Matters of Taste

A Shout-Out for ShopHouse

I went to lunch recently at the one and only ShopHouse Southeast Asian Kitchen (opened last fall in Washington, D.C.) with my fellow board members of the Association of Food Journalists (AFJ). I loved the bold flavors and the upbeat atmosphere.

                                          

Located in Dupont Circle, it’s a long, narrow storefront, with minimalist design and a neutral color scheme. In front are bare wooden tables that can be moved around to accommodate all group sizes. Towards the back is the kitchen and the lively assembly line where diners create their “customized” entrée in the interactive format popularized by parent company Chipotle.

The “menu” consists of a bowl of rice, chilled noodles or salad, to which is added one veggie, one sauce, a “garnish” and a “topping.”

During our lunch, Tim Wildin, Chipotle’s Director of Concept Development, explained how the ShopHouse idea grew from a “tasting trip” he made through Thailand and Malaysia with Chipotle founder and co-CEO Steve Ells. While he talked, Wildin passed around small bowls of all the main ingredients for us to taste. My favorites were the roasted Vietnamese-style pork-and-chicken meatballs, and the grilled steak laab that’s tossed in a cilantro-lime fish sauce and mixed with toasted rice. I also loved the spicy red curry sauce and the tamarind vinaigrette.

                                          

The ShopHouse selection of hot veggies is awesome: green beans with roasted chili jam and shallots; eggplant with Thai basil; charred corn with scallions; and broccoli with fermented chili. Every vegetable looked great (no steam table fatigue here) and tasted bright and fresh. Chilled green-papaya slaw and Singapore-style pickled vegetables are also available to perk up your palate and your plate. I could make an entire meal of just the veggies, and will if and when ShopHouse opensin San Diego.

At the end of the line, just before you (should) choose a lip-smacking Bruce Cost Fresh Ginger Ale as your beverage, you get to garnish your creation with a cilantro-mint-Thai-basil herb salad and a choice of crunchy roasted peanuts, toasted rice, or crispy garlic. Prices range from $6.59 for the Grilled Chicken Satay Bowl to $7.50 for the Grilled Steak Laab Bowl.

After we tasted the individual ingredients, we were invited to go through the line and create our customized bowls. While we ate, Wildin explained the SHopHouse concept in detail:

**A ShopHouse is an iconic type of architecture prevalent throughout Southeast Asia; a colonial-style building where a family lives above the market or restaurant that it runs on the ground floor. Such restaurants are usually highly specialized, with each offering a specific dish such as noodles or curries or grilled meats.

**The selection of foods reflects the popular offerings of shophouses, hawker stalls and night markets in Singapore, Bangkok, and Hanoi.

**The ShopHouse menu is gluten-free and dairy-free.

**Ingredients are “responsibly sourced” with sustainability in mind.

**The culinary team working to put ShopHouse on the map is an impressive one: Kyle Connaughton hails from the Michelin-starred The Fat Duck outside London. Nate Appleman won the James Beard Award for Rising Star Chef when he was at A16 in San Francisco; and Joel Holland from Restaurant Terroir in Jackson, WY.

                              


Wildin told the gathering of food writers that he and his partners were proceeding slowly with plans for additional ShopHouses. However, knowing the way Chipotle stormed the quality fast-food scene, I’m guessing that at least some of us will be scarfing down this delicious fare in the not-too-distant future.

The White House Kitchen Garden - Up Close and Personal

While in D.C. recently for the annual Association of Food Journalists conference, I got to visit Michelle Obama’s garden, a riot of vegetables, herbs and fruit trees just a stone’s throw from the West Wing. My colleagues and I were guided by White House Pastry Chef, Bill Yosses, who was joined by head White House chef, Cris Comerford.

                                             
                                        
In what’s formally known as the White House Kitchen Garden, we found zucchini, peppers and pumpkins, robust and plentiful at this time of year, along with colorful scarlet runner beans and a climbing cherry tomato vine from which we were allowed to pluck the delicious tiny tomatoes.

                                        
                                  
The garden, which was planted in the spring of 2009, is also home to peas and radishes (in springtime), artichokes, chile peppers, and an impressive collection of herbs, including a giant patch of lemon verbena, Yosses’ favorite. (The affable chef explained that he likes to poach peaches in verbena-infused poaching liquid and top them with vanilla ice cream, calling it “the perfect dessert!”)

A small section of the garden is devoted to seeds from Thomas Jefferson’s garden at Monticello. The third president’s favorites flourish here:  Brussels sprouts, Brown Dutch lettuce, Prickly-seeded Spinach, and sea kale which Jefferson is said to have discovered along the coasts of England and Ireland. Comerford told the gathered group that she had cooked the last of this season’s kale the week before, “slow-braised with lots of aromatics.”

                                            

(We werelucky to tour the garden on a picture-perfect early autumn day. The White House has never looked “whiter” or more impressive.)

Though the garden is not officially organic, Yosses explained that organic gardening practices are used. The garden is under the supervision of the National Park Service, but is also tended every Tuesday and Thursday by volunteer government workers from the neighboring Executive Office Building.

While Comerford described discreetly how she uses the bounty of the garden in preparing the Obama family's meals each day, Yosses talked about the First Lady’s goals in nurturing the garden. Her top priority is to get children interested in learning how food grows and how fresh foods are good for them. She also seeks to persuade Americans to eat more produce. Mrs. Obama was recently quoted, describing the White House Kitchen Garden as "one of the greatest things I've done in my life so far."

 

Chefs as Diplomats -- I'll Drink (and Eat) to That

Forget the tapenade. Thanks to the recently announced Diplomatic Culinary Partnership, some American chefs are now more interested in the olive branch, as in extending that classic sign of peace and compromise to other peoples around the world.

                                     
   

Two weeks ago, the U.S. State Department formalized a culinary relationship with the James Beard Foundation, whose mission is to “educate, inspire, entertain, and foster a deeper understanding of our culinary culture.” (This photo of the event is from the Philadelphia Inquirer.)  I was lucky enough to attend the reception in Washington, D.C. to announce and celebrate this new Diplomatic Culinary Partnership and to introduce the 2012 class of State Chefs.

Held in the State Department’s elegant Benjamin Franklin Room, within sight of the Capitol and Washington Monument, the event was attended by dozens of well-known chefs from around the country, members of the State Department staff, government dignitaries, members of the James Beard Foundation’s board, and food journalists (including this one) from the Association of Food Journalists, who were in D.C. for their annual conference. As befits a gathering of card-carrying foodies, the evening's "menu" was a stellar line-up including the Heirloom Bean and Bacon Tostada pictured here.

                                              
                                     
The Diplomatic Culinary Partnership aims to use America's culinary talent as a means of diplomacy. To achieve this, the Department has tapped prominent U.S. chefs to join the American Chef Corps, a group of 80-plus food-and-wine professionals who have "agreed to serve as resources to the Department of State in its efforts to incorporate culinary engagement into its ongoing public diplomacy efforts." The chefs will be called upon to prepare various state dinners as well as to travel to other countries to spread American food traditions. (Chefs will donate their time and energy, and travel on their own dime.)

U.S. Chief of Protocol Capricia Penavic Marshall summed up the concept in her remarks:

"By showcasing the best of American cuisine and creativity, we can show our guests a bit about ourselves. Likewise, by incorporating elements of our visitor's culture, we can demonstrate respect and a desire to connect and engage."

U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton also spoke at the gathering, via a video message, saying

“Food isn’t traditionally thought of as a diplomatic tool, but sharing a meal can help people transcend boundaries and build bridges in a way that nothing else can.” 

The illustrious group of chefs includes José Andrés who oversees an empire of Spanish restaurants in the U.S., Todd Gray of D.C.’s Equinox, Chicago’s Rick Bayless, seafood master Rick Moonen, L.A.’s Mary Sue Milliken of “Too Hot Tamales” fame, San Francisco pastry chef Emily Luchetti, and Ming Tsai of Blue Ginger in Wellesley, MA.  More than 50 of the chefs were present at the announcement, and some of them were cooking their signature appetizers for the reception guests who circulated through the formal rooms and the large terrace with its breathtaking view.

In addition to a lavish buffet of American cheeses and charcuterie, there were a dozen food stations and bars, along with a non-stop array of passed hors d’oeuvres.

Mary Sue Milliken’s tiny tostada with heirloom beans, avocado and bacon was a standout, as was the yummy Maryland Blue Crab Crostini by Food Network personality Amanda Freitag. Bryan Voltaggio of Volt in nearby Frederick, MD served a meltingly tender bison shortrib with figs, smoked almonds and charred onion.

                                    

Of the passed hors d’oeuvres it was the precious little piggies playing on a verdant serving platter that stole the show. The old-fashioned pigs-in-a-blanket, along with the newfangled pig-shaped smoked salmon canapes, topped with tobiko, were created by chef/caterer Peter Callahan. Widely credited with the invention of such mini comfort foods as the “slider,” Callahan also sent trays of mini burgers; mini pizzas (each in its own Diplomatic Culinary Partnership pizza box); and mini grilled cheese sandwiches around the room. Further stoking the buzz: mini drinks to accompany each two-bite appetizer. And near the close of the event: mini cotton candy cones.

                                                   
                                  

Drink offerings were equally impressive with a wine bar featuring vintages from lesser known wine regions such as Michigan, Maryland, Virginia, Arizona, New York and Texas, as well as specialty cocktails mixed by some of the area’s best known bartenders.

                                                  

I especially liked the bright, herby cocktail dreamed up by Todd Thrasher of Restaurant Eve in Alexandria, VA. (Photo from Restaurant Eve.) Using sauvignon blanc that he infused with several fresh herbs, Thrasher (who Wash Post critic Tom Sietsema calls “one of the best mixologists anywhere”) shook up a pale, puckery drink, dubbed the "Thymes Like These," that seemed to me the perfect way to toast the future efforts of the American Chef Corps.