Savor: An American Craft Beer & Food Experience

Somewhere over DaNang, on SQ 837, it hit me. I need a beer. Badly. Three days of cross-pacific travel, followed by horrid food in a overpriced Chinese hotel, and a whole month of worrying about getting work done ahead of me adds up to one stressed girl. This is not surprising. What is surprising is the manifestation of the need for stress relief in the form of beer craving. This is new. In the past, stress drove regrettable binges of homemade cookie dough, financially ill-advised trips across the planet, and questionable romantic endeavors. Even a craving for a good whiskey or lots of bad gin and tonics. But never before beer.

Why the sudden prominence of beer in my consciousness? One word- Savor. Haochi DC was lucky enough to swing passes to this fabulous event, featuring craft beers paired with delicious food a few weeks back in a delicious worship of everything beer.




I was totally and utterly blown away. I mean, I liked beer ok, and had progressed beyond the natty-light-in-a-garbage-can-full-of-ice-at-the-party-of-that-dude-I-accidentally-made-out-with years ago, and liked a good stout, but I hadn't really given much thought to the nuances of good beer beyond, well, it being good.

I can even pinpoint the moment that all changed. Haochi DC was offered a seat in one of the sideline seminars during the event featuring beer and chocolate pairings. Best case scenario in my imagination was that this would be like a wine tasting, where things were good together, but my palate was sadly unsophisticated, and I would leave not really understanding why or having any hope of replicating the pairings myself. More likely, I figured this was just a lame attempt by the beer industry to move in on the wine market by making up their own lexicon of fancy-words. This fit right in with the trashy-is-hip, PBR-is-cool trendy demographic I feared would make up the main body of attendees. But hey, free beer? Im no snob, that was enough to get me to give it a try.

What I discovered with the first pairing felt like coming in from the darkness. After years of desperately trying to pretend I understood what the difference between 'oaky' and 'woodsy' was when tasting six different seemingly identical mediocre chardonnays, it was like a light bulb came on. Hoppy. Now there is a taste I can identify. When beer is said to have hints of chocolate, it has hints of fucking chocolate! I get it! It wasn't my tongue that had failed, it was the medium! After years of being a fraud at wine tastings, suddenly I actually got it. This was right up there in the revelation department with understanding fractions and decimals were the same thing, my parents were winging it more often than not, and that nothing about The Wall is really all that profound without heavy drugs and the mind of a 15 yr old (warning, those two are often related).

Not only did the beer bring out certain flavors in the chocolate, as one expects with a paired tasting, but the chocolate actually pulled things out of the beer that would have been otherwise overlooked. I have never had paired wines that so delightfully and comprehensively intermingled flavors with the food they were paired with. Its as though beer were made for chocolate, and all these years I totally missed it. Of course it helped that the beers in question were all from New Holland Brewery, my vote for the Best in Show at the event. Each beer was complex, interesting, and eminently drinkable. The brewer, Fred Bueltmann, was on hand and accessible to all my bumbling inquiries (thankfully forgiving of my newly-in-beer-love swooning and patient with my myriad of questions). Gail Ambrosius, a choclatier from Madison WI brought her A game as well, and the chocolates were exquisite. You can see all the pairings below, but my top pick?

Dragon's Milk, a rich ale brewed in old bourbon barrels from Heaven Hill, one of our favorite Bourbons, with one of the most unusual, yet natural chocolates I have ever tasted, Shitake. The combination was earthy and rich, almost like a cream sauce. Dragon's milk brought out the sweetness in the chocolate, and the Shitake balanced the creaminess of the beer. Interestingly, the Dragon's Milk would have been right at home paired with something richer as well, my vote would be the sea salt caramel, but would have been a totally different beer.

The other strong contender was the Black Tulip Trippel Ale and the ginger and Lemongrass chocolate. The Black Tulip cut the spiciness of the chocolate, resulting in a strong leading taste with a quick end of sweetness, rather than the lingering gingery-ness that would otherwise overwhelm the chocolate. The chocolate brought the fruitiness of the Ale forward. It was perfect, and meant for Thai food. Asian food sorely lacks dessert, but this would have made up for it 50 times over.








For now, I'm going to flag down a stewardess and bitterly drink my Tsing dao, dreaming of better brews and better days


A few other winners:

Available locally:

Steamworks 'Backside Stout'



Schmaltz Hebrew 'Original Pomegranate Ale'





Schlafly Reserve 'Oak-Aged Barleywine'



Magic Hat




Further Afield:

Rogue 'Nut-Brown'



Rock Art Brewery 'Vermonster'



Oskar Blues 'Old Chub' (in a can!)



Southernmost Pale Ale (from Key West)



Heinerbrau Maerzen



Coney Island "Sword Swallower"



General Guide to beer pairing:






For more info on all the beers and foods at the event, please check out the Savor homepage. or check out the info sheet below.

The Miracle of Soft Eggs- Brunch at Creme

I can make complex meringues, reduce a delicate sauce, and cut a pie crust together until the exact moment when it is mixed and not a moment after. I can't paint, sing, pretend I care about things I don't, choose flattering makeup, run 10 miles, or any number of other talents that the young yuppie often has, but I can cook. I don't know how or why, but I get it. Which is why the seeming miracle of a poached egg is so perplexing to me. Every time I try this, I end up with some nasty form of flavorless egg drop soup, crunchy with egg shells that got away and littered with bits of egg that are more boiled to death than poached. I have some sort of neuro-block it would seem against paying attention to a cooking egg. I can't soft-boil either, for much the same reason. My inflated sense of self importance almost makes me believe that there is some sort of cosmic conspiracy that will insert something shiny into my field of vision within 3 minutes of touching an egg. And I do so ever love shiny things :-)

All of this is quite tragic given the delicious uses of half-cooked eggs. Soft cooked eggs are delicious in salads, with vegetables, and even as a meal themselves. Of course their most common incarnation amongst DC food lovers is as the critical component of Eggs Benedict. At summer brunches throughout DC, deals are cut, relationships blossom, marriages falter, houses hypothetically decorated, clothing evaluated, hippies scorned, and babies longed for. Brunch is where the young yuppie cuts their teeth on the DC restaurant scene. Is the food often second-rate to that of normal meals? You betcha. Does that make it any less appealing to linger for a long meal with friends with nothing else to do all day after sleeping off the previous night? Not a bit.

With an old friend in from out of town and a new one just arrived for her first big-kid DC job, brunch was calling. Thanks to the recommendations of DC Concierge, I chose Creme in U Street to inaugurate the season. I couldn't believe that despite a good friend living across the street, I had never noticed the place! It was tiny, and didn't take reservations for brunch, so our group of 6 had to wait about a half hour for a table, which isn't bad, especially since the same cosmic forces that interfere with my egg preparation seem to affect the ability of anyone I care about to be on time to anything, while driving my own paranoia about being late to such a degree that I am chronically 15 min early. All in all, this means that no matter what, there is a half-hour wait, so no problem.

I saw two things on the menu that intrigued- Chicken and Waffles, that Clydes favorite that is oh so good after a night of beer tasting (and facilitates the brunch attendance of any self-respecting dude who is not trying to sleep with you), and the Eggs Benedict with wild mushrooms. Our table had both. The Mushroom Bene, as the Eggs Benedict was called, was fabulous. The mushrooms were fresh and tasty, the Hollandaise rich and not too salty, and the poached egg in that perfect miraculous form that so eludes me, with a runny yolk and firm solid white that requires rapt attention by a chef who is swamped with a brunch crowd. So simple, but in may of the brunch factories of DC, the details are lost, and you get either a protein shake of raw eggs fit for a dude trying to 'get huge' or chewy hard-boiled eggs reminiscent of the less delicious parts of a polish deli. The chicken (white and dark) was proclaimed better than Clydes (bonus, since Clydes doesn't even offer white meat with their Chicken and Waffles- well, they do, but its sans the spices which make the chicken worth eating). The waffles were thick and fresh and the salad a little salty though better than your average garnish. I also had the bacon which was thicker than I like, but I imagine perfect for most people's preference. Roasted potatoes and an Eggs Benedict with crab rounded out our selections, and all was delicious. Portions were sizable without being ridiculous, and all were happy.



I also sprung for the expensive Hibiscus Mimosa. While too expensive at $12 for a flute, it was just delicious enough that I will probably continue to be annoyed at the price, but order it anyway.



The atmosphere was loud, but conversation wasn't too hard, as the tables were small and intimate. Hard to hear the servers, but tolerable. The interior is tidy and modern.

The best part? The prices were super affordable- $10-14 for most mains, with an option for a $16 unlimited mimosa (not the hibiscus kind however). This makes a $20 brunch a real option.

What do I take away from all of this? Poached eggs and mushrooms are inspired. And I now have a source of them for a reasonable price that will keep me from initiating any more egg disasters, and do wonders for my self-esteem :-) Yea Creme!

Asia Nine Bar & Lounge- Review

I came to Asia Nine for a birthday, and was blown away by the service. My friend had neglected to make a reservation for her birthday, despite it being 20 people at a popular restaurant on a Sat night. I know. I was chatting to the bartender while waiting for her to arrive and mentioned this, and, after a look of panic, he jumped to it. Without my even asking (I was expecting to not get a table and be awkwardly crammed at the bar all night, only to give up at the first polite moment and go elsewhere), he managed to section off an end of the bar, set up a system for us to order efficiently from the bar, and tell the hostess to send everyone back to our area. Totally above and beyond, and I am so grateful- what luck!

The food was pretty good (standard Asian-fusion stuff), and the drinks were great fruffy things. Great Saki and Shochu selection as well. But what really made the place was the incredibly accommodating service.

Not as annoying trendy of a crowd either, surprisingly, given the decor and feel of the place. A great place to have a trendy night without it being over the top pretentious.