Finally legal and ready to party This week the Washington Post published an article featuring three local pastry chefs creating recipes around exotic fruits. The article was a nod to the recent change that allows the legal importation from Thailand of rambutan, litchis, longans, new varieties of mangoes, and the “queen of fruits”, the mangosteen. Many of these fruits were available fresh in Asian markets, but were often smuggled from Canada. The fruits will begin…

Allez Cuisine! From Jack Abramoff’s Signatures to his own restaurant, Farrah Olivia, Morou Ouattara plans to step into a new venue. His eye is on Kitchen Stadium as he competes for the title of the Next Iron Chef. The first episode airs Sunday, 9 p.m. on the Food Network. Eight chefs with the help of Lufthansa Airlines (yay product placement!) will be traveling through Europe and competing against each other to join Mario Batali, Cat…

Benefit for Argonaut Bartender Tonight As you may have read in this morning’s weekend picks, Argonaut and the Englert family of bars are having an event tonight to benefit one of their bartenders who was seriously injured by a gunman when walking to his girlfriend’s from work. Luis “Quike” Morales was shot on September 30 in an apparent robbery gone awry, and has only recently come out of his coma. Unfortunately, our ass backwards health…

Food with a Side of Sexy? In Wednesday’s Food Section of the Washington Post, we were served alternately sexy and prudish food features. Sexy: In response to a reader who asked Tom Sietsema’s opinion on “sexiest food,” he responded, “Mangoes in the bath tub get my vote. Or caviar on scrambled eggs, served in bed.” Hmm. Mangos in the bathtub. I had not yet thought of that. What else would you add to the…

By DCist Food Writer Melissa McCart. If you haven’t been to Rice, you might have heard that it’s tough to find, that it’s a bit New York, and that it’s too expensive. None of which is true. Though the door is marked by a tiny nameplate on 14th Street between Q and Corcoran, it is more effective to look for a more visible landmark: the bright yellow sign for our favorite jazz haunt-slash-cafeteria, HR 57,…

By DCist food contributor Melissa McCart. Pretend you’re visiting a good New York restaurant. You slip into your “black is the new black” fall attire. You ratchet up the attitude. You reach deeper into your wallet to pay the bill. You sit back and admire the beautiful people. You may choose to embrace these rituals when visiting Washington’s CityZen in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. Despite that it’s off the beaten path, CityZen is where it’s…

From DCist food contributor Melissa McCart Chances are, if you’ve ordered wine at Tallula, Café Atlantico or Two Amys, you may have been served in a stemless glass. Better known as Reidel’s “O” line, the tumblers “are for kitchen entertaining,” said Maximilian Riedel, 29 year-old CEO of Riedel Crystal in the October issue of Food and Wine. The glasses come in several varieties: Syrah/Shiraz, Cabernet/Merlot, Pinot/Nebbiolo, Savignon Blanc/Reisling, Sake, spirits and fortified wines. Despite…

Please welcome DCist’s latest food contributor, Melissa McCart Finding W Domku among liquor stores and takeout joints is only half the adventure in a visit to Kera Carpenter’s Scandinavian & Eastern European restaurant. The rest is exploring the range of food and drink options from those regions in this Petworth gem. Despite the name — W Domku means “in the little house” in Polish — opening this restaurant has been a quite a journey for…