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If I'm supposed to, that's news to me, as I've been grilling as I normally do. I thought it was just bacteria on the outside that was the problem, but I don't really know.
Score for me, but my wife is gonna be pissed. Oh well. I told her she should tag along.
Hi Don Q, sorry I missed this; in case you haven't gone out for your dinner yet...there have been several reasonable suggestions offered already, and here's mine:
Thanks nittany. I was just looking up Patowmack. That place looks great, but they are filled up on reservations the next couple of Saturdays, so I probably should have not waited until the last minute. I mentioned the Ashburn one that Swing posted to my wife, but she thought that was too far of a drive given her current state, so I may have gotten the same response from her anyway. Tough to find the "outside the Beltway, but not too far outside the Beltway" balance.
I've been, and other folks I respect have also. I'm going to say, average, mediocre, especially with the advent of Maple Avenue Restaurant and Clarity Bistro.
Yes, I've been to Restaurant Eve. Agreed on it being a great meal and experience.
I second nittanylion's recommendation, not that it needs confirmation. This place is literally just around the corner from Chez Funke, and it will be sorely missed. Stop by for a beer while you're in the neighborhood.
tourist. 
Both. From my research and experience, you can't have one without the other. Animals that live a (relatively) happier (?) (maybe is 'less stressed' is a better term) life, and eat not only what they are supposed to eat, (in the case of cows, grass), but that food that they consume is of high quality, and are slaughtered humanely produce a better quality of meat. It's a biological fact that stress causes chemical reactions to occur in living organisms that have physiological effects, and in the case of the animals we most commonly consume (cows, pigs, sheep, chicken, etc.), improper care, handling and nutrition yields an inferior product. I'm not just a cook. I take my craft very seriously, and unlike a lot of Chefs, culinary school was graduate school for me, and I have an educational background that emphasized nutrition and exercise science, so I'd like to think my knowledge base is both wide and deep. I've been to meetings, conferences and seminars that bring farmers, biologists and chefs under one roof, and directly compared and contrasted factory farmed, raised and fed animals to their humanely raised counterparts and the difference in quality, from an appearance, texture, flavor, etc. standpoint is overtly apparent. If an animal is in a significant state of stress when it's killed, those chemical reactions have a further negative effects on texture and flavor. After slaughter, the butchering is every bit as important. A technically skilled butcher, who considers himself a craftsman, can produce cuts that are far more workable for a chef to turn into deliciousness than your average joe meat cutter. Lots less scrap and waste, as well. Put both together (quality meat and quality butchering), and it's a wet dream for someone like me. To the best of my knowledge, there have been no definitive studies done on things like how the human body absorbs nutrients based on their quality (for example, absorbtion rate of protein from a pastured raised, humanely slaughtered cow vs a factory farmed, feedlot fed cow), but it certainly stands to reason that a healthy organism would more readily and effectively absorb nutrients of a higher quality than lesser quality.
My wife has mentioned several times about wanting to go in with other families splitting a cow. Suggestions of how to go about that in the DC area? Best places to go? What are typical prices ranges for a full cow? How much freezer space would someone need for, say, 1/2 a cow?
Not sure how the federal government handles this. Unscheduled leave, obviously, but that seems insufficient.
Sounds like it's supposed start at midnight tonight, so 29 hours just takes it to opening time on Thursday. Going from 24 hours to 29 hours doesn't really change anything because it would have been closed those extra 5 hours anyways.
This is gonna be super fun, assuming they don't close the fed and DC governments and DC schools
I'll say it's a lock (99.9%) OPM gives unscheduled leave and unscheduled telework. I'll put it at a 75% chance that OPM closes.This is gonna be super fun, assuming they don't close the fed and DC governments and DC schools
Gotcha. Down in here St. Mary's County, there's all kinds of place to get a cow. Last fall, we split a quarter cow with friends. We each ended up with like 22lbs of ground beef, a couple fliets, a brisket, all kinds of other random steaks, etc. We paid about $7/lb. All grass fed and they even vacuum seal everything so it'll last for awhile.
Big fan of St. Mary's County. My cousin owns a farm in SMC, and I have very strong relationships with several farmers down there.
Lots of good farms down here. Big bonus as well are the Amish, who have really good fresh fruits/veggies for sale all over the place down here over the Summer. Also, plenty of farmers markets to get all kinds of good stuff from. This place is really nice during the Spring/Summer months because of all the local produce you can buy just about anywhere.
