Yesterday was Leo's birthday, so we went out to Georgetown for a late night birthday supper at Fino Ristorante Italiano. I'd never heard of the place before, but it turned out to be quite a nice little place. It wasn't terribly busy, but it was nearly midnight when we got there, so I suppose the small crowd wasn't surprising. We were given the seat right by the front window, looking out over M Street. The ethnicity of the place was a bit confusing, though.....the man who looked to be the manager was Middle Eastern of some flavor or another, our waitress appeared to be Japanese, and the busboy appeared to be Central American of some type!
The manager and waitress suggested a nice Italian red wine, the name of which totally escapes me. I'm not that expert at Italian wines, anyway. We started with a calimari with marinara sauce, then a salad Caprese. The calimari was good, though the breading fell off the squid easily. I loved the Caprese salad. Fresh mozarella is always a favorite of course, and they balanced little balls of it on halves of nicely ripe red tomatoes. The fresh basil isn't in season yet, so they had basil preserved in olive oil that they drizzled around the plate under the tomatoes. They brought dishes of olive oil and balsalmic vinegar for our loaf of bread.
For our main courses, Leo had the evening's special, which was several large slices of salmon on a bed of fettucine tossed with sauteed vegetables, and I had a very tasty spaghetti alla carbonara made in the traditional style, instead of with prepared sauce poured over the pasta as I see so often these days. For dessert, we each had a piece of very good tiramisu with real masapone on espresso-soaked cake and all dusted with cocoa, We chatted a bunch with the waitress about this being a birthday dinner, but she didn't give him a candle or comp the dessert! Oh, well, it was a good dinner, nonetheless.
Saturday, May 07, 2005
O'Hare Airport, Chicago, IL
I moved my flight home from 1 to 8, and changed my connections from Dallas to Chicago. Chicago was busy. Had a two hour layover there, so I got to have lunch in their food court, which was a Chicago-style deep dish pizza with "butter crust." It was ok, just not something I'd want to do every day.
La Hacienda, Albuquerque, NM
Continuing my nearly-unsuccessful quest for a Cinco de Mayo festival in Albuquerque, of all places, I headed into the Mexican restaurant on the plaza, La Hacienda, which is one of a local chain of restaurants around town and at the airport. They had all these ristras (strings of red chile peppers) hanging from the eaves by the doorways. I asked both the hostess and my waiter about Cinco de Mayo specials, and both of them gave me sort of blank stares and "huh?" reactions. They didn't even have a margarita special. I guess people in Albuquerque just don't care about Mexican holidays.
I wasn't terribly hungry, so I just got a tamale platter. They brought chips with a smokey, thin, red salsa that wasn't terribly exciting. I wasn't overwhelmingly impressed with the tamale platter, either. I thought the tamales were a bit dry and the pork flavor was obscured by very hot red peppers inside the masa. The rice and beans were ordinary, as was the little cup of guacamole. I did like their sopapillas and honey, though, since they were nice and airy instead of flat and dense.
The main problem with this restaurant was that the service was absolutely abyssmal. I had to ask twice for an iced tea refill, it took a long time to get my food, I had to ask for my guacamole when the food came, by the time the guac arrived, I was done with the meal, I waited forever for my plate to be cleared and had to ask for the check, and, since the sopapilla hadn't arrived yet (it came with the meal; otherwise, I'd have ignored it), I had to ask for it, and when the sopapilla did finally come, there was only one instead of the menu-advertised two. I got tired of waiting for the waiter to take my credit card to pay the check, so I went up to the cashier's cage myself and paid directly. And, it wasn't just my waiter who seemed derilect--the other tables with other waitresses seemed to be waiting a long time, too, and since the restaurant wasn't full, I didn't understand what was taking so long.
I wasn't terribly hungry, so I just got a tamale platter. They brought chips with a smokey, thin, red salsa that wasn't terribly exciting. I wasn't overwhelmingly impressed with the tamale platter, either. I thought the tamales were a bit dry and the pork flavor was obscured by very hot red peppers inside the masa. The rice and beans were ordinary, as was the little cup of guacamole. I did like their sopapillas and honey, though, since they were nice and airy instead of flat and dense.
The main problem with this restaurant was that the service was absolutely abyssmal. I had to ask twice for an iced tea refill, it took a long time to get my food, I had to ask for my guacamole when the food came, by the time the guac arrived, I was done with the meal, I waited forever for my plate to be cleared and had to ask for the check, and, since the sopapilla hadn't arrived yet (it came with the meal; otherwise, I'd have ignored it), I had to ask for it, and when the sopapilla did finally come, there was only one instead of the menu-advertised two. I got tired of waiting for the waiter to take my credit card to pay the check, so I went up to the cashier's cage myself and paid directly. And, it wasn't just my waiter who seemed derilect--the other tables with other waitresses seemed to be waiting a long time, too, and since the restaurant wasn't full, I didn't understand what was taking so long.
Navajo food
One of the judges at my meeting, who married a Navajo from Albuquerque, brought me a container of frozen Navajo mutton stew with Navajo corn (she called it something, but I didn't catch the word) that I stuck in the refrigerator in my room to microwave for breakfast Friday morning and eat it along with a fresh mango. Yummy breakfast. The Navajo stew was really good, and I particularly liked the corn, which the judge explained to me was steamed underground and then removed from the husks before being put into the stew. I really must get her recipe!
Harvest Cafe, Albuquerque, NM
We were wrapping up our last day of business discussions, and our group opted to go to lunch together at the Harvest Cafe at the Pueblo Indian Cultural Center. I do like that place—went there the time before last when I was in Albuquerque. We got the big corner table and all ordered our own things. I ordered things for "courses," but everything arrived all at once.
My intended "appetizer" was corn fries. These are French-fry looking things served with a green chile ranch dressing dipping sauce. They weren't potatoes, though.....they were made as though they had prepared a thick cornmeal mush, rolled it out, then cut French-fry sized pieces that were then deep fried. They were quite good, with an interesting flavor, even though it's not a "traditional" food.
Next, I had a cup of mutton stew. The mutton and vegetables were tasty and fork-tender, but I would have liked the rather thin broth to have been a bit more flavorful....this broth tasted as though it hadn't stewed long enough that morning.
My main course, though, was absolutely delicious. I had the "pueblo rellenos," an Indian version of the more familar chiles rellenos on many Mexican restaurant menus. Rather than the Mexican poblano pepper, they used a great big, traditional, New Mexico pepper called a "Big Jim," which was stuffed with cheese, then breaded in blue cornmeal and fried. Two of these big peppers were presented on a bed of red chiles which were redolent with a hearty, smoky taste and a bold but not unpleasant heat bite. Oh, my, the rellenos were so good!
Other people at the table had various things including the posole (spicy hominy and pork stew), big bowls of the mutton stew, chicken quesadilla-looking things, enchiladas in green chiles, and great big, plate-sized pieces of fry bread.
My intended "appetizer" was corn fries. These are French-fry looking things served with a green chile ranch dressing dipping sauce. They weren't potatoes, though.....they were made as though they had prepared a thick cornmeal mush, rolled it out, then cut French-fry sized pieces that were then deep fried. They were quite good, with an interesting flavor, even though it's not a "traditional" food.
Next, I had a cup of mutton stew. The mutton and vegetables were tasty and fork-tender, but I would have liked the rather thin broth to have been a bit more flavorful....this broth tasted as though it hadn't stewed long enough that morning.
My main course, though, was absolutely delicious. I had the "pueblo rellenos," an Indian version of the more familar chiles rellenos on many Mexican restaurant menus. Rather than the Mexican poblano pepper, they used a great big, traditional, New Mexico pepper called a "Big Jim," which was stuffed with cheese, then breaded in blue cornmeal and fried. Two of these big peppers were presented on a bed of red chiles which were redolent with a hearty, smoky taste and a bold but not unpleasant heat bite. Oh, my, the rellenos were so good!
Other people at the table had various things including the posole (spicy hominy and pork stew), big bowls of the mutton stew, chicken quesadilla-looking things, enchiladas in green chiles, and great big, plate-sized pieces of fry bread.
Orchid Thai, Albuquerque, NM
Another business trip. By the time I got my luggage and then rented a car at the airport, it was nearly 9 p.m. Albuquerque time, 11 p.m. Washington time. Nevertheless, one of my Albuquerque friends and I went to dinner at Orchid Thai Cuisine on Central Avenue east of the university. My friend is vegetarian, so that kind of limited our options, but Thai places are good eateries for vegetarian foods, since they understand the concepts. In fact, one of the things he ordered, the waitress warned him that it had egg in it, and that's not something the typical American restaurant would have done.
We started with fried tofu for our appetizer. They used firm tofu, cut into long strips, that was then deep fried to a light exterior crunchiness and served with a spicy peanut dipping sauce that was actually quite good. For our main course, we shared gaeng jued woon sen tofu, which was a soup with silver noodles, tofu, mushrooms, baby corn, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, and green onion, and gaeng keow wan goong, a green curry with tofu, bamboo shoots, bell pepper, and sweet basil in coconut milk, served over white steamed rice. I loved the curry. It was fiery hot, but the flavor was addictive, and I kept eating more and more!
All of our dishes were presented very artistically and garnished with edible orchids. For dessert, we split a mango ice cream on sticky rice. I liked this restaurant. The food was good, it had just enough Thai art to get the theme across without being kitschy, and the wait staff was pleasant, helpful, and very attentive. If I can find it again, it might be a fun place to go again on a future Albuquerque trip.
We started with fried tofu for our appetizer. They used firm tofu, cut into long strips, that was then deep fried to a light exterior crunchiness and served with a spicy peanut dipping sauce that was actually quite good. For our main course, we shared gaeng jued woon sen tofu, which was a soup with silver noodles, tofu, mushrooms, baby corn, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, and green onion, and gaeng keow wan goong, a green curry with tofu, bamboo shoots, bell pepper, and sweet basil in coconut milk, served over white steamed rice. I loved the curry. It was fiery hot, but the flavor was addictive, and I kept eating more and more!
All of our dishes were presented very artistically and garnished with edible orchids. For dessert, we split a mango ice cream on sticky rice. I liked this restaurant. The food was good, it had just enough Thai art to get the theme across without being kitschy, and the wait staff was pleasant, helpful, and very attentive. If I can find it again, it might be a fun place to go again on a future Albuquerque trip.
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