Kabob Bazaar, Arlington, Va.

Kabob Bazaar is a Persian (Iranian) restaurant. Here, you go up to the counter in back to place your order and pay, then the food is brought to you either at a table inside or on their sidewalk cafe area outside. They also have a luncheon special that changes daily. When I was there, it was baghali polo, and it was absolutely delicious! It's not on their regular lunch menu, so you can only get it on Tuesdays. I had a big lamb shank with meat that was so tender and juicy it was just falling from the bone. The lamb rested on rice mixed with some fava beans and dillweed, giving it a green color, and some saffron rice had been scattered on top almost as a garnish. With the meal came a basket of excellent hot, fresh pita bread with a little plastic container of yogurt dipping sauce and a big handful of parsley, cilantro, watercress, and the tops of green onions. I ordered a doogh, a traditional yogurt and mint drink, for my beverage. The doogh made me a little nervous at first, since my first experience with Persian food was back when I was an undergraduate and tried a a version of lassi at a Georgetown Persian restaurant; it was awful; it reminded me of sour, peppered Alka-Seltzer! The doogh at Kabob Bazaar was good though, with my only criticism being that they used dried mint instead of fresh, and I had a couple of little dried stems floating around in my drink. One thing I noticed about this restaurant is that it was bustling and full of people, but, other than the employees, all of the guests were male! Just as I was getting ready to leave, though, a party of six came in that included one lady. Anyway, I'm very much looking forward to coming back here.

Taste of Morocco, Arlington, Va.

Today while headed elsewhere, I happened upon Taste of Morocco, and I found it a fortuitous discovery. It's been years since I've had Moroccan food, and the last time was back when I was in France in a tiny cafe upstairs over shops across the street from the old Paris Opera House. A very personable man who I presume must be the owner or at least the manager of the place seated me and told me about the menu. We chatted a little bit about the food and my previous experience with Moroccan cuisine. I ordered the prix fixe lunch, which included soup, salad, and either a tagine (stewed meat on rice) or the kefta (meatballs with eggs). While I waited for my food, he brought a basket of a flat loaf of leavened bread and a dish of delicious spicy black olives in oil. My first course was harrira, a soup of rice, lentils, and chickpeas in a tomato broth. The second course was half cucumber and half carrot salad placed distinctly apart on the salad plate. In both cases, the vegetables were in medium dice and tossed in a lightly spicy vinaigrette; the carrots had been cooked; the cucumber salad included a little bit of diced tomato. My main course was the chicken with lemon and green olives tagine. It was quite nice. The chicken breast was stewed and topped with cooked wedges of lemon and scattered with a lot of flavorful green olives, all atop rice. The dish was presented in a traditional Moroccan ceramic dish with a large heavy ceramic lid that looks much like a volcano (I forget the name of this dish). Along with my meal, I sipped hot Moroccan tea with mint and honey. Another excellent meal.

Rien Tong Thai Cuisine, Arlington, Va.

Rien Tong Thai Cuisine has an inexpensive lunch special that includes an entree and a choice of soup. I tried the tom yum soup, a typical Thai broth with mushrooms and chicken flavored with lemongrass, lime, and hot pepper spice. It was nice without setting my mouth on fire. My main course was "drunken noodles," a rice noodle and pork combination with an assortment of vegetables and things thrown in for good measure. Despite the name, there is no alcohol in the dish; at another Thai restaurant, I was told the anecdotal story that there once was a cook in Thailand who created the dish when he was drunk and just threw a little of everything into the pot.

Annie's Paramount Steakhouse, Washington, D.C.

Afterward a meeting Saturday, Robert, Mark, Kevin, Greg, Lance, and I went to Annie's Paramount Steak House for a cocktail and a bite to eat.

I made a definite ordering mistake. I asked the waiter which was better, the steak salad or the Greek salad supreme (with steak), and he said the main difference was that one had marinated meat. Well, I thought the Greek salad would have more interesting things in it than just a plain steak salad, and I was definitely right on that count! For a while, I thought I was tasting things, or maybe still had salmon smell on my hands (from the bagels, cream cheese, and lox at lodge). But then I discovered the culprit! There in my Greek salad were two great big nasty anchovy fillets!

Lance and I shared desserts, he ordering chocolate cake, and I got the cheesecake.

Hunan Palace, Washington, D.C.

After the St. Patrick's Day parade Sunday, Robert, Michael, and I wandered off through downtown D.C. in quest of food. This task turned out to be much harder than expected. Of course, most of the downtown eateries are intended for the office worker crowd, and, thus, are closed on Sunday, but the places we had in mind weren't suitable; we'd forgotten that Michael is vegetarian. Vegetarian in downtown D.C. is a lot more challenging. We got to McPherson Square and found even the Corner Bakery and Cosí closed, so he decided we should go to this cheap little hole-in-the-wall place called Hunan Palace just north of the square. It's definitely on the "budget" side.

Things did not begin auspiciously. Robert and I both ordered iced tea. It wasn't brewed. It turned out to be one of those iced tea drinks that come from a soda fountain. Now, that stuff is typically "instant" and spiked with "lemon" flavor in the form of citric acid as a preservative, and has a bit of a tang to it, but this was particularly tangy.....I suspect it was old. I sent mine back in favor of hot tea; Robert sent his back in favor of Coca-Cola; we both got Coca-Cola.

Our next adventure was the appetizer course. Michael had an egg drop soup that was bright, bright yellow. Robert had some fried won-tons that were stuffed with meat; he had expected something more like crab rangoon with the cream cheese filling. I had a simple, greasy spring roll.

As is typical in Chinese restaurants, the entrees came out as they were finished by the kitchen, rather than all together. First to come out was my salt and pepper squid. Pieces of squid were scored, battered, seasoned, and deep-fried, then tossed with salt and pepper, chopped onion, and chopped jalapeño peppers and served with lightly stir-fried broccoli. It was okay; I've had worse before.



Next came Michael's vegetable fried rice. I guess it was okay....he didn't make any comments.



Last to arrive was Robert's crispy beef. He was still nibbling on his fried won-ton, so he wasn't starving while Michael and I ate. Robert said the beef was good, but he didn't even eat half of it, and he didn't take any of it home with him, either. It was a very large serving, though. I tasted a little piece and I thought it was really, really sweet, so I didn't like it.

Circle Bistro, Washington, D.C.

Last Friday evening after the all-Finnish concert with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center previously mentioned, Robert, Kevin, and I walked up to Washington Circle to have a post-concert supper at the French-themed Circle Bistro at the One Washington Circle Hotel.

This place has always been somewhat of an enigma to me. I've popped in several times over the years for a quick brunch or a quick meal, and it's never been much more than a bland hotel restaurant to me—never bad food, just not anything exciting (their $13 hamburger is always dry and mediocre, though). What confounds me, however, is the fact that Circle Bistro is often listed as one of the top restaurants in the District. In fact, just this past January, Washingtonian magazine placed Circle Bistro on its list of the 100 Best Restaurants in metropolitan area....and not at 98 or 99, but all the way up at number 31! What are they eating that I'm not? What am I missing? The only thing I can figure is that it gets its lofty rating because of the political and marketing power of the hotel's owner, the George Washington University. Yet, even that is a mystery, because GWU also owns the nearby GWU Inn and the River Inn, where in-house restaurants Notti Bianche (a much, much better place with Italian food) is only rated number 86, and Dish (a much better place with "creative" American food) isn't rated at all.

Robert and Kevin were needing to catch the Metro home, so we chose Circle Bistro because of its proximity to a Metro stop. I had no objection, since I'm still trying to figure out why it's number 31. I still don't know.

The main dining room was full, so we were seated at a long, narrow table in the bar with tall stools. Kevin had cranberry juice, Robert a huge bottle of sparkling water, and I tried the house cabernet sauvignon.



For dinner, Kevin selected the brook trout meunière with dauphine potatoes and green beans almondine. He said it was good, though nothing "memorable." I thought the head-on, gutted trout looked rather too "anatomical" to be appetizing.



Robert had the roast breast of Long Island duckling with a sweet potato-apple mousseline and chopped Brussels sprouts. It was rare and the bloody juices rather stained the plate, I thought, but the duck itself looked and smelled very good; Robert liked it.



I chose the route of two appetizers for my dinner, starting with goat cheese fritters on beet salad that was actually quite good with a nice mix of flavors and textures, and then having a duck confit on cassoulet that was a bit disappointing, but still edible and flavorful; I thought the confit a little limp and the beans in the cassoulet were undercooked.




For dessert, Kevin abstained, Robert had a deck-of-cards sized piece of pear tart with vanilla ice cream and I had a tiny "artistic" presentation of mediocre carrot cake and ice cream with an unpalatable smear of apple-cinnamon mixture. Now, I don't mind tiny little morsels of food (instead of, for example, the enormous slice of ten layer carrot cake large enough to feed four), but I'm looking for exquisite bites that leave me wishing for more; this particular dessert left me feeling, "Okay, I've tried it, what else do they have?"




Thus was our supper: filling, but still somewhat shy of the stellar #31 rating the bistro somehow gets.