DTBarton

Sarcone's is still going strong, both the bakery by Ralph's and the deli on the corner.

Not a DC expert (i.e. can't identify a bulk spice store in the area), but here are a couple of ideas. Try local hispanic markets for a larger selection of the kinds of things you see in the Food Lion latino section. Take a day trip to Philadelphia and go here for lots of spices in bulk (and to shop at all the other cool places in the Italian market): http://www.phillyitalianmarket.com/market/...rner/index.html I've been very satisfied with spices from Penzey and they are available in large sizes at bargain prices: http://www.penzeys.com/cgi-bin/penzeys/shophome.html

I agree with canucklehead also. The difference comes from the thickness, the kneading, and to a large degree the fact that the wonton wrapper is just flour and water, no eggs like you use in homemade pasta dough. If you use semolina flour for your pasta, that's a difference also. I've tried using wonton skins for ravioli and it wasn't my favorite, but that's just me. Interested in hearing about anyone else's results

Here are some other online resources: http://www.solarcookers.org/index.html http://www.cookwiththesun.com/ http://www.sunoven.com/

As far as procuring half smokes, I've gotten good ones at the Laurel Meat Market on old Main street. I think the brand is Kuntzler, if you buy a case they come in a yellow box with Pennsylvania Dutch style hex signs on it, made in Lancaster PA or thereabouts. Available in hot or mild!

The line of demarcation between the moniker hoagie and sub is not far south of Philadelphia. I also grew up in Delaware and was weaned on Italian subs from the Penny Hill sub shop, although now I hit Casapulla's in Glasgow. Those subs were so popular with my grandparents that my folks would carry them to Texas on the plane when we visited. I remember going to Philadelphia as a teenager and thinking the name hoagie was odd. Even in Delaware, cheesesteaks were their own entity, not referred to as a sub or hoagie (unless one ordered the "cheesesteak sub, which meant you wanted all the salad type toppings on your cheesesteak). I do agree that the Post writer overused the sub name, especially since it's nearly impossible to get a decent one anywhere in the DC area. I should know as I live about 25 miles east of DC and it's like the Sahara desert of good subs.

For mtigges: Duck sauce is what a sweet/fruit sauce served in American/Chinese restaurants is called. You get it and hot mustard with egg rolls. All Chinese american restaurants have 2 million small plastic packets of it on hand (I think it's a law). Personally, I don't like the Duck sauce packets, too sweet and cloying. God forbid you put it on duck, but i guess you could rub it on the duck skin before cooking. Haven't tried to make it. However, recently the wife showed up with a store bought bottle of a similar item. The brand is Maesri and the product is Authentic Thai spring roll sauce. http://www.maesribrand.com/Bottle.htm This stuff is really good. I notice that the first bottle on the list is plum sauce (a la mtigges) and it looks similar. The spring roll sauce is not as thick and sweet as Yi-Pin or Wa-Yoan duck sauce packets and the fruit flavors are much more real and pronounced. I think she got it at Whole Foods.

I had a chat with a butcher I frequent in Annapolis yesterday. http://www.thebutchersblock.net/ He said he doesn't sell stuffed hams due to the risk of food poisoning if they're not cooked to a high enough internal temperature. There was a somewhat celebrated case of this a few years back where several people were sickened after eating stuffed ham at a church dinner. He will get you a corned ham if you want to make your own. I think the risk is minimal. Since you start with a corned ham, there shouldn't be much danger of inadequate cooking (the ham's already cured and the stuffing doesn't have anything that would hurt you even if you ate it raw). My guess is the church story, which is now urban legend, was more the result of improper storage (inadequate refrigeration) than improper cooking.

I don't know if you can get them without driving a bit to the south, but I see them advertised every spring. Here's a link to a Southern maryland forum that tells of several places to obtain stuffed ham: http://forums.somd.com/life-southern-maryl...tuffed-ham.html Sounds like at least one of those places (J.W. Dent and sons) might send you one. Nick's (in Clinton, Prince Frederick, Waldorf) sells them and it's not too far south. Call first to check on availability. I'll post again if I see some of the ads this year I've seen before.

The first thing I saw on the Food network was Sara Moulton's show that was broadcast live. It was pretty entertaining, especially when she would get the most inane phone calls and questions that she had to try and handle with aplomb. I was disappointed when she stopped doing the live show. She was prescient in predicting the dumbing down of the Food network. Right after she left, she said in an interview that they weren't that interested in doing serious cooking anymore and were taking the network in a different direction. How right she was!

I live in central Maryland and you can find stuffed hams in the spring if you keep your eyes open. Look in the food sections of local newspapers on Wednesdays and you'll probably find an ad for a church that's making them. Some butchers also take special orders for them this time of year. A Google search turns up many recipes. As luck would have it, the New York Times has a piece about stuffed ham today. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html...751C1A964948260

Perhaps during the transition you could offer one or two of the items from the old menu as specials.

You could make a large batch of posole. Most posole recipes call for pork shoulder, but you could use chops or steaks instead. The last batch I made I used a loin roast (basically chops on the hoof) and it was wonderful. It freezes very well, better after the freezing really. http://www.reluctantgourmet.com/posole.htm The recipe doesn't mention it (the comment touches on this), but you really want to have garnishes to serve with posole. We like chopped cilantro and fresh limes to squeeze in. Another good one is shredded iceberg lettuce. This sounds weird but we had it served that way in Cabo San Lucas and it works well.

Agreed, with "informed" and "accurate" being key words. I'd also add calm and rational to the list. We've all run into people who are never satisfied or who are taking their bad day out on the dinner plate.

I think there's really no wrong answer to what sides to serve with what mains. You can look to compliment the main course in flavors and textures (kind of the classic continental approach, warm meat with warm starch and warm vegetables) o rlook to contrast flavors and textures (many Asian cuisines use this approach, combining hot, cold, soft, crunchy in a meal, and often in the same dish). I usually make up my mind as to the way I want to go with sides then make my final choices based on what looks best and freshest in the store.

I like to serve tuna (usually pan seared rare, but raw would work) with a short cooked tomato sauce of: Olive oil small bit garlic diced sweet onion fresh or good canned plum tomatoes, chopped 3 or 4 diced anchovy fillets 5 diced black olives juice of 1/2 lemon salt and pepper to taste Ingredient quality makes a big difference here, worth it to use good EVOO, tomatoes, anchovies, and olives. Saute the garlic and onion for a couple minutes. Add the anchovy and olive for a couple minutes. Add the tomatoes and simmer a few minutes until flavors blend. Add the lemon juice a little at a time, tasting until it's lemony enough. Slice the tuna and nap with a discreet amount of sauce. Crusty bread or croutes are good with it.

Thanks for the ideas. I've heard others say Uncle's is good, have to make a point to be in Islamorada for dinner. Have heard some other recommendations for Marathon, but they were short on specifics (name, location, little things like that!). Fish Tails sounds like it's right up our alley.

Once again took our annual pilgrimage to south Florida and the Keys. Had some good eats, but not as good as past years. Michy's in Miami was the highlight (see post in Michy's thread). Noticed on the way to Key West that the building that houses Fishcutters (mile 25, Summerland Key) was for sale. Don't know if they're still open, but would be sorry to see them go. Highlights in Key West were both breakfasts. First was at Blue Heaven on Patagonia, our first visit. We both had specials, shrimp and grits and an avacado and onion omelette with salsa and black bean sauce. Both superb. Returned a few days later with friends and got somewhat indifferent eggs benedict (good, but cold, had been sitting, seemed that upstairs is not the place to sit for service) and undercooked, doughy blueberry pancakes. Always happens when you rave and take someone, eh? Our other great breakfast was at Pepe's on Caroline, excellent BLT and corned beef hash and poached eggs. Simple but good and wonderful fresh squeezed OJ. Went to the highly acclaimed Mangia Mangia pasta cafe http://www.mangia-mangia.com/ and for the life of us couldn't figure out where the acclaim came from. Not being famished, we ordered salad and simple pasta with marinara and meat sauces. Wife's was just OK, mine was nearly inedible (the meat sauce) overly sweet AND salty. This is homemade? Ragu would have given this sauce a serious challenge. Maybe we hit a terrible night? Running on reputation? Oddly, the wine list is huge and weighty and totally out of proportion with the modest menu and surroundings (vertical tasting of Chateau Latour at a pasta bar?), so the owner is writing off his own wine cellar with the restaurant. Went to Camille's http://www.camilleskeywest.com/ on a few local recommendations. Salad of greens, pears, and gorgonzola was very nice. Entrees were mediocre and too large. Delicate snapper overwhelmed by other flavors on the plate and chewy lamb chops on a ridiculously large bed of tasty spinach in balsamic dressing. Enough spinach for a table of 6. Stopped at our old standby the Fish House in Key Largo for lunch on the way back north. A little disappointing there as well. We had grilled grouper and fried dolphin sandwiches. The fish was nicely fresh as always, but both were overcooked, something we had never had there. I also got some smoked fish to take out, which had been very good in previous years. This time it was so oversmoked and dry I threw it out. Oh well. One last interesting note. Had barbecue at a hole in the wall in Hobe Sound (south of Stuart) called CW's on route 1. http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2005/jul/27/bth...nd-offers-ribs/ The food was very good, especially the beef brisket. Zero atmosphere, zero service, incredibly slow, huge portions. I recommend this place for take out. Stop by, get a menu. phone in your order and go get it in an hour or something.

Hit Michy's again for two nights last week. Still very impressed with the food and service. All excellent were the fois gras on the corn cake, the polenta (replacing the pancetta with wild mushrooms was a great idea), gnocchi with duck sausage, ceviche (garnished with corn nuts, fun, innovative, and good), bread pudding and baked alaska. We also got an order of country ham to go with raw oysters, a combo that worked out well to our southern palates. Good, but not as impressive to us was the pork belly with clams. I don't think this piece of pork belly had been cooked as much as the recipe intended, perhaps. Service was first rate from all involved. Very nice recommendations from the sommelier, and since we went two nights in a row, we were treated like returning royalty the second night. Greeted by the chef, who was spending a good bit of Friday night in the front of the house, they sent us many gratis goodies. Glasses of sparking wine with croquettes to start and a stunning sweet sherry to finish with our baked alaska. Nice to be treated that way for simply being a repeat customer, not "somebody".

i totally agree with the notion that an accomplished server can and should read the mood of the table and use that to set the pace. Within reason with respect to business, need to turn tables, etc. In my experience, we have the too fast problem much more often than the too slow.

It's occurred to me lately that there's a lot of good information around about old school cooking and ingredients. I think that's great. The only thing that bugs me a bit is the pretentiousness of some of it, everything's artisinal or organic, free range or hormone free, small batch or hand made or local. Not that there's anything wrong with that, I just think it's a little overblown sometimes, a little fancied up unnecessarily. I was thinking about my grandparents and how they cooked and I realized that in many ways, they were doing this stuff 50 to 70 years ago without the pretense, it was just the way it was. My father's mother made a terrific dish she called beef and noodles. It was basically pot roast and gravy mixed with homemade noodles. She hand rolled the noodles and cut them with a knife and hung them on chair backs all over the kitchen to dry. She also made great corn meal mush. It never occurred to her in Texas (or Oklahoma growing up) that she was making artisinal, hand made pasta and homemade, stone ground polenta. My mother's father grew a large garden as he had been raised on a farm in western Virginia. This was an absolute necessity during the depression in the Shenandoah Valley. My grandmother cooked the fresh vegetables, canned all kinds of stuff, bought their meat and eggs at the Farm Bureau co-op. Obviously part of the modern move towards better local ingredients etc. is that it harkens back to simpler times. Perhaps we could describe it in simpler terms. Might make some things cost less too without the flowery adjectives.

Brunswick stew. Cover turkey carcass and bones with salt and pepper and roast in 375 oven until browned and sizzling. Put in soup pot with chopped onion and celery, bay leaf. Cover with chicken or turkey stock and bring to boil. Add a small can of chopped tomatoes, adjust salt and pepper, cover and simmer for an hour. Add a can of corn, some frozen lima beans, and chopped lefover turkey meat. Cover and simmer another 20 minutes to an hour. Let sit for a while or overnight and reheat to serve. Serve with ham biscuits to use up that ham.

I haven't been myself, but Matchbox has gotten good reviews for mini burgers, pizza, and fun. http://www.matchboxdc.com/index.shtml It's right in the Verizon center neighborhood and might be right for post concert knoshing.

Agree with the limited toppings, the pizza analogy is apt. I like to use grated cheese (sharp cheddar or pepper jack or both), refried beans (we get a brand locally called Ducal in a green can, refried black beans from Guatemala that are very tasty), and a little leftover chili. Broil and when they come out, scatter some diced onion, diced tomato, and shredded iceberg lettuce on top. Wife is more partial to guac and sour cream than I am.

I always pre cook the lasagna noodles a bit. I find if I don't, it messes up the moisture content, and texture, of the finished product, i.e. the noodles absorb almost all the moisture in the dish. I like to make a lasagna with bechamel flavored with wild mushrooms, a little diced sauteed pancetta, and a layer of cheese similar to a cheese ravioli filling, fresh ricotta, mixed with egg, parmesan, romano, black pepper and a little chopped parsley.