eunny jang

Wow!! What about arugula gnocchi or arugula pasta instead of insipid spinach? Would be AWESOME in an amatricia sauce. Must investigate how to preserve the pepperyness through the cooking process. Maybe watercress is the (off-topic) answer here.

I think this is the best idea yet, and the slice of local color you're looking for, Holly. I don't think it's exceptionally good, but it's certainly fun and very DC.

I think the problem here is that much as the idea of a slice-of-America old-timers-playing-dominos-and-trading-war-stories greasy-spoon local-legend mom-and-pop out-of-the-way sandwich shop or diner or rib shack or soda fountain appeals to all of us, many of them just aren't very good. It's like going to a famous dive bar and finding that not does it suck all on its own, but the bulk of its business now comes from yuppies like me looking for a "dive experience". DC has 'em, but I don't think they're in the "justly-famous-local-hole-in-the-wall-with-great-food" category that may exist in other cities. They just kind of exist, coasting along on wheels slicked by the off-tasting grease and cracked Formica that fool people into thinking they must be authentic and therefore really good.

Johnny's for the lunchtime dog? Re: 7-11, I've seen people buy hot dogs (and even worse, the "taquitos") at the 17th and R one. Someone please let me out of this glass house

I certainly wasn't commenting on anyone's dietary choices and restrictions. I guess I should have said, "barring sodium restrictions or other limitations, there ought to be." I think most people here (without such paramaters they must work within) salt their pasta water and assume others do the same. I think I just made an ASS out of ME this time. Sorry!

Because there ought to be Just as when you boil potatoes, it's your only opportunity to season the pasta itself.

I know what you mean - I hate roasting chickens bigger than three and a half pounds (and that's the the verrrrrry upper limit of what I deem acceptable), mostly because I really think that a smaller chicken has a greater skin/fat-to flesh ratio and is therefore tastier and more succulent and holds up to high-heat roasting better. I think the little ones all get chopped up for the parts market though.

Old Town Alexandria, VA, I think. It's just a burger, though. I think it's really overrated, and it's just the old-school thing that appeals to people. Clickety

Buy 'em at the Asian markets. I saw a box at Grand Mart (DC) for $2.10 last weekend. Edited to add, how perverse that this thread started as a plea for ideas to use up a glut of them, and has turned into "how do I get more for less?" Very eG

This brings to mind something here in Baltimore that I call the pit beef - porno connection. Where you find one, you will find the other. (With the notable exception of the Block, downtown, it is an outlying area rule.) For a reason that I don't understand, I like thinking about a big construction worker type all hopped up on the sight of nekkid ladies chowing down on a beef sandwich the size of his head. Disturbing yet perfect imagery. ← This makes the name of "Club Bunns" on Lexington Street even more frightening. Edited to say: remove a few words of your choice from the following statement, rearrange them if you like to cheat, and it can be hysterically obscene Whistling as I work, Eunny

Am I a bad person for thinking that, given suitable amounts of mood-altering substances, this would be really good?

MSG is the chemical equivalent, for those who don't like to mess about with all that woo-woo ever-elusive indefinable and impossible-to-pin-down Japanese talk about "meatiness" and "savory-ness". I mean, who has the patience? Better to shake it out of a jar. What if there's a vast conspiracy out there among better restaurants, with everyone secretly adding msg to everything? Mysteries and in-jokes abound...

What do people eat at places where go-go dancing happens (one of the only truly native contributions to the, uh, arts to come out of Washington, right?)?

Ahh! One of my favorite subjects. Do you mean butcher a raw chicken, or carve a finished bird at the table? Here is an excellent illustrated guide to butchering a chicken.

Hmm. There is a similar topic floating around here.... I think you'd probably find some of what you're looking for at some of the soul-food carry-outs, but the ugly truth is that the neighborhoods that house many of them are not particularly friendly. The Florida Avenue Grill, maybe. Madam's Organ advertises itself as a blues bar and soul food restaurant, but I'd rather cut out my own eyeballs than go to Adams Morgan at night.

But anchovies don't just add salt, they add murky richness, too - not always particularly fishy, but an almost musty and tongue-coating element. I don't get that from ham, or from chestnuts. Hmmm.

V. mysterious. I can't for the life of me think how chestnuts roasted, boiled or steamed and dry-cured ham could even hint of anchovies. Maybe it was the rockfish. Once again, leaving me to wonder "how do they do it?" Eating out in cool places (which I don't do often) is often spoiled for me, since all I do is sit and quietly wonder how they do this, what technique they use for that...

I just snorted coffee all over my computer monitor. Heh heh heh. Edited to remove terrible obvious joke

Green tabasco was made to be mopped up with the not-so-perfect soggy fries buried at the bottom of the heap.

Ohhhh, how beautiful. I find that live mussels are fine when you purge them for an extended period in water and salt - but I agree that the consistent quality of the frozen NZ mussels vs. the spotty quality of live seafood hardly makes it worth your while.

Green beans blanched and quickly reheated with a balsamic/shallot reduction and some butter are really delicious and a total no-brainer. They're slightly sweet from the vinegar, so even kids will eat it.

There are two kinds of garlic - the sort with a woody stem in the middle of the bulb, which is kept for long storage nad what you probably have in your supermarket bin, and the sort, uh, without, I guess, which is much younger and "juicier". I find that the older sort gives me less trouble when cooking at high heat with it. Though few of us have much choice when it comes to garlic - at least for me, it's pretty much luck of the draw - I'd say keep cooking your stir-fry with what you have on hand, and order out when it doesn't work

Mayo, usually. Ketchup sometimes...malt vinegar sometimes. I used to love to go to Jerry's Subs and Pizza (chain sandwich place; don't know how big it is) and dip their skin-on wedges in this very tart, mildly spicy red pepper relish they had. Tang plus the grease and mealiness of the potato usually does it for me.

Wussy. Texture, man, texture. I always eat the meat seperately, with chopsticks, dipped into a side plate with a dab of hoisin and sriracha. I thought the broth came out of the same cauldron for every bowl of pho they serve??

I think it's all a matter of priorities. I keep Hellman's on hand, but do make my own mayonnaise occasionally, when it's an important part of a dish and I want it to really shine - say an aioli garnish, or homemade mayo for frites. There's no way I'm going to make it in a mortar and pestle every time I want to eat a sandwich. Some people do, and that's cool. I grind my own spices - there are people who'd never do that. I'm fine with storebought bread, but there are people aghast at the idea. It's all about what's important to you. What floors me is people who don't understand this, and judge other people based on this kind of lame-o criteria.