Chicago: Greek Islands

One of the owners of the charming condo that we stayed in was a lovely Greek woman who recommended Greek Islands located in the heart of Greektown. We sat outside on the beautiful night and enjoyed the welcoming service. The menu features gyros, fresh fish and all the Greek standards, including moussaka, Greek yogurt dip, grilled octopus, etc. Come with a big appetite because the portions are very large. Make sure you specify the size of the dishes you order or they will automatically give you the large. We learned this the hard way.

Greek Islands

(312) 782-9855

West Loop
200 S Halsted St
Chicago, IL 60661
www.greekislands.net

Chicago: Brunch at Little Branch Cafe

Wake up with some delicious coffee at Little Branch Cafe and avoid the long waits at other places like Yolk. We did and we loved finding this hidden gem. Check out this casual and quaint brunch spot. The french toast and egg croissant sandwich will melt in your mouth.

Little Branch Cafe

(312) 360-0101

Loop
1251S Prairie Ave.
Chicago, IL 60605

Chicago: Trattoria No. 10

Chicago is my favorite U.S. city in the summer. The people are wonderful and make me miss living in the Midwest. The city has so much to offer including food. We started off our Chicago dining at Trattoria No. 10. Tratorria No. 10 has a rustic feel with delicious food and an amazing wine list. This basement restaurant is cozy and intimate. Try the orrecchiette with homemade Italian sausage, caprese salad, yellow watermelon salad, ravioli filled with butternut and acorn squash in a sweet walnut butter sauce, and risotto. Delicate and tasty!

Trattoria No. 10

(312) 984-1718 Make a reservation

Loop
10 N Dearborn St
Chicago, IL 60602
www.trattoriaten.com

Check out Facebook

Capital Cooking

Create Your Badge

A Tactile Dinner

banished? productions cordially invites you to


Marking the 100th anniversary of Futurism,
banished? productions cordially invites everyone
to celebrate the passé-ist glory of Futurist degustation:
a tactile seven-course “meal” of gastronomic revolution!
Pasta Prohibited!

ONLY 8 DINNERS SERVED
at the Arthur S. Flemming Center (1426 9th St NW)
Sat 07/11: 7p, 9:15p
Sun 07/12: 3p, 6:15p, 8:15p
Mon 07/13: 7:30p
Sun 07/19: 4p, 7:30p

R.S.V.P. or food-related concerns to info@banishedproductions.org


Course 1: Polyrhythmic Salad
Course 2: Aural Sensations
Course 3: Aerofood
Course 4: Magic Food
Course 5: Visual Nutrients
Course 6: Totalrice
Course 7: Tactile Vegetable Garden
Digestivo

Tickets on sale today! 4 ways to get your tickets...
*Call 866-811-4111
*Buy Online here!
*Visit the Festival Box Office @ 607 New York Ave NW
*Cash only admissions 1 hour before performance @ Arthur S. Flemming Center, 1426 9th St NW DC

A $5 gratuity is suggested.
More info? Visit www.banishedproductions.org or e-mail info@banishedproductions.org

Donate to banished? productions via Fractured Atlas!


A TACTILE DINNER is presented as part of the 2009 Capital Fringe Festival
Capital Fringe Festival & the Baldacchino Gypsy Tent Bar
607 New York Ave NW * Washington, DC 20001 *www.capitalfringe.org

Review: Tabaq

I'm embarrassed that I haven't tried Tabaq sooner. We moved to the U Street neighborhood in October and Tabaq has been on my restaurant list since then and we finally made it in for a taste. We sat on the beautiful roof-deck with breathtaking views of the city and fireworks. The Mediterranean tapas offer lots of flavor and fun. The service was quick and the staff was friendly. The Muhammara is a nice way to start the meal and perfect for dipping the bread in the roasted red bell pepper purred with walnuts. We also liked the Beef Kofte which offers the perfect combination of sweet and savory. The yogurt sauce was thinner than expected. Our favorite was the Lamb Kashar. Make sure to try this if you check out Tabaq. It is almost like a Mediterranean lasagna with a creamy behamel sauce. I'd skip the calamari because the olives are overwhelming. Overall, Tabaq gets and A+ for atmosphere and I'd definitely come back for more!

U Street/Shaw
1336 U St NW
Washington, DC 20009
www.tabaqdc.com

Press Release: CAPITAL COOKING GOES “CRAZY FOR CUPCAKES”

Lauren DeSantis explores the booming cupcake trend with the chefs from MallowDrama

WASHINGTON, D.C. - With cupcake bakeries sprouting up around the country, Lauren DeSantis, the host of Capital Cooking helps her audience bring the trend into their own kitchens. On the newest episode of Capital Cooking, Mary & David Supley Foxworth, the chefs and co-owners of MallowDrama Inc., stop by to help DeSantis whip up two delicious cupcake recipes.

To start the show the Foxworth’s share their recipe for Peanut Butter and Chocolate Cupcakes. A favorite at MallowDrama these cupcakes are made up of peanut butter cake toped with chocolate fudge frosting and garnished with peanuts.

Later in the episode, DeSantis presents her own recipe for S’mores cupcakes. Combining layers of graham cracker and chocolate cake and topped with a decadent marshmallow frosting, these cupcakes bring a favorite campfire treat indoors.

MallowDrama Inc. is an award-winning dessert bakery specializing in creating desserts with a dramatic flair, including cakes, cupcakes, and chocolate truffles. All of their products are made fresh to order using organic, local, and natural ingredients. Mary and David Supley Foxworth enjoy working with their clients to design memorable,
one-of-a-kind special occasion cakes.

For more information about this episode or the Capital Cooking series, please contact Lauren Desantis at capitalcooking@gmail.com.

Capital Cooking with Lauren DeSantis is on a mission to highlight the cooking traditions and cuisine from the US and around the world that is featured in the restaurants of D.C. In each episode, DeSantis works with D.C. metro area chefs to create unique recipes using ingredients that viewers can find at local grocery stores and farmers’ markets. For more information on Capital Cooking with Lauren DeSantis, upcoming events, and featured recipes, visit www.captialcookingshow.com. For daily updates from Lauren DeSantis, visit captialcookingshow.blogspot.com.

- # # # -

Capital Cooking Airing Times this Month (July):

FPA

Crazy for Cupcakes: Cupcakes have become a national pastime, thanks in part to the now famous Magnolia Bakery. Everyone just can’t get enough of this sweet goodness. Lauren will teach you how to make some fabulous cupcakes at home as well as exploring some of the best places to get cupcakes in the DC area.

Time slot during the 4th week of the month, Mon@1130p, Thurs@930a, and Wed @4am.

KDHX Charter Cable Channel 21 in St. Louis, Missouri

Every Wednesday at 1p.m.

Crazy for Cupcakes: Cupcakes have become a national pastime, thanks in part to the now famous Magnolia Bakery. Everyone just can’t get enough of this sweet goodness. Lauren will teach you how to make some fabulous cupcakes at home as well as exploring some of the best places to get cupcakes in the DC area.

ETV: 1789

NLTV: Crazy for Cupcakes: Cupcakes have become a national pastime, thanks in part to the now famous Magnolia Bakery. Everyone just can’t get enough of this sweet goodness. Lauren will teach you how to make some fabulous cupcakes at home as well as exploring some of the best places to get cupcakes in the DC area.

PCTV: 1789

Photo by DC Hughes

Greek Eats: Ellis Restaurant

The only hummus we found in Greece was here. After a long day of travel and lost luggage, Hotel Aressana recommended that we eat at Ellis Restaurant which is right across the street from the hotel. We were pleasantly surprised by our first glasses of house wine. I was imagining the Pine-sol flavored Retsina that I've tried at American Greek restaurants, but this was a nice light red wine. In Santorini, much of the island is a vineyard. There are about 10 different varieties of grapes that are native only to the island. Make sure to try Santorini's traditional wine, Vinsanto, which is a combination of the assyrtico and aidani grapes. The location of Ellis Restaurant is on the caldera side of the island with beautiful view even at night. We enjoyed one of the fresh salads with halumi cheese and saganoki. Saganoki is a simple meze that gets its name from the small two-handled pan that it is fried in. Who wouldn't like fried cheese!

Check out more of my Greek posts about:

Blue Note, Santorini
Nikolas Restaurant, Santorini
Dolphins, Santorini
Breakfast at Cafe Stavros, Sifnos
Poseidonas, Sifnos
Sunset, Sifnos
De Claudio's, Sifnos
Baxtia
Mannoli's, Sifnos
Faros Beach Restaurant
and many more...

Food 2

Scripps Networks -- the leader in lifestyle media and home to Food Network, the leading media brand in food – has launched a new online food experience called Food2. Food2 is a highly interactive, video-centric website that talks cooking, eating, drinking and living. From haute cuisine to hot dogs, knockout cocktails to succulent sides, Food 2 is a web experience that gives a fresh take on everything in the world of food & drink.

Food2 official site:

http://www.food2.com

Food2 on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/food2

Food 2 on Twitter:

http://www.twitter.com/food2

The DC Real World

Check out the Blue Prints. What will they eat?

Greek Eats: Breakfast at Hotel Aressana

Hotel Aressana is located in Fira (the capital of Santorini). Greeks aren't known for their breakfast, but Hotel Aressana offers their guests a full Greek breakfast. By the end of the trip I fell in love with the sour and creamy Greek yogurt topped with honey. Tomato, feta and bread salad, Greek omelets (kind of over cooked with potatoes), tomato fritters... Although this wasn't the top breakfast, it is much better than the continental breakfast offered at most American Hotels. We really enjoyed our stay at Hotel Aressana. It isn't on the caldera side of the island, but there is a beautiful pool with cabanas that you can bring your own bottles of cava to enjoy a pleasant evening. People were very friendly and helpful.

Check out more of my Greek posts about:
Air France meals
Breakfast at Hotel Aressana
Ellis Restaurant, Santorini
Blue Note, Santorini
Nikolas Restaurant, Santorini
Dolphins, Santorini
Breakfast at Cafe Stavros, Sifnos
Poseidonas, Sifnos
Sunset, Sifnos
De Claudio's, Sifnos
Baxtia
Mannoli's, Sifnos
Faros Beach Restaurant
and many more...

Just released: Fearless Critic DC Area Restaurant Guide

Just released: Fearless Critic DC Area Restaurant Guide Opinionated, cheeky, and fiercely independent, the definitive restaurant guide to the Washington DC area is finally here!

Robin Goldstein and his team of local undercover chefs have created a 608-page book—and accompanying subscription-based website—with 500 brutally honest reviews that cover every corner of the District’s eclectic dining scene, from the power steakhouses to the pupuserías, including DC area suburbs from Alexandria to Silver Spring.

Fearless Critics dine incognito, accepting no free meals or restaurant ads. Prepare to be shocked by the results: this is a new breed of food writing. The book is now in stock on Amazon.com or find it in the next few days at any major bookstore in the DC area.

Greek Eats: "Giorgos-Dimitris" in Sifnos

Grillhouse - Restaurant "Giorgos - Dimitris"

On the south side of Sifnos, at the village of Faros, you shall find the beach Fassolou. We went there on our last day at Sifnos...so sad to leave. Under the shadow of the tamarisk salt trees on the beach, you can taste unique dishes at the restaurant- grill house “Giorgos-Dimitris”. The waiters are very friendly and helpful with the menu. This was our fist time to try the garlic spread and famous Sifnos cheese. We also took one last taste of the Greek salad. Great view of the rock of Panagia of Chrussopigi.

Upcoming Events: Sign up for my Moroccan Nights Cooking Class at Hill's Kitchen

Moroccan Nights with Lauren DeSantis Wednesday, July 8, 7-9pm $45
Join Lauren DeSantis, host of the television series Capital Cooking, to make a delicious Moroccan meal. We'll start off with a Chicken Tagine. This chicken dish is based on the Moroccan spicy stew that simmers in a special pot from which it takes it's name: the tagine. Pieces of chicken are cooked with preserved lemons and diced tomatoes and served in a sauce that is spiced with turmeric and cinnamon. Then we’ll move onto our dessert as it needs time to bake. We’ll be making a crescent-shaped pastry coiled like a snake called a Moroccan Serpent Cake. While that’s baking we’ll make cous cous with the juices of the tagine as the perfect side. Bring some spice into your kitchen with the exotic flavors of Morocco!

To reserve a space in a cooking class, please email events@hillskitchen.com with information about which class you are interested in, number of attendees, email address, and phone number. Please write in the subject line what class(es) you are interested in. We will get back in touch with you to confirm your seat in the class. Once confirmed, we will require prepayment for the class (cash, gift certificates, Visa/MasterCard). We will refund your payment if you cancel more than 48 hours before the scheduled class; cancellations within 48 hours will not be refunded.

Check out Food, Inc.

Synopsis: In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation's food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that's been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government's regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation's food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, insecticide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won't go bad, but we also have new strains of e coli--the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually. We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults.

Featuring interviews with such experts as Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), Michael Pollan (The Omnivore's Dilemma) along with forward thinking social entrepreneurs like Stonyfield Farms' Gary Hirschberg and Polyface Farms' Joel Salatin, Food, Inc. reveals surprising -- and often shocking truths -- about what we eat, how it's produced, who we have become as a nation and where we are going from here.

Greek Eats: Air France

To start off our trip, we dined on Air France. Air France does airplane meals the right way. Aperitifs of champagne...curry chicken, baguettes, chocolate banana cakes and more. You even get your own bottle of wine and after dinner drinks...all of this and we were sitting in coach. Not a bad way to start off and end our eating experiences. You get two meals for the long flight from Dulles to Paris.

More posts to come on:
Breakfast at Hotel Aressana
Ellis Restaurant, Santorini
Blue Note, Santorini
Nikolas Restaurant, Santorini
Dolphins, Santorini
Breakfast at Cafe Stavros, Sifnos
Poseidonas, Sifnos
Sunset, Sifnos
De Claudio's, Sifnos
Baxtia
Mannoli's, Sifnos
Faros Beach Restaurant
and many more...

Happy Birthday Corey!

Taverna Nikolas, Fira Santorini

Classical Greek eatery at the alley of Fira with lines of people out the door. We checked out Taverna Nikolas after watching the amazing sunset along the Caldera in Santorini. This is a small traditional Greek restaurant that has become quite popular. I enjoyed the prawns, but they don't devein them for you. The creamy garlicy eggplant dip is excellent. We enjoyed Vin Santo at the end of the meal and the owners are very friendly and will help you through the menu of the day.

Check out more of my Greek posts about:
Air France meals
Breakfast at Hotel Aressana
Ellis Restaurant, Santorini
Blue Note, Santorini
Nikolas Restaurant, Santorini
Dolphins, Santorini
Breakfast at Cafe Stavros, Sifnos
Poseidonas, Sifnos
Sunset, Sifnos
De Claudio's, Sifnos
Baxtia
Mannoli's, Sifnos
Faros Beach Restaurant
and many more...

Greek Eats: Faros Cafe Club in Milos

After a long day of beach hopping and driving around the island of Milos (with breakfast at Hotel Portiani and lunch at Deep Blue), we stopped at Faros Cafe Club on the way back to watch the sunset. It was beautiful! We had some wine and enjoyed the bar all to ourselves. Mid-June must be the perfect time to come to this island because there were hardly any tourists. Relaxing and Romantic! Wait until you see the pictures!!

Faros Cafe Club
Adamantas, Milos, Cyclades

Greek Eats: Breakfast at Hotel Portiani in Milos

Hotel Portiani offered us breakfast every morning. Fresh squeezed orange juice and delicious coffee. Lots of tomatoes and feta which we don't see for breakfast back home. Not much English speaking is going on in Milos so you have to just grab the food and try it to figure out what it is. Lots of pastries made of the phyllo dough. We also tried some type of Greek melon that tasted just like honey dew. Not the fanciest rooms but it did the trick for what we needed. The hotel is located right at the port so you can hop off the ferry and go straight there.