Culinary side effects

Celeb chef Anthony Bourdain says the economic downturn may be good for the restaurant business:

There is going to be an apocalyptic shakeout. On the plus side, the bullsh** will be the first to go. (Nation's Restaurant News via The Big Money)

If the recession leads to a purge of derivative, sub-par tapas bars and Belgian beer-and-frites places, maybe it will all be worth it.

The Omnivore's Hundred

My friend Joe Wang points out this excellent list of foods that "every good omnivore should have tried at least once in their life" from Very Good Taste.

What a fun exercise! I am bolding the ones I have tried. I think "tasting menu at a Michelin 3-star restaurant" has got to be next on the list, and I will wait on "crocodile."

The VGT Omnivore's Hundred:

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat's milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin [WORST FOOD EVER!!! The only food I have ever tried and not liked.--Ed.]
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald's Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs' legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

Market segmentation creeps me out

Apparently our presidential candidate preferences fall along Fig Newton/chewy chocolate chip/crunchy chocolate chip lines. That's right--marketing researchers have correlated food choices with political choices. Read more here and here about how Obama has "the arugula vote," McCain voters seem to prefer margarine, and my love for Kashi GoLean inaccurately points to a preference for Clinton.

Those crunchy chocolate chip cookie people...weird, no surprise they are voting for McCain. I have nothing in common with those people. Chewy all the way.

Giant to start selling Metro SmarTrip cards

(WP) Wow. How convenient is that?

I am never shopping at Whole PaycheckFoods again. Except when I get that "grass-fed, free-range, Tibetan-virgin-massaged lamb stuffed with pine nuts and feta" craving, or need a new bag of organic 50-cents-apiece marshmallows. (Actual product, that second one)

Genius on 18th St.

Washington, meet M'Dawg. The puppy-themed "haute dog" joint was opened recently by the same people who brought us the Amsterdam Falafelshop, and you'll see the similarity.

M'Dawg offers your choice of 3 different buns and about 15 different types of dogs, from the humble Hebrew National to a $22 Kobe beef dog. And 3 flavors of veggie dogs. But the real joy is the toppings bar, where for a dollar extra you can add any of a dozen hot and cold toppings. Mmmm...

There are a couple of flaws here, though. First, the cost: each dog will run you $5, and the toppings bar is a dollar on top of that. Not bad for a decent meal in DC, but something inside me shuddered at coughing up $27 for our four-dog meal. I mean, these are hot dogs. Second, the veggie dogs: sawdusty and dry, another brand or house-made dogs might make them worth the price.

But anyway, check it out, across the street from the Falafelshop on 18th in Adams Morgan.

The omnivore's confusion

An article in last week's Economist questions several widely-held assumptions about the environmental impact of different food choices and sourcing. If you've got 'em I'd be interested in seeing support or critiques of some of these ideas, especially the point about food-vehicle-miles and local products. Among the claims presented:

Organically grown food. The article quotes the "green revolution" guy, Norman Borlaug, who argues that the total land area required to produce a given amount of food organically is much greater than that required to produce it using synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. More land used for agriculture = more forest clearing etc. Borlaug, of course, has always been proponent of chemical agriculture, but the land area argument is new (to me at least).

Locally grown food. There are many reasons, social, economic, and environmental, to buy locally grown goods. One of the commonly accepted reasons is that locally grown food does not have to travel as far to reach your table, saving energy and pollution from transporting and preserving it. But the UK's environment and ag department recently put out a report that found that "a shift towards a local food system, and away from a supermarket-based food system, with its central distribution depots, lean supply chains and big, full trucks, might actually increase the number of food-vehicle miles being travelled locally, because things would move around in a larger number of smaller, less efficiently packed vehicles."

"Fair trade" food. Some economists don't like it because it messes with the price signals that should shift production away from crops that are being overproduced. (A problem if you assume that perfectly free markets always produce the "best" result.)

Beware the suggestive oversell

Ever since reading chef Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential, I've been a little skeptical of ordering things like fish on Fridays (the end of the week, before new fish is delivered) and brunch specials (the way a restaurant gets rid of ingredients that have been hanging around for a while).

That's why I was so amused by a waiter's behavior at the Beacon Bar and Grill last night. Settling down for some drinks and small plates as we waited for a friend, my companion ordered bread. "You mean the shrimp toast," the waiter replied weirdly. "Umm, no, venison sausuage, and an order of bread," we said. When a third friend arrived, the waiter immediately asked him, "How about the shrimp toast?" It was all kind of blatant. Shrimp toast was mentioned at least once more during the course of the evening.

Why are they trying so damn hard to move the shrimp toast? My guess would be that that shrimp is nearing the end of its useful lifespan. I'd advise not ordering anything containing shrimp at BBG in the near future. Especially not the shrimp omelet that may appear on the brunch menu this weekend. Bon appetit.

By the way, there's a nice article in the City Paper this week in which Anthony Bourdain and other chefs try to top each other's horror stories.

Your summer drink has arrived

Check out the kick ass martini I just invented. Cool, refreshing, and chock-full of antioxidants, so really it's a wash.

Kick ass ginger martini (serves 4)

juice of 1 fresh lemon
2-3 tsp finely chopped fresh ginger (watch out, it has a kick)
6 oz. very awesome vodka (I recommend Belvedere)
2 oz vanilla vodka (Stoli Vanil or similar)
2-3 tablespoons simple syrup*
a crapload of ice

Pour the vodkas, lemon juice, and syrup over the ice in a cocktail shaker. Put the ginger in a garlic press and squeeze the gingery juices into the shaker too. Shake the hell out of it until the shaker frosts. Pour into four chilled martini glasses. You could probably also do fancy things with lemon peels and candied ginger...

*Plain sugar syrup. Either buy it somewhere, or make it by boiling 1 part sugar and 2 parts water together until it reaches a syrupy consistency. You can keep it in the fridge in a jar or tupperware--make a bunch because it also comes in handy for mint juleps and other summer drinks.

Reasons my supermarket cracks me up

I don't know exactly why the P Street Whole Foods makes me laugh so hard. Maybe it's the people yelling across the aisles to their spouses, "Honey, what was that great Cab/Zin/Pinot we had the other night?" (Referring to varietals with a single syllable nickname is just about the most bourgeois thing you can do.) Maybe it's the fact that this is the first time in my life that I've gone impulse shopping and ended up with cheese. Or the fact that you can pay twice as much to buy a cool, zebra-stripey eggplant that tastes exactly like a regular eggplant. (I checked.)

But most of all I think it is because if you took a poll of people walking into the store, you would find that 90% of them know how to pronounce aioli.