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CLOSING OUT A WEEKLONG food drive for the Capital Area Food Bank, Dance Place is putting on a performance that's all about food. In "Chew on This," director Deborah Riley uses modern dance to explore issues of hunger, nutrition and food politics.
The idea for the performance came to Riley because of her love of cooking shows. The concept of food as entertainment was a revealing one, she found. "I got to thinking, particularly with the recent tragedy in Haiti ... that so many people don't have the luxury of thinking of food as entertainment," she said. "Food is life-sustaining and crucial to mere survival."
Riley seeks to cover a lot of ground in her subject matter, with topics ranging from Julia Child to farm subsidies to Afghanistan to healthy eating. While the show's structure is anything but linear, the dancers' use of spoken word attempts to keep the audience from getting too lost.
Continue Reading "Rethinking Food: A Step by Step Guide: Dance Place's 'Chew on This'" »
NO MATTER WHERE you hang your chef's hat, seasoning blends probably lurk in your pantry, zipping up the taste and looks of almost anything they dust. In the mid- Atlantic, we love to sprinkle crabs (and french fries, rockfish fillets and creamy soups) with Old Bay, a melange of celery salt, pepper, mustard and paprika. In Louisiana, Bloody Marys and blackened fish often get kicked up a few notches by Lawry's Seasoned Salt. Cooks have experimented with their spices since prehistoric times, a culinary cross-pollination that's resulted in time-saving blends. "Some flavors play well with each other, which is why these mixes came to be," says India-born, D.C.-based food writer Monica Bhide, author of "Modern Spice" ($25, Simon & Schuster). "With a blend, you don't have to stand in your kitchen and grind seven different spices. It's something ready to go." Here are five such globe-trotting combos, plus what pros suggest you do with them.
Herbes de Provence
A combination of oregano, basil, thyme, sage, savory, rosemary and, sometimes, lavender.
» Origin: Southern France
» Taste: "It's got a subtle flavor, sort of a shortcut to Mediterranean cuisine," says Paris food blogger Clotilde Dusoulier of Chocolateandzucchini.com.
» Traditional Use: This garden-to-table blend has starred in chicken, fish and veggie dishes for centuries. It's close amie: potatoes gratin (aka scalloped potatoes). "It's also good with goat cheese," says Dusoulier. "Cut some chevre, lay it on slices of bread, toast in the oven and sprinkle the herbs on."
» New Wave Use: "Make vanilla and Herbes de Provence ice cream," says Dusoulier. "Infuse the milk you use with the herbs for five minutes."
» Buy It: $4.85 for 4 oz.; Penzeys.com
Continue Reading "Spice Whirl: Globe-Trotting Spice Blends" »
IF YOU'VE EVER gone to a restaurant and fallen in love with the wine in your glass or the cheese on your plate, you're going to appreciate Clarendon's Screwtop Wine Bar, where all the wines, cheeses and charcuterie on the menu are also available in the shop.
"One reason I did this was because of the economy," owner Wendy Buckley says. "People can't afford to go out every night, but they can enjoy the same wine and cheese we have at the bar, and take it home affordably."
Screwtop, which opened in mid-December, focuses on boutique wines, and Buckley says that 70 percent of the bottles for sale are less than $30, with the lowest priced at $9.99.
WHEN THE JAMES Beard Foundation announced its restaurant and chef award semifinalists last month, Washington's J&G Steakhouse found itself among the nominees for best new restaurant.
As the foundation prepares to announce the names of finalists March 22, J&G General Manager Peter Smith spoke about how the latest location in chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten's expanding dominion has progressed since it opened its doors at the W Hotel on July 8.
» EXPRESS: What was your reaction to the James Beard nomination?
» SMITH: It's a great recognition among great restaurants. Obviously, we're thrilled. It's the top award you can win as a restaurateur, so we're really happy to be in the running. We're still a little shocked. We just opened, so it's just great.
SUNDAY: How did it get to be Oscar time again? Seriously, did another year go by already? Whatever. Let's talk the Oscar viewing party at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.
You know you want to judge the gowns and trash-talk co-hosts Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin. The question is: why would you leave your living room to do it? Let's make a list:
1. This party is "Academy-sanctioned" and black tie.
2. There's an open bar, and the money from your ticket benefits the Red Cross.
3. The voices told you you shouldn't be alone.
» National Museum of Women in the Arts, 1250 New York Ave. NW; Sun., March 7, 7 p.m., $100-$175; 703-584-8459. (Metro Center)
Photo by Gabriel Bouys/AFP/Getty Images
WHEN IT COMES to planning a dinner party, setting the table is just as important — but, thankfully, less time-consuming — as the hours you'll spend crafting raviolis or hovering over chocolate souffle.
Luckily, a nostalgic dining set-up usually costs less than what you spend on the cheese course. In her photo-filled book, "The Vintage Table" ($35, Clarkson Potter), stylist Jacqueline de Montravel shows how inexpensive vintage pieces can instantly spruce up place settings. Here, she dishes on flea market finds and granny-chic plates.
» EXPRESS: You say people should stop coordinating their tables and bring in more eclectic, retro pieces. Why?
» DE MONTRAVEL: After creating so many tabletops, what energizes me most is when someone uses their favorite personal pieces. It's just not as exciting to take out six matching plates, six glasses and six napkins, all from a store you can quickly identify. Those things can never be as special as an item that has a story behind it.
Continue Reading "Turning Back the Tables: Jacqueline de Montravel, 'The Vintage Table'" »
MOST PEOPLE WANT to get something for their birthdays. Not Art Smith, the restaurateur behind Capitol Hill's Art and Soul (415 New Jersey Ave. NW; 202-393-7777). For his big 5-0, he wanted to lose something: an even bigger 1-0-0. And as he celebrated Monday, he was 90 pounds toward his goal, with plans to knock off the final 10 in the next few weeks.
"Honey, when you're as overweight as I was — and there was a lot of me to love at 325 pounds — it's scary," he says. But it wasn't scary enough for the king of comfort food to do anything about it even after he'd developed diabetes. His feet hurt. His vision blurred. Then, one night last summer he rushed to the hospital convinced he was experiencing cardiac arrest. It was a false alarm, but Smith never wanted to go through that again.
It's not as though Smith was clueless about healthy living. He served as Oprah Winfrey's personal chef for a decade. He's prepared meals for the famously calorie-conscious Obama family, and he even developed the recipes featured in the book "The Spectrum," by wellness expert Dean Ornish. But that didn't mean it was simple to change a half-century of habits.
Continue Reading "New Work of Art: How Chef Art Smith Lost 100 Pounds" »
CHEF WILL ARTLEY of the Evening Star Cafe anxiously peeked out of the kitchen, trying to see the expression on a very important diner's face as she sampled his newest creation: a twist on a traditional lasagna. He didn't need to worry — the 5-year-old girl enjoyed her meal at the Del Ray eatery so much she devoured half of her plate and took the leftovers home in a doggy bag.
"When there's a critic, it doesn't bother me, but I was nervous," says Artley, who was debuting his revamped kids' menu. He used to offer younger customers chicken tenders and fries, grilled cheese and fries and the like (also with fries), but for the past week and a half, he's instead been dishing up meals packed with nutrients, whole grains and only low-fat dairy.
That lasagna, for instance, boasts whole-wheat pasta and a marinara with way more than just tomato. "I added broccoli, asparagus and carrot juice. And I pureed peppers into it," Artley says. His baked fish sandwich comes with a tartar sauce made from fat-free Greek yogurt rather than mayonnaise. His sloppy joe is ground turkey, not beef, on a whole-wheat bun with a red sauce that also includes other invisible veggies.
Continue Reading "Unexpected Asparagus: Sneaking Veggies into Kids' Dishes" »
IF YOU'RE TOO lazy to make your own — or, hopefully, just too tired from your workout — you can order this at Art and Soul for $13.
Ingredients:
» 4 egg whites
» 1/2 cup roasted trumpet mushrooms (1 ounce)
» 2 tbsp caramelized onions
» 1 cup picked spinach
» 1 tsp extra-virgin olive oil
» 1 slice pineapple
» 1 slice cantaloupe
» 1 slice honeydew melon
» 1 strawberry sliced
» Kosher Salt to taste
Serves 1
Preheat oven to 350. Heat a non-stick oven-safe pan over medium heat and add the oil. Add the spinach and cook until the spinach is wilted. Add the roasted mushrooms and onions, and heat through. Add the egg whites and cook for one minute.
Continue Reading "Recipe File: Art and Soul Egg White Frittata" »
MAYBE IT'S SEASONAL Affective Disorder. Maybe your girlfriend just dumped you, because "she couldn't handle another Valentine's Day." Maybe Delta Airlines just ruined your carefully calibrated travel plans by rescheduling the one flight that could get you from a wedding to a graduation. Whatever: When I'm upset with life, I go to Zola (800 F St. NW).
It's not what you expect a comforting bar to be — no fireplace, no grotty regulars, no generically cozy trappings. What it does have is an effortless elegance and the best sliders in town. When they first became a culinary thing, I scoffed at the weensy burgers. But when they're perfectly cooked and cost $1.50 each, you can't argue against them — because your mouth is full of tiny pulled-pork sandwich.
Happy hour runs every day between 5 p.m. to 7p.m. and 9 p.m. to 11 p.m., and also features $4 beers and wine, $5 martinis and $6 sangria.
Addison Road