Cocoa Mademoiselle

Magic Berries at EFN Lounge

This past Friday was the first Flavor Trip party at EFN Lounge in DC. I'd heard about these magic berries ever since they were featured on notcot and in the NYTimes, and FINALLY got to see if they really worked. 

For $12, you got a magic berry, scientific name: synsepalum dulcificum, instructions on how to eat it, and access to the Tripeteria, where there was only salty, sour, and bitter foods, including Sour Patch Kids, briny green olives, lime slices, and a bunch of condiments like Tabasco sauce and vinegar. Drinks were also on order. 

According to the provided trip tips: "do not eat the berry. do not bite or eat the berry's seed. remove the pulp completely from the seed with your tongue and teeth without biting the seed. swirl around your tongue for 2-3 minutes to allow the glycoprotein to bind to your taste buds."

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It was quite the experience. Some descriptions, like Guiness tasting like a chocolate milkshake, were lies, but limes really did taste like delicious, sweet candy and beer had a distinct flavor as well. Also, as someone who isn't usually a big fan of olives, AMAZING. I don't even really know how to describe them after eating them with the berry. Tabasco sauce and vinegar were the strangest because before you actually tasted the condiments, you could smell the spiciness or acidity. Yet, the taste was completely sweet. Even crazier was the huge kick once you gulped the Tabasco. Definitely very tricky. 

So, if you're ever in the DC area during the second Friday of each month, you can reserve your tickets here for $12 a seat beforehand. The party lasts from 7-9 PM, and it's a pretty fun experience.   

Eating on M and the Waterfront

A couple weeks ago, a friend from high school visited, and we head to Clyde's for weekend brunch. I ate there earlier in the year and wasn't really impressed with the food (my hanger steak that I ordered was a little dry). My impression didn't really improve when we ordered to share a large fruit salad and got one of the ugliest piles of fruit I think I'd ever seen. None of it was fresh: the grapes had that over-ripe flavor and oozy texture and the melon was so hard and not sweet at all. Clyde's fruit salad: FAIL.

But, they did redeem themselves with the pumpkin spice pancakes. The batter is made of whole wheat and oatmeal, which is probably why they're still so fluffy even with the pumpkin weighing it down. They also included pecans, which added a good bit of crunch. Drowned in real Vermont maple syrup and accompanied with almost-entirely crisp bacon, and I was a happy camper. I only tried Jimmy's potatoes (which I didn't really think compared to my patatas bravas and rosemary roasted potatoes), but his Eggs Benedict looked delicious and he seemed pretty satisfied with his choice. 

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Afterwards, we hung out at the National Mall and went to the Museum of Natural History. I've been there at least 10 times through my Georgetown years, but this time they had the annual National Geographic Photo Exhibit up and some of those pictures just blow my mind. The patience and fearlessness some of these people have - there was a really close-up photo of a shark ripping some poor, inferior sea creature to pieces, no detailed spared. It didn't even look real to me because it was so close. Oh yeah, we also saw an albino squirrel running around the trees getting picked on by the normal colored squirrels. Damn. 

This past week, I also went with Amy to Agraria/Farmers and Fishers. I don't really know what to call it anymore. Last year, when I considered going for Restaurant Week, it was called Agraria and it was actually one of those really fancy, tasting menu places where it was impossible to get a reservation. When I looked it up again this year, it was called Farmers and Fishers and the prices fit much more comfortably within my budget. I think it was bought by the same people who own Founding Farmers (a place located in the IMF building that emphasizes local and sustainable eating), and now you get to eat a hearty, American meal on the Georgetown waterfront.

One of the things they're famous for is the fresh squeezed juices and homemade sodas. The lemonade I ordered was wonderfully tart and sweet, and I liked the little bit of pulp that they left. We then shared a Maryland Crab dip and ciabatta bread as an appetizer. Gooey, rich, fatty. It was so tasty, but I definitely regretted eating so much of it later. My entree was a HUGE pork shank, crispy on the outside and almost completely tender on the inside. Some parts were a bit tougher but the fact that the entire shank was seasoned perfectly made up for that oversight. Amy's mahi-mahi was flaky and delicate and the pesto that topped it added the right amount of zing.

It was snowing/raining by the time we were walking back (the first snow of the season!) and it was really nice to just chill for the rest of the evening. Because the snow put us in such a holiday mood, we watched Love Actually, drank hot chocolate, and made paper snowflakes and green and red paper chains to decorate the apartment, like the elementary school kids that we are.

My final fall semester at Georgetown is almost over. Wow.

Thanksgiving Weekend Round Up

Still recovering from all the wining and dining this past weekend. Posting photos with some rambling now, recipes may come afterwards. 

Timeline:

Wednesday - Family friends came to the house from Boston, bearing nine, gorgeous live lobsters. We found this out after we'd already steamed a dozen Chesapeake blue crabs and purchased an entire roasted duck. Opened a bottle of Marques de Riscal and had a happy time around the table. Surprisingly finished almost all the food we had to eat.

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Thursday - Thanksgiving at Nan's in Long Island. Met her fiance, James. They're so cute together. Two whole turkeys, endless side dishes, four giant desserts. Nan's zombie, hairless cat named Zoey who hissed at me when I tried to take her photo. Failed at working off calories by playing Wii Home Run Derby. Food coma all the way home.

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Friday - Post-Turkey Day reunion with high school friends. Lots of wine and cheese. Giant eclair cake. Essentially, take vanilla pudding mixed with equal parts cool whip. Start with layer of original graham crackers. Top with pudding mixture. Alternate layers. End with graham crackers on top. Cover in melted chocolate frosting. Make pretty design with any leftover pudding mixture. Let chill in fridge for 2 hours so crackers get crumbly. Let everyone who eats it believe that it was insanely complicated to make. Puahaha, suckers.

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Saturday - Visited Nan in NYC. Ate and ate and ate,including smores. Watched Zombieland, laughed at Tallahassee and cried at the blood and gore. Joe is a LIAR. More wine and Wii. Played House of Dead and shot fake zombies to make myself better about the movie. Could not sleep. 

Sunday - Woke up to zombie cat Zoey staring me in the face. Huge farmer's breakfast at Cornelia Street Cafe and Bakery. Murray's Cheese on Bleecker. IBERICO HAM. Home. Birthday noodles, pre-20th bday celebration with fam. Thanks for the gifts! Pass out.

Eatin' Good Stuff

It's been such a good weekend! Last night was the Maroon 5 concert and this morning, Emily and I went to the Library of Congress today to do research in the reading room, and for lunch, we went to Good Stuff Eatery, the excellent burger and milkshake place helmed by Spike Mendelsohn, of Top Chef Chicago fame. 

Even though it was Saturday near Capitol Hill, the place was busy with tourists and DCers. I ordered the Colletti's Smokehouse burger with applewood bacon, sharp Vermont cheddar, and fried Vidalio onion rings with chipotle BBQ sauce, and Emily got the turkey burger with lettuce, tomato, cheese, caramelized onions, and mushrooms. We also got accompanying strawberry and chocolate milkshakes. 

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The patties were well seasoned (the last thing I want is something with no salt) and cooked a medium-rare, and the buns were squishy but toasted at the same time. Surprisingly, there was no burger juice soakage into the bun. I was surprised that the fried onion ring in mine managed to stay so crispy, and if Spike ever decides to bottle that chipotle BBQ sauce, I'll always have one in my pantry. 

I loved my strawberry milkshake. At first it was a bit too dense due to the custard, but after a couple swirls with the spoon, it thinned enough to be slurped by a draw. My favorite part was the HUGE dollop of whip cream that wouldn't disappear no matter how times I smooshed it around in my cup.

I hope we can keep this little tradition. Since I most likely won't have classes on Fridays next semester, we're going to try to go to Capital South once a week and get to know the neighborhood better. Who knows, maybe I'll even work there as an intern in the spring!

New Blog: dessin numéro 1

Hey all! So, as much as I love, and will always love, food, I decided I needed another place to post about my other interests and any random happenings in the life of Becky.

Voila, DN1! The blog title, dessin numero 1, is from one of my favorite books, The Little Prince. You can find out more in the "About" page. Unlike CocoaMademoiselle, which is entirely food-based, DN1 isn't limited to one subject...already I've posted about a great Marshalls find, tasteless food advertising, and a Maroon 5 concert (and my new crush, Adam Levine). 

Don't worry, just because I've a new baby doesn't mean CM is defunct. In fact, I'm currently in the reading room of the Library of Congress (feelin' the National Treasure vibes), and later, Emily and I are heading to Good Stuff Eatery, the burger place headed by Spike Mendelssohn (Top Chef alum) for lunch. Pictures and post soon!

Story of the Leo's onion

About a week ago, Danielle was standing in line at the pasta station at Leo's dining hall when she noticed a display of vegetables, including this GIANT white onion. I don't know what made her take it straight from under the pasta lady's nose, but I'm definitely glad she did.

It took a long time for me to appreciate good cheese, especially anything blue and extra stinky. Maybe it's because in my family, we didn't really eat too many dairy products growing up. But now, there's nothing I like better than a slab of melted brie slathered on bread.

I'd done the sweet topping + brie combination before, so after picking up about a 1/4 wheel of brie at Dean and Deluca yesterday, I thought we'd go the savory route for our apartment wine and cheese night.

I think that caramelized onions taste pretty much good on anything, even by themselves. They take a while to make, but once you have that wonderful onion jam, you realize that the constant stirring and vigilance is completely worth it, especially when it's combined with gooey triple cream cheese. 

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Baked Brie with Caramelized Onions

4 large onions, sliced
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon sugar
3 tablespoons olive oil

generous wedge of Brie (we had a pound of Belletoile Triple Creme split among 5 of us)
sliced baguette or crisp french toasts

On medium heat in a large saute pan, heat the olive oil until it begins to shimmer. Add all the onions, salt, pepper, and sugar and stir occasionally. * The key is allowing the onions to brown a little, leaving crusty goodness on the bottom of the pan and then scraping up the bits with a wooden spoon. This trick gives the onions that wonderful mahogany color. If it looks like the scraps on the bottom of the pan are about to burn, add a little water (don't be scared of a little sizzling), and it'll be easier to scrape them up. No matter what, you have to make sure you stir them, especially towards the end when most of the moisture from the onions has evaporated.

This whole caramelizing process will take about 45 minutes to an hour, but you want to keep an eye on them; otherwise they might burn.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 F. Once the onions are dark brown, place the wedge of brie on an oven-safe dish, top with the onions, and stick in the oven for 7 minutes or until it starts to get gooey, but doesn't melt completely.

Serve with the slices of baguette.

The Dancing Crab

Dad came down to Maryland this past week for a business retreat, and on Thursday, he decided to ditch his meeting to do work in the pretty new business building and hang out with me.

For the longest time, he's been asking me to find a good restaurant in D.C. that serves Old Bay steamed crabs, and for some reason, I only discovered the Dancing Crab (located about a block away from the Tenleytown metro top, red line) this year.

We got the "all you can eat" blue crab deal for 29.95 each, and it came with hush puppies (now my new favorite carb source because they're like savory, bacon-greased cornbread fritters) and less than mediocre fries. 

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It'd been so long since I'd eaten steamed crabs, and like the macho I usually am when it comes to food, I thought I'd be able to down 10 no problem. We ended up stopping at 20 total, and we only filled the giant bucket halfway. I was quite ashamed of myself. However, in my defense, these were pretty large specimens, filled with tons of meat and seasoned really well, so I guess less was more in this case?

Unfortunately, because I ate such an overwhelming amount during that single dinner, I think it might be a whole 'nother year before I can experience the "all you can eat" crab deal again. Though, I think we might've started a Quan tradition.  Dad now wants to embark on another "all you can eat" journey, and we're trying to decide what the next food should be. Hank's Oyster Bar in Alexandria has "all you can eat" oysters and select artisan beers on Saturdays for $65, but sadly I can't take advantage of that yet and I don't think I'd be able to handle too many oysters anyway. Something about their slimy texture (though delicious!) would probably prevent me from eating too many in one sitting.

Parents' weekend at Hank's, apartment rearranging

I've been so awful with posting, but after this week, I promise to do better. 

The weekend of October 15 I got my LSAT results (meh), but luckily, my dad and sister #3, Laura, visited me for parents' weekend the very next day, which was a nice consolation. Laura had a bunch of extra credit places to visit for her AP US History class, so most of the day was spent traipsing around the DC monuments in the bitterly cold rain, including the Washington Monument, the Korean War and Vietnam War memorials, the Lincoln Memorial, basically everything you could think of.

On the plus side, we got a good amount of seafood at Hank's. Laura got to try her very first oyster and lobster roll, both of which were as delicious as the first time I had them. But for some reason, I still feel very iffy about the fried oysters; something about their taste changes when they are cooked (they get this really strange bitter taste) and I don't think I like it very much. I'd rather stick with their raw, deliciously briny and cucumber-y  brothers and sisters. yum. I forgot that the restaurant likes to leave really good dark chocolate as an after-meal snack, but this time, we had a leftover plastic bag from the oyster crackers and scooped up all the pieces to save for later. 

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While we were out during the day, my roommates Danielle and Quint went on a rearranging rampage. As you can see, the living room/kitchen space looks so much more open now, and we've got a little desk in the nook near the window. I love that there's an extra light now too; one of the major problems we had before was the dimness of the living room, where most of us like to get work done in the evening. 

After looking at our own bedroom, Emily and I decided to move some stuff around too. Now our beds are unbunked and I've got the coziest little corner to do work! I don't think I'm ever going to leave my room once it gets cold outside. Just gonna get constant refills of hot cocoa from the kitchen and spend all day in my bed.

Considering how much furniture moving we did that night, we held a spontaneous wine and cheese night. The brie and white wine were from dean&deluca (so delicious), and my dad just brought down a bunch of fruit (concord and table grapes, tangerines, bananas) so we had quite the snack. I took the baked brie with honey and walnuts out of the oven while we were still moving things around, and since it stayed on the hot plate for a while, it melted so much more than the first time I made it. It still tasted delicious with the toasted french baguette, though.

My dad's in DC again this week for a conference in Rockville, MD, and I think tomorrow we'll be going to the Maine Avenue Fish Market in southwest DC to have some tasty Chesapeake Old Bay Crabs before they go out of season. After that, I'll be working on law school applications all weekend since deadlines are coming up, but I'm going to do my best to post about the crab dinner and recipes next week!

Asian comfort food: sesame peanut noodles

It's starting to get pretty chilly here in DC and the rain isn't helping any.  On days like these, all I want to do is snuggle on the couch with a really good book and eat comfort food, which includes any type of carb. One of the dishes I start to crave the most is a sesame peanut noodle dish that my mom always used to make when she didn't feel like making anything too complicated. 

It's great because you can customize it to your own tastes, and extremely simple so even if you're living in a college dorm like me, it's definitely manageable.  I usually like to add shredded soy-poached chicken leftovers and lots and lots of hot sauce, but if you're vegetarian, the dish is filling enough to be eaten without any meat. The sauce is wonderfully creamy and the flavors balance so well, with sweet countering savory perfectly.

I've made it enough that I don't really use formal measurements, but I adapted the original recipe from, who else, Mark Bittman in his book, The Best Recipes in the World.

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Sesame peanut noodles, serves 4-5

12 oz udon noodles, linguine would be ok too
2 tablespoons dark sesame oil
1/2 cup of peanut butter
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
chili oil or hot sauce to taste
salt to taste
minced scallions as garnish
* the recipe also tastes really good with grated cucumber mixed into the sauce 

1. Cook the noodles in boiling salted water until tender. Drain.

2. Whisk the peanut butter, soy sauce, sugar, vinegar, hot sauce, and salt.  Gradually pour warm water into the mixture and continue whisking until the consistency of the sauce resembles heavy cream. Adjust the seasoning if needed.

3. Toss together the noodles and the sauce and add any more seasoning if necessary. Drizzle with additional sesame oil, if desired, and garnish with scallions.

This dish tastes good both warm and cold, so save leftovers!

 

 

Taste of Georgetown 2009

This past Saturday, October 11, was the annual Taste of Georgetown event.  All the restaurants near campus get together on Wisconsin Avenue, set up tents, and serve tastings to event-goers.  There's also a giant Wine Tasting Pavilion for those who can drink that's set up on the lawn of Grace Church (which I find kinda ironic). Tickets were $5 for each tasting and $20 for 5, so Erin and I decided to get our money's worth and go for the $20. 

It was the first time I'd ever attended, and in my opinion, the entire thing was really well organized. They had people standing on the corners of M and Wisconsin handing out maps of where individual restaurant tents were located and what kind of tastings they were serving as well as Purell wipes. The people running the ticket booth were also really efficient; one of my main worries was that getting our tickets would take more time than actually tasting the food. Luckily, Erin and I got there pretty early (around noon), so it wasn't too busy yet. When I returned at around 2:30 to get redeem my Baked and Wired ticket, I could barely walk down Wisconsin without getting jostled by people.

We opted to try 1789, considered by most the best restaurant in Georgetown, Bodega, Mie n Yu, Hook, and one of the two Georgetown bakeries, Georgetown Cupcake and Baked and Wired, for dessert. 

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Bodega's seafood paella was divine. I knew it'd be pretty delicious because I've had their tapas multiple times and love almost all of them, but to see that giant pan full of bubbling orange rice was a whole 'nother story. The smell of the shrimp, clams, and other oceany critters cooking was amazing, and they gave us a good amount for one tasting. I think I might take my dad and sister there when they come this Friday for parent's weekend.

1789's crispy duck confit was great as well, and I liked how the tartness of the cranberries in the compote balanced out the fatty and rich duck. I'm really looking forward to eating there before I graduate in May. The sweet potato pie from Hook was ok, but I've had Heather Chittum's other desserts before (like her Nutella dessert) and it didn't really live up to my expectations.  Something about the texture of the sweet potato custard was off, and it wasn't as smooth as i would've liked it to be. 

Mie n Yu's kimchee was really surprising. I think it was the first time I'd ever had kimchee and liked it. My mom always used to buy those giant glass jars of cabbage kimchee at the Asian supermarket and everyone in my family would eat it except me, so now I want to go home and try it again to see if I've changed my mind.  Their bulgogi wasn't like the Korean bulgogi I've had before. Whatever they used as a marinade didn't have that sweet flavor that you usually get from the pear or kiwi puree. The meat was tender and well cooked though. However, while eating all of this savory food, I really needed a drink. One thing the organizers could add for next year is a separate stand where they sell non-alcoholic drinks, because not all of us are old enough to drink wine (even if we want to).

Our last stop would've been Georgetown Cupcake, but they ran out early and said that we'd be able to redeem our tickets for 3 cupcakes at the store. We walked over to their location on Potomac, and the line was RIDICULOUS. Definitely not worth waiting for. Later, when I had to go back to M to return some purchases, I walked past the store again to see if it was any shorter, but it was almost TWICE as long, winding around the block. Since it was only 2:30 and Taste of Georgetown ended at 4, I thought it'd be best to go to the Baked and Wired tent and pick up their trio of brownie, bee sting, and fig newton to go.

The saddest part was that, as I was walking by the line for Georgetown Cupcake for the third time back to my apartment, I heard this woman telling her friend that they had the best baked goods in D.C. She was wrong on two counts. Georgetown Cupcake has...duh, only cupcakes, not a variety of baked goods. And second, in my humble opinion, Baked and Wired deserved that title. Their carrot cupcake is out of this world and the bee stings are my favorite. But she'd already been waiting in line for 30 minutes and I didn't have the heart to tell her the ugly truth. 

so while she was probably still waiting in line for her cupcakes, I was already back in my apartment, sitting on the couch watching FlashForward and enjoying a cup of hot chocolate with a selection of B&W's best .