Five Guys Famous Burgers and Fries, Georgetown, D.C.

After his great, notorious, and debaucherous Labor Day weekend in Atlanta, my friend Robert reciprocated the hospitality of his Atlanta friend Jason here in D.C. this weekend, and brought him over to meet me tonight. We sat around and chatted a bit whilst we awaited the arrival of the always-late Edward and his friend Sylvester, then we walked over to Georgetown to try to find some restaurant Jason had liked on a previous visit but didn't remember the name, address, or details of the menu (I'm good, but pinpointing a restaurant with a narrow door, a fireplace, and hamburgers somewhere in Georgetown with no more detail than that is too much even for me).

After traversing Wisconsin Avenue from the river all the way up to upper Georgetown, Jason gave up and we decided to dine at Five Guys Famous Burgers and Fries, not only because they have decent, inexpensive burgers, but mostly because everything in Georgetown was crowded and there was no line at Five Guys.

Now, while I generally like the Five Guys chain, dining at this store always makes me a bit melancholy since I remember decades ago back in my undergraduate days dining at this spot when it was the twin restaurants of Aux Fruits de Mer and Au Pied du Cochon. When the two old French restaurants closed, the Mer location was razed and something with a really deep basement now is being built in the old spot; Five Guys has taken over the Pied location. Au Pied du Cochon ("the foot of the pig") was a Georgetown institution for decades, serving up simple country French food 24 hours a day to locals and drunken college kids alike. It even picked up some international notoriety in 1985 when a KGB colonel "defected back" to the Soviet Union just three months after defecting to the U.S. when he disappeared from his CIA handler while he had allegedly gone to use the men's room, but instead slipped out the back door.

But, enough history....today it's a Five Guys and we old people just have to deal. I did notice, however, that this is one of the slower and dirtier Five Guys locations, which is something given how most of them are rather dirty anyway because of the peanut shells everywhere.

Naturally, we all had burgers except for Edward, who had a little tiny grilled cheese sandwich. Robert had an order of regular fries and Jason had Cajun-spiced fries.


Sylvester, Edward, Jason, and Robert

Rumor has it that the group (plus others) are going to brunch on the morrow, probably sometime after noon. We shall see what transpires.

Sushi Taro, Washington, D.C.

Thursday evening my friend Kody finally succeeded in dragging me over to see his new apartment in the east Dupont Circle area. Afterwards, we caught a break in the rain and walked over to Sushi Taro, where Kody took me for dinner. He'd never been there before, and, since I knew he liked sushi, I'd told him he had one of the best sushi bars in town right there in his neighborhood.

It was, as always, crowded and bustling. They had a big party group in the Japanese seating area, where all the low tables (for sitting on the floor) had been pushed together for one long surface. In the main dining area, there were only two tables empty right then, one a four top-and one two two-tops pushed together, which the staff separated giving us one and soon thereafter seating a couple of guys at the other table. Not long after we arrived, the sushi bar itself also filled up to capacity.

Once we were seated, we seem to have been forgotten for a little while, abandoned with no water and with just one menu between the two of us. I was a little worried by this inauspicious beginning, especially since the little table just eight inches away from ours with the two newly-arrived guys had menus, a la carte sushi information, water, and a waitress, but once our (different) waitress "discovered" us, the service was attentive and excellent the rest of the evening.



Naturally, we began with a bottle of sake. We selected a bottle of Shochikubai Nigori sake, an excellent unfiltered, milky-white sake served cold which, unbeknownst to me when we ordered, is actually a wine made in northern California rather than in Asia. I really liked it a lot and Kody thought he detected hints of coconut in the slightly-sweet wine. It was nice before dinner and it went particularly well with the food.

To start the meal, we each received little bowls of miso soup, a traditional Japanese clear soup made with fermented soybeans, a few small cubes of tofu and a little bit of seaweed. There version was clean and delicate.



As a first course, we also ordered some ika ring age, the Japanese version of Italian calimari or rings of squid breaded and deep-fried, but our Japanese wasn't good enough for a loud, noisy restaurant, and we ended up with the ika yaki, a dish I think ended up being superior to what we ordered. They cut the tentacles off the squid and grilled them, glazing them along the way with a ginger soy sauce. They had a wonderful grilled flavor and we enjoyed them quite a bit. There was quite a large serving, too, and I think there were a couple of tentacles left over (we didn't want to fill up on squid before dinner!).



For a main course, Kody ordered the sushi combination platter, and he got a beautiful (and quickly made!) platter of seven different large sushi nigiri and a large tuna roll cut into half a dozen pieces. It looked delicious and the price (at $16.50) was very reasonable, too. The accompanying gari (pickled, sliced ginger root) was very fresh, too, as evidenced by the yellow rather than pink color. I discovered, though, that while Kody had frequented the social sushi bars back in Tulsa, he'd never really had sushi nigiri; he went to those Americanized places where they specialized in those bizarre roll combinations, and that's what he was used to eating. I hope he enjoyed the "Japanese" style of sushi, instead of the American kind.



I ordered a sushi and sashimi bento box, and when it arrived, it was absolutely beautiful! I had about half as much sushi as Kody had gotten, plus I got three pieces each of salmon, tuna, and bonito sashimi (for those of you not familiar with sushi bars, sashimi is basically sushi without the rice). In addition, I had some shrimp and vegetable tempura that was crisp and light, a couple of gyoza fried dumplings, a brown seaweed, several Japanese vegetable salt-pickles, and a mound of finely shredded daikon white radish. Everything was excellent. As always, I marvel over the quality of their sushi and sashimi—I've been to many significantly more expensive places and Sushi Taro's food could stand up to any of them.



Kody decided that we should drink dessert. We started with a saketini, in essence a gin martini made with sake instead of vermouth and garnished with a big wedge of lemon instead of an olive. Since I'm a fan of martinis containing only a few molecules of vermouth, this drink wasn't really to my taste, and I thought the fermented sake lended a slightly sour taste to the martini.



We made up for it on the next go-round, though, with having a shochu cocktail (I forget the cutesie name they called it) that resembled a cosmopolitan with shochu instead of vodka and lemon instead of orange all colored with red cranberry juice. Shochu is an intriguing 50-proof liquor that is starting to become popular on the East Coast and already they say that in Japan, shochu is more popular than sake. What's interesting is that it's a distilled liquor made from rice, barley, and sweet potatoes, and the Japanese market it as a no-calorie alcohol! While Kody drank his shochu, I had a very nice glass of cold Kinsen plum wine.



Our quick snack before had to go home and study ended up being a three hour dining experience!

Don Lobo's Mexican Grill, Georgetown, D.C.

Last night we at last ventured to Don Lobo's Mexican Grill, a little locally-owned restaurant on M in east Georgetown, which is on a strip with several restaurants we frequent. It's very small and narrow, occupying the ground floor of a row house. The dining room is decorated in the red, white, and green of the Mexican flag and they have vinyl gingham checked coverings on the tables. It was close to their closing time, so there was only one other table in the dining room and we had our choice of tables.



Leo started off, as usual, with a cocktail, this time selecting their sangria. We noticed that the sangria was made-to-order both times he ordered one. Leo was pleased that the sangria had some alcohol in it with a distinct wine taste, instead of being diluted with lots of fruit juice; a bunch of apple chunks soaked in orange juice floated on top of the glass. I tried a sip of one of the drinks and it was pretty good.

While we waited for our food, we got the traditional chips and salsa; the salsa here is noteworthy. The sauce was served hot! I mean temperature-wise, not spice (of course, it had plenty of spice, too!) The salsa had a rich, smoky taste with a touch of sweetness and was a deep reddish-brown color. It was unique and very good.

When dinner arrived, Leo got a "ranchera platter." It included a cheese-filled chile relleno and a grilled pork enchilada, along with rice, beans, pico de gallo, lettuce, and sour cream. He particularly liked the pork enchilada, a surprise since he usually doesn't eat pork.



I had two chile rellenos stuffed with chicken, and they were surprisingly good. The chicken was juicy and well flavored, and there was certainly a spice kick to the dish. Rice and beans, which were unremarkable, and a little green salad filled out the rest of the plate.



After dinner, we split a Mexican fried ice cream. This was an interesting version, with the ice cream having been rolled in corn flake cereal before being fried. It was a simple preparation with a yummy honey sauce over the top.



Don Lobo's was nice, being much more authentic than what I usually get served in D.C., much more what I'm used to from eating with Mexican families back in Oklahoma. Olé!

Chevy's Fresh Mex, Arlington, Va.

Tuesday night Ian and I went to Chevy's Fresh Mex in Arlington. Chevy's is, of course, a national chain we've often visited before, but it was Ian's first time there. Their food, as is typical of national franchises, is always very consistent and it's an acceptable chain at which to eat.

Ian chose the smothered salsa chicken burrito, asking for the guacamole on the side and no red sauce "smothering" the burrito. The special request was met; however, it appears that there was some guacamole inside the burrito which he had to pick around. Their version of Mexican rice and a choice of pinto, black or refried beans (he chose the refried) came with the burrito, and all of that plus the usual lettuce and tomato garnish and scoop of their "corn tomalito," sort of a sweet corn pudding made with corn and masa, was far more food than any one person needs to eat.



I had the spinach, mushroom, and artichoke enchiladas, enrobed in a green pesto cream sauce. It was pretty good for a lacto-vegetarian entree. The refried beans were nicely flavored and the rice was inoffensive (I hate the soggy tomatoey kind).



Speaking of soggy, they seemed to be having plumbing problems. The restrooms had flooded and flooded the back hallway as well; I don't know if it was related, but we noticed another pool of water on the far side of the dining room that appeared to be emanating from a wall common with the kitchen.

Ian wanted some fried ice cream for dessert, but that's not on the menu. Our waiter was nice enough to bring him a small complimentary ice cream cone instead.

They're here!

The fresh figs are in the grocery stores!

September is always the magic month when these luscious fruits make their brief annual appearance. Now, pretty much everybody has had a Fig Newton cookie, and probably a big percentage have had a dried fig to eat, but these fresh fruits are a completely different sensory and taste experience. They are so sweet and juicy and good!

Ian and I went shopping in Arlington Tuesday night and then after dinner at Chevy's (where Ian proceeded to call every vegetable by its grocery store numerical code) we stopped in at a Harris Teeter store to look at the produce. I found a nice little plastic container of black mission figs that weren't too terribly overpriced, so I bought it and brought it home.

I tried to get Leo to eat one, but he touched one and didn't like the feel or the texture or some such excuse and he wouldn't eat it. Well, that left all the more for me to eat. The whole container's gone now!

Above is a picture of some of the figs I brought home. Ignore the white haze on the whole figs—that's reflection from my flash on the white plate. I'll have to get some more while they're here, and maybe I'll wander over to Dean and Deluca and pick up one or two yellow figs. They make wonderful, simple desserts—I love fresh figs!

And, by the way, I've never liked Fig Newtons.