Eataly Open!

My grandmother's tip was right on the money: Eataly had its grand opening today.  Here's the Daily News write-up:

Chefs, gourmands and lovers of Italian food, get ready to say, 'that’s amore.'


Eataly, the nearly 50,000-square-foot paean to all foods Italian, opens today at 200 Fifth Ave. in Manhattan’s Flatiron district, courtesy of chefs and restaurateurs Mario Batali, Joseph Bastianich, Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and Oscar Farinetti, reports the Associated Press.


Eataly is a retail bonanza, with everything from mozzarella, smoked ham, fresh pasta and pizzas to Italian coffees, breads and desserts. The wine selection is endless.


There are restaurants with sit-down service for those who want to take a load off and enjoy an espresso or gelato, reports Eater NY. There are even cooking classes with iconic PBS chef and Eataly owner Lidia Bastianich herself.


"This isn’t a selection of restaurants under one roof," Batali told the Wall Street Journal. “This is a retail store where we peddle the greatest of Italian gastronomy to people who want to eat it and know how to appreciate it. You ask any Italian and all of the smart Americans where the best meal they ever had in the last 10 years was, and it was never in someone’s restaurant. It was always in the house."


Eataly’s planned 4,500-square-foot rooftop beer garden and brewery won’t open for another few months, according to the WSJ.

Spain Eating Itinerary

Update: Read how the trip turned out, here.
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Marcy and I are headed to Madrid and Barcelona next month, and, in a development that's sure to astound you, food will be a focus of the trip.  How much of a focus?  Right now the plan is to visit 23 different restaurants and food markets in 12 days.  That statistic leads to a couple of pressing question: will I or will I not be able to buckle my seatbelt on the plane ride back?  Will the plane will still be able to take off?  I think so - the lightness of our wallets should offset all those extra pounds of fat.

Here's our list of culinary destinations.  Viva gastro-tourism!  Let me know if I'm overlooking any must-gorge comida.

MADRID
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Friday, September 17

- Botin restaurant. The city's oldest restaurant (it claims to be the oldest in the world) dates back to 1725. The place is known for a series of specialties, including lechona (stuffed pork). Hemingway was a regular at Botin and called it one of his favorite restaurants. It was also featured on Andrew Zimmern's Bizarre Foods.

Saturday, September 18

- Santceloni. According to a bunch of random travel websites, this is the best restaurant in Madrid.  When you check out the menu, remember that it's impolite to stare at freaks: pork dewlap (skin and meat below the hog's chin); veal snout; woodcock; and roe deer shoulder.  I've never tried any of these.  Remember, there are no strangers, only friends you haven't met yet.

- Cuevas de Sesamo.  Like many of the eating ideas listed here, this sangria bar was recommended by friend Carol, a serial Spain traveler. It's located close to Plaza Santa Ana and has piano music.

Tapas from Jaunt Magazine

- Adventurous Appetites Tapas Tour. "Adventurous Appetites offers a service for those people who, after visiting the tourist sites (or working!) during the day, want to soak up the atmosphere and culture of the real Madrid in the evening. We will take you to sample traditional Spanish cuisine in some of the hidden corners of central Madrid, where the food and drink is fantastic, the atmosphere buzzing and the prices very reasonable." - Adventurous Appetites website

Sunday, September 19

- Casa Lucio.  Tripadvisor.com says, "Very popular restaurants among politicians and celebrities. They offer classic Castilian food and a good selection of wines."  It's frequented by the King of Spain, and it was one of three restaurants in Madrid that Batali featured on his tv show, "On the Road Again."


Monday, September 20

- El Bocaito. Travelblog.org says: "El Bocaito from all accounts creates some of the best tapa this city can provide and is frequented by some of the most famous locals and visitors to Spain. According to the New York Times, El Bocaito's famous mejimecha (marinated mussels with ham and onions in béchamel sauce) are sublime, as are the anchovies of the house and tasty croquettes."

- Gloria de montera. Supposed to be a cool neighborhood tapas place.

- Plaza de Chueca. "Grab a caña, or small beer, at the Plaza de Chueca, one of the city's best squares for people watching. It's quite a show: tiny old ladies in knee-length wool coats, young Madrileños in skin-tight jeans and mullets, and cross-dressing men who look like Amazonian extras in a Pedro Almodóvar film — all rushing between the 19th-century town houses, skipping nimbly between piles of dog waste and clutching tiny packages. Sierra is a friendly bar to take in the scene."  -- Frommer's

- Pan de Lujo. This restaurant was featured in New York Times 36 Hours in Madrid. Anothertravelguide.com says: "Rub elbows with the Gucci-clad crème of Madrid society at Pan de Lujo, a restaurant run by the acclaimed chef Alberto Chicote."
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- Chocolateria San Gines (churros & chocolate). "Don't be surprised to find this cafe packed with people at 5am, everyone crowded around the marble-topped tables, dipping their fritters into steaming cups of thick hot chocolate and talking about their night out."  -- Yahoo Travel

Tuesday, September 21

- La Broche. "For those who favor tradition-shattering Catalan delights, La Broche, the dining room of the Hotel Miguel Angel provides some of the most imaginative offerings you'll encounter in the city, with Chef Sergi Arola emulating the culinary style of his much-vaunted mentor Ferran Adrià."  -- Frommer's

Wednesday, September 22

- Mercado San Miguel. "This a fantastic place to visit and take in the atmosphere, enjoy the food. It gets busy so you will have to share a bench or wait and take turns to visit the stalls and bring your selections back to your chosen place to enjoy them. The tapas selection is extentive. The oyster bar is great! There are cakes and desserts to die for. -- Trip Advisor

- Zalacain. "Okay, so it's money-is-no-object time. With supreme Basque cuisine at Zalacaín, you can let yourself go for once. Long rated as the best eating spot in Madrid, it's still holding out well against the Catalan tsunami of fashionable nouvelle cuisine." -- Frommer's.  Did I mention that our wallets are going to be lighter on the way back?

- La Dolores.  Another cool tapas place.

- La Tabernilla del Gato Amadeus.  Carol recommended this one for the croquetas - small fried rolls with lots of ingredients like potatoes, fish, vegetables, and eggs.  We'll see how the croquetas at La Tabernilla compare to the ones cranked out by Jose Andres right here in Bethesda!


BARCELONA
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Thursday, September 23

- La Mar Salada in Barceloneta. Barceloneta is the old fishermen´s quarter of Barcelona where the old port meets the beach. The area has among the best fish restaurants in town and a long sandy beach which is popular all year round with sunbathers, windsurfers, joggers and cyclists and particularly lively in summer when the beach bars (chiringuitos) open up.  -- BCNinternet

Friday, September 24

- Cheese Tasting in Barcelona Gothic Quarter.  "Discover the hidden treasures of Barcelona’s gothic quarter as you get a taste of Spain. Taste a variety of Spain’s most famous cheeses. Discover the hidden gems of the Gothic Quarter. Cleanse your palate with some fine wine.  Tickle your taste buds with a selection of delectable Spanish cheeses! Hidden in the mysterious alleyways of Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter, your experience will take place in a charming specialist cheese shop, a hidden gem in the rough. In this intimate setting you will be talked through the history and characteristics of each type of cheese. Then, accompanied by bread and a glass of fine wine, you will have the opportunity to try a variety of mouth-watering tastes! As a souvenir, you will be able to purchase your favourite cheeses and enjoy the delicious flavours long after your experience has ended!"  -- Lifestylebarcelona.com

- Ca L'Isidre. Carol talked this one up.  Menu items include lamb brains and grilled king sea cucumber.  There is no beauty that hath not some strangeness in proportion.

Saturday, September 24

- Cinc Sentits. "The eight-course Sensations menu at the elegant Cinc Sentits begins with a bracing shot glass of maple syrup, chilled cream, cava sabayon and a layer of rock salt; winds its way through Mediterranean tuna in smoked tomato water and Iberian suckling pig cooked sous vide; before finally ending up with olive oil ice cream and shattered bread. It’s a superb progression of dishes — each accompanied with a well-chosen wine — and a memorable meal that will leave you sated but not stuffed. About 250 euros for two."  -- New York Times

Sunday, September 25

- Cal Pep. "Cal Pep is one of the most known tapas restaurant in Barcelona. Its reputation goes largely behind the city wall and it's justified.. Everything is fresh and fun, the tapas, the people, the service, the wine.. Nothing to say just that you have to be there once otherwise you don't know what tapas are. While waiting look the orders and make your menu. Every meal is a delight and every season a new pleasure that follows the market arrivals.. There is also the restaurant " Cal Pep" next door with notorious fish and seafood dishes as well. Both are crowded, book, book, book at the restaurant or be patient at the bar but go there."  -- Barcelona.com

- Boqueria. There are hundreds of food stalls at the sprawling Boqueria market, which has been around in one form or another since the early 18th century.  Zimmern spent a lot of time here on his show, perhaps because they sell heads, testicles, and brains.

Monday, September 26

- Botafumeiro. "Although the competition is strong, this classic marisquería consistently puts Barcelona's finest seafood on the table. Much of the allure comes from the attention of the white-jacketed staff. International businesspeople often rendezvous here, and the King of Spain is sometimes a patron. The establishment prides itself on its fresh- and saltwater fish, clams, mussels, lobster, crayfish, scallops, and several varieties of crustaceans -- such as percebes (goose barnacles) -- that you may have never seen before. Stored live in holding tanks or in enormous crates near the entrance, many of the creatures are flown in daily from Galicia, homeland of owner Moncho Neira. With the 100 or so fish dishes, the menu lists only four or five meat dishes, including three kinds of steak. The wine list offers a wide array of cavas from Catalonia and highly drinkable choices from Galicia, in particular the highly regarded Albariño white."  -- Frommer's

Update: Read how the trip turned out, here.

Empires of Food by Evan Fraser

Good Slate interview with Evan Fraser, author of a new book called Empires of Food:

In an age of super-sized meals and obesity epidemics, food-shortage doomsday scenarios always seem a little surreal. Backed by half a century of agricultural abundance, it's easy to imagine that cheap food will permanently abound. But in a new book, "Empires of Food," academic Evan Fraser and journalist Andrew Rimas show us that we are not the first advanced civilization to have a hubristic, misplaced confidence that we'll always be fed.

By tracing the rise and fall of a number of preindustrial empires, the authors show us just how much trouble we're in. The Romans, the Mesopotamians and the medieval Europeans, for example, all had agricultural systems that, much like ours, were yoked to complex technology and highly specialized trade networks. And each of those societies eventually failed because they hadn't accounted for soil erosion, growing overpopulation and weather changes. Climate change, anyone?

Fraser and Rimas propose no easy solutions, advocating instead that we learn to store surplus food, live locally, farm organically and diversify our crops.

Salon spoke to Evan Fraser over the phone about agricultural patterns through history, the instability of our food system, and whether the solutions he proposes are ultimately unaffordable for the world's poor.

READ THE INTERVIEW

D.C. Regulates Mobile Food Trucks

Fojol Bros truck courtesy of Fojol Bros of Merlindia

Time to pick a side between your favorite D.C. restaurants and those loveable creative types hawking bahn mi's and bi bim baps by the side of the road.

The D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs' new vending regulation, Title 24, Chapter 5, pits rent-paying occupant against culinary drifter, and the deadline for submitting comments is today. 

It seems that bricks-and-mortar businesses in downtown D.C. are tired of competing with food trucks swooping in at lunchtime to distract their customers. For example, Mount Vernon Golden Triangle Community Improvement District says it wants to see DCRA change its reg in ways that "reduce conflicts on the street between Mobile Vending Vehicles and businesses with fixed addreses." The Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington makes a number of specific recommendations, including:


- No sidewalk cafe vending location should be designated within 10 feet of a licensed sidewalk cafe

- No Class A vending machine operation shall operate within 25 feet of the entrance to a licensed restaurant

- No Class A vending business operator shall be assigned a sidewalk vending location within 25 feet of a licensed restaurant

The Restaurant Association makes some valid points. They say the City should safeguard the food-on-tables industry because restaurants are valuable to the surrounding community. Unlike mobile vendors, they pay millions of dollars in taxes and create thousands of jobs.

You can check out all the comments here.

Mobile vendors, on the other hand, have started a website encouraging "Food Truck Enthusiasts" to take a stand against "some very powerful businesses ... lobbying the City Council to prevent us from serving you where you work."

I'm siding with the mobile vendors, so I'll be writing in support of the DCRA regulation in its current form, which would exclude the changes proposed by the fixed-location businesses. No, the economic advantages of a thriving fleet of food trucks do not compare to the multi-million dollar revenue of the restaurant industry. But the greatest benefits of food trucks are the intangibles they add to the downtown area: the diversity, character, and down-to-earth grunge offsetting the suited elites.

Not to mention some damn good food.  The rise of mobile food vendors in D.C. is still a fragile phenomenon, and burdensome regs might chill all the hot dogs, spicy papusas and super tacos. I'm looking forward to TaKorean way too much to take that chance.

If you want to tell DCRA how you feel, email Helder Gil, the legislative assistant collecting comments, at helder.gil@dc.gov.

Supermarket Farms Yield Produce for Shoppers, Environment

courtesy of Sky Vegetables

At Montgomery Farm Women’s Co-op Market, Bethany gazes at a perfectly ripe zucchini, its yellow blossom slightly open and still attached. It’s not the look of rapture you might expect. She tensely plants her hands at her hips.
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The Bethesda resident explains her dilemma: “That zucchini looks amazing, but what am I going to serve it with?” The Co-op farmers market is well-stocked with fresh produce, but Bethany wants to plate her greens with a brand of hummus she can only get if she drives to the supermarket. So much for her plan to go straight home. She grabs the zucchini and scrutinizes her watch. “Well, looks like an extra hour of rush-hour traffic and checkout lines for me. Can’t wait.”

Interviews with a half-dozen other time-strapped shoppers at Maryland and northwest D.C. farmers markets suggest that Bethany, a busy school administrator, isn’t alone in her frustration.

What’s a fresh produce-loving, traffic-detesting urbanite to do? Supermarkets and local food advocates around the world are beginning to advance a novel solution: collocate the farmer with the supermarket.

On June 26, the local food movement took an unanticipated geographic turn to Short Pump, Virginia – population, 182. That’s where the supermarket chain Whole Foods, working with a local Richmond organization called Backyard Farmer, opened its first “field-to-store” garden in the country.

Whole Foods garden in Short Pump VA - courtesy of RVA news 

Whole Foods built the garden on a plot of land located only a few hundred yards from its front door. “We’re having some trouble with the tomatoes, but the okra is going gangbusters,” says Linda Thomas, a marketing specialist at the Short Pump Whole Foods. The garden will eventually supply the local store with about 10,000 pounds of produce per year and could expand to six acres as necessary.

Whole Foods’ garden annex is a fine remedy for a tiny town at the outer edge of Richmond, but the concept won’t work in dense urban areas, according to Andrew Thornton of Budgens supermarket in the Crouch End area of North London. “Because of the cost of an acre of land in an urban environment, field-to-farm is not something that is viable,” Thornton says.

So, instead of food from the backyard, he opted for Food from the Sky - the name of his project to convert the roof of his supermarket into an organic vegetable garden. Thornton and business partner Azul Thome, head of Positive Earth Project, needed only six weeks to complete construction.

Andrew Thornton and Azul Thome at Budgens - courtesy of Hornsey Journal

Since the garden opened in June, Thornton says customers are showing up in increasing numbers for the fresh produce and one-stop shopping convenience. “There’s a distance of literally only a few meters from growing the food to selling it,” he says.

Budgens’ solution also stands to reduce annual emissions from the typical passenger vehicle, which the EPA estimates at 5.5 metric tons of carbon dioxide. Collocation of farm with supermarket eliminates the need for trucks to transport produce from large commercial farms hundreds of miles away. Plus, consumers don’t burn as much fossil fuels because they’re no longer forced to ping-pong ball their vehicles from farmers market to supermarket.

In fact, at least in theory, shoppers could scratch the farmers market altogether.

Despite the advantages of supermarket rooftop farms over farmers markets, Thome is adamant that no rivalry exists between the two sources of locally-raised food. With the increase in so-called “food deserts” in metropolitan areas underscoring the need for cities to access more produce, “It’s not either – or,” she says. “It’s and, and, and.”

Bernie Prince, co-founder of FRESHFARM Markets, which operates eight farmers markets in D.C. and Maryland, agrees with Thome that supermarket greentops fall short of achieving produce panacea. She notes that farm space is limited by the size of the roof. “If it’s just herbs and salad mixes, that’s great. But that’s not going to be enough crops,” she says.

Prince does her part to make farmers markets more convenient by positioning them in the vicinity of supermarkets. The one in Silver Spring, for example, is just a block and a half away from the town’s Whole Foods. She thinks customers like this approach and predicts that a rise in the number of supermarket rooftop farms would supplement, rather than marginalize farmers markets. “Supermarket farms are another way to get people to understand [the importance of local foods]. Whether x or y or z, I say, hooray!”

That is, if visionaries like Thornton and Thome can consistently overcome obstacles to rooftop farms, which are formidable enough that projects like Food from the Sky sometimes seem like pie in the sky ideas. Thome says that, although the team working at Budgens was able to succeed in a short time frame, they had to address concerns from landlords, insurance companies and Crouch End planning and zoning offices. Neighbors were worried about everything from noise to teenagers jumping from the market’s rooftop into adjacent apartments. Talking things out with the community, she says, required a slew of meetings.

As President of Sky Vegetables, an urban agriculture company, Bob Fireman is well-acquainted with the barriers to rooftop farms. For the past two years, he and his 30 employees have pitched their award-winning design proposal to businesses and municipalities across the nation. Next month, Fireman’s crew will finally begin constructing their first fresh-produce farm on the roof of an abandoned shoe factory in Brockton, MA. Because Sky Vegetables’ farms are hydroponic (working with water), he says, the one-acre farm in Brockton will yield 15 to 20 times more produce than soil-based farms. Crop yields will supply urban clients like elementary school cafeterias.

Still, Fireman continues to search for a supermarket willing to contract for roof work.

That’s not due to a lack of interest, says Mark “Coach” Smallwood. The problem, explains the regional Green Mission Specialist, is that reconstructing rooftops would be a financial and logistical nightmare. “The easiest way to do it is at a new store where you can get the infrastructure in place as you build and account for the extra load [of the rooftop farm] at the front end.”

At least in the short-term, though, don’t expect to find produce farms on any brand new Whole Foods. Supermarket construction was delayed by the 2008 economic downturn. Although building recently resumed, Smallwood says that stores currently scheduled for groundbreaking were designed one to two years before the downturn.  Back then, supermarket farms were just a twinkle in the eye of even the most forward-thinking local food advocate, so farms didn't make it into the design plans.

Fireman, the head of Sky Vegetables, suggests a more substantial barrier: the one-dimensional bottom line of the supermarket industry. “Supermarkets are in the business of supermarketing,” he says. “They are not in business of farming.”

For him and other proponents of supermarket farms, that kind of tension is galvanizing. “It’s fruitful,” Thome explains, so passionate that she seems unaware of her pun. “In permaculture, you learn that it’s the edges of a piece of land that are most important, because that’s where land biodiversity increases. Right now, supermarkets are at the edge of the local produce movement.”

Inconvenient Fresh Food Ripe for Change

Personal health. The environment. Connecting with the land. The advantages of locally-raised produce are many, but there’s one word that doesn’t typically make the list: convenience.
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In the past, consumers have occasionally been forced to choose between stale supermarket produce and out-of-the-way farmers markets with limited hours. But interviews with Whole Foods Market and FRESHFARM Markets suggest that convenience might be the latest buzzword of the local food movement.
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“We need to look at the needs of communities,” says Bernie Prince, co-founder of FRESHFARM Markets, which operates eight farmers markets in D.C. and Maryland. When searching out a location for the farmers market in Silver Spring, Prince looked no further than the town’s Saturday afternoon congregation point: Whole Foods. The farmers market was pinpointed just a block-and-a-half away.

“We choose the location for farmers markets on a very selective basis,” she explains. “It has to have the density to support the needs of the farmers market – and the farmer.”
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But convenient location is just one way that groups like FRESHFARM Markets spoon-feed farmers markets to lazy locavores. Timing is equally important. “Many of our farmers markets are open on Saturdays,” Prince says. “That just happens to be the biggest shopping day for supermarkets.” Prince says that local food advocates have also begun working to make free parking available during market hours.
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Likewise, supermarkets like Whole Foods have recently explored strategies to help shoppers access local foods more easily. Whole Foods is now hosting farmers markets right outside a handful of stores in the region. “We host them every week,” says green mission specialist Mark “Coach” Smallwood, “and we don’t charge anything or take any of the proceeds.”
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“People wonder about our motivation for [partnering with farmers markets],” says Linda Thomas, a marketing strategist at a Whole Foods in Short Pump, Virginia, which recently opened a produce farm next to the store. “We do it because it’s the right thing to do.”
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Lazy locavores agree.

Queens Bridge Game Dishes Eataly Scoop

You know you've got a food-oriented family when you're getting hot New York restaurant gossip from your 87-year-old grandmother.

Doris, Queens resident and expert at preparing mean spreads of pickled herring and bagels, just called to inform me of two news items essential to this blog.

First, she said that she remembered to pass out a bunch of Fuchs Foodie Journal blog business cards at her bridge game this morning.  Her friends, she reported, thought that the card was "cute and creative," but it didn't take long for them to start crunching numbers.  "How does he make any money off of this?" one asked.

According to my grandmother, my Aunt Jackie, another participant in the bi-weekly Bridge Bash of Queens, rushed to my defense.  "He gets people who want to have their products on his site and they pay for it," she said proudly.

For someone who has probably been on the internet no more than twice in her life, that struck me as a pretty damn good answer.  The real answer, of course, is that I'll have to get back to them if I ever figure it out.

So, you ask, what was the hot food scene tip? 

Well, at the same octogenarian bridge party, which I hope to start attending just to stay current despite my regretfully unadvanced age and out-of-the-way D.C. residence, one of the other players broke the news that Eataly, Mario Batali's new 32,000 square foot, downtown Italian food market, will have its grand opening on August 31.  The woman, who lives in the same neighborhood as the location destined for Eataly, added that Mayor Bloomberg will keynote the grand opening; a private party for industry insiders is planned a few days earlier; and that she has been regularly peering through the windows of the sprawling market.  Pending some final touches, it looks "grand". 

I'm definitely making a  special trip up to NYC as close to August 31 as possible to eat my way through Eataly.  Here's the Village Voice's description:

With one outpost already in Tokyo, this sustainable, slow-food institution is changing the way people are tasting and purchasing food, one city at a time. The concept is one of category, with eight smaller restaurants and a gelateria within. The boutique restaurants inside Eataly are based on flavor, so you'll find an entire tasting concept within foods like pasta, salami, cheese, pizza, fish, vegetables, beer, and coffee.  You can have a bite from a $1,000 hunk of salami at the “salami bar” and a Dixie cup of raw milk at the “dairy bar” before mowing down a gianduia (chocolate and hazelnut candy) at the gelateria. The idea is to promote sustainable, slow-food producers and to educate consumers on the history and background of their food choices.

And my grandmother's bridge posse was the first to get the scoop about the grand opening.  Okay, so maybe Village Voice already knew (in mid-June) about the opening date.  And maybe my grandmother didn't seem to know who Mario Batali was.  I'm still checking out that bridge game if I get an invite, if for no other reason than to luxuriate in some pickled herring.

Willams-Sonoma Cooking Classes

Let's play word association:

Williams-Sonoma ... hmm, free-of-charge?  On the house?  Leave your wallet at home?

Clearly, all that kimchee I eat has finally infected my brain, right?  That might well be true, but this past Sunday, Williams-Sonoma - yes, the Williams-Sonoma that sells $385 saucepans - actually put on a free cooking class. 

"The Art of Seasoning" was the latest in a series of hour-long food classes taught in Williams-Sonoma stores across the nation. 

I would speculate that, in addition to offering the classes purely out of the goodness of its heart, the upscale retailer might see the event-series as a nice way to draw recession-plagued customers into the store - where, let's face it, the assortment of awesome electric slicers and panini presses turns even the biggest tight-wad into a pricetag-blind Cuisinart whore.

(Not that any Williams-Sonoma located in the suburbs of Maryland needs to worry about tightwads.  The class was attended by about 30 Friendship Heights residents - the same people you see strolling Wisconsin Ave with three or four shopping bags decorating each arm.)

What, you thought it was an accident that W-S has gone from selling off a corporate plane to raise cash at the beginning of the housing market downturn to, just a couple months ago, forecasting net revenue growth of 3 percent to 6 percent for this year?

Intent on finding out if these classes offered any merit beyond boosting Willies-Sonoma's in-store sales, Lolly and I joined a pack of foodies crowding around the middle of the store, where the mise-en-place was set up, rather appropriately, on the checkout counter.

Behind the counter was Patty Campbell, culinary expert, Williams-Sonoma employee, and food blogger.  She proceeded to demonstrate the seasoning and grilling of a bunch of asparagus and some Nature's Promise chicken breasts.

While the class watched Patty work the grill, we got to sample three interesting varieties of salt: Australian pink salt (multi-purpose), black salt (used frequently in Indian cooking), and Chardonnay, oak-smoked salt (Patty recommended its use on fish and chicken).  Lolly and I, and one of our classmates, found the tastes of the salts pretty much indistinguishable, but the texture of each was considerably different, and the appearance of the pink salt was striking.

The store also hands out a couple of useful pamphlets: one, a set of tips on selecting, storing, and toasting spices; the other, a reference guide to the Williams-Sonoma spice collection.  The latter inspired a return trip later in the day to add the following spices to my cupboard:

1. Gumbo File - "A traditional thickener for Cajun and Creole gumbos; also enhances seafood dishes and marinades."
2. African Curry - "Perfect for chicken, shellfish and vegetable curries; also seasons vegetable dips and steamed rice."
3. Vadouvan - "A mild Indian curry blend with a sweet, delicate complexity and a hint of tangy spice." (David Chang uses this to spice his duck sausage at Momofuku Ko.)

Of course, the hawking of W-S products was inevitable.  Among a number of product plugs, Patty weaved into the demonstration a $12 bottle of sesame ginger soy marinade and the Shun Edo utility knife.  I caught a sample of the soy sauce and could detect no improvements over my supermarket-brand that would justify the 9 extra bucks.  The Shun Edo, however, would be the perfect complement to my Williams-Sonoma kitchen torch if Shang Tsung ever tries to storm my kitchen.

Shun Edo utility knife - courtesy of Williams-Sonoma

The class ended with tastings of the chicken and asparagus, and then we had a good conversation with Patty about sous-vide and the store's upcoming classes.  Williams-Sonoma has the schedule online.  Next up is Lessons in Dairy on August 22.  I plan to be there.  75 percent for Patty's wise tutelage, 25 percent to continue flirting with that induction burner I got my eye on.

College-Park-Style Burmese Food at Mandalay

When families sit down to eat in Burma, the main dish is typically a heaping bowl of rice.  The country, despite suffering from three years of devastating drought, is still the world's number six rice producer.  After eating at Mandalay, a restaurant in Silver Spring that's named after the second biggest city in Burma, you can easily understand why.

Pillowy white grains are your last refuge when everything on the table is extra spicy - that is, "College-Park-style."  Mandalay used to dish Burmese in College Park, and now that they've scooted west to Silver Spring, ordering your food College-Park-style is code for "torch my mouth like the Yellowstone Fires of 1988."

My choice of beverage wasn't going to douse those flames: the "Bloodiest" Bloody Mary.  Why is Mandalay's Mary the bloodiest?  The bartender stumbled to the table and enlightened us that she'd had way too much to drink; that it was the bloodiest because she'd donated some of her own blood as an ingredient; and that, no seriously, she was wasted.  We believed her.  Service at Mandalay: two Chinese soup spoons down.

As the bartender zig-zagged away like a slolam skiier, our food came.  My three Jewish dining companions watched in terror as I jumped into split-hoofed heaven: a stir-fry of sliced pork, Chinese sausage, and vegetables. 

I'd also ordered the gnapi gyaw, or fried chili and shrimp paste, which, when added to my stir-fry, provided nice crunch, zingy saltiness, and utterly superfluous heat.  Just about every Burmese edible incorporates gnapi, from heavy meat dishes to soups to salads.  The fried version of gnapi, below, is one of the most popular Burmese condiments.

Burma seems like the Silent Bob of countries: the less well-known, resourceful sidekick to leading Asian countries like India, China, and Thailand.  Our meal showed how Burma mix-matches the best of each neighbor into one all-encompassing cuisine - Jessica's samosa appetizer (Indian), my stir-fry (Chinese), and fish sauce and lemongrass in Marcy's ginger salad and just about everything else we ordered (Thai).

The cooking of Burma is getting some recognition in this area - the Post recently called a Burmese place the best restaurant in Chinatown.  Silent Bob was much cooler than Jay, anyway.

Zhiming Zhu's Study on Capsaicin

This month's issue of Cell Metabolism includes a study finding that capsaicin, the compound that gives peppers their spicy heat, causes blood vessels to relax, at least in stressed-out, hypertensive rats.

This could explain a few things.

Like, for example, my doctor's recent and, frankly, unexpected finding that I have low blood pressure.  This, despite a few risk indicators called pork belly, bone marrow, and sausage, which comprise the USDA-condemned FFJ Food Pyramid. 

Perhaps the liberal doses of ancho chili powder, sriracha, and gochujang that accompany nearly every one of my meals are what's saving my ass from the healthy lifestyle hell of beta-blockers and Smart Ones Cranberry Turkey Medallions?

The study also cites epidemiological evidence in humans: over 20 percent of people in Northeastern China have hypertension, compared to only 10-14 percent in Southwestern China.

"People in these regions like to eat hot and spicy foods with a lot of chili peppers," says Zhiming Zhu, the guy who led the study and the coolest named scientist at the Third Military Medical University in Chongqing, China.

And what about the supertasters out there who can't tolerate spciy foods?  Zhiming's got you covered.  The study notes a mild Japanese pepper containing a compound called capsinoid, a close relative of capsaicin.

VillageVines Launching in D.C.

At the beginning of June, I wondered on this blog whether VillageVines might be interested in expanding to D.C. 

VV co-founder Dan Leahy was quick to comment: "Much of the team here at VillageVines has called Washington home at one point or another, so you can be sure that District expansion is something we'd be thrilled to do!"

Just a couple months later, Dan and the Village people have already come through.  Thanks to a tip from Jian, I just checked out the website and was able to sign up for D.C. specials.

Here's the message I got when I signed up:

Thanks for signing up for VillageVines. We’ll be launching in Washington DC soon, and we’ve already lined up some great offers to send your way once we do.

In the meantime, use your personal invite link below to invite your friends, family and (maybe) even your co-workers into VillageVines. Not only will they be forever beholden to your generosity, but you’ll also receive a $10 credit once they make their first booking:

[Your personal invite link]

Stay cool DC - you’ll be hearing from us shortly.

The team at VillageVines

Ah, what an elaborate ruse this blog is just to score some $10 VillageVines credits.
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Here's how VillageVines works:

1. Each day they highlight a handful of restaurants from among their carefully curated list of the best spots in cities such as D.C. 
2. You choose where to dine and use VillageVines to make your party’s reservation before the offer expires
3. You pay $10 to secure your exclusive pricing (typically 30% off your party’s entire bill – food and drink!)
4. Your discount is discreetly applied to your bill at meal’s end - no coupons, no phone calls and no hassles

Sounds like you get a lot more than wild grapes and poison ivy.

You can sign up at http://www.villagevines.com/about.aspx.  If you do, be sure to give me a comment to let me know what you think.

TaKorean Truck: Litmus Test for D.C.'s Food Scene

Pic from TaKorean website

Excellent news from DCist about a new food truck coming to DC called TaKorean:

"For anyone who's ever debated the merits of Mexican versus Korean for lunch, now you no longer have to choose: TaKorean, a mash-up of taco truck and bulgogi cart, will be joining the ranks of D.C.'s ever-expanding fleet of food trucks. Inspired by L.A.'s popular Korean bbq taco trucks, TaKorean will offer bulgogi beef, tangy chicken, or caramelized tofu tacos topped with kimchi or mild slaw, lime and Sriracha sauces, cilantro, and sesame seeds. TaKorean will be serving lunch downtown, starting later this month. As usual, you'll be able to keep tabs on their exact coordinates by following them on Twitter (@taKorean) or Facebook."

According to the TaKorean website, the truck will open in late August and will service the downtown metro area.  The founder, Mike Lenard, is a D.C. native.

This is just the latest episode in the D.C. food truck revolution, which you can monitor at Mobile Cravings (a Venu discovery). 

Hopefully TaKorean can harmoniously exist with sentimental D.C. favorites Bulgogi Cart (aka, the Yellow Cart) and Korean Food Cart (the White Cart).  As with humans, food cart cannibalization is never pretty.

Whether the new TaKorean truck steamrolls D.C. or gets stuck in a ditch might say more about our city than just its appetite for fusion cuisine. Judging by the track records of other cities across the nation, the success of a Korean taco truck correlates to the strength of a town’s food scene.

The foodie paradise of Southern California, for example, supports no less than ten mobile Korean taco stands.

The Bay Area has a half-dozen or so.

Food-loving Portland has four, while New York and Austin both support at least one successful kotaco vendor.
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Two cities where Korean taco trucks have crashed and burned? Oklahoma City and Kansas City.  I'm no expert on the food in either of these cities, and food towns are tough to rank objectively, but I've yet to see a "Top 10 Food Cities" list that gave props to Ok or K City.

No pressure, D.C., but food commentators are watching us closely these days, if yesterday's article in Grub Street is any indication.  Go get some TaKorean later this month.  Let's prove Washingtonian food is more monster truck, less Hasbro Tonka.

UPDATE: TaKorean's open for business and selling solid Korean tacos in Franklin Square.  Here's my write-up.

Authentic Dutch and German Meet Authentic Korean at To Sok Jib

If one’s luck in life can be judged by accidental proximity to Korean restaurants – I say it can be – then I’ve hit the lottery twice, spending a decade in Baltimore and the last couple of years in DC. I had no great plan to gain easy access to Korean food. I just happened to repeatedly go to schools and take jobs in neighborhoods with Korean restaurants aplenty. It’s a nice run of dumb luck that began in college, when I scored my #1 living choice, looked out my bedroom window and saw one of the town’s best Korean joints right across the street.
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Not so lucky: friends Anja and Femke. Anja came to this country from Germany a little over a year ago, and Femke arrived from the Netherlands this past May. Usually enthusiastic about their home countries, they both looked reflective, even sheepish, when asked about the availability of Korean food.
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In fact, neither recalled ever seeing a Korean restaurant back home. Anja reported a sushi trend sweeping Germany, and Femke had checked out some Indonesian places in the Netherlands.
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I brought this up with my German co-worker Friederike, and we did some online research, leading to such discoveries as Zum Koreaner (in Munich), Bulgogi Haus (Dusseldorf), and Restaurant Korea (Rotterdam). (Restaurant Korea's menu offers funny Europeanisms like courgette, the New Zealand name for zucchini.)
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So Korean does at least exist in their home countries, though I guess it’s like finding a chap jae noodle in a stack of Weisswursts. As a result, Anja and Femke confessed, they'd never eaten Korean!
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Marcy and I arranged to take them to a Korean restaurant in Annandale VA.  Our compassion as human beings left us with no other option: their suffering had to end.

It’s a compliment to our international friends that the place we chose was To Sok Jib. When introducing friends to Korean, it’s generally a wise policy to proceed conservatively, weaning them on a popular buffet place, the kind with a few Westernized options to balance the system shocks caused by kimchee and dried anchovies.
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We knew enough about Anja and Femke to respect them as peers in adventurous eating, so we settled on Jip, what I consider the most authentic Korean eatery in very authentic Annandale. An all-Korean clientele squeezes into a sparsely decorated room with just six tables.  It’s more fishing village than Seoul, more hut than building. They only added English to the menu a couple of years back. No German or Dutch, though.
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Still, Anja or Femke showed no signs of fear. Not so much as a flinch when, like a hazing ritual, our Korean hosts started us with an ugly grey fish, sauce, a pile of sticky basil leaves, and some unseasoned cucumber sticks - four misshapen puzzle pieces that we gradually realized fit together as fish rolls. And they just laughed when their tour guides and self-professed masters of Korean cuisine bickered over the correct pronunciation of panchan (banchan?).

Our friends' first tastes of Korean food - unidentifiable fish with seemingly random sides - still not sure what the tofu was for

Generous panchan

Graceful tolerance turned to enthusiasm when we got the seafood pancake. This thing had huge pieces of octopus, not the tiny-ass krill that other Korean places use in their seafood pancakes.

Anja and Femke both got the bim bim bap as entrees. Anja was full of praise for the bbp, whereas Femke's chewing spoke louder than her words - she stoically annihilated the big rice dish.

She couldn’t have finished a Dutch sausage platter any quicker.