hannnah

Waffle King Virginia Kitchen in Herndon serves breakfast as long as they're open (I think it's until 3 or 3:30pm). Their gravy is a lot closer to homemade than Bob Evans. And, they don't put sugar in the biscuits. Whatever you do, though, don't EVER order b&g at Amphora. I'm not sure if they didn't realize what it was supposed to look/taste like, or if they tried to Greekify it. Either way, it was nasty.

Monday looks good for me right now...

Just wanted to add my thanks to Monica and to Chef Vinod - the evening was great fun, and the food was excellent. I particularly enjoyed the samplers of the seafood and vegetarian dishes - most of the Indian dishes I'm used to are northern Indian, and the samplers were a great opportunity to try a number of southern regional specialties. If I had to pick a favorite dish from the evening, though, I'd have to go with the seafood broth.

Looks like Sterling came off pretty light - we drove around this morning and didn't see any trees down that hit houses, and most of the power/phone lines are buried so that wasn't a concern. We never fully lost power, although it did brown out 6 or 7 times during the evening, and there was no damage to the house that I can see. I'm happy to be classified as non-emergency personnel at work though - sounds like DC's still a mess between downed lines and trees. We're in the don't-drink-the-water zone, though, and it looks like pretty much all the food places around here have closed or are going to close because of that (at least the fast food had as of a couple hours ago; not sure about grocery stores/etc.) If boiling the water is the worst we have to worry about, though, I'll take it.

Yep. You generally can't see a mare's udder from a side-on photo like that, even when it's full of milk.

Depends. My M-I-L is Irish, and while she does cook a lovely leg of lamb, she only does it for special occasions (ie when we visit) because she absolutely despises the smell of it cooking. Ironically, my husband, who is really very fond of eating lamb, has mentioned that he's not wild about the smell of cooking lamb either. I tend to agree with the folks who've said it's the fat - when we've done lamb chops or smaller pieces, the smell hasn't been an issue.

Ok. Someone is taking this whole critters-stuffed-in-other-critters thing waaaaay too far. Fowl de Cochon - or as it's otherwise known, pig stuffed with turducken stuffed with quail. edit: left out important word. bad brain, no biscuit.

I think that's the 22nd - looks clear for me right now.

Any tips on catching squirrels? Looks like Varmint's gonna need 'em. I'm still trying to decide if I can make it for the pickin. If I do, I volunteer to do all I can to run over as many squirrels as possible, and scoop them off the road, on the way down from Washington DC. I have a monstrous yard squirrel who's been chowing on apples all summer - if anybody wants to come get him, I'll happily donate him for the pot. I suspect he's pretty good eatin' by now.

I once honked at the table on one really unfortunate evening. Should have known better than to order haggis tagliatelle.

I heartily second all the praise - especially of the lamb and the oysters! I hadn't actually eaten an oyster since a bad experience at age 10, but I would absolutely get these again - they were truly fabulous. The corn soup and the peach dessert were also lovely - I really wish I'd had room left to finish the peaches. Maybe next time, and there'll definitely be one; gotta have more lamb and pink wine. I do hope this becomes a regular thing - it was a lot of fun meeting everyone, and it's a good excuse to get to places I haven't tried yet.

Finally got around to counting mine... 26 countable , but I know I have 3 more in various locations around the house since they're not on the shelf. So, a total of 29. The theory is that if I don't have any more shelf space I won't buy any more cookbooks.

Ok, schedule has solidified and I am absolutely positively in. See y'all at 7.

Count me in as well (pending work schedule - I'll know for sure by 2pm or so Wednesday.)

I'll throw out a couple of names I haven't seen mentioned as far as likes (the standard mentions are just that, standards )... First cooking show I remember watching regularly was on Discovery, with a little Italian guy named Pasquale who sang opera (badly). The food wasn't particularly innovative - basically home cooking Italian - but he absolutely loved what he was doing and it showed. Also, Madhur Jaffray and Antonio Carluccio are generally worth a look. As far as dislikes, I'd rather stab myself in the eye repeatedly with a fire-ant-covered-stick than watch Rachael Ray. *aargh* And while I generally adore Iron Chef, the only ones I dislike are the ones with Iron Chef Italian, Kobe. He's just dull.

The pizza's actually pretty good - not quite Pizzeria Paradiso, but certainly better than the Library cafeteria's. I've never actually tried any of the other dishes, and from the general consensus I suspect I'm better off.

If there's still space, I'd love to attend as well (with my husband if there's space for 2).

We ate at Babbo back in March, as out-of-towners with clearly non-NYC accents (one Tennessee, one London), in the middle of prime service time on a Saturday. The *only* problem we had was that the party at our table was having a full-scale after-dinner faff, so we were stuck standing in the bar/coat-check area for 15-20 minutes while waiting for our table to clear. The people who have said that waiting area is too crowded are absolutely right - between customers squeezing past us to get to the tables or bathroom, servers squeezing past us to get to the tables by the window, and both trying to squeeze past us to the coat-check/stairs entrance, it was pretty uncomfortable for a few minutes, and my husband was getting very obviously pissed off. That being said, the maitre d' (bald guy with one of the ugliest ties I've ever seen - so much for trendy!) apologized twice for our having to wait. Once we were finally seated, the rest of the evening couldn't have gone more smoothly. Our waiter was just the right balance of attentive and out-of-the-way, and we were comped the off-menu appetizer special (some incredibly fresh cheese I can't remember the name of with grilled ramps that had been flown in from Italy the day before) in addition to the appetizers we'd actually ordered. The music might have been a little loud, but it was *such* a relief to hear music I actually like (Black Crowes, Cure, and Talking Heads) rather than having to grit my teeth and bear 3+ hours of opera or Sinatra just because I wanted to eat Italian food. I have absolutely never gotten the impression from any place we've been in NYC that we weren't "trendy enough" for them - which is a hoot considering that we've gotten that from hostoids at the restaurants at malls before, and don't get me started on our "dining experience" in rural Pennsylvania recently! We do generally make an effort to look like we haven't been doing the tourist-schleppy thing up until 10 minutes before dinner, or just fell off the turnip truck - people do dress differently in NYC than they do in suburban DC, and it's a simple enough thing to choose clothing appropriately. What it comes down to, I think, is that any place, no matter how good, is going to have off nights. Some people are lucky enough not to catch 'em, some people aren't. I don't think it's necessarily got anything to do with where a place is, or the number of natives vs. tourists. As an aside about the "English vs. Australian" thing, about the worst casual insult you can make to one is to accuse them of being the other. I have no doubt that the woman on the phone had heard the "I am NOT a bloody Pommy etc. etc." lecture from her Aussie cohort at least 724 times, at which point "Not English, Australian" would become ingrained.

Currently rereading Cook's Tour and Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold. Just finished Freeling's The Kitchen - gotta go search the catalog for The Cook now. On deck: Rashomon Gate by IJ Parker (mystery set in medieval Japan). After that, probably Bobby Gold. I suppose this would be a good thread in which to plug for the National Book Festival, October 4 on the National Mall in Washington DC - we have Jacques Pepin and Patrick O'Connell from Inn at Little Washington scheduled to speak and/or do book signings, plus plenty of non-food authors like David Baldacci, James Patterson, Michael Beschloss, Robert Caro, Pat Conroy, Wally Lamb, and Julie Andrews. Info is online at www.loc.gov/bookfest. (Disclaimer: I do tech support for the Library of Congress office that organizes the Book Festival, but I'm not directly involved in the Festival itself unless I get roped in at the last minute.)

Carrabba's struck me as overly greasy, really salty, and underspiced all at the same time - not a problem I've had at Maggiano's.

There's a Waffle House at the exit just south of Potomac Mills, in Dumfries. As far as I know that's the closest one to DC. Has anyone mentioned the pork chops? They have really good pork chops. *mmmm*

I really enjoyed the show when it was on here. Their mama (one of 'em's mama anyway) is a hoot - you look at her and are expecting the Italian accent, etc., and she comes out with this broad Texas Hill Country drawl. Unfortunately, I don't think any of what they do translates through to the franchised version of Carrabba's - I was expecting it to be decent-to-good fern bar stuff, on the level of Maggiano's, but was disappointed. (Maggiano's would be a good chain candidate if they fit the 50-location thing, but I think they're only up to about 28.)

White Castle may be older (by 11 years), but Samuel L. Jackson did commercials for Krystal, which makes them infinitely cooler. Plus, they taste better. I'm not sure what the difference is - maybe it's that Krystals only have mustard, pickle, and the steamed onions, and White Castles have ketchup? (I could be wrong, it's been a few years since I've eaten non-frozen White Castles). I treasure the moment we first took my husband to a Krystal. When my dad ordered 24 (standard amount for four people), my husband exclaimed in horror, "What, are we buying a round for the restaurant??" Once he saw the burgers, he understood - and is seriously considering bringing his mom for a visit next time she comes over just for the same shock value. He's also developed a mild addiction to Corn Pups (the 2-bite corn dog). Krystals also used to do a more substantial breakfast (waffles made to order), and really excellent vanilla frosted donuts. They apparently don't have the donuts anymore - my mom keeps complaining about it.

We did get to eat at our reception - both hors d'oeuvres before and dinner. This was planned - chances of my turning into raging Bridezilla would have gone up exponentially had I not been fed. Before was little dill cheese puffs, spanakopita, fruit and cheese; dinner was buffet - roast pork loin stuffed with cream cheese, apples and pears, and salmon (I think) as the 2nd entree. Various veggies; I vaguely remember having garlic mash and something carroty. The main cake was marble pound cake with vanilla buttercream filling and marzipan fondant; groom's cake was the classic red velvet armadillo with gray cream cheese icing. Absolutely the best red velvet cake I've ever had; I've been meaning to hit the lady who baked it up for the recipe and keep forgetting. My parents described the dinner as "the best four heifers they'd ever spent" - their contribution to the reception was the price of four heifers sold for beef breeding stock. We spent the night at the local Ritz-Carlton; at the time we made the reservation they were running a promotion that included $100 in food vouchers with the room, so we hit the room-service menu for burgers, clam chowder, and dessert. Everything was very tasty; the only questionable thing was the "Ritz-Carlton signature ketchup." Call me plebeian, but I think they'd be much better off with Heinz; it was nasty. They also gave us a little cake as a wedding gift, which we took home the next day; never got to eat any, but our maid of honor/housesitter said it was good.

There's an English version as well, on http://www.coventgardenwhiskyshop.co.uk/. They don't ship to the US or Canada from the UK - not sure about the Netherlands but the rules are probably similar.