Daily Roast

by Espresso Cup

Council Chairman rolls over critical colleague

July 13, 2011

Council Chairman Kwame Brown exercised raw political muscle on Tuesday, showing a heretofore unknown and unseen ability to use his power over what has been an otherwise fractious collection of politicians since he became chair in January.  The Chairman led the 13-member Council to vote to strip Ward 6 Councilmember Tommy Wells of his chairmanship of the powerful transportation committee, giving it to Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh, and handing Wells the minor committee overseeing parks, recreation and planning.  
 
The vote was 12-to-1, with Wells in the one-person minority.
 
This committee shuffle was, by most accounts, at least partial payback by Chairman Brown for Wells’ aggressive investigation and negative conclusion concerning the Chairman’s request for “fully loaded” SUVs as his official vehicle. Wells prefers to take the bus, as multiple videos on his website attest. So Brown threw him under one -- an unprecedented change in committee chairmanships in the middle of a two-year Council term.
 
Chairman Brown is clearly a winner in the short-term – he has demonstrated control of the Council and of the District political agenda.  However, the Chairman may suffer in long-term.  He has refocused attention on himself and the ethics-related allegations of wrong-doing, including the SUV requests, the federal and D.C. investigations of his at-large reelection campaign finances and his unpaid credit card bills.  
 
And he has given Wells a big citywide boost in name recognition and as a victim of political intrigue.  Can Wells take advantage of this opportunity? Can the popular-in-Ward 6 councilmember take this ball and run with it?  Does Wells have, or more precisely can he develop, the political savoir-faire to become the District’s center of good government, rallying voters against a secretive, unaccountable, ethically-challenged City Council. Yesterday's 12-to-1 vote shows he has a ways to go.


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We all scream for Italian gelato

July 5, 2011

Although it’s for the trade only, if you see people with badges coming out of the Washington Convention Center for the next few days licking their chops, you’ll know the purveyors of high-end frou-frou foods have hit town. The Fancy Food Show is a delicious coup for the District because this is the first time the National Association for the Food Trade Inc. is holding its summer show outside of The Big Apple.

Taste buds will be sent into overdrive.

Chief Gianluigi Dellaccio and his children at the baseball stadium (Photo by: Dolci Gelati) Chief Gianluigi Dellaccio and his children at the baseball stadium
D.C. master pastry chef Gianluigi  Dellaccio, once an Italian water polo champion player before he switched professions, will scoop out samples of some of the 200 Dolci Gelati flavors he has being getting rave reviews about  every place he goes.  Dellaccio, a former executive pastry chef at Galileo restaurant, distributes to various restaurants and to Dean and Deluca in Georgetown, Whole Foods, Yes Organic Market and Taylor Gourmet. 

Also, while you can’t feed the animals at the National Zoo, you can feed yourself Dolci Gelati‘s gelato sold there in food carts.  The Washington National’s baseball stadium is still another venue.

There'll be some 2,500 exhibitors from 81 countries and regions showing 180,000 specialty foods and beverages at the Fancy Food Show; upwards of 25,000 attendees are expected to nibble their way thru the displays.

The show, from Sunday thru Tuesday, is the largest marketplace for specialty foods and beverages in North America.  The Italian Trade Commission, the show’s largest international exhibitor, plans gelato-making demonstrations, wine tastings, fresh-pressed juices, and olive oil.

Korea will create a pop-up restaurant run by Korean-born Chef Akira Back from Yellowtail Japanese Restaurant & Lounge at Las Vegas’ Bellagio Resort & Casino.   Jamaican exhibitors will show off new twists on jerk seasonings.

Other international exhibitors include Wales, Kenya, Botswana, Bulgaria, Egypt, Israel, India, Chile, Russia, Barbados, Tunisia, Peru, Australia, Sri Lanka, Greece, Morocco, Argentina, China and France.

“We’re on track for a great show,” says Ann Daw, president of the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade Inc.

Foodies are foodies wherever they go. So expect fancy food folks to trek over to Georgetown and U Street to try some of our home-grown restaurants.  Even though non-trade folks can’t get in, they can look for the items to begin gracing kitchens, menus and shelves at favorite restaurants, caterers and groceries.


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Summertime, and the livin' is...

June 27, 2011

A few lines of poetry for our readers in the month of June, with no sign that the fresh young beauty of this month will fade...

 

In The Summer

In the summer
I stretch out on the shore
And think of you
Had I told the sea
What I felt for you,
It would have left its shores,
Its shells,
Its fish,
And followed me.

by Nizar Qabbani (1923-1998), translated by B. Frangieh and C. Brown

To see the Summer Sky
Is Poetry, though never in a Book it lie -
True Poems flee.

by Emily Dickinson

What is one to say about June, the time of perfect young summer, the fulfillment of the promise of the earlier months, and with as yet no sign to remind one that its fresh young beauty will ever fade.

by Gertrude Jekyll

Photography by Tom Quiggle


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