Launchpad Picks New Vendor for Union Market!!

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Yesterday we had the pleasure of attending the final round of the Mess Hall Competition to find a new food vendor for an open stall at Union Market.  There were 5 vendors in this final round, all amazing cooks and entrepreneurs. 

The event kicked off around 1pm at Dock5 - the event space at Union Market. Each of the competitors were setting up their stations for the attendees and judges to sample their goods. 

First I tried a pork belly bao bun and mango slaw from the newly minted Bao Brothers Bar. The buns were fluffy, the meat tender and flavorful, and perfectly topped with cilantro and slaw. They kicked it up a notch with hoisin and sriracha on top- making for a sweet and spicy finish. It rivaled other Bao buns I've tried from Chaplin and Maketto. Nice work, especially considering they've only been in operation for a month. I also really enjoyed the mild mango slaw. I am hopeful these guys will keep the DC bao dream alive! 

Perhaps the booth I was most excited to visit was Arepa Zone. I have been a fan of their food truck for a year now, and just love their homemade Venezuelan food. 

The Arepa Zone booth had a wide range of offerings, including a couple different arepa flavors. For those who don't know, arepas are like a fluffy corn-meal bun that is sliced in half and stuffed with any combo of shredded chicken, beef, beans, cheese, plantains, and avocados. They also served other traditional specialties like sweet corn pancakes and arroz con leche. All so amazing! I had the chicken and avocado arepa, which is one of my all time favorites. 

One of the more DC-oriented vendors was a new business called Half Smoke. They will feature, not surprisingly, half smoke sausages in a variety of meat options with some pretty gourmet toppings. I am not a big hotdog or sausage fan, but even I was impressed with the caramelized onion and pepper jack cheese-topped half smoke. I also love that they plan to have a fast-casual concept that hires graduates of DC Central Kitchen. 

One of the steep competitors was Whisked bakery. Handing out hundreds of cookies and home made pies, they were in it to win it. Their peach rasberry pie and their sea salt chocolate chess pie were delicious. But I have a feeling Union Market may already have its fill of bakeries. 

One vendor that took me completely by surprise was Bene.  Bene is gearing up to be a fast-casual Italian kitchen, that serves gourmet pastas for a reasonable budget.  It's run entirely by Koreans who grew up in NYC and met at GWU. I was particularly struck by Bene's presentation to the judges.  When the chef from Daikaya challenged them for not including their Korean heritage in their cuisine, they deftly explained that while they came from Korean families, they grew up eating slices of pizza and pasta al vongole around New York.  I am with Bene on that one; as much as we can be inspired by our heritage, we don't need to be bound or limited by it.  

Bene offered a sampling of two pastas, a vegetarian white manicotti with fried basil leaves on top and a rigatoni-type pasta with a hearty ragu. 

The manicotti was a little rich for my personal taste, but everyone around me agreed the ragu, slightly smokey and spicy, was one of the best things they had all day.  I am hopeful this team opens a permanent shop in DC soon, because I would definitely be in for that ragu! 

In addition to the food, we also got to sample cocktails, wine and beer from local mixologists and producers. The cocktails were served in pretty copper mugs that we got to take home at the end of the day!

After an hour of face stuffing, we made our way to the seated area for the team presentations and official judging. The audience vote counted for 5%, but the real judging was made by the chef/owners of Rose's Luxury, Ris, Nora's, the Inn at Little Washington, Daikaya, and other members of the Mess Hall team.  

Almost like a mini Shark Tank episode, each vendor presented their business case and gave the judges the chance to ask questions. Whisked had the most impressive presentation -- they clearly had a real handle on their numbers, projections, and margins.  

While the judges deliberated, we were treated to a second round of food and drinks from the competitors as well as a number of other DC food vendors like Bullfrog Bagels, Capital Kombucha, and other delicious treats from around the area. Needless to say, we were well fed all day long!

Finally, around 5pm the emcee came back out and announced two winners. First, Bao Brothers Bar took home the People's Coice award by winning the audience vote. 

And lastly, a moment of real pride and anticipation, they announced Arepa Zone as the official winners. Which is good news for everyone really, because soon they will have their own stall in Union Market! Arepas for all!!

Congrats again to the winners, we will definitely be in to support them at Union Market! 

Vinofest DC 2015: A Preview

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If you are like us, by Wedsnesday you are scouring the Post, Washingtonian, and the local blogs for interesting and fun stuff to do over the weekend. If you are also like us and love wine, you may have already heard of, and scored tickets to, Vinofest DC 2015 over in Storey Park in NOMA. If you are more of a music than a wine fan, it may pique your fancy that Questlove, amongst others, will be performing. Oh, and in case you weren't already convinced, it's a charitable event. Proceeds will benefit then Make A Wish Foundation, DC Central Kitchen, and the Network for Teacher Entrepreneurship.

If you haven't yet heard about the event, but want to know more, read on for the details. We will be in attendence sampling the diverse wine selection and will be reporting back on our favorites after the weekend. 

Check out the event website: http://Vinofest.co. 

Buy tickets for the event: 

https://VinofestDC.eventbrite.com

When: Saturday May 9th from 3:00-10:00 PM 

Where: Storey Park in NOMA, 1005 First Street, N.E.

Artists: Questlove, White Ford Broncos, Black Masala, Alma Tropicalia, Trouble Funk, Alison Carney, DJ Adrian Loving, and DJ Neekola (hopefully you've heard of more of these artists than we have!)

Hope to see you there! 

Liz

Chiang Mai, Thailand

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After a few days in Northern India, we were so excited to spend time in Thailand. After a flight to Bangkok, an airport transfer, and another flight, we arrived to Chiang Mai.

Chiang Mai,  a city in the northern hills of Thailand, is the country's fourth most populated city. We arrived late at night and immediately felt a welcoming, safe tone--we quickly decided to get a bit to eat at the night market just five minutes away from our hotel. 

Our first meal was amazing, and cost about $5 total! We enjoyed cashew chicken and spring rolls.

The first full day in Chiang Mai we strolled around looking for breakfast around 8 am. Apparently this is a night city, because we could barely find one place to eat! 

We settled on a local spot and discovered that Thai people don't eat different foods for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. So we ordered a papya salad and pad see ew at 9 am! So delicious.

We took a ride in a songthaew up a huge mountain to visit the Doi Suthep temple and the Bhubing Palace, the winter residence for the Royal family. The views on the ride up and down the mountain were spectacular!
 
That afternoon, we participated in a cooking class at the Siam Rice Thai Cookery School. 

As part of the class, we got to visit a local market and learn about traditional Thai ingredients. Then, at the school we got to pick a soup, a main course, a curry, and a dessert to make from scratch. 

For my soup, I chose the Tom Kha, a traditional coconut milk soup with chicken.




My main course was druken noodles with chicken. 

As you can see, it was a really exciting dish to cook!

For the curry dish, I opted for panag and even got to make the curry paste from scratch. This is no small feat, but made the dish even more enjoyable to consume. Dessert was an easy choice: mango sticky rice. I'm not sure I'll be able to prepare this dish as amazingly as I did at the cooking school because the sticky rice takes hours up on hours to prepare. That was basically the only ingredient that was pre-preared for the class.



Overall the cooking school was probably my favorite experience of my entire vacation. I highly recommend it and can't say enough great things about Bunpot and his amazing school!

Jaipur and Agra: Food for Thought Part 2

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After 10 amazing days in Thailand, I'm back to continue and finish the story of our time in India. Heads up: there won't be any food related content on this post. Our remaining time in Jaipur and our day in Agra were not particularly food centric. For various reasons (timing, safety, etc) we ate at our hotels, and the food wasn't particularly noteworthy!

We had one full day to explore the city of Jaipur. A city southwest of New Delhi, Jaipur is known for the beautiful Amber Fort and the Palace of Jaipur. We started our tour at the Amber Fort. The fort has a beautiful wall around it, almost reminiscent of the Great Wall of China. 

One thing I've really struggled with on this trip is the treatment of animals. As part of our tour (we did a paid/guided tour while we were in India), we rode an elephant to reach the fort. I can honestly say this was a terrifying and sad experience all at once. I won't get into animal rights on this blog, but I don't think elephants enjoy walking up an incredibly steep hill an unimaginable number of times per day in the scorching heat. All while carrying 3 humans on their back.  
Next, we visited the City Palace of Jaipur. Full of history, part of this compound is actually still a functioning home for royalty today! I believe the current prince is 17-years-old. Lucky guy!

Our last stop was the observatory.There are tons of very interesting tools to read the time based on the sun's position. They work with amazing accuracy!

After our time in Jaipur, we set out for a 4 hour drive to Agra. On our way there, we encountered a serious Indian traffic jam. They are the real deal. Because of the gridlock on our side of the road, our driver, and many other cars, moved to the opposite side of the road. This created another gridlock situation. Suffice it to say, I will never complain about an American traffic jam again!

Our time in Agra was spent visiting the sites. We got to see the Taj Mahal at sunrise. It was gorgeous; photos simply do not do it justice. The monument was built as a sign of love and to house the body of Shah Jahan's third (and most favorite) wife. Made of white marble, the building is also covered in gem stones.

Next, we visited the Fatehpur Sikri. This was essentially a walled city built in the late 1500s. From palaces, to courts, to banks, to a mosque, this place had it all. While the Taj Mahal is built of marble, this compound was built of red sandstone. Built by a King named Akbar, we were told that he left the main city of Agra and built Fatehpur Sikri to have children.

Our final stop was the Agra Fort. The grandson of Akbar, Shah Jahan, was imprisoned here by his son (who also killed several of his siblings). Similar to Fatehpur Sikri, the Agra Fort as it currently stands is a walled city made of red sandstone.

Agra was a very tough place for me in India. Perhaps the toughest we've seen so far. Millions of tourists, myself included, flock to see the Taj Mahal. But, what few mention is that steps outside the world wonder is poverty so extreme it broke my heart into a million pieces. From talking to our tour guide, my understanding is that the local government outlawed local industries 10-15 years ago because the pollution was damaging the Taj. Little if any profit from tourists goes back to the people in Agra. 

I hope at some point to be able to give back to the people in this city. In the meantime, I'm trying to shift my perspective to be a bit more thankful for how fortunate I am and a bit less quick to complain. I encourage all of you out there to take a moment to do the same. 

Next up, Jackie and I traveled to Thailand. Cooking class, island views, and tons of food pics to come!

Jaipur: Food for Thought Part 1

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After our first night in New Delhi we awoke very early for a 40 minute flight to Jaipur. While I will focus on the food we ate over the course of our time in India, I also want to note that the tone of this blog, especially with regard to posts on India, will be more than just about food.


On that note, to kick things off lightly, let's start with airplane food. After my brief experiences with international and domestic flights to and within Southeast Asia, I can honestly say the US needs to up its game! We sampled some delicious food on our Emirates flights to India, and were offered breakfast on our flight to Jaipur. You read that correctly--free breakfast on a 40 minute flight. And it was good. Basic bread with a cold chic pea salad mixture. Delicious and unique way to start the day.


Our first day in Jaipur was during the Holi Festival in India. Holi is a day celebrated in the springtime where citizens spend time coloring each other with powder and water guns. It's pretty cool to see and even more fun to participate in!

We spent the day at a converted palace with other tourists celebrating and eating. It took us about 1 hour to drive to the palace from our hotel. The event itself was quite enjoyable. We met some other great people and had a very fun time. The ride back was a bit scary as our car was surrounded by about 10 boys/men. They pounded on the vehicle demanding money. At one point, my car door was opened and I definitely feared for the worst. But, we made it out safely. Lesson learned, always make sure your door is locked!


For dinner our first night in Jaipur we dined at the Samode Haveli. Once a palace, this hotel is unbelievably beautiful. We arrived after dark and struggled to capture some good photos, and the ones I snapped really don't do the space justice.

For dinner we shared 3 courses. First, the eggplant. Served cold, this is one of my favorite dishes so far in India. Giant pieces of eggplant served in a yogurt broth with coriander and cumin, the flavors were crisp and satisfying. It was also nice to change it up from some of the more typical India dishes.

Next we had the baked cauliflower with peas. I'm generally not a huge lover of this veggie, but the spices - cumin and coriander - successfully overpowered this (in my opinion) strangely flavored food. It was good, but definitely not a dish I would order again.

Last we had the Dal Makahni, or black lentis. Again, the lentils were basically pureed, but I preferred this dish to the yellow lentils we had the night before. The flavor was more subtle and paired well with the garlic naan.

Our first full day in India was both fun and delicious!