Saturday, March 03, 2007

Downtown DC lunch...

You may have noticed we missed a posting yesterday... Jeff and I spent the day walking around and shopping in the downtown DC area in an effort to do something different for my birthday. While we didn't have time to go in, we did by accident come across the Cake Love shop and Love Cafe right across the street that is run by Warren Brown who hosts Sugar Rush on FoodTV. Now that we know where it is, we'll have to stop by next time and check it out!

We thought it would be fun to try one of the local non-chain restaurants downtown for lunch and found a little spot called 2 Amys. We got there around 1:30 and had to wait about 30 minutes to get a seat... but boy was it worth it for this gourmet pizza!

Jeff and I both ordered the same thing from the D.O.C menu - the margherita which was simply dressed with tomato puree, Mozzarella di buffala and fresh basil leaves on an excellent wood-fired crispy thin crust. I think there was suppose to be a drizzle of olive oil, but I didn't notice until our pizza was pretty much gone. Despite how busy this place was, the pizza was delivered within maybe 10 minutes of us ordering. We didn't want to take a bunch of pictures, but here's the single snap we took before the pizza quickly vanished from our plates. They are located at 3715 Macomb St. NW - if you're in the area, I would definitely give this place a try if you have not already!

Since nothing was tempting me from the freezer this morning, I thought I would throw together something for a mid-morning snack today. We haven't made scones in awhile and Jeff said anything along that line sounded good - so I made these Whole Wheat Orange Scones.

I started out by draining mandarin oranges and then patting them dry with paper towels to remove some of the excess moisture. The halved sections are tossed into a dry mixture consisting of white whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour, just a few tablespoons of sugar and baking powder along with cold chunky pieces of butter that was cut in with a pastry blender. To reinforce the orange flavor, fresh grated orange zest is added to half and half that will moisten the dry ingredients and give the scones a rich background. You could use cream to heighten the flavor or use milk to make them a little lighter if you want. A light scattering of vanilla sugar before baking adds a crunch and a mild sweet vanilla flavor to them. These had a pleasant orange flavor with the segments adding little juicy bursts. I feared they might be overly wet from the oranges, but they were just right for us - not so dry that you have to add a spread or butter to fully enjoy them, yet not too moist that they fall apart.


13 comments:

  1. Happy (Belated) Birthday, Joe!!! So glad you got to go to the city to enjoy your special day.

    I'm going to D.C. for four days next month and 2 Amys is on my list for lunch one day. Glad to hear it was yummy.

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  2. Big thumbs up for 2 Amys. Great pizza.

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  3. You know, I live down the street from 2 Amys. And everyone raves about how great it is. And everyone waits in line. And it's all the rage on all the blogs. But I finally had dinner there a few weeks ago, and... not so much impressed. Maybe I'm just missing the pizza-appreciation gene. (Doubt it, though; I'm bred from New York Jews.)

    Now, Cafe Angelico on Wisconsin Ave. in Tenleytown -- THAT'S good pizza (and calzones... ohhhhh, the calzones...)

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  4. Happy Birthday, Joe.

    You give me a gift almost each day

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  5. Happy Birthday Joe. :)

    We hope to get to D.C. with the boys now that we live closer. So much to do and see!

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  6. Thanks for the Birthday Wishes!

    Always write - To each their own I guess. We both really enjoyed our pizza's - much more than any other place we have tried! I will put Cafe Angelico on our to-try list though!

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  7. Happy birthday! You picked one heck of a nice day to go cruisin' round the capital.

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  8. Happy Birthday Joe!! Sounds like you had a special day :-)
    Val

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  9. Hi Joe, Happy birthday, my name is Silvia and I read every day your blog! The pizza looks just as it sould be a real pizza!

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  10. Happy Belated Birthday, Joe!

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  11. (I can to your site via a search for salty oat cookies... ^_^)

    Oooohh I LOVE 2 amys! I know it's all hyped up but I love it so much! They have another small dish I like... suppli (??) Its fried rice balls with cheese, SO GOOD! Also, if your ever down in Silver Spring, there is a Cake Love there as well!

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  12. Oh wow Supplì!!!! I would never thought to find them outside Rome or Palermo they are very common street food for us. Here in Rome we call them "supplì al telefono" we do them with leftovers of a simple tomato risotto. Shape a handful of it in a ball and place a bit of mozzarella in the center. Dip in beaten egg and pass them in bread crumbs. Deep-fry in olive oil. The mozzarella will melt and when you bite them you will have a loooong "telephon cord"!!!!! The sicilian supplì are called "arancina".

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  13. s'kat - Thanks! And yes, it was quite a nice day outside!

    Val - Thank you!

    Silvia - Thanks for coming to the site!

    Gilly - Thanks!

    Clover - We didn't order them, but the table next to us did and they looked so good!

    Silvia - They certainly sound delicious! We will have to try them when we go again!

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