2Amys Pizza in Washington DC

I drove about an hour Saturday for pizza at 2Amys in Washington DC. It was absolutely worth it.

2Amys serves gourmet, European-style pizzas. I lived in southern Germany for 5 years and that experience altered my preferences for German, Italian, and Greek/Balkan cuisine toward lighter, less sugary sauces and fresh tastes where the individual ingredients are very distinct.


About 2Amys
2Amys was founded by Peter Pastan and Tim Giammetti (the Amys in the name are their wives) to recreate as authentically as possible the Neapolitan-style pizza that the owners had eaten in Naples, Italy. (By the way, some people consider Pastan's Obelisk Italian restaurant to be the best eating establishment of any sort in the District.)

Their pizza is ultra-thin with a puffy outer crust and the sauce has a sharp, very fresh-tomato character with strong salt overtones. I got the Margherita Extra (tomato sauce, mozarella di bufala, basil, and cherry tomatoes) with the addition of fresh garlic and salami.

(The Margherita Extra is one of three D.O.C. pizzas at 2Amys, meaning it has received a Denominazione di Origine Controllata certificate of authenticity from the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana.)

The pizza was terrific. The sauce had a bit of a bite and instead of all of the ingredients being rendered down and mashed together, you could clearly identify each ingredient in the pizza. As you can see in the picture above the whole basil leaves still looked green and fresh even after cooking.

The crust also was slightly charred from the wood-burning oven, which I thought gave it a nice distinctive flavor but may not be to everyone's taste.

As I was leaving, the family next to me was raving over the polpettine (meatballs) and the bruschetta they had gotten for appetizers. The bruschetta had such an unusual toasted appearance that I didn't recognize it and I had to ask them what it was.

It looked so mouth-wateringly good that I made a note to get it the next time I'm there.

My Next Visit
I'll definitely have to return soon, but 2Amys isn't all that convenient to reach. It's just off Wisconsin Avenue about a mile from the nearest Metro station, so the only real option to get there is driving.

I took Connecticut Avenue down from the DC Beltway and even on a Saturday traffic was moderately heavy, though parking wasn't a problem.

Update (12/21/08): I made it back to 2Amy's and while I still love their thin pizzas, I can't recommend their stuffed pizzas (calzones) which are too heavy on the ricotta.

More Pictures
From the outside, 2Amys is somewhat non-descript:


Inside, it's much nicer, and this is the bar area where I sat because there was no wait. (They don't take reservations.)


From this angle you can see the front area of the restaurant, as well as diners waiting for a table. 10 minutes after I took this shot the bar was jammed and there were people waiting outside on the street for a table.


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Shiba Inu Puppy Cam

The New York Times has an article about how a live puppy cam has given a webcast company, Ustream.tv, a big boost. But enough words, time for the pictures:

Free live streaming by Ustream

Update (12/19/08): The puppies are growing up and at this point three of them have been adopted. UStream, recognizing when they've got a good thing going, seems to have recruited a new litter of Shiba Inu puppies for a new puppycam.

Some more pictures and screen shots from the original crew:

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Pick-up Volleyball

I played volleyball twice this week, Sunday at the church and Monday at the county rec center. Monday was my first time to play at Howard County's new Glenwood Center:


I had fun both days but I never got comfortable at Glenwood and played poorly all around; on Sunday at least my defense came around toward the end and I made some decent digs of some very hard hits.

I'll probably try to go out to Glenwood again sometime. They had a few decent players so it was mostly just that I was out of sync and then I twisted my back after a couple of hours of play. I'd say the overall level of play was B league.

The facility has an interesting layout where big dividers that can be mechanically rolled up separate the courts (with basketball on the other side of the partition), a system that actually isolates the courts pretty well.

I also picked up a medical clearance form so I can use the weight room. They have treadmills, stationary bikes, free weights, and exercise machines at the center. Glenwood is furthermore a green technologies showcase for the county, with waterless urinals and geothermal heating.

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Crab Cakes at The Narrows

Maryland is justly proud of the blue crabs pulled out of the Chesapeake Bay. (We will ignore for now the crabs that come from Asia, it apparently being cheaper to give those crabs frequent flyer miles than to pay migrant workers to process local crabs.)

These days I let someone else do the hard work of crab picking while I focus my eating on crab cakes. Since I was in Annapolis yesterday I decided to cut across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge to Kent Island for dinner and try The Narrows Restaurant, which is famous for its crab cakes.

The Crab-Eating Process
When I first moved to Maryland, I went to a crab feast with some co-workers, and while it was a pleasant afternoon spent hammering away at crab parts with a little wooden mallet, as a food-ingesting activity it was a total failure.

I quickly realized that I was expending more calories trying to wrest the miniscule fragments of meat from the shells than I was actually taking in, making it a net loss from a nutritional standpoint, so since then I've focused on crab dishes where someone else does the shelling for me.

Crab Cakes
Crab cakes are actually fairly simple, consisting of crab meat, some filler or binder, and spices such as Old Bay Seasoning. But even so there's wide variation in the crab cakes served in Maryland and much good-natured argument over who has the "best" crab cakes.

In my own limited experience I've come across 3-4 basic varieties. I prefer the light-tasting, lightly-handled lump crab crab cakes where the focus is on large chunks of crab, of which The Narrows' crab cake is a good example. Then there are varieties that use somewhat shredded crab, which have more of a spongy consistency. The cakes can be broiled or fried.

There are spicier versions of both, and finally there are the somewhat unique specimens of G&M's and Timbuktu near BWI Airport, which are huge mounds of strongly seasoned imported crab meat which people either love or hate.

In an article online, Chef Paul Shiley of The Narrows provides his restaurant's recipe, and it's basically just jumbo lump crabmeat, cracker meal, egg, mayonnaise, and a dash of some seasonings. An interesting point is his claim that Maryland (with perhaps 2% of the country's population and 10% of its crab production) consumes 50% of the crabs in the US.

For an impassioned treatise on the crab cake, you should read Henry Hong's entertaining article in Baltimore City Paper from earlier this year. Here's his photo of a crab cake from Breezy Point Seafood:

The Narrows
So did The Narrows' crab cake live up to it's reputation? Well, kind of.

It's a very good example of the more restrained variety of crab cake, with nice large chunks of crab meat and most of the character coming from the light browning on the bottom and outer crust. I thought it was broiled, but Chef Shiley's recipe calls for deep frying; either way, it has a light, non-greasy taste. Their traditional vegetable-based crab soup which I had for a starter was also very good.

It's probably not worth the hour-long drive for me to Grasonville (especially not when the Bay Bridge has a long line at the toll booths) just to get a crab cake. With that said, Kent Island has a number of good restaurants because it's located where traffic used to back up for Marylanders returning from Ocean City, and The Narrows is situated on the water. I'd like to go back sometime during the daytime when it looks like the view will be spectacular.

At $18 for a crab cake and a salad, The Narrows also isn't all that cheap (but then again, we got a light dusting of snow yesterday so maybe crabs aren't exactly in season). 

The Verdict
I'm not likely to drive the long distance simply to get a crab cake at The Narrows Restaurant, but it's an excellent specimen of the lump-crab style, and it's worth trying again when I'm in the area and especially when I can appreciate the view.

Further Exploration
Sorting out the contenders from the pretenders is left as an exercise for the reader, but here are some crab cake emporiums culled from the City Paper article and Chowhound.com. Proceed at your own risk:

Angelina's Restaurant, Baltimore (restaurant is now closed, but crab cakes can be ordered online)
Breezy Point Seafood Co., Rosedale
Cafe de Paris, Columbia
Duda's, Baltimore (Fells Point)
Faidley Seafood, Baltimore
G&M Restaurant, Linthicum Heights
Gertrude's, Baltimore
Greenmount Station, Hampstead
Jerry's Seafood, Lanham and Annapolis
Mama's on the Half Shell, Baltimore (Canton)
The Narrows Restaurant, Grasonville (Kent Island)
Manor Tavern, Monkton
Oceannaire Seafood Room, Baltimore
Pappas Restaurant, Parkville
Pierpoint Restaurant, Baltimore
Roma Cafe, Cockeysville
Timbuktu, Hanover

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Line Dancing 101

My "How to Line Dance" Guide

I love all forms of C&W (Country & Western) dancing. When I lived in Texas, I learned the major couples dances: two-step, polka, waltz, and jitterbug (a fast form of East Coast Swing).

But after I moved to the East Coast I quickly realized that if I was going to enjoy myself I would also need to learn line dances, because the venues were a lot smaller and on some songs there wasn't really room to do anything else.

Since I didn't have any ethical or legal objections to line dancing (unlike others I know from Texas ☺) I've since learned -- or more likely, forgotten -- something like 200 line dances.

Here's a quick line dancing primer:

The Fundamentals
Since you don't need a partner for line dancing (ignoring circle dances for now), it removes the complication of having to learn how to lead and follow. So line dancing largely consists of memorizing a sequence of steps in a pattern that typically repeats after something like 32 or more counts (beats).

The patterns often end facing a different direction ("wall"), so the number of times when the dance starts facing a new direction makes it a 1-wall, 2-wall, or 4-wall dance. A dance that rotates 90 degrees each time would eventually face all four walls of a room.

Five-Six-Seven-Eight
It helps to view the line dance as made up of little blocks that are reused from one dance to another, and many of these blocks will be familiar if you've ever taken aerobics. For example, instead of having to remember a four-step sequence to the right:

step with right foot to the side
step left foot behind right
step right foot to the side
touch or hitch left foot next to right

...you would simply remember this as a "grapevine right." (And there's a corresponding "grapevine left" that simply reverses direction.)

Most line dances (and the building blocks that make them up) change every four or eight counts. That's because that's where the music breaks for most country (and rock) songs, which are typically in 2/4 or 4/4 time. In musical terms that means the measures or bars are typically two or four beats long. From the Connexions web site:

In practical terms what you'll notice is that for many songs the music seems to change every eight beats, which is why you'll hear instructors start a dance by counting out, "five-six-seven-eight." By starting the dance where the music breaks naturally, the dance will feel like it's in sync with the song.

Step Sheets
When trying to learn line dances, step sheets are very helpful. As the name implies these are step-by-step instructions for line dances, usually with one step per count (beat). Fortunately, what was probably the most complete collection of line dance step sheets on the web, Patti Brown's Dancing Deep in the Heart of Texas, now seems to be back up, and KickIt seems to still be live.

The Beats
Tempo, or beats per minute (bpm), is pretty important in any kind of dancing. It's the number of beats per minute that usually dictates which dance to do to a given song. If the song is too slow or too fast it won't be fun, either because it's hard to keep up with the music or it feels like it's dragging.

This is fairly subjective and generally more important for couples dancing. I dance at Cancun Cantina, where line dances mostly range between 100-140 bpm, but this varies a lot from club to club. As a point of reference, here are some typical tempos for couples dancing:

70-100 bpm: Slow dancing (or if counted double-time, a Two-Step)
100-140 bpm: West Coast Swing
135-210 bpm: Two-Step (a comfortable range is about 160-170 bpm, but some of the most fun ones are faster, around 180-210 bpm)
135-200 bpm: East Coast Swing (faster ones are more of a jitterbug)
180-240 bpm: Polka

On the Dance Floor
Then there's the matter of floor etiquette. For everyone to dance on the same floor and have an enjoyable time, it helps to understand some conventions, especially in the Eastern US where floors are smaller and also shared between couples and line dancers.

A C&W dance floor is kind of like a race track or highway, with couples dancers moving in a counter-clockwise circle. If the floor is big enough, there will be concentric "lanes," with the fast lane on the outside and slower dancers in toward the center. So line dancers should try to stay in the center, as should more stationary couples dancers such as swing or ballroom.

When you run into someone on the floor during a dance -- as you inevitably will -- just smile and apologize.

Some Line Dances
So now that you're ready to get out on the dance floor, here are some dances to try. I don't know why, by the way, some of the dances have suggestive names. They're typically not nearly as salacious as the names might imply and it creates a dilemma if you're trying to teach them to kids.

Easy Beginner Dances:

• Down & Dirty (Walk Softly On This Heart Of Mine by The Kentucky Headhunters or Strokin' by Clarence Carter)
• Safe Sex (Fast As You by Dwight Yoakam or Whoomp! There It Is by Tag Team) - simple but fun; it helps if you recognize that the pattern forms an upside down, backwards "L" shape, or the left half of a "T"
• Booty Call (Booty Call by Dazz/Atomic Dog) - OK, you may have done this one already
• Cut A Rug (Roll Back the Rug by Scooter Lee) [video]
• Sleazy Slide (That's How Country Boys Roll by Billy Currington)
• Cupid Shuffle (Cupid Shuffle by Cupid) [video] [how-to video]

Classics (performed coast to coast):

• Tush Push (The Girl's Gone Wild by Travis Tritt) [video] [video]
• Slappin' Leather (T-R-O-U-B-L-E by Travis Tritt) [video]
• Cotton-Eyed Joe (Cotton-Eyed Joe by Isaac Payton Sweat [traditional] or Rednex [hip hop]) - like a line dance done with a partner, moving in a circle [video]
• Watermelon Crawl (Watermelon Crawl by Tracy Byrd) [video]
  

Beginner Dances (DC-MD-VA area):

• Bartender's Stomp (Baby Likes To Rock It by The Tractors) [video] [video]
• Canadian Stomp (Pickin' Wildflowers by Keith Anderson, Redneck Yacht Club by Craig Morgan, Cowboy by Kid Rock, or Any Man of Mine by Shania Twain) [video]
• Cool Dance a.k.a. Progressive Cowboy a.k.a. A Kool Dance (All You Ever Do Is Bring Me Down by The Mavericks or Cheaper to Keep Her by Kevin Fowler)
• Copperhead Road (Copperhead Road by Steve Earle) - I do the easy 32-count version using cross-kicks for counts 9-16 [start 24 beats before the lyrics; see this video (which differs from our version because we turn to the right)] which gets fun when the music speeds up; but others do the 24-count Kentucky Chug version [cool French video]
• Country Walkin' (HotLittleCutiePieSexyThang by LoCash Cowboys) [video]
• D.H.S.S. (Yee Haw by Jake Owen, Hicktown by Jason Aldean, or Drunker Than Me by Trent Tomlinson; choreographed to Coffee by Supersister) [video]
• Dizzy (Dizzy by Scooter Lee) [video]
• Fishin' (Pray for the Fish by Randy Travis)
• Ghost Train (Ghost Train by Australia's Tornado) [video] [video]
• God Blessed Texas (God Blessed Texas by Little Texas)
• Got To Be Funky (She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy by Kenny Chesney, or Got To Be Funky by Maurice John Vaughn) - actually similar to and not too much harder than Booty Call [video] [video] [video]
• Jive Walkin' (Slam Dunk Da Funk by Five) [video]
  
• Refried Dreams a.k.a. Chicken Fried (Chicken Fried by Zac Brown Band or Refried Dreams by Tim MacGraw) - simple dance but very fun if down with style and athleticism
• Ski Bumpus (Boot Scootin' Boogie by Brooks & Dunn) [video] - danced contra at Cancun Cantina (in two or more opposite lines facing each other)
• Zjozzy's Funk (Bacco Perbacco by Zucchero) [video]

Beginner/Intermediate Dances (DC-MD-VA area):

• All Shook Up (All Shook Up by Billy Joel) - note that on this version of the song you should start 16 beats into the song, when the back-up singers start; then on the 4th and 6th times through, you start at count 17 (with the right toe to the side) [this video is close to how we do it]
• Apple Jack (Dance [Club Mix] by Twister Alley, Sin Wagon by The Dixie Chicks, or any other frenetic polka beat) - 18-count line dance is simple but it can be tricky getting the feel of how to shift weight in the Apple Jacks at the beginning [video]
• Askin' Questions (Askin' Questions by Brady Seals) [video] [video]
• Bar Room Romeo (I Brake for Brunettes by Rhett Akins, I Like It, I Love It by Tim McGraw, or Pound Sign (#?*!) by Kevin Fowler) [video]
• Black Dresses (Daddy's Money by Ricochet or Black Dresses by Steve Kolander) [video from the choreographer Michael Barr]
• Cowboy Casanova (Cowboy Casanova by Carrie Underwood or Here Comes Summer by LoCash Cowboys) [video] - 48-count 4-wall choreographed by Lisa Capelle
• Cowboy Hip-Hop (Gonna Make You Sweat - Everybody Dance Now by C+C Music Factory or Save A Horse Ride A Cowboy [Dance Remix] by Big & Rich)
• Cowboy Rhythm (Thump Factor by Smokin' Armadillos) [video] [video] - I learned this one from a couple who dance at Colorado Cafe in Watchung, NJ
• Crazy Legs (Cotton Eye Joe Club Mix by Rednex, Everybody Gonfi Gon by 2 Cowboys) [video]
• Cripple Creek (Cripple Creek by Jim Rast and Knee Deep) [video] - this is also danced contra at Cancun Cantina
• Dancing Feet (High On Love by Patty Loveless or Patient Heart by Bekka & Billy)
• Flying Eights (Fishin' in the Dark by Emerson Drive or Nitty Gritty Dirt Band)
• Four On The Floor (Four On The Floor by Lee Brice) [video]
• Leather and Lace (She Bangs by Ricky Martin) - Roz Morgan version
• Linda Lu (Linda Lu by Ricky Van Shelton) - don't get confused and use a different version of the song, this is the fun one [video]
  
• Mambo Shuffle (Father Sun by Wynnona Judd or Poker Face by Lady Gaga) [video]
• Men in Black (You Walked In by Lonestar) [strange sideways video]
• Metamorphosized (Total Eclipse of the Heart by Nicki French)
• Pot of Gold (Dance Above the Rainbow by Ronan Hardiman) [video]
• Red High Heels (Red High Heels by Kellie Pickler or Kerosene by Miranda Lambert) [video] - this version danced at Cancun Cantina seems to be a slightly different variation
• Swamp Thang (Swamp Thing by The Grid) [video]
• Uno, Dos, Tres (Maria Spanglish Radio Edit by Ricky Martin or I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho) by Pitbull) [video] [video]
• Zydeco Lady (Cherry Bomb by John Mellencamp or Gravity Storm by Jimmy Buffett)

Advanced Dances (typically club specific):

• All Jacked Up (All Jacked Up by Gretchen Wilson) - very physically demanding dance; I'm told it's from the Dusty Armadillo in Rootstown, OH
• Baby Com' On (Baby Come On by Chris Anderson and DJ Robbie) [video] [video]
• The Beast (Something In The Water by The Cheap Seats) [video1] [video2] [video3] - all in the videos here are truly great dancers, but the guy in video3 is amazing
• Big Doggin' (Big Doggin' Around by Neal McCoy)
  
• Buff Dance (Buff Little Girls by Pete Andrew)
• Cha Cha Loco (Man! I Feel Like A Woman by Shania Twain)
  
• Chill Factor (Last Night by Chris Anderson & DJ Robbie) [video][video] [video - Chill Factor, then Baby Com' On]
• Funk-N-Gruvin (Loosen Up My Strings by Clint Black)
  
• Hold Your Horses (Hold Your Horses by E-Type) [video] [video]
• Humpty (5, 6, 7, 8 by Steps)
  
• Kickin' The Blues (Daddy Laid The Blues On Me by Bobbie Cryner)
• Kick N Rock (Wild and Free by Rednex - this is a psychotically fast song; or Play Something Country by Brooks & Dunn - fun if done with attitude and a bit of bounce)
• Swing Time Boogie (Swing City by Roger Brown) [video]
  
• Wild Wild West (Wild Wild West by Will Smith) [video]
  

Related:

• My Favorite Country Bars (11/6/08)
  
• DC-MD-VA Country Bands Calendar

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Line Dance: Four on the Floor

I saw a slick new line dance last night at the Cantina. It's called "Four on the Floor" and some girls were dancing it to the song Keep Your Hands to Yourself, which is usually a little dull (slow) to dance to.

I found a YouTube video demonstrating it:



Note that the couple in this video is very good (they might be the choreographers, Michelle Ziminski and Matt Thomson). They've got that spring to their steps that makes them look like they're floating over the floor. The song is Four on the Floor by Lee Brice. 

---

Four on the Floor
Choreographers: Matt Thomson & Michelle Ziminski
Level: Intermediate 48-count Line Dance (one tag/restart)
Song: Four on the Floor by Lee Brice (120 bpm), start with lyrics

1-8  Step, wizard step, wizard, rock, recover, coaster step
1,2& R step forward diagonally right (1), L lock step behind R (2), R step forward diagonally right (&)
3,4& L step forward diagonally left (3), R lock step behind L (4), L step forward diagonally left (&)
5,6 R rock forward (5), recover to L (6)
7&8 R step back (7), L step next to R (&), R step forward (8)

9-16  1/4 turn, cross shuffle, 3/4 funky turn
1,2 L step forward (1), pivot 1/4 right shifting weight to R (2) 3:00
3&4 L step across R (3), R step to right side (&), L step across R (4)
5,6 R step to right side (5), L step to left side turning 1/4 left (6) 12:00
7,8 R step to right side turning 1/4 left (7), L step to left side turning 1/4 left (8) 6:00

17-24  Cross rock, 1/4 shuffle, 1/2 turn, left shuffle forward
1,2 R rock across L (1), recover to L (2)
3&4 R step to right side (3), L step next to R (&), R step to right side turning 1/4 right (4) 9:00
5,6 L step forward (5), pivot 1/2 right shifting weight to R (6) 3:00
7&8 L step forward (7), R step next to L (&), L step forward (8)

25-32  Kick ball cross, heel jack, heel jack, stomp, stomp
1&2 R kick forward (1), R step ball of foot slightly back (&), L step across R (2)
&3&4 R step to right side (&), L heel touch forward diagonally left (3), L step home (&), R step
across L (4)
&5&6 L step to left side (&), R heel touch forward diagonally right (5), R step home (&), L step
across R (6)
7,8 R stomp to right side (7), L stomp to left side (8)

33-40  Behind and in front, rock, recover, behind and in front, right shuffle, hitch turn
1&2 R step behind L (1), L step to left side (&), R step across L (2)
3,4 L rock to left side (3), recover to R (4)
5&6 L step behind R (5), R step to right side (&), L step across R (6)
7&8& R step to right side (7), L step next to R (&), R step to right side (8), hitch L knee while
making 1/2 turn over left shoulder (&) 9:00

41-48  Left shuffle, side touches, forward touches, stomp, stomp
1&2 L step to left side (1), R step next to L (&), L step to left side (2)
3&4& R toe touch to right side (3), R step next to L (&), L toe touch to left side (4), L step next to R (&)
5&6& R heel touch forward (5), R step next to L (&), L heel touch forward (6), L step next to R (&)
7,8 R stomp forward (7), L stomp forward (8)

Start again and enjoy!

Tag/restart
At wall 5, dance through the fourth set of 8. Repeat the fourth set of 8, then restart dance from beginning (omit fifth and sixth sets of 8 for this wall, i.e., omit counts 33-48). You will be facing 3:00 when this happens.

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Related:

• Line Dancing 101: How To Line Dance
  

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My Favorite Country Bars

I love country dancing. I started with couples dancing in Texas and after moving to Maryland, I learned line dancing too. This is a limited sample of fun places to dance C&W that I've found in my travels:

1. Cancun Cantina, Hanover, MD: This is where I live 2-3 nights out of the week. Sometimes the music gets a little stale, but this bar near BWI Airport has the best combination in the DC area of a good-sized (1600 sq. ft.) dance floor and a crowd that knows how to dance with energy and enthusiasm.
   
   To fully enjoy yourself here you need to like line dancing as well as couples dancing, though there's also rock/hip-hop outside on The Deck. The nights to go are Wednesday (Ladies Night, more line dance-oriented), Friday, and Saturday (best for two-stepping).


2. The Saddle Rack, Fremont, CA: This long-time San Jose institution reopened a few miles up the road several years ago, in a modern facility with two dance floors. The last time I was there, one floor was oriented toward line dances while the other focused on couples dancing.
   
   With big crowds and a lot of good dancing, this is the only place to go in the San Francisco Bay/Silicon Valley Area but it's a good one.


3. Cowboys, Arlington, TX: This is where the high-level competition dancers hang out in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area because of the instructor, Terri Bordeaux, and they have some spectacular dancers here including very good practitioners of West Coast Swing. There's a house band on many nights.
   
   This is not the same place as the Dallas location, which lacks advanced dancers and isn't anywhere near as fun.


4. Big Texas Dance Hall & Saloon, Clear Lake, TX: The dancing level in this mostly DJ-only place is only average, but the two-stepping is still enjoyable here and on a Saturday night this enormous place is hopping. It can be hard though to find someone to dance with unless you already know them, because by the time you navigate to where they were they're gone.
   
   As with Cowboys, don't confuse this with their other location (in Spring, on the north side of Houston) which has mediocre dancing and one of those race track dance floors with a bar in the middle of the floor.


5. Cowboys, Albuquerque, NM: [Closed as of early 2009. Graham Central Station is still open.] The level of dancing here is kind of low but this is the place to be on a Thursday night in Albuquerque. The large dance floor is sunken into a pit with the bandstand on one end, and the place has a line out the door starting about 10 pm. (They're not affiliated with the Cowboys locations in Texas.)


6. Cancun Cantina West, Hagerstown, MD: Cantina West would be a lot higher on my list if their dance floor wasn't so bad. You can't slide on it at all unless they put baby powder down, and then it becomes so slick it's out of control. But they're more willing to try new songs and dances here than the original Cantina. Unfortunately they're no longer country on Friday nights. The floor is about 1000 sq. ft., reasonable for this area.
   


7. Nick's, Alexandria, VA: People here know how to dance but the club is very small (the danceable part of the floor is only about 600 sq. ft., though it's a very nice wooden floor). They have a karaoke bar in the back with a smaller floor where the young crowd hangs out. If I lived nearer I'd probably go a lot more often. This is where all of the Blackie's refugees wound up when that club closed.
   


8. The Promenade Ballroom, Baltimore, MD: OK, so this isn't really a country bar but this is where I went when I wanted to learn West Coast Swing. The instructors are both excellent dancers and excellent teachers (not always the same thing). It's got a huge 5500 sq. foot hardwood dance floor, though it has pillars in the middle of the floor.
   

Related:

• DC-MD-VA Country Bands Calendar (6/1/09)
• Line Dancing 101 (11/15/08)
• Country Dancing In Portland, OR (6/7/09)
• Phoenix: Country Dancing and Dining (12/15/08)

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Vote!

Tuesday, November 4th is Election Day in the United States, so go out and vote.

• Voting & Elections (usa.gov)
• Polling Information By State (nass.org)

This year, Maryland has a proposal on the ballot to allow early voting as much as 2 weeks ahead of an election. I've read that in some states where early voting is already in place, very large numbers have voted already (including 46% of the eligible voters in Colorado!).

Update (Tuesday 6:30 PM): I had a meeting in DC this morning so I wasn't able to vote before work, when I'm told there were extremely long lines. So I went to the polling station this evening with iPhone in hand, prepared for a lengthy wait. Instead, it took 5 minutes total -- most of it spent getting the electronic card for the touchscreen machine. I think it took longer for me to walk in from the parking lot.

(12:30 AM) I just listened to the two gracious, unifying speeches from John McCain and Barack Obama. CNN's final map shows Obama with 365 electoral votes to McCain's 173.

In Maryland, both the early voting and slots initiatives passed.

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If it walks like a duck...

I stopped for dinner at Victoria Gastro Pub in Columbia, MD tonight, which offers "creative pub fare" in a former Bennigan's. Their best dishes are the appetizers and small plates, and tonight I had the mussels and the poutine.

The mussels have a great sauce that derives its flavor from Hoegaarden beer, garlic, cilantro, orange peel, and chili de arbol and has a nice tangy kick to it.

But what is poutine? The short answer is that it's high-end junk food from Canada, consisting of cheese and gravy over french fries.


I really like Victoria Gastro Pub's version, which starts with their tasty duck fat fries, which are then topped with duck confit (duck that's been immersed in herbs and seasonings and simmered in its own fat), Gruyere cheese, and duck gravy.

Despite the preponderance of the word in that description, this poutine doesn't taste like any duck I've had before and it's a sinful pleasure.

Related:

• Victoria Gastro Pub in Columbia, MD (8/25/10)

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Ray's Hell Burger in Arlington, VA

I'll go out of my way for good food. Today I drove an hour to Arlington, VA where I ate one of the best burgers I've ever had.

I'd been reading about Michael "Ray" Landrum's restaurants for a while on Chowhound.com, but hadn't tried them because of the distance and because they don't take phone reservations. (The owner is quirky that way. He also doesn't believe in web sites.) Since I was planning to be nearby I decided to stop at Ray's Hell Burger, which opened up this summer.

Both Ray's the Steaks and Ray's Hell Burger are in the same little strip mall. Ray's the Steaks (RTS) supposedly has the best steaks in the DC area, and Hell Burger grinds up the same aged, handcut steaks to make the burgers. RTS has a nice store front:

But you wouldn't even know that Ray's Hell Burger serves food:

The small paper sign on the door is the only indication that Hell Burger even exists. Once inside there are paper menus posted in the vestibule and further information on a chalkboard. You can see them cutting the beef and making the burgers behind the stainless steel counter where you order. The place was packed.

I ordered what they called the "Let's Get It On" Burger: Applewood smoked bacon; Swiss and Vermont white cheddar cheese; cognac and sherry sauteed mushrooms; grilled red onions; sauteed peppers; roasted garlic; lettuce and tomato; all served over a grilled 10 oz burger on a toasted brioche bun.

When it came out it was a masterpiece:

The beef was lightly charred and perfectly cooked, with just the right amount of fat to keep it from being too dry (as opposed to Five Guys' burgers which wallow in grease). The mushrooms and garlic were especially savory. I didn't bother to put on any ketchup or sauce; it sure didn't need it. 

The kicker is that all of this was only $8.95.

After this experience my next stop is Ray's the Classics, which is a little closer to me in Silver Spring, MD. I've heard they serve the burgers in the bar there, so the next time I go to Arlington I'll try the steaks. When you're this good I guess you can afford to be a little quirky.

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