evilcartman

If memory serves, the PBR at the Helix is always 2$, not just during happy hour. The Coronitas are two bucks a piece, sold in a bucket of seven...but there's less beer...they're ponies. Black's in Bethesda is a great choice as mentioned before...Sierra Nevada and other beers half price...and Sapphire down the street has good specials and half price burgers three days a week til seven, one of which is Saturday...the burger is 3.50 or something crazy, cheaper than Mickey D's and tastier, plus Mickey D's don't serve no bruskies. Sapphire has a pretty chill bar they built on the patio, a bonus for smokers in Mo Co, but get there early to avoid the pseudo jeune doree crowd.

I alway thought Dirty Dick's Crab House was pretty funny. Their slogan is something like, "I got my crabs at Dirty Dicks!"

Cubes of cheesecake, wrapped in phyllo, eggwashed, then rolled in Rice Krispies. Serve with Chocolate or caramel or whatever sauce. Tempura Portobello Mushroom "Fries" with some kind of Asian inspired sauce. My boss and I tempura'd some strawberries once...not bad with a dust of 10x. Get long stems if you can...then you don't have to drop them in and can batter the alomost all the way up. If you can't get long stems, use a long bamboo skewer. Apples are good, too. Maybe marshmallows? Wow, you've really got me thinking. I want to have a deep fry party now!! Like fondue only bigger, more dangerous, and with a keg!!!

Wow! I can not wait to take Chester (my two year old honey brindle boxer slobberpuss) to doggie happy hour!!! I find that the waterfront places in Georgetown (DC) are pretty accomodating and have nice views, but it's outside for the pooch and us. Metropets.com has listings of dog friendly places in lots of cities. I've heard that Atlanta is the most dog friendly city in the US.

Ditto on Spike's and New Rivers!! XO Cafe on North Main was one of my favorites when I lived there, but I haven't been up there in four years. Murphy's is a fun place to drink and grab a sandwich...it's behind the parking garage behind the Biltmore Hotel which is right on Kennedy Plaza. I hear that Agora in the Westin is nice, but never been there myself. East Side Pockets on Thayer serves up giant pitas with fresh ingredients, clean open kitchen and freebie baklava. The people are nice, too. Most of the spots on Thayer are crappy, if I remember correctly, but if you want to check out the college scene and browse little shops it's fun. Oh, that's where Spike's is too, on Thayer.

thanks for the compliment, but it's actually Ms. Evilcartman. I'm a huge fan of South Park and have been told that i do a spot on impersonation of little Eric Cartman. My boyfriend has my digital cam as soon as he brings it back i'll post a pic of my spoon hook. I have one left...most of them were given as christmas presents.

You can go to readymademag.com for complete instructions on how to make the LP bowl. Check out the coasters...if I can find some cheap old vinyl i want to make those for Christmas gifts this year. I made tea towel holders out of old silver spoons from flea markets (you drill a hole and bend it into a "hook") and little finished blocks of wood (which I painted, then sanded for a beach-house effect), origami paper (cut to fit the back for a professional finish, attached with spray adhesive), and picture hangers from the craft store. The only tool you need is a drill with bit and screws. Not neccessarily a food craft, but kitchen craft. I made a bunch on a rainy saturday after Thanksgiving...will post photo soon.

i must confess i eat canned pineapple and mandarin oranges...straight out of the can. i buy them when they're on sale and it tastes real good to me sometimes. in a baby food sorta way. and while i have no recipe of my own to add, this thread made me think of the movie "steel magnolias," when truvy...dolly parton's character is asked for her recipe for "cuppa, cuppa, cuppa." to which she replies, "a cuppa flour, a cuppa sugar, and a cuppa fruit cocktail, with the juice, mix and bake til gold and bubbly ."

I like sam and omies...milepost 16 or close to that on the beach road, across from jeanette's pier...for breakfast, esp if goin fishin. i reccommend the biscuits and gravy, hash browns with cheese and a couple bloody marys to wash it all down. i've been going to the obx for twenty years and there are not too many fancy foodie places. duck has some i'v heard but i don't venture out of nags head much. we usually do all our own cooking.

my favorite sushi place makes a roll with the tempura bits tossed in some kind of spicy sauce alongside tuna. it's really yummy.

oh, i don't think any of those places have internet access. And none of them are really coffeehouse like, if that's what your looking for. and you can smoke most places that serve alcohol. the ones on my list where you can't smoke (unless outside) are patisserie poupon and wrapworks.

In Dupont, bistrot ducoin is one of my fave. good steak frites, euro beers, simple salads, yummy creme brulee. wrapworks is a good cheap lunch. gabriel is pretty good too. they have yummy drinks and pretty tasty tapas. There's a lot of night spots there...ranging from pool at buffalo billiards, clubs like five or 18th street lounge, or a hole in wall type place like lucky bar or big hunt. in georgetown, there's places on the water which are good for drinks, water views, and watching the planes fly into national...like sequoyah & tony & joes. the food isn't spectacular at either place, in my opinion. ribs at old glory are all right and they have a patio upstairs. 1789 is elegant and consistently wonderful...if you want to spend some money. well, if you really want to spend some money in georgetown you could go to citronelle. if you like good gelato & sorbet go to patisserie poupon. they have a good pate sandwich with cornichons, too. sorry, but i don't have addresses on hand for those spots. have fun!

Tell me about it I grew up in Damascus...it's a dry town!! So you have to go to Mt. Airy or Germantown to get booze. Explains why there are no decent restaurants there, though. I don't know of any places in Mo Co that allow BYOW, but then I've never explored BYOW outside of DC.

very, very true!!! Bread and water!!!

In most places there is a specific person or station assigned to do a staff meal. And they usually have to use those spare parts, and a little thinking ahead, even though often that seems impossible, makes a huge difference. I've made hundreds of staff meals, usually with only scraps and creative thinking on my side...snag those meat scraps and run them through the grinder...not gonna use em today? freeze it...you can stockpile and make a big batch of ground beef. One chef in my past was so stingy he would not even let us use the burger meat for staff. It was scrounge city!! But, he also said that someone who could make a good staff meal in his restaurant was a darn good cook. I have had better luck getting staff to eat chicken that's off the bone, so poaching (or boiling it!) and picking the meat off for chix salad or a quickie soup or taco meat or what have you is the best way to get them to eat it.

I absolutely agree that this is a time to familiarize the wait staff with menu items and specials. Not a time to induce food poisoning or upturned noses and grunts of disgust.

Thomas Keller mentions the importance of staff meal in The French Laundry Cookbook. Bourdain humors us with the grateful Rainbow Room waiters on Raft Day. But how do you make a good staff meal? It involves clever use of scraps and leftovers, speed and ease of preparation, and of course, taste. Any good ideas for using up product? What's the worst staff meal you've seen?

sleepy time or chamomile tea and cereal, or sometimes a little bowl of oatmeal, with demerara and milk. a waffle with a scoop of ice cream and warm syrup is yum too. i crave something between dessert and breakfast.

Where do I begin? Lots of floor space to move around in, granite counter tops and a large island with sink. Huge stainless Subzero, six burner Vulcan, flattop, a convection oven and a wood burning oven ( it could be inside or out, I won't complain!), and all manner of fatty appliances...most importantly a Vita Mix Blender. Proofing cabinet would be nice.

Coke. Served very, very cold, straight up and from the can or glass bottle, which should be plucked from a cooler with lots of ice and water in it. But Dr. Pepper is my favorite sode, served in the same manner.

I'm in DC and here we call it soda. But...my cousin from Chicago says pop, my St. Louisian friends remain divided between pop and soda, and around here you ask for coke and you'll need a straw but not because it's soda. Oh, and I say water fountain, but in New England they seem to say bubbler. Well, BUBB-LAH if they got the accent goin' on.

"Gotch," grape soda and scotch. My brother invented this drink when we were in high school and just didn't know any better. Tang and Vodka was a college standby...my room mates and I used to toast to Wally Lamb when drinking these. Very "she's come undone."

but if they used this to showcase the food at El Bulli, we'd all applaud and call it brilliant. Not necessarily... we're not all under the thrall of the Foam King... Thenks, lala. Ferran Adria is obviously a talented and successful guy, but the foam thing is strange.

Oh my Oh my O my! This guy is a nut! Very carefully baked? The cutesy adjective thing is really bad.

I echo what most people have said about Kitching's bizarre attitude towards other forms of red meat. Sirloin, flank, hangar, round, butt, chuck, bring it on!! Ribeye is the bomb. I cooked some the other night...smokin' hot pan, tiny drizzle of oil, seared on both sides til' crusty, but perfect rare/med rare inside. I popped them under the broiler (almost touching) for a minute and then slathered on some homemade chimichurri on the broiled side. DA BOMB. And when the meat is cooked over very high heat for a short period of time, the pockets of fat become like butter, and I like it when they sort of "pop" in your mouth!! Vegetarians and non red meat eaters aside, I can not imagine ANYONE not liking that. And as far as his idea of roasting the tenderloin, I'll throw the guy a bone. TENDERloin is just that, as many of you have said; and any idiot who puts some oil and S&P on it would be almost guaranteed success (although not necessarily the most flavorful steak in the world), provided you don't have a brainfart and forget about it thus creating your very own pricey brand of charcoal briquettes. And, on that note, rave reviews aside...i do not think that the height of culinary genius involves toothbrushes, Weetabix, ar anything served on a mirror. Sounds like he's reaching a bit.