Cheesemonger Serves Up FDA Protest

A Food and Drug Administration plan to curb domestic consumption of Mimolette, a French cheese that’s brought to market with the help of some microscopic, rind-chomping mites, has prompted one local businesswoman to give away the soon-to-be-contraband in protest.

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According to Cheesetique Founder Jill Erber, the government crackdown was set in motion this past March, when the FDA put the brakes on further shipments of the bowling-ball-shaped fromage, trapping tons of the stuff at the port in New Jersey.

The biggest concern: that the aforementioned parasites, which Erber said remain relegated to the rough brown exterior of the cheese, might cause an unspecified allergic reaction among consumers.

“You would have to take an uncleaned wheel and rub it all over your face to get any significant exposure,” Erber argued, noting that, “Mimolette is not the only cheese in the world that has microscopic mites.”

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Hot Dog! Mike Rogers Lauds Local Food Vendor

During a brief break from trying to wrap his head around the PRISM-related madness currently gripping Capitol Hill, House Intelligence Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich., managed to squeeze in a shoutout to the ultimate local businessman: a food trucker who caters to the Michigan statehouse.

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“Look who’s back in business!” the Michigan Republican trumpeted on social media, commemorating the resurrection of a Lansing, Mich., tradition, Clint’s Hot Dog Cart.

A Rogers aide told HOH that the congressman has been friends with Clint’s wife, Linda, for more than a decade and said he has been excitedly awaiting the return of the iconic tube steaks.

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Business Types Haul Innovation, Ice Cream to the Hill

To successfully court Congress, groups need to make sure they’ve got a few bases covered — celebrity activists, fresh-faced constituents and, of course, free food being chief among them.

Junior Achievement USA has bagged two out of three for their upcoming presser, an event marrying entrepreneurial teens with patriotic sweets.

“What’s more American than small-business ownership, ice cream and apple pie?” a JA aide said of a “trade fair/ice cream social” scheduled to take place from 2:30 to 5 p.m. on June 18 in the Cannon House Office Building Caucus Room.

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Eat Your Heart Out, Betsy Ross

As if commemorating National Doughnut Day (the first Friday in June) weren’t cause enough for celebration, Astro Doughnuts & Fried Chicken is playing the patriotism card with its latest creation:

(Courtesy Astro Doughnuts & Fried Chicken)

The trendy treat-maker will roll out 200 “Raspberry Blueberry” donuts, each filled with a combination of raspberry and blueberry jams, on Friday morning.

The specialty sweets will run $3 a pop, with all of the proceeds benefiting the military-family-supporting Fisher House Foundation.

According to a release from the fry-happy startup, chef/founder Jason Gehring designed the Old Glory-inspired pastry to honor his brother, Travis Gehring, a Navy vet (1999-2007).

So, do your duty. Eat more doughnuts.

Art and Soul Gets Grilling

Art and Soul has retired the crab boils they’ve indulged in the past few summers in favor of weekly pig and oysters roasts debuting tonight at 5:30 p.m.

(Warren Rojas/CQ Roll Call)

The patio-wide event can be experienced two ways: a $35, 3-course tasting menu or via a la carte snacking of hand carved, heritage pig parts ($5 a pop for your choice of ear, cheek, tongue, jowl, trotters or tail meat). Reservations are recommended, but a restaurant spokeswoman said walk-ins are welcome from 5:30-8:30 pm — or until they run out.

(Warren Rojas/CQ Roll Call)

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Budget Brain Freeze, Please!

We realize it’s not particularly blazing hot outside right now. (C’mon sunshine!) But things could warm up over the course of the long weekend.

Assuming the mercury ever does manage to rise, 7-11 is offering sweet relief through Memorial Day via $0.49 medium Slurpees:

(Warren Rojas/CQ Roll Call)

HOH has confirmed that both of the Capitol Hill outposts — 407 Eighth St. NE, 429 Eighth St. SE — are participating in the slush-slinging promotion.

Currently on tap at Barracks Row: classic Coca-Cola, sugar-free Sprite, pina colada and assorted Fanta fruit flavors (blue raspberry, oddball orange, wild cherry) — many of which, we’re told, are easily enhanced by a long pour of vodka.

Cheers!

Swalwell Fans the Flames of Bipartisanship

Freshman Rep. Eric Swalwell rolled out the welcome mat in the Cannon House Office Building on Wednesday night, inviting fellow occupants of the fifth floor to what turned out to be a widely attended cookout.

(Courtesy Rep. Eric Swalwell)

A Swalwell aide said the California Democrat wound up grilling more than 100 hot dogs, bratwursts, vegetarian burgers and smoked chicken wings, the latter being donated by neighbor Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga.

“I’d estimate 12 offices were represented,” the Swalwell aide said of the BYOB gathering sprinkled with appearances by fellow penthouse dwellers Collins, Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, Keith Rothfus, R-Pa., Alan Lowenthal, D-Calif., and Doug LaMalfa, R-Calif.

Sounds like the gang had such a good time, they might give it a go again real soon.

“We’re hoping for a repeat!” the Swalwell aide said, adding, “A few other offices have offered to host a future BBQ.”

Count us in.

Coons Is Sweet on Franken

Minnesota Democratic Sen. Al Franken can’t say nothing good ever comes of attending a Senate Judiciary Committee markup.

(Courtesy C-SPAN)

While the rest of the committee tended to trimming the immigration legislation tree, Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., gifted his neighboring panelist with a birthday cupcake from Crumbs Bake Shop to help commemorate his special day.

“He enjoys sitting next to him … and it was a quick little way to make his friend smile,” a Coons aide said of the lighthearted exchange.

Judiciary Chairman Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., was apparently so moved he dubbed Coons a “sweetie pie.”

First Timers Share Lamb Jam Strategies

The third annual Lamb Jam, a gustatory carnival for unabashed carnivores, is happening Monday night at Eastern Market. And HOH has the skinny on how two of the competing chefs plan to woo even the most sheepish diners into their respective camps.

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Tickets to the event, which is scheduled to take place from 6-9 p.m. and includes food, booze (craft beer, wine) and a butchering demo, are $60 per person.

Art and Soul toque Wes Morton is looking forward to mixing things up with the 19 other local chefs vying for the Lamb Jam crown. Morton expects to serve British-style lamb scrumpets, featuring lamb bellies put through an intensive three-step process (brined and smoked, picked and pressed, and, finally, buttered and fried).

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South Dakotans Want to Help Scratch Your Taco John’s Itch

Her interest piqued by the latest Noshtalgia column, Sioux Falls, S.D., native Heather Fluit reached out to HOH about her epicurean Everest.

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“I’m disappointed to see that no one advocated for Taco John’s in your call for hard-to-find regional food,” Fluit, who spends her days handling communications for Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, shared.

The beloved chain, originally born in Cheyenne, Wyo., currently serves roughly half the United States, marshaling most of its resources in the northernmost and central states. The closest outpost to D.C. is in Athens, Ohio.

But TJ lovers needn’t despair.

Fluit and the rest of the South Dakota State Society (she’s on the board) will be doing their best to re-create Taco John’s signature snack, the Potato Ole, at Saturday’s 5^th Annual Taco John’s event.

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Hungary Ayes

If your understanding of what exactly the Hungarian American Caucus has been up to in recent years is as clear as a bowl of paprika-spiked goulash, allow HOH to bring you up to speed.

The group, which was most recently led by former-Rep.-turned-Fox-News-commentator Dennis J. Kucinich, D-Ohio, is getting back into action in the 113th Congress with three new co-chairmen: Reps. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, Andy Harris, R-Md., and David Joyce, R-Ohio.

A spokesman at the Hungarian Embassy welcomed the infusion of new blood and expressed hope that the tightly knit band would help strengthen the cross-cultural connections (global security issues, economic cooperation, cultural expression) the two nations have fostered for decades.

And just to show they’re not wasting any more time, Hungarians will commemorate the 20th anniversary of ongoing relations between the Hungarian Defense Forces and the Ohio National Guard — “Cleveland has the second largest Hungarian population, after Budapest,” Joyce told HOH about the rock-solid Buckeye-Magyar bond — with a celebratory luncheon Wednesday in Rayburn 2358-C. Kaptur, Harris and Reps. Steve Stivers, R-Ohio, and Michael R. Turner, R-Ohio, are scheduled to speak at the event, alongside Hungarian Ambassador to the United States György Szapáry and James J. Townsend Jr., deputy assistant secretary of Defense for European and NATO policy.

If all that sounds a little too dry for you, Hungary will also be strutting its stuff as the guest nation during the 2013 Smithsonian Folklife Festival (June 26-30, July 3-7).

Taste of America: Where’s a Voter to Sample?

The second round of CQ Roll Call’s 2013 Taste of America throwdown is under way, with culinary partisans voting for their favorite vittles from sea to shining sea.

Arizonans teed up their chimichangas. West Virginians are flogging their pepperoni rolls. D.C.’ers (we have no idea how to differentiate Washington-state people from Washington-nation’s-capital people, so there you go) are behind their half smokes.

In the spirit of fairness, we here at HOH encourage all voters in this competition to keep an open mind and palate, and sample as much fare as your waistlines will allow. For D.C. voters, we have taken the top five vote-getters from last week who moved on to the second round and compiled a list of Capitol Hill or nearby establishments to nosh. And, of course, we welcome all, ahem, feedback, because we know there’s more out there. And yes, we know it’s all better back home. Full story

Taste of America: Reigning Champs Go Down!

America is changing before our eyes. Or at least CQ Roll Call’s Taste of America is changing.

In the first round of voting for 2013′s food fight, the past two champions — 2012′s Utah cherry cobbler and 2011′s Northern Mariana Islands apigigi — went down. Utah’s cobbler went down to Washington state trout, 833-584. Meanwhile, Idaho french fries deep-fried the apigigi, 963-121.

Other notable contests: The epic pastry-on-pastry showdown of Boston cream pie and West Virginia pepperoni rolls had smoked cured meat beating out sweet cream, 9,019-4,372. Georgia peach cobbler squeaked out a win against Texas 2′s corn dogs, 1,800-1,746. And Arizona chimichangas walloped Wyoming buffalo burgers, 6,350-627.

‘A Taste of America’ Votes Coming In Fast and Furious

Forget about what may or may not be happening on the floor.

The real action (at least this week) has been happening in cyberspace, as pols and food lovers put on their lobbying hats to help shepherd treasured goodies through CQ Roll Call’s month-long “A Taste of America” food fight.

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The contest, which will whittle 64 signature eats to eight contenders over the next several weeks, is already shaping up to be a doozy. The winner will be revealed June 13 at a reception during the 52nd Annual CQ Roll Call Congressional Baseball Game.

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Tom Colicchio: ‘Just Say No’ to Farm Bill

“Top Chef” judge and anti-hunger advocate Tom Colicchio has some choice words for members of Congress when it comes to the farm bill: “Just say no.”

Colicchio said he thinks the status quo is better than making deep cuts to hunger programs. (Douglas Graham/CQ Roll Call)

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