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.