Tibbet Knob Encore

The title of this blog "Forks in Our Road" is very appropriate for this post. Life has its way of throwing up obstacles and challenges and screwing with your best-made plans. How you deal with that is up to you. It's best to be flexible and take the long view. So, let me start with the punch line before I get into the joke. Yesterday turned out to be a wonderful day with my wife. And the joke: nothing, but nothing, went according to plan.

So last week, the windows on the Jeep stopped working. Blown fuse, right? No. The shop ordered a new fuse (the wrong amperage, idiots) and when I went to put it in, the old one wasn't blown. Crap. The switch is hosed but they'll have to have a look at it to make sure and to make sure they order the correct replacement, which given their track record, is a crapshoot. The first time they can get us in is 2pm on Sunday, prime hiking time, or else we wait 2-3 weeks for a weekday slot.

So Sunday it is. Cancel those hiking plans. Hey, but let's make lemonade from those lemons. Let's go on a sunset hike to Big Schloss where the view of the sunset will be spectacular and the trail is easy enough to negotiate in the dark coming back. Ann was all for that and wanted to spend the night too so that we could schlep a bottle of Champagne up to the top to have with our dinner as we waited for the sun to set. So the plan is coming together. But the fat lady, she hasn't sung yet.

Sunday turns out just not to be a day for Annie to be motivated. She is nearly 10am getting out of bed and has been doing the same for the past 2-3 days. In the back of my mind, I know that she's off her game. We finally get our gear packed and the car loaded up and we're ready by 1pm. So, let's get some lunch before we hit the shop and we'll hang out in the waiting room and then head to Big Schloss after.

Where to eat? In the shopping center next to the shop is a newly opened kabob house in the space where a really crappy kabob house used to be. Bonus, we know the owner of the new kabob house. He owns the salon next door and Ann worked for him briefly. Shameless plug: Classic Kabob in Winchester has really good food. It's sad that we found this out just weeks before we move, but it is what it is.

Annie and Outstanding Chickpea Stew

Falafel Platter 

Lamb Sandwich

Lamb Platter

It turns out that the owner, Daniel, was in the restaurant when we went in and we spent a minute or two chatting with him. Annie, who generally orders too much food, ordered both a falafel platter and a lamb sandwich. I got a lamb platter not wanting to load up on bread. I want to load up on bread, but my belly is smaller if I don't! Everything is as you see it, nicely cooked and nicely presented and this restaurant is worlds better than the crappy joint that it replaced. The chickpea soup in particular was outstanding. It's just really nice to find a restaurant that cares about the product that it puts out.

We get to the Jeep dealer and of course, the mechanic is running behind. But long story short, involving a waiting room with obnoxious cartoons on the TV, it only takes an hour and fifteen minutes, of which the mechanic only spent a half an hour working, and so our bill was half of what we expected. Sure enough, we need a new switch and hopefully it comes in this week and we can get it dealt with. Having no windows in a vehicle is a decided bummer.

An uneventful 55-minute drive found us driving up into Wolf Gap on the Virginia-West Virginia border between Shenandoah and Hardy counties. As we arrived right at 4:00pm, we had plenty of time to kill so we thought we would head south out of the gap for the 3.3-mile round trip to Tibbet Knob before returning to the gap and heading north to Big Schloss in time to catch the sunset.

On the way down, Annie had already decided to forego camping because I had an early morning appointment back in Winchester and she did not want to get up early and "be rushed" getting back to town. We planned to drive back to town sometime before midnight.

Starting the Tibbet Knob Hike

First Overlook Looking East

It was clear from the outset that Ann was not having a good day. Finally, about halfway up to the top I said to her, "You don't look like you're having any fun today." And she replied, "I'm not" and trudged on for a couple more minutes before telling me to hike to the top on my own and that she would wait for me on a rock beside the trail.

At that point, I knew she really wasn't doing well, so I set off for the top at a very quick pace, finishing the rocky uphill three-quarters of a mile with two rock scrambles in 15 minutes. I climb hills really well (that might be why Annie calls me a mountain goat though it might also be for some of my other more caprine qualities) and though I missed my wife's company greatly, it was kind of fun to unleash the beast on the hill.

Big Schloss from Tibbet Knob

Another View North from Tibbet Knob

I texted Ann to let her know that I was at the top and she replied that she was heading back down to the gap to find a picnic table on which to lie. At this point, I knew our day was done and there would be no heading up to Big Schloss for the sunset. It doesn't do any good to get angry about such a situation. We all go through periods when we just don't feel well. For myself, my employees just about called 911 on Friday because an hour before a crazy dinner service, I was lying on the floor of the restaurant, face white as a sheet, with rivers of sweat pouring off me. Sometimes you just don't feel well. I get it.

Anyway, I tried valiantly to catch her on the way back, but she had too much of a head start. And I might have stopped to pick some blueberries. We rendezvoused at a picnic table just shy of the gap and then made our way back to the car and home. We didn't get to do what we set out to do, but I got in a good speed hike and we ended up having a great evening at home. Lemonade from lemons.

Blueberries: Free Hiker Snacks

Back home, we unpacked our dinner and Champagne and had it on the sofa while catching up on a series that we are watching. I made us sandwiches of goat cheese, spinach, avocado, turkey, and tomato for our hike and while they might have tasted marginally better up on Big Schloss, they were really good back at home.

Big Schloss Fare

And my genius self decided to put our Champagne in the PlatyPreserve wine bottle for our hike to save the weight of the Champagne bottle. But as you can see in the photo below, the collapsible bottle is pregnantly distended, never being intended for sparkling wine. The soft sides of the bottle stretch enough to let all the carbon dioxide come out of solution, leaving a weakly fizzy drink behind, in this case grand cru Chardonnay from our Roland Champion Chouilly Grand Cru Champagne.

Epic Fail: Platypreserve and Champagne

Because we were doing a lightweight overnight hike, I decided to bring a single pair of shoes to use on the trail and in camp. I chose my Keen Newport H2s. I've hiked in them on fairly non-technical trails and they do great, but this would be my first time with steep slopes, rocky trails, and a couple of somewhat technical rock scrambles. I have to say that they did great. I am considering hiking in them more and more as an alternative to my trail runners.

Beer and Butterbeans

Sunday August 23rd dawned a glorious day. I knew, from the moment I set foot out of the house early Sunday morning to walk the dogs, that my morning was going to involve sitting on the patio while waiting for Ann to arise. The temperature was remarkably in the low 60's and the humidity was finally down, a very pleasant change from the August status quo. It was a beautiful morning, one of those very special and rare mornings of which we see only a few a year.

I got off work early Saturday night (yes, slow nights do happen in the restaurant business) and consequently, I was up early. I knew since Saturday morning at the farmers market that my early Sunday morning project would be shelling butterbeans. Beth brought the first of her tiny crop of butterbeans to market and I grabbed a big bag of them for our Sunday dinner. Butterbeans are one of my all time favorites: I would suffer a lot for a batch of fresh butterbeans.

There is much confusion about butterbean terminology. Some people use different names for the different sizes of these beans. Some call the small beans limas and the big ones butterbeans and some people do exactly the opposite. This hardly makes sense because they are genetically the same bean. Me, I call them all butterbeans, but if I really want to call out a size difference, I'll add an appropriate adjective, as in baby butterbeans or large butterbeans. Beth's are large butterbeans as you see in the photo. Lima beans do not exist in my world.



Shelling Butterbeans

Outside on the patio, I shelled beans while Grace lay at my feet on the bluestones and stubby-legged troublemaker Charlie kept getting in the raised bed in which the squash are planted, not that it really mattered: this year the squash have foundered and we haven't got so much as a single fruit. That my toes and fingers were a bit chilled was really novel and got me thinking that I just cannot wait for fall any longer. With the days growing noticeably shorter, the locust trees already shedding leaves, and the nip in the air, I can just about taste fall.

Ann brought coffee out later when she got up and joined us in relishing the amazing weather. As I was shelling beans, I got to thinking about what we should do in the afternoon to take advantage of the phenomenal weather. For some reason, probably the linkage of fall weather and hiking in my mind, I got to thinking about the restaurant to which Kelly invited us a couple weekends ago when we were out hiking sweating on the Appalachian Trail. Although we couldn't make it then, I kept the name of the restaurant filed away. I figure that any place Kelly wants us to visit, given that she is a very fine chef, is worth our time.

So we undertook to drive down to Front Royal and try out PaveMint, styled a farm-to-street grill and micro- and craft-beer taphouse. The micro- and craft-beer part of this is important because Front Royal is one of the last bastions where Budmiller holds sway and it is important to forewarn the masses that only good beer is on tap. Already, I can see on the internet review sites that people are grumbling about the beer selection, i.e., that there is not any Budmiller anywhere to be found. My kind of place already.

Industrial Look and Feel

PaveMint is located in a recycled automotive garage in downtown Front Royal and the décor is intentionally spare and industrial as you can see in the photo with the tap wall clad in stainless steel, the recycled pallets, and the concrete bar top. A lot of people have complained about the décor on the web, but I'm one of those people who doesn't really care what the décor is: I go to a restaurant for the food and the beverage. As long as I am reasonably comfortable, the space and decoration are secondary.

For example, in St. Martin we had a great meal of grilled red snapper sitting at a picnic table at an impromptu restaurant right on the sidewalk of the Boulevard de Grande Case with a bazillion scooters going up and down the street and hundreds of people walking around celebrating Easter Monday, so a little recycled industrial isn't going to phase us. At PaveMint, I am sure that because the space is so hard it gets really noisy when there is a crowd, but at noon on a Sunday, no worries.

I suggested that we sit at the bar so that I could check out the beer selection. Glancing through the roughly 35 tap handles, I spied one for Deschutes Fresh-Squeezed IPA and I was done. This is currently my favorite beer. I keep comparing others to it and keep finding them wanting. Ann had an Allagash White, which she discovered on our visit to Portland, ME. We had tasters of Oskar Blues G'Knight, a double red IPA that is too malty for me; Baltimore's own DuClaw Sweet Baby Jesus Porter, never been a fan of chocolate or peanut butter in my beer; and Winchester's own Escutcheon Kölsch, a credible beer whose style does not appeal to me.



Starters: Falafel Bites and Crab Tots

Beer selection done, we turned to the menu which is pretty eclectic for Front Royal and is appealing to me as a chef. I like the fact that it is a simple and limited menu and pretty perfectly suited for the tiny kitchen. I decided I wanted duck confit tacos because I am always going to order duck confit tacos when I see them on the menu: reminds me of staff/chef-snacks at my own restaurant. Other than that, I told Ann to order whatever appealed to her. She ordered falafel bites and crab tots for starters and a burger for herself.

These falafels were a pretty decent take on the concept and I could snack a lot of them. Personally, I like more herbs in mine than most Americans are accustomed to, but nothing against these. The crab tots were less successful for me. I wouldn't order them again. They ended up being almost like a crab hushpuppy. I had to work hard to know that there was crab in mine and one of the three was still pretty raw in the middle. Not bad, but not memorable. I would rather pay a whole lot more and get a whole lot more crab for my money. I suspect that I am in the minority.

Duck Confit Tacos

These duck confit tacos were pretty damned decent drinking food and I could eat a lot of them, a whole lot of them. My duck confit is much more bomb that this, but these were honest and delicious tacos.

Ann's Bacon-Onion Jam Burger with Polenta Fries

After last weekend's trip to Melt Gourmet Cheeseburgers in Leesburg, I am hamburgered out for a very long time. Apparently, Ann, not so much because she ordered a burger at PaveMint. I strongly suggested she order it rare and she did. This was a good thing because it came out medium. I consider it a success when any burger I order anywhere has any pink in it, so little faith do I have in cooks.

Temperature issues aside, it was a delicious burger and much better than the burger I had at Melt. I'm sure it was a no-brainer for Ann to order polenta fries; I mean, what is a good Italian to do? These were good. I prefer a finer grind of polenta in fries because the coarser grain as in these fries makes a crust that is a bit tough and chewy. Still, kudos to anyone who puts polenta or chickpea fries on the menu.

My little nitpicks aside, I'm really happy with PaveMint and it pleases me that there is finally a decent casual restaurant in the restaurant wasteland that is Front Royal. The prices are very good for the quality. I hope this place really succeeds.

While sitting at the bar, I proposed that since we were already in Front Royal, that we go the extra 10 minutes and visit with Jeff and Kelly at Glen Manor Vineyards and to pick up a bottle of wine for dinner. On arriving, it was immediately obvious that harvest preparations are underway. Both presses are on the end of the crush pad and the north side is lined with empty fruit bins. Looking out over the vineyard, the bird netting is plainly visible.

One Week Before Harvest Begins

After an effusive greeting from Kelly, we spied Jorge and Randall out on the patio and went to say hello to them before coming back inside to taste. The Sauvignon Blanc in particular is starting to round out. I haven't tasted it in a couple of months when it was tasting super acidic. The reds are drinking really well now and we bought a bottle of Hodder Hill for dinner. After tasting, I got a glass of Sauvignon Blanc and we went back outside and sat with Jorge and Randall and caught up on the news.

And after a wonderful day out, we were tired and ready to head back to the house. I cooked the butterbeans and I enjoyed them to no end. As for the Hodder Hill, we decided to save that for another night when we were not so tired and could enjoy it more.

Zaytinya

Long post warning: a three-hour lunch takes a long time to describe! :)

What a hell of a week this one has been! Two big tops and lots of guests on Tuesday, crushed on Wednesday, full house for our Glen Manor dinner on Thursday, and then the weekend! All of this and being down a cook too. No wonder I haven't had time to think about posting about our trip in to DC last weekend.

We look forward to going to see Cirque de Soleil any time that they are in the DC-Balto area. And this year they were at the Verizon Center with their tribute to Michael Jackson. Cirque always puts on a spellbinding show that is well worth the hefty price of admission and so we save our pennies and splurge on this once-a-year extravaganza.

But first things first. Where to eat? We decided to have a leisurely lunch before the 4pm show and within seconds of looking at restaurants in the vicinity of the Verizon Center, Zaytinya was our choice. I've never eaten there before; Ann has. We love tapas and mezze and the restaurant is directly on the path between Metro Center and the Verizon Center. What's not to love?

So, let's get into our nearly three-hour lunch, shall we? First, an apology. I didn't bring the big camera: no way they would let me tote that in to the Cirque show. So we used Ann's little point and shoot and although it pointed, it didn't shoot worth a damn. Crappy picture warning. They'll help us remember our good times, but otherwise not worth looking at.

Despite leaving a lot of slack in our schedule, we managed to walk in the door just at the time of our reservation thanks to Metro and its balky ticketing equipment. If I used Metro more often, I would hate Metro. We were seated promptly and soon enough our server, Paul, came over with the wine list. I know enough about wine lists to know that I know my own and I know nothing about anybody else's so I asked Paul for help.

We wanted a red and probably not a Greek red. I've tasted a lot of reds from Greece and on a really hot day, didn't want to tangle with a mouthful of Xynomavro, Agiorgítiko, or Mavrodafni, uh, I mean tannins. So with Paul's help, we went to old favorite Chateau Musar from the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon, ordering a bottle of their Jeune Rouge (young red), a deliciously light-bodied Cinsault-dominant blend.

After toasting with a glass of wine, we got down to looking at the menu and there's just too much food on it! And after talking to Paul for a couple of minutes, I asked him to order for us with preference for the dishes that the kitchen would like us to eat, as opposed to customer favorites. I love to be surprised and there's nothing much that I won't eat.

Within minutes food starting arriving with Paul arriving soon after to explain the dishes to us. He did a fantastic job with our table. Kudos!

Htipiti: Roasted Red Peppers, Feta, Thyme

This spread for our pita was good with especially creamy feta. The peppers, though well prepared, just didn't have the flavor I was hoping for. I'm guessing they are red bell peppers and not something more interesting.

Horta Salata: Fava Puree, Kale, Bull's Blood, Smoked! Olives

This horta salata was the best dish we had all day. It seems it is always this way: the simpler the dish, the better. The interplay of the fave, the lightly cooked kale, and the surprising smoked kalamata olives was exquisite. Ann was equally bonkers for this dish!

Avgotaraho: Cured Mullet Roe in Beeswax

Chef Michael Costa brought this plate of pressed mullet roe (avgotaraho, botargo, botarga, bottarga, boutargue) to the table himself and we chatted for just a little bit. I've eaten a lot of roe in my life: I grew up eating herring and shad roe from the Chesapeake Bay and every roe-laden fish that we process in our restaurant kitchen yields a delectable chef snack. I've never seen botarga presented at the table still in its beeswax coating, but it makes for a great presentation. Carter gamely tried it and when Paul asked him about it, Carter said he liked it but wasn't a fan of the texture.

Halloumi, Compressed Watermelon, Watermelon Rind, Tomato

Seriously, who doesn't like seared halloumi? Compressed watermelon, though it makes for a good presentation, has never impressed me. It seems that no amount of work with a vacuum sealer imparts any significant flavor into the watermelon. Hopefully this is a fad that will just go away.

Falafel, Carter's Sole Request

Falafel is not something we would have ordered for ourselves as we've eaten a lot of it in our lives. Delicious, yes; shows something unique about a particular restaurant, no.

Soujouk Pide: Kasseri Cheese, Soujouk Sausage, Egg

Too bad this picture is so awful because the soujouk (sujuk) flatbread in the shape of an eye was really cool! It has kasseri cheese down with hard, dry, fermented, spicy soujouk over. My first experience with this sausage: it's a winner! Really cool to have a poached egg (OK, so theirs is done in an immersion circulator: show-offs!) on top of a flatbread. Chef Michael served this dish himself. Me gusta mucho.

Lamb Shank, Eggplant-Kefalogravieri Mousse

And here is one of the shining stars of the day, not the lamb shank, but the orgasmic eggplant and kefalogravieri mousse/puree. This puree was the single best flavor bite of the day, though the horta salata was the best overall dish. As soon as our eggplants start coming in in our garden, I am certain that Ann will be demanding that I make this. And I will. I will rip this off and make it my own!

Mushrooms! With Dates and Toasted Almonds

Nice hard sear on these mushrooms; great job by the line cooks! What is not to love? I saw beech, porcini, and chanterelles in this mix, but honestly, I was in stuff-face mode and not really in dish dissection mode.

Octopus Santorini: Yellow Split Peas, Capers, Marinated Onions

I wasn't wowed by the octopus. It is a fine dish, but the spice crust dominated the octopus. Nothing wrong with the dish, but one of the weakest on a menu of standouts.

Crispy Brussels Sprouts Afelia

Once again, awesome job on the sear on these sprouts, guys! Just delicious!

Kibbeh Nayeh: Beef Tartare

Kibbeh I have had dozens of times and dozens of ways and this was, to be perfectly frank, boring. The weakest dish of the day. Technically very fresh and very correct. Exciting, no. Is it a contradiction to say that I liked it, though? Pomegranate seeds would go a long way towards bringing some needed acidity to this dish.

Apricot Parfait

What a great presentation! A fun little dessert. I'm not into dessert so I probably didn't appreciate this or the rice pudding as much as I could have. Still, great attention to detail and very nice presentation.

Rice Pudding with Pear Sorbet

Carter Ate a Dozen Pita!

Not pictured is a dish of roasted cauliflower with golden raisins, pine nuts, and caperberries. I liked the flavors, but the cauliflower could have roasted a bit longer to my taste. I loved the caperberry treatment: it was unique in my experience, sliced into rounds and deep-fried. We also had a shrimp dish, Garides Me Anitho, shrimp with dill and lemon that vied with the kibbeh for boring honors. Extremely popular with the masses I am sure and probably the Zaytinya equivalent of our crab cakes: a huge revenue generator.

Ann's son Carter went with us and I have got to say that I was amazed at his performance. In addition to eating four baskets of pita (that's a dozen pita folks: welcome to our food bill at home!), he ate some of every single dish with face-stuffing gusto! When have you ever seen a 12-year old do that?

My hat is off to Chef Michael Costa and his crew, our server Paul, and especially the backwaits and food runners who ran their behinds off in serving us. I was very impressed with the physical facility, the service, the menu, and the food. Zaytinya truly deserves its ranking as one of the best in DC.

Oh yeah. We also went to see Cirque de Soleil. We left at intermission. I want my money back. It sucked that bad. 'nuf said.