Tag Archives: top chef

Baltimore and Washington, D.C. are for Foodies

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Dangerously Delicious Throwdown

Dangerously Delicious Throwdown

The good folks at The Baltimore Chop and B More Sweet pretty much have this covered, so I’ll let them do the talking. Via The Baltimore Chop:

Tonight is the night that the Food Network is set to air the Dangerously Delicious episode of Throwdown with Bobby Flay.

The show will premiere at 9 pm, and Baltimore will be celebrating with a viewing party at South Baltimore’s own Mum’s. Yep. Mum’s. This is going to be sublime in so many ways.

If you know Mum’s at all, you know it’s not the kind of place that lacrosse players, condo-board types and tourists just stumble into on a whim. The show will not be competing with the World Cup or the NBA Finals for screen space. Nope, this is going to be a dedicated crowd, and they’re all going to be giving their full attention to booing, hissing and cursing Bobby Flay. And why not? It seems to us that there could be no more stark contrast in the culinary world than Flay and Rodney Henry. One is one of Baltimore’s prominent small businessmen who literally invented what he’s made from nothing. The passion and dedication that Henry has poured into his shop comes through in each bite, and he certainly deserves every bit of success he’s found. He can also rock a hat better than just about anyone in Baltimore. The other is a grating prettyboy with a rich-kid attitude who revels in his own celebrity and is the antithesis of everything Baltimore is about.

There’s actually a lot more information about tonight, with an emphasis on music and styling, so head on over to The Baltimore Chop to check it out. Oh, and B More Sweet reminds us that Comcast customers can watch this episode On Demand anytime:

And as far as I know, that’s the only good thing there is to say about being a Comcast customer!

Now, while The Chop may not be a foodie (your loss), this lady is. Or at least, I pretend to be.  And that’s why I’m super psyched that tonight is the first episode of Top Chef DC. I can’t quite articulate how excited I am to see my former city (of nearly twelve years, no less) serve as the backdrop for one of my most favorite reality TV shows. Even better, there are two local chefs to root for:

I can’t freaking wait! If you need a little something to entertain you until the local chefs hit the tube, check out the tour of the Top Chef DC house, via DCist and metrocurean.

Katie Lee’s Peanut Butter Balls

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(Get your minds out of the gutter kids.)

Why is it, when I try to “bake” something simple, I still can’t rock it out like my meticulous friend, BD?  Case in point, making Peanut Butter Balls from Katie Lee’s “The Comfort Table” cookbook. Remember Katie Lee? She used to be Katie Lee Joel – as in Mrs. Billy Joel – and also, and I’d argue more importantly, was the first host of Bravo’s Top Chef. She sucked, and thankfully she was replaced with the gorgeous Padma Lakshmi.

I digress.

I try to follow a simple recipe:

Peanut Butter Ball Recipe

Peanut Butter Ball Recipe

… and it was all fine. Until I took note of my presentation, as compared to BD’s presentation. Here’s BD’s:

BD is so neat and organized.

BD is so neat and organized.

… and here’s my presentation:

Who blew up the peanut butter balls?

Who blew up the peanut butter balls?

Clearly, I’m a disaster. But whatevs because at the end of the “baking” experiment, it all tasted divine. AND THAT’S WHAT REALLY MATTERS.

Wednesday Night’s Alright for Cooking

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I’m not the world’s best cook, so I’m just going to throw that out there. Sure, I can bake, and my guac-a-molly is world famous (or at the v. least, DC-metro-region famous), but none of those things involve the actual art of cooking. Certainly I’ve been making wild strides in the cooking department lately - I never miss Top Chef (Carla was robbed!) and I’m definitely a foodie (LL said so!) – but a cook I am not.

Last night was different. Last night I was inspired by my thoroughly awful day at work* to go home, have a quick workout (nothing too dramatic, just a couple minutes on the StairMaster to workout my aggression), and cook dinner. So I turned to DC Striving for recipe ideas, and she referred me to a pasta-broccoli-walnuts recipe she had blogged about earlier. Brilliant!

It came from Real Simple magazine so, for all intents and purposes, I was hoping it was… well… real simple. Thankfully, it was! And so delicious. I can only hope this inspires culinary experiments to come.

yummy

yummy

 

* It’s suddenly very clear to me why one should NEVER blog about their job… If I were to blog it yesterday, I would surely be fired today.

Spotted: Top Chef’s Spike at Good Stuff Eatery

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a pin-up, a chef, and a girl who needs to brush her hair

a pin-up, a chef, and a girl who needs to brush her hair

Try not to be jealous, but CK, TK and I met Spike from Top Chef: Chicago (season 4). You know, the season where Lisa inexplicably made it to the final three? But I’m sooo over that…

I guess it’s totally not shocking that we accosted casually bumped into Spike in DC because he just opened a restaurant on Capitol Hill: Good Stuff Eatery. (And boy is that some good stuff.) But I guess I never really thought I’d be lucky enough to see him, because that stuff doesn’t happen to my celebrity-adoring self. Instead, I see Jimmy Fallon a couple hundred times when in NYC, and that’s it. But now I’m just totally off-topic.

CK, TK and I went for a quick dinner at the well-reviewed Good Stuff Eatery. I was torn between wanting one of the wedge salads or just going for the gold and getting a toasted marshmallow milkshake and spike’s village fries. Instead, as a compromise with a desire to at least pretend to want to be healthy, I went for the Free Range Turkey Burger (chunky avocado & sprouts, Muenster cheese & ruby tomato on a Pennsylvania Dutch whole wheat bun) and Spike’s Village Fries (topped with fresh thyme, rosemary & cracked pepper). DELISH! It was all super yummy. We all housed our food in record time. Plus, with the additions of the fabulous dips at the dipping bar (my fave: old bay mayo, but there were also chipotle and sriracha mayos), it was the perfect comfort food.

But I have to admit, I was distracted. I saw Spike downstairs when I was waiting for the food, but being classic MJ, I was too embarrassed to take the picture. I get like this sometimes all the time. I totally don’t mind following suit, but I cannot be the instigator. Similar situations happen to me at concerts when my more-brave-than-me friends try and sneak up to the front, and I all but die of embarrassment… only to quickly follow and enjoy the upgrade.

ANYWAY (sheesh, sorry for being so long winded), the food was kick-ass, but I was distracted. And so, TK offered to take the picture on our way out, if Spike was still there. Well, I must have done something good, because Spike was still there. TK grabbed the camera, headed over to Spike, and asked if he could take a picture of CK and me with Spike. And then, the stars aligned, the clouds parted, my wheezing stopped (TMI?), and the next thing I knew, I was taking a picture with Spike. Who was, by the way, so chill and hip. I feel like a tool saying that, but it’s true.

TK managed to not sound like an idiot, asking Spike how he liked DC, where his next restaurant would be opening (it’s a franchise), and sounding, you know, normal. Not me. I kept saying, “Congratulations on the restaurant,” and “The food was awesome,” and other lame sentences. Still, Spike was awesome.*

And the picture of us? Well, I think that is pretty awesome too.

* I know you’re thinking this really isn’t a big deal. But you know what? It was to me. And this is my blog. So deal.