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Jordan Wright
May 2, 2012
Special to www.dcmetrotheaterarts.com and www.broadwaystars.com
Destination Pig
 Chef Will Harlan breaks down a side of beef while Chef/Owner Scott Harlan looks on at Green Pig Bistro - photo credit Jordan Wright I’m hooked on Green Pig Bistro and already dreaming about a return engagement. Who could resist dishes so scrumptiously succulently delicious they should be illegal? At the hot new porcine-centric resto in Clarendon last week, I did not get arrested for engaging in food porn. But I could’ve and so could you. Who cares? Bring on the cuffs!
For a resto whose raison d’etre is pork (their naturally raised Virginia beef is outstanding too) all meats are broken down from the whole animal. Chef and Owner Scott Harlan, whose signature riff is preparing the lesser known cuts, has assembled a fine supporting kitchen cast including Co-Chef Will Sullivan and Sous Pastry Chef Rory Kraus. But according to an ad last week on Craigslist (and a follow up call yesterday), they need additional help in pastry and service.
 Beef shank for two with polenta and greens from Green Pig Bistro - photo credit Jordan Wright  Crispy pig ear tacos at Green Pig Bistro - photo credit Jordan Wright After a chance meeting in New York City with design diva Nicole Facciuto, Harlan chose the design team of Facciuto Mele to execute his vision for a low-key rustic, sleek-chic bistro. The stunning Facciuto is known to many as one of four designers on Food Network’s Restaurant Impossible, the Robert Irvine program that takes failing restaurants and turns them into success stories. Along with her partner Erich Mele they transmogrified the ordinary space, outfitting it with a boho eclecticism and a nifty stainless steel open kitchen. The upscale design vibe uses old cookbook pages as wallpaper and bathroom doors that are cleverly labeled Julia (as in Childs) and James (as in Beard).
But let’s dish on the food. Harlan goes for deep soulful bright yet complex flavors. Start off with crispy pig ear tacos, pimento cheese balls, or fries served poutine style with duck gravy and cheese. Juicy smoky tasting cheeseburgers are enhanced with 1/3 ground bacon to 2/3 beef and three types of cheese. More daring diners will try corned ox heart reubens or lamb sweetbreads with cauliflower and grapes. Whole pork shanks cooked sous vide then crusted and served with polenta and greens are best suited for two, Parker House rolls on the side. Save room for some screaming crazy house-made doughnuts with chocolate sauce and peanut butter ice cream.
Brunch is served Saturdays and Sundays. We like that. And in addition to eggs-and-bacon fare there are a few non-standards like sourdough blueberry pancakes with maple ice cream and a dish intriguingly entitled Aunt Florence’s egg pie. Ah, sweet mystery of life.
There’s no website yet so here are the deets. Green Pig Bistro 1025 North Fillmore Street, Arlington, VA 22201. No lunch service as of now, but for more info and to check hours call 703 888-1920.
Alexandria Goes to the Dogs and You Should Too
 Inspector Foo Foo dreaming of doggy "Yappy" Hour at Artfully Chocolate - photo credit Jordan Wright Starting this week Artfully Gifts and Chocolates’ Old Town Alexandria location kicks off their Friday evening summertime doggy “Yappy” Hour. In addition to their delicious designer chocolates, specially baked dog treats and burgers and beer and wine for their owners will be available for purchase. I hope to be there with Inspector Foo Foo, my Shih Tzu, who will have his report on your desk in the morning. 506 John Carlyle Street, Alexandria, VA 22314
 Jose Andres at Jaleo Crystal City - photo credit Jordan Wright My all-time favorite interviewee and grand master of Iberican pork, José Andrés, has devised a special menu to go along with the Joan Miró exhibit at the National Gallery of Art. Beginning May 6th and continuing through August 12th Garden Café Catalonia will feature dishes as well as wine and beers from the region.
The über-chef Andrés, owner of Oyamel, Zaytinya, minibar and Jaleo restaurants here in Washington, was just named to the 2012 TIME 100, the magazine’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world.
À la carte selections inspired by the exhibition include empedrat de mongetes amb bacallà (white bean salad with vegetables and Catalan salt cod), canelons de Sant Esteve (pork and chicken “canelons” with béchamel sauce), and escalivada catalana (salad of roasted red pepper, eggplant, and onion). A lovely dessert is peres al vi amb gelat de vainilla (pears poached in red wine with vanilla ice cream).
The buffet at $20.25 incorporates a variety of traditional Catalan fare, including rustic bread, empedrat de mongetes (white bean salad with vegetables, black olives, and tomato), sopa freda de cireres de Santa Coloma de Cervelló (cold cherry and tomato soup), samfaina (Catalan vegetable stew), xatonada (salad of frisée, preserved tuna, and romesco sauce), formatges amb anous i codony (Catalan cheese with Marcona almonds and quince marmalade), escalivada catalana (salad of roasted red pepper, eggplant, and onion), pollastre a la catalana (Catalan chicken stew with dried fruits and nuts), fricandó de galtes de vedella amb bolets (Catalan stew of beef cheeks and mushrooms), and for dessert crema catalana (caramelized Catalan custard).
To recreate the experience at home, recipe cards for some of the dishes are offered to guests.
The Lonely and Glamorous Life of a Celebrity Chef’s Girlfriend
 Apron Anxiety: My Messy Affairs In and Out of the Kitchen by Alyssa Shelasky  Alyssa and Spike in better days at the St. Regis in Washington DC - photo credit Jordan Wright Alyssa Shelasky’s book Apron Anxiety – My Messy Affairs In And Out Of The Kitchen (Three Rivers Press) arrived this week buried under a slew of recent esoteric cookbooks and social networking how-to’s, – more on those soon. Alyssa as some of you may remember had a long tempestuous affair with the sizzling hot Top Chef Spike Mendelsohn. In her tell-all-without-using-names book (she calls him “Chef”) she spares us none of the juicy details, which she had been sharing on her blog even before becoming editor of New York Magazine’s Grub Street. She refers to herself as a “writer with a heavy heart, and wild child with a stethoscope on her crotch.” The book is actually a culinary coming-of-age cookbook in the Gael Greene sex-and-food gallivant style, focusing in on Shelasky’s novice attempts at cooking.
After ditching a terrific job with People Magazine to move in with Spike on C Street, she had a rough time of it in this oft button-down town and spent lonely days hanging out at Belga Café. That was around the same time I met her at the Capitol Skyline Hotel where Spike was flipping burgers poolside for super art mogul Mera Rubell. But I digress.
Shelasky eventually did embrace the kitchen with as much passion as the bedroom after a timid start with Martha Stewart’s Macaroni and Cheese and Sarabeth’s Cream of Tomato Soup (both recipes are in the book). The book is sassy, delicious and adorable and witty like Alyssa. I loved it!
How Olive Ya Sapore
 Sapore on Capitol Hill - photo credit Jordan Wright The newest addition to the Capitol Hill area is Renee and John Farr’s Sapore Oil and Vinegar a neat shop that sources artisanal products from around the world, tucking in pastas, sauces and books among the stainless steel pouring vats in their lively tasting room.
 Earth & Vine sofi award finalist Spicy Apple Garlic Jam - photo credit Jordan Wright  At Sapore to reveal the sofi award finalist. Wines courtesy of ProChile - photo credit Jordan Wright This week The Farrs graciously hosted an invitation-only preview of the Fancy Food Show’s NASFT sofi award finalists where the products were showcased and eagerly tasted. Carrie Morey of the Callie’s Charleston Biscuits, was on hand with samples of her meltingly tender sinfully buttery biscuits.
 Carrie Morey of Callie's Charleston Biscuits addresses the press - photo credit Jordan Wright Take home swag bags of some of the products were given out, but the Tate’s Bake Shop’s Chocolate Chip Cookies and Polka Dot Bake Shop’s Sweet Potato Crackers with Cracked Black Pepper were inhaled long before I crossed the 14th Street Bridge headed for home.
The NASFT Fancy Food Show will be at the Walter Washington Convention from June 17th-19th. For more info on the sofi finalists visit www.specialtyfood.com/sofi.
Swilling and Chilling at National Harbor’s Wine and Food Festival
 National Harbor Maryland - photo credit Jordan Wright  Jordan with Barbara Fairchild at the National Harbor WIne & Food Festival This weekend the 5th Annual National Harbor Wine & Food Festival returns to the waterfront at National Harbor on Saturday, May 5th and Sunday, May 6thfrom noon to 6:00pm. More than just a tasting, the festival brings together area chefs, artisanal foods and crafts, culinary pioneers and three stages of live music as well as wine and spirits from around the world.
This year’s festival features over 150 International wines, spirits and beers. Beyond the drink tastings highlights there will be a Cinco De Mayo Pavilion with Hornitos tequila, a craft beer tasting biergarten, and a whiskey and bourbon tasting paired with hand-rolled cigars.
Food samplings include guacamole and chips by Rosa Mexicano, Whoopsie’s Gourmet whoopie pies, Nature’s Table Café, gourmet baked goods by Icing Smiles, Mojo Magic and Cuban Salsa by Havana Road Café. Rotating gourmet dinners from food trucks, Chesapeake crab dip by KS Catering, fresh pastas and Italian specialties, kabobs, charcuterie, and even a whole hog from Kloby’s Smokehouse.
Saturday on stage celebs include Sticky Fingers Doron Petersen of Food Network’s Cupcake Wars, Food Network star Sara Moulton, The Wine Coach Laurie Forster, The Beef Association’s Dave Zino. Sunday features Marta Ines Quintan of Havana Road Cuban Café, Natalie Dupree making her famous Southern biscuits, Sara Moulton, Jim Baker of the Washington Wine Academy and Cooking with Salt and Pepper. All of these local, regional and nationally recognized chefs will do book signings, meet and greets and cooking demos.
To purchase tickets and view schedule, visit www.wineandfoodnh.com or call (800) 830-3976.
Jordan Wright
April 30, 2012
Special to The Alexandria Times
 David James plays Adam (the American), Matthew Randall plays Edward (the Irishman) and John Shackleford plays Michael (the Englishman) - photo credit to Mike deBlois There’s an inner peace that washes over your soul when you are immersed in a drama so powerful, so exquisitely acted and so heart wrenching, that you want to share the earthmoving experience with all your fellow theatre-goers. Luckily in this space I can. The only caveat is to make haste since Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me runs just one more weekend.
In a drama punctuated with moments of lighthearted gallows humor and male bonding, three men are imprisoned in a tiny cell in Beirut. The hostages, Edward, an Irish journalist; Adam, an American doctor; and Michael, an English teacher from Britain are shackled and chained to a communal wall for an indeterminate sentence.
Most of us remember this story from news reports filled with harrowing tales of torture and execution at the hand of self-described Islamic Jihadists. Playwright Frank McGuiness loosely bases his Drama Critics Circle award winning play on the real lives of Brian Keenan, John McCarthy and Terry Anderson during the time they were held hostage in Lebanon in 1985 and 1986. McGuiness extrapolated Keenan’s experiences from lengthy discussions about his time in captivity, and used them to form the backbone of the drama. In order to prepare the actors before rehearsal started, Director Rosemary Hartman gave each of them Keenan’s unflinchingly honest recounting, Evil Cradling, wherein Keenan poses the question, ”Just as I was chained in darkness for almost five years, my captors were chained to their guns in a profound darkness I could see into. Tell me now, who is the prisoner here?”
The piece opens with slo-mo news footage of the war in Lebanon during the decade between 1982 and 1992 when between 130,000-200,000 people were killed and more than 1 million were wounded. In stark contrast to the lulling strains of classical music the images are projected against the set’s prison walls. We don’t hear the bullets and bombs, but we bear witness to the brutal gunfights and the total destruction of cities. It was a horrendous period when random kidnappings were the order of the day and the ignominy of America and its allies was the incomprehensible goal. As the lights come up Ella Fitzgerald’s evocative rendition of Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me plays in the background and we’re greeted by a set design by Frank Pasqualino that is so end-of-the-world grim that one instantly senses the prisoners’ isolation.
 Someone who'll watch - Matthew Randall, John Shackleford - photo credit to Mike deBlois.  David James plays Adam (the American), Matthew Randall plays Edward (the Irishman) and John Shackleford plays Michael (the Englishman) - photo credit to Mike deBlois During their brutal confinement the hostages probe one another’s psyches and explore their innermost lives, trying to keep their spirits up until their hoped-for rescue. Their methods in the face of such adversity are both inspired and inspiring. One can’t help but wonder what diversions we would employ ourselves under the same dire circumstances.
The play’s moods swing back and forth like a pendulum with lightning quick transitions from misery to comedy as the men regale each other with humerous tales designed to relieve the tedium, promising each other not to let the guards hear them cry. Adam, played by David James, is afraid of going mad. Clutching a bible for support, he is haunted by memories of his life as an only son in a house full of foster children. “Will they kill me for oil?” he wonders of the guards. Matthew Randall plays Edward who claims “foreplay” was invented by the Irish. “We call it drink!” he jokes as he fake-bartends martinis. Together they reenact old films, perform childhood vignettes and fake-broadcast horse races to pass the time until one night Michael, played by John Shackelford, is delivered comatose into their shared cell and their awkward camaraderie is rearranged. Though initially regarded as an intruder, Michael, the stoic, becomes a stabilizing factor to the gradually declining spirits of the other two.
With this latest production Port City Playhouse continues to impress, especially when tackling bold dramatic themes. In Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me superlatives go to the entire ensemble whose outstanding performances are nothing short of brilliant. Special mention goes to Lighting Designer, Julie Anne Watko, who does a fine job creating and handling 100 lighting changes and video montages, as well as Accent Coach, Carol Strachan, who has set the authenticity bar higher than ever.
Poignant, riveting and perfectly cast. Highly recommended.
At Port City Playhouse. Final performances May 4th and 5th at 8pm with an additional May 5th matinee at 2pm at The Lab Studio Theatre at Convergence, 1819 North Quaker Lane, Alexandria, VA 22302. For tickets and information visit www.portcityplayhouse.com.
Jordan Wright
April 23, 2012
Special to The Alexandria Times
 Michael (Andy Brownstein, far right) makes a stand as Alan (Paul Morella), Veronica (Naomi Jacobson) and Annette (Vanessa Lock) look on. "God of Carnage" plays at Virginia’s Signature Theatre through June 24, 2012. www.signature-theatre.org. In the 2009 Tony award-winning play God of Carnage, French playwright and social satirist Yasmina Reza introduces us to two upwardly mobile New York couples whose rowdy sons have gotten into a scrap in the neighborhood park. At a meeting in the bourgeois book-filled apartment of the victim’s parents to discuss the incident, the couples seem to present a united front while exchanging pleasantries over coffee and Veronica’s home made pear clafouti.
 Andy Brownstein (Michael Novak) and Naomi Jacobson (Veronica Novak) make a strong alliance.  Veronica Novak (Naomi Jacobson) laughs as she may have had one too many, as Alan Raleigh (Paul Morella) looks on. Initially the well-mannered grownups appear to take responsibility for their children’s actions resolving to discipline the boys and urge them to make up. Veronica, a writer on atrocities in African culture, has high-minded principles and futilely attempts to steer her husband Michael into laying the blame on Annette and Alan’s son. “It could have been the other way around,” admits Michael, “Our son is a savage,” he adds trumping Veronica’s well-orchestrated plans.
Annette on the other hand is a straight-laced suit working in wealth management and married to Alan an attorney/spinmeister who’s more wedded to his business than his wife. Between persistent cell phone calls he tries to keep pace with the mounting diatribes. “People struggle until they are dead,” Alan philosophizes.
Initially Annette tries to stay above the fray, pleading with her husband to back off, but as she sits on the sofa leafing through some well-placed coffee table books she picks up a book on existentialist painter Francis Bacon, “Cruelty, majesty, chaos and balance,” she offers and with that small remark the play’s tone is set.
Soon all decorum is tossed aside as the confab turns into a verbal slugfest with the couples pushing each other’s emotional buttons and the parents quickly devolving from respectable middle class professionals into screaming, name-calling kids on a playground. “You can’t control the things that control you,” Michael offers.
 Michael (Andy Brownstein, left) and Alan (Paul Morella) happily finding some common ground in "God of Carnage".  Vanessa Lock (left, as Annette) and Naomi Jacobson (as Veronica) share a laugh and a drink. After Michael confesses to tossing his daughter’s hamster out into the street, his credibility as the nice guy flies out the window and the women bond in their anger against him. Soothing his bruised ego he shares a bottle of his “well-aged Antiguan rum” and with that all the white gloves come off. Soon allegiances shift and the women gang up against their husbands as the men proudly profess to be Neanderthals. “Is alcohol bad for you?” Annette ponders.
Reza wields humor with a surgeon’s scalpel. Her observations of couples’ conflicts, and their ability to emotionally destroy each another, are just as incisive. And our laughter at their infantile antics is a universal response to the belief that we are all born into a culture of violence. “The God of Carnage has ruled since the beginning of time,” Alan reminds them.
 The Raleighs and the Novaks in a heated war of words in "God of Carnage". From left to right: Vanessa Lock, Paul Morella, Naomi Jacobson, Andy Brownstein. Award-winning director Joe Calarco does a yeoman’s job of molding actors Andy Brownstein (Michael), Naomi Jacobson (Veronica), Vanessa Lock (Annette) and Paul Morella (Alan) into a cohesive unit of controlled stage mayhem.
Through June 24th at Signature Theatre (Shirlington Village), 4200 Campbell Avenue, Arlington, VA 22206. For tickets and information call 703 820-9771 or visit www.signature-theatre.org.
Jordan Wright
April 19, 2012
Special to The Alexandria Times
 Sam Sheinberg (Court Wader), Russell Silber (Leonard), Bruce Schmid (Barrister), Dan Beck (Clerk of the Court), Jeffrey Clarke (Justice Wainright), John Johnson (Barrister), and Mark Lee Adams (Sir Wilfred Robarts, QC) - photo credit to Doug Olmsted. In a whodunit filled with more red herrings than a kettle of fish, veteran Little Theatre director Eddie Page takes a cast of nineteen actors and packages them into a tidy piece of silken stagecraft. That the plot may be familiar to those who remember the 1957 Billy Wilder-directed film of the same name, and that starred Tyrone Power, Charles Laughton and Marlene Dietrich, should in no way deter an appreciation of this well-acted version. The play, unlike the film of the same name, adheres to the original as written by Agatha Christie in 1953.
The likeable but enigmatic Leonard Vole is accused of murdering of a wealthy older lady. Or to be politically correct, allow me to amend it to “ a well-to-do senior citizen”. Miss French’s senior status should be noted here since, when it is revealed that she is 56 years old, it makes for some snickering in the audience, sounding as it does by today’s standards a rather archaic notion. Leonard becomes the main suspect when it is revealed that he is the chief benefactor in the lady’s recently revised will.
 Robert Ford (Detective) and Russell Silber (Leonard) - photo credit to Doug Olmsted Miss French, who befriends the impoverished mechanic after he chivalrously rescues her from being run over on a London city street, is neither seen nor heard during the three acts which, being quite dead should be reason enough, but for we amateur sleuths there’s not much to chew on save a haze of supposition, conflicting testimony and inexplicable evidence leading helter-skelter down a blind alley.
Mark Lee Adams deftly plays Leonard’s counselor Sir Wilfrid Robarts, Q.C. Robarts, who had up till then sworn off murder trials, agrees to take the case after becoming convinced of the poor man’s innocence.
As the case unfolds in the courtroom of the Old Bailey, we meet Miss French’s feisty yet devoted housekeeper, Janet McKenzie, played rivetingly by Cheryl Sinsabaugh whose spot-on Scottish brogue is as crusty as week-old haggis. Janet has reason to point the finger at the ambitious Leonard Vole. He’s usurped her territory and stolen her mistress’s affections. But we like the charismatic chap anyway.
 Robin Zerbe (Romaine) and James McDaniel (Mr. Meyers, QC) - photo credit to Doug Olmsted.  Robin Zerbe (Romaine) and Mark Lee Adams (Sir Wilfred Robarts, QC) - photo credit to Doug Olmsted. Russell Silber does a fine job of portraying the likeable Leonard in counterpoint to his wife Romaine, the Teutonic ice princess tautly acted by Robin Zerbe. Though Leonard marries her to facilitate her escape from wartime Germany, in an ironic twist Romaine becomes witness for the prosecution and against her adoring husband. “One can get tired of gratitude,” she stoically declares.
At times you may feel that you are in the middle of a game of Clue. There’s no rope here but a blood stained jacket, mountains of motives, a bludgeoned body and a large kitchen knife loom largely. Did I mention all the circumstantial evidence? Nothing appears to be indisputable, not least of all the exact time of the murder.
In Christie’s stage version the bewigged barristers address the audience as jury and you may feel quite invested in divining the outcome of this charming slice of skullduggery. Though your efforts may prove meaningless as the ending trumps the most invigorated mystery hounds among us. And isn’t that exactly what we adore about Agatha Christie?
Through May 12th at The Little Theatre of Alexandria, 600 Wolfe Street. For tickets and information call the box office at 703 683-0496 or visit www.thelittletheatre.com
Jordan Wright
April 17, 2012
Special to www.dcmetrotheaterarts.com and www.broadwaystars.com
I’m often asked, “Where shall we go for brunch?” “It depends,” I evasively respond, clueless as to your expectations. Prefer outdoors, indoors or lavish buffet? Quick and cheap or farmer’s market sourced?
Do you languish over Bloody Marys or just need a quick morning fix? Would you like live entertainment with your eggs or just a place to kick back with the Sunday crosswords? Bringing friends and family or just for two? The following suggestions hope to inspire.
Brunch In
Ahhh, breakfast in bed – the ultimate luxury. Get a head start with perfect provisions from your local farmers market.
The Alexandria Farmers Market, one of the country’s oldest markets, delineates the perimeter of the fountains at City Hall on King Street. Buy sausage biscuits, VA country ham, fresh OJ, farm fresh eggs, herbs, and a bouquet of lilacs for the breakfast tray. Saturdays from 5:30am–10:30am.
 Herbs at the Alexandria Farmers Market - photo credit Jordan Wright The Bethesda Central Farm Market has recently moved its 30-plus vendors to the Bethesda Elementary School. Try the luscious cheeses from Cowgirl Creamery, baked goods from the Farm Market Bakery, Susie Sunshine Sprouts, fresh fruits from Pong’s Orchard and Zeke’s Coffee. For a bit of Britain get the English bangers from MeatCrafters. Now at 7600 Arlington Blvd. at the intersection of Old Georgetown Road. Sundays from 9am-1pm.
 The Copper Pot preserves - photo credit Jordan Wright  Bunches of lilacs at the farmers market - photo credit Jordan Wright FreshFarm Market Dupont Circle, the granddaddy of urban markets, is in full swing with Dolcezza Gelato’s icy confections, Euro-style pastries and whole grain breads from the Bread Ovens at Quail Creek Farm, Bev Eggleston’s EcoFriendly Foods signature bacon, Blue Ridge Dairy Co.’s house made mozzarella and yogurt, and preserves from the Copper Pot. Enjoy their Peach and Prosecco “Bellini” jam and don’t forget to fill your basket with farm fresh fruits and veggies. At 20th Street between Massachusetts and Connecticut Avenues. Sundays from 8:30am–1pm.
Downtowners can access the Penn Quarter FRESHFARM Market where neighborhood chefs pick up specialty items like breads, cheeses, artisanal meats and farm-grown produce. Grab crab cakes from Chris’ Marketplace, apples and gooseberries from Black Rock Orchard and honey from Sand Hill Farm. On 8thStreet between D and E Streets. Thursdays from 3-7pm.
 Penn Quarter Farmers Market - photo credit Jordan Wright Brunch Out
 Todd Gray's Muse Almond Torte brunch photo  Muse at the Corcoran Todd Gray’s latest adventure is Muse at the Corcoran Gallery of Art where he will prepare a vegan brunch twice a month. Carnivores are most welcome. Pastry Chef Doran Petersen of Cupcake Wars and Sticky Fingers’ Bakery adds to the yum factor with her specialty vegan sticky buns. Standouts include Bananas Foster vegan pancakes with caramelized baby bananas, Grilled Polenta with asparagus sauce, roasted mushroom and black walnut pate Macaroni Salad with green peas and ramps; and Plantain Fritters with black bean and red onion marmalade. The $35 adult price (+tax and gratuity) includes a complimentary starter cocktail. Children age 12 or younger dine for $12. Reservations are recommended for Sunday Brunch. From 11am-2pm. Vegan brunches are on the first and third Sunday of every month. 500 Seventeenth St., NW. Call 202 639-1786 or visit [email protected].
Metro area music lovers just got some divine intervention with the recent openings of The Howard Theatre, the Melody Tavern and The Hamilton.
 The Hamilton - Photo credit to Ron Blunt At The Hamilton you might find your own slice of heaven with the Howard Gospel Choir, the first college choir of its kind founded over four decades ago at Howard University. The all-you-can-eat down home soul food brunch features shrimp and grits, buttermilk biscuits with sausage gravy, fried chicken, gumbo, BBQ pork and sweet potato hash, along with waffles, eggs and pancakes. Each $25 ticket comes with a choice of Bloody Mary or Mimosa. From From 10-11:30am and 12:30–2pm. This is a ticketed brunch and reservations are a must. Call 202 787-1000 or visit www.thehamiltondc.com/live/event/1230pm-gospel-brunch-3.
 Top Chef Master Marcus Samuelsson Competition will be stiff with the all-you-can-eat gospel brunch at the newly renovated historic Howard Theatre featuring the hallelujah chorus of the Harlem Gospel Choir. The menu offers Southern-style dishes created by famed Top Chef Master Marcus Samuelsson and set against a Beaux Arts backdrop. The menu’s not out yet – the spot’s so new – but we’re counting on it to be fabulous to the max. Reservations strongly suggested. Tickets are $35 in advance, $45 the day of the show. From 12:30-2:30pm at 620 T Street, NW. Check the website’s calendar for artist’s performance schedule. www.thehowardtheatre.com/calendar.
 Jaared Arosemena - the "Sax Man" at Melody Tavern If you imagine your Sunday with a mellower vibe, check out the stylish new Melody Tavern in Crystal City for their Jazz Brunch. The well-priced á la carte menu takes you down home with country-style chicken and biscuits, shrimp and grits, steak and eggs and so much more. This month groove to the smooth sounds of “Sax Man” Jaared Arosemena. From 10am-2pm at 3650 South Glebe Road, Arlington, VA. Call 703 413-4141 for reservations. www.melodytavern.com.
 Rhubarb clafoutis at Sou'Wester at the Mandarin Oriental Digging deep into Southern foodways is Sou’Wester at the Mandarin Oriental. James Beard Award-winner of “Best Chefs In America” Eric Ziebold, formerly of Spago and French Laundry does not disappoint. An á la carte menu brings pan-seared Maryland soft shall crab with jambalaya, tasso ham and spicy shrimp emulsion and hush puppies served with honey butter. Or choose the North Carolina shrimp with Anson Mills grits, pickled okra and smoked shrimp sauce. Dessert captivates with fried apple pie or rhubarb clafoutis served with baked meringue, ginger streusel and rhubarb sorbet. From 11:45am-4pm 1330 Maryland Avenue, SW. For reservations call 202 787-6148 or visit www.mandarinoriental.com.
As a huge fan of seafood the brunch at the Four Seasons Hotel Washington DC in tony Georgetown is a religious experience of an entirely different stripe. Lavish displays of luscious pink shrimp, raw oysters, crab claws, Bloody Mary oyster shooters, Ahi tuna, seviches, crabcakes and seared scallops beckon. Even the omelette station has lump crabmeat. But there’s so much more to love.
Seven separate stations gleam with creatively conceived salads like curried cauliflower with chickpeas and golden raisins; the spinach salad packed with walnuts, goat cheese, strawberries and chrysanthemum (oh my!); and another made with sunflower sprouts, corn shoots, broccoli sprouts and lime.
Over on the meat side there’s beef tenderloin medallions with Bing cherry demi-glaze or pistachio crusted lamb loin with fig compote. How about a full-out charcuterie station? Or go old school with house made pork sausages nestled alongside of creamy scrambled eggs.
The elegant room, overlooking the canal, even has a pickle station with pickled pearl onions, fiddlehead ferns and Alba mushrooms. If Asian is your thing Moo Shoo pancakes are made with Peking duck.
Pastry Chef Jennifer Krause crafts heavenly baked breads and breakfast pastries to make you feel like a naughty child let loose in a French bakeshop. Go for it. Even cheeseheads are given the nod with Prima Donna, Murcia Al Vino, Gjetoast, Cahill’s Porter, Manchego and Griftin.
 Seafood delicacies at the Four Seasons Washington  A small selection of brunch sweets at the Four Seasons Washington Caveat for newbies. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Off to one side is the dessert room with splendors so tempting you’ll imagine you’ve just discovered the Holy Grail as you discover row upon row of petite sweets to corrupt the innocent. Dig in.
Executive Chef Doug Anderson who is proud of his partnerships with local farmers, is clearly showing off here and you’re the beneficiary. Brunch is served in the hotel’s Seasons Restaurant from 10:30am–2:30pm at $80.00 pp. 2800 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW. For reservations call 202 944-2000 or visit http://www.fourseasons.com/washington/.
Jordan Wright
Special to Indian Country Today Media Network
April 15, 2012
 A mess of ramps ready for the pan - photo credit Jordan Wright In Qualla Boundary, high up in the Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina, springtime means foraging for emergent greens. The Eastern Band of Cherokee has always used the tender shoots, chockfull of minerals and Vitamins A and C, as both tonic and food source – an antidote for winter’s ailments as well as sustenance.
Some of the earliest wild edibles are sochan (a relative of the green-headed coneflower), watercress, branch lettuce, creasy greens and ramps – the most treasured of all. Big Cove tribal council member Bo Taylor gives the Cherokee word “anitse” for all spring greens and “wast” to refer to ramps.
A small adaptable plant that grows only at elevations of 3,000 feet or higher, the noble ramp (Allium Tricoccum – Liliacae) is venerated by the southeastern Cherokee who passed down its virtues to the early settlers. “According to our tradition we use ramps to cleanse the blood from toxins built up over the winter months,” Cherokee tribal elder Don Rose explained.
Throughout local communities there is a movement afoot to preserve, protect and propagate the plant that has a brief season in the deciduous woods before the tree canopy reappears. Horticulturalist and ethnobotanist Kevin Welch, who heads up the Center for Cherokee Plants, has created a project in Qualla called “The Backyard Ramp Patch”. “Each spring we distribute small bags of ramps filled with around 50 bulbs for home gardening.”
His wife and collaborator, Sarah McClellan, who is the Project Director and Educator at the Cherokee Reservation Cooperative Extension Center and coordinator of the Cherokee Native Plant Study Group is enthusiastic about the program. “We have distributed over 70,000 bulbs so far. It’s our ninth year and we are supplying to 150-200 families each year.” They are not taken from the forest. McClellan buys the ramp bulbs and seeds from Ramp Farm Specialties in Richwood, West Virginia.
 Harvesting Ramps - Photo credit Jordan Wright Welch talks about the proper way Indians harvest them in the wild. “The best method allows ramps to grow back from its roots. Rather than pull up the entire plant, they loosen the soil around it, then reach down into the soil with a knife and cut off a ¼ inch or so of the bulb just above the roots, leaving the roots in the soil to grow a new plant. Thus ramps continue to flourish. When pulled up by the roots, like onions from the garden, whole stands of ramps disappear,” he cautions.
Each year the community hosts “Rainbows and Ramps” in April. Janice Wildcatt, who runs the early spring event and acted as my guide during a recent trip to Cherokee, NC, explains, “The festival has been going on for 30 years. It’s a celebration for the tribal elders, who can no longer get into the woods to pick their ramps. Before the visitors arrive we give them a free meal of ramps and local trout and other traditional foods. It’s comfort food. Way back it was more like a simple pot luck, but it has grown in popularity and for the past two years we have served over 700 visitors a year.” Entertainment is part of the experience and this year’s festivities included the Head Start Traditional Dancers along with the Old Antioch Gospel Singers and the Mountain Traditional Cloggers.
 Blackberry dumplings - photo credit Jordan Wright During my stay I was invited by several tribal members to join them in a dinner showcasing traditional Cherokee foods. The women who are generous in the community with their time and culinary talents laid out a splendid buffet of their delicious dishes. Nikki Nations, a local landscape artist, cooked up fatback, blackberry dumplings, fried potatoes and lye dumplings; Alice Kekahbah, who lived and worked for the BIA for 30 years, prepared her fried sweet potatoes and sochan; Bessie Wallace, President of the North American Indian Women’s Association (NAIWA) Cherokee Chapter, brought sweet tea; Hattie Panther made bean dumplings; and my tourism guru, Janice Wildcatt, sautéed up a mess of ramps with scrambled eggs. It was a convivial evening among the ladies who caught up on local happenings. After supper we drove over to Big Cove where we spotted two of the recently reintroduced elk herd peacefully grazing alongside the road.
 Elk in Big Cove, Cherokee, NC - photo credit Jordan Wright Ramps are frequently described as having an acquired taste akin to onions mixed with garlic, and are often referred to as “wild leeks”. At some ramp fests they even hand out mouthwash, called the “Scope cure”, to counter what they say is the lingering odor.
Returning from Cherokee we spent a few days at our family homestead along the Blue Ridge Parkway in the Appalachian mountains of southwestern Virginia. Beside a small spring I located a stand of ramps that had been planted over 30 years ago. Bearing in mind the Cherokee way of sustainability, I harvested a small bunch, carefully leaving the bulbs intact underground for next year’s crop. After rinsing the dirt off the leaves and drying them, a quick chop and sauté in butter revealed them to be even milder than scallions and with a delicate aroma of garlic. The only thing missing was the trout.
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