DC Restaurant Inspections – Mapped!
I have been working on a bit of a side project. DC has great map data online and they also have all of their restaurant inspections online. Unfortunately, the two systems are not connected… so I decided to fix that. I used the excellent software from Development Seed, TileMill, to create a custom map and overlay interactive points on top of it. I scrapped the restaurant inspection site to get all of the information from their inspections. The result is maps.cookography.com
Scroll over the different points to learn more about them and then click on the for details. If you click on the restaurant’s name in the info box it will bring up all of the records for it. From the drop-down up top you can also browse and search through lists of records. I will try to regularly update this with the latest information, but poke me if things are looking stale. Let me know how it works and if you can think of any improvements.
Water Bottle #WINNER
Luke | May 26, 2011 |
Clearly we are not the best about updating Cookography. Our water bottle giveaway has been over for weeks and we still haven’t announced a winner. Well we finally got off our duff and made a pick. Congratulations Shane Ede, out of the many entries yours amused us the most. It doesn’t hurt that you submitted a limerick, they are extra fun.
The winning entry:
There once was a man from D.C.
Who liked water, we could see
He got a new Camelback bottle and knew
He’d get water he wouldn’t have to chew.
You are going to love your new CamelBack Groove. We have really been enjoying ours. It could be the hot weather in DC, but we are definitely drinking more water.
In other winning news, congratulations are in order for the guys over at the Bitten Word. They won Best Cook Through Blog from Saveur. This is yet another reason why they are role model bloggers.
Palena Market: A Donut Destination
In the days of yore, back when we were living in the Cleveland Park neighborhood of DC, one of the weekend highlights was getting a freshly made donut from Amernick bakery. The bakery was run by Ann Amernick, the pastry chef at Palena and a former White House pastry chef. Every Saturday around 11am, someone would carry over a tray of donuts. They were fresh out of the fryers at Palena and still hot. In that 3 block jounry, these lemony scented morsels would attract a literal following. Unfortunately, Amernicks closed in 2004 and Ann moved back to Baltimore.
Luckily however, Palena recently expanded, taking over the store front next door and turning into a market and expanding their cafe. The Market portion just opened and they are serving donuts again. I was in the neighborhood after a visit to the zoo with Elena and perhaps got a donut from what may have been one of the first batches to be sold, right as they were bringing it out.
Now it may seem obsessive that I have spent two paragraphs talking about donuts, but they are really good. They are yeast donuts, so they are nice and fluffy, coated with a lemony glaze. Although it has been 7 years, I can definitely say they are competitive with the ones that they used to serve at Amernicks and well worth the trip. I originally only got one, but finished before going only half a block, so I had to go back for a second.
The Market also sells baked goods and treats, all favorites of Frank Ruta.
Palena | 3529 Connecticut Avenue NW Washington, D.C. 20008 | P 202 537 9250
Leg of Lamb Done Right
For the past couple of years we haven’t done much for Easter. Sure we exchanged some candy, but we never really cooked up a big meal. However, this year Carolyn’s parents came down to visit, giving us a perfect excuse to put together something a little fancier.
Lamb is of course a traditional Easter meat, so that was our starting point. If you haven’t guessed, we are big fans of the guys from The Bitten Word. I sort of want to be them when I grow up. They are much more useful than us and post holiday recipes… before the holiday! What a concept! They had done an Easter post on an awesome looking lamb recipe, which pretty much locked in our decision for what to make.
Making large portions of meat always scares me a bit. There is the “what if I screw up and ruin 4 lbs of meat” factor. The risk does make it a bit more exciting though! Luckily for me, and everyone else who was planning on eating lamb, the recipe worked out perfectly. I followed the Bitten Word guys advice and went for frozen artichoke hearts instead of using fresh. I did innovate a little and make the mint sauce in the VitaMix, which turned into a smooth, bright green sauce. I don’t think it made a huge difference taste wise, but it may have made it easier to keep on the lamb. It was easy to coat a lamb bite with the sauce and it may have been a little trickier with the original, chunkier version. Either way it was a lot of fun.
The one slip up I had was making a full batch of the stuffing when I only bought half as much lamb as was called for. This was only a problem because I tried to stuff it all in and roll up the butterflied lamb. Surprisingly it wouldn’t all stay in.
Serving the lamb and keeping it nice and tidy seems to be a little tricky though. As soon as I cut the butchers twine, the tightly rolled lamb sprung open. So instead of a nice disk of lamb and stuffing, guest were served something that was slightly circular. Luckily it was very tasty!
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Butterflied, Rolled, And Roasted Leg Of Lamb
Martha Stewart
Ingredients:
- 8 artichoke hearts, finely chopped
- Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
- 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1/4 cup fresh mint, finely chopped
- 1/2 cup fresh plain breadcrumbs
- 1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese (1 ounce)
- 1 Steamed head of garlic, peeled
- 4 ounces pancetta, thinly sliced and finely chopped
- 1 leg of lamb, bone removed (7 to 8 pounds), butterflied
- Extra-virgin olive oil, for rubbing
- 2 cups water
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Pulse pancetta, garlic, cheese, breadcrumbs, mint, lemon juice, 1 teaspoon salt, and some pepper in a food processor until combined. Add artichokes. Pulse a few times, keeping mixture chunky.
- Lay lamb flat on a work surface, skin side down. Season with salt. Spread artichoke mixture over top, leaving a 1/2-inch border. Tightly roll lamb, and tie with kitchen twine at 2-inch intervals to hold.
- Rub lamb with oil, and season generously with salt and pepper. Transfer to a roasting pan fitted with a roasting rack, and add water to pan. Roast for 30 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees. Continue to roast until an instant-read thermometer reaches 130 degrees to 135 degrees (for medium-rare), 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes. Let rest for 20 to 30 minutes before carving. Serve with mint sauce.
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Fresh Mint Sauce
Martha Stewart
Ingredients:
- 1 teaspoon coarse salt
- 1 bunch fresh mint
- 1 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons white-wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon sugar
Directions:
- Finely chop mint; transfer to a jar. Add olive oil, vinegar, lemon juice, sugar, and salt. Shake to combine. Refrigerate until ready to use (up to 1 month).
Camelback Groove Giveaway
Every now and then we get offers from various people offering to let us try some of their awesomeness. Most of the time I am too lazy to follow-up and then go through the song and dance. However, when Camelbak emailed offering to let us try their new Groove water bottle, I jumped. It comes in both plastic and stainless steel and most importantly has a filter built in. I drink a lot of water at work… mostly from the tap. DC tap water has a bad reputation with the lead and all, but I don’t mind it much. The filter does make it taste better though. You can really taste the difference, especially after it has been sitting out a bit and is no longer cold. The only bummer is that it doesn’t really eliminate the lead in the water. Checking around though, it doesn’t look like any water filter systems do.
Let’s also talk about the bite valve on the water bottle. It is the same one they have on regular Camelbaks. It is like drinking through a straw, but with a little extra resistance because of the filter. It could be because I like gadgets, but I have found that now I drink more water.
The nice folks at Camelbak sent us two of the stainless steel bottles. One with a natural finish and another that is white. Both look sharp.
Ok – enough about our fun new toys. We made sure to look out for you, dear readers. We have one of the plastic Groove water bottles to give away!
Leave a haiku or limerick about water, hydration or Camelbak in the comments section below before midnight EST, May 10th. We will select the best one as the winner!
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