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We all remember the late night, frozen chicken pot pies while cramming for a final. This is the true meaning of nostalgia, at the top of the list of comfort food along with chicken soup, spaghetti, hamburgers, and Nutella eaten out of the jar.
With every DC grocery store still pushing post-thanksgiving turkeys (apparently, Giant was recently having 39 cents a pound sales) it
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A shout out to dcFUD
Do you prefer Splenda to Sweet ‘N Low and Equal? If so, you may want to start hoarding your Splenda now, since there’s about to be a shortage. As reported by the Associated Press, Tate & Lyle PLC, the world’s only manufacturer of sucralose, the key ingredient in the no-calorie sweetener, is having trouble keeping up with demand.
In reality, though, it looks like this shortage should only impact corporations that make food products that rely on sucralose, like Coca-Cola’s newest drink, C2. So what I meant to say is: start hoarding your C2 now.
Here are two Dim Sum suggestions:
My current favorite dim sum place – New Fortune – 16515 S Frederick Ave Gaithersburg (301) 548-888, www.newfortunemd.com. The food’s hot, good service and great variety!
Fortune, (diff owners) at 6249 Arlington Blvd in Falls Church (703) 538-3333, www.fortunerestaurantbanquet.com. is less consistent. I’ve eaten some terrific dim sum here, especially on Chinese New Years, but also some that missed. The Barney-colored decor doesn’t help either. They have another location at 1428 North point Village Center, Reston (703) 318-8898 that I’ve never visited.
-mhf, guest blogger
Pizzeria Paradiso, oh you lovely lovely thing you. amg and zaf have just spent their lunch hunched over laptops at this upstairs, single room, brick-oven house of happiness near Dupont.
The 8-inch version is just enough for a single person to make themselves deliriously full, and you will eat the whole thing. Crusts are thin and fresh, erring on the side of crispy overdone-ness. I had a mine covered in pesto, potatoes, sun dried tomatoes, and parmesan, amg had his with mozzarella, tomatoes, portabella mushrooms, and ground meat of an unspecified but tasty nature. Crust also comes in whole wheat, which was not partaken of.
Average pie will run you about $11. So very tasty.
Pizzeria Paradiso | 2029 P St., NW
I don’t know how I cooked before I got my first mortar and pestle set. I mean, really cooked. Crushed freshly-toasted sesame seeds to make a stir-fry, or ground mustard, cardamom, and black pepper for another attempted Indian curry, or pulverized cilantro for salsa. When you crush ingredients this way, their oils are released and combined to a degree that can’t be accomplished using a food processor–not exactly. Home-ground spices are fresher and, not surprisingly, often more potent than their store-bought, pre-ground counterparts. I’d go so far as to say the act of crushing and grinding the food components has a kind of soothing, therapeutic effect.
While wooden and metal sets are available, my preference is for the marble ones, due to their durability and resistance to odors and stains. You can choose from among a variety of sizes and materials at Sur le Table and Williams-Sonoma, and if you feel like sparring with other bargain hunters, you might luck out in the cutthroat treasure hunt that is the T.J. Maxx housewares section (I recently scored a decent 5″ set there for $7.99).
My idea of a great meal is four maybe five appetizers, and hold the entr
So I woke up yesterday morning about 20 minutes late, groggy and none too pleased with the situation. Before I could run out the door to work I had to pack a lunch, as I am far too poor to be eating at the wonderful Well-Dressed Burrito (another post another time on that place) every day. I was also low on my usual lunch fixings – sliced turkey and cheese and instant soup. So it was to be a Left-Overs Salad Day.
What I created, which came out really delicious, was as follows:
In a cup, mix:
1 part good olive oil.
1 part mirin.
1 part soy sauce
3 shakes Chinese 5-spice blend
2 shakes powdered ginger (if you have time for fresh, that would be better!)
Habanero sauce to taste – I used quite a bit, as I’m a masochist.
Emulsify, and pour over spinach greens and chopped carrots, with a half-block of extra-firm tofu, cubed.
An article in today’s New York Times turned my thoughts to the mighty hero, that noble, filling concoction of bread, meat, cheese and sauce that, if done right, can leave you with a heady bliss that lasts clear past lunch and on through the afternoon. The new trend, if you trust the Times (which you should, because they have someone on the hero beat), is multicultural sandwiches, like this:
“It was at Milanes, a modest Dominican storefront restaurant in Chelsea, that I had the chicken sandwich that sent me into orbit. Grecia Milanes, who opened her doors in 1995, strips the flesh and skin from a quarter roasted chicken and fills a Latino-style hero roll, which she toasts in the sandwich press with the meat and skin before layering lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise on the sandwich.
The crispy skin, in combination with the other components, elevate this sandwich to near-mythic status. The sweetness of the mayonnaise, the gamy meatiness of the dark meat chicken and the crispy skin make for the Dominican equivalent of a Peking duck hero.”
That may be worth the $35 Washington Deluxe round-trip fare alone. But can you get a really good blue-collar sandwich down here? Aside from the Subways that seem to be popping up on every corner not already occupied by a Starbucks, the best I can come up with is the Chicken Madness, made by Wisemiller’s Deli of Georgetown.
For $5.45, you get “Mounds of grilled chicken breast, onions, sweet peppers, garlic, hot peppers, bacon and provolone cheese, lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise,” all mashed up on the grill and served with a complimentary soda.
Health-related note: If you plan on cutting calories by ordering a Chicken Madness without mayo, don’t. Like the slaves running ahead of the stone blocks with brushes and oil on the way to the Pyramids’ construction site, sometimes big wonders of the world need lubrication. In other words, you can’t comfortably eat a Chicken Madness without the mayo.
Do you have a favorite D.C. sandwich? Tell us in the comments!
Wisemiller’s – 1236 36th Street, NW – (202) 333-8254
* Alternate titles for this post considered for this post but discarded because they bear no relation to heroes include “Spatzle Oddity,” “John, I’m Only Dicing” and “Moonpie Daydream.” I apologize.**
** Upon additional reflection, all three titles mentioned in the above sentence describe things I’ve done recently. Whoa.
Two of my favorite drinks are in the news today for having great health benefits. Orange juice seems to fight a deadly form of childhood cancer.
Green tea, which I love, may be The Perfect (non-alcoholic) Drink. It blocks prostate cancer in a number of ways, fights leukemia, and boosts your memory. Sounds like we should all be drinking more of it!
