Oh hey Internet, I was just about to call you…Like, really. Or I was just about to put it on my to do list. I’m really behind these days on my correspondence so don’t take it personally.
You have probably noticed by now that my blog posts have slowed down since finishing my year of the 100 Best a few months ago. I took a little time to detox, go to the gym and work through the mountain of Lean Cuisine’s that had accumulated in my freezer. But now I’m back on the food and fun bandwagon, though I’m having a bit of blogger block.
In other words, what to do next? What do you want me to (try to) accomplish? I’ve been mulling over some ideas but haven’t quite decided on one. That’s where you, readers and skimmers, come in to play. Send me your ideas! Send me mini-quests as well! For instance “Who has the best french fries in Logan Circle?” or “Where can I get some good Thai iced tea near Georgetown?” or “What’s the best meal on Capitol Hill for less than $25?” Or if there’s a new restaurant you want to know about, but don’t want to shell out the cash for quite yet, I’ll be your happy guinea pig.
So email me your ideas, questions and concerns. Where do we go from here, folks?
As a young lass growing up in the greater D.C. area, I spent much of my time like many other suburban kiddos—playing incredibly competitive soccer, taking practice SAT tests in middle school, and thinking of ways to go to the 9:30 Club without my parents finding out. I wasn’t all that cool or all that brave, so it took many years and moving out of my parents house before I actually got there. Needless to say it was quite the experience and I’ve been a big fan ever since. And as a (young) adult, I’ve committed myself to eating good food. Up until now, the food at the 9:30 Club hasn’t exactly wowed me. But…for one night only, things will be different. To benefit DC’s Central Kitchen, SoundBites will be serving up some fancy foods to go along with your stories about the time you saw Dave Grohl in the balcony at a Black Crowes concert (what, just me?). Some of the restaurants participating are Masa 14, Marvin, Cork, Commonwealth…the list goes on. For $30 you’ll be supporting a great cause, eating some good food, and making your parents nervous about whether you’ll take their advice and just spring for a cab to the metro instead of walking.
Soundbites
Sunday, May 23rd
Tickets available at Ticketfly
Before
After
If you read any food blogs at all, you know that you should be buying ramps. Actually, you should have already bought them because other foodies have definitely taken their share and I’m sure none are left. And since ramp season is miniscule, you probably missed your opportunity altogether. But if you DID buy ramps at the Dupont Farmers Market this weekend like I did and they’re staring at you from their holy place between the cream cheese and the Diet Cokes in fridge, here’s a little something to do with them. Ramps luckily pair great with other seasonable delicacies such as asparagus and morels. I love asparagus and will find just about any way to eat them all summer, but morels are not my friend. Not because they aren’t delicious (they are) but they are ungodly expensive. For a pint container, which holds about eight morels, it ran you $25 this weekend. That’s just crazy. If you aren’t Professor Moneybags Magoo or his wife Lady Travelerscheck, you should feel free to use wild mushrooms instead and not feel bad about it at all.
To cook up my bounty, I loosely based my meal on a recipe from Tom Colicchio’s book Think Like a Chef. He uses morels, which makes me think he might make more money than me. He also takes the time to measure his ingredients, which I definitely do not do, but this dish can’t really be screwed up with different ratios of veggies.
Butter Poached Ramps, Asparagus and Wild Mushrooms
4 big handfuls wild mushrooms, rough chopped
3 bunches ramps, trimmed
2 bunches asparagus, trimmed and cut in to 2- to 3-inch pieces
couple handfuls frozen peas
couple tablespoons each chives and tarragon, chopped (or whatever herbs you’ve got)
salt and pepper
1. Make a buerre fondue* using about 1 1/2 sticks of unsalted butter.
2. Bring to a simmer in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add mushrooms and a few pinches of salt and pepper, cook until the mushrooms soften, about 5 minutes. Then add ramps and cook until they are tender, about 5 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, cook asparagus in salted boiling water until tender, 3-5 minutes.
4. Add in frozen peas, drained asparagus, chives and tarragon to the mushrooms and ramps.
5. Serve over a starch to soak up the extra butter sauce. I went with parmesan cheese grits and never looked back.
*A beurre fondue is a butter sauce made by whisking 1.5 sticks of butter a tablespoon at a time into between 1/4 and 1/2 cups of simmering water. Whisking constantly and paying attention to the heat is important to make sure the sauce doesn’t break. If it breaks, you’ll need to start over again.
I get asked a lot why I decided not to do the 100 Best list again for 2010. Sam Sifton, New York Times reviewer, explains it better than I ever could have.
Food Porn Pic of the Day
Springtime Fruit, Dean & Deluca
Grilled Pimento Cheese
For years now, everyone and their mother has told me to try Cheesetique in Del Ray. But here’s the problem: I rarely find myself in Del Ray. And it would take a lot of cheese to get me to cross the bridge just for lunch. But my friend dragged me kicking and screaming I tell ya to Del Ray the other day for lunch. Darling Lea assured me that it was worth the effort, and she drove so whatever, I was just along for the ride.
Needless to say, Cheesetique fits in with the whole cutie-pie Del Ray thing. It’s a little market in the front with tons of cheese and little gourmet items and then a small restaurant in the back. We bellied up to the bar and ordered ourselves some iced tea in order to fully commit to our “ladies who lunch” role. The menu is exactly what you’d expect—little salads and sandwiches and soups and cheese items. I zeroed in on the grilled pimento cheese sandwich because after four years of living in North Carolina, that is the one food item I miss most. That and pork barbeque. And hush puppies. And cheese grits.
Anyways, I ordered the grilled pimento cheese and it was just delightful. I could have done with more cheese in the cheese/bread ratio, but that’s just me being greedy. Lea had the grown up grilled cheese, with fancy cheese and ham and deemed it fit for a king as well. The service was also wonderful—when our food came out to the wrong table, the lovely girls behind the bar gave us some cheese to nosh on in the mean time. Because two grilled cheese sandwiches isn’t nearly enough cheese on their own.
Food Porn Pic of the Day
Brioche French Toast, Cafe Atlantico
Oh, hey there. That’s just me, drinking my troubles away after a long day at work. So long, in fact, that when my darling friend Lindsay sent me an email asking if I wanted to grab a drink, all I could respond was “yes. drinking. also food with cheese on it.” And so she, as well as the wine and the cheese, came to the rescue at The Liberty Tree.
I’d received various email blasts in the past few days about The Liberty Tree, a new place on hip and cool H St. NE specializing in New England fare. I honestly didn’t know much about it besides the fact that it was open and close to my office, but I’m pretty impressed with what I did find. Before I talk food, lets talk turkey. The prices are pretty amazing. The wines by the glass run around $8-$10 and really are two glasses (a tiny carafe comes with the order) which is an okay price in my book any day of the week. Not a happy hour special, just a happy all the time special. The food menu hits me in my financial wheelhouse as well, with everything running about six or eight bucks less than I’d guess they would be. Perfectly priced to justify another carafe of wine.
Just like Hank’s Oyster Bar, the food at Liberty Tree was the kind of stuff I always wish is on a menu—dips, things with figs, fancy cheese with bready things and fries. Lots of fries. I got sucked in by the lobster roll with fries and there was no going back. The roll was a little on the small side, but it was full of lobster and light on filler. Served along with the roll was a heaping mound of fries, seasoned with salt and pepper and a little bit of parm. The fries are not to be missed, seriously. Lindsay had the “knife and fork” meatball grinder which only her knife and fork touched, so I take her word for it that it was great. We also had the white bean dip (garlicky and spicy) and the goat cheese and fig (good, but nothing exciting). We finished off the meal with the berry cobbler, which was perfect for sharing and sweet and tangy. I could have done with a little more of the cobbler part and a little less fruit, but that’s just me.
The Liberty Tree doesn’t seem to have a sign, so just look for the “open” sign and try to dodge the orange construction cones out front. When are they finishing that damned trolley line anyway?
I’m kind of obsessed with food carts. And to be honest, I don’t really know why. Maybe it’s because I watched a lot of ER in my day, and they always had really serious conversations about their romantic and medical problems out at the food cart and then would come to a tidy conclusion over egg salad and coffee. Or a helicopter would fall on them.
Luckily, a helicopter did not fall out of the sky when I went to try Sauca the other day. I’ve been wanting to give it a try for weeks, but I guess with a roving restaurant it’s hard to get things to work out when you want them to. Well, all the stars aligned on a day where I could actually go out for lunch and the Sauca mobile was nearby the Capitol.
When we got over to the truck (easy to spot, it is a bright orange food truck after all) there was a line. Quite a long line as a matter of fact, full of people trying to explain to their friends what exactly they would be handed out of this truck. No one did a very good job. The sauca’s served by Sauca are essentially big flatbreads stuffed with whatever ethnic street food they happened to be serving that day. We skipped around the globe with our order with a Mumbai chicken, a pork banh mi and a beef shwarma. The Mumbai chicken was a tad underseasoned, but really satisfying with all the rice and bread and carbo-loading, and the beef was a bit underseasoned too. The pork was the big winner with a ton of meat and goodies and a sauce to die for. There were lots of little sauces for us to choose from and add to our wrap up thingies, but we honestly didn’t know which one to choose and probably lost out for skipping them.
One of the drawbacks of the food cart scene is that without a walk in freezer and fully stocked prep kitchen, they are bound to run out of things quicker than your average restaurant. By the time we got up to the front of the line, they had run out of the fish banh mi (my first choice), the limonaud (a refreshing-looking drink) and the toffle (waffles with gooey dessert things on top) machine had lost power. They had also run out of change, though they sent a friendly and apparently trustworthy patron to go grab them some ones at the bank. So I recommend going early. I also definitely recommend going, just try not to take all the orders of the fish next time I’m there, okay?
Sauca
I also recommend following them on Twitter.
Guest Post: Poste 20 Bites, an Epic Poem by Robert
Now that I’m no longer beholden to the Washingtonian list, you may or may not have noticed that the number of posts have dwindled. Well sue me, I like to eat Cheerios for dinner sometimes and I’m guessing you’d rather not hear my review of them (delicious). So to fill the From Komi to Marvin void in your RSS feed, I’ve done the truely American thing—I’ve outsourced. Specifically to my friend and coworker Robert, who detailed his recent trip to Poste’s 20 Bites (a Minibar-esque tasting meal) after I just plain annoyed him in to it.
Where to start? Where to start? As this is my first, and most likely last, post as a guest here at FKTM, I’m debating on which way to go. Should I try to out snark Ashley? Should I pretend to be a real food critic? Or should I just play it straight? Well, maybe I’ll just start at the beginning and let you, dear reader, figure it out.
Poste 20 Bites is Chef Robert Weland’s take on a chef’s table where you get lots of little dishes and you get to see and hear the kitchen in action. When you walk in to the newly renovated Poste restaurant in the Hotel Monaco, you could easily overlook the four very tall bar stools at a counter in front of the kitchen. You’re more likely to notice the guy (who may be chef Robert Weland) at that counter expediting the orders, or the colorful food being picked up by the wait staff, or even the cooks talking in the open kitchen. But, if you are eating the 20 bites, these stools are your seats for the next three hours. It takes a bit of effort to mount these extra tall stools, but they do give you a good view of the kitchen.
The food:
1 – Kusshi Oyster - The hot oyster was plump and cooked in the half shell with a little bit of cream sauce, the cold oyster made us realize how many times we had eaten subpar oysters. These were served on a giant rock of pink Himalayan salt; you know the kind that you buy in little pieces at Whole Food for 10 bucks an oz. Great way to start.
2 – Crudites – pickled vegetables – these tasted like pickled vegetables
3 – Marcona Almond and Carrot Salad – the almonds where amazing and the heirloom carrots were… carrots.
4 – Hamachi with grapefruit and ginger vinaigrette – the fresh citrus provided a great balance to the wonderfully fresh fish.
5 – Salmon Tartare – They made these to look like ice cream cones with the salmon on top and the crème fraiche in the cone. The only drawback to this is that you have to get really creative to get a bit of salmon and a bit of crème fraiche in the same bite.
6 – Bresaola – with parmesan – amazing, probably my favorite bite of the night. The waitress said they make all their charcuterie in house and I believe it. If there is one thing I know and love it is preserved meats.
7 – Crispy Pig’s Tail – yep you read that right, pig’s tail. I had never really given a thought about eating a pig’s tail, but after getting past the initial hesitation, it was pretty good.
8 – Steak Tartare with a quail egg – I love steak tartare, who knew? I guess now I do.
9 – Head cheese – if you don’t know what head cheese is, Google it. That said, one of my dining companions whose family in North Dakota makes their own head cheese said that Poste’s was much better.
10 – Hot and Cold Foie Gras – loved the hot foie gras, had some texture issues with the cold though.
11 – Goat Cheese Ravioli – this had peas, morels and asparagus – loved the morels.
12 – Chickpea Crusted Scallop – this was my favorite main course dish and was cooked exactly like a scallop should be.
13 – Salmon – it is salmon people, you’ve eaten it before.
14 – Palate cleanser – blood orange with orange vodka – after three bottles of wine and an after dinner scotch, I think this vodka was the cause of my hangover the next morning.
15 – Pig’s Trotter – after the pig’s tail and the head cheese, I’m beginning to think that Poste got a great deal on pigs recently.
16 – Duck Breast – good little bite of duck, what more could you want?
17 – Capretto - lovely, I mean who doesn’t like young goat?
18 - Bison – warm popover – it was good, it was bison.
19 – Tete de Moine – this was a great little cheese, similar to swiss and made into flowers by a cool little tool called a Girolle (thanks Wikipedia).
20 – Strawberry-Rhubarb pudding cake with celery, almonds and crème fraiche – this was a very non-dessert color green, yet surprisingly good.
21 – wait – I thought you said it was Poste’s “20” bites, yeah, let’s call it chef’s license. Chocolate bread pudding – went well with the coffee, but it’s still bread pudding.
22 – Petit fours – a nice ending, though, I think that the end at a chef’s table should be different than the end of a regular meal that the restaurant.
Well, I told Ashley that I would keep this short, and as you can see I’m a liar. But, I would feel remiss if I did not offer my conclusions. The food was overall very good and the service, while not from a chef, was also very good. I would recommend this dinner to anyone looking for a fun culinary experience or anyone over 7 feet tall. (did I mention the stools are giant?)
One other quick note, if you’ve never been to Poste, or have been but never visited the restroom there, here are some quick directions. It is past the hostess stand, in the hotel, past the front desk, up the stairs on the left, down the hall, on your right, and no there isn’t a closer one.
Poste 20 Bites
