Posts Tagged ‘Komi’
Seeking Nominees for City Paper’s Inaugural D.C. Dish Hall of Fame
The Margherita at 2Amys: Does it make the cut?
Earlier this week, I was noshing on the roast chicken at Palena Cafe, reveling once again in Frank Ruta’s ability to add and coax flavors from this generous, succulent portion of breast, wing, and leg meat. That’s when the thought struck me: This is, hands-down, one of the area’s greatest dishes. It deserves a spot in some sort of local culinary hall of fame.
The roast chicken is an obvious one, but what other dishes would make the cut? I’ve been pondering this and have drafted a number of nominees. The list is, by no means, complete. It needs your suggestions.
Once we get a solid roster of nominees, we’ll put them to a public vote here on the Y&H blog. The top 10 vote getters will go into the City Paper’s inaugural D.C. Dish Hall of Fame. Winners will receive everlasting glory.
The working list of nominees:
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WaPo’s Klein Calls Johnny Monis “America’s Greatest Genius.” Can a Vegetarian Make Such a Claim?
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As part of CBS’ Washington Unplugged, Under 40, segment, Kaylee Hartung asked WaPo’s Ezra Klein, the paper’s blogger on economic and domestic policy and part-time food writer, five rapid-fire questions. Among them: What’s his favorite restaurant? His favorite place for happy hour? And his “favorite person to watch under 40 in D.C. right now”?
Klein’s answers:
- Favorite restaurant: Palena for a regular Wednesday night dinner but Komi if you have “money to burn.”
- Favorite place for happy hour: Bar Pilar
- Favorite person to watch under 40 in D.C. right now: “I think Johnny Monis, the chef at Komi, is probably America’s greatest genius currently living.”
No matter how off the cuff, Klein’s last comment is a bold, strong endorsement of Monis, a chef who, despite his tremendous talent, has not won the Rising Star category at the James Beard Awards the past two years. Regardless, I didn’t find Klein’s choice questionable…until Hartung ended her segment by saying that the blogger is a vegetarian.
Come again?
How then could Klein call Monis a genius — or any chef who works with meats — if he hasn’t sampled a large portion of Monis’ creations? I e-mailed Klein for some clarification.
The Decision to Skip Komi, Citronelle, Etc.: Provocative? Legit? Or Stupid?
This morning, I got into a small online argument with a fellow D.C. gastronome (can I just pause here and say that I hate almost all the words used to describe a food lover; they all carry the connotation that you can’t tie your shoes without the help of a sommelier or bus boy) who disagreed with my decision to exclude the local heavy hitters from my Young & Hungry Dining Guide.
Wrote this epicure (again with the gastro-dandy terms) over two separate e-mails:
No Komi? Omitting Citronelle is trendy. Omitting Komi is foolhardy. (And no, I’m not a New Yorker. I think Komi beats Pierre Gagnaire in Paris, which is 3 stars and top ten in the “best in the world” list.)
Having places on your list that are not on Tom’s or Todd’s is what makes it interesting and cool. But entirely omitting from the list a place that’s on everyone’s list, and tops on many of them, seems deliberately provocative. But we’ll just agree to disagree (unless you want to buy me dinner at Komi so we can sit down together and you can make your case against their inclusion!)”
Here was my response back to this international eater:
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True Dining Guide Confessions #1: Why D.C.’s Best Restaurants Didn’t Make the List
Allow me to tell you about some of the restaurants that didn’t make this year’s Young & Hungry guide to the 50 Best Restaurants in D.C. Michel Richard Citronelle, for one. Komi didn’t, either, no matter how many times some New Yorker wants to tell me what a genius Johnny Monis is. I sent other sacred cows to slaughter, too: Palena, Restaurant Eve, Minibar at Café Atlantico, CityZen, 2Amys, Inn at Little Washington, and Central didn’t make my final cut. You want more? Buh-bye, CityZen and Ray’s Hell Burger.
Trust me, I’m not trying to be difficult. I’m just trying to be realistic. Do you really need me—or anyone else for that matter—to tell you to eat at these places? I might as well tell you to wear clothes when you go outside.
Photograph of Palena’s Frank Ruta by Darrow Montgomery
Brooks Headley to Japan
Brooks Headley (pastry chef at Del Posto, former pastry chef at Komi, former drummer of Born Against and the Wrangler Brutes, and my former housemate) is headed to Osaka to participate in a dessert demonstration for the curiously-named Japanese pastry shop chain Gramercy, New York. Headley will join Alex Grunert of Blue Hill Farm and Robert Truitt of Corton, and the trio will demo signature dishes and lead Q & A sessions for classes of 20-30 dessert-crazed onlookers.
“People at this [event] are obsessed with desserts and pastry chefs from New York, like [we're] rock stars,” says Headley, who hopes to score a recipe for an obscure Japanese spongecake by way of cultural exchange. “The way the Japanese approach desserts is completely insane, methodical and analytical…to be immersed in that for a week is going to be awesome.”
Japanese or not, dessert fetishists should take a gander at Headley’s sfera di caprino with celery and fig agrodolce and celery sorbetto:
“It’s a dessert for people who say they don’t want dessert,” says Headley. The caprino (goat cheese) is rolled in to balls, coated with salted breadcrumbs and served with celery sorbet and a shaved celery garnish. The fig makes for a sweet-and-sour experience. “I refuse to take it off the [Del Posto] menu even though it doesn’t sell that much,” Headley adds. “Like if you’re in a band that likes one song that gets no response from the crowd, but you play it anyway.”
If any punk rockers are still reading this, check out Headley and Mick Barr’s (ex-Crom Tech, ex-Orthrelm) project Oldest.
What Are the Top Five Neighborhoods for Eats?
Ruta: A main reason Murshed likes Cleveland Park
Komi manager and server Basheer Murshed, a long-time D.C. resident, bravely offered his top five foodie neighborhoods to the Urban Turf real estate Web site. There are no real surprises on Murshed’s list, but perhaps a few omissions that say something about the fine-dining leanings of our city.
Murshed likes the offerings found in Bethesda, Arlington, Cleveland Park/Cathedral Heights, U Street, and, of course, Penn Quarter. You can’t argue too much with any of those ‘hoods, all of which have eateries worth backing and promoting. But what about the neighborhoods or areas that don’t cater to fine dining but still have some of the best eats around?
D.C. Rakes in the Noms for 2009 James Beard Awards
The nominees for the 2009 James Beard Foundation Awards were announced this morning, and the big local winners were the Washington Post and José Andrés with three noms each.
Technically, I guess you could say that Andrés, aside from nods for best new restaurant, outstanding chef, and web/radio, shared a fourth nomination, too. His boffo new Los Angeles restaurant, The Bazaar, also earned one for best design.
The Post’s Tom Sietsema racked up a pair of nominations, one for his Sunday magazine feature about noisy dining rooms and one for his restaurant criticism. Sietsema submitted three reviews to earn the latter nomination: Great Expectations (3/2/2008), Robo Restaurant (6/1/2008), and An Earned Exclamation (7/20/2008). In the review category, Sietsema will be competing against Adam Platt from New York magazine and LA Weekly’s Jonathan Gold, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his criticism in 2007.
“I’m humbled by the nominees in the criticism category in particular,” e-mailed Sietsema, who’s been nominated twice before. “I mean, Johnathan Gold [sic] was the first food writer to win a Pulitzer for his reviews! And I love Platt’s prose in New York magazine. Most of all, I was pleased to see all the Washington chef talent on the Beard list. Those guys all work very hard and deserve the kudos that have come their way.”
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Beard Semi-Finalists Just Announced: D.C. Is Well Represented
The James Beard Foundation has released its massive list of semi-finalists [PDF] in the restaurant and chef categories, and the D.C. area has plenty of contenders. So far, at least.
It’s a bit early to get too pump over this list, which was whittled down from more than 15,000 entries. At present, many of the categories boast 20 or more semi-finalists, but by March 23, each will be pared down to five. The winners will be honored on May 4 at the Lincoln Center in New York City.
With that said, D.C. was well represented among the semi-finalists. Young & Hungry sends out a hearty congratulations for those local chefs and restaurants that made the cut. They include:
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This Week’s Greatest Hits from the Young & Hungry Blog
Thanks to a Huffington Post mention, Mike DeBonis‘ item last week about Adrian Fenty and Michelle Obama lunching at Georgia Brown’s took the top honors this week. After DeBonis’ upset win, the Top 5 settled down into the usual Young & Hungry mix of posts, which apparently aren’t good enough for Huffington.
Komi: Best Restaurant in D.C. or ‘Overrated’?
For those of you who are waiting breathlessly for the Washingtonian to reveal its top restaurant of the year, please allow me to spoil it for you: It’s Komi. (Okay, it’s not really a spoiler; most of you knew this already.) Frankly, I think it’s a smart choice—at least from the standpoint of food. Johnny Monis treats ingredients the way Republicans treat the homeless: He stays out of their way, to allow each ingredient to speak for itself. As for Komi’s dining room…well, it has all the personality of a Presbyterian meeting room. A dimly lit one.
Today, the Prince of Petworth, without so much as acknowledging the Washingtonian’s pick, asked his readers what they thought of Komi. The responses have been mostly fawning, though there are a few haters, which the internets seems to breed like lice. For example, someone who bravely calls himself/herself “anoneemoo” says Komi is “totally overrated, overpriced, over hyped. try pallena or cityzen or ten others.”
