theakston

Not quite in the district but in Arlington - Clarendon area. Corner of Washington and Pershing. This is a portuguese deli. They carry a good variety of salt cod imported from Portugal. Those Portuguese know their salt cod.

Can't see how that works. Sextant and other navigation instruments maybe. Clocks may have told them when it was time for a G&T.

I'm in. And the nut brown recipe sounds fine.

I could be in if we can hold off for a while - I havent brewed since we remodeled the house so I need to find my gear and check that it is still servicable. First we need to agree on a recipe, then shop for the ingredients. We should plan on using live yeast and make a yeast starter a couple of days before the main brewing event. I was thinking how about an extract / grain mix (an extract mix with some steeped grains to make it more interesting - as well as some added dried hops of course). Then I thought about the initial desire to play around with maple syrup. How about a maple porter? Any good recipes? 'tis the season for the likes of a maple porter I think! Cheers!

Golden Monkey also suffered from the same infection as the V10 ( in the large bottle ) -- it could have been a bad one. I find their Belgian ales are excellent but they usually need a little aging or the spices are too dominant. This was especially true of the Grand Cru that they produced this spring and is now in excellent form (although sold out of most shops already) I too love the Hop Devil. On cask (not keg) at the brewery it was probably the best pint I've ever had in the USA.

This place is good: more beer

Go for the beer It's do-able but an overnight would be better. The thing to go for is the beer and the Grand Place. The best beer bars are: Bier Circus La Morte Subite Poechenellekelder (next to the pissing boy) And continuing on that theme you should eat at: In 't Spinnekopke 1 Place Du Jardin Aux Fleurs Which has the best beer Cuisine. Worth a visit also is the brewery / museum at CantillonCantillon website This is one of the few remaining traditional lambic brewers (using spontaneous fermentation). take the tour and pick up some Gueuze for on the train back!

On the rare occasions that I have had to use a gas grill to smoke, I've used "smoking pellets" instead of chips, simply because I thought they would make less mess. You only need to make a little tin foil pouch put it on the coals and they burn pretty slow.

Whatever your thoughts are on Frances Mayes (and I think mine are the same) the villa I recommended is far enough away from the town, set in a very rural setting and is a good place to explore from. We only visited Cortona briefly during our stay. While there is a lot of jumping on the Mayes bandwagon, I didn't see much evidence of overdevelopment. In fact it was rather quiet - but this was October. I definitely didn't see any under-the-sun condoms.

We also liked the Hotel Cisterna in San Gimignano. We spent the rest of our stay in this place just outside of Cortona: villa piazzano I can really recommend it. It is a special place. A lot will depend on where you want to be based and what kind of experience you are looking for. This was a lot more secluded than the Cisterna, which is in the center of the town, but this means that it was convenient for many restaurants. The villa piazzano is much more secluded.

We were thinking of going there (Matchbox) tonight too, en route for a pint of cask "bitter and twisted" at RFD.

The one mentioned in the washington post is in Chinatown. Isn't there a UK tapas place opening up in Clarendon soon? Is this the same chain? It's supposed to be in the new development where the cheesecake factory is (yuk) - I noticed this has opened already.

Il Ritrovo was suprisingly quiet on a recent Saturday evening (mid October). We didn't need reservations and the place was less than half full. So quiet in fact that the chef spent most of the evening out front entertaining us and giving us cookery tips. Although he said that he had been fairly busy all week. If we'd have had more time we would have gone again. He is certainly passionate about his food! Latini on the other hand was mobbed. And if you don't have a reservation you won't get in (we made one that afternoon as we were passing) . Even with a reservation they go through the 7:30 and 9:30 mob crush, calling out the names of parties and ushering them in like nightclub bouncers. There were several large parties that could easily have been coach parties. I'd say they were all either American or English. Food was good, plenty of it and reasonable priced and it is an "experience". I'd definitely go back to Il Ritrovo. Not sure about Latini.

We were in Alba mid October. We ate at Borgo Antico, Trattoria della Posta and Il Belvedere (all of these were close to Barolo where we were staying, all were based on recommendations from this board and they were all excellent). 30 euro was the going rate for a generous shaving of tartufi on any course. Della Posta also had a 4 course truffle tasting menu for 100 e per person (we skipped that in favour of a secondi of goose leg stuffed with goose liver - had tartufi on the pasta course though). I thought Il Belvedere was the best value -- a heap of truffles on the pasta and that was 30e including the pasta course (also their antipasta "sampler" was excellent value). It was our first trip to Piedmont so I can't say how it compares to previous harvests but it seems reasonable to say that it is not as good as usual. We visited the Alba truffle festival and there were some pretty huge ones. It's great to come away from the truffle fair and smell truffles on your clothes for days after!

It probably was an ale. Depends on the yeast, but I would imagine that it was an ale yeast with the lager characteristics coming from pale malts and the type of hop. Technically that would be a Kolsch. Or it could have been a lager that was fermented at a higher temperature (that would be more like a steam beer). But that is unlikely. On the plastic beer bucket. I still use one for primary fermentation. It's a good idea to get the wort nice and aireated at the start of fermentation (especially an ale). Then transfer it to a glass carboy once the vigorous primary fermentation has died down. Others prefer a closed fermentation system as there is less chance of exposure to wild yeasts or infections. I don't think it's necessary and some yeasts (especially british style ale yeasts) will not work well with a closed system as they really need the air. Most English systems are and have always been open fermentation vessels. The important thing is to get the wort down to temperature quickly and to pitch a good quantity of already active yeast -- which is why a starter is the way to go. For a starter you need to get some fermentable sugars in a large sterilized bottle (at least a half litre) with an air lock and pitch the live yeast into that to let it start to grow. Then by the time you pitch it into the primary fermenter it will be bubbling away merrily before any wild yeasts or bacteria get the chance to get involved.

Maple syrup: One beer I have heard of that used maple syrup is the Immort Ale from Dogfish Head They have some wildly experimental ales; most of them suprisingly good! Also Sam adams used maple syrup in their triple bock.

Answer: Ale definitely Ale. The difference between an ale and a lager is the yeast. Ale yeast ferments from the top and works best at higher temperatures (50 - 60) where it is allowed to produce the fruity esters you can taste in an ale. Lager yeast ferments from the bottom and must be fermented cool (around 40) so that it is crisper and cleaner. A lager therefore takes longer and it is difficult to keep at the desired temperature, unless you have a converted refrigerator specially for this purpose. Also, as it has the "cleaner" taste, any defects, such as diacetyl, will be more pronounced. And diacetyl is a problem with lager which is difficult to eliminate. A good resource for recipes is the cats meow You are probably best to stick with the "extract" recipes at first (using commercially produced malt extract) before moving on to the "all grain" that requires additional equipment for extracting the fermentable sugars from raw grain. A good start would be a pale ale, this gives you the chance to work with different hops and some additional grains. Definitely try to use "live" yeast and make a "starter" in advance to get the yeast going. Good luck! And here's a good book on brewing: Non-hippie-hemp-free-homebrew-book

belgian beer pronunciations I'm jealous. It's notoriously hard to find (especially the 12). Technically they do not distribute it, but for some enterprizing people who get in line at the abbey along with everybody else. I have a case on route from Belgium should be here soon!!.

You might find this guide helpful: matt barret's athens restaurant guide

Il Ritrovo: will I need reservations for a Saturday evening (for 2) or can one just show up?

Another awesome article from Craig. Hope I can get affettati while I'm there next week. You have whet my appetite. Perhaps our resident brining and smoking experts (Dave the cook and col clink) can get working on some recipes to do this at home?

It is October every weekend from the 4th through the end of the month I believe. After 3 nights in Barolo we have accommodations booked in San G (3 nights) and Cortona (2) before moving on to Firenze. We plan on getting out of San G before the tour buses arrive and returning to dine in the evening. Probably the same in Cortona. So suggestions for day trips and lunches elsewhere are most welcome (we will have a car but prefer to park it for the evening before we get into any serious imbibing). Thanks a lot for the tips so far. Definitely plan on visiting Siena, Sinalunga is not far nor is Montalcino, and Assissi looks like it would be worth the short hop into Umbria from Cortona (thanks for the tips). Orvieto sounds good Bill, but I can't find it on my crappy little map (I'll look at a better one later). Thanks again guys.

What are people's thoughts on the wine pairings? Worth it or better to buy your own or bring your own (which I believe is allowed with corkage)? I usually opt for the pairings but Schneier didn't seem to think much of them. Anyone else have similar experiences? ( I have a reservation here in my very near future! )

Having just now read these reviews, I can't see why it is easier to assume that it is always the same person (or jerk) rather than a few different people experiencing the same phenomena, especially as Tom also apparently experienced this for himself. I also have to say that the "Concerned Employee" response certainly didn't help your case and the attitude of that response would put off as many people as the negative reviews. I'm not wanting to be negative - I have yet to visit your restaurant - just to point out that it isn't always the best policy to shoot the messenger (or to assume that it's because they're low class rubes only worthy of eating Cheeze in a box). Bottom line is you always have to take these reviews with a pinch of salt. The good ones as well as the bad ones. I'm sure there are as many good reviews posted by interested parties as bad ones posted by competition or people with an "axe to grind".

Never read the book but heard of it and gave it a wide berth. As I will the Mayes residence. Bill: I already looked through the Alba posts and I'm very glad that you recommend the 3 reservations I have for dinner: Borgo Antico, Trattoria della Posta and Il Belvedere!! (that's taken care of the 3 nights we are there!) We'll check out the Cantinetta for Lunch if we are there during the day - we are also planning to visit the "they wont be any good this year" festival in Alba. Maybe we'll bump into you there?