Headed to the Blue Ridge

Been a couple weeks since the last post, but a business trip, a heavy workload and a (much needed) slow weekend will cramp the Gastonomical adventures. This weekend, on the other hand, we've got a little getaway going down. We found a Living Social (Or was it Groupon?) deal for a dog-friendly B&B down in Nelson County, VA, just southwest of Charlottesville.

Fermentation Friday: DC Brewery Crawl

"Fermentation Friday":  An semi-regular look at the holy fermented trinity:  beer, wine and cheese.

A couple Saturdays ago, while we were in the throes of the Polar Vortex, Patti and I embarked on a journey that would’ve been unthinkable five years ago – a District of Columbia brewery crawl. By my count, DC itself has at least seven breweries or restaurants that brew their own beer (and I’m probably forgetting some) and there are several that we haven’t had a chance to check out. Sure, we did DC Brau last summer and recently visited BlueJacket, but there are so many more in DC’s burgeoning craft beer scene. So, after a hearty late lunch at Union Market (TaKorean for me, Toki’s popup for her), we set out to find some breweries and taste some beer.

Philly Visit: Reading Terminal Market

Another must-stop when we visit Philly is yet another market (sense a theme here?). The Reading Terminal Market is smack-dab in Center City Philadelphia, just off of Market Street. It's part of the city's Convention Center Complex and according to its website, it's been in operation since 1893 and was originally tied to the Reading Railroad that ran through there. It's had its ups and downs over the years, but it sure is thriving now, with many of the original stalls still in place.

Fermentation Friday: Melting in the New Year

"Fermentation Friday":  An semi-regular look at the holy fermented trinity:  beer, wine and cheese.

This year, with New Year's Eve/Day being in the middle of the work week and returning from our weekend in Philly, we hadn't given a lot of thought or effort to what we'd do for New Year's. But as we were spending our last day in Philly standing in DiBruno Brothers' Rittenhouse Square outpost with Patti asking, "What are you going to do with all of that cured meat you always buy here but never finish?" we had our answer:  Raclette.

Welcome to Philly!

Since we always come from the south, our perfect reintroduction to Philly comes as we get off on the Broad Street exit, head a little ways north, hang a right on Passyunk Avenue and up to the Italian Market section in South Philly on 9th Street. Today, we departed from our usual MO of getting a cheesesteak from Pat's or Geno's and instead hit Paesano's, one of chef Peter McAndrews' several Italian places in Philly (and maybe not the last one we'll sample this trip!), where we split an Arista (pulled suckling pig, Italian long hots, broccoli rabe and provolone) and a bowl of Italian wedding soup. Both quite excellent! After that, we took advantage of the sunny and not-too-chilly weather to take a stroll through some of the market's more iconic shops and sights. Here are a few photos from our walk:

Happy Holidays, Philly Weekend and Other Things

It wasn't intentional for the blog to go dormant for nearly a month, but between the holidays being hectic and a spike in the workload that made me disinclined to spend *more* time sitting in front of a computer when I wasn't working, here we are. It's Christmas Day and I'm finally getting some time in front of the personal laptop while the oven does its magic on the roast beast.

The Accidental Wine Collection, Part Deux: Stat-Geek Edition

After going through the organizational exercise I described in my previous post, I was reminded that one of the interesting (dare I say fun?) things about having a collection of any kind is being able to analyze what you have and draw conclusions. Sorta reminds me of when I collected baseball cards as a kid -- I'd organize them and analyze them to figure out what gems I had (like my 1971 Johnny Bench or my 1978 Eddie Murray rookie card) and how close I was to my annual goal of collecting every member of the Reds and the Yankees (my two favorite teams at the time). I could spend hours messing around with that. I did.