Weekly Roundup: “Oh My God We’re Getting A DC Top Chef” Edition

March 12, 2010 at 7:48 am · Filed under DC ·Tagged dc restaurant scene, recipes I want to try, top chef dc

Restaurants like Churchkey have helped put DC on the food map.

Ever since I came to DC four and a half years ago, the food scene has been expanding and growing right before my very eyes. The new bars and clubs that are opening up on H street, the ever expanding food scene on 14th street – it seems like every day there’s a new restaurant opening that I want to try. But now, I think the DC food scene has finally arrived. Yes – Metrocurean’s sources tell her that we’re getting a DC Top Chef.

Now, I know that Top Chef isn’t the last say on a city’s food scene – not by a long shot. The show’s focus on restaurant cooking really reflects one small part of a city’s food culture, after all – I’d still say that I wish DC had the vibrant ethnic food scene that you find out in the Maryland and Virginia suburbs, for instance. But still, I’m pretty damn proud of my little city.

Recipes I want to try, from this week’s Internet perusings:

• Salvadorian pound cake from One Bite at a Time. It’s a sweet cake that also uses Parmesan cheese – the combo looks fascinating to me.

• Blood orange yogurt cake, from The Atlantic. I think we’re seeing the tail end of orange recipes for the season. Next up -rhubarb.

• Amnesty cookies (they liberate all the bags of half-used ingredients from your cupboard), from David Lebovitz.

• Sesame cookies, from Atlantic Kitchen. I know that sesame is often used in desserts, but it’s something I always forget about. These look lovely.

And in other news:

• Dangerously Delicious Pies, a Baltimore Favorite, will be officially opening up their new H street store on March 12. Man. Does this mean I need to go down to H street? I hate paying cab fare. Via Frozen Tropics.

• I really liked this post from DC Foodies about the proper use of the word “Gastropub” (and, according to the post, I’ve misused the term quite a few times on this very site). Considering that DC is experience a Renaissance of “Gastropubs,” I’m glad someone is taking a look at what, exactly, a Gastropub is.

• Another sign that the DC Food Scene has arrived – two DCites made Food and Wine’s list of seven top Sommeliers: Greg Enert, Beer Director of Churchkey and Birch and Barley, and John Wabeck, Sommelier at Inox. Via Metrocurean.

• The Washington Post takes a look at DC’s secret supper scene. Seriously, a secret supper scene? DC is totally a food city.

• Everyone cheats in the kitchen. Canned chicken stock, pre-bagged lettuce, minute rice – we all use shortcuts. Endless Simmer lists their top three cooking cheats – and now I totally want to make them my own.

• The lovely Mango and Tomato is getting her teaching on – she’s started teaching Knife Skills classes. I totally think you should hit her up for a private class. The beautiful photos are by Adventures in Shaw.

• The Tipsy Baker is having a showdown. A chicken pot pie show down. In one corner – the chicken pot pie from Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc At Hom. In the other corner – the chicken pot pie from Pioneer Woman Cooks. Who’s pot pie reigns supreme?

• Rose Levy Beranbaum – my baking idol – doesn’t usually write about restaurants on her blog, so I was surprised to see this post from her calling out the “forkage fee” at The Spotted Pig in NYC.

• There’s such thing as a beer CSA? Really? Via Young and Hungry.

Happy Friday!

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