Two Foodie Brothers

Ladies and gentlemen, pizza lovers of the DC area, I arrive here to make an announcement. I think Two Amy’s, DC’s reigning king of authentic Neapolitan pizza has a real challenger. That challenger is in the form of Pupatella, a brick and mortar expansion of a near-legendary Arlington food cart. 

I finally had a chance to stop by the recently opened pho shop, Pho Capital, located in Trader Joe’s shopping center at the intersection of Little River Turnpike and Pickett Road in Fairfax. It’s a nice place, with a sleek modern look that contrasts with the spartan, cafeteria-like looks of reigning area pho champions Pho 75. I […]

My girlfriend Janna grew up just a few towns away from the Jersey Shore and remains one of its keenest advocates. Just whatever you do, don’t bring up Seaside Heights, home of “that show.”  She always reminds people that most of the Jersey Shore isn’t anything like Seaside, with its throbbing techno beats and overly-tanned oompa […]

Janna, Sam, his girlfriend, and I were recently able to spend a week-long vacation in Nags Head in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. We cannot recommend it enough as a vacation destination. Although we didn’t make it up North to Duck and Carolla, here are some recommended restaurants located between Kill Devil Hills and […]

Yama Restaurant, Vienna. Janna and I have really enjoyed this local sushi spot in downtown Vienna recently. It’s nothing too different, but I’ve yet to have any sushi there that I haven’t liked. Some of my favorite nigiri there have included the yellowtail, unagi (eel), and the  octopus. Prices seem about right and the service is quite good as long as […]

For those of us who consider Merrifield, Dunn Loring, and Falls Church to be our ethnic food hangouts, there has always been something missing.  While the area is chock full of Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean, and Lebanese restaurants, there has been for as long as I can remember, no real Thai restaurant in the area.  Sure, […]

We’ve already mentioned Chile’s “completo” on the site, but here’s another for the annals of “weird things foreign folks do with hot dogs.” This one is from Sweden, where my old college friend Lindsay is living currently. On her blog, Urban Pilgrim, she describes this strange half-hot dog, half-pita “hybrid.” It’s called Tunnbrödsrulle.

My brother, who inexplicably believes that turkey is better than chicken, would probably be the kind of weirdo who would make turkey pho like in this Food52 recipe. I wonder if we could convince our family to give this a shot with our post-Thanksgiving leftovers next autumn?

  This week my girlfriend and I went to the fusion dim sum restaurant Ping Pong down in Chinatown. It does dim sum in a “hip” way, complete with loud music, fancy cocktails, open kitchen, and a downtown address. Knowing that I’d grown up eating dim sum at hyper-authentic places like Mark’s and Fortune, she […]

Having recently posted about Belga Cafe and their glorious frites, I figured it was time to acknowledge that proper mayonnaise is, well, ridiculously good.  Admittedly, mayo used to fall into a wide category of food I wouldn’t touch.  This “white and mushy” category ranged from yogurt to cottage cheese to *gasp* whipped cream.  I was so […]

The City Paper’s Tim Carman has an interview with Tan Nguyen who owns a new fusion banh mi truck that cruises around Arlington. It’s called Rebel Heroes and it’s interesting to hear Nguyen, who’s obviously Vietnamese, explain why he’s elected to eschew the traditional banh mis seen around Northern Virginia.

A few weeks ago, my email buzzed with news of Star & Shamrock, new Irish/Jewish fusion tavern/deli concept on H St. in DC. We were planning on going, possibly even next weekend, but then Matt Yglesias and Spencer Ackerman of the Internet Food Association just completely demolished the place in two different posts. See some […]

Located in the Barracks Row district, just a block or two from the Eastern Market metro station (orange line), Belga Cafe shines as a prime example of hearty, delicious Belgian fare.  At first glance, the restaurant is warm and cozy, with tightly packed tables and a neighborhood feel.  The service is prompt and attentive — […]

 Oh, the quandary for Jews on Easter Sunday. What to do? What to do? Virtually everything is closed. If you drive within 100 yards of any church you’ll get stuck in at least 15 minutes of traffic. There are no sports on. It’s a pretty boring day. Thus, Sam and I ventured off to one […]

So in the past month or two, I got to go to two of the newly-opened upmarket burger joints in the DC area. One is an overhyped version of five guys and the other provides the city’s best burger in a unique atmosphere slightly reminiscent of the “soup nazi.”

By both Aaron and Sam… Sam: Looking back, we didn’t really know what we were getting into? On what turned out to be a crisp, autumn-come-early evening, Aaron, myself, and family friend and honorary Stollar, Katie Buoni, embarked on what should have been a fantastic, but otherwise normal evening out in DC. That’s before the first […]