• 23May

    Pressed Opens in Logan Circle for Your Cold-Pressed Juice and Plant-Based Treats Needs!

    Pressed opened across the Street from the P Street Whole Foods a couple of weeks ago. I checked it out last week, trying all four of the frozen treat flavors. I enjoyed the Dragon Fruit, Acai, and Golden Rosé flavors, but was not a fan of the Vanilla. The Acai bowl was flavorful, and included granola and good quality fresh fruit. I tried one shot (refresh, which is a tastier alternative to apple cider vinegar), two juices (Citrus 2, and Strawberry Basil Lemonade), one Acai Bowl, and some great and addictive chewie organic tropical mango candy from Candy Kittens. I liked that the two juices were not very sweet, which highlighted their flavors. All three employees (including Asha, the Manager) were personable and helpful.

    Pressed is definitely a nice addition to the area, and it is great that it has outdoor seating. Georgetown and Mosaic District locations are coming soon.

    -JAY

      Disclosure: From time to time, we are given free items, meals, or entry to events. Our words are still our own.

      Permalink Filed under: Drinks, Stores Tags: , , , , , , 2 Comments
    • 19Mar

      Bargain Hunter’s Guide to Dining and Drinking in Dupont

      From Rakuya’s HH last Fall.

      This topic reminds me of my recurring column from many years ago about eating in Arlington when nearly broke. Here are some Dupont Circle specials:

      Dawson’s Market free beer tastings on Thursdays (City State are DC Brau are the next two events). Photos of some previous tastings and their event calendar were covered in a previous article. They also have one Friday wine tasting a month at the DuPont location.

      Ala has an online discount code for online orders, “ALA30” and they also have a 25% off (entire menu, food and drinks) HH Mon-Friday 2-5pm. Keep in mind that they are a bit pricy to start with, and are also on the Too Good To Go app (café stuff).

      Duffy’s Irish pub (which opened on P Street during the pandemic) has dine in 1/2 price burgers Mondays with the purchase of a beverage all night and dine in all day/night 1/2 price wings Wednesdays with purchase of a beverage. Every Thursday from 4pm-7pm kids eat free from the kids menu with the purchase of an adult entrée and drink.

      Rakuya has Happy Hour (HH) food and drink specials including $3 shishito peppers or edamame, $5 yakitori, $5.50 gyoza, green beans tempura, shumai, crunchy spice salmon rolls, or spicy tuna rolls. They also have $4-8 beer, $7 glasses of wine, and a few $8-9 cocktails on HH.

      Firehook Bakery has Buy One Get One pastries M-F 5-6pm, but not cookies, or cupcakes; it’s items like scones and cinnamon rolls.

      Across the Pond has a special on Mondays 4-8pm: $6 hamburger and fries ($1 additional per topping).

      The Admiral HH features 3 cheeseburger siders for $10.

      Specials from our neighbors:

      Chef Geoff’s West end (a few blocks from DuPont) has a number of food on their HH menu like $4 mahi tacos, $6 white truffle popcorn, $12 pasta Bolognese, $5 off of burgers, etc. And, a few $8 cocktails and $10 supermug drafts.

      Ted’s Bulletin in Logan Circle during their HH Monday – Friday 3 PM – 6:30 PM has $3 drafts, $5 wines, $7 cocktails, and food specials like $6 fried pickles, $6 French onion dip with truffle potato chips, and $7 chicken parm sliders, $7 bacon cheeseburger empanadas, or Rueben tacos.

      -JAY

      Permalink Filed under: Drinks, Events, Kids, Restaurants, Stores, Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment
    • 14Dec

      Fighting Food Waste in DC One Mystery Bag at a Time

      Restaurants, bakeries, and grocery stores often have food left over at the end of the day that could go to waste. The Too Good To Go app is a marketplace where you can purchase food from business at the end of their day (or meal service). The items in these bags/boxes can be pretty random, even if you pick up two boxes at the same location (or on different days).

      • Ala
      • Le Pain Quotidien

      The food is usually already packaged as a mystery bag (or box) when you pick it up during the specified timeframe, but there were some exceptions. I didn’t mind waiting a few minutes if a place put a bag together while I waited.

      • Rose Ave Bakery
      • Taim Falafel

      Purchasing these deals can be competitive, with new mystery bags/boxes usually hitting the website 15 minutes after the current day’s pickup range ends. As an example, The Cakeroom‘s pickup range is 8pm to 9pm, which means that at 9:15pm on Tuesday, the mystery bags/boxes to be picked up Wednesday will populate on the app. There are exceptions such as Rose Ave Bakery that sometimes drop mystery bags/boxes on the app for same day pickup.

      • Zenebech
      • The Cakeroom

      Below are mystery bags/boxes I tried:

      Ala ($3.99) in Dupont Circle has two pickups with different types of items, afternoon and evening (and I tried both). The above image is from the afternoon timeslot, and contained a Halva Croissant, Apple Tea (loose chopped dehydrated apples), an herbal teabag, Meringues, one Thumbprint Cookie, and Crunchy Chickpeas (dried).

      Le Pain Quotidien ($4.99) gave me 3 pastries: a Cheese Danish, an Apple Turnover, and a Pan Aux Raisins. PDQ is much more readily available on the app than other baked goods options and has multiple locations (Dupont, 17th Street, Penn Quarter) you can choose from.

      Rose Ave Bakery ($3.99) downtown offers fun Asian American-themed pastries. It is located at The Block DC food hall with Pogiboy, which is also on the Too Good To Go app. My Rose Ave mystery box contained green pastries: two Matcha White Chocolate Donuts, a Pandan Donut (green filling), and a Matcha Chocolate Cookie.

      Taim Falafel‘s ($3.99) mystery bag included a Falafel Bowl and Tractor Beverage Company‘s Mandarin Cardamom. Their Georgetown and Dupont Circle Locations are both on the Too Good To Go app.

      Zenebech ($4.99) is an Ethiopian restaurant in Adam’s Morgan. When I checked in, they put together a Vegetarian Combo for me with injera (spongy flat bread made from teff). I was lucky enough to score bags from both Zenebech and The Cakeroom to be picked up on the same evening, which was nice, because they are on the same street a few blocks from each other.

      The Cakeroom ($5.99) put together a bag of mostly chocolate flavored items. There was a slice of Cherry Cheesecake, two slices of Chocolate Vanilla Cake, and two Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes.

      I recommend Too Good To Go in DC (it’s in other cities too) but you need to be open to receiving really random items, especially at Ala. If you get something you can’t eat, share it with a friend. Too Good To Go is definitely a good value, since most of the mystery bags I received were worth 3 to 4 times what I paid.

      -JAY

      Permalink Filed under: Drinks, Etc, Ingredients, Products, Restaurants, Stores Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment
    • 14Nov

      This is Where to Shop for Asian Groceries in Logan Circle!

      There’s a great relatively new Asian Market in the basement of Rice restaurant in Logan Circle about a block from the P Street Whole Foods. The people working in the market are friendly and helpful.

      I often see interesting produce like makrut limes, key limes, holy basil (tulsi), yuzu, Thai Basil, and Thai bird chilies in the market. They carry a variety of prepared foods (from the restaurant upstairs), dry goods including green, red, and black rice, and various types of noodles, condiments, and sauces. The selection is a bit random, with a different option for fish sauce being available on each of my visits. They have groceries from various countries in Asia including Thailand, Korea, China, and Indonesia. It’s a “go and see what they have today” kind of a shop.

      -JAY

      Permalink Filed under: Ingredients, Products, Stores Tags: , , , , , , No Comments
    • 13Nov

      I Won a Local Products Giveaway from Washington City Paper & The Rounds

      The Rounds sponsored a giveaway though Washington City Paper (and I won). It was random that a food blogger won, but I figured it would be nice to give back with a little publicity.

      • S’mores Pop-tart from Ted’s Bulletin
      • Everything Bagel from Bethesda Bagel
      • Bread from Seylou Bakery
      • Texas Sheet Cake Ice Cream from Jeni’s

      Some wonderful local products/companies that The Rounds carries were featured — you can see the list in one of the above images. They even included a  Wick & Paper scented candle, and gift cards from Jeni’s Ice Cream and Le Diplomate. For the record, the Baked & Wired Carrot Cake Cupcake was the first thing I ate. 🙂

      Thank you The Rounds and Washington City Paper for this wonderful gift package.

      -JAY

      Permalink Filed under: Contests, Drinks, Products, Restaurants, Stores Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , No Comments
    • 12Nov

      Tastings are Happening in Dupont and Rockville at Dawson’s Market!

      Glen’s Garden Market in Dupont Circle recently became Dawson’s Market. The store seems mostly the same, which is nice. I know that a lot of businesses haven’t gotten back to doing tastings, but Dawson’s is an exception.

      Every Thursday, Dawson’s has a different brewery pour samples 5pm-7pm during a weekly cookout, but lately other tastings have been happening as well. Today, both the Dupont Circle and Rockville locations had a wine and cheese tasting (see the Siema Wines photo above for Dupont Circle), and this weekend there will be tastings from Dawson’s Thanksgiving Menu. In Rockville the Thanksgiving menu tasting will be on Saturday, November 13th 12pm-3pm, and in Dupont, it will be on Sunday, November 14th 12pm-3pm.

      Dawson’s has an online event calendar.

      -JAY

      Permalink Filed under: Drinks, Etc, Products, Stores Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , 2 Comments
    • 14Nov

      Products we can’t get enough of …

      We’ve written about Dizzy Pig‘s spice rubs many times, and cook with Peruvian-ish and Raging River often. But, now I’ve tried Mad Max Turkey, and since it is just around for the holiday season, it’s a good time to mention it. This spice rub contains herbs (including sage) and garlic, and is designed for turkey, stuffing and gravy. Oh, and try Mediterranean-ish in pasta sauce, pizza, or garlic bread! Chris really knows how to design spice rubs, which is one reason his professional grilling team has won so many awards.

      Bluefish Fillet with Onions and Raw Spice Bar’s Creole Seasoning.

      Also, I’ve been experimenting with Raw Spice Bar‘s Products. We are very impressed with the quality of their spices. We enjoyed the Creole Seasoning, Jamaican Jerk, Ras-El-Hanout, and Malaysian Curry. Ok, we were split on the last one, but personally, I liked it. The Creole Seasoning was great on bluefish fillets (which was impressive), the Ras-El-Hanout (a Middle Eastern spice mix) worked well on both cauliflower and turkey burgers, the Malaysian Curry created a star out of chicken thighs, and Jamaican Jerk flavored chicken drumsticks wonderfully. We haven’t had a chance to try the Turkish Cured Sumac (since we are waiting till we make rice or buy some hummus) yet but it smells great.

      We recently sampled a variety of Pacari‘s organic Ecuadorian chocolate. We loved the Manabi, Raw Chocolate, and the Nibs. We also are fans of the Andean Mint (which is not in the image to the right) and Passion Fruit. This is high quality organic chocolate, and they have raw options as well. We aren’t fans of the Chocolate Covered Golden Berries, but if they have any other chocolate covered fruit, we’d love to try it. Oh, we want to try the variety with cardamom, but they were out of it when we placed an order. Pacari is my pick for holiday gifts this year.

      -JAY

      Permalink Filed under: Home Cooking, Ingredients, Products, Stores No Comments
    • 12Aug

      Spice Rubs, Chilean Wine, and Vegan Candy Bars

      It’s time for another Product Roundup!

      First up is Dizzy Pig. We’ve been fans of (and writing about) competitive griller and BBQ supply store owner, Chris Capell’s spice rubs for years, and he keeps coming up with new varieties. We recently visited his new Manassas location, snacked on Tsunami Spin-rubbed chicken and duck, and Pineapple-rubbed bacon, and came home with some of his seasonings.

      We came home with newer blends, Peruvian-ish, Crossroads, and Peking, and traditional blends, Shaking The Tree and Pineapple Head. Shaking The Tree (lemon pepper) was wonderful with roasted potatoes and garlic. We tried Crossroads on burgers; it competes pretty closely with their best seller, Dizzy Dust, for BBQ flavor, although Chris recommends the latter for larger cuts of meat. Peking, we haven’t gotten to yet, although we will try it next time we cook skin-on chicken such as wings or thighs.

      So, what about Peruvian-ish? WE LOVE IT! Seriously! It has that Peruvian flavor you can only get with aji amarillo. We tried Peruvian-ish, on a mixture of roasted onions, orange bell peppers, and yellow squash, and on both beef and turkey burgers, and it worked wonderfully. Flavor of the Andes indeed! This is the first rub since Raging River (our favorite) that seems to go equally well with a huge variety of proteins and vegetables. And, both are very different flavor profiles, so they don’t compete. Now, we have to try some of these Peruvian-ish recipes!

      We recently got to try several Chilean red wines from the 10,000 acre holistic vineyard, VIK: the VIK 2012, Milla Cala 2013, and La Piu Belle 2011. All are red blends around 14% alcohol, and delicious. They are great paired with grilled or roasted meat, which explains why Fogo De Chao featured them at a recent media event. You can’t go wrong with a forkful of picanha in one hand and a glass of a great red in the other. I will admit that I (as planned) ate a plateful of their pork ribs, which did not disappoint.

      Fogo is the first U.S. restaurant brand to be pouring VIK Chilean wines. Fogo is offering two of the three VIK varietals in all of their Fogo restaurants nationwide – Milla Cala (Red Blend, Millahue Valley, Chile, 2013) and VIK (Red Blend, First Growth from Chile, 2013). Pricing varies by market, but those listed below are for the D.C. region:

      • Milla Cala: $13 (3 oz. glass); $25 (6 oz. glass); $93 (bottle)
      • VIK: $22 (3 oz. glass); $42 (6 oz. glass); $164 (bottle)

      I recommend getting on Fogo’s email list, since they will send you promotions. They recently emailed us about their $39 per person restaurant month (August) promotion, and you need to show up with a copy of their message to get the special.

      Nelly’s Organics (based in California) produces exceptional vegan candy bars. Picture the popular but not very healthy candy bars of your youth (Milky Way, Snickers, Mounds, etc.), but organic and dairy (animal product) free. They need to be kept refrigerated and are carried locally at Mom’s Organic Market (for $3 each and are well worth it). We sampled the following varieties (multiple times): Coconut, Nutty Nougat, Peanut Butter & Coconut, Caramel Nougat, German Chocolate, and Double Chocolate. We haven’t come across the Vegan Salted Caramels, but will make sure to try them if we do. Our favorites are the Nutty Nougat, Peanut Butter & Coconut, and Caramel Nougat. We grab a couple whenever we are at Mom’s.

      How did Carla (the Founder) get started in the candy bar business? She started making the vegan candy bars when her kids were little. She was just trying to copy the candy bars her kids liked and wanted a cleaner, healthier option. She never really intended to start a business, but once her friends and family tasted her creations, the requests kept on coming. Eventually she realized there might be a market for her candy bars, and we are glad she did.

      -JAY

      Permalink Filed under: Drinks, Home Cooking, Products, Stores 1 Comment
    • 30Jun

      A Gluten-Free Bakery to Stop at in a Picturesque Maryland Town

       

      Gluten-Free Bakery Girl has recently opened in St. Michaels, MD, a town (and tourist attraction) of 1.25 square miles. I’ve known Patricia King (the Owner/Baker) for several years, so when she asked if I’d like her to ship me some gluten-free baked goods, I immediately said yes. I’ve even sampled baked goods in the past from her previous bakery in Easton, MD.

      We sampled the Dark Chocolate Buckeye Brownie, Dark Chocolate Brownie, Bakewell Tart, Lemon Bar, and Chocolate Chip Cookie. Some of these items are vegan and some not, but all are gluten-free.

      The Buckeye Brownie, a dark chocolate and peanut butter combination was our favorite! The regular brownie was fine but we preferred the flavor and texture of the Buckeye. The Bakewell Tart was very good, and includes raspberry jam, ground almonds, flaked almonds, icing, and a buttery shortbread crust; this tart is a version of a classic UK dessert from Bakewell, England. We liked the flavor/quality of the chocolate chips Chocolate Chip Cookie. Although I generally love lemon bars, we had a hard time with the flavor and texture, bit did have an end piece that may have been over caramelized.

      -JAY

      Permalink Filed under: Products, Stores No Comments
    • 05Aug

      Sugar Factory Cooks From Scratch, Sweet!

      Sugar Factory Rainbow Sliders

      We recently attended the recent pre-grand opening of Pentagon City Mall’s Sugar Factory American Brasserie. Sugar Factory started as a candy store, and grew into a group of restaurants with locations in Las Vegas, New York, Miami, Orlando, Chicago, Dubai, Philippines, etc. They have both restaurants concepts (such as Pentagon City) and small retail stores/cafes (such as  Bahrain, Hollywood, and the newly opened Union Station in Washington, DC. The restaurants include small candy stores (and house-made ice cream).

      Let’s start with the drinks. There is definitely a sweet theme here, with many of the milkshakes and bubbling goblet (group-sized, 60 ounce) cocktails being garnished with candy. The 3 neon colored (individual-sized) martinis we tried tasted like Jolly Ranchers in the best possible way, with the Lemon-Head being our favorite. If you don’t enjoy very sweet drinks, you may want to skip alcohol for the evening. There is no beer or wine menu at this location.

      Milkshakes

      All of the food including sauces like Buffalo, BBQ, and mustard, and even the turkey in the turkey club are made from scratch. This is something that more restaurants should do because it is more cost effective, but also results in fresher, more flavorful food. The dishes we tried were good versions of classic American food that we grew up on.  The salmon was the one dish that was fancy restaurant fare instead of a good version of a classic diner or pub dish. We tried one brunch dish, the well-prepared  chicken and waffles. The only component of any of the dishes we tried that needs work is the asparagus that came with the salmon, which should be an easy fix.

      This is a good restaurant for groups, besides the goblet cocktails. There were even 5 or 6 birthday parties for children (all girls) going on the evening we were present. Sugar factory even has a 24 scoop King Kong Sundae for groups to share.

      We are looking forward to returning to Sugar Factory, possibly for brunch. Feel free to take a look at the drinks and food (including brunch) on their huge online menu.

      -JAY

      Permalink Filed under: Events, Restaurants, Stores No Comments
    « Previous Page

    Categories

    Archives

    Pages

    Blogroll