Britain & Ireland
Afternoon tea, Marmite on toast, a big bang-up Irish fried breakfast. This is the Blighty and the Eire of nostalgia, Evelyn Waugh and poet John Betjeman, along with clotted cream, ginger beer, mature Cheddar - and Bird's Custard on your apple pie if you insist. It's all so comforting, and Nanny will let us have seconds if we're very good.
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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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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.
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The perfect Yorkshire pudding
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The Queen Mum's favorite cake
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