I ate so goddamn much good food in DC. I had a few of the more memorable meals of my life. Some of them I ate alone, which only enhanced my rapture. This one below made me tear up a little. I know that some of you might think that's weird. I had lunch at this Capitol Hill spot called Montmartre. The picture below is a lightly dressed frisee salad with duck gizzard confit and bacon. The dressing mingled with the juices to form a delicious sauce. I had it with a glass of Ugni Blanc, which I just discovered is what the French call the trebbiano grape.
It was quite a warm, breezy day, but overcast so it was very cozy inside. The pacing was wonderfully slow and the server was very friendly.
On impulse I ordered a second glass of wine, and asked the server for her recommendation. She suggested the house French pinot noir-I don't know any more about it than that. This is a vegetable soup with pistou, the French version of pesto. It was more subtly flavored than pesto, and had a nice chicken-y broth. There were chunks of carrot, chickpea, yellow squash, onion, and best of all, cauliflower. One reason this meal made me so emotional is that I bought my tickets to go to Paris in the Spring and I'm so excited! If you guys have any trips planned you should check the airfares right now. They have plummeted.
Looking up pistou online I see that the most traditional dish to be made with it is a Summer soup with seasonal vegetables. I'll try that next Summer for sure.By the way, my New Year's resolution is to figure out a way to take better food pictures this year.
25 comments:
Welcome home.
Natalie.
what museums did you hit?
The American art and portrait gallery and the Holocaust museum. My faves at the American art one were the Guston and Kline. And someone I'd never heard of before named Joan Mitchell. And the Alice Neel self portrait as a naked old lady. She was quoted as saying that her cheeks are red in the portrait because she was blushing from the task. I learned that I really don't like Nam Jun Paik.
The Holocaust Museum of course can't really be summed up in words.
Take better food pictures?? Why? Your blog always makes me wanna go on vacation with you. I just got back from vacation myself. You don't even wanna see what was on tables before me last week. Lukewarm Pacific Northwest burritos on styrofoam platters? The Oregon coast's #1 rated (by Sunset Magazine) fish 'n chips...yet it woulda been no more photogenic than your typical lunch basket at Long John Silver's???
really, you don't like nam june paik?
i didn't like what i saw at all. i was not into the big video installation with the 50 states. like, har har, the state of kansas is made of tvs playing the wizard of oz. i get it! and they had the zen tv with just a line across it. i guess it suffered in comparison for me with some of the beautiful paintings.
I always find that best part about eating a good meal by yourself is that instead of having to give some of your attention to talking, you can focus 100% of your attention (and your mouth) to it.
get photoshop, short of using fake food.
fft
my problem is that the pictures are always either blurry or overlit. i guess maybe photoshop could soften the overlit ones? garrett mccord always has really nice food photos.
if your camera has a sports picture setting, try taking the photos on that. it may reduce blur...
You can also try using the "macro" setting (on all digital cameras), since the food is generally close up.
-RM
GIMP is a free photoshop-like program. picnik.com is an online photoshop - like program.
gbomb
Try spraying your food with glycerine. It should make for a shiny gloss; poisons the meal, though.
When making local TV commercials, we would light the food from behind and up high. Probably not really practical at home or in a restaurant though. For the record, I think your photos look great too.
-H Conway Esq
word verification: ovisisme
Spanish slang for "egg me" or "give me that egg"
I was totally stoked to see Mario's charming mug on p.3 of the SN&R this morning. Awesome article too. Hats off! Well, if I could find my hat.
gbomb
Litte known fact: all food in Heckasac food photos is ice cold due to endless re-shoots.
-miller
I understand that the paella is especially difficult to work with, what with it's fiery Spanish temperament.
Hey, if anyone wants to be on the mailing list for the E Street Film Society and receive updates on upcoming movies, shoot me a line at estreetfilmsociety@hotmail.com. Next week's selection is "The Wages of Fear"; I just watched it last night, and it's fucking amazing.
-DB
I just put wages of fear in my queue. i am very excited about the marriage of maria braun. fun heckasac fact that you may have missed on my cribs episode: i have a giant poster of the marriage of maria braun in my bedroom. which makes three posters up in my house for movies smiller hasn't seen.
Those posters make me look cultured so I don't mind.
-miller
very sorry if that seemed like a dis, you pointed it out to me. i feel like a jerk. hopefully you'll like the marriage of maria braun!
What? I was just joking around!
-milelr
OK, the last 3 times I've posted I've accidentally spelled my name like that so this time it stays.
Wages of Fear is such a great movie... in my top 10 for sure! My friend Al maintains that the big truck is the actual star of the film-- I think he might be right.
-omf
If Mr. Barnes has the cajones to promote his nicely structured, well thought out and beautifully written blog on heckasac, I'm going to go ahead and promote my slightly less perfect blog. It's about LOST. And it has a Maxwell. So if you don't like LOST or Maxwells, this is not for you. I wasn't going to really tell anyone about it until season 5 starts up in January, but Lil' Maxwell has written some bang-up shit, so I'm slightly more confident about it.
orangepeelmouth.blogspot.com
"Lost" starts in January? Sir, you have made my day.
Post a Comment