Thanksgiving Weekend Round Up
November 30, 2009 § Leave a comment
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.
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.
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.
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
November 14, 2009 § Leave a comment
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.
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!
Story of the Leo’s onion
November 6, 2009 § Leave a comment
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.
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
November 3, 2009 § Leave a comment
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.
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.
Notes on Food 