• 23Apr

    Some of the Best Things We’ve Eaten Recently # 12

    I recently attended Shecky’s Night Out in DC, despite the “No Boys Allowed” rule. I was hoping to see Rachel DeAlto speak (since I’ve written with her for another publication and have never actually met her), but unfortunately, Shecky’s rescheduled and Rachel had an obligation to speak in New Jersey that evening. Shecky’s had various vendors including fashion, bath products, and cosmetics, but also Merlot’s Masterpiece (painting/wine events) and Chouquette. Why am I mentioning Shecky’s night out? I’ll tell you why. I got to try Chouquette‘s chocolates, and they were definitely among the best things I’ve eaten lately.

    I would like to insert a little feedback for Shecky’s. You probably want food at the event, even if it is a vendor (and you make money off it), since shopping and diet cocktails seem to make make girls hungry–I saw some of them tearing into the Orville Redenbacher Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pop Crunch samples that were part of the event’s gift bag like they needed the calories and sugar to keep their shopping pace up.

    Other great things we have eaten lately:

    My new favorite healthy snacks are Saffron Road‘s Bombay Spice Crunchy Chick Peas. I like the Felafel flavor as well (but would like it more if it had a bit less flavoring), and have yet to open the wasabi-flavored bag. I will say that the zippers do not work well because the spices get into them during manufacturing.

    Frontera’s New Mexico Taco Skillet sauce is a quick way to make tasty tacos. We used ground turkey, avocado, lettuce, and tomato in our tacos. The Texas version is good too, but I prefer the New Mexico.

    The spicy wings at Rice & Noodles in Franconia are excellent and are part of a 2 courses for $10 or $11 special from Sunday through Wednesday. The wings take20 minutes, so make sure they know to bring the food out as it is ready or that one dish will slow you down. I have really liked most of the dishes I’ve had at R&N, but there has been an occasional clunker R&N delivers within 3 miles.

    April’s DC Food Blogger Happy Hour was hosted by Daphne of Go Gastronomy at the downtown location of ChixDC. I was surprised at how good the food was at ChixDC, including the Caribbean wings special. (The next DCFBHH is hosted by me on May 1st at Ambar.)

    Last night, I tried Daikaya‘s (Shoyu) Ramen for the first time, and was very impressed. The nitamago (marinated soft-boiled egg) is delicious. The pork dumplings are good as well. The downstairs space s a ramen house, while the upstairs space is a restaurant with a nice long bar and beautiful decor.

    Daikaya‘s printed menus (both at the upstairs and downstairs restaurants) are designed in such a way that they are hard to navigate, and are a bit frustrating; you have to flip back and forth a lot to follow the menus. It was nice that they sat me right at the middle of the bar because I got to see and take pictures of the ramen as it was plated. Once the upstairs restaurant launches a happy hour menu, I’ll probably check it out.

    -JAY

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  • 30Jan

    Some of the Best Things We’ve Eaten (or Drank) Recently 11!

    z_crackersThe products we’ve been addicted to lately include two crackers (Z Crackers’ (Garlic & Basil), and Snack Factory’s Pretzel Crisps (Everything)), one Italian Soda (San Pellegrino’s Aranciata Rossa (Blood Orange)), some peanuts (Feridies’ Virginia Peanuts (Red Skin)), and a cookie mix (Cobblestone Kitchens’ Gingerbread Cookie Mix).

    Z Crackers are from Brooklyn and are handcut. They have a good texture and go well with cheese. Several varieties of them are sold at Arrowine. We tried the Garlic & Basil flavored crackers; next time we will probably purchase the Cayenne & Cumin variety, since it sounded good as well.

    Snack Factory Pretzel Crisps are thin crunchy pretzels/crackers but have a bagel topping (everything). They pretzelcrisps_flavorsare supposed to be good with cheese, but we just eat them straight out of the bag. World Market carries several varieties of this snack.

    You can find San Pellegrino‘s Aranciata Rossa everywhere (including Supermarkets). All the flavors are good, but we have been leaning towards the Aranciata Rossa (Blood Orange) lately.

    The Feridies peanuts are yummy (salty, crunchy, and delicious). A variety of Feridies‘ products are sold at Arrowine, including the cashews.

    Finding this particular Cobblestone Kitchens product, the Gingerbread Cookie Mix, is tricky. We have only found it at TJ Maxx, and have not been able to find it online. You can, however,  find their gingerbread house sanpellegrinomix online. The cookie mix is nice because you roll it out with your hands, and because the icing mix is included as well. The cookies and frosting are very tasty. We don’t own a rolling pin, so we used a wine bottle covered in plastic wrap to roll the cookies out.

    -JAY

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  • 03Nov

    Some of the Best Things We’ve Eaten (or Drank) Recently #10!

    Dizzy Pig’s Bombay Curry Shrimp On The Grill.

    Some of the best things we’ve eaten recently include: (Several of these were DC Summer Fancy Food Show exhibitors.)

    Dizzy Pig BBQ‘s new Bombay Curry-ish spice blend was the star of a very good  meal at the house of Dizzy Pig BBQ’s owner, Chris Capell.

    Torn Ranch’s Raspberry Pome Frais (yummy fruit jells) and Ginger Cookies are very good. The ginger cookies are crunchy and addictive, and the office loved them.

    We’ve been enjoying the following teas: Rare Tea Republic‘s Kenyan Kangaita Breakfast Black Tea (which taste’s like it aready has a little milk and sugar in it), Mighty Leaf’s Crysanthemum Pu-ehr and Kyoto Rice, and Numi‘s Cardamom Pu-ehr (both the only bagged tea and the highest caffeine in the bunch).

    As for food trucks, I’ve had some recent great meals from Ball or Nothing (meat balls with mac ‘n cheese and fig salad) and Chef Driven (Indonesian style ribs).

    -JAY

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  • 10Sep

    Low-Acid Coffee, A Mini-Review

    Like many people,  the (combination of) acids in coffee affects my stomach in a negative way. In the past I had tried Puroast‘s low-acid coffees, and while they are decent (and inexpensive compared to gourmet coffees), they are not great and have an aftertaste. Crio Bru is an option (and we may  review it in the near future), but it isn’t actually coffee.

    I decided to search for reviews of low-acid coffees and didn’t find as many as I’d like. I did run across this 12 year old review, which lead me to Atlanta’s Martinex Fine Coffees, where I purchased their low-acid coffee, Sumatra Mandheling “Pawani Private Reserve,” a naturally low-acid product. This dark roast is smooth and rich and does not bother my stomach; I will definitely be ordering more.

    -JAY

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  • 08Sep

    Some Of The Best Products That We’ve Tried Recently

    Naron’s Chocolates.

    Stubb’s BBQ Sauces: I tried the Sweet Heat and Hickory Bourbon. Both are good, but we preferred the latter. We had fun with these sauces at a recent barbeque. This company was an exhibitor at the summer DC Fancy Food Show.

    Nueva Cocina‘s Black Beans & Rice: This mix was a hit at the same barbeque. I’ve mentioned their coconut rice mix previously (which comes in white and brown rice versions). This company was also an exhibitor at the summer DC Fancy Food Show.

    Frontera’s Guacamole Mix: Just add avocado; it is a great product (from another exhibitor from the summer DC Fancy Food Show).

    Naron American Chocolates: I picked up a box of these Baltimore treats at The Chocolate Mousse in DC as a gift. Instead of getting the remade assortment, I individually chose the components, including some chocolate almond bark (in both milk and dark chocolate varieties). You get a pound for $19, and the quality on these chocolates is excellent, so it is a good deal and a makes a great gift.

    The Karen Mary Co.’s Chocolate-Covered Marshmallows.

    Karen Mary Co.’s Chocolate Covered Marshmallows: Chocolate Mousse also carryies great local handmade Chocolate-Covered Vanilla Marshmallows With Caramel & Sea Salt by Karen Mary Co (in the other chocolate case). Should we tell Anthony at DLDGLG.com (or DCFüd’s Beer Writer, MLC) about these Beer Marshmallows? (We haven’t tried them.)

    Although I wasn’t about to review the set that was sent to me (because all the lids were either missing or the incorrect size), T-Fal Ingenio does have an interesting concept, so Ill mention it. The items in this cookware set have lids and attachable handles, so can be put in the fridge (with leftovers).

    Disclosure: From time to time, we are given free items, meals, or events.

    -JAY

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  • 03Jul

    The Fancy Food Show Recently Hit DC!

    There were an incredible number of great products at this year’s Summer DC Fancy Food Show, and there is no way to cover every product I enjoyed, so I will show some of the highlights in the above photo gallery as well as list some of our favorite products below.

    Some of the great products we tried included Chimes mango flavored ginger chews,  Chewy’s chocolate rugaleh (their website is down), Happy Goat‘s chocolate and sea salt caramels, Belfine‘s (Belgian) espresso chocolate, Dancing Deer‘s brownies, Fairytale Brownies‘ Belgian chocolate cheesecake brownie, Walker’s Shortbread (tried the lemon and the oat), Emmi‘s cheeses (Switzerland), Nueva Cocina’s coconut raisin rice (I haven’t tried the brown rice version yet), Tortuga‘s chocolate rum cakes, chocolate rum turtles, and Jamaica blue mountain coffee, and Rigoni De Asiago‘s Fiordfrutta wild blueberry fruit spread fig spread, nocciolata (hazelnut and chocolate spread) and Italian forest honey. organic, all.  Numi Organic Tea‘s Pu-Erh (what they actually call black teas in china–what we call black tea they call red tea) is my new breakfast drink.  They taste great and are supposed to have healing/weight loss properties–I prefer the chocolate, emperor, and cardamom over the jasmine, basil-mint, or coconut varieties. (Yes, Pu-Ehr has more caffeine than green or what we call black tea.)

    Events related to the show which I attended included a introduction to Korean food class, Cheeses of France event, a Taza Chocolate event at Oyamel, and Rare Tea Republic‘s rare tea tasting.  The Korean class was interesting because it was more of a tasting of flavors than food and they told you the exact order in which to try things (put this on your tongue and then drink that) .  Oyamel made a nice dessert with Taza’s chocolate. The French cheese event included some great French cheeses. The rare tea tasting was awesome because the tea buyer could explain in detail about the teas and the estates.

    -JAY

     

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  • 27Jun

    Ballston Farmer’s Market will Open Thursday, June 28 (Tomorrow)

    Announcement from the Ballston BID:

    “The Farmer’s Market will take place Thursday, June 28 from 3pm to 7pm at Welburn Square in Ballston (the Ballston Circle) between North Stuart & North Taylor Streets, across from the Ballston Metro.

    In addition to the participating merchants, the Grand Opening will feature a celebrity chef from the Ballston restaurant Willow, who will conduct an outdoor cooking demonstration, as well as live music from the noted-Rockabilly band, Jumpin’ Jupiter.”

    The vendors are listed in the announcement.

    -JAY

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  • 15Jun

    Some of the Best Things We’ve Eaten Recently #8!

    We’ve been sampling some great food lately lately, so let’s talk about some of the highlights.

    At the Saturday morning Courthouse Farmer’s Market, I purchased Cavanna Pasta’s Artichoke-Pesto Cannelloni ($15, think manicotti). The package has 3  frozen cannelloni per pack, and comes with heating instructions. My oven needed more time to heat up the frozen pasta than recommended in the instructions, but the end product was delicious. Some of the ingredients included basil, shallots, garlic, and pine nuts. Cavanna is based in Richmond. Arrowine carries Cavanna‘s products (and charges an extra $1 for the cannelloni).

    At the Clarendon Farmer’s Market I purchased a small Chocolate Salted Caramel Chess Pie for $10 from Livin’ The Pie Life, and although it was a bit pricey, that pie was well worth the money. It was truly delicious. They sell other varieties and give samples so that you can taste the pies.

    We tried a couple of nice desserts at the Tysons Corner Sheraton. Their Salted Caramel Vanilla Crunch Cake is a pudding cake containing rich caramel and creamy custard, topped with caramel popcorn bites. They also served Ice Cream from Moorenko’s (about whom we’ve written about previously a couple of times). The ice creams are all made with local produce. Flavors change weekly. We tasted the White Chocolate Mint & the Black Raspberry Chocolate Chip.

    9:30 Club‘s Sound Bites featured some great dishes including the Boriquen Lunch Box‘s (Puerto Rican food truck) Pastelon, a sweet plantain and meat casserole with green beans, red and green peppers, onions, garlic, and tomato sauce. It is topped with cheese and I like to describe it  as “plantain lasagna.”

    Also at Sound Bites, Jose Andres‘ Pepe food truck made great Spanish food, including the Botifarra Burger and a ham & cheese sandwich (yes, there is a version in Spain). I did not try their mac and cheese.

    The Lamb Jam featured some great lamb dishes including Poste Moderne Brasserie‘s Lamb Carpaccio, and Bibiana‘s Stuffed Lamb Shoulder. I still vividly remember Bibiana’s Lamb Raviolis from the Lamb Jam’s media preview the previous year. I also very much enjoyed Heavy Seas Imperial stout, which tasted a bit like chocolate.

    La Forchetta is a new upscale Italian restaurant of Roberto Donna‘s in DC (nowhere near a metro). They have a cheese list and a cured meat list, and I enjoyed the Castelmagno cheese (cow, sheep, and goat milk). The Grilled Whole Branzino served with Broccoli Rabe and Salsa Verde was excellent. I would go back there for it, although it was a daily special. In general, the restaurant is supposed to excel at fish dishes. The children at the table next to us (the restaurant has a neighborhood crowd) were attacking their pizzas, so we decided to try a pizza with salami, and the pizza was good. The staff seems to lean towards the Tiramisu (it’s huge!) and Cartoccio Siciliano (fried sweet dough filled with sweet ricotta cheese) but we decided on the Bambolino (fried dough balls rolled in lemon sugar with a hot chocolate sauce) and the Zuppa Inglese (chocolate cream, rum sponge cake, hot vanilla sauce). Both desserts were excellent.

    Savor 2012 was last weekend, and it is an amazing beer show. I attended the CraftBeer.com Taste-Off Challenge, and got to see and taste 4 beer experts’ (3 are brewers) beer pairing skills. They had to choose a beer to pair with a rhubarb crisp, but they were not told lavender honey would be added. The 4 contestants were Jeff Hancock of DC Brau, Mike McManus of Brewery Ommegang, Chuck Silva of Green Flash Brewing Company, and Matt Bean of Men’s Health Magazine and Spike TV. While I was torn between Chuck’s choice (Belgian Trippel) and Matt’s choice (Allagash Coolship CERTES), and ultimately voted for Allagash Coolship CERTES, the winner turned out to be Mike’s choice (with Ommegang Aphrodite), my third choice. The DC Brau beer was El Hefe, and I beleive that the stealth addition of lavender destroyed the pairing, which was not Jeff’s fault.

    I sampled a lot of beer at Savor! Some of my favorite beers from Savor include Flying Dog‘s Chocolate IPA, Ithica Beer Company‘s Apricot Wheat, American Beer Company‘s Caboose Oatmeal Stout (I loved this) and Breakaway IPA, Fat Head Brewery‘s Sorcerer (paired with Pork Belly Mole), Bell’s Brewery’s Wild One Sour Brown and Smoked Vienna Lager, Hardywood‘s Singel and Mocha Belgique, Founders Brewery Company‘s Curmudgeon Old Ale, Maui Brewing Company‘s Coconut Porter, Willimantic Brewing Company‘s Flowers Infusion and Pony Espresso Stout, and Ninkasi Brewing Company‘s Believer (which was served with an awesome dish, Red Chile Braised Goat).

    -JAY

     

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  • 07Jun

    Doritos Locos Tacos: A Taste Test of Taco Bell’s Insanely Popular New Creation

    Last week, Taco Bell’s press office told the Orange County Register that they have a new most-popular product:  Doritos Locos Tacos.  Launched to great fanfare at Taco Bell franchises nationwide on March 8th, the product caught fire – reports indicate that the company sold more than 100 million of them since their introduction.  I’m sure you’ve all seen the ads – the new tacos are a mash-up of the basic crunchy taco and Doritos, a combination aimed directly at the late night college crowd (though I’d hope their target demographic has broadened a bit beyond that…) And it should go without saying:  100 million tacos is an insanely high sales number.  The OC Register reported some bragging from Taco Bell’s press people, who noted that it took years for McDonald’s to sell 100 million burgers, though I don’t think that’s necessarily a fair comparison – after all, Taco Bell has almost six thousand franchises nationwide marketing their new product.  I haven’t been to a Taco Bell in years, but when I heard about the Doritos taco’s success, I enlisted some coworkers to conduct a taste test.  I stopped off at the Bell location in the Tysons Corner area late one morning in hopes of avoiding the lunch rush and picked up several standard crunch tacos and Doritos Locos Tacos.

    First impression:  These things are bright.  You have to give the company credit – they’ve definitely captured the color of Nacho Cheese Doritos chips in their new taco shells.  Too, they come in a handy cardboard sleeve with Doritos branding.  While that sleeve might make up some of the price difference – $1.29 for Doritos Locos Tacos, compared to just $0.99 for your standard crunchy taco – my coworkers seemed to like it, as it helped keep the product’s mess to a minimum.  The tacos are stuffed with the same beef, lettuce, and cheese that comes in a standard crunchy taco; while Taco Bell also sells a Supreme version with diced tomatoes and sour cream, I stuck to the basic taco for this taste test.

    Second impression:  the taste.  On biting into the taco, I wasn’t hugely impressed with the difference made by the Doritos shell.  The nacho cheese taste isn’t overwhelming at first, and I only really tasted it after chewing for a few moments.  That said, though, whoever developed the taco shell got one part of the formula correct – my fingers were immediately covered in Doritos dust.  I don’t think even Doritos from a bag of chips permeate my fingers that quickly, but it’s been a while since I’ve had some of those, either.  I was hoping for more Nacho Cheese flavor from the taco, but I may have been too discerning for the target demo – after all, I was eating these for lunch and without having had any beer.

    The unexpected part for me was the texture.  When I first heard about Doritos tacos, I expected a large Doritos chip in the shape of a taco shell.  Instead, we got what appears to be a taco shell covered with Doritos seasoning, or made with corn chips dyed to match Doritos.  The shell crunched much more like a corn tortilla chip than Doritos.  It’s entirely possible that genuine Doritos shells wouldn’t hold the filling – that’s what my coworkers speculated, anyway – but I was expecting the taco shell to more closely resemble the chip.

    My coworkers weren’t too keen on the product either – one complained that it was too salty, while another was quite put out on hearing that it had displaced her favorite, the Crunchwrap Supreme, as Taco Bell’s most popular product.  Another colleague of mine told me that his brother – a big Taco Bell fan – much prefers the value of the crunchy taco, and isn’t willing to pay 30% more for the Doritos version.  Yet despite our relatively negative opinion, the sales numbers cannot be denied.  Having sold more than 100 million Doritos Locos Tacos in less than 3 months, Taco Bell is clearly onto something.  I imagine their business partners at Doritos are high-fiving all the way to the bank, too.

    Much like Adams-Morgan pizza, I think the Doritos Locos Tacos are a product best experienced late at night.  I can’t say I fully understand the hype, but the novelty brought me into the store, so the marketing team is clearly doing something right.

    It’s definitely not haute cuisine, but it’s got the makings of a major trend.  Michelle Obama, call your office!

    -HML (Michael)

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  • 18May

    Some of the Best Things We’ve Eaten Recently #7!

    Zengo’s current “Test Kitchen” is  Hanoi-Havana (Vietnamese/Cuban fusion), and you HAVE to try the Cangrejo Enchilado (soft shell crab lettuce wraps) and the Lemongrass-Lychee Mojito! Seriously! The crab appetizer was so good that Eugene of DC Life Magazine, who does not like soft shell crab, actually enjoyed it. The Boba Cafecito (a cocktail with dark rum, iced Cuban Coffee, Thai Chili, coconut milk, and coffee pearls) was good as well.

    Moorenko‘s Milk Chocolate Gelato has great texture and flavor.

    Talenti‘s double Dark Chocolate gelato is very chocolaty with delicious little bits of chocolate.

    Ciao Bella‘s Lemon Zest Sorbet and Lime Graham gelato  are both good but I prefer the Lime Graham gelato (which also comes in sandwich form). Ciao Bella is a finalist for a Sofi Award at the Fancy Food Show for the Grapefruit Campari (which I have not tried).

    Tate’s Bakeshop in Long Island is also a finalist for a Sofi Award for their chocolate chip cookies. The cookies are delicious, buttery, and very crunchy. I actually like to let them soften for a day or two.

    I had a great breakfast at Art & Soul with Art Smith and Mary Beth Albright, where I met Allison Adato, the author of Smart Chef’s Stay Slim. It is a great book and Art wrote the foreword. Yes, I ate lemon pancakes and house-cured bacon, but I also tried Art’s healthy quinoa granola.

    I had some great food and wine at Market Tavern, so I am sorry to hear that they closed their doors a couple of evenings ago. I even hosted a large happy hour there recently.

    I’ve nearly used an entire bottle of Suriny rice bran oil. It works well at high temperatures and has been responsible for some great veggie stir-fries.

    We got to try a variety of Norwegian brewery Nøgne ø’s beers at the Norwegian Embassy, and while they were all good, the (chocolaty) porter blew us away, especially paired with berry panna cota. If you find their porter for sale in DC or Arlington, let me know. I hear that Wine Specialist may carry it. The embassy’s Chef Sandre Bruvik Ellingstad created some truly amazing dishes–this was some of the best food I’ve had anywhere recently.

    DuckTrap River of Maine makes some truly great smoked salmon (and other fish). Look for it in Whole Foods, although WF doens’t carry the pastrami spiced lox, and Giant only carried that one variety.

    Mighty Leaf makes some of my favorite teabags. I’m a fan of their organic Green Hojicha (which tastes like toasted rice), Organic Spring Jasmine, and Orange Dulce (a black), and less a fan of the Green Tropic (although it smells amazing). I understand the “magic of the tea pouch” but it would be great if  (1) the tea didn’t run down the string to the table, (2) I didn’t find tea lives and pieces of cotton or string floating in my tea, (3) They weren’t $9 for a box of 15 or so, and (4) if people didn’t keep telling me the string looks like a certain feminine product.

    Big Buns is a great burger joint in Ballston. I like their beef burgers, and even their sweet potato fries are good, and they have a soda bar (to make flavored sodas). The vegetarians can get a mushroom burger (I can’t vouch for it).

    Saffron Road‘s Lasagna is a great (vegetarian) product and is available in the freezer case at Whole Foods Market. They have recently come out with simmer sauces but I’ve yet to try them.

    I’m addicted to Popchips, especially the BBQ and Salt and Pepper varieties. Please don’t tell anyone. 4Bitten Media put a bag of the cheddar flavored variety in my gift bag at their awesome launch party a couple of days ago at Masa 14, but I haven’t tried it yet.

    Keep an eye out for Kababji Grill‘s food truck. I attended the truck’s launch last night, and got to sample the food, which was good. I especially enjoyed the baba ganouj, kibbe, and friend phyllo cigars (stuffed with cheese).

    -JAY

     

     

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