Just Visiting's Profile
What is swai fish?
Would you like a side of facts to go with that?
http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2010/02/does-imported-catfish-pose-a-health-risk/
"Vietnam catfish farmers and other international exporters of fish need to show proof that the water used to farm fish is safe and unpolluted and provide observational data related to their farming practices in order to meet American food safety requirements. The issue of tracking is essential to allow country of origin to be traced if a food safety issue were to occur in the United States.
Under the revisions are rules that Vietnamese catfish producers are required to have their product inspected and tested. U.S. fishmongers have been lobbying for new policy, claiming imported catfish pose a potential health risk."
That was in 2010. Then in 2011, http://www.fsis.usda.gov/About_FSIS/OCIP/index.asp
Not saying FSIS is perfect; no agency is. Though in my experience, the inspection of imported food is far more stringent that is the inspection of home-grown stuff.
I beleive I have failed as a chowhound parent, and now I must suffer.
I never tasted brie or any cheese other than American cheese until I went to college. I never had Thai food, or Korean food, or fish other than maybe frozen haddock until years after college. I'd never had fresh oysters, clams, a real Caesar salad. If you live in a town where great food can be found, it will happen. I was lucky enough to go to college in a fairly large city with a good food scene and now live in the DC area and we have a great food scene. I still have some personal barriers such as sweetbreads but I eat virtually all vegetables except kale (I've tried, I've tried...) and things I genuinely don't like (peanut butter). I mean a 10-year old eating curry? This kid's going places!
Crab cakes/soft shell crab along I-95?
Be advised that Maryland has a law against leaving animals in cars in "unhealthful" situations, even with the windows open and it has been pretty hot already this year. It only has to be about 70-75 degrees for the temperature in a closed car to reach dangerous levels. So you really are best advised to find a place with outdoor dining. I am also guessing you don't want to go too far off I-95.
So try the Quarterdeck in Arlington. Not the greatest, but well above decent and has a patio.
http://www.quarterdeckarlington.com/
I'd call ahead to be sure the dog is welcome on the patio. The other place w/ outdoor space is Cantler's but that's way off the I-95 path and always has an incredibly long line after say 3 p.m.
Too much smoked fish
I'll be right over (can you pick me up at the airport)? Regarding the pasta suggestion - I would never put tomato sauce on salmon. Tomato sauce is very acidy and has an overwhelming flavor. We make a pasta with salmon trimmings (much cheaper). We add pearl onions that we drizzle with balsamic vinegar and roast in the oven and peas. A little olive oil (really just a tiny amount) and it is absolutely delicious and you can still taste the salmon.
A pound of nova would not last long in this household of two. We go through a quarter pound at brunch!
TO to DC - new/best for foode tourist? 3 days in summer
GREAT request. Wish everyone would be so thorough instead of just saying "coming to DC where should I eat?" You deserve all the great responses you have been getting (and I had to laugh - it is SO true that we don't have hipsters).
My recs (sorry but I don't know anything about beer):
Central by Michel Richard (great food, great bar, buzzy)
Hank's Oyster Bar (great food, great bar, great atmosphere)
Ethiopian is a great suggestion.
For the pork-loving husband, you might want to try the Green Pig Bistro over in Clarendon, VA. New, getting great reviews, snout-to-tail eating focused on pig.
http://dc.eater.com/archives/2012/04/19/the-early-word-on-clarendons-green-pig-bistro.php
Maryland Crabs
PS - this is a standard discussion on Chowhound, so I'll do the whole thing in an effort to short-cut the back-and-forth:
Yes, Maryland (local) crabs are in season; the legal season for take opened April 15. There are places serving/selling local crabs. However, at this time of year, the local crabs are still light. It isn't a question of size. Size refers to the size of the shell but not the weight of the crab. You want crabs when they are heavy. Right now they are not heavy.
"Smaller “mediums” and “larges” even out the catch all season, but it’s commonly stated in Maryland that the best time to fetch jumbos is late summer and early fall, when the crabs that have been lucky enough to survive the season begin to bulk up for hibernation."
http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/07/12/travel/12crab.html?pagewanted=all
Anyway, if I were you, I'd get uncooked crabs shipped to me and steam them myself. The cooked ones really don't travel well. You really want them right out of the pot.
Damn. Now I am dying for crabs. Will July & August ever get here?
Maryland Crabs
Cantlers is going to be much more of a drive for you than you would like. It is near Annapolis. There are lots of crab houses closer to Philly, including quite a number in and around Baltimore.
Here are a few: http://www.bluecrab.info/crabhouses.htm
Maryland Crabs
Been here 30 years and eating blue crab even longer than that and never once heard of anyone buying just the claws. I can't imagine why anyone would - the claws aren't that large and the best meat is the backfin.
But it turns out that people do: http://www.tarbayseafood.com/Blue-Crab-Claws-3-lb-Bag-p/sbc-c01.htm
http://www.marylandbluecrabexpress.com/maryland-blue-crabs/maryland-blue-crab-claws.html
http://www.bluecrabtrading.com/hard-shell-crabs/blue-crab-claws.html
So go for it, I guess. But as you are in Philly, I'd suggest you all get in a car and drive to a crab house. Because besides missing the best part of the crab, IMHO crabs don't travel well. In my view, they are best right out of the pot and not worth eating a few hours later (i.e., don't order more than you can eat thinking you can take the rest home).
Ria Mar in South River
Thanks, Angelina. I don't expect every seafood restaurant to have the creative approach of an Eric Ripert but it would be nice to eat food that tastes like the chef took pride in the food he sends out. Like thinking about seasoning, proportions, quality over quantity. We were given enough bread for nine people. Most of it goes to waste. I'd rather have one nice, delicious roll per person than a basket of flavorless bread. The salad was pathetic. In this day and age, no excuse for flavorless, limp iceberg lettuce, sliced onions and tomatoes drowning in oil and vinegar. And it would be nice to feel that someone cared that we walked into their establishment and hoped that we would return.
I should mention that the place isn't very comfortable. When you walk in, you go up a ramp that passes by the bar. Yet they've also shoved another bar into the already small main dining room. Overall the place feels cramped and all the hard surfaces just amplify the noise.
We'll try the other two places you suggest.
Ria Mar in South River
Another visit to Ria Mar. It has been re-decorated. Food is the same. Nothing to write home about. Crusty but flavorless bread, a family-style bowl of salad consisting of iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, and onions drowning in oil and vinegar. A gin-and-tonic so unbalanced (way too much gin) it was undrinkable. The twin lobsters were OK. The paella valenciana was supposed to be for one. Good thing we decided to split it. It was too much food even for two people. Lobster was ok, mussels were great, shrimp tasted like it was right out a bag from the freezer (no flavor). Two scallops, a number of chunks of good chorizo. Overall, the dish lacked flavor and there was a massive amount of rice. The dish was far too soupy. The cheesecake was a total waste. Flavorless. Took one bite and left the rest.
Service was lackadaisical. No one to greet you at the host stand. We were there early and the staff seemed consumed with cleaning up from a recent party and getting ready for the next. A few of them glanced at us but no one greeted us. Eventually someone came over to seat us. Throughout dinner, I noticed that this seemed to be their standard operating procedure. People stood at the host stand waiting for someone to notice them and walk over. Not a nice greeting at all. The waiter was very nice but distracted. No one ever checked the water glasses, one side dish was forgotten, no one asked if we needed anything. The fairly empty dining room was incredibly noisy, what with the setting up in the banquet room and the constant crashing of dishes in the kitchen. One waiter sat at a table in the dining room, polishing the silverware in a large bin.
Not going to return.
Help a poor Los Angeles hound visiting Baltimore and DC
Piri piri is made with bird's eye pepper, which originally came from Asia. It is hot and the sauce on Nando's chicken is great. Would recommend the regular hot and not the extra hot if it is your first time. The sides are great, too. I am addicted to Nando's.
Help a poor Los Angeles hound visiting Baltimore and DC
Yes, as I said above: "However, soft-shell crabs ("busters") are in season now. They are a true regional delicacy. The entire crab, minus the gills and eyes, is dredged in flour and then fried."
AB No reservations
After I read your post and made a comment (about cupping), I happened to catch the show again. I guess the issue is expectations. If you go into this expecting a travel-focused show that "would show an attraction to the country" you are going to be let down. This is not Samantha Brown. I mean, Bourdain's been doing this for a while now. He has been truly reverent about some countries - Vietnam, Cambodia, Ghana, to name a few. But reverent or irreverent, he's not there to do a standard-issue travelogue. Further, if you watched the intro, you'd know that he went there in response to a Facebook campaign started by a guy in Finland. Not because he wanted to show why Finland was such a great destination. Why he chose to go in winter, I don't know. But the point is that Bourdain has always done impressionistic shows and this one was no exception. He isn't working for the Helsinki Tourism Bureau.
Does anyone actually like Sandra Lee?
No I do not like her one bit. Her personality is a weird cross of faux cheerful and Stepford. Like a cheerful zombie. I don't like her version of cooking at all. And I keep wanting to take her to a good undergarment expert to buy a good "brar" (trademark, Jill Zarin) to keep her girls from hanging down to her waist. She's filthy rich and surely could afford a better brar?
Help a poor Los Angeles hound visiting Baltimore and DC
Right - picked crab for crab cakes. But hard shells are still very light at this time of year. I agree that this is the time of year for busters, but not everyone will eat them. It looks like giant fried spider on a bun and that takes some getting used to.
Sorbet won't freeze, I know where I went wrong.. Is it possible to fix it?
Why fix it? Now it's granita! Even better!
Uses for fig jam
Get really good, really sharp aged Cheddar (we prefer Old Quebec, aged four years). Cover cracker (of your choice, but in my view, the cracker should be plain so as to avoid competing with the cheddar and the jam) with thin layer of jam. Top with cheddar.
Try not to eat the entire jar of jam in one sitting.
AB No reservations
That blood-letting thing is called "cupping."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_cupping
And as for the food being strange ... not to someone in Finland, it isn't. I suspect that the same could be said of many of the things we eat in the United States.
Help a poor Los Angeles hound visiting Baltimore and DC
Yeah, no. See Oohs and Ahs is on U St. in DC. There may be another place in Raleigh by the same name, but woodleyparkhound is sending you to a place right here in DC.
Help a poor Los Angeles hound visiting Baltimore and DC
I thought I'd explained about the crabs but maybe not enough? Local crabs are really not abundant or large until August, so the crabs you get will not be local. Soft shell crabs will be in season even in early June.
Given that LA has everything that DC has, based on your description, then I can't think of another cuisine that is a speciality here that you couldn't get at home, except maybe southern fried chicken. That can be really hard to find. Personally I think half-smokes are all-hype and I've never thought much of Ben's Chili Bowl. It's an institution, but you don't go there for great food.
We have lots of great restaurants in DC so if you specify your preferences I'm sure people can give you lots of specific recs.
Help a poor Los Angeles hound visiting Baltimore and DC
At the moment, most of the crab (hard shell or crab cakes) you will find are not using Maryland crab. The season has just opened and the local crabs are still small. However, soft-shell crabs ("busters") are in season now. They are a true regional delicacy. The entire crab, minus the gills and eyes, is dredged in flour and then fried.
I haven't lived in Baltimore for years, so can't help with specific places to eat; I am guessing that most places near the Convention Center and Inner Harbor are not worthwhile and mostly for tourists, but again, I don't really know. Since Baltimore has little in the way of public transportation, you might need to take cabs. The nearest place to downtown I can recommend is Bo Brooks in Canton. Bo Brooks is considered a tourist trap by some, but that's because of the location on the water and the day-core, if you will. It was an old-time bar/crab-house up in a blue-collar part of Baltimore for many years. They moved down to Canton and I have been there a couple of times since I moved. The food seemed the same; atmosphere, not so much. Not the old Natty Bo joint I knew and loved since college. But the crabs and the onion rings were still great. Again, crabs won't be local, but that will be true almost everywhere.
Point being that the cost of getting to DC could take you out of the budget category before you sit down to order.
So aside from all that, it sounds like LA is deficient in the foods of West and Central Africa, and here we've got you covered. The U Street corridor is known as Little Ethiopia. Well-known places are Dukem, Etete, Little Ethiopia, Abiti, Queen Makeda. You would be able to take the Metro from Union Station.
You don't say how long you will be here, but getting down to DC might not be worthwhile if it is for just a few days. MARC's Penn Line and Amtrak both run from Penn Station in Baltimore (a long walk from the Convention Center) to Union Station. MARC is basically a commuter train and there are only three trains back to Baltimore after 6 p.m. (7:40, 9, and 10:30). But cheap - $7 one-way. Amtrak prices vary by schedule but can be as high as $66 round-trip. So be careful about choosing your trains if you do Amtrak. Be sure to check prices. However, on Amtrak, you've got at least one train per hour.
sugar free cheesecake
It wasn't meant to be critical. It was a sincere question - I didn't understand the point of making a dessert like this (even with all the low-fat stuff, it is still high in calories) unless it was for diabetics - which I did mention, by the way. I guess you missed that.
15 graham crackers = 900 calories
2 tbsp butter = 204 calories
8 oz low-fat cream cheese = 524 calories*
3/4 cup fat-free milk = 60 calories
4 large eggs = 300 calories
1 cup light sour cream = 337 calories
1/4 cup flour = 114
So you've got about 2500 calories with this recipe. About 208 calories per serving.
This is a small cheesecake - only 9 inches - and divided into 12 pcs, very small pieces. A nine-inch circle has a circumference of 28 inches, so each slice would be about 2.3 inches at the outside edge.
Typically, cheesecakes call for 3 8 oz pkgs of cream cheese. I'm wondering how the consistency is with only 1/3 the amount of cream cheese. I guess the flour makes up for some of it.
sugar free cheesecake
I based it on 12 slices because the OP said 12 slices..though hers is only a nine-inch cake. Cut 12 ways, those are very small slices. Mine is a 14 inch cake.
sugar free cheesecake
Mind my asking what the point of this is? My mother once made a cheesecake where she left the butter out of the graham cracker crust. On purpose. When we tried to eat it, the crust was of course dry and inedible. We asked her why she did this and she said she wanted to cut down the calories.
Cheesecake is never going to be healthy. It is an indulgence. You eat it once in a while, and try to limit the quantity. Try being the operative word in that sentence.
My cheesecake recipe calls for one cup of sugar. That 774 calories. Divided into 12 slices - that's 64 calories per slice. Unless someone is diabetic and has to avoid sugar, not a big deal.
Recommendations to eat well and stay on my diet in D.C. Fish ? Italian ? greek ?
To me, walking through the fish market is not a negative. Not with the gorgeous fish they sell at Black Salt. I guess it would depend on the client. A foodie would be impressed and excited at what they would see at the retail counter.
However, don't assume that because it is fish that the meal will be compatible with a diet, particularly if your diet is a calorie/fat cutting diet. Not unless you order the fish broiled plain with no sauce of any kind, the veggies steamed with no sauce of any kind, skip the bread and dessert.
Hepburn Orchard in Hancock, closed?
Stopped at Blue Goose yesterday. Can't compare to Hepburns as we never made it to Hepburns before it closed. Everything looked and smelled wonderful but taste was another story. The oatmeal-caramel-apple cookies were dry and had barely any taste of caramel or apple. The apple cider donuts were also dry. The pies smelled heavenly and there was a good variety but the flavor was just so-so. Crusts were not particularly flaky. There are shelves full of jams, relishes, candies, etc.
We aren't likely to drive all the way to Hancock for a pie anyway. In any case, we think the pies at Catoctin Mountain Orchard are much better.
1 night in DC - need recommendations for dinner - staying in Georgetown
Went to Kinkead's last year. Not impressed at all. Nothing bad, but nothing good. Just OK, at fairly high prices. I know you said you would prefer to walk, but I'd get a cab and go to Central or Rasika or....so many other great places in DC for a foodie daughter. Agree about Ris being worthwhile. Distance-wise it is walkable but a bit on the long side because it is not a pleasant walk. Just lots of really busy city streets. It is actually Foggy Bottom, not Georgetown.
Ray’s to the Third
Second to all that. Except that every time I walk in I swear I am going to try something else and then order the steak and cheese which is absolutely phenomenal. With tater tots and an Ale Eight One. OMG.
It actually is not hard to find. It is one building up up the hill from Red Hot and Blue. If you are standing in the parking lot where Ray's Hellburger and Hellburger Two are located, with your back to the restaurants, look across the street and slightly to your left.
Great food great scene ideas wanted for Washington dc
People here are very helpful but you know it does take time to reply to these inquiries. It would be considerate to state what part of DC or the suburbs you will be staying in, whether you will have a car or are willing to take public transportation, what cuisines you prefer, price-range. Because this open-ended question is basically asking people to write a book for you.
Not to mention that it doesn't appear that you've even searched this board or read recent threads. There have been a least a half dozen inquiries of this type in the past couple of weeks.
