Tidbits: Early July Edition

A few things I've been eating lately:

* I have been playing a lot of soccer lately - both pickup and league, and my shins hurt like hell (note to self: find something to make these shinguards more, er, comfortable to wear while running around for one or two hours). Last night after one such pickup game down in DC (where I did pretty well, considering my lack of experience), I headed to Adams Morgan for a quick beer and bite before making the long slog home. I ended up at the cozy L'Enfant Cafe & Bar where I ordered a delicious savory crepe of salmon & boursin cheese ($13). It was a bargain, though the refreshing cherry beer I ordered, normally served with ice, clocked in at $10! That kind of took me by surprise (note to self: ask how much the damn beer costs).

* Whenever I eat Indian, I often gravitate to one or two recipes that are tried and true favorites: chicken tikka masala, saag gosht (lamb with spinach), murgh makhani (butter chicken), etc. At Mughal Garden the other night I settled on something somewhat different: their lamb methi ($14), which is lamb in a fenugreek sauce (hence the methi, which is fenugreek). It's not a taste I can easily describe, because I don't have a reference point. It's a very mellow dish, a lovely one with a lot of sauce you can soak up with much of your garlic naan. I recommend it.

* I haven't been to Rocket 2 Venus lately. I did go last week, and could not get over how quickly I was seated... and how my waiter just completely forgot about me (very irritated about that). Fortunately after about ten minutes of tapping my fingers and checking my email, a waiter did come by to find out if I was being helped (nope), and my service was quite fast after that. R2V is a place with such an eclectic menu that you can spend a good long while trying to figure out what to order - maybe that was a plus for waiting while people seated after me ended up ordering first. After all the classic American, Southern, Western, Chesapeake, Cajun and Korean offerings, I ordered the bulgogi plate with fried rice ball, mashed potatoes & kimchi ($13). It was a very satisfying experience, with the soft bulgogi, kimchi and potatoes providing a flavorful contrast against each other. Plus, my food came out much faster than I had anticipated.

* Alas, all the area Super Fresh stores are now history, excepting for the one downtown on N. Charles Street. Some of them are already slated to become something else (like the one in Hampden, for example). The rest are just sitting around, twiddling their thumbs. I hope a Harris Teeter or something moves into the one on Putty Hill.

* I realized the other day: sometimes you want a nice, hearty breakfast of pancakes, sausage, bacon, etc., just like Mom used to make. And other times, all you want is a bowl of kimchi flavored noodles (second kimchi reference in this post, by the way).

* Find out in a few weeks what happened to this little guy that I got at the Maine Avenue Fish Market in Washington, DC, for all of $7 a pound:


* Soda update: I have been sticking to about 2 cans a day. With Dad in the hospital and the occasional late long drive back from DC I have allowed myself a little more of the stuff. But on the contrary, I have also found myself just normally drinking less. It's been a long time since I have ordered it in the restaurant, preferring beer, tea or water (I did order a soda at Lou's City Bar after a game the other day, to give me a shot of caffeine - which worked). But overall I have been going through a good bit less of it lately.

* And finally: I know he is moving out soon (er, being forced out by our landlord), but could my idiot neighbor please stop putting all his crap out by the side of the road for the trash and recycling people to just leave there!?!? It's bad enough he used to go through my recycling bin for cans, and the only reason he doesn't seem to do this anymore is because I have started putting it in a place where he is too lazy to look.

Ouch, did I just let all that pour out? Maybe I should smack him with one of my shinguards?

Tidbits: Early June Edition

A few items that have been waiting:

* While I wrote the other week about my food truck experience in LA, I never got around to my experience the week before in DC with their food trucks (I did send out Twitter posts about them though). I was specifically seeking the fabled Red Hook Lobster Truck (Twitter: @lobstertruckdc), parked that Wednesday at L'Enfant Plaza metro along with several other food trucks. It sells - what else - lobster rolls. Okay, it also has shrimp rolls, but they're known for the lobster. $15 for a lobster roll but this is absolutely worth it. They have two kinds: the Maine-style lobster roll, which is mayo-based, and the Connecticut-style roll, which is butter-based. I went with the Connecticut-style, and it was just wonderful. I could not stop little pieces of lobster from falling out of the roll, so I just ate those with my fingers - forgetting the obligatory fork, of course. They also have whoopie pies and New England lines of craft soft drinks.

Of course, I had to try the others, but how to do so with only $5 left? Get some small bites! The Fojol Bros (of Merlindia) (Twitter: @fojolbros) serve Indian plates, usually $7 or $8. Don't have that? Get one of their $2 "dingo bites" - sort of like a shot of one dish with rice. I got their silky butter chicken. After a free sample of jerk chicken from Goode's Mobile Kitchen (Twitter: @mobilekitchen), I got a massive side order of chickpeas for only $2 at the Tasty Kabob truck (Twitter: @tastykabob). I'm not kidding about the "massive" part either. This was easily as big as two lobster rolls, and as filling as two dozen of those dingo bites. If you have just two bucks, go to the Tasty Kabob truck, and you will get filled up.

* Heads up: both Baltimore and Washingtonian Magazines have similar themes this month: where to get the cool groceries, find the best butchers, peruse the nicest cheeses and sample the hoppiest beers. Read them for yourself to find out where to get the foods and shopping experiences you've been craving in the Baltimore-Washington area.

* Watching a soccer game at Sláinte Pub soon? Like, maybe, during the CONCACAF Gold Cup 2011 matches this month? (USA 2 - 0 Canada, yippee!) But you want to save some of that food money for beer or dessert? Why not sample the Sloppy Jim? For $10 (on special - it might be more at its regular price), you get a Sloppy Joe-style sandwich on an onion brioche bun, with cheese. And the Sloppy Jim isn't ground beef - it's bison sausage. Mmmm.

* Did you catch the Midday with Dan Rodricks show last week, with the big fried chicken smackdown between Gertrude's John Shields and the Baltimore City Paper's Henry Hong? No??? Check it out on the WYPR website here.

ADDENDUM: Speaking of food on the radio: today's Kojo Nnamdi Show featured a large segment on military food. Watch below as Kojo samples a delicious MRE:

* The last of my bacon-pancetta wot that I made for last year's Great Grapes bacon cook-off (info about this year's Great Grapes festival is here) has been sitting in my freezer - in a freezer ziploc bag - for almost exactly a year. Now? Still good.

Pupusas as ballpark food?

I went on a date last night to see the DC United play Colorado (it was a draw - gee, thanks, refs). It was my first visit to a DC United game - nay, my first visit to RFK at all. And since my self-imposed boycott of the O's back from a time when they brought suckitude to a whole new level, I have not been to a major league sporting event of any kind for years (NB: now that they're at a level where they deserve my money, maybe my feet will darken the doors of Camden Yards). The Ravens, as great as they are playing, really aren't an option at the current price. And I still need to get my ass down to the Arena to see the Blast at some point.

The last time I visited a stadium to see a sporting event, the tickets were $25 to see the O's play whomever. Those were nosebleed seats. The edible food was almost as much, and the inedible food was still overpriced. I know they serve a different caliber of ballpark food today - pit beef, crab cakes, real Marylandia - but down in RFK the food that I had was just different. In our section, the food was pleasantly Latin in flavor: Mexican and Salvadoran. Since he bought the tickets, I bought the food. I almost went with the carne asada with beans and rice ($10), though my date chose that for himself. Instead, I forewent that for a few pork & cheese pupusas with curtido (Salvadoran slaw) for $9 - or at least, that's what I should have paid for it, when the guy only charged me $6. Mr. Honesty here tried to point this out to him, but it was no use. And I needed the extra money to buy my date and I some Negra Modelos.

A few more beers later we were back on the Metro to his place (ahem) - and not before watching the many inspiring little league soccer teams in attendance, waving their DC, Maryland, Virginia and DC United flags whenever we almost got a goal (or when we got our one goal). There was also much yelling at the refs, who seemed to really like what the Rapids were doing. Just sayin'.

Because there's a very big football game today

I am very specifically not interested in this year's Super Bowl - and yes, that's because there are no Ravens in it. But many Bawlamorons will indeed be watching (and likely rooting for those Packers - the enemy of my enemy is my friend, yes?) Try not to gain too much weight during this game today, when the Super Bowl hits the big X-L-V. This video from CBS last year gives some tips, courtesy of the folks at Men's Health, on how to not put on too much weight today. Of course, nothing specific to this year's winners. Cheese would be the obvious choice for Packers snackers. As for Pittsburgh? Well, there are all those zombie movies, so...

Packers Cookies

Notice how much more prominent the Packers baked goods are on this table than the Steelers ones. Taken at the Columbia Harris Teeter.

Camden Yards has to find SOME way to draw fans back...

Apparently, there is some new "all you can eat" section at the ball park. And it's not just here. This from Brett LoGiurato at the Sports Illustrated website.

The left-field sections at Camden Yards are part of the growing trend of all-you-can-eat style options in major league ballparks. At a cost of $40 per ticket in the section, fans are entitled to a buffet-style choice that includes all the above-mentioned foods and even salad -- you know, in case you are feeling guilty.

"It's a great deal, especially for the teams that aren't selling out every game," [interviewee Matthew] Cavalier said. "The Phillies, Yankees and all them are always going to be fine. They don't need to do this. But for fans of, say, this team, it's a good plan."

The Orioles aren't the only franchise attempting to boost attendance in slacking sections with the promotion. Nineteen of the 30 major league teams offer the all-you-can-eat seats at some games in 2010, up from 13 two years ago and six in 2007.

The last time I went to Camden Yards (that was about four years ago), I shuddered at having to pay $4 for a hot dog. $40!? Dude!

World Cup - and Plate

I am getting very much into the World Cup going on currently in South Africa. There are eight teams headed to the quarterfinals that start on Friday - Uruguay, Ghana, the Netherlands, Brazil, Germany, Argentina, Paraguay and Spain - and soon enough there will be four. Once we get to those semifinals, I am going to try out (or for lack of time, find) a dish from each of the four semifinalist countries and write about it. And since the games are taking place in South Africa (who didn't even make it to the glorious Round of 16), I'll include a fifth recipe from there, too.

I can't really prepare for it right now, except for the South Africa part. But I can make some guesses: I'm pretty sure at least Brazil is going to make it forward. Did you see that game against Chile? Damn, now I understand just why Brazil is such a soccer - er, football - juggernaut. So there will definitely be something South American posted here at some point soon.

UPDATE 1: Well it looks like I was wrong about Brazil - the Netherlands beat them 2 to 1 today as Brazil just fell apart after the Dutch tied it up. Utter shock, and the five-time World Cup champs go home, while the Oranje - the best team never to win the World Cup - go on to the semifinals. So we have two cuisines of five set: South African and (NOT Brazilian but) Dutch. The only downside: Dutch food ain't that good. I've had it.

UPDATE 2: The field is narrowed again, as Uruguay heads to the semifinals for the first time since 1970, keeping Ghana - and the African continent - from their first ever trip to the semifinals.

UPDATE 3: And the semifinals are now set: the Netherlands will face Uruguay on Tuesday, and the following day the mighty German team will take on perennial never-been-to-a-finals-before-but-still-good Spain.

Sláinte Pub and the Amazing Last Minute Goal

Unless you live in a cave, you've probably heard by now about the dramatic US victory over Algeria in Wednesday's World Cup match. Thanks to Landon Donovan (I used to live in his hometown of Redlands, California, mind you), who scored the game's only goal in the 91st minute of play, the US Men's National Team went from being sent home to being the winners of our Group. Now we advance with England, while Algeria and Slovenia head home. Go USA!

I decided to watch today's match at Sláinte Pub (pronounced SLAWN-chuh in the South, or SLAN-chuh in the North) in Fells this morning, with a lot of men and women who decided to take a sick day today (the malady: World-Cup-itis). To do this, I had to get up pretty early. The hoopla started at 9:30, but unless you got there around 8:30 you were not going to find a seat. Not only did I find a seat but I found one at the bar (okay, somebody else's seat, but he was outside and let me use his seat until I finished eating) in plain view of their biggest TV. Sláinte's motto is "Where soccer is religion." It certainly feels like a tempe to the Beautiful Game: three floors were showing today's games - the bottom two floors had the US-Algeria game, and the top floor had the riveting game between England and Slovenia. Football scarves abound all over the pub. Perhaps they may show other sports here when something soccer-related isn't on, but I wouldn't bet the farm on it.

In addition to three Diet Cokes and two beautiful pints of Guinness, each with a fat and shaggy head of foam like I have rarely seen, I went ahead and ordered myself some breakfast. Sláinte's regulars swear this is THE place for a good breakfast. Most of these breakfasts are in the $9 to $13 price range, including a mixture of American and Irish breakfast favorites. Some of the more intriguing menu items include the the not-quite-Mexican-or-Italian ranchero fritatta ($15) and the imposing traditional Irish breakfast ($12) of bangers, rashers, scrambled eggs, beans and toast, etc (I may need to order this for Sunday morning's England game - yes, I'm already considering returning). They have more traditionally American offerings as well, including blueberry pancakes ($8) and vanilla French toast ($8.50).


My breakfast was the Boxtie (BOX-tee), a mishmash of Irish-style potato pancakes (like a few large hash brown patties) interspersed with egg, Irish bangers and rashers (sausage and bacon) and topped with what is described as a "Guinness-infused cheddar". The Boxtie is served with sliced potatoes, onions and green peppers, and a slice of melon with a strawberry. This is a pretty imposing breakfast in itself, and it took me a while to slog through it. My favorite part of this meal was the Boxtie itself - the potato pancakes were slightly crispy on the outside and moist on the inside, and not at all mushy. The flavors melded well with the bangers and rashers. I'm not sure how I feel about the Guinness cheddar. There could have been more of it, because I really didn't get too much of a taste. But overall it's a dish I would suggest you at least try. Perhaps you should try it when the US plays (I think they're playing) Ghana on Saturday afternoon? Or when England next plays on Sunday morning. I mean, Sláinte isn't a church, but again, you are getting their brand of religion! And it's easy to go into a higher state of consciousness when your team scores the game winning goal that keeps you in the whole dang tournament just before the game ends. It is amazing and exhilarating.


Again, GO USA!!!