• 07Jul

    Chef Ype Did an Excellent Job Creating the Menu at Silver

     

    Pups on the Patio Thursdays 4:00pm to 6:30pm!

    We recently had the pleasure of dining at the new Silver location at Cathedral Commons (3404 Wisconsin Ave., NW)  and speaking with Executive Chef Ype Von Hengst (TV Food Network Chopped Champion and Unwrapped winner). I’ve met Ype previously and dined at various Silver Diners, but this was my first time at either Silver (bistro) location. Silver’s menu is definitely a few steps above Silver Diner (by design).

    Other than whichever cocktail I happened to order, we enjoyed everything. But, while everything was good, the absolute standouts (that we would order again in a heartbeat):

    Lamb Meatballs (appetizer)

    Brussels Sprouts (appetizer)

    Green Giant (fresh pressed juice containing kale, spinach, cucumber, and apple)

    Four Berry Pie

    They also did a great job with both the Mahi Mahi, but I enjoyed it more than my dining partner. It’s possible she just isn’t a Mahi Mahi person.

    Silver has a great looking Menu. Items that we are excited to try if we find ourselves back at Silver include the Shrimp & Grits, Local Lamb with Cappelinni (because they did a great job with the meatballs), the Cauliflower Mezze, and the Vegan Lemon Tartlet (in addition to more Four berry Pie). 

    -JAY

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  • 04Jul

    Jardenea’s Summer Menu Shines in Georgetown

    Executive Chef Nelson Erazo

    We recently attended a Summer media tasting of Jardenea in the Melrose Georgetown Hotel. It was nice to return after a wonderful meal several years ago.

    While not gazpacho fans, we did enjoy the Summer Mango Gazpacho with Jumbo Lump Crab and Jalapeno Lime Creme Fraiche. Not sure we would have known it was supposed to be gazpacho, but that is fine.

    The Maine Lobster BLT Salad featured bibb lettuce, melted tomatoes (?), haricot verts (thin green beans), crisp pancetta (bacon), and avocado puree. This is a nice version of lobster salad, but it doesn’t really remind me of a BLT.  We should have asked what “melted tomatoes” are.

    They did a great job with the Cherry Wood Smoked Duck, which was served with flavorful caramelized onions and thyme pancakes. For a gluten-free diner, the pancakes were not served with this dish.

    Than Pan Seared Wild Salmon was one of our favorite dishes of the evening. It was served with coconut risotto, fresh pineapple, citrus gremolata, lemon preserve, and (very flavorful) Appalachian corn.

    The Menu for the evening.

    The Coconut Panna Cotta was served with (a delicious) papaya compote and toasted coconut. But, the Panna Cotta was not properly set, so was more like a pudding. We have no doubt that if properly set, this dessert would be delicious.

    We ordered the Stoli Doli cocktail, which features Pineapple infused Stolichnaya Vodka, Mint Simple Syrup, and Lemon Juice. This is definitely a drink we would order again.

    The restaurant is good at dealing with food allergies and alternate diets (such as gluten-free, dairy-free, or specific allergies).

    And, the service was very good. Our waiter was attentive and took great care of us. He even brought each wine bottle around for us to photograph.

    -JAY

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  • 30Jun

    A Gluten-Free Bakery to Stop at in a Picturesque Maryland Town

     

    Gluten-Free Bakery Girl has recently opened in St. Michaels, MD, a town (and tourist attraction) of 1.25 square miles. I’ve known Patricia King (the Owner/Baker) for several years, so when she asked if I’d like her to ship me some gluten-free baked goods, I immediately said yes. I’ve even sampled baked goods in the past from her previous bakery in Easton, MD.

    We sampled the Dark Chocolate Buckeye Brownie, Dark Chocolate Brownie, Bakewell Tart, Lemon Bar, and Chocolate Chip Cookie. Some of these items are vegan and some not, but all are gluten-free.

    The Buckeye Brownie, a dark chocolate and peanut butter combination was our favorite! The regular brownie was fine but we preferred the flavor and texture of the Buckeye. The Bakewell Tart was very good, and includes raspberry jam, ground almonds, flaked almonds, icing, and a buttery shortbread crust; this tart is a version of a classic UK dessert from Bakewell, England. We liked the flavor/quality of the chocolate chips Chocolate Chip Cookie. Although I generally love lemon bars, we had a hard time with the flavor and texture, bit did have an end piece that may have been over caramelized.

    -JAY

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  • 20Jun

    The Lamb Jam Swept Through Union Market

    This event was as usual a pleasure to attend. Above are some image highlights from the recent annual Lamb Jam restaurant competition in NE DC. Click on the images twice to read the dish descriptions on the signs.

    Halfway through the event, several of the restaurants had completely run out of food, which was a bit of a disappointment; you can’t vote for dishes you were not able to try.

    The results:

    Best in Show and Best in Mediterranean: Cava
    People’s Choice: Federalist Pig
    Best in Asian: Indique
    Best in Latin: Art and Soul
    Best in Middle Eastern: BLT Steak
    -JAY
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  • 17Jun

    Summer Dining at Fogo De Chão

    As always, Fogo de Chão’s seasonal dish additions are wonderful. It was nice of them to keep a couple of the Spring dishes when they made the Summer additions. We again recommend that they label the new additions, since some of them were not marked, and it would be nice to also somehow let people know that these are new seasonal dishes. Providing recipes for the current dishes (instead of or in addition to) last season’s dishes would be nice as well.

    As always, we were happy to eat tons of picanha, beef and pork ribs, ribeye, and top and bottom sirloin.

    Summer additions:

    Heirloom Tomato & Mozzarella Salad

    Chickpea Salad

    Watermelon & Feta Salad

    Watermelon Fresca (non-alcoholic mocktail)

    -JAY

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  • 17Jun

    Cookie Decorating Brunch for Kids at Wildfire

     

    Catalina teaching the cookie decorating class, while her father assists next to her.

    We were in attendance at Wildfire‘s Memorial Day brunch where guests enjoyed a breakfast buffet, cookie decorating class and face painting. DCFüd‘s, Editor-in-Chief was the guest speaker for the event.

    Chef Oscar Huerta prepared some delicious brunch items for us including bacon, scrambled eggs, potatoes, banana bread, and French toast. Chef Huerta’s daughter, Catalina, taught cookie decorating skills to the kids at the event. And, yes, the sugar cookies themselves were tasty.

    For $20 a person, this kid’s event was a good value. Wildfire has an upcoming Kid’s Cakepop Class ($20 per child) scheduled for July 8th; a portion of the proceeds from this event will be donated to Food for Others.

    -JAY

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  • 06Jun

    The Perfect Meal Kit For Those With No Time

    Wildfire® partnered with Peapod to create new meal prep kits and I think it’s a home run.  My day started out off with rushing out the door at 6:30am for my 45 min commute to work, a day full of meetings and a skipped lunch, last minute projects having me leaving the office later than usual around 6:30pm.  I was stressed the entire day and mentally creating a list in my head of everything I needed to pack that evening for a business trip the next day to New Orleans.

    On a typical stressful day like this, I would’ve swung by somewhere quick and just picked up dinner for the night to allow myself for more time in the evening. However, I had the Wildfire® Beef Tenderloin with Couscous delivered to my door that evening.  I was lucky that traffic was kind to me and I got home within 30 mins.

    I set out to prep my meal and I have to say, as stressed out as I felt that day, prepping the meal was actually very calming and soothing.  The box was left at my doorstep in a disposable cooler with ice packs to keep the food fresh and all of the ingredients you need are individually packaged and labeled, taking the guess work out of everything and making the whole process a cinch so that even someone who doesn’t know how to cook could easily prepare a delicious restaurant quality meal.

    Wildfire

    So the one “no no” that I did as a cook was not properly letting the meat marinade for the given amount of time suggested by the instruction card.  Why? Because I was starving and didn’t have the time.  So I marinated the meat, placed it in the fridge and prepped everything else; the beef really only marinated for approx. 10 minutes at most but it didn’t negatively affect the taste of the dish.  It was still one of the most delicious meals that I’ve had in a long time.  The steps were very easily to follow and the only things that I needed were the cooking utensils, a large skillet and a small pot.

    To be honest, when I opened the box, I thought there was no way this was a serving size for 2 people.  But I was pleasantly surprised at how everything turned out and it was exactly the perfect portion serving.  The meat was  incredibly flavorful and tender and I wouldn’t change a single thing about how this dish is served.

    Thanks Peapod and Wildfire for making my day even less chaotic and stress-free.

    -ADT (Angie)

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  • 08Apr

    Spring into Fogo De Chão

    We recently visited Fogo De Chão’s Washington, DC location once again, and sampled both their new spring dishes and rodizio (selection of meats). The restaurant did an excellent job with the new seasonal dishes. Some of our favorite meats were the ribs, top and bottom sirloin, and sausages.

    We enjoyed both of the spring salads. The Ancient Grain Salad is gluten-free recipe and features including quinoa, chia seeds, toasted kasha (buckwheat groats) and wild rice with diced apples, and pomegranate in a house-made citrus vinaigrette. The Asparagus and Spring Pea Salad features fresh asparagus, spring peas, arugula, goat cheese, lemon zest and herb vinaigrette, and is topped with fresh cracked pepper. This dish was listed as “Arugula Salad” on the salad bar, instead of “Asparagus and Spring Pea Salad.”

    The Sweet Pea and Asparagus soup, is a nice creamy vegetarian soup made with sweet spring peas, asparagus and a blend of Parmesan, cream and fresh ground black pepper.

    The three well-crafted seasonal drinks were the:

    • Smoke & Honey – This smoky version of a classic sour features Monkey Shoulder Whisky, peaty Glenmorangie Original, honeyed ginger, and lemon.

     

    • Guava Do Sul – This sparkling cocktail contains Belvedere Vodka, guava puree, fresh lemon, and La Marca Prosecco.

     

    • Andean Punch – This non-alcoholic drink features fresh strawberries muddled with guava and mint, and topped with sparkling soda. We bet that the tasty and refreshing drink would be great with rum as well.

    The service at Fogo was excellent as usual. We always enjoy our meals there.

    -JAY

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  • 27Mar

    Add a Sipp in Your Spring

    Spring is here, and although mother nature seems to have missed the memo, it doesn’t mean that you can’t start your getting a Spring in your step.

    I got the opportunity to do a taste test of Sipp, an organic sparkling soda that’s lightly sweetened with agave.  Let me tell you, I got my drink on tasting all six flavors in one sitting: Zesty Orange, Ginger Blossom, Mojo Berry, Lemon Flower, Ruby Rose and Summer Pear.

    So I’m not the biggest fan of flowery drinks and most of these have a mixture of a flower substance. So drinking them alone was not my cup of tea, but they ,were definitely an adventure to try.

    Zesty Orange tasted a lot like an orange fanta with a little kick. I don’t like spicy, but it wasn’t an overpowering spice.  Just a slight tingle at the end of your tongue. Mix this with some orange juice and vodka and make it a fun woohoo brunch drink with the gals.

    Ginger Blossom is a combination of two of my least favorite things — ginger and flowers.  So I cheated on this one and gave it to co-worker to try for me. Her take was that it was very light on the ginger flavor and the flavor reminded her of melted vanilla ice cream. She wouldn’t drink this on it’s own, but mixed with bourbon it hit the spot.

    IMG_8712 copyRuby Rose the floweriest of them all. My suggestion with this flavor is to mix it with a red or white wine and make it a wine spritzer.

    Summer Pear was my favorite out of all of them.  None of the overpowering flower flavor, light refreshing drink for the summer.  I still wouldn’t drink it on it’s own. Make it into a fancy martini with some vodka and a lemon twist and I’d call it a pinkies up party.

    Mojo Berry has an overpowering mint flavor, so it is a great mixer for a flavored mojito when you don’t have fresh mint on hand.

    Lemon Flower reminded me of a bouche-y 7Up. You grew up from drinking the standard 7up so you moved to Sipp Lemon Flower and it’s better for you!

    My overall assessment, I would not drink these alone but I’d turn them all into wine spritzers in a heartbeat and invite all the girls over (or just stay home alone and binge on Netflix).

    – ADT

    Sipp is sold nationwide at Target, select retailers and Amazon. Follow Sipp on: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest

     

     

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  • 15Feb

    Karma Modern Indian

    Karma Modern Indian opened it’s doors to the public at the beginning of February in Chinatown.  With it’s beautiful modern decor, ambiance and signature cocktails, it’s sure to be a hot spot for the DC professionals. It’s the place you want to be seen in and tell your friends about.

    My take on it? It’s just another fancy restaurant with a bar where you can hang out after work with your fellow colleagues and sip on slightly overpriced cocktails.  They have a nice selection of signature drinks and the bartenders are fabulous.  They’re tentative and focused on their bar tending skills making the price worth every sip.  You have to love a bar that carries an array of bitters, herbs and fancy blocks of ice.

    Food-wise. If you like spice, theirs will hit the spot. I’m not one to take much heat and if you have Butter Chicken on the menu, you better believe I’m going to order it. It had a little more kick to it than what I’m used to.  Not necessarily a bad thing but not my cup of tea.  The chicken was nice and tender and lots of butter chicken sauce goodness that you can use naan to sop up.  On a scale of 1-5, I would rate it a 3.  Great mixture of spices, tender meat and a great balanced portion of everything.

    I also got a taste of their Grilled Shakarandi (cubed sweet potato + mint + tamarind chutney) and Tandoori Cauliflower.  This was very spicy to my palette but the flavors were great for both dishes but I just don’t know if I would pay the prices for these dishes. The cauliflower dish is $14.

    Overall, would I go out of my way to come to DC to visit this restaurant? I would say no, at least not for the food. But I would definitely come around for a fun happy hour with friends and/or colleagues for some posh cocktails and ambiance.

    Karma Modern Indian
    611 I Street, NW
    Washington, DC  20001
    www.karmamodernindian.com

    -ADT (Angie)

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