Night at the Museum: Area Food Seminars and Exhibits

Posted by The Editorial Desk / Wednesday, June 8th, 2011

Looking for some food for the brain and not just the body? Alternatives to recreational cooking classes and wine shop tastings? This Gut Check is dedicated to seminars and exhibits at local museums that seek to educate our minds and our palates about a broad range of subjects, from sustainability to America’s rich but sometimes rocky culinary history. 

The National Museum of Natural History

The Smithsonian Resident Associate Program is hosting two events on Thursday, June 9. “The Gulf and Its Seafood-One Year Later,” sponsored in part by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is an informal panel discussion regarding the status of the Gulf region a year after the tragic BP oil spill.  Ben Stiller won’t be there, but environmental activist and actor Ted Danson will. The seminar also includes admission to a Wine & Dine Seafood Reception featuring an array of sustainable seafood dishes executed by some of the most notable chefs from both this area and the Gulf states. Some of these local luminaries include Kate Jansen of Willow Restaurant, Shannon Overmiller of Majestic Café, Nicola Flores of Hank’s Oyster Bar, and Christopher Clime of PassionFish. Select wines from Tarara Winery and Veritas Vineyard & Winery, as well as oysters from Rappahannock River Oysters, will also be featured. Space is still available, but hurry!

Location: National Museum of Natural History’s Baird Auditorium,10th & Constitution Avenue, N.W.

Time: Seminar takes place from 6:45 to 8:15 p.m.; Wine & Dine Seafood Reception follows from 8:15 to 10:00 p.m.

Admission: Purchase tickets online; $80 for Members; $95 General Admission. Quick Tix Code: 1M2-564

In an embarrassment of riches, the Smithsonian Resident Associate Program is also hosting a wines seminar entitled “Sustainable, Organic, and Biodynamic American Rhones.” Rhone producers will explain the reason why Rhone varietals “stand at the forefront of sustainability in American wine.” Attendees will also have the chance to sample a variety of wines as well as attend the Wine & Dine Seafood Reception. As of this time, the program session appears to be sold out, but because additional tickets may become available according to the website, you may want to call (202) 633-3030 if interested.

Location: National Museum of Natural History, Executive Conference Room, 10th & Constitution Avenue, N.W.

Time: Seminar takes place from 6:45 to 8:15 p.m.; Wine & Dine Seafood Reception follows from 8:15 to 10:00 p.m

Admission: Call number above for ticket availability. Price not specified.

Homewood Museum

On Friday, June 10, the Homewood Muesum is hosting an “Evening of Traditional Beverages: Homegrown Spirits.” Dr. Dennis Pogue, Vice-President of Preservation at George Washington’s Mount Vernon Estate and Gardens, will educate attendees on the crafts spirit movement and the methodology of making spirits during the lifetime of our first president. There will also be the opportunity to mingle and speak with distillers and bid on items in a silent auction. Silent auction items include a tour and tasting for four at Mount Vernon’s Gristmill and Distillery with Dr. Pogue. Craft spirits and cocktails as well as hors d’oeuvres will be served, including award-winning Catoctin Creek Organic Mosby’s Spirit Rye and the limited-release Pearousia Pear Brandy (a collaboration with Fabbioli Cellars).

Location: Homewood Museum Lawn, 3400 N. Charles St. Baltimore, MD 21218; alternate rain location Glass Pavilion, Levering Union

Time: 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.

Admission: Purchase tickets online or call (410) 516-5589. Reservations requested by the end of today, but walk-ins at the door subject to availability. $30 for Members; $40 for General Admission.

Heritage Farm Museum

Loudoun County’s Heritage Farm Museum is dedicated to the preservation and promotion of the county’s “rich agriculture heritage and the history of rural life.” Standing exhibits at the museum include “In the Kitchen Cabinet,” an interactive exhibit on pre-WWI farm kitchens, featuring appliances and furnishings used before electrification of farm homes; “It’s Just a Way of Life,” an exhibit centered on ten generations of Loudoun County residents that farmed the land and built the county; and the “Children’s Farm Exhibit,” which offers youngsters the opportunity to milk “a life-like cow, collect eggs from the play chickens, and ride the Equi-ponies.”

Location: 21668 Heritage Farm Lane, Sterling, VA 20164

Hours: Tuesday through Saturday, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; Sunday, 12:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Admission: $5 for Adults; $4 for Seniors; $3 for children (children under 2 admitted free)

Lawrence F. O’Brien Gallery of The National Archives Building

From June 10, 2011 through January 3, 2012, the National Archives will feature “What’s Cooking, Uncle Sam? The Government’s Effect on the American Diet.” This multi-media exhibit is organized around four themes — Farm, Factory, Kitchen, and Table — and includes films, photographs, recordings of folk songs, and war posters. On June 10, the exhibit will kick-off with a noon talk by food writer and author Laura Shapiro on the (dreadful) food served in the Roosevelt White House Kitchen and a 7: 00 p.m. opening program with James Beard award-winning chef and the exhibit’s Chief Culinary Advisor José Andrés. For more details on this ground-breaking exhibit, visit the National Archives site.

Location: Constitution Avenue at 9th Street, N.W.

Hours: Spring/Summer hours are 10: 00 a.m. to 7 p.m (through Labor Day); Fall/Winter hours are 10:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., with holiday exceptions.

Admission: Free!

-Johnisha M. Levi

McDonald’s Apologizes for Terrible Coffee

Posted by The Editorial Desk / Wednesday, June 8th, 2011

This guy wants an apology too. (Image Phase4Photography/ShutterStock)

You know who has terrible coffee? McDonald’s.

The drip coffee tastes like a half-smoked cigarette, and the frozen slurry feels like getting punched in the mouth with sugar. It’s basically The Worst Coffee, and McDonald’s knows it, as the fast food behemoth apologized to the entire population of Australia for subjecting them to its certifiably awful coffee.

According to The Australian (which boasts an awesome picture), McDonald’s will launch an advertising blitz down under to try to coax coffee drinkers back to their McCafe chain by promising higher quality beans and baristas who know what they’re doing (insert dismissive scoff).

McDonald’s Australia chief operating officer Helen Nash had this to say to the newspaper: “Australians have a very sophisticated coffee palate and we were not delivering a strong enough cup of coffee.”

Marketplace has a snippet of the ad: “This cup’s for you complainers. Thanks to you we’ve changed to a richer, smoother blend.”

You know the coffee is pretty bad here too, right? Where are our empty promises of improvement, McDonald’s?

Oh, right, Americans love the stuff, so much so that it’s sent stock prices up and generated record sales boosts.

There’s just no justice.

Apologizing for your otherwise terrible product is a bit of a trend as of late, what with Dominos promising to improve their pizza (which didn’t work), and Miracle Whip and Marmite both playing up their questionable quality with cutesy, winking ads.

In other news, did you know that Australians call McDonald’s “maccas?” What on Earth?

- Kris King

A Visit to DaMoim

Posted by The Editorial Desk / Tuesday, June 7th, 2011

The District of Columbia has TaKorean to satisfy their Korean barbecue taco craving, but what about Northern Virginia? Oh that’s right, we have DaMoim (as previously mentioned here) and not only do they serve Korean barbecue tacos, but they also serve quesadillas, skewered meat, fried chicken, and sandwiches. Granted, I haven’t had the chance to try TaKorean so I can’t compare the two, but I must say that DaMoim serves a mean Korean barbecue taco.

DaMoim, which is Korean for “gathering,” is a Korean fusion restaurant and bar that put a modern twist on traditional Korean food. I only got to try a few items from them when I last visited and haven’t had the chance to go again. I wasn’t really impressed with their summer roll since it tasted somewhat bland, but I really enjoyed their Galbi tacos that were juicy and packed with flavor from its marinade. Although, maybe I went on an off day, because the salsa that came with the tacos were pretty weak in terms of flavor and spice.

If you love pork belly, like I do, I would recommend you to try their SooYook sliders, which are their pork belly buns. I can’t say that I’m in love with it (yet) because it tastes somewhat odd and unexpected with the combination of savory pork belly and apples.

Galbi Tacos from DaMoim (Image: Mai Nguyen/Northern Virginia Magazine)

SooYook Sliders from DaMoim (Image: Mai Nguyen/Northern Virginia Magazine)

Next time, I definitely want to try their fried chicken because of my love for K.F.C., Korean Fried Chicken, and it seems like their flavors of chicken are similar to the ones that Bon Chon Chicken offers.

- Mai Nguyen

National Archives’ Exhibit on How the Government Shapes Diet Opens Friday

Posted by The Editorial Desk / Tuesday, June 7th, 2011

(Image The Foundation for the National Archives)

The National Archives’ newest exhibit, What’s Cooking, Uncle Sam? The Government’s Effect on the American Diet, opens on Friday, June 10. From war gardens to FDA dinner plates, the exhibit highlights the American government’s historical involvement in the way its citizens eat, through “production, regulation, research, innovation, and economics.”

The United States government has a long history of involvement in Americans’ dinner tables. According to NPR, who got an early tour of the exhibit, founders Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin were known to bring food from abroad, like olives and rice, to see if they could cultivate them here, and the Department of Agriculture routinely shipped explorers abroad to find food that would flourish in American farmlands.

According to the What’s Cooking website, the exhibit features four main categories: farm, factory, kitchen and table. The farm section concentrates on how the government helped shape the American agricultural complex, including the introduction of farm subsidies; factory focuses on the horrifying state of early industrial food production and how it was eventually cleaned up; and kitchen and table cover similar topics like the government’s involvement in promoting healthy eating, and wartime diets.

It also has a picture of Nixon’s last meal as president: pineapple, cottage cheese and milk. Mmm, mmm.

There’s more on NPR about the coming exhibit, including an interesting anecdote about how the U.S. government discovered that some preservatives were actually poisonous: human experimentation!:

“[Harvey] Wiley kept notes and tables of the effects the meals had on his volunteers. Often, they became violently ill. One note reads: “#5 was nauseated and sick during the night of February 1 and vomited all of his dinner. He did not eat breakfast on February 2.”

Isn’t that nice?

What’s Cooking, Uncle Sam? will be in the Lawrence F. O’Brien Gallery in the National Archives building starting Friday, June 10 and will run to January 3, 2012. Chef Jose Andres pop-up American eats restaurant made in collaboration with the exhibit is scheduled to open up July 4.

- Kris King

Spotlight on the USDA: Child Hunger and My Plate Icon

Posted by The Editorial Desk / Tuesday, June 7th, 2011

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has been front and center in the headlines this week as it takes aim at the dietary deficiencies plaguing the American public.

The Dude Abides, but not When it Comes to Child Hunger
The Secretary of Agriculture, a governor, and an Academy Award-winning Dude of cult status fame walk into an Arlington elementary school . . . I admit, this may sound like the beginning of a bad joke with a groan-inducing punch line, but really this is anything but a laughing matter. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, Gov. Bob McDonnell and actor/spokesperson Jeff Bridges are coming together for the most noble of causes: to fight child hunger. Today at 2:00 p.m., the three gentlemen will formally launch the Virginia No Kid Hungry Campaign at Barcroft Elementary School. Virginia joins the ranks of Maryland, Colorado, Connecticut, and Arkansas in creating this formal state partnership with the national nonprofit organization Share Our Strength. Share Our Strength’s mission is to eradicate child hunger in the United States by the year 2015.

The Federation of Virginia Food Banks, various corporate partners and education leaders, as well as government agencies and community organizations are all on board as part of this campaign to alleviate the suffering of the approximately 218,000 hungry children in our state. Fewer than 20% of Virginia children who do qualify for free and reduced-price meals during the school year do not receive such assistance during the summer months. Which leads us to . . .

School’s Out for Summer, Leaving Kids Hungry
Vilsack has also declared this week the first ever National Summer Food Service Program Week: “Food That’s In When School is Out.” It is meant to promote the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Summer Food Service Program, a federally funded program that aims to provide assistance to hungry children during the summer months through partnerships created with state agencies and local organizations.

“This Just Feels Like Spinning Plates”
Of course, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s most news-making endeavor as of late has been its retirement of the My Pyramid for the My Plate icon. My earliest memory is of the Basic Four Food Group model, a “hassle-free” and icon-less approach that seemed somewhat vague at the time. I completely forgot about 1984’s so-called Food Wheel until I reviewed this brief and interesting history of the agency’s food guides, so I guess that model did not make any impression on my still impressionable mind. The Pyramid, and the subsequent Pyramid revision, may have been a nice idea in theory, but not so much in practice. Who thinks of pyramids when they are eating, after all? To me, a pyramid connotes sarcophagi and hieroglyphics—dusty and ancient things of the past, but certainly not fresh vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and proteins. The My Plate model is a hallelujah moment for the USDA. It just makes sense. Even a child can understand from looking at it that fruits and vegetables should take up half of your meal plate. And it only took 95 years!

-Johnisha M. Levi

Red Meat: Jason Lage

Posted by Warren Rojas / Tuesday, June 7th, 2011

Having done the whole catering to the resort crowd thing, chef Jason Lage has decided to slow things down a bit:

(Image: Anastasia Chernyavsky)

He’s continuing the farm-to-fork mission he helped nurture at On the Potomac but is doing so in a much more intimate, countrified bistro–menu runs the gamut from familiar soup and sandwich combos to fanciful quiches and gourmet liver and onions send-ups–of his own design.

WR: Salt. Pepper. What other spices/herbs could you not live without?

JL: Basil, rosemary, cinnamon and nutmeg

WR: What’s the very first dish you ever mastered? How long did it take? Do you still make it today?

JL: My grandmother’s chicken soup. Still make it quite often.

WR: What seasonal ingredient(s) get your creative juices flowing?

JL: Corn, tomatoes, morels and asparagus

WR: My latest cookbook obsession is …

JL: Noma: Time and Place in Nordic Cuisine by René Redzepi

WR: What’s the most challenging dish you’ve ever attempted? Would you make it again?

JL: Charlie Trotter’s Braised Tripe. It is very tedious to clean and is very labor intensive and time consuming. The whole process takes four days. Yes would make it again, not often.

WR: If I could the spend the day working alongside any local chef, I’d love to collaborate with …

JL: Jeffrey Buben. When at the stove he is hands down one of the best chefs on the East Coast. A lot of DC chefs owe their career to Jeff.

WR: What’s the easiest/quickest–but still wholly satisfying–meal you make for yourself?

JL: A simple grilled cheese with gruyere and bacon [or] Papaya King hot dogs (a friend brings them down from NYC often) on New England-style rolls

WR: In the next six months you won’t want to miss my …

JL: Short smoked Georges Bank scallops with creamy corn, Quarter Branch Farm tomatoes and basil from our garden.

WR: It’s quitting time. I’m pouring myself …

JL: A Kalik. Nothing quenches your thirst after cooking on a hot line like an ice cold beer.

————————————————————————————————————————————————

We can’t imagine manipulating tripe for more than a few minutes, much less 96 hours. Kudos on your patience, chef.

Come back next Tuesday for another helping of Red Meat.

–Warren

What’s For Lunch: Sweet and Savory Breads

Posted by The Editorial Desk / Monday, June 6th, 2011

I was running a bit late for work this morning, so I didn’t have the time to pack lunch. Instead, I stopped by Breeze, a local Korean bakery and café, to pick something up. Breeze carries a large selection of savory and sweet baked goods and also sells homemade gelato as well as various beverages. It’s one of my favorite places to hang out and chat or do homework since they offer free Wi-Fi. Since I was in a rush today, I just grabbed a few things to go.

Starting from the top left going clockwise: Curry bread, bread with blueberry cream filling, white bean manju, and bread with green tea filling. (Image: Mai Nguyen/Northern Virginia Magazine)

There’s this saying in Vietnamese that directly translates to, “Your eyes are hungrier than your stomach,” which means that you end up getting more food than you could possibly ever eat because everything looks extra good when you’re hungry. In this case, I had that dilemma and bought way more than I generally eat. But for the sake of reviewing these items, I slowly forced myself to eat them (not that I’m complaining).

Curry Bread (Image: Mai Nguyen/Northern Virginia Magazine)

The curry bread was the only savory bread I bought and even though it sounds strange, it did not disappoint. The bread itself is drizzled with a bit of ketchup and the filling is curry-flavored with small chunks of beef and green peppers.

Green Tea Bread (Image: Mai Nguyen/Northern Virginia Magazine)

I thought this bread was adorable since it’s shaped like a leaf (at least it looks like a leaf to me). The filling is more like a bean paste that tastes like green tea and is a tad sweet but not overbearingly so.

Blueberry Cream Bread (Image: Mai Nguyen/Northern Virginia Magazine)

It looks like normal bread on the outside, but has an extremely smooth blueberry cream filling on the inside. The bread itself is really soft and somewhat chewy.

White Bean Manju (Image: Mai Nguyen/Northern Virginia Magazine)

The filling for this is a white bean paste, and is a little harder than the green tea filling from the other pastry. The texture, shape, and filling all remind me of a Chinese moon cake. The white bean paste isn’t too sweet, but sweet enough for my tastes.

Since it’s a bakery, their selection changes daily which keeps the items fresh. I’ve also been there at night and before they close they will generally have 30% off on certain items to get rid of their stock. In general, I find Breeze relatively cheap since most of their breads average around $2 to $4 a piece depending on what it is. I haven’t had the chance to try their coffee yet, but I do like their ginger tea (granted it’s just ginger, sugar, and hot water).

There are a lot more things I didn’t get to cover such as their chic interior and the cakes that they offer. So if you have the time, I definitely recommend paying them a visit yourself.

Breeze Bakery Cafe
4125 Hummer Road
Annandale, VA 22003
703-462-9093

- Mai Nguyen

What’s Cooking: And I Feel Fine Edition

Posted by The Editorial Desk / Monday, June 6th, 2011

- Sauca Opens Up Counter-Service Brick and Mortar Spot in Arlington

Local global lifestyle food truck (huh?) Sauca opened up its first brick and mortar spot last week. Aside from being stationary and permanent, the restaurant is much like Sauca’s food trucks, serving all sorts of global street foods like Mumbai Chicken, Vietnamese pork, Mediterranean vegetarian goods. According to Eater, the restaurant will also host weekly pig roasts on Sundays that “that involves a breakfast dish made with fries, pulled pork, barbecue sauce, cole slaw and a sunny-side-up egg.”

- Global Cupcake Trend Saves The World from Terrorists

British MI6 hackers infiltrated an Al-Qaeda training website and replaced bomb-making instructions with a recipe for Mojito cupcakes in a recent operation, which seems like kind of a friendly gesture, when you think about it. Apparently the recipe for the mojito cupcakes came from Ohio bakery Main Street Cupcakes, whose owners wasted no time in making terrible puns: “We always call our mojito cupcake the bomb, but it certainly has nothing to do with creating bombs.” ‘Ho boy.

- German Sprouts A Source of E-Coli, Wait, Nevermind No They Aren’t, Sorry Sprout Farmers.

Over the weekend the internet lit up with talk that German diseased sprouts were the source of the deadly E-Coli outbreak in Germany that has left 22 dead and over 2,000 sick. Warnings went out about eating other raw fruits and vegetables like tomatoes, lettuce, and cucumbers, some even presupposed that the German outbreak would affect American grocery stores. Turns out that they were wrong. Whoops!  Tests of 23 of the 40 suspected batches of sprouts showed that they came up clean. So, just to play on the safe side, don’t eat anything for a few days.

- Climate Change Straining Global Food Supply

If an E-Coli outbreak wasn’t enough to lighten up your day, try this one: a recent New York Times article goes into detail about how global climate change affects our food supply in horrible ways. Increased demand for grain has caused huge price jumps since 2007, and our food supply can’t keep up with the demand. To make matters worse floods and heat waves, at least partially rooted in human-created climate change, have ruined entire harvests. Also, previously unchallenged ideas that the rise of carbon in the atmosphere would actually act as a fertilizer and actually aid in growing crops? Those are getting challenged now. The Times article has significantly more detail, but here’s the gist of it:  

- Kris King

Things to Do This Weekend Because You Couldn’t Get Into Savor

Posted by The Editorial Desk / Friday, June 3rd, 2011

(Image: Savor; Vandalism: Kris King)

So Savor keeps going this weekend, and if you’re like most people, you probably couldn’t get tickets (and if you did, I don’t want to hear about it). So while some of the biggest names in brewing will be in town for the event this weekend, that doesn’t mean that the filthy non-ticket holding masses have to miss out on all of the fun. Several Virginia and D.C. restaurants will be doing Savor-flavored events to coincide with the festival, and you won’t need a ticket to get into these.

Friday, June 3

- Odell Brewing Company Meet, Greet and Drink, ChurchKey

4 p.m.; The Neighbohood Restaurant Group (Churchkey, Birch and Barley, Rustico and more) are just having a time with Savor this week. Tonight at ChurchKey, they will be hosting the founders, Doug and Wynne Odell, of Colorado brewery Odell Brewing Company. Odell can be found strictly west of the Mississippi, so this is a great opportunity to try out several of Odell’s beers that they’ve brought in just for the occasion. Odell’s Mycenary Double IPA, Cutthroat Porter, 90 Shilling Ale and IPA will be on draft. all evening. The meet and greet gets going at 4 p.m., but the beers will be on draft all evening. ChurchKey; 1337 14th St NW, Washington; 202-567-2576; www.churchkeydc.com

- Hopslam and Then-Some; Bell’s Draft-Cask-Fest at Rustico Alexandria

4p.m. – 12 a.m.; Over in Alexandria, Rustico flexes its beer muscles with a special showing from Kalamazoo’s own Bell’s Brewery, whose head brewer, John Mallett,  will be offering up 12 of their beers on draught. The beers include: HopSlam Ale, Hopslam Pale Ale (On Cask!), Batch 10,000, Oatmeal Stout, Lager of the Lakes, Amber Ale, Kalamazoo Stout, Expedition Stout, Oarsman Ale, Oberon Ale, Porter, Third Coast Old Ale, and Two Hearted Ale. Rustico, Alexandria; 827 Slaters Lane, Alexandria; 703-224-5051; www.rusticorestaurant.com

- Port City Tasting Room Open, Tours and Growler Fills

Fri, 4 p.m. – 8 p.m. Sat, 12 p.m. – 5 p.m., Sun. 1 p.m. – 5 p.m.; Even though if you can’t claw your way into Savor, you can still enjoy good local beer. Alexandria’s Port City’s tasting room will be open all weekend, filling growlers for thirsty visitors. You can also tour the facility for $5, which will also land you a tasting glass and a taste of the full range of Port City’s beers. Port City Brewing; 3950 Wheeler Avenue; Alexandria;  703-797-2739; w ww.portcitybrewing.com

Saturday, June 4

- Beer Can Revolution Brunch at Bourbon Glover Park

12 p.m. – 4p.m.; Bourbon’s Glover Park location in D.C. will be hosting a special Beer Can Brunch on Saturday, featuring some of our favorite brewers doling out the goods in cans. Breweries include Oskar Blues, Avery, Butternuts and hot new thing DC Brau. Bourbon, Glover Park; 2348 Wisconsin Avenue, Washington; 202-625-7770; bourbondc.com

- Afternoon Meet & Greet with Craft Brewers at Rustico, Ballston

12p.m.; Finishing off their week of Savor-tinged events, Rustico Ballston will host a meet and greet with five craft brewers: Smuttynose, Firestone Walker, The Bruery, Uinta and Schlafly. Stop by and talk about the business and try a wealth of their brews. Rustico, Ballston; 4075 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington; 571-384-1820; www.rusticorestaurant.com

- Allagash/ New Belgium Vrienden Brunch at Pizza Paradiso Dupont

12 p.m.; Pizzeria Paradiso in Dupot will feature two American Belgian-style breweries for brunch on Saturday: Maine’s Allagash, and the Colorado based New Belgium Brewing. Both will be offering up three beers with Allagash’s Vrienden, White and Avance, and Vrienden, Super Cru and Le Terroir from New Belgium. All will be paired with a menu of goodies from Paradiso’s kitchen. Pizzeria Paradiso, Dupont; 2003 P Street NW, Washington; 202-223-1245; www.eatyourpizza.com; $60pp

Featuring size beers from Allagash and New Belgium. $60 each, all inclusive. Please email events@ for more information. at 12:00 Noon. Please call for more information.

- Sam Calagione Book Signing & Dogfish Head Sampling at D’Vines

12 p.m. – 2 p.m.; Delaware’s Dogfish Head superstar brewer Sam Calagione will be signing copies of his new book Brewing Up a Business, at D’Vines in D.C.’s Columbia Heights neighborhood. Attendees will also be able to take home a four-pack of Dogfish beers for their troubles, and tastings will be available as well. D’vines; 3103 14th Street, NW, Washington; http://www.d-vines.com/

Sunday, June 5

- Summer Crab Feast at Rock Bottom (Arlington)

1 p.m. – 6 p.m.; With all of the beer talk it’s easy to forget that it’s also crab season, and to commemorate that, Rock Bottom will be offering up a bottomless crab feast on Sunday. If an endless pile of crushed shells and crab innards isn’t your game (wimp!), there’s also fried chicken, corn, cole slaw, and Rock Bottom’s house brewed beers. Rock Bottom, Arlington; 4238 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington; 703-516-7688; www.rockbottom.com/arlington; $35pp Update: Nevermind!

- All ‘Ale the Ladies: Women of Beer Meet & Greet at The Black Squirrel

6 p.m.; City Paper’s beer blogger Tammy Tuck will be hosting a Savor themed event for the lager loving ladies of the region at The Black Squirrel’s downstairs tap room on Sunday. Eight of the industry’s leading ladies will be on hand to talk about the business and brewing, including Julia Herz of the Brewers association and Women Enjoying Beer founder Ginger Johnson. The event will feature 12 beers (including brews from Bell’s, Firestone, Great Lakes, Dogfish, Starr Hill and more) all paired with free hors d’oeuvres, there’s also raffle and door prizes. Though geared towards the women-folk, the men-folk are encouraged to come out as well. Full break down of speakers and prizes are on the Paper’s RSVP page. The Black Squirrel; 2427 18th Street, NW, Washington; 202-232-1011; www.blacksquirreldc.com

- Kris King

Happy National Doughnut Day!

Posted by The Editorial Desk / Friday, June 3rd, 2011

(Image: Yeko Photo Studio/Shutterstock)

The first Friday in June of each year is marked as National Doughnut Day. Created by the Salvation Army back in 1983, the tradition is still continued today to honor the women who served doughnuts to soldiers during World War I. Today marks the 73rd National Doughnut Day and to celebrate, Krispy Kreme is offering one free doughnut to each customer while Dunkin` Donuts is giving a free doughnut to each customer who buys an eligible drink. Haven’t got your doughnut yet? No worries, you have the rest of the day to go grab one.

For the people more interested in celebrating today in a hands-on manner, here is the original recipe that the Salvation Army used. If you’re looking for something more fulfilling, try this doughnut bacon burger recipe. If you’re looking for a recipe that’s less threatening to your waistline, try this low-fat baked doughnut recipe.

So whether you decide on a free doughnut or a doughnut you made yourself, just remember to enjoy it as Homer Simpson would.

(Image: Yeko Photo Studio/Shutterstock)
- Mai Nguyen