W's Wine Party

Each year W throws a wine party that has not only spectacular wines, but also features a tableful of delicious foods. This year was no exception.

One of my favorites of the night was the salmon tartar (below) which was not only delicious but also plated so prettily :)

Then there is my always favorite, japchae (above). In fact J, while watching me pile some on my plate, asked "You are still obsessed with that dish?" ... "Yes. Yes I am."

And it wouldn't be a W wine party feast without the never disappointing homemade kim chee.

But don't forget about the wines! Besides the many various wines available to freely try W also had two special tastings lined up for us. A Trio of Champagne: 1. Deutz Brut Classic 2. Louis Roederer Brut Premier 3. Vilmart Brut Grand Reserve And a horizontal tasting (same year, different either wineries or vineyards) from the winery Produttori del Barbaresco, vintage 2005, from vineyards: 1. Riserva Montestefano 2. Riserva Asili 3. Riserva Rabaja

Thanks again W for being a wonderful host and sharing your tasty wines with us!

Some Food News

So I've been in a bit of a busy work hard play hard phase so haven't had much time to post. So here is some random food pictures and some local food news (and one international food news you must check out) to tide you over until I get a real post in.

Right: Korean Tacos from the TaKorean food truck. Below: Do you know what fruit this is? I was very surprised to discover that this is what passion fruit looks like. I also learned that not only do I like passion fruit flavored drinks, I also really like passion fruit itself.

- Virginia residents can now bring their own bottles of wine to restaurants! (arlnow link)

- Cafe Atlantico transformed into America Eats Tavern now open for six months (eater link)

- Best Cellers closing it's Clarendon location on July 16 (arlnow link) 

- Graffiato, restaurant by former Top Chef contestant and Zaytinya chef Mike Isabella, now open in Chinatown (eater link)

- Pizza delivery by Segway?! at Pete's New Haven Style Apizza (arlnow link)

- TenPehn closed, no news of relocation yet (eater link)

- Grocery shopping while waiting for your commuter train in Korea (a must see! -> geekinheels link)

- Best New Patios and Rooftop Bars (washington post link)

- Hook and Tackle Box in Georgtown is closed due to a fire (eater link)

- Eataly coming to DC 2012, competition for Bryan Voltaggio's North Market Kitchen Italian bazaar? (Huffington Post link)

An albacore tuna sandwich with sun dried tomato spread
recommended by S from Birley Sandwiches near the Ferry Building in San Francisco.

Shake Shack now open in DC!

Shake Shack has found DC worthy of it's presence! No longer will I have to worry about trying to squeeze in a Shake Shack visit when visiting New York City (just like I always try to squeeze an In-N-Out visit when I'm out west). Shake Shack opened last Tuesday, May 17th in Dupont Circle near Public Bar and 18th Street Lounge at 1216 18th St NW, the former location of Fuddruckers. Another DC location at Nationals Stadium is slated to open later this year. I am anticipating the same delicious burgers and shakes as served up in New York City and although I am also anticipating the same long lines as in New York City I am still excited to go as the food does tend to be worth the wait...

King Cake

For W's wine party I was feeling super ambitious so besides the homemade girl scout cookies, I decided, that since Mardi Gras was near (yes, this post, as many of my posts are, is very late :P ) I would also make a king cake. For those of you who don't know what a king cake is, a king cake is a cake used to celebrate the coming of Mardi Gras. It is usually a ring of twisted bread similar to brioche decorated with icing or sugar in the colors of Mardi Gras, purple, green, and gold. Often there is a trinket, usually in the form of a little plastic baby (thought to represent Baby Jesus), hidden somewhere in the cake. Whoever gets the slice with the trinket in it is considered the king or queen of the party and has an obligation to bring the king cake for next year.

The king cake I made was based on this recipe by Emeril Lagasse. I made two changes to the recipe, one was I added a teaspoon each of orange zest and cinnamon to the dough. The second was I substituted in an different icing recipe because I made this cake last year and didn't like the icing. The cake came out overall pretty good, though a little bit on the dry side if you don't have icing on the side to dip the cake in. To combat the dryness I think next year I shall try making a king cake with a filling.

Recipe Links:	King Cake (plus a teaspoon each of orange zest and cinnamon)
	King Cake Icing

Homemade Girl Scout Cookies

W, our resident wine connoisseur, was throwing one of his usual awesome wine parties so I decided to do some baking for it. I was very excited to try out these two recipes that I had stumbled upon....Homemade Thin Mints and Homemade Samoas!! This first attempt of mine wasn't the most successful, but it wasn't a complete failure either. Both cookies tasted great (which is the most important part), just the thin mints came out a little bit more crispy and a lot more melty than I would have liked while the samoas came out a little bit too crumbly and a lot bit too messy than I would have liked.

For the thin mints my mistake was I, because the recipe warns about cutting the cookies too thick , I ended up cutting them too thin which didn't even out with the baking time listed. So when making these cookies be very aware of your cookie thickness to baking time ratio. I also tried to be creative with the thin mints by substituting some of the chocolate in the coating with Andes Mints to try to give the cookies even more of a minty taste. This didn't quite work out as I think adding in the Andes Mints was what caused the chocolate mixture to not stay solid at room temperature. The cookies had to be put back in the refrigerator after sitting out for only 5-10 minutes.

For the samoas, these cookies were delicious, but were a crumbly sticky mess. I'm not sure how to fix this one, maybe less caramel next time? maybe I'll try a different cookie recipe such as this one? Although the cookie part of the recipe I used was really tasty, so maybe I don't want to mess with that. No matter what recipe I use I will definitely stick with the idea of making them into bar cookies as this is so much easier than cutting a bunch of single cookies out and topping each of them. Oh and I also omitted the coconut shavings in my version which makes me like these samoas so much better that the real girl scout cookie version.

Armed with these recipes, now I can have girl scout cookies any time of year and just the way I like them! :)

Recipe Links:	Thin Mints
	Samoas Bars
	Samoas