Morning Roundup: Goodbye, Abe Edition
D.C. Police Seek Suspect in Series of Bank Robberies
Suspect in 9-Year-Old's Murder Found Dead in D.C. Jail
Photo of the Day: November 25, 2009
Ballou HS Rocks the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
Dish of the Week: Bread
Bread is often an afterthought, even though for most it starts off a meal. How many times have you walked into a restaurant to be served another rock hard piece of ciabatta with a pat of hard, cold butter? This is something Tim Carman points to in his sneak preview of a baguette roundup in Young & Hungry.
We'll be nice and not rain on Tim's parade by listing all the criteria for classical (French) baguettes. But we will say that much of it has to do with optimizing flavor through leavening and browning of the crust. Even so there's a huge variety of opinions about what makes good bread. I know that I have a soft spot for the squishy, preservative-laden Wonder bread and the now and again desire to cut off my crusts.
Some of the best baguettes in the area are to be had at Robert Wiedmaier's Butcher Block, where they bake the baguettes in-house several times a day. For other types of bread, Vidalia has the best mix of cornbread and those ultra-buttery curled up rolls. Or go with a less traditional interpretation with the lavash at Proof, which comes out with a mixture of Greek yogurt, herbs and olive oil.
Where around town are some of your favorite bread baskets?
Small Bites
Openings
A new Ethiopian restaurant, Little Ethiopia, opened last night at 1924 9th Street NW. According to the press release, the servers will wash your hands at the table, a service that we have yet to see at any other Ethiopian restaurant. And it's perfect for ensuring clean hands when you use them to scoop up tidbits with your injera.
Qualia Coffee, at 3917 Georgia Ave. NW in Petworth, opens today from Joel Finkelstein's Fresh Off the Roast, which does small batch coffee bean roasting. Because the coffee is roasted in small batches, and have limits placed on its shelf life, it ensures much better coffee. PoP, naturally, has the early word.
One more, one less
Sova Espresso has just added a brand new drinks menu designed by Derek Brown of The Gibson. Aside from a great list of beers and wines, the cocktail menu and booze flights are worth the trip. Most interesting is a flight of Peruvian piscos for $14. [via Frozen Tropics]
Sadly, one of D.C.'s best bartenders will be moving on, at least for a little while. Bar Pilar's Adam Bernbach will be moving on after May 19. Known for his Tuesday cocktail sessions, his tenure will culminate in "The Black Sessions," where he will serve up some favorites. More details about his plans from Going Out Gurus.
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I lived in Tunisia for a couple of years. The baguettes there were so good. The ones here don't flake off, not as creamy and less tasty.
Thanks for those recommendations. I'll try them out but once you've had the real thing...
The bread basket at Poste is awesome. Nice French bread and salted rolls that tast like the love child of a buttery buiscuit and a Krispy Kreme. The pat of butter is delicious as well, and they are eager to give you more bread/butter when you run low.
DC is not a bread town. Philly, New Orleans, Montreal all have a culture of bakers (mostly French and Italian), but there's no real equavalent here. Although some of the Salvadorean and Vietnamese bakers are doing some great work in making crusty, fresh bread that actually tastes like bread, instead of some rockhard $hitcake or poor substitute for public housing insulation. I found a sandwich baguette at a Korean/Latino market that, reheated in an oven, made for a damn tasty sandwich.
I had a Cuban sandwich in a gas station in Tampa once. The bread was a rich, lardy, toasty vector for the melted meats and cheese. The bread made the sandwich. In DC, you're lucky to get something from Baltimore that resembles bread.
I also used to live somewhere else. All of the bread there was so much better than anything here in DC.
Oh, and the pizza. And the coffee. And the subway system. And the buses and cabs. And the people.
Kinda makes me wonder why I moved here.
Then perhaps you should go back to where you came from. We already have enough cat asses with shitty dispositions around here. K thanks bye.
Say what you will, but in Australia everything is better than in DC.
[Lady in the Radiator sings]
In Australia, everything is fine.
You've got your good things and I've got mine.
I'm going to try to erase that image.