jparrott

For Chateau potatoes, the "cover and cook on low heat" technique sounds a lot like cooking a stew. I cook all my stews in the oven at about 225-250F, which is enough once it starts simmering. What oven temp would maintain the right cooking environment when the medium is butter?

Wrong, Jpw. Montgomery County is the only controlled COUNTY in the US. They do a truly shitty job. Maryland law pertaining to corkage is set at the county level. Illegal in Montgomery, legal in Howard and Baltimore City (obviously up to resto's policy).

CG and BV's are considerably more expensive (good steaks, though), with crap wines at the bar. BdC is about the same with crap wines at the bar and no valet parking.

Les Halles's non-Cote-de-Boeuf steaks are far too thin (and, I suspect, their grill not quote hot enough) to differentiate consistently between med-rare, med, and med-well. So order rare or order the cote-de-boeuf. Les Halles does not suck. Its bar is as well-stocked (or better) than most higher-end restos. And it's open at 3PM on a Sunday. And they make some darn good ice cream. And the tartare's better than BdC (as have been the frites recently, judging from more than one visit to both). And they have good, cheap bourgueil and chinon on the list, which on the whole is miles better than BdC's.

Would the next person traveling from NO to NYC please bring our esteemed leader the makings of a Sazerac??

So does Pride .

I thought last year's was the regular maibock. I certainly remember one of the casks they sold as "spring brew" was a saaz bock--what they bottled, I'm not 100% sure, but I seem to remember the bartenders saying that the CO2 spring brew at the brewpub was a saaz also.

I surely hope you thought it was out of balance as in leaning too heavily on the hoppy side. For me, that's an endorsement! Yum. The hop level was fine. The alcohol was out of balance.

Honestly, I tasted this and thought it was way out of balance and didn't hold a candle to last year's spring brew (a saaz bock). YMMV.

When's the WV ramp festival?? (I know, wrong board, but it's close).

Cooked up the Wegman's dry-aged prime ribeye I bought last night--very, very good, at least as good as the dry-aged that Whole Foods occasionally sells, and right up there with Sutton Place's. My only quibble is the slightly thin cut (mine was 1lb, didn't see any in the case that were much larger or smaller) and the apparent unavailability of bone-in cuts. Still, now that I live west of Manassas (i.e., where the dragons are on all those medieval maps), it's nice not to have to schlep in any further to get pretty good beef.

Har.

It has to be--NJ state law.

Just got back from the new Wegman's...if you're familiar with the Princeton store, it's very familiar, with the addition of a wine shop (decent) in the middle. Good prices on some high-end wines (Beringer PR for <$80, etc). It's everything you'd expect from a Wegman's. They have four levels of beef--Sunnyside's "Virginia Kobe" (everything but the Hanger-drat), dry-aged prime (nothing bone-in, picked up a ribeye to try tonight), prime and choice (better prices than Giant). Full d'Artagnan line, except the raw foie gras. Fresh ham, veal shoulder, sweetbreads, quail. Decent cookery products section (though I didn't find the bench scraper I want). Yellowfoots, bluefoots, porcini (kinda dry), black truffles (only $500/lb, so probably not Perigord). Spiegelau basic stems for $7 each. Not that many extra specials--Dominion Winter Brew was $5/6pk (and the brewery is now out of it), but a lot of things at less than Giant regular prices. There were 400 people lined up at 6:45 am. By the time we left, at 8:15, overflow parking spilled out into the streets around the store. It's a great store. And it's a mob-and-a-half right now.

That's a bit strange, I must say...perhaps the waitron didn't hear you right or something. I love Les Halles. It fills a niche, food-wise, which is all I've ever needed it to. And (even more so for the DC location) it's a great place to have a serious drink in the middle of a Sunday afternoon. I remember (foggily :-) ) spending the better part of one Sunday mid-aft with a friend at the Park Ave. LH, tasting armagnacs.

How long can you hold spuds that have gone through the first stage of the mash technique (the 160F stage)? Can you freeze? Fridge?

Is it just me, or does it sound like the minibar's menu hasn't changed very much in four months. Are they still serving tomatoes in February? I'd like to see a little more seasonal focus.

You can get Junipero from Best Cellars the wine store on Connecticut in North Dupont, love the stuff for Martinis. If only I could find some good olives. :) Colin Riggs sorry wrong thread Continuing off topic....good...I noticed that Bacchus picked it up recently, so maybe we'll be seeing more of it. (BTW, Junipero is the only gin I take straight up--my preferred martini is an orthodox 3:1 with Bombay dry....but now I'm way off topic).

Thanks for the tip -- I work right around the corner from there. I got tired of the blank stares when I'd ask for Herbsaint, so I'd given up and just used Ricard in my Sazeracs. That'll change tonight! Incidentally, Potomac Wines & Spirits also is the only place you can (or could, haven't checked recently) get Zwack Unicum in DC, that wonderfully horrible Hungarian herbal liquor. Heck of a place for obscure spirits. Looks like just another liquor store from the outside, but they've got Herbsaint (like $11/btl), Peychaud's, the araks that I like (picked up the taste for them at Zaytinya), all the strange bourbons. No Junipero from what I saw, but please reconfirm if you get a chance. That said, I'd never buy wine from them. Storage there is really not so good.

Those of you in the DC area, Potomac Wines & Spirits on M St. in Georgetown has, get this, Herbsaint and Peychaud's bitters...never seen either of them before up here--the guy says he hand-imports them (love those DC liquor laws). They also have Old Potrero in miniatures :-). Overholt is pretty readily available up here as well. So I'm drinking a darn fine Sazerac right this second, if I say so myself :-). Love this working from home stuff :-).

Then she better want to drink champers with all of her meals there...check out the description of the wine list.

IMO, Sazerac tastes too much like bourbon--too oaky, not the little bit of snap I want when I drink Rye vs. when I drink bourbon or Rum. Van Winkle's rye's are great, as is Potrero, tho Potrero is some hardcore stuff (cask strength--my last bottle was 63.6% abv, I think).

Gotta be champagne. Too much stuff going on on that menu to try to be too precise.

Aldo Molina, the colourful and skilled former cheese buyer at Dean & Deluca, is now at Arrowine in North Arlington. The counter there now looks conspicuously like the old one at D&D, but the prices are about 25-30% less. He also is now working again with Tito, his protege from the old D&D days. Disclaimer: I have no connection with Arrowine. MOF, if Aldo wasn't there, I'd probably not set foot in the place.

The "wine-o Cru" that I usually hang out with at Lavandou (tj and I have missed paths a few times over on the eBob board, I think) brings our own corkscrews, glasses, and decanters...when you have 21 bottles for eight people, like one of our tastings there, we don't want/need the waiters helping out, and we certainly don't want to take up every glass in creation. Each of us usually brings 3 or 4 glasses, so they can save something to let it air, or taste something alongside something else from a later flight, or whatever.