Tag Archives: tasting

Food and Drink, Special Events, The Features, We Love Drinks
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Drinks Special: Birch & Barley’s Beer & Whiskey

Birch & Barley/ChurchKey beer and whisky tasting

Last week, Birch & Barley hosted their first-ever beer and whiskey tasting. At the helm was the inimitable Greg Engert to guide the evening’s attendees through three different beers and three different whiskies, one of each presented on its own, and then two of each paired together.

While I’ve had several meals at Birch & Barley and have spent too much time upstairs at ChurchKey, I had not yet attended one of Birch & Barley’s tastings or beer dinners so I wasn’t sure what to expect—in its format, presentation, guidance, sociability—but based on my past experiences with the brother-sister venues and the heavy promotion the tasting received, I figured it would be worthwhile. By the conclusion of the event, it had certainly met expectations—I left better educated, with a few new acquaintances, and with a pleasant buzz.

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Food and Drink, The Daily Feed
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Feeling Brave? Try Galileo’s Unusual Tasting Menu

Photo courtesy of
‘Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?’
courtesy of ‘LaTur’

Maybe you started 2011 off by resolving to make your tastebuds be more adventurous. Or maybe you’re just tired of all the seared salmon and roasted chicken you ate last week during restaurant week. Either way, if you’re looking to try some bizarre foods, you can head over to Galileo III for their “unusual tasting menu.”

For $55, you get seven courses and bragging rights to tell all your friends that you ate lamb brains once. Start off with “piedino”–braised veal feet with beets and potatoes, and then move onto “lingua”–sauteed lamb tongue with turnips and pearl onions. By the time you get to the last course, you’ll say: “pork sausage and calf’s liver? That’s nothin’.” Plus, don’t all those unusual courses sound so much better in Italian?

The restaurant has made the unusual tasting menu a part of it’s regular dinner menu, so you have plenty of time to muster up the courage to try it. Chef Roberto Donna of Galileo III said he decided to offer the unusual menu because it’s the type of food he enjoys, so he wants other people to experience and fall in love with it too. So far, they’ve had a “great response. DC customers are ready and excited to try new food,” according to an email statement I received from the chef.

So what are you waiting for? I double dog dare you.

The Daily Feed, We Green DC
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Taste “Green” Wine

Photo courtesy of
‘mmm’
courtesy of ‘erin m’

Hmm, wine. You’ve got your reds, you’ve got your whites, you’ve got your greens. Well, what else would you call organic wine? And why would you want it, anyway?

On Friday night, you can learn all about organic wine — how it’s made and how it tastes — at Sonoma, through the DC Green Connection.

Since grapes are one of the top foods to buy organic if you want to avoid eating pesticides, organic wine makes sense. Sonoma’s sommelier has picked out several kinds for DC’s greenies to taste while chatting about ways to save the planet.

The Daily Feed
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To Market, to Market, to Buy…What?

Photo courtesy of
”
courtesy of ‘Hoffmann’

Sure, we know that farmers markets bring in fresh, healthy food and allow us to support local farms. But knowing what to buy when we get there is a different story.

How is a white peach different from a yellow one? (It’s sweeter, and sublime.) And what do you do with a rutabaga anyway? (Darned good question.)

Find more answers at a local foods tasting on Monday at 7 p.m. at Arlington Central Library, where you can sample our area’s produce and learn how to cook it.