Last night, Ba Bay played host to a pre-Taste of the Nation banh mi smackdown to raise money for Share Our Strength, an organization that fights childhood hunger. The competition pitted chefs from Ba Bay, Dino, Lyon Hall, Proof, PS7’s and The Source against each other to see who could create the best banh mi.

Dish of the Week: Pho Pho has been called Vietnamese penicillin; it’s warm goodness certainly seems healing. And for a long time good pho was hard to come by in the District. Sure you could go to Nam Viet in Cleveland Park, Froggy Bottom Pub, or Miss Saigon in Georgetown. But it was best to go to Pho 75 in Rosslyn or one of its other locations. At its best it’s a fragrant and…

Dish of the Week: Whipped cream Most people have already ramped up their holiday baking with cookies, pies, cakes, and other sweet treats. But there’s one thing that can make all those things better… whipped cream. For the longest time I had an aversion to the stuff, because most of the time I was given Cool Whip. But real whipped cream is fantastic, and beyond easy to make — though if only using a whisk,…