Chopsticks, Washington, D.C.

After Leo called me like six times tonight, he succeeded in dragging me away from the office about sevenish and taking me to dinner in Chinatown. He said he was feeling bad for me after the less-than-fabulous experience Joseph and I had last night at Nirvana (and Leo's family is Buddhist, too, even though he went to a Catholic school). The bus that runs right by my office building also goes to Chinatown, so we took that. Chinatown is fun, and most all of the restaurants and businesses have their window signs written both in English and in Chinese, even places like Subway sandwiches.

He wanted to go to a place called Chopsticks Restaurant, a very unassuming place that looked much like a neighborhood cafe or diner, instead of the faux-elegance of so many D.C. area restaurants. As soon as we sat down, the staff immediately brought us menus, water, and a complimentary pot of hot tea. We had a charming Chinese waitress, and she and Leo chattered on endlessly in Cantonese.

I told Leo to order us some authentically Chinese food, so he consulted with the waitress and ordered an interesting combination of whole fish, a pork hot pot, a big plate of ong choy, and white rice. The first thing to arrive was the ong choy. Ong choy--"water spinach"--is a popular Chinese vegetable dish which is sauteed with garlic. The plant is much bigger than the American style spinach we know, and Leo only knew it by it's Chinese name, and kept calling it water vegetable. About the same time, the hot pot arrived. There were chunks and slices of rich, fatty pork in what I can best describe as a not-too-sweet barbecue sauce, with some onion-like vegetable and other things I couldn't quite identify. It was served over the white rice and was a pleasant enough dish. The starring dish for the meal, though, had to be the fish.

The kitchen took an entire whole flounder, which was over two feet long, and cut the bulk of the meat off the carcass and stir-fried it lightly in a wok with nice mushrooms and several different types of crunchy vegetables like celery, carrot slices, and snow peas. Meanwhile, they took the remaining carcass and deep fried it. The fried carcass was arranged on the serving plate, and the vegetables and fish pieces were artfully arranged on top of the bones. A woman who must have been a manager or an owner came out with the fish to present it to the table, and insisted on immediately serving it to us while it was still hot. So, she dished up big servings of the fish and vegetable combination, but she didn't stop there. She then began to cut out pieces of the deep fried bones, and served large pieces to us, placing them atop the stir-fried portion. She insisted we eat it now, before it got cold and "not crispy." Yeah, fried bones. Well, I tried it, and it was actually pretty tasty. Nice crunch to it.

So, we had a nice meal, and there was so much food, there was way too much for just two people. Re-enter the manager/owner lady......there was still fish left over on the platter, and she insisted on serving the last of the fish, cutting up the last of the bones, and serving those, too, and I do believe that she wouldn't have taken no for an answer! So, she mounded up our plates again, and we had to make a bit of an effort to eat more so she wouldn't be insulted. Leo tells me that in Chinese culture, it's very rude to waste food when one is a guest at someone's home.....of course, in China, they generally have smaller servings! He said she was just being a "Chinese mother." Nonetheless, I kinda liked this place, and I hope we go back again some day.

Nirvana, Washington, D.C.

Twas a little after 8 o'clock this evening when my good friend Joseph (a/k/a Joe-Bob) rang me on my cell to insist that I leave the office immediately and join him for dinner. So, realizing that my current project was going to take several more hours to complete, I acquiesced and shut down for the evening. We were going to meet north of the White House, since he works east of the White House and I work southwest, but it was after seven, so I had to walk the two blocks to the other end of the building and go out the C Street door, then walk up the two blocks again to get back to my end of the building, and we ended up meeting at 18th and H. We had no clue what to eat tonight and ended up walking down the K Street corridor ("downtown" is booming at lunch, but rather dead at night) until we found Nirvana, a vegetarian Indian restaurant. Neither of us previously had dined at Nirvana, but it is frequently mentioned in tour books, so we decided to try it out.

As soon as we were shown to our tables, the waiter wanted our drink orders before we were even seated. Nothing like eager service, eh? The restaurant decor was rather plain, with very little ethnic design. The tables had colorful designs under the glass tops, which might arguably have been madras designs, but that was about it. A bar was the centerpiece of the room, and it looked pretty much like any other restaurant.

I rather got a kick out of the menu. "Nirvana", of course, is the Buddhist religious philosophy wherein one attains "supreme enlightenment," and thus ends the anguish of the continuous cycle of death and rebirth. One reaches nirvana via the Eightfold Path: 1) Right Views; 2) Right Intention; 3) Right Speech; 4) Right Conduct; 5) Right Livelihood; 6) Right Effort; 7) Right Mindfulness; and 8) Right Contemplation (forgive the lecture--it's the humanities professor in me). Nirvana the restaurant's menu was divided into eight categories, all named Right Something, such as "Right Nectar" for the page of beverages and "Right Beginnings" for the appetizers. Okay, I know, kinda nerdy, but I thought it was funny nonetheless.

Anyway, before we could get through the rather lengthy all-vegetarian menu and before our drinks had arrived, another waiter was by rather insistently to take our orders, and seemed impatient that we had not yet read our menus. It was an unusual menu.....several things I'm used to eating at Indian restaurants either were not there or were named differently. Joe-Bob ended up ordering the vegetable biryani (rice with vegetables and nuts) and I ordered the palak paneer, a dish which seemed in the menu description to be very similar to the saag paneer I often order at Indian restaurants, which is a spinach dish with chunks of farmer cheese.

We ordered the mana mani for an appetizer, which turned out to be two very very long hot green peppers (the menu said banana peppers, but these were not banana peppers) which were stuffed with a legume and spice mixture, then battered and deep fried, and served with a sweet tamarind sauce. I actually liked mine, and it reminded me somewhat of Mexican chiles rellenos. We forgot to order a bread, and in retrospect, I was rather surprised the waiter didn't suggest a bread, since the traditional way of eating Indian food involves tearing off pieces of bread and using them to grasp food and convey the food to the mouth (no silverware).

The peppers were served on thin round aluminum plates. When they were cleared away, the waiter brought very large round aluminum plates for our dinner plates--no china or stoneware. The food had just arrived at the table, when the lights were turned up! Now, it was only 9 o'clock, and there were at least four other tables in the restaurant, some of which were getting food around the same time we were, so I thought the lights a rather rudely abrupt act of management, if that was the way they were encouraging people to eat faster so they could close up. Joe-Bob didn't tell me how his vegetable biryani was, but it looked a little gummy to me. My palak panner was okay, but I missed the creamy richness of my usual saag paneer. I attributed the "thinness" to the vegetarian spirit of the restaurant, though skimping on the cream seems a little odd with chunks of cheese in a dish if a place is trying to be vegan.

We ordered dessert, but the waiter came back to announce that the kitchen was closed. They didn't even offer kheer (rice pudding) which was no doubt sitting in their refrigerator or kulfi (ice cream) which was no doubt in their freezer, neither of which required any cooking or real preparation other than spooning it into a dish. At the same time we ordered dessert, Joe-Bob asked for a refill on his Sprite, but now that I think about it, it never came.

As soon as we paid the check, a waiter came and whisked it off the table instead of waiting for us to leave. I was also a bit annoyed that they charged me for a refill on my chai. Meanwhile, another waiter came by our table and two others to announce that they were closing (as if we couldn't tell). So, we left, and I noticed that one of the remaining tables with six people still had food on the table.

So much for peace and nirvana with all the rush. I also noticed a bit of discord between several of the waiters at various points in the evening, which is never good form when it breaks forth in the presence of customers. I suppose the food was okay at this restaurant, but the surly, rushed service certainly left a bad taste in my mouth, and I doubt I seek nirvana again at Nirvana.

Cafe Deluxe, Washington, D.C.

While we were in the neighborhood of the National Cathedral, three of us wandered over to a little cafe across the street where Laura Bush sometimes lunches called Cafe Deluxe, and it seems quite a few others from the service had the same idea.

Leo had the fire-roasted tomato bisque and the chicken and cheese quesadillas. Michael had a hamburger and fries. In honor of Passover, I had the lamb and goat cheese sandwich and fries. My sandwich was good, and would have been even tastier without the roasted red bell pepper on it, which was a bit overpowering until I pulled it off.

For dessert, Leo had a hot fudge and caramel chocolate brownie sundae, Michael the creme brulee (which he didn't like), and I ordered a blueberry cobbler. My cobbler was one of the most unusual presentations of cobbler I've seen in a long time, being served as an individual pie with very thick, almost cookie-like, sweet pate sucree pastry and the blueberries were such an interesting color and shape and taste I would have sworn that they were canned peaches.

It was a fun little cafe, though the service was very slow. Perhaps they were not anticipating a Sunday evening rush from the cathedral....but they've been there long enough, I can't believe it was a total surprise.