Lifestyle

The number of open farmers markets continues to grow. Additional details are available through the map link below. New this week:

• Thursday’s Middletown Farmers Market

• Saturday’s Cheverly Community Market

• Saturday’s Hillsboro Farmers Market

• Sunday’s Bowie Farmers Market

• Sunday’s Urbana Library Farmers Market

INTERACTIVE: Click the image above to view our interactive farmers market map.

And now for a taste of what you’ll find:

At Thursday’s FreshFarm Market by the White House:

Bigg Riggs Farm: strawberries.

Capitol Kettle Corn: cinnamon kettle corn.

FishScale: rockfish burgers.

Grassential Farm: duck eggs.

Panorama Bakery: madeleines; scones.

At Thursday’s FreshFarm Market in Penn Quarter:

Anchor Nursery: rhubarb.

Clear Spring Creamery: Clare’s Camembert.

Evensong Farm: whole and cut-up spring chicken.

Garner’s Produce: head broccoli; English peas.

Red Apron Butchery: porchetta .

Soupergirl: spring barley soup.

Did the World Trade Organization just kill the dolphin-safe label for U.S. consumers? (Deb Lindsey for The Washington Post) The World Trade Organization ruled today that the U.S. “dolphin-safe” label discriminates against Mexican tuna fleets that rely on controversial chasing-and-netting techniques that can harm and kill the marine mammals. It’s not clear what the ruling will mean for the future of the voluntary dolphin-safe label, but environmentalists worried that the decision would realize their major fear:

That the United States would have to sacrifice an important environmental law in the name of free international trade.

“This latest ruling makes truth-in-labeling the latest casualty of so-called ‘trade’ pacts, which are more about pushing deregulation than actual trade,” Todd Tucker, research director for Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, said in a news release this afternoon.

“Members of Congress and the public will be very concerned that even voluntary standards can be deemed trade barriers.”

The Mexican government had challenged the United States’s dolphin-safe label with the WTO, saying that it discriminates against Mexican tuna fleets. Last fall, a dispute panel ruled in favor of Mexico on some issues, but acknowledged that the United States had a legitimate consumer and environmental right to pursue the label. Both Mexico and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, which handles dispute cases before the WTO, appealed the case. In today’s final ruling, the WTO appeals court sided with Mexico’s concerns:

There is nothing like the smell of sauteed onions. (Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post) If there is a God, he/she/it would smell like sauteed onions. Which tells you something about how fondly I think of the aroma of slow-cooked alliums. The interaction is so simple — sliced/diced onions, a little oil, a hot pan, a working nose — and all so perfect. Surely, sauteing onions is a sign of a higher intelligence.

Some cooks must not see it that way, however: Consider one of the hopefuls who submitted an entry to this year’s Smoke Signals Barbecue Sauce Recipe Contest. The first step of “No-Name Recipe No. 1” (ahem, not its real name): “Place the diced onion and garlic into a cold (unheated) saucepan, then set the stove to low heat. Sweat cook, stirring constantly, for about five minutes or until the onion is translucent. Note: Keep moving the onions and garlic around to prevent burning. If you hear a sizzling sound, add water one tablespoon at a time to prevent sticking or burning.”

Setting aside the notion that you can sweat raw diced onions in five minutes when you start with a cold pan, I’ll instead focus on the more troubling idea to me: cooking onions in a completely dry pan.

Personally, I had never heard of this approach. Neither had some of my colleagues here in the Food section. I thought it might be good to investigate the technique and provide some clarification on the difference between sweating, sauteing and caramelizing onions.

A sign of the times: If we’re writing about ice cream — and we are — doesn’t it seem like summer can’t be too far off? Today in Food, Tim Carman’s Immigrant’s Table column is all about the wonders of Jamaican ice cream. There’s a bonus: two ice cream recipes that, trust me, are really good.

Speaking of recipes, you can’t go wrong with any of the ones today that call for five ingredients or fewer. I loved the Garam Masala Roast Chicken: three ingredients (for the purpose of this exercise we didn’t count salt, pepper or water) and it was just a terrific bird. A big surprise for me was the Baked Fruit Brioche, so simple but so packed with flavor.

Also today, read Jane Black’s story about Kavita Shukla, an Ellicott City native who was 17 years old when she won a patent for a product called FreshPaper that helps retard food spoilage. Now 27, she hopes someday to supply it to people in underdeveloped countries who lack refrigeration.

Shukla will join us for today’s Free Range chat at noon. You should, too. It’s 60 minutes of culinary give-and-take that just seem to fly by each week. To get you in the mood, here’s a leftover from last week’s chat . A question about freshness: I’ve had three bottles of infused olive oil on my counter for several years now. How long do they last? I don’t use them very often, obviously!

Family affair: Mike Isabella and his wife, Stacy, whose father, Charlie Nemeth, handcrafted a number of wooden tables for Bandolero. (Tim Carman/The Washington Post) Less than three weeks after he closed his second Bandolero pop-up at the former Tackle Box in Cleveland Park, Mike Isabella is ready to launch the real thing on Thursday, May 24, in Georgetown. Dinner reservations are now available on CityEats, the online newbie that has recruited the former “Top Chef” contestant in its ongoing campaign to supplant OpenTable.

Bandolero is the New Jersey native’s stab at Mexican cuisine — or “modern Mexican,” as Isabella prefers to call his menu of small plates, which will wander beyond the confines of Mexico’s regional cuisines to incorporate flavors that have influenced the chef. Among the dishes that Isabella has prepared at his pop-ups, or has talked about in interviews, are a blue-crab taquito in a fried root chip with coconut milk and red chili pepper and a lobster taco served in squid-ink tortillas.

“Some of the food will be traditional,” says Isabella, whose debut restaurant, Graffiato, opened just last year. “Some of it will probably not be Mexican.”

The full menu is now available on the Bandolero site.