Dish of the Week: Fried oysters, grilled asparagus, and strawberry lemonade
Where: Tackle Box

The warm weather has put us in the mood for seafood. It hasn’t quite hit prime blue crab season yet, so we’ve been looking at other ways to get our fix. Fortunately, a trip to Tackle Box did the trick. Their big, meaty fried oysters must be credited to Chef Rob Bechtold, a Louisiana native. And even though it is not a month with an ‘r’, these sustainable beauties were a marvel. Instead of the delicate little Kumamotos, Malapeques and other fancy oysters, these oysters were hefty suckers meant to carry the slightly spicy, delicious po’ boy-style breading. Topping these off with a little remoulade or lemon garlic aioli really does the trick. The mind boggles at the opportunity to pack these babies into some crusty French bread.

While you’re there, you can also pick some slightly more seasonal menu items. Epicurious posted a great map for finding out what produce is in season in each state. So be on the lookout for asparagus, strawberries and spinach at our local farmers markets and restaurants. Tackle Box takes advantage of the season with their grilled asparagus and strawberry lemonade. And it won’t be long before Pastry Chef Heather Chittum’s strawberry-rhubarb pie makes it onto the menu.

Bad Blogger
There was a comment on Tom Sietsema’s online chat this week that sparked much speculation. The chatter wrote:

NW D.C.: I was out with my wife at a well-known, hard-to-get-into place, this past weekend and overheard a conversation at another table. The diner was complaining at their table and the service and indicated that “He is a senior member of a well-known area food blog, at that the lack of service will be noted.” Well, the waiter calmed him down and comped the person a full bottle of wine. I checked the blog (will not mention) and sure enough there was a entry, and there was a mention of the lack of service, but no mention of the comped wine. Do the boards hold that much sway over restaurants that they fearful of bad posts?

There have been many hypotheses floating around about which site this was posted on. But let’s put aside speculating who the culprit is. The person did a disservice to not only the restaurant, but also his fellow diners by not telling the full story, regardless of pulling the “blogger” card.

In certain forums, at least, there are ways for restaurants to straighten out the facts. For instance, on DonRockwell.com it is against the membership agreement to use membership to get special treatment. This falls under that classification. Via e-mail, Rockwell told us restaurants should contact him if that is the case. “I want to know about this rubbish so I can step in and prevent it from happening.” And he mentioned that they often do.

Photo by artolog