'Local' dining

A big thanks to the Richmond Food Collective blog for posting this list of restaurants that emphasizes local sourcing of ingredients. Only 8 restaurants on this list (good to see a couple of my favorites on there) but having earlier craved this sort of information, thats a fine start !

While at it, a recent revisit to Lemaire was as satisfying as previous ones. This time it was the creamy cauliflower bisque and the excellent lamb chops with white bean cassoulet/surry sausage that did the trick. A fine dinner polished off with strawberry rhubarb cobbler. The service is wonderful but while they're at that level, they could perhaps add those little touches that one might expect at such a restaurant (not to mention the prices) without seeming too obsequious - for example (re)folding napkins, holding chairs pour les dames etc. I guess the general ambience of the Jefferson does tend to educe this sentiment.

Another favorite X (I'm withholding judgement till I get to go again) used to do such things when they first opened (perhaps they still do) but lackluster (tending to poor) service on a recent visit dampened the wonderful food. It is a pity when fine kitchens are let down by the staff (seems to happen only too often here in RVA).

In honor of the great, recently deceased Martin Gardner: If one assigns numbers to letters (A=1, B=2 etc), X can be (partially) solved from a set containing the first 4 Fibonacci numbers. This number is truly fascinating - both it and its palindrome are prime factored using only numbers "constructed" from this set. (its all in fun and games :)!)