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” »

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” »

A couple of weeks ago, Y&H asked you to nominate the entrees and appetizers and desserts that you felt were worthy of inclusion into a D.C. Dish Hall of Fame. Y’all tore into the assignment like a pack of wolves on a dead carcass.  I received Tweets, personal e-mails, and lots of suggestions via the comments section.

Then for this week’s Young & Hungry column, I contacted a few chefs for their input on HOF dishes. All told, between the public and chefs, you nominated more than 100 dishes, with very little overlap. I’ve narrowed down the list down to the 30 dishes that could represent D.C. well, if elected to the hall.

Now it’s your turn. You can vote for three dishes and three dishes only. The top five vote-getters will be part of the inaugural class of the D.C. Dish Hall of Fame. You have until Dec. 11 to vote.

Pass the word around!

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

Well, look who’s back at No. 1? Our old friend Select 55, who just couldn’t stand being out of the limelight for a couple of weeks.

This week’s top blog posts feature a couple of hard-charging items published late in the week, including a campaign to protect Rock Art Brewery from corporate beer behemoths on the warpath.

Here’s what you liked:

1. Budweiser Launches Select 55, Light Beer Arms Race Gets Absurd
2. Rasika Will Be the First Ethnic Restaurant to Earn 4 Stars from Tom Sietsema
3. Sietsema’s 2009 Dining Guide Makes Premature Appearance on Web
4. When Should a Critic Just Trash a Place?
5. A True Monster Attacks Rock Art Brewery — Can Twitter and Facebook Help?
   

Y&H had been trading phone calls with the mysterious Atul, owner of the previously mentioned Masala Art in Tenleytown, before we finally connected this afternoon. Atul, it turns out, is Atul Bhola, a man with just a little bit of experience in Indian cuisine. He was manager at Heritage India for ten years.

“It was always my dream to open a place of my own,” says Bhola, who has also served as a Hyatt banquette manager back in India.

Bhola says he would have already opened the 45-seat Masala Art if it hadn’t been for his first choice for chef. “I selected a person, and he never came through for me,” Bhola tells Y&H.

Read More “More on Masala Art in Tenleytown” »

So says GQ magazine, which runs down the list of D.C. heavyweights in its November issue. Most of the folks on the list are pols or the power behind pols or the eyes watching pols. Ashok Bajaj makes the cut, apparently, because he feeds the pols and treats them all with respect.

Bajaj tells GQ a few of his rules for navigating the political waters in this town:

• Know Your Client. “You can feel the temperature of the person,” he says. Last winter, with our economy teetering, that meant giving Geithner the privacy of a corner table when he dined alone at the Bombay Club but seating the more sociable Bernanke “in the thick of things” when he took his wife to dinner at the Oval Room.

Read More “More Good News for Bajaj: He’s One of D.C.’s Most Powerful People” »

Tom Sietsema won’t confirm it, but sources indicate that Rasika, restaurateur Ashok Bajaj’s upscale Indian establishment in Penn Quarter, will receive four stars in the Post critic’s next Dining Guide, which should hit the Web on Thursday.

It would be the first so-called ethnic restaurant to earn four stars in Sietsema’s nine-plus years as dining critic.

Several people, after reading a prematurely published version of Sietsema’s guide on the Web on Sunday, have called Bajaj and told him the same news. “My gut feeling is that it’s true as well,” says Bajaj, the City Paper’s runner-up for Best Restaurateur this year. “But I want to see it myself.

Read More “Rasika Will Be the First Ethnic Restaurant to Earn 4 Stars from Tom Sietsema” »

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:

Read More “Seeking Nominees for City Paper’s Inaugural D.C. Dish Hall of Fame” »

Restaurant Rater audreys does what every good critic should do: not just review the food on the plate but provide a little perspective on the restaurant in question. Check out audreys’ review of Rasika:

Read More “Vox Populi: Restaurant Rater audreys on Rasika” »