Results tagged “juliuscaesar”

Anyone who has read the menu at the Brickskeller can tell you that Julius Caesar called beer "a high and mighty liquor." But aside from being a favorite of Roman conquerors, it causes people to say funny stuff - stuff that when you overhear it, makes you really want to know how that conclusion was reached. What winding path was taken to get there?

One of the deficiencies of the city's leading opera company, Washington National Opera, is that lately they think of Mozart as early opera. The last time the WNO staged an opera from before 1775 or so was Handel's Julius Caesar in 2000 and the same composer's Agrippina in 1992 before that. Baroque opera is one of my major interests, and Handel is great, but there is a century of Baroque opera before Handel, too. We are lucky, however, to have some of the smaller companies in the area to fill the gap: Opera Lafayette has recently brought us Rameau and Lully, for example. Even better, two companies are mounting actual staged performances of Baroque operas this summer. If you want to see what opera was like in its infancy, check it out.

Julius Caesar's March surprise left him dead and legendary. One wonders if Caesar Cardini, creator of the "Caesar's salad", was surprised when his creation became legendary as well. Like Steak Tartare, Caesar salad used to be prepared tableside with fresh ingredients while a patron overlooked its genesis. But in most of its current incarnations, the salad is hastily prepared in the kitchen with pre-made dressings and little attention to detail. Limp lettuce leaves arrive at your table smothered in a runny, thin dressing with little flavor. Fortunately for D.C., a few restaurants like La Bergerie in Old Town Alexandria still kick out a Caesar Salad the way it was originally intended. If your only experience with this classic hails from bottled dressings and super market croutons we invite you to dive into this recipe. Making this dressing from scratch is simple and rewarding -- but be forewarned, it may make tolerating store bought varieties difficult in the future.