hjshorter

Not Everyone Loves A Smoking Ban (letter to the Washington Post, 2/1/07) The author makes a good point: How long until we see some sales numbers from local businesses?

I might have to start drinking martinis with an olive instead of a twist.

One of the second hand stores in my town has loads of vintage table linens. I recently picked up two dozen linen cocktail napkins, a dozen oversized white linen napkins, and a linen table runner with ten matching placemats for $50. The napkins are monogrammed with someone else's initials, but who cares? Same store sold me a wood "gentleman's armoire" for $40. It has drawers up one side, and a hanging bar on the other. It's in my dining room with all the tablecloths hanging up and napkins, placemats, serving utensils and trivets in the drawers.

Mrs. Busboy and I snuck out to Comet last night and endured a long night of friendly service and very good pizza. We were seated promptly, given printed menus (a new feature), and while we waited a bit for our initial server contact (they were down a server last night), she was friendly and apologetic when she finally got a chance to come around and we were never neglected during our meal. We started with a garlicky caesar salad with house made croutons and a bowl of minestrone with bacon. The soup was a special, delicious and very filling. Mains were white pizza with merguez sausage and a white pie with melted onions and anchovies. The crust here is excellent - yeasty, crunchy, and properly salted - and the toppings are first rate. Many object to Comet's prices but I noticed lat night that some items, like the salads, are less expensive now than they were last fall. The pizzas start at $8.50 for a tomato pie, and toppings add up quickly, but it's not out of line with what 2 Amy's charges. Wine prices have come down too. Total last night for one salad, one soup, three pizzas (one to go), one Tanqueray gimlet, and two half carafes of wine was $96, including tip. The pizza and vibe here suit my taste better than 2 Amy's, where the thrill of waiting with George Stephanopolis, and dining next to Clarence Page has not made up for overcooked, underseasoned pizza and toppings. Comet would get my business all the time if they just opened up a little earlier - 6:15pm is a late start for my little kids. (ETA I was surprised to see Carole Greenwood in the kitchen last night.)

That's a good example. Pollan touched on that in the article too - I think he expressed it as foods that have five or fewer ingredients.

It may not be healthier. But it sure tastes better, and we enjoy it more. And funny enough, it's actually cheaper.

It's more than just "eat your vegetables." I have been following this piece of Pollan's advice for my own family for quite some time: moving us away from the food culture of my youth with it's Cream of Mushroom soup, frozen vegetables, and endless casseroles, to more seasonal ingredients, good bread and cheese, wine with meals, and yes, less processed food.(The food culture I chose to emulate is mostly French. Feel free to talk smack about me over in this thread. )

Bump... I've eaten at Ray's the Classics several times in the past month and have a few updates: A number of old favorites from the appetizers are gone now (no biscuits or baked olives ) but the "devilishly good" eggs are still there and still scrumptious. Salads are no longer free with the mains, but come in larger portions. Soups have been rustic but very good. My current favorite is the lentil with merguez. The wines are still a bargain for Montgomery County. There's a $35 Crozes-Hermitage on the list that is just crazy for the money. Hendricks is still in stock at the bar. Sal is moving on to greener pastures, but Nick mixes a damn fine cocktail. The full menu is now available at the bar. The steaks are as good as ever, including several limited special cuts, and have been perfectly seasoned and cooked. Don't miss the callette if one is available. Side dishes have been expanded. Dessert offering vary, but as of last week the coconut cake is back. Dark chocolate mousse is a little dense but the milk chocolate was delicious. Rumor has it that lunch service is in the cards. If so, I know where I'll be at least once a week. Best time to go is during the week, when it's mostly a local crowd.

Sounds delicious. The truffle salt was a gift, and I find myself pulling it out of the cupboard just to take a whiff from time to time. Runny egg and parmesan polenta with plenty of butter and truffle salt makes a damned fine breakfast.

That dude's always stealing my stuff. ← Your original post was more interesting than that article.I'm having a runny egg on toast with truffle salt for lunch.

This is soooo five-minutes ago: Runny eggs in Time magazine.

Pontormo made a good point: The conversation seems to be focusing on weight. That's not what this is about. Surely many many people want to be like the Jetsons. Lots of people hate to cook, or consider a chore like washing the dishes or cleaning the toilet. We're a skewed sample here at eGullet.And I would respectfully disagree with Nathan's statement upthread: It's not as simple as that.

If he hadn't made that point, I would have. What is the convincing evidence that corn syrup, rather than sugar per se, will "kill you," as people are arguing? ← As a sweetener I am not sure that it's any worse than beet or cane sugar, but it's cheaper, and that seems to have encouraged widespread use. I learned quite a lot about added sweeteners during a bout with gestational diabetes, and was shocked at the number of products that list HFCS in the ingredient list.

Naturally. If anything, my service there has been overly friendly. You bring your own karma.

Yet there are millions of strong, healthy young adults who grew up eating just that. I know plenty of families -- I mean, middle class people I went to law school with -- whose kids eat almost exclusively processed foods, starting with things like Pop Tarts in the morning, moving on to awful public school lunches, to various convenience foods for dinner, with chips, cookies and other snacks in between. They rarely eat a piece of fruit or a salad. And they're in great shape. Is it the best way to eat? In great shape as kids, probably due to the vitamin fortified pop tarts. But are they gaining weight later in life because they never learned to eat good foods? Are they getting type II diabetes later in life? Needing heart surgery? I think there's a tradeoff. Lucky for them the medical industry has developed pills and techniques that enable them to stay alive without making any lifestyle changes. Or if they do decide they need a change there are various diet products to consume. Vitamin fortified processed foods, like vitamin D-added milk, have elimated most of the diseases of deficiency. Pollan might not agree, but that's been to our net good. But the vitamin enriched pop tart, or fiber-added chicken nuggets, are innovations we could do without.High fructose corn syrup is in almost everything these days. That shit is just not good for you in the quantities consumed by the average American, and there's nothing anyone can say that will convince me otherwise .

He mentions exercise when he talks about the studies on the Mediterranean diet years ago, that the people studied did much more physical labor than we do now. And it wasn't "exercise" that needed to be planned, it was just what needed to be done. Big difference, I think. This struck me: (My emphasis) I've used cost as a reason not to buy organic, but confess to not giving the last part much thought. And the cost excuse breaks down after analysis - except for meat, the stuff available at our local (all organic, farmers only) farmer's market is no more costly than our local grocery chain, and less expensive than Whole Foods for many items. Many of Pollan's recommendation are pie-in-the-sky, but this is achievable. January isn't the greatest month to try this experiment, but the article has inspired me to give up the grocery store for a month or two, except for non-food items, and see what it does to our budget.This was another excellent point: but not one that most people want to hear.

It's still open, but I wouldn't recommend it. Click for info.

It is a bit harder to set aside in the case of someone whose writing is, for the most part, autobiographical.

Bravo. I would only quibble with this: Food can be spiritual. The tasting menu format provides only brief illuminations, instead of a full-blown awakening.

At least one local blogger is not a fan. A little overstated, maybe...

I've seen them frozen at Balducci's, but they were not reasonably priced.If you find please post. Many of the places that ship from LA are out of business now.

Lady T is in da house! I've been experiencing the joy of PMS and perimenopause - all at the same time! Whee. I had a medium rare hanger steak Tuesday night, and the leftovers yesterday. That took care of the red meat cravings. Now if only my husband's bag of potato chips on the counter would quit calling my name...

Is it pumpernickel, or real seeded rye? I love good rye bread and it's surprisingly hard to find.

I did some shopping at the upper Connecticut Ave Marvelous Market last August and had this to say: I have a soft spot for Marvelous Market. When they opened, lo those many years ago, decent bread was a rarity in Washington. So it pains me to hear of the slippage in quality over the years. There was a little shakeup recently, so I decided to stop in the upper Conn Ave store and check out a few items that a good bakery, or a marvelous bakery, should be able to turn out: a baguette, a croissant, a scone, a sandwich loaf, and a cookie. All were disappointing. Baguette: tastless with a doughy interior and a chewy, not crisp, crust. Granted, a good baguette can be tough to achieve, but this was actually worse than Whole Foods version. Croissant: blown out and doughy in the middle. This indicates that the dough and butter were too hot, and it was overproofed. Of course, summer is tough for pastry, but if it's too hot either turn up the damn air conditioning or don't sell a shoddy product. Scone: Inedible, dry and crumbly. Scones should be creamy with some flaky layers. Cookie: This was my once-favorite salty oat cookie, now a crumbly shell of it's formerly sweet and savory goodness. The salt on top had dissolved, the cookie was stale, and raisins had been substituted for currants. Soft Pullman loaf: was anything but. This was ordinary, slightly coarse-textured white bread and not baked in a pullman pan. Everything tasted like it had been baked the day before. Sadly, it seems that MM has jumped the shark. Their website is advertising for franchisees, so we will be seeing more Mediocre Markets around the area.

I was surprised that this thread wasn't already there.Thanks for all of the information. I, uh, confess to not following any of the Italian regional cooking threads at all. Time to go back and read.