A guy drives 20 hours round-trip from Michigan to try Spike Mendelsohn's warm, savory corned beef from the Sixth & Rye truck.  And, boy, did that Cadillac smell by the time he got back. [Automobile Magazine]

In case you missed it, here's what D.C. chefs José Andrés, Mike Isabella, and Haidar Karoum, among others, served up at the National Portrait Gallery's fete honoring farm-to-table pioneer Alice Waters last month. [Smithsonian]

New trucker-in-chief: BBQ Bus boss Che Ruddell-Tabisola takes over for Curbside Cupcakes' Kristi Whitfield as executive director of the D.C. Food Truck Association. [WaPo]

Hill Country raises $3,800 for Texas wildfire relief. [Fort Worth Star Telegram]

The forthcoming New Orleans PoBoy Shop aims to open in April in Dupont Circle. [Prince of Petworth]

Health inspectors closed Heller's Bakery in Mount Pleasant for code violations last week. It reopened later the same day. [WaPo]

A documentary about D.C. Central Kitchen's Culinary Job Training program nabs $40,000 in financing. [HuffPo]

Photo by Rick/Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

Estadio owner Mark Kuller says there aren't many tapas bars in Spain any better than his own place right here in D.C.  Admittedly, he's biased. [Washingtonian]

Westend Bistro's Eric Ripert thinks National Airport's Matsutake Sushi is actually pretty good. You know, for airport food. [Wall Street Journal]

Good Stuff Eatery's Spike Mendelsohn can't wait for the current tenant of his new Georgetown location to get out. Until then, he's keeping mum on the address. Estimated time of opening: Fall 2012. [Patch]

A former jumbo slice and kabob dive in Adams Morgan might become a ramen house. At least that's what it sounded like the owner was saying. [Prince of Petworth]

Slurp it up! A visual tour of D.C.'s soup scene. [HuffPo]

Tonight, at Cashion's, chef John Manolatos unveils a new weekend tasting menu of his favorite dishes. Price is $85 per person ($105 with wine pairings). Availability is limited. The next day, the Cashion's crew also celebrates the second anniversary of its sister retail spot, A.M. Wine Shoppe, with tastings and demonstrations throughout the afternoon and early evening.

Also on Saturday, a whole weekend's worth of culinary education events kicks off at 1789 with chef Anthony Lombardo's braising tutorial, followed by a trip across town to Eastern Market and subsequent cooking class with celebrity toque Spike Mendelsohn. On Sunday, meanwhile, Barracks Row is the scene of an entire culinary education crawl.

Sunday is also the start of D.C. Meat Week. Those who don't schlep out to Rockville's Urban Bar-B-Q for the kick-off party, featuring happy hour specials and free side dishes, can still look forward to clogging their arteries at the Hill Country buffet on Monday, as well as other events throughout next week.

For more info, click on any event in the Y&H food events calendar above.

Got something tasty going on? Email tips, daily specials and event listings to hungry@washingtoncitypaper.com

Deviled eggs at Central

The best day to snag that coveted Valentine's Day reservation is yesterday. [Urbanspoon via Eater]

A chat with nomadic "silly plating"-hating pizzaiolo Edan MacQuaid. [Borderstan]

José Andrés' has a D.C. food truck in the works. [Dining Bisnow]

Arlington-based District Taco plans to open not one but two locations within the actual District. [Washingtonian]

Spike Mendelsohn's plans for Good Stuff Eatery expansion stretches beyond the planned pair of new D.C.-area locations. Philly, Chicago—heck, even Paris and London are on his radar. [DC Internationalist]

Some nutritionists are actually pleased with the government's new school lunch standards—you know, aside from the whole pizza-as-vegetable thing. [WaPo]

Chef Geoff Tracy amps up his campaign against D.C. speed cameras by hiring a sign spinner to warn drivers. [WTOP]

Proof

Whatever Gray's meaty creation, Karoum was picked the winner, earning both the respect of his peers and what appeared to be a congratulatory smooch from host José Andrés! (Read how Karoum prepared for battle here.)

In an earlier bout, an orgy of Top Chef alum took the stage as surprise guests: Good Stuff Eatery's Spike Mendelsohn, paired with The Chew's Carla Hall, topped rumor magnet Mike Isabella of Graffiato, paired with Jennifer Carroll (cooking in three-inch, calf-high boots), with their spin on patatas bravas made with a melon-baller.

The Ronald Reagan Building was totally packed, totally loud and totally full of old men in suits who shelled out $200 a pop (not including throwing down thousands of dollars for auction items) to attend the charity event, benefiting the D.C. Central Kitchen. The joint was so noisy that Andrés, dressed in an elbow patch blazer (what, does he think he's teaching a class at Harvard?), often had to scream into the mic to be heard. I think I overheard handsome co-host Anthony Bourdain ask the Minibar maestro if he was running for the White House.

The fashionable Hall, dressed in gorgeous skinny leather pants (she even let me feel them—soooo smooth), performed admirably in the role of auctioneer. She must be getting plenty of practice in speaking crazy fast from talking over Mario Batali on The Chew.

Some 60 local restaurants offered tastings during the competition. Dupont Circle's Casa Nonna, for one, was boiling fresh pasta on site for its sample plates.

Some photos from the star-studded soiree:

Secret ingredient: skate.

Nothing like raw meat, served in bulk.

Andrés, showing off the goods.

Duck and parmesan do go together.

I swear, Bourdain and I locked eyes. Or maybe he was just waving to friend Tim Carman.

Yes, apparently, pageants still exist. That's Miss District of Columbia standing with victorious chef Karoum.

Photos by Stefanie Gans

While I savored the heat of the aioli somewhat, one friend would have preferred some real peppers instead. And all three of us agreed that the chewy crust could have spent a little more time in the oven to crisp it up a bit. But, compared to the boring fare at the typical slice joint across the street? Fuhgeddaboudit.

Graffiato, 707 6th St. NW, (202) 289-3600

Photo by Chris Shott

Back in Broth: Longtime Young & Hungry fave Ren's Ramen, formerly of Bethesda, has re-opened in Wheaton. “I think this is a nice place,” owner Yoko Nakamura says of the new 1,250-square-foot location at 11403 Amherst Avenue. “It’s pretty close to the Metro station.” Y&H alum Tim Carman provides a tantalizing photo from the scene. [The Gazette, Twitter]

Al Pastor Apologist: Some rare praise for the tacos at El Centro D.F. [DC Fud]

Suds Studs: D.C. Brau, the District's first hometown brewery in decades, isn't wasting a single drop.  “We haven’t had to pour any beer down the drain." [Washington Times]

Rye Wit: Chef Barry Koslow of Arlington's Tallula restaurant calls D.C. a “barren wasteland of deli," but has high hopes for Spike Mendelsohn’s new kosher truck, Sixth & Rye. [Forward]

Photo by Eric Hunt/Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

The presentation of these and more than 100 other historical items seems better designed for someone hopping off a tour bus than anyone who knows the exhibit space as a stop on the Green Line. But beyond the gallery, local foodies and policy wonks can find plenty of eye-opening material here to ponder.

What’s Cooking comprises four color-coded sections related to farm, factory, kitchen and table in the compact Lawrence F. O’Brien Gallery. On the walls and in display cases are posters, photographs, letters, political cartoons, and videos covering the United States’ history of food production, distribution and regulation. The exhibit begins during the era of Revolutionary War rations and ends around the time of the Reagan administration’s ketchup-as-a-vegetable debacle.

Though the exhibit does not use flashy media or a gripping narrative, virtually everyone can connect to something there.

For Louisiana nursery school teacher Janna Maggio, who came to the Archives with her husband and middle-school-aged son to see the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, the connection was to her students’ food preferences. “They’re so used to eating chicken nuggets at home,” Maggio says. “We’ll basically beg for them to try something else.” If nuggets aren't available, the kids dip bread rolls in ketchup.

The exhibit shows that the tug-of-war between federal recommendations and Americans’ eating habits is “nothing new,” says Maggio.

"There’s lots of conversation going on about food policy and regulation, as well as just general interest in food and cooking," says exhibition curator Alice Kamps. This created the perfect context for a show of food records, which Kamps began working on when she joined the Archives two years ago. And people responded–the Archives had almost 700 more visitors on opening day than it did on the second Friday of June 2010, and almost 1,500 more over the weekend.

Some D.C.-area residents were among them. “It’s interesting to see what happened before regulation started kicking in,” says Rockville resident David Driscoll, who came specifically for What’s Cooking at the recommendation of Kendra Scaman, who lives on Capitol Hill and heard about the show on NPR. Scaman was fascinated by a late 19^th-century cartoon showing a woman trying to save herself as her ketchup bottles explode—a common occurrence before Henry Heinz started using a stabilizing agent and fresh tomatoes in the fermented condiment.

That cartoon sits in the “Factory” section, close to another from 1885 entitled “Our Mutual Friend.” The image depicts a sexton (whose main concern is preserving corpses) and a doctor eyeballing a gigantic stick of candy marked with the ingredients both men use: arsenic, chalk, chromium yellow and other nasty chemicals. These scenes, we discover, come from the dim days before the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906.

The bulk of the Archives' summer visitors are families and school groups, mostly from out of town, says Kamps.

Any local wonks who did wander in undoubtedly noted something odd. Except for a 1992 USDA food pyramid and a small poster of Michelle Obama breaking ground on the White House kitchen garden in 2009, the romp through food history stops in the '80s. Those vitamin doughnut hawkers are long gone, it seems to say; deadly food additives were regulated away decades ago. Even the videos made for the exhibit have a sepia-toned 1930s look. Kamps points out a practical reason for this: The Archives does not receive most of its documents until 30 years after their creation.

That means the displays do not include ads claiming the health benefits of cotton candy-flavored yogurt, photos of Farm Bill protests or study abstracts linking cancer to perfectly legal artificial colors.

The events on the exhibit's periphery have more than made up for any lack of Washingtonian attendance. Celebrated D.C. chef José Andrés serves as the exhibit’s chief culinary adviser. Andrés has written a book based on the exhibit and will open a pop-up restaurant called the America Eats Tavern near the Archives site in July. On the first evening of the exhibit, his lecture and book signing packed the Archives’ 290-seat McGowan Theater.

By the June 10 debut, the building best known for its yellowing parchment had already hosted White House chef Sam Kass, celebrity chef Spike Mendelsohn, best-selling cookbook author Joan Nathan, and Gourmet writer Laura Shapiro. The presentations offered new recipes and pushes for healthier, more sustainable food systems.

“I’m a big foodie,” says Agnieszka Bolikowksa, who lives in Adams Morgan and came hoping to shoehorn into the Andrés event. “I’m here for him and then for the exhibit,” she admits. “He’s such a personality.”

Photo by Rhea Yablon Kennedy; poster image courtesy of the National Archives

What’s Cooking, Uncle Sam? is free and open during Archive hours, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. through Labor Day, and then 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. in the fall and winter. (Enter on Constitution Avenue, NW between 7th and 9th streets). The exhibit runs through January 3, 2012.

The America Eats Tavern, located at the former location of Café Atlantico at 405 8th St. NW, opens July 4.

Yes, But Will There Be Customer-Behavior Videos? Silver Spring's Pacci's Neapolitan Pizzeria will be opening up a sibling restaurant in the old General Store space in Forest Glen where Gillian Clark, her fried chicken, and her video production work once found a home. [Eater D.C.]

Smoothing Things Over: Oh, Spike Mendelsohn. He is clarifying his D.C.-is-a-second-tier-city comments that have gotten him into trouble this week. "There is nothing secondary about DC in my mind," says the cable television reality chef. Eh, there's always the Taste of Arlington! [People's District, The Hill Is Home, Eater D.C., D.C. Füd]

Libations: These desserts will get you drunk if you consume enough of them. [The Feast]

Excitement Buds in Bloomingdale: For those eagerly waiting updates on the development of the future Engine Company 12 restaurant on North Capitol Street: "Be patient, everyone — we will soon (in the not too distant future) have our very own wine & cheese bar (plus retail shop), courtesy of one of our very own Bloomingdale residents." [PoP]

Tips From Tom: You can use bartender tipping strategies at Starbucks! From Tom Sietsema's weekly chat, responding to an inquiry about tipping for carry-out service: "I periodically tip $5 to my favorite baristas at Starbucks and guess who gets his double espresso quickly even when there's a long line of java junkies in front of him? Definitely worth the outlay." [WaPo]

Tips for Your Herbs: "[T]here's nothing convenient about coming home with arms full of groceries, ready to cook your magnificent, herb-laden feast, only to find that your parsley and dill from three days ago have melted into a yellow-brown puddle of slime." So true! Here's a good primer on how to make the most of what you buy in the herb department. [Serious Eats]

Photo by Flickr user uchiuska using an Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic Creative Commons license

Herewith, the full details:

Sixth & Rye: DC’s First Kosher Deli on Wheels

When the aroma of smoked corned beef and the distinct crunch of a salty pickle are flooding your senses, rest assured that the Sixth & Rye food truck on the corner ahead is finally more than just a craving-induced mirage. Sixth & I is teaming up with Good Stuff Eatery’s Chef Spike Mendelsohn and personal chef to NBA athletes Chef Malcolm Mitchell to bring DC the old-fashioned Kosher deli cuisine it’s been longing for.

Making stops throughout the downtown DC area, including Chinatown, Farragut Square and Dupont Circle, Sixth & Rye will dish out deliciousness at a different location each week. For a limited time, the truck will be operating exclusively on Fridays, during lunch hours. Find the whereabouts of the mobile deli on Twitter by following @sixthandrye.

Sixth & Rye is made possible in part by a grant from The Natan Fund, which supports innovative projects that are shaping the Jewish future.

Sixth & Rye will launch in front of 600 I (Eye) Street, NW on Friday, May 20 at 10:30 am for MEDIA ONLY. Please RSVP to agoldstein@sixthandi.org by Thursday, May 19 if you plan to attend as media. The truck will begin serving the public at 11:30 am.

The truck’s signature hot smoked corned beef sandwich on fresh rye bread will combine the flavors of smoked meat and homemade hot mustard to form an undeniably delicious version of the classic. Several side dishes ranging from an inspired Israeli couscous salad to fresh cut potato chips will complement the signature sandwich. The menu will also feature a grilled vegetable wrap and a “Meal Deal” option. Menu items will range from $2 – $12.

Toward the end of last year, Sixth & I launched its “Next Great Idea for the New Year” contest, a call for Washingtonians to suggest things that they wished to see implemented by Sixth & I. After sifting through hundreds of submissions, the staff came across an idea that really got their “wheels turning” — a Kosher deli food truck.

“We knew this was a perfect opportunity for Sixth & I to expand beyond the walls of our building,” Director Esther Safran Foer said of the idea.  “As an organization, we’re constantly seeking exciting approaches to Jewish culture that are inclusive of everyone.  We can think of no better way to fuse traditional with contemporary than by bringing classic Jewish fare that has transcended generations to the forefront of the latest local trend.”

When Foer reached out to Mendelsohn, a veteran host of Sixth & I events like Chef Spike’s Latke Mania (2008) and Spike up the Matzah (2009), he was thrilled to be part of the venture. Shortly thereafter, Mendelsohn’s fellow cooking connoisseur, Mitchell, joined the team. Mitchell is Sixth & Rye’s on-board chef. He has consulted with Mendelsohn on the tasty menu.

“A Kosher food truck...it's just genius,” said Mendelsohn. “I'm excited to be working on this project with Chef Mitchell and all the great people at Sixth & I. It will be a knock-your-socks-off lunch, and I can't wait to see the crowds.”

Mitchell added, “Delis were always a cornerstone of New York neighborhoods. So, as a native New Yorker, I am glad to be a part of history with Sixth & I as well as Chef Spike Mendelsohn in creating the first Kosher food truck in DC. How exciting!”

Jeff Kelley, of Eat Wonky food truck fame, signed onto the project as well. Although using its own equipment and kitchenware, Sixth & Rye will be operating out of the Eat Wonky truck.

"A big part of the Eat Wonky mission is to bring forward fun and distinctive food options to the people of DC,” Kelley said.  “In that spirit, we are thrilled to help facilitate the arrival of Sixth & Rye and their exciting concept by providing a conduit, our truck, to connect their vision with the community."

Sixth & Rye will be Kosher under Rabbinic supervision. There will be a mashgiach supervising all food preparation and services.

Logo courtesy of Sixth & Rye