With this weekend’s Restoring Honor Rally taking place in DC , we expect many locals will have friends and family members visiting from out of town. Most likely from waaaay out of town. So we here at ES thought we’d do our patriotic duty and make their trip (and your lives) a little bit easier. Here is our guide to where to dine in DC with your not-so-liberal visitors…
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When I was planning my trip out to Southern California the number one item on my to-do list was to see an avocado tree. I receive press releases from the California Avocado Commission regularly—and once even was mailed a shipment of the fruit—so I decided to re-engage to see if I could schedule a trip out to an avocado orchard. At first they said yes, and that I could even interview a grower, but then they returned saying no, not at this time, and they were planning a “blogger” event next year. Heartbreak ensued.
So with one day left in Long Beach I’m really trying to make it happen. Although I will be in San Diego over Labor Day, I was hoping to knock that off my list during this trip.
While I am patiently waiting for an avocado tree sighting, I have laid my eyes on some pretty other cool food stuffs out here.
This citrus tree (at top) grows on my friend Thresher’s balcony in Santa Monica. My friend Jon has a Meyer lemon tree and a blood orange tree growing in his back yard. Are you fucking kidding me? That’s all I have to say.
I’ve only seen sea vegetables called for in Alicia Silverstone’s The Kind Diet. Even in Japan I couldn’t identify them. But that was the least of our communication problems. I tried them at Real Food Daily, a vegan restaurant open since 1993. My dining partner, Thresher, a PETA employee, warned me that they’re funky. I was determined to try because it’s something I just couldn’t easily find in DC. And the shit was weird. Slimy. Bland. Blah. But cool looking. (Next to the sea vegetables: mashed potatoes with a kick ass nutritional yeast gravy.)
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Editors’ Note: Please welcome new blogger Borracho, who is joining the ES team to share stories of Hispanic cooking, foodie football fests, and more.
The wifey and I recently ventured out to a new local Mexican restaurant, and due to my almost maniacal obsession with all South of the Border cooking, I was delighted to see a simple carnitas plate on the menu. However, what came out, while very good, was not exactly what I was looking for. It is tough to find carnitas that are the same at any two places. The word carnitas just means “little meats,” so they can be made of beef or pork and can be fried, braised, put in a slow cooker, thrown on a Foreman grill…you get the picture.
By the time we left the restaurant, my mouth was already watering at the idea of coming up with my own version. For me, ideal carnitas are the crispy on the outside, moist on the inside nuggets of pork gold I had from a street vendor in Mexico. That version had been simmered for hours in a large amount of lard. While I believe lard does not get nearly enough respect, leaving a couple pounds of it simmering on the stove for 10 hours would just be cruel to our dog, Guinness, so in stead I decided to go with a mojo as the base liquid to cook my carnitas in.
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“I shot my load,” I replied to my friend Jon after he insulted my abundant pour of frozen yogurt, leaving little room for toppings. I thought the sentiment was particularly clever, as I simultaneously winked at the clerk.
At a *fat free* frozen yogurt shop in West Hollywood/BoysTown the flavors are homo-suggestively named, but more, are insanely delicious. This is anti-Pinkberry, the shop noted for starting the tangy froyo craze. Yogurt Stop is an X-rated yet A+ tasting TCBY, the bland frozen yogurt chain dominating suburban strip malls.
Cake batter won my taste buds over with its searingly sweet and familiar flavor. I have a thing for batter, as you may remember from my sous vide brainstorm of slow and low water bath cookie dough.
Jon, and his girlfriend Elizabeth—who made my trip by spotting JC from ‘N Sync during dinner at Dominick’s—swear by the 3 : 1 ratio of toppings to yogurt. And real quick, this is what my friend Thresher had to say about this sighting:
Those nsync boys, I swear. They’re like the Hill staffers of LA–you run into them at every corner. On any given night in West Hollywood, you’re pretty much guaranteed to cross paths with Lance Bass and his fierce cadre of well-groomed muscle lads.
Anyway, here is what a Yogurt Stop snack is supposed to look like:
Also in SoCal
A Pocket of Sweetness
Top 9 Foods Found Only at SoCal Farmers’ Markets
Artsy Guess the Photo of the Day
ISO: Avocado Orchard
Artsy SoCal Photo of the Day
Believe it or not, there was a time when you could not just make sparkling water at home. Long before Sodastream, households across New York received their weekly shipments of fresh seltzer via deliverymen, just like we used to get milk and eggs (and how many of you have started getting veggies once again).
Today, there is just one seltzer deliveryman left in Brooklyn, down from several thousand 100 years ago.
Earlier this summer, I caught a screening of Seltzer Works, Jessica Edward’s short film about the last old-school Seltzer man in Brooklyn, at the Rooftop Films festival. It’s a well-made film that bubbleheads everywhere will appreciate. This week it can be seen on the PBS series POV — Tuesday Aug. 24 at 10pm — or check your local listings.
I’m in Long Beach, California this week for my 9-5. I flew in Sunday, spent the day sunning on Venice Beach, shopping on Melrose, sipping beet juice and driving down Beverly Hills. More on food to come.
Also in SoCal
A Pocket of Sweetness
Top 9 Foods Found Only at SoCal Farmers’ Markets
Artsy Guess the Photo of the Day
ISO: Avocado Orchard
I’m Coming Out Cake Batter
– We have a cheating debate! (Our favorite kind of debate.) When cooking dal, GC/DC claims:
Curry Powder is cheating, almost like using garlic powder, you should have used combo of spices instead.
But scott retorts:
Curry powder isn’t cheating. It’s a great shortcut and is essentially a blend of spices that go into a basic curry recipe though it has nothing to do with curry leaves. Garlic powder on the other hand doesn’t resemble garlic at all.
Thoughts?
– They’re not the only ones picking on gansie’s ingredient choice this week. Britannia:
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