Columbia Firehouse is located in Old Town Alexandria in the same space as the old Bookbinder Steakhouse. Walking in I thought I was still in Bookbinders. If you didn’t see the name out front, you wouldn’t know walking into the restaurant. Almost as if they did not even change anything at all.
The building is nice. It is full of rich woodwork, stained glass and even has a atrium dining room. I was seated in the atrium dining room for my meal. It nice but rather noisy. The service was a little slow and the server had to be asked about the specials (pet peeve). I originally went to Columbia Firehouse with Ryan and Melissa for Restaurant Week, but after glancing over the menu we decided to order off the menu. There was only one entree that could be combined with one appetizer on the whole menu that could add up with dessert to be $35.09. To make matters worse, neither of those options were available on the Restaurant Week menu.
Every Wednesday I review a cookbook to help weed out the good the bad and the ugly. This week I am reviewing The Scandinavian Cookbook by Trina Hahnemann. When I saw this book I had to have it. Being Scandinavian in descent, I wanted to learn more about traditional Scandinavian cooking. Yes, I am Swedish. Hej – (“hello”). This book covers recipes from all over Scandinavia, from Denmark to Norway and yes Sweden.
This cookbook is organized very differently than most. Actually, it is organized in a unique and extremely cool way. It is organized by month of the year, and the different types of food that you would eat during each month. Not just comfort food, but by the types of food that are in season. Seasonal cooking is a great to way to help the environment. Fresh corn shouldn’t be available in the winter. If it is, it has been shipped from halfway around the globe to your table. There is a lot of energy wasted in shipping food. Enough of me preaching, back to the book.
The cookbook starts out in January and goes through the months all the way to December. Along with the recipes there are a ton of great photographs of the food and seasonal pictures from all around Scandinavia. The photographs are amazing. Lars Renek is the man behind the beautiful photographs in this book. Bravo, Lars! Bravo! Even if I couldn’t read, this book would be amazing because of the photographs.
The recipes are equally amazing. A lot of the recipes are for Smørrebrød which are Danish open faced sandwiches. They are preferably made with rye bread and are served with aquavit and beer. They had me at sandwich and only sweetened the deal with the aquavit and beer. The Smørrebrød come in all different types. From flounder and shrimp with basil dressing to chicken and lovage salad. I must admit, I had no idea what lovage was. Lovage is a perrenial plant that resembles celery. My favorite Smørrebrød that was in the book had to be the smoked cheese salad on rye. Wow, a cheese salad. The cheese used in the book is rygeost which is a soft smoked cheese from Denmark, but they say you can substitute smoked ricotta. Along with cheese it uses a lot of the same ingredients that you would put into a tuna or chicken salad, but you substitute cheese for protein. Amazing! Why didn’t I think of this. Scandinavian people are awesome!
The book also covers seasonal drinks. From hot chocolate in the winter to red currant and strawberry smoothies in the summer. Not all of the drinks are alcohol free. Take for instance the elderflower cordial that utilizes fresh elderflowers picked when they bloom in June. The elderflower cordial is diluted with champagne for a fresh taste of summer.
Being a Scandinavian cookbook there are plenty of seafood recipes. There are recipes for almost every type of seafood. From flounder to salmon to mussels to lumpfish roe. I love seafood and usually find myself preparing most of it the same way. For some reason when it comes to seafood, I am not creative. This book has sparked my interest. There is a recipe in here for cauliflower soup with grilled scallops. The creamy cauliflower soup with the smokey grilled scallops topped with lemon, sounds delicious. I am totally going to make this and post about it.
In all, I loved this book. I love that it is organized by month and by what is in season. It totally takes the guess work out of what to cook. Open the book, turn to the current month, and make something amazing. Although the cauliflower soup is listed in November, all of the ingredients are in season here in Washington, D.C. It is my lucky day. I would totally recommend picking up this book. The recipes, pictures and stories are worth it. Trina Hahnemann has written a great book.
Every Wednesday I review a cookbook to help weed out the good the bad and the ugly. This week I am reviewing 1001 Foods To Die For with Introduction by Corby Kummer. I have never been so excited to read a book. I saw the name of this cookbook and I had to read it. 1001 foods that you must eat before you die, is that a statement or a challenge. Either way, I am in. I love food and a book that introduces me to new cuisines and foods is exactly what I am looking for.
Every wednesday I review a cookbook to help weed out the good the bad and the ugly. This week I am reviewing 25 essential techniques for grilling by Ardie A. Davis. I love barbecuing and grilling and this book is right up my alley.
Ardie A. Davis
Ardie is an award winning expert with his own barbecue university. Artie founded the Greasehouse University. The degree program at the Greasehouse University is is a doctor of barbecue philosophy and is overseen by the Kasas City Barbecue Society. Artie is now a famed judge on the barbecue circuit. Story short, Ardie knows barbecue.Artie starts the book off like every good barbecue book going over the basics of smoking. He goes over the tools required, the methods needed and basics of starting to smoke. His essentials include the basics of choosing wood. As you know the wood gives the unique flavor of each dish. Ardie suggests wood for each meat and further goes on to suggest woods to stay away from. For instance, mesquite on chicken would be too bitter and alder on beef would be too mild. As a barbecue expert you may already know this and brush it off, but as a newbie, this information is awesome.At first look one would think that this book is a beginner picture book as it has a hard cover and does not have the the thickness of many other cookbooks. But this book is a great reference book for both experts and beginners. Ardie Davis covers everything from starting the grill to glazing the food after you take it off the fire. The recipes that are included in this book are great and are far from beginner.
Ardie start the book by listing the three main ways for flavoring grilled foods. Before grilling, during grilling and after grilling. Before you add seasoning and marinades. During grilling there is the carmelization of the sugars from the food itself. There is also the different flavors from the charcoal and wood. There is also the sweet, sour and spicy flavors from barbecue sauce. Lastly there are the flavors from after grilling from finishing sauces, butters and chutneys.
Ardie lists some of the tastiest recipes that I have read in a cookbook. My favorite is the grilled chickenwing drums with billy’s mumbo rub and sauce. This may be because I am fascinated with wings right now as I am preparing for the wingtacular, but the recipe and pictures look amazing. The sugary glaze produces a carmelized wing that without tasting sounds amazing.
The other recipe that amazes me is the dirty steak recipe. I have never heard of this before reading it in this book but you can grill a steak directly on the coals. Using basic seasoning the steaks are placed directly on the white hot coals and grilled for 2-3 minutes on each side. This method made famous by Ike Eisenhower and told by Ardie Davis is fascinating.
The third recipe that excited me was the lime and chile grilled corn on the cob two ways. Two ways you ask? Well you can grill corn shucked or unshucked. One produced great grill marks and the other gives you a more tender and moist product. Grilled corn is awesome. I have always pondered if you should grill corn with or without shucking it. Ardie solved my questions by saying that it is perfect to do it either way.
This book is awesome and answered many of the questions that I have had about grilling. This book is written excellently and the pictures are awesome. No matter if you are a just beginning to grill or have been grilling for 35 years, this book is for you. The book discusses the basics of grilling and further discusses recipes that even an experienced griller would love. This book is rather inexpensive and would be a great addition to any bookshelf.
My parents came to town this last weekend and since it was Mother’s Day I made brunch reservations at Pienza Italian Market. Pienza Italian Market is located in the Gaylord National Hotel at the National Harbor. They have a large outdoor dining area that is located underneath the giant atrium in the hotel. That way no matter what you always have good weather.
When we arrived they took us through the buffet and described each section. The buffet stretched a couple hundred feet and included everything that one could think of. Fresh fruits, salads, bread, italian fare, breakfast food and desserts. The breakfast food included omlets made to order, fresh made waffles and bacon. The bacon was glorious. It was thick cut and cooked till crispy. MMM.
After walking through the buffet they sat us down at our table that was situated in the outdoor setting underneath the atrium. The views were grand as they included the whole atrium and views of the potomac river. Once seated we waited for out waiter to take our drink order. By waited I mean we waited 10 minutes to talk to the waiter. I should have known that this would have been and common theme throughout the meal. We were at the buffet for an hour and saw our waiter 5 times. Remember the only way to get drinks at this buffet is through your waiter. Needless to say our glasses were empty for most of the meal. At times we had to flag down other waitstaff to fill our drinks.
Not all of the staff was as bad as the waitstaff. The chefs were friendly and schmoozed with the diners. The waffle chef stopped what he was doing to go find my mother a clean plate. This was nice as this wasn’t his job but he wanted us to have a great experience. The omlet chef was kind and took my request to add ingredients in my omlet that were not in front of him. I brought over some smoked salmon to add to my cheese, spinach and mushroom omlet.
The selection of fresh fruits, salads, and italian anti-pasta was excellent. They offered a variety of breakfast foods including eggs benedict. A sign of a good breakfast place is if they can make an eggs benedict. They made it, although mediocre and no made to order it was pretty darn tasty. They also offered a pretty good selection of italian dishes including meatballs, lasagna, white sauced pasta and various other meat dishes. The carved meat station included ham and turkey. They noted that the meat selection and italian dishes vary from day to day. They are based on what ingredients are fresh and not on a set menu.
The desserts were amazing. They had an ice cream bar with fresh Hagan Daz ice cream. They also had tea cakes, cheesecake, tres leches cake, layered chocolate cakes and various vanilla cakes layered with fruit. The tres leches cake was amazing.
If it wasn’t for the waitstaff this restaurant would have recieved a better score. At times we wondered if our waiter had quit as we could not find him. At the end of the meal he was right on time with giving us our check though. I guess he was eager to get a tip.
Overall the food was fantastic, the cooking staff was excellent and despite the waitstaff, I will be going back. The buffet is one of the best, if not the best in the DC area. I recommend that you give it a try.
Carla Hall and Spike Mendelsohn will be in Adams Morgan @ 18th Street and Wyoming Avenue with the Top Chef Tour. They will have cooking demonstrations, autographs and you can purchase Top Chef Gear. They will have three shows at 10:30 am, 12:00 pm and 1:30 pm. Pre-registration is full but they will have tickets available at the event. This is first come, first serve, so be early. I love Carla, if you guys go tell her hi for me!!!
Obama was spotted at Rays Hell Burger this week. It is the new hot spot for burgers. Check out my review of Rays Hell Burger. The burgers are tasty, not too expensive, and the atmosphere is pretty cool. Expect long lines.
With the upcoming holiday weekend I wanted to post about what to do this weekend in Washington, DC. But after realizing that it is Easter weekend, there is only one thing came to mind. Sunday Brunch!!! and… Mimosas.
Sunday Brunch is a ritual for a lot of people, but where to go is always a chore. I know that every single restaurant these days has brunch and it is hard to decide where to go. I wanted to write up a list of great places that I have gone for brunch, to make your lives easier. Plus, a lot of these places are not that well known and will allow you to call today for reservations.
I said it in the Cafe Atlantico post, I would return. I did and it was a whole lot better than the first time.
Ahh minibar. When visiting cafe atlantico on the second floor sits a small counter with just six stools. Many without knowing think it is just a small bar sitting area for the one tops, but no, the lucky few that get to sit at those six seats each night are the luckiest people in the restaurant.
With just six seats and two servings each night it is hard to get just one of those hallowed seats. But how do you get a seat at minibar? My only answer is to call, call a lot. Reservations for minibar open up every day when the restaurant opens. But remember when you call you are calling for a reservation exactly one month from the day that you call. So if I call today March 30th, it would be for a reservation on April 30th. Sounds easy right? Nope. One more caviat. They start taking reservations at 10 am and are regularly booked by 10:01 am.
So what are a few tips for snagging a reservation.
