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by BS

Meat + Heat = Sweet

OK readers – ready for your first Endless Simmer controversy?!? Some of you may have already explored the categories listed in the sidebar to the right. When this blog began, I created the category “BBQ” to encompass any food that is eaten at an outdoor party where something is cooked over hot coals. I meant this to include hot dogs, burgers, beer can chicken, veggie kebabs, grilled donuts, grilled-watermelon daiquiris, as well as things such as gansie’s tasty side salads.

Now a not-so-new argument has arisen. Is the correct term for such a cooking event “BBQ” or “grillin?” This issue has come up many times before while out on the back porch having a BBQ grillin out BBQing. It seems to arouse as much linguistic passion as “soda” vs. “pop” and the neverending sub/grinder/hoagie/hero debate.

Many of our Southern friends insist that BBQ refers specifically to their regional cuisine involving slow-cooked pork or beef, and that anything else cooked outside on a grill should simply be called “grilling.”

Yet others claim to have participated in a “BBQ” any time that food is cooked over charcoal.

So we’re leaving it up to you, ES readers. BBQ or grilling? Whatdya think?

[poll id=”2″]

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by BS

Tres Gringos

Building on PoM‘s outstanding post on Dos Gringos, tres gringos was the scene the other night when my dad and bro took me out for a genuine Mexican birthday.

Now, while much of this blog has focused on eating out in the District, this particular ES-er recently graduated from D.C. and moved back to New York, so expect to see some reviews of NYC destinations as well.

The neighborhood I grew up in, Hell’s Kitchen, was once the domain of streetwalkers, porn palaces and seedy strip clubs, but is now mostly home to yuppie restaurants, fancy bars, and upscale strip clubs. Fortunately, there are still a few ethnic hole-in-the-walls remaining, like Mexican joint Tulcingo Del Valle. (full review after the jump)

OUT: The Sopranos Finale — FIVE MINUTES AGO: The iPhone — NOW: Endless Simmer

If you’ve been navigating the blogosphere lately, you have surely noticed that ES is blowin’ up bigger than a July 4th fireworks spectacular. That’s right, we’ve been attracting some major e-buzz from coast-to-coast.

Earlier this week, Fishbowl LA picked up on our nonstop Padma Lakshmi coverage, and now DCist, the arbiters of cool in the nation’s capital, are hyping the simmer. On Sunday, our editor Gansie will appear on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” to discuss Barack Obama’s culinary preferences.

Only one of these items is false.

Welcome new readers to endless simmer. We hope we leave you fully sated.

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by BS

Anything Else Is Just Basil Sauce

Perhaps no single food has been more commonized by the foodie crazy than pesto. Once the purview of gourmet Italian chefs, now everyone from Walla Walla to Peoria is hitting the green.

But there’s still some old world skill necessary to make Pesto right. For an Irish-New Yorker, my mom can make a pesto as mean as any Sicilian grandma. I highlighted the ingredients above to draw attention to her two simple rules that many of these nuevo pesto chefs choose to ignore, at their own peril:

1- Only fresh basil. Bypass that crud they have in plastic containers at the grocery. Come fresh or don’t come at all. My mom won’t even make pesto until the summertime, when the best crop comes out.

2- Pine (pignoli) nuts are key. Don’t listen to anyone who says otherwise. Sure, I’ve had some decent “pesto” made with walnuts or no nuts at all, but that’s not pesto, it’s basil sauce.

The result is a rich, creamy concoction that I could eat with a spoon, although I try to resist the temptation to do so.

Mama Spiegel’s full recipe after the jump.

When I Dip, You Dip, We Dip

For me, the hardest part about eating has always been making decisions. Our multicultural, food-on-demand society gives us so many options that it’s often difficult to choose. There’s nothing worse than sitting down to a menu with hundred of options and having no idea where to begin (OK, there are probably worse things, but this really pisses me off). That’s why I get stoked about any new innovation that successfully combines more than one great food item, allowing us to, dare I say, eat two birds with one stone.

In the great tradition of vanilla-chocolate-swirl ice cream cones, lemonade-iced tea, and the triple-decker club sandwich, we now have hummus-baba ganoush. It’s OK, take a minute to catch your breath and process that.

Just recently I had a conversation about how it’s impossible to decide whether I like eggplant-y baba ganoush or chickpea-based hummus better. Now I learn The Tribe, the same company that makes all those great flavored hummuses (correct plural? hummusi, maybe?) like dill, roasted garlic, and spicy chipotle, has started producing hummus-baba ganoush. One dip, both great tastes. There’s no info on their website yet, but I swear I had some yesterday, and it really does capture the essence of both dips. Pure genius.

While it may not solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict just yet, or convince Americans to put down the mayo-heavy spinach dip, my personal little foodie world will never be the same.

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by BS

Flightless Fred’s Linguistic Lessons

Many of you may have already read today’s breaking Mauritius news (it’s about a dodo bird named Flightless Fred). You may also be aware that I recently escaped the confines of working America for an extended vacation to Mauritius, a one-of-a-kind paradise island. See above pic.

I will certainly be adding additional culinary details from my travels to make you all (and my present self) jealous. But for now, good ol’ Flightless Fred made me remember a basic food question I had after much dining out in Mauritius, where they happen to speak French.

In the U.S., any restaurant fancier than Applebees refers to main courses as entrees. I always assumed “entree” was a fancy French word for main course. BUT NO! In French, as I learned from Mauritian menus, entree actually means appetizer! So what gives?

Webster says that entree is either French for “entering” or American for “main course,” but offers no reason for the blatant contradiction. Are we doing this just to piss off the French? Was entree the original Freedom Fries? Can anyone offer any insight?

Discuss.

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by BS

Hott Links: I Hope He Has That Jaw Insured

Hott Links is ES’ semi-regular roundup of the tastiest content on the web (aside from ours of course)

Japan’s all-star speed eater suffers professional injury [Yahoo!]

Ratatouille: the most delicious animated film ever [Salon]

It’s summer – can I still serve cheese? [cheesaholics]

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