WEDNESDAY, JULY 28, 2010


TOM SIETSEMA First Bite


Just one trip, and the chef learns Spanish B


efore a two-week tour of the country this past March,Haidor Karoum,


the executive chef at the wine- themed Proof in Penn Quarter, had never set foot in Spain. But you would never know that by eating at his second job, Estadio, the dashing new Logan Circle hot spot devoted to bocadillos and pintxos. Karoum pulls off a


convincing Spanish accent with his squid a la plancha, briefly cooked over high heat in olive oil and dappled with a salsa verde bright with lemon. Glistening ribbons of red pepper and anchovies (regular and white) atop grilled bread can transport a diner to a bar in Madrid or San Sebastian as well.


Coins of warm blood sausage


and crumbled cabrales cheese tucked inside a chewy white roll give patrons a chance to sample one of the restaurant’s bocadillos, or small sandwiches (and also Estadio’s skill with bread, which is baked in-house). Coming soon, promises Karoum: baby eels. Easing the brutal heat now


are blender drinks called “slushitos,” the most intriguing of which blends quince paste, paprika, lemon juice, sherry and scotch with crushed ice. “A lot of the food I grew up


with was similar in style to what I experienced in Spain: olive oil, fresh tomatoes, tons of garlic,” says Karoum, the son of a Lebanese father and Irish mother. What impressed the 36-


KLMNO


K MG


EE


E3


Sisters’ Sandwiches & Such in Olney GOOD TO GO


The “such” in the name of this


new Olney carryout might refer to the bright homemade cotton aprons, painted vintage furniture and wall plaques hand-lettered with whimsical aphorisms found throughout the shop, all for sale. Or it might refer to a thick, warm- from-the-oven cookie with melt- ing chocolate chips, an irresist- ible postscript to an overstuffed sandwich. Forty-something sisters Kim


PHOTOS BY XIAOMEI CHEN/THE WASHINGTON POST Estadio specializes in pintxos and bocadillos, such as the small bite of blood sausage and cheese, below.


year-old chef most after his dozens of research meals abroad with his boss,Mark Kuller, who also owns Proof, is the simple nature of the cooking in Spain. And the ubiquity of ham. “You’d go to the bank, and


there’d be jamon hanging from the rafters,” jokes the chef. To snare a dinner


reservation at what has become one of the hottest tickets


around, handsomely packaged in reclaimed timber and Spanish tile, you have to be a group of six or more, or else willing to graze at an hour no fashionable Spaniard would consider: Between 5 and 6 o’clock sounds more like lunch, after all.


1520 14th St. NW. 202-319-1404. estadio-dc.com. Tapas, $3 to $14.


DISH Anedited excerpt fromthe


GoingOutGurus blog (voices.washingtonpost.com/ goingoutgurus):


TheRestaurantAssociation MetropolitanWashingtonand DestinationD.C.have announcedtheparticipating restaurants for summer RestaurantWeek,Aug. 16-22. Fixed-price lunches anddinners will be offeredatmore than200 local eateries, the largest number ofparticipating


restaurants intheprogram’s 16- yearhistory. Dinerswho took advantage of


thedeal last yearwill be familiar withthenumbers:$20.10 for lunchand$35.10 fordinner,not including beverages, tax and tips. RestaurantWeek offers


opportunities to check out newcomers andoldfavorites. If youhaven’t yet gottenaroundto tryingRis Lacoste’splace, this is a great chance to visitRis.Or look inonZaytinyato seehow


it’sdoingwithout formerhead chefMike Isabella. If youhope to score a


reservationat suchpopular spots as2941, 701,Bourbon Steak, J&GSteakhouse,Masa 14, theOvalRoom,Rasika, WestendBistro,Zentanor Zola, bestmake it soon. Of course, the realRestaurant


Week conundrumiswhere to get anappetizer that ismore thana dressed-upsalad.Goodoptions this year:WestendBistro’s beef tartare appetizer; theOval


Room’s crab cake or its pastrami-curedsalmonon pumpernickel. One last tipfordinershoping


to snag a spot at 1789:Don’t be discouragedif it’snot available. Instead, try the restaurant’s$35 summer savingsdinner,which continuesuntil Sept. 15. Downloadthe offer at www.1789restaurant.com. For a full list ofparticipating


restaurants, go to washington.org/restaurantwk. —JustinRude


EVY MAGES FOR THE WASHINGTON POST


Carlson and Tammy Prestipino, whogrewupinWashington state, opened the sandwich shop in Olney’s historicHigginsTavern in June. “We’re lifelong scavengers and always wanted to open a boutique,” says Carlson. “When the building became available, it was calling our name, but we knew we couldn’t just do furni- ture.” So the two designed a menu inspired by friends and relatives, who have been rewarded with sandwich (and salad) fame. There’sUncleRussell’s Egg Salad, for example(their brother’s favor- ite sandwich), and Trish the Dish’s Roasted Veggie: red pep- pers, zucchini and onions with a slather of basil pesto and mozza- rella on grilled sourdough. The dozen sandwich options


are priced from $6.99 to $8.99 and hit most cravings: roast beef with havarti and horseradish mayonnaise; a toasted baguette withGenoa salami, capicola ham, provolone and pepperoni; and the Stacked Stacie (we’re not askin’), sliced turkey, red onion andavocadoonmultigrain bread. Each sandwich comes with a


small side of red cabbage slaw laced with cranberries, a sweet and crunchy alternative to a handful of chips. While you’re waiting for your


order, you can explore the “Such,” which includes stained-glass win- dow ornaments, photo frames and reclaimed furniture painted in bright hues. And there’s more Such: Caesar


salad ($6.50; $9 with shredded chicken), Cobb salad and taco salad (each $8.50), the latter with chicken chili, Jack cheese, tortilla chips and sour cream. Vinny’s Salad ($8.50) has Granny Smith apples, cubes of smoked Gouda and toasted pecans tossed with mixed greens. There’s usually chicken noodle soup and a sooth- ing white chicken chili, made with white beans, cauliflowerand zucchini (cup, $3.99; bowl, $5.99). A warm brie appetizer with raspberry jamis served with a baguette: an upgrade from stan- dard sandwich shop fare, as are the wine and beer for those who choose to eat in. Those freshly baked cookies cost $1.75 each. During the day, the epony-


mous sisters are more than likely in the kitchen or behind the coun- ter. And if they’re not at the shop, they might just be at home, paint- ing another table or picture frame.


—Martha Thomas


Sisters’ Sandwiches & Such 16834 Georgia Ave., Olney; 301- 774-0669, www. sisterssandwichesandsuch.com. Hours: Mondays through Satur- days, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.


Sisters Tammy Prestipino, left, and Kim Carlson with Tammy’s Taco Salad and the Stacked Stacie


sandwich.


Raw-food restaurant to launch


raw food from E1


tion of nutrients. Food without enzymes can cause toxicity in the body. Critics, such as Har- vard anthropologist Richard Wrangham, counter that the act of cooking makes food easier to digest, a key step in human evolution. Whether they’re serving sim-


ple wheat-grass juice or faux pasta and sushi, raw-food res- taurants have long been part of the scene in New York and Cali- fornia.Here inWashington, Java Green and its sister, Cafe Green, offer a few raw options, but an all-raw restaurant is a hard sell, Petty says. The dinners, to be held weekly starting in Septem- ber, will allow her to serve the raw-food and vegan community and show others “that there is really healthy, healing food out there that tastes great.” Petty enlisted the help of her


chef, Thomas Berry, a man who by his own admission was not particularly suited for the task. He was classically trained at the Culinary Institute of America to appreciate the benefits of meat, butter and cream and has been cooking that way since 1978. Given a choice, he says, he would skip his vegetables. “For me, it’s been a big


challenge,” he says. “So much of it goes against everything I’ve learned and have practiced. So I’ve had to kind of learn the rules.” The rules are many. Nuts


must be soaked to soften them and make their nutrients more digestible.Adehydrator can be a raw-food chef ’s best friend, al- though some technique is re- quired. Berry has learned that when moisture is removed from food, the flavorsbecomeconcen- trated. As a result, foods need less salt and spice. Petty and Berry also came up


with a rule of their own. Unlike many who prepare raw-food dishes, theydon’t try to re-create or mimic traditional dishes. There’s no soy “meat,” for exam- ple.The pair are even careful not to call dishes names such as


Built and baked by Tish cooks from E1 TishHall grewup inOxonHill


watching her mother make bread: “I learned from her,” she says. But becauseHall ismethod- ical and a voracious reader, over the years she picked up more techniques and theories: from Fine Cooking, on the properties of salt. From Harold McGee, on yeast. She baked loaves or rolls three times a week for three years. “I killed a lot of starters,” she


says. Then Hall happened upon a


SARAH L. VOISIN/THE WASHINGTON POST An Elizabeth’sGone Rawdessert: chocolate ganache tart.


“sushi” or “lasagna”: “If I hear ‘lasagna’ and I don’t get a big plate of noodles and sauce and sausage, I’m disappointed,” Ber- ry says. “Names bring about ex- pectations.” At each dinner,Petty says, her


goal is to show the range and variety of raw foods. The July 16 dinner began with a ginger-sake cocktail: optional, because strict raw-foodists shun alcohol. In- stead of bread, there were dehy- drated kale chips. On paper, the snack probably would not entice many raw-food skeptics. But the dark-green shards had an addic- tive oomph from a blend of cayenne and crushed red pepper flakes, pureed cashews and nu- tritional yeast, an inactive strain popular for its cheesy flavor. The first course was the re-


freshing coconut soup in a ca- noe-shaped bowl, garnished with radish and ribbons of cu- cumberandmango.Nextcamea “tamale.” Perhaps because the chef had broken hisownnomen- clature guideline, the gluey tex- ture of the thing was a disap- pointment. But the entree of zucchini layered with nut ricotta and basil pesto managed to be both light and satisfying. Most impressive, though,was


the chocolate tart. The filling was made with organic maple syrup, coconut butter and un- processed powdered cacao. The shell was a dehydrated mixture of macadamia nuts, dates, alco-


hol-free vanilla extract and sea salt. No butter and cream here, but it would be hard to feel deprived. The tart had a distinc- tive puddinglike mouth feel and a delicious nuttiness. These are not dishes that will


leave you hungry. Ground nuts, coconut milk and avocado are used generously for flavor and texture. “It’s caloric,” Petty ac- knowledges. “You wouldn’t eat like this every night. I certainly don’t eat like this every day. I’m eating sprouts most of the time.” “I thought it was first-class,


gourmet raw food,” saidMelissa Van Orman, a yoga teacher who attended the first dinnerandhas eaten at twomeccas of American rawfood, Pure Food and Wine in New York and Cafe Gratitude in San Francisco. “You can really tell that they brought in the artistry of their traditional ca- tering company.” If the concept takes off, Petty


says she hopes Elizabeth’s Gone Raw will serve food three nights a week. It’s a new adventure for her newlife as a rawfoodist. She had her final cancer treatment this week.


blackj@washpost.com


Elizabeth’s Gone Raw, 1341 L St. NW. $65 for 5 courses. Organic and biodynamic wine pairing, $20. reservations@ elizabethsgoneraw.com or 202-347-8349 or 202-347- 8040.


book called “The Bread Builders,” by Daniel Wing and Alan Scott, which taught her about ratios, and her bread rose to new heights.After that, she read Peter Reinhart’s “The Bread Baker’s Apprentice” and says she had to relearn much of what she thought she knew. When the time came for Hall


to get serious about getting her own wood-fired oven, her dad turned her on to cob, amixture of clay, sand and straw. It can be processed to the right consisten- cy by vigorous foot stomping, and that soundedlike fun. She bought a DIY book and was hooked. Estimated cost of the project: $200. With plenty of raw material


from her dad’s 12-acre property, his expertise with pouring con- crete, the bricks he had salvaged from a 1976 Bicentennial exhibit on the Mall, and various helping hands (and feet), Hall’s cob oven came together. They built a prototype at her


dad’s and learned “what not to do,” she says, especially when it came to creating layers of insula- tion. At her family’s home in Kemp Mill Estates, her sons, Liam 16, and Conor, 14, and neighbors pitched in; her hus- band, Gavin Brennan, worked in support mode. Before the cob dried, she etched “Le Fou du Pain” over the oven door. (Hall says it means “the bread hearth” in an old Jersey French dialect.) Because cob can be compro-


mised by wet weather, her dad built a charmingly rustic gazebo to protect the oven.Hall acquired essential equipment, such as a scuffle for mopping ash off the oven floor, a wooden peel made by Liam for retrieving baked


goods, a sturdy bucket for water and the infrared gun formeasur- ing the temperature within. Her boys learned howto tend the fire. Hall’s baking days start at 8


a.m. It takes about four hours to build the right-size fire.There is a good supply of wood to be for- aged in her neighborhood and dead-fall kindling in her yard, but sometimes her dad supple- ments the pile. “We go through a lot of it,” she


says. “I go from being covered in flour to being covered in soot.” While the oven heats up, she


gets various doughs underway in her kitchen upstairs, where the scene is somewhat less orderly. “I’d rather bake thanwork on the house,” she admits. Her KitchenAid mixer is al-


most two decades old and is used almost daily, for breads and for the many cake and cookie reci- pes, lodged between plastic sleeves of a huge spiral notebook, that come to fruition in her kitchen oven. She uses the bak- er’s classic windowpane test (stretching a small amount of dough to the point of translu- cence) to check on the develop- ing gluten. When the temperature of the


cob oven’s back wall reaches 900 degrees or so, the countdown begins. Like other wood-fired oven cooks, Hall follows the or- der of the heat: Pita breadsmade from her cornmeal white bread recipe go in first. A three-ounce ball of dough puffs and bakes in 65 to 75 seconds.When her fami- ly or a friendly crowd is on hand, Hall will transfer the hot, chewy pillows to a carving board on the tablewith a dish of butter nearby. The pitas’ undersides have bits of char; nobody can eat just one. Flatbread pizzas and calzones


go in next. They take less than two minutes to bake. “I’m not a tomato sauce person,” she says, preferring to adorn them with homemade mozzarella, fresh ba- sil and a sparse application of tomato slices, or the olives and mushrooms that Conor prefers. When the oven floor is at 600


degrees, it’s time for the lined-up loaves of bread. She hasmastered the tuck and roll of awell-crafted loaf and prefers to bake them without molds or pans. Olive bread, chocolate bread and a cheddar, chive and onion bread


are standouts. Less-dense loaves ofwhite bread go in first and take 10 or 15minutes. Then she pops the fitted


wooden door on the oven to give the interior a “heat soak,” letting hot spots even out. In the late afternoon, she puts in a peach cobbler and roasts vegetablesfor tomato sauce or chicken backs for homemade stock. As the heat wanes,Hall places


a bone-in pork butt in a Dutch oven with a quarter-cup of cider vinegar, a quarter-cup of liquid smoke flavoring and a generous helping of salt and black pepper, and slides it into the cob oven. In the morning she pulls out the bones, pulls themeat into shreds and adds more vinegar, salt and pepper to taste. “Barbecue purists will hate


that I do it that way,” she says. “But it’s easy and really good.” Hall has managed to organize


requests for her breads into something of a limited neighbor- hood business, which she calls DancesWith Loaves, and sells 10 to 15 loaves one day a week. People place orders, and the price structure is designed to cover her expenses. Next-door neighbors Arlene Gottschalk and daughters Reyna Cook, 12, and Eliya Cook, 14, are regular customers who worked on the oven. “We order bread every week,”


Gottschalk says. “During the school year, when we get it on a Friday, it might not last tillMon- day.” The breadmaking Hall is


drawn to is connected to old foodways, and it’s obvious that this pleases the student who earned a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Maryland at College Park in 2003. As devoted to baking as she is,


Hall has passions beyond it, such as smoking meats, supporting her sons’ theater projects and singing in the choir at the Paint Branch Unitarian Church. She’s famous for creating meals in- spired by great literature for church or school auctions. Her independently playful streak is on display whenever she paints a swath of purple or pink or blue dye into her soft brown hair. “I don’t bother to act my age,”


she says. “That’s the good thing about beingmy age.” And when she is baking, her


T-shirt of choice says it all: Peace. Love. Bake. benwickb@washpost.com


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50