Marinades/Sauces -

by Liza

Review: Pasta Mia

If you live in DC you are most likely familiar with the perpetual long line that forms outside of Pasta Mia, a not so special looking establishment at the corner of 18th and Columbia. For over a year now, the line outside Pasta Mia has baffled me, and also made me insanely curious about the restaurant. Is it that good? I mean people wait in the rain to get into this place!

So I FINALLY went, only because it was gorgeous outside so I wouldn’t mind waiting in line outside. By some chance miracle, my sweetheart Matt(y) (who will blog one of these days) and I were seated immediately.

First impression: Our table was squeezed a little too close for comfort in between two others (like to the point that we were just sharing olive oil with the table to the left of us).

Second impression: Call it an authority issue, but I hate going to places with rules. Like, I am paying you for a service, I should not have to be following rules here! The first annoying rule was that they only accept cash, so I had to leave to go to the ATM. And it’s not like this place is cheap- I mean we each had one glass of house wine and a pasta dish and it was 40 bucks without tip. The second rule I discovered was through an elderly couple sitting to the right of us (so basically at our table). They were so cute, and all they wanted was to split a salad and a pasta dish, because they knew the portions were HUGE. The waitress said she’d have to charge them for two entrees if they did that! WHAAAA! So they ended up just getting their own.

After the jump, the stunning third, fourth and final conclusions of Pasta Mia

in Uncategorized 15 comments

by 80 Proof

The Grilla in Manilla

Fine, the title doesn’t really make any sense, since we were in Myrtle Beach, SC, and even less sense because we didn’t grill at 4 in the morning just so the American viewing audience could tune in. It just rhymes, ok??

A few (couple?) weeks back, I took a long weekend down to the South Carolina beach in celebration of the passing of one Jackson (Jeb, AJ) from basically married life to married life. To most attending, however, it provided an excuse to open a beer in the AM. After one long afternoon of Par 3 golf, we passed a local produce stand and decided to grill. The corn and shrimp you will see after the jump are from that stand, while the rest came from that great Southern supermarket that will never be as good as Harris Teeter, Kroger.

by BS

Who Cooked It Better? Rachael Ray vs. Giada De Laurentiis

It’s come to our attention here at ES that despite all these food blogs, there are only so many things a person can actually cook. I mean, it takes a lot of hard work to come up with an original, tasty combination of ingredients, and even when you do, chances are someone’s already thought of it before anyway. Just ask Jessica Seinfeld. So what’s a snarky food blogger to do? Why, judge others of course. On that note we introduce our newest feature: Who Cooked It Better?

Inspired by Us Weekly’s in-depth examination of celebrity costumery, Who Wore It Best? we’ll be browsing the food world each week to bring you a head-to-head match-up in which you, the readers, get to decide Who Cooked It Better?

It’s only fitting that our first culinary clash is a fishfight between the Food Network’s two sultriest chefs. Anyone can wrap a simple broiled scallop in bacon and make it taste pretty great, but not everyone can produce the beautiful succulence that is emitted by Rachael Ray and Giada De Laurentiis on a daily basis.

Pictured in the left-hand corner is the entry from our first cheftestant, the New York-born, former Macy’s candy counter clerk and aspiring queen of all media, Rachael Ray. Thankfully, RayRay resisted the urge to make an entreetizer or stoup this time and went semi-classic with her scallops, which are marinated in Teriyaki sauce, wrapped in thickly-sliced bacon and served on a tantalizing toothpick. Rachael gets creativity points for adding a slice of water chestnut and piece of pickled ginger to each scallop. Full recipe here.

In the right corner is our challenger, Rome-born, Hollywood-raised brand new baby mama Giada De Laurentiis. Giada went for a refreshing take here, blending up a tomato-basil-olive oil rub for her scallops, and kicking it up a notch by wrapping them in prosciutto. These scrumptious shellfish look pretty gushingly gourmet on their bed of fresh arugula, although perhaps a little hard to handle. Full recipe here.

So, dear readers, your thoughts please…
[Poll id=”7″]

in Bacon / Celebs / Contests / Fish / TV 16 comments

by gansie

I Swear, I’ve Looked, and There’s Nothing Funny About Eggplant. Really.

I know, lame title. Total cop-out. My bad.

Like Evo Diva has ranted before, I like to vary my meals between bloody steaks and salad greens laced with whole grains and vegetables. 80, my normal dining partner however, still likes to see a cut of meat on his dinner plate. So it took all of my debate team skills to convince him to eat a totally vegetarian dinner.

Oh, and I’m totally lying. I just think it would sound cool if I actually knew how to win an argument by debate skills. I actually spent my after school hours playing field hockey in the fall, lacrosse in the spring and watching my then-boyfriend play video games in the winter.

Anyway, as I pride myself in keeping a well-stocked pantry, on my walk home from work (with 80) I tried to piece together a meal without having to go to the store for anything. And I almost made it. After I decided to make a lasagna, but with eggplant strips instead of noodles (thanks, Vi), the only way I could sell 80 on the idea was to stop by the store so we could cover the whole thing with mozzarella cheese.

Real quick on the eggplant, so I bought it to use for this DC food bloggers potluck. But I was too hung over and just couldn’t get it together, especially after belmontmedina was bailing. Luckily, though, Mr. So Good filled me in on some of the details. I promise to be a better part of the community and attend the next one – headache and all.

Read on for what I guess I could have made if I wasn’t playing flip cup like a 20 year old the night before.

in Cheese / Recipe / Veggie 11 comments

by Edouble

All Hail the Hollandaise of Beef

Who could say no to the Hollandaise sauce for Steak?! Yes, Bernaise is a sister to our egg-stra special friend Hollandaise, both made with whisked egg yolk and clarified butter. Bernaise, however, adds a savory mix of vinegar, shallots, tarragon, and chervil (a pretty little spice I hadn’t heard of prior to my first attempt cooking up this sauce) and forgoes the lemon found in Hollandaise. As you may or may not be able to see in the photo, I added chopped up baby bellas to my bernaise. It added a nice, complementary flavor and allowed me to feel like I was eating “more healthy” (despite the beef and bernaise, of course).

More after the jump…

in Red Meat 4 comments

by BS

Sows Gone Wild

I assume I’m ineligible for the prize winnings, but my competitive streak won’t let me pass up the gauntlet gansie threw done with the varmint cooking contest.

Unfortunately, the food co-op was sorely lacking in the squirrel, mole and chipmunk departments, so the craziest thing I could find was wild boar. I know, not exactly scurrying folk, but really, it might not be a wild boar, it might be a rodent of unusual size.

Anyways, it’s from D’artagnan, so I jumped. Aside: can we talk about how awesome the D’artagnan brand is? I’ve already told you about their duck bacon. But I’ve been stockpiling their other fancy-pants provisions too, like chicken truffle sausage, dried porcinis and more. Plus, they are apparently all earthy and sustainable to boot. I swear this is not paid promotion, I’m just blown away by their meat.

And, this particular wild boar mini-roast is made from the knuckle of animal, and while I’m not exactly sure what that means, it sounds pretty damn varmint-y to me.

Back to the boar…

in Contests / Food Travel / Pig / Recipe / Red Meat 3 comments

by BS

The Kumquats of Wrath

UPDATE: Good idea, Margot…consider this “Lakshmi-Spiegel Green Chutney” entered in AFAM

I never spend much time with dead tree cooking publications. After I get through all the blogs, there’s just no time left. Plus, as you can probably tell, I’m not one for following recipes.

However, as Gansie mentioned previously, every time I go down to D.C., she sends me back on the bus with a pile of Bon Appetites, Gourmets – and if I’m lucky – Cook’s Illustrateds. Because she’s ~~strangely obsessive~~ a truly dedicated co-editor, she even steals little arrow flags from her office and marks every page for me that mentions pine nuts, phyllo or Padma Lakshmi.

It was this way I learned that the December issue of Gourmet featured the famed cookbook author/Top Chef host/2nd runner-up for Eater of the Year, and offered a few of her chutney recipes. The new Gourmet.com doesn’t seem to have this one in their archives, so here it is:

in Pig / Recipe / TV 5 comments