Endless Simmer - A Food Blog

I finally got my ass over to Spike’s (Top Chef) new burger joint on Cap Hill, Good Stuff Eatery. And to our surprise, Spike was there, passing out burgers while spending equal time adjusting his fedora and flirting with fans. While my bocce team usually heads to the Pour House with the rest of the league, yours truly seriously craved a burger, so we ventured to the nearby Good Stuff. (And one time when we left Pour House we saw Dennis Kucinich eating there with his wife!)

And while we were waiting in line*, Spike got out from behind the counter and had to walk through the long line. And he actually stopped right next to me. I of course took this opportunity to introduce myself and remind him of his LIVE BLOGGING on ES during the season finale (see previous Top Chef link.) He at least acted like he remembered and seemed pleased to meet me. I’m a fan. But, this wouldn’t be a review with out some harsh, maybe unnecessary judgments.

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from: Britannia
to: gansie
subject: I love your article in today’s express

It’s almost as if a gay man wrote it, you compare a fat free yogurt shop to BeBar and reference the closest gay beach to DC.

Awesome.

Thanks, Brit. But I’m actually a fat breeder.

My friend Laura and I went to both Mr. Yogato and Tangysweet in the same afternoon. But, hey, at least we walked (instead of driving, an idea that floated around) from one place to the other. And don’t think I’m too terrible, but I got a free sample of Sticky Finger’s anti-fro-yo before I even ate breakfast.

Keep me away from the frozen treats!

Cold Comforts: Fro-Yo To Go [Express]

Photo: Flickr’s voteprime

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I barely claim to be an authority on food, so I don’t even claim a little bit to be an authority on food TV. It’s like mastering Art History, which I think is the most demanding major. I mean, not only do you have to know what looks good on canvass (or sculpture or photograph) and the theories and techniques behind the physical demands of the “sport,” but also about the artist’s personality, the personal history of the artist, the time in history the artist lived and what was going on during that period (war, famine, medicine, sex, drugs, relationship with his/her mother), the artist’s influences, who was influenced by that artist or movement…I think you know where I’m going. And, fine, I really wanted to be an Art History major but instead of abandoning my PolySci studies, I learned what I could about art by being *that girl* in the back of the room, trying to distinguish her left from right while changing the slides. Yes, gansie was the slide girl in your Modern Art 101.

Well, if I lost you…

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When I was home in Jersey a few weekends back, 80P and I went to the bar with SAG, his girlfriend, Morgasm, and my newly 21 year old sister, Sherry. I’d be lying if I said this was the first time we all hit the bars together, but as this was legally the inaugural drinkfest, shots were clearly in order.

My go-to, don’t have to think about it shot is the classic, SoCo and Lime. (Although it was funny one time when the bartender gave me an entire glass of SoCo with just a wedge of lime on the side. Not exactly the normal shooter.) Well, its reign is over and I’m spreading the gospel, there’s a new shot in town.

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As much as I’d like to become more of a “reader,” I’m a pretty slow reader and therefore, I don’t finish the hott books until at least 2 years post their prime. Which, actually can suck: I finished The Da Vinci Code mere weeks before the movie hit theaters, resulting in my hating the film even more than the average viewer who finished the book, idontknow, four years before.

Anyway, I just finished My Life In France, Julia Child’s own tale of how she moved to Paris and started being really fucking anal about measuring. I mean, whole months of her life were dedicated to figuring out exact amounts of different ingredients. Of course, Julia’s my girl, and I’m in awe of her humility, but boy would she hate our nonchalant paradigm of cooking at ES.

This summer, though, I have a few books on my list as I plan to spend time out of the kitchen <gasp> and out on the Jersey Shore.

The Apprentice: My Life In The Kitchen [Jacques Pepin]

If you only watch one cooking show for the rest of your life, make it Jacques’ current show, Fast Food My Way. Jacuqes is an adorable, older, Frenchman. He is so funny, so talented and so entertaining to watch. And, he is a remnant of a soon to be gone generation, not just in the food world, but of a population that grew up during World War II. In a very selfish way, Jacques reminds me of my grandmother. I find comfort in him, his warmth and his excitement for food and life. I’m currently reading his memoir.

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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.

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One thing that I will never be accused of is being motivated. I don’t mean that I don’t want to succeed, or put the work in to do it. I mean that in the social sense. I’m not a social planner. If there is a party or a event, I’ll go, but only when pushed to do it. It’s not that I don’t like the people I hang out with, I’m just lazy. Put a TV, the Internet and a bowl of chips and salsa in front of me, and I’ll show you want it means to be sedentary.

But this Monday, I was forced out of my element. Gansie had Monday off as a prize for working overtime to plan a conference. For days, we discussed possibilities and settled upon, what else, food. Not just any food, either, destination eating.

Our destination? Jimmy Cantler’s just outside of Annapolis, MD. Anyone reading in DC, it’s only about a 45 minute drive, depending how long it takes you to get to highway 50 East. But eating fresh seafood on a picnic bench by the water truly made it feel like we were on vacation.

This is the point in the blog post where you may feel the urge to write scathing comments…

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One of the hardest parts about being a writer, at least for me, is the pitch. It’s not always easy come up with an interesting, timely, entertaining and food-related story. But other times, I simply think up what I would want to know, and research that. Thus, one of my journeys became know as the WiFi Crawl.

I do love writing, but that can mean hours and hours typing on my laptop, laying on my couch, isolated from other humans (disregard 80P in this scenario). And as the days become warmer, and with no balcony to enjoy the sun, I created a mission to find outdoor, free wireless connection at a dining establishment.

Sure, there are coffeehouses, but I wanted to discover a place that served drinks other than those with caffeine and with food other than those that rhyme with moan.

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NW D.C.: I was out with my wife at a well-known, hard-to-get-into place this past weekend and overheard a conversation at another table. The diner was complaining at their table about the service and indicated that “He is a senior member of a well-known area food blog, and the lack of service will be noted.” Well, the waiter calmed him down and comped the person a full bottle of wine. I checked the blog (will not mention) and sure enough there was an entry, and there was a mention of the lack of service, but no mention of the comped wine. Do the boards hold that much sway over restaurants that they are fearful of bad posts?

Tom Sietsema: It’s a big, bad — but never boring! — world out there in the blogosphere. I think restaurants DO care what is posted about them online. And I think some online scribes are taking advantage of the fact.

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Re bad blogger: Restaurants, like so many other places, rely on reputation. This chat has demonstrated that a bad reputation can devastate a restaurant. For a blogger to take advantage of that is despicable. The blogger in question should be outed. I for one would like to know who is blackmailing restaurants and I’m sure the restaurants would like to know who should no longer be considered a decent blogger.

Tom Sietsema: Ah, that’s a sticky, sticky path! I think it’s up to the monitors of the boards to police their chats and/or discussions. Here at the Post, for instance, reporters have editors — a safety net for which I’m very grateful. I don’t think the same can be said for many amateur food sites.

gansie: I’ve only wanted to do this once. Every other dining experience, good, bad or drunken, I’ve never felt the need to disclose the fact that I am reviewing the place. Clearly by the fact that I write this Ask Tom feature, I closely follow his guidance: never announce your critiquing presence. Even when my friends have wanted to leave little notes saying check fill-in-the-blank publication, I always take the high ground. But, no dining establishment tempted me as much as…

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