Tag: pastry

M’s Recommends More Good Eats in the DMV

M's Adventures
L’Ardente’s famous 40 layer lasagne.

You know a place is good when it transports you to your mom or grandma’s kitchen.

Last year, I mentioned my recommendations for where to eat in the Washington, DC, Maryland, and Virginia (DMV) area. But I didn’t add photos.

L’Ardente’s pappardelle pasta was pure comfort.

Now I have a new recommendations. From that list, have you been to Cielo Rojo and Y Noodles? Try them!

Y Noodles signature spicy noodle dish.

Now, on to other recommendations.

Cheese and wine at the Italian Store.

The Italian Store: Having lived in Italy, I am obnoxiously picky about my pasta. Luckily most grocery stores in this are now carry good brands of pasta. But, if you want, you can go to the Italian Store. They now have a second location in a off the metro area of Arlington. The original location a few miles away was famous for getting New York City style bagels delivered fresh every morning (New York city is about a four hour drive from here).

Imagine how much sugo gets sucked up by that great pasta shape!

The Italian store also makes fresh pizzas and sandwiches. Plus they have fresh baked bread.

There are seats inside along the front window and they have a few tables and chairs outdoors.

Bread presented in a fun way at the Italian Store.

Sidamo Coffee and Tea: It’s an Ethiopian coffee shop in Washington, DC. (Coffee as a drink was invented in Ethiopia about 500 years ago). The Sidamo cafe serves coffee but what I like is their breakfast sandwiches and the side of banana and honey.

Loved my breakfast sandwich. It tasted homemade.
The giant coffee pot makes for a good photo op.

Good Company Doughnuts: Speaking of breakfast (was I?) and good friends, the Good Company Doughnut makes great breakfasts and doughnuts. They have two locations, one in Pentagon City and the other in Ballston. They make ‘mini’ doughnuts of a good size and of those, I think that the espresso cream is the best. No custard. Just frosting, inside and out. With chocolate glaze.

Look at that espresso cream…

Good Doughnut Company also makes great breakfast sandwiches and meals for any time of the day. Really delish. One time, I was sitting next to a French tourist who said that she came back two days in a row! Mainly for the espresso cream doughnut…

This is a salad of chickpeas. So good you won’t want to share.

Villa Yara: This Lebanese place is so good that it transported a Lebanese person to their childhood and made them cry.

Thin ice cream strands.

While I am not really into desserts, I did enjoy the variety of desserts at Villa Yara. Not only the baklava. I can’t recall what they were called, but one was a sort of floss of ice cream (this is the one that made the Lebanese person cry as they recalled eating this dish in their grandma’s kitchen). The other was a cardamom ice cream, but much more complex. The baklava was excellent too.

I’m a sucker for dairy and the labneh, with olive oil and pepper, served like a scoop of ice cream — made me really happy.

A ball of pure dairy joy.

Misha’s Coffee: The pastries are much better than at many other bakeries. It’s a feel good kind of coffee shop. Independent. Quality. A nice place to be.

The Danish at Misha’s.

Get the “Danish” and the “coffee cake.” I’m sure the rest is good but the Danish was exceptionally so.

2Fifty Barbecue: If you want the most tender barbeque meat, then go to 2Fifty barbecue in Washington, DC. This is the softest moistest meat in this area. Nope, the other places do not compare!

So juicy it fell apart.

Lai Lai Malatang (inside 99 Ranch): Inside the 99 Ranch store in Fairfax, there is a stall where you can choose your own hotpot or dry noodle dish. It’s spicy in a good way.

Lai Lai Malatang where I chose what they stir fried for me.

Truong Tien: This northern central Vietnamese place was trending for a hot moment last year. The food is good. Go for the mini taco style Vietnamese omelet crepe. This blogger described his experience there.

Those small round things are open face dumplings.

As I find other places, I’ll write about them. Happy eating!

Danish Bakery in New York City

M's Adventures
Raspberry “snippets” like Poptarts but less dry. Copenhagener/Tebirkes coated in poppyseeds. And cinnamon slice.

A danish is a pastry and my favorite one is not too sweet.

Normally, when I fly out of Copenhagen, I get a final danish at the airport. The bakery at the airport in Copenhagen is a branch of Ole & Steen, which is a franchise version of the old venerable Lagkagehuset (layer cake house).

But, New York City has four branches of this franchise! I had to visit.

Obviously, the dough and bread is different (like with NYC pizza, it’s the water, don’t ya know). The menu was also different. They still had my favorite pastry so I got two. My favorite is called “tebirkes” in Danish but they have changed it to “copenhagener” in English. It is in the first photo, covered in poppyseeds. It is a basic pastry with a subtle almond sugar paste layer inside.

The roast beef sandwich that I got was awesome with horseradish cream and rare pink roastbeef (a bit cooked in my photos because it traveled in a bag for six hours). I also bought rye bread and rye bread rolls. My eight rolls were so dense that they had to go to secondary screening at the airport.

Tak is thanks in Danish. Some Brits say, “ta” and I wish that was part of American English as well.

Father’s Day in Italy

M's Adventures
Bigne di s. giuseppe and maritozzi (cream buns)

March 19 is the saint feast, or name, day for St. Joseph (San Giuseppe in Italian) and it is father’s day (festa del papa) in Italy. Giuseppe, shortened to Peppino, Pino, Pina, Giusy (a modern variation) can also be a female name, as Giuseppina. Celebrating St. Joseph as Mary’s husband is marked on May 1.

Italy is a Catholic country and in Rome, within hearing distance of the Vatican, Catholicism is a part of daily life. Every day, at certain times of the day, the bells toll from all the churches, not just to mark services, but also to set their time.

It seems like there is a special pastry and/or food that one should eat for everything. For St. Joseph’s day, it’s a beignet filled with pastry cream. It is called “bigne di san giuseppe” or “zeppole.” There are many recipes online, but basically it’s a choux pastry (baked up like a white sauce to create rise instead of using a raising agent) which is then injected with pastry cream.

In pagan times, this is the day that marked the end of winter, so bonfires were set ablaze to clear away the old wheat fields. Maybe they started frying dough on these fires?

Women Owned Restaurants in Lima

M's Adventures
I often get asked about restaurants owned by women. Many restaurants have women pastry chefs and many bakeries are owned by women. For example, Tanta is owned by Astrid of Astrid y Gaston. Astrid is a pastry chef. But now Tanta now serves much more than pastry.
Here are some other places that I’ve found that are owned by women. (see addresses for most on my list of 100 places to eat in Lima)
Kjolle: owned by Pia Leon of Central. Open on Mondays.
Matria: the owner also comes out to the dining room to greet people.
La Grimanesa: an anticucho-maker made famous by Gaston Acurio at Mistura.
Señor de Sulcro: one of the institutions.
Las Tres Suecas: three Swedish women own this cafe.
Las Vecinas: Zonia, a Fulbright photographer and Peruvian American owns this place in Barranco.
Kilo: one of the few Asian women in the steakhouse business. She is rare. Apparently she also treats her staff well.
KG: a friend of Kilo’s owner. But the place is not very good.
La Red: Isolina started this place and since then her son has opened La Isolina and Las Reyes in her honor.
La Vaca Negra: a hole in the wall in Barranco where the first generation Chinese Peruvian owner ages her steaks and hamburger meat. Also serves ribs and chicken.
Quinoa Cafe: healthy cafe owned by women.
La Bodega de Trattoria Membrino: one of the classic places started by a woman who turned her dinner party hostessing skills into a business.
Aji555: owned by a Thai woman.
And a few other mentions:
Dhaasu: Also co-owned by a woman.
Rolly & Co: co-owned by a woman
El Cacaotal, the chocolate library shop: owned by a woman.

Danish Pastry

M's Adventures

IMG_3797.JPGIn Danish, a danish is a “viennese bread” because it was brought to Denmark in the 19th century by immigrants from Vienna. There are many names and many types of pastry sold in Denmark and the bakeries, although no longer on every corner, are still to be had (today, 7-11 bakes fresh every few hours).

My favorites are actually not the well-known pretzel shaped “kringle” or the “duck breast” or “snail” but, one that is hard to find and the other that is more common. My favorite one is so popular that it’s sold at the airport. It’s called a “tebirkes” or “tea poppy seed” and it’s a rectangular shape with a covering of poppy seeds. Inside, the bottom layers are held down by a thin layer of almond paste mixed with sugar. The tebirkes isn’t overly sweet and I like to splice it open, slather it with Lurpack butter and a slice of smelly strong cheese. The second pastry that I always get, if I can, is called a “rosenbroed” or “rose bread”and it’s made from the basic kringle puff pastry but in a long plank shape. It’s covered with a thick layer of icing and sliced into long strips. Pure sugar, butter, and puff pastry!

Denmark is known for its Danish and in the U.S., there are a few places that claim to do the original kringle or Danish. But, Danish pastry is like New York pizza… it’s something in the water… if you can, go to the source.