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Good to know about the Rustico pizzas. It's still kind of hard to pull the trigger on things like that because for the next 3 months she needs to be really vigilant about cross-contamination in order to confirm the diagnosis and essentially allow things to heal. That basically applies to all eating out, though ... I skipped right past Redbridge; we'd rather stick to micros if there are other options, purely from a beer geek point of view. I picked up some LakeFront New Grist (sorghum and rice, gold in the experimental category at GABF). It was decent if a tad sweet, to be expected from a rice brew I guess. Could have used a heavier hand with the hops to balance things out. We'll have to check out the Green's; I haven't found it at retail (but admittedly haven't looked that hard).

We were already quinoa fans before the news, so that has been an easy one. I just need to branch out from the various cold salad options that I normally use it for. We actually went to Beck a couple weeks ago and didn't realize they had any gluten free beers. The waiter didn't offer them after we mentioned the restriction, and in hindsight that was odd. We'll have to drop in again and talk to the bartender.

Yes, her site has been a beacon of hope among a bunch of really uninspired cooking ideas. Scott, I heard that MOM is opening on 14th and W-ish soon in the first floor of a new condo building, is that accurate?

After a few months of diagnostic purgatory my wife was recently informed that she most likely has celiac disease. While this has been a blow to her (and me!) on the culinary front (bread! pizza!! beer!!!), we're navigating the gluten-free lifestyle fairly well so far. Whole Foods is actually really good on this front, but we obviously don't want to rely on pre-packaged gluten free replacement products. I'm reaching out to the DR hive mind for ideas from anyone who's made successful adjustments to remove wheat gluten from "normal" recipes. Specifically: 1) Baked goods: I'm already shopping for a bread maker since the frozen gluten-free stuff pretty much sucks. There are various recipes out there for breads, but they involve multiple kinds of nut and/or rice flours (some are 5-6 per recipe in different proportions) and I'm not looking to stock that many varieties on hand. Are any of the pre-mixed flours out there any good? 2) Pastries and dessert-type items: Ditto for other baked goods. I'm collecting recipes for tarts with nut flour shells; they sound like good options. Cookie recipes? We haven't found any that seem worth trying. 3) Pastas: I'm on a mission to perfect gnocchi with flour alternatives. Perhaps more importantly we're looking for restaurants that do the gluten free thing well (we've already been to Oyamel after hearing that the Andres empire actually has printed gluten free menus). Tried to do Thai or Vietnamese this weekend (rice noodles) but couldn't get an answer over the phone at any place about the lurking hidden ingredients (regular soy sauce in particular, or any popular Asian sauce base for that matter). There don't seem to be many good lists of area restaurants aside from bigger chains, and we definitely don't want to stop going to the smaller places we love. I'm looking to build a database, bigger the better. As you might expect most of the celiac resources out there aren't foodie focused ("I can eat gluten free at The Cracker Barrel? Awesome!") Feel free to PM with any suggestions. Thanks!!

Tom, Any more detailed info on an opening date you'd be willing to share? Eagerly anticipating this given proximity to home ...

I wasn't aware that this place was an actual bar. When we were researching wedding stuff it came up often in lists of reception locations; sounded more like a reserved-event-only space than an open-to-the-public establishment. Maybe the former wasn't paying the bills? Looks like a nice deck that has the chance of not being overrun on summer nights.

It most reminded me the top-quality toro I was fortunate enough to sample while in Japan. The dominant sensation was the buttery mouthfeel with a slight undertone of beefiness. It was far less beefy than I had expected just as that toro was much less tuna-y. If presented both in a blind taste test I would seriously have a difficult time differentiating them (note to Don and RJ: that's a taste test I would shell out some serious coin for!). Was it worth it? I think so, but only at this price point and in this setting. It was a good thing to be presented this as a treat without too many other distractions. I would have a hard time paying $50, let alone $90, for a similar serving as part of a larger meal. Being able to savor it alone made it worth the price of admission. And more thanks to the folks who put this together. It was great putting more faces to names!

I particularly love the bit about Batali's new show:

I would prefer 8:00, but if there's a need to make room I could make 7:00 as well

20 pounds to go, 5 for December just to undo the damage and get me down to best-of-summer-'07 baseline. Anything over a 20 pound loss for the spring will be gravy and a saving grace for the knees.

I'm in!

Speaking of the Riot, does anybody still have the oyster map from that night? I can't find ours and I'm trying to remember the name of the variety they had from Alaska (the only one there I believe). I found them really good, and I don't usually gravitate towards the big and meaty ones. This one seemed to have an East Coast texture with a Pacific flavor, or at least that's how I remembered it. EDIT: I should mention Canoe Lagoon is the name that comes up most often when I search for Alaskan oysters, but that doesn't ring a bell to me. It could have been the wine, though. No, it probably was the wine. My first experience with a Belon was at BlackSalt shortly after they opened. It was revelatory, the best oyster I've ever had. Sadly, the few occasions that I've had them since (Riot included) haven't lived up. I mean they've been good, but that first one was gooooooodddddd. Had some Nabob Bay at Hank's last night; really liked those.

Sooooo ..... who's in for round 2? I was trucking happily along and maintaining under my target weight from the last challenge all summer long. Then we got married in the middle of October. In the intervening 1.5 months I've regained a full 20% of the weight I had dropped. Early season training season begins again next week and I'm looking to drop another 10% by the spring. I'm predicting it's going to be a lot harder this go 'round. Who's with me?!

Update: 7Fish is off the list. We were down there at the end of October and can't recommend the place anymore. At all. It was sold, but I guess the timing of our last meal down there was fortunate. A lot of the same staff appear to be there, and the menu reads the same, but the food coming out of the kitchen was completely uninspiring. No, it was downright bad. Fish was overcooked and the sides were just not good. We're sad to see it devolve so much, but our next trip down won't include a meal there. On the other hand we still like the Half Shell, El Siboney is still great Cuban, Blue Heaven still serves a fantastic breakfast, and B.O.'s still knows how to put together a great fish sandwich. There is a new place called Santiago's Bodega that we heard of on the way out of town and we're sorry we missed it. We heard good things.

That's actually a pretty good title. It's the concept that's unfortunate!

I normally don't walk by there any more, but C.F. Folks on 19th in Dupont sometimes has chicken pot pie as a special on whatever day they highlight American cuisine (Thursdays?). Lunch only, but I'd put good money on it being hearty and delicious! They post the daily specials on the website: www.cffolksrestaurant.com

Is anybody else heading to the Oyster Riot next week? After 6 years of either being out of town or not being able to afford scalper prices for tickets I'm finally able to attend on Friday. As someone who is not a huge sauv blanc fan, what beers are typically poured? I'm hoping for more than just Guinness on the stout front but not expecting it. It's going to be the end of a long week at work and the beginning of a long weekend at play

I love these studies! Even better is reading the impassioned, flowery defenses of connoisseurship that inevitably follow ...

I've been pretty lucky when it comes to avoiding major mishaps (including a chef's knife that fell tip down and stuck straight up from the tip of a shoe but missed any actual flesh by a couple of millimeters). My worst was probably as a kid on a camping trip when I went to grab a cheap camping pot that had mere seconds ago been sitting over an open campfire. I learned that day what those removable "bulldog" handles that come with compact camping sets are for; I singed off a good chunk a flesh from my thumb and inside of my forefinger. This was well before the cellphone days and we were already 2 days into the hike, so our counselor told me to go hold it under running stream water for a bit and then bandaged it up. It's a wonder it didn't get infected. To this day I have a little crease in the pad of my thumb, 20+ years later. Several years ago I picked up a cheap, stamped chef's knife for $0.25 from Caldor (remember them?!) during their final going-out-of-business days. Hey, it was coated in Teflon to effortlessly slice through food! I learned sharpening and honing using that blade and could get it scary, scary sharp (it would hold that edge for all of 30 seconds so I got a lot of practice). It was my habit to hone it prior to putting it away. When I upgraded to the real deal it ended up in the back of a drawer. As I was moving house 5 years ago I reached in to empty that drawer and ran the tip of my middle finger along the blade. Not laterally across, but longitudinally down the tip. I was in a hurry to get things packed and already in a pissy mood, so I plunged it into a glass of ice water on the counter top to staunch the blood flow and grabbed the two things I had plenty of at hand: paper towels and packing tape. I ended up with a golf ball sized wad of towel and tape on my finger that also acted like a splint; when I finally stopped to take it off two days later it had already started to heal, but I had to be careful for another week not to bend that finger and open it back up. I really should have gone to the hospital for that one ...

Thanks again to Chris and Binni for putting this together! We'd highly recommend this class to anybody who missed out on this round.

Showoff ...

In if the work scheduling holds its present course

How about a pho/BBQ fusion joint called Pho Q?

Four of us dropped by for dinner on Saturday night. Color me impressed. I normally don't factor the surroundings in my impression of a place, but I really liked the vibe here, right down to the (loud) soundtrack. This is not a place to go for a quiet evening alone! Food was good to great. The mussels weren't the best in the city, but they were pretty damn good. A lukewarm cone of fries was a bit of a disappointment, but the texture was spot on and we liked the different mayos. I see the potential had they been fresh from the fryer. Throughout the night we could see finished cones stacked up in the pass for sometimes minutes at a time, so I think they weren't producing them in synch with the entrees they were supposed to accompany. I honestly should have sent them back, but at that point I was a few too many Leffes into the night and was having too much of a good time. A dandelion green salad was fairly bland; the dressing could have used a little more acid to brighten it up. But my chicken and waffles: oh my! Again, maybe this was beer speaking, but man did that go down well. As if fried chicken + waffles + syrup could possibly be anything by excellent. My only minor complaint was that some pieces of the chicken were ever so slightly dried out. The coating was airy and delicious. A scallop app and the burger (with chanterelles ... superb) also got high marks. I'm shocked and delighted that the upstairs lounge/deck hasn't been "discovered" by the trendy hivemind yet, but I suspect that this will last all of another week or so. Granted we got there on the early side (7:30ish), but it was practically empty even with a 45 minute wait downstairs. There is a lot of room with a large outdoor bar and plenty of seats at a railing running the perimeter. There is another smaller bar with a lounge area inside. Come summer it's going to be a madhouse. The downstairs was a madhouse by the time we left around 10:30. Beers weren't terribly overpriced given the locale; I'd stick with the drafts even though they were run-of-the-mill at this stage in the game (Stella, Leffe Blonde and Brun, Maudite, Hoegaarden, and something else forgettable). Hopefully they will expand with some more interesting offerings in the future. They had a larger selection of bottles (again, nothing to write home about), but at those prices draft does just fine. We didn't explore the wine list either.

I'm in