This week fall arrived in full force in DC (actually, temperatures more like winter, but the first taste of cold anyhow...). We wanted to take advantage of the fall bounty suddenly available at Eastern Market, and so we spent most of our day preparing a tasty Italian-inspired fall harvest dinner (yes we began at 10 am by roasting said harvest vegetables...).

Ben Eisendrath knows his grills (Via WeLoveDC):

Local entrepreneur Ben Eisendrath had been introducing friends to the glory of South American-style wood grilling for years before he chucked the daily grind to re-launch his father’s invention and transform it into a viable business. From “grubby greasy shop drawings” to 3D CAD renderings, Ben translated his father’s elegant design for the modern world. Shops in Michigan and Virginia now produce what’s known as the “Maserati of Grills.”

We'd always talked about going to the massive Florida Ave Market (Actually the Capital City Market), but had always been overwhelmed by its size, complexity (think more crazy market than supermarket or even yuppie-filled farmers market). As part of Cultural Tourism DC's WalkingTown free walking tours this weekend, we found our solution.

Richard Layman, urban planner and activist, gave us a heartwarming, depressing, informative, and mouth-watering tour of the market area. It began as an offshoot of the freight unloading area that used to occupy the space around what is now the New York Ave metro stop, just north of Union Station. It remains
a popular wholesale outlet with limited direct retail storefronts; catering to a wide variety of international tastes for jaw-droppingly low prices. Richard's blog at http://capitalcitymarket.blogspot.com/ covers much more about the market, and follows the ongoing attempts to "redevelop" it (that's code for getting rid of it in most cases).

Regardless, if you need to buy lots of really low-cost meat and oils, or need a goat, or random hard-to-find Caribbean, Indian, various African, or Latin-American ingredients -- or, the true find, an amazing Italian deli -- then the
Florida market has you covered (for now). There's an amazing map of the area you can print, thanks to designer Christopher Taylor Edwards (after the jump)

Bottled this weekend was the previously-mentioned Pilz. The West Coast Pale Ale was a resounding success; one of the cleaner, most balanced (sweet, light, hoppy) beers I've made in a while.

To be fair, I try to brew stuff that's not available in stores, like Pumpkin porter (a repeat favorite, coming in late October), and Coffee Bock (a new recipe for my annual Octoberfest bock).

Crabmeat Remick with artichoke -- we used a combination of canned and fake crabmeat. It might've been better with fresh lump crabmeat, but not actually worth it.