Endless Simmer - A Food Blog

OK, I’m gonna have to start this post out with a rant. It’s about Ben and Jerry’s Free Cone Day. I know, you’re not supposed to rant about free ice cream, but bear with me. When Ben and Jerry’s started Free Cone Day, it was a great idea! Then it slowly became a less great idea as more and more people found out about it, until literally everyone in America knew about it. Which is great for their promotion and all, but it kind of ruined it, because if you want free ice cream, you now have to wait online for an hour or longer. I went a few years ago with gansie and after waiting for 45 minutes or so, which was longer than my entire lunch break, I gave up and figured I could just buy ice cream the next day for way less effort.

This is what I don’t get about people and free things. People will do just about anything to get something for free. If someone said, “Hey, if you stand in this line on the street for an hour, I’ll give you 3 dollars,” you’d say “screw off, I’m not homeless.” If your boss said, “How about you stay at work an extra hour and I’ll give you 3 dollars?” you would tell them where to shove it. But you WILL stand in line for an hour for free ice cream, which is only worth about 3 dollars.

After SoGood started the whole LeBron James-Papa Johns debacle, people were waiting in line in Ohio for 3 HOURS for their 23 cent pizza! That is ridiculous. By any standard of measurement, no Papa Johns pizza is worth 3 hours of your life.

So I’ve come to realize that if something is free, it’s just not worth it. That is, of course, unless other people don’t know about it, and people seem to be unaware of Dunkin’ Donuts Free Iced Coffee Day, which is TODAY! (Thursday). Dunkin’ Donuts is one of our fav things here at ES, so this one ought to be great, unless too many pesky food bloggers go and write about it.

All day long today, at any DD in America, you can walk in and get a free 16 oz. iced coffee. Someone check it out and let me know how long the lines are.

Photo: Your Friendly Neighborhood Mac Guy

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About wine. Seriously, nothing. I do love going to wine tastings, swirling red liquid around in a large glass, sticking my nose in, and inhaling deeply.

I don’t smell sandalwood. I don’t taste notes of raspberry. Tannin, what?

But that’s okay. It still tastes great. And it’s free.

Anyway, here is an article I wrote for Express talking about the ways in which a wine lover can educate oneself. Maybe I should listen to my own directions.

Start Your Wine-ing: D.C. Vino Lessons [Express]

PS…After the jump learn about The Zinfandel Grand Tasting in DC next week.

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Endless Simmer has spent the past several months delving deep into the political world, in order to tell you which presidential candidate will ultimately be the most responsive to issues us food lovin’ folk care about. We have un-endorsed the candidates one-by-one, and you may have noticed that every single one of the candidates we un-endorsed quickly fell from contention. Remember Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee and Hillary Clinton? Neither do we!

Now that the primaries are nearing a conclusion, we’re ready to unveil our actual endorsement. After much agonizing, we have come to the conclusion that there is only one candidate with the ideas, convictions, and yes, cojones, that the job demands.

That man is Gene Amondson.

Gene Amondson is an artist, ordained minister, whimsical woodworker and the nominee of the Prohibition Party, which yes, still exists. Gene enjoys barbecues, fish and chips, tarts, and is even the author of an illustrated pie cookbook, which is available for sale as an e-book and comes with the amazing tagline:

“The best pies are runny pies, like kisses, the good ones are never dry.”

Hath truer words e’er been spoke?

Here, here, Mr. Amondson. Presidential hopefuls shouldn’t get away with writing quickie books about their political philosophy - they should have to tell us what they can cook! And we should note the pie recipes were handed down to Gene from his mother, and he gives her full credit (ahem, Cindy McCain).

But Gene Amondson isn’t just in the presidential race for the fame and the baked goods - he’s in it for the women. Gene is on the market for a first lady, and he’s got his list of qualifications all ready. Hey, if Dennis Kucinich can use the democratic process to find himself a hot lady, why can’t Gene Amondson?

While you might think our sometimes drunken ways would make ES anti-prohibition, Amondson makes some very convincing points, particularly when he is protesting outside Anheuser-Busch headquarters while dressed as the Grim Reaper. For example, who knew that from 1920 to 1933, when prohibition was in effect:

- Prisons and mental institutions emptied

- Cirrhosis of the liver was reduced by half

- It was the last time America balanced the budget

- In some states, illiteracy dropped from 49% to 2%

Pretty startling stuff, eh? I’d like to add a couple more reasons why it’s time to bring back prohibition:

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Alright, that headline ought to get us some google hits.

Editor’s Note: Before anyone accuses me of pulling a Huffington, I should confess that this is not a “real” blog post from El. Our sometimes contributor recently took a trip to Morocco, and while she has yet to write about it, she did finally do the Kodak Gallery thing, and her food pics were so amazing that I had to grab them and share.

Escargot

Moroccan Coffee

Beans

Much more after the j.

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Jalapeno Cucumber Margarita
What’s that you say
Jalapeno and tequila
Together in a drink
The best of Mexican food and Mexican drink.

My friends and I were having a beverage at one of our regular watering holes the other day and we were discussing our favourite drinks. We had the usuals: vodka red bull; gin and tonic; bloody mary; and yes, even a beer. We then got to thinking about alternate drinks and the lifestyle that we lead. Our conversation turned to drinks that we deserved, a drink worthy of our existence. Have you not met me? Yes, my friends and I are that pretentious.

There are some restaurants in DC that provide some fun excuses of a drink. There is Domku with its Lemon Grass & Ginger Aquavits and the Aloe Sojutini at Mandu, but we wanted one to make at home on a Friday night. We pre-game high end, not just your average six pack.

A friend had recently returned from some Southern state trip, not sure where, but he had heard of a margarita with jalapeno and cucumber. As most of us are huge Mexican boys food fans we figured it would be a great drink to try. And it was.

The fresh taste of the cucumber combined with the heat of the jalepeno was a great combination; the fusion of the two created a unique blend of spice and freshness. For people who are not a fan of chilies this is something totally acceptable. I’m sure if stronger chilies were used it would change the taste but the main flavour properties would still be present.

Disclaimer: Two glasses of these will get you pretty drunk, or even very drunk!

Check it out after jump.

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Let me tell you, getting this shot off was NOT easy.

So 80 and I were walking home from work and we’re just yacking away or whatever, fine, I’m yacking, and all of a sudden I’m screaming, “OMG, that’s totally Andrew Sullivan blogging at Subway!”

I stop dead and make 80 walk past the Subway to double check. And yup, it is. I then pull out my phone to snap a picture, but with no zoom on my cell, I realized I would have to go *inside* to get a picture off.

The plan: 80 would go in, buy chips, I would pretend to check my phone and start snapping away. Well, apparently 80 all of a sudden grows some morals (if they’re growable) since his much-noted celeb sighting and doesn’t want to go through with it. I immediately call BS for back up.

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While you may think star-commenter JoeHoya (or affectionately, JH) may simply spend all of his blog reading time with ES, you’d be shockingly mistaken. JH actually writes for the *rival* food blog, DC Foodies. And as I never really read other food blogs (unless he/she comments on our posts and leaves a link to their blog) I have neglected JH’s hard work elsewhere. So, here, JH - our official ES tribute to our first and favorite non-friend commenter. (Actually, you know what that stinker first wrote on our blog - he corrected a misspelling of mine…) Anyway, enjoy our GOP foe boy, JoeHoya.

Investigative Reporter [JoeHoya]

Disgruntled Cheese Plate Eater [JoeHoya]

Exhaustive Restaurant Critiquer [JoeHoya]

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From Today’s Onion/AV Club (DC):

“Our brewing baby might be a miscarriage, but our friends are overly encouraging,” jokes Guy Anthony, a member of the newly formed D.C. Homebrewers Club. Then again, what friends wouldn’t hold out hope for a quaffable homemade Hefeweizen?

That was the thinking of brothers Mike and Brian Dolan, who created the fledging group earlier this year hoping to attract hip, young District residents who either brew their own beers or are toying with the idea. Following a stint in beer-centric Belgium for two years and a job in a Boston beer store during college, co-founder Brian developed a love for the drink; on his graduation night, the brothers decided that they would take that love to the next level—brewing their own.

While the brothers usually base their brews on a recipe, they also improvise. Smelling their way through an organic market, they picked up “sacred bark,” an herb with a pleasant aroma. They went through the whole process of brewing and bottling, and, as they were enjoying their first round of beers, they thought to Google “sacred bark.” They then immediately threw out all of the bottles, as they discovered their special ingredient was a laxative.

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Fine, the title doesn’t really make any sense, since we were in Myrtle Beach, SC, and even less sense because we didn’t grill at 4 in the morning just so the American viewing audience could tune in. It just rhymes, ok??

A few (couple?) weeks back, I took a long weekend down to the South Carolina beach in celebration of the passing of one Jackson (Jeb, AJ) from basically married life to married life. To most attending, however, it provided an excuse to open a beer in the AM. After one long afternoon of Par 3 golf, we passed a local produce stand and decided to grill. The corn and shrimp you will see after the jump are from that stand, while the rest came from that great Southern supermarket that will never be as good as Harris Teeter, Kroger.

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