mb palaver

WinePalaver: Sneak Peek at Cork Market & Tasting Room

Diane Gross and Khalid Pitts, the husband-and-wife team who brought us Cork Wine Bar, will soon open Cork Market & Tasting Room just up the street at 1805 14th Street, NW.  According to Metrocurean, the market will sell wine, beer, specialty items such as cheese and charcuterie, sandwiches, salads, and some items from Cork Wine Bar's menu.  They'll also hold wine tastings and private events upstairs.

Cork Market is getting ready to open any day now, and is offering a sneak peek and a chance to order wines to complement your Thanksgiving meal.  Just pick out the wines you like from the list below, call (202-265-2674) or email (info@corkdc.com) your order, and either pick them up this Wednesday or ask them to deliver if you live nearby (and are of age and can prove it).  Though if you have them delivered you won't have a chance to go poke around the new digs.
 
Bartolomiol, Prosecco di Valdobbiadene, "Gemin," Spumante Brut NV  $ 14
R. Dumont Père et Fils, Brut Rosé Champagne NV $ 33
Domaine Saint-Anthelme, Viognier, "Les Petits Cailloux" 2007  $ 15
Domaine Paul Garaudet, Bourgogne Blanc 2007  $ 19
Zilliken, Butterfly Riesling 2008  $ 21
Pascal Lambert, Chinon, "Tradition Graves" 2007  $ 17
Marchesi di Gresy, Barbera d'Asti 2006   $ 22
Vietti, Dolcetto d'Alba, "Tre Vigne" 2008  $ 25  
Domaine Gérard Charvet, Moulin A Vent, "Vieilles Vignes" 2006  $ 17
Domaine Monpertuis, Vin de Pays du Gard, "Cuvée Counoise" 2006 $ 15
Ludovicus, Terra Alta 2007 $10

 

FoodPalaver: Bruno's of Jersey City Lives On in Minty, Chocolatey Dessert

If you're hosting any holiday dinners and would like to include a no-effort dessert, you might want to try what my parents served up one night over Thanksgiving weekend:  a bowl of Edy's peppermint ice cream with chocolate sauce.  It was a revelation, and not just because the peppermint and chocolate made such a great combination.  My parents are known to have a scoop of ice cream at night from time to time, but the chocolate sauce seemed to be a new twist.  It turned out it wasn't so new to them.  They spotted the limited edition candy cane-inspired ice cream at Kroger in Middletown, Ohio, and reminisced about the mint ice cream with chocolate sauce served at Bruno's, an Italian restaurant in Jersey City they went to many decades ago.

I found a photo of Bruno's from back in the day via Google Book Search.  Sadly,  I can't post it, but you can view it here.  It's from one of those "Images of America" books that includes old photos and history of towns and neighborhoods, this one called Jersey City 1940-1960:  The Dan McNulty Collection.  For anyone interested (you know who you are), you can read a fair amount of it and view a lot of photos at the Google Book Search link.  The book says that "Bruno's was one of the most popular and fanciest Italian restaurants in town until it closed in the 1970s."  According to a September 25, 1977 New York Times article, Bruno's was later turned into a restaurant operated by Patrick House, a drug rehabilitation and alcohol treatment program.  The article describes the former Bruno's as "a Jersey City landmark on Summit Avenue that contained a private room where Mayor Frank Hague and his successor and nephew, Mayor Frank Hague Eggers, dined and held conferences."  The Times ran a review of the new Bruno's on October 9, 1977, which included this historical information:

Bruno Valeo began his career by making spaghetti upstairs over a Jersey City tavern called Hillman and Rountree.  The place -- it was on Hudson Boulevard -- became a hit with the political crowd, so much so that Bruno was able to open his own establishment, Bruno's, on Mother's Day in 1946.

In 1972, with most of the old crowd dead or moved away, Bruno's shut its doors, apparently for good, and Mr. Valeo retired.  Then, just last year at this time, Bruno's reopened, stirring up the ghosts of scores of long-forgotten ward healers and trying to bring back the aura of a city that used to be.

The new owners were -- and are -- the Hudson County Drug and Alcohol Program, better known as Patrick House. The restaurant was conceived as a money-making venture, and not as a place for addicts to work.  It is not the old Bruno's, or [sic] course, but it is not bad.

I don't know what, if anything, is at 161 Summit Avenue now, but Bruno's lives on in dessert and memories in Middletown, Ohio.

ShoppingPalaver: Food & Friends at Crate & Barrel Thursday, Nov. 6

Food & Friends is holding it's annual private food and shopping party at the Spring Valley Crate & Barrel early this year, just in time for the post-election what-am-I-supposed-to-do-with-all-my-time-now blahs.

Crate and Barrel's DC store will close its doors to the public on Thursday, November 6th, and host an exclusive evening of shopping, hors d'oeuvres and raffle prizes just for Food & Friends' best supporters. Culinary bites will be provided by local restaurants and, when you shop, Crate and Barrel will donate a percentage of their proceeds to support our services to those in the community facing some of life's most difficult challenges.

Sponsorships are available beginning at $175 and include tickets to the event, as well as additional promotional opportunities, and Individual tickets are $35.

We look forward to seeing you there!

An Evening of Food & Friends at Crate and Barrel

Thursday, November 6, 2008
7:00 - 9:30pm
4820 Massachusetts Ave, NW

You can purchase your tickets online here.  For those who can't make it on the 6th or don't live nearby:

Never fear, you can shop online with Crate and Barrel and still make a difference in the lives of our clients facing life-challenging illnesses.

From November 7th through midnight on November 13th, when you shop online with Crate and Barrel, 10% of your purchases will be donated to Food & Friends.

It's easy! For your purchases to count, all you need to do is originate from the link we'll provide for you.

Food & Friends provides nutrition counseling and prepares, packages, and delivers meals and groceries to people living with HIV/AIDS, cancer, and other life-challenging illnesses throughout the Washington, DC area.  It's a great cause, and this is a fun event.  If it's too early to start your Christmas shopping, it's a good time to outfit your Thanksgiving table.

 

Crate and Barrel
4820 Massachusetts Ave., NW
Washington, DC  20016
(202) 364-6100

Photo from 2006 event photo gallery

FoodPalaver: Hello, Peanut Blossom Cupcake

I finally made it to Hello Cupcake today to give it a taste test.  Because Maya Favorite Cupcake is not a Monday option, I tried the Peanut Blossom, a take on the cookie of the same name, with chocolate cake, peanut butter frosting, and a chocolate kiss on top.  I experienced double nostalgia nirvana:  the nostalgia of eating cupcakes as a kid, which presumably explains the current cupcake craze, coupled with the nostalgia of eating Drake's FunnyBones.  Mmmmmm.  Drake's FunnyBones.

In case you've wondered, you can eat in at Hello Cupcake, where they have a few tables and serve coffee, as well as milk (which I really wanted but was too embarrassed to order).

If you live out in Virginia and getting to Dupont Circle is too much of a trek, evidently Wegman's sells FunnyBones.  Though they have more sorbitan monostearate than Hello Cupcake's version.

Hello Cupcake
1351 Connecticut Ave., NW
Washington, DC  20036
(202) 861-2253

FoodPalaver: Well, Hello Cupcake

Tomorrow (Monday) morning at 10 am the cupcake trend continues, when Hello Cupcake opens on Connecticut Avenue just south of Dupont Circle.  I'm jonesing for maya favorite cupcake.  Pick out your own favorite here.

Hello Cupcake
1351 Connecticut Ave., NW
Washington, DC  20036
(202) 861-2253

FoodPalaver: Hold the Fiddleheads

Chef Vinod of Indique Heights, the restaurant preparing the Bhutanese food at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival I wrote about last week, pointed out on donrockwell.com a menu substitution I missed despite the clear evidence of my own photographs.  Chef Vinod says:

I am glad you liked the dishes - I am going to tone down the heat a little bit tomorrow for the Ema Datsi - I do not know whether you noticed that we changed the chicken dish to jasha tshoem instead of nakey tshoem - nakey means fiddlehead ferns which are out of season and cannot get them.

I hope I didn't get anyone's hopes up for those fiddleheads.  Though you probably knew they were out of season . . . .

(P.S.  Yes, the photo above is blurry.  You do not need new glasses.  As far as I know.)

FoodPalaver: Got Yak Milk?

If you find yourself near the Mall between now and June 29 or July 2 through 6 and have a hankering  for nakey tshoem or ema datsi, you will be in luck.  The Smithsonian Folklife Festival this year honors Bhutan, a small country in the eastern Himalayas between India and China.  In addition to watching traditional arts and crafts demonstrations, visiting a Buddhist temple built in the middle of the Mall, and viewing monastic ritual dances, you can sample three traditional Bhutanese dishes.  The rice and peppers dish, ema datsi, is traditionally made with yak milk.  According to Emily Wax of The Washington Post, the director of Bhutan's department of culture originally planned to bring a yak to the United States for the festival, but gave that up upon learning the animal would have to be quarantined for two months, which "didn't seem like the Buddhist thing to do."  They ended up having the food prepared by Indique Heights.  No yak milk, I presume.

A friend and I sampled a couple of the dishes yesterday (fortunately for us, before the real heat descended).  The ema datsi -- made with rice, cheese, onions, and slivers of jalapeno-like chiles-- was hot hot hot.  The nakey tshoem -- chicken with fiddlehead ferns, cheese, chiles, onion, garlic, ginger, and special seasonings (with ginger the most prominent flavor) -- was also hot, but not Africa hot.  Both dishes were quite tasty, a bit different from the usual fare, and served very quickly, a rarity at festivals.  We did not try the pork and cheese filled dumplings, or momos, though I wish I had for the name alone.

Ms. Wax says that in Bhutan, "blistering-hot chilies are the essential ingredient, probably because they raise body temperatures in the cold Himalayan climate."  Raising body temperatures in the blistering heat of the Washington summer might not be as good an idea.  Make sure you also get a mango lassi to cool off.

If Bhutanese food doesn't grab you, the festival is also honoring Texas, so you can have everything from Tex-Mex fare like fajitas and quesadillas, to barbecued ribs, to Vietnamese-influenced dishes at the Texas Noodle House (who knew?).  Full food listings can be found here, and everything else you need to know to visit the festival here.

FoodPalaver: Dupont Farmers Market

Our plunge into August-like temperatures in the last couple of weeks could make you wish summer had held off a bit longer, but it's time to take advantage of one real joy of summer:  its abundant fruits and vegetables.  The Dupont Circle Freshfarm Market, like others markets around the area, is in full swing.  Dupont's market is held every Sunday from 9 to 1 on 20th Street between Massachusetts Ave. and Q  Street.  More than 30 farmers sell at the market, and you can find not only fruits and vegetables, but flowers, fresh baked goods, cheese, eggs, meat, fish, homemade soaps, herbs, crab cakes, goat cheese tarts, and Dolcezza gelato.  The Freshfarm website includes a chart of what's in season.  Last week strawberries galore were everywhere, plus asparagus and rhubarb and lots of other early summer produce.

The market sometimes hosts Chefs at Market, where a local chef cooks something up in the grassy area over by Mass. Ave.  This Sunday Peter Smith, of PS 7's, will be there from 11 to 12.  (Note to self: do a post about PS 7's.)  Check out the calendar of events here.

The Freshfarm website also includes a recipe section, so after picking up some good local produce you can make Pizzaria Paradiso's Pizza Margherita(thanks to chef Ruth Gresser), or Restaurant Eve chef Cathal Armstrong's Chicory Salad with Crisp Bacon.

If you haven't been to the Dupont market before, be sure to bring lots of cash.  (Last week I saw a bunch of carrots for $3.  The bunch was 3 carrots.  I don't know what I pay for carrots at the grocery store, but I'm guessing it's not $1 a piece.)  And bring a mellow attitude -- it gets absolutely packed, and is not for the impatient or rushed.  If you need to pick up a lemon or some other nonlocal item, nearby Marvelous Market can come through in a pinch (two weeks ago I found creme fraiche there, which saved me a trip to the supermarket, so made my day).

The Washington Post lists other markets around the DC area (though it seems to leave out my neighborhood one on Saturday mornings in Woodley Park).  Outside DC, check out the USDA site, which lists some information about markets by state.

RestaurantPalaver: Easter Goodies at ACKC

If you're looking for special treats for someone's Easter basket, Artfully Chocolate Kingsbury Confections, the chocolate shop/cafe/art gallery on 14th Street, has a tableful of dark and milk chocolate bunnies, ducks, eggs and other delights, wrapped up with Eastery ribbons.  An advantage of a chocolate shop that is also a cafe is that it opens early and closes late, making it easy to swing by on the way to or from work to pick up some goodies.  (ACKC isn't having a seasonal identity crisis; I took the above photo right after posting about the new shop in December.)

Artfully Chocolate Kingsbury Confections
1529c 14th Street, NW (at Church Street)
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 387-COCO

BarPalaver: Molly's Shebeen

Ten years ago or so on a wet November afternoon mysterywriter, Dubliner, and I ducked into the Union Square Barnes & Noble to get out of the rain and ended up frittering away a good three hours browsing books. (That was a record even for us.)  Afterward we wandered up Broadway and came upon a film shoot across from the Flatiron Building.  We waited an inordinately long time in the cold drizzle for what ended up being a disappointing payoff:  watching Vince Vaughn get into a limo and drive off (a scene, evidently, in "Return to Paradise").  Never linger at a film shoot with high hopes.

Fortunately, our dejected, aimless wandering afterward took us eastward to Third Avenue, where we happened upon Molly's Shebeen.  We couldn't see in and were dubious, but were so cold and wet that we figured we'd go in for a pint while we warmed up and figured out our dinner plans. Once in, we never wanted to leave (and didn't, for hours).  We found ourselves in a cozy, authentic, neighborhood Irish pub, with a fireplace, perfectly drawn Guinness, good Shepherd's pie, and an assortment of locals both behind and in front of the bar (including one patron with a little dog on his lap).  We've gone back many times.  One evening mysterywriter had to get up early for work the next day.  Every time the server came by and asked if we wanted another round mysterywriter would say "none for me, thanks," and the server would say, in her lovely, lilting accent, "how about a half pint?"  I don't remember how many half pints mw had that night.

I'm thinking of Molly's not just because it's St. Patrick's Day, but because it was featured in a New York Times article yesterday on Irish pubs in New York (including the photo above):

It is a place to have a pint by the fire or, even better, to have a meal in the back under the glow of warm orange lighting from chandelierlike fixtures, and walls with dusty memorabilia that the warm orange lighting doesn’t quite allow you to make out. Shepherd’s pie, fish and chips, chicken pot pie, lamb stew are all served in a homey style that even the most non-Irish person in the world (say, a Bangladeshi farmer) would recognize as comfort food.