Fowl weather

Snow, ice, freezing temperatures -- what could be more comforting than a slow-roasted chicken with potato wedges sizzling in the fat. Especially if the chicken was smeared with a herb paste and stuffed with lemon, garlic and more herbs, resting on a bed of herbs as it roasted away for three hours at 300 degrees.

Photo by Epicurious

This was the recipe we culled from the latest issue of Bon Appetit. We picked our favorite plump roaster, the kosher chicken at Whole Foods, and rubbed the herb paste of coarsely ground fennel seeds and red pepper flakes, chopped thyme and marjoram, salt, pepper and olive oil inside and out. Then put a quartered lemon and a halved head of garlic in the cavity with a couple more sprigs each of thyme and marjoram and placed the bird on sheet pan on top of more sprigs and surrounded by the yukon gold potatoes, scrubbed, quartered and tossed in olive oil. This goes in the oven, the potatoes get turned and the chicken basted every hour while the house fills with this incredible aroma.

The chicken comes out beautiful, moist, shreddably tender, with a crisp, flavorful skin and dark potatoes that manage to be gooey and crisp at the same time. Too often we tear out these appealing recipes and lose track of them. The key here was immediate consumption. This one is a keeper.

We have gradually come to the conclusion that the old WF at Tenley has a better and more interesting selection of produce and perhaps even meat than the big, newer WF at Friendship Heights, where we usually shop. While buying the chicken at Tenley, I noticed that they had not only frozen guinea fowl, which I almost never see at Friendship, but also frozen pheasant. So I took the pheasant home and quickly found not one but two pheasant recipes in Roden's Food of Spain, one stuffed with apples and the other stuffed with duck liver pate. I opted for the healthier apple version and we roasted our pheasant for a festive Oscar night dinner, accompanied by a crunchy, healthy barley and cauliflower salad from Bon Appetit.

As is typical for game birds -- though this was certainly farmed -- the recipe called for larding with several strips of bacon. In addition to half an apple in the cavity, it also had sauteed apple rings in the pot with a sauce made from deglazing the skillet with Calvados (I used applejack). Our bird at 2-1/2 pounds was considerably bigger than the recipe's 1-1/2 pound, so it took considerably longer than the 30 minutes at 425 degrees prescribed in the recipe. No matter, we waited happily. The breast meat was tender, with a more delicate flavor than chicken, just a bit dry in spite of the larding. The dark meat was gamier, altogether different than a chicken thigh, and was especially delicious cold the next day (yes, there were leftovers from a bird that big).

Roden's book has a number of game bird recipes -- partridge, woodcock, quail, and squab in addition to pheasant. Who knew the Spanish were such avid hunters? That's along with a good assortment of chicken, turkey, capon, guinea fowl and rabbit recipes. So plenty to look forward to still.

Mediterranean winter

It's been a hard winter and we've had our usual round of beef stew, chili, sauce bolognese, pork roast and other wintry comfort food. But not every day in the Mediterranean is hot and sunny and these countries have their own winter dishes that have helped keep us warm.

Stewy lamb is a good start. I dusted off our tagine and made Ghillie Basan's lamb tagine with shallots and dates. Lamb shoulder is hard to find so I used butterflied leg of lamb, a small piece that provided just the 1-1/2 pounds called for in the recipe. After browning the lamb, and then the 12 peeled shallots and 4 to 6 garlic cloves, you add turmeric and cinnamon sticks, put the lamb back in and cover with water. Evidently, Basan's tagine is smaller than mine, because when I put in water to cover, it comes out too watery, even after 1-1/2 hours of cooking. The dates and honey go in after the first hour, and a sprinkling of toasted sesame seeds finishes it off at the end.

Although it has some of the same ingredients, we moved on the same week to Ottolenghi's lamb meatballs with barberries, yogurt and herbs. Whole Foods now apparently grinds its lamb shoulder so that fresh ground lamb is available, and it made these meatballs -- which also have onion, parsley, garlic, cinnamon, allspice, barberries, salt, pepper and egg -- very tasty. After browning the meatballs, you then saute shallots (again!), add wine, stock, bay leaves, thyme, figs and sugar, place the meatballs back in and simmer for 1-1/2 hours, uncovering it after 30 minutes. Garnish with Greek yogurt and chopped herbs (cilantro, mint, dill, tarragon).

Both dishes were very warming, with the meatballs clearly ahead in the flavor department. We actually threw leftovers from both dishes together and served that over couscous -- lamb, figs, dates, shallots galore.

For my solo fish dinner this week, I went to Claudia Roden's The Food of Spain and found an easy recipe for the monkfish that looked good to me at the Fishery. This called simply for caramelizing an onion and then sauteeing the monkfish in the pan. At the end, you light some rum and flambee the fish. Monkfish has this lobster-like texture and sweet flavor that I like, so this worked perfectly. I got used to the fish in France under its much more appealing French name, lotte (also more appealing than the Spanish rape), where it often appeared on menus. It is easy and cheaper than a lot of other fish.

The Roden recipe was very nice and since Whole Foods had frozen pheasant this week, presumably farmed, I'm looking forward to using her recipe for pheasant with apples. More on that another time.

Ambar

We wanted to get into the super-trendy Rose's Luxury and in our delusion thought we could show up at 6 on a Saturday night and get in the no-reservation place. After they told us it was a three-hour wait for a table and standing room only at the bar, we retreated to the nearby Ambar, a Balkan restaurant, to mull our options and get a drink.

After an hour of sitting at the friendly bar upstairs, sampling their specialty cocktails and the mezze platter, we checked with Rose's that it would indeed be another two hours before we got a table and decided to eat dinner at Ambar. Our helpful bartender recommended his favorites on the menu, and we ended up getting four small plates and two large plates for our party of four.

The food was outstanding. The cheese pie was creamy beneath a fried crust, the sour cabbage stuffed with diced pork belly was scrumptious, the Brussels sprouts with bacon, lemon and garlic was as good as you would expect. The mixed grill was a gourmet version of the Balkan staple, with homemade sausage and marinated steak, and truly a large plate for two as advertised.. Less convincing were the Wiener schnitzel, for some reason served rolled up, and the roasted mushroom crepes, which seemed uncharacteristically heavy.

I ate at many Balkan restaurants during my time in Germany and I'm not sure too many people in the Balkans eat food quite this refined. Ambar is part of Richard Sandoval's restaurant empire (his El Centro DF is also great).

The Piquentum Malvasia Croatia we sampled first by the glass and then with a bottle was a nice balance of fruity and dry, and a great advertisement for the region. I would skip the slivovitz version of an Old Fashioned the next time around and order either the slivovitz straight or a regular Old Fashioned.

8407 Kitchen Bar

Silver Spring is really as close to us as Bethesda, but we hardly ever go there. This restaurant may change things. It is bright and warm, with delicious food -- described as farm-to-table artisanal American -- and good service. Installed in the shadow of Discovery in what appears to be an old garage or warehouse, there's no place like it in Bethesda, and I'd be hard put to name a place in DC that combines quality and comfort quite so well.

We trekked there from AFI (only two and a  half blocks but in freezing cold it was a trek) and sat at the upstairs bar. I had a Manhattan with their handmade mole vermouth, and Andrea had a house cocktail with Old Tom gin and sparkling wine that isn't on their online drinks menu. We ordered a plate of two handmade charcuterie -- the country pork terrine and the trottter tots -- both very fine. I had the pulled pork sandwich, which consisted of a homemade brioche stuffed with tender, sweet pork and very hot fries. Andrea had the risotto starter, which was tasty and delicate and made for a ample meal though both of us had the feeling it was not a true risotto but a baked rice dish. I had a glass of Fying Dog Raging Bitch on tap and Andrea had the Iris Pinot Gris from Oregon.

It was full, and fully booked, on a Saturday night and we were lucky to arrive early enough to get two places at the bar. The upper room is more sheltered and cozier, and livelier with all the table, but the downstairs looked like a perfectly acceptable alternative.

There were many things on the menu that looked worth trying, so we will certainly go back soon. We may even skip the movie and park in the garage right next door.

Cowgirl Creamery, RIP

It was one of the best things in DC but it was hard to get to. The owners of a really great cheese shop admitted that it was location that did them in as they shut the DC store at the end of the year. They seemed surprised that a location near the Spy Museum but far from the office buildings at 12th and 13th did not generate a lot of foot traffic of people doing their grocery shopping.

I'd like to think that was the only reason, and that if, for instance, they had located the shop somewhere in Chevy Chase, they might have had more luck. But I suspect not because I think there's more to it than that.

Washington is just not well suited to specialty food stores. To support these gems, you need living neighborhoods, where people shop and go out in the evening. Perhaps Capitol Hill or 14th Street are getting there, but even prosperous places like Chevy Chase and Georgetown don't seem that welcoming. After all, Marvelous Market failed at its original location at Connecticut and Nebraska and I don't think Stachowski's, for all the quality of its products, is long for this earth.

Which brings up a second point. There is no culture of service or knowledge in the operation of these stores. When we stopped in Stachowski's the other night we were waited on by two young men, one more clueless than the other, with little knowledge of the products or how to handle them. Our shoppers are content to do one-stop shopping at Whole Foods and our society generates young people capable of working as a cog in a supermarket system but with no love or feeling for food.

But there's more. The new Bethesda bakery, Fresh Baguette, has little chance of survival, I think, even though the bakers are genuine French and produce excellent bread and pastries. But they are making little effort to adapt to American tastes, offering up these pathetic sandwich fillings to a sprinkling of customers while Taylor's is mobbed. The butcher stores that have opened here are equally boutique-y, too precious, not something for daily shopping.

Cowgirl Creamery seemed to have well-trained staff who were knowledgeable and passionate about the product, but I rarely saw any of them a second time (though admittedly I went very infrequently). Were they not paid enough? Were the working conditions harsher than they seemed? Again, I suspect that American youth who would be good at the job can't work for what they're paid, and those that will work for that amount don't have the training or the interest in the product.

The long and short of it is that specialty food stores need an urban, foot-traffic culture to thrive and Washington, like most of America, is a suburban, car-driven culture. In that context, and given the stratification in society with no effort to train youth in artisanal food, it will be franchised, process-oriented food places that thrive.

Pan to oven veal chops

They sit on the cookbook shelf in my kitchen calling out to me in big fat letters -- "MEAT" and "TENDER." And yet I rarely use Hugh Whittingstall-Fearnley's The River Cottage Meat Book or Nigel Slater's Tender. But this weekday meal was a huge exception as they helped me throw together an impromptu meal that was easy and scrumptious.

The most appealing thing at Broad Branch was the big, thick veal chops -- always excellent and priced very moderately. Since the weather was too nasty for grilling I looked for an alternative and went first to the Meat book. There, hidden in the description for pan to oven pork chops was a note on a possible alternative with veal chops that was actually a different recipe. The chops are marinated with some peeled lemon zest, lemon juice, thyme and olive oil for just two hours. Then they are seared in a skillet and transferred to an oven dish heated in a 425-degree oven. The skillet is deglazed with water and lemon juice and the liquid added to the oven dish. The chops are roasted 20 to 30 minutes. The sauce is enriched with cream and capers and spooned over the chops.

Tender gave me the perfect complement, using the half-bag of potatoes I had left over from another meal. The potatoes (he calls for new but I just used these red boiling potatoes) get boiled till tender. Meanwhile, you simmer 1 cup heavy cream with 3 crushed garlic cloves and leaves from 8 thyme sprigs and salt and pepper, reducing by a third. Drain the potatoes and lightly crush them in a shallow dish, then ladle the cream over them.

To round it out I served arugula with grated lemon zest, lemon juice and our special Spanish olive oil. Very elegant comfort food! I don't know whether these are English country recipes or where they come from, but I will certainly be looking more often into these books!

Grilled salmon with lime butter

It all started when I forgot to buy lemons at the store. We'd settled on salmon fillet for a weeknight dinner, so I stopped at The Fishery for the salmon and some green beans. We usually have lemons in the fruit bowl but we had run out and I forgot to replenish the supply. All I had was one sorry little lime and a dried half-lime in the fridge.

Daderot via Wikimedia Commons

This is where the fathomless depths of the Internet come in handy. Click to Epicurious, search "salmon lime" and the first recipe to pop up is Grilled Salmon with Lime Butter -- 4-1/2 forks and 93% would make it again. The salmon is easy -- salt, pepper, slap on grill -- and the butter almost as easy -- purree 1/4 cup lime juice, a chopped garlic clove, salt and pepper then dribble in 1 stick of melted butter while running the blender until the whole is emulsified. I used the indoor option for grilling -- the ridged grill pan we bought for some of the Ottolenghi recipes -- and finished in the oven.

The lime butter was divine and would make anything taste good (and, yes, there was plenty left over for another meal). The salmon -- we just get the Canadian farm salmon, tastes good to us -- had enough scorched flavor to set off the citrusy, buttery sauce. An extra fillip came from the lime zest sprinkled over the cooked salmon.

Unaltered photo by McKay Savage under Creative Commons license

For the beans, I wanted to use the can of San Marzano tomatoes con basilico that I accidentally opened to make sauce Bolognese earlier in the week, and didn't use because I wanted to keep to Marcella's perfect recipe. Click on Epicurious, search "green beans tomato basil" and up pops Green Beans Braised with Tomato and Basil, with an equally good rating. A half onion kept in the fridge supplied the 1 cup of chopped onion, which went with 2 minced garlic cloves into 3 tablespoons of olive oil to soften, then add 1-1/2 pounds trimmed green beans, 1 cup chopped tomato, 1 cup basil leaves, and 1/2 cup water. I used my canned tomatoes with the basil included and supplemented with some dried basil. The beans were mature, so took longer (and more water) than the 10 minutes prescribed in the recipe. The canned tomatoes probably produced a more concentrated tomato flavor than the fresh ones called for in the recipe (certainly than any available at this time of the year) so the complaint of some commenters that this dish was bland didn't apply. It actually was a great accompaniment to the salmon.

Not only was this a surprisingly elegant weeknight meal, I used up stuff from the fridge in a nicely serendipitous fashion.

Saturday Dinners with Yotam

Keeping with our enthusiasm for all things Ottolenghi and playing on Sunday Suppers at Lucques, we have been having dinner and a movie at home on Saturday and cooking from the Ottolenghi cookbooks.

So we finally got to try the "Roasted chicken with Jerusalem artichoke & lemon" when the farmer's market had some Jerusalem artichokes. We were probably a little too impromptu, because I gave it the minimum two-hour marinade instead of the ideal overnight, so we may not have gotten the full impact. Also, the pink peppercorns came through too strongly for my taste, whether because they were old or just because that's the way they taste. I'd cut back a second time. Lastly, we didn't get nearly enough tarragon, so that probably detracted as well.

It did nothing to dim our enthusiasm, however. We had better luck with "Lamb meatballs with barberries, yogurt & herbs." The Blue Rooster Farm supplied the ground lamb at its monthly visit to our farmer's market and Shemali's, the Middle Eastern store at Sutton Place, had the barberries, so we had a delicious concoction of meatballs, shallots and figs, topped with Greek yogurt. The sauce was rich and brown and the familiar combination of allspice, cinnamon, garlic and onions gave it all an exotic air.

The star so far, though, has been the "Chicken with caramelized onion & cardamom rice." As the authors say in the headnote, cooking the rice with the chicken obviates the need for stock and all the lovely flavors go into the rice. The 10 cardamom pods are not crushed or ground so the cardamom flavor remains very subtle, yet perfumes both the rice and the meat with that indefinable touch of the Orient. Typically, Ottolenghi and Tamimi flavor this at the end with chopped herbs -- cilantro, parsley and dill. Only on the second day -- because we make the full recipes so we really end up having Saturdays, Sundays and sometimes Mondays with Ottolenghi -- did we use the optional Greek yogurt and olive oil topping, and we'll never leave it off again.

We've also done some of the side dishes and I'll back to those another time.

Ottolenghi

The lamb shawarma recipe from Jerusalem is a prime example of why everyone is so wild about Ottolenghi -- it is a twist on an exotic Mediterranean specialty that turns it into a fresh and exciting dish.

We've been on an Ottolenghi kick and went to the book-signing he and his cooking partner, Sami Tamimi, did for Ottolenghi at the Sixth & I Synagogue. The interview, conducted somewhat ineptly by Joan Nathan, was not great, but did give you an impression of these two Israelis, one Jewish and the other Palestinian, who have taken the culinary world by storm with their London restaurants.

The lamb dish, which you have to all in love with when you see the photo, was the centerpiece of an all-Ottolenghi menu. The rub includes a baker's dozen of spices -- peppercorns, cloves, cardamom pods, fenugreek seeds, fennel seeds, cumin seeds, star anise, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground ginger, sweet paprika, sumac, sea salt -- that get in part roasted, then ground and all mixed together. Grated fresh ginger, crushed garlic cloves, chopped cilantro, lemon juice and peanut oil are added to make a rub for the leg of lamb, which ideally gets marinated overnight. Then it is slow-roasted in a 325 oven for 4-1/2 hours, adding 1 cup of boiling water after the first 30 minutes and covering with aluminum foil for the last 3 hours to keep the spice crust from burning. Be sure to keep water in the pan and baste it every hour or so with the liquid. We followed the suggestion to add waxy potatoes, peeled and in wedges, to the roast for the last 1-1/2 hours.

The meat was fork-tender and delicious. The spice crust gave the dish some zing but the full lamb flavor came through well. It was going to be dry in any case and timing for guests kept it in the oven longer, so I would be sure the next time to have more liquid at the finish to ladle over the carved meat. The potatoes, which were very tasty, absorbed some liquid as well.

As sides we served the marinated eggplant with tahini and oregano and the cucumber and poppy seed salad from Ottolenghi. The small eggplants get cut into wedges and roasted, then marinated in a mix of chopped red chile, cilantro, oregano, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. After this sits for at least 2 hours, you top it with green tahini sauce for serving. The cucumber salad calls for small cucumbers -- which by some serendipity Whole Foods happened to have -- mixed with sliced red chiles, cilantro, white wine vinegar, sunflower oil, poppy seeds and superfine sugar. These were also delicious and harmonized well with the lamb. We served a good Bordeaux with the meal.

In their talk, Tamimi (who like Simone Beck and Louise Bertholle tends to get forgotten in all the hullabaloo over Yotam Ottolenghi) emphasized that much of their cooking comes back to garlic and lemon. When someone lamely asked what tools they suggest for the kitchen, Tamimi gamely answered "a lemon squeezer and a garlic press." Enough said.

Swordfish, Malaga style

I went to Malaga once and it was cold. A friend had offered a vacation condo in this Mediterranean resort after I sold my loft, but it was February and I had to keep the space heater going the whole time.

Nonetheless, the name conjures up hot weather and beaches, so for one of my bachelor fish dinners, I picked this recipe from Janet Mendel's My Kitchen in Spain. I had to cut down the recipe, of course, and just left out the ingredients I didn't have (I bought the swordfish before I found the recipe).

Saute chopped onion, chopped garlic, and chopped green pepper (missing) in olive oil for 5 minutes, then add diced tomato, white wine, parsley (missing), bay leaf, ground cloves, salt and pepper, and simmer to thicken sauce. Then add the swordfish steak(s) and cook in sauce, turning once, until cooked through. I didn't sprinkle it with sliced green olives to finish. I had it with white rice.

I find the taste of swordfish surprisingly mild given how oily and fishy it looks in its raw state. Here the white flaky cooked fish paired nicely with the tomato, onion and garlic.

Mendel has this nice touch of simple, tasty recipes that bring you the Mediterranean with just a couple of ingredients. "Malaga style," she explains in the headnote, means cooked with a sofrito that includes fresh tomatoes. Maybe next time I go it will be sunny and hot.

Slow-roasted duck breast

Here is a recipe with the shortest list of ingredients you can imagine: 2 moulard duck breasts, salt, pepper. No fat, no onion, no garlic, no spice, no herb, no rub, no marinade, no waiting.

And it tastes great! Molly Stevens does not hesitate to simply describe techniques in her All About Roasting, without dolling them up with superfluous directions or ingredients. Here you just use a sharp knife to cut a cross-hatch pattern in the skin (don't pierce through to the flesh), sear the duck breasts skin-side down in a skillet for 5-6 minutes (no need for extra fat since they start rendering fat immediately), then put on a flat rack on a sheet pan skin-side up into a 200-degree oven for 50 minutes, or until 135 degrees internal temperature for rare and 145 to 150 for medium rare (our choice).

The slow roast leaves the breasts juicy and tender, while the salt and pepper enhance the slightly gamy flavor of the duck and its fat. Just slice and serve, no further ingredients needed.

Stevens suggests using some of the rendered duck fat to saute greens as an accompaniment. We used a Brussels sprouts recipe from About.com, of all places, instead. This involved gently sauteeing diced bacon starting in a cold skillet until it renders fat and turns golden. Add the Brussels sprouts -- halved or quartered depending on how crunchy you want them -- and saute for a few minutes. Then add chicken stock, bring to a boil and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes. Stir in some butter and a squeeze of lemon juice and adjust seasonin at the end.

This is a great technique for preserving the green cabbagy flavor of the sprouts. The braising disperses the grease so it does not distract from or overpower the vegetable taste.

Bourbon Steak

I could hardly resist going to a restaurant that pairs two of my favorite things in its name, so we went on a special occasion for a very expensive but great meal.

You get what you pay for. Bourbon Steak offered not only excellent, creative dishes but service so good it almost eclipsed the food. From the friendly greetings, to the personable waiter, to the knowledgeable sommelier -- hey, you say, this is the way it's supposed to be, but as you know it so rarely is -- you just felt well taken care of. The waiter explained the signature dishes and why they were signature, without being pushy. The sommelier started his recommendations with a 100+ bottle, and, hearing no demurrals, moved on to 200+, and then 400+ before I reined him in, pointing to a Burgundy in the 50-80 range (that's as low as they get). He had nothing but good things to say about it and described it perfectly; it was a great accompaniment to the meal and, as he advised when he brought it, the last bottle they had.

The restaurant was chilly when we came in and the waiter actually fulfilled his promise to have them turn up the heat so that it was comfortable during the meal.

There was the de rigueur craft cocktail menu, so I ordered the signature bourbon-based Brown Derby, which was a nice drink, served up in a medium-sized coupe. Andrea stuck with a cosmo.

The amuse-gueule in the upscale steakhouse were three types -- herb, spicey (not too much) and something else -- of duck fat french fries each with its own matching sauce. They disappeared rapidly.

My octopus karma continued to function and I ordered their tasty "octopus poke" as a starter. Andrea indulged in a marvelous ahi tuna tatar, which was mixed with the yolk of a quail egg at the table and served with an overabundance of toast. I followed with a wagyu flatiron steak cooked a very rare medium-rare, and Andrea ordered a pork schnitzel with wild mushrooms that made her eyes pop out.

I was tempted by the 18-ounce bone-in strip, but decided the 10-ounce flatiron was more unusual and worth trying. It had the buttery mouth-feel the waiter had described but its different beef flavor takes some adjusting. It is lean meat and perhaps an acquired taste. I'm glad I tried it, but next time will probably opt for the more familiar Angus beef.

Andrea's schnitzel of Berkshire pork was nicely flattened and perfectly deep-fried in its fluffy breading. The wild mushrooms piled on top (with another egg) were delicious and almost too strong for the thin pork cutlet. Both dishes were ample and filling. We ordered a single side, the cassoulet with goat (meat), and it worked very well with both dishes.

We had mentioned the special occasion in our reservation and received two glasses of champagne on the house at the end of the meal as well as a complimentary mini-dessert. We had already ordered a butterscotch pot-de-creme that was a little too deconstructed for my taste.

The only real drawback was the gloomy decor, which doesn't quite succeed in conveying the expense-account feel the restaurant is clearly seeking. It was neither warm nor classy, nor really even close. The check, however, was perfectly convincing for an expense-account meal, though we were paying with our own money.

Vendor vacuum

Washington -- as the new pathetically lame Wagshal's at Sutton Place demonstrates yet again -- will never sustain first-rate food vendors on any scale, so it's little surprise that a short outing to specialty stores in Bethesda was not particularly uplifting.

First stop, the Women's Cooperative Farm Market, where a chocolate croissant at the French bakery tasted at least a day old and most of the food stalls were closed (great place for the flowers, though).

Then on to Vace, a tried-and-true old-fashioned Italian deli where I could get thinly sliced and delicious prosciutto di Parma, soppressata, and coppa. Vace, I think, has a lesson for would-be specialty vendors. Grow organically, keep a narrow focus, find a cash cow to draw people in (for Vace it's pizza by the slice and partially cooked pizzas).

Next I went to Quartermaine to avoid Starbucks. The cappuccino there can't compare to those in Italy, but has more flavor than Starbucks'. I generally don't like Quartermaine's dark roasts, though I let the salesperson tell me the Guatemala beans were medium roast, though they looked awfully dark to me when I got home.

Over to Capital Tea, a chain that has a lot of fru-fru tea -- flowery, fruity, herbal blends. The breakfast blend black tea I tasted was bland and weak, but I bought 2 ounces of Assam anyway. When I drank it at home, it tasted, well, bland and weak. Unfortunately, Zara Tea, which was much more serious about tea, fell victim to the work being done further up Bethesda and is no more.

I wanted to try Max Brenner's Chocolate House, so I went in there and bought the little sampler of four bon-bons. The problems started when I had trouble finding four different ones that were dark chocolate without fruit or nuts or pralines. The chocolates themselves were undistinguished and definitely tasted machine-made rather than hand-made, a no-no when you're charging $5+ for four. They will no doubt thrive with the hot chocolate menu and we will go back for that when it's cold.

Finally, I caved and bought a bottle of the bulk California olive oil at Secolari. Of the limited bulk choice they had, the Arbequina seemed to me to have the most personality. It's a nice idea, but I don't see how they will survive the high rents in this part of Bethesda. For myself, I totally buy Olio2Go's argument that an oil bottled and sealed in Italy is more reliable than any bulk oil, which has been who knows where and had who knows what added to it. Still, I'm glad they're growing olives and making olive oil in California.

Baby octopus salad

I've had octopus on the mind lately, so when Broad Branch for the first time I've ever seen had a little pile of baby octopuses in their fish counter, I bought one to try it.

The first task was to figure out what I had, since the recipes I looked at were talking about an octopus weighing 2 to 3 pounds, and mine was only 5 ounces. But it definitely wasn't a squid, and Google Images helped me determine it's what is called a baby octopus.

Mark Bittman has octopus recipes in his Fish, but these are the big daddies. He does say that octopus is underappreciated in this country and he knows people who swear it's better than lobster. Epicurious came up with a nice and easy recipe for baby octopus salad.

Let me say right away that the result was a revelation. I've had and enjoyed both octopus salad and grilled octopus, but cooking it fresh at home introduced me to a new and better version. This octopus came out tender, not chewy, with a delicate flavor that hinted of fish but had that creamy sweetness you associate with lobster or crab, only with a firmer texture.

You just simmer the octopus in water with a bay leaf for 45 minutes, drain and, when cooled, toss in a vinaigrette of oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper and oregano and leave it sit for 20 minutes. Squeamish alert. These little guys have tentacles with little sucking pads on them and they start moving in the water as cooking tightens and curls the flesh. The water turns purple and the boiled octopus comes out purple. The recipe says to cut off the head and then cut it in half lengthwise. I chopped the tentacles into smaller pieces, the way I've seen in salads that I've had. I for once was out of lemons so substituted a dash of white wine vinegar.

The result was a new treat that I can't wait to repeat. Hopefully, this was not a one-off appearance at Broad Branch. The octopuses seemed fresh but may have been thawed out. Bittman says that most octopuses are caught offshore in this country and then shipped to Europe. The frozen octopus available here goes that route. The only other time I shopped for octopus was at the Fishery and they brought out a kilo-size block of frozen fish that was way too much for just me, since Andrea practically turned ill at the sight of even a baby octopus.

Pork/Leeks; Salmon/Lime; Chicken/Fennel

Weekday meals can be surprisingly fresh with a little extra effort to flavor standard meat and fish dishes by cooking them with vegetables and fruit.

Marcella Hazan came through with another winning pork recipe. Her pan-roasted pork loin with leeks calls for a bone-in pork loin roast. The key is the leeks. Take 4 or 5 slim leeks, trim, cut in half lengthwise and then cross-wise in 1/2-inch slices. Wilt these with butter and oil in a Dutch oven for a few minutes until soft but not brown. Salt and remove 2/3 of the leeks. Add more butter and oil, flour the pork roast (detach the rib bone and tie it back on with string), brown it on all sides, salt, pepper, then add some wine, boil briefly, cover and reduce the heat to low. Let the meat cook for about 2 hours. Remove, puree the leeks in the pan and add back to pan with reserved leeks and meat. Cook on high for 10 minutes, turning roast. The result is a tender pot roast with a deep, gentle onion-y flavor from the leeks.

When Broad Branch had some good-looking Skuna Bay salmon fillets, I brought home one to grill. Skuna Bay, it turns out, is a "craft" farmed salmon from British Columbia and did have a good flavor. A quick check on Epicurious produced a very popular lime butter -- just garlic, lime juice, salt and pepper emulsified in butter -- to put on grilled salmon. Sprinkle some lime zest on the grilled salmon and serve with the butter. Adds a whole new dimension to the salmon. We had steamed quinoa with it.

After reading the New Yorker profile on Yotam Ottolenghi, we of course immediately bought Jerusalem and started off with his roasted chicken with clementines and arak. It turned us into believers. Just whip up the marinade of arak, oil, orange juice, lemon juice, grain mustard, salt, pepper and light brown sugar. Add the chicken -- either a cut-up whole chicken or 3 pounds of thighs (our choice) -- two fennel bulbs trimmed, cut in half and then into wedges, and 4 sliced clementines. Marinade a few hours or overnight then spread on a baking sheet (chicken skin-side up) and pop into a 475-degree oven for 35 to 45 minutes. Exquisite. The arak enhances the anise-fennel flavor and the citrus adds complexity and freshness.

Pizzeria Orso

You'd think you were in Italy on a glorious summer day, except that you're looking right at the Fairfax Auto Parts garage, thankfully closed on a Sunday, across the street.

No matter, dining on the terrace in 80-degree humidity-free weather is something to be enjoyed regardless of the view, and the great food at this suburban restaurant -- it is far more than a pizzeria -- made it truly enjoyable.

Marvelous pizza crust (photo from restaurant website)

The menu had so many appetizing starters, pastas and small plates, it was hard to choose. However, and although Orso, like 2Amys, is a real restaurant with a real kitchen, I felt obliged to try the pizza on this first trip. So I passed on the grilled octopus (figuring it had had a long trip in a freezer to get to Falls Church) and opted for the grilled heart of Romaine with chopped Romaine, fresh anchovies and Caesar dressing. The grilled lettuce is a great addition to the classic Caesar and I became a magnet for all the anchovies that others in our party didn't want. They don't know what they're missing. Andrea's sauteed cauliflower was also very tasty.

I settled for the Tommy Boy, an ambitious white pizza with ham, sausage, mozzarella, pecorino, basil, fresno peppers, garlic, grana, ricotta, and a cream sauce to bind the cheeses -- all of which came out tasting much more harmonious than it sounds. The thin crust, billowing around the edges, had that wonderful yeasty taste you crave in pizza crusts, with charred bits adding just the right wood-fired accent. Andrea ordered an Orso Bianco, another white pizza with no meat and more cheese that tasted, in fact, really cheesy.

I had an excellent American IPA, Face Plant from the Lost Rhino Brewery in Ashburn, to go with the pizza, after enjoying a Negroni in the breezy weather while we waited. In a restaurant that produces such high-quality food, it was bit bizarre that the waiter said he would have to check if they had Campari on hand for my drink. It was even more bizarre when he returned with the Negroni and the "good news" that they not only had Campari but had just enough sweet vermouth as well to make the drink (oh, and our dinner partners' martinis got the last of the Grey Goose). The service, too, was more friendly than professional, and sometimes you yearn for those snooty Continental waiters (though I may change my tune after 10 days in Italy).

The trek to Virginia was prompted by a friend's reaction to my paean of praise for 2Amys and his distaste for the thin and bland DOC Neapolitan pizzas. The irony was that Orso had much more in common with 2Amys than it had different -- which is anything but a criticism in my book. The pleasant terrace (we just breezed through the restaurant, though it left a welcoming if somewhat suburban impression) and the marvelous crust actually give Orso a slight edge.

Wild Honey

Cross-posted from my culinary travel blog Road Gourmet

During my recent trip to London, I wanted to find a Zagat-rated restaurant in Mayfair after cocktails at Claridge's that offered British cuisine. Patterson's (26 rating on food) seemed to fill the bill but when I got there it had turned into a Japanese restaurant. But they kindly sent me around the corner to Wild Honey, a "New Brit" with seasonal dishes that earned a respectable 23 for food.

My view at the bar (from restaurant website)

The reddish wood paneling and red leather banquettes with bright modern paintings made a warm and welcoming impression. A bar seat was available and a personable Lithuanian waiter provided flawless service. Dinner guests were lively but the noise level was comfortable and a contrast to the American obsession with making places noisy to create buzz.

I opted for a la carte because the prix fixe menu seemed a bit boring. The smoked Lincolnshire eel for a starter was tender and delicate in flavor, different from smokier, eelier versions I knew from the Baltic beaches, but more appropriate for a swanky Mayfair restaurant. The rack of lamb main course was also tender and served with a spring roll with lamb shoulder as a complement that wasn't even mentioned in the description. A carafe of red wine was just the right amount to accompany. The English custard tart for dessert was so light it did not so much melt in your mouth as evaporate, leaving behind a creamy, sugary aftertaste. The grated nutmeg topping was just the right accent.

I only found out afterwards staying the weekend with some friends in London that it was one of their favorite restaurants, too.

Iraqi Yellow Spice Rubbed Chicken

Photo by Todd Coleman for Saveur

What do you get when you combine 17 spices, a kosher chicken and a Big Green Egg? Djaj Bil-Bahar Il-Asfar (Iraqi Yellow Spice Rub Chicken). This fun recipe from Saveur magazine produced a dish that can be described with two words you rarely hear in connection with chicken: intensely flavorable.

I followed the recipe exactly, right down to the rose hips, which I had to look for at the co-op, and the sumac, which I've had on my shelf for some time. You toast and grind some of the seeds -- cumin, coriander, cardamom, allspice, among others -- and mix with other powdered spices, such as curry, cinnamon, sumac, ginger -- to produce a rich rub for the chicken overnight. The kosher chickens from Wholefoods are young and small, so the two halves were right about at the 3 pounds called for in the recipe. The Egg seemed just the right way to go for the 45-minute grilling time. I served it with basmati rice rather than the flatbread suggested, and we had a wonderful Gruner Veltliner from Austria that paired perfectly with the spicy chicken.

The fragrant dish reeked of the exotic Orient. It was truly yellow early in the grilling time, turning a rich, charred rust by the end (mine looked exactly like the Saveur photo, shame I didn't take a photo for comparison). The chile gave it just a little kick and there was a hint of sweetness, perhaps from the cinnamon.

I bought a copy of Saveur -- their grilling issue -- after Kathleen Flinn mentioned during my food writing workshop last month that many of its articles were culinary travel. I was very happy with this recipe and the other articles and will certainly subscribe. Andrea already gets Food and Wine and Bon Appetit, so we will be well furnished with magazine recipes.

Fiesta Paella with Chicken and Shellfish

We celebrated the Fourth of July with that traditional American feast -- paella. As my brother quipped, "That and a Bud Light and you're ready to go." I've been wanting to do another paella for a long time and it is truly a festive dish, so we used the excuse of uncertain weather to plan a meal indoors and depart from the usual fare.

Paella, which has more than a dozen ingredients and cooks in 45 minutes, is all about prepping and mise en place. This worked like a charm with the recipe I adapted from Janet Mandel's My Kitchen in Spain (recipe follows). Prepping involved cutting up the chicken to get 8 pieces from the legs and breasts (wings and back went into the freezer for stock); slicing the meat off the bone of the pork loin chop and cubing it; washing the squid, removing the skin and head and little clear tab, then slicing it into rings; shelling the medium shrimp for cooking in the paella; cleaning and dicing the green pepper; peeling, seeding and chopping the tomatoes; shelling the peas; steaming the mussels; boiling the jumbo whole shrimp for decoration; slicing the pimento for decoration; quartering the lemon for garnish; crushing the saffron and mixing it with pimenton, food coloring and water; thawing out the frozen homemade chicken stock. What fun!

When I started the sofrito, following Mandel's carefully described steps, everything was ready in an assortment of bowls, pots and pitchers, so that after 20-some minutes of sauteeing the meat, vegetables and seafood, I could pour in the stock, bring it to a boil, pour in the rice, dribble in the saffron mix, add the salt and bay leaves, stir and let the chemistry begin. As Mandel says, the important thing is not to stir the rice again and release the gummy stuff that makes a risotto creamy but is not desirable in a paella.

I interrupted the process when the sofrito was done, probably for too long, because the meat came out a little dry, but on the whole it was big success -- a true fiesta. It needed to be a little spicier. Next time I would salt the meat separately as it's cooking, up the pimenton and use fresher saffron (I won't tell you how long I've had the saffron I used). A special hat tip to A&H Gourmet and Seafood Market in Bethesda. The Portuguese owners not only have a great selection of fresh fish (many restaurants buy there), but everything you need for paella. I especially appreciated the abundant squid, so that I could include the calamari called for in the recipe.

Keeping to the Spanish theme, Andrea made two really great appetizers from Joanne Weir's From Tapas to Mezes -- a summer vegetable flat bread ("Catalan pizza") with Swiss chard, zucchini, green pepper, and tomato; and a caramelized onion omelette from Andalusia that involved cooking 3 lbs of chopped onion for an hour and a half, which made them incredibly sweet. For dessert, she used Mandel's recipe for caramel flan that was truly light and delicate -- not too eggy or custardy -- just like in Spain; we served fresh berries with that. To drink, a surprisingly good red wine sangria from Claudia Roden.

RECIPE FOR FIESTA PAELLA

(adapted from Janet Mandel's My Kitchen in Spain)

Mandel's recipe serves 4 to 5, so I increased ingredients by about 50% to serve 6 to 8. I don't have a paella pan but always use a cast iron wok (which she lists as an alternative), which certainly was at its maximum capacity with this amount. I used to follow the recipe from a cookbook I brought back from Spain, puzzling through the Spanish enough to figure it out, but Mandel's Fiesta Paella was pretty similar. I added chorizo because it was in the other recipe. I used fresh peas instead of her fava beans or frozen peas.

12 mussels, scrubbed

6 jumbo shrimp, heads on, for decoration

1 pound medium shrimp, heads off, shelled and deveined

6 tablespoons olive oil

2 pounds chicken legs and breasts, cut into small pieces

6 ounces pork, cut into 1-inch cubes

4 ounces chorizo, cut into pieces

1 pound squid, cleaned and cut into rings

1 green bell pepper, diced

3 garlic cloves, minced

2 tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped

1/2 cup shelled fresh peas

6-1/2 cups chicken broth mixed with cooking liquid from shellfish

3 cups Cebolla rice

1/2 teaspoon saffron threads, crushed

1 teaspoon pimenton

Several shakes powdered yellow food coloring

Pepper

2 bay leafs

3 teaspoons salt

1 preserved red pimento, cut into strips

1 lemon for garnish

1. Prepare the mussels by steaming for 3 to 4 minutes in 1/4 cup water, shaking pan over high heat. Strain the cooking liquid to add to the broth. Discard the empty half shell.

2. Cook the jumbo shrimp in water to cover. Add the liquid to the broth.

3. Heat the oil in the pan over medium heat. Saute the chicken, pork and chorizo until slightly browned, 10 minutes.

4. Add the squid and saute for another 5 minutes.

5. Add the green pepper and garlic and cook for 2 more minutes.

6. Add the tomato and turn up the heat so that it loses its liquid quickly.

7. Stir in the peeled shrimp and peas and saute another 5 minutes.

8. Pour in the broth mix and bring to a boil.

9. Add the rice, dribble in the saffron, pimenton and food coloring mixed together with 3 tablespoons of water, add the salt and bay leafs; stir once to mix ingredients.

10. Cook at high heat for 5 minutes, then reduce to simmer for 10 minutes. Place mussels, jumbo shrimp and pimenton on top of rice and cook another 5 minutes. Let the rice set 5 to 10 minutes before serving. Garnish with lemon quarters.

2Amys toujours

(Photo: Ra Boe / Wikipedia, Original; License: CC by-sa 3.0)

The first, and probably only, time I ate the genuine mozzarella di bufala was in the courtyard of the Castel Nuovo, a medieval castle in the heart of Naples, Italy. There was a press reception during the 1994 G-7 summit in Naples, and smart young women dressed in special Missoni knits were bringing around large bowls filled with creamy white balls of cheese swimming in cloudy liquid, which prompted me to abandon all the other hors d'oeuvres and focus on the mozzarella.

Real mozzarella is supposed to be made the same day from the milk of water buffaloes, and particularly those in Campania, the region surrounding Naples. A fresh cheese, mozzarella is by definition somewhat bland and I can't recall after all this time the nuances of flavor that cheese in Naples might have had. But the scene itself, twilight on the cobblestones of this medieval courtyard with all the glamour and power of the heads of state of the seven biggest economies in the world, has left an indelible memory.

This memory came back when we went to 2Amys and I ordered one of the specials of the day, a white pizza with buffalo mozzarella and the house sausage, garnished with eggs and chives. I am sure it is real buffalo mozzarella -- there are several U.S. producers -- and this yielded a melted cheese that was stringy but delicate, with just a hint of earthiness. The sausage was rich, tasting of fennel, and the chives set just the right accent. The egg set perfectly in the center of the pizza and breaking the yolk created a mix of flavors that went far beyond your typical breakfast sandwich. The marvelous pizza dough had its usual yeasty, smoky flavor from the wood-fired oven.

We go to 2Amys only once in a while. It is always crowded and there is always a wait. The downstairs is high decibel as the tile walls reflect the chatter and clatter from dozens of tables squeezed into a space that is too small for them, and families and kids talk loudly to be heard over the noise. This time, even the bar was too crowded for waiting, so we passed the brief 15 minutes outdoors (fortunately no rain). We were quite happy then to be shown upstairs to a corner table that was an oasis of quiet. Another time upstairs we were seated at the table right at the top of the stairs, with no shelter from the coming and going of the runners and busboys, so it was not altogether pleasant. This time we were comfortably isolated and even discovered there is a window, which currently offers a bird's eye view of the big building site where Giant used to be.

We always like to say that 2Amys has the best pizzas in town but is also one of the best restaurants in town because the wide variety of starters, small plates, salumi are all equally outstanding. I had the salt-cured sardines with bread, which once again took me to the shores of the Mediterranean with a taste that had as much ocean as fish in it. The crusty Italian bread -- if only we could get some of that at home -- soaked up the olive oil and salt to make a very satisfying appetizer. Andrea's roast corn and aged goat cheese was also delicious. The kernels had grown quite tiny with roasting, which concentrated the fresh corn flavor, and they were dressed with a spicy vinaigrette that had just a little kick to it. The dense, flavorful cheese set off the corn nicely.

Part of being one of the best restaurants in town is the efficiency and professionalism of the service. Servers in black T-shirts take the orders, check on on your needs and bring you the bill. Runners in white T-shirts bring up the food not only to the right table but set it in front of the right person. Drinks were brought, water was filled, plates were cleared with an easy informality that made you forget about service and freed you to enjoy the meal -- not something every restaurant can claim.

2Amys makes a lot of their DOC pizzas -- certified authentic -- but they don't need a label to tell you you're getting a genuine slice of Italy.