Steak snobbery

No disrespect to the steaks at the beloved bargain steakhouse Ray's: The Steaks, in Arlington (2300 Wilson Blvd.). But if they are going to get all preachy about their carving skills and the deliciousness of their corn-fed animals, and sanctimoniously swat away any "medium-well" or (gasp!) "well" orders, then why later drown all the meat in horseradish and sliced raw garlic and spicy diablo sauce and crumbled blue cheese and Cajun spice rubs? Anyone who has ever ordered a steak in Uruguay, Argentina or Brazil will have to wonder what condimint-happy Ray is trying to hide.

Bossa no thanks

Maybe my expectations were too high, since I thought picanha was so good it'd be tasty even run over by a bullet train. But it turns out, the best thing The Grill From Ipanema (1858 Columbia Rd. NW, in Adams Morgan) has on the menu is its clever name. The caipirinhas ($7.50) are poured too short, the picanha ($21) is cooked too long, the onions in the linguiça a palito ($10), mixed in with the spicy sliced sausage, are basically raw, the black beans are practically unseasoned and the farofa, ground yuca roasted with garlic and butter, looks like a flavor-packed S. Asian spice, but tastes like pencil shavings.

L'Escala

Our friends Scott and Isabel gave us the keys to their family apartment on the beach in the small fishing village of L'Escala, and yet, even after night after night of hotel living, it was still tempting to eat all our meals at Cal Galan, where the walls are covered with photos of fishermen auctioning off anchovies, the appetizer ronyons (kidneys) platter must have left the entire coop organ-less, the steak is served with fried eggs and the sangria pitcher sells for just €8.50, or at Emporda in neighboring Empuries, where the paella Valenciana offers a nice siesta from seafood without sacrificing a big ol' pot of stewed rice.




Still, we're not total layabouts. We hit up Peixos Masafon, picked up squid and a few wild-caught, Mediterranean bruixa, kg did some serious beheading and sauteing and we served it all up with some lentils.

Dupont's edible esoterica

I'm proud to say ("proud" might be overstating it) that I've now lunched at Dupont Circle's two worst-kept secrets: The Well Dressed Burrito (1220 19th St. NW) and the Brookings Institution cafeteria (1775 Massachusetts Ave. NW). Both are vaguely hidden, a la the nightclubs featured in Swingers. The Well Dressed Burrito serves up its large, marinated beef burritos ($6.50), using actual pulled meat instead of cheap ground beef, in an alleyway; the Brookings Institution cafeteria is, you guessed it, inside the Brookings Institution.


Neither, however, is truly obscure. The Brookings lunch experience, for example, has been deconstructed on Yelp, where one reviewer judged its food to be "just like its politics," that is, "middle of the road." As for The Well Dressed Burrito, here's a Pipón tip: the staff must be used to regulars since they neglected to remind me that the burrito "platter" is just $1 extra and includes homemade enchilada sauce, beans, Southwestern rice and some greens; when I visited, I was so busy dissuading my friend Lauren Miller from ordering a salad that I missed the listing on the menu.

If you want to eat somewhere truly "off the beaten path," try my sister-in-law Marni's garden-level apartment, where I tried the turkey meatballs and Israeli couscous and roasted broccoli the other day.

Burrito photography by Lauren Miller.

Iceland, Greenland

Be forewarned, the restaurant "Mix" in Frederick, Md. (207 West Patrick Street), is not some hipster bistro that specializes in a creative fusion cuisine (say, Spanish-Ghanaian), or a locavore salad bar that in wintertime sells only hydroponic tomatoes and root vegetables. It's actually spelled "Mick's," and as they'd say in Rhode Island, it's where Jennifer's used to be.

Turns out, however, that even though it may sound like an Irish pub, Mick's has a fairly ambitious chef. Last Saturday night, the specials included arancini (fried rice balls coated with breadcrumbs) that Mick's had stuffed with risotto and bison meat; and a Piedmontese strip steak served atop a white bean puree and alongside Hen of the Woods mushrooms in a Tunisian brik.

Mick, meanwhile, is not the only one cooking these days. I recently found a pile of graffiti eggplants at Harris Teeter and tossed them (peeled and diced, of course) into the wok on Sunday night with scallions and string beans. Last night, I attempted a pasta recipe involving freshly roasted beets and goat cheese. It was as delicious as the stir fry, but I'll say this: No point buying tri-colored pasta when everything ends up bright purple at the end.




Two bonuses (pardon the Wall Street lingo, but I saw Hank Paulson speak today): Listen here to an interesting Marketplace segment on the food scene in Cleveland that may make you less skeptical about the good eats in downtown Frederick; click here for a slide show on DCist of (non-food related but no less entertaining) photos from Washington's Valentine's Day "Cupid's Undie Run."

Steak Quotidien

It's rumored that Neil K. Shenai haunts Dupont's Le Pain Quotidien ("PQ" to its "friends"), at 2001 P St. NW, and Bistrot du Coin ("BDC" to Shenai), at 1738 Connecticut Ave. NW, simply to show off how well he pronounces their names. Guest-blogging at Pipón here, he makes the case that the food is the bigger factor.

Bistrot du Coin's signature dish, the "steak maison" ($16.50), is the perfect entree for a D.C. diner looking for a reasonably priced and succulent steak. BDC's butterfly-cut filets (above) are accompanied by a creamy béarnaise sauce. The béarnaise's interaction with the crusted peppercorn and rosemary make the steak maison juicy, flavorful and complex in taste and texture. The steak is served with French fries or a side of mesclun salad for the health conscious.

Photo by Neil K. Shenai.

Stumping the Irish

"There's a potato dish I haven't heard of?" So asked my Irish diplomat friend, Iseult, when she heard Keryn was whipping up twice-baked potatoes. For my part, I had at least heard of them, I had just never tasted them before last night. (Refried beans, on the other hand, are an old friend. As they say, "My compliments to the chef. Again.) Keryn baked, twice, two varieties, one with roasted broccoli, the other roasted red pepper.

Tonight's dinner: Keryn's salad nicoise, with green beans and kalamata olives.

In other Pipóneratable news, here's three juicy culinary tidbits from a wedding invitation that just came in the mail from my friend, Harvard Magazine writer Elizabeth Gudrais, who is getting married in Minnesota and the Azores in June:

1. The "campfire" steak gets a cognac demiglace (a rich brown sauce that begins with a basic espagnole sauce and is combined with beef stock and madeira or sherry and slowly cooked until reduced to a thick glaze)
   
2. The almond-encrusted walleye gets a cream veloute (one of the five "mother sauces," velouté is a stock-based white sauce)
   
3. The post-wedding "picnic lunch" in the Azores involves burying food in the soil of a volcanic geyser, canoeing and then, when you return a few hours later, "it's cooked!"
   

Costa Rica 1

My wife, a biologist who has spent time in Costa Rica, warned me that every día it's the same plato del día, typically gallo pinto, or black beans and rice.


After one day here, it seems she is on to something. Breakfast by the Río Sarapiquí: following a glass of chilled, fresh fruit juice and a selection of papaya and watermelon, a plate of gallo pinto accompanied by roasted plantains and scrambled eggs.


Lunch, at the Pozo Azul restaurant: a buffet featuring red beans, rice, steak and chicken.


Dinner, in an outdoor mall in downtown San José: casado, essentially a kicked-up version of gallo pinto, paired with steak, fried egg, roasted plantains (maduros) and a small salad.

Ada's Creations

From Small State's "Corrections & Amplifications" department (to borrow a great phrase from The Wall Street Journal): In my brief post about Latin American eats in Providence, R.I., I gave a thumbs up to Chilangos, on Manton Avenue; El Rancho Grande, on Plainfield Street; and Taqueria Pacifica, on Empire Street, inside the AS220 cafe. That Hall of Fame should also have included Ada's Creations, on Broad Street, and the Dominican restaurant, El Macuto, next door also owned by Ada Terrero. Ada's prepared foods section features meaty treats such as chuleta (grilled pork chops) and bistec salteado (sauteed steak with onions and peppers) served with arroz y habichuela (white rice and beans). At lunchtime, a feast will set you back less than $10.

Providence Journal photo by Steve Szydlowski.

Latin food, now on the East Side

Providence has a surprisingly vibrant food scene given its size, but when it comes to good Latin American food, you generally have to go to the Latino neighborhoods on the West Side. (In addition to the street food, I recommend Chilangos, on Manton Avenue, and El Rancho Grande, on Plainfield Street.) Options closer to downtown, such as the wonderfully named but otherwise awful Tortilla Flats, on Hope Street, and the criminally overpriced (steak fajitas sell for $15) and bizarrely located (on Atwells Avenue in Federal Hill, Providence's Little Italy) Don José Tequilas are best avoided. (Taqueria Pacifica, having graduated from the roving Taco Truk to a permanent location on Empire Street, inside the AS220 cafe, has a small, but high quality menu that is best suited for lunch.)

So you can imagine how excited I was to read the other day that Twist, on Angell Street in Wayland Square, had hired a new chef, a Californian named Jeff Sesar, who was introducing a "Taco Tuesdays" menu.

The taco menu is impressively creative, particularly for the price, $4 per taco (or margarita, or bucket of mini Caronas). Options include spicy ground beef or chorizo sausage; orange chipotle pulled pork; beer battered fish; grilled carne asada; coconut seared tuna; and buttered lobster.

Sides include salsa verde, pico de gallo, roasted tomato salsa, guacamole, Spanish rice and black beans and corn. Tacos come topped with chopped cabbage and queso fresco.

To be honest, they were not the best tacos I'd ever tasted. The salsa is not freshly made. The tortillas, made of flour, also don't appear to be baked on site. The tuna was a bit dry, the chips a bit bland.

But you couldn't beat the price. Or the cheesy but endearing decorations. The margaritas were delicious. Our waitress was enthusiastic, and the chef, a New Jersey native, even stopped by our table to chew the fat about his peregrinations and culinary influences. So for bringing decent tacos to the East Side (and to make use of the pile of $4 coupons we were gifted last night), I congratulate Twist and offer it my biggest compliment: See you next Tuesday.