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Stretched out, the lamb's body looked like it reached 3 or 4 feet. Gone were the coarse curls and its entire head. It just laid there, deep burgundy muscles kept intact with bones and cartilage, or whatever else holds together a once-living creature. I didn't witness a slaughter, but a full-on butchering seemed close enough.

Last week, Young & Hungry took meat consumption very seriously. Michael E. Grass dined on muskrat, but after an unappetizing first bite, ditched the rest of the rodent. Nevin Martell detailed a much more appetizing dinner at Eola, thoroughly enjoying tempura-battered pig ears and chicken-fried tongue. But we didn't just read about pig parts: Y&H readers journeyed through the task of breaking down the animal's head with Darrow Montgomery's graphic photos, somehow turned gorgeous, in gentle black and white.

While some commenters screamed "gross," even claiming to unsubscribe to the Y&H feed, many found this up close and personal look at meat to be sobering:

As a society, today we are distantly separated from the source of the things we eat. Only two generations ago, this would have been yawn-inducing.

I grew up hunting for and butchering many of my meals, but that puts me in a tiny minority of Americans.

Sometimes I think a backyard lamb slaughtering would do us all some good, reconnecting us to the nature of food.

Which takes me back to my first-hand account of a lamb butchering from late last month.

To reiterate, the lamb laid there on a table in the front of a private room, as I nibbled on canapés of seared lamb heart and lamb tartar with salsa verde, chatting with fellow food writers at an event hosted by the American Lamb Board at Bibiana.

As I stared at the lamb carcass, Nick Stefanelli walked out with a couple of knives and started carving, hacking, slicing, and tearing. I can still hear the pounding of knife on bone as the Bibiana chef expertly slashed and severed the meat into edible pieces.

As the butchering continued, so did the passing of lamb sausage served on silver spoons. I couldn't believe they still served lamb as we watched the spectacle up in front.

But this was not only performance art—it was educational. Craig Rogers, a sheep farmer from Virginia's Border Springs Farm, explained the nuances of diet and how different types of grass produce different tasting meat. When Stefanelli rubbed his fingers through the rib cage, the farmer joked:

This is what separates lamb from those burly cows. Look how sexy those bones are. There's nothing that sexy on a cow.

We all laughed. We had to. Or at least I did. I couldn't keep thinking about the seriousness of the moment because in only a few more minutes I would start dinner and eat three (delicious) courses of lamb.

Is it right to eat animals? I know what Jonathan Safer Foer would say. But I hadn't made up my mind yet. But when chefs take such care to respect animals, I'm willing to keep considering the thought.

First photo by Darrow Montgomery. Bottom photo of Nick Stefanelli and Craig Rogers courtesy of Michael Birchenall. You can also view Birchenall's video of the lamb butchering.

This news has been reported in many other places, but Esquire finally posted the 20 Best New Restaurants feature online, where we can read what John Mariani had to say about Bibiana, Ashok Bajaj's sleek new Italian operation.

Bibiana is the lone representative from the District, and like last year's D.C. pick (and the two locals from the 2007 list), the eatery was/is handled by the same public relations team, which makes me think Mariani isn't doing much legwork in each city before making his selections. But at least this year's Washington representative hasn't generated the same controversy as Mariani's decision to pick Barton Seaver as chef of the year in 2009.

Interestingly enough, Bibiana didn't make Tom Sietsema's Dining Guide for 2010, nor mine (although I do really dig chef Nicholas Stefanelli's grilled sardines). Bibiana also couldn't fare any better than 99th place on the Washingtonian's Best 100 Restaurants list for 2010.

Nonetheless, Mariani marches ahead. Here's what he had to say about Bibiana:

There was a time when the idea of an Indian restaurateur opening a true Italian ristorante — in Washington, D. C., of all places — seemed about as likely as Stuart Smalley getting elected to the Senate. Even if that restaurateur were the great Ashok Bajaj, proprietor of power haunts the Oval Room and Rasika, one of America's finest Indian restaurants. But now we have Senator Al Franken, and — thanks to Bajaj's ambition, the wider availability of great Italian ingredients, and an ascendant chef named Nicholas Stefanelli — we have Bibiana. Stefanelli has worked at Galileo in D. C. and at Fiamma in New York, and his food has helped make Bibiana the best Italian restaurant to open in the capital in years, as true to tradition as it is stylish on its own. The secret to all good cooking is care, and that's what Stefanelli delivers, whether in the form of grilled Mediterranean sardines or cavatelli grano arso (burned grain) with fennel sausage, broccoli rabe, and chile. And the prices are fair, which allows the lobbyists to splurge a little on the highly splurgable wine list.

Y&H Nation, what do you think of the place?

The details are predictably complicated and fussy.  According to a press release, "Each chef will join Derek Brown behind the bar and prepare two dishes that Derek will pair with hand crafted cocktails, after which the tables will be turned and our guest chef will try their hand at creating a craft cocktail with a dish of Derek’s creation."

The Passenger's own Javier Duran will kick things off on June 17, and the series will run on intermittent Thursdays through the summer.  Reservations are limited to 32 guests nightly, at $74 per person (including tax and gratuity).  The visiting chefs are:

July 8: Bibiana's Nicholas Stefanelli

July 18: DC Coast's Brendan Cox

August 12: Westend Bistro's Joe Palma

August 26: Vidalia's R.J. Cooper

The Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington hosts the annual RAMMY Awards on Sunday at the Marriott Wardman Park, and the question foremost on Y&H's mind is this: How will Inox's recent closing affect the ceremony, if at all?

If you haven't heard, the celebrated, triple-chef-threat Inox closed this weekend. Chef Jon Mathieson shared the bad news with WaPo's Tom Sietsema late on Friday night.

Inox, as I'm sure many of you know, is nominated in the New Restaurant of the Year category, along with Bibiana, Birch & Barley, Bourbon Steak, and Eventide. Mathieson himself is also nominated in the Rising Culinary Star of the Year category, along with chefs Mike Isabella from Zaytinya, Shannon Overmiller from The Majestic, Liam LaCivita from Liberty Tavern, and Nicholas Stefanelli from Bibiana.

"This is the first time that this has happened in recent memory," e-mailed Lynne Breaux, president of RAMW. She was referring to nominees who are no longer in business.

I had so many questions running around my head, I didn't know where to begin. Would Inox and Mathieson still compete in their categories? Would the RAMMYs officially acknowledge the restaurant's demise on stage? Would the winners in those two categories (assuming Inox and Mathieson can compete and assuming they don't win) feel like these were hollow victories now that Inox and Mathieson are not currently on the scene? (I was imagining how, say, Robert Downey Jr. would have felt had he won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar in 2009 over the late Heath Ledger.)

Well, Breaux clarified my thinking with two quick acknowledgments:  Inox and Mathieson can indeed still win the awards in their respective categories, and the voting is already tabulated.

Inox, in other words, may be the first restaurant to win an award after it has already closed. And Mathieson may be the first chef to win the Rising Culinary Star award and not be currently employed.  How much would that suck?

Restaurateur Ashok Bajaj, owner of the nominated Bibiana, acknowledged the difficulty of the situation. But he adds: "I think every restaurant that is nominated is a good restaurant...We're all superior in our own ways. Whoever wins would be good."

Photo courtesy of Inox

Just call Derek Brown, left, Mr. Outstanding Wine and Spirits Professional

Y&H is a behind on this (hey, if you want excuses, I got a million of 'em!), but I wanted to offer my congratulations to the local semi-finalists for this year's James Beard Awards. It's an impressive list, one filled with many of Y&H's favorites.

Compare this year's semi-finalists to last year's, and you'll see the D.C. area had a couple more nominees in 2010. The local nominees are listed after the jump.

OUTSTANDING RESTAURATEUR

• Ashok Bajaj, owner of 701, Ardeo, Bardeo, Bibiana Osteria-Entoteca, The Bombay Club, The Oval Room, and Rasika.

OUTSTANDING CHEF

• José Andrés, minibar

OUTSTANDING RESTAURANT

• Vidalia

RISING STAR CHEF OF THE YEAR

• Johnny Monis, Komi

BEST NEW RESTAURANT

• Eventide
• J & G Steakhouse
• Trummer’s on Main in Clifton

OUTSTANDING PASTRY CHEF

• Amanda Cook, CityZen

OUTSTANDING WINE SERVICE

• Restaurant Eve

OUTSTANDING WINE AND SPIRITS PROFESSIONAL

• Derek Brown, The Passenger

OUTSTANDING SERVICE

• Marcel's

BEST CHEF: MID-ATLANTIC

• Cathal Armstrong, Restaurant Eve
• Tony Conte, The Oval Room
• Melissa Close Hart, Palladio at Barboursville Vineyards in Barboursville
• Peter Pastan, Obelisk
• Vikram Sunderam, Rasika
• Bryan Voltaggio, Volt in Frederick
• Spike Gjerde, Woodberry Kitchen in Baltimore

If the reviews submitted for our Restaurant Week writing contest are any indication of the places you frequented during the come-hither promotion, then Hook was very, very busy. No less than three readers entered reviews of the Georgetown seafood emporium. Perhaps this explains why the gifted chef Jonathan Seningen left the restaurant shortly after RW was over. Then again, maybe it doesn't explain anything at all.

Whatever your reviews say about Hook, they did confirm one thing about the cheap-eats week: Restaurants were all over the place in terms of quality and attentiveness. On one hand, readers like Anna Tuman practically had an out-of-body experience during her meal:

I have never been a very religious person. Sure there was the occasional Sunday mass I was forced to go to before a big meal at Nana's, but church, and religion itself, was never really my thing. So, it wasn't out of character for me to always question if there was every truly a heaven. Then, I went to lunch at Taberna del Alabardero and I realized Heaven does exist, on 18th street NW between H and I.

On the other hand, readers like Emily Stark could barely muster enough snark to describe her meal at 1789:

I ordered the shortrib. It was so bland it could have been served in a nursing home. Really quit [sic] perplexing because the meat was very tender, and had obviously cooked a long time, but had zero flavor (not even salt). I can't convey how little flavor this meat had. I ate maybe two or three bites of said shortrib — leaving the great majority of the dish uneaten and pushed the plate away. The server never knew this because he did not once ask how our food was.

To add insult to injured palate, "The bathroom was out of toilet paper" at 1789, Stark noted.

Yes, you turned lousy experiences into good, old-fashioned vitriol, sometimes with a dash of righteous outrage. Take this anecdote from Hilary Nelson, who dined at Bibiana during RW:

Although I found the service to be extremely underwhelming and the pasta extremely over salted, these glitches paled in comparison, once again, to the jewel of a family next to which we were seated. I'll spare you the more hideous details involving loud discussion of the between-the-sheets antics of a college-aged woman as she recounted them to her parents, and just sum it up by saying that this same teenaged woman closed their dinner by putting her hands in the air and singing, at full volume, her rendition of "Party In The USA" by one Miley Cyrus (aka Hannah Montana).

But of all the submissions we received at Y&H Central, the best one came from Daniel Korn, a regular reader (and commenter) on the Y&H blog. His review of the new Kellari Taverna was strong of narrative and rich in detail. Korn also displayed a knowledge of both ingredients and restaurant operations.

I'll publish his full review later today on the blog, but here's a taste of the winner:

The RW menu had 6 choices each for the first two courses, far less than half the number of dishes that appear on the regular menu, but they weren't the cheaper choices, so their decision not to offer the full menu seems odd. Nonetheless, this was the same menu that appeared on the website, so we knew in advance there were things we wanted to order. My wife started with the Calamari, which was grilled with olive oil and lemon. Every bite was tender, definitely some of the better calamari we've had. This paled, however, next to the picture-perfect grilled octopus that I ordered, so tender it was nearly creamy in the center. These were two very generous servings, as well; no skimping on the portion size.

For his efforts, Korn wins a copy of the Best Food Writing 2009 collection — and my congratulations for a job well done. Actually, I enjoyed reading all the submissions, even when passages like this made me cringe: "I will admit, I took my time with this dish, so much so, that my fellow diners asked if I liked it. My response 'I'm really crushing on this tuna, right now, we are in a relationship...'"

While it's too late to send in your submission for the contest, I'm still interested in your Restaurant Week experiences. Please e-mail them to me, and I'll post the best comments online.

It's a worthy cause, yes, but who can you trust? The FBI has already warned us about scams and how to protect ourselves from them. Even Snopes has chimed in on the issue.

If you haven't already donated directly to relief agencies, which is the best method, allow me to suggest two other possibilities. Both of them will cost you nothing more than the usual price of a meal.

Restaurateur Ashok Bajaj first told his employees that he'd match every dollar they donated, then he took it one step further: He promised that his company, Knightsbridge Inc., will donate $1 for each signature dish sold at his seven restaurants, from Ardeo/Bardeo to Bibiana.

What makes this better than the average fundraiser is its length of time: Bajaj will donate a dollar for each plate sold from Tuesday, Jan. 19, to Friday, Feb. 19. It's easy to tabulate, he says; the managers just have to program the computers at each restaurant to tally the number of dishes ordered. Which plates are included? Take a look:

• the palak chaat and black cod at Rasika
• the king crab salad and grilled branzino at 701
• the roasted baby beets and butter poached lobster at the Oval Room
• polpettine and spaghetti Nero with jumbo lump crab at Bibiana
• and other dishes at the Bombay Club and Ardeo/Bardeo.

"I picked the most popular dishes from each restaurant," Bajaj told Y&H this afternoon. By the time the fundraiser is finished, Bajaj hopes to send a check between $10,000-$20,000 to a relief charity. He knows the money won't solve any problems in Haiti but says, "They could use every bit of help."

Bajaj still hasn't selected a relief organization yet, but he says it will likely be a "big charity" like Red Cross, "which has accountability."

Mauricio Fraga-Rosenfeld, on the other hand, has already selected a charity, Doctors Without Borders, the international medical organization that has agreed to let the restaurateur use its logo in his efforts.

The Ecuadorian owner behind Latin Concepts and Tavern Concepts will donate 10 percent of food and beverages sold between 7 and 8 p.m. today through Friday at his seven restaurants and lounges. Fraga-Rosenfeld picked the time so that it wouldn't fall during happy hour, when prices are lower, or during late hours, when sales drop off.

The following restaurants and lounges will be participating:

• Guarapo
• Maté Lounge
• Gazuza
• Chi Cha Lounge
• Ceviche
• Kitchen 2404
• Gin and Tonic

"This is the time for all of us to make a difference!" Fraga-Rosenfeld wrote in an e-mail statement to Y&H. Doctors Without Borders "are working hard to provide medical aid to the Haitian community, and need all of the help they can get."

Technically, I guess this is more like Appetizer of the Week, but the sardine antipasto ($12) at Bibiana packs so many humble pleasures on one plate that I couldn't resist plugging a starter instead of an entree.

Chef Nicholas Stefanelli buys his fresh whole sardines twice a week from Portugal, debones them in house, and cures them with salt for about 30 minutes. The kitchen then "rinses" the sardines with a white-wine mixture of saffron, dill, and garlic before finally marinating the fillets in extra virgin olive oil mixed with dill, bay leaf, and garlic.

The marinated fillets are quickly grilled and served on a small nest of "Venetian onions." Or, to be more precise, served on Stefanelli's version of the slightly undercooked onions that Venetians pair with liver. The chef melts down garlic and anchovies in olive oil before adding the sliced onions and more seasonings, covering the pan, and cooking those rings until they're drowning in flavor. The final touch are the bread crumbs, made in-house and applied liberally to add both texture and spice to the dish.

Given the sardines, anchovies, and all the garlic, you might think this antipasto pungent enough to raise the dead. Or at least pungent enough to keep vampires and potential suitors away. It's not. The dish is astonishingly subdued.

The sardines smack of the sea, fresh and firm and full of flavor. The onions add more complexity to the bite than I can break down in a sentence or two; the mere act of explanation, in fact, would dare to suggest that the harmony of flavors could be deciphered and cataloged, as if someone could begin to explain why Mozart's Jupiter symphony were an act of genius.

Yes, these simple sardines are that good.

Bajaj tells GQ a few of his rules for navigating the political waters in this town:

• Know Your Client. "You can feel the temperature of the person," he says. Last winter, with our economy teetering, that meant giving Geithner the privacy of a corner table when he dined alone at the Bombay Club but seating the more sociable Bernanke "in the thick of things" when he took his wife to dinner at the Oval Room.

• Keep Lunch Quick. It's an endangered meal in a city crowded with workaholics. So Bajaj has a simple directive for his staff: "Get the check on the table in fifty-nine minutes."
• Be Loyal. Political fortunes change like the weather, but Bajaj treats his best customers the same, no matter their status. "Just because they're out of grace for now, it doesn't mean they always will be."

It's been quite a year for Bajaj. First, his Rasika chef Vikram Sunderam was nominated for a James Beard Award. Bajaj himself was a semi-finalist in the Beard's Outstanding Restaurateur category (and finished second in CP's Best Restaurateur category). In September, the owner debuted his seventh restaurant in D.C., Bibiana, his first Italian eatery, and just today, he learned that Rasika will earn four stars from Tom Sietsema's next Dining Guide, due out Thursday.

Photo by Darrow Montgomery