The Buttock

Unbeknownst to me until the tail end of it, last week was Bethesda Restaurant Week. (I am perpetually out of the loop.) My roommate brought it to my attention Friday night, so we went out to dinner at La Miche in Bethesda to take advantage of the deal. In French, a miche is a round loaf of bread, but in slang it can also mean “ass cheek.” I’m thinking the restaurant owners were going with the first definition when they came up with the name…

La Miche was overall very pleasant – its interior was quaint, intimate, and very traditional. I thought the French music in the dining room was a nice touch, too. For $28 (a RW special), we got three courses. (When it’s not RW, you can get the same menu for $35, typically, which isn’t a bad deal.) For appetizers, we shared the baked brie and the escargot. The brie was mediocre at best – served with apple compote and toast, it was lukewarm and bland. The escargot was swimming in garlic butter – very tasty, but nothing out of the ordinary.

We both ordered the cuisse de canard (duck leg confit), which was served with potatoes and mushrooms. It was delicious, albeit a little greasy. This could have something to do with the fact that it's SOAKED IN ITS OWN FAT before being cooked in fat. Yum. Fat. The skin was perfectly crisp and golden, and the potatoes were cooked to perfection. I cleaned my plate.

For dessert, my roommate and I split the raspberry crème brûlée and the blackberries with fresh whipped cream. The crème brûlée was heavenly – delicate and buttery, with the raspberries adding nice little pockets of tartness. Loved it. The blackberries and whipped cream were nothing special; the cream was a little vanilla extract-heavy, and there were only about 6 blackberries in the dish. I should have ordered something a bit more exciting, but after the duck I was feeling like quite the heifer and didn’t feel like anything too heavy.

My feelings about the service were very mixed; it would best be classified as amiable but inefficient. Everyone was very friendly, (even the water guy beamed at us and asked us how we were doing) and the chef visited each table to make sure everyone was enjoying their meal, which is always a plus in my book. However, our main course took forever to come out even though the restaurant wasn’t particularly busy, and we had to wait an absurdly long time to get our check because our waiter was chatting with his friends who happened to be dining there. Slightly annoying.

I would recommend La Miche if you are looking for relatively inexpensive, traditional French food in an upscale setting. If you're willing to pay a bit more, I would recommend La Chaumière in Georgetown, which has slightly better service and a little more inventive take on French cuisine, although I suppose that’s another entry.

Mangez bien!

In Which the Protagonist Bakes a Pie

Old Ebbitt Grill is not a good first date spot for me. I've been there twice now on a first date, and it didn't work out either time. The first first date was with a guy who ended up taking my roommate to a concert a couple months later (they were friends) and then kissed her and tried to rip her bra off. A narrow miss. The other was with a man who would only communicate with me via text messages and wanted to introduce me to his mother.

After one date.

What Old Ebbitt does have, however, is one of the most magnificent desserts I have ever tasted: a bourbon-chocolate-walnut pie that is out of this world. I've been wanting to replicate it for quite some time now, and I finally came up with my own version. To make the pie, I tweaked a Mississippi Pecan Pie recipe from the 1000 Best Recipes cookbook, adding walnuts and chocolate chips instead of the pecans. I was a little nervous as to adding bourbon to it, so i just added it to whipped cream and topped it with that. Also, the pie crust may seem like a bit of work (versus buying pre-made), but it's worth it.


Walnut Chocolate-Chip Pie with Bourbon Whipped Cream
Pie recipe adapted from the 1000 Best Recipes Cookbook
Serves 4-6

For the crust:
1 cup all-purpose flour
4 Tbsp. butter
2 Tbsp. powdered sugar
1 egg yolk

For the filling:
5 Tbsp. light corn syrup
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
4 Tbsp. butter
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup semi-sweet mini morsels

For the whipped cream:
1 cup heavy whipping cream
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. bourbon

1. Dump the flour in a bowl. Dice the butter into the flour, then mix with your hands until the mixture looks like bread crumbs. Stir in the sugar, egg yolk, and two tablespoons of very cold water. Mix and knead with your hands until the dough is smooth. (Add a bit more water if the dough seems really dry.)
2. Roll out the pastry dough on a lightly floured surface until it is large enough to line an 8-inch pie dish. Line the dish with the pastry and prick the bottom with a fork a couple times, then line the crust with foil filled with beans or pie weights (this will weigh the pie crust down so it doesn't bubble up when baking.) Chill for 30 minutes and preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
3. Bake the pie shell blind (alone) for 10 minutes. Remove the foil and beans/weights and continue to bake the crust for 5 more minutes.
4. Reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees.
5. To make the filling, heat the corn syrup, brown sugar, and butter in a saucepan over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Remove from the heat and cool slightly. Whisk in the eggs and vanilla extract. Stir in the walnuts and chocolate chips (but you don't have to stir until the chocolate melts - it's better if it doesn't.)
6. Freak out because the filling looks very liquidy, but pour it in to the crust anyway, and trust that everything will work out better than my first dates. Bake for 35-40 minutes until the filling is set.
7. While that's baking, whip together the cream, sugar, and bourbon with an electric mixer until peaks form and it resembles, well, whipped cream. Feel free to add a bit more whiskey, if you'd like. Serve with the pie.

A fizzy lifting drink and a gigantic digeridoo

Last night, I attended a food and wine event at the Australian embassy. They had a wine tasting going on, which I adore - I love nodding as the sommelier discusses the bouquet and pretending to know what he's talking about, then swirling the wine around in my glass pretentiously and taking slow sips, pausing in between each one to try and pick out different notes, although the best I can usually come up with is nothing more detailed than "fruity" or "woody." Classy, Kate. Occasionally, though, I encounter a wine that packs a real gustatory wallop (very technical term.) Last night's was the sparkling Shiraz. Indeed, I had never even heard of it, so it was quite a pleasant surprise. It had all the intensity of a good Shiraz with a pleasant buzzy kick. I think I'm really excited about it because I truly prefer red wine, but it always seems so heavy in the summer. This, though, is as refreshing as a white (it is served chilled), but I don't have to sacrifice that full-bodied flavor of a red that I love. I'm told it goes well with barbecue; I think it would be a great accompaniment for grilled steak.

The wine we sampled was a 2004 Paringa sparkling Shiraz. Relatively inexpensive at $10 a bottle (I can afford it, hurrah!), it had notes of blackberry, raspberry and chocolate. Pretty much everyone I saw return to the bar requested a glass of it. Fun and delicious.

Note: I was told that sparkling Shiraz is not very common and can be difficult to locate. I'm not sure of any DC wine stores that carry it - I'm going to check Best Cellars in Dupont today. Two websites that I've found that have it (and deliver!) are The Jug Shop (great selection) and Stirling Fine Wine.

Also, I saw an Aborigine play a digeridoo. A night can't get much better than that.

I may or may not have licked this to see what it tasted like.

So, I've never been a big fan of hand creams. I hate how they take ages to soak in, how if you meet someone shortly after applying one they think you have heinously sweaty palms, how they get under your fingernails; the list of grievances is long, my friends. That was, until I discovered the mother of all hand creams: J.R. Watkins Apothecary's Lemon Cream Shea Butter. Not only is this generously-sized tub sold at none other than the classiest of locales (i.e. Wal-Mart) for about 5 big ones (or online for $7.99 plus shipping), it absorbs quickly so I can reach out and touch a stranger almost immediately without embarassment, and it smells like lemony cake batter. (But not in the, "Hello, I'm a hooker and I think you'll be attracted to me if I smell of food," Jessica Simpson Dessert Beauty kind of way. Glad we got that cleared up.)

Also, just as a side note, J.R. Watkins is not paying me to wax poetic about his product. I just think the man makes a really good hand cream and felt it was time to spread the love. Plus, that would be a huge waste of his money, as I'm pretty sure about 2 people read this blog, one of which is probably my mom.

Photo credit: watkinsonline.com

The Catholic Guilt Complex

I just ate a Fractured Prune doughnut. At 4:30 in the afternoon. And now I feel very bad about myself. Just thought I'd share. (Although, sweet Jesus are they good.)

It's coming...

DC Restaurant Week! From August 6-12, select restaurants around the city will be offering prix-fixe menus for lunch and dinner. Click here for a list of participating restaurants.

I've been dying to try Butterfield 9, and this seems like the perfect opportunity! Joy, rapture.

Image credit: washington.org

A winning combination. Like a martini and a Percocet.

You could maybe sprinkle some Ecstasy on it. That might be good.

Last week I ate at Paolo’s with my roommate and her family (delish, B.T. dubs.) They had a salad on the menu featuring watermelon and feta, which I did not order but have been obsessing about ever since. I finally made my own, and the result was so tasty – refreshing, tart, and sweet, with a little creamy, salty, and nutty thrown in with the feta and pine nuts. A perfect summer salad. Also, I realize that you're supposed to use 3 parts oil for 1 part vinegar in a vinaigrette, blah, blah, but I really like basalmic and don't really see the point in adding lots of fatty oil. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it.

Watermelon, Feta, and Mixed Greens with Honey Balsamic Vinaigrette

1 bag pre-washed spring mix lettuce (5 oz. of baby greens, spinach, and raddichio, whatev)
1 ½ cups seedless watermelon, cubed and bite-sized (I just bought a container of pre-sliced watermelon)
¾ cup feta cheese, crumbled
¼ cup pine nuts
¼ cup balsamic vinegar
3 tsp. honey
2 Tbsp. olive oil

1. In a small skillet, toast the pine nuts over medium-high heat for a minute or two. (Basically, dump the pine nuts in the skillet – no oil – and wiggle them around over the heat until they brown a bit and begin to smell nutty. This really brings out their flavor. Be careful to keep the nuts moving, though, as they can burn easily. Feel free to announce to everyone in the vicinity that you’re “keeping the nuts moving.”) Remove from heat and let cool.
2. In one of those glass salad dressing mixer things, shake up the balsamic vinegar, honey, and olive oil. (Or whisk ‘em together in a bowl if you’re not fortunate enough to possess a glass salad dressing mixer thing.)
3. Toss the greens, ½ cup of feta, and the pine nuts in the vinaigrette in a large bowl. After tossing, throw the watermelon and remaining feta on top of the greens and serve. (I was hesitant to toss the watermelon with the rest because I didn’t want it to get smushed up.) Yum.