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ON A PERFECT DAY like today, it should be easy to write an article about where to sit outside and eat lunch. Except that my focus keeps straying out the window. I've been trying to write you a coherent introduction for 10 minutes and all I can think of is HOW MUCH I WANT TO BE OUTSIDE.
So, here are some of the places I'm imagining myself being, all while stuck inside. Go out so I can live vicariously through all of you:
Continue Reading "Perfect Day: Where to Eat Outside Today" »
1) The Butcher's Block
Adjacent to chef Robert Wiedmaier's Brabo restaurant, this European-style grocery carries a mix of gourmet nibbles and sips — fresh-baked bread, homemade pates, handpicked artisanal wines — ideal for grabbing for a party or picnic.
» 1600 King St.; 703-894-5253
2) La Fromagerie
Just check the blackboard for which cheeses this "Are-we-in-Paris?" corner shop has on a given day, from French raw-milk Comte to Virginia feta. Rhone-born co-owner Sebastien Tavel also populates the golden-walled space with cheese boards, wines and haute crackers.
» 1222 King St.; 703-879-2467
PEOPLE HAVE BEEN shopping, guzzling drinks and dancing in Alexandria, Va., since the 18th century. Today, charming signs of the town's tricorn-hatted past mingle with au courant boutiques, cool drinking holes and a hip restaurant scene. But in some ways, the more things change, the more they, well, don't.
» THEN Colonial dudes — George Washington included — drank at Gadsby's Tavern (now a museum/restaurant, 134 and 138 N. Royal St.; 703-746-4242 or 703-548-1288).
» NOW: Hipsters sip single malt scotch or wine at Vermillion Restaurant (1120 King St.; 703-684-9669).
» THEN Nineteenth-century firemen from the Friendship Firehouse (now a museum, 107 S. Alfred St.; 703-746-3891) fought blazes with horse-drawn engines.
» NOW: Hopheads fight thirst with microbrews at Columbia Firehouse (109 S. St. Asaph St.; 703-683-1776), a pub in a restored 1871 fire station.
Continue Reading "Everything Old Is Sort of New Again: Old Town Alexandria, Then and Now" »
WHEN HE OPENED lush, locavore temple Restaurant Eve (110 S. Pitt St., Alexandria; 703-706-0450) in 2004, Irish-born chef Cathal (the T is silent) Armstrong put Old Town Alexandria on the culinary map. Not one to rest on his reductions, the 2006 Food and Wine best new chef has since become the force behind three other neighborhood foodie destinations: the Majestic Cafe (911 King St., Alexandria; 703-837-9117), Eamonn's Dublin Chipper and speakeasy P/X (both at 728 King St., Alexandria; 703 299-8384). We caught up with the busy cook about what he digs in his adopted hometown.
» EXPRESS: Why'd you choose Old Town for your restaurants?
» ARMSTRONG: We were looking to open an Irish country inn. [My wife] Meshelle has lived in Alexandria since she was about 6 years old, but we initially discounted it, because we assumed we wouldn't be able to afford the rent. We were fortunate to find this location. It has the mood we were trying to achieve and a long, interesting history.
Continue Reading "Irish Import: Restaurant Eve Chef Cathal Armstrong" »
LONG, LEGGY AND both loved and feared, the communal table has probably already landed in a neighborhood near you. This oversized piece of furniture has been steadily gaining territory in area restaurants for the past decade, popping up at uptown neighborhood haunts, downtown hot spots and suburban bakeries alike. If you haven't yet experienced one, allow us to provide an introduction.
The communal table is a lengthy slab seating eight to 20-some people, be they small groups of strangers or one large party. Restaurants prize them for their versatility, and also because they evoke a sense of community and sharing — plus, they're striking. They hark back to the days when eating was more of a family or community affair; conjure images of spring picnics and fall farmhouse dinners; and borrow a page from the Tuscan book on entertaining (the more the merrier).
Continue Reading "And One Table for All: Communal Tables Fill D.C. Restaurants" »
WITH WARM WEATHER comes fired grills, but you don't have to lift a finger for your charred-meat fix — Rocklands is turning up the heat at its locations with "Grills Gone Wild" week. From March 22 to 28, a unique, completely wood-grilled menu — including dishes such as wild boar sausages served with collard greens and honey mustard; Guinness-marinated bison steak; and ostrich burgers — brings smoked perfection to daredevil foodies. The eccentric menu will be available at all four area Rocklands restaurants. Patrons can also take a piece of the action home with "Grills Gone Wild" T-shirts, selling for $7 each.
Help to Bring Water, Water Everywhere
A glass of H2O is a staple for each place setting at most restaurants, but clean drinking water is far more scarce in some underdeveloped countries. Now, you can help out with that. To celebrate World Water Week next week, Bourbon Steak and Seasons restaurant are asking their guests to donate at least $1 to the UNICEF Tap Project — an effort that provides clean drinking water to those around the globe who need it.
Photo by Stephanie K. Kuykendal/For The Washington Post
CRAVING BURGERS AND bacon is as patriotic as Little League and "American Idol." So, it's no shock that, as vegan and vegetarian diets claw their way into the mainstream, mock-meat makers have piggybacked on the country's patty and link obsession.
"Fake meat helps people who have never tried vegetarian food before, because it's the texture they're used to," says DJ Kim, owner of Java Green (1020 19th St. NW; 202-775-8899), a vegetarian-vegan lunch spot popular among all breeds of downtown eaters, with a second location to open soon east of Dupont Circle. Not to mention, Kim says, mock-meat "products are becoming tastier than before, and with much more variety."
In other words, Tofurky isn't just a punch line anymore. For Meatless Monday-ascribing carnivores and a new generation of herbivores, eschewing animal flesh doesn't have to mean hunkering down with a mountain of rabbit food for dinner.
To help you navigate the wilds of the fake-meat aisle of the grocery store, we sampled a few popular varieties, all available at Whole Foods.
Continue Reading "Mock-Meat Smackdown: Our Tasters Put Faux-Meats to the Test" »
ASKING VEGETARIANS INCREDULOUSLY how they get their protein is more than a cliche — it's also a slap in the face to cookbook authors such as Lynn Alley, author of "The Gourmet Vegetarian Slow Cooker" ($20, Ten Speed Press). Her new book offers a passport full of meat-free global eats, with rejiggerings of the greatest hits of your favorite takeout spots, from Italian polenta lasagna to Japanese-style braised tofu. The book gives both vegetarians and omnivores a sophisticated excuse to pull out that dusty slow-cooker Great-Aunt Helga gave you for Christmas in 2002.
» Best For: Home cooks looking to spice up their eating ruts with easy, hearty fare.
» Recipes We're Dying to Try: Minted Potato and Chickpea Curry, Mexican Chocolate Pudding Cake, Polenta Gnocchi in Tomato Sauce and Armenian Apricot Soup.
Written by Express contributor Katie Knorovsky
CLOSING OUT A WEEKLONG food drive for the Capital Area Food Bank, Dance Place is putting on a performance that's all about food. In "Chew on This," director Deborah Riley uses modern dance to explore issues of hunger, nutrition and food politics.
The idea for the performance came to Riley because of her love of cooking shows. The concept of food as entertainment was a revealing one, she found. "I got to thinking, particularly with the recent tragedy in Haiti ... that so many people don't have the luxury of thinking of food as entertainment," she said. "Food is life-sustaining and crucial to mere survival."
Riley seeks to cover a lot of ground in her subject matter, with topics ranging from Julia Child to farm subsidies to Afghanistan to healthy eating. While the show's structure is anything but linear, the dancers' use of spoken word attempts to keep the audience from getting too lost.
Continue Reading "Rethinking Food: A Step by Step Guide: Dance Place's 'Chew on This'" »
NO MATTER WHERE you hang your chef's hat, seasoning blends probably lurk in your pantry, zipping up the taste and looks of almost anything they dust. In the mid- Atlantic, we love to sprinkle crabs (and french fries, rockfish fillets and creamy soups) with Old Bay, a melange of celery salt, pepper, mustard and paprika. In Louisiana, Bloody Marys and blackened fish often get kicked up a few notches by Lawry's Seasoned Salt. Cooks have experimented with their spices since prehistoric times, a culinary cross-pollination that's resulted in time-saving blends. "Some flavors play well with each other, which is why these mixes came to be," says India-born, D.C.-based food writer Monica Bhide, author of "Modern Spice" ($25, Simon & Schuster). "With a blend, you don't have to stand in your kitchen and grind seven different spices. It's something ready to go." Here are five such globe-trotting combos, plus what pros suggest you do with them.
Herbes de Provence
A combination of oregano, basil, thyme, sage, savory, rosemary and, sometimes, lavender.
» Origin: Southern France
» Taste: "It's got a subtle flavor, sort of a shortcut to Mediterranean cuisine," says Paris food blogger Clotilde Dusoulier of Chocolateandzucchini.com.
» Traditional Use: This garden-to-table blend has starred in chicken, fish and veggie dishes for centuries. It's close amie: potatoes gratin (aka scalloped potatoes). "It's also good with goat cheese," says Dusoulier. "Cut some chevre, lay it on slices of bread, toast in the oven and sprinkle the herbs on."
» New Wave Use: "Make vanilla and Herbes de Provence ice cream," says Dusoulier. "Infuse the milk you use with the herbs for five minutes."
» Buy It: $4.85 for 4 oz.; Penzeys.com
Continue Reading "Spice Whirl: Globe-Trotting Spice Blends" »
Addison Road