episode one: aditieats in ur inbox!
food news, happenings, and thoughts from me, aditieats!
hello and welcome to my soon-to-be semi-regular roundup of food media straight to your inbox! or the substack app! whatever works! I wont tell you how to consume media!
episode 1: the January roundup of food media across all the platforms (tweets, tiktoks, articles) thoughts and questions from my brain, funny things i’ve seen that I simply must share. let’s go!
2023 Ins and Outs: food edition
yes, we are one month into 2023 so its a tad late for this, but check out my personal Ins and Outs of 2023: food edition! I have declared the following: pastry walks, eggs, and dirty martinis are IN! espresso martinis, cauliflower, and brunch is OUT! check out the full list here for more! already we have (I have) definitely seen an uptick in pastry walks, I am making it happen!
and like I said….espresso martinis are out….
I was thinking about…… grape ice cream
like? why is it not a flavor? based upon my research (one article I read) its allegedly because a) the high water content fruits are labor-intensive to make ice cream with and b) of the fruits with a high water content, cherry is already so associated with ice cream and has grown to be nostalgic, that grape doesn’t have the same demand from mass-producers of ice cream. it seems Ben & Jerry has tried and failed so maybe its a dead dream, but I kind of think someone should try? guess its time to pull out my ice cream maker!
100 very best D.C. restaurants (allegedly)
its the best time of the year, Washingtonian Magazine’s Top 100 Very Best Restaurants list has been released! the magazine had put a pause on this list during the thick of the pandemic, but its back! while i’ve only been to 24/100 overall, it seems like this list was generally solid, with some tweaks. I can’t say much about the top 10 as i’ve only been to L’ardente (and yes, it is that good) and Happy Gyro (their ice cream! top notch!) however, I appreciate the commitment of the list to include restaurants ranging from inexpensive to very expensive, and to include spots from across the DMV area (is a suburb 45 min away really the DMV….questionable…but alas)
as some friends noted, the list certainly captured the right restaurants, but the order of the list could use some adjustments. for example, I think Makan and Maydan should have been in the top 25, and Queen’s English should have been bumped down based on a plethora of mixed reviews of the restaurant. regardless, really hard to judge when i’ve only been to a quarter of them.
I know this has given me some great inspo, and I definitely want to try some new spots this year. Here is my list: anafre, cranes, bar spero, etto, green almond pantry, lutece, moon rabbit, oyster oyster, sura, caruso’s grocery, causa, and daru - just to name a few! :) what’s on yours?
If you want a full review of all 24/100, its in this bizarre new tiktok photo gallery format, here.
The Gas Stove Controversy
did you hear, the government is now coming for our kitchens!!! basically, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission was considering a ban on gas stoves after mounting evidence of adverse health effects from gas emissions inside homes. gas stoves leak methane, a large contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, and the gas can cause harm to those with respiratory issues like asthma. of course, this became huge fodder for right-wing misinformation and general internet chaos.
from a chef/home cook/interest in food perspective, I think this episode of The Sporkful does a great job of giving an overview of the harms and benefits of gas stoves, and alternatives like the electric and induction stoves. easy to understand and what can I say, Dan Pashman’s laugh is joyous.
clear ice?
so I was trying to take a really cute ~aesthetic pic~ of the cocktail I was making and realized, why is my ice cloudy? its clear on the outside but white in the middle? was it a personal problem? turns out its actually kind of difficult to make clear ice, it requires directional freezing - freezing ice in just one direction instead of all sides in a regular ice tray, as most of us do at home. boiling your water can create clearer ice cubes as well. learn more here!
we love the green m&m!
was it all just a PR stunt ahead of the superbowl? first, M&Ms announced they were putting an indefinite pause on the use of their spokescandies, voiced by Maya Rudolph. the spokescandies were very popular and also controversial because they looked kind of….attractive? anyways, later in the week a human spokesperson from Mars confirmed to NYT the characters would be in a super bowl ad, so I guess they’re not gone, but people are talking for sure! don’t worry, out green girly is here to stay!
stop it!
there have been an alarming amount of door smashings this past month at local businesses and restaurants in D.C. - within days at D Light Cafe in Adams Morgan and Bold Fork Books in Mt. Pleasant. sad to see this around the neighborhood, considering also that D Light has been a huge community focal point, raising money for those in Ukraine (link to their insta to donate here!) and Bold Fork has raised awareness of various cultural causes as well. overall really weird motives here towards local businesses….stop it please! not cool!
ice cream sandwich taste test tournament
the ultimate adult activity is eating a ton of ice cream on a saturday night, ranking every flavor of ice cream sandwich we can stomach, and getting a little sick in the name of science. we tried 11 flavors of our favorite local ice cream sandwiches and conducted a very scientific review - check out the full review here.
f*cked up looking food
this. this is my favorite twitter account. all these pictures….off the rails. unhinged. i’ll make this a regular segment to highlight the most egregious bad food, because if I have laid eyes on these monstrosities, so should you <3
today’s internet recipe!
after adding cool cooking videos off tiktok and insta to my favorites for years, i’m finally on a mission to acccctually make some of these recipes! this week we did Carolina Gelen’s recipe for beans alla vodka, like penne alla vodka but with beans! I think it turned out quite good!
I also tried this recipe for pickle galettes from Lily Morello - mine didn’t turn out nearly as pretty as hers - but it was a fun experiment! i’m going to try it again and not screw up the béchamel this time, and add more pickles and some spice.
thank you all for reading episode one!!! more to come from aditieats!
to end on a wholesome vibe, i’ll end on this lovely update from Gerald <3
yesssss this is already so amazing