On Fark today, ‘Good Eats’ host Alton Brown gets a new look.
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11Feb
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10Feb
Inspired by this pho article, someone asked: Why doesn’t the United States have a national dish? Mexico has their burritos, the British have beef wellington (or spoted dick, depending on how snarky an answer you want,) the French their cassoulet.
The early contenders are easy to deal with. Sure, the saying goes “nothing’s more American than apple pie.” But then, oh, there’s the cherry pie lobby trying to get their vote in. And what about corn? Can a vegetable take the title? Frankly, all these are too divisive to carry the mandate.
Let’s move on to the heavyweights. Like baseball, hot dogs are stereotypically American. Even Upton Sinclair can’t argue that. A certain fast-food clown would rather the whole world associated our fine nation with hamburgers, instead. But really, shouldn’t we have, well, a slightly fancier national dish? Something we can dress up a little? When the ambassador from Luxembourg comes over for a formal state dinner, I think it’d be a little embarrassing to have ketchup and mustard next to the fine silverware. I don’t care how many stars your restaurant has, there’s only so far you can go with either the hamburger or the hot dog.
So what’s left? Can’t we come together and choose a single national dish for all?
Me, I’m rooting for the Twinkie.
-pmmj, Guest Blogger -
09Feb
I usually avoid the gayborhood opting instead for slightly … uhm … less tacky locales. Like this one. But regardless, tonight I braved the walk down 17th Street – fully adorned in Mardi Gras beads and screaming underage boys who spell it with an i and clearly need to eat more – to have dinner at Peppers.
Peppers has been around for as long as I can remember, and used to have one of the best brunches in town, though the quality has been less reliable in recent years. Our waitress came to take drink orders, but first she commented that I look like Colin Farrell. Now, I’ve never heard this before, and I’m a bit hurt she didn’t at least add “a much younger” before the name.
Tonight’s meal (Ancho and Veggie Quesadillas, with a Stoli Vanil and soda) was good. The quesadilla came well stuffed with cheese and lovely roasted veggies, and a side of jicama slaw (which is bloody good!) and some rather bland pico de gallo. The drinks were strong, and to be honest, that’s what I was after.
Not fine dining, but a good place to people watch. And waitresses who know how to get good tips (especially since the service was fairly good even disregarding the compliments)!
Peppers
1527 17th St Nw
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02Feb
To fast food critics, I say: there’s a time and a place for fast food. That is, when I’m hungry, in my stomach. But even without this highly-ambitious criteria it would be nice to think that we’re in the middle of a fast food renaissance.
Imagine a world where ‘fast food’ becomes synonymous with food that’s better when cooked fresh and fast. Burritos, crepes, pizzas, salads, sushi, all of these are at their apex when tossed together last minute. Bad fast food is the result when freeze-drying and preservatives must be used to force “quickness” on non-intuitive foods. When the last time you saw a roast chicken put together on a moments notice? No? then it shouldn -
21Jan
I’d like to take a moment for the really odd strings that readers enter into search engines to get here. Just from this last day or two, a couple of my favorites:- Is soho a train
- Fire Marshall Bill
- babies cooked in china
- girls in white shirts
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20Jan
Well, I finally got to meet “Good Eats” host Alton Brown, and boy, did I make an impression on him! The man finds me -
19Jan
Each of the Food Network hosts attracts a certain type of fan. There are the housewives who think Tyler Florence is hot, the couples who find Emeril’s “Bam!”s and “Another Notch!”es zany and enthusiastic rather than phoned-in and phony. And there are those who can manage to get past Rachel Ray’s saccharine and excessive use of the term “E.V.O.O.” to enjoy her quick-and-easy recipes.
“Good Eats” host Alton Brown doesn’t attract fans. He attracts disciples.
You know the type: they tape his episodes and have the remote control at the ready as they prepare their turkey on Thanksgiving, ready to pause as Alton guides them on temperature, amount of time and amount of thyme. They ONLY use kosher salt when cooking, and proudly display theirs in an Alton-inspired vessel. When their kid is suffering from a fever, their digital meat probe’s probably more at the ready than a normal thermometer.
Those disciples -
18Jan
Here’s a recipe for the folks over at the Food network: Take one awesome show. With a fine sieve, extract everything that made it at all fun. Serve with cheese.
I know it -
14Jan
Apparently, Iron Chef America will have Roberto Donna from DC’s Galileo on it this season, so sayith the NYtimes and they are never wrong. About anything. ever.
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13Jan
Apparently, last Wednesday was De-Lurking Day — at least so according to the food-loving DCFoodies.com. Since over here at DCFUD we’re always a bit behind schedule, we’re declaring today and tomorrow DCFUD de-lurking days.
We know you’re out there. We can read server logs. We see you floating in from various government agencies, reputable (and not so reputable) publications, and corporations and non-profit organizations whose acronyms we can’t even begin to decipher.
We’re not asking you to unmask your identity. But we are flesh and blood and we, too, crave love. So if you’ve been enjoying DCFUD the last few months, have been hating DCFUD the last few months, or just stumbled upon us today, please leave us a note in the comments. Let us know your favorite restaurant in the D.C. metropolitan area, offer suggestions on spices, or simply say “Hi, DCFUDders!” But please let us know you’re out there!
On a related note, DCFUD needs some new writers. We’ll probably post more on this in the coming days, but if you like what you’ve seen here and want to contrinbute, send an email to dcfud.writers@gmail.com with an example or two of writing you’ve done (nothing formal necessary) and/or some topics you’d like to post on. This is, of course, unpaid. But it gives you a good excuse to eat out and try new recipies. Plus, you can claim you’re a blogger within the great Smorgasblog family of bloggers. It’s a great way to pickup guys or girls at your local hipster party. Really. I swear.
