Tricked Out Kitchen Appliances

As a professional chef, I'm affiliated with a number of organizations that send me all sorts of offers. Today I got one that I could not resist posting here. In the past, I've posted articles about how to shop for, use, and get the most out of various kitchen appliances. Today, I found out that there's a growing industry dedicated to making appliances more visually interesting. I thought it might be a good idea to highlight some of these as I find some examples.

I always recommend that people who do a lot of cooking or baking seriously consider buying a KitchenAid Stand Mixer. They're more expensive than other stand mixers, but they weather all sorts of abuse, and will most likely outlive your kitchen. Originally, they were only produced in white and black, but now, they come in all sorts of colours, and sizes. What's the one thing that's missing? Flames. Hey, some people trick out their cars, and flame them out, why not their kitchen appliances? These decals are custom made, and are sold over the Internet. They have a web site, and stores on Amazon and eBay. You know you want it. All the cool kids have one...

Jose Andres Fan club

What excuse do we have for including two Jose Andres posts in a week? The only other item to ever receive this sort of coverage is that delicious yellow packet, Splenda; How do you like that Andres, you're competing with a chemical with a structure similar to DDT.

But down to business. This Sunday:

There will be a viewing party at Jaleo Crystal City on Sunday, April 1, 8 pm. Call (703) 413-8181 for reservations if that's your (artificially sweetened) cup of tea.

Tired of Your Corporate Job? José Andrés Wants You!

Look what we found during our habitual craigslist crawling - an actual, honest-to-god, pretty cool food-related job.

José Andrés, of Jaleo, Mini Bar, Cafe Atlantico, and now Iron Chef America fame, wants someone to oversee his in-house recipe database.

From craigslist:

José Andrés and THINKfoodGROUP have an immediate opening for a full time Culinary Scribe

The Culinary Scribe (working title only, the job is much more interesting than it sounds) is responsible for building and maintaining our “cookbook”, the recipe database for all THINKfoodGROUP restaurants (Jaleo, Zaytinya, Cafe Atlantico, Oyamel) and other projects. This person will input all data and work closely with the chefs to ensure the accuracy and completeness of recipes. Other office responsibilities.

The ideal candidate is detail oriented, organized and can work independently. In addition, they must possess very strong computer and kitchen skills. Requires familiarity with databases and some Spanish skills. This job requires a lot of data entry so good typing skills are a must. Knowledge of Spanish, Middle Eastern and/or Mexican cuisine a plus.

Interested? Email jobs@thinkfoodgroup.com. The salary range is listed at $25-$30k a year.

And tell us about the interview. We want to know what a culinary scribe gets to do on a daily basis.

Slaters Lane Satiation

Every now and then you have one of those moments - when you realise that a lot has changed and you've missed some really cool developments. So it was when I left the D.C. area not too long ago and moved to San Francisco. Now that I'm back in the area, I'm continually amazed at the development that has occurred during my absence. In one particular case, I'm amazed at what they did with a particular spot in Alexandria. When I left, it was nothing more than a railroad yard and a field not too far from Del Ray. Now, there are all sorts of shops, several restaurants, and of course, condominiums. In particular, I wanted to clue people in to two restaurants, both under the aegis of the Neighbourhood Restaurant Group (the same people that run Vermilion and Tallula Restaurants), that are right across the street from each other on the corner of Slaters lane and Potomac Greens Drive.

The first restaurant is Rustico Restaurant. The vibe of this place is incredible. It's pretty much what would happen if The Brickskeller were to mate with The French Laundry. It's brewery style food, using gourmet ingredients, in extremely clever ways. For example, the first thing that caught my eye when I looked over the menu was a duck confit pizza. This was a pizza with duck confit (confit is a method of cooking that involves slow-cooking something in fat - in this case the duck legs are cooked overnight in duck fat), which makes anything good, duck cracklins (duck skin, diced and slow cooked to render the fat, which makes the skin cubes very crispy), arugula, and brie cheese. It was brilliant, and it was just the beginning. Equally amazing is their phenomenal beer menu. This restaurant has the best selection of Belgian and Belgian-style beers (my personal favourite) outside of the Brickskeller and RFD restaurants. They do incredible beer pairings, and they cook with the beer as well. They even have beer buckets for Belgian beers. Where else can you go where you have both St. Louis Framboise Lambic and Pabst Blue Ribbon on tap? That's right, PBR on tap (at least it was the night I was in)! Most of the seating is first-come first-serve, but they do take reservations.

When you're done eating and drinking at Rustico, head across the street to Buzz Bakery for some desserts and coffee. While this place is known for its cupcakes, they have all sorts of cool stuff there. From various truffles, barks, molded and filled chocolates, and pastries to more formal plated desserts (available after 6:00 PM), nothing I've had there has disappointed me. They even have a small smattering of savoury items (some quiches) if you're interested in more of a brunch fare. I've gone down there many times on Sunday, and just hung out reading the paper, or playing some of the board games they have for general use behind the counter. Personally, I think that this bakery will eventually out-cupcake Warren Brown at that other famous place on U street. This is a great place to go for dessert and coffee, and the laid back atmosphere, coupled with the cool décor and the great food make for an awesome experience. A perfect way to cap off a good meal, or a perfect way to ramp up a lazy Sunday.

Rustico Restaurant
827 Slaters Lane
Alexandria, VA 22314
(703) 224-5051

Buzz Bakery
901 Slaters Lane
Alexandria, VA 22314
(703) 600-BUZZ (2899)

Seasoning Cast Iron - So easy your mom can do it

Well, not your mom; she probably uses those '60's aluminum pans. But your Grandma could probably do it. There's a lot your grandma could do that you haven't asked about.

Cast iron is easy to maintain, easy to cook with, and dirt cheap. If you aren't using it it's probably because someone has fed you a line about seasoning it and made it sound hard. What a jerk. You should read this and then go hunt them down like an animal.

Seasoning:

1) To season a cast iron pan rub it down with vegetable oil then wipe up most of the oil. If you're feeling precious I'm sure you could find a reason to use $30/oz Koopaberry oil from the Upper-Goomba highlands. It really doesn't matter what you use. If you don't mind the smoke you can even use butter. (Editor: please note whether your exhaust fan works *before* attempting the aforementioned).

2) Put the pan into your oven at baking temperature ~350 and leave it in for half an hour to 45 minutes. Or an hour. It's not like your landlord's GE Electric stove is gonna melt it.

3-a) Turn off your oven. The pan is now 350 degrees Fahrenheit. You should reach in with both bare hands and pull it out.

3-b) Did you follow step 3a? Really? Hah! When you get back from the burn ward take all your pots and pans and expensive Williams-Sonoma gizmos and give them to the Salvation Army. At least you learned something about
yourself, right?

3-c) Leave the pan in the oven with the door closed until it has cooled down.

4) Rinse your pan, wipe it out, and start cooking.

Until you've got the heavy thick black coating, I'd suggest frying stuff. Bacon, falafel, long-pig, chicken. Once it's nice and thick you can cook pretty much whatever you like though tomatoes and acidy stews or soups seem to take the coating off pretty quick.

Care and maintenence:

It's cast iron. Seriously. People have been using this stuff for 1,500-2,500 years. If you have to stop and think about it, you're doing it wrong.

1) Don't wash it with soap. Use a scrubby sponge and hot water. If it's real crusty boil water in it then scrape at it with a wooden/plastic spatula.

2) If you've got time, before putting it away dry it off by heating it up. Then rub an oily paper towel on it.

3) Be as rough as you like. If you leave it in the sink for a month and it all goes to hell and rusts over just scrub the **** out of it with a scouring pad and some soap until it's clean. Then re-season.

Aluminum sucks, stainless steel sucks, Un-coated copper is bad for you, non-stick is bad for you, and all the copper core pans are ****ing expensive. Cast iron is safe, cheap, and easy to use. Just like your Grandma likes it.

Editor's note: once you start using cast iron and talking about seasoning you will get into fights with people in the opposite use-soap-to-wash/don't-use-soap-to-wash camp as yourself. The editor disagrees with the author on this very topic and feels that a small amount of detergent on a really cruddy pan will work wonderful de-glazing miracles.

Author's note: 2,000 years! Even that racist easily distracted great aunt can use this stuff. Why the over thinking?

This has been a guest blog by WRC, with editorial commentary by EJG.

Obsessively touring Frederick

I hear that some people read important memos at work. Perhaps they write emails or talk to coworkers. Not for me, these rituals of petty productivity! When I'm at work, I research up dining guides for small towns I hope to visit soon! Obsessively and compulsively!

Last month's excuse for unproductively was the following dining guide, complete with color coded maps and timing instructions. It was meant to represent a complete culinary tour of Frederick MD, but the individual it was created with had the gall to move to Tampa before I really had a chance to sink my teeth in (dining guide to Tampa, coming soon!). Rather than waste my many hours of chowhound research, here it is for open perusal. I created it as if coming from 495, up 270 and then over through Urbana. Yes, Obsessive and compulsive. I know.

+means an especially suggested pick

Bakeries
+ Hot Breads Bakery and Cafe - Tandoori chicken stuffed croissants - 70 Market St, Gaithersburg
+ Carriage House Bakery - Cakes - 9807 Kelly Rd, Mt. Pleasant
+ Classic bakery - Cookies, Pastries, and chocolates - 18503 North Frederick Avenue, Gaithersburg
+ Ed's Country Bakery - Kinklings, cupcakes - 4309 Cap Stine Rd
Deliciosa Bakery - Pastries - 1507 W Patrick St
+ The Stone Hearth Bakery -Breads, scones, and finger deserts 138 East St
+ Proof Artisan Bakery & Barista - Pastry and sandwiches -12 East Patrick St

Coffee
Beans & Bagels - Coffee and breakfast - 49 E Patrick St
+ Downtime Café - Coffee and vegetarian food - 23 E Patrick St
+ Frederick Coffee Company - Original coffee drinks - 100 East St FSK Kaffe - Coffee and baked goods - 31 W Patrick St
+ The Mudd Puddle Coffee Café - Coffee and paninis - 124 South Carroll Street
The Book Center - 1305 W. 7th Street
+ Market Street Café (shown above) - Coffee, ice cream, and deserts - 14 N. Market St.

Dessert
+ Candy Kitchen - Chocolate - 52 N Market St
+ Classic Cigars and British Goodies - British groceries - 153 N Market Street+ Frederick Fudge & Ice Cream Company - Ice cream soda counter and fudge - 253 East Church Street

Alcohol
+ Tasting room - Wine - 101 North Market Street
Berrywine Plantations/Linganore
Windham Winery
+ Isabella’s Taverna & Tapas Bar - Wine and tapas - 44 N Market Street
Tarara Winery
Brewer’s Alley Restaurant & Brewery - Beer - 124 North Market Street

Casual restaurants
+ Bill Watson's - Fried Chicken - 50 North McCain Drive
+ Lancaster Dutch market - Breakfast, bakery, cheese - 12613 Wisteria Drive Germantown
Frederick Farmers market - 797 E. Patrick Street Kountry Kitchen - Family food - 17 Water St Thurmont
+ Cafe Anglais - English food - 238 N Market St
+ Barbara Fritchie Candystick Restaurant - Diner food and deserts - 1513 West Patrick Street
Griff’s - Seafood - 43 S Market St
+ Wag’s - Burgers - 24 South Market Street
+ May’s Restaurant - Cream of crab soup and crab balls - 5640 Urbana Pike
+ Callahan’s - Crabcakes - 1808 Rosemont Ave
Luke's Pizza Company - Pizza - 6942 Crestwood Blvd., Crestwood Plaza
Mealey’s Restaurant - Family food - 8 Main Street, New Market,
Isabella’s Taverna & Tapas Bar - Wine and tapas - 44 N Market Street
Serenity Tearoom - Formal tea 119 E Patrick St
Roys place: Sandwiches -2 East Diamond, Gaithersburg
Famous Dave's Bar-B-Que - BBQ - 1003 W Patrick St
Market Bagel & Deli - Bagels - 36 Market St

And a couple extras thrown in for free, although they probably wouldn't be part of any consecutively staged meal:

Destination Restaurants
The Province Restaurant
Dutch's Daughter
+ Tasting room
+ Acacia
Tarousos
Zest
Tajitu

Markets:
Asian Super Market
La Chiquita Grocery
Common Market Food Co-op
McCutcheon Apple Products Inc

Blissfull eating

Zen, Vipassana Buddhism, silent and talking meditation, Jewish Renewal, Reform Jewish, Yoga, Hindu, generic New Age, and more... When it comes to spiritual retreat centers, I've been to them all.

And after several hours deep in the transcendent realms, it's amazing how much you start to focus on the one sensual pleasure that's offered up: Food. Here we are withdrawn from the temporal world contemplating the eternal verities, and we're all (at least I'm) going: mantra, mantra, pranayama,downward dog, inner bliss, I wonder what's for lunch?

Most retreat centers are austere places, often financially precarious. Your bed may be a thin mattress on a wooden slab, the plumbing uncertain. But while I'm ready to accommodate physical simplicity, or even outright difficulty, I need that one link to the life of the body and physical satisfaction to stay sane.

I was just a very basic Zen center in New Mexico. On the walls were the rules of retreat: hours for prayer and work, a rule of total silence. Rule # 11: Don't complain about the food to the Roshi. Like they completely know it gets to be an obsession on retreat. And I want to tell you, that center had fantastic food: amazing enchiladas, pasta with homemade pesto, elegant baked eggs and mushroom for breakfast, chocolate chip cookies for dinner. What's to complain about?

But last December I was on silent retreat between Christmas and New Year's at a place where the normal kitchen staff was on vacation. It was steamed greens and brown rice, breakfast, lunch and dinner, with some miso soup thrown in. I'm not kidding. Forget meditation, I was ready to throttle the cooks. We stopped at a convenience store to buy potato chips and sandwiches on the way to the airport. So you never know what you will encounter…although vegetarian is a given.

Here's my advice: bring several chocolate bars so you can be assured your taste buds will get a daily thrill, some salty snack (food is often undersalted tho soy sauce is usually available), and something substantial like a couple of dense power bars to give a sated feeling if the dreaded greens come around again. And if the going get rough, know that you can invariably count on terrific bread no matter what .

This is a guest blog by MHF! Thanks!

Cheerio! (Not the cereal.)

The one week a year that I get to leave the country (in order to spend my time eating somewhere else) turns out to be the weekend of the International D.C. Wine and Food Festival. To make up for this lack of good timing, I will now tell you about everything I ate in London. Keep in mind that whenever I wasn't eating, I was walking or climbling stairs, so it is possible that some of the deliciousness was not in the food, but in the sitting.

The cafe overlooking the reading room at the British Museum serves up a very good pot of tea, substantial scones with double cream and oozy raspberry jam, and finger sandwiches: cucumber and cream cheese, smoked salmon, and ham and mustard. It's not the Ritz, but if your tea budget is closer to $17 than $70 (what does the Ritz put in the tea? Unicorn milk?), then the British Museum is a just-prissy-enough alternative, with excellent service and a really bright, gorgeous setting under the glass ceiling.

The Cow, a Notting Hill-area gastropub beloved by Lonely Planet readers, was about to get a great review for its basic, high-quality food and messy pub charm when I realized that I hadn't actually eaten anything that was created there. I had Irish oysters with a shallot mignonette and a selection of British cheeses: something old (a smooth-tasting aged cheddar), something new (and sour and brie-like), something crumbly (sheep's milk rounds) and something bleu. They also served up a "chutney" of cooked apples with lavender honey, and oat crackers and bread. It was all very satisfying, but none of the wait staff could tell me what these cheeses were or seemed eager to go ask the chef. $44 is fairly expensive for pub food, but not for wine, oysters and fine cheeses.

And the winner of the Best Food I Ate In London Is.....a mystery! If you go to Piccadilly Circus and stand on the corner with the bar that was converted from a public restroom, there is a hotel catty-corner that does not actually have a sign up indicating that Indian food is served there. Go in a sketchy-looking door and up to the first floor: where an ugly linoleum room that smells of garam masala, which may or may not be called The Indian Palace. That is where I ate the richest, most intense lamb curry I've ever had, for about $12.

Jump start your tomorrow...tomorrow

Tomorrow (March 15th) between 10am and noon, Starbucks will be giving away free 12 ounce cups of coffee. Too good to be true? Don't believe me? Click here. :)

.

Midterms: Snack Within Reach

The thing you forget, when you’ve been out of school for a while, is how annoying exams can be: it’s not even that you don’t know the material or that it’s so difficult, it's just that they sneak up on you. And you worry about little things. Especially on take-homes, which seem like they ought to be easiest: even if the text sucks and you’ve skipped all semester so don’t have notes, Professor Google is available to rescue you. But the catch is (if you’re a bit OCD like me), that you spend a million years making sure every answer is perfect.

What’s this got to do with food, you ask? Well, studying brains need fuel, of course! And what with time constraints and general student poverty, studying brains need a certain kind of food: fast, cheap, and (preferably) healthy!

While working on a particularly unsavory take-home midterm (not a hard one at all – so easy and pointless, in fact, that it took Herculean effort to muster the will to do it), I decided I needed a slightly tastier lunch than the habitual bowl of Cheerios. I had a craving for my Haitian-not-grandmother’s red beans and rice, but she lives in DC and my time was short; real cooking was out of the question.

Surveying my kitchen for a suitable substitute, I found the following:

Leftover saffron rice;
Half of a Vidalia onion;
A can of red kidney beans (unsweetened);
Olive oil;
Hot sauce (I used Walkerswood Jonkanoo – another might be better for the less masochistic chef) ;
Garlic salt;
Turmeric.

And, of course, the lazy chef’s ultimate hero: a microwave.

I took a bunch of the rice, added about half the can of beans, and nuked that in a bowl for 2 minutes to get everything nice and warm (not very hot, though that’s up to you). Then, I chopped onion until I had about 2 handfuls worth. I added that, a couple tablespoons of olive oil, and a tablespoon or so of hot sauce to the rice and bean bowl.

I stirred, added garlic salt and black pepper till it seemed right, a bit of turmeric, and ate it.

I was soon much happier, and managed to finish that evil bloody midterm.

Shut Up and Bring Me Some Pie! - A Rant by the Five Paragraph Bitter Food Critic

This weekend marked the 34th anniversary of my expulsion from my mother's womb. Friday and Saturday night were set aside for my friends; Sunday was reserved for my mom and uncle, neither one of whom can do shots like my buddy Jeff at the Science Club. My family took me to an anonymous suburban chain restaurant. No sooner did we enter when all the servers gathered together, began clapping semi-rhythmically, and sang their restaurants' version of "Happy Birthday" to a large group gathered for a child's birthday. I shuddered in the same way that I shuddered when I watched the movie Saw - I knew it was fake, but I was scared anyway. My uncle, never an example of tact, tells our server at the anonymous suburban chain restaurant that it was my birthday, and asked what treat I'd get. The young lady, barely college-aged, went into some script I'm sure all the servers there had to memorize, asking me "So, how old are you on your big birthday, big guy?"

Lady, I'm 34 frickin' years old. I've been able to drink legally for since you were in kindergarten. My insurance rates don't get any lower, and I've been able to rent a car without a parent's signature for nearly a decade. My next "big birthday" doesn't come for another 21 years when I'll be able to get cheaper coffee at participating McDonald's.

I hate that fake birthday singing in restaurants. I was in kindergarten when the old Farrell's ice cream parlor in Tyson's Corner had a bunch of singing servers, fireworks, a possessed player-piano and circus sound effects go all Britney Spears-crazy for kids' birthdays. I watched a poor little 3 year-old soil her new dress in fright and embarrassment on her birthday. I felt so bad for that little girl, and while I knew nothing of post-traumatic stress syndrome at the time, I knew a girl who'd need therapy when I saw one. Therefore, on my list of Top Three Annoyances in Restaurants, it ranks up there with Nextel phones going off and screaming, sugared-out kids with no parental supervision. For the record, "food poisoning" and "bad food" would be #4 and #5, respectively. I can understand why Chuck E. Cheese does it, and talented singing is part of Mimi's in DuPont's charm. But when I was a server, bartender and ultimately manager, my one consistent question during job interviews was "is this a restaurant that sings for birthdays?" If so, I moved on. A free dessert or a small discount is one thing; making a public spectacle and whittling down my dignity is quite another.

Is it just me? Do people actually go to anonymous suburban chain restaurants specifically for the birthday singing? What are they thinking? "Nothing reasserts my status in the universe than having a motley group comprised of 19 year-old single moms too naive to use birth control, 21-year-old college students worried about midterms, jailbait hostesses wearing slutty dresses that'd make Lil' Kim blush and table bussers who aren't 100% sure of the song or the language, sing a corporate version of 'Happy Birthday' that really doesn't sound like the real song and includes more hand-clapping and some sort of embedded advertisement to me in an anonymous suburban chain restaurant decorated to resemble either a yard sale gone mad or a Gulf Coast beach because I'm too lazy to actually travel to a real yard sale gone mad or a Gulf Coast beach and receiving a complimentary calorie-laden dessert?" It's about the best I can come up with...unless these are the same people who delight in camping out for tickets for the inevitable "American Idol All-Stars" tour because they really felt their phone calls made a difference whether or not that plucky young hillbilly from Kinhump, Tennessee, with the 36D's and the 36 IQ got propelled into the Top 8.

By appealing to her logic - spending time singing that song to me wastes valuable minutes better spent at other higher-maintenance tables and thereby increasing whatever tips the generally-weaker-tipping-Sunday afternoon crowd offers - I was able to ward off her underpaid cult of clappers. And, given the mega-portions of food the anonymous chain restaurant served, there was no need for the complimentary calorie-laden dessert. Truthfully, I think she enjoyed not singing almost as much as I did. I know it was only one restaurant on one day, a small victory, but a victory nonetheless for those of us who like to dine in relative peace and anonymity.

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Normally I assign Whammy! points in this space, but the anonymous suburban chain restaurant is exactly what it is, the food is exactly what can be found at any other anonymous suburban chain restaurant, and the food tasted exactly what you'd expect from an anonymous suburban chain restaurant. No Whammy! was earned; no Whammy! will be given.
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Dining Out for Life

This Thursday, March 8th, is Food and Friend's Dining Out for Life night. Food & Friends provides no-cost home-delivered meals and groceries to local residents living with HIV/AIDS, cancer, and other illnesses.

Participating restaurants will contribute between 25% and 100% of their sales for the evening to Food and Friends.

This is a fantastic opportunity to eat out at some fantastic restaurants and give back to the local community at the same time. There are about 150 participating restaurants (we can't link to the full list, but you can find it by clicking Participating Restaurants on the site here.)

And you don't have to spend a lot to help out. While some of DC's pricier restaurants are on the list, local inexpensive favorites like Teaism, Thaiphoon, and Hard Times Cafe are participating, too.

If you're looking for a place, consider checking out some of the standard DCFUD favorites:

• Black's Bar and Kitchen
• Corduroy
• Hank's Oyster Bar
• Perry's
• Pizzeria Paradiso
• Sushi Ko
• Tabard Inn
• Teaism
• Tonic Restaurant & Bar

Gooood Doggy

If you go by M'Dawg (Haute Dogs) in Adams Morgan, you might see a shaggy brown dog tied outside. That's my dog, Otter, and he'll be spending a lot of time outside the new gourmet hot dog place in the near future, because I'll sure be spending a lot of time in it.

The much-anticipated eatery is as relaxed and fun as you'd expect the sister restaurant to Amsterdam Falafel to be, with a short but varied menu that includes a garlic sausage, a corn dog, an andouille, a beef dog wrapped in bacon, and the classic DC half-smoke, among others. Most of the menu is in the $4-7 range (with the exception being the Kobe: a $20 kobe beef dog), and you can get them "downtown" style with ketchups and schmancy mustards, or "uptown" with a wide range of unexpected toppings for a buck more. Don't count on getting dinner for $4-7, though, as with most hot dogs, one is not enough.

I highly recommend the "Glove" (the aforementioned beef dog wrapped in bacon) with apricot chutney and fresh tomatoes, and the half-smoke with bacon crumbles, bleu cheese, and onions. Less impressive was the "Brokeback" corndog, which despite its excellent name is just an ordinary corndog. It's fine, but does not live up to its hot dog brethren. I also have to say, I do not understand the mad love people have for the french fries, the same as at Amsterdam Falafel.

At least three more trips are necessary before I can say with confidence that I have tried all the best hot dogs that DC has to offer, so my real dog will get to go on a lot of walks down to M'Dawg in the next few weeks. If you see him, say hi--he's friendly, and don't worry if he seems sad. He's just whining because he wants a half-smoke.