Tarting It Up

Penzey's Spices

Penzey's Spices is one of the finest sources for herbs and spices out there, and we've used their mail-order service for years.  Their Mexican and Madagascar vanilla beans are plump and moist, and a bargain at just over $5.00 each.  We've used their beans for years to make our own vanilla extract. 

For comparison, we saw a dessicated, tired looking vanilla bean at Wegman's yesterday with a $10.00 price tag attached.  We were unwilling to pay so much for a weeny looking vanilla bean.  We're also poaching pears tonight, and we needed star anise.  We couldn't find star anise at any of our local grocery stores...though we probably should have patronized the huge Asian supermarket that's less than a mile away.

Basically we were looking for an excuse to visit Penzey's retail outlet in Falls Church:

This place is awesome.  A commenter on Don Rockwell called this place "hardcore olfactory food porn", which it is.  The store is full of canisters of spices and beakers of extract that invite deep, deep sniffing.  Not only does the store have a wider selection of herbs and spices than any store I've visited, it also has excellent prices. 

To give you a sense of the selection, there's a large section devoted solely to various sorts of cinnamon - look at the huge cinnamon/cassia bark on display.

Ahem.  This probably isn't even worth whining about, but in what's becoming a theme recently, we got slight attitude from one of the employees for taking pics in the store.  I know, I know, it's the store's prerogative, but when we asked if we could take some (flashless) photos in the store, the employee responded...

::sigh::  ::grimace::  ::pregnant pause::  "a couple."

Her response didn't give us the warm fuzzies. 

Here's our booty, which totaled less than $50 for 15 vanilla beans, poppy seeds, two types of cinnamon, a ton of star anise, and a glass canister.  The prices and quality are excellent, and we'll be dropping tons of dough for Penzey's goods in the future.  If you're into quality spices, you should too.

Penzey's Spices
513 W. Broad St.
Falls Church, VA
(703) 534-7770
Mon - Sat: 10AM-6PM
Sun: 11AM - 5PM

Rose Restaurant

Shamshiry has previously been our go-to restaurant for Persian cuisine, but Tyler Cowen's recent review of Rose Restaurant in Vienna inspired us to try out the new(ish) Persian spot in Vienna.

We'll have to make a couple more visits, but we might have found a replacement for Shamshiry.   Here's M's disembodied head floating towards the entrance:

I took these photos with E's new iPhone.  Be warned that my sense of composition leaves something to be desired.  The bread that came out was hot and pillowy, and was accompanied by yogurt sauce and spicy green sauce.

E and M both ordered the chicken kabob, and both thought it was excellent.  The chicken breast is moist and tender, and the entire kebob tastes as if it's been slathered in a buttery sauce (likely because the kebob has been slathered in a buttery sauce).  In our experience, Shamshiry's chicken tends to be cooked to a significantly higher temperature, and it isn't so saucy and flavorful.

In a slight bummer, Rose doesn't seem to feature all of the different rices that Shamshiry does.  However, when a table near us ordered zereshk polo (sweet and sour rice studded with dried berries), the waiter informed the table that they didn't have the rice that day.  Aha - a secret menu!  (or just my inability to fully read a menu)  I'll have to try to order it next time.

Also - the garden salad at the bottom was simple and good.  It's early September, and the tomatoes really should be excellent, right?  These were.  A garlicky dressing was served to the side.  It was worth having again.

I ordered the salmon, which was accompanied by rice infused with dill and studded with fava beans.  I stirred some of the yogurt sauce into the rice.

That picture turned out poorly.  The rice is seasoned superbly - dill and fava beans are perfect foils for the salmon.  No crisp tah dig though, and according to this Chowhound thread, it's not available even if you want it. 

Like the chicken, the salmon was cooked to a much lower temp than at Shamshiry.  I've never had a piece of salmon cooked anything but well done at Shamshiry.  Without my specifying the cooking temperature, the fish came out what most restaurants would call medium-rare.  I enjoyed the salmon but found it underseasoned.  A a healthy squeeze of lemon and schmear of the yogurt sauce woke up the flavors of the fish.

 

Our bill for 3 salads and 3 dinners came to $57 (sans tip).  This restaurant is a great new addition to the Vienna restaurant scene.

Rose Restaurant
126 W. Maple Ave
Vienna, VA  22180
(703) 255-2557

Pearl Bakery

Ah, back from the moss-covered, drizzly, and tremendously fun city of Portland, Oregon.  We stayed downtown at the 5th Avenue Suites, which seems to be right in the heart of a variety of excellent bakeries, coffee shops, and sandwich joints.  We were just a couple of blocks away from the city-block-huge Powell's Books.  And if you're shopping at Powell's, you need to scoot a few blocks south and visit Pearl Bakery. 

But before we get into the fabulous baked goods that Pearl Bakery offers up, look in my hand.  In my hand there is a bag.  And in that bag there is a Pearl Bakery t-shirt (by the way, you're meant to believe in terms of storytelling that I'm looking into the bakery before going in...the bag ruins the illusion a little.  Suspend disbelief!)

Where was I?  Ah yes, the t-shirt reads "Still Baking" across the chest.  Here is a recreation of the dialogue that I've had with several strangers when I've since worn this t-shirt.

DIALOGUE ONE: LOCATION - ACELA EXPRESS

Woman Stranger: Hey, (eyes read across the breasties) still baking?
Me: Ha ha ha...no...it's for a bakery and...
Woman Stranger: (interest in conversing visibly floats away from her body)

DIALOGUE TWO: LOCATION - STARBUCKS

Another Woman Stranger: Hey, (eyes read across the breasties) still baking?
Me: Ha, no it's...a bakery t-shirt
Another Woman Stranger: Ha ha.  Funny.
Me: Yeah definitely
(conversation quietly curls up on the floor at our feet and passes away)

What I'm saying is that this t-shirt conjures uncomfortable small talk into being.  From Woman Strangers.

I want a place just like this near us.  A bakery with a droolworthy selection of brioche, croissants, and pastry, and a clever selection of artisan sandwiches.  If anyone knows of a place like this in or around D.C., please do tell.  I suppose Breadline comes close, but its baked goods don't compare to those that Pearl Bakery offers.  Just look.

We showed a moderate degree of restraint and each selected one pastry and one half sandwich.

Ahem.  Disregard the above picture where my bag is clearly holding more than just one t-shirt.

Here's what we chose:

Clockwise from the 6 o'clock position, ham sandwich with fontina on wheat, asiago and apple croissant, chocolate croissant nestled up against an almond croissant, salami sandwich with provolone, and smoked turkey with muenster.

What can I say; these are great sandwiches.  I loved the contrast of the creamy tangy sweetness of the red pepper aioli with the bitterness of the arugula on my turkey sandwich.  The turkey was freshly carved as well.  Fabulous.  J. loved her ham sandwich as well - the yellow dots that you see on the wheat bread is their home-made mayonnaise peeking through.  Delicious.  A. loved the tapenade on her salami sandwich.

And on to our desserts...

 

The almond and chocolate croissants were excellent: buttery flaky croissant dough, generously filled.  Well worth having, but let's face it: you know what they look like.  But look above at the asiago-apple croissant.  Interesting, no?  I was expecting an "apple pie with cheddar cheese crust" vibe off of this croissant, but it was much subtler than that, almost more savory than sweet.  Flaky as all hell and delicious.

This place had such a laid back vibe; we talked and laughed and had a chill early lunch here.  Now that I'm sitting back in my living room stressing about work that I needed to get done today, I look at this picture that we took, looking out of Pearl Bakery's window, and I yearn...

 

Pearl Bakery

102 NW 9th Ave.
Portland, OR 97209
(503) 827-0910

Still baking?

Crisp and Juicy

Northern Virginia is awash in good places for Peruvian rotisserie chicken.  At school, waddle out the front door, and El Pollo Rico beckons from across the street.  Turn your head 40 degrees to the left, and Pio Pio calls to you.  A little further afield, though, Crisp and Juicy is our favorite of all.  Oddly enough, we were first introduced to the place as a treat after our weekly Saturday Weight Watcher's meetings aerobics classes.  We visit even now that we're not so into, ahem, aerobics anymore.

And just look at how welcoming!  Don't the saturated golds and reds on the walls look pretty?

Mmm.  We've never strayed from the chicken offerings, though I hear the steak sandwich that they offer up is worth having as well.  If you're like us and never manage to stray from the chicken, you'll be happy.  Whenever we'd come to the restaurant after Weight Watchers aerobics, we'd all order the chicken breast sandwich:

Ok, the picture looks a little gross.  But it's delicious!  I promise.  Why can't chicken breast that I cook ever taste this good?  I brine it.  I marinade.  I swish it through a vinaigrette after I've cooked it.  I give it my all, every time.  I take a bite of my chicken, and I taste...

...

chicken.  Crisp and Juicy's chicken breast sandwich isn't like that.  The chicken has clearly been expertly brined, and it tastes of pepper and thyme.  While the sandwiches are great, you must try the quarter or half chicken.  It lives up to the restaurant's name and more, with flavor permeating the meat all the way to the bone.  Faaabulous. 

They offer up hot and mild mayonnaise-based sauces as well (our yellowy sauce above is the mild), but the difference between hot and mild can be subtle, depending on who's mixed up the sauces that day.  The mild can be alternately soothing and comfortable...or (annoying food review cliche)tongue-numbingly(/annoying food review cliche) spicy.

Crisp and Juicy
913 W. Broad St.
Falls Church, VA 22046
(703) 241-9091

Nielsen's Frozen Custard

Long time no see.  J. has been busy with schoolwork (last semester, woo hoo); E.'s been busy with work-work.  I'm going to spend the next twelve hours feverishly trying to complete a project, I'm behind, so I MUST PROCRASTINATE.  What better way to burn up precious pre-deadline minutes than to write about our recent visit to Nielsen's Frozen Custard?

Vienna's Church Street is a charming place, with lots of brick sidewalks and little shops that call themselves shoppes.  Nielsen's Frozen Custard, which some hail as the best custard in the area, lives on Church Street as well.  It's an upmarket custard place: the interior is....well here it is.

Kinda Arts & Crafts movement-looking with faux tin roof ceilings and fireplace.  It's warm and welcoming, and my GOD do they serve great frozen custard.  It's delicious and somehow enigmatic: I've heard that frozen custard actually contains less butterfat than premium ice cream.  Yet it doesn't really melt.  Go ahead: visit Nielsen's, and you tell me if your ice cream melts.

That's M.'s oreo cone and J.'s vanilla cup.  Those who wax critical about ice cream joints always say that ONE judges the quality of the place by the quality of the vanilla.  Try this, it's great.  It tastes like nothing but fresh cream and vanilla bean.  The vanilla flavor reminds me of myself somehow: high quality, honest, pure, and 85+% fat.

It's delicious, but we don't go all that often.  I have to say it: we have a couple of minor quibbles with Nielsen's.  First, isn't it fun to go to a place like The Dairy Godmother, eagerly anticipating the flavor of the day?  I love the surprise of discovering cool new flavors there: snow angel, tollhouse cookie, Chocolate raspberry bavarian cream...isn't it fun just reading them?  And don't even get me started on the sorbets they serve up: lemon ginger, cucumber, apple cider, they're all transcendent.

You won't experience that particular thrill of the hunt at Nielsen's.  Nielsen's features three flavors of ice cream: chocolate, vanilla, and the flavor of the day, which is always pedestrian: oreo, coffee, lemon, raspberry, cherry, egg nog.  Ho hum.

Also, you walk into an ice cream shop, you want to smell waffle cone, right?  Or hot fudge a-bubbling.  Or cookies baking.  Or coffee percolating.  At Nielsen's, thanks to the menu that contains non-frozen-custard items, there's an unpleasant aroma of fried food that permeates the place.

Nielsen's Frozen Custard
144 Church St., NW
Vienna, VA 22180
(703) 255-5553

Elevation Burger

2/10/06 - Congratulations Elevation Burger!! None other than Tom Sietsema sings the joint's praises this week. Sietsema thinks Elevation would make a great V-D destination, and I agree.

CONGRATULATIONS - the Hesses had baby Ellie on November 21! Hans is pleased with the new "Ellie"vation Burger moniker.

I've passed by Elevation Burger I don't know how many times since its opening on September 18. After reading strongly-held opinions on a variety of message boards, we made the brief journey down Lee Highway to this burger place. Elevation's website claims that the restaurant offers "classy food for the masses," and you know what...yes, that's exactly what it does.

Five Guys

Beware. Hamburger porn follows. Avert your eyes if such things are bothersome:

Ugh - "hamburger porn" probably describes some unspeakable salacious-niche interest. I'll know when the google hits start rolling in.

I've heard people from the West Coast crow no end about In-N-Out Burgers. Five Guys is D.C.'s answer (and now the east coast's answer) to In-N-Out. Look at the picture; do I really even need to say how great this hamburger is? It's weird, this hamburger joint used to be a whole lot more local than it is now. These folks are some serious entrepreneurs: even a year ago, we used to have to make a 10 mile trek into Alexandria to enjoy these burgers. Now there's one not a half mile away from us, and another at the weird new Tyson's Corner addition. We had to test out the one right near us. "Had to."

And it's just as good as the Alexandria location. This place offers greasy-great burgers and the thick-cut fries that inhabit your summer boardwalk memories. Never never never order anything but the "regular" sized fries. Regular = they fill up a brown paper bag with fries. Large = they fill up a brown paper bag obscenely much with fries. There's nothing better than these things covered with a generous shaking of malt vinegar.

That Custard Place in Del Ray

That Custard Place in Del Ray is a place that everyone wants in their neighborhood.  "Nostalgic treats" is right in the same way that Magnolia Bakery advertises itself as "Old Fashioned."  It's the most comfortable commercial establishment you've visited.  You feel like sitting there and having a boisterously laughing conversation with friends.  You feel like feeding your baby a bite of frozen custard and breaking out the digital camera when the baby claps with custard running down her chin.

So it's the type of place where it doesn't surprise you people happily hang out; you feel welcome; there's dog ice cream (made for, not of...thankfully).  Also, I'm not the sort of person who leaves the house with a hankering for sorbet, but just reading the menu of this place immediately gives me a craving.  Lemon ginger...perfect.  Sour cherry...TRANSCENDENT.  Apple Cider...ok, go have this flavor immediately.

It's a great joint for frozen custard also, and it features a rotating menu of often-creative and always-yummy flavors.  E. ordered mint chocolate chip.  Look at how good.  Look.

Yum.  I want a franchise opened in my neighborhood.

Del Ray Dreamery
2310 Mount Vernon Ave.
Alexandria, VA 22301
(703) 683-7767

Shamshiry

Shamshiry is one of those restaurants that you don't just stumble into.  It's hidden on the side of a building down a side-street off of an access road.  So you know it's something really special when every seat is taken at 3 p.m. on a Sunday.  It's delicious and inexpensive.  It's also the only Iranian restaurant I know of in this part of NoVA.

Sunflower Vegetarian Restaurant

Mr. Sietsema's 2005 Dining Guide just came out, and we were intruiged with the inclusion of Sunflower.  I went to high school right across from this unassuming-looking restaurant that sits on the Vienna-Oakton frontier.