Chevy's Fresh Mex, Arlington, VA

The other day I met up with Edward, Ryan, and Jeff to do a little shopping in Virginia. We ended up getting hungry and popped into the first place to which neither Jeff nor Ryan objected, which was Chevy's Fresh Mex, a sort of Mexican place which I believe is a small national franchise.

The food there really isn't too bad for Mexican in this part of the country (I've still never found a Mexican, Tex-Mex, or NM Mex place around here I like). They are, of course, heavy on the American-food-in-the-Mexican-theme things, but those foods can be edible and enjoyable for what they are, so long as one isn't so anal as to insist upon truly authentic Mexican food items.

This is a picture of Edward sucking down a watermelon margarita. He and Ryan seemed to like it.

Most of us ate light. Jeff had a bowl of chicken tortilla soup. I had a small chopped salad. Edward just drank. Ryan, on the other hand, chose to enjoy the full array of culinary offerings at Chevy's. He ordered the "Taste of Chevys," an enormous platter with beef and chicken enchiladas, a chicken tamale, a taco, beans, Mexican rice, and sweet corn tomalito (a sort of chopped corn relish). This is a platter which could feed two hearty eaters or three normal eaters. Then for dessert he had the Chiquita Sundae, an interesting sweet cinnamon "boat" (kind of like a small taco salad shell) filled with chocolate ice cream, chocolate sauce, cajeta sauce, and huge mounds of whipped cream.

Marshall's Bar and Grill

Thinking it was half-price burger night, and after the abject failure of our prepared dog food dinner at home (this bag of Banquet Crockpot Classics "beef stroganoff" Leo had bought—never buy this stuff!), Ryan and I wandered over to Marshall's Bar and Grill to grab burgers. Well, as it turned out, half-price burger night is Mondays, and it wasn't Monday. :(

I had the Cobb salad, normally quite large, and while this one was very large, it wasn't quite as large as previous entree salads I've had here. Not a problem, though, since it's more than enough food and with all the blue cheese and bacon crumbles plus avocado slices, it's a rather high calorie, high fat salad.

The ever-extravagant Ryan didn't want a burger after all, so he ordered the fettucine alfredo with shrimp, his usual "exotic" dish when he goes out for dinner at a fancy Italian place. I didn't try this one, but usually I find their alfredo sauce to be rather bland.

Once again, the restaurant was out of bread and rolls and we weren't offered a substitute.

Thai Place, Washington, D.C.

Leo and I went to Thai Place for dinner the other night. It's that sort of neighborhood Thai restaurant we've often visited in the West End very close to Foggy Bottom Metro. It isn't a "destination" place, but I've never had any bad or disappointing food here.

Leo had the Thai Place Salad, which has grilled shrimp and salmon in a spicy lime dressing, followed by the "Spicy Fisherman" (shrimp, squid, scallops, and mussels stir-fried in chili sauce), all of which he seemed to enjoy. On the recommendation of our waitress, I had the rama long song, a nice dish of chicken in yellow curry served on a bed of steamed spinach and all topped with peanut sauce and ground peanuts. I liked it a lot, though I think I might have preferred a peanut sauce that was somewhat less sweet.

Five Guys, Chinatown, Washington, D.C.

Sunday evening Ryan and I met up with Robert for dinner in Chinatown. It's always challenging to find places to eat in D.C. with Ryan, since he doesn't like anything but American food.

We'd been told that Jackie Chan (the comedic martial arts movie star) had opened up a new restaurant in Chinatown, so we were going to check that out. It's in the location of the former China Doll, and it's not open yet. What's more, I don't think it's a Jackie Chan project; the name of the new place is "Jackey Cafe," which is both a different spelling of Jackie and also not the name Chan uses for his restaurant chain around the world, Jackie's Kitchen. So, maybe we'll hit Jackey Cafe on a different trip.

Weended up walking to Five Guys, where I had a cheeseburger and the other two guys had bacon cheeseburgers; Ryan and I split a regular fries and Robert had a large Cajun fries (he didn't eat all of them, though). Five Guys is always decent for that step-above-fast-food kind of burger place, and it's fun to sit around shelling and eating their roasted peanuts.