Several meals in Italy come to mind first: Rainy day-long lunches in really good but not fancy restaurants {La Chiusa in Montefollonico; Cicchetti in Rialto Market at a place whose name I forget, the late and lamented Fiaschetteria Toscana in Venice, a long ago BBQ meal at Woodley’s Sunspot BBQ in Tennessee}
I used to own restaurants in DC and I am definitely in restaurant owner/chef recovery. Now I can cook my passions which tend towards Asia.
We have a huge urban garden and so far we have the world’s only $1000 sungold tomato to show for it. On the other hand, it did taste great.
Sondheim and opera are passions.
Dean formerly of Dino’s Grotto and Dino. Partner is Kay.
Pioneer Pit Beef is like the one ring in LOTR. One pit beef to rule them all!
Canopy is the best of the rest in areas urban. I think the guys at the Baltimore Farmer’s Market have the smell down perfect, but the lines are too long for me to have actually tried them. Maybe if we show up decently early.
Have not done much crab or crab-cake eating as prices are thru the roof. Nicks and LP Steamers have great crabs but maybe/probably not local. Wild Seafood in Jessup Fish Marketplace has great cold crab.
Our Cat Lord is Lord Poopington of the Patapsco-adjascent Bal Meow Estate. He adopted us just over 2 years ago after living the high life {living with a bottomless chow bowl and 7 more pounds than today} before he needed to get rehomed. He does not have a high opinion of me but I AM alpha cat.
Get yourself down to the Smokehouse BBQ Shack in Mechanicsville for some pit beef cooked over hickory. And have a rib there, too. It’ reviewed on my blog
Is that Maryland or Virginia? We vacation sometimes in N Carolina, as well as a lake in Virginia - we could probably make it happen. It sounds pretty wonderful, and I’d certainly take your word for it too.
If you do get to Phoenix, be sure to hit up Little Miss BBQ, in Tempe, fairly close to Sky Harbor Airport. Really good, but get there by about 10:30 to avoid long lines and to score brisket, if you like it.
When I met my now ex, she was living in the Valley of Scorched Earth. She invited me down just about this time of year. It was a test- I still remember the blast furnace upon the plane door opening.
I stayed.
After 4 years we were both sick of the heat and people and that’s how the Oregon life happened.
I could never live in the desert again year round, but I love to visit in the winter. Still, my eyes become fatigued looking at all the brown and gray tones, if I stay longer than about 3-4 weeks. Always happy to get back to the green zone around here. Four years for you though - impressive!
Kai Shun developed and marketed a series of knives with American designers that are intended to be a fusion of American and Japanese thinking about kitchen knives for the home cook. I had already been using a Kai Japanese nakiri I had been given in Japan for more than 20 years, so I began trying and using various models of Shun–some marketed only in the United States.
Most recent was a birthday present 8 1/2" Shun Fuji Chef’s knife:
