A dozen Washington, D.C. restaurants get Michelin stars

The first-ever Michelin Guide for Washington selected a dozen restaurants for its coveted stars on Thursday in recognition of the US capital’s vibrant dining scene and chefs’ use of local foods.

The little red book awarded two stars to Spanish-born chef Jose Andres’ Minibar, chef Aaron Silverman’s Pineapple & Pearls and Patrick O’Connell’s French-cuisine Inn at Little Washington outside the city. No D.C. restaurant received the top honour of three stars. Further shedding its image as a city of stodgy steakhouses for power-lunchers, Washington becomes the fourth US city with Michelin-rated restaurants, after New York, Chicago and San Francisco. Michelin guides cover 28 countries worldwide. “Over the last five years the culinary offering has significantly developed in the city, driven by chefs who have travelled, have trained abroad and have enriched their cuisine on their return by incorporating new techniques, new flavours and new seasonings,” Michael Ellis, the international director of the Michelin guides, said in a statement. The “Mid-Atlantic cuisine” developed by chefs using regional produce has amplified the upturn, he said. Two one-star restaurants - The Dabney and Rose’s Luxury - were singled out for their championing of regional cooking. The other one-star restaurants are Blue Duck Tavern, Kinship, Plume, Tail Up Goat, Italian restaurants Masseria and Fiola, and Japanese restaurant Sushi Taro. “It’s a very important milestone for the city’s chefs,” Washington Post food writer Maura Judkis said about the new Washington Guide. “In the last eight years, the culinary scene has completely changed, and a large number of innovative restaurants here have won prizes. Getting a Michelin star is something else.” José Andres, whose “Minibar” restaurant won two stars, said the early-morning call from Michelin culminated a dream he had had since he pored over menus posted in the doors of Michelin-starred restaurants as a boy in Barcelona. “For me, being a chef, having a star, how can I tell you? It was a feeling missing in my life. Quite frankly, I’m thrilled,” he told Reuters. He said Washington had benefited from its growing number of excellent chiefs and high standards. Local produce, seafood from the Chesapeake Bay, Virginia’s vineyards, regional cheeses as good as those in Europe and home-grown distilleries added to the mix, he said. “It takes a village. We have a lot of things that make the perfect formula for making Washington a super-exciting food city,” Andres said. The French Michelin tire company introduced the little red book in 1900 to encourage people to take road trips. Its star system began in the 1920s. Michelin deployed its anonymous critics in Washington last fall. Restaurants are rated on such factors as creativity, personality, the quality of ingredients, value, and consistency. (FRANCE 24 with REUTERS) France 24

Countdown: The ten dishes the French love the most

Take a scrumptious look at what the French have just voted as their favourite French dishes. 

 

10. Les tomates farcies

 

Better known as "stuffed tomatoes" in English (doesn't sound as fancy, does it?), this dish sees roasted tomatoes stuffed with ground sausage, garlic, mushrooms, and often much more. 

 

9. Le steak-frites 

 

Better known as steak and fries in English, this is a dish that was invented in France, according to the French (the Belgians think it was them who invented it). Either way, this is a staple meal in any brasserie in France. Delicious.  

8. Couscous 

 

The food so nice they named it twice. This north-African dish has also become a favourite in France, and can be served in 1,001 different ways. Enjoy. 

 

7. Le gigot d'agneau 

 

Better known as a leg of lamb in English, this dish - when cooked right - is a real winner. With a bit of garlic, salt, pepper, olive oil, and plenty of time - you've got yourself a meal to remember. 

 

6. Les moules-frites 

 

Mussels and fries - a meal you'll also see plastered on the menus of brasseries everywhere but particularly in the north and north west of the country.

 

5. La blanquette de veau 

 

A veal ragout where the meat isn't browned, usually by cooking it in a white stock or flavoured water. 

 

4. Le bœuf bourguignon 

 

Also called beef Burgundy, this is one of the most classic French dishes, and usually ranks as France's favourite food. In case you've never heard of it, it's a beef stew braised in Burgundy red wine. 

 

3. La raclette 

 

Raclette is melted cheese, often scraped off the side of the cheese wheel (the French verb 'to scrape' is racler). More modern variants see meat and cheese grilled on an electric hot plate. Although the Swiss will claim Raclet is from their side of the Alps, there's no doubt it's popular in France.

 

2. La côte de boeuf 

 

In second place it was the rib steak, which in France is served with the bone still attached. This dish is a popular one in France, and some restaurants will serve a huge steak for two people to share.

 

1. Le magret de canard 

 

And number one is the magret de canard, or duck breast in English. The duck breast is cooked like a steak and served medium rare. Controversially, it's traditionally taken from a duck that was raised specifically for its liver - known as foie gras in France. The Local-France

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Elie Wiesel memorial plaza opens in Bucharest

Photo Credit: Israel News photo: Flash 90

Left to right: Chief Cantor of Bucharest Jewish Community Yosef Adler,
Chief Rabbi of Romania Rafael Sheffer, Ben Helfgott, Chaim Chesler,
Herman Cahn- childhood friend of Elie Wiesel, Ovidiu Nemes,
and Elisabeta Ungurianu. Marc Israel Sellem

An eponymous memorial plaza opened in Bucharest on Monday to the memory of Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel. Attending the opening ceremony were the ambassadors to Romania of Israel, the US, China, Italy and Austria, officials of the Elie Wiesel Institute and of the Federation of Romania's Jewish Communities (FCER) as well as Bucharest District 1 Mayor Dan Tudorache. Opening the Elie Wiesel memorial plaza were Bucharest City General Mayor Gabriela Firea, FCER Chairman Aurel Vainer and Chief Rabbi of Romania Rafael Scheffer. "I have submitted to the General Council a draft motion under which this so beautiful central space becomes a landmark, a commemoration area that will make people remember the personality of Elie Wiesel, a man who fought for human values, for humanitarianism, justice, truth freedom and democracy, and do so not only when we pass by, but at any moment. The horrors that happened in the world should never repeat. That dark era of history could repeat itself, unless we today take care of the human values that we have to bequeath to the future generations. There is an added duty we have to fulfill, of telling the true story of this country, of this city, of Europe's states, the history of America; school children should know," said Firea. She also mentioned a project for the construction of Romania's Museum of Jewish History and Holocaust Remembrance. "The building standing at 18-20 Lipscani Street will be turned into a Holocaust Museum, and I am honoured to be part to this highly ambitious project. (...) It is only by solidarity, commitment and the consciousness of humankind that we can overcome together all the difficult moments, only by learning the true history, so that the bleak moments full of shadows will no longer repeat themselves," said Firea. US ambassador Hans Klemm said he is honoured to attend the event, thanking the Bucharest officials for their commitment to this initiative to the memory of Elie Wiesel. The ambassador said Wiesel was born in Romania but he became a US citizen, having spent his childhood in the town of Sighetul Marmatiei [Sighet], where his world concentrated on Jewish religious education and community. Wiesel's deportation during WWII, said the ambassador, changed his life forever. In 1944 Wiesel and his older sisters survived the Auschwitz extermination camp, where his mother and younger sister died. Remarkably, the ambassador added, he also survived the Buchenwald camp, where his father died before the camp was freed by the Allies in 1945. Klemm said Wiesel's mission was to make sure the world remembers the Holocaust, and he did so simply and directly, by telling his story and the story of other victims. Elie Wiesel won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. Klemm also said that Wiesel would repeatedly say in his works that he will never forget. Many did not survive the Holocaust, but Wiesel did, and through his actions he taught others to survive, the ambassador added. He said that although Wiesel died in July 2016, his legacy will go on, wishing for the memorial plaza to bear testimony to how people remember Elie Wiesel, whose name became synonymous with faith, hope and trust. FCER Chairman Aurel Vainer underscored in his turn the importance of the opening of the Elie Wiesel Plaza. "A plaza in the heart of Bucharest City, in the most select of the city's quarters, is dedicated to the memory of Elie Wiesel and that is amazing. (...) This is how we take over a testament of his that says we will never forget and we should not forget the horrors of the Holocaust, but at the same time, you can rest assured that we can never forget Elie Wiesel. He is the one to reside over a famous, very busy committee on Holocaust studies in Romania and based on its final report the Romanian Government adopted this openness toward recognising the Holocaust in Romania and created October 9 as a Holocaust remembrance day, because it is the date when Bukovina's Jews started being deported to Transnistria," said Vainer. Elie Wiesel Institute Director Alexandru Florian underscored in his turn the importance of the memorial plaza opened in downtown Bucharest. "This is for the first time in 75 years that a public organisation — the Bucharest local administration — takes the initiative, a first, opening and supporting this event that inaugurates a public space signifying the memory of the Holocaust victims and of all those who in the contemporary history of Romania have advocated by their projects the respect of citizens' rights and freedoms. The National Instituted for Holocaust Studies in Romania considers Elie Wiesel to be first of all a personality of the world who fought his entire life for the preservation of the Holocaust memory and who would send messages to the world's most powerful people urging them to respect human rights and freedoms," said Florian. AGERPRES (RO — author: Catalina Matei, editor: Claudia Stanescu; EN — author: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu, editor: Simona Klodnischi) AGERPRES Wikipedia

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Holocaust Museum Opened in Elie Wiesel's Childhood Home By Tova Dvorin

Holocaust museum and learning center in Sighet, Romania memorializes the fall of Romanian and Transylvanian pre-war Jewry. The first public Holocaust education center in Romania opened Sunday in the pre-war childhood home of Nobel Prize-winning author Elie Wiesel, with special events in his hometown of Sighet. The opening was sponsored jointly by the Government of Romania, the City of Sighet, the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, the Elie Wiesel National Institute for the Study of the Holocaust in Romania, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Romanian Jewish Federation, the Caritatea Foundation and Limmud Former Soviet Union (FSU). This is the first in a series of events that will mark 70 years since the expulsion of the last Jews of Northern Transylvania to Auschwitz. Among the events in Sighet this past weekend was a concert memorializing Holocaust victims on Saturday night, after Shabbat.

Elie Wiesel’s Childhood home, which is now a museum Marc Israel Sellem

In 1944, two days after Passover, the Jews of Maramures County, in Northern Transylvania, were rounded up and forced into 13 ghettos. Eventually, 131,639 Jews from Northern Transylvania were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau; most were murdered. Between 280,000 and 380,000 Romanian and Ukrainian Jews were murdered or otherwise died during the Holocaust in Romania - a Nazi ally - and the territories under its control. An additional 135,000 Romanian Jews, living under Hungarian control in Northern Transylvania, also perished in the Holocaust, as did some 5,000 Romanian Jews in other countries. “The story of the Jews who lived in North Transylvania has not been widely told until now,” said Chaim Chesler, Chairman of the Claims Conference’s Memorial Committee. “The education center commemorates the terrible fate that befell the Jews of this area, and ensures their story will not be forgotten.” The “Holocaust Cellar” became a new feature of the existing Holocaust museum, in the old Jewish Ghetto of Sighet in Maramures County. The Cellar will serve as a learning center dedicated to the 13,000 local Jewish Holocaust victims. Professor Wiesel spoke at the event via a live video feed. “To all of you at the opening of the new Holocaust Cellar in my home in my little town of Sighet in the Carpathian Mountains: I so wish that I could be there with you today," he said. "The house I was raised in is now a museum but to me it will always be uniquely special, eliciting the warmest of memories until the darkness of the kingdom of night befell us."  

Wiesel gave his personal blessing to the project. "I hope that your meetings, though melancholy in nature, are fruitful, enriching and full of meaningful learning," he stated. Among the participants at the event were Viktor Opaschi, the Romanian Minister of Religious Affairs; Irina Cajal, Deputy Minister of Education; Ben Helfgott, Vice President of the Claims Conference and leader in the UK Holocaust survivor community; Romanian parliament members; Rafael Sheffer, Chief Rabbi of Romania; Cantor Yosef Adler; Ovidiu Nemesh, the Mayor of Sighet; Harry Marcus, head of the Sighet Jewish community, as well as other leaders of the Romanian Jewish Federation; prominent journalists from Israel, the United States and Romania; and members of Limmud FSU.
Israel National News

Great moments in Irish history captured on the canvas By Aidan Dunne

Creating History: Stories of Ireland in Art is at the National Gallery of Ireland until January 15th, 2017

A new exhibition at the National Gallery shows Ireland’s history in 55 paintings, and reveals a few secrets if you look carefully 

Creating History: Stories of Ireland in Art, the National Gallery of Ireland’s new exhibition, and its main contribution to the Decade of Centenaries, marshals 55 paintings produced from the 17th century to the 1930s, each of which illustrates and addresses an event in Irish history, extending back to the arrival of St Patrick and concluding with the establishment of the Free State. (The Decade of Centenaries programme began in 2012 and focuses initially on the many significant centenaries occurring over the period 1912–1916.) Perhaps the most intriguing thing about the exercise is that it does not and could not offer a linear, straightforward narrative. Rather it’s a chronicle of continually shifting aims, priorities and viewpoints. Every picture tells a story with Ireland at its heart, whether conjured up in retrospect, depicted in real time or meticulously constructed, and every story is different to a greater or lesser extent. With paintings drawn from the National Gallery’s collection – some rarely seen, several having undergone extensive conservation – and private collections in Ireland and abroad, the exhibition offers a unique take on Irish history and Irish art. An accompanying book, edited by Brendan Rooney and including a series of thematic essays, is published by Irish Academic Press and the National Gallery (€24.99).

James Barry: “The Baptism of the King of Cashel by St Patrick,” circa 1800

Jan Wyck: “The Battle of the Boyne”, 1693

Joseph Haverty: “The Monster Meeting at Clifden, ” circa 1844

Edwin Hayes: “The Emigrant Ship, Dublin Bay, Sunset,” 1853

Lady Butler: “Evicted,” 1890

Archibald McGoogan: “After the Bombardment,” 1916

John Lavery: “Michael Collins (Love of Ireland),” 1922 The Irish Times