Dish of the Week: “Veggie Garbage Plate”

Where: Whole Foods Market

This one goes out to a little something I like to call the Whole Foods veggie garbage plate. The inspiration for the name comes from a Rochester restaurant famous for serving up monstrous, customizable piles of slop, a regional culinary hallmark.

This is a slightly healthier version.

The upscale supermarket chain popular around Washington doesn’t much advertise its $8 Meatless Monday special at its salad bars. But look hard enough at the start of the workweek from 4 to 7 p.m. and you will find a stack of compartment plates and a flimsy plastic lids. Sometimes you have to specially ask for one from staff stationed in the area. If there’s a sticker listing a flat price of $8 for whatever you can squeeze in, you’ve found what you’re looking for.

You probably won’t find a sign advertising this somewhat secret special. The rules aren’t really unwritten; there’s just nowhere to read them. You’re obviously not supposed to take dishes with animal in them. At least at the Logan Circle store, one salad bar island is dedicated to mostly raw, vegan food, but at the prepared hot and cold food islands, trays are interspersed. So if you find an appealing pasta salad but it’s sprinkled with salami, you’re supposed to take a pass, rather than hide it under a scoop of wheat berry salad.

And the lid is supposed to close, people! I’m looking at you, lady whose overflowing container couldn’t even be held together by the courtesy rubber bands they’ll provide you at the register. That’s cheating.

I’m for wedging in all you can within reason. But it’s an art form, and the line between perfectly packed and overstuffed is thinner than a ribbon of sesame noodles. The vessels offered for the special are selected to make it difficult to take too much. You must fight for each cubic centimeter.

I’ll typically start with a base layer. The garlicky kale salad and tangy tabbouleh are some favorites. Then you can spot me prodding in as many fingerling potatoes and roasted beets as I can, constantly checking to see if my lid will fit before lifting it up to stick in an extra few layers of asparagus with sun-dried tomato, and filling in one last crevice with gigante beans.

It was a proud moment that one time the cashier put my plate on the scale and it in at three pounds. That’s under $3/lb for a quite healthy dinner, lunch the next day, and falafel patties and cabbage pot stickers I used to be able to get my son to eat.

And that’s just the cold side of the equation. I prefer not to mix hot foods in my cold plate lest the steam from barbecue seitan strips wilt my romaine and the cream from the vegetarian lasagna seep into the Jamaican jerk rice salad. That just means a second, temperature segregated plate is in order. Hello sides for the week. I’ll probably eat them with animal protein later in the week, meat that Whole Foods got me to buy from them all because they got me to come in for their Meatless Monday promotion.

Small Bites

Drink your Thanksgiving Dinner
Jack Rose Dining Saloon (2007 18th Street NW) has put together a full five-course cocktail meal they’ll be serving Monday through Wednesday of next week, inviting patrons to down their Thanksgiving dinner in liquid form. Cocktails with fun names—like Seat at the Kids Table, Glazed Over, and Belt Loosener—and enticing ingredients ham & turkey-washed rye, baked bean syrup, and pecan pie bitters can be had a la carte for $10 or $45 for a flight of all five.

Bowl a Turkey
It’s the last weekend to get win a frozen turkey for you and DC Central Kitchen with your bowling skills. The term “turkey” in bowling means getting three strikes in a row. If you bowl one at Pinstripes in Georgetown through November 22, they will give you a frozen turkey and donate another one to help feed families in need.

Thanksgiving Pizza
While we’re talking turkey, this gimmick caught our eye too. Pete’s Apizza will serve a holiday inspired pizza from Monday through Wednesday (and during Black Friday lunch) next week. The pie will have roasted turkey, candied sweet potatoes, cranberries, goat cheese, brussels sprouts, pancetta, and mozzarella and is available by the slice at all of their locations.

The Tea Times Keep on Coming
The St. Regis (923 16th Street NW) has added a new daily afternoon tea service to be served in the hotel’s lobby. For $55 a person with service starting at 2pm, the kitchen will classics like scones with clotted cream and lemon curd, tea sandwiches with smoked salmon, crab cake, and other savories and confections. We previously reported on the Park Hyatt’s Tea Cellar. So it’s official—the British high tea is an emerging Washington trend.

Tonics for the Holidays
At Buffalo & Bergen in Union Market (1309 5th Street NE), Gina Chersevani has bottles of homemade tonics, syrups, and other elixirs being marketed for the holidays for drink mixing and gift giving needs. Lemon-lavender, grapefruit-persimmon, and celery tonic flavors are available by the 16 ounce bottle. Other soda bases include a cranberry line with the bog berry paired with Tahitian vanilla or orange and rosemary. There is a Sleigh Ride Shrub with bayberry, cranberry, and balsam and other seasonal concoctions. Each bottle comes with a recipe card giving tips on how to use and mix its contents. Prices start at $10.

Beaujolais for French Relief
At Bastille (606 N. Fayette Street, Alexandria) today and tomorrow, the restaurant will donate $10 from each bottle of the Beaujolais Nouveau to the French Red Cross for relief efforts following the terrorist attacks in Paris last week.

Sitar Center Benefit
If you like empanadas and kids art, this Saturday has a benefit for you. The Sitar Arts Center (1700 Kalorama Road NW) in Adams Morgan opens its doors from 2 to 4 p.m. tomorrow for Julia’s Empanadas and Misfit Juicery juice, wine and beer, arts projects for the kids, and a tour of the center and its programs that largely benefit children from low-income households. The benefit is $40 for adults and $25 for children.

Grasshopper Guacamole from Oaxaca
While Espita Mezcaleria readies for its opening in Shaw, El Centro D.F. (1819 14th Street NW) will introduce a Destination: Oaxaca menu, appealing to diners enthusiastic about the regional Mexican cuisine. The dishes are inspired by a trip Richard Sandoval and his corporate chefs took to Oaxaca. Grasshopper guacamole, pipian pork belly tacos, and tamal wrapped in aromatic leaf are available now through January 31. Go for the bug laden guac; stay for the mezcal/lime/agave nectar/kiwi/ginger concoction named after notorious escaped drug lord El Chapo.