National Harbor 2012 Wine and Food Festival

Posted on by Hungry in DC

The National Harbor 2012 wine and Food Festival was a great event and a regular feature of the harbor that, if you somehow missed out on this past weekend, we encourage you to attend next year. From the fantastic venue to the samples provided by the enormous list of vendors, the two day event highlighted local businesses, wineries, and restaurants, while playing perfectly with national brands and personalities. Organized by Trigger Agency, in coordination with the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center, the five course dinner with wine pairing that included the best the festival had to offer created an event that ranks as one of the best festivals offered in the DMV area.

While “food” may have found a place on the title of the festival, assortments of alcohol were by far the main focus of the event, featuring over 150 different wines, beers, and spirits to sample from. Maryland’s stingy pouring law aside, there was plenty to enjoy by the harbor. One of our favorites was Knob Hall’s Jealous Mistress, a red blend made from 80% Chambourcin and 20% Merlot. With a strong black cherry flavor and a hint of prune, it had plenty of body, lively tannins, a long finish. Another stand out was Villa Maria Estate’s Sauvignon Blanc, a New Zealand wine that had rich passionfruit and tropical fruit overtones, but was balanced out by the natural mineral undertones. It had a clean, crisp flavor with nice citrus aftertaste.

Although wine had a lot of focus in the event, other forms of alcohol had their own well deserved focuses. A craft beer tent featured beers from around the area and the country, New Belgium’s spring seasonal, Dig, being one of the best that were available. Although it had a fair share of hops, its body was the usual kind for a spring pale ale, light, amber colored, and notes of citrus. Separate in the VIP section, actual Belgium beers had their own place. Glasses of Stella, Leffe, and Hoegaarden were lined out for attendees to enjoy each brew in their respective glasses. While we enjoyed the experience, we were curious why the Belgium beer garden, unlike last year, was kept separate from the rest of the general festival grounds.

The food portion of the festival included local restaurants, catering services, a few food trucks, and a variety of cheese and spices stands. Kloby’s Smokehouse had stripped a whole hog and served the pulled pork alongside their Carolina BBQ sauce. The pork was extremely succulent and the tangy sauce went pitch perfect with the meat. Another stand out was Old Hickory Steakhouse’s BLT Gazpacho, heirloom tomato soup with cubes of cooked bacon working in perfect harmony. The Gaylord National Hotel’s prized restaurant gave us pause to wonder why we hadn’t seen this approach to such a classic dish before and made us very excited for planned dinner they were hosting later in the evening (more on that later).

Besides the many food and wine venders, the Wine and Food Festival also invited speakers to present, most notably Cooking Light Magazine’s Chef Billy Strynkowski. Using Cinco de Mayo as a theme, Chef Billy prepared a Mexican Vegetarian burrito and Shrimp Ceviche. However, the real prize of his presentation was his candid remarks and best practices for cooking. After opening your olive oil, stick it in the fridge. Try adding crunched pistachios to your guacamole to give it more variety in flavor and body. When you cook with produce, extract the seeds first since they will only water down the flavor of the dish. These kinds of tips helped Chef Billy’s presentation stay with us longer than any buzz we had from the many wines we sampled.

Even as the festival’s official hours came to a close, the experience continued down the road at the Gaylord National hotel’s Old Hickory Steakhouse. Working with festival organizers, they put together a dining experience that brought out the best of what we had sampled and seen during the day. With the assistance of Cooking Light’s Chef Billy and Tortoise Creek Wines, we were treated to a dinner of five courses and wine pairings. From the Oysters with a duet of sauces to the sunchoke veloute, the entire meal lived up to Old Hickory’s reputation as one of the finest restaurants in the National Harbor area.

Our personal favorite of the meal was the Lamb Porterhouse with Cauliflower and a Lamb-Beet Jus and paired with Tortoise Creek Wine’s 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon, “Cherokee Lane”. We’ve had lamb many times before, but this is the first time we’ve seen it presented as such a large piece of meat. It was a great cut of lamb, perfectly cooked and incredibly tender, but the real stars of the dish were the accompanying sauces. The lamb-beet jus both complimented and enhanced the lamb of the flavor, adding a slight sweetness to the savory flavor of the meat. The puréed cauliflower sauce was unlike anything we had seen done before with the veg and brought a whole new character to the meat, even though it was best simply with the other vegetables. Not to be outdone, Mel Master, owner of Tortoise Creek Wines, boasted that the paired Cabernet was his “pride and joy”, explaining that it came from coming from Lodi, the only area in California to have an actual certification for sustainable farming. We have to admit that while the wine was good on its own, it really came through when paired with the flavor of the lamb.

We had been to National Harbor for the 2011 Wine and Food Festival and found it so enjoyable that we had to come again. With Groupon offering deals on two-day passes and the early bird specials, there is little reason not to take advantage of this event next time around. The venue of the harbor cannot be beaten and we have always been able to find new favorite wines to order again. This year’s incarnation was no different, only made sweeter by our experience at Old Hickory Steakhouse’s success in bringing together the best elements of the festival into one meal. Whether you stay at the Gaylord or not, Old Hickory Steakhouse may not be your cheapest option for a meal in the area, but you can be sure it’s your best. For those who may not have a lot of time or PTO to spend on lengthy trips outside of the DMV area, the National Harbor is the perfect place to get away from the beltway and rush of the city without having to go too far or sacrifice a boat load of money. This combination of great food and excellent wine makes it even harder to say no.

Potenza

Posted on by Hungry in DC

Location: Downtown

Price: $$$

Rating: 3 out of 5

Summary: A restaurant that is stuck somewhere in the middle

While we have been to Potenza before for drinks and bar food, we had never sat down for a meal. With a small but nice tap selection and a satisfying bar menu, we finally decided to sit down for a dinner at this downtown restaurant. What we experienced was little more than the typical Italian ristorante. While featuring nice ingredients and a few menu high points, Potenza did not break from the pack of the many other average Italian restaurants in DC and stand out as something remarkable.

For our appetizer, we chose the Arancini alla Salsiccia di Cinghiale, fried risotto balls stuffed with wild boar sausage and provolone. These lightly breaded balls were some of the best we’ve had of this classic Italian dish, the creamy provolone and risotto combination providing rich flavor without the expected weight. While the amount of wild boar sausage in the aracini was minimal, what was there packed enough of a savory punch to get the message across. The sauce on the plate had a nice hint of lemon that brought extra character to an already excellent appetizer. Deceptively light and incredibly tasty, we recommend this to anyone who steps a foot in Potenza, even if it’s for just a drink at the bar.

Our first entree was the Brasato di manzo con gnocchi, pan-roasted strip loin, truffled gnocchi, asparagus, and madeira butter sauce. The cut of meat was decent enough and sliced before being plated, as if to encourage a forked-combination of the gnocchi and strip loin. Together, the flavors worked well, both pairing nicely with the maderia butter sauce (cooking wine & browned butter). Separately, we noticed some short comings. The salt added on top of the beef cut out the magnificently savory juices and forced us to scrap the plate for more sauce. The gnocchi was a little tougher than we would have liked, but the lightly-cooked asparagus was still a great contrast to the soft texture of the potato pasta. Although it was a great dish when it came together, we wished that such great items would have been able to stand out better separately.

The second plate we had for dinner was the Rigatoni al Ragu Della Domenica, meatballs, spicy fennel sausage, spare rib, braciole, ricotta combined with marinara and rigatoni pasta. The meatball was a great combination of ground beef with a hint of basil. The spicy fennel sausage lived up to its name and displayed a spice that was wonderfully on the edge of too spicy. The spare rib’s texture was magnificently slow cooked , but its taste, unlike the other meats, was largely overwhelmed by the flavor of the marinara. The quality of rigatoni disappointed and forced us to wonder if it was taken from a box, a sin that could have been forgiven at a restaurant of lesser stature (Potenza boasts rightly an in-house bakery). While there was a lot to like in this dish, it seemed as though the kitchen combined different kinds of meats on a plate with some sauce, pasta and a hope that it worked out for the best.

Finally, our waiter recommended for dessert the Panna cotta al caramello, a toffee panna cotta topped with mint chocolate sauce, whipped cream, candied almonds, and caramelized banana. Even though it was full of plenty rich and sweet ingredients, we never felt like we were eating a spoon full of sugar. The cool panna cotta mellowed out the other members of the dessert without its own toffee flavor being lost the process. The whole combination held its form well, but still had a light texture on the tongue. It was a well executed dessert that gave us a beautifully sweet experience without the impression of having eaten a pound of sugar.

Washington has plenty of Italian restaurants. Few of them are absolutely terrible, but even less of them are absolutely superb. Potenza joins that crowd that fits somewhere in the middle. There were a few dishes that made us crave more, but there were some items on our plates that made us scratch our head. This is not to say anything we ate was unappetizing. It just wasn’t fantastic. We will still head to Potenza for drinks and bar food (aracini balls), but it’s hard to find a reason to steer someone there for dinner unless they’re simply in the area.

Top Chef Cooking Class at Asia Nine

Posted on by Hungry in DC

As soon as the finale of Bravo’s Top Chef Season 9 aired, we received an email notice from Asia Nine, a Penn Quarter restaurant that we’ve visited many times before for both dinner and happy hour. They were announcing an Asian fusion cooking class with none other than Chef Paul Qui, Executive Chef of Uchiko in Austin TX and the most recent contestant to receive the title “Top Chef”. Along with Paul was Chef Edward Lee, Executive Chef of 610 Magnolia in Louisville KY and fellow contestant on the show (as well as our personal favorite on the season). Asia Nine explained to us that they chose to host this particular event as Asian cuisine, fusion and authentic, have been a rising food trend this year and have been following the careers of both chefs for a while. Before the cooking class began, we were able to talk with chefs Paul Qui and Edward Lee for a few minutes.

We posed that the culture for many young chefs seems to be moving around to different restaurants every few years or less to gain as much experience under as many executive chefs as possible. Our question was whether it was better to pull inspiration from as many restaurants as possible or to find one restaurant that fit a young chef’s style and develop his or her craft there solely. Paul commented that it is important to get different experiences and learn in different kitchens to develop your own craft, but you need to stick with restaurants that fit your style and not just some big named restaurant. Ed added that some people do try to pad their resume by working in so many kitchens or studying under so many famous chefs, but the most critical thing is to find a place that suits you as a chef.

For our next question, we asked if there were any of their competitor’s dishes they saw in their season of Top Chef that they were impressed enough with to put on their own menu. Both of the chefs immediately said “No”, that while everything on the show was great, their menu “is a matter of pride.”

Asked if either of them were fans of the show prior to being chosen for the 9th Season, Ed said that he hadn’t really seen a full season before and usually jumped in half way through. Paul agreed that when the last eight contestants were left would he pick it up, the last seasons he watched were the end of Season 8 All Stars and Season 6 (Las Vegas). When asked if there was a previous season’s challenge he was glad not to have done, Paul couldn’t think of any, but voiced his loathing for the Culinary Olympics (gondola) challenge, however stipulating, “It is what it is. They can do whatever to me. It’s fine.”

When asked how a novice or average person could best start cooking Asian cuisine, Paul cautioned that “Asian cuisine” is such a broad term, styles differing from region to region, and it was best to first find a style that you enjoyed. Ed reminisced on one of the first books he bought as a kid by an old London chef named Kim Hon who wrote “these incredible Chinese cookbooks…still the best cookbooks for Chinese cuisine, which is kind of like the basis of modern Asian cuisine.” As it turns out, the series is unfortunately out of print.

Since on Top Chef a contestant is forced to compete in a wide range of styles and challenges, we wondered if their experiences in the season caused them to afterwards change their styles or menus of their restaurant. Ed said frankly, “I haven’t changed my cuisine because of what happened on Top Chef…Maybe our scope has broadened, but our process for making and producing is that same as it was, a slow and calculated process.” Elaborating on how their own kitchens work, both Paul and Ed added that there are plenty of voices in their kitchen, each sous-chef having a voice and hand in making a dish. “If you have more palates involved,” Paul said, “it’s like a think tank to create a dish.” “Otherwise, it becomes all about your ego,” Ed summarized.

For our final question, we asked if there were any restaurants in the DC area (besides Asia Nine, of course) that either of them preferred or were looking forward to visit while in town. Having grown up in northern Virginia, Paul said that his mom did a lot of gourmet cooking so he never really had a reason to visit that many restaurants in the area. He did add that he just went to Jose Andres’ America Eats Tavern and was a big fan the chef’s Mini Bar. Ed mentioned that he had eaten at Rasika the night before and imagined he would also visit Graffiato by Top Chef alum Michael Isabella.

As the chefs took to the instruction table in front of the then seated crowd of 110 eager onlookers, Ed announced that he would demonstrate how to prepare Quick Fried Squid and Bacon Salad with Ginger-Apple Zest. Cooking first the bacon, crisping the meat and rendering out most of the fat, he removed the bacon and quickly added the squid. Ed cautioned to only use fresh squid (the man-hole was used in this instance) and that many people screw up dishes with squid because they cook it for too long, producing a protein with the texture of a garden hose. The squid was sautéed quickly, the chef adding soy sauce, lemon, and pepper, and then instructing that the once the ingredients are add the squid is pretty much done already. The bacon and squid combination was added to a bowl of watercress before the addition of a spoonful of fresh Tahini (sesame paste) vinaigrette the chef had also prepared. Finally, Ed grated fresh ginger and a Ganny Smith apple on top of the dish, mentioning how this ginger/apple combination was great on almost anything, especially seafood. As we are served Asia Nine’s duplication of the chef’s dish, we had to agree that the apple & ginger gave the dish a fantastic cool, acidic taste. The smooth Tahiti sauce worked seamlessly with the squid, complimenting the seafood taste perfectly. The crumbled bacon gave savory taste of fat and a nice contrasting crunch to the soft texture of the squid.

Next up was Chef Paul’s Green Curry Mussels with Spiced Potato Chips and Basil. As he heated a pan and drops green curry and white miso pastes in vegetable oil, the smell of the curry blooming spread through the restaurant like a thick cloud, causing many in the audience to both cough and laugh. Paul added that some people have tried to have him cook with their family’s own curry and the scent usually much more potent. Garlic, shallots, ginger, and large cuts of lemongrass were added and sweated until they’re translucent. Cleaned mussels were then dropped in, coated in the curry mixture and steamed to open after the addition of some white wine. After they open, Paul mixed in some coconut milk and Kaffir lime leaves and simmered. Finally, mentioning that he liked to finish many of his dishes with some sort of fresh citrus, Paul squeezed fresh lime juice over the pan. The mussels and sauce was transferred to a bowl and garnished with potato chips and basil leaves. Although he prefers to use freshly made chips, Paul mentioned that Lays will substitute if you don’t have the time. The curry flavors we tasted in our dish went fantastically with the mussels, the coconut milk elevating what is usually just a broth to a sauce we eagerly scooped up with leftover mussel shells. After given a moment to soak in the same sauce, the basil leaves added a great herb twist.

While it was not demonstrated on stage, our third course was Asia Nine’s own Spiced braised short ribs, a great cut of beef oven cooked with a Panang curry mixture, lemongrass and stock. With only a small nudge from our knife and fork, the meat effortlessly separated from the bone. The short rib was superb, tender and juicy. While the curry sauce that surrounded the beef as it cooked tastes great in its own right, the heavy-handed flavors seemed to cover up the savoriness of the short rib instead of complimenting it. Although each of the dishes we enjoyed were paired with a wine, we have to applaud Asia Nine  for the California red blend chosen to match up with this final course, the Zinfandel, Syrah, and Merlot ensemble by far the best compliment to a dish in our meal.

As the other guest and we finished up our final course, Paul and Ed both returned to the demonstration table to field some questions from the audience. What has changed for them since the end of Top Chef? Less time in their kitchens and many more photo-ops. What was their worst/most difficult challenge? Setting up a restaurant in 5 hours for Restaurant Wars right after an all night BBQ challenge. Best hangover food? Fried chicken. Both of the chefs were in good spirits and took time for pictures afterwards with many of the fans in the crowd. They were great presenters and the dishes that Asia Nine’s kitchen reproduced were fantastic. The entire event was well executed and made us eager to see what the restaurant had planned for the rest of the year. Being in the presence of such great chefs encouraged us to expand our own cooking repertoire and pay closer attention to genuine culinary leaders like Ed and Paul beyond what we see on TV.

For a look at Asia Nine’s prepared chef profiles and the event’s recipes, check out Asia Nine Top Chef Cooking Class Info.