January's Food Dude and Food Dudette

Food Dude and Food Dudette is back from the holiday break and ready to highlight a couple of DC noshers who only made one New Year's Resolution, and it was to be featured on WWEIL. Today we help them achieve their goal of the year; in return they teach us why a super dry, medium-dirty jalapeno martini should be your drink of 2010, and how to slap a pickle with your tongue (watch your party invites double!). Eating their way through our nation's capitol and straight into your hearts, here's Vaugh and Adam:

 January's Food Dudette:

Vaughn, Washington DC, Pickle Tongue Slap

What is going on in this picture and are you a pickle fanatic? 
YES. I am a pickle fanatic. I want to marry the pickle man at Eastern Market, but he's taken. I was doing a little pickle tongue slap:




Last thing you ate?
Chocolate truffle


Best thing you’ve eaten recently?
Dinner this week:  Beef short rib stew cooked by Amelia, my friend/coworker/awesome amateur chef. Yum.

All time favorite food?
Chicken Pad Thai from Siam Bayshore in Miami.

Favorite dessert?
Indian mango sorbet and/or Baci ice cream (dark chocolate espresso hazelnut) from Frieze Ice Cream Factory in Miami (noticing a theme here...)

Favorite local restaurant?
Tie: Mandu and Cork 

Favorite chain restaurant?
Wendy's


Favorite non-alcoholic drink?
Water

Favorite alcoholic beverage?
Whiskey

Ultimate food day? (Best breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, snack combo)
If I had unlimited room in my belly: Sunrise pizza from Red Rocks + bottomless mimosas for breakfast; lunch would be a Tropicale combo (hot dog with pineapple, mozzarella, and special sauce + fries) from Dogma, a Miami hot dog place; I guess I'll go with that Pad Thai for dinner...or a big juicy steak, medium. With something chocolaty for dessert.


Favorite food to make yourself?
Recently, scrambled eggs with pepper and onion and a baby bell cheese; I'm not much of a chef.

What do you bring to a pot luck?
Roasted red pepper dip and bread. And wine.

What's your least favorite food?
Shrimp.


Favorite and/or least favorite food celeb?
Fave: Bobby Flay, also the Ace of Cakes people.

What do you do when you're not eating or drinking?
Body Attack.


Anything else we should know about your hilarity or food consumption?
I keep a food journal with the theory that writing down everything I eat will make me eat less. It doesn't work. I just end up writing "too much beer...", etc.

January's Food Dude:

Adam, Washington DC, Sushi Standoff

What is going on in this picture and did you almost unhinge your jaw to gulp down all this sushi at once?

This is the sushi 3 friends and I made to accompany our treehouse screening of the Mighty Ducks trilogy. We managed, in fact, to share it equitably and not eat too fast. I did eat about 1/3 of the ingredients while we were rolling, though.

Last thing you ate?
Currently eating, uncharacteristically, some kind of Asian salad wrap from a trendy place in Dupont Circle + lemongrass tea.

Best thing you’ve eaten recently?
Over the holidays, my mom and I had a great idea: We took a whole beef tenderloin, seared it on the stove, then finished it in the oven, pretty much creating a giant filet mignon. It was medium-rare the whole way through, and unfathomably tender and melty. I meant to put butter on it, but I forgot.

All time favorite food?

Toro sushi was my initial response, but I've only managed to try chu-toro, and only once. It was fantastic. "Cook it on your tongue," says Chairman Kaga of Culinary Academy.

Nothing for me can compare to a truly exceptional batch of fried rice. It has some element I cannot name... Thai-style is the closest archetype I can give. Wait--there's one thing that can compare: Inspired, well-crafted sandwiches. If I ever degenerate to the point of worshiping physical objects, it will be sandwiches/a sandwich.

Favorite dessert?
Baskin Robbins' ice cream cake, the kind that's log shaped and looks like a swirly when you cut it! It's been my favorite since my 1st birthday. Here's a picture of one incorporating mint chocolate chip ice cream, the proper flavor to use.

Favorite local restaurant?
Bistrot Du Coin

Favorite chain restaurant?
Steak 'n' Shake, the 24-hr, smoking-allowed, darling of the Midwest.

Favorite non-alcoholic drink?
Ha, I failed the 10-second challenge on this one. Water with ice cubes, green tea, coffee... I need them all. Hot and cold both have their place in the pantheon. Ogod! I forgot about orange juice. Orange juice. Final answer.

Favorite alcoholic beverage?
Super dry, medium-dirty jalapeno martini (using vodka, a rare exception). The capsaicin in peppers is alcohol-soluble so it slowly infuses the vodka, increasing the spiciness over time. Thin jalapeno slices float beautifully on the surface. As seen here!

Ultimate food day? (Best breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, snack combo)
Breakfast:

I'm usually anti-breakfast... Black tea with milk, oj, and a slice of melon will do.

Lunch:

Sandwiches, authentic ramen, or that magical bowl of fried rice.

Dinner:

pre-dinner drink: Single malt Scotch, neat

appetizer: Steamed mussels, shrimp & parsley dumplings, tempura, and a dry, sparkling white wine

main course: Omakase sushi & sashimi, a braised shank over risotto, red wine... merlot?

dessert: A slice of sweet potato pie, white coffee

Snack:

An In-N-Out burger!

Favorite food to make yourself?
My recent obsession has been learning to sear the perfect crust on a big slab of fish.

What do you bring to a pot luck?
A smile <3

What's your least favorite food?
Food made without love.

Favorite and/or least favorite food celeb?
Best: Giada de Laurentiis. She's my everyday Italian.

Worst: Rachael Ray

What do you do when you're not eating or drinking?
Napping

Anything else we should know about your hilarity or food consumption?
I AM FOOD

Read about them, envy them, and aspire to be them. Have you got a favorite food? Is there a picture of yourself circulating somewhere of you eating or drinking in a way that could be amusing to others? Then e-mail in your bid to be WWEIL's Food Dude/Food Dudette of the Month to whatweeatislaughable@gmail.com subject: Food Dude/Dudette, and you could be internet food blog famous, too! Applicants accepted on a rolling basis.