Community Supported Agriculture is great, and you should do it. (This is where you pay up front and then receive produce each week.) That said, there are points in every eason when the CSA starts to sound more like Cant’t Stand Another… This can even happen with favorites like cucumbers. Thankfully, we all know about pickling now, so there’s one thing we can do with the endless parade of cabbages and zucchinis.
I laughed out loud when I saw Melissa Clark’s piece in today’s New York Times dining section. Not her usual one, or even the unusual two, recipes this week. No, this week her Good Appetite was out of control with four recipes, and I know why: She was high on the deep fry.
Ah, the season of travel is upon us. For D.C.ers it means we can stroll into Tabard Inn for lunch without a reservation and the depth of the busiest bars shrinks from 3 to 1. Another option for shrinking drink wait times: more bars per capita.
This weekend The Washington Post had a piece by Jason Wilson about drinking in Spain. He salutes the country, but this is also a love letter to bars. (I second and third this sentiment–a future post.) Wilson visits the wine region Castilla y Leon where there is one bar for every 100 people. Read the piece, but here are some of the highlights:
Since we’re comparing food magazines, I must note that among the competitors Food & Wine is the most consistently good. The July issue feels like twice the size of Bon Appetit with half the attitude. Many of the articles warrant a read, and there are several clip-worthy recipes to boot.
Meaty savory plus bready sweet takes guts. And that is why this combination is so unexplored. We like sweet meat and we like savory breads, and people are eating fois gras ice cream now, for Christ’s sake. But still the meat course comes first and then dessert. Now there is certainly evidence that our palates enjoy this pairing. There’s the quintessential chicken and waffles, and I’d argue that corndogs also qualify. I guess once you call cornbread sweet bread (some if it is!), the union with barbecue can join the ranks.
Adam Rapoport has achieved one of his goals with the newly redesigned Bon Appetit. I didn’t understand at first what he meant by creating a magazine that is read, not used. Now I get it: I indeed read the July issue—quickly at that—and I will not be using it further. I typically tear out pages for future reference, but no need here. I already know you can dress a nice steak headed for the grill in nothing but salt and pepper. (Also, Breaking: You can grill whole scallions!) I’m thinking seriously about getting a subscription of BA for a young man I know about to graduate from college. Oh, hell, forget it. Even he already knows how to work the grill, and I’m not sure naming salt and pepper steak’s “little black dress” is language he’ll comprehend.
Three steps to a great drink: pop it, pour it, and then sip it. Ah, here’s to one of life’s simple pleasures!
And this week, the New York Times and Washington Post dining and food sections want to get in on the clink. Welcome guys, what’s the word?
Eric Asimov: “Allow me to set the scene in the tasting room: about 20 goblets arranged neatly before each of four seats.” And that was the last thing I remember, but there’s a painfully detailed piece this week under my byline that’s about rum, so that must have been what was in those crazy glasses…I relate to the pain, but I’m not sure how I wrote it.
Bon Appetit readers aren’t the only ones suffering, er, experiencing a new editor’s vision. The last two issues of Martha Stewart Living have come care of Pilar Guzmán, the founding editor of the now-defunct parenting/shopping rag Cookie.
There is probably only one really major change, but it may be the last nail in this reader’s patience coffin. MSL is full of little tips for crafty things you can do. They are meant to be fun and to convince you, well, that they are worth the extra effort. What’s new: Now each suggestion comes with the most absurd price breakdown, which ultimately leads to a total breakdown in that fun concept I mention earlier.
Feeling blue about D.C. restaurants? I know; I’ve been there. But lately I’ve heard about a couple of new places that awaken in me something I haven’t felt in the District since 2008: hope. Obviously, new places open all the time, and naturally I’m sure I’ll be disappointed in the end, but here are some words floating in the ether that get my juices flowing.
Several months ago I mentioned my favorite olives were from a company in California called Graber. I share this passion with a friend of mine who took our tour of the Graber operation so seriously she’s spent the past 8 months curing her own olives. She came across the olive trees in a golf community in Palm Springs last fall. Normally, the management sprays the trees, so they can’t produce the fruit, which just falls to the ground mucking up the greens and what not. But last year, someone fell down on the job—what a boon! My friend picked as many as she could fit in her purse and suitcase and lugged them back to D.C. Supertastes recently sat down with her to find out if it was worth it in the end. And for a tasting, of course!
