1. Subscribe Now
  2. Follow Us
  3. Follow us on Facebook Follow us at Twitter Subscribe to our global feed
  4. |
  5. Advertise

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

Category: Food Experiments

What the Heck Do I Do With . . . Ostrich Eggs?

By Anna Spiegel , Emma Patti

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.

When we found California-raised ostrich eggs at Whole Foods in Alexandria, the first thing we wanted to do was cook one. And the second was ask someone how. The massive orbs—ostriches are the world’s largest birds—clock in at roughly three pounds, pack the equivalent of two dozen chicken eggs, and cost around $30.

We asked Westend Bistro chef Joe Palma to take on the ostrich-egg challenge. Instead of a simple scramble or hard boil—the American Ostrich Association says the latter takes 90 minutes—he concocted a rich ostrich-egg custard with goat cheese, served “on the half shell” with a toss of chorizo, oyster mushrooms, potatoes, and spring garlic. The combination was tasty enough to earn a place on his upcoming brunch menu with chicken eggs.

Cracking the fortress-strength egg shell isn’t easy. If you don’t have a hand saw, try a hammer. In this recipe (below the jump), Palma uses one ostrich egg, which makes 24 six-ounce custard portions. You can store the mix in the fridge up to three days, or Palma says, the same custard formula makes a tasty quiche: Pour the mix into a two-inch-deep store-bought pie crust and bake it in a 325-degree oven for 45 minutes.

Read More

Category Tags: Food Experiments, Recipes

All-Star Burgers

By Anthony Harris , Emma Patti

Washington's gone nuts for Stephen Strasburg. But are the burgers named in his honor any good?

Just like everyone else with any business sense in Washington, restaurants are jumping on the Stephen Strasburg craze. But as Strasburgers flood the market, how can foodies tell the aces from the minor-leaguers? We visited three area restaurants to rate their burgers for taste, presentation, and creativity—also known as “Strasburgness.” In each category, we ranked them from 1 (bottom) to 14 (tops) in honor of the phenom’s debut game with 14 strikeouts.

Read More

Category Tags: Food Experiments

Todd's Tips: How to Grill Shrimp

By Todd Kliman

In yesterday’s Kliman Online chat, Todd gave his advice on how to keep shrimp from drying out.

The thing about shrimp—and this goes for the grill or the stove or the oven or wherever—is that it’s extremely easy to overcook. More than a couple of minutes is often too much. I like shrimp at the point where they’ve just lost that translucence, where they’re still pliant and not yet firm. That’s hard to get. It’s a feel thing.

Always, always take them off the pan or the stove or the grill before they’re done—well before. As I said, it’s a feel thing, but you want them to have a slight translucence. They’ll continue to cook from the heat they’ve built up, eventually taking on that just-lost-their-translucence look you want. It’s a little like making scrambled eggs: By the time they look done in the pan, they’re ruined, because they’ll harden and become rubberized on the plate.

Read More

Category Tags: Food Experiments

Todd's Tips: Olives Edition

By Todd Kliman

In this week's edition of Kliman Online, a chatter wrote in wanting to know what makes a good olive, and where to get one.

A good olive is a well-cared-for olive. You don't want anything soft or mushy—you want an olive that's been well-preserved. Nothing canned. Jarred is better, but even better is getting something at an olive bar at one of the better grocery stores.

The route to great olives is to take home a container of olives—whatever you like—and doctor them.

Read More

Category Tags: Food Experiments

Check, Please!

By Rina Rapuano

Local blogger Ashley Messick, who spent the last year eating and chronicling her way through The Washingtonian’s 100 Very Best Restaurants list, has finally crossed the finish line. She reflects back on her year as an amateur food critic.

Messick dines at Eatonville. Photograph by Chris Leaman

Ashley Messick, who spent the last year eating her way through The Washingtonian’s 2009 100 Very Best Restaurants list, recently crossed the finish line with a meal at Obelisk—almost a week before her self-imposed deadline. Through it all, she maintained her sense of humor and adventure as she chronicled each meal on her blog, From Komi to Marvin.

Here, she reflects back on her year spent as a volunteer food critic.

Read More

Category Tags: Food Experiments, Interviews

Taste Test: Hot Dogs

By Catherine Andrews

Want to host a great cookout this summer? You can’t do it without one necessary ingredient: the perfect hot dog. We snacked on ten varieties to bring you the best.

And the winning hot dog is. . . Photograph by Chris Leaman

Washington isn’t lacking in hot dog options. From the housemade franks served by Peter Smith at PS7’s to the cheap dogs smothered with onions and mustard at the divey Vienna Inn, there are plenty of spots to indulge.

But what if you’re hosting a cookout? When grilling a mountain’s worth of hot dogs for a hungry crowd, you want to make sure you’re serving the tastiest. With that in mind, we here at Washingtonian.com gathered for the ultimate summer eating challenge: a hot dog taste test.

To find out the best brand available in local grocery stores, we assembled a crack panel of tasters. The scene: a steamy summer evening on a rooftop in DC’s Shaw neighborhood. The panel: nearly a dozen Washingtonian staffers and assorted friends. And, most important: the hot dogs. Here’s a list of the brands we sampled.

Read More

Category Tags: Food Experiments, Holiday Eats

It’s a Long Road From Komi to Marvin

By Rina Rapuano

One woman's quest to eat through Washingtonian's 100 Very Best Restaurant List.

Ashley Messick dines her way through the Washingtonian's 100 Best Restaurants—and blogs it all along the way.

Ashley Messick dines her way through the Washingtonian's 100 Best Restaurants—and blogs it all along the way.

Ashley Messick has a thing for lists—even her book club focuses on reading the 100 best novels of all time. So when the 27-year-old Capitol Hill staffer saw The Washingtonian’s 100 Very Best Restaurants in February, a familiar bell went off, and suddenly she was eating—and blogging—her way through the places on the list. From Komi to Marvin is a blog where she shares her experiences through charmingly snarky write-ups and the occasional Food Porn Pic of the Day. (Shrimp toast at Four Sisters, your honor has been compromised.) Over dinner at Eatonville (a new restaurant that’s not on the list) we got to know the woman who’s showing us the love.

Read More

Category Tags: Food Experiments, Interviews

Click to download our new iPhone mobile app

 

  1. Burger Brackets (34 Entries)
  2. Chefs Tell All (10 Entries)
  3. Chefs to Watch (7 Entries)
  4. Cheftestants (14 Entries)
  5. Cooking at Home (74 Entries)
  1. More
  1. February 2012 (34 Entries)
  2. January 2012 (77 Entries)
  3. December 2011 (84 Entries)
  4. November 2011 (72 Entries)
  5. October 2011 (53 Entries)
  1. More
Find A ...
Find A Restaurant







  1. Only show Delivery
    Only show Kid Friendly
    Only show Late Night
    Only show Party Space
    Only show Weekend Brunch
Find Events




Find A Happy Hour





  1. search_finda.gif
Find A Spa




  1. search_finda.gif
Find a Home





  1. search_finda.gif
  2. Powered by  
Find A Hotel


  1.   


  2. Reviewed by Washingtonian
  3. Kid Friendly     Valet Parking
    Handicap Accessible    

  4. Childcare
    WiFi
    Pet Friendly
    Bar/Lounge/Dining
    Airport Shuttle
    Salon/Spa
    Swimming Pool
    Fitness Room
    On-site Drycleaning
    Meeting Rooms
    Golf
    Tennis Courts
    Game Room
  5. search_finda.gif
Newsletter Signup
  1. Washingtonian Deals
  2. Bridal Party
  3. Dining Out
  4. Kliman Online
  5. Shop Around
  6. Where & When
  7. Photo Opps
  8. Learn more sign_up.gif
 

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

Follow Us Follow us on Facebook Follow us at Twitter Subscribe to our global feed
Get the Magazine Washington Lives By

It's your source for dining, nightlife, news, health, shopping and more in Washington.

Subscribe to Washingtonian

Washingtonian Magazine provides the best insights on:

Subscribe today for only $29.95 for 12 issues.