I don’t know about you, but if you are a foodie and übergeek like myself (and my fiancé), you probably use the internet to do your research on the restaurants you potentially want to visit. This of course involves the ubiquitous google search for your favorite place, to look at their website and menu offerings. I’ve come to realize that not every restaurant has a webpage or menu online, and now Menupix tries to fill the void. Search by neighborhood and/or cuisine to find the address, type of cuisine, whether it delivers or not, and its menu (if available).
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15Nov
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15Nov
Nothing can make you scream “Vacation!” more quickly than the prospect of a FREEEE hotel, so when my sister was tapped to present a paper at an engineering conference in Orlando, I quickly hopped on for the ride. The result was four manic days and four late nights in what bills itself as the most magical place on earth.
But for me, magic can’t be present without good food, so my sister and I made trying new (and often overpriced) restaurants a part of our Disney experience. No chicken fingers for this crew! Here are some of the results.
bluezoo:: Restauranteur Todd English of Olives fame has a trendy, largely-seafood place stationed in the Dophin Hotel, at which we were guests. The place isn’t cheap – Mandy and I dropped $75 each for two entrees, an appetizer and wine. But the place has a cool vibe and the food is prepared with care – beef tenderloin is juicy and flavorful, mahi-mahi is light and well-accented. Side dishes were unremarkable, and the whole place had a bit of a style-over-substance feel, but it was still a great meal.
Wolfgang Puck Café. Fans of the California legend have their pick of options in Downtown Disney and Pleasure Island – the cafeteria-style Express, the mid-priced café and the upscale dining room. We took two trips to the in-between option and were more than satisfied with both. Pumpkin ravioli was artfully dressed in a brown butter sauce with a balsamic glaze. Sushi was fresh; red snapper was jazzed up with a delicious pesto. My favorite was the rosemary roasted chicken, in which I practically consumed my weight. The place has jazzy drinks and killer desserts – two delicious offerings were a thick carrot cake and an unbelievable pumpkin cheesecake on a chocolate crust. Avoid the calamari – it’s nothing special and the sauce is underwhelming; plus you’ll want to save room for the rest of your courses. -
13Nov
I’m not quite sure how long it’s been open, but Amelie and I decided to check it out this past Friday. The decor is reminiscent of Morimoto’s in Philadelphia insofar as the wave theme has carried over into Paulimoto’s. We were expecting a bit more, I suppose, because the Morimoto’s in Philly is really something else in terms of appointment and furnishings. Paulimoto’s is more spartan and industrial- open ducts, naked woods and solid brown bakelite-like tables.
Paulimoto’s advertises that it serves Chinese and Japanese food. The menu reads a lot like PF Chang’s except the Japanese (Morimoto-inspired supposedly) dishes are a bit more fusion-ey. We decided to skip the Chinese and go for the Japanese and that was a wise decision. We looked around at the other tables’ orders and the Chinese looked less-than-exciting.
We started with an agedashi tofu which was very good, and we also decided to order lettuce wraps (just like PF Chang’s), because we just can’t get enough of them. The lettuce wraps are identical to the ones at the other Asian bistro to include the “special sauce” that they put together for you.
We ordered three robatayaki just to see how they were here and they weren’t very good. I should say the Kobe beef one we got was very good, the asparagus was ok, and the scallops were down right awful. I honestly thought they served us dried scallops on sticks.
For the main course, I got the miso black cod and Amelie got the tempura halibut with spicy miso. Luckily, both the entrees were well above the quality of appetizers. The miso cod had enough miso to flavor the entire cod steaks and the halibut was lightly fried in cubes and served with a spicy miso sauce on the plate. Both were served (as are all entrees) with brown rice (you can get white rice if you want). We did also order a side of wasabi mashed potatoes because Amelie had never had them before, but neither of us liked it so we didn’t eat it. Too buttery, and for my palette, butter plus wasabi equals not good.
So all in all, the Japanese entrees were very good, particularly considering they were about $16 and you’re in a shopping mall. The appetizers, ehh… not so good. The Kobe beef robatayaki was good though. The Chinese choices were nothing extraordinary from what I could tell and I wouldn’t go there to eat Chinese anyway. If you’ve been to the Morimoto’s in Philly, you’ll recognize the inspiration of a couple of the entrees, but aside from that and the Morimoto sake, there is no clear influence of the Iron Chef here. Total bill for two appetizers, three robatayaki, two entrees, one side dish, and three Pellegrinos was $80. Not too shabby.
Definitely make a reservation if you want to go, otherwise you will wait a long time for a table. Also, as of the time of this writing, they didn’t have their liquor license yet so we couldn’t have any Morimoto sake.
Pauli Moto’s Asian Bistro
Tyson’s Corner Center
703-556-7777 -
12Nov
You’re ecologically sensitive when it comes to coagulated animal protein. You purchase only free-range organic beef and Kosher chicken. You chew on venison jerky, and wax ecstatic over ostrich whenever Whole Foods has it in stock.
And yet, even the head of Sierra Club isn’t as ecologically minded as an average Australian. There are recycling boxes next to each and every public garbage can and Tasmania is all set to become the first plastic bag-free state in the world. Add to this the perfect meat source: almost no fat, low in environmental impact, sustainable, organic, free range, and tasty. I am in fact talking about Kangaroo.
Oh don’t look at me like that. You’ve defied your Disney conditioning enough to eat venison, and these tasty marsupials don’t even have their own cutesy movie.
Culling of natural predators has resulted in a huge overpopulation. They have few of the parasites and diseases present in domestic animals like cows and sheep, and, while animals with hooves kill off vegetation and cause erosion, the famous kangaroo bounce keeps soil healthy. It’s practically our duty to barbeque, roast, and sauté these furry meat-bags.
Five species of kangaroo are currently harvested in Australia by small, local suppliers. It’s the type of cottage industry that would make any hippie proud. Even conservation groups agree that upping kangaroo farming would help out with environmental revitalization efforts.
And anyway, it’s juicy and tender and tasty, and really good. The American Heart Association agrees, but more for the low fat content and high vitamins. And it’s coming soon. Oh yes. It’s helping out with the “Russian Meat shortage”. It’s surging in Europe thanks to the Foot and Mouth epidemic a few years ago. And now, the US.
Finally, an Australian export that doesn’t wear a silly hat. Try some, extra rare -
11Nov
Just in time for the influx of cold-weather tourists to our fair city, CNN has compiled and posted a list of “cheap” places to eat well in DC. These sorts of lists seem designed to generate controversy, but hey – we don’t shy from controversy around here. My take on the entries on CNN’s list about which I know anything:
2. Ben’s Chili Bowl. I love it, and I fully support sending tourists there very late at night: we need to thin the herd!
3. Lauriol Plaza. Why does this place consistently make every single “cheap eats” list in DC?? It’s in no way cheap, the lines are awful, and the food is just so-so. You can so infinitely better at Dos Gringos, Mixtec, or any of the tiny Salvadorian and Ecuadorian places on the Hill. Ugh!
7. Leftbank. Whuuuh? It’s expensive. I’ve never had good service (OK, I’ve only been twice, but still…). The food is so-so. It’s expensive. We also don’t need any more tourists on 18th street.
8. The Diner. See 7, above, except I love a few of the servers.
10. Moby Dick House of Kabob. Now we’re talking. Except, uhm, it’s really a carry-out place.
Where would you send visitors on a budget? Please distinguish where you’d send people you like (Oohhs and Aahhs for mac+cheese) versus people you don’t like (Anacostia Park for sunset). -
07Nov
The theft of food has a long and glorious history: Jean ValJean did it. Huckleberry Finn did it. And who could forget the classic knee-slapper, ”What are the first three words in a Hungarian cookbook? ‘Steal a chicken’”.
So it is unsurprising to that those of us who have spent the last two years sleeping at camp sites, hostel dorm rooms, and on one occasion, a beach, a very specialized form of cooking has evolved. This is hostel cooking, and it’s the most regional form of cuisine because each region has different foods to steal. And by steal, I mean ‘take without paying for’.
Let’s be fair. Lots of countries won’t allow fruits and vegetables over the state borders, and it can be better to carry only light, non-perishables like powdered soup and rice anyway. Hostel cooking is a cuisine that relies on having spent your last dollar on weird foreign beer the night before.
Basically, every hostel worth its pool table has a ‘Free Food shelf’. Some hostel stoves are coin-fed, and many places make you rent the cutlery. At some you even have to battle a giant German rugby player to be allowed at the sink. It’s in this classic tradition that we proudly give you the following recipes. They take 7 minutes, can be eaten out of the pot they were cooked in, and, most importantly, cost less than 2$ if you do it right. You’re on your own for the Rugby player tho.
Buy: 1 small white onion, and one 6-pack of eggs
Stolen spaghetti stew
This is the most basic of hostel dishes and it relies on one thing: carrying a large supply of powdered Chinese egg soup with you at all times. You can get the stuff for 50 cents at any Asian grocery store (I prefer the one in Rockville, but there’s one in Chinatown, and plenty of others all over the place). It’s really just beef or chicken bullion thickened with a little corn starch.
Start with whatever the required amount of water, cold in a pot. Add in the powder, and place it on low heat. Dice up the onion and toss it in. Add some of the ubiquitous spaghetti found on every free food shelf. If there isn’t any for free, find someone else’s groceries and either 1) steal a couple of strands, or if you think that will be too obvious 2) carefully break all the ends off of the entire pack, about half an inch down. That way, they all end up the same length, albeit shorter. Bring to a boil. Crack an egg into a rented cup and beat it a bit, then whisk it into the stew with a fork. Instant paradise in a bowl.
Really Deviled eggs
Take the eggs and hard-boil them. When you’re sure they’re ready, boil them for another few minutes, and then plunge them into cold water for a bit. Peel and slice each egg carefully in half and remove the yolks with a spoon. Locate some mayonnaise and some mustard. Grey Pupon is the best, but really anything on the free shelf will do.
Now just start adding whatever you can find to the yolks: a scoop of mayo, a scoop of mustard, whatever salt and pepper’s around, hot sauce, chili’s if it’s an Asian country, curry if it’s India (or England). Squish it all together with a fork to make a smooth yellow paste, and then scoop it back into the egg white cups using a spoon. Eat until you feel sick. Trade the onion to the Rugby player for a beer. -
04Nov
Several weeks ago, our own CZ posted a review of Capital Q BBQ, the lastest in a series of BBQ-related reviews we’ve done here on DCFUD and elsewhere. We’re always in search of the latest and best BBQ. Given that some of us haven’t eaten decent BBQ in at least six months, we thought we’d do what all good food lovers to do, and lust for BBQ experiences through our past writings and the writings of others. So, listed below for your pleasure, is our own BBQ link edition, including our reviews of local-ish BBQ and reviews from other great local sites.
Since BBQ always inspires such great feedback, we’d like to encourage our readers to provide their own views on the “best BBQ” in the greater DC area. And provide us with the links we missed, as we desperately need to read about more local BBQ.- Capital Q BBQ (DCFUD, September 2005) – “Portions were fairly large, overall the BBQ was good, but not the best. I think Rocklands’ ribs are better, but I want to go back already. Especially for their hot links.”
- Old Glory (The Kitchenette, September 2005) – “Old Glory has the friendly Fourth of July ambiance a bewildered student needs to gradually get oriented back to campus life. forget delicate tablecloths or fancy hor d’oeuvres– eating here is messy and fun. it’s only a matter of time before i find remnants of the meal underneath fingernails while daydreaming in class tomorrow.”
- Riedel’s Restaurant (Metrocurean, September 2005) – “Memphis, South Carolina, Kansas City and Texas-style homemade sauces are available to dress your ‘cue. (Metrocurean notes the absence of her native North Carolina sauces—both vinegar-based and tomato-based—but I won’t hold it against them.)”
- Rocklands BBQ (Ceno Ergo Sum, September 2005) – “At Rocklands, they slow cook the meat over hickory and then bring it up to temperature later, after you place your order. This ensures that your order is hot, but also still tender and juicy. They also go to the trouble of splitting the ribs and breaking the whole chickens into individual serving sizes before wrapping them up for you.”
- Lefty’s BBQ (DCFUD, November, 2004) – “The consensus is that out of all the BBQ places our crack team has tried, including Rocklands; Old Glory; Dixie Bones; Urban BBQ; Red, Hot, and Blue; and Johnny’s, Lefty’s Barbecue holds the current title of best BBQ in the metro D.C. area. At least, that is, until the next trip.”
- All the BBQ in Town (The Washington Post, July 22, 2004) – The Washington Post reviews local BBQ, and ends up dubbing The Rib Pit as the best in D.C. “The Rib Pit is the real thing. A wood-fired smoker built of white glazed brick dominates this tiny carryout on 14th Street NW, in Petworth. The immediate neighborhood looks a bit rough, and a bulletproof partition separates employees from customers. But these are perhaps the best ribs ($16.90 a slab) to be found in the District.”
- Johnny Boy’s (DCSOB/DCFUD Team, November 2003) – “The pulled pork was certainly up there on the list, but not the most amazing I’ve ever had. RJ3’s ribs were scrumptious, but did not live up to the hype that had been promised. Either way, it was worth the drive, although possibly not for a second time.”
We now open the comments section to you, our loyal readers, for your own thoughts on BBQ in the DC metro area.
UPDATE: Reader JM points to a place we seem to have missed: Levi’s Port Café (1102 8th St. SE). The City Paper gives this relative newbie high marks; what do you think? -
31Oct
This guest blog is by Erin over at at The Kitchenette
It’s a term that has been tossed around in the news lately describing confident but passionate men such as Bono and Barack Obama. Unlike the metro, the ubersexual is more sensual and not at all self-conscious: he doesn’t need other people to tell him he’s sexy, he knows it. As advertising giant JWT described in their recent article naming the “Top Ten Ubersexuals,” ubers have better things to do than “plan their errands around which shop windows offer the best reflection.”
And what does all this have to do with the recently opened fine arts exhibit at Palette restaurant in the Madison Hotel? It wants to be ubersexual so bad: passionate about causes and principles and artists like Ellsworth Kelly and Robert Rauschenberg, both featured in the exhibit. But the décor defines metrosexual dead-on: mostly passionate about itself.
The exhibit on the walls of Palette in the Madison Hotel near the McPherson Square Metro station showcases pieces from the Ralls Collection, a privately owned modern art gallery in Georgetown. Maybe you’d recognize the fire engine red, metallic sculpture shaped like a backwards seven out front of the Ralls? The uber-modern gallery donated several pieces by artists including: Philip Guston, Ellsworth Kelly, Malcolm Morley, Robert Rauschenberg, Dorthea Rockburne, James Rosenquist and Richard Serra.
Most resemble splatter paint, but they do faultlessly match the restaurant’s chic space. The interior design of Palette is sophisticated with black-trimmed, crème-colored chairs, and noticeably swank with frosted seafoam green glass and light fixtures hanging over the bar. Although Palette does get points for combining haute art with haute cuisine, a rarity in DC, it seems to reach for something it’s not. The uberhaute design clashes with the colonial-styled Madison Hotel built back in1963.
Perhaps the hotel was suffering a mid-life crisis and Palette was the answer? Like an obvious face-lift, the Madison tried so hard to look younger when Palette opened back in January 2004. At the restaurant’s unveiling, head chef Charlie Hansji served caramelized tomatoes with black olive ice cream. Within a month, he was replaced. Palette’s rocky start demonstrates the metrosexual notion of trying to be hip without remembering to be timeless and comfortable. People thought the chef was almost mocking fusion cooking with his peculiar combinations. Tom Sietsema gave the Palette just one star when he first reviewed the restaurant last year.
Ubers confidently make the right decision no matter what others think. They exude poise and an uncompromising style, whereas metros deliberately reach for aloofness. Metros memorize the variations of olives and flaunt their Venti Starbucks soy mochas ostentatiously. Metros cannot think for themselves, which makes it easy to value brands over brains. Palette is stylish yes, but it still seems to be searching for an identity within the timeless Madison.
(1155 15th Street, NW, 202.587.2700) http://www.palettedc.com/contact.htm -
26Oct
In our usual self-congratulatory fashion, we’re proud to announce that today is the second anniversary of the Smorgasblog Media Empire, the very loose comglomerate of blogs encompassing DCFUD, Thrown for a Loop, Live from the Third Rail, and two blogs emeritus: DCSOB and Pretending Along.
So thanks to all our loyal readers who’ve been with us since the beginning, back in the days when rj3 almost got fired for his personal blogging and decided that, in retaliation, we should create the “Venn diagram of group blogs”. And Smorgasblog was born.
Since then, rj3 has resigned as DCSOB and moved on to the windy city, taking his blog with him. Zaf came along and started DCFUD. And the rest is, well, history.
We couldn’t have done it without our loyal writers (on the sidebar), including stand-up stand-in editor mjf. So thanks to everyone.
And in our continual spirit of slowly taking over an incredibly small corner of the blog-o-sphere, we’re always interested in looking for more bloggers and group blogs. If you have an idea for a great group blog or are interested in joining as a writer for DCFUD or another blog, feel free to drop us a line. Direct emails to the dcfud.writers@gmail.com address, as we’re too lazy to open another gmail account at the moment. -
25Oct
Over the weekend, I got a craving for chopped liver, the way my grandmother makes it. I know that chopped liver has few fans outside of the Jewish retiree community, but I grew up in Eastern Europe, so it’s a taste I acquired as a child. Having recently purchased my very first food processor, I realized that nothing was standing in my way. Nothing except my hatred of touching raw meat.
Since I was craving chopped liver, and seriously contemplating making it, you can probably guess that I’m not a vegetarian. But touching raw meat just grosses me out. I know this isn’t a terribly eloquent of putting it, but: raw meat is totally gross. I never deal with it. I either cook vegetarian dishes or buy my meat already prepared. Thinking back over the past three years, I can recall only one occasion on which raw chicken entered my kitchen.My squeamishness with raw meat is a problem I would like to overcome. So like an acrophobe who hopes to cure his fears by visiting a skyscraper’s observation deck, I walked over to Safeway and purchased a package of raw chicken livers and an onion. I knew I would have a problem when I had trouble taking the package out of the supermarket’s meat case. It looked wet and a bloody and I just didn’t want to touch it. Hoping to minimize my contact with the package, I walked back to the produce section, got a plastic bag (which should really be provided over by the meat section as well) and used the bag to get the livers out of the case.
After getting home, I took a deep breath and dumped the package out of the plastic bag into the sink. I took another deep breath and pulled open the lid. One more deep breath and I was handling a chicken liver. It was slippery. And unlike raw chicken, which doesn’t smell like roasted or baked chicken, raw chicken livers smelled a bit like cooked chicken livers. And did I mention it was slippery? Oh, and also quite bloody. I wondered if this is how a human liver feels to a surgeon. Then I thought, “I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.”
I managed to stop thinking long enough to clean off the livers and dump them into some boiling water. While the meat was cooking, I neurotically cleaned anything that came in contact with the raw chicken. Part of the grossness of raw meat is that I am convinced that I will almost definitely die of salmonella if it enters my kitchen. Chicken livers take about 15 minutes to cook, and I spent most of that time scrubbing.
My family’s recipe for chopped chicken livers includes only a few ingredients: chicken livers, fried onions and cooked carrots. I also had some white mushrooms around, so I decided to make two batches, one with onions and carrots and the other with onions and mushrooms.Grandma’s Chopped Liver
- Half a container of raw chicken livers
- A quarter of a large white onion
- 5-6 baby carrots
- Olive oil
Grandma’s (Modified) Chopped Liver
- Half a container of raw chicken livers
- A quarter of a large white onion
- 8-10 white mushrooms
- Olive oil
Using olive oil, I fried up some onion and mushrooms while boiling a few baby carrots and the liver. Once everything was ready, I dumped the ingredients of the first batch into the food processor and used the “pulse” button until all of the ingredients were smoothly blended together. After cleaning out the food processor, I blended the second batch. The chopped liver made with carrots was softer and lighter in color while the batch with the onions and mushrooms was darker and had a rougher texture. I though that I had added too much carrot to the first batch, and assumed that it would be obvious once I tasted it, but was surprised by how unobtrusively the carrots blended into the livers. I couldn’t taste them at all. Both batches were quite delicious, although having gone through the trauma of touching the raw chicken livers took a lot of thefun out of eating the final product.
And so, my latest adventures with raw meat did not help me get over my squeamishness. This acrophobe may never set foot on an observation deck again. In fact, the experience only served to further my progression to vegetarianism. If I am this bothered by preparing a meal, should I really be forcing myself to prepare it? For me, the answer is no. Next time, I’m making a nice chickpea salad.
-NM
