The seasonal pumpkin-tapioca dessert at New Kam Fong

From the look of things, y’all have a strong interest in vegetarian food. Yesterday, the Y&H blog had some of its highest traffic numbers ever for a Monday, which, of course, is not why we do these kind of themed days. We do them in the name of dietery balance, the environment, human health, and the animals!

OK, sure, we also do them for the traffic.

Regardless, you seemed to enjoy the change of pace, even on the weekly Y&H newsletter, which yesterday was similarly devoted to veg eats. (You can sign up for the newsletter on the right, if you’d like.) One reader, Caroline, e-mailed to say:

Thank you so much for devoting this week’s newsletter to vegetarian/vegan dining! My boyfriend is a vegan and I am a carnivorous foodie. I almost lost it on Sunday morning when we couldn’t find a vegan pancake mix at Whole Foods. Keep the veg/vegan articles coming and maybe someday I’ll be able to go out on a date with him someplace other than Chipotle!

If you aren’t a newsletter subscriber you missed a number of other veg options that Y&H has recently highlighted, like the following:

Read More “Veg Day on Y&H: A Postscript” »

One by one, we’re running through the 50 restaurants that made the cut on this year’s Young & Hungry Dining Guide. If you have visited the day’s featured restaurant, let us know what you think. If you’re planning to visit for the first time, tell us about your meal when you return.

Let me boil this recommendation down to two words: patty melt. For all their innovative flavor combinations, chefs Jonathan Krinn and Jon Mathieson have devised a rather safe, if regal, interpretation of the humble hamburger melt. The patty in their version features ground, exquisitely beefy culotte, which is topped with two cheeses and black truffles, and then pressed between buttery, beautifully fried slices of crustless brioche. I ate this fine example of handheld decadence with a big fruity glass of Lopez de Heredia Rioja, for the kind of lunch that business types would have downed several decades ago, when excess equaled success. You can discover far more subtle delicacies on the chefs’ dinner menu, but whatever you choose, I predict great things for this pricy Tysons playpen as Krinn and Mathieson continue to explore the high and low ends of American gastronomy.

Inox, 1800 Tysons Blvd., Suite 70, McLean, Va., (703) 790-4669

Photo courtesy of Inox

I know that others have previously mentioned Travel + Leisure’s list of the 50 best new restaurants in America, but I finally got a chance to review the magazine’s related slideshow. I dutifully clicked on one slide after another after another, trying to discover which cities outperformed D.C. for these 50 coveted spots. Our metro area earned exactly one nod, for Founding Farmers.

Here’s the city-by-city breakdown of the other 49 spots:

• Chicago: Four restaurants
• New York City: Nine
• San Francisco: Eight
• Houston: Four
• Seattle: Seven

Read More “A Break Down of Travel + Leisure’s 50 Best New U.S. Restaurants” »

The Best of D.C. issue dominated readers’ attention this week on Young & Hungry, including my mea culpa about Best New Restaurant. It’s nice to see that teeth-gnashing confessionals haven’t lost their power to attract attention.

1. Best of D.C.: A Confession About Best New Restaurant
2. Best of D.C.: Which New Restaurant Deserves Top Honors?
3. Things Just Not Flowing at H Street Country Club
4. Best of D.C. Food & Drink Now Online
5. Bourdain: Recession Will Cause An ‘Apocalyptic Shakeout’ of Nation’s Restaurants

Y&H will skip the tears and gnashing of teeth and get right to the confession: If the Best of D.C. issue would have been released next week, I would have selected another place as Best New Restaurant. Unfortunately, I dined at Eventide too late for deadline.

Make no mistake, Inox is deserving of the crown, if based mostly on ambition and its sheer willingness to stretch your imagination and palate as a diner. But for all their originality, chefs Jon Mathieson and Jonathan Krinn are still searching for cohesive flavor combinations to match their creativity. Right now, Eventide toque Miles Vaden is nailing more of his dishes than the dynamic duo over at Inox.

Read More “Best of D.C.: A Confession About Best New Restaurant” »

The editors (aka, the Meat Grinders) are busy putting the final touches on this year’s Best of D.C. issue, even though all the picks have already been made, including a large number in the Food & Drink section. Personally, if you ask me, too much emphasis is placed on the Best Restaurant category.

Seriously, do any of you expect to be surprised by the winner of that category? Far more interesting to me is the Best New Restaurant pick. Despite the crappy economy, our market saw a wealth of new eateries open in the past year. Below the jump is a list of the restaurants under consideration for the honor. Which one do you think deserves top billing?

Read More “Best of D.C.: Which New Restaurant Deserves Top Honors?” »

After last week, in which Y&H spent more time with his computer than his bed, his wife, and his dog combined, and after a full weekend of cooking, eating, and cooking some more, Y&H is ready to ease into his week with some of his favorite blogs.

• Alinea at Home overcomes her fear of the Brine-land to create these little Grant Achatz flavor poppers.

Read More “Daily Food Blog Roundup: A Few of My Favorite Things” »

A well-established D.C. chef/owner once bitched to me that his restaurants don’t get the same coverage as the flashy new joints with the multi-million-dollar build-outs and the pedigreed toques pushing yet another take on New American cooking. I was sympathetic. It’s true, food writers, like most journalists, tend to have a slavish devotion to the new. I guess that’s why many of us work for newspapers.

New restaurants are news.

Hate to say it, but here I go again: My most recent segment on Metro Connection was devoted to some of new restaurants that have opened in the D.C. region, including such rank newbies as Eventide, BRABO by Robert Wiedmaier, and Inox. When host David Furst and I recorded the segment, I hadn’t yet visited any of the three aforementioned establishments, but as part of my ongoing Best of D.C. research, I recently ate at Inox, the sleek new crib from chef/owners Jon Mathieson and Jonathan Krinn.

Is it worthy of Best New Restaurant?

Read More “A Slavish Devotion to the New New Thing” »

We in the D.C. region are fortunate. Restaurants, ones that aren’t afraid to pump serious money into their build-outs and staffing, are still opening in our area, despite the nasty economy. In the past week, three new places have been launched and one Arlington institution has moved into a swankier space. It’s making my weekend dining choices difficult.

I don’t know about you, but I always have a primary question dancing in my head before I even step foot into a new restaurant. Here are the ones I’m pondering for this gang of four:

Read More “So Many New Restaurants to Check Out, So Little Weekend” »