Dish of the Week: Crab Bisque
Where: Jardenea, Ray’s the Steak
Bisques are a method of deriving every last bit of shellfish flavor after the meaty parts have been eaten. Stocks extract all the juices from the shells and other bits of a crustacean. Thicken the soup, add a bit of cream, a lobster claw or a few lumps of crabmeat and you’ve got yourself a tasty soup. After their slabs of beef, Rays the Steak has long been known for their classic sherried crab bisque, the alcohol adding a final accent to the complex flavor and the creamy bowl.
The crab bisque at Jardenea, a restaurant with a local, seasonal farm-to-fork concept that recently opened in the renovated Melrose Georgetown Hotel, lightens up what I often think of as a heavy, overly creamy thing to order. Streaks of green chive oil add vibrancy to the broth that shades from white to yellow to orange. Shitake mushrooms add an earthy quality and texture, but not as much as the crab roe, which is used to season and intensify the flavor of the broth. The eggs impart a sense of umami, intensifying crab flavor. “For some people it’s just not their thing, just a touch too fishy,” explains chef Nate Lindsay. But the intense flavor is part of the allure of a bisque that satisfies more with a hearty, deep flavor of the crab than it does of cream. You’ll certainly want to save some of their homemade ciabatta to clean the bottom of the bowl.
Another New Restaurant for Bloomingdale
The Red Hen opened earlier this week on First Street in Bloomingdale, just south of Rhode Island Avenue. It’s a north Italian-influenced American menu centered around an open kitchen and its stone hearth with a wood fired grill. The wood fire will influence many dishes—ricotta is roasted to impart a smoky flavor to the cheese, burnt embers in oil create a smoked aioli, vanilla beans are roasted in house for the house made gelato—as well as grilling meats and vegetables.
Georgetown French Market This Weekend
Wisconsin Avenue between P and Reservoir becomes a Parisian sidewalk this weekend for Georgetown’s 10th Annual French Market festival. Patisserie Poupon, Café Bonaparte, Clyde’s, and Paul Bakery will offer crepes and pastries, merquez sausages, and other French delicacies with Macaraon Bee selling macaroon ice cream sandwiches. Neighborhood stores and galleries will feature sidewalk sales and art showcases while mimes roam the streets to bring home that French feel.
Now Offering Brunch: Table and Ambar
Table, recently opened by Chef Frederik de Pue by the Convention Center, begins brunch service this weekend. The three-course menu starts with house made pastries and offers selections such as glazed short ribs with eggs up, buckwheat crepes with truffle honey, caramelized pears, walnuts and goat cheese, and a croquet monsieur omelet with offerings changing seasonally. Ambar, the new Balkan restaurant on Barracks Row, also gets in on brunch action this weekend, opting for an ala carte small plate model. Think eggs benedict with prosciutto, a sauce made from Serbian kamjak cheese standing in for Béchamel and, Ajvar (a pepper and garlic spread) along with the regular menu.
Ramping up for Spring
Ramps are a sure sign of the spring. You could drive 300 miles out to Richwood, WV, “the ramp capital of the world” for this weekend for the town’s ramp festival. Or save the miles and check out BLT Steak’s ramp tasting menu. Chef Mathieson’s $70 four course feast features the garlicky onions in a sauce gribiche with spring pea soup, grilling them alongside a pan seared hamachi, cooking them with fingerling potatoes along a flat iron steak, and turning them into a chutney for his cheese course. All go down a little easier after a Lady & the Ramp cocktail.
