Good F words

During (almost) every holiday, my family gets together to celebrate. While we have some fantastic traditions (some of which I hope to highlight in upcoming posts), one of my favorites is actually what we call "forced family fun" or F-cubed. It's not forced, but it is definitely fun.

Typically it includes a movie, museum, and/or activity the day after the holiday. And it always includes dinner out - usually because my mom spent her entire holiday preparing a meal that would make Rachel Ray look like she uses an Easy Bake Oven. My sister and brother-in-law sacrifice themselves for the sake of this meal by researching, through active sampling, new restaurants in the DC/Baltimore area. (Thank you Amy and Mark for your dedicated service. I know it was a challenge. Did that sarcasm come across ok?) They do find so many good places that I can't keep them straight. Often jogging my memory goes something like this:

Amy: This place is over by that Malaysian place.
Jon: I've never been to the Malaysian place.
Amy: Yes you have. The one with the huge bowl of noodle soup ...
Jon: uhhhhhh
Amy: umbrellas in the drinks ...
Jon: hmmmm
Amy: where the waitress threw the dish at the cook ...
Jon: ohhhhh ... that one.

It's not that the food isn't memorable enough, it's just that the market in DC is saturated with wonderful restaurants. I WILL NOT however be forgetting the place we went to recently after Thanksgiving. The place is called Matchbox. If you live in the DC/Baltimore, hell the Eastern side of the United States, you MUST go to this place. Some of the best sliders and wood-fired pizzas I've ever had. I'll let some pics do most of the talking:

The first thing you notice when you walk in (besides the beautiful, lively bar with an eclectic draft selection) is a wood burning oven. I saw stromboli and pizza constantly sliding in and out. It would surprise me if they roasted these in there:

I wanted to reach over the counter and taste a couple. Have you ever seen so many roasted red peppers? When I saw these I knew we were in for a treat ...

We started with an order of the mini burgers (aka sliders) with onion straws. Not only were these some of the most flavorful sliders I've had, but they were some of the most flavorful burgers I've had. Cooked to perfection and topped with a variety of cheeses (mozzarella, gorgonzola, and smoked guoda), these were hard to beat.

But the pizza definitely rised to the challenge. This one is their veggie option which is overloaded - in a good way - with roasted veggies. A highlight of this pizza is the thin crispy fingerling potatoes; not your traditional topping but it made it pop.

Another outstanding pie they made was called "Fire and Smoke". It was coated with fire roasted red peppers, spanish onions, chipotle pepper tomato sauce, garlic puree, smoked gouda, and fresh basil. I'm breaking out into a sweat just thinking about it. Your taste buds have to be masochist ...

nom nom nom

My personal pizza was topped with wild mushrooms ands weet sopresatta. Don't worry, I shared ... the rest of my family got to split a mushroom. Next time though, I might not be so generous. See you there.