrooms and peas and naan. Each dish tasted superb. My lunch friend (another eager Indian food lover) concurred on the quality of the food. Of all the Indian restaurants I've eaten at in the DC/VA, the food at Heritage ranked in the top 2, along with Minerva. Lunch was very slow, we saw only a couple of tables. But service was attentive (I heard this was a problem at the other DC location), but then again it wasn't busy.

A friend of my brought back some Community Coffee for me. Iasked her to bring back for chickory coffee and she did as well. What's the deal with chickory? I was doing a major office deal at a big law firm in NOLA and they all served both regular coffee and chickory coffee. I was wired on that chickory coffee for days. Is it true that it adds a kick? Love the Blog.

Mamster and Pim, thanks for the input. I vote for raise for each of you.

I could be wrong, but isn't David Thompson's 'Raat Nar Muu' or 'Rice Noodles and Pork with Thickened Gravy' (P. 566) same as Raad Na? I've never been to Thailand and I've never had Raad Na in a restaurant so I don't know too much about it. I'm still learning. I also found that David's recipe is very similar to Mai Pham's. Betty, I think you're right. Perhaps I'm getting the names confused. I have always seen the chichen w/wide noodles, broccoli and fermented bean sauce gravy dish called "Lad Na" on menus and in recipes. Since differing phonetic spellings are commonplace when it comes to Thai food and ingredients, I assumed "Raad Na" is the same as "Lad Na". Thompson calls his dish "Raat Nar Muu", which to me doesn't come close to Lad Na or Raad Na, so I assumed they were different. However Thompson's recipe (if you substitute chicken for the pork), is substantially similar to the Lad Na recipes I have seen. Anyways, the Thai bean paste I bought has a name in Thai characters that I can't duplicate. But in English it says "fermented bean paste" underneath the name and is exported by P. Pra Teep Thong in Thailand. The "paste" is yellow-brown and consists of whole soy beans spliut in half in a thick sauce. One of my Thai grocers sells the fresh wide rice noodles so those are the noodles I've been using in my attempts at making this dish. By the way, I too was confused by Thompson's suggestion that the bean paste be "rinsed". How did you read that? If you rinse the beans (and wash away the thick gravy), it would seem that you would lose a lot of the flavor.

Interesting timing on this thread. I recent bought some yellow bean paste from my thai grocers to try to make raad na (lad na). I don't remember the brand name but I'll check when I get home. Thompson only has one recipe which uses the yellow bean paste (if I recall correctly) which is pork w/ wide noodles. I didn't find a recip for raad na in his book (correct me if I'm wrong). So I searched high and low until I found a recipe for chicken raad na and have been since experimenting with mixed results. Interestingly, when I bought the yellow bean paste, I had to ask for it using the thai name (phonetically, which I now forget) and I asked the grocer what it was used for and he told me raad na. Just guessing, I'd say that maybe 2 out of 10 thai restaurants have raad na on the menu around here, but fortunately one around the corner from work has it. I ordered it last week and while the amount of yellow bean paste was small, you could definitely taste and see it in the sauce. Unfortuately, my thai langauage capabilities and my thai grocer's english language capabilities are insufficient for me to determine if yellow bean paste raad na is regional.

Spent much time in SB and Santa Ynez. One of our favorite restaurants bar none is Sage and Onion in downtown Santa Barbara. We always try to dine there while in Santa Barbara. website here

Have you had jerk or just read about it? If so, how was it prepared? The sauteed or stewed jerk that I've had domestically was called "jerk" on the menu by the Jamaican restaurants-not my name for it. And it was the same preparation in the Jamaican joints in DC, Silver Spring, MD, Los Angeles and Santa Barbara. None prepared it the way I've had it Jamaica, yet all restaurants called it jerk.

Burmudian Fish Chowder. Each place makes it slighly different, its like trying clam chowder in New England, everyone thinks theirs is the best. Made with Outerbridge's sherry peppers sauce, yum.