Tacos can’t possibly be pretentious, right? Wrong: when you find yourself at the farmers market and faced with $2 per pound ground lamb and gorgeous $3 tubs of pico de gallo, evil schemes begin to hatch. Those two ingredients in basket, I looked around for more markety goodness to add.
Ultimately I ended up heading home with a gorgeous looking poblano pepper and a bag of Vidalia onions (which I go through like crazy, as they are awesome), and started in the usual way: putting my ever-more-beautifully-seasoned pan on my seriously-underpowered stove to heat up. It takes about 6-8 minutes to get very hot, so I have time to chop.
–1 lb. ground lamb
–1 poblano pepper (diced)
–1/2 of a Vidalia onion (diced)
–Fish sauce
—Vegeta
Once the pan was hot enough, I added the meat and some salt, and reduced the heat to medium. When it was about halfway done, I drained most of the grease and added the peppers and onions, as well as a few shakes of fish sauce and a few of Vegeta. When it was almost done, I popped my soft flour tortillas in the microwave (unnecessary if you don’t keep them in the fridge/aren’t too lazy to make them fresh). I removed everything from the pan using a straining spoon, to minimize my grease consumption. It’s tasty, yeah, but I my arteries can only take so much!
I garnished the tacos with my lovely fresh pico de gallo, queso blanco, and a dash of hot sauce. They were delicious, and while pondering this it did occur to me that they were also ridiculous: Bloody Pretentious Tacos!
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11May
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09May
A while back, Ray had posted an article about Voyant Chai Liqueur (the creator’s comments can be found here). Not too long ago, I found another good one to try.
Faretti Biscotti Famosi makes a liqueur that tastes like a mixture of Anisette and Frangelico, which gives it a perfect blend of hazelnut with fennel overtones, making it taste like an alcoholic version of biscotti. As such, it is very drinkable on its own, and it also pairs very well with coffee.
Unfortunately, I can’t find either a web site for this cordial, or a list of who carries it, but it’s definitely something worth keeping an eye out for! -
08May
When my boyfriend and I met friends of ours for dinner at Piola before catching a show at Rosslyn Spectrum the other night, I had no idea we were hitting the restaurant on its most special evening of the month…gnocchi night!
On the 29th of each month, the Rosslyn-based branch of the European chain offers All You Can Eat Gnocchi for something around $10 a plate.
The question is…how much gnocchi can a person actually eat?
The answer? Probably more than one should. Piola lets you choose from any of its menu’s varieties (the night I went, it was tomato basil, four cheese, and ham/eggplant marinara – friends have raved about the pumpkin variety on other evenings), as well as mix and match when it comes time for a refill. It’s impossible not to leave the place bursting.
The gnocchi itself is decent, if not a revelation. The pasta is heavy but homey – the marinara-laced varieties definitely benefit from a little Parmesan cheese, while the four cheese is almost overwhelmingly rich, though the gorgonzola adds a much-needed bite. My favorite of the three definitely was the ham and eggplant, which were both delicious accents to the doughy pasta.
I’ve had Piola’s pizza before, and liked it without being blown away; the place boasts tasty salads and fun treats like Bellinis as well. Whether the restaurant is a destination spot, either on the 29th or otherwise, can be debated, but they sure are generous with their gnocchi.
Piola
1550 Wilson blvd.
Arlington, VA 22209
P: 703-528.1502 -
07May
While in Chicago for a wedding a few weeks ago, I was really taken by surprise by a truly great meal, right out of nowhere. On Friday night before the wedding, I was out with some other (meaning “not affiliated with the wedding”) Chicago friends and one suggested that we go to this little organic place in Logan Square for dinner. Now, I’m all for organic in theory, but am generally skeptical of Organic Restaurants: in my experience, they tend to be pricey and a bit full of themselves. Lula Café did a brilliant job proving me ever so wrong, and even more than that, did so in a way that didn’t bruise my ego in the slightest!
Our cabbie did not approve of the address, and asked why we didn’t want to eat in a ‘nicer’ part of town. I suppose it was nice enough of him to be concerned, but we didn’t get mugged or anything, so I don’t really know what his problem was. We arrived at the specified address, and went inside to put our name on the list (no reservations). It was gonna be a while (this was about 8PM on Friday night, afterall), so we sat at the bar and the asked the slightly adorable bartender for some $2 PBRs.
An aside: while we waited, a woman with a particularly spectacular plastic surgery addiction was standing nearby, and we couldn’t stop noticing that her facial expression never changed. Her companion bought her a drink – she looked surprised; her companion told a joke – she looked surprised; she took a sip of her drink – surprise! We also noted that her upper torso was similarly … immune to gravity and inertia. It was funny to see, at an organic restaurant, a customer so, well, inorganic.
The silicone princess gave up after about half an hour, so our party moved that much further up the wait list! Finally, we were seated in Lula’s charming little dining room – it has a comfortable farm-housey feel, jazzed up with a modern edge, and is without the pretense of far too many places bearing the Organic label. As it turned out, well-balanced combinations would be the theme of the evening…
While perusing the menu, our server brought out a lovely goat-cheese amuse-bouche from the kitchen, and eventually, we made our decisions. I started with confit of organic beets and my companions with Caesar salads; for main dishes two of us had the “macaroni,” and the other had the chickpea and sweet potato tagine.
The Caesars were good, but the confit was amazing. Little cubes of it came in a little pot, with prettily arranged garnishes of apricot paste, chocolate, rock salt, and crème fraiche on the surrounding plate, a basket of pumpernickel crisps alongside. Our server instructed me to scoop a bit of the confit onto one of the crisps, and add little bits of each garnish. I did, and the results were fantastic. The flavors meshed amazingly, and each bite was a new experiment as I altered the mix of ingredients – tasty and fun!
On to our main dishes: the tagine was brightly colored and smelled divinely of cinnamon and vegetable goodness. It tasted as delicious as it looked, and is a great option for lighter dining – not too heavy, but filling and satisfying and very healthy. Someday I need to get myself a tagine and attempt to do something like this at home, but for now it’s good to know someone else is doing so well with their own.
The tagine was delicious, but the macaroni was outstanding. The first thing you notice about it is the yellowfin tuna: large-but-still-bite-sized chunks (raw, though the menu offers no hint of this) sit atop the bed of penne pasta. It’s fresh, flavorful, and a wonderful surprise to see such a twist on an ingredient almost exclusively seen in Japanese (and Japanese-esque) dishes. Below the fish are more surprises: the penne is bathed (but not swimming in) a sauce of melted emmental, mushrooms, and pickles.
Yeah, pickles. My tagine-eating companion HATES pickles, but tried a bite of this and loved it – you get the sweet-sharp overtones without full-on pickleness. Most amazingly, we didn’t feel like all these strong flavors – Swiss cheese, pickles, and mushrooms – fought each other at all, or overpowered the tuna. They blended wonderfully, and made for a really odd dish that was tasty, satisfying, and just the right bits of filling and satisfying.
After two courses like this, how could we not look at (and order from) the dessert menu? I got the spiced chocolate crème caramel, and my companions each had a batch of the chocolate banana bread pudding. The crème caramel was itself fabulous, and the topping of brandied fruits and candied pumpkin seeds really made it special (we are all familiar with my general feelings about pumpkin). And then there was the bread pudding: wow. It’s not like bread pudding I’ve ever had before, what with its chocolateyness and banana-containing, so maybe we were just blown away by the realization that such a thing was possible, but it might have just been that awesome.
How much did we pay for all this incredible food, you ask? It must have been expensive! This is where my little grad-student-foodie heart really gets happy: the total bill for the three of us, including tax and tip, was about $85. That’s less than $30 each. If there’s a really good special on airfare, it’s conceivable that the price of the meal, including transport, could still be in the range I’d not be shocked to pay for this level of food-happiness.
Lula Café
2537 N. Kedzie Boulevard
Chicago, IL 60647
773.489.9554 -
04May
Johnny’s Halfshell opened Taqueria Nacionale next door to their restaurant this week. Breakfast and lunch, and carryout only.
Today, I tried their fish tacos ($2.50), beef tacos ($2.50), and yuca fries $1.50. The tacos -which are soft tacos- were not as soft as I would have liked. They were also small, but they are relatively inexpensive. The fillings were tasty, and seemed to be made from quality ingredients. The beef taco contained small cubes of beef and the fish tacos contained pieces of fried fish, and coleslaw. The yuca fries were tasty, but they oily, and not crispy.
They do make their own horchata, but I haven’t tried it yet. I did notice a bag of chufa nuts. 🙂
Complaints: They need to work on their packaging, and I had to wait 15 minutes for my lunch order. Oh, and they sell the bottled Coke that requires a bottle opener, so if you don’t have one at work, you need to walk around with an open bottle.
I’ll give them a month or two to work things out since they are brand new, and then I’ll try it again. It does seem like a better option than a lot of the Union Station competition.
Taqueria Nacionale
444 N. Capitol Street
Washington, DC 20001 -
03May
Ever since the weather started reasonably cooperating, I’ve been on a grilled fish kick. I get home, and it’s all I want to cook, since it’s quick and outdoors, and all I want to eat, since it’s fresh and light tasting. Plus, I’ve recently discovered (like MAW) that those Trader Joe’s frozen fish fillets taste better than I ever expected.
Last Monday, I did tilapia. Since grilling makes me think of corn on the cob, I was brought to think of my favorite way of preparing the vegetable (namely, using lime butter with chili powder), and figured the combination of flavors would lend itself well to fish. Sure did – a squirt of lime juice, a dash of powder, a dollop of butter and everything came together. Served it with a roasted red potato with cumin, and steamed green beans.
This Monday, it was Mahi Mahi. I didn’t go too crazy on the marinade (just a little salt and citrus), but I topped the fish with a salsa made of fresh tomatoes, avocado, lime, red onion and a little turkey bacon (namely because these were ingredients I needed to use up). A red wine risotto with spinach and peas served as my side (a bit indulgent, given the main course, but it seemed a good idea at the time).
Tonight, I gave cod a shot. I had one lone piece of prosciutto left from some appetizers I made recently. I soaked the fish in a bit of Worcestershire sauce, seasoned, and then wrapped the fish in the prosciutto. Cheated on the side dishes, though – frozen fries from TJ’s coated in garlic salt, and a carrot/bean vegetable medly weren’t inspired choices, but they were easy ones.
All these recipes, by the way, are thirty minute meals without the annoying acronyms and exclamations of “Yummo.” Next week, I’m thinking my favorite tuna recipe – coated in red, black and white pepper, seared, and served over white beans simmered with sage. What’s your favorite way to grill fish? -
01May
What can I say? I’m lazy. I want good, home-cooked food, but I don’t want to plan for it more than an hour (at most) in advance. Also because I’m lazy, I’ve become a bit addicted to the frozen, individually-wrapped fish fillets from the grocery store. It’s not the best quality fish, but bit’s relatively cheap and easy to deal with. Last night, I was pretty totally uninterested in going to the grocery store to pick up any items that might help make a meal out of my individually-wrapped mahi-mahi fillet, which I’d set out to defrost on a whim that morning.
So, I decided to see what I could do with what I already had lying about. (Luckily, I am aware of my own laziness, so I keep a pretty good stock of non-perishable basics lying about the pantry.) Here’s what I had:
4 oz. mahi-mahi fillet, thawed;
Lemon juice;
(Vietnamese) Fish sauce;
Garbanzo beans;
Leftover brown jasmine rice;
A mango;
Coconut milk;
Sugar;
Spices;
Olive oil;
Hot sesame oil.
I cut the fish in four, placed it in a bowl, and covered with lemon juice, adding about a teaspoon of fish sauce. I stirred it around, and then left it there, to consider next steps. While the fish marinated, I drained a can of garbanzos, adding about 1/3 of the can to a bowl and putting the rest away, and added about the same volume of rice to the bowl.
In a small glass, I mixed olive oil (about 3 tbs), a splash of sesame oil, and two splashed (maybe a teaspoon?) of lemon juice. I sprinkled in a couple shakes of dried basil, a couple of thyme, and a pinch of pepper.
I also put my pan on the stove, added some salt to it, and got it really, really hot.
By this time, the fish had been in the lemon juice about 15 minutes (I’d stirred and turned it every now and again too), so I removed it, patted it dry with a paper towel, and rubbed all sides with a little bit of basil.
I put the rice-and-garbanzo bowl in the microwave and set the timer for a minute, but didn’t start it, and then added some oil to my pan, followed by the fish. After a minute, I flipped the fish over, and hit start on the microwave. When it finished, I took out the bowl, tossed with my glass of dressing, and removed the fish on top of all that. Then, less than half an hour after I started, I ate, and it was really tasty.
Tasty, but I also wanted dessert. Hey, it’s finals week, I get dessert if I want it! After such a meal, the only dessert that I could think of wanting was mango sticky rice. But that takes time (and other ingredients)! Again, I improvised:
Cube half a medium-sized mango, and add to a bowl of pre-cooked rice. Add coconut milk to cover halfway, about a teaspoon-and-a-half sugar, and a pinch (a SMALL pinch) of ginger. Stir. Microwave one minute. Stir. Microwave one minute. Stir. Microwave 30 seconds. Stir. Eat!
See mom? Cutting corners really can get you places! -
30Apr
The historic Capitol Hill market and gathering place Eastern Market was severely damaged by fire early this morning. Nobody was injured, but all of the vendor space – the butcher, seafood, bread, snack shops – are all destroyed. At this point, the fire department and police are investigating the blaze as possible arson.
Here are links to coverage from the Post and Mark Fisher commentary. Here’s a quick story and pictures from DCist. A picture slideshow from NBC4 shows the firefighters in action.
While Mayor Adrian Fenty is vowing to repair the damage quickly, and Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton is requesting Federal dollars to help, the immediate question for the community is what will happen to the vendors and surrounding businesses who make a large portion of income from the foot traffic generated by the market? Where will they be placed? How quickly can they (or are they even willing) to rebuild? Mayor Fenty says he’ll get them new spaces, which is admirable…and also eerily similar to what the City of Annapolis told the vendors of the historic Market House when that building was flooded by Hurricane Isabel in 2003. Much like Eastern Market, the City-owned Market House was mostly full of locally-owned tenants – a couple of sandwich shops, seafood, bakery, produce, pizza, cheeses – a favorite of locals and tourists alike, and the building practically dripped with history. It was the worst-kept secret that the Annapolis City Council and Mayor Ellen Moyer had offered up the Market House to high-end grocery store Dean and Deluca before the hurricane, and the subsequent flood damage merely heightened the rumors and animosity between the tenants and the Council. The existing tenants were still wringing out their flooded inventories when they were booted out by the City, many closing family businesses that had existed for decades.
After a long, drawn-out leasing battle with the Annapolis City Council and Mayor, Dean and Deluca pulled out. While no official explanation came from Dean and Deluca, it became a black eye for the City to have such historic, highly valuable real estate essentially vacant during the prime tourist season and annual boat shows.
It doesn’t take an advanced degree in Urban Planning or Macroeconomic Theory to know that Eastern Market is sitting in a similar prime real estate area. Metro access, established neighborhood, nearby parking, mere steps to the Capitol – every chain in America itching to enter the D.C. market would want that. It will be Fenty and the City Council’s job to heed the lessons learned from the bitter romance and divorce in Annapolis, that a well-heeled suitor is not always the best choice for marriage. -
26Apr
Few phrases can evoke the body into unconscious acts, rendering us less human and more automaton, operating on pure emotion. Of these phrases, most invoke love and major life announcements. “Will you marry me?” “I’m pregnant.” “All-you-can-eat Brazilian steakhouse.”
I have done my best to avoid hearing two of those phrases and the accompanying emotional response, but “All-you-can-eat Brazilian steakhouse” spoke to my soul like a classic Spenserian sonnet or a well-edited blooper compilation on YouTube. I took the Five Paragraph Bitter Food Family to Fogo de Chao recently, reveling in the poetry that only fire-grilled meat can write.
After perusing a wine list specializing in South American malbecs, diners are given a disc, one side red and the other green. If you don’t want any meat, keep the disk showing red. Flipping that disk to the green side gives the serving gauchos carte blanche to bring out scores of skewers of perfectly-charred meats to your table, and you’re free to take as much or as little as you’d like, and at your desired level of doneness. Prime rib, various types of sirloins, bacon-wrapped filets, chicken, pork ribs, lamb chops, each bite perfectly seasoned and prepared. It’s like Dr. Atkins’ dream restaurant – all meat, all the time, with none of those pesky starches to get in the way.
That disk, with the red and green, reminded me of the Omni from the early `80s TV show Voyagers – the green side was good, red was bad. All that was missing was Jon-Erik Hexum as Phineas Bogg saying “Great job, kid!” The green side meant the meat kept coming, and like a lonely man in the presence of a beautiful woman, I couldn’t say no. I started to revert to primal instincts. I couldn’t pronounce polysyllabic words. The gauchos brought out pincanha, a salt-seasoned sirloin. I ate that with glee. Bacon-wrapped chicken medallions. I pointed and grunted in approval. Alcatra, another form or sirloin? I am told by my mother than I actually drooled. Linguica, a type of sausage – by that point in the evening, things were becoming cloudy, fuzzy. I must have blacked out. I vaguely remember somebody at the table offering me a bite of cheesecake, and somebody shoving a piece delicious key lime pie in my mouth while I looked at the skewer of beef ribs like Mark Foley at a Congressional Page.
The veritable orgy of meats does not diminish the surprisingly good salad bar, featuring not only the usual lettuce and carrot mixes, but a mix of local and South American vegetables, peppers , chilies and dressings. The salad bar also has more meat, thinly sliced prosciutto and smoked salmon served cold, as though you didn’t get enough dead animal already. Once I awoke from my food coma, I found the desserts were efficient and tasty, and the coffee – usually a weak spot in many restaurants – was incredibly delicious. I can’t imagine eating there too often; it’s easily 70 dollars or more per person for dinner between drinks, the meal, dessert and DC tax, while lunch is about half that. But, somewhere in that Big Diet Book in the Sky, Dr. Atkins is looking down, smiling at Fogo de Chao.
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Fogo De Chao earned 19 out of 20 possible Whammies! One Whammy! for each type of meat served (14 that day), one Whammy! for the coffee, two Whammies! for the salad bar that didn’t suck, one Whammy! for the extensive wine list, one Whammy! for the Key Lime Pie, one Whammy! for the incredibly gracious service. One Whammy was not earned for them not allowing me to live there. I promised I’d be clean. Stupid health department.
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25Apr
The Five Paragraph Bitter Food Critic has been hitting the gym almost as hard as Presidential candidates are hitting the campaign trail. The past few weeks have been spent eating healthier foods, avoiding sweets, riding my bike to work, and getting to the weight room more often than I went to the buffet. The result? As of April 23rd, I weighed less than 200 pounds for the first time since moving back to Washington in mid-2005. Heart rate’s lower, blood pressure’s good, and only 10 more pounds to go before I’m back to “normal.” I celebrated this wonderful occasion not with more sit-ups and cardio, but by eating an ungodly amount of sumptuous, decadent tortellini at La Perla, a gem nestled between Pennsylvania Avenue and the Rock Creek Parkway near Georgetown.
This was for a good reason – the fine folks of the Washington Post’s Datelab series set me up on blind date at La Perla. While I won’t spoil the surprise of the details of the date (check www.washingtonpost.com or buy the Sunday papers), I will gladly dish about the restaurant. Pictures of famous guests to the restaurant line the entrance, surrounding a formal document from Pope John Paul II. The dessert case then casts an enticing glare, chock full of pastry, tortes and cheesecakes. This sugar-laden minx rests in front of a wall of wine bottles, surrounded by flowers, Italian artifacts and plaster carvings, while a replication of Botticelli’s Birth of Venus stands guard over the dining room.
I had been warned that the portions at La Perla were generous, and that leaving hungry would not be an option. Chef and owner Vittorio Testa did not disappoint – my plate of tortellini alla panna was full of delicious meat-stuffed shells covered in a glorious marscapone cream sauce, and my fellow Datelabber’s Piatto Di Mastro Geppetto was a massive cornucopia of shellfish served over linguine. Every mussel, clam, scallop and shrimp at the Waterfront fish markets had been kidnapped and held for ransom on her plate. This dish will taste even better later this year as more fresh sea scallops are shipped down from the New England waters. Still, that tortellini was star of the show; each bite a reminder of why I love Italian cuisine. If I ever become the male Oprah, this dish gets prime billing on my “Favorite Things” list, somewhere between TiVo and world peace.
They brought out a slice of tiramisu with some limoncello liqueur for us to share. Now, the restaurant knew who we were and who we were representing, so it is possible that’s why we received special treatment. But while good service can be faked, a genuine spirit of hospitality can’t. The server, the maitre’d, bus staff, even Chef Testa himself made sure we were welcome guests, and none of that felt like it was an act to get good press (and I doubt they knew I was a humble food blogger, either).
So, La Perla has earned a future visit from me. This meal was every bit as good as my usual standard for Italian in D.C., Al Tiramisu, and though Al Tiramisu’s cozy interior could be considered more romantic, it’s a fine line between “intimate” and “cramped.” There’s something to be said for elbow room. Palena is still my favorite Italian dining experience in the city, but these are not comparable restaurants. Chef Ruta’s adventurous dishes at Palena win you over using non-traditional ingredients and inventive presentation whereas Chef Testa’s La Perla is more of a classical spot that honors traditional fare and hospitality. The city is lucky to have such quality.
La Perla
2600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20037
202-333-1767.
Valet service available
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La Perla earned 6 Whammies! out of a potential 7 Whammies!, the only deduction coming from the just-ever-so-slightly too salty sea scallops, which will quickly not be an issue later in the seafood season, and that they wouldn’t let me swim in that marscapone cream sauce. Something about health code standards and sanitation. Hmph.
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