Omnivore’s 100: Alligator tastes like Crocodile

By Emily | Published: February 3, 2010

The Omnivore’s 100 feature is back!  The reason for the long absence: Crocodile stumped me.

I planned to buy this wild meat during the Texas trip.  San Antonio apparently had a famous speciality meats store, Exotic Meats USA. However, when I arrived and looked up their website, I found that the store had moved to Reno, NV.

Foiled, I put this culinary experiment on the back-burner for a few weeks.

Read More »

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Help me craft the perfect Sirius presets

By Emily | Published: January 21, 2010

Many things annoy me. I hate when someone locks the laundry room door in my apartment complex and I have to juggle the detergent and dirty clothes while flicking through my keys.  I’m irritated by the chronically late, perpetually whiney and those who ask ”so what do you do?” I despise double parkers, left lane slow drivers and purposely late mergers.  But the bane of my current existance is my long commute.

But recently, I got something that has majorly improved the 1.5 to 2 hours I spend in the car each day: Sirius Radio.  Read More »

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Don’t Mess with Texas’ Beers

By Emily | Published: January 13, 2010

 

Gruene Texas

Stop for a Shiner in Gruene, Texas

 

When people think of the regions where great American craft beer is brewed, they usually think of the West Coast, the Northeast and the Great Lakes region.  Texas and the Southwest are typically not thought of as great beer regions. In fact when people think of beer in Texas, Corona, Tecate and Shiner Bock are probably the first brews that come to mind.  However, after visiting San Antonio and Austin last week, I can say that Texas does have good beers, breweries and most importantly great beer culture. Read More »

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More Texas Craziness – Castles of Junk

By Emily | Published: January 11, 2010

Wild animals sticking their heads inside your rental car isn’t the only odd part about Texas. Take a look at this three-story Cathedral of Junk we visited in the the suburbs of Austin. It’s part La Sagrada Familia, part ornate, suburban playground (the wooden kind that came into vogue in Ohio circa 1992).

Cathedral of Junk Austin

The view from behind a bike wheel

 

Read More »

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Where Wild West Meets the Wild

By Emily | Published: January 6, 2010

 

Zebras at Natural Bridge safari park

Zebras approached cars at the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch

I’ve never been to Texas before. I had been warned that it is a country on to itself. When I visited my brother — a new San Antonio resident — over Christmas and New Years, I found that to be percisely true. The two hour drive from San Antonio to Austin showed us exactly the sort of wierdness I hoped from Texas. Read More »

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‘Tis the Season for Tacky Lights

By Emily | Published: December 19, 2009

 Lights on Baltimore's 34th Street

I like a little holiday magic — as long as it doesn’t involve ballet, the mall or It’s a Wonderful Life. This rules out most things, of course, except Christmas beers and tacky lights displays. This week, we ventured to two of the more spectacular light displays in the Washington Metropolitan Region: Baltimore’s 34th Street display and Gaylord Hotel’s Christmas lighting/ snowfall display.

Miracle of 34th Street

This display in Hampden, Baltimore’s colorful hipster meets hillbilly neighborhood, stole it’s name from the famous Christmas flick. It’s famous throughout the region — this site even names it one of the seven best light displays in the world. And I’m not sure why. This display is joining the long line of destinations that have disappointed the writers of the blog — up there with Asheville, NC, and Assateague Island. Read More »

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Omnivore’s 100: We Like it Raw & Spicy

By Emily | Published: December 13, 2009

With venison and nettle tea out of the way, we move on the next foods on the list: Huevos rancheros &  steak tartare. With the help of local ethnic supermarket, GrandMart, huevos rancheros was as simple as frying an egg. Steak tartare, the gourmet raw beef dish, was another matter.

#3 Huevos Rancheros

I was happy to see huevos rancheros on the list.  After spotting versions of it on many a yuppie brunch menu over the years — with mango salsa, on multi-grain toast, with baked tofu — I thought, I’d boil this dish down to its authentic self.  Huevos rancheros was originally served on Mexican ranches to the farmhands as a second breakfast — after eating a lighter meal at dawn.  I found this recipe on simplyrecipes.com that fulfilled my purist requirement: just eggs, corn tortillas and homemade salsa. Read More »

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Outer Banks, Out of Season

By Emily | Published: December 7, 2009

 

It's beautiful -- but chilly -- on the beach in the off season.

It's beautiful -- but chilly -- on the beach in the off season.

 

It’s too cold to swim. The bars and restaurants are eerily empty. The souvenir shops are shuttered.  The Outer Banks may not be the most lively out-of-season destination. But there’s plenty to do at this resort town, if post-apocolyptic desolation is your thing. Read More »

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Omnivore’s 100: A brush with bowel-cleaning super tea

By Emily | Published: November 30, 2009

Next up in our Omnivore’s 100 series is nettle tea. I’m not a tea person. I’ve drunk coffee every morning of my life since high school.  I have a caffine addiction — the withdrawl headache sets in about 1 pm — that led me to carrying around packets of instant coffee when traveling in remote regions of Asia.  But I think I speak for tea drinkers everywhere when I ask: “What the hell is nettle tea?

The next food on the list is nettle tea. We looked for tea made from the leaves of the stinging nettle in Whole Foods (this list is turning into a Whole Foods advertisement) and The Vitamin Shoppe, the ubiquitous store that I believed only sold un-FDA approved bodybuilding supplements. Nettle tea is also available on Amazon.com.

I wandered around Whole Foods until I found the tea aisle. The racks were filled with a boggling variety of teas touting a boggling array of promises. There are teas for colds, for weight loss, for pregnancy, for getting pregnant, for better memory, better skin, better hair and better moods — just to name a few. 

The closest thing I could find to nettle tea was Allegro Fine Tea’s “Glowing and Flowing.” Although the main ingredient is green tea, nettle is second on the list. (I didn’t want to hold up my blogging by ordering away fro the food.) The name frightened me; the packet described drinking the tea as “spring cleaning for your body.” But at least it’s preferable to the conception tea, which was the only other one containing the super herb.

When I got home and began to research nettle tea, I found that the plant’s promises are equal to that of Whole Food’s entire tea aisle. According to one website, nettle tea fights coughs, tuberculosis, asthma, arthritis, rheumatism, tendonitis, intestinal disorders, skin problems, allergies and urinary tract infections.

However, Foodmatters.tv boils down nettle tea’s charms to one thing: It gets your bowels moving.  ”The nettle leaves increase the thyroid function, increase metabolism and releases mucus in the colon allowing for the flushing of excess wastes,” says the site.

Sure, it tastes like grass clippings, but maybe it’s a way to “flush out” this weekend’s gravy binge. But, a few days and a few cups later, it, um, hasn’t yielded any noticeable results. 

Next up: steak tartar. Impatient? Check out last week’s post on venison. 

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Omnivore’s 100: Venison down, 99 more to go

By Emily | Published: November 20, 2009

Omnivore’s 100

A friend recently forwarded me the list of the 100 foods that every omnivore should eat in his or lifetime.  The list, compiled by a British food blogger at Very Good Taste, runs from the ridiculous (road kill) to the standard (a Big Mac meal) to the pricey (Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant).

 Scanning down the document, I knew it was my chance to join the herds of bloggers who decide to take on a task and blog it to completion. Yes, I’m sure you’ve seen the blogs or read the books or seen the movies of those trying to, say, cook all of Julie Child’s recipes, have sex every day for a year or live a waste-free life. So, for the next year – or however longs it takes – we will eat from one to 100. I will try to go in order, but I’m making no promises.  

Venison

First up, is something I’ve long wanted to try: venison.

It took me two weeks to track down venison. At Yelpers’ recommendation, I tried Whole Foods and then the expansive gourmet grocery Wegman’s (there’s one in Fairfax and off 95 in Woodbridge). Whole Foods told me that they stopped carrying venison because they “we’re sure where our vendor was getting it from.” Wegman’s did have it. But at about $30 a pound, I decided to save my funds for food I knew tasted good.

Fortunately, we went to West Virginia last weekend – a state where everyone apparently keeps a steak (or side) of venison in the freezer. In hunting season – the height of which is next week – school kids have vacation so they can join their parents in the woods with a rifle.  

Considering this, I’m not too surprised I was served venison not once – but twice – in one weekend.  

The first was the tenderloin cooked with honey and truffle oil. It was a bit like pork, dry and dense, but not unpleasant. The second time, we had a leg – or at least that’s what I think it was judging from the bone.  It was stringy like jerky. After a few bites, when the hostess wasn’t looking, it went under the table for the dog.  She enjoyed it.

Next up: Nettle tea.

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