Making cheese

Tonight I went over to my Russian friend Svet's house, as it was time to tend to the "tvorog" Russian cheese we started making Thursday night. It's actually been amazingly simple. We started by putting two gallons of whole milk and one-half gallon of buttermilk into a big kettle, and then left it out on the kitchen cabinet, covered, for at least twenty-four hours. In this case, we poured it up on Thursday night about 11 p.m. and then didn't tend to it again until noonish today, so that was about thirty-six hours.

Then, the milk, which looked pretty much like the consistency of commercial eggnog, got put in a preheated 350-degree oven for one hour. Then, the oven is turned off and then kettle was left inside to cool down. It was about tenish tonight when we got back from our shopping expedition, so I guess the baked milk cooled for about eight hours. Then, Svet took the kettle out of the oven and removed the cheese with a slotted spoon to a colander, where the cheese drained.

After gravity draining for maybe an hour, Svet served some tvorog in a bowl with a couple of big spoonfuls of black currant preserves, then stirred the tvorog and preserves together. It is actually quite good. The taste and texture are very reminiscent of ricotta cheese with that special buttermilk tang.

Here are some pictures of the cheesemaking process tonight:

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Exchange, Ltd.

We went to a place called Exchange, Ltd., just around the corner from the Old Executive Office Building for dinner. It's a "saloon and lounge" with an attached dining room. Eugene had a bowl of the clam chowder du jour, which looked pretty normal. Svet had a strip steak topped with grilled onions and served with a side of cheese fries, which he said was good. I had a hamburger with blue cheese and grilled onions and a side of French fries. It was very tasty, though I thought the thick burger was cooked more than the medium I had requested. The food is okay here, and it's a simple place, but this establishment is mainly a downtown bar.

Harry's Tap Room, Arlington VA

Forgot to mention our brunch Sunday morning at Harry's Tap Room in Arlington. Svet and I were meeting friends of his, and while we waited for everyone to arrive, we sat in the bar cocktailing. I had a bloody Mary; it came in a tall pilsner glass; it was garnished with enough vegetables to make a complete salad, including a foot-long stalk of leafy celery, a jumbo olive, a cocktail onion, and a cherry pepper, plus a wedge of lime. Once everyone had arrived, we were escorted to the upstairs dining room with a lovely view of Clarendon Boulevard and all the shoppers.

I ordered a Cobb salad, which was made of an unusual assortment of greens including bitter greens like curly endive, and had large fingers of panko-breaded chicken strips on top, served in an unusual bowl with the rim on the sharp diagonal. The greens were pre-tossed in a tasty, creamy bleu cheese dressing, allowing the toppings to remain unhidden by dressing for the presentation. Svet had an individually wrapped baked brie en croute accompanied by a mound of red grapes. Svet's two friends both had different variations on eggs Benedict, one an "original" (though they used shaved ham instead of the "original" Canadian bacon) and the other using a lot of smoked salmon as the meat, both accompanied by little square bowls of creamy grits. The serving plates for the Benedicts were very interesting: they looked rather like a large bow tie. We also got a big basket of assorted biscuits and muffins including some delicious blueberry muffins and some scones or biscuits I thought looked like they were full of raisins but turned out to be chocolate chips. I liked this place, and I'm looking forward to returning.

Dukem, Washington, D.C.

As they continue their whirlwind tour of D.C., my friend Joe and his family decided to be brave and stretch their culinary horizons, and wanted to try Ethiopean cuisine, something which isn't available in their home state of Florida. We made plans to eat at Dukem on U Street, which I've always thought was one of the very best Ethiopean restaurants in the District. I showed up at the appointed time, however, and found only Joe and his daughter Mary; the teenaged boys decided that Ethiopean was too weird, especially since there was some basketball game on television last night that they could watch in their hotel suite at the Hamilton.

So, it was just the three of us.

We had our waitress Yodit select our foods, since I've always found that to be the best way to introduce "Ethiopean food virgins" to the wonderful cuisine. While we waited, she brought us glasses of tej, a very sweet Ethiopean wine made from honey, very similar to European mead.



Our food arrived on a big sheet of injera, the traditional Ethiopean bread made of sourdough from teff flour, served on a big platter for everyone at the table to share. You can also see a plate of folded injera, which we would later use to pick up and eat our food—Ethiopeans don't use silverware!

I wish I knew what all the food names were, but we had several beef dishes, some lamb, some chicken, some cheese, some lentils, and a whole bunch of different vegetables. It's all good, some mild, some hot and spicy, and I've always found the foods at Dukem to be very artfully prepared and delicious.

We also had a nice visit, and I'm looking forward to Mary's next visit to D.C. without the kids.

I Ricchi, Washington, D.C.

This weekend my friend Joe is in town from Florida, bringing with him one of his daughters and three of his grandsons to Washington so they can see the sights. They graciously invited me to join them for dinner tonight, and we had reservations at Christianne Ricchi's place, I Ricchi, just south of Dupont Circle. Ordinarily I don't think of the elegant I Ricchi as a "family" place, but tonight I noticed not only Joe's family, but two other tables with older children.

I Ricchi has taken a ground-floor office building space and converted it into an Italian trattoria, complete with open kitchen. Walls are painted stucco-yellow and the art and decor tastefully evoke a comfortable yet upscale Italian feel. Tables and chairs are big and comfortable, but closely spaced, as the restaurant is usually full and buzzing, as it was tonight.

After bringing the three of us legal adults glasses of wine, our obviously Italian waiter took everyone's orders, and I followed the family's lead in ordering an appetizer and a main course. It was a little hard to chat with five other people and take food notes at the same time, so I'll have to concentrate on my food and then try to recall what the others ate.

I started with the polenta tartufata ai funghi farciti, a nicely done timbale of polenta (think Italian cornmeal mush) scented with truffles and surrounded with sauteed sliced wild mushrooms brightened with splashes of balsamic vinegar. A bright strip of roasted red pepper lay across the top of the polenta as a garnish. Joe had the zuppa di fagioli bianchi, a thick, rich white bean soup, and the others shared a couple of caprese salads (slices of tomato and fresh mozzarella with fresh basil leaves and olive oil).

I chose the large veal t-bone steak as my main course. It was a very thick steak, nicely grilled to the requested medium rare. It came with some al dente green beans and mushrooms and a unique chunk of deep fried polenta. Joe had the risotto del giorno, which tonight was a shrimp risotto; his daughter had the spiedino di mare, a skewer of enormous grilled shrimp with peppers and onions; the middle grandson had the bistecca all'arrabbiata, which was a big thick New York strip steak; and I didn't hear exactly what the other two grandsons got, but they were both pastas.

We shared a bottle of Sant' Elena pinot grigio with the main course, and it was a nice wine with the food.

It was fun talking with the family, hearing their comments about the museums they'd seen, and trying to explain some of the additional important sights and locations of key restaurants. They are going to have a busy Sunday if they are going to hit all the highlights! Of course, with Washington, one can play tourist for weeks and never have to repeat a museum or monument.

Restaurant Kolumbia, Washington, D.C.

As many of you have heard, roommate Leo and his date had a fancy, expensive dinner at Restaurant Kolumbia prior to their breakup on the walk home (was it the food's fault?). Fortunately, I was able to get their notes and opinions before the breakup. Here are the details of the meal.

Valentine's Day can be one of the most challenging days of the year for any chef and restaurant, and it was no different for the Middle Eastern-Asian fusion Restaurant Kolumbia in Washington's downtown West End. Unfortunately, the staff wasn't quite up to the challenge of the crowds and the food was disappointing, as well.

For Valentine's Day, Chef Jamie Stachowski created a special five course tasting menu with an optional associated wine flight. The food was $90 per person and the wines were $25 per person; credit card deposits were required to secure the reservations for either the 7 p.m. or 9 p.m. seatings. A live jazz band played during the course of the evening.

As diners were seated, they were offered an angel-deviled quail egg as an amuse-bouche. Quail eggs, as many of you know, are tiny little things, maybe one inch or less long. The deviled eggs used Cajun-style spices and lots of green herbs. Amusingly, the amuse-bouche was only one half of an egg. Along with the amuse-bouche, they served the wine for the first course, a Domaine de Martinolles Cremant 2000, which is one of those non-champagne French sparkling wines.

The Cremant, which had been so nice by itself and with the amuse-bouche did not fare so well with the first courses. One was a salmon Napoleon, layers of crackers and smoked salmon in an "avocado goat cheese embrace," and the other was three warm oysters in an artichoke covered with a sesame-tasting black sauce called "black knight sauce." Leo liked the oysters but thought the overall dish hard to eat (artichokes can be a pain in a formal setting).

The second courses were early salads. The "Breakfast in Bed" was an ordinary spinach salad topped with a soft poached egg, bacon, and grapefruit segments, and the alternative was an endive, fennel, and blood orange salad with beet carpaccio and an hazelnut emulsion. The blood oranges were a bit crunchy, so perhaps they were insufficiently ripe and out of season. Paired with the salads was a Domaine d'Elise Petit Chablis 2004, but instead of serving it, they served a red wine.....perhaps the Domaine Charvet Moulin a Vent Beaujolais 2004 slated for the third course?

The third food courses got mixed reviews. On one hand, the porcini mushroom timbale with crispy sweetbreads and perigord sauce was good, but the fish "pot au feu" made of balls of sole with winter white vegetables was "horrible" and "not fresh." No wines were served with this course.

The highlight of the fourth course was the wine, a 2000 Montenidoli Chianti Colli Sensi. The food, on the other hand, demonstrated the kitchen's stress. When taking the intial orders, wait staff did not inquire as to desired doneness on the beef. Consequently, Leo's date was chagrinned that the filet mignon arrived extremely rare. The internal lobster stuffing in the filet was okay, though. Leo suffered a similar but much scarier fate: rare, greatly undercooked squab. I told him regardless of the slowness of the evening's service, he should have sent that back to the kitchen. The squab was very sweet, having been basted with lavendar honey, and came with a quince and date pate Leo thought reminded him of sweet potato chunks.

They both chose the baba amour for dessert, which they decided was the lesser of the two evils. The vanilla pillow cake was a small, very sweet, marshmallow-tasting cake served with rum syrup and what was supposed to have been tropical fruits with passion fruit foam, but which they described as merely a strawberry-banana sauce. They were glad, though, not to have ordered the chocolate fondue, since what they saw on other tables was just strawberries with chocolate sauce. The wine for the desserts was excellent, though; they poured a 2003 Domaine Larredya Jurancon "Selection" with a sweet, green apple flavor.

The bill for two, including tax and tip? $305.

As an overall impression, the food fell well below expectations, but more annoyingly, the service was dismal and understaffed. They were only poured four of the five wines in the wine flight (something they only realized in retrospect), and the wines weren't served with the food on a timely basis or with the correct courses. In fact, they had a long wait after getting the dessert wine before the dessert ever showed up. Then, most annoyingly, after requesting a check, they had to wait over fifteen minutes for the bill to arrive. They've pledged never to return to Restaurant Kolumbia.

Well, I can't say I didn't warn them before they made their reservations.

Lei Garden, Washington, D.C.

Chinese people eat chicken feet. As a matter of fact, it's a pretty popular snack. There really isn't much to eat on a chicken foot, but they cook it anyway—twice, actually—and then savor the item. One of the more popular ways to prepare them is to boil or bake them in some kind of barbecue sauce, then they fry them. Then when it's time to eat, you sort of nibble the skin off the feet and suck the bones. They're really not that bad.

Where did we have chicken feet? Well, this week we went to Lei Garden in Chinatown for their luncheon dim sum offering. Dim sum is a meal made out of a series of appetizer-like small dishes, coming in quite a variety, and featuring a lot of dumpling and balls, as well as other things. As with many Chinese meals, foods are shared around the table. We've gone to several dim sum places in D.C., and Lei Garden pretty consistently has the best dim sum in the District. Some have told me there are some good places in Virginia, but we've not been yet, so I can't compare.





Here are some of the dim sum dishes we had. A couple of carts circulate around the dining room with fresh food, and diners get to pick which items they want.

You can see in the first picture a dish of chicken feet, some cooked pork chunks, and couple of different types of fried dumplings, and an interesting daikon radish dish in a sort of custard. In the second picture are steamed items, including some spinach dumplings and a fun shrimp dish enrobed in a thin pancake. The third picture shows some taro items, one a sort of croquette filled with bean paste and the other a seafood fritter coated in shredded taro.

Our waiter Min was very helpful and he directed the several waitresses pushing the carts around the dining room to keep our plates full and check for special requests. Service at Lei Garden is always very attentive. Hot tea is complimentary.

Dim sum is offered in the upstairs dining room at Lei Garden every day for lunch. Full menu service is available in the downstairs dining room.

Maté, Georgetown, Washington, D.C.

Last night one of my lonely married friends whose wife is in Europe this Valentine's Day rang me up at the last minute and wanted to go to dinner, so he took me to Maté, a trendy sushi-tapas bar across the street from Washington Harbor. I enjoyed our visit.

Maté is a brand new place on the corner of the building where the Loew's Theater is located, and everything is very vogue and modern. It's a noisy, vibrant place; a live D.J. was actually in a sound booth above the bar to play music for the dining room and bar area, but, interestingly enough, there is no dance floor in the place. The one thing I didn't like was that it was smoky, and I couldn't identify a specific "no smoking" area anywhere; we were seated in the dining room area, but some female at the next table was smoking like a chimney.

There is a small sushi bar in line with the liquor bar, but no one sat there; most people chose to sit in the low, modern tables and chairs in the bar or in the dining room area. They had some striking contemporary light fixtures in the place, notably some shiny spiral metal chandeliers in the dining room and a fascinating large fixture in the lounge area that looked like a lot of multi-colored Easter eggs suspended on individual wires.

We started at the bar. I had a glass of Morandé Casablanca Valley Pinot Noir from Chile, which was a lovely burgundy color and had an unusual sweet taste to it without the wine itself actually being sweet. My friend doesn't drink, so he just had pineapple juice. The restaurant is named after the herbal tissane "maté," a popular drink in South America that's packed with the stimulant xanthine (chemically related to caffeine and theobromine); several of the bar drinks included maté in the blend, such as maté martinis ("matinis") and maté mojitos.

As we moved to the dining area, we got these very original round menus with the pages riveted to the bottom half of the circle. Choices were limited mainly to sushi rolls and ceviche, but they also had a few salads and appetizers. We shared several different kinds of sushi rolls including one very spicy tuna roll and another one recommended by the waitress that was covered with shreds of crab meat the name of which escapes me. While I dared not endulge, my friend had the molten maté-infused chocolate cake.

On the whole, the food was adequate and the prices were consistent with average Georgetown prices. My main complaint with the place was that the service was rather lacking. The waitresses acted much more like cocktail bar waitresses than dining room waitresses, and some basics, like refilling water glasses, were forgotten. As long as one doesn't have any higher expectations, though, I kind of liked the place, and it would be a fun place to go before or after a movie when one is just wanting some drinks and some nibble food.

Zengo, Washington, D.C.

Zengo just opened this year right by the Chinatown Metro stop after multiple delays and bills itself as "Asian-Latin fusion," a project of the Mexico City-born Chef Richard Sandoval. Sandoval initially made his fame in New York with Maya and the "modern Mexican" concept that he later took to San Francisco, and then with Pampano, a Mexican seafood restaurant in New York he co-owns with opera star Placido Domingo. After opening a casual Mexican establishment in Denver, he created the Zengo concept and opened the first Zengo in Denver. Domingo is also an investor in the D.C. Zengo.

Last Thursday, Leo and I decided to stop by and try out the new D.C. location. The entire ground floor of the restaurant is a high-design, trendy cocktail lounge and it was crowded with the denizens of the young professional set. A modern grand staircase leads to the dining room upstairs (incidentally, I did not see an elevator anywhere). Even though we began to go upstairs, the downstairs hostess acted as a not-terribly welcoming gatekeeper (strike one for public relations), and called on a telephone to the hostess upstairs before allowing us to pass. Once upstairs, the hostess there sent us with an assistant to our table. The designated table was a small two-top along the banquette wall of the dining room, ordinarily not a problem, but it was in between two occupied tables and the chair side was right on top of a large structural pillar, so it seemed too crowded for us. Seeing a lot of empty four-top tables in the middle of the dining room and one over by the window, we asked for table by the window or one in the middle. The seater refused, though, and said they were for larger parties. Well, not fifteen minutes later, she seated a party of two at the four-top by the window. Strike two for public relations.

The dining room is large and sleekly modern, clearly the product of a trendy designer. On the major side wall is a huge art installation featuring a room-long painted rectangle. On the rectangle a series of plastic "rocks" on pegs are stuck into the wall in an organic design, with a few rocks scattered on the wall outside of the rectangle towards one end. Another wall has a series of standard windows looking out over the busy Chinatown streets. A third wall has a series of tables in curved booth areas, and then a large, long, glass-walled private dining room. The fourth wall heads off to the kitchen and restrooms.

Speaking of restrooms, they are quite interesting in this establishment. There are no doors. Facilities are down a long hallway, with the women's room first and the men's room farther down; a busy service area for the waiters and a much used doorway into the kitchen lines the side of the hallway opposite the restroom entries. Inside the facility, everything is in its own small room or pod (the toilet pods did have doors, thankfully, but the individual urinal pods did not). Both floors and walls are stone and fixtures are very modern; it did take me some time and experimentation to figure out how to wash my hands. On the way back to the dining room, as I passed the open, extra wide entrance to the women's room, I had a lovely view of several ladies primping in front of mirrors.

The menu is an interesting mix of Mexican dishes with a Japanese flair and Japanese dishes with a Mexican flair, probably leaning more towards Japanese with the appetitzers and Mexican with the main courses. Some things sounded interesting; other things sounded a bit on the yucky side. Nevertheless, there were several things we wanted to try.

For starters, Leo chose the gyoza dumplings and I picked won ton tacos. The menus talk about encouraging people to share their dishes, and they seem to enforce this "suggestion" by bringing dishes out one at a time, instead of together, not only with our table, but with other nearby tables we observed. The first dish to come out was the won ton tacos. It was an interestingly creative dish made by taking won ton wrappers to fashion small taco shells and frying them until crispy. They were filled with vinegared sushi rice, pickled ginger, and diced bits of barely-seared ahi tuna, then drizzled with a little bit of mango salsa and then each of the four tacos was placed in a little individual pool of guacamole on the long rectangular plate. They were quite unusual and I enjoyed the unexpected taste combinations. After a rather long pause during which we finished our rather small cocktails (a mango mojito ($10) for Leo which he didn't like cause it was too sweet and a regular margarita ($9) which I thought was rather ordinary for me), the dumplings finally arrived. These were the typical "potsticker" steamed dumplings, only with the unusual filling of pork, shrimp, and foie gras, a little ginger, and a sweet passionfruit-mustard sauce. I ate one and it was okay, but it didn't wow me.

When the main courses came, they did not come simultaneously, but there was only a short space between. Leo had a grilled salmon on shitake mushrooms and cabbage in a sweet mango sauce; he complained that the shitakes seemed to have sand in them. I had Chinese-style braised beef short ribs (I'm not sure what made them "Chinese") which was served on top of a mound of mashed potatoes that had white Mexican Oaxaca cheese melted on top; the entire presentation was decorated with a huge handful of frizzled green onion tops and crispy cross slices. The beef itself was very tasty and flavorful, but the sauce poured all over everything was way too sweet.


Salmon


Beef Shortribs

While we saw some pretty desserts at nearby tables, we opted to skip the sweets.

There was an uncomfortably long delay waiting for the waitress to receive dessert menus, to hear our dessert decision, then to receive our check. Considering the fact that our waitress personally removed our empty main course plates from the table, there was no excuse for the very long delay getting dessert menus. Fortunately, Leo paid cash, so we didn't have to wait around even longer for a credit card transaction.

Now, our waitress was a very pleasant, friendly young woman, but we just didn't seem to get the attention from her one would ordinarily expect for a restaurant in this rather expensive price range (our total check with an average tip was $110, and all each of us got was a cocktail, a mid-priced appetizer, and a mid-priced entree). It appeared that she had too many tables and was overworked, but I refuse to make excuses for a brand new restaurant that charges as much as Zengo does. Many of the waitresses, all of whom (men, too) were wearing black trousers and black t-shirts, were wearing little black purses on long thin straps over their shoulders to carry their ticket folders and what have you, but as the waitresses were maneuvering between the tightly packed tables they frequently bumped patrons (including me) with their purses. When considering the big picture of the waitress's performance, the fact that food expediters from the kitchen didn't know who ordered what (the won ton tacos were even inititally offered to the adjacent table), the less than warm welcome from the downstairs hostess, and the snippy attitude of the staff member who seated us, I have to say that the greatest failing of Zengo is service.

I'm not quite sure what to think of the food, either. Everything we ate Thursday night was sweet. The cocktails were sweet. The appetizers were sweet. The main courses were sweet. I think that's probably the main reason we didn't order a dessert. My understanding of the art of Asian cooking, especially Japanese cuisine, is that all five of the tastes—sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and earth—should be represented in a meal, and all we got was sweet.

Judging from the trendy crowds, it appears the general public isn't quite as particular about their dining dollars as are we. Whether the healthy bar crowds translate into dining room success is yet to be determined. While I won't veto a second trip for me (especially if someone else is paying), I won't likely suggest it the place and I doubt that Leo or I ever recommend Zengo as a restaurant option for our friends.

The Cheesecake Factory, Arlington, VA

Five of us ended up planning an impromptu dinner Wednesday evening. We drove into the Clarendon neighborhood of Arlington, where we ate at The Cheesecake Factory.

The Cheesecake Factory is part of a national chain with over a hundred restaurants around the country, mostly concentrated in major metropolitan areas in California and along the east coast. They are pretty up-scale for a franchise, concentrating on updated versions of American cuisine with a few popular international touches in large, spacious restaurants. The Clarendon store was no exception. We were seated in a big six-person booth in about the center of the restaurant.

One of the trademarks of the Cheesecake Factory, and actually one of my major complaints about them, is that all of their offerings are huge. Americans are already predisposed to try to clean their plates, and they don't need anymore encouragement to eat oversized portions and increase their obesity. While many people would say to either eat half and waste the rest (an idea which makes me cringe) or to get a doggy bag and take the leftovers home for lunch the next day, the doggy bag option is just not practical for people out on a business meal. The solution is that the restaurant needs to downsize their portions.

One of the guys at the table was eating light, so he ordered an herb-crusted salmon salad; the mountain of lettuce and salmon he received in a huge, oversized bowl would easily have made two entree salads at another restaurant. A couple of guys ordered quesadillas as appetizers, but what arrived was a huge serving of too-thick cheese quesadillas with what had to be well over a pound of cheese!

Our friendly waitress took our drink orders and was kind enough to mention when I ordered iced tea that it was adulterated, flavored with mango and other fruits (they call it "paradise tropical"), a nasty combination I find particularly noxious and disgusting, especially when restaurants serving it don't have an unflavored alternative. We eventually worked it out for her to use some cold, about to be discarded, coffee to make me some iced coffee, and that was quite satisfactory.

Knowing of the large portions, I avoided first courses and just ordered the pecan crusted catfish. As expected, my serving was enough for two, but it was good and I ate it all anyway (considering I'm trying to diet, see why I don't like this place?). I had two large catfish filets probably the equivalent of an entire large fish which had been rolled in ground pecans and very skillfully sauteed (not deep fried!) just to doneness. The fish rested against not one but two enormous mounds of nicely flavorful mashed potatoes. On the end of the plate was a big serving of a white corn succotash kind of vegetable that was crunchy and exploding with a melange of flavors.

No one had room for dessert.

Breadline, Washington, D.C.

Things started off yesterday with an unexpected last minute invitation to lunch at Breadline, a popular downtown lunch spot on Pennsylvania Avenue near the White House, and because of the usual throngs of lunchers, the invitation was pointedly for 11:30, or we'd not be able to get a table. It was well-timed—we were able to walk directly to the counter to order our food, then pretty much had our pick of decent tables in the long, deep dining room off to the side, and not fifteen minutes later, the cafe was packed and there were lines of people going out the door to order and end up having to do take-away.

As you may have guessed by now, Breadline is another of those blended self-service bakeries/sandwich shops/coffee shops, and, in keeping with the tradition of the best of them, they have absolutely excellent sourdough breads and rolls, and in this case, it's not a national franchise, it's a local bakery. Their breads are so renowned that they are purveyors to some of D.C.'s finest restaurants, including Michel Richard's Citronelle in Georgetown. The local ownership gives them the opportunity to do a lot of intriguing daily specials in addition to the usual fare, and interesting indeed they were. Wednesday's special was "dalliah chicken," a spicy, spicy West African dish that includes a well, but thoroughly seasoned chicken breast redolent with hot pepper spice and stewed tender with caramelized onions, fried plantain strips, and peanuts.

The other guys at the table also had sandwiches, but the order-your-own situation didn't permit me to hear details of their orders. The only thing I didn't like about Breadline is that the iced tea comes in lidded plastic cups with no urn for self-serve refills (and being a Southern boy, I love my iced tea!), but that's a small complaint given the value, the taste, and the wonderful bread.

Cafe La Ruche, Georgetown, Washington, D.C.

After attending the world premiere concert with the National Symphony at the Kennedy Center last night, my friend Fr. Steven and I walked over to Georgetown for dinner. Fr. Steven took me to one of his favorite Georgetown secrets, a little French cafe hidden away on 31st Street just above the waterfront called Café La Ruche. It was delightful!

Café La Ruche, a phrase meaning "beehive cafe," is in an old, narrow building up a steep hill from the waterfront. Inside is modern and comfortable though, with relaxing beige walls and upholstery. French art posters, photographs, and street signs decorate the walls. In the far end is a service area and a large dessert case. A singer-guitarist also sat back in that area, and we got to hear him sing a variety of older international pop songs in a variety of languages.

The food here appears to be simple, basic, traditional foods—sort of the equivalent of a French diner. Of course, the French have different ideas of "comfort foods" than Americans, so I saw a lot of things like whole artichokes, bowls of mussels, coq au vin, French style salads, quiches, French sandwiches, pates, lots of soups, and so forth. While we looked over the menus, we were given some of the most wonderful big, round, crusty rolls. I do so love French breads!

We started by splitting an order of lamb sausages. These links had been fried to a nice crispness on the casings, and inside, the lamb meat was highly seasoned with lots of cayenne pepper, and I think I also detected traces of rosemary, anise seed, and French salt. They were served on top of slices of French bread, which caught the flavorful grease and juices, providing an additional treat.

Fr. Steven chose the shepherd's pie for his main course. It was served in a large au gratin dish with the top layer of mashed potatoes broiled to a golden brown, and he reported a strong wine taste in the sauce. It came with a big plate of a romaine salad. I had the Swiss fondue. They brought me a big plate of sliced carrots and zuccini, broccoli florets, and cubes of French bread. The fondue pot device, however, was a little bit frightening. There was no means of controling the Sterno under the pot, so it blazed on "high", putting the pot of cheese and wine into a rapid boil. It was also a bit rickety, and I worried I would knock the pot off the rack, spilling hot wine all over everyone. The pot handle was metal and very hot, so I had to remember to use my napkin when I needed to move or adjust the pot. Eventually towards the end of the course, I had to make the decision to put the cap on the Sterno and completely extinguish the flame, since the cheese was starting to scortch on the bottom on the pot. I guess they were aware of their uncontrolled flames, since they had the melted cheese in what I at first thought was an excessive amount of white wine. It did seem to work out okay in the end, though. I would have used a bit more kirschwasser in the liquid, but it was still good.

For dessert, we had to inspect the dessert case.



Hidden on the right side of the case by Fr. Steven's glasses was a pretty little chocolate almond meringue frosted in whipped cream that he ate. I had an apple dumpling, which is pictured in the very middle of the case. My apple had been peeled and cored and wrapped in croissant dough, then baked. A dollop of French dark chocolate garnished the top. They did, however, commit the ultimate sin with my apple dumpling: they microwaved it. Microwave energy is scientifically known to change the molecular bonds in the gluten in breads and pastries, making them tough and rubbery, not to mention the fact that the microwave often gets food too hot. Had I known they were going to nuke the dumpling instead of warm it in a regular thermal oven, I would have preferred my dumpling cold.

I'm looking forward to a chance to go back to Café La Ruche again soon. Their simple food is delicious and best of all, the prices are extremely, surprisingly reasonable. While we weren't drinking last night, they also had a nice selection of wines by the bottle and by the glass.

City Lights of China, Washington, D.C.

Since we've gone to pretty much all of the restaurants in Chinatown, we decided to go someplace different last night when Leo took us out to celebrate the first night of Chinese New Year. Based on a recommendation from my lawyer friend Will, we decided to try City Lights of China on Connecticut Avenue just north of Dupont Circle.

We had high hopes for City Lights, since a 2002 Washington Post review called it the "best neighborhood Chinese restaurant" in D.C., tourbooks from Frommer's and Fodor's both recommend the place highly, and even the New York Times says it's "a consistent pick on critics' lists."

It was a beautiful day, so we walked up to Dupont about five o'clock. The restaurant has two parts, the old location, and a new dining room two doors down with a big bar and sushi bar; the new dining room wasn't open yet. We walked into the old location, which is slightly subterranean, and were immediately seated in the side dining room in a booth. Decor is very spare and simple. There were one or two Asian patrons in the dining rooms, but the rest were non-Asian (I like places which are packed with Asians—it's a testimonial to the authenticity of the food). We had a Chinese waiter, so Leo did all the ordering. They don't have a Chinese menu, so he had to order from the regular English one.

He selected several dishes for us all to share: a lamb dish, a szechuan seafood dish, some traditional noodles, and a big fried tofu dish (the tofu in honor of Will, a vegetarian). One person had a little bowl of hot and sour soup. Rice was complimentary with the meal, but my hot jasmine tea was not.




Long noodles are a Chinese New Year tradition, representing longeveity, and ours were pretty good. The lamb was a bit disappointing. The meat had been tenderized a little too long, so its consistency was a bit mushy and it was hard to tell if it was lamb or beef. The seafood had a slightly fishy taste to it, indicating to me that the scallops and shrimp had been frozen and were not fresh. The sauce on both the lamb and the seafood was sweet (that's not a good thing). The tofu came in big, thick slices which had been deep fried and by themselves tasted pretty good, but they were absolutely drowned in a way-too-sweet sauce, and quickly became soggy. We didn't finish the dish—it got to be nasty-sweet. Also, all of the dishes had been ordered "spicy," and there was very, very little heat to anything.

If City Lights of China is the best neighborhood Chinese place in town, they sure were having a brownout last night. There's a place on the other side of the circle that's just a notch above fast food that I like way better. The menu is filled with Chinese-American dishes and American-style versions of some of the simpler, more common Chinese dishes. I saw a "shark-fin soup" on the menu, but there was no way it could have been real shark-fin at the low price they were charging. They also had Peking duck on the menu and we saw a nearby table order it, but they served it chopped up like any old duck; other places make a big deal of the skin and some people eat only the skin and ignore the meat. Everything seemed aimed at an unsophisticated American clientele, which I find an odd marketing strategy in a city with a large and accessible Chinatown. The prices are reasonable but not cheap. The food quality is average, if one likes a lot of sweet sauce.

While I'd not reject dining here again, there are dozens more places in D.C. I'd rather go for Chinese than City Lights. I have the distinct impression none of the reviewers have been there in a while. I give the Washington Post and New York Times reviewers only one star.

Vidalia, Washington, D.C.

Okay, okay, mea culpa, I know it's been nearly a fortnight since Robert and I went to the wonderful Vidalia, but here it is at last, my report on what may have been my favorite Restaurant Week/Fortnight experience, way back on January 14, to supplement what Robert already promptly posted on the 15th.

Vidalia isn't quite so brand new anymore having opened in 1993, but it's still one of the very popular somewhat newer places in the West End of Washington's downtown area. Their great claim to fame is that they feature regional cuisine from the American South, but with an elegant gourmet bent. Since their remodel in 2003, they've broadened their menu out a bit to be more generically American, but they still have their Southern flair. CIA graduate Jeffrey Buben is the chef and owner both of Vidalia and its sister French restaurant on Capitol Hill, Bistro Bis. We've tried to get Restaurant Week reservations the past couple of Weeks to no avail, but this go-round we were thrilled to be able to reserve a table in the bar at 10 p.m. on a Saturday night.

We walked to the restaurant that evening in all the wind and cold. The M Street at 20th Street venue has an interesting location in the basement of an office building. Inside their space, everything is designed with a contemporary but comfortable and accessible feel. A maitre d' stand is at the bottom of the staircase, where we were greeted and our coats checked. The bar area with dining tables is separated from a large dining room by glass partions, and I did not feel disadvantaged at all by having to be seated in the bar instead of the main dining room. Our particular table happened to be right by their see-through walk-in wine cellar where they kept their chilled white wines, including a very interesting champagne cart loaded with bottles of every conceivable high-end vintage.

Choosing our meal was challenging because of all the mouth-watering options for us two Southern boys (Robert is from Arkansas) and the fact that Vidalia makes their whole menu available for Restaurant Week, just with a few items having small surcharges. I always make a point to stick to the non-surcharged items during Restaurant Weeks, and I almost violated my rule, because the shrimp and grits on the menu sounded so good; I still managed to put together a fabulous meal, though, without paying more than the fixed price.

For a first course, I selected the five onion soup. The onions had been slowly sauteed and caramelized, then stewed in a tasty duck broth that included some duck confit and shitake mushrooms. I particularly appreciated the absence of a crouton and cheese in the "French" style, and found this version surprisingly good.

Robert, being the wealthy politico, sprang for a surcharge and ordered the oyster pan roast. He got a plateful of Virginia oysters mixed with pieces of Virginia country ham, Swiss chard, and artichoke hearts which had been baked together with mingling natural juices and a splash of cream to make almost a stew, and he said it was quite good.

To accompany our first courses and serve as our aperitif cocktails, we had a little alcohol. Robert had a Dewars on the rocks. Vidalia's wine list included about three dozen wines available both by the glass and by the half pour, so I decided to do wine with dinner, and asked our very solicitous waiter to select appropriate half-pour wines for me for each course, and he (with the assistance of their sommalier) did a fabulous job. For my onion soup, he brought a 2004 Mikulski Gamay/Pinot Noir from the Burgundy region of France. This wine, as with all the others, was nicely full bodied, fruity, and dry and meshed nicely with the accompanying food.

The main courses continued our adventures. Robert had the Carolina rainbow trout which had been crusted in what looked like a cornmeal and chorizo sausage crust and served with an interesting sweet potato, crayfish, crab and vegetable hash; a bright green sauce made from green onions was all over the plate. He washed down the fish with another Dewars. Meanwhile, I was experiencing an exciting pork chop cassoulet. Traditional cassoulet, of course, is a fancy French way of making a white bean and meat stew or casserole, often with goose or duck confit and pork or lamb sausage, and lots of garlic and herbs. Vidalia's version put pork sausage and some wonderful slow roasted pork belly in the stew pot with great big lima beans and then covered the whole thing with an herbed, juicy pork chop just barely cooked to "medium," so it remained incredibly juicy and bursting with flavor. I can't remember when I last had pork this good. Also on the plate was a smear of red wine apple butter to serve as a sauce. With my cassoulet came a 2003 Sattler St. Laurent Neisiedlersee, a surprisingly good Austrian (Austrian, not Australian) red.



For dessert, Robert chose the lemon chess pie with a berry compote. A chess pie (which is very Southern) is essentially a lemon custard, but leaning more towards the filling used to make pecan pies. This particular pie was prepared as an individual tartlet and included an egg-shaped scoop of fresh crème chantilly which Robert said most assuredly did not taste like the Cool Whip-eseque whipped cream he'd gotten earlier that day at brunch at The Grill at the Ritz-Carleton (see their review on January 14). With his tart he had a glass of almond grappa (I forgot which label) that he thought was a bit sweeter than he expected as well as surprisingly citrusy. Grappa is an Italian high-octane drink that is sort of a cross between a strong wine and a brandy, typically running about 80-90 proof.



My dessert was a wonderfully light citrus yogurt bavarian, where the mousse had been layered atop lemon genoise, and a tropical fruits and coconut syrup "salsa" was scatterred decoratively around the edges of the plate. It was accompanied by a 2003 Domaine de Baumard Coteau du Layon chenin blanc from the Loire region of France. This nice white dessert wine managed to be sweet without being cloying, and was a particularly pleasant final wine. It, in particular, had been personally selected by their sommalier, who'd chatted with us a couple of times during the evening, especially to tell us about the champagnes in the wine cooler.



Dinner didn't end there, though. Earlier in the meal, we'd been chatting about the cheese display on the counter near our table, and apparently the chef heard it during one of his trips through the dining room. He happened to be out again about the time we were finishing up, so he went over and cut us a big piece of complementary creme de livarot and served it to us with slices of cranberry bread. Now, livarot is one of those classic French stinky cheeses that is absolutely foul if one just sniffs at it, but it has a wonderful full flavor and the taste more than makes up for the smell. We were most appreciative of their generosity.

Still, though, our meal was not yet done! Our charming waiter brought us a tiered rack of handmade chocolates and gumdrop squares! Again, this was complementary, and, as we were one of the last tables in the wine bar, we had definitely noticed than none of the cheeses or candies had been given to any of the other tables.

Needless to say, both Robert and I came away from Vidalia, impressed not only with the delicious and attractively presented food, but the friendly attentiveness of the staff, from the assistants to the waiter to the sommalier to the chef, and the high standard of service. Prices here were only moderately expensive, which makes it an excellent bargain for the high quality. They also feature weeknight wine sampling happy hours when fun vintages are corked and sold at reduced by the glass prices. Robert and I both plan to return to Vidalia, and I highly recommend it for anyone wanting a nice high-end but relaxed dining experience.

Butterfield 9, Washington, D.C.

Condé Nast Traveller Magazine recent published a list of its "one hundred hottest restaurants in the world," and, lo and behold, one of the hot hot restaurants is right here in sleepy little Washington! Butterfield 9 is the exciting locale, positioned conveniently just a block or so east of the Treasury Department east of the White House. And, even better news, Butterfield 9 was one of the handful of restaurants that extended their Restaurant Week offers a second week. So, last Thursday, off Tony and I went, armed with 1:30 reservations.

As we approached the location, we heard a lot of chanting and noise on the street, and we were wondering what sports team was in town, thinking perhaps there was some kind of rally for the loser-Washington R******s football team (I don't use their mascot name since it it racially insensitive and offensive to Indians) after their unfortunate playoff performance in Seattle. However, as we turned the corner by the restaurant, we saw a huge union picket line circling around on the sidewalk protesting something or another—we never did figure out what they were whining about. This must be the protest week, since the next day on Friday evening, we saw another group of unidentified protestors/picketers parading up and down the parkway by the Watergate complex while we dined at Aquarelle. Fortunately, though, the restaurant windows at Butterfield 9 were thick enough we didn't have to listen to the pickets and we were able to lunch uninterrupted.

We arrived a couple of minutes before our reservation, and the hostesses greeted us, asking us to wait just a moment while they finished preparing our table. They offerred the bar, but we weren't drinking, so we declined and stood in the lobby area. After about five minutes, a manager type wandered through and decided we were in the way and moved us into the bar, anyway. That, of course, created the situation we were trying to avoid, which was making the bartender have to come greet us and take our orders, only to be disappointed that we weren't paying (and tipping) customers and were just taking up space. We sat in the bar for probably another five minutes before the hostess came in to fetch us to our table. We were given an excellent table with an L-shaped banquette in the corner of the restaurant by the window that allowed us a full view of the entire dining room, all illuminated with unusual contemporary wire chandeliers.

The Restaurant Week menu was interesting and varied, with at least four choices for each category. They also offered a three-glass wine pairing for an additional $18 per person, which I passed on, but which Tony, armed with mommy's credit card, chose to enjoy.

We both ended up ignoring the very interesting salad options and started with soups. I got the soup du jour, which was a simple cauliflower potage poured over a center mound of royal trumpet mushrooms and garnished with shavings of al dente cauliflower. The soup was okay, and I particularly enjoyed the unusual mushrooms.



Tony chose the butternut squash soup with maple-cured bacon and young celery. With his soup course he drank a Albarino Salneval 2004, Rais Baixas white, from Spain. They also served us a basket of assorted breads, one of which was a particularly delicious brown bread spiked with raisins and walnuts.



For our main courses, Tony had an exquisitely delicious braised beef short rib on a pool of soft, truffled cheese grits topped by mustard greens and crispy bits of portobello mushrooms. He raved about the rib, so I guess it was good. A glass of Syrah Elsa 2003 Mendoza from Argentina came with his beef.



I had the duck leg confit salad served over warm, wilted frisée with some mustard cream sauced haricots verts green beans. I loved the salad. The confit was rich and exploding with flavor. One of the things that struck me about this dish is that it exploited all of the taste senses, with a salt coating on the duck, a sour vinegar dressing on the bitter leaves of the frisée, and a sweetness to the haricots verts and their sauce, as well as the sauce on the duck. Quite a nice balance.



Desserts were pretty. Tony chose the sorbet du jour, which happened to be three egg-shaped scoops of mango sorbet garnished with a fresh strawberry that he reported had a very pronounced mango flavor. He drank a Moscato D’Asti M. Chiarlo "Nivole", from the Italian Piedmont with dessert.



Meanwhile, I reveled in a warm Mexican chocolate soufflé cake with spiced pecans and a sweet cream sauce spiked with amontillado sherry.



Butterfield 9 was a very pleasant restaurant and we had a very fine dining experience. One thing I noticed, though, was the use of sourness as a theme throughout the meal—sourness in the soup mushrooms, sourness in the vinegar dressing on the duck salad, sourness in the dessert chocolate—and a consistent sweetness in the matching wine flight. The dining room stayed busy our whole visit. Both a floor manager and the hostess checked on us during various parts of the meal, and our waiters and assistants were efficient and well trained. I look forward to going back to Butterfield 9 again.

Cafe Milano, Georgetown, Washington, D.C.

I had to go to a lodge meeting last night and when I got home, I was ready for a late night snack. Tony wanted to go with me to Georgetown again, so we walked over....unfortunately, most restaurant kitchens close at 10:30 on Monday nights, and even the Five Guys hamburger place was already closed. So, after walking halfway up Wisconsin Avenue, we turned around and looked at places on the side streets; the only place we found open was Cafe Milano, since their kitchen didn't close until 11. Cafe Milano is one of the "elegant" spots in Georgetown serving Milanese style Italian food.

Tony was all excited about the cars out front and a big table set up in the middle of the dining room. Apparently some politician from Lebanon was there with his colleagues and their dozen-plus body guards. When they eventually left, they had a nine car motorcade—all big black limousines, SUVs, Explorers, etc., and I thought it odd that they did not have diplomatic license plates. I guess I've lived in D.C. too long to notice or be impressed with politicians and motorcades. What I did notice, however, is how the dining room was buzzing with staff as long as that party was there, but once they left, service dwindled to a trickle.

It was so late, I really wasn't too hungry and just wanted something light. Tony ordered a Bombay Sapphire martini, so I got a glass of their cheapest wine, which just happened to be a prosecco. We ended up with the butternut-squash soup, which was their zuppa del giorno. Large shavings of parmigiano reggiano floated in the middle of the soup plates. Now, many vegetable soups start off with the vegetable being cooked in chicken broth. This soup, however, had an overpowering flavor of chicken stock and chicken fat which I thought obscured the flavor of the squash. It could have used a splash of cream, too. The cheese, while a fun idea, was so thick that it was difficult to "cut" it with the soup spoon. We both also agreed that the soup temperature was rather tepid.



I'd originally planned to have a big salad for dinner, but I was excited to order instead the carpaccio di manzo con ruchetta e scaglie di parmigiano reggiano. Carpaccio, of course, is paper-thin slices of raw beef tenderloin. Tony had never had carpaccio before. It was covered with a big mound of arugula dressed in a lemon vinaigrette and topped with cheese shavings. I thought it was pretty good, though I would have liked it to have had a little more beef on the plate. They get their beef much thinner than I've ever been able to cut my carpaccio.



Along with the meal, we had a basket of excellent country-style hard rolls with a bright green olive oil for dipping. I was kind of amused when the assistant who brought our bread and wielded the peppermill wished us "bon appetit" in French, instead of the Italian "buon appetito."

It's a good thing we weren't terribly hungry. I thumbed through the menu and while it sounded delicious, one would have to bring one's banker along for the financing. Salads and antipasti were all in the teens, pasta first courses were in the twenties, and second courses (fish, meats, etc.) were in the thirties and forties. Vegetables were à la carte and the desserts were mostly $10-12. We also spotted a bottle of wine in the already-very-pricy wine list which was quoted at $8,000 (and yes, I proofread this entry).

I think perhaps Cafe Milano did not make the best impression on me last night. When prices are this high, I expect immaculate service. As I mentioned, once the Lebanese special guests left, the service became practically non-existent. While the assistants were friendly, I didn't feel much warmth or interest from the waiter, and this is an unusual complaint from me, since I'm usually the one who complains that waiters are too chatty or over-familiar. Some of the attention to detail one would expect from this level of restaurant was missing. No one poured our olive oil for our bread, for example, and there was no peppermill to spice up the oil. We were offerred pepper for our soup, but not for the carpaccio, which probably could have used some. No one asked if we wanted cocktail or wine refills. Our waiter brought our check after we'd finished the carpaccio course, without asking us if we wanted dessert or coffee.

And yet, this is a restaurant which is fully-booked days in advance for weekend seatings. I just don't know. Perhaps when (and if) I try their main courses, I'll be more impressed with the kitchen, but I just didn't think the food we had last night warranted the prices, especially with the lack of top quality service.

One Fish Two Fish, Washington, D.C.

We walked up to Pennsylvania Avenue in quest of a late lunch yesterday and popped in to One Fish, Two Fish, an inexpensive generic Asian place Tony liked because it has a bar. Once we got there, though, he decided to drink coffee-flavored bubble tea. I just had a simple plate of pork lo mein, which was tasty, as always. Tony ordered a bowl of egg drop soup and the "royal crown" or something like that, a stir-fried entree with a mix of beef, pork, chicken, and several types of seafood that resembled one of the "happy family" dishes.


Pork Lo Mein


Royal Crown

Thunder Grill, Washington, D.C.

Well, we got Tony to the train station this afternoon to send him on his way to Thurgood Marshall Airport (formerly known as BWI) and then back to Tulsa. Now I just have to catch up on stuff, do laundry, clean house, etc., etc. He wanted to get to the train station early, so we had time for lunch at Thunder Grill, one of the three sit-down restaurants in the Union Station lobby. All three places are owned by the same company, but Thunder Grill is a southwestern food place, so that seemed an appropriate way to segue Tony back into the culinary world of Tulsa, America.

I was actually pleasantly surprised with Thunder Grill. The menu was varied and original, the prices reasonable, and the service adequate. I also saw a lot of interesting presentations at other tables for various dishes. We stayed rather simple, though.

Tony ordered the grilled swordfish. It was an interesting dish with the swordfish topped with a sort of salsa that included chunks of avocado. On the side were mashed potatoes and a huge amount of sauteed red and green bell peppers, onion chunks, and pieces of the green tops from green onions (which didn't get eaten, since Tony is not a fan of peppers or onions). He drank an Australian Bulletin Chardonnay.



I had the Maryland crab cake sandwich with Thunder (a/k/a French) fries and a jicama-cabbage cole slaw and drank a glass of 2004 Thierry & Guy Fat Bastard Shiraz. I thought the slaw was good, but it needed some jalapeño kick. The crab cake was served on a big sourdough bun with lettuce and tomato. While they were doing the standard Maryland-style recipe, since Thunder Grill is a southwestern place, I would have put some cayenne or something in the crab mixture to heat it up a bit.



The dessert selections looked yummy, including fun things like banana tres leches cake, bourbon-spiked black bottom pecan pie, and margarita key lime pie, but Tony finally remembered that he's on a diet this month, so he said he couldn't eat dessert.

So, that was Tony's last meal in D.C. Now he's relegated to Village Inn, Waffle House, and IHOP with his buddies back in Tulsa.

IndeBleu, Washington, D.C.

Last Saturday week when Arkansas Robert and I were having our fabulous dining experience at Vidalia, we determined to take advantage of the few restaurants that were extending Restaurant Week another week, and planned to lunch at a couple of the better places. Well, as it turned out, Robert had an unexpectedly busy work week and couldn't get away until Friday. We were excited, though, to be able to get reservations at the much-talked-about IndeBleu, a French and Indian fusion restaurant over by the MCI Center.

Robert's taxi was caught up in a bit of traffic, so he, houseguest Tony, and I walked in about two minutes past our reservation time. There were two hostesses at the maitre d' stand who greeted us and said they were getting our table ready. It took them about five minutes or so to finish up, so that gave us a chance to look around downstairs. The restaurant is in one of those deep, narrow spaces. To the left of the entry is a large staircase with a coat check underneath. A long bar is behind the maitre d' stand, but that bar was not in use. We noticed off to the side in back was another room furnished in sofas and other lounge type furniture, but that, too, was empty. During our wait, I also noticed something a little disconcerting, and that was that when I was near the door and windows, I got a whiff of something which I can only describe as "eau de street person;" I smelled it again upstairs after lunch when I was passing a cedar bush in a large urn, so I don't know if this was a natural "cedar" smell or something else.

When our table was finally prepared, we were escorted up a grand staircase to the dining room on the second floor. I saw no evidence of an elevator, so if a diner is handicapped, I do not know how they would be accommodated. On what I'll call a mezzanine level, they had a small dining space with a large table set for eight. Farther upstairs, to the right was a wine bar (also unoccupied) and to the left was the main dining room. Decor is starkly modern with lots of etched glass and wood, and walls are painted in deep spice colors.

The Restaurant Week menus were a little limited, featuring just one dessert, a first course choice of soup or salad, and for the main course there were only a fish, a chicken, and a vegetarian (plantains) option. The regular menu was also available, and the prices there looked pretty standard (I always hesitate to use the term "reasonable" for D.C. restaurant prices) for local downtown establishments. While we ordered, we were given individual pieces of small, salted, hot naan, a traditional Indian flat bread, which were quite good.

The soup offering was a leek and potato velouté with curry leaf pesto, which looked to be essentially a cream-free vichyssoise. In the center of the soup, a dollop of what looked to be crème fraîche formed a design that made the soup look like a reverse-color fried egg. The curry pesto in olive oil was drizzled around the sides of the "yolk."



Since the others chose the soup, I opted to start my meal with the salad of shaved vegetables and greens with orange lemon grass dressing and spiced cashew nuts, which turned out to be a lovely starter. They had carved some of the vegetables and then sliced them thinly on a mandoline; the cashews had an interesting hot barbeque flavor. The dressing had been squirted onto the rim of the plate in a circle around the greens, and then dotted with balsalmic vinegar.



For the main course, Tony chose the grilled salmon. It was simply prepared and looked to have been dredged in a spice mix before grilling. They served it on top of a scoop of some kind of chutney (I tasted it, but couldn't identify all the flavors beyond apple and onion) with a flavored oil on the plate, and a handful of alfalfa sprouts on top.



Robert and I had the white cassoulet of chicken confit, boudin blanc, and navy beans. I found the dish to be both wonderfully tasty and yet disappointing at the same time. The "problem," if you will, was the piece of food in the beans which I think was meant to be the boudin blanc. Now, boudin blanc is a type of white sausage usually made in big links. We had a little miniature sausage that was dry and crumbly. It had some good flavor to it, but the texture was very off-putting, and I had the impression that it was dried out. The chicken confit, on the other hand, was exquisite, and I really wish there had been more than just one tiny drumstick. The white beans, also, had a particularly nice texture, seasoning, and buttery flavor.



I'm not sure what our tiny desserts were called. They started with a little miniature muffin of what they called a "French tea cake" and sat it on a squirt of raspberry coulis, then added a scoop of a delicious lychee nut fruit ice cream, garnishing it with a long, thin strip of a sweet sugar cookie. The muffin I could have done without, but I would have loved to have sat down with a big bowl of that ice cream.



So, what was our opinion? Well, interestingly enough, we all liked the place and said we'd come back, even though the serving sizes were tiny and we all found various faults with our food. I suppose I will need to try another meal (selecting my own menu) before I can pass judgment on whether or not the fusion concept works here. Service was attentive and we had a particularly charming waiter from Norwich, England.

Dinner party

Spontaneous dinner parties are always such fun.

After Tony and I ran into Leo and his friend Dale at Dupont Circle Saturday afternoon, we decided to throw together a little home cooked meal back at Leo's and my place. This necessitated a run to the Harris-Teeter grocery store in Arlington for food and suitable wines. Leo and Dale decided they would be in charge of the food and they left the wine selections up to me.


Leo's private chef

Dale has professional cooking experience, not to mention a nifty white jacket, so he took over the cooking responsibilities from Leo.

We started with a soft goat cheese spread with cilantro, lime, and garlic, slices of Asian pear, and crackers. Next was a New England clam chowder. The main course was a roast pork loin studded with rosemary and garlic and a pan gravy, accompanied by mashed turnips with cream, roasted fresh asparagus spears, and braised Swiss chard. Dessert was a white layer cake with pistachio cream and sliced strawberries between the layers frosted with pistachio buttercream and encrusted with chopped pistachio nuts, fresh strawberries, and vanilla ice cream. For wines, I selected Dry Sack sherry (I thought a fino would be too dry for the sherry-beginners) for the appetizer and soup courses, then Concha y Toro's Casillero del Diablo 2004 (a Chilean cabernet sauvignon) for the main course, and for the dessert course, an Italian white sparkling wine: Tenuta Santa Anna Prosecco N.V.


Dinner


Dessert

All in all, it was a very fun and delicious evening, even if I did have to wash dishes and Dale cooks like he thinks a crew of Mexicans is there to clean up after him. And, given how much we spent on this dinner, it also helps prove that at least in D.C., it is often cheaper to eat out than to buy groceries and cook at home!

More wines

After brunch Saturday afternoon, we walked back down Connecticut towards Dupont Circle and wandered into Best Cellars, a wine store, which was having a public wine tasting. It was nothing terribly formal. The manager had set out five wines on a counter near the front of the store and served little sips of wine in tiny plastic cups.

We started with Poggio Le Volpi Frascati Superiore 2004, an Italian wine retailing for $12.50 a bottle. It was a very clear wine with a quite light taste and little substance to it. It would probably be fine as a light aperitif, but it lacked acid and body, so I don't think I would serve it with food. The next white was a 2004 Vine Street Chardonnay. This is actually a private label for Best Cellars, and it's pretty good for a California chardonnay. The $15 bottle held a straw colored wine with good body and flavor, and with enough acid to it that it would be a good wine for appetizers or even an appropriate main course item. It was my favorite wine of the entire tasting.

The first red was La Ferme Gicon Cotes-du-Rhône 2004. It was everything one would expect for a $10 per bottle French wine: thin, tannic, and unimpressive. I poured out the rest of my cupful after a couple of quick, tiny sips. The cotes-du-Rhône was followed by an Argentine wine, Auka Malbec 2003. It had a fuller purple color and was quite a bit dryer with quite a bit of tannin. It costs $15. It's merely okay right now, but I think this wine will age well and should be nice in a few more years. The final red was Mähler-Besse's Toro Oro 2003, from Spain. The wine was a deep burgundy color with good complexity, but a bit of a tannic aftertaste. It was only $12, but I think it was probably my favorite of the reds. This wine should definitely be paired with foods.

Alero, Washington, D.C.

Saturday was a wonderfully warm day in the high 50s (and maybe even the low 60s), though the spectre of possible rain hung over the city all day long. We ventured out to brunch, intending to go to 21P near Dupont Circle, but they seemed to be closed when we got there, even though their website said they were open for lunch. Well, they were open, I guess you could say......we walked into an empty restaurant and stood there for a few minutes before leaving, and no one at all appeared from the kitchen to see who was in their dining room.

We ended up walking along Connecticut Avenue and happened upon Alero, a Mexican place, and since Tony has been craving Taco Bell, I guess Alero was his next best thing. So, that was our brunch spot.

Alero has a brunch menu for Saturdays and Sundays, so we looked both at that and the regular menu. Tony opted for the burrito Azteca a scrambled egg and ham breakfast burrito.



I had a revuelto salad with grilled chicken.



One of the nice things about Alero's brunch is they have sangre de Marias (a/k/a bloody Marys) for just $3.75 a piece.

Aquarelle, Washington, D.C.

We took the opportunity Friday night to conclude our "Restaurant Fortnight" by dining at Aquarelle in the Watergate Hotel.

I'd put off dining at Aquarelle all last year out of nervousness over what it might have become, and I was unfamiliar with the work of executive chef Christophe Poteaux. Why the trepidation? Aquarelle sits in the same spot as the legendary Jean-Louis, the masterpiece of the late Jean-Louis Palladin which was above and beyond the finest restaurant in D.C. during the Reagan and Bush I Administrations. Palladin was internationally renowned: he not only had earned two Michelin stars for his restaurant in France, he was the youngest chef (at 28) ever to win two stars; he was a frequent book and video colleague of Julia Child; he had world-class restaurants in New York and Las Vegas.

After Palladin's premature death at age 55 from lung cancer in November 2001, the Watergate Hotel recreated the spot as Aquarelle, bringing in the French Poteaux from Hollywood to make his own hopefully-famous restaurant, tasking him to serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the hotel's up-scale and mostly international clientele.

Aquarelle is in a beautiful venue. The restaurant sits just above the ground level right alongside the Potomac River, offering splendid vistas of river traffic, the Georgetown Marina, the Memorial Bridge, and the Rosslyn skyline. The menus included a page with the Restaurant Week offerings, and we were pleased to see an interesting variety amongst our choices. While we selected our meal, I sipped on a tall Dubonet and soda with a twist and my usually-alcoholic Tony drank merely tap water.

We both started with the escabeche of sea scallop with a Banyuls reduction, garlic coulis, pickled vegetables, and herbs salad. An escabeche is prepared with a Spanish technique where seafood is "cooked" by marinading it in lime juice and spices. Our single scallop rested on a long, rectangular plate and had a nice flavor and texture for an escabeche. I particularly enjoyed the thinly sliced pickled vegetables, and the salad was a mound of tiny clover, alfalfa sprouts, and baby herb leaves.

Tony selected the New York strip steak for his entree. It was covered with a thick relish of sliced and sauteed shallots in a thick cabernet wine reduction which he didn't like, finding it too sweet for his tastes, and he also felt that the steak was overcooked beyond the medium rare he requested (though it looked medium rare to me in the dark and across the table). It was accompanied by hand-cut pommes frites, which Tony liked, and a small bundle of haricots vertes. I thought the steak looked very good, and I would have enjoyed it.

My entree was the Atlantic monkfish osso bucco, two thick pieces of stewed monkfish on the bone, accompanied by black mussels and served over a bed of risotto with Spanish peppers and dry-cured chorizo. Broth from the fish filled up the hollow of the plate. The mussels were good and I enjoyed the monkfish a lot, though I found the risotto to be rather gummy.



One of the highlights of the meal had to be dessert, with both of us opting for the pineapple upside down cake. They were made as individual cakes topped with a pineapple slice and a maraschino cherry, then a big scoop of pink peppercorn ice cream, garnished with a very thin slice of dried pineapple. I loved the melange of unexpected flavors, and the peppery-spiciness of the ice cream really helped to set off the sweetness of the cake. The dried pineapple slice was also a crispy treat.



Regretfully, I wasn't able to take many photographs of the food because the low light levels would have necessitated a flash that would have distracted nearby diners. I did get two shots of my own food, but without a tripod, they are a bit blurry.

So, how did Aquarelle do? The food was pretty good. While I don't think this will be a place on my regular rotation or a destination restaurant for me, if I were ever to be in the neighborhood or attending events at the Kennedy Center, I would have no objection to eating here.

The biggest problem I found with Aquarelle was the level of service; while nothing was particularly bad, they lost points on a number of standard fine dining points. The most blatant problem was that Tony had to eat his entire main course with no water, and eventually had to ask the waiter for some when he came to check on whether we were ready for dessert. Since Tony was actively seeking a refill, the dining room clearly was not being well-monitored by the staff for guest needs. After the water request, we had frequent refills from the assistants, but they did not pick up the glasses to pour away from the table, merely sloshing the water into the glasses. At one point, a big chunk of cubed ice stuck together landed in the neck of my glass, with water then flowing over the ice and spilling onto the table cloth. While the assistant looked embarrased and apologized, he did not mop up the spill. Our bread basket was never refilled during the meal. It took a long time for the waiter to bring our check after dessert and an even longer time for him to come pick up the portfolio to get the credit cards. All of these things together made the restaurant look amateurish, an interesting juxtaposition given their rather steep normal prices.

Friday night wines

In preparation for the onslaught of commercial tie-ins for the upcoming movie release of The DaVinci Code, the Italian winery Cantine Leonardo da Vinci has marketed a chianti red table wine for the American palate. The Da Vinci Toscana Chianti 2004 is available by the case load at the grocery stores and popular wine shops all over the D.C. metropolitan area, and I hear that there will be tasting and parties with the wine when the movie opens. We tried the wine Friday night, so now the surprise is over. It's a deep burgundy colored wine which tastes very much like a standard everyday chianti. There is a touch of fruitiness and only a minimal amount of tannin. The wine has a good full feel on the tongue, but there is really very little substance and no aftertaste to speak of. Verdict? It's an inoffensive little wine that reminds me very much of the ubiquitous merlots ordinaires which are everywhere in trendy American bars and cafes, and while not particularly interesting for oenophiles, the American mass market should drink this chianti right up, especially since it has a pretty bottle and retails for just $10.

Prior to tasting the Da Vinci, we sampled a 2000 Château Mayne Cassan Médoc that Dale had received as a gift some time ago and brought for us to try. This wine was one of the early 2000 red bordeaux said to be an example of the excellent vintage in France that year, though all of the early wines then were surprisingly inexpensive at release. Our bottle was quite drinkable with a very up-front fruitiness, full body, and dense red color, but I think this bottle was either a touch cooked (we don't know its handling or storage history) or perhaps a bit past its prime (though that would be unusual for a French bordeaux only five years old). The House of Mayne Cassan always does interesting table wines, blending in perhaps more merlot with the cabernet sauvignon than many other houses, and also adding some cabernet franc, so their product is usually light and fruity for a médoc.

Cactus Cantina, Washington, D.C.

After church this morning at the Washington National Cathedral, we wandered around a bit so we could kill a little bit of time so we could all go to brunch with my friend John who was driving down from Baltimore after playing a service up there. He also was singing in the Evensong choir at the National Cathedral this afternoon, so we had to have a quick brunch at one of the neighborhood cafes to accommodate his schedule, and landed at Cactus Cantina, since there was a waiting list at Cafe Deluxe.

Food was simple today.....chips and salsa, a bowl of queso dip, three pork tamales for us to split, a Monterrey spinach salad for me, crispy taco platter for John, and a Cuban pork dish called masitas de puerco for Tony. Tony also had a flan for dessert while John and I split a small order of sopapillas.


Masitas de Puerco


Crispy Taco Platter

The food was good.

The Prime Rib, Washington, D.C.

On the way to our afternoon meetings yesterday, my houseguest Tony took me to lunch at The Prime Rib on K Street. It turns out that The Prime Rib has extended their Restaurant Week prix fixe menu another week, so we were able to benefit from their $20.06 per person largess.

The Prime Rib is a very interesting place for many reasons, not least of which is the fact that they are one of the very few establishments in D.C. which actually requires gentlemen to wear a jacket and tie (others, such as 1789, require a jacket but not necessarily a tie). Now, most all men in D.C. dress for dinner and lunch in the higher end restaurants, probably because the law firms, lobbyists, and association offices haven't gone "business casual" here like they have in so many other parts of the country, but Prime Rib's rule is an interesting throw-back to an older era.

And an older era is exactly where we felt we were when we entered the Prime Rib—we were in a supper club from the early 1960s! The dining room has black lacquered walls with gilded architectural detailing for a French paneling and wainscoting look, and art prints featuring greyhounds and naked women with an Arts-Deco, Erté-esque feel; glass room dividers were etched with leaping greyhounds. A leopard print carpet covered the floor. Tightly spaced, white cloth-covered tables had black leather-upholstered banquettes along the exterior walls, high backed wing chairs along interior walls, and low club chairs in the center. A round console table in the center of the dining room held a very tall Chinese vase topped with a large ball of Spanish moss from which a huge display of long, silk, white cally lillies emanated. An elderly gentleman was playing a black baby grand piano with a clear lucite lid. Off to one side was a room with a large three-sided bar packed with drinkers. The maitre d' wore a tuxedo suit (not a tail coat) with a white bow tie, waiters were in tuxedos with black tie, and assistants were in black trousers and high necked black jackets ornamented with black braid. Not counting the staff, Tony was by far the youngest diner in the room and I think I was probably the second youngest (and I'm ancient).

We arrived ten minutes early for our 1:30 reservation, but were taken straightaway to our table. They gave us the regular luncheon menu and called our attention to the Restaurant Week menu on a table tent on the table. The R.W. menu had soup or salad, bread pudding or crême bruleé, and a choice of eight different entrees. We forgot to peruse the wine list since we were just drinking iced tea ($3). As we made our selections, we were given a basket of mixed breads with a large white loaf, slices of a tasty multi-grain bread, and a bunch of heart-shaped matzo crackers.

Tony started with the roasted tomato soup. It was presented in a cute white soup bowl featuring wolves' heads on each side as handles. The soup had a deep red color, and while Tony said it was good, I don't think he thought it was anything special (he tends to gush when he does). I had the house salad, a large serving of a chopped salad with romaine, cucumber, egg, pepperoncini, and grape tomatoes in a mayonnaise-based dressing scented with dijon mustard and a touch of cayenne, which I liked (the lettuce was crisp, so it had been freshly tossed).

Tony had the luncheon-sized prime rib for his main course. If that was a luncheon size, I'd hate to see what constitutes dinner size—the beef took up the entire oval plate! Rather than serving creamed grated horseradish as an accompaniment, there were thick shreds of horseradish mounded on the edge of the plate which could be used with each bite. For side dishes, he had mashed potatoes and long green beans in a tomato-green pepper espagnol sauce, both served in individual au gratin dishes. Tony said the prime rib had some unexpected bits of gristle, but was "excellent" and had a "very nice flavor."

I chose the grilled calves' liver and onions, which was absolutely delicious. They brought me a large, hot plate with a base of fully cooked onion slices and two long strips of liver which were grilled to just over medium rare. The liver was very tender and flavorful, lacking any unpleasant harshness. There's nothing better than good liver prepared at a good restaurant. For sides, I had the mashed potatoes, which were rich but rather over spiced with white pepper, I thought, and the broccoli rabe, which was oddly dry and topped with a grating of a white, semi-soft cheese.

We both had the bread pudding in bourbon sauce for dessert. It was a small serving with large bread chunks baked to crunchiness on the outside with a soft custardy inside; the bourbon sauce definitely had bourbon in it! I saw a crême bruleé at a nearby table and was happy not to have ordered that; another table had a big delicious-looking wine goblet full of fresh berries which looked wonderful, but that wasn't a Restaurant Week option.

On the whole, I liked the Prime Rib. Service was attentive and efficient and food was served in a timely manner. The only service faux pas I noticed was that our waiter refilled our tea glasses by pouring directly into the glasses on the table without picking them up and moving them to the side; he splashed a little bit of tea onto the tablecloth and on my knife. He regained points, though, for crumbing the table before the dessert course. I thought the food was good, though rather old-fashioned (that isn't necessarily a criticism, since old-fashioned can be good at times). For people wanting an old-style, elegant, steakhouse experience, I can recommend this place highly.

Penang, Washington, D.C.

Last night my Tulsa friend Tony and I went to dinner at Penang, a Malaysian restaurant on M Street in the West End. It turned out to be quite a nice place while still maintaining the affordability common to other Malaysian places in town. The restaurant is on the corner of the intersection in an interesting low building with a Mexican quasi-fast food place on the half-below ground floor and Penang half a flight up. One enters the restaurant through a dark but very contemporary feeling bar area. To the left is a small raised seating area where diners have a view of the kitchen through large windows. Straight ahead through the bar is the main dining room, where a wide variety of contemporary table and chair designs were scattered spaciously throughout the room. Pendant lights and other interesting fixtures provided soft lighting, and a window wall gave a view of the street half a floor below. We were seated at a banquette table along one wall, and I got the free-standing chair, finding it comfortable once I was in it, but it was really quite a bit too low for someone of my great height and advanced age.

Menus were several pages, featuring mostly Malaysian items, but also foods inspired by the cuisines of India, Thailand, and other Asian countries. Tony started with the seafood tomyam soup. It was a pretty red curry broth filled with interesting pieces of mushrooms and an assortment of shrimp, scallops, and squid, served in a deep square bowl. I had the Penang salad. This was a very large plate filled with an assortment of very interesting greens, including a lot of the "bitter" leaves, including raddicchio and frisee, tossed in an usual sweet-sour dressing. A few slices of tender, cooked octopus were tossed in with the greens.

For our main courses, Tony had a seafood chow fun, a large bowl of flat rice noodles with shrimp, scallops, squid, vegetables, and eggs in a whitish-clear sauce they called an "egg gravy."



My dish was fascinating: sarang burung. This was an intriguing dish where they had taken taro root, cooked it some, formed it into a sort of bowl or hat shape, and fried it so it would be able to hold other food items. Inside the taro bowl were scallops, squid, shrimp, baby corn, carrots, black mushrooms, purple onions, cashews, and red and green bell peppers and all of this sat on a scattering of crispy rice noodles with really long strands of carrot threads garnishing the whole dish. It was delicious. That fried taro root had the texture of potatoes and the lightly fried portions had a great crunch and flavor. If you've never had sarang burung, you've got to go to Penang.



It was just a quickie meal, but Penang turned out to be so nice and with such delicious food, there are several people I'm going to have to take there to experience their cuisine. Looking around the other tables, there were a lot of beautiful and unusual looking plates, so I've a lot to look forward to.

Circle Bistro, Washington, D.C.

We were supposed to do an early brunch on Sunday, so I punted morning Mass. As it turns out, we barely made it to a restaurant at two o'clock. Leo and I, joined by his friend Dale, wandered up to Washington Circle to the Circle Bistro with no reservations and managed to get seated right away. We've wanted to try Circle Bistro in the Washington Circle Hotel for some time, since it's one of the three hotel restaurants in the neighborhood owned by George Washington University, and the other two (Notti Bianche at the GWU Inn and Dish at the River Inn) are both quite enjoyable. Of course, what I'd forgotten is that while the other two share an executive chef, Circle Bistro is completely independent and different.

The Bistro has a separate street entrance from the hotel. It is simply decorated in a pleasant contemporary theme, and each table had a square glass vase with glass pebbles and a single flower head floating in the water. We were given menus which had both the Restaurant Week luncheon offerings and the regular weekend brunch menu.

Leo and Dale both started with the smoky cannellini soup with bits of duck confit garnished with a drizzle of chive oil. Cannellini are Italian white beans, and the beans had been cooked down and pressed through a food mill to produce a smooth, creamy-looking potage. Little chunks of duck confit were mixed in. Both of them enjoyed their soup quite a bit. A big basket of simple, sliced French-style bread came to the table and we all thought it was surprisingly good. Even though the first courses came quickly, there was quite a long wait for the next course.

For their main courses, Leo opted for the pan-fried trout and Dale ordered the roasted chicken breast. The trout looked very good. It was a whole trout, prepared meuniere and presented splayed open, with the body cavity filled with haricots verts (French style, long, skinny green beans) and the plate was strewn with chopped tomatoes and chopped almonds. The chicken was also well prepared, with the chicken served atop a mound of braised kale which in turn was on a bed of mashed sweet potatoes.

After my huge dinner the previous evening, I was still not ready for a big meal, so rather than doing the Restaurant Week menu, I opted to order a simple eggs Benedict from the brunch menu. My plate contained the usual two English muffin halves topped with Canadian bacon and some obviously hand-poached eggs, all covered with an unusually pale hollandaise sauce. There was also a serving of chopped fried potatoes and a huge serving of undressed salad. The eggs Benedict was good enough, though I noted the hollandaise and fried potatoes were almost cold; while I would not have used it, catsup for the fried potatoes was not offerred.

While I didn't get one, desserts came with the Restaurant Week lunches. Leo had a very pretty and unique apple tart with macademia ice cream and caramel sauce served on a cookie base.



Dale had the bittersweet chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream, marshmallow sauce, and a sprinkling of candied walnuts. While I liked the apple tart, I thought the cake was rather dry and a bit overcooked.



Incidentally, Leo's mimosa only cost $6 and my iced tea only $2.

The overall impression? Well, first keep in mind that the Circle Bistro doesn't charge anywhere near the prices of any of the other high end places we visited during Restaurant Week. Remembering that, the food was servicable, flavorful, and adequate, with the occasional unexpected gem. They had some kitchen issues which need to be resolved. On the whole, though, the price was right, we got full, and there's no reason we would avoid Circle Bistro in the future.