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A Tax Relief Fruit Salad

Tuesday, April 19th, 2011

While picking up some groceries, I was happy to find out that the Whole Foods was honoring the tax day, with a promotion called “Tax Relief Deal”. The best deals were on perishables, like seafood, meat and fruits, which were “progressively” discounted up to 30%.


Image based on photo by MoneyBlogNewz

As you are probably aware, the Whole Foods often charges a premium for these items. Naturally, I felt inclined to maximize the value while eating healthy. A surplus of antioxidants was exactly what my body needed after a grueling run through the Mount Vernon trail.

I have always liked fruit salads at picnics and outside luncheons. On this balmy spring day, I thought about giving it a shot. I wanted to drift away from the everyday American variety of cantaloupes and watermelons — instead experiment a bit with the exotic ingredients. Ah those mangoes looked delicious and the blackberries looked like vines on a Lilliputian island. I had to include those.

List of Fruit Salad ingredients

1 red apple (Chilean)
1 mango
2 oranges
5-8 blackberries
12-15 seedless grapes
1 small pack of raisins
Newman’s Own Raspberry & Walnut Dressing

First, I thinly diced the apple and placed them on a clean bowl. The apple was sweet to the taste and smelled delicious.

Next I cut the strawberries into triangular little pieces and placed them on the bowl.

Next I peeled the mango and chopped them into slender little pieces. The mangoes were firmer than the Indian variety and were easy to work with.  They were not juicy as their South Asian counterparts and a bit sour in taste. I wondered how they would turn out in my fruit salad.

Up next, were the blackberries and the oranges. I am a big fan of citrus fruits because they are oozing with antioxidants, but I was rather disappointed with the quality of the oranges. No wonder they were the cheapest item on the menu. You get what you pay for. I took extra care to remove all the white pith on the oranges, despite knowing that they are a rich source of fiber. Taste prevails sometimes.

The blackberries, on the other hand, were my favorite ingredient. But at $4.00/case, you need to exercise a bit of restraint. They go perfectly when served chilled.

Up next, I decided to throw in some grapes and raisins. The grapes were the best of its kind – succulent, sweet and ready to provide you with a burst of flavonoids and other phytochemicals.  Their cousins, the raisins, were however of the generic variety obtained from CVS. I was amazed to find out that they were still “fresh” even after months of storage under room temperature. Wonder what types of preservatives and how much of each has been added in each box. I guess a few morsels won’t kill me after all.

As for the dressing, I decided to go with Paul Newman’s Own Raspberry & Walnut Dressing. Add a few tablespoons, stir the fruit amalgamation around a few times and chill the whole thing in the refrigerator for 5-10 minutes.

As the fruit was chilling, I tried a tiny portion with a small cup of Greek yogurt. It was delicious.

As I ploughed through my fruit salad, my mind veered off to the trails.  I thought of all the orchids, the yellow daisies and the white cherries that are blooming along the trail, signaling the arrival of spring. Every time I pass through, I want to nibble at the flowers!  Although they look so damn tasty, I bet they are not as delectable as my fruit salad. ;)

Posted in American Food, Salad, Vegetarian | No Comments »

Best Burgers in Washington DC

Wednesday, April 13th, 2011

A burger is a poor man’s steak. An excellent classic burger needs a decent quality ground beef with adequate fat marbling cooked to perfection — served between some sort of soft white buns.

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80 High Resolution Photos of DC’s Best Burgers

Nearly a year ago, I compiled a list of best burgers in DC. For the last couple of months, I have been eating more burgers in Washington DC metro to update DC’s best burger list – at least that was my excuse for eating all those burgers. Everywhere I ordered some sort of cheese burger cooked “medium rare”. If I got my burgers cooked medium, which most of the times it did, I considered it perfectly cooked.

I would like to point out the presented photos are photos of the real burger served to me during the visits, snapped on the spot without any props. They should be more realistic depiction of the burgers – unlike highly decorated publicity photos found in ads and other media.

My list is divided into the best burgers and some of other memorable burgers in DC.

Best Burgers in DC

Here’s my line up of some of DC’s best burgers. The best aspect of burger joints are highlighted inside the parenthesis.

Ray’s Hell Burger [Best Burger]
Rays in Arlington is still the best burger place in the DC metropolitan area. The simple reason is that Rays serves its burgers as requested. Rays is not afraid to give its customer burgers cooked medium rare (145 °F/ 63 °C). Generally all other places, even nice sit down restaurants, serve burger cooked at least one more step further, i.e., you always get burger cooked to at least medium or medium well when you order it medium rare. The generous 10oz beef patty cooked right results in extremely good Rays burger – the best I ever had. Having said that, Rays also serves probably the worst French fries with its burgers. I liked it when it didn’t used to serve fries. Now, it serves an obviously mass produced frozen fries that are not even of good quality. Go there hungry for burgers and skip the fries.


Ray’s Burger is the best burger in DC

Rays Burger

Rays Fries

Good Stuff Eatery [Best Fries & Sauce]
Prez Obama Burger made with bacon, onion marmalade, roquefort cheese and horseradish mayo sauce, shows the creative and playful nature of menu of Good Stuff Eatery. The best items on Good Stuff Eatery are Spike’s village fries -topped with thyme, rosemary and Sunny’s hand-cut fries sprinkled with sea salt. The flavorful fries are complemented by playful creative variety of mayo based sauces with old bay seasoning , sriracha sauce (rooster sauce),  chipotle, and mango flavors. The strongest flavor was the old bay based may sauce and mango didn’t have a bit mango flavor. It seemed like the fries were divided into two categories of diners; one who are adventurous eater and others who never explore beyond – sea salt and good ol’ ketchup. Burgers are slightly smaller for my personal preference and snack fries are big enough to share between two nibblers. Shakes at $5.25 were disappointing. The flavor and consistency was similar to melted ice-cream in a 16 ounce cup. After burger and fries, shake was too much for me to finish, I barely finished half of it. However, I have heard good things about the shakes from many of my sweet-toothed friends.


Good Stuff Eatery Burger

Z-Burger [Best Onion Rings]
The burger in the Z-Burger is very similar to that of Five Guys in terms of their burgers and toppings. There is no point in trekking to the Z-Burger if you have Five Guys around the corner except to get their onion rings. The onion rings at Z-Burgers are the best in the world. The onion rings at the Z-Burger are huge, have more dough and seems freshly made. They are definitely not mass produced onion rings we get in every other restaurants and feels more like fried dough. Onion ring sauce was a mediocre mayo/ketchup/chipotle sauce. In my opinion, onion rings are good without the sauce. Z-burger also has a huge selection of shakes – I have yet to find any disappointing flavors, thus go with what you are in mood for.


Z-Burger’s Cheese Burger

Z-Burger’s Onion Rings

Z-Burger’s Fries

Big Bun [Great Burger Salad]
Big bun is a burger joint hidden off near Ballston metro – literally hidden because it takes a few minutes find the place for anyone unfamiliar with it.  You have option of ordering beef, chicken, mahi mahi, or portobello mushroom burger in a bun or with greens as a burger salad. Some of the topping are unusually healthy/delicious- namely sprouts, grilled pineapple, avocado, and fried eggs.   Even, it’s slightly off beaten path, Big Bun is highly recommended for any burger and salad lovers.


Big Bun’s Angus Burger


Big Bun’s Mahi Mahi Burger Salad

Elevation Burger [Best Quality Ingredients]
After years of hearing Virginia friends brag about the Elevation Burger, one sunny afternoon we drove there. Elevation burger serves 100% organic grass-fed beef burgers. Burgers were made to order and tasted very similar to the Five Guys. Shake was decent and thick but not overly thick like an ice-cream. Fries were cooked in olive oil and tasted like normal fries without any olive smell. The Elevation Burger has a vegetarian burger as well, which is slightly dry, but has a decent flavor.  If you just care for the flavor, there is no point in driving to the Elevation burger. If you care about eating a quality meat, which happens to be 100% organic and grass-fed, the Elevation fits the bill.


Elevation Burger’s Cheese Burger

Elevation Burger’s Vegetarian Burger

Elevation French fries

Five Guys [Best Chain Burger]
Five Guys is undoubtedly the best fast food burger place is Best fast-food chain burger. With more than 750 burger joints across the country, Five Guys consistently serves decent made to order burger. I am not sure if it uses better quality meat than it other giant fast food competitors – the quality may be identical. In my opinion, the Five Guys burgers are good because they are grilled-to-order, the burgers don’t wait for you inside a wrapped up in paper in some kind of industrial food warmer.

 


A Five Guys Burger

Lindy’s Red Lion [Creative Burger Menu]
Lindy’s Red Lion in a friendly neighborhood hole-in-a-wall burger place that epitomizes the neighborhood local burger restaurants. It has most inventive burger menu. For instance, Neapolitan Burger with pizza sauce, black olive, provolone cheese or Davy Crockett Double Burger with BBQ sauce, bacon, fried onions. Lindy’s serves either sirloin burgers, veggie burgers or turkey burgers. A single burger is served in a regular hamburger bun, while double burger gets served in a six-inch soft sub roll. They also make their fries in soybean oil, which gives it a unique aroma and flavor.


Lindy’s Red Lion Burger

Lindy’s Red Lion fries made with soybean oil

Rogue States Burgers [Closed Now, Best Late Night Burger]

Closed now. Hopefully they open in new venue soon.

The late night kind of burger is Rogue States Burgers because there isn’t any other place where you can get similar quality of burger that late in night. I didn’t know it even existed until a Dupont resident kept on marveling about how late it opens. I ended there just before it close its door, after one of those over extended happy hours. Burgers were cooked to order and fries were good but not as memorable. There were burgers with different flavors, however, the hot burger was too hot for my preference.


A Rogue States Burger

Other Burgers in DC

Here’s my line up of some of the other memorable burgers in DC. The reasons they are memorable, both positive or negative, are stated with them.

Palena
Palena is a sit down restaurant that often tops list of one of the best burgers in DC and country.  Palena’s burger meat was cooked to order and had a decent flavor. It was served with thin slice of melted cheese between bread with some sort of creamy spread. The Palena Cheese Burger came with side of pickled vegetables. The Palena burgers are good. However, the burger is barely better than any decent burger found in many sit down restaurants. Simply, it didn’t live up to its overhyped fame and price.

 


Burger at Palena

Thunder Burger
Thunder Burger serves a decent quality meat cooked to the requested done-ness.  The burgers were juicy but their challah bun couldn’t withstand the juice from the meat and turned into mushy mess soon after. Thunder Burger has ambiance and pricing similar to bar and lounge.  It felt and tasted like I was eating burger in a restaurant but not a burger joint. Even with disappointing bun, the Thunder Burger is still the best burger in the Georgetown.


A Thunder Burger

Thunder Burger in Georgetown

Fuddruckers
For price it charges, Fuddruckers DC may be one of the most over-priced burgers I have ever had. Avoid unless you love their salsa and other assorted topping bar for burger or just love their melted cheese. I happen to love their melted cheese dispenser.


A Fuddruckers Burger

Guarapo
Guarapo in Courthouse Arlington, just a few blocks away from Rays. served perfectly cooked Mama’s Burger. The burger is made with 8 oz sirloin beef pimento cheese, lettuce, pico de gallo (fresh salsa) and fresh guacamole. I absolutely liked the fresh salsa and guacamole on my burger. PS. I also like it’s name – Mama Burger.


Guarapo’s Mama Burger

The Cheesecake Factory
I never thought of The Cheesecake Factory as having a good burger. Their burgers, known as Glamburgers, are made with charbroiled Kobe or Angus beef served on toasted brioche bun. I was quite surprised by decent quality of the Cheesecake Factory burgers.

 


The Cheesecake Factory Glamburger

Lyon Hall
Lyon Hall Burger comes with semi-firm melted raclette cheese. The cheese burger was decent, even though they overcooked mine. The most amazing part of Lyon hall meal was it French fries. I absolutely loved the fries sprinkled with dill and served with three sauces.


Lyon Hall’s Cheese Burger


Lyon Hall Burger

J Paul’s
J. Paul’s Burgers are simple and grilled as requested and served on brioche bun. Since J Pauls already serves variety of seafood entrée, this place is good for burgers when not everyone in your dining party eats beef. The burgers are average restaurant burger but this is the place I started developing my appreciation for a good burger.


J Paul’s Burger

Disclaimer
First, this is my personal list of favorite burgers in DC and in no way is any methodological burger ranking . I also don’t claim to have eaten every noteworthy burger in DC metro. However, I did eat more than two dozen burgers – mostly in places recommended by friends and hyped in the media.  I would love some more suggestions for good burger places in DC for next year’s update since couple of more specility burger restaurant are opening up this year as “DC has gone burger crazy”.

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Posted in American Food, Burgers, Restaurants | 3 Comments »

A steakhouse named Medium Rare

Sunday, April 3rd, 2011

A steakhouse named Medium Rare is pretty witty. Like many foodies, it has been my pet peeve when people order an expensive steak well done – at least go with the medium well.

What is medium rare?
Meat cooked medium rare would have warm bloody red center and cooked to 145°F (63 °C), which is minimum recommended by the United States Department of Agriculture for beef steaks to kill bacteria responsible for foodborne illness.  The recommended time varies for others, such as burger, and can be found here.

Image based on photo by Naotakem

The Restaurant – Medium Rare
Medium Rare follows the same concept as the famous French restaurant L’entrecote founded in 1960s. The New York branch of L’entrecote has been serving similar prix fixe menu with green salad with mustard vinaigrette/walnuts, steak entrée and steak fries for $24 since 2009. The Medium Rare restaurant in Washington DC has a minimalistic causal vibe. The tables are draped with disposable white paper sheets, instead of the tablecloth with causal and warm interiors. The food is served from open kitchen, where you can observe what cooks are doing with your food. The location is convenient, right across the Cleveland Park metro station in Washington DC.

The one prix fixe entrée for $20 in the Medium Rare restaurant consists; French country loaf (Pain de champagne), mixed green salad, and sirloin cap steak.

The Bread
Bread is the French country white rustic bread. The bread was fresh and had a nice crispy crust with fluffy inside.

Medium Rare French Rustic Bread Basket

The Salad
The simple salad is made with romaine lettuce and tomatoes and some sort of vinaigrette. The salad is a normal house salad, however we wished the greens in the salad to be slightly greener.

Medium Rare Salad

The Steak
The Medium Rare restaurant serve dry-aged sirloin cap steak sliced into about half dozen pieces with French fries. At first instant, when I saw the steak portion I was disheartened by the small portion size.

Medium Rare Steak and Fries

However, there is a food runner who brings you a second portion after you are done with the first.

Medium Rare Sirloin Steak

The steak came smothered with a warm brown homemade sauce. The sauce was mildly sweet, slightly creamy, and look similar to gravy. I loved the sauce while my dining partner didn’t enjoy it much – maybe serving it on side is a better idea.

The Dessert
Among apple pie, chocolate fudge cake, sundae, carrot cake and cheesecake, we chose the carrot cake. The portion was just big enough to be split between the two people after the steak dinner. The carrot cake had plenty of nuts and was lightly spiced. I liked the cake because it was not overtly sweet – which may not be preferred by others. The price of $8 was bit high considering the price of entrée but not too bad.

 

Medium Rare Carrot Cake

The Drink
There is a limited selection of red wines, white wines and beers – four to five option each. I am fine with the minimalistic selection. They also serve coffee. I got cappuccino after dinner. It was one of the most expensive small cups of cappuccino I ever had – damage worth $6.

Vegetarian Option at Medium Rare
If you don’t eat beef and going there – why you would do is beyond me – there is rumored off the menu item with portobello mushroom instead of beef. I am not sure if portobello mushrooms are cooked medium rare as well.

The main attraction of the Medium Rare restaurant is its highly affordable prix fixe steak entrée, convenient location, and the causal atmosphere. The restaurant is already quite busy – without reservations, it took us nearly 45 minutes to 1 hour to get dinner on weeknight. The wait was worth the dinner.

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Momo Recipe – In Memory of Kathmandu’s Momocha

Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011

Momo: the sound, the ambience and the memory of its smell could bring water to the mouth. In Kathmandu valley, this steamed dish used to be commonly cooked by the Newar community. Momo is primarily made with the ground buffalo meat wrapped in thin dough about 3 inches in diameter from all purpose flour called maida.

Changu Narayan in Kathmandu Valley (Photo:TheDreamSky – Dhilung Kirat)

Water buffalo meat could be the primary reason that momos were limited to the Newar and handful of other community in the past. Due to the religious taboos, the buffalo meat was prohibited amongst other castes. Many Nepalese believe momo originated from Tibet, but similar dishes are found throughout the Central Asia. In recent years, the popularity of momo has risen very high – you probably won’t find anyone in Kathmandu who doesn’t like momo or at least have heard about it. Now, you can easily find momos with turkey, chicken, goat, beef or mixed vegetables. The prevalence of vegetarian Momo is the proof of the momo mania.

Water Buffalo in Cambodia rice field (Photo: IRRI Images)

Momo is normally eaten with a sauce made out of tomato, cilantro and sesame seed and/or combination of one or many types of nuts such as cashews, peanuts, walnuts. Adding nuts to the sauce not only provides a good source of needed fat for your body but also gives a unique taste that makes a “plate” licking dish. Although momo comes in many different shapes/sizes and with varieties of meat, the best and the authentic Kathmandu Momo would be the one made with the ground buffalo meat.

No one could dispute momos is the mostly eaten street food in the Kathmandu as well as a party dish for Nepal expat community living abroad. In the United States, I make Momo with the turkey meat. This is not by my choice but what I can commonly find in local grocery stores. Many people make momo with wrapper that is freshly made using all purpose flour. For me, that is an extra chore. Thus, for my own convenience, I use wonton wrapper, easy to wrap and readily available in most Asian (e.g., Korean) grocery stores. Oh yeah- wrapping the momo requires a skill. If your momo is wrapped too tightly and close to the meat, it might not be as good as the one that has a small space between the meat and the wonton.

Ingredients:

Ground Turkey (approximately 1.5 lb)
1 pack of wonton wrapper – about 45 pieces
Cumin powder – 1 teaspoon
Black Salt – 1/8 – teaspoon
Salt – 1 teaspoon
Black pepper -  ¼ teaspoon
Ginger paste – ½ teaspoon
Garlic paste – ½ teaspoon
Momo masala – 1 tablespoon (optional)
Vegetable oil – 1/5 cup
Cinnamon  - ¼ teaspoon
Butter – 2 tablespoon
Timur – 1/6 teaspoon (similar to sezuan pepper)
Chopped or crushed Cabbage – 1 cup
Crushed dried onion – ¼ cup
Tomoato paste – ¼ cup
Crushed parsley – 2 teaspoon
Crushed red pepper 1/4 teaspoon

How to prepare Momo?

Chopped cabbage and other veggies for momo

Add all the ingredients together (beside wonton wrapper) mentioned above in a bowl that is large enough to mix them all together.

Momo filling with all spices

Best if mixed with bare (cleaned) hand for about 10/15 minutes.

Momo filling

Upon mixing, you can put one tsp of mixed meat on to each wonton wrapper and wrap it leaving a space between meat and flour. Spray some vegetable oil on the steamer or rub some hardened butter or ghee. Place wrapped momo on steamer.

Momo ready to be steamed

Steam for 10/12 minutes. The good indicator is when the dough just turns from dull matte texture to slightly shiny.

Momo

Serve with sauce of your choice.

Momo is the dish that can be most enjoyed making and eating with group – rather than just by yourself.

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Posted in American Food, Meat, Nepali food, Newari food | 1 Comment »

The Pig Out Dinner

Sunday, January 30th, 2011

I wanted to make an entire meal made of all pig meats after watching the TED talk by Christien Meindertsma. She is the author of the book “Pig 05049″, which discusses at least 185 non-pork pig products, from soaps to artificial hearts. I would call it – “The Pig Out Dinner”.

I had also been meaning to invite a few friends for a dinner, but was not following through my intentions. During one happy hour, some of my friends suggested an impromptu party at my place. I took advantage of the opportunity to host the pig themed dinner.

All of the invited friends were Nepali expats. I wanted to make the dinner in a style of a typical Nepali meal, but with non-traditional ingredients and using spices outside of the Indian subcontinent. The challenge was to make each dish consisting of pork from different parts of the world as well as to cook something that brings back memories of a typical meal from Nepal – dal, bhat and masu.

The Pig Out Dinner

Here’s what I made for the pig out dinner;

Bacon Vodka – Pig Out Signature Drink
For a signature drink, I made bacon-infused vodka.

To make: add the left over bacon fat from cooking the bacon to vodka (or bourbon) in a mason jar, shake, let it stand, freeze it, remove the top hardened fat portion, filter the vodka through a paper coffee filters.

Fat from 2 lb of bacon
2 cups of vodka

The bacon flavor in the vodka was too strong. In order to reduce the total alcohol content and the bacony taste, I served the drink with twice the amount of chilled lime seltzer.

The bacon vodka was not a hit. People stuck with the beers and wines they brought. It might have been a more successful if I had delivered the bacon vodka differently. Next time I plan to serve the bacon vodka in Bloody Mary – that should work.

The Pig Out Appetizers

Pork Salami and Prosciutto with Brie and Bleu cheese
Simple, all I needed to do was buy them.

Pork Rinds
I served spicy and regular pork rind snacks from Utz. Again it was simple and tasty. Pork rinds are potato chips or cracker like snack, made by cooking and removing off most of the fat out of the pig’s rind.

Spicy and Regular Pork Rinds

Bacon Guacamole
Bacon with chopped crispy bacon. I cooked the bacon the night before the party. I chopped the refrigerated bacon into small pieces and prepped guacamole by adding tomatoes and onions (see how not to brown guacamole). Just before guests arrived, I added most of the chopped bacon to the guacamole and mixed them. I used remaining chopped bacon as garnish on top.

Bacon Guacamole

Even though, the guacamole was little toward the salty side, my guests still liked it. Note to self; add less salt if adding bacon.

The Pig Out Dinner Entrée
I served “a-typical” Nepali meal consisting of dal bhat masu.

Beans with Smoky Shredded Pork
As the dal (lentils), I served black bean cooked with smoked pulled pork. I made the black beans from dried Goya beans. I used the similar techniques from as the last time I made black beans (see how to make black beans) except for adding smoky pulled pork.

Rice with Pork Kielbasa Sausages
I made bhat (rice) with sliced pork kielbasa sausage. I added lime zest along with pinch of black pepper and salt for the flavor. Surprisingly, cooking the rice was the most difficult part because I was not used to making a large quantity of rice.

Slow-braised Pork Tenderloin
For masu (meat), I made pork tenderloins slow cooked in a crock-pot for about 18-20 hours. For 7.5 lb pork, I added 2 onions, 2 chopped bell peppers, 1 bunch or green onions, and 3 cans of chipotle abodo sauce.

Chipotle Peppers

The 3 cans were a bit too much of heat. I should have stayed with the 2 cans as I initially planned. The pork dish was similar to chipotle chili verde I made half a year ago.

Slow cooking the pork
The slow cooked pork

The Pig Out Dessert (Idea only)
For dessert I was planning on baking cookies with chocolate chips, bits of bacon, some bacon fat, and maple syrup. However, I ran out of time and energy. Instead, I served them store bought cookies.

Should-be Bacon Cookies

Making bacon cookies can be a separate pork related project sometime in the future – maybe all bacon dinner. Any takers?

Bacon – Future dinner theme?

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