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Emporiyum + Happy Friday

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Emporiyum 1Emporiyum Dipytch 2Emporiyum Diptych 3Emporiyum 2Emporiyum Dipytch 1

Last weekend I went to the Emporiyum in DC. It was an event that featured a sort of food market with purveyors from all over the country. Held in the Maurice Electrical Warehouse just down the block from one of my favorite places in DC, Union Market, ticket holders filed into the warehouse and walked around to each vendor’s table, tasting samples as they followed the line of tables. You could also buy any of the items you sampled and also buy dishes from any of the restaurants featured there. There was ramen from Toki Underground, chocolate bars from the Mast Brothers, and past from Sfoglini. After a while the crowds were a bit overwhelming so we headed to Union Market to get some Rappahannock Oysters and pork buns from a Toki Underground pop up.

I’m excited to see what they do for the next Emporiyum scheduled for April 2015 but I hope they do something about crowd control!

Here are some links from around the web:

The New York Times posted an article on my favorite neighborhood in Richmond, Virginia- Church Hill.

Amanda McClements, the owner of Salt and Sundry, a lovely shop selling home goods and food finds in Union Market (and now 14th Street) posted a list of holiday and hostess gifts on the Etsy blog.

I love this video featuring Molly Yeh out on her farm in the Midwest making lefse with her fiancé’s family. Don’t know what lefse is? I didn’t either but I learned a lot from this video.

Laura over at Blogging Over Thyme is celebrating brussels sprouts this week. I looove crispy greens and these fried brussels sprout leaves with lemon and chili flakes looked amazing.

Miso Brown Butter Grits

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Miso Brown Butter Grits-7

When I attended Fire, Flour and Fork a few weekends ago, I discovered many new food products in their tasting tent. One of my favorite things in that tent was grits from Woodson’s Mill. These are not your instant grits sold in packets in the grocery store. These are stone-ground grits made from the best local corn they can find. Based in Lowesville, Virginia, Woodson’s Mill is a historic business, a working mill since 1794! Their grits are minimally processed and all natural with no preservatives (you have to keep them in the fridge or freezer to keep them fresh longer). They’re freshly ground and you can tell when you taste them. They cook up in 15 minutes and are the creamiest, tastiest, corniest grits I’ve ever had.  I was so surprised when they said they added just a touch of butter and cheese to the giant crockpot of grits they were serving us out of. They were so flavorful without any special add ins.

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Kimchi Fried Cauliflower Rice

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Kimchi Fried Cauliflower Rice-6

A few weeks ago I tried cauliflower fried rice for the first time. I was a bit skeptical at first; cauliflower is no real substitute for rice. I grew up on rice, eating it often in my Korean home with a stew, vegetable sides and kimchi- always kimchi.  And while this certainly isn’t comparable to actual rice, it is a nice stand alone dish featuring cauliflower. In Korea we throw some cold, leftover rice into a pan with some oil, old kimchi, chili paste and either scramble an egg into it or put an egg on top. It’s a fast and easy way to use up leftovers. I decided to merge these two ideas together to make a Korean variation on a trendy dish.

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Fire, Flour and Fork 2014

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FFF 2014-9

Last weekend I traveled south to Richmond, Virginia to participate in Fire, Flour and Fork. I had a unique opportunity to attend as a Virginia Blogger and at the last minute I got a media pass so that I could attend Friday as well as Saturday. This meant I could attend twice as many culinary and cultural sessions than I had planned. I saw a demonstration on how to make Crack Pie by Christina Tosi of Momofuku Milk Bar, David Guas made us crawfish gravy and biscuits from his restaurant Bayou Bakery (which is right near where I live) and a chiffon cake made with corn and rice flour by Alice Medrich was whipped up in front of us. Not only did we get to listen and watch them cook but we also got to taste what they made.

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Pumpkin Soup with Black Sesame Seeds

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Pumpkin and Black Sesame Soup-9

When I first envisioned this soup it had black sesame paste perfectly swirled on the surface, festive and perfectly dressed for Halloween. Of course once you start cooking and putting ingredients together in a pot things don’t always go as you imagined. Sesame paste is a thick, unwieldy thing. Numerous attempts to dilute it with water, oil and coconut milk lead to a milky gray goop- a very unappetizing looking mixture that still tasted and smelled great. Regardless, I think this soup turned out well and I am satisfied instead with the intensely dark speckles of sesame throughout the dish.

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