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Chew On This: Your first 'Duh' of the year... - 2 Jan 2012
A ‘duh’ moment to launch the new year: A diet rich in vitamins and fish may protect the brain from aging while junk food has the opposite effect.
Who is it, I ask myself, who dishes out shedloads of money for research like this? read more...
Eggplant - 1 Jan 2012
There are so many different varieties of this beautiful vegetable. Which kind to use in which recipe? read more...
Baked beans - the musical fruit - 1 Jan 2012
Beans, beans, the musical fruit, the more you eat, the more you toot. The more you toot, the better you feel, so let's have beans at every meal! read more...
Ribollita - wondersoup or wodge? - 1 Jan 2012
This is one of my favorite dishes - a wonderful peasant soup that uses up stale bread to turn a winter minestrone (that's the kale in it) into a full scale comfort meal. It's even better if you keep a day before you eat it. read more...
Yasaman Persian Bakery - one of my favorites - 1 Jan 2012
Depending on who's behind the counter, it can be a little daunting shopping at Yasaman. Most of the women who serve are distant and seldom smile. Get over it. You're there for the best walnut macaroons you've ever eaten. read more...
Breads - a good chew - 1 Jan 2012
Not so long ago, the only bread available in Washington came sliced in cellophane packages. Now you can't move for choice among breads studded with everything from olives to cheese. But where can you get a plain brown loaf? read more...
Duck & goose - 12 Dec 2011
Duck and goose, full of dark flavor, make a sumptuous Christmas change from chicken and turkey and their carcasses provide a rich soup stock. read more...
A festive 'Special': Foie Gras Creme Caramel - 12 Dec 2011
This is one of those glamorous recipes you pay a fortune for in high end restaurants which, according to Christophe and Michelle Poteaux, owners and chefs of Bastille, who make it, turns out not to be too difficult to do. (And no objections to the foie gras, if you please, until you address how battery chickens that are eaten far more frequently are raised.) read more...
Festive presents weird and wacky at World Market - 12 Dec 2011
World Market is an oddity. On the same level in the Chevy Chase Pavilion as Starbucks and the escalator to the Red Line Metro, its most public face, through large glass display windows, is not much different from Pottery Barn in the same location.
But penetrate the space, push past the hyacinth-reed woven chairs, the pillar candles and Asian pottery and in the back you'll find a bizarre food market. And a great source for stocking fillers... read more...
Walnut oil - 12 Dec 2011
Take a tip from the cooks of France's Perigord region: invest in a bottle of walnut oil. A small one - it doesn't keep long, and store it in the dark. But you'll be glad you did. A vinaigrette made with it will lift a salad into another stratosphere. And it adds a festive zip to holiday season salads! read more...
The perfect Yorkshire pudding - 12 Dec 2011
A proper Yorkshire pudding is a Christmas treat - and a vital component of a roast beef feast. It must be 4 inches tall. That's official. The Royal Society of Chemists says so. The second key qualification is the cook must have Yorkshire blood. "It's the instinct of people born and raised in Yorkshire. You can tell if the cook has the right touch," scientist John Emsley told the BBC. Perhaps that's why my Yorkshire mother makes puddings like shoe leather - she was born and raised in Kuala Lumpur. read more...
Chew On This: The acai berry diet can only thin your wallet... - 6 Dec 2011
Forget acai berries. (I just want to remind you of this scam diet if you're planning a hasty diet before the festive season.) The acai berry diet will only thin your wallet. Watercress, on the other hand, is a much more powerful ingredient... read more...
The Queen Mum's favorite cake - 2 Dec 2011
This was the favorite cake of the Queen Mother, gobblesser. It's a lovely dense yet light much nicer alternative to a fruit cake - that thick brick the Brits love at Christmas or covered in sweet stucco at weddings.
But you can't have the recipe for free. At it mustn't be given but sold for one shilling and the money donated to a charitable organization. So if you're planning to bake it, pop a quarter in a charity box. read more...
West Indian Black Cake - 1 Dec 2011
At Christmas time in Jamaica, a traditional black cake is baked in which the dried fruits and peel have been soaking in alcohol since the previous Christmas. It's a far more intense cake than traditional fruit cake, and covered in a dark, dark frosting. read more...
Chinese mushrooms identified - 1 Dec 2011
Several varieties of Chinese mushrooms are sold dried in Chinese script packages. But which should you use for what? And how can you buy the ones you want if you don't speak Chinese? Here's help. read more...
Crackers! - quirky facts for the festive season - 1 Dec 2011
Commit this weird but true information to heart. It's completely crackers - English expression meaning 'crazy'. But they're allowed - they invented the cracker. (Non, vous Froggies, vous didn't.) But will come in handy at festive season parties. Like, can you buy a moose a beer in Alaska? (Nope. It's illegal, even if you could get one into a bar...) Get a spicy Bloody Mary in Britain? Drink as a student abroad? Read on... read more...
Chocolate Truffles - 1 Dec 2011
It's always a treat to be given a home-made food gift from a good cook. Trent Conry - one time chef of 401 then Ardeo - has three sumptuous chocolate recipes for food presents any time of year but especially the holiday season, that even a modest cook can tackle fearlessly. read more...
Bicarbonate of soda - magic in a teaspoon - 1 Dec 2011
It's the festive season. So you probably have a fresh carton of bicarb tucked away for digestion stabilizing.
But there's more to bicarbonate of soda than meets the stomach. This antacid solution to gluttony, fizzer of sodas and raiser of flour to baking heights with a slightly salty taste has other tricks it can perform. read more...
Kedgeree and Omelette Arnold Bennett recipes - 6 Nov 2011
These are two recipes that come into their own with the fall chill. Make them for a celebratory brunch or lunch or an informal supper. read more...
Smoked Haddock - 6 Nov 2011
British breakfasters miss their kedgeree, a staple of the groaning British Raj breakfast sideboard that these days makes a great lunch or supper dish, especially when the cold days draw in. But where to get the key ingredient for this and the delicious Omelette Arnold Bennett, smoked haddock? Don't despair, there's a good internet source. read more...
Foie gras and confits - 6 Nov 2011
I've just come across this video of Dan Barber of the Blue Hill Farm complex and restaurant in upstate New York. Please give it a look, whether you're a foie gras fan or violently opposed. read more...
Chew On This: Your kitchen - clean or health hazard? - 6 Nov 2011
How many people could identify the refrigerator handle as one of the most hazardous havens for bacteria in the kitchen?
48 million Americans each year get some kind of food borne sickness. At the worst they lead to some 3000 deaths. 180,000 people get hospitalized. Health officials believe there is a higher number of episodes that just don't get reported. read more...
Chew On This: Can corn syrup can lead to dementia? - 26 Oct 2011
Whenever I wrote in the mainstream media about High Fructose Corn Syrup, I would be sent mutterings by industry representatives of legal proceedings. Now that the extensive use of corn syrup in the food business and rising levels of obesity and Type 2 diabetes have become openly connected by medical science, it doesn't seem necessary to keep on beating the drum. But recently scientists have begun to consider if there isn't a link between fructose and dementia. read more...
Banh Khoai - crispy shrimp pancakes - 26 Oct 2011
These fluffy rice flour pancakes, stuffed with shrimp and herbs, are a specialty of Vietnam's west coast.
Make them as a starter or part of a multi-dish feast, and get your guests to do their own stuffing... read more...
Food crawl with fellow foodies? - 26 Oct 2011
Care to sample some of the wares of neighborhood restaurants with like-minded food curious? Take a note of Dishcrawl DC, a venture already established in several cities. It's launching in DC on November 8th with a trawl of Penn Quarter restaurants. Pay $39 and you get a taste of four of them. read more...
Eden Center unscrambled - one of my favorite markets - 26 Oct 2011
If you want a trip to Vietnam without leaving the area, head out to the Eden Center on Wilson Boulevard at Seven Corners, just before Route 50 and Route 7 intersect. You won't hear English spoken. The music blaring from the outdoor speakers comes from a local Vietnamese radio station. It's packed with Vietnamese tailors, jewelers, video stores, Chinese medicine practitioners and more. This is the list of food-related outlets, to eat at or to buy ingredients for your home-cooked Vietnamese feast. read more...
Tortilla Española - 7 Oct 2011
From the Taberna del Alabardero, this recipe for Tortilla Española makes a classic Spanish tapas dish, perfect for a festive fall lunch, that feeds 15 with very little trouble. read more...
Colonics versus calories - you choose! - 7 Oct 2011
These photos may help you decide which diet works best... read more...
Oriental products explained - 7 Oct 2011
Without a working knowledge of Chinese, most of the treasures in a Chinese or Asian supermarket will remain out of reach, on the shelves. Here's a phonetic translation so you can ask what's what. read more...
Can you drink your 5-a day? - 10 Sep 2011
Obviously you're not going to be tossing those onions in your blender. It's more likely to be something you've heard is keeping Gwynneth Paltrow the fragrant female she is. Or Simon Cowell such a picture of bonhomie. Such as chokeberries. Or acerola. (Acer what?)
But can you really get your daily fruit-and-veg nutrition from a glass? read more...
Orange Almond Cake - 10 Sep 2011
Not only is this a really simple, elegant cake to make, but it is gluten free. It's a Sephardic recipe, from Claudia Roden's classic, 'A Book of Middle Eastern Food'. In the summer, serve it with a few berries. In the fall and winter with dried fruits plumped up and stewed in a little whisky-flavored tea. read more...
Kitchen tricks: how to peel an egg - 11 Aug 2011
This handy tip comes from eatWashingtonian Christina, learned, she says on a trip to Maine. read more...
Chocolate play-doh - oh yes! - 10 Aug 2011
The web site says this is suitable for 3 to 7 year-olds. Wrong. It's Chocolate Play Doh. read more...
Chew On This: Obesity causes cancer - 10 Aug 2011
There's not much that doesn't seem to have the possibility of causing cancer. Now obesity joins the list of triggers. read more...
Kitchen tricks: barbecue grill cleaning - 10 Aug 2011
Have you just lifted the lid on your kettle barbecue, tray of burgers in the other hand, and discovered a scuzzy grill uncleaned from your previous cook-out?
Here's a brilliant clean-up tip from eatWashingtonian Kate Walker. read more...
Hot sauce - 8 Aug 2011
Even some gourmet diners are prepared to wreck their taste buds with lashings of hot sauce. It's addictive. read more...
Barbecuing - do you smoke? - 8 Aug 2011
Barbecue is not just a grilling technique, it's a whole philosophy. (And, some women might say, an excuse for men to get out of cooking at any other time of year.) read more...
José Andrés cooks paella on a barbecue - 8 Aug 2011
José Andrés makes paella on his barbecue grill. Okay, so he's a multi-restaurant owner and chef. But he thinks you can do it too. Here is a front row seat at his home-based demonstration. read more...
Chilies - the hot stuff - 8 Aug 2011
Chilies are addictive. Hillary Clinton apparently had hot sauce added to her food at the White House, while NPR political analyst Cokie Roberts is said to travel with a bottle in her purse. read more...
Chew On This: The mac-and-cheese boredom diet - 19 Jul 2011
In a new study, women both obese and non-obese were given macaroni and cheese to eat every day. They lost around 100 calories daily. When they were served other meals, with macaroni and cheese only once a week, everyone's calorie intake rose, by roughly 30 calories a day.
Let's hear it for the daily mac-and-cheese diet! read more...
World's best lollipop - or worst? - 18 Jul 2011
Vegetarian buddies and friends who keep Kosher have told me the one food they're really tempted by is bacon. So here it is, bacon in V- and K-friendly form. The bacon pop. On a stick. As candy.
And that's not all they've got to offer... read more...
Bread-making with natural yeast - 10 Jul 2011
eatWashingtonian Zora Margolis has winkled out of Bethesda home bread-baker Peter Helffrich his recipe for making his own 'wild' yeast. Read her feature in Flavor magazine then bake his no-knead loaf. read more...
Love Cake from Sri Lanka - 10 Jul 2011
My Supper Club's assignment last month was a Sri Lankan feast. My assignment, the dessert. Love Cake is a legacy of the Portuguese, when they occupied the island they called Ceylon. read more...
More kitchen tricks - 10 Jul 2011
Chefs have tricks up their sleeves which the home cook can benefit from. read more...
Beyond basic barbecue - 10 Jul 2011
Don't limit yourself to burgers for this summer's grilling. There's a broad range of beef cuts that may be unfamiliar but shouldn't be ignored. read more...
Chef Peter Smith is on the gin - 3 Jul 2011
The lunch shift is over and chef Peter Smith, owner of PS 7’s restaurant is surrounded by gin. No, he’s not relaxing over a drink. The gin is in bowls in an pre-formed state. It’s the mash, a mix of herbs and berries and peels and roots that Smith has worked out how to use in his food as flavorings. read more...
Beggars' Chicken - 30 Jun 2011
With its delicious stuffing, this Shanghai specialty is not a difficult dish and a good one for dinner parties. It holds well if you're not quite sure when the guests will come. Ingredients are readily available at Asian supermarkets. read more...
On The Road: Shanghai cuisine - 30 Jun 2011
Just back from a food trip to Shanghai. Here, to save you the 16-hour flight, is an armchair primer.
Strictly speaking, there is these days no specific Shanghai cuisine. Known among the Chinese as Hu Cai, Shanghai cuisine is the youngest of the major Chinese cuisines, going back a mere 400 years. read more...
Shanghai Soup Dumplings - 30 Jun 2011
You may never make these (though it's more about labor than absolute skill so it's well worth trying). Just read through and admire the effort others go to, to make them for you.
What produces the soup surprise that squirts into your mouth as you bite are tiny lumps of jellied soup that turn back into liquid as you steam-cook the dumplings. read more...
Shanghai tang - 30 Jun 2011
I would write about the food of Shanghai, where I've just been. But what's in the forefront of my memory is the lavatory. And I don't mean hand-basin.
I have witnessed the loo of the future. And it made me scream. Here's the low down, so to speak. (Then I'll tell you about the food...) read more...
Read my story on DC dining in new magazine - 22 Jun 2011
You don't think George Bush Snr is the father of modern DC dining? Read my story in the premiere issue of Dining Out DC magazine. read more...
Mango Chutney - 22 Jun 2011
It's worth making your own - it will have a freshness, a tartness at the edge of its sweetness you won't find in a jar. And mango chutney is so good not just with Indian food but with any grilled meat. read more...
The celebrity baby food diet! - 22 Jun 2011
Jennifer Aniston, Lady Gaga and Reese Witherspoon are among other celebrities eating baby foods to lose weight. Completely whacked?
Ex-Madonna trainer Tracy Anderson invented this diet that requires her celebrity clientele to gum down little slurps of the nutritional drool 14 times a day, followed by a proper grown up dinner. It gives a whole new twist to the diet edict “Eat little and often.” read more...
Chew On This: Industry urged to fight processed food misconceptions - 22 Jun 2011
It looks like the food experts are changing their tack. Last week Chew On This covered food scientists being urged to educate consumers.
Now a University of Massachusetts professor says if health professionals and government bodies spent more time improving the foods Americans actually want to eat instead of beating their brains out trying to persuade them to change their eating habits, there might be a better chance of tackling obesity. read more...
Mango skin allergy alert! - 21 Jun 2011
This warning comes from eatWashingtonian Susan, whose eyes became red and swollen. The allergist identified mango skin as the cause. She'd been peeling them, then touched her eyes.
Apparently, the skin contains small amounts of the same compound that causes an allergic reaction to poison ivy. read more...
Monster ice cube trays! - 21 Jun 2011
Ever since I had the best gin-and-tonic of my life at Jose Andres' house in Bethesda, I've been searching fruitlessly for the ice cube trays that produced the monster square lumps that cooled the drink. They looked impressive, and they didn't melt so fast that the G & T became diluted.
The search is now over. read more...
Montreal Steak Seasoning recipe - 19 Jun 2011
For those who've asked about Montreal Seasoning in the Greek Mini Burger recipe and can't find McCormack's Grill Mates Montreal Seasoning, here's a close replication. read more...
Drunk on watermelon - 19 Jun 2011
Jamie Oliver has a wicked way with watermelons, which goes down a treat at grown-up barbecues.
He infuses the fruity Zeppelin with vodka. ('Infuse' doesn't begin to cover it...) read more...
Frozen yogurt, home-made - 16 Jun 2011
I've become completely seduced by frozen yogurt (though not quite as seduced as I am by The Dairy Godmother's frozen custard...)
And it's amazingly easy to make yourself. read more...
Fava beans - learn to love the beans you hate - 15 Jun 2011
You've probably always hated fava beans. (Broad beans to the Brits.) I'm not a dogmatic individual, but you're so wrong. You've been loving then without knowing it for quite a while. They're those emerald green kidney shapes floating round Frank Ruta's remarkable 'Sformato' at Palena's Cafe. And featuring in practically every other good chef's dishes.
They're in every Middle East market now. So buy them and change your mind. read more...
Chew on This: Are you a member of the food lunatic fringe? Yes? Watch out! - 15 Jun 2011
Are you a member of the food ‘lunatic fringe’? According to journalist Michael Specter, this means you have swallowed wholesale objections to nanotechnology, irradiation and GM foods without any rational thinking.
If this is you, you’d better watch out. New Yorker journalist Michael Specter is gunning for you and encouraging others to do so, too. read more...
Joe Da Silva, chef of Saltwater - 15 Jun 2011
If you're vacationing on Martha's Vineyard this summer, eat at Saltwater in Vineyard Haven. Joe Da Silva is the new chef there, cooking the way he likes to eat: simply and well. read more...
Mini Greek Burgers - 15 Jun 2011
Here's a fresh take on the summer burger. The Greek element is in the mix of ground lamb with the classic beef. And the feta mousse that tops it would work well dolloped on a beet salad. read more...
A Spanish charcuterie primer - 5 Jun 2011
With charcuterie increasingly on offer on restaurant menus, and more and more often made by Washington DC chefs themselves, it's useful to have an understanding of what these dried sausages are.
Santi Zabaleta, owner of Bethesda's A & H Gourmet & Seafood Market has come up with a primer covering charcuterie traditional to Spain. read more...
Chilled Jumbo Asparagus and Shallot Remoulade made with Homemade Mayonnaise - 1 Jun 2011
Jamie Stachowski was the owner-chef of now closed Restaurant Kolumbia, and much missed. His tremendous sausages are available at the Keilbasa Factory. This recipe offers a great technique for cooking asparagus as well as a sauce that would go well with grilled beef or dolloped on a roast beef sandwich. read more...
Kosher deli on wheels launched! - 28 May 2011
Hankering for corned beef and dill pickle for your lunch? Sixth & Rye is a Kosher deli on wheels, parked on Fridays only, during lunch hours, at 600 I St NW. read more...
Chew On This: Genetically modified fish? CA's response. - 28 May 2011
While no genetically modified fish are currently on sale in the US, they may be in the future. And California, for one, is prepared to make sure you know when it happens. read more...
Palena expansion - 28 May 2011
I make no bones about it: Palena is my favorite Washington DC restaurant. And one of my two favorite in the world.
And in early summer 2011 it grew bigger, with a new expanded cafe. If you haven't been, go. read more...
Move over Twinkies, here come Tactical Sammiches - 27 May 2011
There's a new product to add to your Global Disaster Store Cupboard: the Tactical Sammich. (Sandwich, geddit?) Like the Twinkie, it has a shelf life longer than your own life. Hungry yet? read more...
eatWashingtonian Zora Margolis a winner! - 26 May 2011
If the Washington Post has decided that Zora Margolis' barbecue sauce is the winner of their competition, it must be pretty fine. After all, this eatWashingtonian makes her own masa for her Mexican feasts. Read on for her recipe. read more...
Ricciarelli - your go-to cookie - 12 May 2011
Ricciarelli, the ground almond cookies special to Siena, a gooey-er macaroon, are good cookies to have on tap year round. But in fresh berry season, they turn a simple dish of hulled strawberries into a dinner special, served alongside the berries and a dish a whipped cream. read more...
Chew On This: Just how much do foodborne bugs cost us? - 12 May 2011
Why should the government and why should we worry about foodborne bugs? I'm sure we're both concerned about our health. But this is how much bacteria in the wrong place costs us, the tax payer. Together, campylobacter ssp, salmonella, listeria monocytogenes, toxoplasma gondi and norovirus diminish the financial coffers, in the cost of illness, $14.1 billion dollars annually. read more...
The best diets ever! - 12 May 2011
Swimsuit season is looming. Oh, the dread. How to find one to disguise that muffin top? The heck with it: why not just go for the belly dancer look, bag a dazzling bikini and let it all roll out?
No? So, you're probably one among the millions who are looking for a diet that will turn you into a sylph in the next six weeks.
I have just what you need. read more...
Hearty Crab Bisque - 4 May 2011
This is the kind of dish that's perfect for al fresco parties. It's a soup/stew dish from Alcione Vinet, owner-chef of Park Cafe most of which can be prepared ahead of time. Mop up its juices with a crusty loaf of bread and serve a salad on the side. read more...
Cornucopia - one of my favorite markets - 4 May 2011
Sicilian Ibraim ("Ibo") Selmy trained as a geologist. Luckily for us, his interest was more in people and food than in rocks. So in 2003, after 15 years in Washington, the Palermo-born Italian opened Cornucopia in Bethesda, a food store and cafe to sell the specialties of his native land. "It's about people, sharing time with them." read more...
Kitchen tricks: there's more to lemons than juice - 4 May 2011
There's more to a lemon than flavor. It's a good and good-smelling household cleaner that can attack stubborn stickiness more effectively than detergent. read more...
Cooking oils unscrambled - 4 May 2011
Summer cooking means oils - for grilling, for salads. It's the time of year when we glug it over food, into sauté pans with abandon. So you better know about what not to do with it. read more...
Chew On This: Overweight at over 40? It can lead to dementia - 4 May 2011
Swedish research has discovered a direct link between being overweight or obese in middle age and senile dementia. read more...
Chocolate tart - 21 Apr 2011
Forget Easter eggs. Make this celebratory tart from Tom Power, owner-chef of Corduroy. It's an elegant and deeply chocolate dessert that will pass you off as a master patissier yet it's not hard to make. read more...
Kitchen tricks: banana skins as shoe polish - 21 Apr 2011
Did you know you can use the inside of banana skins to polish silver? Or even shoes. (I wonder what Christian Louboutin would feel about that.)
Your kitchen is full of solutions to household problems... read more...
Chew On This: Best Before labels lead to food wastage - 21 Apr 2011
'Best Before' date labels on food seem more confusing than helpful. In the US, 33 million tons of food are thrown out by households each year for fear of safety. In the UK, it's 8.3 million. And that's enough unnecessary wastage to make the UK government consider scrapping the labels entirely. read more...
Fished-to-order wild Alaska salmon - 21 Apr 2011
I've no idea what his fish is like, but I love wild salmon fisherman Traveler Terpening's story, starting with his name. And anyone who can increase and improve fresh fish supplies in Washington is worth telling you about, in my view.
Traveler and his wife Nicole Ziegler lived until recently in Alaska where Traveler was born. They've moved to DC, but will still spend their summers at their remote fishing camp, catching and flash-freezing wild chinook and sockeye salmons for sale to Washington enthusiasts. read more...
Forget the dress for That Wedding, what about the cake? - 21 Apr 2011
No, I'm not talking about your wedding, sweetie, which will be lovely. I'm talking about HRH Prince Will's to Kate, which will close down the whole UK on April 29th.
Now we know she's going to wear Alexander MacQueen. But what kind of cake will they have? Here's some possibilities... read more...
Good biscotti from bad brownies - 14 Apr 2011
Trying out my new oven, I made some really dry brownies. But all was not lost. In fact, there was a gain! read more...
Greek Easter - 14 Apr 2011
In Greece, Easter is a more important festival than Christmas. Look out for celebrations, with home-cooked food, at Washington's Greek churches and cathedral. Zaytinya is also pushing the boat out. read more...
Orange and Pistachio Cake - 14 Apr 2011
I love food writer and cook Nigel Slater. He writes like a dream and who else would recommend a sack of M & Ms as a store cupboard essential?
He writes of 'cut and come back' cakes. This is one. It covers all appetites from mid-morning coffee through to a dinner party. read more...
Chew On This: A link between ADHD and food dyes? - 14 Apr 2011
An English friend came to live in Bethesda with a small child who had suffered mildly in the UK from petit mal. After six weeks, the fits excalated and the family became frequent visitors to Children's Hospital Emergency Department. Eventually the mother isolated what she saw as the only difference between food in the US and food in the UK: artificial food colors.
An FDA committee looking into a connection between artificial food coloring and hyperactivity has just voted not to follow European warning labels on products that contain them. read more...
Yuri Gagarin's space snack - 13 Apr 2011
If you haven't tried this already, you can follow the view of earth that Yuri Gagarin experienced minute-by-minute on his breakthrough orbit 50 years ago, recreated in correct time-frame for a film now showing on You Tube.
But I can tell you what he took to eat up there. Because when I was a Foreign Correspondent in Moscow, I went on a press trip to Star City and saw it. read more...
Fondue - not fashionable, but nice - 8 Apr 2011
Fondue. Okay, I know it's the dinner that dare not speak it's name to foodies. But sometimes I crave one. Like now. With a very vinegar-y vinaigretted salad on the side... read more...
Chew On This: The best method of GM defense is attack - 8 Apr 2011
The Public Patent Foundation has filed a lawsuit against biotech seed giant Monsanto which aims to prevent it from suing farmers of non-GM crops if they should become contaminated with patented seed.
You might think Monsanto would have no case. Apparently you'd be wrong. read more...
It's no excuse, but here's why I've been off-line - 8 Apr 2011
I've been meaning to update eatWashington. But my laptop has been covered with a coating of white plaster dust that Nigella Lawson would have been proud of had it been the cream cheese frosting for her Guinness cake. I've been forced to put my cooking knives away in case I used them on my builders. Or my throat. I hope you'll forgive. And forget. Not sure I will... read more...
The best pesto - 8 Apr 2011
It may be a little premature to give a recipe for pesto. But we need a taste of warmer weather. And supermarkets sell basil year round.
It's such an easy thing to make. And so easy to make badly, producing a muddy taste and muddy color, that I wanted to pass on without delay this recipe which I think makes the best pesto I've ever tasted. read more...
The most expensive cookbook ever? - 8 Apr 2011
At $625, is Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking the must-have cookbook the publishers would like you to suppose it must be? It's certainly a must-have to a good number of people because it's temporarily out of stock on Amazon.
And you thought we were in a recession... read more...
Pork pig out - 8 Apr 2011
I can sometimes surprise myself with a desparate pork craving. I never have one for lamb or beef.
I'm exceptionally distressed that pork roasts in the US aren't sold with skin to make crackling unless you go to one of DC's excellent-but-few-and-far-between proper butchers. But even if they won't get 'scratchings', similar thinkers can stuff themselves with organic pork from Maryland's Dorsey Farms on Saturday 16 April. read more...
Let's hear it for the fava bean - 25 Mar 2011
You know them as fava beans. I know them as broad beans. They're my favorite vegetable. So I want to persuade you to give them another chance. You can treat them so many ways one just has to be the one for you... read more...
Starters: Stuffed grape leaves and artichoke hearts - 25 Mar 2011
When the weather warms and it's open season on open parties, look to the Middle East for dishes that can be prepared in advance and eaten with fingers. Here are two stuffed appetizers from Turkish Armenia. read more...
Kola nuts - they're the real thing - 23 Mar 2011
No need to do the 'spring cleaning'. For a blast of fresh wind, go and chew a kola nut. Kola nuts are 'the real thing.' read more...
Farmers' markets opening up again - 18 Mar 2011
Farmers' markets are beginning to open again. Mark down 10 April, and every Sunday till 20 November thereafter, for Bethesda Central Farm Market. read more...
Banana - the punctuation fruit - 18 Mar 2011
The banana, that sunny comma, is the most consumed fruit in the US. In 1979, 21 pounds per head per year were eaten. By 2000, the figure was 28.4 pounds. It's still rising.
So what do you know about this popular fruit? Like, how many varieties are there? More than 200. How many species? 67. And how to turn it into one of the fastest, most delicious and most frigteningly ugly dessert without using any cooking utensils at all...
Here's some nuggets you can bandy about till fresh berries come into season. read more...
A cappuccino in, with a food truck, please - 18 Mar 2011
Do you ever sit nursing a latte in a coffeeshop starving hungry but not wanting something sweet? Chinatown Coffee Co. has a solution. Their happy hour association with food trucks from last fall is back on Thursdays between 6.30 and 8.30, from March 31. read more...
Chew On This: 42-day old hamburger patties suit you? - 18 Mar 2011
A web site I keep an eye on that covers the industrial production side of the food business gives their features some focused headings this week to stimulate the appetite of the food manufacturer. See if this one stimulates yours, then check out the others.
"Edible coatings boost meat shelf life by up to 50 per cent." read more...
Fingerling potatoes unscrambled - 15 Mar 2011
An eatWashingtonian has asked for a guide to fingerling potatoes. So here it is, as far as I can help: what I've found locally, and which ones you might be able to order from a seed catalog and grow in a bucket or the garden. read more...
Guinness on tap - 14 Mar 2011
Ten years ago, you'd have been hard pressed to find Guinness on tap. Now you can get it at pretty much any downtown brewhouse. But this week, sup it at one of the area's Irish pubs. read more...
Potatoes - an Irishman's delight - 14 Mar 2011
Potatoes get such a bad rap. But they're one of the world's most versatile and nutritious ingredients. Here are some spud, tatty and tater facts. read more...
Apricot-filled donuts and a food blog... - 14 Mar 2011
New eatWashingtonian Kate Schindler, craving the apricot-filled doughnuts (krapfen) she'd discovered on a semester in Salzburg, Austria, has found a fource for them. read more...
Chew On This: Why does salt make sugar sweeter? - 14 Mar 2011
There's a reaason beyond fashion why those salted caramels, that salted chocolate pot, taste so good. read more...
Colcannon - 14 Mar 2011
There are two times a year when Colcannon is an essential dish in Ireland. The first is St Patrick's Day.
You may not want to know the second. It's Hallowe'en. Then charms are hidden in the potato and green onion mash. If an unmarried girl finds one, she shoves some Colcannon and the charm into a sock and hangs it on the front door handle. The first single man to come into the house is their intended. Personally, I'd imagine any swain who found mashed potato hanging in a sock from a front door would run a mile from a prospective wife who'd do such a thing. But there's the Irish for you... read more...
A proper Irish breakfast - 14 Mar 2011
Irish breakfasts are called 'Fries'. Bangers and rashers (sausages and bacon), eggs, black pudding, tomatoes, mushrooms and thick slices of soda bread (fadge potato bread if you're in Ulster). They're all fried up in bacon fat.
For authenticity you'll need the black pudding. It's a taste worth acquiring if you don't already have it. But where to find it? read more...
Soda bread - 14 Mar 2011
I know I gave this recipe recently. But now's the week for Irish Soda Bread. It's the world's easiest, fastest loaf to make - no proving, no hanging about. Bought from local bakeries it's often (wrongly) a yeast-based confection of sweet dough studded with raisins. Here is EatWashingtonian Elisabeth Nicholson's authentic recipe, from the Tyrone Guthrie artsplace in Co. Monaghan, which she says is "DEAD easy". read more...
Falafel - DC's best - 2 Mar 2011
Ground and fried chickpeas molded with spices into a mini Zeppelin and fried may not sound like much to celebrate. But pushed into a warmed pitta along with shredded lettuce, fine slices of tomato, onion and maybe some turnip pickle then drizzled with tahini or a garlic-yogurt sauce, it becomes heaven. DC boasts a number of good places to find it. read more...
Pancakes my way - 2 Mar 2011
It's Mardi Gras next Tuesday. Pancake Day! Me, I prefer Crèpes to pancakes. They're lighter, so seductive rather than sensible. And you really don't need a recipe. But here is a relaxed one... read more...
Chew On This: Are THEY being served? - 2 Mar 2011
When you've finished studying your menu, study your waiter. Could he or she be one of the waitstaff in Washington DC restaurants working to serve you on $2.13 an hour? read more...
Greek & Middle East markets - 2 Mar 2011
There are probably more specifically Greece-focused markets in Baltimore than in Washington. But Middle East groceries generally stock a wide range of Greek products. read more...
Halah butchers - 17 Feb 2011
You won't have to travel too far to find a good Halal butcher in the area. Some chefs reckon that a Halal chicken will produce a much more tender roast than a regular chicken. read more...
Chew On This: Slowing down staling process with chemicals - 17 Feb 2011
As a person who likes food, the word 'nutraceutical' can make me wince. When it's throw together with the phrase 'to meet customer demand' I tend to snort.
So guess what the big food-chemical boys think we want doing to our bread. read more...
Best choccy bickies (English for 'cookies') - 17 Feb 2011
I was raised on these cookies. Or 'bickies' (short for biscuits), according to my Mom who made them. Nigella Lawson may think they come from one Granny Boyd, whose recipe she gives in How To Be A Domestic Goddess. But these don't. They have far more chocolate and are so much better. read more...
Two unusual food events - 17 Feb 2011
Two very different dining events are coming up: one, a month-long festival of Indian food at the Kennedy Center, the other, a 6-weeks arts-related Supper Club run by Bryon Brown of Artisa Kitchen in a specially built geodisic dome. read more...
The Butcher's Block by Robert Weidmaier - one of my favorite markets - 10 Feb 2011
Robert Weidmaier's favorite pantry supplies are all on sale at his Butcher's Block in Alexandria. Even better, Weidmaier, owner and chef of Marcel's, Brasserie Beck and now Brabo and The Tasting Room next door to Butcher's Block, A Market, has filled his meat counter with a splendid selection, from an exceptional pork belly to veal cheeks and the more familiar cuts of beef. read more...
Bread flour unscrambled - 10 Feb 2011
Which flour bakes the best bread? First, know that a grain of wheat has three parts: the endosperm which is the central source of the starch, accounting for 85 percent of the grain. Next to it lies the germ, accounting for only 2 percent. But it's the most positive element. It's the 'seed' that grows new wheat plants and it contains most of the whole grain's protein, vitamins and oil. Plus, pretty much all the flavor lies in the germ. Both of these are covered by the protective outer layer of bran. read more...
Chew On This: Being taken for food fools - 10 Feb 2011
Hershey is claiming that chocolate is the new super fruit. Nutella has been cited in a class action lawsuit for not being a healthy breakfast alternative.
Are we really so dumb? read more...
Stop eating farmed salmon! - 10 Feb 2011
Peer closely at the photo. Those bubbles aren't kelp. They're lice. Sticking to the flesh of wild salmon. Salmon farming, promoted in the name of sustainability, is killing fish. read more...
News to chew on for charcuterie lovers - 10 Feb 2011
I'm almost happiest, eating out, sitting at a bar counter with a glass or three of good wine in front of a plank of charcuterie. It was one of the things I missed about Europe when I first arrived in the capital. Not just the word but the concept drew blank stares.
Now, though, some area chefs have become specialists in making their own, Robert Weland at Poste for one. For others, read Zora Margolis' excellent article in Flavor Magazine read more...
Chinese sausages - 4 Feb 2011
Lap cheung - Chinese sausages - are worth having a packet of in the refrigerator. They are cured, not unlike a salami. So they will keep. read more...
You can't always get what you want. Why not? - 4 Feb 2011
I play a game at DC supermarket butchers when I get back from Europe. "I'd like a rabbit," I begin. I know he won't have any. I move down through a list: "Pheasant?" Nah. "Partridge?" Nup. "Grouse?" "Any bird other than chicken?" No. "Ground lamb?" "Oxtail?" You get the picture.
My options from the generous display? Various steaks, pork or lamb chops free of fat, and skinless chicken breasts.
We're being deprived of good meat. read more...
Chew On This: Industry, not public. benefits from new food guidelines - 4 Feb 2011
Marion Nestle is disappointed in the new Dietary Guidelines for Americans just published. She's the highly respected Professor in the department of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University and author of, among many others, Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health.
It's the politics that trouble her. "If you are going to do what is right for the public here, you are going to offend the food industry." read more...
Roast Saddle of Rabbit - 4 Feb 2011
This is the Year of the Rabbit. Go to a decent butcher and order some saddle to make this celebratory dish. read more...
All-you-can-breathe buffets the latest madness - 28 Jan 2011
Half the world doesn't have enough food. For the other half that is rich enough to feel guilty about the amount it does have comes food-flavored air. read more...
Vegan pizza? Si! - 26 Jan 2011
Did you know there's a designated 'Vegan Pizza Day'? It's January 29. But if you call the participating restaurants listed, you may find they have vegan pizzas on their menus the rest of the year, too.
Of course, there's always the cheese-free combination at your own favorite pizza place... read more...
Lola's Bakery & Cafe - 26 Jan 2011
This small café gets a mention so those homesick or nostalgic for Argentinian food can find a refuge. It makes its hot chocolate with real chocolate. Which goes well with its Argentinian pastries and desserts like churros and Dulce de Leche. read more...
Asian Marinade Hickory Grilled New York Strip - 26 Jan 2011
Here's a quick-cooked dish that gives an Asian twist to a marinade for grilled beef. The recipe came from Phet Schwader when he was chef de cuisine at BLT Steak and brings a fresh zing to taste buds that can feel a bit flat at this time of year. read more...
Chew On This: Unhealthy food ads still directed at kids - 26 Jan 2011
17 major food companies signed on when the Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative took a stand on restricting advertising unhealthy foods to children. Food ads directed at them had to meet either what the government or the American Heart Association defined as 'healthy'.
Guess what. A survey now shows that of 58 products made by some of those companies, 49 don't meet the standards. Surprised? read more...
Grow a garden on a plate - 25 Jan 2011
I have a weak spot for egg 'n cress sandwiches. And easy gardening. The two go together. Mustard and cress seeds, in mixed or individual packages, can be grown on a kitchen towel you keep damp with a daily spray till a little green lawn has grown. Clip it with scissors and add it to an egg you've boiled, chopped and stirred into mayo. In the US, where you can't get mustard-and-cress seeds, there's an alternative. read more...
Breakfasts - a good start - 20 Jan 2011
Mom always said you should start the day with a good breakfast. You know she's right. But if you can't face a bowl of cardboard-tasting, horsestall-looking granola, the nations of the world offer other options. And take a look at this week's blog for an update on whether a big (as opposed to your Mom's idea of a 'good') breakfast is such a good idea. read more...
Chew On This: A big breakfast isn't slimming - 20 Jan 2011
The belief that eating a proper breakfast makes you eat fewer calories during day has been proved a myth. read more...
Completely mad food - 20 Jan 2011
However many cuisines we now have access to, they're just not enough to keep us entertained. Bring on the food developers and salute them! They're worried our tastebuds just aren't being stretched to their fullest potential.
Foie gras flavored gum, anyone? read more...
Winter the time for iced coffee? - 20 Jan 2011
January 20 is National Coffee Break Day. Who knew? For me, every day is Coffee Break Day. Anyway, to celebrate (encourage you to buy coffee from them), Dunkin' Donuts commissioned a survey to find out what you think about iced coffee. Here are two weird facts and two Du-uh! facts behind the figures plus an introduction to the latest size of iced coffee from Starbucks which web site HealthHabits has dubbed "a breakthrough for human obesity". read more...
A meal to kill the winter blues. And you. - 17 Jan 2011
The blogger calls it Japan's most dangerous meal. No, it's not fugu fish. But probably just as much of a threat to your digestive system. Still, this post and its photos should make you smile these dull winter days...Sounds like a meal right up "The Splendid Table"'s Michael and Jane Stern's street. read more...
David Guas - owner-pastry chef of Bayou Bakery - 13 Jan 2011
When he was young, says David Guas, pastry chef and owner of The Bayou Bakery, "A lot of people thought I had ADD." He was an outdoors boy who loved to ski, mountain bike and, yes, garden, not study as he was supposed to.
At a local food court making cheese steaks, he found he liked trying to get his customers to smile while he was making their sandwiches. "I'm not a stage person, but I like to be a little front-and-center. Behind someone? Not." He also got his first tattoo. His father saw the bandage and gave him 30 days to find somewhere else to live. read more...
The Bayou Bakery - 13 Jan 2011
Renowned pastry chef David Guas has opened his dream, a Southern pastries-desserts-and-savouries community gathering place, The Bayou Bakery. A New Orleans native, the ex-DC Coast pastry chef delivers southern hospitality, along with an array of sugar-steeped goodies like light and fluffy beignets.
But it's not all sweet. This son of a Cuban father is also making Cuban pressed sandwiches and Southern savory dishes. read more...
Chew On This: 3000+ US food-related deaths a year - 11 Jan 2011
The Centers for Disease Control reckon that foodborne illnesses affect approximately 48 million Americans, causing 180,000 hospitalizations, and 3,000 deaths annually. They suspect true figures are far higher, but most foodborne illnesses don't get reported.
On January 4, the President signed into law new legislation giving the Food and Drug Administration more powers to tackle the increasing problem of food safety, including mandatory recalls and expanded inspection authority.
But how safe is your kitchen? read more...
Fabada Asturiana - 11 Jan 2011
I make no apologies: this recipe comes direct from A & H Gourmet & Seafood Market, one of my favorites. I pass it on because it landed in my in-box the very day I was wondering what to do with some dried butter beans I had reconstituted, inspired by the photo on the right I'd taken at a tiny open market on the Spanish border. You can get all the ingredients at A & H, of course. But if you just adapt the general idea to whatever you can get hold of, it's a perfect one-course dinner for eating in miserable weather. read more...
Wheaton Mall's Bubble Tea - 11 Jan 2011
I'm a sucker for bubble tea. It's in a rarity-value class by itself for being something we consume whose ingredients have absolutely no relationship with each other. Sweet tea and pea-size tapioca beads? Ya godda be kiddin' me. It's weird. But wonderful. So it's good to see an outlet that has been so successful it's more than doubled in size. Bubble Tea Cafe in the Wheaton Mall began as a small stall run by a young couple in the middle of the concourse. Now it's evolved into a permanent space upstairs, bustling with people behind the counter. read more...
Mancini's - 11 Jan 2011
My idea of a scone is a simple, warm cloud of light dough piled high with strawberry jam and clotted cream. But those who prefer their scones studded with dried fruit swear by the scones at Mancini, the cafe bakery. read more...
Chew On This: Kitchen resolutions, 2011 - 3 Jan 2011
Simplify. We're all cutting back. In the kitchen, too. So don't spend money on the unnecessary. All you really need in a serious kitchen (apologies to kitchen supply stores) is one big sharp knife, one sharp small knife and a potato peeler. They'll do all your prep work. As for the rest of your 'batterie de cuisine', read on... read more...
Lentil Soup with Loomi - 30 Dec 2010
Black eyed peas are lucky in the US at New Year. In France and the Middle East, it's lentils. Here's a soup with an unusual ingredient that gives them a different twist.
Loomis are boiled and dried limes that are a key ingredient in many Middle East dishes. Find them at Middle East and Persian markets and use them in this deeply flavored slow-cooked soup. It should tide you over until Shemali's deli and lunch counter, famous for its lentil soup, gets back into the Giant complex on Wisconsin Ave. read more...
How to stop a New Year hangover - 30 Dec 2010
New Year hangovers? Not the best way to launch a fresh 365 days. So here are some pre-party snack suggestions that may stave one off. They're nutritionist approved, even if some do sound unlikely. Baked beans? Yup. read more...
Best gingerbread man in the world! - 18 Dec 2010
A yoga-posing gingerbread man? So of-the-zeitgeist... read more...
Chew On This: So calories can make you fat?? - 16 Dec 2010
My last blog revealed we could be eating more calories. This one reports that among those consumers who shouldn't, too many don't know what calories are. read more...
Truth in a Christmas pudding (but I want Clootie Dumpling) - 15 Dec 2010
The Christmas pudding the Queen eats is made by Matthew Walker (but I'll bet when she Christmases at Balmoral in Scotland she calls for Clootie Dumpling). The company began making them in 1899 and now sells them to 80 percent of the UK, making around 7,500 tons of pudding mix to turn into 24 million a Christmas season.
And there's more to know about this British tradition. read more...
Christmas - dreaming of a different one & where to buy the ingredients - 15 Dec 2010
"Christmas comes but once a year and when it comes it brings..." Uncle George (who'll take over the single malt whiskey if no-one stops him), Aunt Mavis (who's just decided to turn vegetarian), and all their dreadful children. It's enough to drive you crackers. (Even more so, now that Health & Safety gnomes are debating whether that banger should be removed from crackers...)
Give Christmas a new sparkle and celebrate someone else's - with Britain's Christmas crackers, Italy's Omino di Neve, Switzerland's Zimststerne, Jamaica's West Indian Black Cake and more... read more...
Festive celebrations - something different & where to buy it - 15 Dec 2010
Want to spice up your New Year festivities? Try one of the traditions from another part of the world. read more...
Slow Braised Beef Short Ribs - 15 Dec 2010
Who ever says 'No' to a comforting dish of slow-cooked beef packed with flavor falling off bones? In this in-between turkey feasts period when the weather gets colder and colder, reach for this recipe from Brian McBride, chef of The Blue Duck Tavern. read more...
Halibut with Fanny Bay Oysters, Sauternes and Blood Orange Reduction - 3 Dec 2010
The secret of this recipe from Yannick Cam, owner-chef now of Bistro Provence in Bethesda. This recipe comes from his time as owner-chef of Le Paradou. It's a festive dish for this time of year, its secret in balancing the tartness of the citrus fruits against the unctuousness of the Sauternes and the butter in the sauce, and of course serving it with fish of prime freshness. read more...
Redline - G St NW's latest venture - 3 Dec 2010
It's always interesting to see what happens next on G St NW. This time, at the old FLY Lounge it's a new concept in draw your own draft beers and gastrolounge food. read more...
Money off festive dining out? - 3 Dec 2010
I don't normally promote places I haven't eaten at. But the festive season is expensive. So if you're cutting back on dining out, here's a chance to save yourself 15 percent of a check at The Reserve. Just print out the coupon. read more...
Chew On This: More calories could be yours! - 3 Dec 2010
Here's something the FDA might want to look at. The British government thinks we’ve been getting the wrong calorie advice. A new report on nutrition to be published shortly reckons women’s intake should be increased from the current recommendation of 2000 a day to 2320 and men should go from 2500 to 2900. If that doesn’t amount to an extra burger and fries, it does mean another glass of wine. This increase is not for the already overweight. read more...
Ansonia Wines - a new corner of old France - 3 Dec 2010
Duck down off 18th Street NW and into the half basement at No. 1828 and you’ll find yourself in the old wine cellar of an ancient French castle. The retail outlet of Ansonia Wines doesn’t look like that, of course. It’s a small, modern, airy, winerack-lined room. It just smells like an ancient wine cellar. read more...
Indian casual dining the next new thing? - 24 Nov 2010
Merzi, founded by Kaz Kazmi, is about to open at 415 7th St NW, calling itself 'Indovatively Fresh'. (Yes, 'fraid so.)
Merzi isn't "thank you" in French from a local with a cold. It means “choice” in Urdu, Hindi and Punjabi. read more...
Festive no hassle party food - 24 Nov 2010
A & H Gourmet & Seafood Market has to be one of my favorite European delicatessens. Not only does it sell some of the best fish in town - freshly flown in from Spain and Portugal I think more than once a week - but it's an Aladdin's cave of Iberian specialties that will make a fussy guest who frowns on anything but home cooking happy. It's a particular godsend at the festive season. read more...
Let's Meat on the Avenue - one of my favorites - 23 Nov 2010
Let's Meat on the Avenue is always adding interesting items to its stock. If kangaroo meat tickles your fancy, here's your place. Me, I prefer veal osso buco, which here comes from free range beasts scampering about in Canada. But Steve Gatward, the butcher-owner, also stocks milk from Trickling Springs Creamery and rich Amish butter. Try him for a flavorsome and happy festive turkey. read more...
Lobster bisque - 23 Nov 2010
Jamie Leeds' recipe for Lobster bisque is worth breaking the bank for. A celebration deserves a fine dish. You can easily feed eight and if you follow with a good salad and well-chosen cheese, it's all you'll need for a feast. read more...
A happy Christmas turkey - 23 Nov 2010
If you haven't already bought your Christmas turkey, consider these facts before you do. For our guzzling pleasure, a mass-produced turkey has spent its condensed life immobilized by a breast Mae West would have envied, so top heavy it can barely walk. Killed by a cut to the throat, soaked in scaling water to make it easier for a machine to rip out their feathers, they're gutted while still hot then blast-chilled to cool them down.
Gravy with that, anyone? read more...
Amphora Bakery - one of my favorites - 11 Nov 2010
For sweeth-tooth treats, it's hard to beat Amphora Bakery for whimsically decorated cakes, cupcakes and cookies. And for delicious European patisseries, baked goods and breads of all sorts. read more...
Adobo-Spiced Duck Breast - 11 Nov 2010
When Howsoon Cham' was the owner-chef of Red Ginger and Café Tropé he used a chile spice rub packed with a Mexican-Mayan punch to give a new twist to duck breast that goes down well at this time of year. You can use it just as successfully with chicken, meat or fish and left-overs will keep in the refrigerator for up to three weeks. read more...
Chew On This: GM food or bad breath? - 11 Nov 2010
Some survey findings I love. A recent one asked 50 consumers from the European Union to identify the ingredients on food labels that stopped them buying particular products. E-numbers scored high, as might be expected. And there were objections to genetically modified foods. But unexpectedly, garlic showed up as a no-no. read more...
Nosh Notes: Casa Nonna - 11 Nov 2010
I'm always on the look-out for an Italian restaurant that I can afford to eat at regularly, serving the kind of food you get off the beaten track in rural Italy.
I've found it. read more...
Chew On This: Calorie counts don't count - 4 Nov 2010
If you're a calorie counter, supermarket products may be underestimating calorific values by as much as 25 percent.
When you understand how they're calculated you can't be surprised. read more...
Virginia-style Peanut Soup with Jalapeño and Crispy Chicken Dumplings - 4 Nov 2010
If you're not a fan of chestnut soup, try this peanut one, from Terence Feury when he was a chef in DC. It turns the humble groundnut into an elegant and unusual soup that's so simple to make. The dumplings aren't tricky either - but the soup works well without them. read more...
More cupcakes? - 4 Nov 2010
Is there such a thing as too many cupcakes? Apparently not. CRUMBS Bake Shop has opened in the capital, joining an already long list. Founded by Mia and Jason Bauer in Manhattan in 2003, it could claim to be the cupcake leader, not the follower. read more...
Sustainable fish delivered to your door - 4 Nov 2010
'i love blue sea' ships sustainably-caught fish, filletted just before it's shipped overnight to your door. Given how hard it is to buy really fresh fish widely in the DC area, this site is worth checking out. read more...
Chestnuts and chestnut stuffing - 4 Nov 2010
Whether you roast them at an open fire (remembering to stab them with the point of a knife so they don't burst) or include them in a turkey stuffing, chestnuts are a key fall and winter ingredient. Try this recipe... read more...
Chew On This: Agri-farming makes me sick - 27 Oct 2010
Now celery is toxic. Five have died from eating it. And the salmonella illnesses from tainted eggs in the recent outbreak have just topped 1,800, according to the Centers for Disease Control or Prevention (CDC).
Agri-business continues to promote industrial farming as the way to feed the world. But, increasingly, it seems to make some of the world sick. read more...
Pumpkin patches - 26 Oct 2010
Pumpkins are a focus of Hallowe'en front porches and Thanksgiving pies. But all through the fall and winter they're also good to eat as a first course, the pulp stewed in butter with onions and a grating of fresh ginger, or nutmeg, stock added and the whole cooked then whizzed into puree for soup. read more...
York Castle Tropical Ice Cream - 26 Oct 2010
This is one of my favorite spots not just for its exotic ice cream flavors. Fall is the best time of year for one of them - Pumpkin.
Owner Caroline Tay is also one of my favorite market people. Like me, she thinks Washingtonians should venture beyond the diamond for their culinary adventures. After all, her ice cream parlor is just at the top of 16th Street where it meets Georgia Avenue - a straight shot from the 7th Street NW Convention Center.
. read more...
Butternut Squash Soup with Spiced Pumpkin Seeds and Tart Apple - 26 Oct 2010
Ethan McKee, chef at Notti Bianchi and Circle One Bistro, made this recipe when at Rock Creek at Mazza. It's a rich and rounded soup, low in calories, that loses nothing of its nutrition values. It all goes to show you don't need creams and butters to add body and depth to a recipe. read more...
Baked Chocolate Sabayon - 15 Oct 2010
Corduroy on 9th Street NW is one of those restaurants chefs say they love to eat at. So if you can't get there, here is owner chef Tom Power's recipe for Baked Chocolate Sabayon which is just the ticket for fall feasting. read more...
Blood sausage - you'd really eat that? - 15 Oct 2010
Blood pudding - France's boudin, Britain's black pudding and the morcilla of Latin America - has become a favorite among area chefs. Let's hope it can outlive this unexpected status as a fashionable ingredient.
Or if you just want the plain fresh blood (Hallowe'en's coming...), I know where to buy it. Do you want to? read more...
Chew On This: Je n'y senie quoi? - 15 Oct 2010
My father reckoned to get about successfully in Europe you just spoke English very loudly and in France added an 'ay' to the end of the word, in Italy an 'oh', and in Germany you had to add 'fart'. read more...
Buffalo & Bison - 15 Oct 2010
Make your autumn stews or last warm-days grilled burgers out of a different kind of meat. Being less fatty, buffalo is a lot healthier than beef. Cook it slowly in a heavy red wine, a handful of crushed juniper berries and root vegetables, and you can almost pretend you're eating venison. And pretend you bagged it yourself...after all, it is hunting season. read more...
The best of the area's markets - 12 Oct 2010
Here's my personal directory of the best of the area's markets, bakeries, supermarkets, and other food sources, listed under type and nationality and linked to a full article.
Of course, there are hundreds more around the capital. But these are the ones I believe worth a mention. If you have any favorites you'd like to see included or reviewed, email me. read more...
Chew On This: Corn Syrup seeks new name - 1 Oct 2010
Like the rose, High Fructose Corn Syrup by any other name is still HFCS. But the Corn Refiners Association hope not. They've applied to the FDA to change the name of this sweetener often associated with obesity to 'corn sugar'. Explains Association president Audrae Erickson, it's all about clarity. read more...
Filipino markets & finds - 8 Sep 2010
There are wonderful, unfamiliar to many, goodies to discover at Filipino markets. read more...
Pan Dulce - 8 Sep 2010
Katsuya Fukushima, of Jose Andres' minibar and Café Atlántico, takes classic French toast and by changing the bread to brioche, putting Chihuahua cheese from Latino markets between the slices and adding cinnamon to the egg custard, gives it a Latin American twist. read more...
Vegetarian food event! - 8 Sep 2010
Vegetarian or not, head to University Yard at George Washington University (2000 block of H St, NW) on September 11 for free food! It's the DC VegFest, celebrating the best of everything vegetarian in and around the nation’s capital. read more...
Papaya and lime - natural partners - 1 Sep 2010
I know they look beautiful, but I always thought papaya tasted like vomit. Until I was told to eat it with a squeeze of lime juice. read more...
Chew On This: The FDA - eggs on its face - 1 Sep 2010
Around 550 million eggs have been recalled because of a nationwide outbreak of salmonella enteriditis. That's about the population of Denmark. Or the official tally of goats there are in the entire world. 380 million of these eggs came from Iowa-based company Wright County Egg alone.
Water used to wash eggs has been found to be contaminated with a salmonella DNA fingerprint isolate matching the outbreak strain. Oh, and at Hillandale Farms, “Outside access doors to manure pits were pushed out with the weight of manure, which was piled in some cases four to eight feet high”, “live and dead maggots too numerous to count” and “unsealed rodent holes”, according to the FDA. read more...
Hey, mixologists! An organic whisky's coming! - 1 Sep 2010
Want to be first with the latest? If you're fast with your order, you'll be able to pour (and drink) a whisky the way it was originally supposed to be. A Scottish distillery is launching 500 cases of a ten-year old single malt that's organic. Slainte!*
* 'Cheers' in Gaelic, pronounced 'slanshah' read more...
Two women to watch - 26 Aug 2010
There are culinary people whose careers are worth keeping an eye on. On my list of foodies to follow is Janet Cam, one of the restaurant world's really good general managers - warm but professional, with a great wine palate to boot. And she's about to be back on the floor of a new Washington restaurant in whose kitchen you'll find Roberto Donna's once right-hand/left-hand executive chef, Amy Brandwein. read more...
Monster ice cubes - 26 Aug 2010
Ever since I had the best gin and tonic of my life at Jose Andres' house (no, I'm not ashamed of name-dropping), I've been trying to replicate it. I found the gin - Hendricks. The smashed mint leaves? Easy. So, too, the crushed juniper berries. It was the monster ice cubes that eluded me.
No more. read more...
Jelly - the jewel-like vogue dessert - 26 Aug 2010
Home-made jellies with an intensity of flavor bear no relation to those rubbery just-add-boiling-water cubes in the supermarket packets. They're a wonderful way to use summer fruits, so experiment. In winter, make them with oranges. read more...
Jelly - the new old dessert - 26 Aug 2010
You call it Jell-O, I call it Jelly. It's that US/British pronunciation difference again. Whatever your preference, mine is for that wibbly wobbly dessert that has come roaring back into fashion, led by kitchen alchemists like Heston Blumenthal distilling intense flavors into a translucent confection.
So what makes them gel? read more...
Wagshal's Delicatessen - 26 Aug 2010
If you don't know about Wagshal's meat department and Pam Ginsberg, its wonderful butcher who can get you anything, then you're missing an important source. But Wagshal's deli a few doors down is a worth a visit not just for its supplies but because it's a step back into the 1950s. read more...
Supermarkets bring the farm in - 26 Aug 2010
Matt Fuchs emailed me about a story on his blog Fuchs Foodie on supermarkets bringing the farm onto the lot outside. It's a great idea that will benefit shoppers if it spreads. read more...
Chew On This: The water diet! - 26 Aug 2010
Drink two glasses of water three times a day before meals and you could lose around 5 pounds, says a US study. That was our cheap dieting trick in high school and it didn't take a study to discover it. Still, I suppose it's nice to know it's official.
It's more sensible than the conclusion in The American Journal of Cardiology that if you were served a statin with your cheeseburger and fries, you'd neutralize the detrimental effects of the junk food. read more...
Gluten - what is it? - 18 Aug 2010
Gluten is the natural protein surrounding kernels of wheat, barley, rye and oats. It's what makes a dough stretch. And what makes some people intolerant of anything made with regular flour. read more...
Chestnut flour products for the gluten intolerant - 18 Aug 2010
Chestnut flour has traditionally been used in the pasta of the Liguria for which pesto is the classic accompaniment. Both chestnut trees and basil grow prolifically in the broad stretch of coast around Genoa.
Now Turkish scientists have found that chestnut flour makes the most nutritious flour that is gluten free. read more...
Chew On This: Eat dark chocolate twice a week! - 18 Aug 2010
Latest on the chocolate-is-good-for-you story: a US study of women between 48 and 83 has found that those eating two 19 to 30 gram servings of dark chocolate once or twice a week cut the risk of developing heart failure by a third. But those who ate it every day didn't benefit.
Don't get too excited - 19 to 30 grams is 3/4 of an ounce to 1 ounce. Still... read more...
Pea Vichyssoise - 18 Aug 2010
King Louis XV of France, being convinced that someone was trying to poison his food, accidentally invented Vichyssoise. Apparently, he made his servants taste everything before he ate it and his favorite hot leek-and-potato soup eventually arrived at his place setting, cold.
Nonsense. It was invented in New York, in 1917.
Try this contemporary version with peas. read more...
Milk versus spinach - which has more calcium? - 18 Aug 2010
Milk is stuffed with calcium. So is spinach. You hate both. Or love both...But which delivers the most calcium? read more...
sub * urban trading co. - 18 Aug 2010
Finding proper milk in DC isn't easy. But you can at this new market. It's a mom-and-son store, just opened in June. But it's a far from run-of-the-mill grocery. Mom is Alison Cavallaro, a baker, and son is Andre Cavallaro who was a chef at Addie's on the Rockville Pike. So expect plenty of freshly cooked food and originality.
Among the good stuff, look for heirloom vegetables and a thoughtful selection of meat, along with - naturally - some great baked goods. And real milk. read more...
Loomi - what is it? - 11 Aug 2010
A loomi is a key ingredient in Persian and Middle East cooking. Some soups or stews - particularly Lebanese and Egyptian lentil soup - would be diminished without it. It's the loomi that gives them their sour flavor. read more...
Thai Chicken Basil with Fried Egg - 11 Aug 2010
Aulie Bunyarataphan, owner-chef of Bangkok Joe's, makes this recipe that's the perfect example of how speedily a Thai dish can be brought to the table. The bulk of the time involved likes in assembling the ingredients for a quick stir fry that preserves flavor and contrast of textures. read more...
Cabbages & Condoms - no, not naughty. - 11 Aug 2010
Traveling in Bangkok, I found this restaurant whose name gives you a whole lot more to talk about when you get home than just the food. Read all about it in my latest story for Dine and Cook. read more...
Pizza - how many calories in your favorite pie? - 11 Aug 2010
When you order a pizza, it's hard to resist wolfing down the whole thing. But a 4-ounce slice may contain more calories than you realize. So know the score when you choose your pizza topping. From Margherita to Pepperoni, here's what they deliver. read more...
Figs Fine Foods - 11 Aug 2010
Figs Fine Foods is more a cafe than a market but you can buy most of what you need for your own Lebanese feast right here, from the cheeses, dips and cookies to a full take out meal of home-cooked tagines, eggplant ratatouille, and a mix of salads from the buffet.
Reem Azoury is the owner of this half-basement space that's just below the sidewalk on MacArthur Boulevard in the Palisades. read more...
Chew On This: Fight flab with beer, says, er, beer group - 11 Aug 2010
Britain's Campaign for Real Ale claims that switching from wine to a pint of beer for one week will save as many calories as going for a 30-minute jog. Or, as the press reported it, "Beer can help you lose weight, says, er, beer group." (Don't you love British tabloid headlines.)
Don't let this be an excuse to rush off to a brew pub for a washboard stomach, though. It only works with moderate drinking. read more...
Oriental fruits identified - 28 Jul 2010
Oriental markets are full of unfamiliar fruits. It's a shame to pass on them because you don't know what they are. read more...
Latino menus - what's is that stuff? - 28 Jul 2010
Que? Some of the terms on Latin American menus may be confusing enough to discouraging ordering. And you'd miss a treat. read more...
Bourbon unburbled - 28 Jul 2010
What is Bourbon? A dark American whiskey originating in Bourbon County, Kentucky. And a Mint Julep? The perfect summer Bourbon cocktail. read more...
Chew On This: Will they tell us about nanotechnology? - 28 Jul 2010
Remember the broohaha over Genetically Modified food and consumer reaction to it? Perhaps you don't. In the US few seemed to bat their eyelids. But in Europe GM food is still fighting public rejection caused in large part by a belief that in its introduction to the market people weren't being properly explained the nature and implication of the genetic modification of plants.
Well, now we have the food industry wondering how to introduce us to nanotechlogy in food. At a conference last week, some players thought it might be better to introduce this science of the teeny weeny without mentioning it to anyone. read more...
Gazpacho - 28 Jul 2010
Terri Cutrino, executive chef of Cafe Atlantico's' recipe for that refreshing and pretty soup perfect for summer soup which you can prepare well ahead of sitting down to eat it. read more...
Cinnamon - what is it? - 22 Jul 2010
Popular in the West in apple desserts - but in the Middle East in meat stews, cinnamon (properly speaking, C. zeylanicum) is the bark of a small evergreen tree read more...
My favorite markets: Mom's Organic Market - 22 Jul 2010
Mrs Nash must be a mom who is very proud of her son. At 22, in 1987, Scott Nash launched a business selling organic produce with $100. That's about what you can dish out on a single shopping trip to Whole Foods. read more...
I Slept in Queen Elizabeth's Bed; or How To Cook on A Cruise Ship - 21 Jul 2010
How do five chefs cook for 50 on a ship in a Force 8 gale and a kitchen the size of a shoe closet?
Read all about it - and whether I slept in the Queen of England's bed - in my latest piece for Dine and Cook. read more...
Baskin Robbins' French Vanilla is no more! - 21 Jul 2010
It doesn't matter how inventive an ice cream company gets (consider the wacky concoctions from Jen & Berry's, as I know them). Bottom line, if you can't make a decent vanilla or a decent chocolate, then the rest of your flavors won't be much good.
So does Baskin Robbins suspect its French Vanilla is no great shakes? Because to celebrate its 65th birthday, it's taking the flavor off the market. read more...
Summer Berry Tiramisu - 21 Jul 2010
Traditional Tiramisu is SOOO '90s. (Though we still love it.) Try this summer version with berries. Such an easy, quick recipe. And it works in other seasons using frozen fruits. read more...
Chew On This: Chicken can make you fatter than red meat - 21 Jul 2010
People who eat meat gain more weight over 5 years than those who don't, a new study finds. And the meat that will make you gain the most is not red meat, not processed meat, but chicken! read more...
Rice - the long and the short of it - 21 Jul 2010
There are around 10,000 varieties of rice, though only some half dozen reach general stores. Which is best for what? Rice unraveled. read more...
KoGiBow - 21 Jul 2010
KoGiBow is not a market - it's a bakery, selling the kind of cakes that look like a 1960s prom dress, all color, frills and furbelows. I go there, though, for its lovely owners, Mr Manh Phung and his wife Mrs LeKinh Phung who have been on the corner next to the petrol station at the top of 18th St NW since 1993. And for the bubble teas and other weird and wonderful drinks. But if you want to consult about a cake for a graduation, a wedding or a celebration, here's the spot. read more...
Risotto - the grains of truth - 21 Jul 2010
You can't make risotto from any old rice. Certainly not from a Carolina short grain. That'll just make a rice pudding. If you buy the right rice, turning out a perfect risotto is not hard. read more...
Yogurt - the good stuff - 15 Jul 2010
I'm in despair over American yogurt. It seems that any old fat-free white dairy solution can be called yogurt. Do its eaters know what they're missing? read more...
Your tax $$ at work: cocaine for quails - 15 Jul 2010
The US spent $181,406 to see how cocaine enhances sex drive of Japanese quail, according to a CNSNews report. Yet even the increase in funding for the FDA falls far short of what is needed to give the agency teeth, interest groups contend. read more...
Western Market - 14 Jul 2010
It's good to have Western Market open again. I mean, it's so picturesque! But that's not the only reason to go to this out-of-time store on Western Avenue, the dividing line between Chevy Chase and DC. Primarily a small deli offshoot of a catering company based upstairs, it does great home-made soups and pastries, as well as salads and sandwiches. read more...
A whacky ambition: to cook like Cambell's and Co. - 14 Jul 2010
It may be sacrilege to say so, but I did have a moment's wonder at Julie Powell dedicating a whole year to cooking out Julia Childs. Life is surely too short. But I admired her staying power. Most cookbooks contain only a handful of recipes you actually want to tackle - though heaven forfend that I should level this criticism towards Mastering the Art of French Cookery.
Anyway, here's someone who really slackened my jaw. Meet Todd Wilbur, who spends his time to trying to recreate food made by the industrial giants. He wants to cook Krispy Kremes just like the factory. He wants to clone Big Macs, Yoo Hoo chocolate drinks, and dozens more junk foods, to taste just like the real (or unreal) McKoy. read more...
Chew On This: Which 4 of 5 weight loss pills don't work? - 14 Jul 2010
It can't come as a surprise that in a BBC survey of over-the-counter slimming pills, four out of five didn't work. Surprised? read more...
Bikini strawberry dessert - 14 Jul 2010
I call this dessert Bikini Dessert because you can still get into one after eating it. It makes the most of the strawberry flavor even if all you can buy is the radishes that are passed as strawberries in the supermarkets. read more...
Arbroath smokies seduced me away... - 14 Jul 2010
I've been remiss, I confess, over eatWashington updates, distracted by travels in Scotland. Among people visited was Iain Spink who hot-smokes haddock over a whisky barrel in the proper tradition that produces the Arbroath smokie. Definitely not to be confused with the kipper (a cold-smoked herring), the Arbroath smokie even has its own equivalent of the Appelation Controllée distinction - a PGI award, for Protected Geographical Indication label – one of only 20 PGI foods in Britain.
Read all about it and salivate... read more...
The sandwich you need when the bomb drops - 14 Jul 2010
A must for your bomb shelter provisioning! If you find it too much of a struggle to build yourself or buy a fresh sandwich, this little doozy comes in an easy-open can. And you get three flavor choices so far: peanut butter and strawberry jam, peanut butter and grape jam, and, a goffrit must-have, BBQ Chicken. You'll be thrilled to hear that Pepperoni Pizza and French Toast Candwiches are coming down the pike.
Great lunch-time picks if you like eating what looks and tastes like a baby's filled diaper. read more...
Strawberry almond crumble - 24 Jun 2010
This summer dessert takes only 20 minutes to make and 25 to cook. Cooking strawberries intensifies their flavor. So you could cook those ridiculous golf-ball sized fruits that pass for berries but uncooked taste and crunch like radishes. read more...
Desserts: Sopa de Chocolato Blanco con Compota de Frutos Rojos - 24 Jun 2010
This is one of those recipes we all hunt for: a dish, in this case a dessert, that is impressive to taste and to look at, that can be whipped up with little effort and time. It came from Santi Zabaleta, when he was chef of Taberna del Alabardero. Now you'll find his cheerful face at A & H Seafood & Gourmet in Bethesda, which he owns. read more...
Sweet corn, sweet summer - 24 Jun 2010
How lucky are Americans! How deprived the Italians, the French...Americans can gorge on all manner of fresh corn - silver and sweet, multi-yellowed and buttery. The only Italians and French to know the deliciousness of the one vegetable that brings summer on a stalk, are pigs.
Even if you're not eating it straight from the boiling pot or barbecue, you're eating corn on a daily basis. You just may not know it. read more...
Berries - ripe for picking - 24 Jun 2010
Berry picking is one of the highlights of summer, with different fruits following each other through the season, even the rare blackcurrants and gooseberries. read more...
Filter - 24 Jun 2010
Clearly not a market, but a coffee house. Still, a good coffee house in central Washington is worth its weight in beans. Washington is long on coffee shops but short on good ones. The ubiquitous Starbucks serves what my father used to crushingly refer to as GP. It stood for gnat's pee - except he used a more vulgar epithet. (It was years before I understood that this Nat was not a friend of my father's but an insect and therefore spelt with that crucial G.)
Filter has just opened. And is more a coffee bar than a coffee shop. It treats its coffee (and its teas) like wine. read more...
Chew On This: Diet products making makers a fortune. Really? - 24 Jun 2010
Fat burning and other weight management products made $7.5 billion globally last year. Yet a study has found that those people buying them haven't much of an idea about the benefits of the specific ingredient they put their faith in. And some of these seem very dubious.
Been scammed by acai berry diet claims? What do you feel about Hoodia gordonni, Citrus aurantium, Caralluma fimbriata and more. No, I can't tell you what they are - I'm not a good enough gardener. read more...
Richard Brandenburg - new chef at Cafe Atlantico - 24 Jun 2010
When I went to interview chef Richard Brandenburg for the NorthWest Current at Urbana where he was then chef, I found him so good-looking I couldn't decipher my shorthand when I got back to the office.
But there are other reasons to go check him out at Cafe Atlantico which he has just joined as Head Chef. I just have to take a deep breath to remember what they are... read more...
Pesto - 17 Jun 2010
One taste of pesto is an instant ticket to Italy. And it isn't hard to make, with no really precise amounts. It's worth making yourself because pre-packed pesto too often tastes like damp lawn clippings. read more...
Tuna ventresca - 17 Jun 2010
Tuna ventresca is the Ferrari of canned tuna to the jalopy of regular canned tuna. Good tuna is a useful summer stand by. Build a Salade Nicoise around it or team it with a can of drained cannellini beans, slices of red onion and a good glug of olive oil with a grind of black pepper for a summery meal. read more...
Chesapeake crabs - a shell shucked summer - 17 Jun 2010
The 2,300 square miles of the Chesapeake Bay make an exceptional breeding ground for fish and crabs. The purity of the bay is threatened by run off from fertilizers and industrial pollution. But it still supports some wonderful crabs. Mind you, when I was backpacking through Vietnam, I passed a fish processing plant called The Chesapeake Bay Crab Company. So who knows where the crabs you shuck this summer are coming from... read more...
Starters: Chopped Organic Chicken Livers - 17 Jun 2010
Okay. This is not the most photogenic way to present a chicken liver pate that is wonderful in summer with a crusty baguette. But make it. It's easy and delicious. Daniel Bortnick, chef of Firefly, gives this Jewish classic a contemporary twist with apple. Make it a day or two ahead to mellow the flavors. read more...
Wild Mushroom Risotto with Spring Asparagus - 2 Jun 2010
A good deal of fear surrounds the making of risotto. But as Geoffrey Tracy, owner-chef of Chef Geoff's and Lia's recipe makes clear, the prime technique to pull off this favorite dish is twelve to fourteen minutes of calm and patience. read more...
Butter - a good fat if it's good butter - 2 Jun 2010
We make such a fuss about fat. Like everything else, don't have too much of it and aim for the best. Good butter is sometimes worth paying more money for. Read "Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient, with Recipes" by Jennifer McLagan to feel better about it. read more...
Baguettes the French like - 2 Jun 2010
With grilling and picnic weather now in, a meal al fresco can be made or broken by your choice of bread. A bad baguette is almost as bad as that squish-flat-between-forefinger-and-thumb Kleenex bread. But there are some good ones around. read more...
Chinese noodles & curd identified - 2 Jun 2010
While the argument rages over whether the noodle came from China or Italy (with the balance weighing for Marco Polo bringing it back from his travels), food historians actually contend it was introduced into Europe by the Arabs of Sicily and Spain. Whatever the truth, it's worth getting to know the different Oriental noodles, their properties and best uses. read more...
Chew on This: No guaranteed buzz from coffee - 2 Jun 2010
Need a pick me up? If you drink too much coffee, you'll stop getting a buzz from caffeine. read more...
Nosh Notes - Hollywood East Cafe - 2 Jun 2010
Mother's Day was not the best for dim sum without a reservation at Hollywood East Cafe. The lobby outside in the mall was mobbed. But here's the trick for any date's that going to be packed: ask to eat at the bar. Or make a reservation. Or bring a book and stand in long line. The food is worth the wait. read more...
Whole Foods' price hikes - 2 Jun 2010
I set out to buy that wonderful Cowgirl Creamery cheese, Mt Tam, from Whole Foods on P Street. Turning it over, the sales sticker said $19.99. I was astonished. No, no mistake, said the staff behind the counter. I was sure I'd never paid that for this unctuous round patty. I'm not sure I would, however good this cheese. Later, passing through the Georgetown store, I check the price there: $9.99. Yes, that was the right price, said the cheese sales person. So which was the wrong price? read more...
Farmers' Markets - 2 Jun 2010
We reap the benefits of farmers' hard work. We can buy strawberries with flavor and scent, tomatoes that have ripened in the sun, vegetables that have grown in worm-turned soil - all these and more bring goodness and taste to our kitchens. So buy them. If you don't support the open air markets during clement weather, farmers may not be able to afford to continue their essential labors in the fields during seasons when you've most likely been lying in bed with a coffee and the Sunday papers. Seems obvious? Actually, not. read more...
Chew on This: Forgetful? Drinking too much beer - 20 May 2010
Can't remember much about last night? Carrying a beer belly? You could be a subject for dementia. read more...
Gin - which Mother's Ruin is it to be? - 20 May 2010
The best gin-and-tonic I ever had was at Jose Andres' house last spring. The ebullient chef behind Jaleo, Café Atlantico, Oyamel, Zaytinya and more made it with Hendricks, a gin from Scotland with a slight hint of cucumber in its flavor. Some bartenders see this as a pointer to add slices of cucumber peel. This is a mistake. Do as José. He crushed two mint leaves against the mound below his thumb and dropped them in, along with several lightly crushed juniper berries and some paper-thin slices of lemon. His tonic was Fever Tree.
But in a co-starring role were the ice cubes. Each glass could only take one, since it was a cube of around three inches. You can see one in the glass in my photo. The joy of this, aside from its beauty, was that it melted so slowly that the gin-and-tonic wasn't diluted. I haven't yet been able to extract from José the source of these gems but have had not a bad substitute using plastic yogurt pots cut down to size. Since you have to break them to extract the ice, my yogurt consumption has been forced to rise. read more...
Cream teas - a summer staple - 20 May 2010
The British love their afternoon tea in town. Cream teas are another passion and no tourist to Devon or Cornwall should leave without having had one. They're named for the fresh baked scones smothered in jam and a cream so yellow and thick you could hang tiles with it. The great debate between the two English counties is whether the cream or the jam goes down first.
Clotted cream, the ultra heat-treated, stiff white paste sold in glass jars here is no relation to the real McKoy which you can make yourself. read more...
Scones, the English way - 20 May 2010
Eat these scones warm from the oven. You won't recognize them: they've barely any relationship with those marginally edible rocks better suited to breaking windows sold in bakeries. read more...
Robert Weland - Chef of Poste - 20 May 2010
Chef Robert Weland makes his own charcuterie — and more — at his Penn Quarter restaurant, Poste. He grows his herbs and tomatoes in the garden beside the restaurant and he hosts a weekly Market to Market dinner, taking small groups on a tour of the Penn Quarter Farmer's Market then cooks a 5-course meal with the produce. read more...
A real tonic, this - a fizz with few calories - 20 May 2010
Gin and tonic is probably the best cocktail in the world. How often, how long in your life, do you plan regularly on knocking back Pina Coladas, Mai Tais or Sex on the Beach? A good gin-and-tonic is a clean drink, elegant and sophisticated. The PCs, MTs, SotBs are girly prom dresses. But like all cocktails it's high in calories, partly because of what the tonic brings to the drink. I'm picky about my tonics. If they're going to be so calorific, they'd better be good. So, no thanks, Canada Dry. And NEVER wreck my drink with a Slimline/Diet/Lite tonic.
Here, though, is a tonic to match the other fine tonic, Fever Tree, for flavor, with the bonus that it has 60 percent fewer calories. read more...
A salty tale - salt explained - 19 May 2010
The salt debate is hotting up again with doctors concerned about its responsibility for any number of diseases from hyper-tension to obesity calling for salt consumption to be lowered. The FDA is planning legal limits on the amount of salt allowed in processed food.
But salt is probably the single ingredient to emphasize flavor inherent in meat, fish and vegetables. Where would chefs be without it? They throw fistfuls into boiling water before cooking.
Salt is like any other 'evil' ingredient such as butter: use it in moderation. It falls loosely into two categories, the salt you can cook with and the salt you 'finish' with, sprinkling it over the cooked food. For the finishing, buy the best you can afford. If you can't try before you buy, this list might help you define what will appeal to your palate. Because no two salts are the same. read more...
The 'Social' Safeway - 19 May 2010
Post face-lift and lengthy major remodeling, there's only thing that's the same about the Safeway on Wisconsin Avenue. It's still the one that's known as 'the Social Safeway' for the well-dressed diplomats and hostesses who greet each other in the aisles as though the supermarket were a cocktail party. If you look for it online, you won't find it immediately if you click Find a Store because it won't accept Washington DC as a valid address. But that's carping.
So let me carp some more... read more...
Moorenko's Ice Cream Café - 17 May 2010
Susan Soorenko was on vacation with her two sons and stopped for some particularly good ice cream. "Mom", said the sons, "why don't you bring this back to Virginia?" Soorenko, a fitness trainer, didn't realize they meant a quart of the stuff and approached the company to ship their ice cream across the country for her to sell. When they told her it was too far and she'd have to learn how to make it herself, she took herself off to Ice Cream University. read more...
Cheese: how good for you is it? - 13 May 2010
Summer time and the cheeses are easy - to offer, to eat. With a salad or a dish of ripe tomatoes (from a farmer, please, not one of those red golf balls from the supermarket). But for those who are conscious of their waistlines, which cheese to chose? Most cheeses are good for protein and calcium. But some are higher in calories than others. Here's a list from low to high. read more...
Aji Ichiban - 13 May 2010
Aji Ichiban calls itself 'Munchies Paradise'. It's one of over 200 of a Hong Kong based snack food franchise. Craving the weird and wonderful nibbles of Asia, Ping Sun opened this one in Rockville in 2003. read more...
Tomato Soup with Goat Cheese Flan and Parmesan Sticks - 12 May 2010
This recipe from Robert Wiedmaier, owner-chef of Marcel's and The Tasting Room, is three different elements in one. The Parmesan Sticks could be made alone to serve with cocktails and the Goat Cheese Flans could also become an alternative to the more familiar grilled goat cheese served on a mixed leaf salad. read more...
Afternoon tea in town - 12 May 2010
You can get afternoon tea all over the place in Washington, for grown-ups, for children, hungry people and for serious tea drinkers. read more...
Cupcake mania? I don't get it. - 12 May 2010
Aside from Ladurée in Paris which launched beautiful, crisp yet melting, highly-colored, scented macaroons as a patisserie to cross town for, the joy of indulging desire for a cake is to linger over a case full of éclairs, japonnaises, babas, fruit tartlettes, confections of chocolate, cream and custard, before pointing at the one gateau of the moment's desire.
A cupcake bakery offers you - cupcakes. I don't get it. Okay, you can pick between flavors and toppings. But cupcake is cupcake. Besides, cupcakes are so last tea party. The next fad coming down the pike is the individual whoopie pie. You read it here first. read more...
Chew On This: Light Acai juice for a 'lite' diet? Coconut free Coconut M & Ms? - 12 May 2010
Zola Light Acai Juice has just arrived on the market. Buy it if you like that tart taste and the fact that it only contains 11grams of sugar because most of the sweetness comes from stevia. Do NOT buy it believing you'll suddenly lose weight. Read what happened to so many eatWashingtonians scammed for money over claims by unscrupulous vendors that the so-called Acai Diet can shed pounds.
M & M have succeeded in launching Coconut M & Ms without using any coconut in the flavoring. What will they think of next? read more...
Avocado - super-nutrient conveyor! - 11 May 2010
And you just thought, squished, it made a great accompaniment to Mexican food. Yes, what would guacamole be without avocados.
Spread on bread and known as midshipmen's butter, they kept sailors healthy. Yet in these health-conscious days, some people avoid them because of their fat content. (For heaven's sake - how often do they plan on eating them?)
But if you want to be sure that cholesterol is being expelled from your body without being absorbed, the avocado is your vegetable. Or rather, fruit. read more...
More super-sizing tidbits - 28 Apr 2010
A couple of researchers have turned up more gloomy facts about our eating habits:
Reviewing all seven editions since 1936 of The Joy of Cooking, Brian Wansink of Cornell University and Collin Payne of New Mexico State University found the calorie counts for one serving of 17 of the 18 recipes that have appeared in each edition, including macaroni and cheese, beef stroganoff and apple pie, have increased by 63 percent. read more...
Chew On This: Chilis - kill or cure? - 28 Apr 2010
I get blinding migraines. I can't take pills till past a certain point in the migraine's progress - I just throw up. But I can sometimes shunt a migraine into its final stretch with a glug of Sriracha sauce. That's the fiery chili garlic Asian condiment. Swallowed undiluted, it causes more pain than the migraine which limps off towards oblivion.
According to scientists at the University of Texas who've been studying chili peppers, that has to be pure hokum. All I can say is it's a good thing I'm not a mouse in their study or they'd have had to think again. read more...
Asparagus - just so much grass... - 28 Apr 2010
Asparagus, like tomatoes, are a vegetable that really should be eaten only in season and from a pick-your-own supplier. But outside France and England, there aren't too many of them. Still, when spring, it's proper season comes, make the most of it. For starters (forgive the pun), try Todd Gray's Equinox Restaurant recipe for asparagus soup. read more...
Fish: New Orleans-style Barbecue Shrimp - 28 Apr 2010
This is a dish to impress from Jeff Tunks, owner-chef of Acadiana that's not hard to prepare, and a good deal can be done ahead of time. read more...
Grilled Mediterranean Sardines with Lemon and Olive Persillade - 28 Apr 2010
Now we're moving into grilling season, try this recipe from BlackSalt. Serve them with crusty fresh bread warm from the oven. (The persillade is delicious over broiled chicken or lamb, too.) read more...
The Fishery - one of my favorites - 28 Apr 2010
It's hard to find a fishmonger in Washington DC where you can see the fish whole before it's filleted. It's a common practice in Europe where housewives gauge freshness by demanding to press the flesh, check the gills and look at the eyes of their approaching dinner before they decide to buy. So your best bet for assuring freshness is to buy fish from a source where the eating of fish is key to the culture. This is why I like The Fishery, a Korean-owned market. read more...
Sushi ingredients - 28 Apr 2010
It's hard to avoid boxes of sushi at every supermarket. But some is better than others and some boxes don't have quite the assortment you want. read more...
Beer - good for your bones - 23 Apr 2010
Beer could reduce the chances of developing osteoporosis. So say University of California researchers. Specialists on osteoporosis are treating the news cautiously, saying while they're always glad to hear of anything that might improve bone health, they don't advise anyone drinks more beer on the basis of these studies.
'Course not. That would be a recipe for disaster: drink too much of any alcohol and you'll probably fall over. And break your bones. read more...
Bittersweet Mocha Grappa Torte with Walnuts - 23 Apr 2010
Domenica Marchetti, author of Big Night In, from which this recipe is taken, says: "I can't even count the number of times that chocolate tortes have been a source of disappointment to this chocolate lover...either too liquored up, too jammy, too nutty, too dry, or too dense (giant chocolate truffle, anyone?). That's why I am so in love with this recipe; it delivers everything it promises."
So I tried it. And she's right. But the photo is of my version not her elegant one. Tidying up its overspill was a treat - I just ate the bits I sliced off for beautification... read more...
Chocolate - dark secrets - 23 Apr 2010
Think of chocolate and you think of Belgium, Switzerland, France. Or your thighs. Of course you might now think of David Edwards' Le Whif (see the article on the Home page). But if you'd prefer the real McKoy, here's all you need to know. read more...
Arrowine - 23 Apr 2010
"I'm getting blackberries, I'm getting pepper, I'm getting tarmac, I'm getting $100,000 a year to talk about wine like this"...Some eonophiles can drive you bonkers. But if you want the right wine without a pretentious sales pitch, to go with an unusual lump of artisan cheese, head to Arrowine and get them both there. read more...
Chew On This: Volcano turns global into local - 23 Apr 2010
Iceland's volcano stranded millions of flyers around the world. But it also kept exotic fruits, vegetables and produce imported from the other side of the globe out of our markets.
It's a tragedy for the farmers and particularly those in countries like Kenya that depend heavily on their fresh flower exports. But the disaster showed us that we've become so globally dependent we don't have any plan in place to keep us in food should a disaster strike long term. read more...
Chocolate pleasure with zero calories! - 23 Apr 2010
Now you can experience the pleasure of chocolate without absorbing any calories. Along with students, engineers and designers at his ArtScience Labs in Paris, Harvard professor David Edwards invented a lipstick-sized device that when you take a puff gives you all the flavor of chocolate with none of its fattening elements. read more...
Chew on This: Kids need cake - 15 Apr 2010
Just when we think we've begun to get the healthy eating message swallowed, so to speak, a new British study has found children at kindergartens should be eating more cake and less fruit. read more...
Mozzarella with the mostest - 15 Apr 2010
There's mozzarella and mozzarella. (And then there's bufala mozzarella, made in the authentic fashion of Southern Italy from buffalo milk.) read more...
Anchovies - 15 Apr 2010
One of the most unpopular fishes, anchovies are the culinary equivalent of the Wonderbra. They add body to any dish and most opponents don't even know they're there if they can't see them. read more...
Nummy nummy mushrooms - 15 Apr 2010
This recipe of Jamie Oliver's comes from food blogger Orangette. The photo is of the mushroom lady who sells at Penn Quarter farmer's market on Thursdays after 3 p.m. and at Dupont Circle on Sundays, though she doesn't man it herself. You'll find her, too, at the Arlington market. Her morels were $20 for one of those green boxes. But Morel Season is so short...Other mushrooms are less expensive. The recipe title is Orangette's own. Jamie calls it Sliced Mushrooms with Fresh Mozzarella and Thyme read more...
What the heck is this - The world's funniest letter of complaint... - 15 Apr 2010
This is a meal from a Virgin flight out of Mumbai. Read the letter of complaint to company CEO Richard Branson it provoked. read more...
Marchone - 15 Apr 2010
I wish I could tell you this is a photo of a grocery in Washington. It isn't. It's a typical food store in Italy. And Marchone's, which this isn't a picture of, isn't by any stretch one of the best Italian groceries in town. But reliable and unpretentious, it's a place to come for a few elusive ingredients. Good quality salted anchovies, for instance. read more...
Chew On This: Glee at cancer study's low results? - 8 Apr 2010
OK. So the latest study into the effect of eating your recommended five portions a day of fruit and veg has found that, contrary to the previous study, it has only 'a modest' impact on protecting against cancer. Big disappointment. But...
First of all, 'modest' covers a number of real people who having followed those guidelines have survived cancer. A small number, yes. But one which translates into individual human beings, some of who might share your first name, with likes and dislikes that may match yours. Maybe you know one of them. read more...
H Mart, Wheaton branch - 8 Apr 2010
Regular eatWashingtonians will know I love H Mart down in Merrifield. The Wheaton branch caters more to a Latino clientele than does the Asian-oriented store on Route 7. So you'll find a lesser range of noodles, for instance, and a wider selection of dried beans. But the fish counter is what I go for. read more...
Christophe Marque - Chef of Cafe du Parc - 8 Apr 2010
If the cost of the Euro is preventing you from traveling to France, get your food fix at Café du Parc. When Christophe Marque came from Paris in March 2007 to head the Cafe du Parc, the first thing he had to do, between the lunch and dinner service, was learn English. These days he's fluent - albeit with that seductive 'Franglais' accent that makes women melt - and concentrating on bringing France to Washington. read more...
Fish: Roasted Cod with Sauteed and Braised Sunchokes - 8 Apr 2010
Christophe Marque, chef of Cafe du Parc's recipe doesn't have to be limited to the winter season when sunchokes are in the markets. Substitute young potatoes for these gnarled roots and the recipe extends through the year. read more...
Pork or Duck Rillettes - 8 Apr 2010
Rillettes are a South-West-France spread of meats simmered slowly in herbs and wine then shredded and packed into preserving jars to make a rough country paté to eat with good strong bread and a munch of cornichons - those tiny French cucumber pickles that aren't suffocatingly sweet like Bread & Butter pickles. They can be made with pork, rabbit, goose or duck - or a mix of all four. Make them in quantity and pot them up in Le Parfait kilner jars or Mason jars and you'll have an instant treat for unexpected friends any time of year... read more...
'Violettes' Artichokes - 8 Apr 2010
Baby artichokes are relished across Europe and the Middle East, in countries from France where the most popular type are called 'Violettes' after the purple streaking on their leaves, to Egypt. They're pretty much ignored in the US. But you can find them in Latino, Asian and especially Middle East markets at this time of year. Cook them Middle East style, with the fresh fava beans that come into the stores at the same time... read more...
Lentils & dhals unravelled - 25 Mar 2010
We're at the point, as Michael Pollan keeps reminding us, where raising meat is becoming unsustainable and depriving the rest of the world of food. Across the Mediterranean region, through the Middle East on to India, local cooks use grains and pulses for much of their protein.
We should learn from this - they're delicious, and cheap. But which dhals are which? And which lentils, pulses and dhals are best for which dish? read more...
Fagri - 25 Mar 2010
At Kellari, Chef Antony Acinapura treats this Mediterranean pink snapper to a simple grilling, serving the fish with an oil and lemon emulsion. read more...
Dried fruits & nuts - 25 Mar 2010
In this fruitless mid-season before local strawberries and raspberries show up, when all that's on offer are bananas, oranges with the texture of Kleenex and apples you just don't want another bite out of, think about dried fruits. Soak them overnight in anything from weak tea to diluted fresh orange juice, and buy a mix of whatever catches your interest from figs and apricots to golden raisins, cranberries and dried apple slices. A bowlful makes a delicious breakfast. And sprinkled with a liquor, and a crunch of toasted walnuts, and served with creme fraiche or thick Greek yogurt, you have an easy dinner party dessert. read more...
La Salvadorenita - 25 Mar 2010
This unprepossessing supermarket with a low red tiled roof on Georgia Avenue is popular with the local Latino community for its assortment of dried fish, from a very large, split, golden-skinned creature to regular-sized fish, none of which were familiar to me and whose names the friendly owner and other customers couldn't name in English for laughing their heads off. read more...
Chew On This: The disciples' supper has been supersized. - 25 Mar 2010
The food portions in paintings of Jesus and The Last Supper have got super-sized. This is true. A Cornell University team have been spending their research funds proving this important discovery. read more...
Chew On This: How the food industry makes you fat - 17 Mar 2010
A former commissioner of the FDA who wondered why he couldn't keep weight off talked to food designers and discovered the carefully manipulated reason. Now David Kessler has written a book that demonstrates how the food industry deliberately designs foods to make us want more, more often read more...
Nosh Notes: Song Phat - 17 Mar 2010
Walk through or make your way round the back of Hung Phat Asian Market and you'll find a simple Formica table-topped restaurant serving really good Vietnamese noodle soups, dishes and grills. read more...
Lemongrass - how to grow it - 17 Mar 2010
If you are a keen cook of Thai food, consider growing your own lemongrass. It's easy and a pleasing plant to have around the kitchen. read more...
Iberico de Bellota Pork Loin baked in sea salt with sliced Spanish cured ham - 17 Mar 2010
If you're not up for a traditional lamb at Easter, here's a really easy but impressive pork dish, from Jose Andres. read more...
Huang Phat - 17 Mar 2010
If you want a one-stop treasure trove of Vietnamese, Thai and other South East Asian ingredients, this friendly supermarket packed with goodies won't disappoint. read more...
Chew On This: Not sleeping makes you fat - 10 Mar 2010
If you're under 21, your brain is still developing. Only 5 percent of high school seniors are getting eight hours' sleep a night. Less than that, grades suffer. Not enough sleep is one of the causes of young driver car crashes. That fact might not convince teenagers who believe in their own invincibility to get to bed in good time.
So tell them, sleep loss also means weight gain. read more...
Cakes - to order or make beautiful - 10 Mar 2010
Baking cake for a celebration, cupcakes for school or work? Or need someone else to do it for you? Here's all you need to keep you in cake. read more...
Apple Tarte Tatin - 10 Mar 2010
This French classic gets a contemporary make-over from Michelle Poteaux, co-owner and co-chef at Bastille. Easy to do - though perhaps not quite as beautifully as professional pastry chef Michelle has done - it's a star at any party year round. read more...
It may look like a Big Mac but it isn't. - 10 Mar 2010
You think you know junk food when you see it? Betcha you're wrong... read more...
Cerkez Salad - 2 Mar 2010
This chicken and walnut salad, from Mike Isabella, chef of Zaytinya, is not unlike Chicken Satsivi, a dish of cold chicken with walnut sauce from the Republic of Georgia. But then, take a look at the map and see how close Turkey lies to Georgia. read more...
Shiraz Grocery - 2 Mar 2010
The owner of this modest market in Rockville City Center presents himself as Marlboro Man of the Middle East. He's behind the till in a stetson, with flourishing face hair. He's got the sullen attitude of Clint Eastwood in 'The Good, The Bad and The Ugly' days down pat. Barely engaging in dialogue, he wants to know if you appreciate that the can of Sahadi Coffee you want to buy is of the powdered kind to brew in a tiny brass pot, not to be dumped in a cafetiere. If you're feeling at one with the cosmos, you might opt to construe this as considerate, not obstructive. read more...
Make your own tahini - 2 Mar 2010
This is a 15-minute exercise. All it takes is a blender, oil - vegetable or olive oil - and more sesame seeds than you'll find in a supermarket spice jar. Head to a Middle East market where they're sold in plastic bags. read more...
Olives - 2 Mar 2010
All olives begin life green. After that, it gets complicated. With so many varieties available, here's a breakdown of the most common to help you avoid the pits... read more...
Mike Isabella - Chef of Zaytinya - 2 Mar 2010
In March 2007, Mike Isabella started at Zaytinya. Just a few months later, the hip downtown mezzethes restaurant won a RAMMY award. read more...
Chew On This: Omega-3s. Are they really that magical? - 2 Mar 2010
I noticed in my supermarket freezer a box of frozen fish fingers labelled 'Rich in Omega-3s'. Which made me wonder about whether this fishy oil hasn't become another fad nutrient promising more than it can deliver. read more...
Chew on This: No link between red meat and cancer? - 17 Feb 2010
You know that assertion that too much red meat comsumption can give you bowel cancer? It's come under attack from scientists. An Oxford based study that followed 65,000 people throughout the 1990s found that vegetarians, far from being protected from bowel cancer as you might expect from non meat eaters, actually displayed a slightly higher incidence of the disease. read more...
Plaza Market - 16 Feb 2010
This Latin American market has been in Wheaton for years. Its shelves are stuffed with ingredients that, if they're not familiar, the owners are happy to explain to you and how they should be used. Some of them, like the choclo from Peru (pictured), sold dried, might inspire some different cooking adventures. read more...
Veal Cheeks - 16 Feb 2010
At Bistro Lepic, chef Simon Njiki-Nya cooks veal cheeks, a classic French slow braise he likes to pair with fresh pasta and basil. read more...
Sam Dunn of Saltwater's winning, de-chilling, chili - 16 Feb 2010
This is an 'award-winning' chili recipe says Shoestring magazine, from the Martha's Vineyard's cook-off in the 2010 Big Chili Contests. It comes from Sam Dunn, owner-chef of the island's Saltwater restaurant and native Washingtonian. The secret, he says, is to slow cook it in a crockpot.
I leave you to do the math to make it in smaller quantities. But why would you? It's perishing outside. You have enough friends...A winter wedding, perhaps...A winter banquet, maybe. And if not, arrange one and if necessary, rent the people. The recipe's worth it, and despite the lengthy list of ingredients, not lengthy in execution. read more...
Simon Njiki-Nya - chef of Bistro Lepic - 16 Feb 2010
Bistro Lepic is the kind of neighborhood restaurant Parisians are used to on every street corner. The waiter recognizes you if you come more than once. The food is honest and well-priced. And you're not pushed to gobble and go. While many Washingtonians rush to the new crop of French brasseries downtown, Bistro Lepic has been a quiet magnet on Wisconsin Avenue for the past 15 years, drawing those who know that there's more to a French menu than steak frites and mussels done six ways. read more...
Anthony Acinapura - chef of Kellari - 5 Feb 2010
As you step through the door of Kellari, squeeze your eyes tight shut. When you open them again inside the K Street restaurant, you'll be in Plaka, that warren of tiny streets below the Acropolis in Athens that tourists find so funky.
Anthony Acinapura is in the kitchen. He's not Greek. But he's spent a lot of time in the Greek islands, doing what you do almost better in Greece than anywhere else: rent open air jeeps, drive from the beaches to the wineries and tavernas and restaurants and stop over a spectacular view just as the sun is setting. read more...
Chicken Shish Taouk - 3 Feb 2010
Abdel Hash Housh, chef of Neyla's recipe for Neyla’s chicken kabobs tastes particularly good coming from the wood smoke of a barbecue but is just as delicious cooked under a really hot broiler. The marinades adapts to other meats and fish. read more...
Teff - a gluten-free grain - 3 Feb 2010
If you are gluten intolerant, one bread you can eat is injera, the Ethiopian flatbread made with flour ground from teff. This ancient and tiny grain grown in the Ethiopian highlands is gluten free. read more...
Chew On This: Cushioned running shoes - or Manolos? - 3 Feb 2010
Are you a runner with a pair of those pricey shoes that look like you're wearing an IHOP stack of pancakes? So wrong. You should be wearing your highest Manolos. read more...
Injera - what is it and how to make it? - 3 Feb 2010
Injera, like Indian parathas and naan, is not just bread. It's cutlery. It's a pan liner. It's a plate. Tear off a strip, sweep it through the stew in the common bowl and bring the food to your mouth. At least, that's what you do if you're a skilled Ethiopian. If you're me, you're one fragile step away from a dry cleaner's bill... read more...
Bread Corner - 3 Feb 2010
Danny Song is the owner of this seductive Chinese bakery in the Rockville Shopping Center. Go in at your peril. Everything, as they boast on their receipts, is baked fresh daily.
'Everything' means Portuguese egg custard tarts, plump and flaky croissants, red bean mochi, apple crisps, apple and other fruit tarts, coconut custard buns, stuffed Chinese breads and buns, and more. read more...
Abdel Hash Housh - Chef of Neyla - 3 Feb 2010
Twice a week, before coming into his restaurant, Neyla chef Abdel Hash Housh would squeeze in time for classes in English at the Washington Literary Council. read more...
Chew On This: Are we really being served? - 27 Jan 2010
Wesley Morton, this week's chef profile, was impressed by the service in London restaurants. It's an issue that Washington's European chefs jump on: the difficulty of training wait staff to the level that's the norm on continental Europe. Waiters are instructed in the US to act as the friends-for-the-evening of strangers who are paying for their services. In Europe, waiters are trained to melt into the background. Here are my personal beefs. read more...
How to truss a chicken - 27 Jan 2010
Tying up a chicken ready for roasting can turn into a game of cat's cradle with a tangle of string. But this video takes the knitting out of the process. read more...
Cork Market & Tasting Room - 27 Jan 2010
This is obviously not a picture of a DC market. But Cork Market & Tasting Room is selling one of the best Cheddars I've tasted in a long while - from Tobermory, the only town on a small island off the West Coast of Scotland. A bit of a stretch for sourcing stuff, you might think.
But this offshoot of the 14th St NW bar opened by Diane Gross and Khalid Pitts in 2008 is filled with unexpected goodies. read more...
Shepherd's pie - 27 Jan 2010
Wesley Morton's Shepherd's Pie - one of gastropub AGAINN's most popular dishes - is a good comfort food dish any time of year. read more...
Wesley Morton - chef of AGAINN - 27 Jan 2010
It's a little disconcerting for a Brit to be sitting at the bar of a bistro brasserie in Washington listening to its American chef enthuse about bangers-and-mash, cock-a-leekie, and the best kind of potato topping for a shepherd's pie. But a conversation with Wesley Morton, chef of the New York Ave NW gastropub AGAINN heads down those avenues with side trips into discussions of his favorite watering holes in London.
When he was hired to head the kitchen he and owner Mark Weiss agreed it was vital to spend time in the British capital to see what was happening in contemporary English kitchens for themselves. read more...
Caviar - heavenly pearls - 17 Jan 2010
Poaching at extreme levels along with the effects of pollution have forced a moratorium on the import of caviar from the Caspian Sea. But U.S. caviar makes a good alternative. read more...
Russian dumplings & more - 17 Jan 2010
The 'babushkas' (grandmothers) of Europe's far northern climes have long been famous for their home-cooking of sustaining, comforting dumplings, and more. read more...
Russian dairy products - 17 Jan 2010
Tvorog is a Russian cream cheese that makes a sweet alternative to mascarpone, but thicker. And to expand your dairy knowledge, look for ryazhanka and prostokvasha. read more...
Creamed Maitake Mushrooms with Edamame, Toasted Pistachios and Tarragon - 17 Jan 2010
Maitake, also known as Hen of the Woods, are one of Nature's most beautiful edible fungii. Haidar Karoum, co-owner and chef of Proof, uses them in this recipe which he serves as an appetizer. But increase the amounts and you have an elegant main course recipe for vegetarians that carnivores will envy. read more...
Chew On This: 10 healthiest ingredients you should be eating - 14 Jan 2010
How many of the following do you have in your kitchen? Beets, cabbage, Swiss chard, cinnamon, pomegranate juice, dried plums, pumpkin seeds, sardines, turmeric, frozen blueberries, canned pumpkin?
These are the ingredients identified by Jonny Bowden, nutritionist and author of 'The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth' in a post originally published on June 30, 2008 in the New York Times and one of the most-viewed stories for 2009. They're his pick of some of the most readily available foods that you should make part of your eating. read more...
Russian Gourmet - 14 Jan 2010
Four years ago, Russian Gourmet set up just off the Rockville Pike on Nicholson Lane, behind the Exxon station and in front of Barry's Magic. Perhaps Barry waved a wand in the little market's direction. Because now there are five of them. read more...
Nosh Notes: Domku Bar and Cafe - 8 Jan 2010
Fed up with diners serving burgers and steaks and hot dawgs? Looking for a change? (This recommendation is not strictly a market - though if you got your food to go it would qualify - but a suggestion for winter warming food.) Visit Kera Carpenter and she'll introduce you to a neighborhood not known for restaurants as well as an unfamiliar cuisine: Eastern European food, in...Petworth! She's the owner chef of Domku Bar and Cafe. read more...
Fil mjolk - what is it? - 7 Jan 2010
Swedish fil mjolk is a yogurt drink not unlike Russian kefir that's very good for you and not difficult to make yourself. read more...
Dumpling sauce - 30 Dec 2009
Hisao Abe, owner-chef of Kotobuki's recipe is for a dipping sauce that goes well with dumplings. read more...
Hisao Abe - Owner-chef of Kotobuki - 30 Dec 2009
Chef Hisao Abe, who owns Kotobuki on MacArthur Boulevard, learned the art of sushi-making after years of watching, sniffing, tasting. read more...
Ikura - 30 Dec 2009
The glowing bright orange 'caviar' beads used in sushi called ikura is the roe of the orange shum salmon. read more...
Soy sauces explained - 30 Dec 2009
Soy sauce, made from fermented and distilled soybeans, wheat and water, comes in more variations than contained in that squat bottle on the restaurant table next to the paper napkins. What's the difference between them? read more...
Sushi and sashimi explained - 30 Dec 2009
Confused about the difference between sushi and sashimi and the pricing of tuna? Here's an explanation. read more...
Chew on This: Food resolutions for 2010 and beyond - 30 Dec 2009
We make far too much fuss about food. If only we could approach eating like our grandparents did - as an opportunity to sit together around a table and catch up on events over home-made, fresh-cooked seasonal food, life would be a lot healthier and more pleasurable. And less expensive. read more...
Sushi do's and don'ts - 30 Dec 2009
It's not just this get-in-shape time of year that has inspired this Japanese-themed edition of eatWashington. It's also because eatWashingtonian Jerry Felp put me onto this excellent web site on how to tackle sushi without making a complete fool of yourself. read more...
Hangovers - how to eat your way out of them - 21 Dec 2009
Wow! Was that a fabulous party! Whatsisname was there – you hadn’t seen him for years. And Thingything was looking better than ever. There may have been a moment (and this makes you cringe) when you folded Whatcha-call-her, whom you really can’t stand, into a warm embrace. At least you didn’t start quoting reams of Kerouac or go through your Bette Midler impressions. You think.
Great night. But now it’s head-swelling morning, full of bongo drums and referee whistles. What can you do to ease the pain, short of burying your head back under the sheets? Hair-of-the-dog or greasy fry-up?
As Robert Benchley observed, ‘There is no cure for a hangover, save death.’ read more...
Chew On This: The French solution to obesity is - eat! - 21 Dec 2009
Trust les Froggies to come up with a sensible and appealing way to tackle obesity. Teach people to cook, the head of nutrition at the Pitie-Salpetriere Hospital in Paris, Dr Arnaud Basdevant, says. "Enjoying food, variety in food, the culture of food are the best defences against obesity." His is a wonderful visually suggestive name for the project: it means, more or less, Below In Front. read more...
Roasted Pennsylvania Pheasant Breast, Braised Red Cabbage, Maple Syrup Sweet Potato Mousse and Huckleberry Sauce - 9 Dec 2009
Peter Schaffrath, chef of the Hay Adams' Lafayette Room's recipe is a soothing but elegant cold weather dish. Though there are four separate elements, each is simple to cook. And what could be better for the festive season? read more...
Chew On This: Foie gras for PETA people - 9 Dec 2009
Are you one of those people who protest the cruelty of foie gras production? Here's your chance to indulge without hurting birds and win some money. PETA is holding a competition to produce a wholely vegetarian foie gras. The winners gets $10,000. Glad to know they value foie gras that highly. read more...
York Castle, Rockville - 3 Dec 2009
Imagine my surprise driving down the Rockville Pike to discover another York Castle, the tropical ice cream parlor, almost opposite Maxim's. And sitting behind the counter was Calver Headley, the man from whom Caroline Tay bought her Silver Spring store. read more...
Todd Wiss - owner chef of Radius - 3 Dec 2009
If you call your rescue Pit Bull terriers Barley and Hops, you're probably people with a respect for good beer. But for Todd Wiss, owner-chef with his wife Nicole of Radius in Mount Pleasant, the naming of their beloved dogs is only a small indication of their commitment to the good things in life. read more...
Mushroom and porcini paradise! - 3 Dec 2009
Eat your heart out, mushroom fanatics. These two ceps (French for porcini) were among those foraged by my friend Hannes this weekend in the woods around his house in the Dordogne. They weighed over a kilo and were worm-free even if they don't look a picture of smooth skin. Buy them from Oregon where they grow well in the States, and they'll cost at least $25 a pound. These were free. read more...
Chew On This: US food waste boosting global warming - 3 Dec 2009
Do you realize that by chucking that half finished burger into the trash you're contributing to global warming? Americans waste around 1,400 calories worth of food per person each day. That's 40 percent of the total food supply.
What's that got to do with the environment? Well, food waste accounts for 25 percent of fresh water use in the US and 300 million barrels of oil. That's around 4 percent of the country's total oil consumption. read more...
Shitake and Oyster Mushroom Ravioli - 3 Dec 2009
Todd Wiss of Radius Restaurant makes ravioli simple with this recipe for his popular pasta dish. read more...
Nosh Notes - Present Restaurant - 3 Dec 2009
The differences between eating in a restaurant serving a Western cuisine and one representing the cooking of an Asian region begin with the length of the menu. Once I've turned a couple of the - usually - laminated pages, I'm in a dither of indecision and a quiver of vacillation.
This is not a problem you'll have at Present, a Vietnamese restaurant. read more...
Chew On This - A pain-killing tea - 25 Nov 2009
If you're one of those who sniffs at the efficiency of natural painkillers, listen up. Scientists have now found that everything the Brazilians have believed for centuries about the analgesic properties of a mint tea they brew to relieve pain is entirely justified. read more...
Recipes for Thanksgiving leftovers - 25 Nov 2009
Read my contribution to the Washingtonian magazine's round-up of recipes for Thanksgiving left-overs. read more...
Starters: Zuppa di Scarola e Senape - 25 Nov 2009
This recipe for a rustic soup of bitter greens and potatoes from Dean Gold, owner-chef of Dino, is a wonderfully comforting rib-sticker for this colder time of year. read more...
How to cook prime rib - 24 Nov 2009
Jason Murphy, executive chef of BlackFinn, cooks his prime rib this salt-packed way to make it what he says is the best in town. His recipe is adapted from an Old Steamship Cookbook and works with a 3-pound or a 15-pound cut, to produce a roast that's delicious hot from the oven or sliced cold for sandwiches. read more...
Nosh Notes - Mandalay - 24 Nov 2009
You certainly don't go to Mandalay for the interior design and the intimate atmosphere. It's the kind of restaurant you might stumble into after hours of desperate driving across the mid-west, only to find yourself in a beige meeting-hall kind of space, surrounded by wrinkles and disapproval.
You go to Mandalay for the food. It's good, interesting and reasonably priced. read more...
Dean Gold - owner chef of Dino - 24 Nov 2009
Don’t expect to find food cooked 'sous vide' or any molecular gastronomy at Dino. It’s not the way Dean Gold, owner-chef of this Cleveland Park Italian restaurant, likes to eat. He prefers the honest food he eats now that the friends he's made on visits to Italy no longer try to impress him with meals at fancy restaurants.
And don't expect in Gold a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America. Gold came to his restaurant via a massive heart attack. read more...
Starters: Chestnut Soup - 18 Nov 2009
Rodney Scruggs, executive chef of The Occidental's recipe for Chestnut Soup produces an unctuous, elegant fall and winter soup that's little trouble to conjure up. What it does make is a stunning impression. read more...
Rodney Scruggs - Chef of The Occidental - 18 Nov 2009
Rodney Scruggs started as a line cook at the Occidental in 1980, when he was 17. He moved on to work with some of the area's top chefs. But after two decades away, he returned a while back to the venerable restaurant as executive chef. read more...
Kubo - 18 Nov 2009
Kubo has been at the top of Knowles Avenue in Kensington for some four years. But a year ago, Brenda and her husband Froy took over this small but friendly Filipino market. read more...
Viagra for women! Chew on That! - 18 Nov 2009
A poor sex life can make you fat, right? Those consoling Krispy Kremes? That vat of Jamoca Almond Fudge? So some of you might be thrilled to learn that an antidepressant that failed tests is being touted as "Viagra for women" after unexpected side effects. read more...
Rob Klink - Chef of Oceanaire - 11 Nov 2009
Rob Klink, executive chef and operating partner of The Oceanaire Seafood Room, would rather be fishing - but with an eye to conservation. read more...
Weekly notification of new articles? - 11 Nov 2009
I've stopped mailing these out because my own Inbox is increasingly stuffed with unsolicited emails. And I would hate you to feel about receiving eatWashington notifications the way I resent being bombarded.
But if you would like to keep receiving alerts, just let me know by email at eatwashington@gmail.com. read more...
Chew on This: It's that ol' High Fructose Corn Syrup again - 11 Nov 2009
What rats do for our health! In a new study, their 'moderate' consumption over 10 weeks of fructose-containing sweeteners may have produced 'modest but significant changes' which could contribute to the development of Metabolic Syndrome.
It's that High Fructose Corn Syrup again - you know, the stuff the HFCS people have been campaigning to promote as your friendly sweetener unfairly accused of being responsible for causing obesity and ill health. read more...
Fish: Wild Chesapeake Rockfish with Lemongrass Broth and Shiitake Mushrooms - 11 Nov 2009
You don't need to be a master chef to make this elegant dish from Rob Klink, chef of Oceanaire Seafood Room. The broth can be finished ahead of time, and with a final 10 minutes to saute the fish and mushrooms, it can star at any dinner party without driving the cook into a frenzy. read more...
Fish: Sautéed Shrimp with Cannellini Beans - 4 Nov 2009
Shrimp and cannellini beans make a surprising and successful combination in this quickly cooked recipe from Savino Recine, owner-chef of Primi Piatti, a man who believes in providing richness in taste without resorting to unhealthy dairy products. read more...
Pistachios - 4 Nov 2009
Yes, you can buy pistachios at the Giant and Safeway loose or in cellophane sacks. But if you head for a Middle Eastern market's supply, you'll be introduced to a whole new dimension in these exceptional nuts - piastachios flavored with lemon, roasted with sea salt, or spiced up with chili. read more...
Savino Recine - Owner-chef of Primi Piatti - 4 Nov 2009
Savino Recine, owner chef of Primi Piatti, doesn't just have a magical touch with Italian food. He can also magically open a bottle of wine and bend your cutlery without touching either. read more...
Filipino Home Baking & Grocery - 4 Nov 2009
Triangle Lane in Wheaton is an international food court in itself. One of the little markets tucked away is Filipino Home Baking & Grocery. It's a modest place with a very small selection of fresh produce. But it's filled with groceries essential to Filipino cooking. read more...
Quince - 4 Nov 2009
Quince season is short, so run out to a Middle Eastern market like Yekta or an Asian market like H Mart or Le Market, and pick out some of these yellow, pear-like and scented fruits to chop into a rough-on-the-tongue stewed puree or to make membrillo, the Spanish paste to eat with Manchego or Cheddar cheese, or for an exquisite translucent coral pink jelly to go with cold meats. read more...
Chew On This: Processed foods cause depression - 4 Nov 2009
If you needed any more reasons to keep off processed foods (fat content, high fructose corn syrup content, salt content, the fact they're not fresh, price...), a new study shows they may contribute to depression. read more...
Starters: Mushroom and Goat Cheese Fonduta - 21 Oct 2009
When Stephen Scott was chef at Zola, he served this Fonduta as an appetizer. But it makes a great Sunday supper for two served with a crisp green salad in front of a favorite TV movie. And if you can't get hold of every type, use what's available. read more...
Chew On This: Breast cancer from Western diet - 21 Oct 2009
You may have thought you've heard this before. But apparently it hadn't been proved: the Western diet may cause breast cancer.
It's the French who think they've come up with new evidence that what they call "Western-type" foods may be to blame. What we should stick to is a Mediterranean diet. read more...
Mushrooms - fall favorites - 21 Oct 2009
As fall arrives in Russia, Poland, Germany, Italy and France, the woods rustle with mushroom hunters. Within days of a rainfall, the undergrowth will be popping with delicious free food. Take care, though, that you know what you're picking. I read a Russian news agency report when I was a Moscow correspondent that a particular mushroom was now officially edible, so long as you boiled it once, tossed away the water, boiled it again in a fresh supply, jettisoned that, then fried it in butter. Which by my reckoning made at least three very sick testers before they found the safe formula. read more...
Bernard Grenier - Owner-chef of Bistro D'oc - 21 Oct 2009
Bernard Grenier opened Bistro D’Oc after leaving La Miche in Bethesda. Eating there is an extension of any summer holiday in France and a comfort when the cold weather sets in. read more...
Bestway - 21 Oct 2009
Bestway is a real local success story. It began in the 1970s in Washington DC to supply the growing Hispanic community with fresh produce and dried goods to keep cooks in the kind of ingredients they needed to create the dishes of back home. These days, the company has become a large independent ethnic grocery chain with several stores in the capital, in Maryland and Virginia. And it doesn't just sell traditionally Hispanic groceries. Its range of standard general foods is broad. read more...
Food & Friends' pie pieces for free! - 15 Oct 2009
Help raise money on Tuesday October 20th by eating free samples of pie! Food & Friends will be able to provide 3500 Thanksgiving meals to children and adults with HIV/AIDS, cancer and other ghastly life-changing illnesses if you're so seduced by the samples you're given by ABC7's Cynee Simpson and Caroline Lyders that you order a whole pie or cheesecake. Oh, and you can meet members of the DC City Council! Wow! What's not to like? read more...
Joe Raffa - Chef of Oyamel - 14 Oct 2009
Joe Raffa left the U.S. Government Accountability Office to become a chef. He now heads Oyamel, where he serves up to 40 grasshopper tacos a day. read more...
Fish: Quesadilla de Camaron (Shrimp Quesadillas) - 14 Oct 2009
You could make the different elements of Joe Raffa, chef of Oyamel's easily-prepared recipe ahead of time and only toast the tortillas at the last minute. It would turn it into a dish you could serve at a large party. read more...
Fish - fresh or not so fresh? - 14 Oct 2009
Once upon a time, fishmongers would cut fish to order from whole fish, so the customer could be sure, by the clarity of its eyes, the firmness of flesh and the color of its gills, of the freshness of the fish. Not any longer. Now that it's generally sold ready-filletted, you've only your nose to rely on. Use it. read more...
Mochi - a Japanese dessert - 14 Oct 2009
Mochi, a Japanese ice cream covered in dough, has developed a broad fan base. It makes for a very different dessert... read more...
Hana Japanese Market - 14 Oct 2009
While DC is lifting with sushi places, it's hard to find a grocery inside the District stocking Japanese ingredients. Hana Japanese Market is a tiny spot on the corner of 17th and U Streets under a green and white striped awning that probably constitutes the most central location in the capital for ingredients for a Japanese feast. read more...
Chew on This: Taxes on sodas tax our personal freedom? - 14 Oct 2009
I'm always astonished at the misinformation - if not downright 'pork pies' (this is Cockney rhyming slang. Clue: focus on rhyming the second word) I hear either from the Senate, from Congress or on NPR about the cost and poor quality of Britain's free National
Health Service. Opponents of the President's health care reforms might consider this: the US spends 16.2 percent of GDP annually on healthcare, around twice as much as what the NHS costs. Yet the life expectancy of the average American is lower than the average Brit. According to a UN list of length of life expectancy, the UK is ranked 21st and the US at number 38.
Opponents of the President's proposed health care reforms who cite the cost of overhauling the hugely expensive US system could easily reap a cent or two and help reduce the obesity problem that costs the system so much with one tiny move: Put that tax on sodas. read more...
Chew On This: Is High Fructose Corn Syrup really no longer a threat? - 7 Oct 2009
When I was writing a food column three times a week for United Press International, the one subject that would stir readers to block my email inbox was when I wrote about High Fructose Corn Syrup. USDA figures show the average daily consumption of calories from HFCS in the American diet has risen from 2 calories in 1970 to 205 calories in 2003. Yet the Center for Consumer Freedom has launched an ad campaign to try and turn around what it describes as "an urban myth" that HFCS is a more highly processed, less healthy ingredient than sugar. read more...
Manila Oriental - 7 Oct 2009
Close to Bailey's Crossroads is this popular Filipino market. While it's small, you'll probably find everything you need to cook up a Filipino feast, with quarts of ice cream made from purple yam, maize, baby bananas, coconut, jackfruit and more or some coconut desserts to follow.
But you can stay in for your feast. The secret treasure of the market is right at the back, a carry-out counter with a few tables read more...
Starters: Kabocha Soboroni - 6 Oct 2009
Kaz Okochi, owner-chef of Kaz Sushi Bistro, turns familiar squash into an unfamiliar Japanese food delight that makes an interesting appetizer or a side for more familiar American fish dishes or grills. read more...
Cancha - 6 Oct 2009
When you're settled down indoors, in front of the rented movies, the TV soaps, try some cancha instead of your regular bowl of popcorn. read more...
Endless Simmer picks up an eatWashington recipe! - 23 Sep 2009
Endless Simmer, a DC-based food blog, has picked up a recipe (and some info) from eatWashington! read more...
Janis McLean - Chef of The Morrison-Clark Inn - 23 Sep 2009
Janis McLean, the Morrison-Clark Inn’s executive chef, ran away from a good, steady corporate job that she’d held for seven years to cook, even though years before she had discovered that “cooking for others isn’t as easy as it looks.” read more...
Starters: Flambéed Figs with Goat Cheese and Prosciutto - 23 Sep 2009
Janis McLean, chef of The Morrison-Clark Inn, turns fresh or dried figs into an appetizer or something to pass around with cocktails that's a little out of the ordinary. read more...
Fresh figs - a great way to tackle Salman Rushdie - 23 Sep 2009
Fall is fresh fig season - one of the best fruit finales you can imagine before you're forced by lack of other choice to settle for this kind or that kind of apple (how many pomegranates can you eat in a week) until tiny clementines come in after Christmas. (Ignore any mandarines that rattled around emptily in their sock of a skin - they're flavorless) .
Figs are around 30 calories for those 1 1/2 inches in diameter and 1.4 ounces in weight. If you eat, as I have done, 15 of them in one go, I don't imagine many of those calories have time to hang about. After around 3 hours' digestion, they rush straight through you. Which makes for a series of 2 a.m. return visits to the loo. Painless, though. And a good time to tackle Salman Rushdie. read more...
Habesha Ethiopian Market - 23 Sep 2009
Habesha Ethiopian Market is one of those groceries where you can eat once you've shopped. In the heart of Little Ethiopia, it's bang opposite Etete, the popular Ethiopian restaurant. But you can eat here, in their cafe section. read more...
Chew On This: Weeds in your drink? - 23 Sep 2009
Have you noticed the high apple juice content of not inexpensive drinks like cranberry cocktails, punches and more? Well, a fruit I always thought was relatively cheap is obviously too expensive an additive for food and drink manufacturers. Sometime in the future, your fruit juice drink may no longer be flavored with apples. This wonderful fruit may be replaced for flavor by a - want to guess?
A weed. read more...
Chew on This: Wine and beer victims of global warming - 16 Sep 2009
Climate change may affect the quality of your booze. Grapes and hops are suffering from too much heat. read more...
Calamari with Spiced Mediterranean Sauce - 16 Sep 2009
This recipe from Chef Bo Palker of Vinifera Wine Bar & Bistro makes a starter or main course that's easy to execute and popular year round. You'll always find squid in Oriental markets that sell fish. read more...
Bo Palker - Chef of Vinifera - 16 Sep 2009
It wasn't enough for Bo Palker, as a teenager growing up in Vermont, to work in one kitchen. The executive chef of Vinifera Wine Bar & Bistro, studying culinary arts at a vocational school, took a job in two Burlington eateries. read more...
Melons - the new stress beaters! - 16 Sep 2009
Want to sleep better, control irritability and weariness? Eat a melon. French scientists have apparently isolated an enzyme in the fruit called superoxide dismutase stuffed with antioxidants. These are what fight damaging free radicals which as a result of a chemical process known as oxidative stress get into the body's tissues.
I've an even better stress reliever related to melons. It's called meloncello. And here's a recipe. read more...
Watch those Grande calories - 16 Sep 2009
I once calculated how much money I was spending each week popping into a Starbucks for a coffee to take to work. When I realised it was adding up to around $20 a week, I began making my own at home to bring in.
More impressive figures emerge - if you're a fan of those coffees that would not be recognizable to an Ethiopian or Nicaraguan grower of coffee beans - counting the calories in those drinks in which coffee plays a minor role. They can clock in at around 470 a Grande cup. read more...
Barbara Kafka's Crème Anglaise in 6 minutes - 9 Sep 2009
Crème Anglaise is such a seductive, soothing vanilla sauce wonderful with fall fruit tarts and cobblers, it's tempting to ignore the dessert it coats and just eat this perfect custard. Cookbook writer and regular New York Times food pages contributor Barbara Kafka has a brilliant short cut to perfect Crème Anglaise that you don't need to stand over fearfully to prevent it from curdling. It's one of two good reasons to invest in a microwave. (The other is heating milk to froth for coffee...) read more...
Apsara Gourmet Oriental Food Market - 9 Sep 2009
There's no shortage of Asia food markets round the greater Washington area. While some are distinguished by their extensive supplies, others, like Apsara, are worth tracking down if you're an Asian food novice and need advice on how to cook whatever that weird stuff over there is. read more...
Lemons - some sharp advice - 9 Sep 2009
Across the Mediterranean and Middle East at the end of summer, lemons scent the warm fall air. So if you've got lemons, what do you do: make lemonade. (You knew that...)
Whether they come from Israel or California, buy them at their best in the early fall and freeze them for winter use in vinaigrettes, tagines, roasted chickens, lemonade and more. read more...
Chew on This: Taxes on sodas don't deter kids - 9 Sep 2009
Guess what: taxes on sodas haven't had any impact on the high levels of obesity among young people. A study from the University of Chicago says so.
Probably any parent might have predicted that unless taxes on sodas went the way of taxes on cigarettes, nothing would happen to change drinking levels of adolescents. We're only talking a matter of 3 cents or so per 12-ounce can here. read more...
Kaz Okoshi - Owner-chef of Kaz Sushi Bistro - 6 Sep 2009
Once Kaz Okochi completed the fine arts course in Oklahoma he had come from Japan to the U.S. to take up, he headed home to enroll in the prestigious Tsuji Culinary Institute in Osaka. When he told its career counselor he'd like to cook in America, the counselor suggested he focus on becoming a sushi chef. read more...
Desserts: Blue Duck Tavern Apple Pie - 3 Sep 2009
You can't have enough apple pie recipes. Here's a very different one with phenomenal, though very challenging, pastry from Laurent Merdy, pastry chef of The Blue Duck Tavern. It was selected by USA Today as one of the Top 25 Best Dishes of 2006. read more...
Verjus - make your own - 2 Sep 2009
I get emailed surprisingly often about where to find Verjus, an acid French liquid used in deglazing pans that makes a great sauce to go with chicken and game. I've seen it in Wegmans, Dean & DeLuca as well as the Georgetown Whole Foods. But not regularly. Since all the word means is 'green juice', you can make a passable substitute with other ingredients than early picked green grapes. read more...
Apples - a Magnolia a day... - 2 Sep 2009
While some supermarkets are becoming a little more adventurous in their selection of apples, there are many more interesting varieties to be had than the Goldens and Granny Smiths out there. Thomas Jefferson could have told you that...
Here are some, with how they taste, and where to pick them. read more...
Chew On This: GM monoculture or biodiversity? - 2 Sep 2009
This year around 76.024 million acres of US farm land were planted with soy to produce a projected fall harvest of 3 billion bushels worth more than $27.4 billion. Corn estimates are for 12 billion bushels.
Small farmers who show up at farmers markets are simply trying to feed the neighborhood. Industrial agriculture is all about feeding the world with a range of genetically modified soy, corn and rice strains. This, we're told, is the only way to cope with the famine victims of Africa and malnourished children in parts of Asia.
Golden rice is genetically modified to contain beta-carotene in the kernel. Not enough causes half a million African children to go blind each year. Biotechnologists consider donating donate golden rice seeds to Third World farmers. What's not to like? read more...
Korean markets & bakeries - 2 Sep 2009
Korean markets provide some of the best and widest range of fresh fruit and vegetables in the greater Washington area. My favorite is the Super H-Mart in Fairfax. But there are plenty of others, large and small, where - because the Koreans who shop in them tend to have been raised to be proud and serious cooks - the quality of fruits is higher than, dare I say it, Whole Foods whose fruits are sometimes better suited to a sports goods store.
Korean bakeries offer some interesting adventures in soft loaves and unusual cakes and buns. read more...
Desserts: Eton Mess - 26 Aug 2009
This aptly named Mess is an easy English recipe to make the most of strawberries. You get the stages ready ahead, to put together at the last minute. It's named after the posh private school of Princes and sons of parents with deep wallets near Windsor Castle - so convenient when Queen Granny wanted to visit William and Harry.
On the 'Fourth of June', a holiday with The Procession of Boats - the top crews row past in vintage wooden rowing boats (Brits find this kind of thing normal) - scholars and parents gather to celebrate the birthday of Eton's patron, King George III (the mad one - that's normal, too). Eton Mess is the pudding de rigueur. ('Pudding' is the posh English word for 'desserts' - a word that would never cross the lips of an old Etonian.) read more...
Daily Spices - one of my favorite markets - 26 Aug 2009
What a lovely crew runs Daily Spices! It's a bright little store a little further out beyond Merrifield's H Mart, filled with sunlight and Indian groceries. Go there often enough and it's worth joining their loyalty scheme. read more...
Chew On This: Hah! A new - and worse - cholesterol! - 26 Aug 2009
Just when you thought it was safe to check your cholesterol levels, along comes a new - and worse - cholesterol threat! Meet - oxycholesterol! read more...
Strawberries - seasonal stars, or imposter radishes? - 26 Aug 2009
More than any other supermarket produce item, the strawberry represents, for me, why it is we should eat seasonally and locally. When you buy a strawberry at any other time of the year than summer, you'll be eating a fruit that's been shipped hundreds of miles. So to survive its journey, it will have been picked before it has ripened. Very likely, it will have been greenhouse grown without the direct rays of the sun to bring a warm bloom to its cheeks. What you will pop into your mouth is a thing with the texture of a radish and the taste of a...
Nothing.
And for this pleasure, it will have used a good deal of fossil fuel, both in production and in delivery to your expectant mouth. Americans each consume, per year, per citizen, 400 gallons just through agriculture, a close second to the fuel we use in our cars. read more...
Fish:Sea Urchin Linguine - 19 Aug 2009
This recipe from Enzo Febbraro at D'Acqua Restaurant takes a certain amount of dedication: first find your sea urchin. Don't worry, though - you can order it on line. read more...
Chew On This: Which nutrition facts to believe? - 19 Aug 2009
Women can take comfort this week that fat from meat, eggs and dairy produce won't increase their risk of breast cancer. So, according to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, says a European study of 319,826 women. Small exceptions came from increased risk links in post -menopausal women with high intakes of processed meat and in pre-menopausal women with high butter intakes. Still, it doesn't cover other forms of cancer like lung, pancreatic and colorectal cancer.
Which leads me to Reynold Spector of the Skeptical Inquirer. Human nutrition research and practice, according to him, is plagued by pseudoscience and unsupported opinions. read more...
French paradox - or American one? - 19 Aug 2009
I confess I'm not in Washington this summer. I'm in La France Profonde, in deepest Dordogne. The tomatoes are as large as grapefruit and as juicy as a sodden sponge, the basil plants can be smelled from across the courtyard. Each day a different farmers market supplies the evening meal ingredients of duck that has spent its life scratching about its seller's yard and comes complete with everything but its feathers, and bunches of root vegetables still covered in dirt, four different kinds of strawberries, and cheeses that stink like a boy's backpack. So it was with a certain dismay I read in Details magazine the following introduction to its top 25 items for The Best Fast Food in America: "Consider this your Michelin Guide to the food you can eat while changing lanes." read more...
Tapioca unscrambled (aren't you glad?) - 18 Aug 2009
Generations of British children grew up on the school dinner concoction Frog's Spawn, a milky dessert, damp and squidgy. It was their revolted name for Tapioca. One of those foods, like Sago Pudding and Rice Pudding, you either love or hate, those children almost without exception hated it. Such a shame. read more...
DC's wholesale/retail market - 18 Aug 2009
Shop fresh global and local produce, meat, groceries and flowers at retail prices where many of DC's grocery store and restaurant owners go to buy wholesale. read more...
Christopher Willis - chef of POSH - 5 Aug 2009
The sign outside POSH, the self-styled Restaurant and Supper Club, gives a list of clothing unacceptable inside. It includes, "Athletic wear; Sweat or sports jerseys; MC colors; Excessively baggy clothing (tucks-ins not permitted); Plain white t-shirts (short or long sleeve); Sleeveless t-shirts; Construction boots; White sneakers; Headgear; Chains; Ripped or soled clothing."
Executive chef Christopher Willis says it's in appreciation of his diners who tend to get dressed up to come in. When you're looking good, it's a shame if someone else isn't bothering. read more...
Mains: Carribean Roasted Chicken with Sweet Potatoes and Corn - 5 Aug 2009
Christopher Willis of POSH's recipe puts together familiar ingredients to come up with a spicy and unusual dish. read more...
Chew On This: Organic food a waste of money? - 5 Aug 2009
If you're paying more for organic fruit, veg, meats and milk, maybe you aren't getting the health benefits you think you are. So reports the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, citing the conclusions of Britain's independent Food Standards Agency which conducted the biggest study in 50 years on the health benefits of eating organic food.
Want to eat healthy? Just stick to a healthy balanced diet, the study concluded. read more...
Nosh Notes: Turkish restaurants - 5 Aug 2009
This web site doesn't cover many restaurants. But the following come highly recommended by a number of Turkish eatWashingtonians. They should know. And summertime is the perfect season for this kind of food. read more...
Nosh Notes: Crabs & clams - 5 Aug 2009
Crabs and clams are a local treat worthy of serious foodie consideration. Where to observe - and experience the treat. read more...
Something Sweet - 5 Aug 2009
This is not strictly speaking a favorite market of mine because I haven't visited it yet. So here's a review by Katie Kunin of the just-opened Something Sweet in Cleveland Park which she posted on the Cleveland Park list serve.
I'm a fan of David Scribner, who I think is the man behind this bakery selling all you need to satisfy that particular tooth, from cupcakes to milkshakes and frozen yogurt. He was the chef and owner of Dahlia, the Spring Valley restaurant that closed some time ago. So it's good to have him back in business. read more...
Ryan Morgan - Chef of Art & Soul - 3 Aug 2009
(Travis Timberlake is now Excutive Chef at Art & Soul, where he has been, since its opening, Chef de Cuisine.)
When Ryan Morgan sits down for interview at a table in Art & Soul of which he is Executive Chef, he picks up the small rectangle of tile under the knife and brandishes it with a certain satisfaction. "We don't have cloths. So the silverware was spinning around. I went to Home Depot, got some tiles, had them sliced up. Now there's no problem. And it looks pretty cool." Yup. It does. Trick worth borrowing. read more...
Delhi Bazaar - 22 Jul 2009
This grocery isn't shy. It describes itself as 'The Ultimate Grocery Store', which is a challenge, given it's bang next door to Grand Mart. read more...
Aviva Goldfarb - solving your daily dinner dilemmas - 22 Jul 2009
When Aviva Goldfarb's children were still quite small, she had a lightbulb moment. She realized that if she compiled a weekly menu and a complete shopping list to go with it, she would be buying herself a more stress-free life that would give her extra free time with her son and daughter. "It didn't feel natural to me. But I decided I would start planning ahead before I went to the grocery store. I couldn't believe how much easier it made everything!"
She told her friends, sharing her planning details with them. Then one day in 2003 Goldbarb thought, Hey, wait a minute. I'm a self-published author. The internet is taking off. Maybe I can turn this into a business. And The Six O'Clock Scramble was born. read more...
Fish: Tortuguero Tilapia With Cilantro-Lime Sauce - 22 Jul 2009
This recipe from Aviva Goldfarb comes from one of the weekly menu plans you can subscribe to on The Six O'Clock Scramble - or find in her eponymous cookbook. As it says, it takes 15 minutes to prepare and cook. read more...
Ibérico Pork comes to town - 22 Jul 2009
At last it's happened! The capital can experience some of the world's best pork. Ibérico de Bellota pork is available at Wagshal's and Jaleo. This is pork meat that comes from the same acorn-fed pigs that produce that heavenly Ibérico ham I can't get (or afford) enough of. Jose Andres has arranged its exclusive import through Fermin. read more...
Chew On This: Paul McCartney's meatless Mondays - 22 Jul 2009
Paul McCartney, along with Stella the designer daughter and his photographer daughter Mary, have launched Meat Free Mondays. You don't have to be vegetarian like Macca to see, once you've examined his thinking, that this must do good to the planet, as well as our constitutions. read more...
Saint Michel Bakery - one of my favorites - 8 Jul 2009
I've been mourning the deterioration in quality of Bonaparte Bakery's baguettes. They've lost that balance between crustiness and crumbiness and Wagshal's, where I go to buy them, no longer stocks their ficelles which I preferred to the baguettes. I don't know if that means that Bonaparte's doesn't bake them any more. But at any rate, I don't mind too much. I've discovered a proper French bakery - Saint Michel Bakery, owned by a proper French baker, Bertrand Houlier. read more...
The Dairy Godmother - one of my favorites - 8 Jul 2009
President Obama may have taken his family for a scoop of frozen custard at The Dairy Godmother because he read my post on eatWashington. (I can dream, can't I?) At any rate, if you haven't followed in his footsteps yet, you should. This is the time of year when frozen custard beats regular ice cream hands down. Like it does at every other time of year... read more...
Marilena Leavitt - from economist to cooking teacher - 8 Jul 2009
Marilena Leavitt is a Greek who trained as an economist. But when she married an American working at the US embassy in Athens, life took them en poste to England and to Italy where she took cooking classes. Now she passes on her knowledge of the dishes of Northern and Southern Italy and Greece to small groups in her Virginia home. read more...
Shrimp baked with tomatoes & feta (Garides youvetsi) - 8 Jul 2009
At Marilena Leavitt's Greek and Italian cooking classes, she teaches traditional dishes that are easily accomplished, such as this main course that works year round and uses easily sourced ingredients. read more...
Natural fat burners - 8 Jul 2009
The bikini beckons. Your bottom bulges. What to do? Maybe these natural fat burners can help. read more...
Chew On This: Forget the Acai diet, try vinegar! - 8 Jul 2009
You've read the models' tip that a gulp of vinegar before a meal keeps the weight off? Well, according to Japanese research, it's true. read more...
South Mountain Creamery - one of my favorites - 2 Jul 2009
Not strictly speaking a market, because you don't go to it, it comes to you. But South Mountain Creamery is worth knowing about. The Sowers and Brusco families behind it deliver farm-fresh ice cold milk in the old fashioned glass bottles direct to the cooler on your doorstep - if you're not in to take collection personally.
You put your order in on-line. And it's not just for milk. read more...
Tzadziki - 1 Jul 2009
In Greece, luscious thick yogurt is drained, flavored with garlic and sometimes mint, and turned into tzadziki to be served on fingers of toasted pita or cubes of bread, along with glasses of ouzo. Loosened a little with its own whey, tzadziki makes a wonderful dip for fresh vegetables or crackers and a great sauce for grilled meats. read more...
Desssert: Pain du Mom with Crème Anglaise - 1 Jul 2009
"My mom came up with this recipe," says John MacPherson, owner-chef of the Foster Harris House (so, Francophones, don't get picky about the grammar), "and has served it for some 20 years. Of course the serving size at my mom's is five times as big as we serve at the Foster Harris House, but a little goes a long way with this decadent breakfast dessert." read more...
Alternatives to pita bread - 1 Jul 2009
Looking for an alternative to pita? There are plenty. read more...
John MacPherson - owner-chef of Foster Harris House - 1 Jul 2009
One Sunday evening in 2004, industrial designer John MacPherson revealed to his wife over dinner that he was was not looking forward to going to work the following morning at the hearth-and-fireplace studio he owned. Off the top of his head, he said, "Why don't we open a B & B?" read more...
Nosh notes: The Fearless Critic - 1 Jul 2009
I don't feel particularly well served by restaurant reviewers who believe they shouldn't put pen to paper until they've given a place a go three times. If I eat a poor meal the first time round, why, as a general punter with plenty of dining choices, would I give them a second chance? But I can't write a Nosh Note this week because I spent my noshing money on a new swimsuit. So you might consider giving this new DC restaurant reviews book, a look over. Its reviewers have to have some educated connection with food, either in training or career. (Here I go, doing myself out of a job...) read more...
Chew On This: You don't know what wine you're drinking - 1 Jul 2009
Not long ago, a diner at a London restaurant sent back a magnum of 1961 Château Pétrus costing £18,000 ($29,661). It was fake, he said. That's the kind of person I want to eat with - one who can afford that much for a bottle! Then know it was counterfeit. But apparently, those who buy prestige bottles at well below that staggering price may also be duped. They're in danger of being sold modest wine poured from high-end label bottles that have been bought second-hand off eBay. read more...
Polish Delis in NJ - 1 Jul 2009
The Kielbasa Factory in Rockville MD is the area's only serious market (correct me if I'm wrong) for Polish specialties. But there's a huge Polish community in New Jersey. So, since this is a time of year when we pile into our cars for beaches north and south, here are some sources you might be driving by with your lilos and towels. Or you could order by phone... read more...
British markets - 24 Jun 2009
When cable TV broadcasts Wimbledon hosting the tennis championships, it's time for a British court-side tea of cucumber sandwiches, strawberries and cream. Which bring on British nostalgia. Missing Marmite? Pork pies? Or Bird's Custard? Need to lift the spirits with a nip of ginger wine? A little Land of Hope and Glory is just behind the doors of these markets. read more...
Bart Vandaele - owner-chef of Belga Café - 24 Jun 2009
With his family background, it's hard to imagine Bart Vandaele in any business other than food. Born in Flanders in the west of Belgium, his grandfather was a butcher. His father's family had a grocery store that sold fresh vegetables. His parents ran a café with a dining hall behind for big events and Vandaele, owner and chef of Belga Café, the Belgian bistro and fine dining restaurant on Captol Hill, says he spent so much time there he was raised by the café's maitre d' and cleaning lady. read more...
Chew On This: Don't they want our food made safe? - 24 Jun 2009
With food-borne illnesses and subsequent recalls now becoming more frequent, you'd think Congress would be anxious to pass legislation to safeguard us from unhealthy food. Over 300,000 people went to hospital last year with food poisoning. We all, including our new President, blamed the previous President for having weakened the powers of the FDA, and he promised to give it more teeth.
But the Food Safety Enhancement Act just developed by a House subcommittee doesn't seem to have pushed for much change. read more...
Mains: Flemish Beef Stew with Belgian Beer - 24 Jun 2009
Bart Vandaele, owner-chef of Belga Café, says, “Beef stew with beer is a traditional Belgian dish. I love it and it still is one of the most popular dishes in Belgium. You can find it in Belgium in different varieties, because it is typically a dish that every mother cooks her own way." read more...
Nosh Notes - M Café & Bar - 24 Jun 2009
Ladies who like to lunch in style like to lunch at M Café & Bar in Chevy Chase where one side of Wisconsin Avenue is still rooted in medical centers, gloomy estate jewelers and the Gap while the other glistens with outposts of Jimmy Choo, Tiffany, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Bulgari, Dior, Ralph Lauren and other brave adventurers from New York.
M Café & Bar is a rare, in Washington, taste of Manhattan glamour. Somehow you imagine the conversation is more likely to cover the kind of behavior that Mother wouldn't approve of than the lastest news from the PTA. read more...
Belgian beer explained - 24 Jun 2009
There are around 125 beweries in Belgium, producing over 500 different beers. Among them are European pils, lambic, white, dubbel, tripel, blonde, brune, amber and Flemish red. And each is allocated its own special glass... read more...
Feta cheese - 24 Jun 2009
In summer, with real tomatoes arriving in stores, Greek salad comes into its own. Horiatiki salata, country salad, is a compilation of quarters of tomato, thick slices of peeled cucumber and thinner slices of red onion, a handful of black olives and chunks of feta, drizzled with a good green olive oil. (Strictly speaking, the tomatoes provide the acid replacement for vinegar.)
Feta is often overlooked as a cheese. But with its relatively low fat content and range of flavor from mild to forceful, it's worth paying it some attention. True feta cheese, low-fat and healthy, is a far cry from sour, salty and week-old-socks stinking (some would say vomit stenching) plastic-packaged cheese from supermarket dairy aisles. read more...
Ice creams & gelati - 17 Jun 2009
In Russia, even in the depths of winter, queues of people form around the ice-cream carts stationed on street corners and down the iced-over paths of Moscow's Gorki Park. The world over, it's a seductive cold comfort. read more...
Marchone's - 17 Jun 2009
The thing about Marchone's is it isn't a destination Italian delicatessen. It's not so different from many others of its kind. But what marks it out is its line of 'Anna' pasta. This manufacturer of dried pasta makes unusual shapes, like gemelli which look like roll ups loosely formed by wet fingers that might have come out of a kindergarten art class, and huge tubes they call, surprisingly, fettucini (sic). But it also does a line in wholewheat pasta, with penne, spaghetti and gnocchi in a mushroom shade of brown. This stuff is a rarity on Washington deli shelves. read more...
Chew On This: Don't chop those carrots! - 17 Jun 2009
Just in time for summer laziness, here's a healthtip that will give you an extra few minutes on the sun lunger: don't chop those carrots. If you don't, they'll contain 25 percent more of an anti-cancer agent when cooked than if you'd turned them into bite-sized pieces. read more...
Nosh Notes: Everlasting Life/Eternity Juice Bar - 10 Jun 2009
When I drove past the Everlasting Life/Eternity Juice Bar on Georgia Avenue, I had to stop. Can there be a better name for a place to revive? I felt better, more vital, taller of limb, tighter of skin, just reading the name. It is surely what the origin of the word 'restaurant' was all about. read more...
Fish: Jonah Crab and Asparagus Salad - 10 Jun 2009
This salad from Vatche Benguian, chef of The Roof Terrace Restaurant, is an elegant appetizer or summer salad main course that's put together in minutes. Just be sure to use good quality vinegar. read more...
Vatche Benguian - chef of the Roof Terrace Restaurant - 10 Jun 2009
To diners who've been eating around town for the past three decades, Vatche Benguian's name might be familiar. Remember La Bagatelle? Benguian was in the kitchen. La Colline? Benguian was chef and partner. You ate at Gerard's Place? Benguian was in the kitchen with Gerard Pangaud. You've dined at Le Mistral, Le Tire Bouchon, the Historic Georgetown Club and Melrose? Benguian has cooked for you. You relished the pates, rillettes, and charcuterie at The Blue Duck Tavern? Benguian was the chef charcutier, teaching the kitchen how to make them.
Back in high school, it's not at all what he intended. read more...
Nosh Notes: Cuban sandwiches - 10 Jun 2009
Until we're allowed to fly into Havana, we're being deprived of a true Cuban sandwich. There are sandwich bars that trumpet their Cuban sandwiches. But it's hard to find one made with the right bread. But even the not-quite-real-McKoy is a great summer chew for picnics in the park. Here's where to find the close-to-genuine article. read more...
Chew on This: Dog food tastes like paté, alcohol is bad, wine is good. Confused? - 10 Jun 2009
With only three out of 18 volunteers able to tell the difference between dog food and paté in a blind tasting by the American Association of Wine Economists, it's no surprise we're just as confused about whether or not wine is good for us. read more...
Fish: Four-minutes Smoked Branzino Carpaccio - 5 Jun 2009
This recipe from owner-chef Enzo Fargione of Teatro Goldoni is a challenge to serious cooks - not in technique but in finding the equipment! But once you've assemble the parts, it only takes 4 minutes to make. You may have to substitute another receptacle for a Cigar Box! But you have the ingenuity... read more...
Clotted cream - home-made - 3 Jun 2009
Real clotted cream is good to dollop on summer's fresh berries. It's a far cry from the ultra heat-treated stiff paste you get in those glass jars in the supermarket. So have a go at making it yourself. read more...
Chew on This: Vampire blood a hot dish in Chad - 1 Jun 2009
Squeamish about offal? Morcilla and boudin gross you out? Then avoid a dish that's come back from the dead in Chad - fried blood. read more...
Nosh Notes: New Heights - 28 May 2009
I'm fond of New Heights. It was one of the few upscale yet relaxed restaurants I could afford when I arrived in Washington from Moscow decades ago. Those were the years when, if you didn't have a bank account to buy your meal for you, the best places to eat were in the 'burbs. They knew what they were doing better than some of the in-town chefs of the early 90s with all-too-brief kitchen resumes. read more...
Yas Café & Market - 28 May 2009
To say Ghodrat Azizi is an enthusiast is an understatement. Catch him on a subject like his love of London and he bubbles over. Which makes a visit to his newly opened market a conversational treat, with a welcome akin to anything you would have been afforded back in Iran where he comes from. read more...
Bubble tea - 27 May 2009
Bubble tea is one of South east Asia's most popular drinks. It's less like tea than a liquid tapioca pudding. read more...
Phuoc Loc Tho - 27 May 2009
This a tiny market. But there are plenty of South East Asian women shopping at this Vietnamese store behind Sterling Plaza. They raid the various chill cabinets for the stock of unusual fresh herbs, like several kinds of mint, several kinds of basil, including the peppery Holy Thai variety, and Vietnamese cilantro. read more...
From France to Penn Quarter... - 27 May 2009
If you've read my article in the May issue of Gourmet, you'll know that farmers markets in France's Dordogne area open at night to sell their food cooked. Well, Terri Cutrino is kinda doing the same at Café Atlántico. read more...
Dennis Marron - chef of Jackson20 - 27 May 2009
The closest of Dennis Marron's four sisters is seven years older than him. Which made for some fine times in the kitchen of his New Jersey shore home, says the executive chef of The Grille at Morrison House and Jackson20 next door. They'd cook together to lots of rockin' music. read more...
Chew On This: The best diet - ever! And it's not Acai. - 27 May 2009
Dieting's best kept secret? (Will you pay me to reveal it, all you Acai enthusiasts who have regrettably been scammed?) Here it is, for free: soup. read more...
Fresh organic herbs, European style - 27 May 2009
Fresh herbs sold like they are in Europe with their roots on have come to Washington area supermarkets. read more...
Fish: Shrimp Fritters with Comeback Sauce - 27 May 2009
The Comeback Sauce that goes with the Shrimp Fritters in this recipe from Dennis Marron of Jackson20 is so good, he says, that people always come back for more. read more...
Raspberry Mint Sapphire Collins your new cocktail? - 26 May 2009
Looking for a refreshing new cocktail for summer? When the weather's grim, the color of this shot of spirits will lift yours. Spirits, that is. read more...
Chew On This: Paralyzed by too much cola - 20 May 2009
A man returning home from an evening's kangaroo shooting (no, not in a forest near you), collapsed with lung paralysis. He was rushed to the emergency room where he had to be intubated and mechanically ventilated in hospital. The cause? Not chasing after furry hoppers but three years of sluicing back 4 to 10 liters of cola a day. read more...
The Griffin Market - one my favorites - 20 May 2009
The Griffin Market on P St NW is the kind of neighborhood store we all need. It's owned and run by Italian Riccardo Bonino and his American wife, Laura, as an outpost of the kind of good grocery and wine store you'd find in Italy.
But the exceptional feature is that Laura cooks restaurant-standard meals to order to take out. read more...
Nosh Notes - My backyard pig roast - 20 May 2009
Thank you for a wonderful feast, Harvey the Pig. Harvey is how Pam Ginsberg, the super-enthusiastic butcher at Wagshals introduced my roast to me when she hauled his carcass out from the back. Getting to know your food takes on a whole new meaning. read more...
Pasta: Paccheri with Maine Lobster - 20 May 2009
This recipe from Enzo Febbraro of D'Acqua Ristorante elevates pasta to a heavenly level with a luxurious prime ingredient - the other ingredients are cheap - but simple technique. read more...
Dani Arana - chef of Taberna del Alabardero - 17 May 2009
There's something beguiling about what an accent and minor grammatical and phrasing slips can do to English. Dani Arana, chef of Taberna del Alabardero, explains why his mother sent him off to culinary school. "I didn't like so much" - there's a pause here while he searches for the word - "study." He grins. "She tell me, you need something to do in this world to make money and live. You are not so bad in the kitchen. You can learn more, make it your profession." read more...
Nosh Notes - Bob's Noodle House - 6 May 2009
One of the most delicious dishes at Bob's Noodle House looks like an early generation breast implant. It's an upturned teacup of gray-toned rice surrounding a stuffing of chopped meats.
You'll find it in the appetizer section of this Taiwanese restaurant whose clientele is almost entirely Asian. read more...
Chew on This: Allowable cockroaches in your coffee - 6 May 2009
When Terry Gross of NPR's Fresh Air interviewed Douglas Emlen this week on his studies of dung beetles, he mentioned a colleague who in pre-Starbucks days would sometimes drive 45 minutes off a route to get coffee made from fresh-ground beans.
Having worked previously with cockroaches, he'd developed an allergy to them that could be triggered by drinking coffee made from pre-ground beans. Because the mounds waiting in factories to be ground apparently heave with the little critters. read more...
Rob Wilder - the man behind and with José Andrés - 5 May 2009
Listen to Rob Wilder talk about his career to date, from ownership of the first Austin Grill to running ThinkfoodGroup, and he sounds like the food version of Apple Corps, the company that once upon a time managed and molded the Beatles. ThinkfoodGroup is the company created, as he describes it, "to manage all things José Andrés." read more...
Hill's Kitchen - one of my favorites - 5 May 2009
Leah Daniels bubbles like something simmering in one of the many makes of cooking pans she sells at her kitchen store. This is not a place where you walk in asking for a frying pan and expect to get out without an interrogation. "What will you be using it for?" Daniels asks. "What kind of food? How many eaters?" read more...
Enzo Fargione - chef of Teatro Goldoni - 5 May 2009
"The only interest my family had in food," jokes Enzo Fargione, executive chef of Teatro Goldoni, "was by eating it." It's not the whole picture, though, because then he goes on to say that his mother is an "excellent, excellent cook." When most young boys preferred to stay in bed on Sunday mornings, Fargione confesses he liked to get up to see what she was cooking. read more...
Fish: Pomegranate Shrimp - 29 Apr 2009
Monica Bhide's dish cooks in just 15 minutes. Don’t overcook the shrimp, she cautions, or they will become rubbery. But that's the only thing you need to watch to succeed with this easy entree. read more...
Monica Bhide - not just an Indian cookbook writer - 29 Apr 2009
If you've ever signed up for an online cooking course with Egullet, if you have cooked an Indian recipe from Spice of Life, if you have taken a cooking class in Indian cookery at a private house in an area served by the Dunloring metro station, you will probably have come under the influence of Monica Bhide. read more...
Nosh notes - Central - 29 Apr 2009
Japanese chefs in Washington, like Kaz Okoshi of Kaz Sushi Bistro and Hisao Abe of Kotobuki will tell you that when they first arrived in the capital in the 1980s there were no decent places to eat sushi. Now sushi outlets proliferate almost as widely as do Starbucks outlets. How did we ever manage without them?
These days you might begin to ask the same of brasseries. read more...
Indian & Sri Lankan markets - 29 Apr 2009
The cooking of the Indian sub-continent can seem complex. Lists of ingredients are often lengthy. But once you have them in stock, recipes are as simple as any other national cuisine. Find them at these markets, take any questions with you and ask for advice. You'll find store owners enthusiastic about helping. read more...
Chew On This: What is swine flu? - 29 Apr 2009
Ignorance over swine flu can cause unnecessary panic. Eating pork won't give it to you. A group of us are having a pig roast in a couple of weeks and we're not canceling. If you need clarification of what swine flu is, you can do little better than read the BBC's full explanation. read more...
Belotta pork coming to Wagshal's! - 22 Apr 2009
Pam Ginsberg, the butcher, with Aaron Fuchs, at Wagshal's, tells me that they are discussing importing exclusively Spain's famous belotta pork at the end of May. read more...
Mains: Braised Pork Shank with baby bok choy, Sweet Potatoes and Ginger-Chili Sauce - 22 Apr 2009
Chris Watson, chef de cuisine of Brabo, makes this popular dish one of the most succulent and comforting in town. read more...
Nosh notes - Brasserie Beck - 22 Apr 2009
The joy of being able to eat a Belgian meal without having to be in Belgium is hard to describe. No, it's not. I spent two years in Brussels and it was one of the most beastly periods of my life. And I speak as someone who was in Moscow for four years as a foreign correspondent during Soviet days. That was a piece of cake by comparison.
So a meal at Brasserie Beck is a real treat. read more...
See Poste's garden grow! - 22 Apr 2009
Robert Weland, executive chef of Poste, is so focused on using local ingredients, he's growing many of his herbs, vegetables and soft fruits right on the patio of the 8th Street NW restaurant. read more...
Chew On This: What the British Monarchy eats to live - 22 Apr 2009
The Queen has just given her Royal Warrant to McIlhenny's Tabasco Sauce. If you study the foods that the Queen Mother, who lived to 101, gave similar royal approval to (chocolates and gin), is it a lesson in what can keep a body going? I hope so. read more...
Enzo Febbraro - chef of D'Acqua - 20 Apr 2009
Enzo Febbraro, chef and co-owner with Francesco Ricchi of D'Acqua Restaurant, sits at a table in the dining room facing Pennsylvania Avenue, in a black shirt and black apron, a heavy gold medallion nestling against his chest.
He has wonderful tales to tell of 20 years traveling, working his way through top restaurants in Paris, Germany and Spain. And plenty to say about food in Washington. read more...
Nosh notes - The Tasting Room - 17 Apr 2009
I'll be upfront about this: I love Robert Weidmaier's Tasting Room. It's the kind of place that litters the streets of European capitals - a relaxed environment with style where you can eat simple but well-sourced ingredients cooked without complication. While Ladies Who Lunch in America toy with a Caesar Salad ("Dressing on the side and hold the croutons"), this is where you'd find the French. It's the kind of place women will dress up for, pretending they haven't, yet men can feel comfortable in. read more...
Is this why we're fat? - 15 Apr 2009
This deep fried chicken and maple syrup waffle is probably the least unappetizing picture on the thisiswhyyourefat.com website. But if austerity-busting cheap meals like this are what's tempting us to thicken our waistlines at the lower end of the foodie market, at the upper end, top French chefs like Paul Bocuse are turning to budget-aware though calorific sandwich-making. read more...
Chew On This: What's bad for the heart may not be bad for the heart... - 15 Apr 2009
After all the studies, apparently we still don't really know what affect meat and dairy products have on our hearts. read more...
Mains: BLT Prime New York Strip Steak Encebollado (a caballo) - 14 Apr 2009
Victor Albisu, chef de cuisine of BLT Steak, gives an American steakhouse classic a Cuban twist with black beans. Adding an optional fried egg makes the dish 'a caballo' - on horseback. read more...
Plaza Latina - one of my favorite markets - 13 Apr 2009
The mother of BLT Steak chef, Victor Albisu, owns this Latino market that used to be in Alexandria, on Pickett Street. Now you'll find it in the Idylwood Plaza, behind Whole Foods on Leesburg Pike. A Peruvian, she makes her own sausages and chorizos, from Guatemalan, Argentinian picante, Mexican and Salvadorean recipes, along with morcilla. And there's a range of meats at remarkable prices from the cheerful butchers behind the counter. read more...
Asian Imports - 13 Apr 2009
This must be the most unpreposessing entrance of any market in the area, though the street-side frontage is more attractive. And it's dark inside. Still, you'll find everything you need for Asian feasts, particularly those of Indonesia and Malaysia, whose ingredients are not so easy to find around the capital. The owner will help you with cooking queries. She keeps temptations by the till, like lacey krupuk-style chips with peanuts embedded in them made by a local that took me right back to Bali. read more...
Victor Albisu - Chef de cuisine of BLT Steak - 10 Apr 2009
The tale of the rise and rise of Victor Albisu is a local success story. The chef de cuisine of BLT Steak, the Washington restaurant of Laurent Tourendel's empire of steakhouses where contemporary American meets French bistro, was born into Washington's wide food scene. read more...
Jerky - making your own - 8 Apr 2009
Jerky and biltong are the classic snacks of the cowboy of the American, South African and Australian outback. They the name for beef, trimmed of all fat, that's been cut into strips and slowly dried in the sun.
These days, it may have been marinated before being oven-dried in low heat over a long period. And it's no longer limited to beef. You can get chicken jerky, too, and jerky made from everything from ostrich to elk, alligator and pork for a different take on bacon. There's even fruit jerky. read more...
Chew On This: Women detect B.O. better than men - 8 Apr 2009
The mating season is here. If you're planning to take part in it, you should know this: Fragrance doesn't disguise body odor when a woman's doing the sniffing. read more...
The Italian Store - one of my favorite markets - - 8 Apr 2009
The Italian Store buzzes at the weekend like a delicatessen in an Italian market town. There are lines at the counter selling sandwiches and what it calls 'Philadelphia Style' subs - sandwiches like The Roma, made with prosciutto, mortadella, Genoa salami and provolone. Sit at the window counter, or out on the sidewalk on a warm day, to eat them. read more...
Daniel Bortnick - chef of Firefly - 8 Apr 2009
When spring arrives, it's a rush to plant the vegetable garden. Daniel Bortnick knows this well. He and his wife have one at their home in Bethesda and last year fell behind schedule. "I waited too long to plant," says the executive chef of Firefly. It won't happen this year. read more...
Five-minute chocolate cake and other fun foods - 8 Apr 2009
Who doesn't want a home-made chocolate cake baked in 5 minutes? And how about Pineapple Jerky? What's not to like about some zany food ideas... read more...
Chris Watson - chef de cuisine of Brabo - 7 Apr 2009
Some developing chefs get directed to stages in restaurants abroad by the people they cook with. Working in LA, Chris Watson, chef de cuisine of Robert Weidmaier's newly-opened Brabo, made his connection with a restaurant in Italy through the men he bought his truffles from. read more...
How to make crème fraiche - 7 Apr 2009
Crème fraiche bought in France is much more unctuous than the product you find in general US supermarkets. If you can't get hold of the richer stuff found in Washington area farmers' markets, make your own. It's not difficult. read more...
Pasta: Giada de Laurentiis' pasta - Yummiest creation ever? - 25 Mar 2009
An eatWashingtonian emails she loves Giada de Laurentiis' recipe for Spaghetti with Asparagus, Smoked Mozzarella and Prosciutto from the Food Network. read more...
Chew on This: Beef causes more unnecessary diseases - 25 Mar 2009
South East Asians, generally thin and healthy people who use no more than an ounce of meat per person in most dishes just as a flavoring, would not be surprised to learn than diets high in red and processed meats shorten a Westerner's life span, not just from cancer and heart disease but, a new study discovers, from Alzheimer's, stomach ulcers and many other conditions. read more...
Acai berry and other diet-promises concern - 25 Mar 2009
The number of people caught by the Acai Berry Diet Scam is horrendous. Lisa, the helpful eatWashingtonian who alerted me to it now points me to this newsletter which landed in her email Inbox. Make of it what you will. But if it tumbles into your Inbox, it may be wise to err on the side of caution and do some solid investigation before making any commitment. There's no such thing as a free lunch. And there are no shortcuts to losing weight safely. read more...
Sides: Panzanella - 25 Mar 2009
For this simply prepared Italian salad from Ruth Gresser, owner-chef of Pizza Paradiso, it's worth waiting for the tomatoes of high summer and using a good loaf of bread. But sometimes you need a reminder of summer in the dead of winter, and this recipe will deliver it. read more...
Ruth Gresser - Owner-chef of Pizza Paradiso - 25 Mar 2009
Pizzeria Paradiso’s Ruth Gresser helped popularize Italy's favorite pie using a wood-burning stove to cook pizza in D.C. read more...
Super H - one of my favorite markets - 25 Mar 2009
At Super H Mart, there's a sign on top of the sacks of rice by the entrance that reads "Please do not climb on top of rice." It's definitely a family friendly supermarket, so much so, you should plan not to go on a Saturday morning. You won't be able to move for the families shopping. I'm afraid I've transferred my passion for H Mart to this, it's far far bigger sibling. read more...
Chew On This: Over 22? Your brain has peaked. - 18 Mar 2009
You think the state of the economy is depressing? Try this piece of news for size: a US study has pegged the start of middle age at 27. That's when the power of the brain begins to decline. Apparently it's at its peak at 22. read more...
Greek specialties - 18 Mar 2009
It's not hard to find Greek specialties locally. They're stocked by most Middle East markets. The closest large Greek community is in Baltimore, with its markets and restaurants. But if you want to shop as though you were in Greece, head for International Market & Bakery on a Saturday. read more...
Fish: Roasted Rockfish with Spring Garlic and Clams - 18 Mar 2009
Nicholas Stefanelli, chef of Mio's recipe is elegant but extremely simple to execute. Made with spring garlic, it's a bright break from winter stews. But made with scallions, it's a fine one-course meal at any time of the year. read more...
A & H Gourmet and Seafood Market - one of my favorite markets - 11 Mar 2009
There was a time when A & H Gourmet and Seafood Market was just plain A & H Seafood Market. And plain it was. While it had fresh fish flown in from Portugal once a week, it was a little dark and dingy. You wouldn't recognize what ex-Taberna del Alabardero executive chef, Santi Zabaleta, has done to the place. read more...
Iberico ham - 11 Mar 2009
Iberico ham, dare I say it, leaves Parma ham standing in the shade of the oak tree. While both come from pigs that relish their acorns, the Spanish pig is fed on them exclusively so its cured pork is richer, fattier, silkier, with an unctuous mouth feel its Italian cousin lacks. read more...
Chew On This: People not percentages - 11 Mar 2009
The BBC's Health Writer is attacking the habit of creating scare headlines out of percentage figures, as in, "Cancer up X percent if you drink or eat Y." Take a look at his debunking the fear just by turning percentages into real people. read more...
Lunchbags get a lift - 11 Mar 2009
I'm always happy to pass on news about women who have the drive to do their own thing. So here is Wendy Brady. Don't know her from Adam. But she's a mom fashionable enough to hate the lunchbags she dragged to her office. So she and her friend Kara Andrew started Haute Lunch, sassy looking insulated lunch bags that could get away with being your regular fashion purse. read more...
The Organic Butcher - one of my favorite markets - 11 Mar 2009
Don Roden and his brother-in-law down in Charlottesville are the owners behind a real, proper high street butcher in McLean, selling certified-organic and naturally-raised meats and poultry, butchered in the shop. read more...
Mains: Boneless Slow-Braised Short Ribs - 10 Mar 2009
Known as Tablones de Res, this recipe from Rosa Mexicano's executive chef James Muir, served with Roasted Tomatillo-Chipotle Sauce - or Salsa de tomatillo y Chipotle - makes a deeply comforting meat dish. read more...
eatScotland - Mary Contini of Valvona & Crolla - 5 Mar 2009
I've been lax in updating eatWashington. But it's the month of the Edinburgh Festival, and I'm here (there) for three and a half weeks of drama, comedy and poetry. If you're there, make sure you catch Sophia, a slam poet with a good deal to say about Washington DC. (Look up her venue in the Free Fringe Guide.)
But at any time of year, don't miss a visit to Mary Contini's Italian delicatessen, Valvona & Crolla. read more...
H Mart - one of my favorite markets - 4 Mar 2009
I love H Mart. I love the shoppers at the Merrifield store who closely examine the produce and sometimes drop it under the counter in contempt. Imagine that happening at Whole Foods! But it means the quality of the fresh fruit and vegetables tends to be higher. That's to say, ripe. Wait until fresh fig season, if you don't believe me. At H Mart they're sold loose, not in those plastic-wrapped punnets that when you open them at home reveal that the fruit underneath is already rotting. read more...
Marmite madness - 4 Mar 2009
Marmite is a shiny tar-like spread made out of the residues that come from brewing beer. Brits love it. read more...
Two blogs worth checking out - 4 Mar 2009
Skiz Fernando writes about Antony Bourdain's visit with him in Sri Lanka. http://www.riceandcurry.wordpress.com
Local chef Danielle Turner is full of tips, like how to sharpen a knife correctly.
http://www.howtoboilanegg.wordpress.com read more...
Borlotti beans, fresh - 4 Mar 2009
Borlotti beans found fresh should be snapped up. Inside those pretty pink and white husks are similarly zebra-stripped pink and ivory beans. They appear in Super H Mart and H Mart in March. read more...
Chew On This: Rotten egg gas turns men on - 4 Mar 2009
The smell of rotten eggs could be the clue to an alternative Viagra. Apparently the hydrogen sulphide in the gas helps relax nerve cells in the penis, stimulates the blood flow and creates an erection. read more...
Nicholas Stefanelli - Chef of Mio - 3 Mar 2009
Nicholas Stefanelli's resume reveals a determined man. From an Italian Greek family, Stefanelli, raised in Maryland, toyed with becoming a fashion designer before he settled on his other passion - food. (The culinary school gave him a place before the fashion institute.) Now executive chef at Mio, he's been in the kitchens of Roberto Donna, Fabio Trabocchi, Thomas Keller, to name the most well-known. And his plating shows his interest in design. read more...
James Muir - Chef of Rosa Mexicano - 3 Mar 2009
James Muir, from Buenos Aires, is the Executive Chef at Rosa Mexicano. But growing up, that’s not what he had in mind at all. “I never thought I would end up doing this: I dreamed of becoming a doctor.” read more...
Pasta: Chipotle Shrimp and Jumbo Lump Crab Pasta - 3 Mar 2009
Maurisee Upshur's background is Caribbean. As chef of Mrs K's Tollhouse, she's introduced a little spice to a modern American menu. This pasta dish uses Chipotle peppers for an unusual punch. read more...
Maurisee Upshur - Chef of Mrs K's Tollhouse - 2 Mar 2009
It's a while since I've been to Mrs K's Tollhouse. It was a place I'd take my maiden aunt and she's now nibbling sugarcakes in the teahouse in the sky. So who knew that last January Mrs K's had a total makeover that would have made dear auntie quite the flirt.
Chef Marisee Upshur chuckles with pleasure. read more...
Massimo de Francesca - chef of Domaso - 25 Feb 2009
In his last job, Massimo de Francesca could look out on the turquoise blue waters of Grand Cayman island. Now the view across his latest dining room gives onto the glass windows and concrete walls of Rosslyn's office blocks. Did he take leave of his senses? read more...
Mediterranean Bakery - one of my favorite markets - 25 Feb 2009
A veritable food holiday through the countries that border the Mediterranean (and some that don't), in a grocery where you can also eat lunch! read more...
Fried chicken a US invention? Not. - 25 Feb 2009
Fried chicken may be considered the ultimate Southern staple. But it was probably brought to the US by the Scots. Before you have apoplexy, that's the nation that invented the deep-fried Mars Bar. Case closed. read more...
Pasta: Spaghetti Carbonara - 25 Feb 2009
Spaghetti Carbonara is an Italian classic. Rich and unctuous, it's always a treat to eat and simple to make. Here's the recipe of Massimo de Francesca, chef at Domaso Trattoria. read more...
Chew On This: How fast foods look in reality - 25 Feb 2009
If you're a fast food fan, perhaps these photos will wean you off. read more...
Kangaroo meat - 25 Feb 2009
Let's Meat on the Avenue is selling ground kangaroo from Australia. Are you hopping away from this announcement in horror? Don't. read more...
Chew On This: Sex to be trumped by burgers as cheapest fun? - 18 Feb 2009
A YouGov survey of 20,144 British adults in November 2008 found sex was the most popular low-cost activity.
But with dairy cows being slaughtered in their hundreds of thousands because milk prices have dropped so low, maybe the hamburger is about to become the best bang for your buck, if you'll forgive me... read more...
Who brought pasta to Europe? - 18 Feb 2009
The question generally solicits the answer: Marco Polo. He'd spent seventeen years in China before returning to Venice in 1299. But did the Italian adventurer actually ever go to China? read more...
Extras: Make your own mustard - 18 Feb 2009
If you've bought a bratwurst or other sausage from The German Gourmet, my favorite market this week, try making this grain mustard to go with it. I don't know about you, but I had sacks of kalonji black mustard seed festering in my store cupboard. Now I don't - I have jars of home-made mustard instead. read more...
Fish: Seared Jumbo Sea Scallops with golden raisin and caper relish, crisp prosciutto and micro greens - 18 Feb 2009
Seth Eldridge of Vinifera Bistro & Wine Bar gives this seared scallops starter a Sicilian agro-dolce twist with flavors and ingredients influenced by its early Arab invaders. read more...
German Gourmet - 18 Feb 2009
Paying a visit to The German Gourmet is almost like going to the doctor. The assistants behind the counter wear crisp white jackets, they serve you with efficient civility, and move you through as fast as they can. read more...
Seth Eldridge - Chef of Vinifera - 18 Feb 2009
Seth Eldridge is a rarity among chefs. He didn't come into the business because working his way through high school he'd discovered the joys of the kitchen. And he didn't have a grandmother who was a culinary inspiration. Nor a mother who was an especially exemplary cook.
So what drew him into the culinary profession? read more...
Dan Mesches - king of concept restaurants - 9 Feb 2009
Dan Mesches has something he would rather not say to his kids: he never finished the final draft of his Masters thesis, "Soviet Constraints on Finnish Defense and Economic Systems." The man who is the CEO of Star Restaurant Group, owner and operator of Zola and the Spy Cafe at the Spy Museum and its recent younger sibling Zola Wine & Kitchen, realized in the re-writing process that he was pursuing entirely the wrong career. read more...
Fresh World - one of my favorite markets - 8 Feb 2009
Double-bannered with El Grande Supermarket, Fresh World in Reston is a bright and squeaky-clean Asian and Hispanic market well worth the trip. read more...
Chew On This: The 20 worst foods in America - 4 Feb 2009
Do you know which brands of America's favorite fast foods are the least healthy? Not to say actively terrifying calorifically.
Top of a list of 20, weighing in at a whopping 2,600 calories - an average man's daily intake - is the Baskin Robbins Large Chocolate Oreo Shake. Its calories are the equivalent of 49 Oreo cookies. with more sugar, at 263 grams, than 20 bowls of Froot Loops. So when I tell you that it also contains enough saturated fat for three days, you won't be surprised. read more...
Wagshal's Deli - 4 Feb 2009
Wagshal's Deli, a few doors down from its sister meat, fish and fresh produce store that I've already flagged, was apparently a favorite source for sandwiches for the first President Bush. It's where you'll get the best baguettes in town and oddities like Celery Soda. But for a sudden, unplanned urge to throw an impromptu spirit-lifting party, here's where to come for a range of impressive appetizers made by the catering department and ready to cook. read more...
Desserts: Pumpernickel ice cream - 3 Feb 2009
This rich ice cream from RJ Cooper III, chef de cuisine of Vidalia, couldn't be easier or faster to make. Or more sophisticated to eat. read more...
RJ Cooper III - Chef de Cuisine of Vidalia - 3 Feb 2009
RJ Cooper III , chef de cuisine at Vidalia, knew early on knew he didn’t want to be part of the bureaucratic culture, didn’t want a job where he’d have to wear a suit and tie. He would have been a rock star – if only he could sing. Or play an instrument. Cooking, with its whites, was the obvious alternative. read more...
Hamburger origins - grounds for contention - 28 Jan 2009
A discussion of the origins of the hamburger can get as contentious as the one over which nation invented pasta. It's a great comfort food any time of year. But where does it come from? One thing seems clear: it doesn't come from Hamburg in Germany. read more...
Bye bye and thank you, Mr Doner - 28 Jan 2009
Mahmut Aygűn died in January 2009. Who he? The savior of Saturday night drinkers across the Western world. This snack-food visionary invented the Doner Kebab. And you thought it was a traditional Middle Eastern staple. read more...
Chew On This: Women think about sex 10 times daily, in Weight Watchers' UK survey - 28 Jan 2009
Weight Watchers UK reports that 58 percent of British women think about sex 10 times a day.
70 percent have far more regular fantasies about food. Being British myself, I'm not surprised about that. I'm surprised the sex figure is so high.
I only mention these statistics because the Super Bowl approaches - the biggest snacking weekend in the US. What would a Weight Watchers US report discover if it asked American women the same questions this Sunday as they tuck into their chicken wings while ogling those men in tights. read more...
Gō Công Supermarket - 28 Jan 2009
For all the grandeur of its name, Gō Công Supermarket is a small affair. But it sells some interesting treasures. In the chill cabinet are pyramids of lontong pressed rice. There are spring rolls wrapped in banana leaves that need removing before frying. read more...
Christophe and Michelle Poteaux - owner-chefs of Bastille - 28 Jan 2009
If it weren't for Cathal Armstrong, owner and chef of Alexandria's Restaurant Eve, Christophe and Michelle Poteaux might not have opened their own restaurant, Bastille, in the same neighborhood. read more...
Durian - ecstasy or seriously disgusting? - 28 Jan 2009
You can find Durian pretty readily these days in Asian markets, though they'll have been frozen. Native to Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei, Thailand has become the major exporter of the two- to seven-pound cultivated fruits. South East Asians go delirious about them, battling for the best once it appears in early summer. For the rest of us the experience is either an acquired taste or one seriously to be avoided. read more...
Natalie and Rod - owners and chef of Asia Nine - 21 Jan 2009
Nuthinepan Tantivejakul, co-owner with her husband of Asia Nine, says it's so much easier just to call her Natalie. The simplest way to address her husband Boonrod Yotmanee, is to call him 'Chef'. Which is what he is. Or 'Chef Rod'. read more...
Mains: Thai Basil Chicken - 21 Jan 2009
Thai Basil Chicken is one of the most popular dishes on any Thai menu. Including at Asia Nine, where this multi-flavor layered recipe comes from. read more...
What do you know? A food trivia quiz for 2009 - 14 Jan 2009
What's the word for the dusty crumbs at the bottom of cereal boxes? (Yes, there is one.)
What is generally the most unsanitary part of the kitchen?
What do you call the stringy bits that cling to the surface of a banana? (Yes, they have an official name.)
What two ingredients will make an edible lava lamp? read more...
Vegan bakeries - 14 Jan 2009
Hard to believe you can make a seductive cake without eggs or cream or butter. But there are a number of bakeries around town doing just that. And there's nothing homespun in how they look either, for those of you who think 'vegan' means food that looks and tastes like a hand-knitted sock. But look at Cake Love's bundt cake, right. read more...
Sides: Hoecakes - 8 Jan 2009
Hoe Cakes, the recipe of Ryan Morgan, executive chef at Art & Soul, are, according to its menu, cornmeal 'pizzas' traditionally cooked after a hard day's work on the farm. Let your imagination fly! read more...
Ethan McKee - new Chef of Notti Bianchi and Circle One Bistro - 31 Dec 2008
Ethan McKee is taking over from Brendan Cox as Executive Chef at Notte Bianchi and Circle One Bistro. He's coming from Rock Creek Mazza, where this profile of the local Washingtonian took place. read more...
Scallops - 24 Dec 2008
It's a shame Americans haven't developed an appetite yet for a scallop's coral - that beautiful roe you see in the photo that's prized by French cooks... read more...
Broad Branch Market - one of my favorite markets - 24 Dec 2008
Tracy Stannard used to work for chef Carole Greenwood at Buck's Fishing & Camping. Now she owns and runs the Broad Branch Market which is what a neighborhood market ought to be. I remember it in previous hands as a run-down dump that sold good sausages. Sausages are still for sale. But picture a complete physical make-over. A bright and airy modest Dean & DeLuca crossed with the serve-yourself section like Whole Foods used to have for dried pulses, rice, nuts and such, plus an old-time ice cream parlor and wild, wild candy store to the side. read more...
Chew On This: Hangover cures that work? Debunking the food myths... - 23 Dec 2008
It's official. A fry-up and an aspirin won't cure a hangover. New Year's Eve revelers, you have been warned. On the plus side, eating late at night doesn't make you fat. Debunking the myths... read more...
Fish: Seared Scallops with Nicoise Salad & Gribiche - 17 Dec 2008
Joe Palma of WestEnd Bistro's elegant take on a Salade Nicoise works as well for sweetbreads as it does for the scallops he calls for in this recipe. A shame we haven't developed an appetite yet for a scallop's coral - that beautiful roe you see in the photo that's prized by French cooks... read more...
Joe Palma - Chef de Cuisine of The Westend Bistro - 17 Dec 2008
Joe Palma’s recipe for getting a good culinary training is simple. “Find the best possible people you can work for and shut up.”
This became the Chef de Cuisine of the Westend Bistro’s game-plan once he’d discovered a passion for food. He earned money as a line cook while studying for degrees in Economics and Philosophy at the College of Charleston. read more...
Nems - 17 Dec 2008
I always thought Nems were Vietnamese spring rolls - ground meat or a shrimp or some crab rolled inside a thin sheet of pastry with some crispy vegetables and fried till gold. These banana leaf-wrapped packages call themselves Nem. But opened up reveal a spicy sausage-meat that needs to be deep fried. read more...
Persimmon - 10 Dec 2008
Persimmons (not to be confused with the crunchier Fuju...) are now in season. Buy them when they feel like a soft boiled egg cracked into your palm - soft and saggy. Cut them open and scoop out the running flesh with a teaspoon. Or use them as a sauce over Greek yogurt or another fruit, like a baked apple. It's hard to say whether they have much flavor. But their color is heart lifting these gray days. The best sources for them - perhaps because the clientele understands the condition they should be sold in - are Middle Eastern and Asian markets. read more...
Chew On This: The most unhealthy $1 burgers? - 10 Dec 2008
If you believe that a $1 burger being pushed at you from junk food purveyors taking advantage of money fears induced by the economic slump is a good deal, at least pick the one that's least harmful to your health. Washington's non-profit Cancer Project has assessed their nutritional value and come up with a handy top 5 of the most bad for you. Or rather, bottom 5. read more...
Fish: Provençal Fish Stew - 10 Dec 2008
This hearty fish stew from Jeff and Barbara Black - of BlackSalt and more - is a year-round meal in a bowl that's quick and easy to assemble. It's the backbone of regular orders to a Mediterranean fishmonger like the one in my photograph. read more...
Jeff & Barbara Black - From Addie's to an empire - 10 Dec 2008
The morning I went to interview Jeff and Barbara Black, owners of BlackSalt, BlackSalt Market and Addie’s, 6000 bottles of cabernets had cascaded from a falling wine rack to the floor at BlackSalt. The Blacks were in mourning. “It’s like leaving art work in the rain,” said Barbara. “This is what I’d call alcohol abuse.” read more...
Chew On This: Alzheimer's and junk food link - 2 Dec 2008
Junk food linked to Alzheimer's? Fuggeddaboutit, do I hear you jest? Well, feed a mouse on a diet rich in fat, sugar and cholesterol for nine months and you'll have a mouse with chemical changes in its brain that mimic Alzheimer's. read more...
Breads Unlimited - one of my favorites - 2 Dec 2008
No bakery does brown bread like Breads Unlimited. Whole Foods' brown loaves taste packed with unnecessary sugar. Firehook's are extremely dense. Heidelberg Bakery's brown bread is excellent - if you want a German or Northern European loaf. If you just want a gooey, chewy bread that makes about the best toast in town, head to Breads Unlimited.
It's in the Bradley Shopping Center on Arlington Road in Bethesda. The strip may look unprepossessing, but it's home to two of the Washington area's best treasures: Bruce Variety and Strosneider's. read more...
Lynne Breaux - Restaurant Royalty - 2 Dec 2008
Lynne Breaux’s office feels like a happy place to work. With funny food-reference stickers and ornaments, its waiting area gives the impression of the welcome lobby of a slightly dilapidated bed-and-breakfast establishment run by a warm-hearted and enthusiastic owner. As she sails through it to her office at the end, she introduces the visitor to the tiny, and smiling, staff of RAMW. That’s the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington that represents over 500 restaurants and bars in Washington, DC, the City of Alexandria, Arlington County, Fairfax County, Loudoun County and Prince William County. From 1992 she’s been on its board, and its president since 2001. read more...
Masa - the Mexican tamales dough - 25 Nov 2008
Masa means 'dough' in Mexican. It's the dense dough made from grinding fresh field corn. Its dense yellow hue comes from the addition of calcium oxide to the water in which it's boiled. The mineral softens the outer casing of the kernels, rendering the interior more nutritious. read more...
Sides: Frijoles refritos Zora's way - 25 Nov 2008
Zora Margolis's method for frijoles refritos - refried beans - is healthy. It doesn't involve frying the beans after they're cooked. read more...
Chew On This: Making sure 'organic' means organic - 25 Nov 2008
For anyone feeling at sea about how to make themselves heard on food concerns, now's your chance. The USDA has just released an agenda describing what they call 'significant and not significant regulations' being developed in its agencies. Two are of serious interest to anyone worried about the dependability of the National Organic Program (NOP)'s meat and dairy product certification.
Your paying over the odds for organic produce and products is no guarantee that they are in fact organic. read more...
Longans - 25 Nov 2008
Longans are an Asian fruit clustered on a branch and looking like smoother lychees. Inside their flesh is translucent white around a dark stone, accounting for its name 'dragon eyes' for the way the pit shows through the fruit. read more...
Zora Margolis - making her own masa - 25 Nov 2008
When Zora Margolis cooks Mexican tamales, she makes the masa herself. That’s the spongy corn dough containing the stuffing. It may sound like no big deal. (She makes her own tortillas, too. And verduras escabeche - pickled vegetables. Everything at her Mexican feasts, in fact.) But you can’t get hold of the kind of fresh corn you need to make the masa anywhere in the greater Washington area. Huitzilopochtli knows, she tried. read more...
Halalco - 25 Nov 2008
While some of us may back off from offal, those who like a good steak and kidney pie can find the necessary lambs' kidneys at Halalco. If that sounds like a forkful too far, choose the Halal duck. This Halal supermarket is like a holiday to somewhere south of the Bosphorus. read more...
Kosher rennet - 20 Nov 2008
Kosher rennet, sold in Halal markets as shangesh, is key to the making of a Kosher cheese. read more...
Lontong rice - 19 Nov 2008
Lontong is the name given to rice that has been wrapped in banana leaves for a long slow steaming that produces a sticky wad of rice for cutting into cubes and serving with Indonesian dishes like satay. read more...
Le Market/El Mercado - one of my favorite markets - 19 Nov 2008
I may just be about to betray my favorite market - H Mart in Merrifield. Just up from it where Gallows Road meets Route 50 is Le Market/El Mercado, a clean and shiny recent arrival stocked with treasures from South East Asia and Latin America. read more...
Chew On This: Will Obama eat right? - 19 Nov 2008
The two-year election campaign is usually a struggle for the contenders and their staff to keep their weight down to a minimum while sharing congenial meals with voters in every community they land in. But we read in Newsweek's behind-the-scenes report on the running of the campaign that while Hillary's willingness to accept the food she was offered exacerbated the willingness of her waistline to spread, the President-Elect actually lost weight. read more...
Andrew F. Smith - long-time food historian - 19 Nov 2008
If you’re ever stuck for a gift for a foodie friend who seems to own everything in the battery – de cuisine or pantry, here’s the perfect solution: Andrew F. Smith’s The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink. A compilation of information from the brains and expertise of over 200 food specialists, you can dip in anywhere for nuggets that will keep you in cocktail party anecdotes, and serious information to drop with specialists from now until the cowpeas (see page 171) come home. read more...
Manna - Jonathan Seningren uses Heaven's prime ingredient - 19 Nov 2008
Manna from heaven may, according to Bible history, have come down from God to save his chosen people at their darkest hours of wandering the barren desert. But head down to Hook and anyone can sample it. Chef Jonathan Seningen is chopping it finely and sprinkling it over his dish of Wahoo with Juniper, Cilantro Oil and Grapefruit. read more...
Don't know how to carve a turkey? Watch this. - 19 Nov 2008
Don't know how to carve a turkey? Watch this video demonstration. read more...
Acai diet scam alert! - 13 Nov 2008
Be very careful in subscribing to some sites offering Acai as a weight loss product. Read the comments that have come in to eatWashington and a shocking number of people have been subjected what looks like a scam. read more...
Chew On This: Oatmeal for breakfast keeps weight off - 12 Nov 2008
No excuse now to avoid oatmeal in favor of Lucky Charms. Lower energy dense breakfasts (that's stodge to you and me), high in nutrients, not only help maintain a healthy weight but help with better food choices during the rest of the day. So says the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. read more...
Grappa - grappling with this Italian drink - 12 Nov 2008
This description of the potent Italian drink comes from Domenica Marchetti's cookbook, Big Night In, where it is part of her recipe for Bittersweet Mocha Grappa Torte with Walnuts. read more...
Domenica Marchetti - Italian home-cooking food writer - 12 Nov 2008
Domenica Marchetti would never recognize herself from this description: a woman who seems to have the secret of how to juggle the precarious work/homelife balance. An Alexandria resident, she has a 12 year-old son and a 10 year-old daughter yet she's also published two cookbooks. The latest is 'Big Night In' just released and nominated by Publisher's Weekly recently as one of only three top new cookbook picks - alongside Rachel Ray's latest tome. For the rest of us, she's someone to admire. But like so many working moms trying to be all things to all people, she says, "I feel the pressure when one [kid] forgets to study for a test, or they miss a math assignment. I feel I've let them down." read more...
Desserts: Affogato al caffe - 5 Nov 2008
Aside from serving a bowl of M & Ms at the end of a dinner, this is the easiest stand in for dessert you could find. And one of the most delicious. read more...
Chew On This: We just love our tartrazine - 5 Nov 2008
Of all the food dyes stuffed into what we eat, the shade of yellow created by tartrazine seems to cause the most allergic reaction. If you suffer from asthma or aspirin intolerance, or are feeding children, you - and the rest of us - had better be aware of what it's in. Which is a startlingly long list. Oh, and by the way, the UK's the Foods Standards Agency has called for its voluntary removal by 2009. FDA, are you listening? read more...
The dish - weekly goings on around the capital - 5 Nov 2008
The pick of what's on this week in food around the capital. read more...
Jodi Lehr - Queen of coffee - 4 Nov 2008
Once upon a time, Jodi Lehr might have been described as Roberto Donna’s Mary Poppins. Not that a woman as stylish as she could be pictured in clumpy shoes, squashed hat and dowdy brown coat, clutching a stout umbrella. (Check the Len Depas photo.) But the chef who some (me) might say was the father of Washington dining out as we now know it, would probably agree that without the careful ministrations of Jodi Lehr, he might have gone to pieces. read more...
Eastern Market - 4 Nov 2008
Eastern Market has recovered after the fire that devastated it in spring 2007. But while finishing touches are put to the original brick building, you'll find it in an extensive marquee opposite.
It's like a street farmers' market, but established long before anyone had head the word farmers' market in the U.S. and open every day of the week and under cover - though it also has a variety of farmers' market stalls outside. Come here for a proper butcher, fish and cheesemonger. read more...
Starters: Leek and Potato Soup - 27 Oct 2008
Made with simple ingredients, Potage Bonne Femme is one of the great classics of French country cooking. This comforting autumnal soup is the version of David Ashwell, chef of Brasserie Beck. read more...
Filipino alternatives to chips - 27 Oct 2008
If you're not familiar with Filipino food, start with the snacks...There are bags of interesting things to crunch along with a cold beer and a good game on the TV that make a change from popcorn and chips. read more...
Founding Farmers - a restaurant goes green - 27 Oct 2008
Graham Duncan worked as a chef in Atlanta for 12 years before coming to D.C. to work at Founding Farmers, a restaurant owned by 40,000 farmers that has been designed and built to meet LEED certification standards. (That’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design to you and me.) read more...
Pork roasts - 27 Oct 2008
Pigs have been intensively farmed to produce a lean white meat. But in an effort to reduce its fat, pork has been turned into a meat that's tasteless and dry. Seek out a cut from a heritage breed, however, and you will have a different experience - pork as it should be. And it's a better life for the pig. read more...
Chew On This: Are your/her breasts shrinking? - 22 Oct 2008
Are your breasts shrinking? Then you're drinking too much coffee. read more...
Art Smith - owner-chef Art & Soul - 22 Oct 2008
It's rare that I leave a cooking demonstration itching to go home and cook the dish I’ve just seen and eaten. Mostly I think I might cook it - someday. Art Smith’s buttermilk biscuits are the exception. Those biscuits aren't on the menu at his just-opened Capitol Hill restaurant Art & Soul so the recipe, from Back to the Table, is offered this week. But if its Macaroni Casserole is anything like the Macaroni Cheese he made for us, then you'll want to bring your comforter and pillow with you to curl up under while you eat it. read more...
Sides: Boarding House Biscuits - 21 Oct 2008
Art Smith's biscuits are so simple to make, quick and easy and so delicious to eat you have no excuse not to try. read more...
Paak Bangla Bazaar - 21 Oct 2008
Par-boiled basmati rice was only one of the intriguing ingredients on sale at the small Pakistani-Bangladeshi bazaar in Falls Church. read more...
Kosher markets, bakeries & restaurants - 16 Oct 2008
There are a wide number of Kosher markets and bakeries, as well as eateries offering most options from a casual pita to a Chinese meal, around the greater Washington area. read more...
Grains & pulses - 15 Oct 2008
We're at the point, as Michael Pollan keeps reminding us, where raising meat is becoming unsustainable and depriving the rest of the world of food. Asian cuisine tends to use meat only in small amounts, as a flavoring. It uses grains and pulses for its protein supply. We should learn from this - they're delicious, and cheap. read more...
Filipino feasting - a menu unscrambled - 15 Oct 2008
If you find yourself at sea over a Filipino restaurant menu, here is an explanation of some of the most popular dishes. read more...
Chew on This: Alinea - Cirque du Soleil on a plate? - 14 Oct 2008
In Chicago this week, I've eaten a 'beef', a 'brat', several 'sammitches', a 'dawg' or three, and plan on a deep dish pizza before I leave. I've also eaten at award-heaped Alinea and Charlie Trotter's. And I confess I'm a tad stumped. read more...
Starters: Green Asparagus and Morels Fricassee with Organic Poached Egg - 14 Oct 2008
This recipe of Nicolas Legret, chef at The Willard Room, can be adapted to use cheaper mushrooms than morels. read more...
Nicolas Legret - chef of The Willard Room - 14 Oct 2008
It may be surprising to learn that it’s possible for a chef to get Michelin-star burn out. “You get tired,” says Nicolas Legret, executive chef at The Willard Room. He knows. He’s worked at several of France’s top Michelin-blessed two and three star restaurants, in Paris, in rural France and in Cannes. read more...
Thai produce to order from Thailand - 10 Oct 2008
You want to order fresh produce direct from Thailand? Apparently you can, at the Foodway in New Carrollton. read more...
Cuban sandwiches - where to find them - 8 Oct 2008
Genuine Cuban sandwich is sliced across the vertical with a filling of roast pork, ham, Swiss cheese, dill pickles, mustard and majo, a garlicky vinegar sauce. You don't have to travel to Miami to find the nearest. read more...
Banana flowers - display or food? - 8 Oct 2008
Sometimes called banana heart for their shape and color, banana flowers are vegetables, used from India right across South East Asia.
Remove all the outer leaves and curious white bracts till you reach the paler inside. If you need to steam them, you can microwave them wrapped in clingwrap. read more...
Wagshal's - one of my favorite markets - 8 Oct 2008
One of the downsides of supermarkets like Whole Foods and the Giant is that they cause the disappearance of the local purveyor. How many main street butchers are still in business around the country? Wagshal's, in Spring Valley, is one of the last. read more...
Amy Brandwein - chef of Casa Nonna - 8 Oct 2008
(This interview with Amy Brandwein was conducted when she was cooking at fyve in Arlington.)
In 2007, Amy Brandwein, new chef de cuisine at fyve was nominated Rising Culinary Star for a RAMMY, the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington awards. Not bad for someone who only started cooking professionally aged 30. read more...
Chew On This: Pringles tweaks our charitable side - 8 Oct 2008
Here's a master stroke of marketing: just in case you're giving up Pringles in favor of no or healthier snacks, Pringles have come up with a reason this approaching holiday season to carry on munching: if we don't, we'll deprive a charity caring for children in hospitals across America. read more...
Chew On This: A call for food rationing in the developed world - 1 Oct 2008
If we don't limit ourselves to four modest portions of meat and one liter of milk a week, says a report by the Food Climate Network considered the most thorough yet, there's no way we'll avoid run-away climate change. read more...
Korean Korner - 1 Oct 2008
Though its produce section is lush with bunches of salad greens, mustard greens, bok chois and herbs, it's Korean Korner's meat counter that offers some interesting cuts. There's a short rib that's so thick it makes a foolproof braise. Spare ribs come in regular lengths as well as finger-food size. read more...
Michael Santoro - chef de cuisine at Blue Duck Tavern - 1 Oct 2008
The resume of Michael Santoro, new chef de cuisine at The Blue Duck Tavern, reads like a guide to good restaurants around the world. In England he’s worked at Heston Blumental's The Fat Duck and with bad-boy-but brilliant Tom Aiken, as well as Fergus Henderson. He’s been through the kitchens of the one-star Mugaritz Restaurant near San Sebastian, Spain. He’s worked at Mill’s Tavern in Providence, RI. He’s served as sous chef at the Michelin one-star Restaurant Gilt in New York. And before joining The Blue Duck Tavern he was chef de cuisine at Boqueria, a popular Spanish restaurant in Manhattan. read more...
Fish: Whiskey Cured Salmon Gravlox - 1 Oct 2008
This recipe from Michael Santoro, chef de cuisine at The Blue Duck Tavern, is really simple to accomplish and impressive to serve. Be sure to go over the flesh of the salmon with your fingers and a pair of tweezers to winkle out any tiny bones. By the way, the difference between "Whisky" and "Whiskey"? The former is the Scottish spelling, the latter the Irish. read more...
Dominican food unscrambled - 25 Sep 2008
Stuck puzzling over a menu of Dominican food? It's a cuisine well worth investigation. Here's what you will find behind the unfamiliar names. read more...
Shri Krishna Grocery - 24 Sep 2008
Seductive, calming Indian music plays inside this modest market. So when you stop in front of a display of karhai bowls - wok-like pans that some say gave 'curry' its name - you sense that with a simple purchase of just one small one you'll turn out perfect Indian meals. read more...
Eggs better for you and the hen - 24 Sep 2008
Think hard about buying Cage-Free Hen eggs instead of regular eggs. There's not a massive amount of price difference. But there is a massive difference for the hens. read more...
Chew On This: 75 million more go hungry and we scoff fortified foods - 24 Sep 2008
920 million people are undernourished, and with the current financial crisis that figure will rise. Meanwhile our hunger in the U.S. for "functional foods" with their added nutritional values will push sales to $60 billion next year. Something wrong with this picture? read more...
French v. DC markets - 17 Sep 2008
This is a picture of Monsieur Arvouet who makes the best duck salami in the Dordogne. I miss it. It's always hard to adjust to shopping at home after a long, long holiday. This summer in France has wrecked my buying skills. Stocking up an empty fridge, I spent an hour in Whole Foods - and came out with a pint of milk. read more...
Chew On This: Bread from June is fresh? - 17 Sep 2008
This week Wegmans had to widen its recall of store-made bagels and bialys announced originally on September 10, because of the possible presence of bits of metal in them. Now the recall includes challah bread, bialys, rolls and bagels baked in store. More striking than the fragments of metal in the dough and how they got there is the information that the period the recall covers is from June 19 to September 11. Is bread from June 19 still hanging around the place? Yours or theirs? read more...
Roots - 17 Sep 2008
Roots is an organic supermarket with three branches locally that claims it is small enough to beat Whole Foods on price. read more...
Sides: Rapini - 17 Sep 2008
Rapini are an under-rated green. Peter Pastan, owner-chef of Obelisk and 2Amys' recipe gives these leafy stalks a chance to star - on their own or as a mildly bitter side vegetable that would go well with grilled meat. read more...
Peter Pastan - Owner-chef of Obelisk and 2Amys - 17 Sep 2008
Peter Pastan fell in love with Italy traveling across the country by train. It shows in the two different styles of his two very different Italian restaurants. read more...
Chew On This: Organics threatened by rising feed costs - 10 Sep 2008
One impact of the rising cost of food has been on organic meat and dairy farmers - who are leaving the market because they can't afford organic animal feed. Consumer demand for organic meat and dairy continues to grow. But supply is becoming limited as dairy, beef and pig farmers leave organic farming - some of them even leaving farming altogether. read more...
Rodmans - one of my favorite markets - 10 Sep 2008
Rodman's is a treasure trove of a store - a market filled with groceries, wines and beers at heavily discounted prices. Missing McVitie's Digestive Biscuits, PG Tips, South African chutneys, Indian ready-meals, Middle East jams? Ex-pats from and travelers to everywhere crowd the aisles in search of nostalgia-inducing products they desire the most. read more...
Brendan Cox - chef of DC Coast - 10 Sep 2008
Brendan Cox, late of CircleOne Bistro and Notti Bianchi, has just been appointed as chef of DC Coast. He started cooking seriously while part of a college co-op. The school ran a Health Food Cooperative where, instead of living off the meal plan, students could make their own food. “I cooked for myself a lot and got that bug.” read more...
Mains: Roasted Peking Duck, Kohlrabi, Apples, and Chard - 9 Sep 2008
This is a dish to take you into fall and winter from Brendan Cox, late of Circle Bistro and Notti Bianche, now of DC Coast. While the duck is roasting in the oven, you have plenty of time to tackle the vegetables and the rich sauce. read more...
Chew On This: USDA says 'No' to BSE testing - 4 Sep 2008
Hot on the heels of Chew On This of August 20’s report on new tests to detect BSE in cattle comes news that the government can prevent meat packers from testing their animals for mad cow disease. read more...
Fish: Fricassée Catalane - 3 Sep 2008
Looking for a main course dish for friends that's a little different? Here's one you can put together at the very last minute if you've prepared the ingredients ahead of time. It comes from French chef Bernard Grenier, owner-chef of Bistro D'Oc. read more...
Bubble Tea Cafe - one of my favorites - 3 Sep 2008
Bubble tea may be an acquired taste for anyone not from South East Asia. But give yourself a treat: acquire it. On the lower level of the Wheaton Mall, not far from the entrance to Target, is a dynamic young Asian couple who whiz around like dervishes making all manner of cold or frozen drinks, from fruit smoothies to milk shakes. But their Bubble Teas are where the fun is. read more...
eatDordogne: Week 7, the end of summer - 3 Sep 2008
Final tally of duck consumption: 7 duck confits; 5 helpings of duck foie gras poelle, flash fried and served with a swirl of honey and balsamic vinegar; 1 duck roasted in red wine; 2 pots of duck rillettes; 1 helping duck cassoulet; 4 home-made terrines of foie gras; 1 large Quiche au Confit de Canard; 3 servings of foie gras brulée from Le Vieux Logis; 4 plates of duck gésiers (confited gizzards - no, they're very nice indeed); copious slices duck salami; copious spoonfuls of duck fat in the Pommes Sarladaises.
Feet definitely growing webs: it's time to come home. read more...
Starters: Curried Cauliflower and Fuji Apple Soup - 26 Aug 2008
You may think cauliflower doesn't have enough flavor to work with Madras curry powder. Just try this velvety, subtly spiced recipe from Barry Koslow, when he was chef of The Mendocino Bar & Grille before leaving for Tallulah, for a very elegant soup. read more...
Chew On This: CSPI wants dyes out of foods - 26 Aug 2008
In the 1990s I had an English friend whose small child suffered from petit mal - minor epileptic fits. Her doctor advised her to lay off any foods with colorings declared on the labels. The fits disappeared - until the family was posted to the U.S. when they returned with a vengeance, since many labels don't fully declare food content. Her pediatrician dismissed her questions about food colorings. read more...
eatDordogne: The diary of a summer, week 6 - 26 Aug 2008
Stéphane Pécal is an award-winning baker. He shows up at the farmers' night markets where local producers cook for you whatever they've grown or slaughtered, hours before the picnickers to fire up the stove for his bread baking. Pastries from the patissier at his Castelnau bakery are also on sale. Some of them are the result of failure, he says. He likes a good mistake. read more...
Napolean Bakery - 26 Aug 2008
It's always a pleasure to see people at work when you're not. At the Korean Napoleon Bakery if you look over the counter crammed with cakes colorfully decorated in butter creams with greetings, wedding figures, sugar babies to celebrate every occasion imaginable, you can see the bakers in the back making the goodies. read more...
Barry Koslow - Chef of Mendocino Bar & Grille - 26 Aug 2008
Before he took up cooking, Mendocino Grille chef Barry Koslow toured — casually — with a rock band. Now he's moving on to Tallulah and EatBar. read more...
Chew On This: Test to detect BSE? - 20 Aug 2008
There may at last be a test to monitor at the point of slaughter the presence of BSE in a cow's brain or spinal cord. BSE - Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy - leads to Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD) in humans. First discovered in 1996 in the UK, up to now suspected and proven cases of the disease have been diagnosed in 166 people in Britain. read more...
Healthway - 19 Aug 2008
Long before Whole Foods, Healthway was in the area selling organic produce and natural foods. The branch in Annandale, pictured here, opened over 20 years ago. read more...
eatDordogne: The diary of a summer, week 5 - 19 Aug 2008
It's the week of the Tennis Club 'Mechoui'. This is an excuse for the eaters and drinkers of the area to hunker down in the newly refurbished (courtesy of EU donations) metal hut that constitutes the Tennis Club and tuck into a roast wild boar with copious amounts of Percharmant wine. It's all cooked by the village men of the club who only sometimes wield a tennis racket but can always raise a glass of whisky. Which they do at around 6 a.m. ceremoniously to toast the boar as they set fire to the pyre of logs beneath it. read more...
Spices in bulk - 19 Aug 2008
Christine, a recent Washington arrival from San Francisco, wanted to know where to find spices and herbs in bulk cheaply. Not at Whole Foods, for a start. Healthway, featured at the top of the page, has a wide range. But she did her own researches and came up with these answers, which she generously passes on. read more...
Chew On This: Dirty dining in our restaurants - 13 Aug 2008
Washington's Center for Science in the Public Interest has come up with an intriguing proposal: public access to a restaurant's health-code grades. The recommendation comes in a report titled "Dirty Dining: Have Reservations? You Will Now", just published. read more...
Fish: Seared Salmon and Romaine Heart Salad - 12 Aug 2008
If you're looking for a change from the ubiquitous Chicken Caesar Salad, this salmon dish from Peggy Thompson, when she was chef of DISH, makes an elegant and satisfying lunch at any time of the year aor a refreshing main course for a summer dinner. read more...
Spice Lanka - one of my favorite markets - 12 Aug 2008
There is a huge difference, says Chandra Malalasekara, between Indian food and the food of Sri Lanka. It's mainly in the spices. "Totally different," he says. He's the Sri Lankan owner of Spice Lanka, so he should know. read more...
eatDordogne: The diary of a summer, week 4 - 12 Aug 2008
We're overrun with snails. Fat, juicy slithering lumps of elastic, they ooze through the undergrowth. They munch their way through the cabbages, the melons, the zucchini in our potager, leaving the vegetables looking like someone has been at them with an acid drip. In revenge, and because nothing should go to waste, I took a leaf from their book and decided to eat them. read more...
Peggy Thompson - Chef of DISH - 12 Aug 2008
Peggy Thompson, chef at DISH, worked as a meeting planner before going to culinary school. Boredom inspired her to start a new career, and through it she found more than just good food. read more...
Chew On This: French women DO get fat - 6 Aug 2008
Whatever elegant Mireille Guiliano, who wrote "French Women Don't Get Fat" believes, they do. Half of all women in France between 35 and 74 and two thirds of French men are thought to be overweight, according to a study released in June. One fifth of all French adults are obese. read more...
New brunch blog - check it out - 6 Aug 2008
I like the brass of someonewho can sub-head his new blog, Yes, you can occasionally get a good brunch in DC. Log on to his blog at brunch dc and see where he's picked, and add your own suggestions. read more...
Peter Smith - Owner-chef of PS7s - 5 Aug 2008
In the family of executive chef and owner of PS7s, passion for food was passed down through the males. read more...
Peter Smith's Scallop Boudin with Citrus Compote and Fennel Purée - 5 Aug 2008
This is a dish from Peter Smith, owner-chef of PS7's, designed to impress. But if you take it slowly and carefully it isn't as hard to produce as it may at first appear. The purée and the compote can be finished ahead of time and the boudin taken right up to the moment of poaching. read more...
Niralla Sweets - one of my favorite markets - 5 Aug 2008
When no-one's looking, specially not your mother, you can huddle low in your car outside Niralla Sweets munching on a hot samosa fresh from the bag and very slightly greasy, and dip it into one or the other of two sauces - a hot chili and a cool coriander yogurt. read more...
eatDordogne: The diary of a summer, week 3 - 5 Aug 2008
The wages clerk at the Town Hall has run away with a long-distance truck driver. She took the camper van she had won in a national lottery not some weeks before and headed south. The town is agog, not least because only she knew who on the public payroll is to be paid what. read more...
eatDordogne: The diary of a summer, week 2 - 30 Jul 2008
The local village came to dinner. The chief of police stood up and sang "Do you do you do you Saint Tropez" - one of those songs the French think are the coolest thing and leave foreigners baffled. read more...
Chew on This: Food marketing makes kids fat - 30 Jul 2008
Guess how much money the largest food and beverage companies in the U.S. are spending in marketing their products to children between 2 and 17? $1.6 billion. And you thought the food industry was doing its best to lower childhood obesity rates? read more...
Wegmans - one of my favorite markets - 29 Jul 2008
What a shame for central city dwellers that Wegmans is such a long drive away. It gives Whole Foods such a good run for our money. But then if it weren't and had to pay the high District rents, it probably wouldn't be able to maintain its good prices. Its organic section is competitive, too, and in its own zone which makes for easier shopping. read more...
Frozen custard v. ice cream - 29 Jul 2008
What's the difference between frozen custard, soft serve and ice cream? It boils down to - though not literally for each of these frozen desserts - a question of eggs and creamy milk. read more...
Summer cooking tips for guys - 23 Jul 2008
Mike Licht usually blogs on Washington culture and news events on NotionsCapital.com. But this week he offers some handy tips on summer cooking for guys who don't want to end up in the emergency room and whose partners don't want them to either. read more...
A slam poem on the side... - 21 Jul 2008
Poetry doesn't usually appear on food blogs. But this one - about the capital - is called White Chocolate - which is a food - by Sophia, a young formerly DC-based slam poet. Worth a listen... read more...
eatDordogne: The diary of a summer - 21 Jul 2008
This summer's first visitor has just left. And packed his sheets to take with him. He said he was a poet. He seems to have been a thief. He came shrouded in one of those family names from the lesser known Stans where groups of consonants are joined by a single 'y'. The prime attraction of the wife stowed at home may have been her own nation's lenient immigration policy. The village is now speculating what would have been behind this wanton act. Perhaps he's assessing the thread count by candlelight in the town on the freer side of the mountains backing up to his Stan to gauge how many nimble fingers can be put to the copying. At least they weren't a pair of the antique monogrammed linens. Before the advent of cheap air fares out of the UK and the Netherlands, you used to be able to pick these up at flea markets for less than the cost of a polyester set. Should I send him a bill? Perhaps they'll come back through the mail, laundered, packed into soft tissue and tied in raffia.
His visit meant the first of the summer's duck feasts. If you stay long enough in the Dordogne, you will leave with webbed feet. read more...
Chew on This: A fish industry collapses as American obesity rises - 20 Jul 2008
Unless we've had our head in the sand of our summer beach, the impact of the soaring cost of corn on the price of beef, pork and chicken won't have passed us by. But with corn and soybeans three times the price of two years ago, catfish farmers have begun draining their ponds, unable to keep up with the expense of feeding their stocks. This as Americans confess they're more obese than last year - and should be eating more healthily. read more...
Starters: Jewell Yam and Leek Soup with Chopped Chives - 19 Jul 2008
The honest orange tuber is turned into a colorful, silky soup under the magic wand of Nora Pouillon, owner-chef of Restaurant Nora. read more...
Nora Pouillon - Owner-chef of Restaurant Nora - 19 Jul 2008
Chef Nora Pouillon has been a force in the sustainable-sourcing, organic and slow food movements. At Restaurant Nora, she keeps pushing for change. read more...
Stella's Bakery - one of my favorites - 19 Jul 2008
Stella's Bakery is a bakery of European pastries, cakes and breads that's one of the best in the area. read more...
Chew On This: Drink even more red wine! - 8 Jul 2008
Wine drinkers looking for an excuse for another glass know that resveratrol in red wine is a good source of antioxidants. Now a group of Hebrew University researchers in Jerusalem have discovered that when you pair it with certain foods, beneficial polyphenols can avert the harmful effect of certain molecules that emerge during the digestive process. Chug down a glass of Pinot Noir or other red wine with your juicy steak and the mix of the two in the stomach will prevent the formation of harmful oxidizing toxins released from red meat and other high-fat foods while they're being digested. read more...
South African groceries - 7 Jul 2008
South African ex-pats or enthusiasts miss their Rooibos tea, their All Gold cans of Seville oranges and figs, their special chutneys. read more...
Chew on This: Whose food healthier? Nature's or the food biz? - 3 Jul 2008
It used to be we asked no more of food than to make us feel full or cosseted or impressed by its skilful execution. Now we expect food to do more than just fill our stomachs. It’s got to have added value as a health remedy. We demand additives in the most unlikely of products, to cure us of existing frailties or protect us against the offset of new ones. It’s not enough to eat salmon or mackerel at least once a week to get our omega-3 fatty acids. We want them delivered by other means than a fish. read more...
Graham Bartlett - Chef of Zengo - 2 Jul 2008
Graham Bartlett is executive chef of Zengo, where you can find almost everything from ceviche to sushi. He caught the “food bug” while traveling with his parents in Mexico. But Paris, not the States nor Latin America was where he went to learn the culinary arts. read more...
Chew on This: Peking Duck heart disease cure? - 17 Jun 2008
Your starter for 10: The latest magical ingredient to cut the risk of heart disease is --- what? That food coloring that turns Peking Duck its glowing chestnut red.
Didn't get the answer? Back to the bottom of the quiz. read more...
Chew on this: Sickening tomatoes - 16 Jun 2008
The tomato, that friendly fruit romantically called (by pedants, mostly) the love apple, has been almost as poisonous to 228 people in 23 states as the apple her stepmother proferred to Snow White. read more...
Alison Swope - Chef of Restaurant K by Alison Swope - 16 Jun 2008
When Andale, the Penn Quarter restaurant focusing on the foods of Mexico's Oaxaca state, closed at the end of summer 2006, it was more than usually distressing for Alison Swope, the executive chef and co-owner behind Andale. "Most of that staff had been together for 10 years," she says. Loyal followers of Swope's cooking were equally dismayed. There are few enough women chefs in Washington that it can afford to lose one, especially one of her caliber.
(This interview took place before Restaurant K closed.) read more...
Extras: Herbs for cooking - 15 Jun 2008
Unless you're cooking pesto sauce, Middle Eastern or Indian dishes on a regular basis, the bunches of herbs sold by supermarkets are usually so large the leaves spoil before you can use all of them. Here are some saving solutions. read more...
Pam Ginsberg - knife skills at the bone - 15 Jun 2008
Pam Ginsberg knows cows.
Or beef, to be more precise. And ham, and chickens. And sausagemeat, even. Pam Ginsberg is the butcher once drawing carnivores to her counter at Brookville supermarket on Connecticut Ave NW and now to be found at Waghal's Market in Spring Valley. read more...
Artfully Chocolate/Kingsbury Confections - one of my favorites - 15 Jun 2008
This is a rare photograph, according to Rob Kingsbury and Eric Nelson, owners of Artfully Chocolate/Kingsbury Confections. They're rarely found together, one of them holding the fort at the Alexandria store, the other manning the 14th St NW location, probably behind the bar area creating chocolate-based cocktails and drinks. read more...
Trent Conry - Chef of Ardeo - 15 Jun 2008
Texas-born Trent Conry of Ardeo/Bardeo likes spicy foods, big talk and an ever-changing menu. This summer, Ardeo's roof top tables are where to eat on a holiday that doesn't take you out of town... read more...
How to make foam and fluff - 6 Jun 2008
Ever since Ferran Adria of El Bulli took his batterie de cuisine into the laboratory, we've been seeing as much smoke and foam as Hollywood's adventure and horror movies offer. And we've been just as pinned to our seats and bar stools by the experience, only without the screaming. The secret to the smoke is liquid nitrogen. But how about the foam? read more...
On The Road: 4 days in Portugal - 5 Jun 2008
Traveling north from Porto the mountains in spring are so thickly blanketed in egg-yolk-colored broom and purple heather there's no room for goats and sheep to graze. The wine is wonderful - spritzy enough to convince you you're just sipping a summer lemonade and light enough not to do too much damage. The food is less so. If you're catching fish this fresh, why not leave it to show off. read more...
Aulie Bunyarataphan - Owner-chef of Bangkok Joe's - 5 Jun 2008
We have her father to thank that Aulie Bunyarataphan is cooking, not designing clothes. (Though judging by what she has done with her restaurant, those clothes would look terrific.)
The owner and chef of Bangkok Joe’s, Bunyarataphan had ambitions growing up in Thailand of going to Paris to study fashion. But Papa didn’t approve. After she graduated high school, he sent her to live with a cousin in Reston, Va., to continue her education. read more...
Chew On This: Jamie Oliver pirated on the internet? - 4 Jun 2008
A 100-plus page file is dropping into e-mail boxes claiming to be a Jamie Oliver cookbook. It's not the first time it has circulated. It made its first appearance on the web in summer 2003. Now it's back. read more...
What is a mangosteen? - 4 Jun 2008
When Queen Victoria heard of the delicate scent-tasting splendor of the mangosteen of South East Asia, she promised to shower anyone who could bring a perfect example back to her plate with riches and titles. Arise, Sir Owner-of-Don-Nam-#1-Supermarket!
Mangosteen are not unlike a lychee, a juicy translucent fruit trapped in separate segments inside a small globe of thick purple skin. read more...
Phyllis Richman - Queen of Washington restaurant reviews - 3 Jun 2008
Phyllis Richman pads barefoot across her front porch and curls up on the porch swing, tucking her red-painted toes beneath her. She smiles and rocks there like a very gentle version of the Cheshire Cat. She has good reason to smile. Retired now from years as The Washington Post’s restaurant reviewer and food writer, she’s been honored with the Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington’s Duke Zeibert Capital Achievement Award. read more...
Chew On This: Cow patting relieves stress - 2 Jun 2008
Feeling stressed? Go ride a tractor. Your anger and hostility levels, if you're harboring any, could diminish by 70 percent, not to mention those feelings of confusion and depression. These may slump by as much as 80 percent. read more...
Desserts: Greenage tart - 2 Jun 2008
Greengages are little green plums. I found them recently at the Afghan Mini Market on Backlick Rd, Springfield and at Iransara, in the Peking Gourmet shopping strip, at 6039 Leesburg Pike. Buy ones that are soft only. But you can make this tart with any kind of plum - or with apricots or apples. It's quick, it's easy, it's mouthwatering. read more...
Salinas Oriental Store - 29 May 2008
You'll find a small selection of home-made Filipino snacks at this unassuming little market. But what's also interesting are the packaged snacks and what these say about different a culture's tastes. read more...
Chew On This: Too little salt bad for the heart? - 27 May 2008
Remember the ‘Butter bad, margarine good – oops, wrong: margarine bad, butter good’ debate? Now salt is the victim of contradictory research. Studies have shown reducing salt intake could cut the long-term risk of cardiovascular disease by up to 35 percent. Last week, the Journal of General Internal Medicine reversed that conclusion, saying too little salt could increase the risk of CVD. read more...
The sweet corn van - 26 May 2008
You can find yourself in Mexico in the heart of Annandale, in the Columbia Pike car park of El Gran Palenque restaurant. It's there that the Elotes Asados Minutas van is parked, cooking and selling sweetcorn smothered in mayo, chili sauce and that grated Mexican cheese that can make your nostrils flare and your lips curl. read more...
Finocchiona salami - 26 May 2008
Finocchiona is one of those wonderful charcuterie meats you had to cross the globe to taste. A Tuscan salami from Florence and nearby, it's secret lies in the fennel seeds that flavors it. Now, if you go to the right source, you can find it around Washington. read more...
Belgian brasseries - 26 May 2008
You don't have to fly out to the tiny cobbled streets behind Brussels' Grand Place to find Belgian brasserie food. There are a number of restaurants that have opened just to serve moules frites, Trappist beers, and other Belgian specialties. read more...
Artisan Confections - one of my favorites - 25 May 2008
Chocolate as art - art as chocolate? Visit Artisan Confections, eat and decide. Native of Arlington Jason Andelman was the pastry chef at TenPenh for five years. A Fine Arts major from the College of William & Mary and an alum of the Culinary Institute of America, he left to pursue an even more artistic adventure - opening his own chocolate shop, Artisan Confections. Now he's making chocolates that look like jewelry. read more...
Mains: Pennsylvania Chicken Pot Pie - 21 May 2008
Kevin Villalovos, chef de cuisine of Cure Bar & Bistro's recipe, is comfort food that's elegant enough to serve at a dinner party. Plus it can be assembled in advance and cooked when the door bell rings. The picture is of some of the American salts he uses in his brines and cures. read more...
Cure Bar & Bistro - 21 May 2008
Kevin Ray Villalovos, Chef de Cuisine of the newly opened Cure Bar & Bistro, works wonders with salt. He's using it to cure salmon, to salt meats and to season his home-made garlic sausage. read more...
Cream unscrambled - 20 May 2008
The friendly cow all brown and white
I love with all my heart:
She gives me cream with all her might
To eat with apple tart.
Not great poetry (would you believe it's by Robert Louis Stevenson?) but a great sentiment. And there are so many different kinds, with different uses. read more...
New Zealand eatery - 20 May 2008
EatWashington doesn't cover many restaurants. (I haven't got the money to review them properly...) And I haven't actually eaten at this one. But there are few enough sources for anything New Zealand in the capital I couldn't ignore Cassatt's. You'll have to review it for me. It calls itself a Kiwi Cafe - and a Gourmet Bistro and its card reads "Where restaurant meets coffee shop". read more...
Brian McBride - Chef of The Blue Duck Tavern - 19 May 2008
Changes at The Blue Duck Tavern. Michael Santoro is joining Executive Chef Brian McBride (pictured) as Chef de Cuisine. He used to be at Manhattan's Boqueria. He's worked in top experimental kitchens, like Heston Blumenthal's Fat Duck in Bray, England, and at Basque restaurant Mugaritz near San Sebastian. For the BDT's summer menu he's created crispy frog legs and sweetbreads with rhubarb and glazed white asparagus; rack of lamb and confit of breast with chickpea puree and rosemary jus; braised rabbit and homemade pasta with prunes and black olives; smoked and pastrami spiced duck breast with confit of leg as well as homemade gnocchi with marinated porcini and poached egg. read more...
Mushrooms - mycological mysteries - 17 May 2008
Anyone living within easy access of forests across Russia, Poland, Finland and Northern Europe will know about mushroom hunts. As soon as the leaves are on the ground, people creep silently in the early morning through the undergrowth, reluctant to give their position away lest other hunters discover where they have made their finds of wonderful and exotic mushrooms.
More and more unusual mushrooms are reaching Washington's supermarkets and farmers' markets. But what are they? And what to do with them? read more...
Chew On This: Obese blamed for food and climate crisis! - 16 May 2008
Breaking news 5.16.08: The World Health Organization predicts the global obese population will double to 700 million by 2015. The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine has calculated the obese consume 18 percent more calories than average. Therefore they're driving up food and fuel prices. How? They provoke an increased consumption of oil by the agriculture and transport industries harnessed to supply their demand for food! Wow. That's quite a twist on the discussion. But it's reported by prestigious journal The Lancet. read more...
Ramadan pastries explained - 13 May 2008
During Ramadan especially rich pastries and desserts are made. Considered restorative and nourishing, you can find them until the end of Id al-Fitr, which is the name of the three days of feasting that follow the end of the fasting period. read more...
Broa de Milho - 13 May 2008
Broa de Milho is a corn bread much loved by the northern Portuguese. The harshness of the soil made wheat growing hard, so bakers made a loaf that is four parts corn to one part stone milled buckwheat. read more...
The Little Bitts Shop - 13 May 2008
This is the kind of shop that your grandmother would have been familiar with. It's a crowded throwback to the time when refrigerators were acqua blue or avodado green, when you bellied up to a soda fountain counter, not your favorite bar. Which i not to say it isn't stocked with the latest in what you need if you're a keen baker. But it's a reassuring kind of place, manned by gentle women of the sort you might call ladies without it being pejorative. read more...
Thai Market - one of my favorite markets - 12 May 2008
Peter Gosak used to be a banker, until one of his clients told him he was going out of business. So Gosak bought him up - and he and Silver Spring's Thai Market have never looked back. read more...
Korean hot pots - 12 May 2008
Cooks in search of low calorie meals that are stimulating to eat could turn to the Korean hot pot. read more...
Sticky Pecan Buns - 12 May 2008
He Who Must Not Necessarily Be Obeyed bought me a KitchenAid. So he is being obeyed for a wee while, which means I downloaded the Food Network's recipe for Joanne Chang's Sticky Buns. After all, they won against Bobby Flay's in a throwdown. And as a first-time bun baker, I thought I'd have a go at perhaps the trickiest dough there is. Paradise reached in one! The photo is of that key moment before they went into the oven, demonstrating that despite all the goo they were sitting in and my lack of faith, they did rise again. (Besides, when I took the photo of when they came out, it was as dark as the buns. Want do you want? I have to learn to conquer a KitchenAid, a brioche recipe and camera all at once?) read more...
Farmers' markets - food for health and flavor - 11 May 2008
Spring is here and farmers' markets are about to blossom on the streets of the capital. We need to support local farmers. They're doing a tough job to bring us food that's healthy and full of flavor. If we want to see that kind of respect from regular supermarkets when they decide what to stock, they need to notice the sales they're missing when we shop for local produce. Then they might be more encouraged to shop locally, too... read more...
Share Our Strength chefs' cook out! - 9 May 2008
When you next feel hungry, consider some of America's kids. Share Our Strength does. It's a nationwide community of chefs, activists, food programs and people in the wide culinary field working to try and ensure no child in America grows up hungry. On Thursday 15 May, Chef Charlie Palmer is hosting Share Our Strength’s A Tasteful Pursuit presented by Lexus at his restaurant Charlie Palmer Steak at 101 Constitution Avenue, NW, in downtown D.C. Six other prime chefs will be cooking alongside him. read more...
Chinese restaurants: Kosher, vegan, organic - 8 May 2008
There aren't many to choose from - just one in each category so far. But that's better than none. read more...
Nosh Notes - Gastropubs: eating cheap in Britain - 8 May 2008
Britain's pubs are famous. But they haven't always been particularly pleasant places to have a bite to eat. Nor did they offer good beer to drink, until the Campaign for Real Ale in the early 1970s fought to oust big brewery manufactured beers and bring back real ales. Now Britain's chefs are returning well-cooked, seasonal traditional British food to the menus of what have consequently become named Gastropubs. If you're traveling to London and want to stretch that food dollar, here's a list of some to eat at. read more...
Phyllis Richman - 8 May 2008
Phyllis Richman spent 23 years as the restaurant critic of the Washington Post, eating out on our behalf. Think how much money she saved us by guiding us away from restaurants or chefs that weren't meeting the mark, and how many good meals she encouraged us to seek out and enjoy.
So it's only right and proper that the Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington is honoring her at the 26th Annual RAMMY Restaurant Awards Gala with the Duke Zeibert Capital Achievement Award. read more...
Chew on This: Chicken abuse - 8 May 2008
You need a strong stomach to watch this undercover video of the mistreatment of chickens released this week by Mercy for Animals, a Chicago-based animal rights group. It was taken with a camera hidden by one of the non-profit's investigators who worked at a major California egg-factory farm for two months. read more...
Sides: Quinoa - an alternative to risotto - 8 May 2008
If you feel cooking risotto successfully is a daunting process, try quinoa instead. Not only is it one of the most nutritious grains around, it's also a breeze to turn into a dish to eat with meat or fish or cook up with vegetables for a vegetarian meal. read more...
Quinoa - 8 May 2008
Quinoa is a grain so ancient it's sometimes called the 'mother' of all grains. read more...
Balsamic vinegar - a sour note - 7 May 2008
If ever there was a food fad that didn't do the original product any good, it's balsamic vinegar. read more...
Starters: Lobster Ceviche - 7 May 2008
Graham Bartlett, chef of Zengo's recipe will stretch an expensive ingredient a long way, making a glamorous appetizer that's enough for 10 and doesn't involve any tricky cooking techniques. read more...
Cesare Lanfranconi - Chef of Ristorante Spezie - 5 May 2008
Cesare Lanfranconi, executive chef of Ristorante Spezie, was born near the mountains in Northern Italy, where his passion was skiing. He decided to cook instead of becoming a ski instructor like his mother as a means of seeing the world. read more...
Chew on This: We drank more bottled water than beer last year - 29 Apr 2008
As environmentalists plea for a reduction in bottled water consumption, Beverage Digest recently announced that last year we drank more bottled water in the US than beer. At 8.82 billion gallons -- that's 22.5 gallons each -- it's worth $11.7 billion to the bottled water industry. It didn't quite beat out soft drinks, consumption leaders at 49.3 gallons a head. But it came in 0.3 percent higher than beer, an increase of 7.1 percent on 2006. Beer only went up by 1.4. percent. Coffee, in sixth place below milk, went down by 1.2 percent, at 16 gallons a head, with milk at 20.1 gallons. Milk's lead probably means a lot of those coffees are lattes and cappuccinos, not that we're chasing after an easy source of calcium. read more...
Americas and Caribbean food web sites - 29 Apr 2008
Northern Europe food web sites - 29 Apr 2008
Mediterranean food web sites - 29 Apr 2008
Greek and Middle Eastern food web sites - 29 Apr 2008
French food web sites - 29 Apr 2008
Far North food web sites - 29 Apr 2008
Far East & Africa food web sites - 29 Apr 2008
Britain & Ireland food web sites - 29 Apr 2008
Asia to Australia food web sites - 29 Apr 2008
Co Co. Sala - Three-course chocolate - 29 Apr 2008
Washington now has its own chocolate lounge, Co Co Sala in Penn Quarter. Personally, I've had my very own chocolate lounge for years. It's the sofa in front of the TV. But it's good to dress up to go out specifically for chocolate. read more...
Jamies Leeds - Owner-chef of Hank's Oyster Bar - 16 Apr 2008
Jamie Leeds is rare among chefs. First, she owns two Hank’s Oyster Bars, one in Dupont Circle and the other in Old Town, Alexandria, with CommonWealth, a gastropub set to open in summer 2008. Plus, she’s a woman. And then there’s the fact that she has no formal culinary training. read more...
Starters: Pork Potstickers in Black Vinegar Sauce - 14 Apr 2008
Scott Drewno, chef of The Source by Wolfgang Puck's recipe may look complicated. But it's just a long ingredients list. Once you have them assembled, the cooking is quick and the folding of the wrappers easy. Just turn on some music and invite the friends who'll be eating them to give you a hand. read more...
Scott Drewno - Chef of The Source by Wolfgang Puck - 14 Apr 2008
At the recent media reception to announce chef and restaurant finalists in this year's Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington awards, journalists and members of the hospitality business were treated to little tastes of the finalists' cuisines. There was a scrum around the table of one of them, Scott Drewno of The Source by Wolfgang Puck. read more...
Shemali's - one of my favorite markets - 14 Apr 2008
Shemali's is a Lebanese delicatessen that has suffered, along with the Cleveland Park neighborhood around Wisconsin Ave, from the ditherings and delays in redevelopment of the Giant. It used to have a store in the parking lot of the supermarket, large enough to run a lunch counter that served the best bargain in sharwama and the best lentil soup in the District. But when Giant - around 5 years ago - closed down all the premises it leased out to increase its size, Shemali's disappeared to the medical building at 3301 New Mexico Ave NW. It's there you'll find all the Middle East goodies of its previous location. But no lunch counter. Don't despair, though. Gretta and Joseph Chemali (no, that's not a spelling mistake) can sell you a whole stuffed lamb... read more...
Pooja Spices, Pizza Plus & Hot Stuff Foods - 6 Apr 2008
Ranjan and Gita Chhibber are such an accommodating pair of shopkeepers that they keep adding services to support their customers. Hot Stuff Foods is the newest extra they're offering, hot foods to go or eat in. But they started Pooja's Spices, named for their daughter and for the Indian word for 'to pray', 21 years ago, to sell hard-to-find ingredients to the Washington area's growing Indian community. Ranjan had been working in New York selling Indian appliances. His travels brought him to the Washington area, "And I thought, I like this area better." read more...
Fish: Fish Mappas - 4 Apr 2008
The flavor of this Indian fish recipe from Nilesh Singhvi, chef of The Bombay Club, is layered with different spices but its heat level is mellowed by coconut milk. Reduce it even further, if you wish, by cutting back on the chilis. read more...
Nilesh Singhvi - Chef of The Bombay Club - 31 Mar 2008
Bombay Club executive chef Nilesh Singhvi has cooked for Margaret Thatcher, George H.W. Bush and Bill Gates. But with its pale, saffron-colored walls, dark wood, palm fronds and Indian-style chandelier suspended from an ornate recessed ceiling, the Bombay Club it probably wouldn't come as much of a shock to spot the ghost of Rudyard Kipling or Graham Greene tucking into a curry in the corner. read more...
Maxim's Supermarket - one of my favorite markets - 31 Mar 2008
There's no shortage of Oriental and Asian markets in the area. But some of them offer a little extra. At Maxim's, it's the take-out food counter. It's packed with dishes some of which you need to be a little adventurous to try, like tripe, and various parts of the inner pig that look like Captain Davy Jones' face in 'Pirates of the Caribbean'. But there's also a wonderful stewed pork picnic cut that's been marinated and slow-cooked until it's almost purple which wouldn't upset the most conservative eater. And there are noodles and vegetable dishes, along with fried