The D.C. Dish Hall of Fame leaderboard remains virtually unchanged after a week of voting, save for the flip-flop of the ninth and tenth place dishes. After a strong surge last week, Horace & Dickie’s  fried whiting moves up a notch into ninth place.

But I have to say, I think the list is still missing some great dishes. Plates like Frank Ruta’s roast chicken and Michel Richard’s lobster burger are nowhere to be seen, meaning they will not, at present, be part of the inaugural class of the D.C. Dish Hall of Fame. A shame that would be, to paraphase a certain elderly sage.

A comment we received this morning, I think, sums up the feelings of a number of voters, who seem to view this contest as an exercise in classism, not a genuine search for D.C.’s finest plates:

like most things in DC, the options show extreme class stratification. I’d love to know the percentage of DC residents who’ve enjoyed the CityZen Parker House Rolls or Komi’s spit roasted goat.

I understand that more people can afford to eat at Ben’s Chili Bowl over CityZen. But I don’t think you should hold that against a great side like Eric Ziebold’s Parker House rolls. It deserves a place among the city’s best as much as the chili half-smoke. Well, almost as much.

So, c’mon, let’s try to put our prole resentments aside and vote for the best, regardless of price.  You can vote here.

The leaderboard:

Read More “D.C. Dish Hall of Fame Leaderboard: Same As It Ever Was” »

Y&H has been promoting the pleasures of fried whiting for years. It’s truly one of the District’s under-appreciated plates, which is why I was happy to see the whiting at Horace & Dickie’s enter this week’s leaderboard for the D.C Dish Hall of Fame.

Granted, the dish still doesn’t have enough votes to enter the Hall. It needs to be among the top five to earn that honor. But regardless, I’m glad to see it get some love. Maybe you’d like to give it more affection? Vote here.

Speaking of which, the falafel sandwich at Amsterdam Falafelshop also made a strong move last week, adding nearly 30 votes to its total despite the owners’, ahem, questionable behavior at the Strathmore. I credit the uptick to a groundswell of vegan/vegetarian voters, who were no doubt spurred by some online petition. How do I know this?

Because Y&H received a number of e-mails like this one from avalon345:

“Not enough vegetarian/vegan choices! Looks like 1950s fare…”

Yeah, sure. Where were you eating palak chaat, pho, and Peruvian chicken in the ’50s, avalon345?

The current leaderboard after the jump:

Read More “Horace & Dickie’s Enters the Leaderboard in D.C. Hall of Fame Voting” »

Or Johnny’s Half Shell! Allow me to explain why.

The wife and I had just got to the Strathmore Music Center. We were running late as we scampered to find our seats for last night’s Lyle Lovett concert. Carrie assumed the task of securing our seats. I headed to the restroom.

When Carrie got to our seats, she found that they were occupied. Now these were no ordinary seats. These were my birthday-present seats, located smack-dab in the middle of the first row of the Grand Tier. (The photo above gives you an idea of the view from these seats.) There was only one seat available, and Carrie took it, hoping to work out the problem. The occupants of the other seats started teasing Carrie:

Where is your husband going to sit? they wondered. (”On my lap,” Carrie told them.) What’s your husband’s name? (”Tim,” she said.) Well, maybe we don’t want Tim to sit with us; we like you better. (“No, you’ll like Tim, too,” Carrie added.)

They were having a jolly friggin’ time without me.

When I finally emerged from the restroom, the usher was still trying to sort out the seating snafu. The occupants rightfully had tickets to those seats, too, the usher told me. I was about to get annoyed by this double-booking when the usher finally figured out the problem: The seat squatters were supposed to be in the level above us. He promptly filed them out of our seats.

That’s when I really got a good look at who had stole our seats:

Read More “I’ll Never Step Foot in Amsterdam Falafelshop Again!” »

Voting is just a couple of weeks old for the inaugural class of the D.C. Dish Hall of Fame, but already a pattern has emerged: Fast foods are dominating the competition.

That’s hardly surprising, of course. On a daily basis, you know that people order about 500 more half smokes at Ben’s Chili Bowl than, say, order Frank Ruta’s roast chicken at Palena Cafe. But just because the odds are stacked against your favorite dish, that’s no excuse to sit back and let the fast foods run away with this.

Start pressing your friends to vote for your favorite dish. The voting doesn’t end until Dec. 11, when we will induct the top 5 into Washington City Paper’s inaugural D.C. Dish Hall of Fame.

Take a look at the current leaders:

Read More “Fast Foods Take the Lead in D.C. Dish Hall of Fame Voting” »

Not long ago, Mohamed Elrafal decided to trade his antiques business for a spotless new street cart, which to this untrained eye looks as if it’s painted deep Egyptian blue. The color would be only appropriate. Elrafal is a native of Egypt, and his cart, Ali Baba’s Falafel, located on the corner of Willow Lane and Wisconsin Avenue in Bethesda, serves up the Egyptian version of this street food.

For those who have only sampled the Palestinian/Israeli version of falafel — you know, the kind basically  peddled at places as divergent as Amsterdam Falafelshop in Adams Morgan and Max’s Kosher Cafe in Wheaton — you’re in for a surprise. Or three.

First off, the fried balls, once you bite into them, reveal a vivid emerald interior, the result of the snack’s main ingredient—fava beans, not the standard chickpeas found in the Palestinian/Israeli iteration. (Ali Baba’s falafel is split about 90-10, favoring the fava bean over the chickpea.) The favas give the fried balls a softer, moister texture, which may disappoint those who have come to anticipate (and love) that first-bite crunch of the chickpea version.

Read More “Ali Baba’s in Bethesda Does Falafel the Egyptian Way” »

Okay, sorry for the lame headline. It’s late on a Friday. But I wanted to leave you with something to chew on: the new pita bread at Amsterdam Falafelshop in Adams Morgan. During the course of our conversation about Maoz Vegetarian entering the D.C. market, Arianne Bennett mentioned that the Falafelshop recently started using pitas specially made for the place by an “Israeli guy from the upper mid-Atlantic.” She wouldn’t name names but said the shop gets fresh delivers from the dude twice a week.

I stopped by the Falafeshop today to sample the new bread, and I have to say it’s a significant improvement over the dry, thin pita that I remember previously. This one has more body: Its chewy crust and soft, airy crumb provide a dandy contrast to the dense falafel balls. My only complaint is its size: It seems smaller than the old pita, which made it hard to stuff the amount and variety of toppings I wanted into my sandwich. I literally had to pry open the sides to try to squeeze in more salads and sauces.

I’d really don’t want to believe this is intentional, that the new pita is a clever way to save on toppings in a down economy. I really don’t. Perhaps my memory is off. What do y’all remember? Were the old pitas larger? Could they accommodate more toppings? Sound off!

Maoz Vegetarian, an Amsterdam-based falafel chain, appears to have serious designs on the D.C. market. In fact, Its first foray into the area, on M Street NW near Dupont Circle, could open in as soon as three months.

Which got me to wondering: How will this Dutch import affect the expansion plans of Amsterdam Falafelshop? Last time I talked to owners Scott and Arianne Bennett, way back in April 2007, they had pulled the plug on their second Falafelshop on Capitol Hill but were still moving ahead on a franchise location in Herndon. But nearly two years later, there’s still only one Falafelshop, the original in Adams Morgan. What gives?

Well, it turns out the expansion delays have nothing to Maoz, says Arianne Bennett. The couple just realized a while back that they needed more expertise if they planned to franchise the Falafelshop. So the Bennetts turned to FranPoint Partners, an Annapolis-based franchise development company. FranPoint is helping the couple develop a franchising plan “the proper way, so that our franchisees would be happy with what they got,” Arianne Bennett says. And so that they’d be happy with the profits, too, she adds, unlike too many franchisees who slave away for the corporate mothership and have little to show for it.

The Bennetts, in fact, seem to welcome Maoz’s entrance into the market.

Read More “Who Will Own the Local Falafel Market? Amsterdam or Maoz?” »