About
I'm a British journalist who began writing about food for the Sunday Times Magazine, then The Observer magazine of those two London Sunday newspapers. More recently, I worked on the food pages of YOU Magazine of The Mail on Sunday, another national British newspaper. I've also written about food for The Washington Post and The National Interest and have been United Press International's Food Writer, and chef profiler for the Current group of newspapers in Washington.
EatWashington was born out of my leaving The Observer and becoming the Moscow correspondent for the U.K.'s Daily Mail and the Evening Standard of London while the country was still the Soviet Union. There was very little food around. Like Russian housewives, after I'd finished work I had to shop to feed our family of four, including a 2 1/2 year old and a newborn. And just like them, if I saw a line in the street - who knew what it might be for - I'd join it. Sometimes you'd discover you'd queued for hours for salmon-pink satin brassieres that if they hadn't been so massive might have intrigued Madonna. On better days, it might be for oranges. On weird ones, it could be for frozen lobster from Havana...Russian Salad, published by Bantam, was my account of those four years.
Other foreign women weren't as lucky as me in having a job that forced them out of their fenced-in, militia-guarded compounds and past the October-to-April snowbanks that in the melting month of March revealed the dead bodies that had fallen in drunk, back in late fall. So I began to compile a weekly newsletter that told them where they could find food treasures, and what to do with unfamiliar ones. (Some members of the Politburo joined its mailing list.)
When we were transferred to Washington where I became a features writer for a British daily and began car-pooling children around the suburbs, I couldn't drop the habit. Driving to after-school activities, I'd dash into unfamiliar markets in shopping strips and take notes on what they were selling.
Eventually I had a box of food information I thought other Washingtonians, local or foreign like me, might find as exciting as I did. And EatWashington was born. Because I didn't have any budget, I taught myself html off the internet and designed the site myself.
But it began to look old-fashioned and was difficult to navigate. So here is the new version, designed by the wonderful Andrew Pepperell and his wife Vero, friends of Kate, who when she was 2 1/2 spent many freezing hours in line with me in Moscow.
I hope you like it and find it useful. Let me know by email any additions, corrections or suggestions, at eatwashington@gmail.com
"For eight years, Julia Watson, a freelance writer from London, recorded her favorite Washington food finds on the backs of bus transfers and shopping receipts. Six months ago her scrawled notes about everything from baked beans to bison, Polish doughnuts to Persian pastries and gingerbread to ginger beer reached critical mass. With thoughts of "passing on the food discoveries that have enriched my life here" she decided to construct a Web site...She lists favored farm markets and cooking classes and offers helpful food facts. You want to grow your own lemon grass? Apparently, it's easy. Make vanilla sugar and extract? Pickled garlic? It's there." Walter Nicholls, Washington Post
"It's the inner workings of Watson's brain, which houses all kinds of tidbits on where to get ingredients, cooking tools and culinary miscellanea in the Washington area." Kim O'Donnel, host of What's Cooking, at washingtonpost.com
"Watson uncovers the secrets of where to discover food specialities from all over the world right here in Washington...all places you'd be hard-pressed to find on your own. It's an invaluable resource for newcomers and longtime residents alike." Janet Bennett, washingtonpost.com Entertainment Guide
To read some of my articles, click the following links:
The Washington Post: How to cook a pig in a box
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A46125-2004Jul13.html
The Washington Post: All about salt
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/31/AR2005053100378.html
The National Interest: Raw milk cheeses: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2751/is_75/ai_n6076391
The National Interest: The new American caviar: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2751/is_80/ai_n15786867
For my United Press International columns, type Julia Watson UPI Eat To Live in the Google search box.