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I heard a blurb on NPR with the author of Sushi Economy last Wednesday and ordered it off of Amazon that night; Zen of Fish came up as one of those "may we also suggest" items at checkout so I ordered it, too. Looking forward to reading both.

Late last week as I was jogging by Bar Pilar I noticed a sign up announcing a new Saturday farmers market at 14th and U which was supposed to start up this past week on 6/2. I would have wandered by to check it out but was out of town all weekend. Did anybody happen to see it in operation? I'd love to have another option in the neighborhood in the likely event that I miss Dupont on Sundays.

Tom awards 2.5 stars Bonus out-of-context quote:

The wraps came off the 18th and M location last week, and as I strolled by this morning they were in final preparation for opening tomorrow, 6/1. I may check it out for lunch if I have time especially since they have installed a whole bunch of outdoor seating in the courtyard. That's a shady plus in weather like this.

This place has been in the pipeline for awhile as they slowly rolled out the first set of establishments on H St; I'm interested to see how it fits in with the rest of the development. No evil can come of a new Belgian beer bar in my opinion. I've been meaning to get down to H St to check the new places out. Has anybody used the free Union Station shuttle service that the bars have been offering? I hear cabs are still fairly rare on that stretch late at night.

Kyoto We were in Kyoto for 4 days last summer. Our dining plan was pretty much "eat what looks good", and we relied on suggestions from locals, but some of our best meals were just walking into tiny places for lunch and going with the flow. Unfortunately I didn't write down many addresses addresses or names and "the little soba place around the corner from that cool textiles shop" probably won't do you much good. We did very well by staying off of the main drag and just perusing menus with our limited knowledge of Japanese. I regret not splurging for a kaiseki meal, but that wasn't in the budget; breakfast at the ryokan was great, though. Definitely take time to wander Nishiki market, but I'd avoid most of the established restaurants there (we did have some great ramen at a shop counter). If you are looking for cutlery do not miss Aritsugu. It's a knife geek Disneyland; also some very cool but hyper-expensive hand-hammered copper cookware.

No, it was another local-ish brewery. Maybe Flying Fish? I'll have to go back through my dcbeer emails. If I recall the upfront costs to set up an on site canning system was prohibitive, something about minimum can orders from manufacturers. In fact I believe Oskar outsources the canning to another firm; Sly Fox does their own. EDIT: I was remembering wrong; it's actually significantly cheaper to set up a new canning line than a bottling line. Now I wish more micros would get in on the action!

Sly Fox just west of Philly cans their beers. I remember hearing about another Mid-Atlantic brewery that had planned on canning, but can't remember who it was. Sly Fox and Oskar are the only two I know of that are available in this area if you don't count the numerous European beers available in cans. There are some really good canned English ales that we can't get on these shores.

You should also try Old Chub from the same brewery (Oskar Blues out of CO); it's an 8.0% Scottish strong ale. You'll never see canned beer the same way again and will be in for an interesting evening if you decide to chug a few! Both of are available at local Whole Foods as well (P St carries it and I believe Glover Park). There's really no reason in this day and age to not can beer, just as there is no reason not to distribute wine in a bag. The packing mediums do not detract anything but style points from the product (we're talking wines ready to drink, not anything that would need to be cellared). In fact cans are cheaper to produce and ship, and they chill faster.

When I was waiting tables there was a particularly cozy booth that was used as a bangette on a number of occasions after closing ...

A second for Ed's! The best and most reasonably-priced place in Dewey. Lazy Susan's isn't bad if you want to head out on Route 1, but why drive? I think you can get them steamed for takeout at the seafood market attached to Big Fish Grill where Rte 1 splits off to Rehoboth going south into Dewey (in AlexC's description Ed's is just before the split as you are heading north out of Dewey, and it's a different split! Confused yet?). There is also a tiny seafood shack (literally a shack) a little further down Rte 1 just before you get to Dewey. It keeps odd hours, though, and may not even be operating any more. I have no clue what it was called, but it is/was roughly across the street from Bozie's Produce. Whatever you do don't take them to a crab feast at the Rudder ...

Wait, wasn't the root of this whole kerfluffle Kliman misrepresenting Donna's prior financial troubles? And yet they are intending "Don't believe the Washingtonian" to mean that the review of the food itself was misguided and Kliman doesn't know what he's talking about? If so it's a tad disingenuous; 99% of the dining public don't know that back story.

I could see how on a hot, summer day a chilled Kool-Aid pickle would hit the spot. It's got that sweet/tangy/savory thing going for it (although I would probably prefer less sugar than the regular recipes call for). This, on the other hand, gets a big from me: I'm still trying to wrap my head around hot Cheetos ...

We dropped by for dinner last night and were impressed. Still some service issues to be worked out, but the food is good. I personally could care less about the wine; I don't think I've ever had a glass of wine with Mexican food in my life. The well made micheladas make it a moot point anyway. The price point is about right (maybe a touch too high for some of the entrees, but to be expected in the neighborhood). We both had entrees, two drinks apiece, and shared and app: $66 before tax and tip

I don't have a whole recipe, but a local band we used to go see in college have a song that was apparently inspired by a really sublime mis-translation. The song title? Remove Bones From Face Before Inserting in Hot Bird I've always really wanted to see that recipe.

I think he's referring to this. I don't think anybody is saying that Henckels doesn't still make good quality knives, but lending the company name to lower end products does tend to dilute the brand's prestige. As long as the "real" Henckels are still being produced with the same Teutonic precision I doubt anybody who actually uses them will care.

I'm pretty certain that the lower end Wusthof and ilk are produced in Asia now. This may only be the really cheap stamped stuff they sell at Target, though, but may include the lower end forged. I'm almost positive the higher quality forged steel in those lines is still coming out of Europe.

I only dined there once (not counting Grill outings), but from what I can recall the non-VIP service at Galileo never got high marks; complaints of snootiness or indifference didn't seem to be abnormal. Maybe the staff isn't excited about being in Crystal City at a joint with a more casual vibe and lower average covers. Maybe they're all just waiting it out to move back to the new and improved Galileo. In any case, maybe it's just angst (FOH) breeding angst (customer).

I used to think this of Globals, but a chef of smaller stature convinced me otherwise. They are completely wrong for me, but I can now see why some swear by them. Pretty much every major player has come to market with a similar seamless steel design by now so there are a lot more options than Global. They hold a keen edge for a long time but are a pain the ass to sharpen when they do go dull. I have a paring knife I picked up cheap on eBay that I had to sharpen right out of the box, and I hope with the low use it gets I won't have to do it again for a very long time I recently picked up a very nice snakewood handle gyutou from Korin after inquiring about a big clearance sale they were having on their "Korin" branded knives right after the New Year. They were out of the one listed on the site but substituted basically the exact same knife with Nenox branding which would normally have been $50 or so more expensive just for the name. I think they get house-branded knives from a lot of the better Japanese producers and can sell them for less (not that the discount actually makes it a bargain!). I can attest to the quality; it's a fantastic piece of steel with a more nimble, lighter blade than my everyday Wusthof. Definitely worth the splurge if you are into that kind of thing . I'm not sure I like it better than the Aritsugu deba we picked up in Japan, but it's a hell of a lot more versatile. Putting aside fetishistic boutique alloyed objets d'art my advice mirrors most of that above: go somewhere and handle a bunch of knives, find out what fits your hand. Try a bunch of different grips if you don't have a favorite. Go on eBay and pick one up if you don't have qualms about using a retail store for a test drive. There are a lot of legit merchants that deal in overstock for all of the Wusthofs and Globals and Henckels of the world.

I picked up the menu on Saturday after seeing the name and thinking this might be an unexpected treat in the 'hood. Unfortunately an izakaya it is not. The sushi is the real focus; the other offerings seem to be an afterthought. Nothing on the menu really jumped out at me. If the sushi quality is good and the price point is right it may a good place for a quick snack, but that's about it. I was hoping for yakitori or onigiri or something a little more interesting.

Saw an ad for this in the City Paper today and don't know quite what to make of it: Black Fox Lounge. PX for the bling palace crowd? Faux classy hotel bar (sans hotel)? Some of the copy is cringe-inducing: I actually appreciate the concept and think that it's a good idea in the abstract (upscale classic cocktail lounge), but the see-and-be-seen vibe I'm getting makes me want to avert my eyes. I can't picture exactly where this is going either (right next to City Lights?), but I haven't walked that block in awhile.

I'll have to track the name down, but one of my co-workers had their casual outdoor wedding reception catered by a local VA BBQ company and were really pleased. This was 5-6 years ago, though, so I have no idea if they would even still be around. I'll try to dig it up.

This morning the scale unceremoniously announced by way of it's monochromatic digital display that I was a 1/2 pound under my target weight. I'd hit 3/4 pound over my target last Friday (and first time under 200 in a very long time) but thought that was a dehydrated-after-workout result. Not so this morning. I'm sticking a flag in this one and celebrating tonight with a Fuller's Vintage Ale from 2002 that's been aging in the wine fridge for awhile. It was going to be my post-race celebratory beer, but I had doubts about traveling to FLA with it. No time like the present! Two months ago I didn't think I had a chance to reach this target before the race on 4/29, and I don't see any reason to stop now with a couple more triathlons and running events on the horizon this summer. I am predicting a 5 pound gain in the week immediately following the main event (or maybe after lunch that very afternoon!), but I'm not going to care one bit

Aside from the money-savin', weight-losin', healthy(er)-eatin' reasons listed above: A friend commented the other day that a formally merely oversize shirt I was wearing "looked like a dress". So I found out that I may actually look good in a dress ... Some bottles in the wine fridge have acquired additional aging that they may not have seen had I been drinking as much recently A previously troublesome stiff back has improved quite a bit from almost daily exercise My favorite belt has a buckle hole that is seeing use for the first time in 3 or 4 years; other newer belts are charting new buckle hole territory I'm on track to drop a digit in the hundreds place on the scale in the coming week(s). I haven't been below that threshold since probably sometime shortly after college. Finally, the prospect of completing a 36 mile multi-sport race in a respectable time has gone from anxiety-inducing to exhilarating

Glycogen reserves are stored in the liver. Muscle fiber contains it's own glycogen supply that is replenished as it is exhausted.