Photo by Mike Madden

Logo courtesy of Chocolate City

Let's get straight to the news:

• Volt chef and owner Bryan Voltaggio is apparently scouting around for another restaurant, which may or may not be the second coming of Volt. (Washington Business Journal)
• Tis the season for tying one on. Tis the season for hangover remedies, too. A number of local heavy hitters explain their best morning-after cure. (Brightest Young Things)
• Eater looks back on R.J. Cooper's unfortunate loss on Iron Chef America on Sunday, while Best Bites Blog runs a Q&A with Cooper's sous chef for the challenge, David Guas, who explains how the whole contest went down.

• The Capital Video Sales store on 8th Street SE will be closing to make way for a Latin tapas joint called Pacifico. (Prince of Petworth)
• Just before Thanksgiving, President Obama dished out two presidential turkey pardons outside the W Hotel. The spared birds were aptly named "Apple" and "Cider." (WeLoveDC)
• The Thrillist folks take us through a first look of Penn Quarter's newest joint: Merzi. (Thrillist)
• Foxhall sandwich shop Jetties will be opening a second location in Bethesda early next spring. (Bethesda magazine)
• Can't make up your mind on savory or sweet? The Cakespy's recipe for cinnamon rolls stuffed with Thanksgiving pie leftovers should do the trick. (Serious Eats)
• Bubbly anyone? On Dec. 11, EatBar is hosting its annual Sparkler Tasting and Sale, where you can sample all things bubbly, from your standard champagne to imported sparklers from Italy and Spain.
• New York City tapas joint Boqueria is currently on the prowl for a spot in the District to open a new location. (Eater)
• The self-proclaimed "first FIT restaurant and bar in America" Funxion at 1309 F St. NW is looking to switch to a 24-hour schedule. (Prince of Petworth)
• While the downtown D.C. branch of NYC-based Crumbs Bake Shop has already launched, the folks in Clarendon continue to await an opening date. (ARLnow)

Photo courtesy of Boqueria via Eater.com

There must be a 1,001 ways to prepare a turkey these days, and I suspect that I picked the hardest one yesterday: I smoked a bird.

Let me tell you: Using a large, off-set barrel smoker to cook a 15-pound bird is no easy task. Not even with my friend and smoke mentor, Jim Shahin, available via cell phone. The turkey's skin burns and cracks easily. The heat does not circulate around the turkey like with a bird on a rack in a convection oven. And you have to babysit that bird almost every minute, lest the side closest to the heat source resemble a used match.

Despite all my best coddling efforts, I still had to finish that turkey in the oven for about 30 minutes. The flavors and texture turned out well — smoky, gamy, and tender — but I still need to figure out the best way to tame this bird in a barrel smoker.

How did your Thanksgiving bird turn out?

How many of you have been there? You've spent hours — no, make that days — working on the perfect Thanksgiving turkey. Then you pull it out of the oven and butcher it to death. Here's how to carve your bird.

Video courtesy of Epicurious

No time to waste, let's get straight to the news.

• Capitol Hill Sporting Goods at 727 8th St. SE will soon be replaced by a funky new tavern serving up American fare and offering live jazz and blues. (The Hill Is Home)
• During President Obama's trip to the Subcontinent this past weekend, the Indian government provided him with an extra 12 food tasters in addition to his usual first line of culinary defense. Now what happens when he goes to eat for free at Ben's Chili Bowl? (Food Safety News)

• Apparently 90 percent of all American households eat turkey on Thanksgiving. If you find yourself falling into that category, well, then this item is for you. (Northern Virginia magazine)
• The McRib sandwich and Facebook were somehow made for each other, notes WaPo's Jim Shahin. (All We Can Eat)
• Hey, Biergarten Haus, look out! A new Bavarian beer garden is on its way to 720 L St. SE. (Prince of Petworth)
• Alejandra Owens is hosting what might just be the first ever Twitter Turkey Summit this Wednesday in which you can discuss how not to ruin Thanksgiving dinner. (One Bite At a Time)
• Former IndeBleu chef Michael Hartzer is pairing up with the owner of Bourbon to open the Jack Rose Dining Saloon in Adams Morgan. The selling point? One thousand kinds of whiskey. (Going Out Gurus)
• Thanksgiving Day is hectic enough on its own, why go the extra mile and make homemade cranberry sauce? (Serious Eats)
• The CityVista building at 5th and K Street NW will be the site of a handful of future joints, including Michael Landrum's newest endeavor: Ryse, an "urban bakeshop/cafe". (WeLoveDC)
• PETA sympathizers look away: Executive chef Wesley Mortono at AGAINN has announced plans for a series of monthly dinners celebrating the fall hunting season, starting with Nov. 16's wild game meal. (Girl Meets Food)
• Just what we need: another burger joint. Celebrity chef Bobby Flay plans to throwdown a Bobby's Burger Palace on K Street NW. (Washington Business Journal)
• The folks over at Thrillist have a sneak peek of The Atlas Room, which opened this past weekend at 1015 H St. NE. (Thrillist)
• I'm calling bullshit on the USDA. The agency wants us to lose weight but eat more cheese at the same time. (New York Times).
• Alyssa Shelasky, author of Apron Anxiety and fiancee to Good Stuff Eatery chef Spike Mendelsohn has announced that her blog will soon become a book. (Apron Anxiety)

Photo by Robyn Lee via SeriousEats.com

Let's get right to the news:

• There's a bourbon dinner going down on Oct. 26 at Fourth Estate Restaurant at 529 14th St. NW, featuring five courses and, well, bourbon. (Girl Meets Food)
• The Red Derby opened a roof deck over the weekend, and it looks like it even has heaters! (Prince of Petworth)
• The folks over at D.C. Central Kitchen are gearing up for next month's Capital Food Fight, featuring local chefs such as Spike Mendelsohn (Good Stuff Eatery) and Victor Albisu (BLT Steak) and special guest judges such as Anthony Bourdain and José Andrés. (WeLoveDC)

• News from Twitter is that food truck, DC Empanadas, will start rolling out this week in the District — with plans to extend into Maryland. (TBD)
• Beer and wings specialists, Buffalo Wild Wings, will open up a location in Crystal City as early as December at the corner of 23rd Street and Crystal Drive. (ARLnow)
• Craft beer on tap, gourmet pizzas, Chicago dogs, and pulled pork sandwiches — at the movies? Liz Stevenson describes the beauty that is NoVa's Alamo Drafthouse Cinema. Look out, Arlington Cinema N Drafthouse. (Northern Virginia magazine)
• The owners behind the popular Foggy Bottom eatery, Founding Farmers, and its sister operation, Farmers & Fishers, are planning to open a new restaurant in Potomac. (Bethesda magazine)
• Don't feel like dishing out the usual assortment of Halloween candies this year? Deep-fry 'em. Yeah, that's right, deep-fry 'em! (Cakespy)
• Because procrastination always ends with bad turkeys. Alejandra Owens reminds us it's time to start ordering that Thanksgiving turkey from the 14th & U Farmers Market. (Borderstan)
• Liquor and knives really do go together. This Wednesday, Helix Lounge is hosting a pumpkin carving contest, featuring festive drinks like its pumpkin martini and a prize for the "most ghoulish gourd." (Thrillist)

Photo by Jessie Oleson (aka Cakespy) via cakespy.com

I recall perhaps most fondly one long night of quarterfinals in 2002, when I lived in Philadelphia and decided that the underdogs offered better food and social opportunities.  For a South Korea vs. Spain matchup, I went out to a Korean social club hidden in an Upper Darby basement, where the karaoke was abruptly silenced as the teams took the field.  (The match was being played in Korea.)  The soju-fueled crowd kept up "Korea Team Fighting" chants for a full 120 minutes before their heroes outlasted Spain in a dramatic shootout.

As dawn broke, I trekked across Philadelphia to a restaurant called Le Dakar to watch Senegal play Turkey in the last quarterfinal match.  Senegal had devastated me by beating France in the tournament's first match, but the victory of the old colonial periphery over the center — historically meaningful in a way few are — had given the Senegalese much to celebrate.  I remember the devastated expression worn by Le Dakar's owner as he stood in his restaurant's doorway at the time of kickoff apologizing that his TV was broken.  A West African taxi driver who had also come for the match guided me to an inconspicuous Malian-run establishment a block away.  As we were hustling to take our seats, Senegal gave up an early goal and was eliminated, but in the process I discovered one of my favorite Philadelphia restaurants — home to an astonishing guinea hen fried in a peppery palm oil.  (The restaurant, La Calébasse, sadly closed not too long ago.)

This year, the matches will be on at friendlier meal times.  The early match, on at 7:30 am here, will be perfect for breakfast; the late 2:30 kickoff works well for drinks and nosh.  I'm seeing some good opportunities to mix food and soccer while avoiding the crush at Lucky Bar or another go at the surprisingly good smoked-trout-on-potato-pancake dish that popped up on Fado's menu in the middle of the English Premier League season.  I have no worries about finding culturally and gastronomically appropriate company to watch the Korean teams, Mexico, Ghana and France — but as I look over the 32 teams I'm also spotting some holes in the region's generally lively collection of ethnic eating opportunities.

I'll get into some of those gaps tomorrow, as part of what can be fairly read as a desperate cry for varied migration patterns into the capital.  Until then, please offer up in the comments section any suggestions for good places to eat and watch soccer over the next month.

Image from Sydney International Food Fair

The Internet is rife with Thanksgiving-themed beer pairings, so we've elected to take a slightly different tack. This  year why not drink beer made with the ingredients of all your Thanksgiving foods instead of eating the same old tired feast? It'll save you time in the kitchen, guaranteed.

If you insist on cooking and need some good beer advice, you can always head over to Michael Jackson's site for Thanksgiving pairing tips, which still hold true after more than twenty-five years.  The San Francisco Examiner has some good pairing suggestions, and Serious Eats has some very good recommendations for beers to enjoy with the turkey feast as well as the T-day piefest. Beer Advocate has a practical guide to holiday beer pairing, as well. But enough of that silliness. Let's drink dinner this year:

CRANBERRY SAUCE – Unibroue Ephemere Cranberry: This beer was out last year, but we haven't seen it since the spring. If you can't find Unibroue, you can always snag a Sam Adams Cranberry Lambic. It's not actually a lambic but it is very easy to find right now.

SWEET POTATO - Allagash Fluxus 2009: This year's anniversary beer was brewed with sweet potatoes. The recipe was concocted with Southern flair by Allagash brewer DeeDee Germain. We saw it on draft at The Reef and Birreria Paradiso last month, and in the bottle at AB Liquor Store in Adams Morgan.

STUFFING - Craftsman Triple White Sage: Yup, there are a few beers made with sage. We definitely saw this beer somewhere recently but are afraid it was in Brooklyn, not in DC. If you're willing to go for something savory but not as classically Thanksgiving, a few herby beers we've tried lately include Stone's Sublimely Self-Righteous Ale, and Dogfish Head Black Thai, the latter of which was on cask at ChurchKey this weekend. Both have a basil thing going on.

TURKEY – Your choice: Okay, so brewers haven't gotten crazy enough to start making beer with turkey, but there is a connection. Beer has been shown to suppress the degradation of tryptophan, so if you end up eating this part of your dinner instead of drinking it, you're likely to feel nice and drowsy as the turkey and beer do a seratonin number on your brain.

PUMPKIN PIE – Any Pumpkin Beer Still on the Shelves: Our favorites are Dogfish Head, Southern Tier, and Weyerbacher pumpkin ales, but it will probably be difficult to find them this late in the season. Any will do if the goal is a traditional but liquid Thanksgiving.

Let's say, for the sake of argument, that Y&H wanted to cook a holiday dinner from locally sourced ingredients. You know, just so Y&H could be totally in harmony with the whole local/seasonal/sustainable zeitgeist.

Now don't assume I'm trolling for tips in order to write a City Paper story, because, God knows, we have a hard enough time staying ahead of the competition.

Y&H just wants to put together a nice spread for his friends and family, all from locally sourced ingredients (within reason!), from appetizers to desserts. Where would you send Y&H? Either respond in the comments section or write me via e-mail.

Photo by Laurgasms via Flickr Creative Commons, Attribution License