Can Opener

For a minute, I truly contemplated okra tacos. But I flinched, in a moment of lame vegetable aisle wimpiness, and so sweet corn became the taco night headliner. "Sweet corn is an emotional food when you eat it picked fresh from the field, just full of feelings, you just sit and you weep" (A Prairie Home Companion). Perhaps at Lake Wobegon. Here in DC, the most I can say is it sure is cheap and crunchy.
   

Speaking of corn, I was excited to see Open City (2331 Calvert St. NW), the overrated Woodley Park cousin of Adams Morgan's underrated 24-hour Diner (2453 18th St. NW) and Tryst (next door to The Diner) trying to work some magic with creamed corn. You see, creamed corn was a childhood staple in our house, served with Heinz vegetarian baked beans and grated Parmesan. Open City's version? A concocted coconut creamed corn side sold for $3.50 a bowl. I'd hate to hate on the yellowy, gooey, crunchy gruel, since I'm a pretty nostalgic fellow, but I'm going to stick with the Gedan corn-and-beans recipe.

There are a few things that I can recommend. The beer flight at Meridian Pint (3400 11th St. NW, opposite RedRocks); the family style lunch specials at the shadowy Magic Gourd (528 23rd St NW, in Foggy Bottom); everything at Pho 14 (1436 Park Rd. NW, in Columbia Heights), the biggest food bargain in DC, and that's including the deeply discounted Morningstar products at the nearby Target; the happy hour cocktails at Bar Dupont (1500 New Hampshire Av. NW), but only out on the patio; the phoenix roll (shrimp tempura, spicy tuna and avocado) ($12), a nice mix of mushy mashed tuna and crunchy fried shrimp, at Perry's (1811 Columbia Rd. NW, in Adam's Morgan), but only up on the roof; the Texas Burger ($11), slathered with smoky chipotle BBQ sauce and topped by pickles, fried onion straws and coleslaw, but with the upper bun brilliantly held aloft by a toothpick, keeping it blissfully unsoggy, served alongside gimmicky but tasty Tater Tots, at Tonic (2036 G St. NW, in Foggy Bottom); and finally, arguably the best meal in South Dupont Circle (other than the once-a-year free burgers and hot dogs and pizza served up in the Circle by the DC police), the barbacoa burrito at Tomatillo Taqueria, the Mexican takeout lunch stand at The Big Hunt (1347 Connecticut Ave. NW), served best with the spicy tomatillo sauce, fresh pico de gallo and guacamole (it's an extra $1 for the avocado) and sauteed onions, but it's cash only and closed from August 9-13.

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!"
   

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.