DC


 by

Top 10 New Foods We Ate in 2010

With another year gone it’s time to look back and reflect on all the deliciousness that was. Here are the top ten new dishes the Endless Simmer team was lucky enough to stuff in our mouths over the past 12 months.

10. Fried Peanut Butter, Banana and Bourbon Sandwich

breslin peanut butter and banana

Breakfast at The Breslin in New York is about as ridiculously delectable as it gets. In their modern update on The Elvis sandwich, peanut butter, banana, bourbon and vanilla are all goo-ily encased in a fried-til-crispy puffed skin. (Photo: gsz)

9. Sustainable Sushi

sustainable sushi

Sushi is the modern foodie’s last major guilt trip — a dish that just can’t be done locally, sustainably, or ethically. Or is it? At Miya’s Sushi in New Haven, Connecticut chef Bun Lai is turning the sushi CW on its head, proving it can be just as tasty and exciting when overfished species like unagi and bluefin are replaced with sustainable, North American fish. If there’s one new food idea that turns into a 2011 trend, we hope it’s this.

8. Burrata Everywhere

burrata

This revelatory cheese wasn’t invented in 2010 (try 1920) but this was the year we saw the Italian delicacy pop up on menus all across America. Fresh curds of buffalo milk mozzarella are stirred into salted cream and kneaded and pulled until they take on a gloriously goopy texture that makes all other mozz look like lifeless balls of nothing. Burrata is such a perfect cheese that only a sliver of bread and a touch of olive oil are needed to make it a meal. The quality varies place to place, but we sampled particularly tasty versions at Roman’s in Brooklyn and The Lake Chalet in Oakland. You? (Photo: Chiara Lorè)

7. The Mighty Cone

the mighty cone

The Austin, Texas food truck scene is one of the most heralded in the nation, and this local ready-to-eat-on-the-street treat is the one we’re most hoping to see go national. At this year-old trailer, a tortilla cone is filled with cornflake-almond-chili-crusted chicken tenders, fried avocado, mango-jalapeno slaw and ancho sauce. The ice cream cone is dead. Long live the chicken cone.
(Photo: The Mighty Cone)

6. Malaysian BBQ

fatty cue

Usually by the time a budding chef-lebrity opens their third restaurant, they’re churning out a watered down, assembly line version of what made them famous. Not so for Zak Pelaccio, who branched out this year with Fatty Cue, a Brooklyn restaurant that ingeniously fuses traditional southeast Asian flavors into classic BBQ dishes. The never gimmicky menu ranges from heritage pork ribs in smoked fish-palm syrup and Indonesian long pepper to Manila claims swimming in bone broth with barbecued bacon and chili. (Photo: Fatty Cue)

Next: Top 5 New Foods We Ate in 2010

in Bacon / Cheese / Fowl / Lists / Sandwich 2 comments

 by

Winter Cocktails Gone Wild

One of our favorite things about the temperature dropping is the thought of popping into a cozy tavern for some warming winter cocktails. But let’s face it — seasonal drinks like hot toddies and hot buttered rum are more appealing in theory than in practice. (Mmm…whiskey and water. Yeah, not really.) So we asked five of our favorite bartenders to share their most creative updates of classic winter drinks.

1. Hot Peanut Buttered Rum

Hot_Peanut_Buttered_Rum_72dpi

POV in Washington, D.C. puts a modern spin on every pirate’s favorite cocktail by infusing Cruzan rum with peanut butter, then mixing it with Cinnamon tea, butter and fresh whipped cream.

2. Tea-quila Toddy

Tequila Toddy

The hot toddy gets a second look at Las Perlas in downtown L.A., where hot hibiscus tea is spiked with Cabo Wabo blanco tequila and gets an extra kick from agave nectar, cinnamon and orange.

Read More›
in Drinks / Endless Cocktails / Holiday 7 comments
 by

Endless Questions: Chef R.J. Cooper on Iron Chef America and Magical Food Rides

-1

You’d think since leaving Washington’s swanky, Southern restaurant Vidalia earlier this year, Chef R.J. Cooper would have plenty of time on his hands, but he’ll tell you that’s not the case. Over the past six months Cooper has been overseeing the construction of his new restaurant, Rogue 24, working with Chefs as Parents and throwing in a little reality TV. Cooper kicks off season 9 of Food Network’s Iron Chef America, challenging the newly minted winner of The Next Iron Chef America, Marc Forgione.

I chatted with Cooper about the pressures of Iron Chef America and the magical ride that is his new venture.

Read More›
in TV 1 comments
 by

Feed Us Back: Comments of the Week

cheesybroc10

– Last Halloween post, we swear, but we had to share this photo from reader Dan of Food in My Beard, who proves that broccoli costumes don’t have to end up on the worst list. Also, Mr. and Mrs. JoeHoya of Capital Spice make an early bid for next year’s cutest costumes list:

Read More›
in Holiday 0 comments
 by

A Small Southern Town in Northwest Washington

hush puppy

D.C. has a long list of traditional southern-style restaurants, so you’d be forgiven for wondering why it needed another.  But you shouldn’t wonder after seeing Eatonville‘s unorthodox starter above — a single fried hushpuppy the size of a baseball filled with leek fondue and rock shrimp. It is seriously effing delicious.

Eatonville Restaurant

Set on the same 14th Street corner as sister restaurant Busboys and Poets, Eatonville is named in honor of Zora Neale Hurston, the Harlem renaissance author and playwright. Hurston grew up in Eatonville, Florida, one of the first southern towns created by African-Americans after slavery ended. The name really made an impression on me as I realized how thoughtful they’ve been in putting the place together. From picket fences and rocking chairs flanking the bar to drinks served in mason jars, this was more than another DC restaurant with southern fare… I felt like I’d hopped a train to a small town in the Deep South.

Read More›
in Fish / Restaurants 5 comments
 by

How Hard Is It For Restaurants to Source Locally?

agoraflatbread

I wear slim, light gray pants that stop an inch and a half above my ankle. I wear shoes with a peep toe. It’s a hot fall and I can’t make up my mind, so I split the difference: giving into the season, but remembering that just because we’ve passed the fall equinox, the temperature hasn’t ducked too low.

This same compromise appeared to me at a press lunch last week. Eating outside on a sunny day at Agora, yet enjoying fall’s produce.

House-made pita dough is turned into a soft flat bread and can be found underneath melted feta and manchego cheese, topped with thin slices of a Granny Smith apple.

So far, it’s a happy story for a meatless meal. I can find the joy of fall’s favorite offspring while I dine comfortably alfresco. And my gray pants are adorable, I might add.

While chatting with the chef, Ghassan Jarrouj, a native of Lebanon, he tells me the Peynirli Pide (the cheesy flat bread) receives its fall glow from “Washington state or New York apples, most likely New York.”

Jarrouj assured me that they are in the process of lining up several local growers to supply produce to the restaurant. With such a diverse variety of apples grown only miles away in Virginia, it’s hard to hear that customers can’t enjoy fruits of the Mid-Atlantic.

Now I know how easy it is to supply my own kitchen with farmers market goods (and if you don’t know, check out Arcadia Center for Sustainable Food, a new non-profit with a mission to educate the public on sustainable, local eating), but it is quite another issue to buy enough food for a restaurant.

In fact, there’s been plenty of stories on how difficult it is for restaurants in the DC area to source local ingredients (see The Go-Betweens by ES fav Melissa McCart.) But I’ve got to think restaurants can make it work for a few months out of the year.

Hopefully, Agora, there’s a local winter squash flat bread in my future.

in Cheese / Restaurants / Veggie 4 comments
 by

Top Chef Just Desserts Exit Interview: Episode 3

NUP_138924_0024

Isn’t she just adorable? Sylvia Weinstock was the guest judge on this week’s episode of TC: Just Desserts, which meant wedding cakes — you read that right, Seth — wedding cakes, not engagement cakes. Yes, another week of crazy Seth and tears, but who went home?

Continue reading to find out.

Read More›
in TV 1 comments
« Previous
Next »