Reviews - - Page 13

by Russell Warnick

Water Bucket Review!

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.

in Drinks 11 comments

by 80 Proof

I Have Crab Cakes

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…

by gansie

The WiFi Crawl

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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.

in Drinks / Food Travel / Trends 14 comments

by gansie

Ask Tom, Answer Gansie: Bad, Bad Blogger

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.

____________________

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…

in Desserts / Eggs / Fish / Red Meat 13 comments

by gansie

Syn, Syn, Syndicated

Just letting you know, I’ve become Robert Novak. No, really. People now pay to reprint my writing. I know. Crazytown. So, watch out for a gansie coming to your local Onion…New York, Chicago, Wisconsin, Austin, Denver, Minnesota, San Francisco…

Oh, and I never read. This story for the Onion was quite a struggle and I severely bothered my friends over this feature.

Read and Feed

What used to be a way for suburban mothers to get out of the house has now evolved into a way for young, single 20-somethings to get out of the house. While book clubs may vary drastically in theme (feminist, history, Oprah), participants (co-workers, neighbors, Craigslisters), and fun (glass of wine, bottle of wine, bowl of marijuana), all book clubs rally around food.

Some book clubs meet at a centrally located restaurant where they can linger over dog-eared pages, drink from communal
pitchers, and let other people make the food—but that can lead to members spending more time contemplating the pages of a menu than those of their literature.

Instead, class up your next book-club gathering and create a meal based around your book choice. (Or, alternatively, choose your book around a meal.) Here are some fine page-plate pairings to get your literary and culinary mind in gear.

Ron Paul, The Revolution
w/ Broiled Steak and Chipotle Dipping Dauce

If you think hope is audacious, don’t care about villages, and are through trying to live up to daddy’s example, perhaps you’d be more interested in the political upheaval espoused by 10-term congressman and Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul. His The Revolution touts the glories of the Constitution, reveres the vision of the Founding Fathers, and rages at what’s wrong with our current government. While chewing through this meaty treatise on libertarianism, pay tribute to Paul’s Texas roots by chewing through a broiled steak.

In a Pyrex dish, marinade a cut of flank steak with extra-virgin olive oil, crushed garlic, cumin, oregano, chili powder, kosher salt, and freshly ground black pepper; toss in some red wine too, but only if it’s from California—Paul’s an isolationist. While this sits, mix together sour cream, one chopped chipotle in adobo sauce, plus some adobo sauce, salt, pepper, and a few squeezes of a lime to create a smoky, hot dipping sauce. When the guests arrive, stick the steak under the broiler for two minutes, then flip it and cook it for another two minutes. Transfer to a cutting board, drape it with tin foil, and let it sit for seven minutes. Slice against the grain and serve it with your sauce. Keep your utensils in the drawer.

in Politics / Recipe / Red Meat / Veggie 3 comments

by Liza

Jackie and the Take Out Taxi

Recently I went to get my hair cut by my friend Jackie – yeah, I’m the luckiest girl alive to have a friend who is also an amazing professional hair stylist – and after leaving the glamorous Lux Studios where she works, we decided we should go have an equally glamorous dinner. But once we got back to her apartment and layed on her couch, we lost all motivation. Sometimes you just need the food to come to you! But instead of giving up really good food for generic Chinese, Jackie introduced me to Take Out Taxi – and OMG! It’s f-ing amazing!!!

Take Out Taxi will deliver you food from actual restaurants, and the variety of food is awesome! They have everything from Korean to Ethiopian food, seafood to BBQ. We decided to go with Irene’s Pupusas a Salvadorian restaurant. It was not only insanely cheap but ridiculously tasty! These were authentic pupusas, with the slaw to put on top and everything and clearly made fresh.

Take Out Taxi also gets HUGE props from Liza for offering Arby’s for delivery too! That’s just amazing in my eyes.

There is a surcharge for Take Out Taxi, so I recommend you order with at one or more other people.

in Uncategorized 19 comments

by BS

A Better Butter Battle

Now here’s an ES fan who is all talk and all action…

Yesterday’s discussion of Kerrygold Irish butter inspired quite the passionate response, with readers weighing in from the Emerald Isle to Oklahoma. But the most exciting response came from MissGinsu, who promised a “premium butter throwdown” and then backed it up with a nine-way butter battle royale, detailed over on her blog.

Miss G. sampled the nine best premium butters she could find (and yes, she does feel a little ill now). She’s still not completely sold on the Kerrygold bandwagon “most of what I’m tasting is salt,” but she was blown away by the French entry – Elle and Vire – and even discovered a high-class butter made right here in the good ol’ U S of A, Pennsylvania’s own Krowka Maslo Wiejskie.

This is goodbye land o’ lakes – I am officially a butter snob.

Link: Miss Ginsu

Photo: Pennsylvania state government, and yes, that’s an 800 lb. Ben Franklin butter statue.

in Contests / Trends 4 comments