zoramargolis

Chuck roast is my new favorite braising cut. This had SO much more flavor than a bottom round roast I did a couple weeks ago, it's like a totally different meat.

Bottom round makes an ok oven roast--can be very tasty when done medium rare and sliced thin. It is not a pot roasting cut--not enough internal fat or connective tissue. For braising or stewing, you want tough cuts: chuck, brisket, shank, short ribs. Live and learn. We've all had important cooking lessons from these kinds of experiences.

There are local sources for several of the cheeses/cheesemakers mentioned above.

Firefly Farms comes to the Dupont Market every Sunday, and their cheeses are also sold in local Whole Foods stores.

I have bought Grayson (Meadow Creek Dairy, Galax, VA) at P Street Whole Foods, and a cheese from Everona Dairy, though not the one cited, as I recall. I think they also carry these cheeses at Arrowine.

I believe I have also seen Capriole cheese, though I can't recall where just now.

While Black Market Bistro is Barbara Black's "place" she is not the primary chef. She and Jeff both are focusing on running the business more than cooking, these days.

Christine, the former front-of-house manager of BlackSalt was recently moved over to Black Market Bistro as manager there. She has worked with Jeff and Barbara for many years and is thoroughly conversant with all of their policies. I have always known her to be very accomodating to customers. There are serious space constraints at Black Market Bistro that made it necessary for them to institute a "no reservations policy" there, and there may be limits at that one place that are not true at their other restaurants. Jeff, however, has told me about "regular" customers at Addie's with special needs who he is happy to accomodate--like the man who can't chew solid food who comes in for dinner a couple of times a year.

Black's Bar and Kitchen in Bethesda is undergoing a complete renovation, and the workers have been absorbed into the other three restaurants in the interim.

2005 Yalumba 'Y Series' Sangiovese Rose

$9.99 at Rodman's

Beautiful salmon pink color, fresh, full of fruit but finishes dry. Screwtop.

Nice, nice, nice! I know what I'm buying for Spring/Summer quaffing.

Wonderful accompaniment to a Mediterranean seafood stew last night.

Well, I used to work in the BlackSalt fish market and they are still friends and I live in the neighborhood, so you can take my comments with however much salt you want. But CF's story above would never happen at BlackSalt. First, because of the high volume of the restaurant, there are frequent deliveries and quick turnover of product. Stuff delivered by the wholesalers is sniffed before it is accepted, and anything that isn't super fresh is rejected or returned. I only remember one time when I worked there, a woman came in and said that one of the young guys had sold her some spoiled skate over the weekend, when neither Scott, the manager or I were there. She didn't have it with her, just came in to tell us about it. We apologised profusely, gave her some replacement fish of her choice, despite not having the exact amount of the sale in question. And we had a serious talk with the kid who sold it to her--he was doing an apprenticeship from a local cooking school, and probably should not have been left on his own.

Speaking of BlackSalt, I went in today to buy some mussels and I found a treasure hanging out in the refrigerator case--VEAL CHEEKS!! I had never seen them for sale before. They had a special order, had to buy a minimum of ten pounds and part of the balance is being braised for a special tonight and the rest got vacuum-packed for the market. $11.99 a pound. They also had a beautiful Hudson Valley Moulard duck breast for sale.

Here's what I'd do: start with the usual suspects-Container Store, Crate and Barrel, Williams Sonoma, Sur la Table. Once you've found the size/style you prefer, you might be able to find something like it online for less.

I have the same problem, but don't have a high enough ceiling for a large rack. I bought a single-row pot rack at Container Store and hung it in front of a window between the kitchen and porch. I'm thinking about installing a pegboard (a-la Julia Child's kitchen) on a blank space of wall opposite my stove top, to hang other stuff. The space is too narrow for shelves or cabinets. I miss the days when we lived in a loft, and Jonathan built me a kitchen with a twelve foot long, four foot wide counter with room for stools on one side, and cabinets with rolling wire drawers and shelves inside on the other side. I had enough space on other counters so that my Kitchen-Aid mixer and bread machine could sit out all the time, along with the Cuisinart, blender, espresso machine, toaster oven, toaster and microwave. And I could spread out plates and trays and roll out pastry on my big counter, and use it as a buffet when we had parties. People could sit and hang out and drink and nibble stuff on one side of the big counter, while I worked on the other side. Where we live now, the kitchen space was designed to be big enough only for someone who didn't do much cooking.

Not if he, like many chefs and others who pack some girth on their torsos, wears clogs.

Joe is too modest-- in case y'all weren't aware of it, he is entitled to use the letters MH after his name. Master of Hyperbole.

I have seen this show.  The word "horrible" comes to mind. I love wine, but don't know too much about it and thought that maybe this show would help. Nope. I don't care for Karen MacNeil's on-air persona or the fact that she dumbs things down and provides "memory cues" about wines. Ugh.  Is there no happy medium between telling me that a wine has a particular bouquet (a la the old Steve Martin routines) and telling me to think of rose as a "young Barbara Streisand"?  I'm not sure if the wine or Barbara should be more insulted.  In one show, she provided the following info:

1. Rosé

Color: Red

Taste: Dry, Robust, Spicy, Berries

Geography: France, Spain, USA & Others

Memory Cue: Young Barbara Streisand

Most of you guys are too young to remember one of Barbra's early hits from the late 60's--a song that Fanny Brice (the inspiration for Funny Girl and Funny Lady) made famous in the 1920's:

"I'm wearing second-hand hats

Second-hand hose

That's why they call me

SECOND-HAND ROSE

Even our piano in the parlor

Father bought for ten cents on the dollar

Secondhand rings, I'm sick of second-hand things

I never get a single thing that's new

Once while strolling through the park

A girl got my goat

She nudged her friend and said

'Oh look, there goes my old fur coat'

Oh everyone knows

That I'm just SECOND-HAND ROSE

From Second Avenue

From Second Avenue"

I'm going again tonight and may have the chicken again. I'm curious to see if it tastes different than last time-- perhaps the Chef changes the brine every now and then. I could swear I tasted cardamom last time.

The last time I had it, I tasted tarragon all the way to the bone.

I made short ribs on Sunday night and served them with polenta. Polenta --YES (high five here)! I had some leftover oven roasted shiitake and oyster mushrooms and caramelized pearl onions, and I added them to the sauce. We're talking quick trip to heaven here. Interestingly, when I was assembling the braise, I shuffled around in my freezer for awhile, but couldn't find the bag with the homemade veal stock cubes. So I added a couple of teaspoons of Better Than Bouillon brand beef base, which I had in the fridge. Hell-o! The sauce, which I have made many times with stock added to the cooked wine marinade, was richer and had significantly more depth of flavor this time. Note to self--Better Than Bouillon is also better than stock in a braise--save the stock cubes for pan reduction sauces.

In case anyone wants to get some BTB beef base (they also make chicken and vegetable), they sell it at Rodman's. They used to have it at Trader Joe's, but I don't recall seeing it there recently.

When I was growing up, we referred to America's favorite beer as "Budvasser"-- in Yiddish, it means "bathwater."

I went to a funeral this morning. My daughter's advisor and Spanish teacher last year, a man who challenged and pushed her to do her best, who really connected with her, obviously cared a lot and who was very important to her. He was in his mid-forties and had a young wife and a three year-old child. So very sad. He was born in Italy, and according to his eulogists, was a man who passionately enjoyed life and its pleasures-- food and wine, music, friends and sports cars and fine clothes and soccer. A tragedy for a man so full of life, to have it ended by cancer--with a child too young to remember very much about him as she grows up. We were admonished by the priest and by his friends who eulogised him, to embrace life and appreciate and enjoy it while we can, as he had.

So I cooked a fine meal for my family tonight:

Pan grilled Moulard duck breast with Montmorency cherry sauce

Lentils de Pouy

Risotto with shiitake and porcini mushrooms

Oven roasted broccolini

2002 Morambro Creek Shiraz

La Tur

Lemon tarts from Bonaparte Bakery

Ciao, Antonio!

I decided to start this thread, because I found something yesterday that I had never seen before, at the Super H in Fairfax:

Fresh garbanzo beans, green and still in their pods. There is one bean, sometimes two per pod. they taste a bit like fresh peas, though not quite as sweet. I bought a sackful and shelled them in front of the tv last night. I'm still thinking about how best to use them.

Anyone else find anything of note recently?

Cioppino with shrimp, scallops, squid, monkfish, fluke and mussels

Salad of haricots verts and frisee

Camembert from Fields of Grace Farm in Remington, VA

- bought at Arlington Farmers Market last Saturday, this cheese was unbelievably good-- ripe, runny and unctuous. We devoured it.

Fourme d'ambert

Flourless chocolate cake with strawbs and blackberries

(this cake has provided several great desserts to my family this week--finishing up by feeding six people, still very deliciously)

2004 Domaine Philippe Cotes du Rhone Blanc

2003 Kermit Lynch Cotes du Rhone

I too am intrested in getting responses to local venues or whom migh sell good bones.

Call The Organic Butcher of McLean (703-790-8300) and talk to Don. I'll bet he'll sell you some marrow bones. They get the whole carcass from local organic farmers and break it down themselves. This is high quality product and won't be cheap. Then again, if you are eating marrow you don't want to be looking for bargains, do you.

(I believe I have seen marrow bones at Union Meats in Eastern Market. They will be less expensive than OB of McL.)

Charcoal grilled tri-tip steaks with spice rub

Gratin of rainbow chard with comte

Honey-glazed gingered carrots

Fingerling potatoes

Loudon lettuce salad with Meyer lemon olive oil and verjus

2003 Domaine La Garrigue Cotes du Rhone, cuvee Romaine

Flourless chocolate cake with mixed berry coulis (again)

Enjoy the fact that you are still young enough to celebrate birthdays. Further on down the road, they are days to grit your teeth and try to make it through, somehow.

Oxtail soup...yum!

"Effie!" the farmer's wife said to the hired girl, "I'd like you to make some oxtail soup tonight."

"Well, I would," Effie replied. "But I tried makin' oxtail soup once and it didn't work. Nope. Christ, soon's I got the water t' boilin' that darned ox pulled his tail right outta the pot and ran outta the barn. I run after him, but I couldn't catch him again, neither."

Vermont humor.

Braised Polyface rabbit legs with mustard-cream sauce

Israeli couscous with mushrooms

Haricots verts with Meyer lemon olive oil

2004 Grove Mill Marlborough Pinot Noir

Flourless chocolate cake with warm mixed berry coulis and creme chantilly (OMG this was good!)

Ask for Adam at Saint-Ex. Last night he introduced me to the Sazerac 18-year Rye. CrescentFresh said it best, "Holy ----!"

Gawd, I love Sazerac rye. I found it at a reasonable price (around $35) at the Monkey County stores (once in Bethesda, once at Tuckerman Lane) but that was a couple of years ago, and they haven't had it since. I saw one bottle at Central Liquor, but it was like $99 or something, which is way beyond the realm of possibility. If anyone knows where I can get some at a reasonable price, I'd be most grateful for the info.

Recently got hooked on Peet's Coffee, and been buying it at Bethesda Whole Foods. 

We get regular deliveries, direct from Peet's. The beans are freshly roasted the day they are packed and sent, much fresher than anything in a store. If you are hooked on Peet's, as we are, this is definitely the way to go.

http://www.peets.com

Waitman, you are full of pith!

How does one get a proper Sazerac cocktail then, if no one has any rye? Do they make them with bourbon?

I am almost afraid to eat it though.

Just curious. What is your concern?