Butcher Mike Smollen has plenty in store for Memorial Day grilling. Photograph by Clay McLachlan.

Memorial Day is the classic harbinger of grilling season. Propane and sacks of charcoal fly out of grocery stores nationwide. But what to grill? Back in October, we profiled Mike Smollen of My Butcher and More, the old-school butcher shop (complete with blood-flecked smocks and a mother-in-law behind the counter) hiding in a strip mall off  Defense Highway in Gambrills. We just spoke to Smollen, and though he's already got people lined up out the door, he spared us a few seconds to tell us what's in store for the holiday weekend.

Smollen promises that he's prepared for the onslaught (pun intended) of customers. His prime rib, Kobe, flatirons and choice Angus steaks are well-stocked and waiting in the back. He notes that strip steaks and dry-aged Roseda Black Angus have been flying out of glass cases. So too the prime steak burgers, which he just began selling a few weeks back. For those, Smollen takes the trimmings of USDA prime rib-eyes and grinds the meat himself. With such good marbling, the meat doesn't need seasoning. This weekend only, he's selling them for a bargain--$4.99 a pound. "They definitely won't be that cheap next week.," he says. 

Imported jams and Turkish delight candies from Le Petit Corner Store. Photograph by Erin Zimmer.

No bigger than your average living room, Le Petit Corner Store sits on a picture-perfect Georgetown block, saving residents from the ten-minute walk to Safeway. Besides carrying essentials like canned goods and wine, the shelves are stocked with rare Turkish foodstuffs such as rose jam, Narnia-reminiscent Turkish Delight candies, and bags of dried fava beans. Shop managers Ray and Anna Sohielinia aren't Turkish (they're Persian), but their landlord is--and he wanted a Turkish market.
 
Fridges against the wall offer pint-sized yogurt drinks and blocks of the pungent tek sut, Turkey's take on feta. Pomegranate juice sit in glass bottles a few fridges over, but it's not the familiar POM brand, it’s Turkish-imported Marco Polo. It sits alongside other flavors like apricot nectar and cherry. Cans of Coke Zero and ginger ale are wedged in between.

Photograph by Erin Zimmer.

The menu at Cafe Romeo’s features the usual ricotta calzone, pesto pizza and meatball sandwich, but out of nowhere, they throw in gyros, Tuscan hummus and my favorite, Armenian-style lavash sandwiches.  This flaky flatbread is a bit thicker than the traditional version, and fillings are so abundant, they inevitably spill out the sides. Each sandwich half (and yes, there are two) has approximately the heft of a Chipotle burrito. You better be hungry for this one.
 
For $8.45, the un-Italian lavash roll includes equally un-Italian filling options. In the Mediterranean roll, a lamb and beef kabob joins sumac and yogurt dressing. The spinach-and-artichoke version includes tomato, caramelized onions, mozzarella, feta and a garlic sauce. We like the chicken and portabella mushroom lavash, juicy and overflowing with tomato chunks, huge spinach leaves, chicken breast, portabella, feta and mozzarella, all lathered up with a zesty red pepper sauce.

Though the Bollywood world has been a tad shaken up this past few weeks, after the “racy” images of Indian star Shilpa Shetty getting a few kisses from Richard Gere, the colorful movies are still playing (per usual) at countless Indian restaurants in the Virginian ‘burbs. The lively song-and-dance sequences perk up otherwise lowkey strip mall spaces known for nine-buck buffets serving a cafeteria-style selection of chutneys, tandooris and naan.

Vendor John Rider has big plans for his homemade mango-habanero hot sauce.

While the District fought for voting rights on the Hill in recent weeks, a less publicized voting campaign was taking place downtown. At the corner of 15th and K streets, Pedro and Vinny’s burrito cart proprietor John Rider, who we profiled in our May issue, took name suggestions for his homemade mango-habanero hot sauce on a yellow poster board posted outside the cart. As we reported back in February, Rider got the thumbs-up from a Florida bottling plant to sell his recipe nationally, spawning a Pedro and Vinny's sauce-naming challenge. Over the course of a few weeks, lunchers placed check marks and happy faces next to name ideas while waiting in line. "Burrito Juice" and "Mango-nero" got a few nods here and there but the winner, with over 30 votes, was "Mango Magma," hands down.
 

Nongkran Daks holds classes that focus on quick and easy Thai cooking.

Jose Andres has published his ode to tapas (and has another cookbook coming) and Michel Richard has got Happy in the Kitchen, but what about Washington's under-the-radar chefs? Do they have literary agents? If they're not en route to Food Network fame, will the public read their recipes in bound form?

Chef and restaurateur Nongkran Daks sells her spiral-bound cookbooks at the tucked away Thai Basil, hidden in a Chantilly strip mall. Daks is something of a Thai Rachael Ray: In each of the books in her Learn to Cook series, she explains traditional ingredients and emphasizes the "made easy" and "quick" nature of Thai cuisine. 

Plus, she has a few others on Amazon. Just this year, the author and editor published Wok Cooking Made Easy: Delicious Meals in Minutes, which highlights the secrets to wok improvisation. Asian Noodles & Snacks and Healthy Wok & Stir Fry Dishes: the Ultimate in Asian Comfort Food were released back in 2003. At the restaurant, she also sells Thai Soups and Salads and Homestyle Vietnamese Cooking. 
 

The torta sandwich doesn’t feel Mexican at all. The beans go unnoticed, bread replaces tortillas, and the bun-meets-meat character eerily resembles a burger. It’s easy to be skeptical.

But venture into Columbia Heights for the no-frills Taqueria Distrito Federal, where torta sandwiches are as authentically Mexican as the chorizo tacos and fresh tamarind juice (both on the Spanish-language menu). Owner Louis Marroquin is actually Salvadoran, but he married a Mexican woman and understands the importance of specifically-Mexican—not just abstractly Latin American—culinary pride. His $6 torta sometimes gets overshadowed by the two-buck tacos on the menu, but this sandwich is special.