Bistro D'Oc, Washington, D.C.

My good friend Kevin works downtown in the Ford's Theater area and decided he needed to escape the office and have a decent lunch somewhere. Thus he coerced me to go along with him to a neighborhood place he likes, Bistro D'Oc. Of course, what he didn't tell me ahead of time is that it was one of his and his recently-"ex" girlfriend's favorite places. But, we had a pleasant lunch, nonetheless.

Bistro D'Oc is a fairly new place, only about two years old or so, located in one of the older, less "restored" areas of downtown, which is what I think makes it possible for them to keep their prices at moderate levels. Kevin had made reservations for us, though I don't think we would have needed them, since we we there for a late lunch. The host immediately took us up some creaky, old stairs to one of their upstairs dining rooms. The tables were adequately sized and the chairs comfortable; the tables were spaced at American distances, rather than the close French style. One of the things that immediately struck me about the dining room's decor was the Christmas decorations (I might remind everyone that this is October 12). There were silver reindeer on the mantel, a few bows and ornaments hanging from some wall art, and several ornaments hanging from the ceiling on long ribbons. Aside from being surprised to see Christmas decorations all over, the non sequitur of the thing is that some of the hanging ornaments were actually broken!

We started our meal sharing a charcuterie platter with duck paté, country paté, sausages, meats, olives, cornichons, etc. They were all quite nice, especially the country paté studded with pistachio nuts.



Next, I had a bowl of their pumpkin soup au gratin. It was a bright orange potage with a good pumpkin flavor and a slightly sweet taste, all covered in broiled cheese and garnished with chopped scallions. I loved it. Kevin sampled it, and he liked it a lot, too. The only problem? I somehow managed to catch a bit of the thick soup on my soft palate, couldn't swallow it quickly enough, and then managed to burn my soft palate painfully badly, thus making eating the rest of lunch rather awkward.



For his plat, Kevin ordered the braised veal Languedoc in a tomato, basil, olive sauce and served with mashed potatoes. He's had it before and he said it was good.



I had the Moulard duck leg confit on sautéed chopped potatoes and mushrooms. The duck was juicy and had a mild flavor; I was expecting the skin to be crispier, though, since it was a confit and not just roast duck. There was a quantity of broth/natural juices on the bottom of the plate that I thought made the potatoes a little soggy.



For dessert, we shared the raspberry pudding with bourbon vanilla ice cream. It was absolutely charming. And, it was cold! I wasn't expecting a cold dish, but it worked very well, and had a very custardy feel to it. There was what almost looked like a bourbon aspic on top of the pudding. I'm not sure what their usual presentation is, since we asked for the ice cream on the side. The raspberry pudding is good enough to make a special trip to Bistro D'Oc just for dessert and coffee.



One of the things I noticed on the menu was a great deal of Asian influence in the foods and in the saucings. It also seemed like nearly all of the waitresses were Asian. I thought that odd at first, but after getting home and researching the restaurant a bit, I discovered that the French chef/owner married a Thai woman. That's the "ah-ha!" moment.

So, that's our French Christmas experience for the day. There were a lot of intriguing dishes on the menu, so I'm looking forward to going back to sample a few more.

Bistrot Lepic, Georgetown, D.C.

This Columbus day weekend, Ian has taken a four-day holiday (he cancelled his Friday class) and run off to Pennsylvania to spend some time with his family, leaving me here all alone with no one to annoy me with constant chatter about baseball. Since he's not here to defend himself, this gives me a perfect opportunity to post about our recent luncheon.

We had planned to meet some friends downtown for lunch, joining their group a little late. But, alas, that day, Ian's class kept him later than anticipated, and, judging from the higher-than-usual traffic levels on Wisconsin Avenue, we knew we'd not likely make it downtown in time to do more than watch our other friends say goodbye. After delivering our apologies cellularly, we decided just to stay in Georgetown, and walked up the hill (it turned out to be farther than we thought it would be) to Bistrot Lepic.

It was towards the end of the lunch hour, so there were a couple of tables open in the dining room. The staff seemed a little slow and scattered, though, so we had to wait a bit for them to prepare the table. Then, judging from the service the rest of the meal, it must have been a very hard day for them.

Ian, being the culinary adventurist that he is, couldn't find anything on the menu he wanted. They didn't have chicken fingers on the menu. They didn't have pizza, either. And we asked, but the waiter said the kitchen wasn't able to make an omelette (which rather surprised me, given how often I'm there). So, while Ian pouted a bit (to quote him, he has "the dietary habits of a six-year-old"), I induced the waiter to ask the kitchen for a vegetarian creation. The end result was actually pretty interesting. He got a plate with a large rosette of mashed potatoes and a main plate with artfully arranged haricots verts (French style skinny green beans), sauteed julienned carrots and summer squash, an English pea purée, and what looked to be some ratatoille (eggplant stew, ick!), all topped with a grilled tomato. He ate the potatoes and the green beans. Oh, and the wonderful crusty French country loaf bread slices they brought us. I should have sampled the pea puree, cause it looked good.



On the other hand, I had exactly the opposite problem: there were too many wonderful-sounding things on the menu from which to choose. I wanted all of them! My final decision was the salade printanière de poissons grillés. This wasn't just a boring old grilled fish salad—it was actually quite exciting. On top of a small bed of European-style salad greens rested a large serving of crisp, crunchy seaweed. Perfectly grilled scallops, salmon, white fish, and shrimp perched upon the bright green seaweed. As the seaweed was already lightly pickled, there was no supplemental dressing. The dish was delicious.



Dessert made Ian somewhat happier. His mousse au chocolat avec des framboises came in an individual ramekin, and the rich, dark mousse was dusted with confectioner's sugar and garnished with a couple of raspberries. A ladyfinger-sized cookie accompanied the sweet.



The waiter highly recommended the mint ice cream, which he said had been freshly made that morning, so I ordered it: crême glacée de monnayage fait maison avec de la sauce à chocolat et une mûre. It was drizzled with chocolate sauce and garnished with a big, plump blackberry nestled in the midst of the three scoops of ice cream. The ice cream was pretty good, though I was much less impressed with it when I saw that it cost more than the chocolate mousse!