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Daily dispatches on the Washington, DC area's food, restaurant and dining scene.

Category: Food Media

Wu-Tang Flan, 10 Types of Foodies, and Squirrel for Supper: Eating & Reading

By Todd Kliman , Ann Limpert , Jessica Voelker , Sophie Gilbert , Anna Spiegel

Every week, we’ll let you know what the Washingtonian food staff is reading in the blogosphere and off the bookshelves.

The omnivore's dilemma, indeed. Would Michael Pollan eat squirrel? Photograph courtesy of Alia Malley

Todd Kliman, food and wine editor

• Mmmm, just what I want to dig into on a cold, winter day: ash, the new It ingredient. And not just ash—artisanal ash! Key Ingredient: Ash 

• Crunchy-trendy types think eating local is all about cheeses and chickens from local farms. This Seattle woman has a more traditional notion of local—one that Michael Pollan and others might turn up their freshly exfoliated noses at, but which speaks right to the heart of what they so high-mindedly champion. I can almost taste her risotto di rodentia now: Eastern gray squirrel braised in Lopez Island white wine, with mushrooms and rice. Dinner gets very local for squirrel-eating Seattleite

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Category Tags: What We're Reading, Holiday Eats, Food Media, Wine & Spirits

A Q&A with Melissa Clark

By Anna Spiegel

The prolific cookbook author shares holiday tips and gushes about a recent DC restaurant experience.

Melissa Clark is not afraid of a little fat. Photograph by Lucy Schaeffer

Melissa Clark is not afraid of a little fat. Photograph by Lucy Schaeffer

As far as food writers are concerned, Melissa Clark is living the dream. She is a New York Times columnist, a culinary mag contributor, and the author of more than 30 cookbooks, including collaborations with top toques like Daniel Boulud and White House pastry chef Bill Yosses.

Clark recently visited Washington to promote her latest work, Cook This Now, a personal record of seasonal recipes she compiled over a year of making her favorite meals for her husband and three-year-old daughter. We caught up with her at KramerBooks & Afterwords Cafe, where she dished about the essentials of good cookbook writing, favorite New Year’s Eve dishes, and which local chef whips up a sauce good enough to be licked off a shoe.

You’ve worked on so many cookbooks. What do you think is essential to writing a good one?

I always say there are so many different paths to dinner. So what I do in this book—which I probably will do in anything I write from now on, really—is to break it down: all the other ways the dinner could have gone. I could have done this if I had this, substituted this, etc. I show people all the roads not taken. I love the roads not taken.

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Category Tags: Interviews, Food Media

What the Heck Do I Do With . . . Ramps? (Video)

By Emma Patti , Anna Spiegel

A video series in which we ask professional chefs to show us how to use those crazy ingredients we normally shy away from at the grocery store.

Ramps, also know as wild leeks, flood farmers markets and restaurant menus for a few brief weeks every spring. With all the hype, it’s tempting to snap up a bunch in the short time they’re available. But what’s the best way to prepare the garlicky-tasting vegetable?

Ramps are versatile, which is part of their attraction, and are found in everything from vinaigrettes to pasta. We love Estadio chef Haidar Karoum’s preparation: tossed in olive oil and salt, grilled, then topped with smoky romesco sauce and shaved Manchego cheese. Karoum makes the same dish with young scallions, which hit the market just as ramps fade out of season.

This recipe makes extra romesco sauce, which keeps in the fridge up to a week and in the freezer up to a month. Use it on fish, chicken, steak, veggies, soft-shell crab, or just about anything you throw on the grill this summer.

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Category Tags: Food Media

Best Of: Best Dishes Slideshow

By Kate Nerenberg

We ate our ways through the Best of Washington party. See the tastiest treats for yourself.

Washington's best chefs crave a spot in Washingtonian's Best Of issue, and they reach for new heights at the Best of Washington party. We've got pictures of the chefs, and some of the night's tastiest dishes in our Best Dishes slideshow.

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More>> Best Bites Blog | Food & Dining | Restaurant Finder

 



Category Tags: Food Media

Top Chef DC: Episode 5—Grandma's Got an Axe

By Carol Blymire

Kenny opens tonight's episode reminiscing about Arnold and Lynne leaving the house. Angelo cozies up to Tamesha while Ed and Tiffany shoot the breeze, and it feels like the director wants us to believe there's chemistry and sexual tension here when there isn't.  Jeesh.  No one loved the Hosea and Leah season, so let's not try to re-create it, shall we?

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Category Tags: Food Media, Top Chef

Top Chef: Bios Beyond What Bravo Tells You

We did some digging to find dirt on the 17 cheftestants. Here's what you should know before tuning into Top Chef DC.

Photograph courtesy of Bravo TV.

Photograph courtesy of Bravo TV.

Angelo Sosa

Age: 35.

Hails from: Durham, Connecticut, which he describes as a “cow-tippin’ town.” Works in Manhattan.

Job: Owns Xie Xie, a sandwich shop that turns out Asian-accented lobster rolls and fortune cookies with yuzu cream. He hopes to expand it to many cities, including Washington.

Gael Greene moment: Speaking of that lobster roll, Sosa muses: “The flavors are pounding—like getting into the ring with Mike Tyson.”

Reminds us of: Season-two winner Ilan Hall.

Education: Manchester Community College, Culinary Institute of America.

Mentor: Jean-Georges Vongerichten, whom he worked with for five years. Sosa was executive sous-chef at both Jean Georges and the original Spice Market.

Moment he’d like to forget:
He once accidentally set veal bones on fire at Jean Georges, causing the dining room of Trump International Hotel to be evacuated.

Praise from on high:
Alain Ducasse has kind words for Sosa, whom he put in charge of Spoon Food & Wine in Paris: “The cuisine of Angelo Sosa tells a story—his story—in a new style of his own, which is at once uninhibited, bold, arousing, and inspiring.” Although Ducasse sounds as if he’s narrating a cologne ad, it’s still pretty badass.

Point at which his publicist should’ve shushed him: Sosa tells the Village Voice that his big dream is “to be a household name” and “exploit” the sandwich-shop concept.

Scorecard: 8 points for years working with the big guys, 3 for being the resident hottie, 3 for ambition and self-assuredness, minus 1 for Jersey Shore levels of hair gel. Total: 13 points.

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Category Tags: Food Media, Top Chef, Cheftestants

Top Chef DC: The Map

Latest update: A tipster says the crew was at Marvin last night, but Twitter user @topchefdcnews says the filming is basically over.


View Top Chef DC in a larger map

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Category Tags: Food & Restaurant News, Food Media, Top Chef

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  1. Burger Brackets (34 Entries)
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What to Do This Weekend: February 9 to 12

Woo at the Zoo, the opening of “Genesis Robot” at Synetic Theater, and the Washington DC International Wine & Food Festival. more

Music Picks: Jack’s Mannequin, All Things Gold, Steve Aoki

Our recommendations for the best in live music over the next seven days. more

Ann Limpert

Though Ann Limpert graduated from Connecticut College with a degree in art history and creative writing, she spent most of her time in New England debating the merits of warm, buttery lobster rolls vs. cold, mayo-y ones. She spent two years covering the internet for Entertainment Weekly magazine (highlights include interviewing the Beastie Boys and dancing to "Livin' la Vida Loca" with Penn Jillette), then left to hone her kitchen skills at the Institute of Culinary Education. She has worked as a cook at several New York restaurants, researched and edited cookbooks, and now writes about food and restaurants for the Washingtonian. more

Kate Nerenberg

Kate Nerenberg started as an editorial intern at The Washingtonian in January 2008 and became an assistant editor in September 2008. A native of West Hartford, Connecticut, she spent the first half of her writing life as a sports reporter, and was the editor of the athletics section for the newspaper and student-run magazine while at Middlebury College. A joint Spanish and Art History major, Kate graduated in 2005 and took off on a year-long journey around the world. After tasting everything from fried crickets to lavish Turkish breakfasts, she realized she wanted to devote herself to writing about food, a lifelong passion. She lives with three roommates just east of Logan Circle in a house that's often filled with the smell of sauteed garlic, warm banana bread, or fried bacon and eggs. more

Rina Rapuano

Rina Rapuano's English degree from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond put her on the path to becoming a managing editor of a weekly business magazine; a freelance copy editor; and assistant managing news editor—and later the lifestyles editor—at a weekly paper in Maryland. But she realized her true calling when her descriptions of meals to friends and colleagues always seemed to end with the same statement: “You're making me hungry.” Frankly, it was making Rina hungry, too. She chucked her day job in 2006 to become a full-time freelance writer focusing mainly on food, and now works as assistant food and wine editor at The Washingtonian. more

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