Heather Regen

Leisure

Plate of the union: It’s time to holla for challah

This summer, I found myself between an aisle of pan-Asian foods and shelves of Tex-Mex trying to recount the story of Passover to a salesclerk at Safeway. I needed matzo for breakfast, because I refuse to eat cereal as the most important meal of the day, and I know how to whip up matzo brei in less than 10 minutes.

By September 27, 2012

Leisure

Plate of the Union: Guess who’s coming to dinner

I probably should have followed my mother’s advice: never take food from strangers. But that’s exactly what I did last week, as I rang the doorbell of a Dupont apartment and made my way up a flight of tiled stairs. A woman I had never met before welcomed me into her dining room and offered me a glass of water as the smell of grilled halloumi cheese wafted in from the kitchen.

By September 13, 2012

Leisure

Plate of the Union: Never eating meat, like, ever

I used to get excluded from carnivorous cuisines at home—taco nights aren’t quite the fiesta when you don’t eat ground beef. But here at Georgetown, Leo’s desperately tries to win my affection. The cafeteria takes pride in its top spot on PETA’s list of vegetarian-friendly colleges, inviting even the strictest vegans to celebrate “Chicken” Finger Thursdays.

By August 30, 2012

Leisure

Plate of the union: The tea party manifesto

“But still, how can you call yourself a true tea lover if you destroy the flavour of your tea by putting sugar in it? It would be equally reasonable to put in pepper or salt.” Challenge accepted, Mr. Orwell.

By April 26, 2012

Leisure

Pleasant Pops takes off its training wheels for new store

In Adams Morgan, the cost of fame is steep, but it comes with delicious perks. For $1,000, anyone can become a “Pop Star” at Pleasant Pops—an honor which involves naming your own flavor and getting a free popsicle every time you walk through the door of the store, which opens this July. The Pleasant Pops D.C. food truck started out as a single pushcart at farmers’ markets in 2010, but with two years of experience and the help of a Kickstarter campaign, Pleasant Pops co-owners Brian Sykora and Roger Horowitz are rolling their business into a full-fledged store.

By April 18, 2012

Leisure

Katniss Everdeen hits the mark in The Hunger Games

Watching Katniss Everdeen raise her bow in defiance to the Capitol emboldened me to make a heretical statement of my own—The Hunger Games movie is better than the book. While author Suzanne Collins wove intricate themes of class struggle, civil war, and even counterinsurgency strategy into her trilogy, The Hunger Games movie conveys with complex cinematography and precise casting what prose marketed to eleven-year-olds could not.

By March 22, 2012

Leisure

Cardamom to caviar: A modern take on American cuisine

Even if you haven’t taken high school Latin, Unum, a new addition to the D.C. dining scene, makes its esoteric name clear from dish one. While E Pluribus Unum—“out of many, one”—might be the nation’s de facto motto, every course at this M Street restaurant takes the mantra to heart.

By February 23, 2012

Leisure

Nomadic’s acts are Un-f**king-Believable

“I was high as heck and I just wanted to love things.” Channeling a well-intentioned hippie at the beginning of the production, it’s a shock to see Addison Williams (COL ’14) morph into a sociopathic killer in the span of a few short hours. Yet Nomadic Theatre’s Night of One-Act Plays encourages this kind of versatility. While he plays the lovable Truman in John Behlmann’s Un-f**king-Believable, Williams casts off the character to take on a darker role in Neil LaBute’s Coax. Brought together on a sparse stage, the plays in Nomadic’s Night of One-Acts don’t sync together intuitively, but they combine to provide the audience with a wonderful range of theatre.

By January 19, 2012

Leisure

Whiskey, cigarettes, and suicide

With smoking ashtrays and half-empty whiskey glasses littering the set, it would hardly seem shocking if Don Draper strode across the stage for The Deep Blue Sea. A dark domestic drama set in post-war England, The Deep Blue Sea gains its strength through a meticulous attention to detail.

By November 10, 2011

Leisure

Get away from the Hilltop this Halloween

If Leo’s orange-frosted pound cake hasn’t gotten you into the Halloween spirit yet, don’t worry. From embassies to theme parks, D.C. offers plenty of chances to don a costume and forget about those last few midterms for the weekend.

By October 27, 2011