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.

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.

Squash Blossom are Sexcellent

When I first read this post last week, I was interested but had honestly never heard of squash blossoms. So, fast forward a week or so and I’m at the Dupont Farmer’s Market today, and here’s six squash blossoms for $1.50. Hell, I’ll try anything for $1.50. They were beautiful, and the woman suggested making a light tempura out of them with a light beer or sparkling water, which I’m sure is good, but sounded a little off to me. Anyway, I continued to walk around and shop and I remembered the recipe on Amateur Gourmet. I really recommend Amateur Gourmet for recipes; he’s really adventurous, and writes in a really peculiar and amusing way that I can relate to: “This recipe is a composite of several recipes so I suppose you can say this is a recipe I created myself and if you said that I wouldn’t correct you.” I looked in the fridge when I got home and had everything except fresh chevrè (I know, the guy who works in the cheese store doesn’t have the right cheese) so I used my roommate’s ricotta, which was of the perfect consistency without the tartness the goat cheese would have had. Also, one of the commentators suggested using a chive to tie up the end of flower and that worked great, but it was a bit tricky to get them tied. All in all, the flavor was great and it smelled amazingly floral (big surprise, right?) while frying. Make this, but get a friend to help you with the prep.

The Grocer

If you’ve just come over from Wonkette, welcome, I hope you find something else you like here. That being said, I’ve just stumbled on some really fantastic street art that I wanted to share. I saw this on Serious Eats, a really fantastic foodie site as it is. So there’s this guy in Chicago, calling himself the Grocer, and he paints fresh produce in a really vivid and colorful style. He has tons of great pictures on his flickr. Check out these radishes.

Now this is the kind of street art I think everyone can get behind. It’s nice looking, bright, interesting, and non-commercial. It makes the space look better.

Anyway, I’m a big fan and I hope he doesn’t mind me using the pictures here, I’m only trying to spread the word.

Santa Baraba Farmer’s Market: Unicorn Horn $8 lb

So I figured that these several hours spent in the Phoenix airport would be best spent by blogging, which is why I’m just now getting around to blogging about the Santa Barbara Farmer’s Market, which I went to on Saturday. Basically, I was floored to see things that I’ve only ever seen for sale in supermarkets. Pluots? They’ve got to be fake right?

First of all, this place is huge! According to my girlfriend, it has only gotten bigger, but it’s by far the biggest I’ve ever seen. As local foods become more popular, farmer’s markets are expanding everywhere, with interesting results. In areas like Santa Barbara, EVERYTHING can grow so almost everything is fair game. I bought some jalepenos and chilis for my pickles.

Cage-Free

There’s a big article on Cage-free eggs in the NYT. It’s pretty interesting what different companies are going through, or being forced to go through, to have these new eggs. I think this quote sums it up well: “There are pros and cons to each system,” Ms. Antonelli said. “Either way, these are not free-roaming chickens living out in a pasture.”

“Cage-free” has become way more a buzz-word than I realized, because in my world, a lot of people expect them. There were protests to get AU, my college, to switch, and they are the only kind of eggs available at Whole Foods, where I do most of my grocery shopping. What made me realize that the Average American probably doesn’t understand what the term means was when this bitter old woman came into Cowgirl, the left-leaning cheese store that I work in, and asked if the eggs were “free-range.” My co-worker didn’t really know what to say because the woman was clearly just trying to show she was above what she deemed as rediculous labels. I tried to shout over to them that “free-range” applies to chicken meat, and not eggs. I think she was kind of hard of hearings, so no dice.

Anyway, I kind of agree that foodie buzz-words are kind of superfluous, but they sometimes have the ability to popularize kind of fancy-shmancy things for the general public, which has its benefits.

photo courtesy of flickr user consumatron