eunny jang

Ham and cheese sandwiches on Wonder bread to eat with our toes in the water at Assateague. Soggy on one side from the ice in the cooler. Sat on the tailgate of the truck and put potato chips in the sandwich to compensate for sogginess. Watched the sun set over the island. Brushed sand out of our sandwiches. Apples Green grapes Beer.

I've only ever had skate in hamheung hwe naeng-myun in the Korean restaurants here in D.C. - it's always tasted very sweet and only vaguely fishy or sea-like.

ooohhh...sandwich of white bread, mayonnaise, salt, cracked black pepper, lots of parsley, and piles of shaved white onion. Something about it always knocks me out. This midnight snack is for sleeping alone, of course.

I'm definitely in this time.

Soviet Sodomy Safeway here (although I've never heard it referred to as either of those; maybe I just haven't been paying attention). Although it's small, it's not so bad for grocery basics, and even sturdy produce. My only real problem with it is how freaking crowded it is - it's ridiculous to even contemplate navigating a cart around inside. And anyone who thinks they can just pop in to pick up some greens for tonight's salad and be out in five minutes is sorely misinformed: I've never waited less than ten minutes on line. I'll walk or drive to Whole Foods on P for meat, fish and decent produce. I'll also stop by the huuuge Han Ah Rheum by my office to see what looks good at their fish counter. On occasion, I'll go to the tiny little bodega-ish place on 17th next to Safeway for dried beans and spices and the uglier parts of pigs.

Of course cigarettes. Midnight snack of champions.

I am resurrecting this old topic because I saw skate for $1.99/lb at the fish market this weekend, and have been dying to purchase some and cook it. The only way I've eaten skate, though, is as raw sashimi in Korean naeng-myun bowls. Can anyone answer some questions for a cooked-skate neophyte? 1) What I've gleaned from this thread is that quality can be really hit-and-miss. I guess, if it smells bad don't buy it. Any more specific tips? Should I buy it and cook it the same day? 2) How do I skin it? The skate I saw had the skin on. If I bread it and fry it, I'd have to do that after skinning, right? 3) Simple preparations? I've gotten some good ideas from this thread, but would like more details from anyone who has a favorite recipe. Au beurre noir-ish, or more complex preparations? What would complement the cooked flavor of the flesh? I'm used to chile paste and vinegar for the sashimi.

More damp and rain here. The obvious answer: grilled cheese sandwiches with bacon, tomato and a scrape of grainy mustard, and tomato soup out of a can. Ahhh.

Cute, in a nails-on-a-chalkboard kind of way

I just had lunch at a vegetarian Southern Indian place, Madras Palace, in the sad little strip mall across from my office (cross of Clopper and Quince Orchard in Gaithersburg) - a pretty sizable spread of good-looking food for less than ten bucks. The saag paneer actually tasted of something other than spinach; the potato dosa was crackly-crisp to the point of shattering when you broke it; the chana masala was pleasantly tart and the chickpeas were, as far as I could tell, dried beans that had been soaked and long cooked, not mushy from a stint inside a can. Lots of vegetable dishes that were new to me as well. Best of all, no one blinks an eye if you practically fill your plate with lemon pickle and tamarind sauce. Very sketchy decor - I guess it used to be a Shakey's, and it shows - but service was kind and the food was really rather good. Please note that I haven't been to Woodlands, and have virtually no experience with southern Indian food, so I may be completely off base on this. Now, I can get my Indian fix here while at work - the closest Indian place to my apartment is whatever that awful restaurant is on Connecticut, just above S or T.

Ha, that's funny, because my idea of hell would be boneless, skinless ANYTHING - no bones or cartilage or tendon or marrow, ever.

Horrendous cold grey rain in DC, not April showers/May flowers but sidewise-slicing wet. Super-simple recreation of what mom made on a Monday night when everyone felt terrible and it was ugly outside: tiny 3.5lb chicken roasted in nothing but its own rosemary-stuffed skin with a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Mashed Idahos, lumpy and saturated with milk and butter. String beans in butter and lemon. Fantastic dripping-wine-stock pan gravy that would make your grandmother weep. Plain-jane food, but oh, how good it was!

I'll take on faith that this is indeed a time-saving mechanism, and not an attempt at manipulating the customer. Why, then, can't the server simply state, "I'll be right back with this." Granted, it's two words more than asking "Do you need change?" but it can't in any way be interpreted as rude, and it makes more sense and covers all the bases if the server has no idea if the folder holds cash or a card. The customer is then open to say, "Thanks," or, "Oh no, we're on our way out." If the diner does need change, say to split a $20, then he should specifically mention that anyway. Such an easy solution, so much better than a tersely worded, "Need change?" and the implied, "if you don't, then hurry up and get out."

I made myself Judy Rogers' fried eggs with breadcrumbs. Used a little watercress tossed in vinaigrette to mop up the spilled yolk and stray crumbs. Big mug of Lady Grey poured over Evian(!) ice and cigarettes.

Funny how people come out of the woodwork to toss around tired cliches about Baltimore when there is an opportunity to kiss a celeb's rear end, isn't it? Bah. No one said it was good. In fact, I think we've mostly talked about it in a "yep, that's classic Baltimore <roll of the eyes>" kind of way. I think there have been few threads started on or questions asked about Baltimore. I'm still pretty new, so if indeed the replies on this thread exist only because our provincial panties are in a bunch over a Big Time Celebrity Type deigning to discuss our region with us, please correct me.

Is it brewed somewhere else, or just gone? Can't imagine it would have the same funky, yet oddly bland flavor brewed somewhere else. Ohhh, man, Natty Bo! I didn't even know this existed until a month ago, when I was at a seedy little warehouse of a club near Lexington Market to hear an aquaintance's band play. They were selling cans of Natty Bo for a dollar a pop at the bar. Since then, I have learned what a ripoff this is, since you can buy a case of it for less than ten dollars in some liquor stores. Yummm, Natty Bo. Like drinking sugary water. Dig the little one-eyed Baltimore man on the can.

Ohh, man....this is absolutely beautiful. This makes me weep with pleasure, especially in light of the Chipotle burrito I ate last night.

I would think that you would just first stir the dry pasta in oil/butter in a pan, then add a ladleful of hot stock, stir till absorbed, and keep going until the pasta was done to your liking. But I'm confused as to why one would do this: isn't the whole point of going through the laborious add stock-stir-add stock-stir process of making risotto to coax the starch in the rice into becoming that silky glaze in the finished dish? Would dry seminola act the same way? It seems like a lot of labor.

Anything deep-fried. I always burn something, spill something, forget to pat something dry, knock over each and every one of the dishes holding the components of a bound breading, leaving a big sticky wad of eggs, flour and breadcrumbs on my floors. My apartment gets cloudy with oil, to boot. bah. I think I'll go to Popeye's.

Approaching-wallet-crisis dinner just for me: Cooked shaved onions dry in a covered skillet until they stopped giving up liquid. Added liberal amounts of olive oil, uncovered, cooked to soft and pasty. Tossed with linguini with fine lengthwise ridges, perfect for grabbing every drop of flavored oil. Lots of parmesan, salt and pepper to balance the candy-sweetness of the onions. Watercress tossed with a caeser-ish dressing with lots of anchovy, more parmesan and lemon. Cigarettes.

Susan: beautiful photos, as always. Many covetous glances from me throughout the day I had one perfect omelet made with cheese and ham. I used only two eggs, but one had a twinned yolk. The consistency was just right for me. Of course, it was perfect only out of sheer luck. My omelet-rolling technique needs serious work - I can never seem to coax the pretty cigar shape I need. Tips from anyone more experienced than I?

Or even more simply, toss with hot pasta, olive oil, lots of parmesan and lots of roughly cracked black pepper. Even better if you fry a few sage leaves in the oil before tossing.

I know the poster is looking for eggs benedict specifically, but here's a wholly different suggestion. This restaurant's not the greatest, but I've had lots of fun on a Sunday morning with their brunch menu: the Grill from Ipanema on Columbia in Adams Morgan offers a menu with a number of decent entrees, ho-hum salad and dessert and a rail drink for something like $15.00. If you order the moqueca with mussels (order it WITH palm oil and coconut, bad-fat city), extra spicy, you will get: a very spicy tomato-based broth bubbling in a lavastone bowl, so hot in temperature your sinuses clear when the waiter sets it down in front of you. It will be salty and savory with soft bits of onion and cilantro and silky with palm oil. The mussels will be unremarkable, but servicable and of a good size. A big plate of rice and silky, sauce-like yucca puree with fish and more onion will be plunked down in front of you. Ignore this and eat the moqueca with a soup spoon. Pick at the salad if you want; the mustardy house dressing is pretty good but not particularly interesting and the salad is always overdressed. Eat lots of rolls to alleviate any aftereffects of the napalm you've just swallowed - bland and white and crusty and very, very hot - use liberal amounts of butter. Order the cheese and guava paste plate for dessert. With a bloody mary doctored with horseradish for a bit of the hair of the dog that bit you, this is an excellent hangover breakfast.

This is not an endorsement of a good Thai restaurant. My friend Pino went once to a big, retro (not in the ironic kitchy throwback sense, but in the carrot-curls-presented-as-haute-cuisine-garnish-and-umbrellas-in-the-drinks-with-all-seriousness-sense) Thai restaurant called Old Siam in Gaithersburg, and came back with this little glimpse into the workings of a not-too-concientious kitchen: he ordered the green curry with shrimp, which was served in a pineapple shell. He assumed the pinapple was meant to be scooped out and eaten with the curry, like you might an avocado filled with crab or somesuch, since the pineapple was only cored, not relieved of the flesh. He finished what he could, and asked the restaurant to pack up the rest and to do him the favor of taking the greens off the top of the fruit, so the package would be less unwieldly. The waiter politely denied the request. When queried as to why it would not be possible, the waiter told him they had to keep the pineapple for the next guest who ordered green curry. It had already been on three tables that night.

Definitely in this time.