episode 32: award season, avocado hand, and lots of ice cream
this week we're talking about food awards and rankings, avocado-related injuries, and lots of ice cream news!
a rare 3-week break and Sunday release for aditieats, apologies for the delay but perhaps no one even noticed 🤷♀️ enjoy, regardless!
WaPo’s DMV summer ice cream list (mine is better) 🍦
writers at the Washington Post did a taste test review of ice cream in “Washington” (the DMV) and yes, I have thoughts. besides the location choices, I think the overall methodology was decent, as they picked locally-owned shops and tried somewhat consistent flavors at each place. but, they included gelato as an ice cream, which I disagree with (even though its tasty!). I thought the author’s positive takes on Mt. Desert Island and Larry’s Homemade were accurate as with the negative take on Ice Cream Jubilee (whose quality has slipped over the years). it was exciting to see Everyday Sundae get a good review, its been on my list to try for ages! if you really must go to Virginia for ice cream, and to see more of the ratings, click here.
James Beard recap 🏅
DC wins! and NYC is salty! what’s new! the winners of this year’s James Beard awards were unveiled - one of the most prestigious food awards in the country. DC chefs took home some of the biggest national awards of the night, as Perry’s chef Masako Morishita won Emerging Chef of the Year and Michael Rafidi from Albi won Outstanding Chef. restaurants and chefs in Portland (OR and ME), Denver and New Orleans took home national awards as well. Eater NY then whined in this article titled, “New York City Is Shut Out of National Medals at the James Beard Awards” like…perhaps consider that there there is really great food in and out of New York? cry me a river.
that’s that me, espresso (ice cream) ☕️
the catchiest song of the summer now has a delicious treat to go with it. Sabrina Carpenter’s hit song Espresso was always primed for a food collaboration, well, its finally here and its not a coffee drink! Sabrina has teamed up with Van Leeuwen Ice Cream for an espresso flavored ice cream with swirls of fudge, brownie chunks and chocolate chips. it will be available starting this weekend in store and on their website, and 50% of proceedings are going to the Ali Forney Center, helping provide services to LGBTQ youth experiencing homelessness. the ice cream may help her keep working late…cause she’s a singerrrrrrrr…
lasagna battery! 🔋
what do you get when you put a lasagna in a steel pan with aluminum foil over it? a battery! yeah! I wouldn’t have guessed that either! batteries have electrolytes which allow for the flow of electrons between the anode and the cathode, and in this case, the lasagna acts as an electrolyte between the pan and the foil as the anode and cathode. this flow may cause a visible reaction in the foil in a process called galvanic corrosion that creates small holes in the foil. this is as far as I can (poorly) explain it, i’m not a scientist, i’m just a girl! see more from this helpful TikTok here.
avoiding “avocado hand” 🥑
POV: you’re cutting an avocado for your toast and the knife slips, and all of a sudden you’re bleeding. this is an exceedingly common injury, so much so that hand surgeons are calling it “avocado hand.” more than 50,000 people went to the emergency room between 1998 and 2017 for avocado-related knife injuries. ahh!
to avoid these injuries, WaPo recommends some cutting techniques best depicted visually (see the article here). basically, we gotta stop holding the avocados in the palm of our hands next to a lot of nerve endings! another tip is to ditch the sharp knife and just use a butter knife on the ripe avocado, to be safer.
top 50 best restaurants 🏆
the World’s 50 Best Restaurants List was announced a few weeks ago, with Disfrutar in Barcelona taking the top spot. the US had two entrants in the top 50, Atomix in NYC at #6 and SingleThread in California at #46, and three entrants from Mexico City made the list, (two of which i’ve had the pleasure of eating at!) which is very cool. of course, these “best restaurants” are all very fine-dining focused ($$$), so this is a cool list only if you’re into that sort of thing. (and if you’re not, read this hit piece from Pete Wells here. he raises some good points about this list and its praise of restaurants that are so fancy, they may not even be restaurants anymore.)
a new kind of youth ban 🙅♀️
yes, we know you need to be 21 to drink at a bar. but at this restaurant/bar in St. Louis, you need to be in your… 30s?! the owners of Bliss Caribbean Restaurant are requiring all female customers to be at least 30 and male customers to be at least 35. their goal in implementing this age floor is to create an adults-only vacation vibe, emulating many Caribbean vacations they’ve been on where they are able to enjoy each others company without younger people’s energy. they play music that caters to older patrons and keeping out the young kids keeps out the “riffraff.” apparently, people who can get in love it, and the only ones complaining are those of us who can’t.
if this sounds odd to you, you may be on to something, as this doesn’t sound particularly legal. federal law doesn’t prohibit age restrictions in public spaces, but this rule may violate Missouri’s human rights act for sex discrimination, with its differing age requirements for men and women. I see the intention of these restaurant owners, but agree that i’m not sure how it’ll play out. what do you think?
compass coffee v. wydown coffee v. unions 💪
man, they just cant stop union busting! one morning in mid-May all the employees at DC coffee shop The Wydown got an email saying they’d been laid off. this was mere days before their union election, and came out of nowhere, as the store was doing well financially. while aspects of the management-employee relationship were certainly tense, especially as Wydown failed to voluntarily recognize the union, the decision was certainly abrupt and perhaps with ill-intent.
after the Wydown closure, Compass Coffee swooped in and announced they would take over the Wydown’s 14th St location just days before DC Pride, which inevitably earned them a lot of money from the parade crowd. and, they didn’t hire any of the laid-off Wydown employees. turns out, Compass is embroiled in union-busting issues too!! as Compass employees’ efforts to unionize are underway, the company hired 124 new baristas across their stores. these new baristas have allegedly been hired to help during the rush of “cold brew season,” but in reality, is likely being done to dilute the staff numbers in order to stymie the union election. after all, why would they be hiring the VPs and CEOs of other businesses that have fought against unions amongst their own staff? fishy indeed. read more about the Wydown saga here and the Compass Coffee efforts here.
dr. pepper supremacy 🥤
there’s a new second-choice soda in town! according to data from the Beverage Digest which analyzes sales volume information, Dr. Pepper is the new second place in sodas, behind Coke of course. this spot was occupied by Pepsi for decades (since 1985!) and while it remains closely behind Dr. Pepper, this is still a pretty big deal! the recent rise in popularity of this soda is credited to online marketing and TikTok trends like the Dr. Pepper and Pickles drink at Sonic. i’ve never tried one, but go Dr. Pepper go!
apertif and digestif corner: amaro 🥃
it turns out, I really like apertifs. they’re bitter and complex and a great low-ish ABV drink that can be enjoyed by itself, in a spritz, or in a cocktail. but what exactly is an apertif? its a broad category of drinks meant to be enjoyed before a meal, similar to a digestif, which is meant for after a meal. as I learn more about this category of beverages, i’ll share in this little segment called: apertif and digestif corner. (tbh, basically i’m starting this because i meant to look up “what is an apertif” and found “what is an amaro” instead. so we’ll start with that!)
traditionally, amaro is made from infusing grape brandy with a ~secret~ mix of herbs, flowers, citrus peels, and spices, then sweetened with syrup and aged. its a type of Italian digestif that can be enjoyed many ways, and there’s hundreds to choose from. you may have seen Fernet-Branca, which is a more bitter variety, or Cynar made with artichoke, or medium amaros like Montenegro or Averna. so the next time you’re taking Fernet shots at Wonderland Ballroom….oh is that just me? carry on!
restaurant review: Oyster Oyster 🦪
last week I got to eat at Oyster Oyster, the Michelin-star vegetarian tasting menu restaurant, and yes, it was fantastic! led by award-winning Chef Rob Rubba, the menu is fully vegetarian and heavily focused on sustainability. everything was soooo tasty, my favorite bites were the pea and jicama salad and the incredible broccoli bread with vegan marigold butter. it was great to enjoy a tasting menu that was solely focused on making vegetables into a tasty, creative, and hearty meal instead of being served a non-meat option as an afterthought like with other fancy restaurants. see more below!
f*cked up food 🤮
a reader submission, and a good one at that. tasty popsicles, just in time for summer! (thanks Jamie!)
d.c. happenings 🗞️
openings
HUGE! famous Indian spot Chai Pani coming to Union Market
also HUGE Yellow opening in Union Market (not a pop-up)
Brazilian bar Cana opening in Adams Morgan
Streets Market comes to Mt Pleasant
Bullfrog Bagels coming to Union Station
Uncaged Mimosas moving to H St and renaming as On the Rocks
Ted’s Bulletin NoMa opening
Darvish Kitchen on Connecticut soft opened
Beresovsky’s Deli popping up in DuPont
The Continent DC, an “upscale West African” restaurant now open
Pera Kebab now open on Connecticut
Sixty Vines opening in Foggy Bottom
new Indian spot coming to old Bar Elena spot on H St
Jerk Pit Jamaican spot coming to Adams Morgan
All Purpose Pizzeria folks opening a focaccia spot called Fossette in old Buttercream Bakery space
Maharaja House of Biryani opened near Naval Observatory
7th Street Burger opened in Georgetown
not another one……Tatte Georgetown opening
Talea Ristorante opened in Cathedral Heights
Talking Tacos coming to 1800 M St
Bread Me Cafe opened in Cozy Corner space in Mt. Vernon
Namak Mandi Shinwari Grill a Pakistani restaurant coming to Downtown
Bar Japonais on 14th opened!
closings
Duplex Diner at 18th & U closes
Birch and Barley closing, replaced with Mallard a Southern restaurant
changes
Anejo Bar and Grill in Petworth has been serving breakfast tacos
Malai Ice Cream continuing to operate with limited hours
new stuff at Primrose
matcha soft serve now at Saku Saku Flakerie in Tenleytown
Summer Restaurant week will be August 12-18
home cooking (decorating!) 🍰
some things I have made in the last week:
what I am most proud of - this cake I decorated for my bff’s bday! this decor journey stemmed from the fact that I dropped the ball on paying Whole Foods to decorate the cake for me, so I took to Pinterest and decided that I could do my own decor using fruit instead of my non-existent steady hand with the piping bag. I cut a bunch of fruit into thin/small pieces and did a whole confetti-rainbow pattern placing the fruit all over the cake, which I bought from Whole Foods (i’m not a baker!). it turned out to be really beautiful and i’m so proud of it!
we also did a super fun neighborhood cocktail crawl with friends, where each stop (each friend’s house in the neighborhood) featured a drink and a snack. at stop 1 the house made the Dishoom East India gimlet and a waffle and crème fraiche snack, stop 2 was a blackberry vodka lemonade with bacon-wrapped dates, stop 3 (my house!) was a Join Jules vanilla pineapple daiquiri and walking tacos, and stop 4 was a Royal Tea with a goat cheese and bread plate and a peach and hot honey open-faced tart. everyone did such a great job with their drinks and snacks! its a great way to rotate hosting for a day drinking Saturday adventure.
that’s it folks! have a great rest of your weekend, and a happy 4th!