hannnah

At last year's NY auto show, the Maybach 62 was displayed with a bottle of Dom Perignon in the bottle-sized cupholder. They didn't mention if the bottle was standard equipment.

I've never been to the upstairs seafood part, but the Mongolian bbq downstairs is pretty good - particularly the sesame rolls they bring to the table. Last time I was there for lunch, I think it was $9.95 for as much as you can stuff into a bowl, $2 extra if you want shrimp, but that's been a while. As far as dishes, there's plenty to choose from on the bar meat and veggie-wise; I assume you can order appetizers/soup downstairs but I never have.

Most fast-food sandwiches I can take or leave; they're food-as-fuel rather than food-for-enjoyment, except for two holdovers from childhood: 1) Krystals with cheese. *burp* Frozen White Castles are not an acceptable substitute, as they have neither pickles nor mustard, and it doesn't taste the same if you put the condiments on afterward. And why are there holes punched in the White Castle patties anyway? 2) Hardee's Roast Beef. I don't know if they still do this, but they used to put a little scoop of gravy-like substance on the bun before the meat went on - it'd soak in just right. Arby's is the closest I can get around DC, but it's not the same without the brown stuff.

Yay, Elyse! I didn't catch the beginning of the interview, but the part I heard was most excellent. Congratulations!

Speaking of mayhem, I'd have to say my favorite episodes are the ones where the ingredients fight back or try to run off. There was the octopus episode where one of the octopi drags itself out of the tank and starts legging it out of the studio, then there was an eel episode (anago I think) where the eels were live, very very toothy, and out for chef. About a year and a half ago, someone in DC brought Chen and Sakai over to do a sort of Iron Chef Live thing (strangely not sponsored by FoodTV) as part of an outdoor concert series. I'm not sure exactly how it fit in as a concert, but who knows. Anyway, we saw Sakai's bit - his ingredient was Maryland blue crabs, and they were out to get him. Someone hadn't thought ahead, because they hadn't provided any sort of crab-grabbing equipment. He made a grab for one, it grabbed back, and it got flung away pretty quickly. Full points to Sakai, though - he grabbed a kitchen towel, let the crabs latch on to it, then flipped them into the pot. At this point someone finally brought him some tongs. It was a lot of fun to watch them work, and we finally got an idea of what Kitchen Stadium smells like during cooking (assuming it's a good ingredient night) - drool-inducingly good.

Is Jackson's any good anymore? I haven't been in a good few years, but I have fond memories of dinners there - although it doesn't look like they have the lamb poached in birch wine on the menu anymore. It's just down the High Street from the Witchery and Dubh Prais.

It can be frozen, and it's definitely worth saving if it's not too gunky. We roasted two ducks back in October and saved the fat, and our roast potatoes with Christmas dinner were much better for it! There are other things to do with it besides roasties - plenty of discussion of confit as well. edit: typo

Gave: 2lb of Wensleydale for my dad, which spawned the first email he's ever sent! A case of milk chocolate Hobnobs, to which all my relatives are now addicted - when we neglected to bring some to my grandmother at Thanksgiving, she was extremely incensed! I swear there's something addictive in the oaty bits. And, I made cookies to take to work as a sort of collective gift. Got: Jar of homemade hot chocolate mix (cocoa, milk, chocolate and mint bits in layers) from my boss and her kids Babbo cookbook and Wusthof carving set from my sister- and mum-in-law. Carving set made short work of the turkey - and I'm eying my first attempt at pasta to try the pumpkin lune.

Lebanon bologna is definitely different than regular bologna - it's got visible meat and fat chunks in it, and looks and feels more like summer sausage. It's also much smokier-tasting. Definitely does make a nice sandwich though. Our local deli sections carry Kunzler's Lebanon bologna - there are pictures here, and you can get a little idea of the texture.

One of VH1's talking-wallpaper non-music shows showed one of the DB burgers in cross-section. It didn't really look that appetizing. Plus, you'd have to have a reticulating head to take a bite out of it - if the hands holding it were regular size, the burger itself was enormous.

Short plate in English as well - here's a chart that shows location. Extrapolating from some of the carcass testing specifics on WHO's site, short plate would be least likely to come in contact with brain or spinal column tissue since it's located farthest from the spinal column.

The KIRO reports sound pretty accurate as far as inspection goes. In my experience, the vet generally gives cull animals a visual once-over, and it would have to be something pretty egregious to get it pulled from the queue - and if they're doing inspections on the trailer, they're not going to see much of the cow. This site gives an idea of some of the conditions that don't necessarily get cows pulled from the food supply - ironically, it's on a university ag extension site recommending better producer management of cull cows to improve prices. They also recommend not taking downers to market. I'd dispute that 15-20% of a producer's revenue comes from cull cows, but that may be dairy-farm specific; it's certainly not that high for beef producers.

Intuitively, that seems sensible to me as well. However, without documentation of actual human health risks from slaughter of downer animals, we would simply be asking already financially stressed farmers to throw money in the garbage. But, for a small producer, it's also a significant hardship to get a non-ambulatory cow on a trailer to get it to the stockyard to sell it - unless you're really scraping by at a subsistence level and desperately need the cash right then, or you have several healthy animals accompanying it to the yard, it's not going to be worth it. A 1200 pound cull cow is only going to clear you about $350 after fees (assuming a ballpark national average of $40 per hundredweight). If she's already produced a live calf, you've made your money back. It's real easy to take the high road at that point.

This doesn't sound typical of Pancake Pantry at all - but then I can't remember the last time I ordered something there that came with eggs. Buckwheat or potato or strawberry pancakes, side of bacon. Now that's breakfast.

The inability to walk can be a symptom of BSE (this was the first time ever in the US where that was documented). It can also be a symptom of a lot of other conditions, or of simple injuries. I think it's irresponsible of any producer who knows he has a sick cow on his hands, whether he knows why it's sick or not, to sell it as a downer knowing it's going to enter the food supply - as dog food or whatever. If a cow that stepped in a hole and broke its leg is sold as a downer, that's an entirely different issue. Unfortunately the market doesn't distinguish between the two.

It's entirely possible. Most dairy cattle in the US aren't confined all day - they're milked in the morning, go out and graze during the day, come back in for evening milking, then go back out at night. Their wandering range might be limited to some extent on the larger farms out west, but there's certainly no guarantee that they wouldn't be sharing pasture area with deer or elk.

It's the salt - especially in the winter, vehicles pick up salt, and the cows think it's extra tasty. My dad found out that Toyota truck paint is soluble in cow saliva - his first Tundra had lick marks all over it where the enzymes marred the paint. As far as hardware disease goes, the magnets only work if you know there's a risk and the cow's given the magnet bolus before it ingests the metal. We lost one to peritonitis once before we even knew she'd eaten a wire - not a good way to go. On the subject of mad cow, one thing I've not seen addressed in the past day or so is the possibility of interspecies transmission. A good portion of the deer and elk out west (not sure of the percentage but it's significant) are infected with their own version of spongiform encephalopathy, called chronic wasting disease. Since no one knows for sure whether/how it's being transmitted directly (water/air/spoor/etc.), there's no way to know whether it's jumping species, since in a lot of cases range cattle are sharing habitat with the same infected deer and elk. Assuming transmission via prions in animal-based feeds, sure - although I'd expand it to say "vegetable-matter fed and finished," since corn/sorghum/etc are just as vegetably and organic as grass. Assuming any other method of transmission, no. Acceptable-risk-wise, I'd pick organic suppliers, avoid bone-in cuts, and avoid preground beef for the time being.

They do seem to end up sitting on bookshelves a lot - a friend of ours has one, but has actually used it to produce a blueberry brandy he calls "Curious Blue Fluid." Potent stuff, but very good - I macerated some blueberries in it for a blueberry cheesecake ice cream, but it's apparently drinkable (in VERY small sips) straight as well. The only complaint was, because the distilling apparatus itself is so small, it takes literally hours to produce any quantity of distillate. That's probably just as well, though. I thought the shiitake log was kind of cool, but I wouldn't want one - I grew up within smelling distance of a mushroom production facility, and I've had fungus issues ever since.

I can never remember whether it's at Clarendon or Court House, but Ireland's Four Courts serves honest-to-God boiled bacon and cabbage. (insert spousal rant on American substitution of corned beef for boiled bacon here. )

I thought it was really well written, but it maybe wouldn't have hurt if he'd mentioned the food a *little* more. Still, it'll be interesting to see how the column re-evolves.

To clarify, this happened fairly early in Le Relais' life, before Yannick Cam had probably even heard of the place, and there was no mention of dress code on their web site, in any press mentions of the restaurant, or even in a little brass plaque on the door like L'Auberge Chez Francois has. Enforcing a dress code is one thing at a place like Citronelle that makes it clear they have a dress code. It's an entirely different thing at a newish place in a strip mall next to a wallpaper store and the "Wired Monkey Cafe" where they haven't seen fit to mention to anyone that they don't want anyone casually dressed. I don't object to dress codes. I object to being blindsided.

I'll be sure to bring the note from my podiatrist next time I drop serious money on dinner.

Was it just me, or was today's a really angry chat?

One more - my sister-in-law gave me the Babbo cookbook for Christmas.

It'll be interesting to see what happens with the Le Relais space since it sounds like they sold everything to one buyer - I was in there once, and it was lovely space despite the odd strip mall location. Unfortunately I never got to eat there - when we tried they wouldn't serve us because I was wearing sneakers. Perfectly good business casual clothes, and nice clean sneakers, which I wear to work every day because I do a lot of walking. Apparently I must've been going to wave my feet around and scandalize the other diners. Who knew.