March 19, 2008

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DC Food Blog Potluck: Pork Belly Breakfast

Bettyjoan and "Lemmonex" hosted a DC food blog party this weekend, and I offered up my house, since it's gigantic and Metro-accessible. Also attending were Barbara from Looking2Live (who is very nice and interesting), Jon Eick of So Good (who is very funny), one of the guys from DC Food Blog (who I loved, and who made the best food of the night), the girl from Spork And Knife, someone from Kitchen Tango, Food Rockz, the guy from here, and some others. The links point to their round-ups, if I could find them.

Everyone seemed to think all the food was excellent. I don't agree, but certainly nothing was bad. And the company was great. The standouts for me were the dishes from DC Food Blog, and the drinks from Jacob. DC Food Blog's clay pot chicken was good, but the dumplings were excellent. And I got the leftovers, so they've made excellent lunches since then. Spork and Knife's amaretto cake and Barbara's curried potato salad were both very good, and are things I might throw together some time (and I encourage each of them to post a "discussion" of how to make them--I am growing to dislike the term "recipe"--since both would be easy for cooks of all skill levels to make). And Food Rockz guy made a decent beef stew.

I didn't take many pictures of the party, since I was told that a bunch of the bloggers were very insistent that they remain anonymous, which I think is always pretty silly, but is especially eyeroll-inducing for food bloggers, who generally don't post anything that could possibly anger an employer or something. Nevertheless, I shall respect their wishes, however cowardly they may be. However, here are some pictures of Jacob doing his thing, which I can post safely, since Jacob realizes that he isn't a secret agent or something that would actually justify blogging anonymously.

My contribution was a "breakfast" dish. It would've been infeasible to plate them all, so I just threw together one plate for the picture above and served the rest family-style. Obviously, the plating isn't the best. It consisted of:

  • Maple-cured, braised pork belly. I crisped up the fat-side on the stove before serving, and sliced it in about 1/3 inch slices. Delicious. My best pork belly yet.
  • Raisin-yogurt puree. The sweetness of the raisins was delicious with the pork, but the sourness of the yogurt cuts the fattiness in a really nice way.
  • Buttermilk biscuits. I'm gonna give these their own post because another recipe has supplanted my mother's.
  • Carbonated oranges. The raisin-yogurt thing was last minute, or else I'd have done carbonated grapes.
  • Maple-cinnamon crumble, for texture. It was going to be dehydrated, ground French toast, but I didn't feel like bothering with that.

I was really happy with the flavors, with the exception that I would've preferred grapes to oranges, but it was too late. Oh well.

Posted by Barzelay at March 19, 2008 1:43 AM | Comments (12) | Meat


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I actually am a secret agent...

Thanks for opening your house to us.

Posted by: Lemmonex at March 19, 2008 9:24 AM


Jacob realizes that he isn't a secret agent or something that would actually justify blogging anonymously.

Or perhaps that's exactly what I want you to think. I could be stealing your molecular gastronomy secrets and selling them to Pakistan.

Posted by: jacob at March 19, 2008 9:47 AM


Looks like fun. Some food bloggers work near enough/in the industry that it could present a problem. Call it silly, but in a few cases I know of, it makes sense.

Posted by: Anna Nemus at March 19, 2008 10:38 AM


Adam, I think that site is hilarious, but am always dismayed to find that 90% of their articles describe things I like. In truth, it's less what white people like, and more what yuppies like, but it seems that it's equally applicable to me either way.

Jacob, ironically, the avant garde wing of the food movement is the most open about what they're doing. And that's despite it being the most innovative, with the most market share based on uniqueness, and the segment whose first mover advantage on a particular technique disappears most quickly as their intended audience is quite savvy. So there aren't a whole lot of secrets.

"Anna Nemus" (clever name), I understand what you're saying, but I fail to see how being "near" the industry, or even in the industry would make blogging problematic. It's one thing if you're blogging about trade secrets from work, but in most cases, that isn't even possible. To wit, I know of only one kitchen that holds out its accomplishments as legal trade secrets--that of Moto restaurant in Chicago. And even its chef appears in every industry conference and TV show he can, and gives diners kitchen tours upon request. To the contrary, I know of quite a few chef-types who work in the industry and still blog.

Posted by: Barzelay at March 19, 2008 2:18 PM


David, that's an interesting point. Do you think that's because having exclusive value to a secret is less valuable in that community than the reputational gains that come from being known as a first discoverer?

Posted by: Jacob at March 19, 2008 3:16 PM


That always seems to be the criticism for the "Stuff White People Like" website. I am not sure the distinction needs to be made. It's funny as it is.

How did you guys all find each other? I don't know of a single other food blogger in Santa Barbara.

Posted by: sygyzy at March 19, 2008 5:23 PM


Thanks! The pictures are great!

Posted by: Erin at March 19, 2008 10:28 PM


Jacob, I actually wrote a paper about that very subject. The idea is that in industries where legal intellectual property protections either don't apply, or aren't used (such as the restaurant industry), norms are used instead to control intellectual property. There are strong norms within the industry against copying another's chef's recipe exactly, as well as against sharing a chef's recipe without his permission, and for attribution of key ideas on menus and such. And yeah, the enforcement mechanism is damage to reputation. But you're probably right that the gains from being known as the innovator are greater than the actual gains from the innovation.

Sygyzy, DC has a pretty well-organized blogging universe, thanks mostly to DC Blogs. But I'm not sure exactly how Bettyjoan and Lemmonex compiled the list for this party. You'll have to ask them.

Oh, and to everyone, I want to reiterate that I thought none of the food was bad, and all of the company was great. I really enjoyed having everyone over, and would definitely do it again.

Posted by: Barzelay at March 20, 2008 5:07 AM


Good points on anonymity but there are several scenarios you aren't thinking of ;) And personally, some of us just don't have the balls (ova?) to do things like review the food people bring to a potluck. "Everyone seemed to think all the food was excellent. I don't agree . . ."

Posted by: Anna Nemus at March 20, 2008 10:35 AM


Anna, you're right, of course. There are many situations I'm not thinking of, and there are many that justify blogging anonymously. I guess if it weren't for so many people staying anonymous who don't have any decent justification, those who do wouldn't get the eye-roll.

And my criticism was non-specific. I didn't call out anyone's dishes in particular. It's mostly just a reaction to everyone giving everyone else false praise just for the sake of being nice. And yeah, it's great to encourage people, but nothing grates on me more than disingenuous niceties (or "phoniness," as Holden would say). There was definitely some cooking talent on display, and obviously everyone has a bad day in the kitchen; I probably fuck something up in the kitchen daily. I'm not saying anyone is a bad cook or that I wouldn't eagerly try something else of theirs, but there were some dishes that I wasn't into. And I'm pretty sure that a lot of other people also had dishes they weren't into. So when I go to their blogs the next day and they say that "every single dish" was amazing, then it triggers a very strong desire in me to call bullshit on it. So, I say again, nothing was bad. And the company was great.

Posted by: Barzelay at March 20, 2008 2:30 PM


I just posted the recipe for the curried Indian potatoes. After reading your last comment, I'm honored that you asked for it! I must admit I wasn't as thrilled about the Israeli couscous with vegetables (the dish I sort of made up). It has been better in other variations, like the one that included thinly sliced beef tenderloin. But my feeling is when I'm in the kitchen I like to experiment and some things come out better than others. The challenge is being willing to take a chance.

Posted by: Barbara at March 20, 2008 6:02 PM

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