That's Entertaining: Ou Est Le Sel? (Where Is the Salt?)

by Barbara Burtoff

Imagine this situation. It’s Saturday night and four people have gone out to a restaurant new to them. The waiter brings their meals and goes to take care of other diners. One of the four looks to the left side of the table, then the right, then across and announces, “There’s no salt on the table.”

A second member of the group adds, “There’s no pepper, hot sauce or ketchup either.”

A third chimes in with, “Maybe the restaurant is cutting back because of financial problems.”

The fourth in this group disagrees, “Nope. I think they have a new employee who doesn’t know how to set the table.”

Mais non! (But no!) They are all wrong. The salt and other seasonings were left off intentionally. This group was eating at a restaurant specializing in French cuisine. The cook was trained by a French chef, and the thinking went something like this: “What is being served to our patrons is perfectly seasoned, so there’s no need for salt and pepper on the table.”

How to Find Allergy Safe Restaurants

Step aside, Yelp: If your main concern while eating out is to find a restaurant that's allergy or food-intolerance friendly, then AllergyEats should be your destination online. You can search for restaurants in your area that serve food without peanuts, eggs, wheat, gluten, and a host of other allergy-inducing foods. AllergyEats has more than just listings; you'll find reviews of restaurants that cater to people with food allergies and intolerances.  You can also rate restaurants you've been to.

Thanks to Make Use Of  for spotting this.

Bicyclists Assaulted on Metro Branch Trail in Brookland

If you're biking on the Metro Branch Trail, be on the lookout for teens who suddenly rise up from a bench and push over bicyclists. These teenagers don't steal bikes: All they appear to want to do is knock over cyclists. Here is how one biker, Heather, describes her unfortunate encounter with these teenagers (from her account on the Brookland listserv).

I was riding my bike home from work on the Metro Branch Trail about 3:45 pm this afternoon (Saturday) when a female member of a group of 6 young teenagers stood up from a bench and pushed me off my bike as I rode by. I slammed into the fence along the trail. She then proceeded to sit back down on the bench as I struggled with my bike. They did not attempt to take anything from me. This happened a few hundred feet from the entrance onto the trail at 8th and Edgewood, right by DC Prep. I rode my bike (which was all bent out of alignment) to the trail head and called police. The police responded quickly and were very helpful, but the kids were gone.

I am bruised and shaken, but basically okay.

Since this has happened I have learned that this is not an isolated event and others have been harassed as they have been biking on the trail.

City Council Member Harry Thomas has been in touch with commander of MPD-5D to ensure that there's adequate safety on the trail.

Tech Column: How A Smartphone Can Save Your Life

I thought I knew everything about smartphones' magic, but what I’m about to tell you, what these developers have thought of and created, is truly brilliant, and lifesaving.

Smartphones like the iPhone and Android have accelerometers in them, chips that detect motion. It’s through this chip that your phone can be turned into a seismograph, for example, to measure an earthquake’s strength. Pretty cool.

Watch Out: Burglaries on the Increase in NW DC

Eyes open, everyone.  Burglaries are up in the Second District MPD, which covers Cleveland Park and nearby neighborhoods. (You can view a map of the Second District's area here.)  Here is the bulletin from Second District Commander Matt Klein.

I wanted to alert the community that we’re seeing an increase in burglaries in various locations in the upper-end of the Second District. Some of the burglaries occurred during the night while occupants were asleep. Yesterday, a home was broken into in the 1800 block of 47th Place , as well as a home in the 4600 block of 43rd Place, NW . No one was injured during the burglaries, and residents were not able to provide us with a description of the suspect.

All Eggs Are Local: Salmonella-Free Eggs Are Here

Half a billion eggs recalled.  1,300 people, and possibly more to come, already made sick from salmonella contaminated eggs. Nobody wants to get sick with salmonella

There are strategies for making eggs safe:  Thoroughly cooking eggs (and cleaning utensils and cooking surfaces) is always a good, and effective, way to prevent the spread of salmonella and other food-borne diseases.  Buying locally farmed eggs, alas, isn't one of those strategies:  Your locally produced eggs can easily be contaminated with salmonella.  What kind of tools do local farmers use to thwart salmonella?  "We're a small producer and we have a better handle on everything that goes out of here," is how one farmer described her strategy.  Not very reassuring.

I buy pasteurized eggs.  Not the kind that come in liquid form, which are low-cholesterol egg whites only-- but real, in-the-shell-from-the-chicken eggs.  Pasteurized eggs taste every bit as delicious as regular eggs, and they are completely free of  bacteria.

Davidson's Eggs produces pasteurized eggs.  You can find out where to buy pasteurized eggs on their website.  In the District of Columbia Harris Teeter sells them -- but call ahead to see if they have pasteurized eggs in stock.  If your local supermarket doesn't carry pasteurized eggs, you can --pardon the irresistible pun-- egg them on through this online form.