Endless Simmer - A Food Blog

Washington, D.C.: I know you’ve mentioned your dislike of waiters “auctioning plates,” but I’d like to raise the issue again — with a twist.My boyfriend and I eat at restaurants pretty regularly — 2-3 times a week, at a mix of price points. But one thing that’s become pretty constant lately is waiters delivering our food and automatically assuming the salad or the fish goes to me — when 9 times out of 10, it’s what my boyfriend has ordered.

He’s the health nut. I’m more apt to order something involving pork belly or red meat.

It would be funny if it wasn’t happening so often.

Tom Sietsema: Restaurant Rule No. 234:

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The best of Endless Simmer - straight to you - once a week. Procrastinating never tasted so good.

*****

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I know, it’s like not even funny anymore. I like eggs. I like eggs for lunch. I like eggs for dinner. I like eggs. Well, I finally decided to do something about it . I wrote about it. The mighty power of the pen. Or something like that.

In my latest feature outside of ES I highlighted the very few places where a DC resident can find an effing egg for lunch (and not covered in mayo in an egg salad, not that I don’t love the sandwich every once in a while.)

Regardless, I beg of you to tell me more places in downtown DC that won’t give me attitude if I order an egg and cheese on a begal.

Oh, and quick story.

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We don’t tell you guys to leave ES too often, and when we do, as I’m sure you’ve noticed, it’s only for shameless self-promotion. So if you’ve been needing a little more BS in your life, check out my story on the upscale truck food movement over at CHOW.

I got to interview some pretty awesome chefs from around the country, and of course underwent a thorough investigation into DessertTruck’s menu (read: I used this as an excuse to pig out repeatedly).

Don’t forget to take a look at the delectable slide show.

Truck-Side Dining: The how, why and where of high-end food trucks [CHOW]

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After all of the yolk craziness (check almost any post I’ve written in the past few weeks) I decided to try my hand at an omelet. I know that it has an art of its own and that the way I beat my eggs, swirl them around the pan and dollop ingredients on the egg, is probably all wrong. But I find them delicious nonetheless.

Besides egg dishes being totally luscious, I think they’re great fridge-cleansers as well. 80P and I are away this weekend for yet another wedding (love you Jules!) so I needed to use up some bits and pieces from around the apartment. Of course eggs were to be found, as well as a few other key ingredients, most importantly - Quark.

I bought Quark from the same dairy producer, Keswick Creamery, where I bought the yogurt for the smoothie:

Quark: German – style cream cheese. Smooth and tangy. Products are made with fresh, pasteurized Jersey milk.

And yes, it’s very tangy, and yes, it’s creamy and thick just like cream cheese. Do I think it’s much better than regular cream cheese, eh, not that different. Is their yogurt that much better than the high fructose corn syrup, artificially flavored supermarket yogurt - yes. But I digress.

Post jump - my fridge clearing omelet and some hidden agendas.

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A little while back I interviewed Lauren DeSantis, the host of the public access show Capital Cooking. And even though my write up wasn’t terribly nice, Lauren entertained my idea of meeting up to talk about featuring DC food bloggers on her show. I’m such a self-serving little bitch. I know.

Anyway, Lauren and I hung out at her and her husband’s gorgeous Penn Quarter apartment (she’s a lawyer by day) and chatted about her show, about food, about Alton Brown. And how in awe I was of her ability to cook, look cute, not cut herself and make conversation all while being filmed. But I’ll get back to that in a second. By the end of the night we came up with some fun ideas on how to incorporate the vibrant blogging scene on to her show.

Hence the FOOD BLOGGERS CHALLENGE. EEK! Lauren rounded up three other DC food writer/enthusiasts and we’re gonna fuck shit up on public access!

My Opponents

Lauren DeSantis / Capital Cooking
April Fulton / The Food Scribe
Alison McConnell / Humble Gourmand
Johnna Rowe / Johnna Knows Good Food

We wanted to really play up the idea of blogging and make it as interactive as possible so we need your help with Phase 1. We’re letting our combined blog audience pick which dish we’ll make on the show. The episode will air in winter so we’re going with a comfort food theme.

The Choices Lasagna / Chili / Chicken Potpie / Mac-n-Cheese

Everyone will create their interpretation of the dish and then be judged…I’ll let you know more about the judging in a bit…

Go vote for the dish you most want me to put a fried egg over.

And let’s start thinking about my on-air outfit! Britannia? Help! And yes, I know, I have many hours of practice just by looking at the photo above. (I’m wearing this band on my shirt.)

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Last time I shared a secret with you guys, you totally ripped me a new one, yet for some reason I still feel compelled to keep on sharing every weird thing I do.

I know Edouble has already told ya’ll about the great pickletini, but I think you still may not quite understand how much we love drinking salty, briny water. Back in the day, when I finished a jar of pickles or olives, I used to simply pour the excess liquid down the drain before washing the jar out and recycling it. But then when I lived with Edouble, I was sharply reprimanded for this wasteful action. Why? Girl likes to take the jar and drink the leftover juice like it’s lemonade. This is an action that has caused more than one observer to gasp in horror and/or keel over in laughter.

I’ve since tried it myself, and while I can’t down an entire jar of the stuff as quickly as Edouble can, I have to admit I have become a full-fledged fan, and will never again throw away leftover olive juice.

So recently I was throwing together some kind of tortellini explosion style dish, emptying my fridge and throwing all kinds of randoms in with the pasta.

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On Rooms’ birthday, we’d like to thank her for her culinary point of view (to sound like the douches from The Next Food Network Star) : science! She’s taught us about the albumin protein of an egg, the relationship between fennel and flatulence and the lives of crabs, no, not that crab.

Happy Birthday, Rooms!

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Good News! The Milwaukee Cupcake Queen (who you may remember from her winning bacon cupcakes) recently named us one of her ten Excellent Blogs. The idea of the Excellent Blog Awards is we’re supposed to pass the E along to ten of our favorite bloggers, which sounds like a great way to share some very hott links with you all. So here are ten of our current favs:

- An absurd look at the world of food, So Good has the lowdown on anything that’s happening in the world of food media. He’s the guy who broke the LeBron James/Papa Johns scandal and the hilarious Kraft cheese MySpace debacle.

- Have you noticed that I like Bacon? Heather over at Bacon Unwrapped reeeeally likes bacon.

- Can’t get enough JoeHoya in your life? Everyone’s favorite know-it-all commenter now has his own food blog, with his wife, JaneHoya Elizabeth. Check out Capital Spice.

- Anthony Bourdain’s blog may be corporate-hosted, but The Travel Channel leaves him as we like him: uncensored and nasty.

- If you’re as obsessed with food TV as we are, you shouldn’t miss a post from TV Food Fan.

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