Hunan Palace, Washington, D.C.

After the St. Patrick's Day parade Sunday, Robert, Michael, and I wandered off through downtown D.C. in quest of food. This task turned out to be much harder than expected. Of course, most of the downtown eateries are intended for the office worker crowd, and, thus, are closed on Sunday, but the places we had in mind weren't suitable; we'd forgotten that Michael is vegetarian. Vegetarian in downtown D.C. is a lot more challenging. We got to McPherson Square and found even the Corner Bakery and Cosí closed, so he decided we should go to this cheap little hole-in-the-wall place called Hunan Palace just north of the square. It's definitely on the "budget" side.

Things did not begin auspiciously. Robert and I both ordered iced tea. It wasn't brewed. It turned out to be one of those iced tea drinks that come from a soda fountain. Now, that stuff is typically "instant" and spiked with "lemon" flavor in the form of citric acid as a preservative, and has a bit of a tang to it, but this was particularly tangy.....I suspect it was old. I sent mine back in favor of hot tea; Robert sent his back in favor of Coca-Cola; we both got Coca-Cola.

Our next adventure was the appetizer course. Michael had an egg drop soup that was bright, bright yellow. Robert had some fried won-tons that were stuffed with meat; he had expected something more like crab rangoon with the cream cheese filling. I had a simple, greasy spring roll.

As is typical in Chinese restaurants, the entrees came out as they were finished by the kitchen, rather than all together. First to come out was my salt and pepper squid. Pieces of squid were scored, battered, seasoned, and deep-fried, then tossed with salt and pepper, chopped onion, and chopped jalapeño peppers and served with lightly stir-fried broccoli. It was okay; I've had worse before.



Next came Michael's vegetable fried rice. I guess it was okay....he didn't make any comments.



Last to arrive was Robert's crispy beef. He was still nibbling on his fried won-ton, so he wasn't starving while Michael and I ate. Robert said the beef was good, but he didn't even eat half of it, and he didn't take any of it home with him, either. It was a very large serving, though. I tasted a little piece and I thought it was really, really sweet, so I didn't like it.