imafoodblog.com

This past Sunday the imfoodblog.com staff was treated to an extra-special outing to Cochon555 at the Mandarin Oriental hotel here in Washington DC (with special thanks going out to our friends at www.foodbuzz.com!)

Cochon555 is a culinary competition to raise awareness for heritage breed pork between 5 chefs, each given 5 whole heritage breed pigs (oh and 5 vineyards). All our regular readers know that we love our pork, so we were all extremely excited to have the chance to attend.

The chefs/restaurants participating were:

• Brian McBride of Blue Duck Tavern
• R.J. Cooper of Vidalia
• Nicholas Stefanelli of Mio
• Jamie Leeds of Commonwealth Gastropub &
• John Manolatos of Cashion’s Eat Place

How do five of DC’s finest chefs prepare five whole hogs? Jump with me to find out!

(Here’s a hint: Deliciously)

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The inside of that case is what I imagine heaven to be like. This is Ferrara Bakery & Cafe in New York City. This place is, in a word, awesome.

After our dinner in Little Italy at Pellegrino’s, we did a bit of walking around/digesting. Our plan was to go to Ferrara’s for dessert and coffee, but my dad wanted a cookie or two before the rest of us were ready to eat more. He wandered into another bakery (I don’t recall the name, but I do recall that it was pretty much empty at 7PM on a Saturday), and this is the conversation that ensued between my dad and the owner:

Dad: Hey, can I have 1 pignoli cookie?
Owner/Dummy: No
Dad: No? Really, why not?
Owner/Dummy: We don’t sell only 1, the minimum is a 1/4 pound.
Dad: Okay, how much is a 1/4 pound?
Owner/Dummy: $3
Dad: Okay, give me 1 pignoli cookie and I will pay you $3
Owner/Dummy: No
Dad: Really? Alright.

First of all, what bakery refuses to sell someone a cookie? Even worse, what bakery owner who is actually demanding a minimum purchase of cookies, won’t sell a person one cookie for the price of their minimum? I guess there was a reason his bakery was empty and Ferrara’s was packed to the brim. I mean seriously, does this make sense to anyone???

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When Nick and I were in New York with my family over Passover we all decided to go into the city one day to see a Broadway show and go out to dinner in Little Italy. It was a day of fun, food, and shopping with my parents and sister, and my honey of course.

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No Tuesdays with Dorie this week. I was away until Sunday night and had to work late on Monday, no time for extraneous baking. Instead, I thought I would share some photos from my Passover Seder with my family. We only had Seder one night, but it was quite a feast. Above is my family’s Seder plate. If you are unfamiliar with this plate, each item symbolizes a part of the story of the Jews exodus from Egypt. Not surprisingly, my people made each symbol edible and made sure to work snacks and booze into the Seder. We get cranky when we are hungry.

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