Thai Tanic, Washington, D.C.

My friend Graham is one of the original volunteers for Food & Friends here in D.C. ever since the charity was founded in 1988. Naturally, he is a big supporter of last night's Dining Out for Life event, and nearly two weeks ago, he called and booked me to go to dinner with him—"just us," he said, as usually when we're out to eat, it's with a crowd.

So, he drove over and picked me up at 8:30, thinking that if we went a little later in the evening, it would be easier to get a table at his restaurant of choice, and off we went. And went, and went, and went.....there was absolutely no place to park! After spending considerable time (and gasoline) in quest of a parking spot, we happened to have a momentary stop in front of the restaurant due to traffic, and he got a good look at the packed tables and the line crammed in the bar and doorway. We decided to move to a different part of town, since we'd seen lines at several other restaurants in that area, too.

Then we drove to the 14th and P area. It still required a search, but at last we found a legal, on-street parking spot. Then, the first four restaurants we went to had 30-45 minute waits for a table.....and it was already approaching 9:30! We ended up at Thai Tanic, a place both of us frequent and like a lot, but, for some reason, a place that wasn't participating in Dining Out this year as they have in years past. Oh, well, we didn't spend that much on food, so the charity wouldn't have made that much from us...and we can always just mail them a small check. I'm really really happy, though, that all the participating restaurants had such excellent business!

Thai Tanic's food was excellent as always. The dining room was about the emptiest I'd ever seen it and we were able to have immediate seating, getting the booth that's right in the window where we could watch passers-by on the street.

We started with Singha beers and appetitzers. Graham got the por pea shrimp spring rolls with sweet chile sauce (you can't tell in the over-exposed photo, but the spring rolls are each cut in half lengthwise on the diagnonal).



I had the tom ka gai soup, a delicious, delicate chicken soup with mushrooms, tomatoes, and basil and a surprisingly large amount of sliced chicken breast in a slightly hot-sour coconut milk broth.



For our main courses, I got the pork and ginger, a mix of pork slices, mushrooms, vegetables, and fresh ginger in a light brown sauce served with steamed white rice.



Graham got one of the daily specials, and it was quite the pièce de résistance! He ordered goong lava—"goong" being the Thai word for shrimp—and got a wonderfully creative food volcano. Large shrimp were battered, dipped in coconut, and deep fried. They took what looked like thick phyllo dough and baked it into an edible bowl. The bowl was filled with an interesting mixture of ground pork, ground peanuts, finely minced vegetables and mushrooms, and a bit of spicy brown sauce, just like a volcano filled with lava. The fried shrimp then were arranged around the edge of the crater and presented.



The only problem with the goong lava was that we weren't quite sure how to eat it! Graham tried dipping the shrimp, spooning "lava" onto the shrimp, eating the lava with a spoon, and then just eating the shrimp separately and the lava with the accompanying white rice. However he was supposed to eat it, he said it was good, though.

We passed on dessert, as it was getting late, and he drove me home. It was quite a lovely evening, even if it didn't turn out to be quite as charitable as we had planned.

IHOP, Arlington, Va.

Ian and I had to go to Ballston Common Mall, so, naturally, we had to stop in at IHOP for a meal.

Ian got the strawberry fruit "shortbread" pancakes special with the egg combo plate.




There's a Dr. Seuss movie opening soon (this summer??), and IHOP is helping promote it with special foods from Whoville. I ate some. I got the Mayor's Breakfast, featuring green eggs and ham (the eggs weren't really green, just scrambled with chopped spinach), plus hash browns, and a side plate of Who-Cakes.



The Who-Cakes were made from the shortbread-flavored pancake batter they are featuring this month, with the cakes stacked like a ziggurat, colorful syrups poured across them to look like ribbons, and sprinkles liberally strewn over the top; a Dum-Dum sucker skewered the stack to hold them together.



You do not like them.
So you say.
Try them! Try them!
And you may.
Try them and you may, I say.

Alero Restaurant, Washington, D.C.

After a brief round of happy hour cocktailing at James Hoban's, we walked to the opposite side of Dupont Circle to have dinner last night at Alero Restaurant, since Ian was strongly in the mood for Mexican food and nobody else really cared.

Once there, Ian and Matt both got frozen strawberry daquiris. For dinner, they also both got burritos. Robert had the beef enchilada. I just nibbled chips and salsa. Long story. My taco salad never arrived, and I never confronted the waiter about it. Blame Ian.





For dessert, Ian had the cheesecake chimichanga and Matt had the tres leches cake, and they split and shared those. Robert had the sopapillas. Interesting how they used the same plate garnish for most of the desserts.

James Hoban's Irish Restaurant and Bar, Washington, D.C.

Last night Robert, Matt, Ian, and I met up after work at James Hoban's Irish Restaurant and Bar for their happy hour. They had $5 martinis (including weird things like cosmos and appletinis) plus $3 off their bar food menu items, so we got something to drink and had three kinds of hummus with pita bread wedges as an appetizer. St. Patrick was standing behind the bar wearing a plain mitre with a deep emerald green chasuble. While I usually drink Bushmill's, that's the "Protestant" Irish whiskey, so I decided to have some "Catholic" whiskey what with the bishop standing behind the bar. Ian wouldn't let me order the Jameson's, so I tried Red Breast. It was nice, very smooth, good flavor and all, but it was so sweet it reminded me an awfully lot of Canadian whiskeys. Meanwhile, Matt was drinking Blue Moon beers out of a Guinness mug.

Spaghetti Garden, Washington, D.C.

It was another "First Tuesday" of the month in Adams-Morgan this week, so Ian and I journeyed up to find a new restaurant experience with their useful "food and drink for two for $25" program. We went by about a dozen restaurants before finding one Ian didn't reject, finally entering Spaghetti Garden for some simple Italian-American food. Oh, there was one place we went into planning to eat, but, even though we both were just clad casually in blazers, khaki trousers, and striped ties, we were clearly very overdressed for the place, judging from those seated at the bar; after waiting over five minutes by the door to be seated, greeted, or whatever, all to no avail, we left.

The Spaghetti Garden is a rather older, run-down sort of place (though I hear they recently spruced up the place) that really is more bar than restaurant. Only a few low dinner tables are in the front of the restaurant. A large bar dominates most of the dining room, with tall bar tables near the bar and in the back of the room. I discovered later on a trip to the men's room that the entire basement is a full room with a big bar, so this place is probably jam-packed with people on the weekends. Ian chose a bar table opposite the center of the bar because there was a large flat panel TV over the back of the bar playing CNN and the primary election returns.

The bartender, a t-shirt clad, straight jock type, was clueless when it came to the First Tuesday promotion. I would have moved on to a more cooperative establishment, but Ian was already glued to the television, so I acquiesced in staying, since the menu was on the very inexpensive side.

Ian started with an order of bruschetta and gleefully continued to mispronounce it all night long just to annoy me (it's "bruce-KAY-tah," not "brew-SHEHT-uh"). It was a hearty dish featuring two full-sized slices of garlic bread instead of the usual thin toasts and topped with a mound of coarsely chopped tomato, basil, and mozzarella cheese tossed in olive oil.



I had calimari fritti, another dish that was served in pieces larger than the norm. The squid actually wasn't bad, and was surprisingly tender for such large rings (squid is very easy to overcook, rendering it tough and chewy). The large serving of marinara was ordinary, but I don't use much sauce, so that didn't bother me. We also split a carafe of the house red wine, a wine with the virtues of being both drinkable and cheap.



The bartender/waiter recommended three things on the menu, and we got two of them (the third was the assortment of parmeggiana sandwiches). Ian ordered the saffron linguine with grilled chicken. Red and green bell peppers had been cut into strips, cooked, and mixed in with the diced chicken, and enrobed in a cream sauce around the linguine. I expected the dish to be bright saffron yellow, but it looked to me like plain cream sauce; Ian didn't really know what saffron was, so he couldn't tell me if it tasted of saffron or not, and I never got around to sampling it myself.



I got the pasta primavera with cream sauce instead of red sauce. I had chicken added to mine, as well, and I really enjoyed the little moments of bitterness and intense flavor that you get when you grill meats and get little spots of char. The "primavera" was broccoli and bell peppers. I thought the dish tasty and filling, though clearly this restaurant focuses on quantity and satiety values, not gourmet subtlety or presentation.



We wanted dessert, but the bartender said they didn't have any. Apparently, that was an unusually busy Tuesday night—there were four tables plus one man eating alone at the bar—and they ordinarily don't do desserts except on weekends.

Dining Out for Life

Tonight is the annual "Dining Out for Life" event here in Washington. Other cities have their events on different days, but this is the day for the D.C. metropolitan area. On March 11 it's in Dallas, April 23 Atlanta, April 24 Chicago, Houston, Las Vegas, Phoenix, San Francisco, Seattle, and Tulsa, May 1 Philadelphia, Miami, Fort Lauderdale and the Palm Beaches, and September 18 Baltimore. Quite a number of other cities will have events, as well, throughout the year.

What is Dining Out for Life? It's a charity fund raiser that is one of the easiest things you can do. By eating at a participating restaurant, you'll pay normal restaurant prices for your meal, and the restaurant will donate between 25 and 100% of their gross revenues tonight to charity. In Washington, the charity will be Food & Friends, a non-profit group that provides daily, home-delivered, specialized meals, groceries and nutrition counseling to people living with HIV/AIDS, cancer and other life-challenging illnesses.

Dining Out for Life and Food & Friends are both great charities, and I encourage everyone in the D.C. area to eat out tonight—even if only for an appetizer or a dessert—at one of the participating restaurants. Remember: this doesn't cost you anything extra for a normal restaurant meal.

Participating restaurants giving 100% of their gross tonight are Blacksalt Tasting Room, Carlyle, Freddie's Beach Bar and Restaurant, and Ristorante Tosca. Luigino will give 75%. Giving 50% are Annie's Paramount Steakhouse, Cafe La Ruche, Georgia Brown's, Hank's Oyster Bar (D.C. and Old Town), Jack's, Little Fountain Cafe, Mehak Indian Restaurant, Neyla, Santa Fe Cafe, Skewers, and The Old Siam. Argia's, Arucola Osteria, Bistrot du Coin, Bombay Curry Company, Busboys & Poets (D.C. and Va.), Delhi Club, Fusion Grill, Il Radicchio, Lounge 201, Luna Grill and Diner (D.C. and Va.), Mr. Henry's, Radius, and Sake Club are all giving 35% of their take. Think especially about going to these places tonight.

Here's a list of the other participating restaurants that are each contributing 25% of their gross receipts tonight: 15 Squares American Bistro, 18th & U Duplex Diner, Alero (U Street), American Grill, Aroma Indian Cuisine, Asia Bistro/Zen Bistro, Banana Café, Bangkok Garden Restaurant, bd's Mongolian Barbeque, Beacon Bar & Grill, Black Market Bistro, Black's Bar and Kitchen, Bourbon, Cactus Cantina, Café Berlin, Cafe Ole, Cashion's Eat Place, Cee Fine Thai Dining, Chadwicks, Clarendon Grill, Colorado Kitchen, Coppi's Restaurant, The Diner, Dino, Dos Gringos Café, Dupont Italian Kitchen, Ella's Wood Fired Pizza, Floriana Mercury Grill, Foxfire Grill, Geppetto Restaurant, The Grille, Grillfish, Guapo's Restaurant (Shirlington and Bethesda), Hard Times Café, The Heights, indebleu, J. Paul's (Georgetown), Komi, La Ferme Restaurant, La Fourchette, La Plaza, La Tomate, Las Placitas, Lauriol Plaza, Logan Tavern, Lotus Lounge, M Street Bar & Grill, Mark's Kitchen, Marshall's Restaurant, Medaterra, The Melting Pot (D.C., Arlington, Gaithersburg), Merkado Kitchen, Meze, Mosaic Cuisine and Café, Mourayo, Nage Restaurant, Oakville Grille & Wine Bar, Old Glory BBQ, Panache Restaurant, Paolo's Georgetown, Paya Thai, Perry's, Persimmon Restaurant, Pesce, Pizzeria Paradiso (Dupont & Georgetown), Raku-Asian Dining, Sushi & Sake (D.C. & Bethesda), Restaurant K, Ristorante Piccolo, Rosemary's Thyme Bistro, Saigon Saigon, Sala Thai (Arlington, Bethesda, Dupont, U Street, Uptown, Ashburn), Sesto Senso, Starfish Café, Straits of Malaya, Sushi-Ko Restaurant, Tabaq Bistro, Tabard Inn, Tempo Restaurant, Thaiphoon (Dupont & Pentagon Row), Trattoria Alberto, Tuscana West, U-topia Art & Eat, Urbana Restaurant and Wine Bar, Vegetate, Vicino Ristorante Italiano, Zed's Ethiopian Cuisine, and zPizza (Alexandria, Arlington, Columbia, Fairfax, Falls Church, Herndon, Leesburg, Lorton, Manassas, Merrifield, Rockville, Silver Spring, South Riding, Springfield).

Please join us for Dining Out for Life!

The Capital Grille, Washington, D.C.

We had a lovely lunch today at The Capital Grille, one of the better steakhouses in town, as a bribe from my friend Robert for accompanying him to some business at the nearby federal courthouse. It was delicious, as always.

Robert had a ribeye steak sandwich with caramelized onions and Havarti cheese on a grilled demi-baguette of French bread, accompanied by house cut and fried potato chips, plus a side order of French fries (he didn't read the top of the menu that said the sandwiches came with a choice of fries, chips, or slaw, so he ended up with double potatoes). I had a grilled sirloin steak salad and an iced tea, as I almost always get, and it was just enough, as expected.

While I was happy with iced tea, Robert decided to splurge on a great big Tanqueray martini, up, with a twist.

Aria Trattoria, Washington, D.C.

What a beautiful day it was today! The sun was out, it was warm, twas a harbinger of the spring to come. Not a day to be cooped up inside!

Had a very good business lunch downtown with my friend Mike at Aria Trattoria in the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center. We started to eat outside on the patio, but they'd reserved a nice table for us inside, and we ended up there.

Mike had the wild mushroom risotto, which he reported was very good. It was simply presented in a large soup plate with a tiny garnish of fresh chopped parsley. I had the pulled chicken salad, and, while it was very good, I was a little bit surprised at the presentation. They started with a bed of mixed European-style baby greens tossed in a balsamic vinaigrette and in the center was a mound of pulled chicken moistened with a mayonnaise or mild aioli in a traditional "chicken salad" way; two long, thin parmesan crostini sat criss-crossed atop the chicken. I think I'd expected the pieces to be tossed lightly amongst the greens instead of being formed into a chicken salad. With our food, Mike drank a Melini Borghi d'Elsa chianti and I had a Kris pinot grigio.

For dessert, we split a tropical mousse torte and a pot of French press coffee. They used a round mold with coconut ladyfingers in the bottom and then filled it with a mousse of banana, mango and passionfruit. A little whipped cream and a squirt of tangerine coulis went atop the torte that then was scattered with a mango dice (the mangos, unfortunately, were not ripe). Ripe, fan-sliced strawberries and dollops of whipped cream garnished the plate. I thought the dessert had a very pleasant flavor and was a nice ending to the meal. The coffee was surprisingly filled with sediment; perhaps they over-ground the coffee beans before brewing the pot. While we had our dessert, our waiter brought us a tray of glasses of beers and ales with half-ounce pours to introduce us to the new beers on tap in their bar.

One of the other perks of dining at Aria is that by having a late lunch, I was able to get a 1,000 point Open Table bonus for booking between 1:30 and 3:00.