Readers of this blog know that chocolate is one of my favorite things, and so I am really looking forward to the seventh iteration of the DC Chocolate Festival this Saturday. Like so many other events, it was put on hold for two pandemic years, but now we can resume satisfying both our taste buds and curiosity about one of the New World’s greatest gifts to us all.
I covered the Festival back in 2016 when it was held in a hotel’s meeting space. It has since moved to La Maison Française, the cultural arm of the French Embassy. It sounds like a perfect place for this event: a big gallery for the vendors (samples!), meeting rooms for the sessions, a large auditorium for panel discussions, and an outdoor area for picnics or just enjoying the (fingers-crossed) nice spring weather.
There will be over 30 vendors who will sell and sample their wares. The makers range from local to international, but all are united in their passion for crafting the best product possible.
There will be learning opportunities throughout the day. Classes on beverage pairings, “cool hidden [chocolate] facts,” Mayan cacao culture, and flavor perception are just some of the sessions on offer. And in this town of policy wonks, there will be a discussion of responsibility and sustainability in the chocolate production chain.
Well, it’s finally happening! The daytime temperature is mild enough to shed one’s winter coat. The cherry blossoms are waning, the redbuds are just starting to show, the bulbs are poppin’ up all over, and spring greens are there for the picking.
In my yard, the battle against the garlic mustard is starting. This pretty-but-invasive weed started showing up about ten years ago, and I have not been able to pull it out fast enough to get rid of it. Many sources say it’s tasty, but I find it rather bland and uninteresting. When I saw it last week, I decided to have a little mild revenge and eat some of it.
Garlic Mustard Growing Where It shouldn’t
Lemon Balm In a Pot
Mint Just Getting Started
I picked some and added a few sprigs of early mint (not much, I want to encourage it), and some also invasive, but more welcome, lemon balm to add a little more flavor. Then I chopped the lot, mixed it with eggs, salt and pepper, and sautéed it.
Raw Ingredients and an Incidental Potsherd
Omelet Cooking
I topped the omelet with Yo Mama’s Balsamic Dressing, which I have found makes many things tastier. Yo Mama’s Foods has a nice line of sauces and marinades, all made without extraneous ingredients. I first tried them when the company sent some samples, and now I can find them in mainline supermarkets. Harris Teeter carries them near me.
Ready To Eat
It was a nice lunch. I’m glad I don’t have to rely on foraging for my “spring tonic,” but I would certainly like to find another morel or two like the one that popped up in my yard a few years ago! I’m looking forward to the wineberries and other tasty morsels to come.
There’s a terrific event happening this weekend at Round House Theatre. On Friday night, I caught the first of three performances of the 22nd Annual Sarah Metzger Memorial Play, Spring Break, by the Teen Performance Company, There’s also a performance by The Roundlings comedy and improv ensemble, as part of Teen Takeover Weekend.
Since Round House doesn’t present a food and beverage tie-in to their café for these, as they do with professional productions, I had not attended a performance of the teen program before. I now realize that it was my loss!
There was more heart-felt emotion on the stage last night than I had experienced in a long time. The play itself presents a series of vignettes about the hopes, fears, aspirations, and existential crises of students at the cusp of adulthood, about to step off into the unknown. Any adult can sympathize with the concerns of these teens, remembering their own angst while noting the framing of quandaries in new ways. And yet some things never change: friends will part ways, money must be found for college, life-setting decisions must be made.
And there was plenty of humor. One boy’s idea of heaven is the cruise he’s looking forward to with his family. Why? He anticipates unlimited access to the frozen yogurt machine – with no line! (See how I worked in a food reference there?)
The play’s author, Joe Calarco, has been writing plays for young actors for many years. All the rest of the production (direction, costumes, lighting, sound, etc.), is handled by teens, with professional mentors guiding them. The program is free for the students; all they contribute is their devotion to the art of theater.
And how is this possible? By the endowment of the family of Sarah Metzger. A fitting memorial to a girl who produced a full-scale theatrical production while still in high school! She was killed in a car accident in her freshman year in college. Now, her name lives on, inspiring others with the same passion she lived for. Many of the alumni of this program have gone on to careers in theater; several were there last night.
At the end of the performance, Ryan Rilette, Round House Artistic Director, spoke about the excellence of these teens and their devotion to their craft. “In theater,” he said, as opposed to life, “there’s truthful, and there’s not-as-truthful.” Then he called Lynn Metzger, Sarah’s mother, on stage. She read a touching message about the family’s two-decade-long relationship with the theater. This critic’s heart was warmed.
The cast of Spring Break at Round House Theatre. Presented by the Teen Performance Company.
I received an email describing an offer I couldn’t (and didn’t want to) refuse: Guinness-infused ice cream. Really! The Taylor folks (the PR firm for Guinness) wanted to send me a sample of “Lucky Sundaes by Guinness,” just in time for St. Patrick’s Day. I said, “yes, please!”
Some pints arrived, shipped via Goldbelly, from the ice cream maker, Tipsy Scoop. They specialize in boozy ice cream. They have several franchise stores in New York, and, coincidentally, one that just opened in Washington, DC. I couldn’t wait to try it, but I had to, since it was frozen good and hard. It was shipped with dry ice in a thoroughly insulated box. Goldbelly might be pricey, but they know their business.
Such a Large Box For Four Pints!
After an interminable few minutes, I managed to scrape a few inches off the top of a pint. At first taste, it was creamy and sweet with a (not-unpleasant) bitter finish. I have to confess to being a little disappointed that it doesn’t taste enough like Guinness for me, but my fellow taster disagreed – she was sure she could find some stout in that mix. It also includes fragments of “maple pancake crunch,” which seem mostly harmless, but don’t add much in the way of taste or texture.
Just Plain Ice Cream
The label boasts “up to 5% alc/vol,” and the container lid reads in large letters, “Contains Alcohol – 21 and Over.” I’m not sure how much 5% translates to per serving (say ¼ of a pint?) but after consuming a small bowl of the plain ice cream, I couldn’t feel any effects on my attitude.
So much for the flavor eaten without embellishment, but I don’t think they named it “Lucky Sundaes” for nothing. We proceeded to enhance it in suitably Guinness-complementary ways.
The Theobromine Express
Guinness stout has always evoked echoes of both coffee and chocolate to me, so it seemed only fitting that we chose permutations of those two flavors for our versions of sundaes. Also, affogato is (another) one of my favorite things.
Mise En Place
Espresso powder reconstituted with boiling water and poured over ice cream makes an excellent but short-lived serving. It must be eaten quickly, or else drunk – somehow appropriate – but either way, delicious.
Affogato – Eat It Quickly or Drink It
Chocolate syrup yields a different experience, one that doesn’t demand such a compulsively fast consumption. It can be slowed down and savored. We made the syrup by grating Mexican chocolate and dissolving it in hot water, but let it cool. Then we topped the sundae with more grated chocolate. Then we added some espresso powder, because, why not?
Chocolate Sundaes
The Grand Finale
And for the big finish, a Guinness float! We used Guinness Zero for this experiment, because drinking Guinness draught or extra stout, any way other than straight, is a sin against nature. And it was just fine! Guinness, Guinness ice cream, and chocolate syrup. I could ask for this as part of my last meal on Earth.
Ice Cream and Guinness
Pouring Is Tricky
Ready To Enjoy
Using Zero gave us an unexpected bonus: after consuming a half-pint of ice cream each, without any added alcohol, we could judge how tipsy we in fact were as an effect of the ice cream alone – and we did, indeed, find ourselves subject to a gentle buzz. Not unpleasant at all.
Although Next to Normal, the current offering at Round House, has an excellent pedigree (it’s won many theater awards, including multiple Tonys and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama), I had trouble at first with the concept of a musical about the main character’s struggle with mental illness.
And I was partially right – it’s not a “feel-good” musical – although at the risk of spoilers, the ending is hopeful. You won’t leave the theater feeling depressed.
The staging, production, acting, and especially the strong singing by all cast members work together to recreate the effect of a disordered psyche as Diana (Tracy Lynn Olivera), her sympathetic husband (Kevin S. McAllister) and teenage daughter (Sophia Early) try to grapple with the central tragic event of Diana’s life while struggling with her bipolar disorder. And, yes, it’s sung through. (Les Mis has a lot to answer for.) But in this case, the singing only serves as one element in the cosmos of disorientation that this production seeks to recreate.
The cast of Next to Normal at Round House Theatre. Photo by Margot Schulman Photography.
The songs (music by Tom Kitt, lyrics by Brian Yorkey) are enjoyable without being too profound. The lyrics are clever: Diana sings about her pharmacologist (Calvin McCullouch), “He knows my deepest secrets; I know his name.”
There are projections and neon lighting effects, sliding doors to portholes in the wall, and a walking, talking, singing apparition (Lucas Hinds Babcock) which we learn is a manifestation of Diana’s illness. The (excellent) live band is visible through a glass wall, which the cast on occasion breaks.
When Diana doesn’t respond well to the many variations of drug cocktails, she becomes a candidate for electro-convulsive therapy. This results in a new set of problems. Ultimately, she realizes that the only way she can break the cycle of failed treatment without improvement is a clean break from her present life. Away from her long-suffering family, perhaps she can start afresh.
The Round House’s Fourth Wall Bar and Café, in a departure from their previous custom, has not designed a menu tailored to the play, but only customized the cocktails for this production. They run from “Fake Confidence” to “Dr. Fine’s Spritz.” I tried “Robo-tripping,” a rather sweet and very floral concoction of gin, crème de violette, and elderflower. A “dirty martini pasta salad” held the hunger pangs at bay until after the production. It was both tasty and abundant.
Food and Drink at the Fourth Wall
Next to Normal runs through March 3 at Round House Theatre.
Wow. So much going on this month, and so much of it red!
The East Is Red
First, Lunar New Year. Knowing my predilection for Guinness, the nice folks at Taylor Strategies sent me a special edition made just for the Year of the Dragon. Not stout, alas, but ale flavored with dragon fruit powder and orange puree. They call it “Luck of the Dragon,” and the can is a work of art in itself, resplendent in red and gold.
It’s a Party in a Box!
The added fruit reminded me of shandy, my favorite thing to do with beer besides drink straight stout, so I was game to try it. And it’s, yes, red! But not terribly so. And it drinks very pleasantly, with a light flavor and only a hint of hops.
And the Beer is Very Pretty
It’s available at the Guinness Open Gate Brewery through February.
Hearts and Heartbreak
And then there’s that holiday on the 14th. Harris Teeter did its big, over-the-top decorating job again this year, with flowers, candy, and heart-shaped everything edible, including cookies, cupcakes, chocolate-dipped strawberries, and something I just couldn’t resist: cheesecake. Several varieties. I caved and got the strawberry chocolate one, with sprinkles. I could have gotten the one with a big icing rose, but I drew the line at that.
So Much Merch!
Cookies
Cupcakes, Some Creepy-Looking
OMG! Cheesecake!
They Pieced My Resistance
The cheesecake was delicious! I even looked for another when I went back on the 15th, hoping for maybe a half-price bargain? But alas, none were to be found. I could have picked a consolation prize, though, from the many carts of candy boxes arrayed at the entrance.
Sad Day-After-Valentines Day
I recognize the risk of repeating my article about post-Christmas sales, so I’ll limit the pictures to two – but the next one features a mind-blower: from the lower deck of the right-hand cart, one could purchase Lunchables in heart-shaped boxes.
Lunchables with Chocolate for Dessert
The perfect Valentine for the person allergic to chocolate. Include a sympathy card.
Red and Black Birds
Speaking of heartbreak, the day after the final Super Bowl playoffs, these cupcakes were also half-price.
Raven-ous for Cupcakes
With the yellow and purple icing, they could double for Mardi Gras. Just replace the footballs and helmets with green glitter.
Speaking of birds, I looked out my front window the other day and found a slightly scary sight.
Like They Owned the Place
Black vultures tearing apart the corpse of an unfortunate raccoon, several of them disporting on my front porch. I should be grateful to them, since it could be next February before the state highway administration would get around to cleaning it up. I speak from experience. (BTW, the term of venery for vultures eating is a “wake.” This differs from vultures flying (a “kettle”) and perched (a “committee”).
It fits the February theme – red in beak and claw!
Just a little late for the Holiday Season, but not too late for the Post-Holiday Leftovers Season (which I hereby declare is the entire month of January), here is another edition of my continuing occasional series of things that trigger my sense of the absurd.
Get This Stuff Out Of My Store
Walking into Harris Teeter the day after Christmas, shoppers had to dodge around the many shopping carts full of Christmas leftovers “at least 50% off!” I don’t remember seeing quite so much forlorn merch in previous years. Among the chocolate and candy canes (many many candy canes, some in bizarre flavors), a few anomalies could be seen. A Barbie Monopoly game! Another movie tie-in! An inflatable garden gnome in a Santa hat. And in the spirit of ecumenism, a lone dreidel full of jelly beans, almost submerged in the Christmas-themed calories.
Many Carts Full of Leftovers
Merch Includes Monopoly Barbie
The Gnome Looks Embarrassed
The Lone Dreidel (Purple Splotch, Lower Right)
Ah! My Penguin!
During one of my favorite activities, browsing the offerings at a church bazaar, I noticed a collection of salt and pepper shakers among the knick-knacks. There among them appeared a candidate for augmenting my small but choice collection of penguins:
Cute Little Guy, Right?
As I picked it up, it occurred to me to wonder why there was a piece of masking tape on its head. The answer came immediately – it was there to keep body and head together.
Aughhh!
You have to admire the efficiency of the design while shuddering at the gruesomeness of seasoning your food with penguin body parts.
And in that spirit I give you:
The Nightmare After Christmas
Still there on January 9, down the road from me, 12-foot-tall Jack Skellington. Dressing your giant Hallowe’en skeleton as Santa Claus is so last year! The bulbs light up at night, of course they do.
There’s a hell of a lot of drinking going on at the Round House. The holiday season furnishes a reason to get smashed for the characters of The Seafarer. They don’t eat much, but they are constantly offered mince pies and smoked salmon by their host (which never materialize). Made me hungry, but these Irishmen seem to exist solely on beer and whiskey!
Four comrades meet for a poker party one Christmas Eve night, with a stranger invited to make up the number for five-card draw. “Sharky” Harkin (Chris Genebach), his blind brother Richard (Marty Lodge), and their friends Ivan (Michael Glenn) and Nicky (Maboud Ebrahimzadeh) all have various reasons for staying sodden, though Sharky has recently undertaken to refrain from drinking – he’s made good on it for several days now. Will he manage to overcome the events of the evening and find strength for the triumph of the human spirit over adversity?
For adversity comes for him, in the shape of Mr. Lockhart (Marcus Kyd), a sharpie in a bespoke suit who is more than just a poker fifth. It seems that many years ago, Sharky was helped out of a spot of trouble with the understanding that there would be a reckoning later, and Mr. Lockhart has come to collect. The fate of Sharky’s eternal soul hangs on the outcome of this poker game.
Like Conor McPherson’s breakout hit, The Weir, a tight ensemble of actors holds our attention with human interactions (although effort must be taken to pierce the thick Irish accents, it’s worth it), until the uncanny intrudes just before intermission. The “son of the morning star” adds that frisson of upleveling that The Weir provided with a ghost story, and the suspense of Sharky’s fate keeps us absorbed while the characters absorb the sauce.
We arrived early at the Round House to take advantage of their café menu inspired by The Seafarer. In addition to cocktails named the likes of “Cab Fare” and “Irish Hot Hello,” the offerings did indeed include a Smoked Salmon Dip (alas, no mince pies), and our selection, Dublin Coddle Stew. The stew includes pork rib, potatoes, green onion, and a crunchy element (fried onions?), and was very tasty. We also appreciated the playlist for the ambient music; a fine selection of traditional favorites including numbers by the Pogues, the Cranberries, Flogging Molly, and Great Big Sea.
Coddle Stew and Ginger Ale, Too
All told, a fine Irish evening. The Seafarer runs until December 31 at Round House Theatre.
‘Tis the season for all sorts of special holiday versions of old favorite brands. And so, the merry elves at Taylor Strategy have sent along a Limited Edition of Smirnoff vodka to sample.
They call it “Red, White and Merry: Orange, Cranberry and Ginger,” and while I generally try to avoid products that seem like they’re trying too hard, they had me at “ginger.” Also, I have fond memories of a visit to Krakow, Poland a few years ago, where many restaurants boast of their infused vodkas.
The unboxing was an adventure in itself – so much packing material, resembling the frozen precipitation we may or may not ever see this winter – and the bottle all sparkly and red. How festive!
Red, White and Not-Snow
We took cautious sips of the stuff neat. It has an assertive, almost too-sweet smell that gave us initial misgivings, and alcoholic strength (30%) to match. Drinking it neat would not be my first choice, but the messaging from Taylor indicated that they expect it to be used with mixers, so we got down to mixing.
First we tried a splash of RW&M in a glass of apple cider, with a twist of lime. Yes, very pleasant and eminently drinkable. This also works with orange juice, and gives the drink a nice rosy glow. (did I mention RW&M is a deep, cranberry red?)
With Cider
Then we tried one of the Taylor suggestions: RW&M with lime juice and club soda (we used lime-flavored sparkling water), with a garnish of fresh rosemary and 2 whole cranberries. The rosemary pulled WAY above its weight to provide an extra dimension of aroma. Highly recommended. (Don’t eat the raw cranberries.)
Penguin-Approved
Finally, we tried RW&M with one of my favorite mixers: ginger beer (remember “…they had me at ginger?) We garnished these with candied ginger and more lime. A masterpiece!
Moose on Ice
Red, White and Merry will put you in a fine holiday mood, if you aren’t already – and, if not, why not? It’s been the season for a while now!
Since it’s a well-known fact that Shakespeare adapted the plots of existing plays for his own masterworks, no shade should be cast on Fat Ham’s playwright James Ijames for lifting the plot and major characters from Hamlet. What he builds on this scaffolding is all his own, totally enjoyable, and even a little profound.
I hope it won’t be giving away too much to report that at the end of Fat Ham, the stage is not littered with bodies. Although this particular line is not among the occasional quotations from the original, the ending brought it to mind: “Those that are married already – all but one – shall live. The rest shall keep as they are.” And to emphasize the alternative to bloody slaughter, where some productions have a danse macabre (which I witnessed a few years ago at London’s Globe), the play ends with a joyous, life-affirming celebration.
There’s Hamlet (Juicy, played by Marquis D. Gibson), all in black and suitably depressed; a manic Horatio (Tio, Thomas Walker Booker); a bullying Ghost (Pap), doubled by Greg Alvarez Reid as Rev (Claudius); and Gertrude (Tedra, Tanesha Gary). Rounding out the cast: a gender-reversed Polonius (Rabby, Kelli Blackwell); her daughter, Ophelia (Opal, Gaelyn D. Smith), and son, Laertes (Larry, Matthew Elijah Webb).
So much for the cast and situation: the occasion is a backyard barbeque to celebrate the wedding of Tedra and Rev after the death of her first husband, Pap, in prison. And yes, Pap and Rev were brothers, and yes, it is revealed that Rev had Pap killed. A scene that echoes the one when Hamlet confronts Gertrude in her bedroom reveals all the false confidence and angst of an aging beauty grasping at security. We are privy to several soliloquies revealing Juicy’s thoughts throughout the play. The Ghost appears with effects that left me wishing that there was a special award for costume lighting (and the lighting throughout the play is to be marveled at).
Greg Alverez Reid, Marquis D. Gibson, and a Prop that Looks Remarkably Iconic
Opal, whose antagonist is the dress her mother made her wear, is not nearly so fragile as her namesake; indeed, she’s sulky about being under the thumb of domineering Rabby. Those combat boots she’s wearing, though, hint at a strength of character waiting to reveal itself. Unfortunately, she’s mostly used as a sounding board for Juicy. Her fate is unexplored.
A thread of cooking and eating runs through Fat Ham. Pap had owned a barbeque restaurant, and a smoker has pride of place on the porch. One clever bit of dialog recalls the original play: as Rev brags about his touch with grilled meat, he declares, “It’s in the rub.” “Ay,” replies Juicy, “there’s the rub!” During times of strong emotion throughout the play, the way of showing love is often, “Let me fix you a plate.”
Gaelyn D. Smith, Matthew Elijah Webb, Greg Alverez Reid, Marquis D. Gibson (Brooding), Tanesha Gary, Kelli Blackwell, and the Grill.
Tio scores some weed. As he and Juicy sit together, Tio prattles forth a high soliloquy of his own, centering sweets as metaphor – culminating in a “gingerbread man blow job.” There’s an image for the ages!
And then Rev chokes to death. A highly appropriate end to a villain – and the beginning of the liberation of Tedra, Juicy, and especially Larry, who is now free to break out from his repressed persona into a joyous being, represented by another fabulous costume, to end the play.
Fat Ham is playing at Studio Theatre through December 23, 2023.
