Tarting It Up

Saffron Ice Cream

We were on an angel food cake-baking kick, but baking an angel food cake will drain your egg white reserves and create a surplus of egg yolk. What better to do with egg yolk than MAKE ICE CREAM? No, but honestly. And we just got this FABULOUS book, so it was ice cream making time.

We chose the saffron ice cream - really, how can you not? It sounded intriguing and dangerous somehow.

Assemble:
1/4 tsp. crumbled saffron threads (or less - a little goes a long way)
1 1/2 c. milk
1 1/4 c. sugar
6 large egg yolks
2 tsp. AP flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 c. heavy cream

Combine the saffron and milk in a saucepan and bring to a simmer over low heat. Remove from the heat, cover, and let the saffron to steep in the milk for 30 minutes.

Beat the sugar into the egg yolks until thickened and pale yellow. Beat in the flour and salt. Set aside. Yes, I was skeptical about the addition of flour to an ice cream recipe too. But just do it! It creates a wonderfully subtle chewiness in the end product.

Return the saffron-steeped milk to a simmer, then slowly beat the hot milk into the eggs and sugar. Pour the mixture back into the pan and place over low heat. Stir constantly until the custard thickens slightly. I think we overcooked ours, but it's not a huge problem, because after your custard is done thickening, you send the mixture through a strainer into a bowl. Any cooked bits disappear at that point. Look at how silky-gorgeous the mixture is:

Allow the custard to cool off a little, then stir in the cream. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Google Pride

Time to revel. We've made it to the Big Time.

Guess who's the number one result on Google for "tom hanks" "family ties" "vanilla extract"? That's right: it's us.

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

2 Amys Desserts

As we've said before, Two Amy's is our favorite semi-local pizza place. Go check out our previous post detailing the pizza experience. It's the best pizza in D.C. and environs, and it's now really without peer since Sylvana's, formerly in Herndon, experienced an untimely dust-biting last year.

So going to Two Amy's, you're likely thinking pizza pizza pizza. We're telling you: save room for dessert. Two Amy's dishes up some of the best, probably *the best*, ice cream we've had in D.C. When we were there on Sunday, J. ordered the pineapple caramel ice cream:

Insert every hackneyed food-review adjective here: _____. Silken? Check. Luscious? Check. Creamy? Check. Is this listing getting old now? Check.

The ice cream has big bold flavors of pineapple and Definitely Homemade caramel (you don't notice just how much caramel tastes of butter until you taste the homemade stuff). This is absolutely gorgeous. The pineapple almost tasted as if it had been roasted before becoming ice cream, the flavor was so bold. This is addictive.

M. and I had the apple cake with cinnamon ice cream.

Beautiful. Again, the ice cream packs a powerfully cinnamomy flavor; the apple cake is moist and, well, apple-y. I prefered J.'s pineapple-caramel ice cream to the cinnamon, but both ice creams have that "I have been churned by someone who loves me" texture.

I would give so much, when checking stats, for someone to arrive at this site by Googling "I have been churned by someone who loves me."

We also love how we rarely see the same thing hanging out on the dessert menu repeatedly, though we pray that their grapefruit panna cotta makes a lasting reappearance in the spring. Wonderful.

Two Amys
3715 Macomb St., N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20016
(202) 885-5700

Woo Lae Oak

I don't want to appear tacky by name-dropping my professional successes, but well, maybe just this once. I was once a cashier at Bed Bath and Beyond. Twice, actually. Don't believe me? Lemme rock a little Bed, Bath and Beyond harmony for you:

"Attention Bed, Bath and Beyond Shoppers, the time is 9:30 and the store is now closing. Please feel free to continue shopping and browsing, as our registers will remain open for your convenience. Bed Bath and Beyond will reopen tomorrow morning at 9:00 A.M. Have a pleasant evening, and thank you for shopping at Bed, Bath and Beyond."

Sad confession: I felt like a celebrity whenever I made the store announcement. The cigar haven steakhouse Sam and Harry's used to live next to that Bed, Bath and Beyond, but now Woo Lae Oak occupies the space. Paul Song, one of the restaurant's partners, wanted to create in the space "a more mainstream place that Koreans would be proud of, one that would also appeal to people unfamiliar with Korean food." They succeed. It's Korean food that both attracts a Korean clientele and is accessible to dorks like me! It's fantastic.

It was a busy night at the restaurant. We didn't have a reservation, so we sat in the bar for about 40 minutes, getting to know each other a little better. There's a pleasant hustle and bustle to the place, the place has the happy vibe of lots of people enjoying themselves.

After about 40 minutes, we were seated a table that featured - ooooh - a grill top in the middle. We discuss the menu, and...

"MY SISTER...DO YOU KNOW...WHO MY SISTER LOOKS...MY SISTER...SHE LOOKS LIKE..."

Uh, ahem, excuse me. As I said, we discussed the menu...

"BUT SHE LOOKS, MY SISTER...SHE LOOKS LIKE A CELEBRITY...MY SISTER..."

I am dramatically recreating a moment for you. But before I explain further, I have to say that we eat out a lot. Too much. We eat happily even near the din of a lively Friday night bar. If we're seated near a group engaging in loud n' joyful conversation, no worries! I'm mellow. But this time, we were seated near - bar goddamn none - the most obnoxious group of 45+ year old drunk

"MY SISTER LOOKS EXACTLY LIKE..."

people that I've ever been around, seedy college dive bars included. Constantly loud and shrieky and obnoxious. Loud joking about sexual prowess, loud joking about Korea. And here they are!

I swear on the eyes of my future grandchildren that they were not as sedate as the picture suggests. I photoshop-blurred the picture to obscure their identities. Is it wrong that I feel vindicated now? /rant.

Rum Raisin Rice Pudding

A foot of snow dumped on us last weekend, and now it's gone. Temperatures will be in the 20s this weekend. Doesn't it sound like comfort food weather? I mean serious comfort food. Like comfort food that requires over a quart of half & half. Rice pudding!

E. used to hate rice pudding; maybe it's not in the British dessert vocabulary? Whenever I suggested it as a dessert, her face would contort as if I had asked, "how about a mashed potato chocolate souffle?" Rice and pudding, two concepts that didn't belong together. Or so she thought - we made this recipe and she loved it! Creamy, soft, sweet, and vaguely perfumed with rum: it's worth the Coma Diabetica that it induces. With so much caloric goodness here, can it really be a surprise that this recipe is based on the Barefoot Contessa's?

Just look at all of the ingredients. You know that all of these things thrown together will create something delicious.

Part One - Raisin Concoction

Assemble:
3/4 cups raisins
2 T dark rum (or more, if you like to hit the sauce)

Combine and set aside to macerate. Do we all share the same giggly high school memory of learning "macerate" in vocab for the first time? Same giggly memory applies to "masticate." Look at the raisins while they macerate in the kitchen:

Part Two - Rice

Assemble:
1 1/2 c. water
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
3/4 c. rice (your choice - arborio could be cool, basmati works just fine...)

In a medium saucepan, combine approximately 1 1/2 cups water with 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt. Add 3/4 cup basmati rice. Bring the rice to the boil and simmer covered for about 10 - 12 minutes. Go for a low, slow heat. Burned rice would be beyond nasty here.

Part 3 - A Pudding is Born

Assemble:
5 c. half & half
1/2 c. sugar
1 egg
2 tsp. vanilla (we used the homemade stuff that keeps getting better and better)

Once the rice absorbs the water, stir in 4 cups of half and half and 1/2 cup of sugar. Bring the mixture to a boil once more, then simmer uncovered until the rice is soft. (The recipe suggests simmering for 25 minutes, but I simmered for a lot longer, so go for softness as your guide.) Keep stirring every so often and with more frequency as time elapses. Once the rice is soft, stir in one beaten egg and cook for an additional minute or so until combined.

At this point, take the pan off the heat. Add one more cup of half and half (yes, I know, decadent, but it's totally worth it). Add 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla, the raisins and any remaining rum. Stir well to distribute raisins and rum.

Pour into a bowl and cover with plastic wrap, placing the wrap directly onto the surface of the rice pudding to avoid the forming of a skin. N.B. - the pudding should be pretty fluid at this point. If you've created a cohesive pudding mass at this point, the pudding will be concrete by the time it cools. Think "thick gravy" textured.

This pudding is perfect either hot or cold, but we definitely thought it tasted better on the second day. The flavors melded, with the rumminess infusing the whole pudding. It's perfectly rummy, raisiny, soft, and creamy.

Juicer

It's been forever since we last posted, but the question remains: has anyone noticed? Answer: eh, not really. It's my last semester of law school, woo hoo! But I'm finding that I'm marginally retarded when it comes to administrative tasks. I've been filling out my bar exam application and character and fitness information, and it overwhelms me. I experience vapor lock when I have to make two copies of x, and attach fingerprints to y, and staple passport photos to z, and get x, y, and z notarized, then attach certified checks to q...

Fascinating, no? But wait, if you can believe it, my life gets even more interesting. Did you know that every day a law student searches on Lexis, Lexis plunks 10 Lexis points into the student's account? And a Lexis point = about 3 cents. So day after day, I scrounged, saved, and hooked for Lexis points. I sat on my points like a dragon on so much gold. I was obsessed. My heart skipped a beat the first time I became a Lexis Elite member (by accumulating 2500 points in one semester...and yes of course I give autographs, don't be shy). I had a lot of points.

But it's my last semester now, and the obsession has waned. It's now A Time to Reap. Remember what I said about being administratively stressed out? I spent a chunk of my points on this baby:

It's a Breville juicer! And so inconspicuous on the countertop! It's a two speed juice fountain! It's going to transform us into healthy people. It's going to soothe me. It's going...to make me whole. It's going...to give me angina about where I'll ever store this thing.

And speaking of whole, look at how much power it has:

The power to juice a whole apple at once. So we were eager to try it out, but shockingly, we didn't have many vegetables on hand. I thought, "aha, apple juice!" I scrounged around the fridge and found apples in various states of decay, cucumbers that had transmogrified into brown sludge, mummified squash. Are you hungry yet?

Everest 53

My sister lives in a hinterland of foodie experiences: her flat vaguely occupies the outskirts of the area where Bend it Like Beckham took place. It was always an enigma: with so many dry cleaners specifically touting the price of Sari-cleaning, how are there so few good curry places in her neighborhood?

But I hadn't been back in three and a half years, so I held out hope that things had changed. And lo and behold, just a couple of minutes' walk from her flat: a new Nepalese restaurant came into being! Nepalese food: can you even conceive of what it could be? Me neither.

So I'm obnoxious: even when a restaurant is full of happy looking diners, as this one was, I'm ready for this neighborhood to disappoint me. I've been hurt too many times here! I also sat down feeling defensive after looking over the zillion-item menu...how could a restaurant with so many choices possibly execute any of them well?

"Shh," Everest 53 says, "calm yourself, my child: don't worry, simply eat of me." After ordering, my worries cleared away. The food at this new restaurant (open for only 3 months) is nice.

We started with a side order of garlic naan, warm and fresh. The bread was soft and garlicky without the garlic beating your tastebuds into submission.

My sister ordered a dish called Everest Koseli, king prawn wrapped with chicken breast (two of God's creatures that we were curious to see united). It worked! It tasted of fenugreek and nutmeg, and neither prawn nor chicken were cooked to death. 10.95 pounds for the dish...we'll call it about $17.

I had the monkfish, after doing a brief geographical survey to determine where in Nepal monkfish would live. I'm ignorant: are there rivers in Nepal? Or lakes? I know there's some sort of tallish mountain there, but where do their fishies live?

Anyway, the monkfish is called Hariyo Machha, and it's cooked in the tandoor and accompanied with a green curry sauce. I hadn't tasted monkfish before. Go do a google image search for "monkfish" and you'll see why.

No really, go ahead, I'll wait. Look at the second picture that comes up, it's a treat.

All done? Isn't that an ugly little bastard? He's also a delicious little bastard. The fish was meaty texturally: like beef tenderloin-meaty, and only subtly fishy. The sauce tasted of curry, coconut, mint, and apricot. Really good.

And somewhat expensive: it was 12.95 pounds, so what's that...like $20?

Our total bill with tax and tip was $69.89. Not exactly cheap eating, but it was a fun restaurant with good food and attentive service. AND it's in Isleworth!

Everest '53
546 London Road
Isleworth, TW7 4EP
0208 568 5556

Eating in London: Micky's Fish and Chips

Day 1 in England! I got my visa stuff all sorted out today (woo hoo!), and when my business concluded at the American Embassy, I went on a walkabout around town. It's hard to believe that it's been three and a half years since I've visited here, and over six since I've lived here. But somehow the weather never changes.

Can you feel what the weather is like? Ah, it's moist, infiltratingly cold and windy England.

I grew up in Birmingham, went to university in London, and lived there for the next, oh, 5 years. My walkabout led me from the American Embassy to Marble Arch, and thence...to the most wonderful food in the United Kingdom.

Fish and Chips, of course.

There are plenty of chip shops around emitting that gorgeous aroma of expertly fried food. There is no better food in the world for a hungry, cold and tired traveller: crisp, hot, filling, and flavorful.

During my student days in London, I was very fortunate to live in a University of London dorm a short walk from Marble Arch tube station. It was an awesome place; I lived in a huge corner room on an upper floor. Weirdly nice housing for students, no?