Valentine’s Day Cupcake Tour

The cupcake trend has hit DC with full force. Forget donuts and frozen yogurt, there are at least 4 popular boutique cupcakeries within city limits. For Valentine’s day this year, I figured that the lady and I would do our best to try some of them out. Here’s the route we took, and all the pictures. (She also tweeted the whole way, if you’re into “new media.”)

We started at Baked ‘n Wired. One of my bosses wrote an article about the cupcake obsession, and picked out this place for making “the only just-right cupcake.” (First, watch the accompanying video, it’s great! Second, AU students who have taken photography should note the photo credit at the top of the article.)

I thought it was amazing. I got a “chocolate satin” cupcake, and apparently I was making a lot of strange noises as I demolished the thing. The icing was extremely creamy and luscious, but the flavor of the cake itself was huge. Without being overpowering or too buttery, it was really delicious.

Next we walked over to Georgetown Cupcake, which I’ve heard is more in the Magnolia Cupcake tradition, and it is ripped apart in the above-linked video. Frank Bruni loved this place. I went to Magnolia when I went to New York over a year ago. I took these pictures there, and remember waiting a long time but really enjoying it. Unfortunately, there was a really long wait at Georgetown, and we spotted a kid we really dislike in line, so we decided to go elsewhere.

We walked to Hello Cupcake in Dupont. We took our cupcakes home for later, and it did make a nice dessert. I mean, let’s be serious, it’s hard to not like a cupcake! The Baked ‘n Wired cupcake was more fresh, but the Hello cupcake (I got a peanut butter blossom) was more classic tasting. B+W was definitley the winner, and I really reccomend it, even at $3.50 a pop. I’m still curious about Red Velvet over in Penn Quarter, but I’m sure I’ll get there sooner or later.

It’s been a long, a long time coming…

… But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will.

Larry Engel’s Eggs

First of all, I apologize in advance if this ever gets to be the near the top of the list when you google documentary filmmaker Larry Engel, because this is not really about his career. Prof. Engel as I’ve known him, works at the School of Communication at American University, where I have three block classes a week this semester. He also has chickens. He has a sign on the door to his office advertising a dozen eggs from his farm (where I’m not certain in New Paltz, NY) for three dollars. When I first saw this, I thought, “OK, that’s kooky.”

The next time I was shopping for eggs at Whole Foods, I noticed that even the cheapest fair-seeming (as the NYT notes, there is no cut and dry label) dozen was $3.19. So yesterday I flagged Prof. Engel down for some eggs. Today he handed them to me and said “I’ll need that box back, eventually.” Later, I had a chance to look at them in preparation of my first Engel-omelet. As you can tell from the picture below, no two eggs are the same. Some are long and more oval-shaped, and some have much darker shells. They are delicious.

I love this whole situation so much. This food could not be more local: These eggs are taking a trip that Prof. Engel has to take every day anyway so transportation costs are zilch. The label reads, “No Antibiotics/No Hormones/Free-range.” And while I doubt very much that Prof. Engel needs the business from selling these eggs, it supports his hobby and enriches his community (i.e. me and other customers).

It also reminds me of my own family. My mom grew up on a farm in Fountainville, PA, and my grandfather tended his own egg-laying hens before taking the train to town to teach electrical engineering at Drexel every day. Growing plants and animals to eat and sell—farming, in other words—does not belong solely to the laymen. Now more than ever, it is neccesary to care and know about the food that you feed yourself. The best oppurtunities are often unexpected, and in this case, delicious.

Interested egg eaters in DC can inquire at larry.engel@mac.com.

Winnemere and a Dark ‘N’ Stormy

Sometimes really great eating happens by accident. You have some really good items of food, and maybe in the back of your head you know they would work well together, but sometimes it’s only after you’ve tasted the combination that you know you’ve hit it right on the head. At Cowgirl this week, we’ve been featuring Jasper Hill Farm’s Winnemere. I really love this farm, and this cheese is fantastic. It’s based on a somewhat similar style French cheese called Vacherin, but in Greensboro, Vermont, they wash the cheese with their own raspberry lambic beer and wrap it in strips of spruce bark. The inside turns to a delicious “paste” with spectacular flavors.

Tonight, I brought home the store’s last available piece until winter, and coincidently decided to make myself a Dark ‘n’ Stormy. We happen to have a particularly good Bermuda ginger beer right now, and so I wanted to take the box’s advice and make this interesting sounding drink. It consists of pouring a shot or so of dark rum (couldn’t afford Black Seal so I opted for Barcardi instead) over ice and filling the high ball glass to the top with ginger beer. They are both non-alcoholic, but unlike the more common ale, ginger beer is more smooth and has less of a burn. The combination of the cheese and the drink was really just right: the slight buzz from the washed cheese carried over to the crisp ginger flavor of the drink. I would say go out and buy these foods but the real message is to take risks and perhaps be rewarded!

Disposable Europe

We take pictures to supplement our visual memories. Aside from sheer artistic and aesthetic merit, no one needs convincing that pictures we take remind us of people, places, and things. I’ve heard that when we take pictures, it limits and focuses our memories, but it’s easy to give that up for the joy of fondly remembering something from a snapshot. Anyone who has ever had a camera stolen knows what a terrible feeling that can be. More after the jump.

A Paris Journal

Well I’m home. Bigger soda containers and even bigger automobiles. More culture shock reflections to come. Now, the first European post in retrospect. I’m going to try and hit the main places, though I may not go in order. Going to get my three disposable cameras developed soon.

As promised, here are my thoughts on Paris that I jotted down while I was there. I tried to get a “drawing” on each page. Almost. Sorry if you can’t read it, that’s my actual handwriting. Click to enlarge, more after the jump.