• 08Apr


    Most of the DCFÜD crew went out last night for an evening of medical emergencies, unbearable heat and violating open-container laws. It was like July… in April.

    vaccines.jpg
    “Would you like some onions with your HUMAN LIVER?”

    First, amg walked into Cap Lounge on the Hill with a bag full of vaccines that he had to keep cold lest they spoil. Treating it like a human organ, we politiely asked for a Hefeweizen (horray for being a yuppie) and a bowl of ice. Jokes about the need to get loaded before braving 395 traffic on the way to a hospital aside, we had a medical emergency. If the desire to drink counts as a medical emergency

    The extremely accomodating (and extremely Irish) server Gerry at the Cap brought a bowl of ice and some napkins to keep amg and zaf’s anti-typhoid vaccines cool, and later even agreed to store the medicine in the bar’s refrigerator. This was a good thing, as the Cap Lounge was experiencing a climate-control malfunction which caused overwhelming heat to blast from the ceiling vents. It was like happy hour in a tandoori oven – not pleasant.

    Several men who looked like they could speak authouritatively about things like ducts and vents came around to tinker with the thermostat, each announcing that the problem had been solved. It only got hotter. When we protested the furnace-like state, the bar manager offered free shots if we stuck it out until the thermometer registered 100 degrees.



    As it turns out, the thermometer didn’t display more than two digits, but when it finally rolled over to “00”, the manager honored his promise and brought a round of whiskey, although not without hassling the three Wilson SHS graduates at the table (snh, wrc and ejg if you must know) about their D.C.P.S. high school.

    I think the line was, “I’m from Ward 8, I know what I’m talking about.”

    98.jpg 00.jpg
    No free drinks Free drinks

    We eased on down the road to Zack’s, where pitchers of Miller Lite were consumed and some billiards were shot. Zack’s has a decent jukebox, with Stones, Hendrix, John Lee Hooker, Jimmy Cliff and various Motown classics perfect for drinking pisswater in the dark.

    Our three exuberant ladies, filled with the energy of youth and many full mugs of cheap beer, decided that while Zack’s doesn’t have an outdoor patio, that should serve as no hinderance to taking a few beers outside and dancing in the rain on Pennsylvania Avenue.

    Thirty seconds later, the bartender went to the door and asked them to kindly come back inside the bar, explaining how a liqour license is a good thing for a bar to have.

    We went home, secure from typhoid and sobriety.

    -Written by snh, edited and crossposted by DCSOB-er rj3

  • 08Apr

    superfood.jpg
    The word of the day is “superfood.” As reported by CBS News, these are foods which are out to make you healthier. According to a survey taken by the Food Marketing Institute, the majority of shoppers choose their food based on health or nutritional claims. But, uh, looking around on the Metro, I’m not entirely convinced.
    Can this be the new movement that will turn our society away from our wicked ways of fast food and preservatives? The piece of mistletoe that pierces the heart of the Burger King? Or is this all more smoke and mirrors dreamed up by some shadowy marketing department, miles away from the American heartland, rolling in their bank vaults full of money?

  • 06Apr

    Remember when how food tasted relied mainly on, well, how the food actually tasted? So last century!
    The latest bombshell in the flavor-enhancement industry is Senomyx. Today’s New York Times article talks up high hopes for its upcoming salt substitute.
    From the official website, Senomyx is “a biotechnology company using proprietary taste receptor-based assays and screening technologies to discover and develop novel flavors and flavor enhancers for the packaged food and beverage industry.”
    Well, I don’t care what they say, they just don’t make proprietary taste receptor-based assays like my grandmother used to make.

  • 06Apr

    Aah, Hawaii. This DCFuder just returned from Oahu and she can still picture the azure waves… The gently swaying palm trees… The amazing numbers of Japanese tourists! And there wasn’t an obese one among them. I was so boggled by this lack of body fat that I consumed record amounts of Japanese food while I was in Hawaii just to see what the deal was and wanted to continue eating it FOREVER once I returned home.
    obi-shrimp.jpgThus inspired, I signed up for the Japanese Sushi class through Arlington’s Continuing Education program. On two consecutive Tuesdays, I huddled in the kitchen classroom at the Clarendon Education Center with a dozen other students. It’s a simple kitchen, but outfitted with all the essential equipment and a long table for the group to sit around. Mary Moore, youthful beyond her years and soon to be a great grandmother, led us through the basics of making sushi, Japanese dining etiquette and shopping. She is of Taiwanese descent, married an American serviceman and learned about Japanese food and culture during Japan’s occupation of Taiwan. Now she teaches people how to make sushi and is a Tupperware consultant (Fate is a funny thing, huh?).
    The first Tuesday was devoted to the introduction of ingredients, how to make rice and making our own maki sushi (sushi rolls). She guided us through ingredients (types and brands of rice, vinegar, nori, etc.), how to choose fresh fish, and how to find everything at the grocery store. She was excellent about circulating around the room, giving pointers and answering questions as she went. One caveat: She loves chatting so much that sometimes things got left on the back burner, literally. Luckily some of my classmates were sharp enough to save our sushi seasoning and shepherd the rice to its happy, fluffy conclusion without many hitches. From there we learned the basic techniques of spreading the rice on our nori (the seaweed wrapper), filling it with ingredients, rolling everything up and slicing the roll into correctly proportioned pieces. I made one batch of classic vegetable rolls and one batch of simple tuna rolls, but I could have made more. When you receive your prep list for class and it says to bring a container for leftovers — bring a big one! There were plenty of ingredients to go around and lots of rolls to be made.
    But, the second class was where the real fun happened. Don’t miss this class. There were noticeably fewer people in attendance for this class, which meant more sushi for everyone! Don’t be the lazy one that skips this class and misses out on the really good stuff. Everyone pitched in to prep ingredients and we started off with California rolls, which are messy but fun. Then we progressed to nigiri (tuna, salmon, eel, egg, imitation crab, mackerel, shrimp) and tamaki (hand rolls). I made my tamaki with the spicy tuna mixture Mary whipped up and thought I made it look like a spicy tuna ice cream cone, but I can

    Permalink Filed under: Etc, Travel 4 Comments
  • 05Apr

    milkismilkcarton2.jpeIf antidisestablishmentarianism is opposition to the withdrawal of state support from a church, then surely unantilactaidconsumerism is the purpose of The Milk is Milk Website and Blog.
    As children of the eighties we grew up with

  • 04Apr

    rat.bmpWhen a lab rat discovers that he can receive a tasty food pellet by pressing a certain pattern of buttons, he’ll continue pressing those same buttons even when the food pellets start being distributed at random. Or he’ll do cute little paw motions depending on what he thinks might have worked in the past. This is superstition at its finest and it is the key to understanding why I keep on going back to My Bothers Place in Capitol Hill. Like our lab rats, I return each time with hope renewed despite objective criteria.
    My conditioning process was complete and thorough. I had three good meals there back to back last year- a great burger, some fabulously tangy chicken wings piled high, and a sandwich of some delectable description. The beer and the service were good, the d

  • 01Apr

    chicken.jpg
    Chicken magnate Frank Perdue has gone to that great concentrated feedlot operation in the sky. The first person to sell brand-name chicken, Frank was part of a strange phenomenon in American culture until his retirement in 1991: The old man as innocuous corporate mascot.
    Right alongside the Brooke Shieldses and Cindy Crawfords and Fabios of yesteryear stood the geezer-barons of food commerce: Perdue, Orville Redenbacher, Dave Thomas of Wendy’s and the Bartyles and James wine cooler guys. Sure, they represented big, evil corporations that sold chemically-processed tripe we wouldn’t get near if we had any idea how it was made (except maybe for the popcorn) but they did it in such an amiable, doddering way that one had to fight off the urge to buy the product simply to humor them.
    But alas, the food spokesmen of today are a different breed entirely: The Arby’s oven mitt and the annoying Quizno’s baby show a culture now obsessed with condescending to youth instead of condescending to the elderly. Where did we go astray?

    Permalink Filed under: Etc No Comments
  • 01Apr
    Rigatoni Rigatoni is by far the superior pasta shape for hearty sauces. A meat sauce is great because you can scoop up the sauce into the pasta. Very simple tubular design, so it’s aesthetics are pleasing to the minimalist. Perfect to snack on as well. San Giorgio has many small grooves along the pasta, making its texture much more pleasant than the Barilla brand with the wide grooves. A+
    Rotini Second only to rigatoni, rotini’s spiral shape makes it an ideal sauce conveyor as well. The absence of the scooping factor makes it slightly inferior, but again it is easy and fun to snack on. Rotini is good for cream sauces and pasta salads in a way that rigatoni is not, because it won’t cause the sauce to bubble out unexpectedly. Its design is fun, but a bit too complex to be regarded entirely as food. B+
    Angel Hair One of the weakest pasta choices. The chunky tomato sauces that I prefer don’t stick to it well, and unless cooked precisely right it becomes a sticky mass of ugly noodles. It looks like intestines. C –
    Macaroni The poor white trash of the pasta family. Does it get any more boring than macaroni? Yankee Doodle was the best use of this pasta. Sure the ubiquitous cheese can be served just fine with this pasta, but other than being a college pantry staple, macaroni is a disgrace to the pasta family. D+
    Farfelle Vulgarized as “bow ties” this pasta is the most attractive to the eye. Who can resist a pasta salad made with farfelle? These butterflies are great in a chunky sauce with sausage. B

    Reposted by MF, guest Blogger

  • 31Mar

    image17.gifWitness the poor server at Rumors Bar and Restaurant in Farragut North. He is the only guy working the entire deck area. Customers are getting anxious and annoyed. A table of four well-dressed college kids who have been there drinking and eating for at least an hour decide it would be cool to leave without paying. He accidentally brings things to the wrong table or forgets them altogether. He thinks that things just couldn’t get any better when he finds out

  • 30Mar

    splenda.gifFollowing our continued coverage of all things artificially sweet, we bring to you the news that Splenda is counter-suing the Sugar Association for claiming that Splenda isn

Categories

Archives