Win a free dinner with a couple of my favorite DC dining divas!

You know I love my Scoutmob dinner deals and my Scoutmob parties. Now they're combining the best of both worlds and hosting the ultimate Scoutmob Dinner Party hosted by a couple of my fave local gals, Lisa Shapiro of Dining in DC and Mary Kong of Girl Meets Food.



Mary, me and Lisa, along with Jenna Huntsberger
& Jason "Foodgeek" at one of our fun dinners.

 All you have to do is answer a fun question of whom YOU would love to dine with (besides me, of course) and you'll be entered to win a Chef's Table Dinner at the legendary Cashion's Eat Place in Adams Morgan, courtesy of Scoutmob. Winners will be selected on sheer creativity, although you can, of course, pick me. =)

The link again: http://scoutmob.com/dc-dinner-party/?Referrer=gg1128.

Best of luck and hope to see you there!



This delectable black cod dish could be yours!



The cold is coming, so craving some comfort cuisine, Castellano style, at Taberna del Alabardero

I've been fortunate enough to spend Thanksgiving with my sister in Michigan and a taste of some comfort food, Salvadoran style (her hails from El Salvador) and I'm excited to get back home to taste a few different comfort cuisines over the winter. While I got to practice speaking some Spanish this weekend, I figure why not also taste some Spanish? I'm craving some paella and when I get back to DC, I know exactly where to go: Taberna del Alabardero.

They recently launched Spanish Style Sunday lunches which offers a selection of 9 different succulent paellas at $22 per person:

Arroz Negro de Calamar, Mejillón y Gambas
Squid Ink Rice with Mussels and Shrimp

Paella Valenciana
Duck, Chicken, Seafood, Faba Beans and Vegetables

Paella de Carrillera y Queso Manchego
Pork Cheek, Fresh Vegetable and Manchego Cheese

Paella de Pollo y Chorizo
Chicken and Spanish Sausage

Paella de Pulpo Confitada
Grilled Octopus, Potato Confit and Paprika

Paella de Cangrejo de Maryland y Emperador en Adobo
Marinated Swordfish and Maryland Crabs

Paella de Pollo Moruno y Pimientos de Gernika con Alli Olli de Ajetes
Marinated Chicken and “Gernika” peppers with and Scallions Ali Olli

Arroz Abanda
Mussels, Scallops, Shrimp and Langoustines Paella

Vegetarian
Mushrooms, Faba Beans & Seasonal Vegetables

I am honored to have been invited to a tasting of several of these paellas and there was definitely not disappointed. Not that it sould be any surprise, but my favorite was the Paella de Carrillera y Queso Manchego with a most flavorful marinated pork cheek perfectly accented with the saltiness of manchego cheese.

The paella specials are available on Sundays, 11:30am-2:30pm. As you can see from the above video, they're made to order and take a little while to ensure diners the freshest and crispiest pans, so I highly recommend getting some of their delectable appetizers, like the Tortilla Espanola.

Anyone hungry yet? Who wants to come?

New Mobile Deals That You Don't Have to Pre-Pay with ScoutMob

ScoutMob, the newest iteration in the Online Coupon craze,  launches in DC today and where better to try it than an old DC stand-by like Georgia Brown's downtown, just a couple of blocks from the White House. This place was a treat to me when I first came to DC, and I cannot rave enough about their biscuit-battered French toast during their weekend jazz brunch.

The cool thing about it is you don't have to pre-purchase the deal. You just show up and show the coupon from your mobile phone either with their iPhone or Droid app, or your email.

Later this week, they'll be featuring Ben's Chili Bowl. Explore DC's tasty history like a tourist, but pay like a local.

http://scoutmob.com/revel/gogastronomy

Don't live in DC? ScoutMob is also in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Boston, and other major cities across the country, so you can even use it while you travel.

And it's more than just savings. Each day of the week, they'll feature stories about things to do wherever you are. Worth checking out.

Falling for Food Trucks - El Floridiano

El Floridiano - Delicious pressed sandwiches based on Cuban tradition, although sandwiches go beyond the Cuban and Leche con Pan, but a couple of Asian inspired sandwiches that I look forward to trying in the future. Quality ingredients, especially the pork loin which is marvelously marinated, but the bread is toasted at such a low temperature that it dries out the bread more than it toasts it, causing a huge crumby mess all over your clothes and in your wake as you bite. Best if you're eating outside and don't have to vacuum, and the birds appreciate it, too. Prices are $7 for sandwiches, which I think is fair for that pork loin marinade alone, despite the extra cleaning you or your office janitor have to do. 

TIP: Don't eat at your desk or you'll be vacuuming crumbs from your keyboard for days.

Look Out Weekend Cuz Here I Come -- to a pool near you

After such an eventful couple of weeks, I am so grateful for a weekend to chillax – and a 3-day weekend at that. The highlight of which, amongst outdoor movies at my friends’ backyard and the Rolling Thunder motorcycle ride along the Mall, is the commencement of pool season.

Pool season is a whole new concept for me, in which swimming pools in the area (perhaps the East Coast in general) open between Memorial Day weekend and Labor Day weekend. Growing up on the West Coast, this was never a big deal. We always had the beach and which was a destination year-round. In Southern California, pools are open year-round and Northern California upward, pools are a rare luxury as are days warm enough to use them.

In DC, pools are a necessity. It’s May and friendly reminders that I live in a converted swamp are already starting to creep. The air-conditioning has been turned on (and it’s working this year!), I think I’ve found a good hair cream to control the way my hair apparently frizzes in the humidity, and I’ve been granted access to a pool in one of those gated communities in the suburbs. Opening day is today, and I cannot wait!

Before I take a dive, below are some highlights from the past couple of weeks, as a preview of a few more thoughtful posts I hope to write out over the weekend if my fingers don’t get too wrinkly:

• Winning a blind wine-tasting party with my friends’ garagiste wine. OK, it’s a pretty exceptional and award-winning garage wine called Northwest Totem Cellars, but more heartfelt because I helped crush and bottle the wine. As the winner, I received a bottle of all the other contenders, and the honor to host the next party. Feel free to drop me a line if you'd like an invitation.



National Archivist David Ferriero & Chef
Jose Andres discuss the new What's
Cooking, Uncle Sam? exhibit.

• Attending a reception announcing the upcoming, What’s Cooking, Uncle Sam? exhibit at the National Archives, which will look at the history of the influence food has had on the country, and the influence the country has had on food.
• Strolling and munching throughout the Smithsonian National Zoo at their annual Zoofari event, possibly one of the most exceptional and dizzying fundraisers I’ve ever been to, where it seemed a couple of hundred of DC’s restaurants and drink purveyors offered tastes of some of their finest bites and sips.
• And if I didn’t get enough to eat at Zoofari, the very next day I got to work behind the scenes for the inaugural Eat, Write, Retreat, a conference for food writers/photographers/bloggers. I was lucky enough to get to work behind the scenes and get an interesting perspective on this unique type of conference that offered lots of hands-on workshops, tours, and lots and lots of eats. Oh, and received an extraodinary abundance of culinary schwag! I still have yet to pore over everything.




My most favorite dip ever,
taramasolata (aka Greek caviar)


• If only it could have stopped there. After a day of “rest” at the office, I got to celebrate the first anniversary of Agora Restaurant with a truly phenomenal Greek/Turkish dinner. They even had my favorite dip, taramosolata, aka Greek caviar, which rivaled Kokkari’s in San Francisco. (This reminds me, I may have to plan a lunch while I’m there next month.) They also offered Turkish coffee after dinner and those that were willing to stay got to see me relive an old childhood talent.

• The next evening, I got to join a hundred or so of Washington’s LGBT community’s most influential at the exclusive Cosmos Club where a party was held to welcome The Advocate’s new DC Bureau Chief, Andrew Harmon. Names and faces were a virtual who’s who of DC’s power-gays and supporters, including Health & Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, but the highlight for me was meeting NPR’s White House Correspondent (and sometimes Pink Martini guest singer), Ari Shapiro. I now understand the big crush Oprah feels for her designer Nate Berkus. I just couldn’t stop gushing over the guy. As for dining, the appetizers and wine were certainly plentiful, but I just couldn’t focus on them.
  



With one of my celebrity crushes, Ari Shapiro.
In case you're wondering, he's married -- to another man.


• As if this weren’t enough, the following evening was spent at Medium Rare, a new kind of steakhouse with a new kind of prix fixe menu of salad and steak for $19.95. There is no choice, with the exception of how your steak is to be cooked, and despite the restaurant’s name, you don’t have to order it medium rare (although, optimally, you may want to). There is one kind of salad, with a subtle Dijon vinaigrette, and the steak comes with fries (no, I didn’t ask for them to be well done) and there is one kind of sauce – and you want it. You once you taste it, you will want to bathe in that sauce. It is that good and I am salivating from just the memory of it.

Is it no wonder why I am feeling quite intimidated to put on my bathing suit for the first time since Christmas? However, after spending a long hot and humid day visiting the expansive Mount Vernon Estate (yes, the one from the history books), there’s not much else I’d like to do than splash in a pool.

Tutoring technology over time at Mount Vernon.