Hospitality_Recreation

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Andrew S. Geraci/The Washington Times Ceviche is the signature dish of Ismar Reyes, head chef of the Salvadoran Embassy and owner of El Nopalito Grill in Silver Spring.

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Photographs by Andrew S. Geraci/The Washington Times Simon Idsoe, chef at the Royal Embassy of Norway, has a variety of ingredients at hand to prepare his culinary delights. He learned to cook in his Norwegian grandmother’s kitchen and went on to elegant restaurants in France before ending up in a gleaming kitchen on Washington’s Embassy Row.

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Sina Molavi, executive chef of Occasions Caterers and Embassy Chef Challenge judge (right), walks the chefs through the kitchen before a tough first-round challenge last month. (Jason Morenz)

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President Barack Obama participates in a roundtable discussion and lunch with local residents at Combs Pier in Gulfport, Miss., June 14, 2010. Participants pictured, from left, are National Incident Commander Admiral Thad Allen, hotel co-owner Missy Bennett, restaurant owner Scott Weinberg, Marsha Barbour, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, and Gulfport Mayor George Schloegel. This was the President's fourth trip to the Gulf Coast to assess the ongoing response to the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza) This official White House photograph is being made available only for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photograph. The photograph may not be manipulated in any way and may not be used in commercial or political materials, advertisements, emails, products, promotions that in any way suggests approval or endorsement of the President, the First Family, or the White House.

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**FILE** A container ship is loaded with cargo in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Jan. 8, 2013. (Associated Press)

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Reily Sweeney, 5, sits on her snowman during a snowball fight in a residential neighborhood, in Fairfax, VA., Wednesday, March 6, 2013.(Andrew S. Geraci/The Washington Times)

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A truck uses its snowplow to remove slush from West Ox Road in Fairfax, Va., on March 6, 2013. (Andrew S. Geraci/The Washington Times)

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Parents and children bundle up and hike through snow to find a hill to sled down in Fairfax, Va., on March 6, 2013. (Andrew S. Geraci/The Washington Times)

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An SUV drives through the slushy parking lot of Fair Oaks Mall in Fairfax, Va., on March 6, 2013. (Andrew S. Geraci/The Washington Times)

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A snowplow dispenses salt as it rolls down I-66, near Route 50 in Fairfax, Va., on March 6, 2013. (Andrew S. Geraci/The Washington Times)

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** FILE ** Rosa Parks smiles during a Capitol Hill ceremony where Parks was honored with the Congressional Gold Medal in Washington on June 15, 1999. Parks became the first black woman to be honored with a full-length statue in the Capitol’s Statuary Hall on Wednesday Feb. 27, 2013. (AP Photo/Khue Bui)

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**FILE** A bar code is seen attached to a marijuana plant at a grow house in Denver on Jan. 26, 2013. The bar codes are assigned to each plant and follow it through the growing and distribution process. (Associated Press)