The Grill from Ipanema, Washington, D.C.

Still hungry and vaguely dissatisfied after our Tuesday night dinner "experience" at Left Bank, we wandered about Adams-Morgan a while, looking at the sights, and trying to decide if we wanted to get something else to eat. Laurent wasn't much help in the matter: he has the body of an underwear model, yet he can (and does) eat twice as much food as can I, and naturally, he was game for another meal. So, we did it. Thinking after our meagre sushi meal we'd need something substantial, we went to a Brazilian place, The Grill from Ipanema. We should have gone there in the first place. It was great!

Now, they weren't exactly offering dinner for two, either, but they did offer two hearty appetizers and two of their exotic Brazilian cocktails. This prompted me upon my return home to review the promotional materials, and the flyer actually said "food and drink for two," not "dinner," so I guess that lets places off the hook. We'll just have to go to places on the other end of the price scale instead of the more expensive venues if we want a full meal.

Anyway, The Grill is a nice, white tablecloth restaurant with formally attired waiters, and it was busy. Brazilians like their beef, so there was a very hearty menu, and the place smelled wonderful with all the sizzling meats.

We started with a couple of caipirinhas, cocktails that can best be described as Brazilian margaritas. They are made with a traditional Brazilian liquor crafted from fermented sugar cane called cachaça, lime juice, and sugar. I've had caipirinhas at various places around town, and these were, by far, the best.

Laurent had never had a caipirinha before, so we decided to maintain the adventure with our food choices, picking things he'd never eaten.

Our first appetizer was the carne de sol com mandioca, some fried cubes of sun-dried beef and fried cubes of yuca. Yuca is a big, ugly, starchy root that is very popular in South and Central America and in the Carribbean, serving as an alternative to potatoes. The sun-drying had the nice effect of concentrating the beef flavor, and these morsels were quite tasty. A very hot, green dipping sauce accompanied.



Our second appetitzer was jacaré ao pantanal. Some surprisingly tender alligator was cut into small strips, breaded, and deep fried. I've had alligator many times before, and sometimes it can be tough, chewy, and a bit fishy tasting, but this was really good. They served the alligator pieces atop a big green salad with lots of green olives, and it came with a slightly spicy, sweet dipping sauce.



At this point, we'd had plenty to eat, but we were really enjoying this restaurant and the food was excellent. So, we ordered dessert. We didn't need it (well, certainly I didn't), but we did. And I'm glad. They were yummy.

Laurent ordered the Brazilian-style cheesecake. What he got wasn't what either of us expected. It looked very much like a cheesy flan drenched in guava (a Central American fruit) sauce and garnished with fresh strawberries and kiwifruit. I sampled a tiny bit, and it was, indeed, a cheesecake, but definitely not the "New York" style we're used to around here.



I ordered the mousse de maracujá, a passionfruit mousse, which is a very common dessert item in Brazil. It's making my mouth water just thinking about it to describe it here.



We will definitely go back to The Grill from Ipanema.