Photo by SanFranAnnie.

Dish of the Week: Blood sausage

Where: Chez Billy, El Chucho, Estadio, Le Diplomate

Halloween may be over, but you can eat creepy foods all year long. Peeled grapes and cold spaghetti are kids’ stuff and pretty disgusting to boot. Blood sausage, on the other hand, is for the discerning tube meat connoisseur.

Also known as boudin noir, morcilla, or black pudding, this stuff is not much to look at. (Trust me when I tell you that this was the most appetizing-looking photo I could find.) But what a blood sausage lacks in appearance, it makes up for in flavor. For the uninitiated, blood sausage is, well, exactly what it sounds like. Nearly every culture has their own version of the stuff, relying on the blood of various animals and giving the sausage some body with fillers like rice, potatoes, onions, and spices. Consequently, the texture tends to be pretty crumbly compared to your usual breakfast sausage or kielbasa. The taste is difficult to describe, a mishmash of iron, animal, mineral, and umami.

Stop into El Chucho (3313 11th Street NW) this weekend for a taste of blood sausage on their special Dia de Los Muertos menu. Other seasonal items include sweetbread tacos, pumpkin mousse, and Cerveza de Los Muertos Hefeweizen. If you’re totally over celebrating the undead, try Estadio for a plate of their luscious morcilla, or Le Diplomate (1601 14th Street NW) or Chez Billy (3815 Georgia Avenue NW) for some classic boudin noir.

Small Bites

Let’s just rename it Jose Andres Quarter
Finally, someone is taking over the vacant Olsson’s Bookstore space (418 7th Street NW) in Penn Quarter. Long rumored to become a Wagamama, the new tenant will be none other than tapas king Jose Andres. Yes, there will now be three Jose Andres restaurants on the same block. The latest venture, tentatively named China Chilcano, will focus on Peruvian-Chinese small plates with items like ceviche and dumplings. Look for an opening some in the spring.

Learn to (home)brew like a pro
Hey, hey, it’s almost Homebrew Day. Stop by Three Stars Brewing Company (6400 Chillum Place NW) on Saturday to learn the fine art of home brewing from the DC Homebrewers Association. Learn how to brew an ordinary bitter and how to brew the same beer extract and all-grain style. Demonstrations begin at 10 a.m.

Free gin alert
Vinoteca (1940 11th St. NW) is hosting a party on Thursday, November 7 to celebrate Virginia’s Copper Fox Distillery. Copper Fox will offer free tasting of their newest spirit, the “Vir” Gin (get it?), from 6-8 p.m. The bar will also be offering a selection of gin cocktails, including a Gin Rickeys, French 75s, for $7 that evening.