hannnah

There seems to be some sort of strange consensus that salt's not "organic." Which, chemically, it isn't. But then, neither is water, and I've seen "organic water" for sale at Whole Foods. Anyway, if you compare pretty much any regular old grocery store cracker with the Whole Foods version, the WF version will invariably be 1) undersalted; 2) overly dry; and 3) twice as expensive. On the other hand, have you tried the crackers made of nuts? They're actually good, assuming you're not allergic to nuts. They're not undersalted! They have texture! And they're not made by Whole Foods, which is probably why they taste good. Also, one of our cats liked the cracked pepper and saffron crackers (non-nut-based but in the same section), although I didn't think they tasted like much of anything. This is the same cat who likes Goan fish curry, however, so read into that what you wish.

Maybe you aren't, but it's awfully nice to have a source for HP sauce, Heinz beans, and good plain tea that isn't charging usurious prices. And, as far as Harris Teeter goes, it would appear that they're altering their stock in response to the appearance of Wegmans. Wegmans has the New York/New England regional foods market covered; HT looks like they're going to start doing the same thing for Southern regional specialties, more than they already were. They already had some of the staples (White Lily flour, etc.); now they're expanding offerings across the board. Last time I was in there, I noticed they've started carrying Mayfield ice cream, which I never thought I'd see up here. They also have better raisin bread than Wegmans', which has unpleasantly mushy raisins. I'd definitely rate HT a strong second in the Reston/Herndon/Sterling grocery arms race; a little work on their produce and they'd be even closer.

A car boot sale is essentially a multi-family yard sale that's someplace else (like a nearby parking lot). Per husband, "people don't sell stuff out of their yards - they take it to a car boot sale." Apparently it can sometimes be stuff that's fallen off the back of a truck, but it's not a given.

I really got the feeling that Alton Brown hasn't watched a lot of the Japanese episodes. It only takes seeing 2 or 3 Sakai battles to know that when he pulls out the ring molds, it's going to be one of those little layered things, not "some kind of custard." Also, Brown could have laid off the "ewww, fish ice cream" stuff - that should be no real surprise either, particularly since there was some kind of ice-cream-made-out-of-weird-stuff every other Japanese episode. One of them even did the fish ice cream with fish skin crunchy once. Overall, I think they're on the right track; it just needs some work - for instance, if they do it again I bet they'll pick the best of this round of judges, rather than the random assortment of people who were willing they had for this one. It's definitely better than the Shatner version, either way.

Dave and I had a great time as well. I can totally see now why people recommend congee as a hangover breakfast - nice combination of totally inert foodstuff with lovely salty porky bits at the bottom. Everything else we tried was great, particularly the dishes with vegetables in - even the turnips in the pork-sponge dish were good, once you got past the pork-sponge. I think I'd be willing to give them a pass on the beer/wine license if they'd splash out on a slightly more powerful air conditioner - it was a little warm down there. Bring on the picnic!

It's just like this... "Now what if Da Bears were to enter the Indianapolis 500? Uhhh, what would you predict would be the outcome, huh?" "How would they compete?" "Well, let's say they rode together in a big bus. " "Is Ditka driving?" "Of course." "Then I like Da Bears!" "Sure." "Yeah, I gotta go with Da Bear Bus!" "Da Bear Bus!" Same thing as comparing Citronelle to Inn at Little Washington to Palena. Since none of the three are going to prepare the exact same dish the exact same way, it's all subjective. They're all good - why should it matter which meets someone's arbitrarily applied standard of "best"? Unless of course one of them has Mini-Ditka as guest chef.

only 1 day late... Washington Post Food Section Digest, April 21, 2004 How Low Should You Go? Dietitian Katherine Tallmadge discusses the science behind low-carb diets and makes some suggestions for healthy low-carb dieting. The Veal You May Not Know: Due to an FDA ban on growth hormone implants in veal calves, the price of veal has gone up and availability has gone down. What other effects is the ban having, and do consumers have to worry about eating veal? These and other questions are addressed here. This chicken's not roasted, broiled, or fried. It's BROASTED. Good luck finding it, though.: Walter Nicholls takes us on a quest for tasty, succulent "broasted" fried chicken - from the Veterans Administration Cafeteria to the Thurmont Kountry Kitchen to the I-Mart in Hagerstown. Addresses are provided in case you have a hankering for juicy fried chicken. Thrice is Nice: Cook one big batch of chicken breasts, eat dinner for 3 nights with minimal prep the second two nights, assuming you like eating the same basic food 3 nights in a row. epiCUReanism: It wasn't originally synonymous with gourmet, but has become so over the years - see how epicureanism and food are related. Dinner in Minutes: Soba with chicken and spinach. It's up to you to guess how long it should take, as there are no minutes in the headline again. The sidebar explains what soba is for the non-noodle-literate and discusses the different types available. Today's Tip: Strain those custards and gelatin-based puddings to get out all the little lumpy bits. Suited To a Tea, Aren't They?: Tea scoops from Harney & Sons of Connecticut. Eat Generously: Share Our Strength's Taste of the Nation's Black Tie/Blue Jean Gala - April 28 at the Marriott Wardman Park. All ticket sales benefit Capital Area Community Food Bank, D.C. Central Kitchen, Community Family Life Services, Food and Friends, and House of Ruth. $125 and $200, available through Taste of the Nation. Book Report: Remembrance of Things Past - Sixty Years of Writing in Gourmet. A collection of Gourmet articles on Paris, edited by Ruth Reichl. To Do: More organic cooking at Whole Foods in Tenleytown; Rehoboth Beach Wine and Food Festival; dinner with Ms. Hesser (Amanda that is) and Mr. Latte in Baltimore; various other cooking classes and demos. Thanks, But No Thanks: The food section gets a lot of samples - including low carb cheese straws that "kind of taste like paste." Mmmm. Paste-y. Behind Every Recipe: They don't just print this stuff without testing it, you know. Nutritional Analysis: They also have a spiffy program that figures out the nutritional value of recipes based on the ingredients. Just don't ask them to calculate the net carbs. They seem touchy about that. Market Watch: This week's fresh-from-the-market goody is sorrel. Includes a recipe for sorrel and chive sauce. Just Don't Call It Chardonnay: There are plenty of wines made from Chardonnay grapes that don't taste like the ubiquitous oaky California-style Chardonnay. Michael Franz discusses Macons that are made from Chardonnay but have vastly different characters. The Weekly Dish: Kempton Hotels alumni Jeremy Pollok and Eric "Bernie" Bernstrom open Tonic in Mt. Pleasant. Cafe Theater: See Eat This New York at Visions and participate in Q&A sessions (plus tastings!) with Nora Pouillon, Jose Andres, Roberto Donna and Ann Cashion. Tom Sietsema's food chat transcript Michael Franz's Grapevine chat transcript

Which day?

Speaking from experience, declare everything. Last time we came back through Dulles, we had a two page list of food - everything from pickled walnuts to 20-year-old Laphroaig - and got through with no problems. Generally when the customs/APHIS agents see that you're being thorough, as long as their sniffy-dog doesn't get upset about anything and the explosives/volatile organics detector doesn't go off they'll wave you through. The only thing we had to pull out and display was the Laphroaig, and that was more for the agent's curiosity than for inspection purposes.

Sure, they're available, but in the UK they're 99p a tube - here they're anywhere between $3 and $6 a tube depending on the vendor. They're also much easier to find over there.

Go for Hobnobs - preferably the milk chocolate version, but plain choc will do in a pinch. They're kind of oatmealy, slightly salty, and vastly addictive.

We actually made a point of walking by Rocco's out of morbid curiosity back in February, shortly before the lawsuits were filed. Despite the fact that it was a Sunday night and incredibly cold, there were people waiting to get into Craft and Craftbar a few blocks away. There wasn't anyone waiting to get into Rocco's - it was maybe half full. I'm not sure what their definition of "busy" is, but it sure didn't look busy.

Actually it didn't. It's on the site of a Wal-Mart, but they bulldozed the old Wal-Mart building and built from scratch.

There are a few gems on Scotland Yard's menu - excellent sausage roll and Scotch eggs as appetizers, a lamb filet mignon wrapped in bacon for an entree, and a tasty Scotch trifle. The overall dining experience can be, well, interesting. Last time I was there, we were sitting relatively close to the door. The taciturn Scotsman who serves as host was there in his kilt, sipping a not-so-wee dram and waiting for folks to come in. A party of yuppie types pauses outside the door to look over the menu. He hops up, opens the door, grasps one of the yuppies by her anorak and says "Come on in, lassie! It's cold oot!" They did stay for dinner - I think they were afraid to leave - and seemed to enjoy it.

I'm in, and so's the hubby.

Washington Post Food Section Digest, April 14, 2004 Just Add Asparagus: Spring's here (not that you'd know it from going outside), and it's time for asparagus - not just on its own as a side dish, but as an ingredient. Recipes include asparagus and potato salad with mustard vinaigrette; asparagus, shrimp, and spring pea salad; and asparagus and smoked mozzarella toasts. The sidebar provides tips on choosing the best asparagus. Take the Diet Quiz: Feed your trivia fetish with 20 questions on fad diets through the ages. Answers are provided separately. That Little Bit of Butter: Robert Wolke explains why butter thickens sauces where other fats won't - and it's not just because butter is a wonderful, magical thing. Dinner in 15 Minutes: Spring chicken salad. And the minutes are back this week! Put Spring in Your Sip: Umeshu - Japanese plum wine. To Do: See Bruce Aidells, Nancy Oakes and Faith Willinger at the Dupont Circle farmers' market on Sunday; eat chocolates on Sunday or fondue on Tuesday for charity; wine dinner at Kinkead's; cooking demos with Giuliano Hazan on Monday and Tuesday. Chocolate Beats Sex: More weird food data, courtesy of the Food in America poll. 54 percent think chocolate mousse is better than sex, followed by a bacon-topped burger at 19 percent, a 1995 Chateau Haut Brion at 16 percent, and a perfectly ripe plum at 11 percent. Pack 'Em for the Park: Lightweight but tasty camping convenience foods. Order the Chuk with Confidence: A field guide to dim sum. Today's Tip: Use leftover waffle batter to make your own frozen waffles. Market Watch - Baby Carrots: They're cute, they come in different colors, and they're tasty with a little tarragon. Revealing a Chef's Secrets: A review of Valenti's Soups, Stews, and One-Pot Meals, by Tom Valenti, chef at 'Cesca and Ouest in New York. The recipes are good, but the foreword's boring and the index is really, really bad. Three for Now, One for Later: European exchange rates are terrible at the moment, but there are 3 New World reds that might serve as acceptable substitutes. The One for Later is a suggested selection for the cellar or for a nice gift. One Family's Pho: A Falls Church family opens their own pho restaurant, using their own special recipe. The Weekly Dish: The former Cities in Adams Morgan is about to become Leftbank - a combination breakfast place, French bistro, and sushi bar. Two Amys is adding a "nibbly menu" - small plates of sausages, cheeses, and "Italian beer nuts," plus more wines by the glass. Chat with Tom: His thoughts on the new New York Times restaurant critic, the best ____ (there are a lot of those), and where to take your parents when they come to town.

Not enough production to support widespread marketing, and too expensive - there's a thread on a restaurant in New York that has a Kobe burger for $41.

Not true. The Hereford association has a branded beef program, certified and inspected by USDA, and they're asking that the producers prove that what they're bringing to market is genetically at least half Hereford, not just that it sort of looks like it.

Sure, but that guarantee's from your vendor, not from the Angus Association. And again, yes, they are doing some preselection for marbling and yield grade, so you do have an increased percentage of a decent steak - especially considering some of the gray, tough, and tasteless stuff that was gracing your average restaurant table in the 70s and early 80s. They found their market niche at that time and jumped right on it. I'm just saying that they're neither the only game in town nor necessarily the best - that impression is wholly due to their marketing.

Absolutely. Cube steak is cubed because it's from parts where the marbling isn't a factor - it needs the mechanical tenderization to be easily eaten as a cutlet. The certification's also kind of useless for ground beef - you're not going to benefit from the marbling, just from whatever fat has been intermixed to bring it up to the percentage at which it's being sold. The selection for marbling might possibly make a difference in flavor in ground sirloin for something like steak tartare, but I wouldn't buy preground beef for that anyway.

I think the preselection stuff is legitimate to a certain extent - the USDA standard for CAB is Prime and the top 2/3 of Choice beef - not 35% of Choice. The problem is, there are multiple standards out there in the supermarkets. Excel, Farmland, and Tyson's all have their own "Angus Choice" programs, which have lower standards for yield grade and carcass size than the Association's program. It depends on how scrupulous your supermarket's meat department is being - they're not supposed to slap the logo: on anything that doesn't come out of the Association program. That doesn't mean it doesn't happen. But yes, even though the other companies aren't using the full CAB standard, they are doing a certain amount of yield grade and marbling preselection, and that does take some of the guesswork out of the equation, even though it's not quite a guarantee of top 1/3 Choice. As far as the breed selection thing - well, even the Angus Association admits that they're not certifying live animals, and that it's animals that "appear to be Angus-type" at the time they're sold that are put in the initial group to be considered. Theoretically, assuming a Wagyu (Kobe-type) breeder ran his calves through the sale at the local stockyard, they'd be flagged as CAB-potential because they're black. Not that any self-respecting Wagyu breeder would do that, since Wagyu's fetching an even higher premium than CAB-potential, but they could - no one's asking for registration certificates. I'd be comfortable with calling anything labeled as "Angus" in whatever form a reasonable assurance of Choice plus the marbling/yield grade criteria - although I'd say "middle market and up" rather than "upper middle market." And, to be fair, a properly conducted comparison study did find that the CAB steaks were tenderer than run-of-market Choice or Select, in part due to those additional selection criteria.

Plus everyone would get to experience the fabulous Waffle House jukebox, with Waffle House signature songs! "Special Lady at the Waffle House" "Waffle House Hashbrowns (I Love You)" "Why Would You Eat Your Grits Anywhere Else?" etc., etc.

Not to put too fine a point on it, that's marketing BS. It's unlikely anyone would be able to pick "Angus" out of a lineup of equivalent graded meat - it all looks the same once the skin's off, and any of the other traditional ("British") breeds such as Hereford or Shorthorn provide the same approximate level of marbling and fat cover. There's currently a lot of research going on to identify genetic markers for tenderness and marbling, and from the preliminary results, there's not a significant genetic difference between Angus and the other two. Again, all to USDA standard - all you're paying a premium for is preselection and the Angus Association's marketing budget. Approximately 82 percent of cattle slaughtered in the US in 2003 (28.8 million of 35.5 million) fit this qualification. According to the most recent National Beef Quality Audit, 88.2 percent of cattle slaughtered are yield grade 1, 2, or 3. Again, you're paying for the marketing. Maybe 7 of 100 Angus meet these standards, but since less than half of cattle are black (and potentially Angus), that leaves another 7 on the market that meet the standards and aren't Angus. I'll give them consistency. And everyone in the industry admires their marketing. It just isn't quite as wonderful as they're trying to paint it for the average consumer.

Latest recommendations for Baltimore fine dining.

A lot of Bruni's feature work from the Rome bureau involves food and restaurants, so it's not like he hasn't done any reviewing. Plus, there's certainly precedent in having someone from the "hard news" side of the fence with an interest in food do some reviewing - RW Apple's certainly done well with it, even if he's doing reviews from wherever he happens to be rather than within the city limits.