Reviews - - Page 11

by gansie

Ripened Ovary of a Flower

Editors Note: Comment superstar, Maids, was recently in Colombia. Being a vegetarian and lactose intolerant was somewhat troubling for this traveling foodie. Here’s her story.

So I’m exaggerATING: Colombia isn’t all bad for me food wise. And in fact, I should say again that it is a country with a rich and impressive culinary tradition.

A lot of meaty soups and fishy plates and drunken pigs and all sorts of buttery fried doughy arepa madness… But in a country where the “platos tipicos” include Exhibit: A, B and C, I’m really just missing my kitchen.

I should however let you in on the details about a very special Colombian fruit that is the perfect kinda starchy roasted nutty tasting snack for a hungry lactard veggie gringuita. (By the way, something to know, Colombia sports a 25% lactard population, and thus lactose-free milk is available at a lot of posh little cafes and at all the Juan Valdez coffee spots, the local equivalent of the Starbucks chain coffee place. I mean there is something to be said for having the lactose free milk latte available… Never been a huge fan of soy milk in coffee drinks. Ahem, Starbucks, take note please!)

But I digress.

in Food Travel 18 comments

by gansie

The Only Bible I Need

As someone who was raised Jewish, I get Chanukah presents this time of year. And that usually means I get presents before all those crazy Christians. So while most of you are eagerly waiting for the 25th, I already have some presents, courtesy of 80P’s parents (thank you!) and the Jewish calendar based on the lunar cycle.

If you’re still trying to figure out what to get the foodie on your list, and you couldn’t find something here or here, may I suggest to you the anti-cookbook: The Flavor Bible.

Here’s one of my favorite excerpts, and I’m not even kidding, I actually took a highlighter to the page to capture this:

Slavish followers of recipes, who treat them as gospel instead of guidelines, make the mistake of putting more faith in someone else’s instructions than they do in themselves. Many people would do better in the kitchen if they didn’t blindly follow recipes. In fact, following recipes may be holding you back from achieving your potential as a cook.

Let me explain. This is clearly not a conventional cookbook, it’s more about theory and concepts and lists. Lots of lists.

by Liza

Holy Moly, Skillet Meals by Bertolli!

As ES’s resident microwave expert, I’m constantly looking for shortcuts to make cooking faster because frankly, sometimes I come home after work and I just don’t want to devote 1 or 2 hours to prepping and cooking dinner.

So recently, we were sent some of Bertolli’s new Skillet Meals, and let me tell you, in complete seriousness, they are AWESOME!!! Located in the Frozen Food aisle (maybe my favorite aisle in the grocery store I’ll admit) the Bertolli Skillet Meal provides a complete meal for two, ranging from Shrimp Scampi Linguine to Chicken alla vodka and Farfelle to Italian Sausage and Rigatoni – and all you have to do is throw it in a Skillet for TEN MINUTES! And that’s it!! It’s ready! And I swear to you it’s soooo freaking good. I even got Vio into it (she says she CRAVES it now!!) and if she says it’s good, then believe me, it is!

I also love it because all of the meals contain vegetables, such as asparagus, tomatoes and zucchini – and the ingredient list contains no scary five syllable words that you’ve never heard of, it’s all straight forward, good ingredients. I would prefer if they offered a meal with whole wheat pasta, but for a frozen meal, this is TOPS! Plus on their website, they even provide wine pairings for each meal. Bertolli is definitely frozen food gone classy!

in Uncategorized 5 comments

by gansie

Vault of Forgotten Posts

Okay, so you might think I’m this super motivated person who cooks every night and then sits down and writes about it immediately after. And a lot of the time, that’s true. Freaking ES takes up like 200% of my free time, but of course I love every freaking minute of it.

Well, sometimes I do make something fabulous, or eat somewhere fabulous, take pics, but then never get around to writing about it. Well, here’s a wrap up of some food stories I just never bothered to tell you about. I mean, I guess I have to wipe the blog clean, or some other dumb end of year crap.

Fried Eggplant and Fresh Tomato Sauce

Back in the summer, I bought tons of eggplants (can this be a plural word?) and tons of tomatoes. Now, we know that 80P doesn’t eat raw tomatoes, and he just started to get into eggplant, so I had to find a way to incorporate both veggies into one dish. Yes, frying would be the way to go. Now, I don’t remember the recipe, but this was my first attempt at breading and frying eggplant. It actually didn’t work out perfectly, as I cut the eggplant too thick and had to finish them off in the oven. The sauce was awesome though. I can’t remember what secret tricks I put in it (no sugar, belmontmedina!), but it turned out really well. I normally don’t like tomato sauce, but I was surely a fan of my version.

Keep reading for gansie’s vault of forgotten posts

in Veggie 4 comments

by gansie

Drinking With Burnie

Before I was totally immersed in cooking, I used to spend my after-work hours drinking. Drinking. Drinking. And because of this, I met the most fabulous liquor store owner, Burnie Williams. Burnie owns Chat’s, a liquor store directly across the street from my then-office and just down the street from my then-apartment.

Burnie knew exactly what type of wine I should pair with my delicate white fish; exactly what type of fancy bourbon I should buy 80 for the holidays, and um, exactly when I wouldn’t ask for his opinion and just buy the biggest, cheapest bottle of alcohol I could find.

Burnie is always greeting patrons with a smile. He literally knows all of his customers’ names. And I can say this with confidence, he’s the only man on Barrack’s Row that rocks a suit to work. I know this post may seem scattered, but I just don’t know how to get across how much Burnie and Chat’s were a part of my Capital Hill life. But I do know, you should trust his advice for Thanksgiving drinks.

A Grape Holiday: Liquors for a Lovely Turkey Day [Express]

Photo: Jason Hornick/Express

in Drinks / Personal 4 comments

by broadandpattison

Swallow Your Pride

A documentary film that satisfies your hunger

Wikipedia defines Wing Bowl as “an annual eating contest founded in 1993 by Philadelphia talk-radio hosts Al Morganti and Angelo Cataldi as a celebration of gluttony.” You read that right: “a celebration of gluttony.” Every year, on the Friday before the Super Bowl, 30,000 Philadelphians gather to watch 30 eaters compete in an annual wing-eating competition, the largest eating contest on the planet. The contestants’ names range from El Wingador to Yao Wing to Hank the Tank. They are escorted into an arena by beautiful wingettes who wear only enough clothing to cover a small Chihuahua and are cheered on by a crowd that had been tailgating since the night before. Oh, and the festivities begin around 5am.

Swallow Your Pride follows 6 contestants, who qualify for Wing Bowl by completing an eating stunt for the radio station that hosts the event – from 20 hot dogs in under 5 minutes to 2 lbs of raw dolphin – on their road to Wing Bowl. However, for the audience that yearns for outrageous live-eating footage, be patient, because the film moves way deeper than covering fat people eating enough for a small country.

in Contests / Fowl 8 comments

by gansie

Restaurant 3

Step away from the television sets—ESPN will still be there when you return to your favorite buffalo-sauce-stained bar stool. Clarendon has a new spot in town — Restaurant 3 — and it doesn’t pay homage to the Redskins. Say hello to tuna lollipops, ready to be dipped in wasabi cream and cooled off with bites of seaweed salad. Mero, Japanese sea bass, will also catch your attention: This silky fish, atop a creamy mixture of risotto and roasted acorn squash, will surely replace any memories of fried snacks.
For: Exchanging SportsCenter for sea bass.
Entrées: $15-$28. 703-524-4440. O, B, V. 2950 Clarendon Blvd., Arlington.

A version of this originally appeared in the Onion – AV Club / DC local edition

in Uncategorized 4 comments

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