baranoouji

Mmm. I have to confess that Italian stores around here haven't been the same since my visit to Boston. (A kingdom for some pignolis!) Thank you for the tip, though.

I'm Filipino, so I can say that the one next to Little Quiapo is pretty good. I prefer Mabuhay in Springfield, mainly because of the availability of tasty snacks like cuchinta and hopiang munggo. Thanks for reminding me, because I've been meaning to drag my fiancé out for some lechon baboy and halo-halo. I'll PM now for the D.C. stuff. Thank you for your fabulous helpfulness!

Fried chicken livers?! I must know more. Where are these Popeyes? Personally, I love with a secret and guilty delight: -Popeyes spicy chicken. Especially the fatty parts... -McDonald's sausage egg mcmuffin. Death on a paper wrapping, but so good... -McDonald's apple pie thingy. Oooh. Two for a dollar? Don't mind if I do! -Clam strips. Though except in New England, it's always a bitter disappointment. -Subway sweet onion chicken teriyaki sandwiches, with extra sauce if the sandwich people can be conned into doing so. -Anything fried from Chik-fil-A. :swoon:

The Melting Pot is a fun place if you're going with friends. Better food can be had elsewhere (I'm thinking about the salad and main courses), but the whole skewer-and-dip thing is very fun. Though if you have a fondue set-up at home, I'd say just stay home! The best courses are the cheese course and the dessert course -- though I'd steer away from the cheddar and beer fondue. The main courses are trendy without actual tastiness and heavy to boot, and are best avoided. What personally squicks me out the most is the hideously officious service that I always seem to get at these places.

Thank you! I am really impressed with the area's diversity in terms on markets. If impressed means "going to eat a lot in the next few years" that is.

Bacalao! Thanks ever so much.

Squab's probably the only thing that would fit in my fridge. I wish I was kidding, but I am not.

c_ruark told me about this Chantico stuff. He also mentioned something about 540 kCal per serving? :boggle: I think this stuff must be basically be liquid truffles!

Yes, palm sugar is very cool. I hate to say it, but the reason that I think Thai salads are so great is probably due to that stuff. (I must have been a hummingbird in a past life.) Actually, the neat this is that I can walk from my apartment to Bangkok 54 -- my apartment is in the complex up Walter Reed Ave. I kid you not! I saw some very favorable reviews so we will have to screw up our courage and trudge in the bone-chilling cold. I may lose some toes, but I do like me some curry.

Thanks. I'll have to try somewhere else besides Lotte and Super H. Though I love them with a great deal of irrational affection!

Oooh, that sounds great. I know there's also a Middle-Eastern bakery by Duangrat's/Rabieng -- it's across the street by Neisha Thai. But I haven't tried it yet -- we always get waylaid by Duangrat's desserts.

Grasshopper, when you can put this pebble in your shopping cart (and not have a horde of Asian mothers yelling at you), then you are ready for Super-H.

I confess to liking their snacky, prepared foods and wines. They are good for private snacking and for when I am throwing a super-drunk party and have eaten through the first group of hors d'oeuvres.

Thanks for the tips! Is the farmer's market year-round? As far as the whole hypermarket trends: I admit to being a big fan of Super H and Wegman's. (Though Weggies is admittedly quite a drive from MD.)

Thanks a bunch for the tips. We live right by the Columbia Pike library, so we've seen the Harris Teeter. Hopefully, I'll get to check out the wine and cheese places at some point! :mmmm wineandcheese:

Well, we moved to Arlington this week and the cupboard is bare. Okay, technically the cupboard isn't empty. It has risotto, clam sauce, dry spaghetti, and a lot of anchovies. The freezer will have duck legs confit from D'Artagnan (a housewarming present) and currently has a bottle of strawberry wine. Yet man cannot live on duck legs and strawberry wine forever. (We'll try, though.)So this means shopping. I can walk to a Giant's, I can walk to a Safeway, but I want the down-low from local denizens: are there good fishmongers, butchers, ethnic markets, farmer's markets? -Most Cordially, E. PS. Filling the pantry is always another challenge. I tend to be a better cook when restricted -- I like to improvise ingredients from the cupboard. Buying ingredients makes my head hurt!

Oh, a restaurant recommendation: Cowboy Cafe in Adams Square shopping center. Very cute: breakfast all day, all sorts of hamburgers, and chess and checkers available behind the bar. Sadly, they'll be closing in June, leaving only one location open.

What a timely topic! We just moved to Arlington last weekend -- right off Columbia Pike. From my house, we walked down to Matuba for dinner. (Pretty good, a little older looking than the one in Bethesda. Also... no eel in a sake box? Feh.) - E.

People! It is all about Good Humor's Chocolate Candy Crunch. The components are: 1. Outer chocolate shell with a suspiciously waxy mouth-feel. Mmm, suspiciously waxy! 2. Innocuous vanilla layer. 3. Inner chocolate candy with MORE suspiciously waxy mouth-feel. Oh man... They sell them in D.C. by the museums and on passing ice-cream trucks. I believe that they are about 350 kCal per stick but I justify the guilt by sharing them with my sweetie as breakfast before we go to the Sackler.

My very first "serious" dish was cream puffs. No jest here, I was 13 and had a few home ec classes under my belt. I wanted cream puffs and my chef-inclined sister had just moved away, and by God I was going to have cream puffs. Three hours later, with the kitchen looking like a wreck, I had perfectly produced cream puffs. (I didn't really believe that they would actually puff up so I destroyed a few to check and see if they actually had holes.) They were delicious and lasted one evening under intense grazing from my family. As far as my first stab at cooking for my fiancé, it was when I was a freshman in college -- I stopped by his apartment with two dishes of tiramisu! With my schedule nowadays, he tends to take care of dinner... but I have been known to braise porkchops and make tuna au poivre for him. [Hi, this is my first post...]