Xmas in New York

Here are some chestnuts roasting on an open fire at one of the street vendor carts by Central Park.

Thanksgiving weekend wrapup

Thanksgiving Day, we'd planned on going to a big group pot-luck thing over on Capitol Hill, but there was some kind of drama amongst prospective guests and we had to regroup. I don't know the parties involved, so I don't know who got whom pregnant. Or whatever. We ended up with a bunch of guys from Laurent's rowing team coming over to his place for an impromptu dinner. Good thing there are still some grocery stores that were open on Thanksgiving Day! Our ultimate menu ended up being much more down home and much less Martha Stewart, although Laurent and I carried on with our original plans of him fixing deviled eggs garnished with red caviar and me fixing wasabi mashed potatoes with green peas (with Yukon Gold potatoes, white pepper, a couple of sticks of butter, and a couple of cups of heavy cream, naturally). Then I got to advise some of the other guys on what to buy at the store that was quick to prepare, and how to doctor up exciting things like Stove Top Stuffing and canned sweet potatoes. The whole thing turned out very well nonetheless, we were (overly-)sated, and there were plenty of leftovers to share. The highlight of the evening, though, had to be when we accidentally came across the Ms. Senior D.C. beauty pageant on television. Watching all those dignified elderly ladies pageant-walking and trying to sing and dance during their talent and evening gown competitions had us all in stitches!

Ledo Pizza, Washington, D.C.

Shrimp and chorizo sausage pizza

Denny's, Grapevine, Texas

Had a long layover in Dallas last night, so my friend David and his son Aaron met me at the airport and we drove to a nearby Denny's for dinner. How wonderful: I fly all the way to Dallas, only to go to a Denny's. We ate typical Denny's food, with the exception of one interesting new dish, a half dozen pancake poppers, which looked like little deep fried fritters dusted with confectioner's sugar and served with a bowl of syrup. Here are pictures of the food and of Aaron. Don't know why I didn't get any pictures of David.....Aaron took several of us, but that was with his own camera.

Wilson's BBQ, Tulsa, Oklahoma

Tonight Tony and I had an early dinner at Wilson's BBQ up in north Tulsa. Wilson's is an authentic old time Tulsa barbecue joint in an iffy part of town. I did notice that they had spruced up the exterior of the building and the parking lot since the last time I was there probably five years ago.

Tony got the short ribs and I had the full beef ribs. Both platters came with bread, cole slaw, and baked beans. The ribs were, as always, delicious and messy. Good thing each table is stocked with a big roll of paper towels.



For dessert, I had a sweet potato pie and Tony got the buttermilk pie. I like their sweet potato pie because it's distinctly spiced and it doesn't taste of pumpkin pie spice as so many sweet potato pies I've had have done.

Villa Ravenna, Tulsa, Oklahoma

Wednesday evening, I went to The Farm shopping center with my friend Tony, where we ate at Villa Ravenna, a northern Italian-style restaurant.

Now, Tulsa doesn't really have much of an Italian community, so there's no "Little Italy" like there is in some of the big cities like Chicago or New York. Nevertheless, Italian immigrants have come to town seeing the opportunity to bring their home town cooking to the Oklahoma prairie. The owners branched off of a family restaurant in Houston called Via Emilia, and they use the same family recipes from Ravenna, an Italian town on the north Adriatic Sea coast. Interestingly, it's in the old Casa Laredo Mexican location, a local chain that Tony's family has patronized for years. The new decor is mostly accomplished with lots of green and red Italian flag colors and bunches of plastic grapes on lattice arbors, but it looks more old-style Italian-American cafe than tacky.

We started off with glasses of chianti while we tried to read the menus in the very dark restaurant; our table was illuminated with but one lighted taper in the center. Tony ordered the avocado salad and I ordered the cream of mushroom soup. My soup arrived so hot I couldn't eat it at first. The bowl was filled with a nice, thick, flavorful soup.



For his main course, Tony got the veal parmegiana. I found their presentation and recipe interesting; there was a layer of ham between the veal and the melted mozzarella cheese. It came with a side of spaghetti.

Speaking of which, I had the spaghetti carbonara. The carbonara was good, but once again, the recipe was interesting and non-traditional. Instead of just using egg and parmesan cheese, they put a little bit of alfredo sauce on the pasta.


In lieu of dessert, we each had a little glass of limoncello.


Overall, I thought the restaurant was nice for Tulsa, but I have to admit that I'm rather spoiled by some of the wonderful Italian restaurants on the East Coast, so the Tulsa place didn't "wow" me. There were a number of interesting entrees on the menu, though, that I would love to try on a future visit, and I've since heard that the osso bucco here is fantastic, so I'll have to check it out for myself.

The Brothers Houligan, Tulsa, Oklahoma

Wednesday my friend Bill took me to lunch at one of his favorite places in Tulsa, The Brothers Houligan. I'd been to the midtown location before, but this was my first time at their newish east Tulsa location.

The daily lunch special Wednesday was fried shrimp, so that's what Bill got. They brought him half a dozen large, butterflied, battered shrimp, and he thought they were very tasty. I got a luncheon-sized chicken fried steak. It tasted good. It was a long piece of round steak with a light breading on it, then the steak was covered in white cream gravy. Bowls of green beans, mashed potatoes, and cream gravy were presented family style for us to share.

El Guapo's Cantina, Tulsa, Oklahoma

Sunday I drove to Tulsa and met my friend Tony for dinner. We went to a Mexican place downtown called El Guapo's Cantina and sat upstairs on their rooftop patio. El Guapo's specializes in Oaxacan style cuisine.

I ordered one of their house specialties, the enchiladas de molé poblano. Mole is a classic Mexican sauce made with unsweetened chocolate (remember, the Aztecs are credited with "inventing" chocolate and bringing it into our modern cuisine via the Spanish conquistadors) and roasted poblano chiles. The dish is made with smoked chicken corn tortilla enchiladas, smothered in the mole sauce, and sprinkled with Mexican cotija cheese, crema (Mexican sour cream), onions, and cilantro. It came with rice and beans. I liked it a lot, and thought the mole had good complexity and a nice mouth feel.

Tony ordered the smoked steak and cheese flautas. After a momentary problem when the kitchen sent him fish tacos instead and we had to wait for the flautas to come up (an attentive manager came over to apologize and comped the flautas for us), his food arrived and looked very artistic. They'd made long flautas, cut them on the diagonal, then arranged them over a bowl full of white cheese queso blanco dip with creamy salsa verde, crema, and pico de gallo. It doesn't look like all that much, but it's a substantial and filling dish. His rice and beans were on the side.

For dessert, Tony got the fried ice cream, which was presented on a large white plate with a lot of decorative strawberry sauce and chocolate sauce around the ice cream. I got the peaches and cream sopapilla relleno. Sopapillas are deep-fried pockets of pastry, and I'd expected to get one stuffed with peaches and cream. Their version, though, had peaches between two flattened sopapillas, with ice cream on the plate and garnishes of whipped cream and strawberry sauce.

The Coleman Room at Buffalo Run, Miami, Oklahoma

Friday we drove up to the Joplin and Miami areas to do the annual family cemetery decorating. After we got done with that, we stopped by the Wyandotte and Peoria tribal casinos. Lots of little wins, but no bigger wins, so I spent all my meagre gambling capital in quest of the big money.

While we'd brought sandwiches from home for lunch, for dinner, we went to the Coleman Room at Buffalo Run (the Peoria casino), since my mother had never eaten there. Some of you may remember my previous review of the place from November 2004, shortly after the casino opened.

They had a special limited menu put together for Memorial Day weekend. My mother had the horseradish-crusted halibut. I had the prime rib. Both entrees came with a salad, baked potato, and a melange of steamed vegetables. Portions continue to be large. Both plates were garnished with an orchid flower and a sprig of rosemary.

For dessert, we shared a carrot bundt cake with cream cheese frosting I thought was surprisingly good, especially considering it only cost $4.

Not much has changed since the first review, other than they have their liquor license now. It continues to be a nice place for the area, but they still are small town and haven't fully trained their wait staff. A typical example of their training shortfalls is the waitress having to come back and ask my mother what kind of potato she wanted with her fish, after the waitress had initially said the fish came with rice, contrary to what the menu said. Apparently the staff hadn't been briefed on the menus.

Georgia Brown's Restaurant, Washington, D.C.

Our new housemate Sean arrived today from Phoenix. He starts his new job at the Senate tomorrow. This afternoon, I Metroed down to the Capitol with him so he'd know how to get to his office building in the morning, and we ended up walking from the Capitol down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House playing tourist. Once we were done, it was dinnertime and he was a bit hungry, so, as Washington is a Southern town, I thought we should have Southern food and we were off to Georgia Brown's Restaurant on McPherson Square for his first Southern repast.

He ordered the Carolina gumbo, a thick stew of shrimp, andoille sausage, crab, chicken, and duck with Carolina red rice. He seemed to like it, as he cleaned his plate. I had (for the second day in a row) the Alaskan halibut, pan-bronzed and topped with a cranberry maple sage pesto and presented on a bed of grilled asparagus and hominy. I'm glad halibut is in season.

For dessert, he got the peach cobbler with vanilla ice cream, and I had the bourbon pecan pie with chocolate sauce and whipped cream.

Clyde's, Busboys, and Poets

Laurent and I went to go see Angels and Demons after brunch Sunday afternoon.

Before the show, we went to Clyde's of Gallery Place, where we started off with morning bloody Marys. Laurent had sirloin steak and scrambled eggs, which also came with deep-fried potato cakes and caramelized onion. Since halibut is in season right now, I got the pan-seared Alaskan halibut with green bean potato salad and spring vegetable slaw. They do a good job with fish at Clyde's, and my halibut was thick, meaty, and juicy. I thought the potato salad was unusual and good, too; made from slices of fingerling potatoes and julienned green beans, it was dressed with a spring onion vinaigrette.

After the movie, we popped in to the new Busboys and Poets location in Penn Quarter for desserts. After we looked at the menus, though, Laurent decided he was hungry again, so he ate an order of hummus and pita bread and a bowl of chili instead of having dessert. I stuck with the original plan and got the white chocolate banana bread pudding served warm with a scoop of coconut ice cream.

T.H.A.I., Arlington (Shirlington), Va.

Saturday a bunch of us got together to help Laurent move to a new apartment. It was a little rainy Saturday, but we managed to move the stuff in between the moments of rain and nothing got wet. Laurent had a full slate of volunteers working different times throughout the day. After everything got to the new place, some of us stayed to help unpack boxes and put things on the walls and in the drawers. At last, we got done and some of us decided to go to Shirlington (a neighborhood of Arlington, Va.) for dinner. The day's cloudburst finally happened as we walked from the parking garage to the restaurant.

On the strong recommendation of Todd (who was driving), we went to T.H.A.I in Shirlington, a (believe it or not) Thai restaurant that turned out to be very nice with a luxurious contemporary Thai ambiance to the dining room and some exciting food presentations. Too bad I didn't have my camera along.

We started off sharing some appetizers. A supplemented order of spring rolls (the usual order was for three) came and they were unlike anything I'd had before. Each vegetable-stuffed, lightly deep-fried rolls was about one foot long and the four rolls were stacked in an interwoven architectural structure. A bowl of carrot dipping sauce came with the rolls. We also got an order of crab shu mai, which were open faced steamed dumpling stuffed with crab, pork, shrimp, and water chestnut accompanied by a ginger-soy dipping sauce, and presented on a long, narrow, rectangular platter.

Meanwhile, Laurent and Mary were drinking golden frozen margaritas.

For her main course, Mary got the king pad ped, a large oval platter of stir-fried chicken and both shiitake and wood ear mushrooms enrobed in soybean sauce and sprinkled with fried ginger root. Todd ordered a dish called "Penang Perfect," essentially a chicken curry with peanut sauce and coconut milk presented in a contemporary rounded boat-shaped bowl (he says it's what he always gets). Laurent selected the "Kapow Delight," a stir-fry of beef, broccoli, and basil leaves in chili-garlic sauce. All of these entrees came with steamed white rice. I picked the chicken pad thai, the traditional rice noodle dish with chicken, bean sprouts, egg, scallion, and peanuts, artfully arranged on a large square plate.

Desserts were spectacular. Laurent got the banana split bruleé, with caramelized banana halves topped with a row of coconut ice cream, Thai coffee ice cream, and strawberry sorbet, clouds of whipped creams, drizzles of chocolate and caramel sauces. Todd picked the flambé Thai banana, a showy dish of banana halves and segments with coconut ice cream sprinkled with diced orange peel, minced ginger, toasted coconut, and sesame seeds, then flambéed tableside with Grand Marnier.

T.H.A.I definitely goes on my recommended Thai restaurant list.

After dinner, we went to a nice little wine shop in Shirlington Village called the Curious Grape, where they vended not only wines, but cheeses, gourmet chocolates, and an assortment of stemware and accoutrements for wines. Todd got a couple of bottles of Locadi Moscato d'Asti, which turned out to be quite delicious once we got back to Laurent's new place.

Crisfield Seafood Restaurant, Silver Spring, Md.

The other night Robert and I went to Crisfield Seafood Restaurant, just across the D.C. line in Silver Spring, Md. Crisfield's is one of those old eateries that's been around for over sixty years, and the place probably hasn't changed a bit in all those decades.

We'd never been to the place before, and misjudged it as more of an inexpensive diner than it turned out to be. Most of the entrees were in the $20-something range, about the same as one would pay in a more elegant establishment, and fried foods were predominant on the menu. While the food was tasty, I would have been happier had the prices been cheaper to reflect the casual diner-type atmosphere (complete with a large counter with bar stools).

We started our meals with bowls of soup, Robert electing the seafood chowder and me getting the clam chowder. Both were thick, rustic soups with plenty of seafood in them. I had the sense that my soup was super-hot because it had been being held on a steam table for some time during the dinner rush.

For main courses, we opted for sandwiches because they were only $9 or $10 each. Robert got the fried perch sandwich, and got two large filets on his bun. I had crab cake. The crab cake was excellent. It was thick and full of crab, and the outside was so evenly browned that I think it was deep fried instead of pan fried. Both sandwiches came on standard hamburger buns and were served with a nice, sweetish cole slaw (French fries were an available alternative).

I don't know whether or not we will go back to Crisfield's. It was certainly popular with a more mature, white crowd, and stayed full the entire time we were there. If we return, we'll want to try the main entrees and seafood platters.

Tastee Diner, Silver Spring, Md.

Happy Mothers' Day to all the mothers on my readership list.

I just got in from Tastee Diner and a midnight Mothers' Day dinner of roast prime rib for only $14.95, and it was actually a decent meal. Came with collard greens and mashed potatoes with gravy. To answer my friend Justin's question, no, I'm not a mother (obviously), but we celebrate every holiday and use them as an excuse to go out to eat. :-)

Earlier today Robert, Spencer, and I made a Costco run to College Park. Afterwards, we popped into a KFC to grab a quick late lunch. There were two tables of adult families in the KFC celebrating Mothers' Day, complete with corsages and "dress up" clothing; it made me melancholy to think that some people could only afford to take their mother to a fast food restaurant for Mothers' Day. I'm thankful that my family isn't that financially strapped, especially during this national recession/depression.

El Tamarindo, Washington, D.C.

We celebrated Cinco de Mayo with a late dinner at El Tamarindo in Adams-Morgan tonight. I'd had a DeMolay business meeting earlier in the evening, but that was just as well, since the Mexican restaurants in town were all packed tonight. Our 10:30 dinnertime coincided with right about the time the main dinner rush was starting to clear out, so, while the restaurant was still full in both dining rooms, we were able to be seated right away.

We started with margaritas, and they were good ones that actually had some tequila in them. Too bad the waiter was so busy he didn't ever ask us if we wanted refills, cause we would have.

Robert had the pollo de mole poblano, a nice, plump piece of chicken covered in roasted poblano pepper and chocolate sauce, garnished with a sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds. It came with white rice and black beans. I had the chicken avocado salad, a large and surprisingly filling version of a chicken taco salad.

Ikea, College Park, Md.

Yesterday, I made an Ikea run to College Park. Laurent wanted to buy a new dresser and a desk chair. We ate lunch at the cafeteria there and I have to say I was very unimpressed with the crab cakes. Next time, I'll stick to the standard Swedish meatballs.

Pho Hiep Hoa, Silver Spring, Md.

Robert and I found a new Vietnamese restaurant in downtown Silver Spring called Pho Hiep Hoa. I enjoyed the place a lot and will probably go back. We started with traditional garden rolls with peanut sauce and an order of something called shrimp paste. Ground shrimp is spiced and formed around a piece of sugar cane, then fried; the pieces were okay, but they had the feel to me of slightly overcooked shrimp. For our main courses, Robert had the daily special, "caramel shrimp," a casserole of large shrimp in a red, slightly sweet, chili sauce served with rice and a side plate of salad vegetables (we still don't know where the "caramel" comes from), while I had grilled meats on vermicelli. We washed everything down with Vietnamese 33 beer, a very light lager-style brew. For dessert, we had Vietnamese iced coffees.

Silver Spring, by the way, is in Maryland, and Maryland has several swine flu cases. I wonder if we were exposed to the virus at dinner and now we're going to start oinking?

Sala Thai, Washington, D.C.

Laurent and I were on U Street later in the week and popped in to Sala Thai just in time to avoid the thunderstorm cloud bursts. I've been to their Dupont location before, but this was my first time in the U Street store. We had a great window seat to allow us to watch all the people hustling by with their umbrellas.

We both started with tom yum soup, Laurent's with chicken and mine with shrimp. This soup is made with coconut milk seasoned with lemongrass and ginger.

For our main courses, Laurent got the ka prow, a beef dish with red bell pepper and fried basil leaves in a chili paste sauce, extra spicy. He ate it all, but I think it ended up bothering his stomach. However, he **did** order it "as hot as you can make it."

I was going to order the pottery shrimp, a baked shrimp and cellophane noodle dish, but the waitress suggested the peppery shrimp instead, so that's what I got. A lot of shrimp in a mild white pepper and garlic sauce came with artistically arranged slices of cucumber, tomatoes, and shredded carrot and purple cabbage. Both dishes came with white steamed rice.

For dessert, Laurent had a fruit punch and I had a Thai iced coffee.

Dukem Ethiopean Restaurant, Washington, D.C.

For some reason, I've ended up on U Street a bunch this past week.

Monday, John G from California was in town for a business conference on Africa, so when we went to dinner, I thought we should have African food, and we ended up at Dukem Ethiopian Restaurant. John had not had Ethiopian food before, so we got a combination tray, that being one of the easiest ways to try a variety of their foods.

Our sampler tray included beef tibs (cubes of beef sauteed with onion), lamb wot (lamb stew, spicy), and minchet abesh (ground beef in ginger and garlic sauce), plus collards, cabbage, yellow peas, lentils, and tomato salad, all served atop a large round of injera bread.

Along with dinner, since John's a big beer fan, we drank several Ethiopian beers, from a simple lager to a dark brown stout.

McCormick & Schmick Seafood Restaurant, Washington, D.C.

My friend Justin gave me a gift certificate to McCormick & Schmick Seafood Restaurants, so I used it the other day at the D.C. location near Farragut Square. McCormick & Schmick is a national chain of high-end, white tablecloth restaurants with menus that change daily according to what is fresh from the water and in season. I heard a waiter talking to a nearby table, and she said that this is halibut season. By that time, though, I had already ordered, and decided to stick to my original plan.

I started with a cup of the seafood and corn chowder, a cream-based soup with crab, shrimp, and who knows what else in the mix. It came with a cellophane packet of oyster crackers. They also brought me a quarter-loaf of a very good sourdough bread, which I used instead of the crackers.

For my main course, I had the seafood Cobb salad. Greens dressed in what tasted like a crab Louis sauce were topped with stripes of various ingredients common to Cobb salads, plus stripes of popcorn shrimp, crab meat, and tiny bay scallops. A sliced avocado quarter garnished the salad. I thought it was a good and substantial salad. My only complaint was that the bacon tasted a bit old to me and some of the crunchy bits were too crunchy.

Asian Bistro Cafe, Silver Spring, Md.

Friday night Robert and I went to Asian Bistro Cafe in downtown Silver Spring for dinner. He had the crispy beef and I had the shrimp in garlic sauce. The food was quite good, reasonably priced, and the servings were huge, with each dish easily being enough for two, especially if one were to have an appetizer and soup with dinner. Robert praised the beef dish, saying it was actually crispy instead of the soggy beef so often seen in restaurants these days. We'll have to go back to Asian Bistro again to try more items in the future.

Eggspectation, Silver Spring, Md.

For Easter dinner Sunday, we went to Eggspectation in downtown Silver Spring. I had the "classic Benedict," their version of a traditional eggs Benedict dish on their page of a dozen different Benedict variations (if they were truly witty, they'd have sixteen). It was a good dish, but it wasn't what I would call "classic." Instead of the traditional Canadian bacon, they used Black Forest ham and some gruyère cheese, neither of which appears in the original recipe. The eggs were served with sliced fried new potatoes and some slices of fresh melon.

In lieu of dessert, I had a blueberry muffin, warmed, per the waitress's recommendation, by grilling. They split the muffin longitudinally and toasted the insides on a grill, giving the muffin a very enjoyable crunchy, textural interest.

Mama Ayesha's, Washington, D.C.

Halfway between Woodley Park and Adams-Morgan is a Syrian restaurant called Mama Ayesha's that's been there since Dwight Eisenhower was in the White House some fifty years ago. Ayesha ran the place until her death during the Clinton Administration, and since then, younger generations of her family have continued to operate the establishment. When one walks down the street past the place, one can't miss it because of the big, bright mural painted on the side of the building showing all the presidential administrations during the eatery's tenure.

Ayesha's comes with good reviews and recommendations, though today was the first time I'd eaten there, when Robert and I stopped in for a late lunch while we were in the area.

They have a large outdoor patio seating area, and inside the restaurant, the right side of the dining room is devoted to the bar, while the left side has both banquettes and tables for regular dining. A water feature and a large number of artificial plants divides the two sides of the room. The ceiling is vaulted and decorated with a series of copper cups. Wall hangings evoke the feel of a Middle Eastern restaurant.

Robert opted for two side dishes for his lunch, a plate of falafel and a plate of betan'jan maglie, fried slices of eggplant drizzled in a garlicky lemon vinaigrette. He particularly enjoyed the eggplant dish.

I ordered the lamb couscous. As it turned out, we were between main lunch and early dinner, so the lamb shoulder they usually serve with the couscous wasn't quite done yet, so they asked to substitute a lamb shank stew called mouzat and served it on top of couscous. It was quite good, the lamb falling off the bone with the slightest prod of the fork.

We both passed on dessert and Arabian coffee, as we were in a hurry and still had things to do this afternoon before five o'clock.

Dupont Italian Kitchen, Washington, D.C.

Kevin had a birthday last week, so we went to Dupont Italian Kitchen for dinner to celebrate. Twas a simple dinner, just salad, pasta, and a shared dessert.

Kevin picked one of the daily specials for his main course, a penne dish with tomatoes, basil, and asparagus. I had the calamari in red sauce over linguine for mine. Mine was good, with lots of tender squid rings and a fresh grating of parmesan cheese over the top.

For dessert, we had a very good piece of tiramisu.

Dupont Italian Kitchen is another of the older restaurants on the 17th Street strip that seems to be fancying itself up. The waiters are more dressed up now and they've a fancy bar inside now instead of just a service bar (the gay bar Windows, now known as the D.I.K. Bar, is still upstairs). The menu is still fairly simple, though, and they haven't significantly raised prices or gotten fancy with the food.

Sushi Go-Round & Tapas, Washington, D.C.

Tonight while the Wizards were busy losing by a mere field goal in the adjacent Verizon Center, a group of us went to a unique Japanese place called Sushi Go Round & Tapas for dinner. While they have a traditional dining room and Japanese menu available (I never did figure out where the tapas part came from), part of the fun of going to Sushi Go Round is sitting at the sushi bar and making food selections from the plates circulating around the bar on a conveyor belt.

Lots of things went by that looked enticing. Items—sushi, sushi rolls, seaweed salad, desserts—are priced by plate color, and at the end of the meal, the waitress adds up ones bill by adding up the plates. Prices are surprisingly reasonable for the Verizon Center area.

We had to dawdle a bit after we finished eating, since we got done right about the same time as the basketball game wrapped up, and we didn't want to be caught in the crush of people packing into the Chinatown Metro station. On the way out, though, we got to see about a dozen D.C. police from the bicycle patrol all lined up outside Clyde's waiting for Saturday night action.

Dukem Ethiopean Restaurant, Washington, D.C.

A bunch of us braved the messy drizzle tonight and went to Dukem Ethiopian Restaurant down on U Street for dinner. It was Spencer's first time to do do Ethiopian, so we steered him more towards the sampler platters instead of trying to pick one thing from the long and esoteric menu.

The samplers included tibs (cubed beef), wat (lamb stew), minchet abesh (ground beef), and an assortment of lentil and vegetable items. As always, they were served communal style on a big round of tef bread called injera, and additional pieces of injera were provided to use as a means of picking up the food and conveying it to ones mouth (no silverware!).

Laurent and I ordered our platters "spicy," but they came out rather mild, I thought. In anticipation of the spice, I ordered an Ethiopian beer called Meta, which is a rather sturdy lager in a short, squat bottle.

I always like the food at Dukem. It's one of the better places in town for Ethiopian food, but it's also very popular, so it's always loud and conversation can be challenging. Tonight it was very crowded and noisy, too.

Here's a picture of Spencer pondering his platter. In the next shot, Laurent dives in to the injera.

Ben's Chili Bowl, Washington, D.C.

Tonight, Robert and I made a post-midnight grocery run to the 24-hour Giant, so, while we were in the neighborhood, we stopped at Ben's Chili Bowl on the way home. He got a chili half smoke and a cherry milkshake, and I just got some chili cheese fries.

We still have gotten to go to Ben's new Next Door, an upscale bar and restaurant next door. They keep more traditional restaurant hours, so we seldom get by during their open times. The menu looks a bit pricy, though.

Union Pub, Washington, D.C.

Lunched today with Laurent at the Union Pub (again) on Capitol Hill near his office. He had a turkey burger and I had a grilled chicken sandwich. My sandwich was good, but hard to eat, since they used two chicken breasts and stacked them on top of one another; they kept sliding around as I tried to eat them. After we ate our healthy sandwiches, Laurent had a huge brownie sundae for dessert.

T.G.I.Friday's, Washington, D.C.

After the symphony Thursday night, we popped over to the T.G.I.Friday's near the Metro stop for steaks from the $9.99 menu. My steak was tasty (once it finally arrived at the table), but it was certainly a tiny little thing. And, as typically happens at this particular store, there were problems. When the check came, they tried to charge us for more expensive versions of the steaks; when I pointed out the discrepancy to the waitress, she rather flippantly asked what I wanted her to do about it. Eventually, the adjustment was made, and we were able to go on our way.

Sbarro

Sbarro is a national chain of low-end Italian food shops frequently seen in mall food courts. I happened to pass by one the other day with a friend who bought one of their pepperoni stromboli (think pizza burrito), and I noticed at the cash register they had placed a corporate looking sign that said,

Bon appetite
Horrors!

Don't they know that in Italy, to wish someone "good appetite" or good eating, one says, "buon appetito"? Perhaps they were confused by the French, who say, "bon appetit" (pronounced, "boh nap-pay-tee"). Nobody, though, mixes their French and their English and says "bon appetite."

Maybe they should just put up a sign that says, "Enjoy your meal."

La Tasca Spanish Tapas Bar and Restaurant, Arlington, Va.

Continuing our Restaurant Week adventures with the "extending" restaurants this week, yesterday, Robert and I ended up in Arlington at the La Tasca Spanish Tapas Bar and Restaurant. They have decided to make their Restaurant Week deal the Wednesday weekly special, so one can lunch now on Wednesdays for $20.09 for all you can eat tapas. Don't know how long that will continue.

Robert's a regular at this place. I've not been there for two or three years since I last went with my friend Jose, but the place is under different management now, and I enjoyed the leisurely afternoon ordering little plates one at a time. For those of you who've never before been to a tapas bar, the tapas are little individual plates of food, and it's kind of like making a meal out of a series of appetizers at a regular restaurant.

Robert started out with one of the daily specials with shrimp and large scallops covered in diced tomatoes and peppers and presented au gratin with melted white cheese the name of which escapes me. Next he had the solomillo de cerdo Iberico al Cabrales, a little slice of grilled pork tenderloin that had been wrapped in bacon and served in a white Cabrales cheese sauce, that he says is one of his favorite dishes there. Next he got the langostinos a la plancha, some jumbo shrimp with the heads on that had been grilled with sea salt. For a vegetable dish, he ordered the espinacas salteadas, a very interesting salted, sauteed spinach dish with pine nuts and raisins. Somewhere in there, he also ate an order of pan de ajo con queso, or garlic bread with cheese. For his dessert, he got the flauta rellena de crema de platano y carmelo con helado de chocolate, a deep-fried banana in puff pastry served with chocolate ice cream.

I began with the calamares andaluza, a nice, tender, fried squid calamari with garlic mayonnaise, then I had the montado de lomo, which reminded me of an Italian bruschetta topped with grilled pork loin. Next I had the buey al Jerez, a very tasty grilled flank steak with sherry mushroom sauce and served with diced fried potatoes. My dessert was the crema Catalana, in essence, a crème brulée with strawberries.

While Robert just drank Scotch with his meal, I tried a glass of the sangria blanca, made with white wine, brandy, peaches, and cinnamon, and a glass of sangria tinta, with red wine, triple sec, apples, and oranges. They had probably half a dozen other kinds of sangria, too. I like their sangrias—they could become addictive!

La Tasca is a small chain in the Washington-Baltimore metro area, so there are a number of other locations with similar menus for your Spanish dining enjoyment. In addition to tapas, they have a number of paellas on the menus, too, for those wanting a fuller dinner.

Vidalia, Washington, D.C.

Crispy pig tails? How about roast goat, frog legs, skate wing, or veal cheeks?

The menu options were nothing if not adventuresome at Vidalia today, one of my favorite restaurants that just happens to be on the Restaurant Week list this week. Vidalia is one of Washington's top eateries where they take Southern classics and elevate them to gourmet heights. Vidalia has been reviewed several times before in my blog, so I won't dwell on their sleek, contemporary dining room or other details of the ambiance.

My friend Joel and I were quite impressed by the large list of exciting choices in each of the course categories on the Restaurant Week menu. There were so many things we wanted to try just because they sounded intriguing. As it was, Joel started with the yellowtail hamachi with wasabi and several sauces, garnished with a little caviar. I got the salad of veal cheeks with sweetbread terrine. I got a little block of the terrine and several paper-thin slices of veal cheek on the plate topped by a salad of veal tongue, pickled mushrooms, and raddiccio with a truffled honey-mustard dressing.

After our exquisite appetizers, we moved on to main courses. Joel got one of Vidalia's classics, the shrimp and grits with andoille sausage and spicy shellfish cream. I got the slow roasted roulade of young goat, stuffed with goat sausage, and accompanied by sauteed broccoli rabe and natural jus. The standard goat entree also came with an eggplant puree, but I had them leave that in the kitchen, and they didn't replace it with anything. The goat was very mild and flavorful, and cooked to a medium rare.

We continued to have to make hard choices for dessert. Joel opted for the banana napoleon, and got a lovely, delicate tower of caramelized bananas, salted caramel mousse, and thin wafers of bittersweet chocolate. I had the Georgia pecan bar, served warm with caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream.

We washed down our sumptuous repast with flutes of Mont Marcal Riserva Brut cava, a sparkling wine from Spain. As always, Vidalia did an outstanding job of presenting culinary excitement for Restaurant Week and showing off the range of the chef and what one can do with modern Southern cooking.

Harry's Tap Room, Arlington (Pentagon City), Va.

Well, Laurent and I went to Harry's Tap Room in Pentagon City today for their Restaurant Week lunch, but they were only serving brunch today and said the lunch deal was just Monday through Friday. Just as well, since we both got plenty of food to eat and spent half the money we would have spent had we done the R.W. menus.

They started off by bringing us a big basket of scones and little miniature blueberry muffins. The muffins were so airy and delightful; we endulged in quickly eating all of them after dipping them in a strawberry preserve sauce.

Laurent ordered the steakhouse omelette. The omelette was filled with slices of filet mignon, plus onions, spinach, bacon, cheddar cheese, and fresh basil, and served with home fries and applesauce. It was a large and hearty brunch dish.

I got a Cuban sandwich, very artfully presented on the plate with a wedge of carved fresh pineapple and a mess of long, hand-cut french fries; the sandwich itself was cut on the diagonal and speared with frilled toothpicks holding cherry peppers, and arranged with one half standing on its end.

Neither one of us wanted dessert, so we bypassed the very large sweet samplings at Harry's. Thus was our Saturday culinary adventure.

The Palm, Washington, D.C.

Some of my out-of-town friends come to Washington and New York and just gush about a series of restaurants called The Palm, usually making reservations at Palms in cities around the country as they travel on business. I've never been to a Palm before, so I decided it was finally time to take advantage of the Restaurant Week opportunity.

The Palm likes to capitalize on its rich and famous clientele of politicians and power brokers, so the walls are covered with caricature drawings of former patrons. Furnishings in the dining room are in medium shades and typical of high end steakhouses, being contemporary without being "modern." Booths line the periphery of the dining room, and the interior space is tightly packed with free-standing tables. As the restaurant was crowded during our visit, this packing of people into a confined space had the conversational noise level at the point my friend Scott and I nearly had to yell across our small table to talk.

Restaurant Week menu offerings vary widely from restaurant to restaurant. Some establishments go all out, creating a number of options per course to show off their skills, some places use their regular full menu (occasionally with a few, more expensive, items having an "up-charge"), and some places hardly make an effort at all. The Palm almost fell into the latter category. I was disappointed that their appetizer choices were rather boring and mundane, and the two we had were incredibly ordinary. The options were a mixed green salad, a Caesar salad, or a bowl of tomato soup. Scott had the soup. It came with a little packet of commercial crackers in cellophane. I had the Caesar, and I've had them just as good from inexpensive little diners.

The dessert course was also a bit disappointing, since there was but one choice, key lime pie. Now, the pie was good, but I wasn't overwhelmed or begging for the recipe, and it paled in comparison to the dessert tray we saw occasionally making the rounds of the room with enormous slices of cakes and other impressive looking desserts.

What The Palm did do, however, was focus the limited dining dollars on the main courses. Keep in mind that this is a restaurant that has $42 lobsters and $54 steaks on the lunch menu—they aren't cheap. There were four main course options on the R.W. menu, and from what we saw, they were all nice entrees, including a nice big slab of seared ahi tuna au poivre we saw at a nearby table. Scott got the broiled crab cakes with mango salsa, and he was very impressed that the two cakes were large and full of crab meat, instead of the filler that one finds so often in restaurant crab cakes.

I had the grilled sirloin steak. It was a nice little piece of aged beef and cooked precisely to the medium-rare I requested. What did surprise me a bit, though, was getting a plate with nothing else on it but the little steak....no potatoes, no vegetables, no garnish, nothing. They have a number of side dishes on the menu, but everything is à la carte, and the sides start at $8.

I don't want to leave an unfavorable impression of The Palm. Keep in mind that I am reviewing a Restaurant Week lunch, not their normal menu. We were able to sample just a little of what a highly expensive, popular restaurant has been offering to packed dining rooms for decades. I think, though, that The Palm is fine for the expense account crowd, but even if I were inclined regularly to spend $30 to $50-plus on lunch every day, the place was a little too cramped and noisy for me, and the food didn't "wow" me, so it likely would not make the list for my regular restaurant rotation.