hannnah

Yeah, I was stuck in College Station for grad school, and I have fond memories of Whataburger (even the breakfast tastes like onions - not that this is a bad thing!) and Taco Cabana. And, in the not-quite-so-fast-food realm, Snook Bakery and Slovacek's Sausage (also in Snook).

I'll second the recommendation for Heidelberg - we got our wedding cake and favors (marzipan fruit) from there, and their breads and cookies are also excellent. Also, for baked goods I'd add Patisserie Lille in Herndon. They've been open about 3 months now, and they do wonderful things with croissants and puff pastry, including a puff-pastry-cased hot dog.

I did think the underside of the Wilson Bridge was kind of interesting - the boat I was on turned around there.

I can't really imagine the Cosmos Club being snobbier than some of the London gentlemen's clubs - certainly their membership requirements are less restrictive, since they let in women! I suspect the price is a function of several things - maintaining their building, as it's of an age and in an expensive part of town real-estate wise; running programming (they have a pretty robust schedule of lectures, etc.); and the amount of research fellowships they hand out every year. I know several Cosmos members, and their distinguishing feature (other than age) is that they've all had significant academic and professional achievements. I mean, how many of the London clubs (other than perhaps the Athenaeum) have a wall of photos of members who are Nobel laureates? I can't picture the scene people are describing at Bruno Jamais occurring at the Cosmos Club. Plus, someone in the Cosmos kitchen makes a damn good sticky toffee pudding.

And, again, unless your butcher is doing all killing, hanging, and cutting on-site, which is highly unlikely, your "minimally processed" happy meat has been through the same killing facility as plenty of "factory farmed" unhappy germy meat. Granted, the risk of E. coli 0157:H7 contamination is lower if you're buying meat that was shipped to the butcher as a whole carcass as opposed to box beef, but it's by no means eliminated - it's still Russian roulette, but your odds of survival are a little better. The vast majority of the meat you consider to be "factory-farmed" was actually raised by small producers on family farms - the ConAgras of this world are the middle/end of the process. Small farmers generally don't have the luxury of picking and choosing who their customers are going to be because of time constraints. When you need money, you need to sell animals, and it's a lot less difficult from a producer standpoint to go ahead and sell them into the corporate stockyard-to-feedlot-to-freezer chain than it is to establish your own direct marketing. Supporting artisanal producers directly is all well and good. However, the only people I know who've been successful as artisanal producers (in both beef and dairy) already had a heck of a lot of money to spend on promotion, advertising, facilities, etc. Sure, they're technically family farmers, but they don't need the money nearly as badly as the folks who are raising 5-10 calves a year to sell at the stockyard for supplemental income. Just don't make the mistake of assuming that you're striking a blow against evil corporate whatever when you choose not to buy "affordable" meat - in the end you're hurting plenty of family farmers too.

Including the contents of their wine cellar. Inventory to be posted Thursday. Online auction listing

For some reason, I've noticed that everyone buys bananas when it's going to snow, too. Dave describes it as, "time for everyone to go buy milk-and-banana-flavored toilet paper." Oh, and Spam - like they're going to be stuck in the house until spring thaw and need something that's shelf-stable. We went to the store last night - there weren't that many people, although it did look like some sort of dairy locusts had been through. And the produce was all scruffy-I wanted to make butternut squash soup this weekend, but the squash wasn't worth buying. Just as well we did do the shopping, though - we got 5-6 inches last night.

The weasels are on the menu.

I've done a tomato and caramelized onion quiche before - that definitely works. Hadn't thought about throwing roasted peppers in, but that would also be excellent. But honestly, I consider quiche one of those perfect "ok, what have I got in the refrigerator that would work with eggs?" kind of foods. Tomatoes, onions, potatoes, smoked salmon, ham, mushrooms, assorted green veggies - all of them would be tasty. I made one the other night that was sort of a mutant quiche lorraine - bacon, lots of black pepper, and cheddar cheese - because the spouse was craving eggs and cheese, and, well, bacon goes with everything. Throwing in leftover steamed or fried rice might also work - I haven't specifically tried it, but it's not that far off a donburi, so I can't imagine it'd be bad. And we've got some awfully good fried rice in the fridge at the moment...that's Saturday dinner taken care of.

Mmmmm, bull lips. More seriously, I have a meat fiend buddy who lives just outside Catonsville - I'll have to find out if he's tried it yet. If it's as good as it sounds like it might be, I suspect we'll be making regular trips.

Depending on how far out you want to go in NoVA, Tuscarora Mill in Leesburg might work. It's good space for a quiet dinner, and I've never had anything bad there, although it's not as snazzy as 2941.

Waffled for his/her/its pleasure?

WTOP mentioned this morning that there's an alternate proposal - to give a 15% tax credit to restaurants that go smoke-free voluntarily. I'm curious as to how much 15% credit actually works out to be, and would it be enough to balance the presumed loss of business from the ban?

FWIW, the Post's taste test pretty much agreed with everyone else's... "Not great."

I dunno. I used to say that, but then I was really pleasantly surprised by the music at Babbo. While we were there, they got through part of a Cure album, the Black Crowes, and some Pink Floyd - it was such a relief to be able to eat a nice Italian meal and *not* have to listen to Bocelli/Sinatra/opera/Dean Martin/ad infinitum. And I'm sure it's much nicer for the staff not to have to listen to the same tape loop over and over again.

Our local mom-and-pop sushi place has had the same CD on the last 4 times we've been in - a collection of late 60s instrumentals. We're talking Mantovani, Mancini, and various other stuff that's gotten used in movies over the years. Why they're so stuck on this CD, I'm not sure - the Japanese music they used to play was much nicer. I can only assume they got sick of hearing it after a while, although they at least had more than one CD of it.

I saw some on the way down I-81 in Woodstock, VA, which is considerably further north than I would have expected. Didn't see Diet Cheerwine though, or I would have tried it.

We ended up $108 short - Stacie covered half and I covered half.

It was a Chassagne-Montrachet, wasn't it? and it was lovely. What a beautiful meal. Thanks so much for posting the photos, Rochelle. That foie gras was so so good, second only to those incredible scallops as my favorite dish of the night. What a wonderful meal, pretty room, and good company. It was one of the Louis Latour Montrachets, but I don't remember which one - there are an awful lot on their website and none of the labels jump out. Since I can't drink reds, I ended up with a 2001 Valley of the Moon Pinot Blanc with the beef and venison, which was quite nice; I think my favorite wine of the evening was the Gewurztraminer, though the Montrachet was gorgeous as well. As far as the food, our favorites were the scallops (oh, that bacon ), the pork belly, and the sea bass. The fish was gorgeous, but I'd be happy with a good size bowl of mash with that honey-soy sauce - fortunately there was plenty of bread throughout the meal to prevent anyone's needing to resort to plate-licking. I'm also going to have to do one of their cooking classes to find out what they're doing to those vegetable purees that made them all so fantastically tasty. Many thanks to Chef Jonathan, especially for his champion liaison work with the critters that kept wandering up to his door and insisting on being a part of our menu; to Anya, and to Monica for organizing everything. We've never been anything less than blown away by the food at 2941, and they really outdid themselves on Saturday.

As far as drinking/possible game watching, try the Wharf Rat near Camden Yards - 206 W. Pratt St. Excellent beer - they brew their own and have a nice selection of cask-conditioned ales, as well as some interesting experiments. Last time I was there they had a lightish beer (can't remember whether it was a lager or pilsner) that had been brewed with a little cumin, which gave it just a bit of whang and made it extra good with the right food. Their pub grub was entirely acceptable (fish and chips, shepherd's pie, plus the ubiquitous crab cake), and they also had enough TVs that they'd be able to show multiple games. There's a location in Fells Point as well, at 801 S. Ann St. - they don't brew on-site at that one, but it's the same beer, and presumably the same food.

Shouldn't that be ham?

Hannah - I saw it at the Giant in Ashburn Village yesterday where they keep the juices next to the produce section. It hasn't had a really big splash here in DC yet, but hte billboards are all over in San Francisco. Ah ha - I'd tried Safeway and Harris Teeter, but not Giant. Thanks!

There's a spiffy POM billboard at my nearest Metro station, but I haven't seen it in stores as yet. I guess it's either coming soon or someone messed up their media buy.

I've seen the 5lb tubs o' lard at Food Lion - if there's not one near you I'd also try Shopper's since they tend to stock stuff in bulk and have a large ethnic section.

Had lunch in the bar at Citronelle today, and I suspect I'll be back as regularly as my budget will allow for after work. The space is great - lots of natural light, plenty of room, and comfy chairs, and a balcony that overlooks the chef's table. And the food... *drool*. I had the smoked salmon and brioche for an appetizer - it's hard to top good smoked salmon, and theirs is particularly tasty - along with a glass of 1995 Domaine Schlumberger Riesling Grand Cru "Kitterle", and a taste of a Chenin Blanc which wasn't on the by-the-glass list yet and I can't recall the name of - Les Rembertins, maybe? (Brain is saying Les Remoulades, but I know that's not right.) For an entree, I had potato-crusted halibut in boulangere sauce - wow. Perfectly cooked fish with a thin crispy crust of potato, with just enough sauce to complement the fish without being too saucy. I'd filled up on the salmon, but that just means I have enough halibut left over for dinner as well. Unfortunately, it meant I didn't have enough room for dessert, but that gives me an excuse to go back all the sooner.