ABCDE FOOD wednesday, july 7, 2010


FIRST BITE And there’s cheesecake


The Chesapeake Room celebrates more than seafood, says Tom Sietsema. E3


SPIRITS Message in some bottles If you’re ever


stranded on a desert island, consult Jason Wilson’s list. E5


BLOG Check out our daily postings at washingtonpost.com/allwecaneat


Dinner in Minutes: Chef Susur Lee makes a summery poached-fish dish with a mere 12 ingredients. E2


CHAT We answer questions at 1 p.m. today at washingtonpost.com/liveonline MORE RECIPES Poached Fillets of Sole and Salmon Thailandaise, E2 String Beans With Summer Herb Pesto, E6 B. Smith’s Collard Green Slaw, ONLINE


The lionfish, voracious and tasty.


Eat it till it’s gone


Environmentalists push for edible eradication of the invasive lionfish


by Juliet Eilperin


Lionfish makes for a stunning sight underwater, with its vibrant red hue and long, venomous spines. But it is also a relentless predator in U.S. and Caribbean waters, a trait that threatens cor- al reefs in the Southeast, Gulf of Mexico and beyond.


Sustainable-seafood advocates


typically advise consumers to stay away from overfished, en- dangered species, but in this case they’re taking the opposite tack. Federal officials have joined with chefs, spear fishermen and sea-


food distributors to launch a bold campaign: Eat lionfish until it no longer exists outside its native habitat.


Scientists at the National Oce- anic and Atmospheric Adminis- tration theorize that the fish, a native of the western Pacific, was released from fish tanks in south- ern Florida sometime between the late 1980s and the early 1990s. By 2000 it had established itself off the North Carolina coast, and it has now expanded into the Caribbean and threatens to take over waters in South America and the Gulf of Mexico. “There are some locations where lionfish have totally al-


lionfish continued on E4


RECIPE • Lionfish Romesco Stew ONLINE


E MG


The pot that stirred


a ‘Cook’s Resource’ Alexandria’s La Cuisine owes its long-lived mettle to copper


by Michaele Weissman Special to The Washington Post


Nancy Purves Pollard discov- ered her life’s work in a kitchen disaster. It was the late 1960s; Pollard was a newlywed living in Char- lottesville, with guests coming to dinner. She decided to try chicken with Calvados and cream, a sim- ple dish she had savored as a for- eign-exchange student living in Germany, where a Frenchwoman living in Munich had cooked it for her.


She had her French friend’s recipe, yet the dish Pollard pro- duced in no way resembled the one she remembered. “In my flim- sy nonstick skillet, there were no


pan juices to deglaze, and the un- even heat caused the ultra-pas- teurized cream to curdle,” she says. “The chicken lay in a sickly white heap. The apples turned to mush. It was an inedible mess. We went out to dinner.” That’s when Pollard realized


something was lacking in the way Americans cooked at home, and it had to do with equipment. The French cook had made her Calva- dos and cream dish in a copper saute pan. Pollard decided to open a shop


that sold high-quality, durable pots and pans that enhanced rath- er than impeded the interaction between food and flame. The store would celebrate good food and hospitality, and, like all the best retail establishments, it would express its owner’s point of view. In 1970, at age 25, Pollard opened La Cuisine on North Lee


la cuisine continued on E4 PHOTOS BY MICHAEL TEMCHINE FOR THE WASHINGTON POST How Washington chefs put their own slant on the summer staple


By David Hagedorn Special to The Washington Post


JAMES M. THRESHER FOR THE WASHINGTON POST


“We only have room for the best,” says La Cuisine owner Nancy Purves Pollard, here with her favorite pot for cooking a chicken.


RECIPE • Chicken With Calvados and Cream ONLINE


RECIPES PICTURED ABOVE • Singapore Slaw With Salted Plum Dressing (top) ONLINE • (from left) Blue Cheese Slaw E6 • Asparagus Carrot Slaw E6 • Steve Adelson’s North Carolina-Style Coleslaw ONLINE • Hao Long Dragon Slaw E6 MORE RECIPES • Antonio Burrell’s Papaya Slaw E6 • Kaz Okochi’s Jicama Inari Slaw E6 • Travis Timberlake’s Vinegar Slaw E6


carrots dressed with rice wine vinegar, cilantro, jalapeño pepper, scallions and sesame oil — was quite tasty. I have since changed camps. ¶ That scene came to mind a couple of months ago when someone suggested I try the Singapore Slaw at chef Susur Lee’s Zentan restaurant on Thomas Circle. ¶ “It’s got 19 ingredients in it,” the server gushed, promising that my companion and I would love it. I found the price offputting: $16 for a starter. But we got the slaw anyway, intending to eat just a few bites because we had ordered so much other food. ¶ Out came a wide bowl piled high with ingredients. In the dimly lighted room, it was hard to make out what they all were. I noticed micro greens, colorful flowers, fried rice


W slaws continued on E6


hile mapping out menus during a week-long lake retreat many summers ago, a chef friend and I had no trouble keeping things amicable until the subject of slaw preparation came up. I liked it creamy; she was all about the vinegar and hold the mayo, thank you very much. ¶ After some heated discussion, I gave in and admitted later that her version — shredded red cabbage and


seSlawason


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