Kitchens

My brother-in-law just renovated his kitchen and the former chef and caterer seemed as pleased as punch about it. They installed some sleek and handsome dark wood cabinets and apple-martini green counter tops, new range and fridge, new flooring, a new picture window waiting for the new table. It is now a sunny and efficient place to do some serious cooking.

We have given some thought to kitchen renovation, though it has mostly been, if you'll pardon the pun, on the back burner, behind other more pressing expenditures like painting the exterior. We are mostly happy with our current kitchen, which is not beautiful but very serviceable. It passed the litmus test that kitchens in other houses we looked at mostly did not of having enough storage space for the considerable batterie de cuisine resulting from the pooling of a former professional chef and a longtime hobby cook. It has a gas cook top, granite counters, adequate counter space and enough other accouterments to work comfortably. We can keep equipment like the Cuisinart, Kitchen-Aid and Vitamix ready to go. There is room for a table where we can eat meals together.

Kitchens do not a cook make. Henry whipped up fabulous meals in his old kitchen. A friend of mine in Paris used to host dinner parties for eight cooking in a kitchen where she barely had room to turn around and which Martha Stewart would not have deigned to enter.

Beyond the necessary rudiments, the pleasure in a kitchen that's shiny new is largely aesthetic. That's important, but it has less to do with food and more with overall quality of life.

That said, we would not mind improving the quality of our life by someday having a kitchen that is more aesthetically pleasing. Henry's wife, Laura, suggested starting to keep a folder of things we like because kitchen renovations famously entail a lot of choices. A quick look online resulted in a new folder for bookmarks and some appealing links.

When I was renovating the loft in Paris, I spent years planning my dream kitchen (we sold the loft before installing a permanent kitchen). It is already fun, from an aesthetic point of view, to make these plans. Our initial thought is something more rustic, or least somewhat less sleek, for cabinets and furnishings. Farmhouse style of the Provencal or Italian persuasion is a starting point. For instance, we both like the idea of a big farmhouse style sink. One of the houses we looked at when we were in the market had a very pretty Provencal style kitchen that kind of stuck with us, though the house itself had other flaws that kept us from bidding.

Perhaps the most aesthetically pleasing kitchen I've had is the one in the barn I lived in for a year in Princeton. The kitchen, like the rest of the living space, had been renovated using much of the barn's original wood. It was essentially an expanded galley kitchen, but it had a window with a nice view, lots of light, and a decidedly rustic touch.

So this will be a long-term project, but it might be nice to start thinking about it now.

Spring

It's nice when thing things start to come together, as with a spring menu we prepared for guests over the weekend. Even though it turned out to be unseasonably cold, it was fun to anticipate the warmer weather with the food we associate with spring.

At the last visit from the New Morning farmer's market earlier this month, I got a leg of lamb from the Blue Rooster Farm, a family-owned Pennsylvania farm that raises its own sheep, beef and pork. The website describes how their Border Collie, Mac, herds the sheep. Like all meat sold at farmer's markets, it was frozen, so I was able to keep it in the freezer for this dinner. We had already used some lamb shoulder from Blue Rooster in another recipe and knew the lamb would be tasty. While it's almost impossible to improve on a leg of lamb roasted with garlic slivers, I wanted to try a recipe from Paula Wolfert's The Slow Mediterranean Kitchen for a slow-roasted leg of lamb with pomegranate glaze and do the roasting in the Big Green Egg.

Our half-leg was smaller than what the recipe called for but it was plenty for four people. The pomegranate glaze was a simple whisking together of pomegranate molasses with water, onion, and garlic. You coat the lamb in the glaze and then let it sit at room temperature for a couple of hours. You heat the oven, or in this case the Egg, to 450 degrees, put the lamb on the rack and reduce the temperature to 250 degrees. I'm still learning the ropes on temperature control with the Egg, so I had trouble getting the temperature down quickly, and only got it to 300. So I checked the internal temperature early and when it reached the 130 degrees called for, pulled it off and let it rest in a warm oven. The other concession to outdoor cooking was to baste it with the glaze instead of the pan drippings as Wolfert calls for, since pan drippings didn't survive even with the foil pan underneath the lamb.

Once the lamb was off the grill, I switched to direct heat and grilled the asparagus. Ideally, we would have shopped for vegetables at a farmer's market, but it was probably too early for local asparagus anyway and we got this Victoria Island product at Whole Foods. Ditto for the baby spinach that we prepared with bacon and goat cheese in an Epicurious recipe that used some of the bacon grease to dress and wilt the spinach.

I cooked the luscious runner cannellini beans from Rancho Gordo with garlic, olive oil and chopped fresh sage, then dressed them still warm in more olive oil. For dessert, we had Andrea's delicious cornmeal pound cake with strawberries macerated in lavender sugar. A young but classy Bordeaux was an excellent accompaniment to everything.

Everything came out well. The lamb was still nice and pink, not dried out, and had a wonderful flavor. Everything else tasted fresh and Mediterranean. Now all we need is warm weather!

Bethesda Lane

Looking for birthday treats, I ventured into a couple of the shops in the Bethesda Lane development for the first time and was pleasantly surprised.

The handmade chocolates by Jacques Poulain at Cacao are truly French quality, and even with the limited choices available the day I was there, delightfully varied. The macarons, which seem to be the big draw, are also quite nice.

Cork and Fork had a small-production champagne that the proprietor claimed is superior to Veuve Clicquot. Having tasted the Alfred Basely brut, a sophisticated pinot noir-chardonnay champagne, I can't argue with her. She has some other, higher-priced champagnes that are probably worth a closer look. Even though I tend to avoid shopping for wine in Maryland because of the state tax, I'll also explore her wine selection another time.

Marcel's

We've been wanting to go to Washington's top Zagat-rated restaurant for some time and finally made it to celebrate a birthday. We like Chef Robert Wiedmaier's Brasserie Beck very much and were eager to see what his top-of-the-line restaurant had to offer.

We weren't disappointed. Marcel's offers a classy, classic fine-dining experience with exquisite food. The tasting menu format meant we could indulge in four courses and not leave stuffed; portions are designed to give you a satisfying eating experience but not to constitute a classic entree course.

I started with a lobster papardelle where everything was tender and buttery. Andrea had Carolina shrimp in a beurre blanc sauce -- in fact, the classic beurre blanc was a feature of many of Wiedmaier's dishes here. Since beurre blanc is one of her favorite things in the world, it went over well.

I followed with the restaurant's signature dish, a boudin blanc made of chicken and pheasant breast with foie gras, served with a truffle and chanterelle sauce. It was truly exquisite. Andrea had Norwegian salmon poached in olive oil -- a method that marvelously preserve the fresh salmon flavor.

From the fifth course selection (where portions are "slightly larger," we were told), I chose the duck breast with duck confit and turned honey crisp apples. The duck had a crispy, salty skin and melt-in-your-mouth tender medium-rare interior. Andrea had pork tenderloin, which also was incredibly tender and tasty.

The bread, by the way, was truly fresh baked and served with garlic butter. For once, given the modest size of the portions, there were no worries about overeating on the bread.

For dessert, I had the flourless chocolate cake, which was a very good version of that dish, and Andrea had the special chocolate souffle, which has a rich, warm chocolatey taste, though perhaps too much cocoa powder on top. What sent it over the top was the warm dark chocolate dipping sauce served with it.

A nice feature of the restaurant is that you can bring your own wine to have with the meal for the relatively modest corkage fee of $25. We brought a bottle of 2000 Chateau Figeac St. Emilion 1ere grand cru that was a gift and it was a superb accompaniment to the entire menu.

Overall, it was a lovely experience. Marcel's is tied with Komi at 29 for food (it gets the edge to be top-rated because of a higher decor rating). Our conclusion, based on our two not-so-recent dinners at Komi, was that it has the more original dishes, though the quality is the same at both. Service at Marcel's, while clearly miles ahead of most restaurants, was not the flawless performance you expect from a 28 rating. The total cost, given that we avoided both aperitif and wine charges, was absolutely in line with the value.

Unlike Komi, Marcel's is not that hard to get into, so we will definitely go back. There are selections outside the tasting menu, or individual courses can be ordered as full entrees, so there are different ways to enjoy the exceptionally high-quality cuisine it offers. There is also a three-course option in the tasting menu or a pre-theater option.

Guajillo

We first discovered Guajillo several years ago when we went to Ray's the Steaks at its old location (now the site of Ray's Hell Burgers) in Arlington and saw it next door. We went once, loved it, and, almost certainly because it is across the wide and forbidding Potomac, never went back.

Until last night, because we wanted Mexican food and Oyamel is hopelessly booked on Friday nights. Not only did Guajillo take reservations, but they had a table for two free at 7:30.

So we had the top shelf margarita (made with Patron for only $2 extra) and munched on the feather light corn chips with a warm salsa and a really nice mayonnaise type dip. We split the marvelous shrimp cerviche as an appetizer. It comes super-chilled in a large goblet swimming in the citrusy marinade that is very peppery and just delicious.

Then I had the mole poblano, a boned chicken breast smothered in chocolate-chili sauce, served with rice, refried beans, sliced onion and warm, fresh corn tortillas. Nothing outside of Oaxaca will probably ever equal the mole prepared for us by our cleaning lady in San Miguel, but this was very good and took me back to those idyllic days in Mexico.

Andrea had a special -- grilled pork chunks marinated in orange and nicely spiced up with chilis that was delicious, served with black beans and rice. It was such a generous portion that we were able to bring some home (with a couple of tortillas!).

It was a real pleasure to get some good Mexican food. The neighborhood places in DC -- Guapo, Cactus Cantina and that ilk -- are drearily mediocre. Rosa Mexicana and Lauriol Plaza are not that great either and hopelessly mobbed. Oyamel is the best, but not for a Friday night.

The place was great. They held our reservations for 10 minutes due to our late start down across the river, seated us immediately when we arrived, served us efficiently without rushing us. The restaurant is small and crowded, but warm with bright Mexican colors and art. The bar, crowded with those waiting for a table, is in the back and out of the way. It is just 25 min. from our house even on a Friday night, so it's a good bet we won't wait another five years or so to return.

Along with everything else, it inspired once again to plan a Mexican fiesta sometime this summer. It is one of the great world cuisines.

Green Papaya

This is a Vietnamese restaurant that goes beyond the standard fare. I had a roasted quail special starter, with a dipping sauce, that was very nice, given that there's not a lot of meat on a quail. Andrea had a shrimp paste on baguette that was toasted in the oven, served with its own dipping sauce, that was different and tasty.

My main course was the caramelized sea bass served in a pepper sauce (two chiles, as hot as it gets), which satisfied my craving for exotic Asian fish (I had to pass on the whole flounder special -- too big and too expensive). Our other main course was the grilled pork with vermicelli, very ample and nicely done.

The cocktails -- variations on a pina colada and a margarita with an Asian flair -- were cold and delicious. I had glass of Pinot Grigio with the sea bass that cut through the pepper sauce perfectly.

It was a rainy Sunday night, so not very crowded in any of the Bethesda restaurants. Green Papaya has a serene decor and high ceilings, tables far apart and a nice separation from the bar -- it all makes for a restful and relaxing interlude. Welcome on a cold, blustery night was the heavy curtain they had shielding the dining room from the open door. Maybe because of the weather, the wait staff seemed to be in zombie mode, curt to the point of being rude, but they got the job done.

I had a lot of Vietnamese food of the simpler variety in Paris. I'm still more comfortable with it than, say, Thai or garden variety Chinese. This restaurant is a cut above in any case, but still with the recognizable Vietnamese nuance.

Pulses

The past weekend was a healthy one for eating with two homemade pulse dishes. Pulses are largely synonymous with beans, though referring to dry beans that are cooked as such.

In any case, we had a flageolet and lamb stew from Steve Sando's Heirloom Beans. You soak a pound of beans overnight, then brown lamb shoulder steaks (I used a scant 3 lbs bone-in, though the recipe says 2 lbs), sautee a mirepoix, add the beans and the soaking water, add back the steaks and cook for a couple of hours, until the beans are tender and the meat is falling off the bone. Remove the lamb from the stew and cut meat into bite-sized pieces (discard bones and excess fat) and put the meat back in the pot. To thicken the stew, you can take a cup of beans and broth and puree them and add back to the stew. Serve with a cilantro gremolata of chopped cilantro, garlic and lemon zest. It's a lovely way to transition from winter to spring.

On Sunday, we had a simple dish from Sara Jenkins' Olives and Oranges. You soak chickpeas overnight with a couple cloves unpeeled garlic and a sprig of rosemary, then cook for a couple of hours until tender. Separately you sautee two cloves of minced garlic in olive oil for 1 min., then add 1/4 c. water and simmer for 4 min. (Jenkins says this takes some of the bite out of the garlic), then add a 2 lb. cabbage cut into narrow strips, with 1 c. of water and cook until tender. Then add in cooked chickpeas and blend flavors. This truly does bring out the nice vegetable flavor of the cabbage and chickpeas cooked from scratch are always good. But the broth is thin and this may be too bland for some people. Jenkins does say to doctor it up at will, with harissa or Parmesan, whatever.

Bean dishes always leave me with a nice balanced feeling, never too full. Always ready to try a new recipe for beans.

Q Tonic

So I probably will never drink Schweppes again. I've been skeptical about these designer tonics and the trend for "craft mixologists" (formerly known as bartenders) to create their own tonic, but I have to say Q Tonic does make a much better gin and tonic.

They say it has real quinine instead of artificial flavor, agave sweetener instead of high fructose corn syrup (thus fewer calories and much lower glycemic rating), water distilled three times and more carbonation. It does taste lighter, crisper and more flavorful, a better complement to the complexity of the gin. So much better that it's worth the big premium in price (4 bottles for $7.50 instead of Schweppes 6 bottles for whatever).

Will have to try it with rum and vodka. And who knows, it's so good maybe experiment with tequila and tonic or other mixes.

Bistrot Lepic

Two splurges in one week, but in fairness our power went out yesterday afternoon after the wind toppled a tree in the neighborhood so we allowed ourselves a hardship premium when the only table we could find was in the more expensive downstairs dining room of this nice little restaurant.

I've always liked Bistrot Lepic and found it among the most authentically French of Washington's restaurants, but we had not been to dining room in at least a couple of years. It's quite small, charming, and not too loud because the decor softens noise and most of the patrons are even older than we are.

A special starter was calves' brain, which I've never had but decided this was the place to try it. It was very refined, nicely sauteed, with a soft interior even creamier than sweetbreads. There was, oddly enough, a slightly fishy taste, which may have been due to the capers. It was quite good and I'm glad I tried it, but I might hold out for sweetbreads the next time, or brains without capers. Andrea had a simple lentil soup which she liked.

My main course was grilled tuna on a chickpea crepe and it was fabulous. "It tastes like steak!" Andrea exclaimed when she sampled it (she's not a fan of most fish, tuna included, so this is high praise). Her braised veal cheeks with orecchietti that had to be homemade (by somebody) were also spectacular. The orecchietti had cream and cheese on them and were divine, nicely setting off the warm, meaty flavor of the braised meat.

Looking for a pinot noir, we took the waiter's recommendation to go for the Trimbach from Alsace rather than a cheap Burgundy, and it opened into a perfect accompaniment for both dishes.

Ray's the Classics

We hadn't been back here in quite a while, so we stopped in and ate at the bar last Sunday after seeing Blue Valentine at AFI. You forget how good Ray's is, and why these restaurants are so popular. I had a fabulous steak au poivre -- a 12-oz. NY strip coated in pepper -- with a baked potato and broccoli spear and Andrea got a luscious slice of prime rib, so tasty, with the same accompaniment.

It was all so easy. We keep forgetting Silver Spring is just 10 min. away, a quick ride along East-West Highway, and that AFI is literally right across the street from Ray's. Street parking was a breeze on a Sunday and hostess at Ray's said it was unusual that they were completely booked at 6:45, though sitting at the bar was quite pleasant. Ray's has great prices for the quality, though it's not what we would spend going out every week. But we will definitely do this again.

Vitamix

"Vitamix," says the young lady on the introductory DVD, "is not just an appliance, but a way of life."

I hope so. I bought my very expensive Vitamix a couple of weeks ago when I came across a demo at Whole Foods. It was not an impulse buy, however, because I have been mulling the purchase for years. The idea of having a blender powerful enough to liquefy whole, raw vegetables has had an appeal for me that I think is due in part at least to my body's yearning for real nutrition.

My first vegetable smoothie -- a kind of V8 with fresh vegetables that is the first entry in the "Getting Started" booklet -- gave me truly a physical jolt, almost like caffeine. The concoction -- with tomatoes, spinach, carrots and Bloody Mary condiments -- was not exactly to my taste, but it bowled me over with its sheer vitality.

I'm finding that I like drinks with fewer ingredients better. So, for instance, a tomato-carrot-red pepper smoothie tasted better to me than that first drink. I'm still experimenting with how much water and ice to add to get the right thickness. Kale and banana, oddly enough, was quite tasty, with the sweet banana tempering the bitter kale. In the demo, the guy made quite a point of combining vegetables and fruit -- for instance, putting grapes in a green smoothie with cabbage and cucumber.

Andrea teases me about my "vegematic" because she's convinced this will be a passing fancy. There's a good chance she's right, but I hope not. My first goal is simply to wean myself off of diet soda by substituting tea or smoothies for my soda and/or snacks.

Beyond that, I do believe breaking down raw, fresh food like this is a huge boost to nutrition and more balanced eating habits. My hope is it will give me more energy and help me lose weight.

Deutz champagne

Addie Bassin's had a champagne and truffle tasting Saturday in honor of you know what, and we ended up with a bottle of Deutz Brut Classic, non-vintage, for our non-celebration of you know what. It is a marvelous champagne, with velvety small bubbles, crisp and dry, but not sour, with a distinctive pinot noir taste. It went well with Cowgirl Creamery's Buckaroo cheese and an Appalachian tomme, both from Whole Foods, and then with our main course.

We splurged on a Sunday night with veal chops, uncovering the Weber and breaking out the charcoal for the occasion. Morton's could not have done better with these tender chops, nearly a pound (bone-in) each, with a salty crust and juicy inside. They were accompanied with baked sweet potato and broccoli florets sauteed in olive oil and spring garlic, making for a colorful plate and a superb meal. No dessert or truffles. After all, we weren't really celebrating any over-hyped special day...

Goulasch

Eating is a great way to make new discoveries. When traveling, whether in southern Spain or southern U.S., trying new foods and cuisines gives you a connection to the local culture.

But it's also a way of recalling, even revisiting, the past. When I lived in Europe, particularly in Germany, Hungarian goulasch was a common item on menus and it was something I cooked often at home.

I've been puzzled since coming back to the U.S. that it seems hard to find a recipe for goulasch, and winters come and go and I pine for my goulasch. I thought I had finally discovered one in an old edition of the New York Times Cookbook, the old Craig Claiborne version. There was a recipe for Prague three-meat goulasch that I thought would be similar to the one I used to make. But, shockingly, it was a recipe that didn't include paprika -- the quintessential ingredient for goulasch!

So I decided to wing it. I pulled a couple of other (incomplete) recipes from Epicurious to get a better idea of ingredients and proportions and had a go at it. I remembered the essential thing, besides the paprika, was to have almost an equal amount of onion and meat.

I got about 2 lbs of pork shoulder, beef chuck, and veal stew meat, cubed, and sliced 1-1/2 lbs of onions (more onion would not have hurt it). I browned the meat in vegetable oil and set it aside, then sauteed the onion in a little more oil. Oddly, I was out of garlic, otherwise I would have added a couple of crushed garlic cloves. When the onion was soft, I added 2 Tbl of Szeged Hungarian sweet paprika, and 2 tsp. of hot paprika we brought back from our trip to Budapest 3 years ago (I know, not exactly fresh; it could have taken a little more so maybe it just wasn't so hot anymore). I also added a Tbl. of flour to thicken the sauce and 1 Tbl of tomato paste diluted with a little water. I cooked that for 5 min. or so then added back the meat, 1 Tbl. of marjoram, a bay leaf, and 2 c. of chicken broth. I simmered it for 1-1/2 hours. It seemed a little soupy but we saved it for the next day and by then the sauce had thickened further and it was just right. I got a box of Knorr spaetzle at Whole Foods and of course it was nothing like real spaetzle, but it was edible. Next time I would just use noodles.

The goulasch was great! Some recipes call for mushrooms and I think I would try that the next time. Now goulasch can takes it place among the dishes we cook every winter, along with chili, sauce bolognese, short ribs and brisket.

Braised turkey thighs

Molly Stevens said in her All About Braising that stores now sell turkey parts and when I checked at Whole Foods, they do indeed carry turkey thighs, though only intermittently. So I picked up a couple when they were there to use in Stevens' recipe for braised turkey thighs with onions and butternut squash.

I won't go through the recipe in detail. Suffice it to say, the turkey is braised separately and the squash and onions are sauteed separately then braised in the turkey braising juice. The thighs are browned in rendered pancetta fat (the crisp-cooked pancetta is crumbled over the dish at the end), and braised with aromatics, herbs, orange juice and broth.

The thighs I got were bigger than specified in the recipe so I probably should have cooked them longer than the 1 hr 15 min in the recipe and let them get a bit more tender. But the dish was great and made up for us not getting any dark meat at Thanksgiving (for reasons too complicated to explain).

Montalcino in DC

Montalcino, according to Dean Gold's email, is the highest hill town in Tuscany and the inspiration for a special menu at Dino. We bit and really enjoyed one of the best deals in town.

The menu, served family style, starts with crostini -- with white bean, herbed ricotta, and wild boar salami. Then comes the ribollita -- a vegetable soup with bread, a nice broth with some winter vegetables perfectly suited to warming you up and whetting your appetite. This was followed by a second primi, Pappardelle all'Aglione, house-made pasta tossed in a tomato essence they cooked up this summer with roasted garlic and herbs and which is truly delicious. The main course is a stew, scottiglia, that includes three meats braised separately -- pork, wild boar and duck. It's worth hearing Dean's description of the stew in full to get an idea of the care in sourcing and cooking that this restaurant takes.

"Our version is based on Angela Costanti's: the meats are stewed and then served separately....Our scottiglia is made from a trio of meats via slow braising with red wine and just a drop of tomato. Our pork from EcoFriendly Foods is grown by a family of farms from a cross of heritage breeds using open pasture when Virginia's weather permits. This results in a silky pork rich with flavor and luscious, mature fat. We use lean cubes for the scottiglia; and all the meats have a little pork belly mixed in. Second is wild boar from Texas. We use a wild gathered product. Wild boar used to be thought of as simply a nuisance to the ranchers of Texas. But some forward looking folk saw them as a resource to be managed. Now the boar are a source of income to the farmer; and the ecosystem is better off for it. Plus, we get to enjoy this wonderful, lean meat. The third is the leg and thigh from Dr Joe's ducks. These are grown on small farms in Pennsylvania from breed stock developed by Dr Joe, a duck fanatic & former veterinarian. They have a rich and almost spicy flavor: a superb duck."

The menu -- all this for $30 -- includes a dessert (I had a delicately creamy tiramisu, not usually my favorite dessert but this was delicious) or a choice of two cheeses. We also ordered a bottle of Mastrojanni Rosso di Montalcino 2008 because Dean listed it as using a more "modernist" method of winemaking and that the vineyard had been revived by the Illy (coffee) family, and it was very nice despite being young -- fruity, smooth and indeed modern.

Whole Foods

Whole Foods is of course a wonderful place, an emporium of high-quality, politically correct food that is a mecca for those of us lucky enough to have the discretionary income to pay their prices. We live here and now in an amazing food age, where the world is truly our oyster in terms of seeking out global cuisines and finding the ingredients to make an unparalleled range of dishes. Publishers pump out a neverending stream of ever more beautiful cookbooks with recipes our parents never dreamed of.

Often you can find the ingredients these recipes call for at Whole Foods, and often you can't. Sometimes this is surprising, and you discover the flip side of Whole Foods becoming such a dominant supplier with all the constraints of a big business.

For instance, a number of duck recipes call for "duck legs" -- presumably the leg and thigh, though I wouldn't know, because I've never found them at Whole Foods or anywhere else. When I inquired at the new Friendship Heights WF, I was told they don't carry duck legs because their former duck supplier, who provided duck legs, violates company policy by also selling foie gras, and their new supplier, Bell and Evans, doesn't provide duck legs. If I were willing to trek out to the suburbs to find a good Oriental market, I'd probably have a better chance of getting this ingredient, but I won't find it at Whole Foods.

Something much simpler -- stone-ground grits. This is the age of authenticity and stone-ground grits are in, but not at WF. When I finally found a grocery clerk who knew anything about it, after being sent on a number of wild-goose chases through the store, he explained that Arrowhead Mills, which had supplied their grits in the past, for some reason no longer met WF's very high quality standards. He was waiting for an email, he said, from a different supplier, in the hopes that they would be in conformity. "It makes us look bad," he said guiltily, "because other stores have it."

It's clear that a big nationwide business like Whole Foods has to have high standards, especially since that underpins the high prices and profit. If the chain dared to carry duck legs from a provider that sold foie gras, it could face a boycott from zealots who think that is evil (the pros and cons of foie gras are too much of digression here, but I don't think it's an open and shut case).

It's a natural result of WF expanding aggressively, taking over most of its competitors and pushing many of the others out of business. WF sets and enforces the standards, and consumers are left with little choice. I remember in Princeton, my landlady's natural foods store was threatened when big, bad Wild Oats came to town, though that huge chain was subsequently swallowed up by WF, after it digested Fresh Fields and any number of other former competitors. And yet, as the homely little photos plastered on the wall at the Friendship Heights location show, WF too had its humble beginnings in Austin, much like my landlady's little store in Princeton.

It's a reminder to me, once again, that as seductive as Whole Foods is, it's import to support its competitors whenever possible, from farmers' markets to the Grubb Road co-op to Safeway. Perhaps the new Georgetown Safeway or the other new one going up in Bethesda will start offering some big-chain competition to WF.

Cauliflower and fennel cazuela

This dish is delicious but that has as little to do with the vegetables as lobster bisque has to do with crustaceans. Chefs joke that restaurant patrons love bisques because they're 95% cream. The authors of The Barcelona Cookbook disingenuously claim that cauliflower is surprisingly popular because this dish flies out of the kitchen. You'll see why.

You blanche a cauliflower cut into florets for 7 min., plunge in icewater and drain, then blanche a fennel bulb, trimmed of its fronds and cut in half, in the same pot of water, icewater, drain. Then you rub the fennel bulb halves with olive oil, salt and pepper and put under the broiler (or grill, weather permitting) for 5 to 7 min., then cut into 1/8 to 1/4-in. strips. Heat 1/4 c. olive oil in a large skillet and saute a thinly sliced onion for 10 min., add 4 cloves chopped garlic and cook slowly another 8 to 10 min. Add the blanched vegetables, salt and pepper, and cook slowly 15 to 20 min. Then add 1-1/2 c. heavy cream (!), 3/4 c. panko bread crumbs, 2 tsp. lemon juice, 3/4 c. grated Manchego cheese (!), 2 tsp. chopped parsley, 1 tsp. chopped fresh thyme, check seasoning, then set aside.

Then you make a bread crumb topping warming 1/2 c. olive oil in a saute pan, then add 10 cloves of sliced garlic (my cloves were so big I used 5), and cook 5 to 7 min. until garlic is "honey-colored." Then add 3 c. panko crumbs, salt and pepper, and cook for 7 to 10 min., taking care not to scorch the bread crumbs. Add 3/4 c. grated parmesan, 2 Tbl. chopped parsley, and 2 tsp. chopped thyme. Spread topping over vegetable mixture in a casserole (or individual cazuelas) and put in 400-degree oven for 15 to 20 min. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle chopped chives over top and serve.

Now this was really scrumptious, but what you taste is the cream and cheese and oil. The fennel and cauliflower I sampled during cooking were quite good, and presumably those flavors are somewhere in there. But this could have been macaroni and cheese. I served a couple of slices of cold ham with it and it was a delicious dinner. I had planned to use my big cazuela for the final assembly, but it was too big, so I just used a regular oval casserole. I would do it again for company, but it's too much work for a weekday meal and there are presumably ways to cook vegetables where you taste the vegetables.

Addie's

Got back to Addie's for lunch for the first time in a couple of years and it's still great -- what a hidden gem! After some negotiation with the hostess, got a table in the outer wing with windows on three sides, which makes it bright and cheery (instead of stuck in the little passage-way where they first tried to seat me).

I had the shrimp and grits for the first time there, and it was delicious. Plenty of good-sized shrimp, plump and cooked just right with a nice tomato-onion sauce. The grits were excellent -- creamy, cheesy, gone in a flash. My companion wasn't even half-way through his more voluminous po' boy sandwich with fries.

Everything I saw -- the po' boy, the steak-frites, the risotto of the day -- looked very appetizing. I was encouraged enough to order the dessert special -- a goat cheese cheesecake -- which was light and just the right touch for a lunch dessert.

Addie's comes into its own in the summer, with extensive terraces in front and back, but this cheery little winter lunch was just right.

Petit salé aux lentilles

This class bistro dish was one of my favorites when I lived in France and great winter comfort food. I've been wanting to do more recipes from my Anne Willan books and this seemed very apt in the cold weather between the years.

It's very simple. You put a 2 lb pork shoulder (mine was a little bigger), tied in a cylinder, in a brine made of 2 qu. water, 2 sprigs thyme, 1 bay leaf, 2 sliced garlic cloves, 2 tsp. juniper berries, 1 tsp. peppercorns (oops, forgot these), 2 whole cloves, 1-3/4 c. coarse salt, 3 Tbl. sugar and an optional 2 Tbl. curing salt gently heated and stirred until salt and sugar dissolve then completely cooled. Cover and refrigerate, the recipe says, anywhere from 12 hrs. to a week (I saw too late that the headnote recommends at least two days and cooked mine after 24 hrs.)

To cook, you rinse off the brine and cover pork with water in a pot. Bring to a simmer and cook for 5 min. then pour off water and refill. (If the pork has been in the brine longer than 3 days, soak for 1 hr. in cold water prior to this step.) Bring to a boil and simmer for 1-1/2 hrs. Then stir in 10 oz. French lentils (closer to 12 oz. in my dish), a whole peeled onion with two cloves stuck in it, a crushed clove of garlic and a bouquet garni (parsley, thyme, bay leaf tied together) and cook for another 1/2 hr. Remove pork and cover, drain excess liquid from lentils, take out onion, remove cloves, chop and return to lentils, and remove bouquet garni. Slice pork and serve on bed of lentils. The pork is juicy and tender from the brine, and salty without tasting too salty. Lentils are always great.

I've been loyal to Anne Willan since I attended a cooking course at her Ecole de La Varenne in Paris (before it de-camped for the countryside) and have several of her cookbooks. This recipe was in The Country Cooking of France. Her books tend to be big, heavy coffee table books with lots of text and photos. I don't have the impression that the recipes are quite as meticulously tested for the home cook as you would expect from someone who operated a cooking school. Nothing that can't be overcome if you do a little thinking yourself, which I tend to do after the fact. So I probably should have used a smaller pot, since there was a lot of excess liquid which may have kept the flavor from concentrating. I should have read the headnote about keeping it in the brine for two days, but why should the recipe say something different? The result was nonetheless delicious, but I will put on my thinking cap the next time I use one of her recipes.

Masala Art

It seems I was observing radio silence the first time we went to Masala Art a couple of months ago, so let me rectify that after our return trip this week. Both times our reaction was the same: I love this place!

The name of the restaurant comes from its mastery of spice blends. As the Web site says: "Spice blends are called masalas. Indian cooks have mastered the timed roast of spices, releasing various flavors from the same spice based on its length of roasting. A spice is also manipulated by the way it is prepared. Each of the many spices has its own unique function: some spices tenderize, some intensify heat while others cool, some augment color, some thicken and others bring necessary tartness."

That must account for the remarkable freshness and novelty of the dishes we've tried. I can't remember the ones we had the first trip, but on this latest visit we split an appetizer, Aloo aur Pyaz ki Bhaji, which is juliennes of potatoes and onions in chickpea batter. This came out fresh and hot from deep frying with two very nice little sauces and was delicious. For main courses, we ordered a tawa -- cooked on a griddle like skillet -- and a tandoori. The Tawa Murgh Khatta Pyaaz was marinated chicken cubes with masala gravy, royal cumin and pickled onion. It had a rich tomato-ey flavor and a quiet, deep heat set off nicely by the pickled onion. The Bhuna Gosht was stir-fried lamb curry with spices. Somewhat less original but the lamb was very tender with a nice mature (muttony, the way I like!) taste. We got a rock salt and garlic nan (the one small criticism of the restaurant is that the nan portions are relatively small).

Prices are great: appetizers run about $5 and entrees $10 to $15. We split an appetizer and got two entrees. Next time we may get two appetizers and split an entree, with perhaps an additional half-order of a vegetable entree. All in all a great find, and close enough in Tenleytown to be considered a neighborhood restaurant.