That is one of the most adorable things I have read in a long time!

I really hate to say/ask this because of the purists, but here goes... what do you consider good sushi? (No one yell at me, okay? Please?)

I've dined with people who would only eat at sushi bars with famous chefs who flew fish in from Japan every day and whose virgin daughters harvested the uni themselves at midnight... and those who openly made gagging faces at anything that wasn't a Crazy Spicy Tempura Deep Rainbow Fried Cream Cheese Dragon Philadelphia Roll. Both have their merits (remember: don't yell, please!).

And 32-hour days. Otherwise known as college, my thin years...

That's also what I do! My old coworkers used to joke that I ate nothing but "a hunk of meat on a head of lettuce" for 2.5 years because that's all they saw.

I hate my cast iron pan but keep using it. I mean, I have tried 8+ cycles of seasoning, fried 20+lbs of bacon in the damn thing, and it still shreds everything -- including paper towels -- that touches it.

You're in good company ;). My grandmother's cookware was worse than what I had as a college student. She loved instant coffee and dashida, cleaned and reused containers until they fell apart, and used a rice cooker. But given a choice, I'd take a seat in her kitchen over Keller's or Morimoto's every day if I could.

Same here -- blue is my instinct, but (am I crazy?) some cuts are better when they're more "done." Short ribs, skirt, and hangar, for example. Also, I can never get the flank right unless they're medium. So the salting and even cooking throughout is good advice!

If your response was intended to respond to me, then, well... I'm not trying to begin a discussion. A losing battle, perhaps...

I think your question is quite thoughtful, and CHers undoubtedly run the gamut. I am still trying to find a balance, if that isn't general enough... There is wanting to support local small businesses, but what if their products are sub-par or overpriced? Wanting to protect (no matter on how small of a scale) endangered species but also wanting to enjoy oneself here and there with a beautiful, fatty piece of toro. Balancing convenience and financial constraints with the desire to support fair trade practices and preserve heirloom crops... Not wanting to know that the owners of one's beloved farm or restaurant or shop support causes in direct competition with one's personal philosophy or ethics... There is no clear cut answer, but there are a few specific incidents that spring to mind where I was largely repulsed or attracted to a business based on the alignment (or lack thereof) of its practices/politics/ethics and those of mine. The pork purveyor at a farmer's market who was loudly declaring that "all dirty [demographic] should die," with me standing right there and having bought from her for years. The business woman who only kept enough of her profits to keep a roof over her head and food on her table, with the rest of it going towards fighting domestic abuse... and whose cafe turned out the worst coffee (-ish), bacon (-esque), potatoes (-ish), and eggs (-ish) at $19 (in 2004-2006!). The ex-pat so enamored with California that he only dealt with the wines of my beloved home. The chef I knew as a friend who talked about his customers being so stupid, not realizing the difference between the advertised veal and consumed pork. Then there are the issues of larger businesses and industries with their lobbyists and undue influence on our food supply and business practices and political contributions...

It almost seems like too much to think about sometimes when all you're trying to do is get a pork chop for dinner or treat a friend to her favorite meal/restaurant or figure out if you should pony up extra money for the item you feel or think is best aligned to your overall view of how the world should be... In the end, though, it's quite beautiful that we can vote with our dollars, no?

"I never see chicken/poultry on the menus in Korean restaurants -- is it used, if ever, in Korean cooking?" Not that hard. Obviously everyone else on these boards are much kinder about questions like yours. The way it's framed -- solipsistic -- is quite offensive.

In any case, chicken isn't as prized within Korean culture as a prime meat. My grandparents and other older family members always recounted how barley and other foods, including eggs and chicken, tasted like war. There may be something in that, though I can't say for certain what. Eggs were highly prized so perhaps chickens were kept alive as long as possible -- the cooking methods of the older chicken dishes (which excludes fried chicken) would have served an old hen well. Also, Korea is a peninsula which accounts for the high consumption and variety of seafood. Pork has been (and still is?) the most widely consumed type of meat because of Korea's agricultural/farming history -- pigs being low maintenance and not working animals, which is why beef was rare and reserved for special occasions, though that is becoming less of the case now. There is also a cultural preference for fatty meats, though again, that is becoming less the case.

There are so many intertwining stories and contributing factors that make up Korean cuisine, and especially the cultural idiosyncrasies and nuances of its consumption -- joyful and harrowing and heartbreaking... It's not as simple as saying, "never." So no, I'm not going to lighten up.

I've had great success with Costco sandwich platters, a large bag of chips and/or vegetable platter, and bottled water. Not exactly gourmet, but quite utilitarian and better than fast food.

Stating personal experience as reality or fact is not exactly a great place to begin discussion as generalizations are never wholly true. What you see on a menu, Korean or not, depends where you are, the restaurant's target demographic, restaurant's specialty, product availability, etc.

Rice doesn't have gluten.

Columbia Pike farmer's market (S. Glebe and Columbia Pike) Sunday mornings.

These days, it's romaine lettuce, cucumbers, carrots, and peppers dipped in gochujang (Korean red pepper paste).

You may want to look into Paleo meal sites, especially for desserts. The Paleo diet is a bit more stringent in that it excludes all grains, sugar, and dairy, but they are gluten free and low carb for the most part...

Fantastic, thanks for the tip, alkapal! Girlfriends are coming up this weekend -- we're definitely going to make a trip here.

So not that new, but thought that Kabobs Inn deserved a mention. I've gone a number of times but they can be inconsistent. When it's good, it's AMAZING, but when they miss... man, do they hit it out of the ballpark. I've had every dish, every side multiple times, and am always so sad/angry/disappointed when the rogan josh is laying under 2.5 inches of oil (we measured!), the naan is doughy, the chicken dry, or the spinach side gritty -- because I know how incredible the food can be. Also, the garlic naan is not worth $3; you're better off brushing on your own garlic and ghee at home. If getting takeout, double-check your order before leaving (out of the 15+ times I've gotten takeout, it was correct once).

Don't let this deter you from going, though! Just thought a fair warning was needed. Other than the hiccups, I LOVE this place, and they really push people to visit their upstairs "fine dining" area, which is actually really cute and cozy.

hannaone, I hope you don't mind if I jump in... saucedjen, depending on how large the chopped pieces are, you can throw them in just defrosted (rinsed and patted dry). If you really want to parboil, I wouldn't do it for more than a minute or two, and at a simmer. Otherwise, the octopus will turn rubbery.

My dinner schedule is all over the place these days. I eat when hungry and sleep when tired, which means that I'll sometimes go to bed after a beer, or eat at 6pm and go to bed at 2am, or eat at 9pm and go to bed at 930pm... :\

The Majestic and PX in Alexandria serve phenomenal, unique, and exquisitely crafted drinks, but what do you consider a "great" cocktail place?

I get intense feelings of guilt whenever using disposable anything, so use glass food containers and carry them in my snazzy NY Built lunch bag. It's super functional on top of being pretty, has both a handle and shoulder strap, and you can chuck it into the washing machine.

rabaja -- do it! You can freeze what you don't eat and make a sauce out of the uni for pasta, which is also quite delicious!

Ugh, now it's a fight between sam gyup sal and uni!

How anxious must parents be, to have to feed dependents! My family was super poor for a bit, and I have no idea how my parents did it skating below the poverty line with three young children and no outside help whatsoever.

During those times, I remember my mother making a lot of sujaebi, rice and kimchi with gim and eggs, kimchi jjigae, spicy potato jjorim, dwenjang jjigae, jeon, and when it got really bad, just rice with soy sauce and sesame oil. We also had kimchi fried rice, SPAM, ramyun, etc. The fare was actually pretty healthy, all things considered, and nothing we don't eat today. The only difference is the frequency of those meals and proportion of starch to protein.

In college it was a burrito every other day, ramen, deli sandwiches, cheap takeout, candy, etc., but I think a lot of us know that story in some form. Though I no longer have to worry about keeping alive until the next paycheck, I recently reverted to simple Korean meals for both weight and student loan loss...

Don't have a family, but do have a roommate, and until lately, a boyfriend, for whom I cooked. On those rare nights when I don't have anything hanging over my head to get done, and no one is around, I like to have a huge bowl of rice with uni -- I'm talking about an entire wooden flat of uni -- and luxuriate in the rare and welcome peace.

Love, love, love teum sae, which replaced shin after 20+ years! Unfortunately, my HMart no longer carries it. How does the HMart ramyun compare to teum sae?

1. Uni. No one is allowed to talk to me while I eat uni.
2. Any type of ssam (Korean bbq wrapped in lettuce with rice, veg, sauce, etc.).
3. Fried salted mackerel.
4. Dungeness crab.
5. I CAN'T DO IT!... My mom's tong galbi with the sauce poured over the rice.

Runner-up: ham heung naeng myun with lots of the spicy mustard, a bite of the pear, a sliver of cucumber. Oh man.

I hate ketchup, but love it on omu rice, if that makes sense. Always Heinz.

I go to NYC pretty frequently... By "in the area" I meant the DMV. Went to Dino's once, but it wasn't anything special.

Landini's is my favorite in the area for exquisitely executed simple Tuscan fare. It's in Old Town Alexandria, though, and runs the gamut from jeans casual to sports coat.