Suburban diners

Breakfast was at the Silver Diner in Alexandria VA, and dinner was at the Tastee Diner in Bethesda MD. I love diner food. A Greek "gyros" omelette for breakfast and a country-fried steak for dinner. Yum. I don't know why there aren't any diners in D.C.

Le Gaulois, Alexandria, VA

Leo took me to dinner as a "pre-thank you" for helping him move tomorrow. We went to King Street in Old Town Alexandria (my first visit!) and landed at a place called Le Gaulois ("the Gaul," which, judging from the cafe's logo, refers to Roman era, wild, Gallic tribesmen). Leo started with a French Kiss (think kir royale with Chambord instead of creme de cassis) and I had a Dubonet Rouge with a splash of soda and a twist of lemon. Then, we ended up eating the same things.

We began the meal with an "entree" of the chef's charcuterie plate, an assortment of meats and pates which were wonderfully rich and varied. I particularly loved the duck liver pate. Next was a creme de moules, or cream of mussel, soup that was a lovely soup with shelled mussels and strips of julienned zuccini and carrot in a thin cream soup. The plat premier was a rich grilled pair of shad roe topped with bacon strips and served on a bed of sauteed fresh spinach and accompanied by two little parsleyed potatoes and a tiny bowl of steamed brocolli, julienne turnip, and julienne carrot.

Our second plat was a non-traditional but wonderful canard a l'orange presented as a series of thin slices of rare duck breast adorned with manicured orange wedges plated in a circle on a mirror of light red wine and natural juice reduction sauce, surrounding a small puff pastry "bowl" of wild rice. Our salade was a simple plate of mesclun greens in a light French style olive oil vinaigrette. Three cheeses, a chevre, a brie, and a hard cheese the name of which I didn't understand from the waiter, with slices of green apple and several red raspberries were the next course. The hard cheese was good, and I always like chevre; the brie was rather young, I thought, but edible.

For dessert, Leo selected for us a fruit crepe with strawberries, blueberries, and something I wasn't quite sure of (diced poached pear??) garnished with a nest of candied orange peel threads all floated on a lake of thin zabaglione sauce which was lightly broiled before presentation. We ended the meal with a very nice espresso.

Our wine with dinner was a surprisingly economical and pleasant bottle of 2002 L'Enclos de Saint Jacques Bordeaux Superieur recommended by the waiter.

Office cafeteria, Washington, D.C.

The office cafeteria had baked rockfish (which was good), rice (which was mediocre even by institutional food standards), steamed carrots (which were mushy), and blackberry cobbler (which was good) for lunch.

Bistrot du Coin, Washington, D.C.

Before Maundy Thursday Mass tonight we popped in to Bistrot du Coin for a bite to eat. The service was unusually late (8 p.m.!), so we thought we'd best eat beforehand. Anyway, I had a nice country pate and a little green salad of Bibb lettuce and sliced scallions with a glass of nice margeaux, and then later a slice of lemon tarte with a thin layer of piped meringue on top that was garnished with tiny slices of gumdrops. My dinner companion had a huge pot of steamed mussels in a garlic cream sauce which looked and smelled delicious, and a basket of French fries with a side of bearnaise as a dipping sauce.

Montmartre, Washington, D.C.

Yesterday, we didn't get started until after noon, and headed over to Eastern Market to see the market and the flea market. It was a lovely day to be out and about walking around. We opted to have brunch at a wonderful little French bistro called Montmartre. Tony had a country style pate, eggs Benedict (Les Oeufs Benedicte—it used pancetta instead of Canadian bacon), and a cheese plate in lieu of dessert, starting with a bloody Mary for his hair of the dog. I had the calf liver, which was absolutely fabulous. The liver had been very gently sauteed to about a "medium", then laid on a bed of piped mashed potatoes (there was something tasty in the potatoes which I've yet to identify), then sauced with a rich demiglace and balsamic vinegar reduction with caramelized onions and slices of roasted garlic. Oh, my! Yummy! I know some people think they hate liver, but this would be the perfect choice to reintroduce them to the delicious and complex tastes of a properly prepared liver dish.

For dessert, I ordered the Il Flotante, mostly out of curiosity, since I'm used to "floating islands" at French restaurants being Oeufs à la Neige......little puffs of meringue swimming in a thin custard sauce. The Flotante was a three inch diameter meringue sprinkled with shaved almonds and a tiny bit of honey before being broiled ever so briefly and presented on a mirror of custard sauce. While we were finishing dessert, Leo popped in to the restaurant and had a piece of the blueberry tarte. Here's a picture of Tony trying to figure out what to do with his eggs Benedict: