Russell Warnick -

by Russell Warnick

Gossip Girl Gastro

Brit here, your one and only source into the scandalous lives of the food blogosphere’s elite.

Gastro-grub and canapés? Must be another Monday night on network television. That’s right ES readers, this Monday is the event of the ~~season~~ week, to which you have just been invited. The season 2 premiere of Gossip Girl. Friends of ES, whether you dine at Citronelle in DC, Gilt in NYC or brunch at IHOP (j/k, we know you wouldn’t be caught dead there), these Gossip Girl menu ideas are sure to be a hit with your innermost circle of friends.

Season one of Gossip Girl saw many a fine dish served, more often than not with champagne. Here are a few simple ideas for you to throw together for your very own premiere party:

Have you heard Upper ES-siders? Grilled cheese is all the rage. Try this $50 Truffle Grilled Cheese Sandwich courtesy of Chuck Bass. OK, so $50 for a grilled cheese is a little much even for me. I’ll be doing my own more affordable take on this and will let you know about it next week.

If you dare, take a jump for more delectable food ideas.

by Russell Warnick

Calimocho, Say What?

A recent trip to Screen on the Green with some friends resulted in my first experience of a drink I had never heard of before (and for me that takes some doing), an unusual concoction of sorts that my friend Tiffany introduced me to. It’s called Calimocho (or Kalimotxo). I’m sure some of our European readers may have heard of this – Calimocho is a Basque inspired drink consisting of equal parts red wine and in this instance Diet Coke, over ice. I know, you are thinking this is a crazy notion, but I have to say, not so much. It was actually a refreshing blend, the wine almost removes the fizz of the soda while the soda tones down the strength of the wine, without removing the basic taste of the two. The pairing kind of neutralizes the smell and intensity of the contrasting flavours.

Apparently this drink is common for teenagers in Spanish regions. The lax alcohol laws enable the younger generation to drink wine, so they mix it with coke, or in my case Diet Coke. One of my Spanish friends laughed at me when I told him about my discovery; he basically said it was the equivalent of a trashy wine cooler. I refuse to accept this drink as being trashy, I say it’s a fine, refreshing compliment to an outdoor social. I have to admit though, I was a little hesitant at first as I don’t drink soda, so it took a lot for me to actually drink it. Not something to be done on a whim, but it’s certainly one I will be offering to my guests at future events.

Other variations after the jump.

in Drinks / Recipe / Trends 9 comments

by Russell Warnick

Britannia Returns to the Commonwealth

Britannia’s Note: This past Wednesday was my fifth year anniversary of moving stateside, so what better way to celebrate this then to head to the newest Gastro Pub in DC, Commonwealth, for opening night. My friend managed to get the best seats in the house, the only table next to the window looking into the kitchen, which was amazing. It’s like having a TV in the restaurant; don’t expect much conversation other than “oooh, what’s that, I want to try that” or for one particular dish, “WTF is that?” referring to the roasted bone marrow and parsley-shallot salad .

The food was really good, lots of dishes to choose from including an array of veggie options. We had the chips and Welsh rarebit to start. I would have maybe added the Scotch eggs to that too as they looked awesome. For the entree we all ordered something different to have a tasting. I’d recommend the Cornish beef and pork pasty as a real local English dish or perhaps the London broil. Oh, and the green bean casserole was fantastic (my friend liked this so much he ordered a dish to go). There are some items on the menu that I have never heard of, such as the frog in a puff — I couldn’t even tell you what that is. I think one of the main differences I noted from this food over traditional English pub fare was the quality — the meat in the pasty was excellent, unlike a traditional pasty in which you really won’t know what meat you are eating. But I guess that’s why they call it a gastropub!

in Drinks / Pig / Red Meat 8 comments

by Russell Warnick

SNDC: Veggie Shrimp Edition

My SNDC (Sunday Night Dinner Club) convened this past weekend at the home of our only member who owns a tool-kit, we’ve not been getting together as often as we usually do due to summer travels but this weekend was a must, our good friend T2 turned twenty-errr, anyway. T2 is one of those veggie types, and when we cook SNDC the veggie dishes are usually cooked by the birthday boy but as it was his birthday we couldn’t really ask him to cook, could we? I decided to theme the dinner on tomatoes, I wrote a few weeks back about the tomato scare that the country has been under so I thought I would laugh in the face of danger and host a tomato themed dinner, I had it planned for over a week and then on Friday the FDA cleared tomatoes of salmonella, damn you government types for thwarting my danger plan.

I have to admit something to you all, up until this past weekend I was a virgin… a Dupont Farmers Market virgin that is! I had never been before and wow, very impressed. So on Sunday morning with coffee in hand, I was your picture perfect foodie, buying organic carbon-footprint free produce and cheeses for my dinner.

After the jump, recipes and pictures of the four tomato base dishes (keep in mind these recipes are for 12 people).

in Cheese / Recipe / Veggie 10 comments

by Russell Warnick

Water Bucket Review!

Vs.

Water is food, right? Good, glad we agree. I like to consider myself conscious of the environment, I have a recycle bin at home, in the office and I buy the 365 cleaners from WF, although I do miss the comfort of soft toilet paper. Oh, and I’m also a sucker for gadgets. So last week when a friend of mine who works at an environmental non-profit told me of a reusable filtered water bottle I knew I had to get my hands on one and tell you guys about it. We like to educate and inform here at ES, not just entertain!

The Wellness H2.O Bottle is a reusable plastic bottle with its own water filtration system, kind of like a portable Brita. The company behind the bottle claims that it can filter up to 1100 gallons of water without the need to replace the filter, which they state is a savings of $1,000 in bottled water, if you drink that much bottled water. And for our DC readers this is pretty much mandatory for the water out of our taps!

Read my review after the jump.

in Drinks 11 comments

by Russell Warnick

My Beach House and I; Killer Tomato Edition.

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this before but I have a second home. It’s nothing glamorous, just a small house on the beach that I go to with my friends every weekend in the summer, as one does, I suspect you have one too? While at the house my friends and I tend to cook a little more than we usually would while at our primary residence here in DC, as the restaurants can get a little boring down at the shore. Sometimes our cooking adventures are noteworthy and other times they are not. Over the course of the summer I will write a series of posts about my beach house cooking adventures, providing they are ES-worthy. This past weekend one of my friends, BJ, who I share the house with, whipped up something in a matter of moments that was indeed worth sharing.

As you may have read, tomatoes are on their way out. Apparently there is something called salmonella that has struck down tomatoes in the US. The source is not yet known but as a precaution red tomatoes are off the menu. BJ decided he was not going to be put off by this nonsense so he invested in some orange tomatoes. Daring, I know. He made a superb orange tomato, artichoke and pine nut bruschetta–his recipe is after the jump.

in Veggie 11 comments

by Russell Warnick

From Across the Pond

From time to time I like to check in with my people from across the pond – it’s a relationship with the motherland that I like to keep at a distance, 3k miles to be exact. My point is, there can be, on occasion, the odd little tidbit of news that I take away with so much pride that it makes me so happy to be British. Let me tell you about a few of these food-related anecdotes that I think you might find interesting.

The first piece of this craziness is known as hobnobbing with the Hob Nobs… Keep with me. The Holiday Inn hotel chain in the UK carried out a “quiz” to 1,000 businesses re: biscuits. The results:

About four out of five UK businesses believe the type of biscuit they serve to potential clients could clinch the deal or make it crumble.

For Anglo-American clarification, biscuits in the UK are the equivalent of what you Americans call cookies, generally. I love this:

The chocolate digestive was deemed to make the best impression followed by shortbread and Hob Nobs.

My personal favourites are the Chocolate Hob Nobs, but it just baffles me that this could even be an issue in the boardroom. What do you think, would you be impressed enough with a particular snack in a meeting for it to be a make or break deal?

Read more of my homeland madness after the jump, and drop your thoughts in the comments.

in Food Travel / Personal / Rants & Raves / Trends 4 comments

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