Such precious first memories: the first class of 7th grade, the first guy you turned down, the first time you heard the White Stripes. If you’re young enough, they may have all happened within the same hour. And yet, all these pale in comparison to the first time you drink Roasted Rice Tea.
Ooooh that toasty nuttiness. That sweet starchiness. That warm, brown aroma of chestnuts and smoke. It’s possible that this is the most perfect of liquids.
But first, the evidence. The Japanese word Genmaicha technically translates as Popcorn Tea and I don’t know why. It’s definitely made out of green tea (bancha) combined with roasted rice grains (genmai) …maybe they were being poetic? It’s lower in caffeine, and of course, it tastes awesome.
I get mine at Oriental Supermarket on the Rockville Pike where they have a four or five different brands. As I type, I am sucking down Yamamotoyama‘s lovely version, but all of them are delectable.
But for those of you unwilling to spend the $1.75 for a box, here’s what to do:
Roasted rice green tea
Put 2 tablespoons of basmati rice in a small, cast-iron skillet and set over a low flame. Stir them until they turn patchy-dark and give out a nice roasted aroma. Don’t burn ’em no matter how cool that would be!
Put the kernels into a small pot. Add 4 cups boiling water and two teaspoons of good quality green tea- two teabags work too. Simmer for 1 minute. Cover, and turn off the heat. Let the tea steep for 3 minutes, then scoop the liquid off. Or strain- whatever floats your thing.
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30Aug
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02Aug
Ok, I’ll admit it. My standard response to anyone recommending Cakelove for anything other than an eclair is “have you tried Natalia’s Elegant Creations?” And yes, I know…some of you like the Cakelove cupcakes. Well, maybe those of you that haven’t – as I have – been spoiled by NYC cupcakes from places like Magnolia and Buttercup. I haven’t tried Natalia’s cupcakes yet, but if they are the same quality as her cakes, they should be quite good.
Natalia does not have a storefront, but her cakes, bars, cookies, and cupcakes are available at Dean & DeLuca in Georgetown. She can be reached through her website, or phoned at (571) 239-0256.
I was lucky enough to try Natalia’s desserts last summer, when she was selling at the Clarendon Farmer’s Market…until a positive article about her – made from scratch, European-style – baked goods appeared in the Washington Post food section. At that point, she was just too busy to shlep to farmer’s markets.
You can order directly from Natalia, and have her deliver to you for a fee, which is $7 for Arlington and Falls Church, and $7-12 for DC, and Fairfax and Montgomery counties. By ordering direct, you can request custom orders, and order from her catalog, including gluten-free or nut-free items.
Natalia is currently looking for a location for a storefront. I hope that works out for her.
Dean & DeLuca
3276 M St. NW
202-342-2500 -
02Aug
One of the best things about having gone to culinary school in San Francisco is that there really is no other place in this country where everything comes so neatly together. There are three world-class wine regions within an hour’s drive, there are all sorts of fresh seafood (both fin and shell fish) coming in from the Pacific ocean and the San Francisco bay, and best of all, California has all sorts of farmers’ markets where local farmers will sell their wares. Even the local 7-11 carries varieties of food and wine that you have to go to Dean & Deluca to get here.
While I was out there, I indulged in the guilty pleasure of practically every other chef in town: cheese. For most of us, Whole Foods served as our local dealer (really, it is very similar to crack cocaine, you give the guy behind the counter a ten-spot, and he gives you a “rock” of the latest and greatest cheese they have). It was at a local market that I became aware of one of the best cheese-makers in the Bay area: Cowgirl Creamery. Founded by two women that were no strangers to the culinary world, Cowgirl Creamery quickly gained a very good reputation for turning out some of the tastiest cheeses around, simply by being extremely fussy over the ingredients they chose to use.
In addition to a very tasty creme fraiche, the folks at cowgirl creamery make a very addictive cottage cheese (we’re not talking Breakstone’s here), and a classic fromage blanc to round out their fresh cheeses. As for their aged cheeses, I like the Mount Tam (named for Mt. Tamalpais in the north bay), and the St. Pat, which is their seasonal spring cheese, wrapped in stinging nettle leaves (the leaves are washed and frozen first to remove the sting), which impart a smoky artichoke flavour. Their Pierce Point cheese, which is only produced in the fall and winter, is washed in a muscato wine, and rolled in dried herbs from the Tomales bay coastal region, which produces a complex yet not overpowering cheese.
The reason I’m telling you all of this is because the women that founded Cowgirl Creamery are originally from this area, and they have just opened a store in the Penn Quarter of the district (right down the street from the newly renovated Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery). In addition to cheese, their store here also sells charcuterie (cured meats, among other things), local breads, and wines. Check it out!
Cowgirl Creamery
919 F Street NW
Washington, DC 20004
(202) 393-6880 -
28Jul
The Ballston Farmer’s Market debuted last summer, and only had a few vendors. This year, the market is back with many more vendors. The market is open Fridays 11am until 3pm, through October 13. It is interesting that this particular market does not have many produce vendors.
Sunnyside Farms sells organic produce, apple cider, and flowers.
I am very impressed with Firefly Farms goat cheeses. They are some of the best I’ve had, and all of Firefly Farms cheeses have won awards. Besides the cheeses listed here, they also brought two spreadable cheeses today. One is sweet and has ginger, almond, and honey, and the other is savory, and has sun dried tomato, herbs de Provence, and roasted garlic. Check here for a list of stores and restaurants that carry or use their products.
Baguette Republic of Falls Church is also present, and a good selection of hearty breads. They also sell at the Clarendon Farmer’s Market.
I have been eyeing Virginia Lamb’s stand, but have not yet purchased their products.
I have tried Old Pioneer’s Kitchen’s Argentine Chorizo, and chimichurri sauce. Both were good, although unlike theirs, the Argentine-style sausages I am used do not contain both pork and beef. I hear that their Mexican chorizo is good as well.
Arondo of Hondo Coffee owns a plantation in Honduras, and roasts the beans in Stafford, Va. They sell several roasts, and the coffee is quite good. And, the coffee smells so good.
Dick’s Kitchen makes and sells various sauces, jellies, seasonings, and chutneys. His “Oh My God, Oh My God” hot sauce was sampled at a gathering of DCFUD writers. I believe that DCFUD’s editor has promised an article about that particular hot sauce tasting. 🙂
Great Harvest Bread Company in Alexandria is at this market as well. I have a friend that loves their biscotti.
Virginia Green Grocer and Grace’s Pastries are present as well, although I have not tried their products.
The market also has live music at noon, and cooking demonstrations from area restaurants at 1:30 pm. Today, 1 Gen Thai Cuisine (a new Ballston restaurant) demonstrated several dishes. They made chicken satays, fried rice, and somethign similar to a vietnamese summer roll. Willow has already demonstrated dishes on two occasions, and Sangam Restaurant was featured last week.
And…I saved the best for last…many of these vendors provide samples. Firefly Farms, Baguette Republic, Grace’s Pastries, Hondo Coffee, and Great Harvest Bread Company have samples on their tables. Dick’s Kitchen has samples of some products, but you have to ask for them. And, you get to sample the dishes that are featured during the cooking demonstrations. -
19Jul
As part of my weeklong desire to drink away the heat, I stopped by my friendly neighborhood Virginia ABC store. I’ve never been in a government-run liquor store before, and was interested to compare this place to private-run stores in my hometown in Maryland. The VABC store had all the staples of liver-crushing goodness – fine aged tequilas, dark spicy rums, flavored vodkas – and the low-end ten gallon plastic drum-sized gins and whiskeys. It was a good mix of high-end taste and low-end value. A couple of their prices seemed a bit high – Sauza and Jose Cuervo tequilas seemed about 10 to 25% more expensive than Maryland and DC – but they had some good specials and discounts to bring it back to par.
What really caught my eye was Voyant Chai Creme Liqueur, a relatively new entry in the market. The website describes it as:Aged Virgin Island Rum, Fresh Dutch Cream, Black Tea from India, Premium Spirits from Holland and a Distinctive Blend of Spices from Asia give Voyant Chai Cream Liqueur the Rich, Creamy Smoothness that you should expect from a Premium Liqueur.
Other than an Annoying Habit of Randomly Capitalizing Letters incorrectly in a Sentence for No Reason, the stuff sounds prettty good. In three hours, give or take, I will be partaking of this new beverage. The Voyant website offers some recipes, a few of which sound pretty interesting, but definitely a little heavy on thicker liqueuers and milk. The stuff sounds perfect for a cold winter day; in fact, I can already picture using this in a rum & coffee mixture to keep warm at football games and ski lodges. Has anybody tried this stuff, and have some tips to share?
I’ll do some experimenting tonight…all in the name of research and service to you, dear readers. Behold the effort…nay…the sacrifices I make for you.
***UPDATE*** July 20, 2006 – So, Voyant is pretty good. It tastes just like chai, but with a bit more fun. Think of a spicy Bailey’s Irish Cream. It’s sweet, and has the look and feel of those hazelnut coffee creamers. The aftertaste of ginger and black tea is awfully pleasing. I initially drank a small snifter of the liqueur, and then began mixing it with other alcohols. I made a simple vodka martini using 1 oz of the Voyant, 3 oz of Skyy vodka, and that was good. Using vanilla vodka made it a bit too sweet for my taste, but I could imagine that replacing the Appletini as a sweet introduction to the world of vodka martinis. Perhaps a 1/2 vanilla vodka, 1/2 Voyant shot could be called “The Ginger Snap.” It mixes well with coffee and milk, as I guessed it would.
As for desserts, I could see it punching up anything from an apple pie to a bowl of oatmeal. I’ve got an ice cream maker that’s begging to be used, and a chai ice cream might not stink. However, that will take a backseat as my first dessert with this stuff will be a tiramisu-like concoction, substituting the typical espresso-soaked lady fingers for a dip in alcoholic chai. If it’s good, I’ll post the recipe. If it’s not, well…you’re best off not knowing! -
20Jun
Courtesy of the fine Washington Post, this article about upscale development in Prince George’s County, Maryland, contains good news for all foodies in the District, Annapolis and Alexandria.In May, the county signed a deal with the high-end Wegmans Food Markets to anchor the Woodmore Towne Centre in Landover, a billion-dollar project that will include homes and more than 750,000 square feet of shopping space and is expected to open in summer 2008.
This would be the closest Wegman’s to DC and a short distance from the Largo Town Center Metro stop. Currently, there are two Wegman’s in Northern Virginia, one in Fairfax and the other near Dulles. A lease has been signed for a Wegman’s in Gambrills, in Anne Arundel County, but with no firm opening date. The newest Wegman’s in the region is in Baltimore County’s Hunt Valley. When it opened in 2005, people were actually camped outside of it to be the first inside, like a campout for U2 tickets!
Why such excitement? Would only bored suburbanites go bonkers over a bloody grocery store? Hardly. Wegman’s is a New York-based chain of megamarkets that caters to people who truly love their food. They have all the trappings of a regular market – bonus club cards, bulk food section, shopping carts – but they do it in a store about the size of a Smithsonian, with a friendly, knowledgeable staff. With all that space, they have the room to include pretty much anything you need for a gourmet meal made from scratch, or made by real chefs that can easily be passed off as your own. A fantastic butcher shop, fresh seafood, a great wine selection (Virginia stores only, at this point), a jaw-dropping prepared food section, deli, a cafe’, coffee shop, pizza parlor, pasta bar, olive bar, sushi bar, kitchen equipment, stemware, bakery, cheese shop, organic market, regional and international food sections, cooking classes, and a produce area that could inspire poetry…PLUS they have a little choo-choo train that runs around the dairy section. This ain’t your grandma’s supermarket, unless your granny was Julia Child.
My alter-ego, the Five Paragraph Bitter Food Critic, will be doing reviews of the major chain markets in the area, plus some of the neighborhood markets and speciality stores. Without giving away too much from the reviews, the FPBFC is a big fan of Wegman’s, and will be a bigger fan of one that’s Metro-accessible. -
10Jun
I recently happened upon Uncle Brutha’s Hotsauce Emporium near Eastern Market, and had a conversation with the proprietor, Brennan Proctor. Brennan was a production sound engineer for many major music videos between 1999-2003. He originally began formulating his sauce for use on hot wings. He would bring the wings to potlucks and to work. His clients started asking for the sauces. Eventually they would ask for them by the case, and he started getting new clients with the understanding that he would bring them hot sauce. Brennan perfected his sauces and won twenty awards between the two sauces.
I brought both of Brennan’s sauces, the red and the green to a meeting of DCfud writers, and the sauces were a big hit. There wasn’t an onion ring or burger at our table at Brickskellar that wasn’t covered in hot sauce, and our beloved editor actually drank some straight from the bottle. The green was the favorite with 1/2 a bottle consumed, while the red had 1/3 of a bottle consumed. The green sauce is thicker, so pours slower, leading me to believe that if the consistencies had been the same that even more of the green sauce would have been consumed. You can taste both sauces as well as the other hot sauces that Brennan sells at the hot sauce tasting bar at the store.
The green sauce is made with serrano chilies, and flavored with ginger and garlic, and is tasty without being very hot. The red is a little hotter and is made with 4 kinds of chilies. For the red sauce, habanero, red and green jalapenos, and serrano are used. I like both sauces.
Some other hot sauces that are sold at the store include “Crazy Mother Pucker’s”, “Pain is Good”, “Dave’s, Mama Africa’s” (from South Africa), “Susie’s” (from St. John), and “Marie Sharp’s” (from Belize.) There are also some with politically inspired names, like “Monica Lewinsky Sauce”, “Where’s the WMD’s?”, “Weapons of Ass Destruction”, “Saddam Insane”, and “Bomb Ladin.” There are some sauces referencing various parts of the anatomy including “Colon Cleaner”, “Ass Blaster”, “Red Rectum”, “Bayou Pecker Power”, and “Liquid Lava, It Will Pucker Your Pecker.”
Uncle Brutha’s also carries BBQ sauces, marinades, dry rubs, spices, and condiments, and is in its third month of operation. Their own 2 sauces are also available in area Wholefoods.
Uncle Brutha’s Hot Sauce Emporium
323 7th Street SE
Washington, DC 20003
Hours: T-Th 10-7, Fri. 10-8, Sat. 9-7, Sun 10-5
Closed Monday
(202) 546-FIRE -
24May
Local produce! Fresh humus! Specialty meat! Crazy nuts! I don’t mean Whole Foods, or even Superfresh, I’m talking about Grosvenor Market. No, stop, I’m actually serous. I know it’s in the basement of an apartment complex. I know it sounds like a glorified convenience store, and I know it’s way out in suburbia, but this place rocks!
Where else are you going to get all-natural dry aged beef on a moment’s notice? Or Apples from a local orchard? Or those great honey-sesame candy things you’re addicted to? The front of this tiny hole-in-the-wall is decorated with the various prizes they’ve won for organic food, happy service, etc. etc. etc. And they also have a Notary Public – I mean, what else can you possibly ask for?
To get there, exit the Grosvenor metro and take a right down the escalator, follow the path that goes to the right of the little landscaped stream through the big scary suburban apt buildings. Past the kiddie pool. Stop laughing! This place rocks, I mean it! -
13Oct
This guest blog is by Erin over at at The Kitchenette
Warren Brown, founder of CakeLove, has an expanding bakery chain, a Food Network series and a cupboard filling fast with features from People Magazine, Oprah, and an array of dazzled national media elites. For this litigator-turned-boutique baker, the sky’s the limit. But right here at home, CakeLove has left some customers dissatisfied. Too dry. Not fluffy enough. Overpriced. Overrated. Many of the DC bloggers are not fans, and CakeLove knows it.
Head baker Mary Meyers sends The Kitchenette a message to the food blogosphere with a recipe for a lovelier CakeLove experience: http://thekitchenette.blogspot.com/2005/10/message-from-cakelove.html -
10Jun
An instructive way of comparing supermarkets is to compare them to cars: especially around the Washington area, there are a variety of brand names, sizes and price points from which to choose.
For example, when I need the basics and nothing more, I go to the Soviet Safeway on 17th and Corcoran in Dupont Circle. The Soviet is like a late-model Honda Civic you keep around for small errands or to pass on for use as a teenager’s first car. It doesn’t have many features, occasionally has annoying quirks and doesn’t exactly drive like a dream, but it’s functional most of the time and a step up from your old scooter (the corner store).
The Whole Foods in Logan Circle is like a fully loaded top-of-the-line Volvo: safe, expensive and oriented to boring upper-middle class living. Many people would be more inclined to shop at Whole Foods more often if they were cheaper and they got over themselves and sold Coke and Pepsi products.
Trader Joe’s is the Volkswagen Jetta of the supermarket world. Youth-oriented, sporty, friendly and occasionally adventurous, it goes well with catchy indie tunes and spontaneous picnics.
The Wegmans in Sterling, Va. is way beyond the sedan class. It
