Foodgeek Episode Three

Speaking of teevee and celebrities: DCFüd's roving food critic Jason has been ... roving around Arlington, as is his habit, and is again caught on film. The Foodgeek continues his quest to learn and share everything about the food scene in those suburban tracts, he visited the Santa Fe Cafe and talked with its owner Kip Laramie.

For those with no access to Channel 25 in Arlington (I mean, really what are you, a barbarian?!), you can watch it here.

So You Wanna Be A Food Celebrity?

Here's your chance! The Food Network is holding auditions for the 5th season of its show, "The Next Food Network Star," on Friday, Oct. 3rd at the International Culinary School at The
Art Institute of Washington. They say they won't know who they're looking for until they see them, and you could be just perfect! They would, however, like you to have:

· Cooking Know-How: You can be self-taught or professionally trained or somewhere in between, BUT YOU MUST HAVE FOOD KNOWLEDGE!!

· Personality that Pops: Do people often tell you that you have the charisma and personality to have your own cooking show?

· Teaching Skills: Do you teach at culinary school or maybe a cooking class and want to bring those teaching skills to the next level? Do you have a clear point of view on food and want to teach America about it?

If you do (or even if you can just pretend like it really well), you might win! They'll be doing call-backs the next day. Here's the application:NFNS-Season5-application.pdf

Friday, October 3rd, 2008- 10am-3pm
The International Culinary School at The Art Institute of Washington
1820 North Fort Myer Drive,
Arlington, VA 22209
For more information, e-mail NFNS5DC *at* yahoo *d0t* c0m.
For more information, consult their web site.

Balsamic Peaches

I live in Georgia. The obvious choice then, when searching for interesting things to pickle, was a peach. Adding balsamic vinegar, Vidalia onions, and Serrano peppers to my frenzied preservationism, I came up with a very tasty end-of-summer treat.

Ingredients:

- 1 not-quite-ripe peach
- 1/2 Vidalia onion
- 1/2 Serrano pepper, diced
- Balsamic vinegar
- Kosher Salt
- Sugar

I sliced peach into strips, roughly chopped the onion and diced the pepper, putting them all in a glass bowl. I then heated enough balsamic to cover that, dissolving in salt and sugar (you have to do this to your own taste). Don't let the vinegar boil - just heat it enough to get the salt and sugar dissolved! Pour it over the produce, and seal with plastic wrap. Refrigerate it for two or three days to pickle.

Now, this is delicious already - sweet and sharp and perfect in a salad - but I wanted to go farther. This pickle was going to get post-processing!

I took out the peaches, and about half of the liquid (not the onions or peppers!) and put them in a small saucepan over medium heat. Once the liquid came to a boil, I lowered the heat and let it reduce (this takes a looooong time) until it became nice and syrupy, coating the now soft peach slices.

I poured all of this over vanilla ice cream, and it was totally bloody awesome. I used the remaining peach-infused vinegar as salad dressing for a while, which was also pretty darn good.