My friend and I both ordered the skirt steak and eggs. The steak was cooked to the correct level of doneness, and that is a rarity nowadays. The over easy eggs were also properly cooked, and the potatoes had flavorful spicing.
The problem is that there is a step that is situated in between the hostess’ station and the restaurant seating. It was impossible to enjoy my meal because of the sense of impending doom that the step emanates. It is an accident waiting to happen, as sooner or later someone is going to trip and get hurt.
The hostess said that a lawsuit is in progress, but the management does not want to turn the step into a ramp because they feel that people would still trip.
They do warn every person to watch their step as they walk them to their table, but people leaving their tables don’t get the warning. The step has faded letters stating “caution” and “watch your step”, but we still saw an older gentleman stumble. And, one person at a particular table -which happened to be me- gets to sit right over that step, hoping nobody trips, but witnessing when it actually happens.
After watching one man trip, hearing the hostesses warn customers as they seated them, and watching various parents lunge for their small children as they reach the step, I don’t think I will be returning to the restaurant. Well, they do have outdoor seating…
The Boulevard Woodgrill
2901 Wilson Boulevard
Arlington, Virginia 22201
(703) 875-9663
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26May
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25May
Well, it must be springtime, because I finally got out to Kaufmann’s Tavern in Gambrills, Maryland for the annual rite of bashing crabs with mallets and washing them down with gallons of beer. This place is sheer crabby magic, I swear. A half-hour drive out 50-E from downtown, it would be worth the trip even if one had to walk. (That being said, feminine wiles and/or a nice boy who will drive you there are advantageous.)
Go with a huge crowd of people if at all possible, and reserve the sunroom. It’s quiet enough to hear your companions even over the noise of mallets hitting crustaceans–I know if I had to lip-read in a loud and crowded joint….well, I wouldn’t, because I’d be busy bashing crabs. The waitresses might hate you a little for coming in with twenty people (that’s part of the charm of this place), but be nice and they’ll be calling you “Darlin'” before too long.
Hope it storms while you’re there, because it’s beautiful when it does that. (Alternatively, sit in one of the main dining areas on a night when local stand up comedians are performing. I can personally vouch for Adam Ruben, who appeared on the Kauffman’s stage recently.) Order several pitchers of beer, and the mussels and the rich cheesy crab dip and the enormous spicy peel-and-eat shrimp to snack on while you wait for your bushels of crabs to come out.
I would describe the crabs, but I’d feel terrible if you drooled all over your keyboard and shorted it out. -
25May
I have eaten at the Algerian restaurant Couscous Café at 20th and M many times, and by now am friendly with the family that owns it. Today, I had the Sephardic meatballs, which is a common special. The meatballs are made with ground lamb, onion, and parsley and are finished with lemon juice and fresh chopped parsley, and served over rice. They have a soft yet chewy texture and a nice flavor. I am told that this dish usually comes with peas, but today it did not.
Other dishes that I have enjoyed at the restaurant include their b’stilla, and couscous a la royal. B’stilla is chicken, almonds, and peanuts in phyllo dough. The couscous a la royal consists of chicken, merguez (spicy lamb sausage), lamb, chickpeas, summer and winter squash, carrots, potatoes, and turnips on a bed of couscous with a flavorful tomato sauce. They also serve vegetarian, lamb, and chicken versions of the couscous entrée.
Couscous Café also has an appetizing case filled mostly with vegetarian side dishes like hummus, ratatouille, baba ghanouj, lentil salad, beet salad, carrot salad, and carrot with garlic and spice. I often take some of these side dishes home when I am cooking an entrée and want easy –because I didn’t make them- vegetable side dishes.
One of my favorite side dishes is called torche in Algeria and mama houria in Tunisia. It consists of pureed carrots with cumin, coriander, garlic, and harissa, which is a hot sauce made with hot peppers and garlic. The torche is served cold and eaten with pita bread. If you ask for hot sauce at the restaurant, they hand you a squeeze bottle containing harissa.
The restaurant always has Middle Eastern music playing, and today was no exception, with the sounds of Electric Oasis’s CD, Exotic Arabian Grooves. Couscous Café has free wireless access, so it’s a nice place to use your laptop while listening to interesting music, and drinking hot or cold mint teas.
I mainly recommend the place as a lunch spot, since later in the day they tend to run out of dishes like b’stilla and falafel.
Couscous Cafe
1195 20th Street NW
Washington, D.C. 20036
(202) 689-1233
8am-8pm, Monday-Friday
This guest blog is by Jason over at http://jasonsfood.blogspot.com/ -
24May
Local produce! Fresh humus! Specialty meat! Crazy nuts! I don’t mean Whole Foods, or even Superfresh, I’m talking about Grosvenor Market. No, stop, I’m actually serous. I know it’s in the basement of an apartment complex. I know it sounds like a glorified convenience store, and I know it’s way out in suburbia, but this place rocks!
Where else are you going to get all-natural dry aged beef on a moment’s notice? Or Apples from a local orchard? Or those great honey-sesame candy things you’re addicted to? The front of this tiny hole-in-the-wall is decorated with the various prizes they’ve won for organic food, happy service, etc. etc. etc. And they also have a Notary Public – I mean, what else can you possibly ask for?
To get there, exit the Grosvenor metro and take a right down the escalator, follow the path that goes to the right of the little landscaped stream through the big scary suburban apt buildings. Past the kiddie pool. Stop laughing! This place rocks, I mean it! -
23May
The last mate post was in January 2005, so I am going to renew the buzz…
I absolutely LOVE yerba mate. I’ve been drinking it for about 3 or 4 years now, and I still just love the taste. According to Wikipedia, Yerba mate is: “A highly caffeinated herbal tea called mate prepared by steeping the dried leaves in hot water. Drinking mate with friends from a shared hollow gourd (also called a mate) with a metal straw (a bombilla) is an extremely common social practice in Paraguay and Argentina.”
I started by buying a bag of Guayaki (tea bags) from Whole Foods in Chicago out of curiosity (I am addicted to buying different teas), and have since purchased my own gourd and bombilla straw, along with loose mate leaves from Teavana at Tyson’s Corner mall. I love being able to relax at home, drinking mate. It’s so great. I am considering planning our next vacation to Argentina just so I can sit around with some locals in a village and drink some traditional mate.
I enjoy drinking mate over coffee anyday, because I feel more energy without feeling jittery or nervous (like I’m having a panic attack) when I OD on coffee. It’s better than tea to me, because it’s a better stimulant. Plus, it’s rumored to be an appetite suppressant as well, but I haven’t noticed too much of that lately. I did notice it more, when I drank it on a more consistent basis.
Today, I received my shipment of 2lbs loose leaf mate from Nativa. I recommend this company, my order came quickly, and the products (mate and herbs) are delicious!
Another great site to order from is EcoTeas, and Aviva. Also, for more local suggestions, check out the January 2005 archive.
Enjoy! -
23May
On June 19th at the Kennedy Center, ASAE and the Center for Association Leadership present
An Evening with Bobby Flay and Rachael Ray: Food, Culture and Fulfillment: Living a Richer Life
“Celebrity chefs Bobby Flay and Rachael Ray are nationally known for their multiple television shows on the Food Network….Join us for a special evening with two great chefs as they explore the role of the creative process in their work and delve into how food and wine have brought people together for centuries, connecting diverse cultures and enhancing the richness of life.” Tickets start at $50 and go on sale May 28. Call 202-326-9530 or email speaker@asaecenter.org.
They were kind enough to send us free tickets to attend this event, so I’ll be sure to let you all know how faaaaaabulous it was if you can’t make it! -
23May
Happy Tuesday! I think Tuesdays are the longest, more boring day there is in the week. I’m willing to debate anyone about this subject too, Tuesdays take forever.
In order to make this Tuesday a little more interesting to me, I thought I would write my first post on DCFUD, and start it off with a SMASHING good recipe for Curry Cashew Chicken Salad.
I love this recipe, and I’ve changed a few steps from the original (don’t ask where that is!) but it’s definately better this way. The original writer didn’t know what they were talking about.
Curry Cashew Chicken Salad (In 10 Simple Steps)
To make a decent size batch, you will need….
1.) 2 cans of canned chicken (Usually found next to the canned tuna, you can use real chicken, but then you have to cook it, and that takes too long for me. I don’t like to be patient.)
2.) Red Grapes
3.) Cashews (usually just two scoops from the nut bin at the store will be fine)
4.) 1 or 2 cans of water chestnuts
5.) Celery (However much you want. I used a small bag from the salad section to dice up)
6.) Oranges or a Small thing of Orange Juice (I squeeze fresh juice, but it doesn’t matter. I’m perfect, like Martha. Wait, Martha wouldn’t use canned chicken though I bet….Hm….)
7.) Curry Powder (yellow)
8.) Ranch Dressing (I suppose you can use Mayo, but Ranch gives it a good taste).
NOW,
1.) Chop the cashews.
2.) Chop the water chestnuts (drained).
3.) Chop the celery.
4.) Mix into a big bowl.
5.) Add a splash of orange juice
6.) Drain the chicken and add the two cans.
7.) Mix all of that goodness.
8.) Slice the grapes in half each (looks nicer, easier to eat).
9.) Add some ranch dressing to coat (want the chicken to still be flaky, no clumps, and not a thick dressing).
10.) Add the curry (I like to add a lot).
Keep tasting, and adding whatever you want. Ranch, curry, orange juice.
Enjoy!
If you don’t like it, you’re crazy! 🙂 -
21May
Last weekend I was asked to bring dessert to a party and I had neither the time, money nor inclination to make much of an effort.
So I dredged out of my memory an old ruse I had used before and was amazed at how good they were. Brownie cookies. Cookies out of a doctored box of brownie mix.They are really cheap – a box of mix makes a ton of cookies – or at least several dozen and costs about $2, plus the trivial cost of the rest of the ingredients. Best of all they make a grown-up kind of cookie. Mildly chocolaty, moist, crisp at the edges yet chewy in the middle, not overly sweet, and rather versatile, (more about that later). Don’t use the recipe on the box. Here’s the technique:
Brownie Cookies
1 large box fudge brownie mix. Brand doesn’t matter but should run about 19-21 oz
2 large eggs lightly beaten
1/4 cup oil (not olive – I used canola)
3 TB water – may need a drop more or not
1/4 cup flour (essential)- Preheat oven to 350
- Dump everything together in a large bowl. Mix until smooth. If it has some dry mix still, add a tiny drop more water. Dough will be like a thickish, stretchy batter – not clumpy like regular cookie double. That’s fine
- Line flat cookie sheet with baking (parchment) paper. You can get this at any grocery store where they have foil and plastic wrap, or sometimes in the baking or even the gadgets aisle.
- With a teaspoon drop a 1/2 dollar sized dollop of mix. It will spread after a minute into a nice circle. These cookies REALLY spread in the oven so give them room.
- Bake about 10 minutes until edges are very slightly browner than the rest of the cookie. That may not happen but 10 or 11 minutes seems about right.
- When they come out of the over let them sit a moment on the cookie sheet to firm as they will be delicate, and then carefully remove to a wire rack to cool completely.
They make a prefect round flattish circle and have a very flat bottom. This makes them good to eat but also good to fill! Make your own Oreos with vanilla icing (canned or your own) between the cookies, or even better, ice cream sandwiches. Just put a small scoop of ice cream between two cookies and freeze on a sheet until firm!
-This is a guest blog by longtime fudder MHF. Thanks mom!
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18May
Fud’s obsession with Splenda is a beautiful thing, especially on dry news days when we can’t be bothered to, you know, write anything real.
But if you thought we were ridiculous, check out Dr. Janet Starr Hull’s book: Splenda®: Is It Safe Or Not?.
Now, no one gives something a title like that if the answer is “why yes, yes it is, completely harmless. Sorry to cause the fuss”. But this book doesn’t stop there, it promises to save your children from toxins, and identify the cause of ‘vague health symptoms that puzzle your doctor’. I deeply suspect it will also walk your dog, reconcile you with your ex, and make your teenage son love you again.
It’s only deep into the website that the true oddness pops up- Hull is a Saccarine fan! Yes, despite the ‘misleading report 20 years ago’ that it causes cancer, Saccarine and not Splenda is the answer to all your problems. In case you didn’t get the picture, she advocates you to use the packet’s color coding: Yellow(Splenda) means caution, whereas the happy pink of Sween n’ Low means sweet safety!
Yet, this is only the second book that our good doctor has published. Her first one is “Sweetpoison“, a book on the dangers of Aspartame (NutraSweet). its description is surprisingly similar.
I can’t help feeling like maybe Dr. Hull, who lists her qualifications as “.. Licensed Certified Nutritionist, certified fitness professional, author and aspartame victim”, should maybe be taken with a grain of salt. -
17May
All this Mary Prankster talk inspired me to grab some friends and run up to the Land Of Pleasant Living and eat a genuine Maryland-style crabcake. Much like the beloved-yet-retired Mlle. Prankster, we ignored the Blue Skies Over Dundalk last night and headed straight to Angelina’s in the Hamilton neighborhood. Angelina’s has been on the short list of top crabcake joints in the region for years. The place has won Best Crabcake Awards from many of the Baltimore-area critics, and in Charm City, that’s more important than a lobbyist’s Blackberry.
Long-time owner Robert Bufano sold the restaurant in 2005, and the new owners swore that they would maintain Angelina’s high standards. They definitely maintained Angelina’s high prices. Crabcakes are seldom cheap, usually about $14 for a sandwich and $25 or so for a two-8oz cake platter. That’s the going rate for the crabcakes found at G&M, Gunning’s, Olive Grove and Timbuktu near BWI Airport, the current gold standards for Baltimore crabcakes. Angelina’s charges “market price” of $22 for the sandwich, $30 for a two 5 oz. cake platter, and $40 for two 8 oz. cake platters.
That’s a damned expensive market. Like, that market makes Wegman’s, Balducci’s and the Gucci Giant in Potomac look like a bargain. But in the search of le crabcake parfait, no price is too high.
I was more wrong than Jessica Simpson at a spelling bee. The $29 Steak and Cake Combo seemed the best deal – an 8oz filet, a 5oz crabcake, and a couple of side items. For that kind of money, I was expecting a transcendent marriage of delicate crab, Old Bay and non-intrusive, yet unique filler. What I got was a dried-out piece of fishnet that happened to have some crab and boiled carrots in it. It had all the taste and consistency of a musty dish sponge. The filet, while cooked to the proper requested temperature of medium-rare, was barely above room temperature and had no discernible taste. The side items of wild rice and green beans were lousy, at best, and tasted like they just emerged from a can or boil-in-bag. The only saving grace of the meals was the above-average Maryland Crab Soup, but $4 soup ain’t savin’ no $29 meal in Balmer, hon.
All of us who schlepped up to Baltimore from the District had the same complaints. The service, while friendly enough, was slower than a little kid trying to tell a long story. It took over an hour to get our entrees, and 30 minutes to get soup. We were the only diners in the restaurant, save for two lone women in search of a late snack. I wish I could say it was just a bad night at the restaurant, but the empty dining room, lousy food and an outdated website hawking their mail-order crabcake business more than the restaurant itself, indicates that Angelina’s best days are behind them.
10 Whammies! out of 355. 3 Whammies! were awarded to the 3 cups of good Maryland Crab Soup, and 7 Whammies! were awarded to my courageous friends who survived this crap. The 355 potential Whammies! represent our bill, not including gas, tolls and the overall general feeling we shoulda gone to the Old Ebbitt Grill.
