march steaks

I'm fulfilling my one post a month. Or several posts in a 12 hour period for the month.

Steaks are awesome. This evening I had the luxury of blowing over $300 on a dinner for two at Charlie Palmer's. I ordered a steak that was approximately $6 a bite, Waguyi sirloin, good, but I trimmed about $10 worth of fat off it. The Pinot with the dinner was fantastic. The desserts decadent (chocolate is the way to go here). The service just right, attentive without making you feel embarrassed about the conversation you were carrying on interrupted (hah maybe that's just me). Yummy oysters, not too briny. Yeah, if you want to feel the full-fledge D.C. power towering over and around you, this is the place, the sort of place where I felt okay knowing my DC & Federal tax return made into my bank account and I was getting paid tomorrow so I could pull out the debit card instead of embarrassing myself by pulling out my non-Platinum American Express. Yeah, that's the kind of place Charlie Palmer's is. If you've got a snooty Beverly Hills high up on their horse kind of relative, this is the place to take 'em to make 'em feel small (not that I have those relatives).

blog lite

When I came back from Qatar, I was plunged into mid-term hell. I'm still recuperating and about to take another final gasp of air before I plunge into the pool of graduate school finals and preparing for another big trip for work.

So I will summarize. Had fantastic food at Oyamel (its been so long I don't even remember if I blogged about this). Heartily recommend it. Not too keen on Acadiana though, newest venture from the group that brought DC Ceiba, TenPenh, and DC Coast (I've never dined at the latter two). Also if you want fresh, inexpensive, delicious quick sushi that's not your grocery store variety, only three words: Nooshi Carry Out (on 19th between L and M).

A nod to a Portuguese chicken place!!! Finally I tried it after my colleagues and cousins raved about it ... in Doha of all places, and on the first night of Ramadan.

changing season gastronomes

Its still hot outside, but breezy and comfortable enough to climb in the various river gorges. It also means a change in my gastronomic tendencies. As a creature who's happiness is expressed by the palette and having an eye view of beautifully prepared food (to eat!) I can say, I'm saying goodbye to the fruit accented salads of summer, and cool sushi fare of the evening (although I will revisit both no doubt in the cooler seasons). Now I can eat at 2 Amy's without guilt, inhale Vietnamese noodle soup and indulge in another Fall raw treat-oysters. DCist alerted me to Old Ebbitt Grill's Oyster Riot. Now I imagine Oyster is a totally acquired taste, much like many things like beer, wine, sushi, but all of which have great rewards after having acquired said taste. Yes its a bit funny looking, tasting, feeling, smelling, but mmmm mmm the salty sweet complexity of an oyster is frankly, well, I haven't found it anywhere else. So anyone up for a November evening of slurping and imbibing?

disappearing karma

When one's time is consumed with trying to decide what she should do with the scant free time (work out, do homework, see friends?) I will try to break up what would be an ordinarily boring day. For example, looking for Karma, a lounge coffee bar somewhere in Foggy Bottom. Now I've rode my bike past this place dozens of times but whenever I actually go to look for it on foot, I can never find it. And I never seem to remember the intersection. Senior moments.

Looking at the menu I'm surprised it's focused on Mediterranean foods. Particularly since Karma is a Buddhist concept, starting from India that spread to East Asia and definitley not the Middle East. Oh well, next time.

bad for you good food

Fried chicken, curly fries, Wendy's burgers, Jerry's potato wedges, Haagen Dazs ... Despite what one might think its fairly easy to replace these unhealthy choices with grilled chicken, boiled potatoes, the Gardenburger, roasted potatoes, and um, frankly there's really no good substitute for ice cream, except frozen custard which is probably worse for you. Now that's nine days out of ten, that I'll eat healthy, and then I'll splurge--even though I know this sits like a brick in my stomach, chipped beef on toast. Mmmmm mmmm. If you look at it, it's pretty gross. Lumpy cream colored (or orange if you go to Bob & Edith's) gravy with bits of shaved super processed beef on two slices of buttered toast. Even though its a treat that I'll pay for in a couple hours by multiple runs to the bathroom, I'm always quickly shoveling it down my throat, in hopes nobody stops by and looks at my food like, What the heck is that???

bonefish grill

So after a not so strenuous day of climbing at Talking Head Wall (because the parts that were strenuous, I couldn't even do) and still being sore from climbing at Great Falls, (the log: The Right Stuff, attempting some crazy 5.10 my friend told me was a 5.4, Splinters, and then being so worn out from Splinters I couldn't even complete the corner of Aid Box--how pathetic) I decided to eat with friends at the much talked about Bonefish Grill. Normally I wouldn't review chain restaurants but I figured this one wasn't as prolific as Red Lobster or Ruby Tuesday's.

Starting off with a Georgia Peach martini (very tasty) I joined my friends at the table. They're into having you dip your bread (which tasted warmed, not recently baked) in pesto and olive oil. For an appetizer we had calamari, which according to my friends, is usually excellent, but that night was chewy. This is place where you get fish, grilled, like the name suggests, in a variety of preparations: lemon butter sauce, lime tomato garlic sauce, warm mango salsa or pan-Asian style. For everyone else, it seemed the lime tomato garlic sauce (seemed best on the white fishes) and pan-Asian style (particularly good with seared Ahi tuna) were a hit. I ordered the dismal overpriced halibut rockefeller, topped with crab meat, spinach, and three kinds of cheeses, which all tasted American. I also got the potatos au gratin which again were cheesy, but in an unflavorful American kind of way. Yeah, I should give up right??? This is why I won't dine at chain restaurants, or I just ordered the wrong things.

However, Pesce on P Street is a great fish restaurant, as is Oceanaire Seafood Room if your're looking for a loud boisterous atmosphere.

Frankly, I still think Bengalis do fish better :) ... mmm sauteed onions and chillies in garlic, cayenne, turmeric, cumin, and salt ... all in a frying pan. Or in a nice tangy mango curry, mmm ..., don't get me started ...

spices

Apparently when I don't have to worry about having class at night or studying after work, I eat. And so I did again, this time at Spices in Cleveland Park. I expected good things after I discovered its by the same people as Nooshi Oodles Noodles, from which I've had great take-out . The decor reminded me of a futuristic cafeteria, particularly with so many newly moved-in undergraduates dining there. The staff was extremely attentive and I'm impressed they didn't charge extra for the rice (which I had to order two more times because I finished the first tiny bowl) I judge a good sushi restaurant based on their spicy tuna rolls. Frankly the only place that has impressed me has been Sushi on the Rocks in LaJolla, California. But the roll was still good, maybe a bit fishy for my taste. Tempted by Washington Post's reader's reviews, I had to try the Suicide curry, and my friend had the Chicken Ginger (spicy). First off, I like that their curries were super flavorful, without one spice dominating over the other (except for the suicide curry), and they were able to do this without excess grease or oil. The Chicken ginger curry was exactly like a dish I had at Nooshi, except with rice instead of noodles. Still very tasty. The suicide curry is not for the faint-hearted. As a seasoned American of South Asian descent, fond of chopping thai green chilies or jalepenos into my salads, I have to say, I was sweating, sniffling, and my eyes were watering while eating this. But still extremely good, I dare you. Not quite the flatliner at the Wing Factory, but you know, good in that spicy sense. For dessert we finished with green tea pudding, which was served with diced mangos on top. Interesting, and not too sweet. Perfect for soothing the tongue after a fiery meal.

birthday week=restaurant week

Means eating a lot week. Besides trying out Corduroy, which I loved and raved about, I also went to David & Greggory's, Zaytinya's, and Cafe Atlantico.

So David & Greggory, bustling happening golden triangle restaurant which had quite the happy hour scene. We started with the mushroom, manchenga, and almond croquettes. Which were awesome! Nice chunky bits of mushroom, crispy on the outside, with manchenga melted on top with some type of crushed tomato accompaniment. We also had the tostones with black bean mash, habenero salsa and crema. The salsa was not spicy ... at all ... and if you're curious tostones are similar to plantains, just less sweet. For the main entree I got the seared halibut with spaghetti squash and seafood stew. I think someone was afraid to season this dish, kind of bland. For dessert I got the cloud-in-a-pudding, basically chocolate pudding, richer and more satisfying then a normal cup of jello. My friend got the bread pudding which advertised Mexican chocolate, but seemed to be missing. We had some pretty good martini style drinks, I started with a Blue Heaven, super sweet and super blue, for the next round I went with the tarter, slightly bubbly mango-tini. The service was a bit spotty, more likely due to ours being a bit in the weeds. Also kind of felt bad for them because they had to wear really ugly shirts, but maybe its because it made me think back to my days dishing cheddar bay biscuits at Red Lobster in hideous Hawaiian shirts. Overall a great place for a happy hour, if I came back, I would have to go for something else, but for some reason I feel it's utter travesty to order Garam Masala Salmon outside of an Indian restaurant.

As usual, I have nothing but praise for Zaytinya's. My main complaint is that even if you make reservation for over 20 people, the restaurant will not budge from its pre-theater dinner reservation times before 6:30 PM, which causes problems when they ask you to have all members of your party present before seating. Normally on any night, around DC dinner time (around 7 PM) you can expect a 45 minute wait, but the bar is trendy-chic, has great drinks with attentive bartenders, and it's a pretty good singles scene. Arriving with a large group of people is challenging, and I worried about a place that served only mezzes, the ordering would be a mess. Thankfully, our kind server saved us from that predicament by informing me of a tasting menu, roughly the same cost of ordering a la carte. He explained the chef would prepare a variety of dishes that exemplify Zaytinya's range. And I'm glad we chose that option because otherwise I wouldn't have tried many many tasty dishes, including: Ottoman rice pilaf, tzatziki, scallops, shrimp, a bunch of salads not on their regular menu, including an incredible tomato and caper salad, orange and feta salad, and kibbeh nayah. Zaytinya's is an old favorite for me, but the next time I come, I'm going to ask if can go for the chef's tasting menu, even though I didn't see anything regarding it on the regular menu or online.

Having such high regards for Zaytinya's and Jaleo, I had high expectation's for Jose Andre's first restaurant, Cafe Atlantico. That said, it's difficult for me love Latin American food in the states (except in Mexico, the only Latin American country I've been to so far). For an appetizer my mom and I ordered the table-side prepared guacamole, which although good, I'm convinced I do a much better version at home (the secret is hot green chillies). My mom got the salmon sandwich, which was excellent, and I sprung for the exotic: sea scallops in coconut cream, crispy rice with squid ink. I wasn't expecting the sauce to be mostly coconut cream, which I normally find undiluted too much. And I have to admit, although the dish looked pretty with its startling white contrasting with a nice circle of black squid ink, the thought of eating squid ink and watching it turn gray as I dipped my fork in, grossed me out. Oh well, maybe another time, but not in a particular hurry. I'd totally be up for another tasting menu evening at Zaytinya's though.

Corduroy

Usually I avoid hotel restaurants. In a former life I used to be wooed by hotels hoping to contract nice large lucrative conferences from me on behalf of my clients... part of that task included staying in executive suites, eating in the hotel restaurants gratis, and touring the spa facilities. There were very few hotels I was impressed with. Although I have to admit San Diego's Leow's Coronado totally impressed me, not only did they seduce me with bubble baths (in a Japanese steeping tub no less), my pick of wine, but with the most AMAZING FRESHEST salad in the world ... I think maybe only in California. And I admit the brunch at the Catamaran Hotel Resort and Spa was also amazing, but you really can't go wrong if you order raw plant life at a restaurant in California.

But anyway, I was blown away at Corduroy. I starved myself all day after sleeping only 4 hours, running three miles, and lifting at the gym with only a mint mocha cooler and honey granola bar to tide me over. Needless to say when I got the Buffalo Mozzarella Porcupine (no real spiny animals were killed, it's just needle thin phyllo atop of cheese and pureed tomato sauce), Buffalo steak (see a theme?), and some amazing baked chocolate concoction, I realized I had flippantly ignored DC hotel restaurants. WOW. My friend got the beet goat cheese salad, black grouper, and sorbet with grappa. Mmmmm good. The restaurant mainly seemed to be occupied by the Sheraton's Four Points guests, but these out of towners struck it well. I can't say the decor made it for me, but it only leaves you to focus on the food. But the food more than makes up for decor, and the service was great, they were willing to entertain all our questions, including what dry white wine to choose, if there was really the death of a porcupine involved in one of their appetizers, and what the heck the third word of the chocolate dessert meant. Also I liked that they asked what the special occasion was for when I called for reservations. The trappings of a 4 star restaurant for sure.

Foods

An attempt to rectify some of WP's annual Reader's Choice Awards:

1. Bakery--I bought into that whole anti-carb thing, I only eat brown rice
2. Brunch--Georgia Brown's
3. Burgers--Have heard St. Ex is pretty tasty
4. Cheap Eats--El Pollo Rico
5. Coffee Shop--Tryst
6. Crabs--Don't eat water bugs if I can help it
7. Ice Cream--Haagen Dazs, yes a chain!!! But universally the best in the world
8. Italian--working on it
9. Kid-Friendly--Zaytinya's
10. Pizza--2 Amy's
11. Romantic--romance? What's that? :)
12. Steaks--don't eat much red meat
13. Sushi--Sushi Taro
14. Take-Out--Lei Garden
15. Thai--Jandara
16. Vegetarian--not sure

mom's korma

So here's my first recipe giveaway. Eight other people who ate it last night can't be wrong. Chicken korma, this is probably a low fat variety than the type you would find at an Indian restaurant. Also my measurements of spices are imprecise, but somehow I get it right :) although one noted blogger, may remember my last meal I made where I poured too much salt. Anyway, I'm an intuitive cooker, so if it starts looking too dry, add water.

1 onion, diced
1/2 tsp of coriander
1/2 tsp of cumin
cayenne to taste
1/2 cup of blended ginger, onion, and garlic (this can't be powder, it has to be freshly grounded in a blender or food processor; equal parts each)
1 cup of plain yogurt
3 lbs of boneless skinless chicken breasts, in chunky cubes


Saute the chopped onion in oil or butter (1 tbsp). Add spices to cook in with the onions. Once the onion is clear, pour in the ginger/garlic/onion masala, simmer for 10 minutes. Add in chicken, when it starts to simmer, lower the heat. Stir in the yogurt, cook until chicken is done. If the curry gets too dry, add in water while cooking.

Serve with rice.
Serves 10 people.

For a salad beforehand, I recommend Whole Food's Apricot Feta Green Salad.

A bar I like

No freaking way!!! Yes, I was please to discover not only the smoke-free Marty's in Capitol Hill, but also that Heritage India on Connecticut has a great happy hour (don't believe the WP reader's comments on Marty's, the owner came up to my friend and I, and brought our drinks to us on the house). As for Heritage: $4 Smirnoff martini's (their specialty is the Melon Drop) and a 1/2 priced appetizer menu, which consists entirely of their Indian 'street vendor' tapas-like menu. Also their mango lassi, not sugary sweet but creamy with a hint of condensed milk is quite good, although my favorite is still Indique's. Normally in the summer I don't want the additional heat of South Asian cooking, but in a lovely restaurant, with little cigarette smoke, quiet enough that I'm not going hoarse from talking to my companion, and a menu that does not have the typical quesadillas and buffalo wings, I can make an exception.

sweet potatoes stood up

I was going to post something like this last night, but today I decided not to:

In this day in age with the many communication tools we have it makes absolutely no sense. This is surely chutzpah for my thinking I could actually have a dating life while being a graduate student and working full time (and only a week away from a final).
1. There's a phone, EVERYWHERE, call me and if you don't have a really good excuse, make one up, it'll help me feel better, I could be worrying that your sorry ass has been abducted by aliens.
2. We made plans an hour before!!! What could've happened???

But I'd rather talk about my favorite vegetable: sweet potatoes (if you count tomatoes as fruit):

Maybe you don't remember my quest for local homegrown festival hand cut sweet potato fries, only to be sorely disappointed, I discovered two joints that serve sweet potato fries within walking distance: P St. Bistro and St. Ex.

P St. Bistro Cafe has sort of flat, I think slightly coated double fried sweet potatoes
Cafe St. Ex has thin sweet potato fries

Neither are the festival variety I was looking for, but I can't cry about the P St. ones because they were donated by the table next to us when we were a bit conspicuous about staring at them. I like P St., I ordered a sandwich though, and I'm not really a sandwich person. It was the steak sandwich, although fine, wasn't exactly something to order again ... needed spice. But regardless its a great neighborhood joint to have a casual dinner with a girlfriend and catch up with gossip, etc.

hosed

When one goes from working nights (9 PM to 5 AM) and then back to 5 AM to 5 PM ... I'm too old for this. In protest, my body contracted a killer virus that kept me home for two days.

Otherwise, I got to explore The Breadline. On their receipt I noticed they had their website. Which makes absolutely no sense to me. This website has nothing to do with marketing, instead it seems to be some managerial tool between the employees. Not really a way to attract customers.

wow!

You know I had some amazing posts to write about bad drug interactions and another restaurant review, but today I was pleasantly surprised (and rather super excited), that someone I don't know in the blogosphere recognized me!!! Woohooo! This blog gets readership? What kind of gratification is that? Someone is interested in my life out of billions of people and actually reads about what I think!!! My whinings, rants, raves, blah blah blah. Wow, and all this time I thought the life of a public servant and part-time grad student was uninteresting. Anyway, I was somehow featured in DC Blogs for my restaurant review of Merkado (which was commented on by Dave Winer--the owner of the DC Eat Well Restaurant Group) ... anyway, that's my exciting news ... besides the random anonymous comments I get about iPod headphones or my pain-in-the-ass cat.

merkado

P Street is only a couple blocks from me (technically three if you count Rhode Is. Avenue) and I've watched the pre-theater dinner places crop up across from Whole Foods. I'm rather disappointed they are not open for lunch (but they are for weekend brunch!). But I finally stepped into Merkado, which bills itself as Latin American and Asian fusion. Its very tasty and now my new favorite local restaurant. Local for Logan Circle, Zaytinya's is still my favorite in the city.

My friends and I first decided to split a bunch of small dishes, and an entree. Well this restaurant doesn't serve American sized portions ... unless you're dieting, you can order an appetizer, salad, entree, and desert for one person and not feel like you've completely pigged out. Also pleasantly surprising was the bill. At less than $40 a person including alcoholic beverages, the place was a steal. Well anyway, I had the most heavenly white tuna sashimi with a sake-miso reduction and truffles ... to DIE for, raw scallops, very simply garnished and tasting very fresh, chile rellenos was good but personally I still prefer Rose Mexicano's version with the raisins. We also later ordered quesedillas, better than the average (I'm not a quesedilla person), and for entrees, the halibut on a salad of mango, tomato, mint, and other yummy stuff, some fine silky fish. Hungry we ordered another entree of seared ahi tuna with bok choy, shitake, and wasabi mashed potatoes. My sister told me JMU would serve wasabi mashed potatoes, man if those were anything like what they served at merkado, I'd be taking them away from the dining hall to squirrel away in my refrigerator. A tasty well seasoned Ahi tuna, the amazing thing it was marinated without actually being cooked through the inside, which is quite amazing.

Anyway, there's my plug for Merkado kitchen. It's tasty, and serves one of the most amazing martinis I've ever had, a sake infused with black currant and pear ... refreshing actually.

spice

I actually went to IndeBleu a couple days ago for a real sitdown dinner. The first time I went was to have appetizers and drinks ... I'm still a huge fan of the blackberry mojito. As usual the tuna tartare was good, as was the mushroom stuffed dosa (the Indian version of a burrito). I ordered Tandoori Lamb, my friend ordered veal tenderloins crusted with fennel. Tasty, can't say terribly memorable. Dessert was the tiniest gulab jamun I had ever seen in my life with saffron-cardamom ice cream put through a potato press to make into 'spaghetti.' My friend and I joked about the 'choco sutra.' The waiter must've dislike me because when he asked if anything special had happened that day, I said, 'I got off work.' Maybe he thought I was being a snob. Really we had a few things to celebrate, for instance me actually treating my friend to his birthday dinner two months after the fact and my promotion and raise (nothing to whoop about-your typical gov't promotion and raise--you have to actually try very hard not to get one ... ooh I'm going to hate it when they move to the payband) ... anyway, the meal was good, thankfully they served naan with the meal otherwise I would've run across the street to Chipotle and stuffed my face with a burrito.

80 samosas

To celebrate my temporary return to the civilization of 'day job-bers' I made 40 potato and pea samosas, and 40 ground turkey filled samosas. Besides my Bengalized Lebanese meatballs, this was definitely one of the more laborious kitchen-scapades I've committed myself too. Thank god I bought the pastry dough rather than make it myself. I worried all week that I wasn't going to be able to make these things, that they'd fall apart in my wok after spending hours crafting each one by hand. Right now they're chilling in fridge, ready to be heated up in a couple hours in the oven ... too bad I forgot the tamarind sauce.

curiosity made the cat crave

Pho is something I've enjoyed without thinking too deeply about what goes into making the broth. While eating an equally tasty dinner of fish and radish curry, I began to ponder the ingredients in Pho. I know I've heard ox tail before ... so I looked it up, and rather than being horrified, it made me want to hop on the metro for a savory bowl of noodle soup in Rosslyn.

Now if you gave me a plain bowl of pho with no garnish-ments I'd be kind of upset. Sometimes I wonder if eating pho is not just an excuse to squirt a bottle of Sriracha sauce into the bowl ... which makes the yummy treat absolutely addictive. And frankly if you want me to eat anything, just put Sriracha sauce on it.