January, 2008 -

by BS

ES Classic: Eggplant Rollatini

Not that I’ve run out of ideas or anything, but this weekend I decided to revisit a recipe from the ghost of Endless Simmer past. Actually, it was the very first post in ES history, published EIGHT FULL MONTHS AGO! Can you believe it?

Here’s that first post, a brief write-up of my adventures with Eggplant Rollatini.

How embarrassing! I can’t believe I’m even linking to that post. Look at that awful photo choice! The misspellings! The run-on sentence recipe! It’s worse than looking at my 8th grade yearbook.

Well I made this dish again, with some new variations. But since I wasn’t cooking for my healthy, responsible parents this time, you can count on additions of carbs, cheese and plenty of oil.

After the jump, recipe for Eggplant Rollatini 2.0.

Ask Tom, Answer Gansie

Washington, D.C.: Tom – Where can I find a picture of you? I have looked online and really want to see what you look like in case I see you out at a restaurant! PLEASE!

Tom Sietsema: Folks, I don’t make these questions up.
Good morning, everyone. Thanks for shunning work to talk to me for the next 60 minutes or so.

That’s Tom Sietsesma, the Washington Post’s food critic. And I love him. I refer to him by first name only to all of my friends. Scarily, they know exactly who I’m talking about. “Tom’s been talking about this place a lot lately”…”Tom really hates the service at this place”…”Tom doesn’t really like chocolate desserts all that much.” I think you get the point.

On Wednesday, the nation’s newspaper food section day, Tom hosts a live chat. Every Wednesday at 11am I am glued to my screen and the “F5” button (it refreshes the page.) I know what restaurants are hot. I know what chefs are leaving, returning or sucking. I know what Tom’s favorite place for sushi is. And, unfortunately, I also know that some lady from Virginia thought her steak came out too rare and was pisted when the chef told her it’d be a waste to overcook a beautiful cut of meat. And other similar complaints about etiquette, tipping and surprise ingredients.

I do not however, know what Tom looks like, as he is an allusive figure, roaming the District in costume, dining in secret. Maybe that’s why I love him so.

This is the first in a series of many, highlighting the funny, absurd and enlightening from Tom’s chats. Full transcript here.

Post jump: Ask Tom, Answer Gansie

Artsy Photo of the Day

Somehow, this avocado hasn’t been eaten yet.

in Photos 6 comments

by Tim

An Ale of Quadricentinneal Proportions

Williamsburg Alewerks – Williamsburg, VA
“400” [Imperial Brown] Ale
Approximately 6.5% ABV

Can you believe it’s been 400 years since Captain John Smith traded goods with the Nanticokes, and traded arrows and musket balls with the Algonquins on his trip up the Chesapeake Bay? …seems like yesterday that he and the others struck out from Jamestown to seek passage to the Pacific in their low-draft shallop. Anywho, Williamsburg Alewerks brewed up a limited edition brown ale to commemorate the founding of Jamestown and the subsequent plundering of America’s land and people. Hurrah!

But don’t take my word for it, the cutesy write-up on the classy painted label says it all:

“400” Ale commemorates the founding of the first Virginia Settlement and with it, the founding of the American brewing industry. Beer was an essential component of everyday life in Jamestown, only the security and shelter provided by the triangular shaped fort and cultivation of edible (no doubt including barley) crops outranked the production of beer in importance. Fresh water flowing in local streams and the recently excavated well provided a source of potable water, but beer and other “processed liquids, primarily beer” were preferred drinks.
This ale, like the ales of the time, is brown in color. This beer may be more robust than 18th century brews, a liberty we chose to take. How could we possibly do justice to so important an event of 400 years ago, with anything other than a truly robust, full flavored contemporary “Imperial Brown Ale.” Cheers.

Trebuch le jump for details and opinions on this anniversary ale.

Artsy Photo of the Day

Blender 1

Gansie 0

in Photos 5 comments

by gansie

Bozo The Eater

I get it from my mother. I read obituaries. There, I said it.

Now WaPo made it even easier for me to get my “in memoriam” fix – Post Mortem, the WaPo obit blog. Yes, there are so many blogs on WaPo’s website (scroll down to the middle of the page and click on View All News Columns & Blogs, I count 30) that there is even a web log for the dead.

Regardless, that’s how I stumbled upon the death of Eddie “Bozo” Miller, an “icon of gluttony.”

Check out the full obit here, but below are some of his eating highlights:

In 1963, he downed 27 chickens (2-pound pullets) at Trader Vic’s restaurant in San Francisco, a feat that earned him $10,000 and led to a place in the Guinness Book of Records as the “world’s greatest trencherman,” or heavy eater.

He once downed 30 pounds of meatloaf made from elk, buffalo and other game. In another test, he ate 324 pieces of ravioli and said that he could have eaten more but that the restaurant ran out. He also guzzled two quarts of whiskey in an hour.

In his heyday, he said, he beat a lion in a martini-drinking contest.

“Some guy from the circus came into the restaurant — Reno Barsocchini’s, I think — with a lion on a leash,” he told the San Francisco Chronicle. “I drank them out of a glass, and they put the martinis on a soup plate for the lion. I maybe had about a dozen. The lion, he kept lapping them up until he just fell asleep.”

in Celebs / Contests 5 comments

January 2008

ES Classic: Eggplant Rollatini

Ask Tom, Answer Gansie

Artsy Photo of the Day

Hott Links: Tuna, In the Raw

An Ale of Quadricentinneal Proportions

Artsy Photo of the Day

Bozo The Eater