Capital Spice

First, the good news.  Congratulations to Jessica, who won $10 worth of veggie treats at this weekend’s DC VegFest!  We selected her comment using Random.org’s integer generator to select a number between 1 and 43 (the number of comments we received by the deadline).  We’re hoping Jessica will come back after the festival and let us know what she spent the VegFest bucks on!

Now on to the bad news.  On Wednesday, Bravo announced the lineup for Season Nine of Top Chef.  Set throughout the Lone Star State, it is fittingly called “Top Chef: Texas.”  Normally, this would be the time when we here at Capital Spice would get all excited about rooting for another local chef.  After all, we’ve had a string of talented representatives stretching all the way back to Top Chef: Chicago in Season 4:

Chicago: Spike Mendelsohn
New York: Carla Hall
Vegas: Mike Isabella, Bryan Voltaggio
DC: Tamesha Warren
All-Stars: Spike, Carla and Mike, with Isabella going all the way to the finale

We’ve also had contestants in both seasons of Top Chef: Just Desserts – Heather Chittum in Season 1 and Matthew Peterson, who is still competing in Season 2.

All this to say, Washington has certainly been well-represented within the franchise over the past few years.  Until now.  And it’s worse than you think.

This time, Bravo’s press release didn’t just announce the finalists who will be competing for the title of Top Chef.  Instead, they announced a total of 29 “hopefuls” who will be pared down to 16 for the statewide competition.  So we didn’t just miss out on having at least one local representative among the 16 cheftestants…we missed out on even having one among the 29 aspiring cheftestants!

To be fair, Washington isn’t the only culinary destination without a hometown chef to root for: Philadelphia, Las Vegas and San Francisco were similarly shut out.  In all, 18 of the 29 chefs who will appear in the season premiere on November 2nd hail from four cities: Chicago (6, including 2 from the SAME RESTAURANT), New York/Brooklyn (4), Los Angeles (4)  and Seattle (4).

Because we’ve worked with the folks at Bravo to interview so many of the previous competitors, we reached out to ask about lack of geographic diversity among this season’s cast.  A spokesperson for Bravo told us location “simply isn’t a factor” when determining who the cheftestants will be.  “We don’t pick our chefs based on where they cook,” they went on to say.  “These twenty-nine chefs are the best of everyone we saw.”

That made us wonder about where Bravo and Magical Elves (Top Chef’s production company) went looking for chefs for Season 9.  We found this seemingly official image from Harlem World back in March announcing casting dates across the country.  Open calls were held in Chicago, New York, LA and Seattle…but they were also held in Philadelphia and Las Vegas.

So what do you think?  Were DC chefs passed over for this season of Top Chef?  Or did our top talent take a pass on this season’s auditions?

Here at Capital Spice, we’re big fans of the concept of “eat and let eat.”  The fact that we helped bring Meat Week to Washington doesn’t mean we’re anti-vegetable.  So we were excited to hear about DC VegFest, a free opportunity for everyone from themost stringent vegan to the most confirmed carnivore to experience some of Washington’s best vegetarian options in one place.

DC VegFest will take place this Saturday, September 24th, from 11AM to 6 PM at George Washington University’s University Yard.  They’re gathering more than 70 exhibitors, including food vendors, retail outlets and non-profits to show just how good veg-friendly living can be.  They’ve also put together an impressive line-up of special guest speakers, including vegan chef and author Isa Chandra Moskowitz, NBC4 anchor Wendy Rieger, and Humane Society President and CEO Wayne Pacelle.

We were especially impressed by the list of food vendors who will be selling their vegetarian and vegan-friendly products at the festival.  They include obvious local favorites like Bread & Brew, Amsterdam Falafel Shop and Sticky Fingers Sweets & Eats, but there are fifteen more ways to satisfy your hunger.  Check out Cafe Green, Vegan Treats Bakery, Burrito Bandits, Saveur India, Bakeshop, Nourish Market, Mojo Juice, Curry Mantra, Dama Ethiopian and Pastry, Sweet & Natural, Everlasting Life Cafe or Sunflower.  Or check out two of the hottest (and most fun) trucks on the mobile food scene – the Fojol Brothers will be on site with their offerings from Benethiopia and Merlindia!

And that’s where things get good for you.  To help spread the word about DC VegFest, the organizers – including the Vegetarian Society of DC and Compassion Over Killing – arranged a media preview event last week.  We couldn’t make it to the event, but they were good enough to send us a package with information and a number of giveaways that included $10 in DC VegFest bucks that are valid at any of the food stands listed above.

We want to give these VegFest bucks to YOU.  You’ll be able to sample $10 worth of veg-friendly fare for free – couple that with the free admission and you’re looking at a great way to spend a Saturday that works with any budget.  All we ask is that you take a moment to answer one simple question:

What’s the best vegan or vegetarian dish you’ve ever eaten?

Share your tastiest meatless meal in the comments section and you’ll be entered to win $10 in VegFest bucks.  You can enter between now and 11:59 PM on Wednesday, September 21st.  We’ll pick a winner at random and contact you Thursday to arrange pickup.

With so many delicious dining options (we can vouch for at least four of them), it’s going to be difficult to choose just what to use the VegFest bucks on.  We hope you’ll plan to stop by DC VegFest this Saturday, whatever your personal diet.  It’s a great introduction to the robust DC vegetarian scene and a welcome reminder that meatless eating can be delicious no matter how often you do it.

Among professional food writers, there is an ongoing debate over how soon is too soon to review a new restaurant.  Whether because of an increasing number of food bloggers, crowd-sourced review sites like Yelp! and Urbanspoon or generally increased interest in restaurant culture, everyone is caught up in a race to be the first to announce, visit and then review each venue as it opens.  It’s rare to find a writer who gives a new place even a few weeks to settle into a groove.

In this case, we ended up giving Toki Underground several months…though it wasn’t exactly by choice.  When the ramen and dumpling bar opened earlier this year, there was simply no getting near the place.  Anticipation, limited seating and a short menu of well-executed dishes resulted in waits of more than an hour most nights.

We finally felt brave enough to face the wait and try the ramen ourselves this past weekend.  We were armed with recommendations on what to try direct from chef-owner Erik Bruner-Yang, a friend.  We expected a tasty meal in a fun atmosphere; what we got was sensory overload.  And I mean that in the best possible way.

Noodles, pork belly and marble soda served in a Taiwanese skater-punk’s dream after the jump. (more…)