McCormick and Schmick, Washington, D.C.

Had a nice K Street lunch with Kevin this week. Strangely, especially considering all the financial legislation negotiations going on in D.C. this week, there were very few lobbyist where we went, a place normally very popular with the K Street crowd.

Kevin decided he wanted to go to McCormick and Schmick's, one of the top "casual," but very very pricey, seafood restaurants in town. Fortunately, their lunch menu doesn't get to the $$$$ level as it does during dinner.

Kevin started with a bowl of Maryland crab soup. This was the thin broth kind with a touch of tomato and hot spicyness (Old Bay Seasoning?). Then for his main course, he had a Maryland crab cake sandwich with fries. Musta been in a crabby mood that day. Pa dum pum.




I opted for the seafood Cobb salad. A huge salad, the traditional diced turkey breast was replaced by a wide strip of seafood featuring crab meat, popcorn shrimp, and little bay scallops. It was delicious. It could have used just a touch more dressing, and I would have preferred that they had diced the avocado and given it its own stripe as per tradition, but this are nit-picking complaints.

Washington Square Diner, New York, N.Y.

Thursday evening I met up with Ian for dinner. He chose a neighborhood diner for our meal that he'd been wanting to try but hadn't yet sampled called the Washington Square Diner, located in the Washington Square area near New York University.

It's a basic, but pleasant diner. I couldn't quite determine the ethnicity of the place; the menu has a "Mediterranean Specialties" section, yet I didn't hear any Greek, French, or Italian being spoken; I did, however, hear the wait staff speaking New World Spanish.

Ian ordered a muenster cheese omelette with home fried potatoes and toast. He liked it, and the serving portions were ample.


I got the chicken pot pie. What a great choice I made! The pot pie came in a large au gratin dish with puff pastry covering and folded over the dish and baked to a flaky, golden brown. Inside the dish was a flavorful chicken sauce filled with lots of chicken meat, carrots, onion, peas, and potatoes. The whole dish was great, with a rich taste, and it was very, very filling! I almost gave up on it, thinking I might have to take some home, but I didn't want to waste a drop!


Now, diners are usually known for their pies, so I decided to order a piece of their banana cream pie for dessert, and Ian offered to share it. That was a mistake. This was just not their area of culinary expertise. There was a cream base topped by some brown banana slices and some crunchy sugar (did they top the pie with bananas and sugar and broil it? I don't know where the "crunch" came from), then a thick layer of commercial whipped cream topped that. If you go to the diner, skip the banana cream pie.



The nicest thing about our meal was the cost, with both of our entrees being under $10. And they say one can't eat in New York City on a budget.

Miyagi Japanese Restaurant, New York, N.Y.

Last Thursday when I got to New York for my business trip, I found time for a late lunch in Manhattan's West Village at a little Japanese place called Miyagi. What caught my eye as I walked down the street was their blackboard out front announcing an $8.25 lunch special. Only $8.25? Well, that's as good a Washington prices, and I was expecting New York to be significantly more expensive. So, in I went.

It was late, with only two other tables occupied, and they were finishing up, so I got my choice of tables. A man who appeared to be an owner or manager waited on my table and saw to my needs. We had a little bit of communications challenge due to accents and languages, but we figured everything out.

I started my lunch with a fried baby octopus appetizer. Four baby octopi were breaded in panko breadcrumbs and quickly deep fried until just tender, and I thought them very nicely done.


Next, I ordered the tempura and sushi lunch box special. A generous serving of vegetable tempura came with a California roll in a laquered box, preceded by a choice of either miso soup or a green salad (I got the salad). The tempura was light and crispy, and the sushi roll was standard and tasted fresh. Hot green tea was served with the main course.


Thus was Miyagi, and it was a delightful find.

Heartland Brewery and Rotisserie, New York, N.Y.

Our lawyer friend and Californian John came to New York City this past weekend, the same time I was there, except his mission was to watch the final baseball performance from Yankee Stadium on Sunday. Ian and I met up with John at his hotel after he got settled in Saturday night, planning to take him somewhere nice for dinner. It turned out, however, that this was John's very first ever trip to NYC, so we embarked upon an abbreviated nighttime walking tour of midtown Manhattan, including a venture up to the top of the Empire State Building.

After our tour in the chilly New York night, we stopped in at the Heartland Brewery and Rotisserie there in the Empire State Building for a late supper. John's a big beer fan, so it seemed like an appropriate place to take him. The place was busy when we arrived, but they were, nevertheless, able to afford us immediate seating in their downstairs dining room.

Service was rather slow both after we were seating and throughout the evening, though I liked our waiter, who seemed responsible but over worked with too many tables. The only real problem we had was that one of Ian's beer glasses came to the table with a large L-shaped crack in it, but the waiter immediately rectified the problem once we pointed it out.

John ordered the maple-cured pork loin, the pork getting a maple syrup and bourbon glaze and being served atop a bed of maple-glazed sweet potato purée. He reported the pork was juicy and very good.


On the waiter's recommendation, I got the smoked chicken salad, but substituting the smoked chicken for rotisserie chicken. The mixed greens base included dried cranberries, pecans, and a blue cheese-balsamic vinaigrette. It was fine as far as chicken salads go, though nothing particularly outstanding.


Ian ordered a Caesar salad with dressing on the side, a bowl of chicken noodle soup (the noodles were penne pasta), and then later an order of spicy fries. He also got a sampler flight of six of the in-house brewery's beers. I took tiny sips of all of them, and the only one I really liked was the India pale ale (IPA), a strongly bitter, hoppy brew that Ian didn't like at all, but I reveled in the bitterness. There was also an oatmeal stout that tasted a lot like espresso with hints of chocolate. John, having been a brewmaster in his past, took over the beer education lessons for Ian, since it's not an area of my interest or expertise.




For dessert, Ian and I split a chocolate chip cookie pie, or at least we were supposed to have. This was a warm, thick, chocolate chip cookie in a pastry crust topped with vanilla ice cream. The literally three small bites I got were tasty; Ian unapologetically snarfed down the rest of the pie as though he were inhaling it. I was rather annoyed that the waiter only brought us spoons with which to eat a piece of pie. Had to ask him for a fork. :-/



After dinner, we walked the tired John back to his hotel. I think Sunday after I left to return to Washington, John and Ian got together for a late lunch, but I've not yet heard a full report on that yet.

Winter's coming

Roasted chestnuts from a New York street vendor.

Hooters, New York, N.Y.

Ian needs to smile more and show more teeth.....
he looks a bit too determined to be standing outside a place like this

Just off Times Square near Broadway is another of those awful Hooters restaurant stores. Ian likes to go because he thinks the chicken strips/fingers are good. Robert gives me that excuse, too, though he claims it's because of the chicken wings (my ex David said this, too). I don't know why they think this. They've all made me go to the chain, and I've yet to be impressed by either the food or service.

Ian and I went to the Times Square place and had a surly waitress. I found the chicken strips to be overcooked. Ian was disappointed because this particular store does not offer the full range of sauces he's used to eating at other stores. We got a dozen strips to split, plus I got the tiniest little styrofoam cup of mediocre and bland potato salad and Ian got a small but expensive serving of curly fries.



The one thing I can say about the Times Square Hooters store is that they are by far the most expensive and most limited Hooters I've ever experienced. In their defense, though, unlike many of their fellow New York restauranteurs, I will point out that they offer free soft drink refills. That's a given in the rest of the country, but rather rare in NYC.

It does me no good to "review" these places, since obviously their patrons have non-culinary interests and they seem not to care about my opinions. And I've yet to see any owls.

Cooking time

Here's a quick report amidst the New York stuff to mention what's going on this week in D.C. Monday was lodge night. We initiated six new Entered Apprentices, including our friend, actor/dancer Scott. I played mostly Mozart and Haydn, plus a little Sibelius and sang a little Mendelsohn aria from Elijah.

For dinner, Robert and I fixed cream of crimini mushroom soup, seven large pot roasts, a heap of roasted vegetables (new potatoes, carrots, onions, and cabbage), store-bought dinner rolls, and for dessert a great big banana pudding. Simple fare, but it had a favorable response.

I tried the new mini-Nilla Wafers, but I think next time I do a banana pudding, I'll use the regular wafers. The little ones just didn't soak up enough of the liquid to be useful.

I did the pot roasts with my prime rib technique where I cover the beef with kosher salt, coarsely ground black pepper, and fresh rosemary, then put them in a 500º oven for 20 minutes before reducing the heat to 325º for the long-term roasting. I also made a big batch of beef gravy, but it decided not to boil or thicken until practically everyone was done, so I didn't serve it. Eh. The challenges of cooking for nearly three dozen.

Street vendor

OMG I just ate the most wonderful basket of fresh figs from a street-vendor on the streets of New York.

Silver Diner, Bethesda, Md.

Robert had a 40% off coupon to use at Old Navy this week, so he wanted to go to White Flint Mall and environs tonight to shop. So, off we went, way up to the Maryland suburbs in the five o'clock rush hour subway traffic. It was dinner time, so we opted to stop in at the Bethesda store of the national "classic American food" chain Silver Diner.

This being Friday and all (it's a Catholic thing) and since our mission was Old Navy, we opted for seafood. Robert started with a basket of fried clam strips, the had a bacon cheeseburger with hickory sauce and cheddar cheese.


Meanwhile, I just had the Friday night blue plate special, the "crispy fried shrimp platter." The shrimp was tasty. It came with a bowl of nondescript cole slaw and a tiny, tiny serving of French fries.


I ended up ordering dessert, a slice of their "Five Pound Apple Pie," with ice cream, of course. The pie is good, being particularly stuffed full of apple slices, though my criticism is always the same: they need to bake the pie longer so the apples are softer.


Robert had never before had an egg cream, so that's what he got for his dessert. I think he was a bit disappointed with it. I've never been impressed with them, and I don't understand why they are so "popular" (or at least allegedly popular) in New Jersey and New York City. For those of you who've never had one, they are just a mixture of chocolate milk and either club soda or seltzer water, and there isn't any egg in them at all.

Chinatown Express, Washington, D.C.

Well, I still haven't found my digital camera, so you're going to have to make do with pictures taken by my Blackberry. Some of them are okay, some of them are strangely blurry, but it's better than nothing.

Anyway, last night, we made a quick late trip to Chinatown to see what we could find open to eat. We found one place open that had dinner hanging in the window: barbecued ribs, chickens, octopi, and duck all were displayed and taken down and chopped up as they were ordered. I suppose that's their way of showing that things are fresh. For seafood, there're a couple of big aquaria by the front door with big fish, lobsters, and other wet things swimming around.


I had some of their fresh noodle soup with chicken and several kinds of Chinese vegetables like the Asian versions of broccoli and watercress. I thought it was quite tasty, and at $5 for a big bowl, it was a nice bargain. My dining companion had half of a Peking duck, and pronounced it delicious. It came with a plate of shredded green onions, some little pancakes, and a bowl of duck sauce, and lightly steamed florets of broccoli and some cilantro garnished the plate of duck. Peking duck is always expensive, but I thought $14.95 for a half duck was very reasonable what with Washington prices.


After dinner, we stopped by the Verizon Center McDonald's just as they were closing for ice cream. I understand from the Olympic athletes that there were McDonald's in Beijing, so that made our dessert an "authentic" Chinese choice.

La Fourchette, Washington, D.C.

Peter dragged me out last night for a late supper at La Fourchette. I'd already dined, so all I did was have a glass of white wine from his carafe and a "floating island" for dessert. Peter got a large avocado stuffed with crab meat as his appetzer and a delicious looking plate of duck breast with fried potatoes (the menu said it would be couscous, but it clearly wasn't! LOL) and their usual bundle of haricots verts and a broiled tomato stuffed with duxelles. It looked and smelled wonderful, and Peter thought it was fabulous.

Hooters, Washington, D.C.

Robert made me go to Hooter's in Chinatown, where he had a plate of drippy, messy chicken wings that got orange tabasco sauce stains all over his face and a bacon blue cheese burger. I got a bowl of New England style clam chowder and a fried chicken, bacon, and cheddar cheese salad they called a "Cobb salad." Robert, of course, loved his food—he always gushes about the chicken wings and burgers—but I'm always impressed with the mediocrity of the food. We had a nice, efficient waitress, though, which isn't the usual case at Hooter's.

El Sol de America, Washington, D.C.

Joel took me to El Sol de America, the fun little Salvadoran place in the midst of "Little Ethiopia" on Ninth Street near U that I've liked a lot before. We started by splitting a guacamole dip (I always like guacamole, especially when it's fresh and chunky like this was) in addition to the unusual bean-tasting salsa they serve. For his dinner, Joel had the appetizer sampler plate and a margarita so stiff that just one got him buzzed. It was half-price burrito night, so I got the "El Gordo," a big, fat burrito stuffed with rice, black beans, grilled chicken, and grill steak strips. We wanted a piece of tres leches cake for dessert, but, alas, they were out!

Clyde's at Gallery Place, Washington, D.C.

Had lunch today in Gallery Place at Clyde's. Robert had a craving for their "Washingtonian roast beef sandwich," so since I was in the neighborhood having been at the federal courthouse all morning, I agreed to come along.

Now, I'm craving potato salad.

Robert's sandwich was a large thing with thinly sliced roast beef with cream cheese and red onions on toasted pumpernickel bread served with creamed horseradish sauce. It came with a side dish of some absolutely delicious looking salad of new red potatoes, and potato salad has been on my mind ever since.

I started with their Maryland crab soup, since we're cooking a crab chowder on Monday and Robert and I wanted to sample their version. It was okay, with a bit of a pepper bite (probably Old Bay Seasoning) in a thin, tomato-based broth. For my main course, I had their steakhouse salad, a nice entree salad with romaine, vegetables, feta cheese, and hot slices of grilled sirloin, in their steakhouse dressing. For dessert, thinking Robert was going to share, I got the peach cobbler, but he decided he didn't want any dessert. Probably just as well, though, since I thought the cobbler was especially mediocre. It was actually tough!

Now I'm hungry. Haven't had dinner yet. But, I'll be stuck here in front of the television watching the end of the Republican convention before I can venture out to forage for food. I wonder if anyone will have potato salad at midnight?

Mr. Henry's Victorian Pub, Washington, D.C.

After going to the National Symphony's annual Labor Day concert on the Capitol lawn last night, we walked down Pennsylvania Avenue to the east and went to Mr. Henry's Victorian Pub for dinner. Mr. Henry's is a very laid back, comfortable kind of place that usually is packed with Capitol Hill staffers, but the Hill is always nearly empty in August and will stay deserted until after the Republican national convention concludes. That made it nice for us, since we could actually talk during dinner without having to shout.

We got the daily special; it being Sunday night, that meant a couple of mini-filet mignon steaks served with sliced potato "French fries" and enough lettuce and tomato slice garnish to constitute a small salad. Their daily specials are only $10.95. The little filets came with a tiny cup of creamed horseradish sauce and were delicious. I also ordered a little side salad with my dinner, primarily to get a taste of their famous pepper parmesan dressing.

Our waiter was very attentive, but, if his shorts had been any tighter, he would have had to have painted them on! I'm glad he didn't drop anything, because I'm sure those shorts would have ripped if he had had to bend over.

After dinner, we Metroed back to Columbia Heights after a very enjoyable night out on the town.

The Prime Rib, Washington, D.C.

Well, today is the last day of Restaurant Week 2008 ("restaurant month" for those that extended), and it's been a fun run. For my last special lunch, I went with my friend Peter to The Prime Rib in the West End. The Prime Rib is always a nice, elegant place to lunch, and it is the only restaurant in town that still maintains a dress code requiring gentlemen to wear both coat and tie (a couple of others require just a coat). As I've mentioned before, it's decorated in ornate blacks and golds and has a grand piano in the middle of the dining room with a pianist playing lounge music—very early 1960s.

The last time I was at The Prime Rib was actually Restaurant Week in January 2006 (I had to look it up), and the menu was virtually identical. Peter and I both started with the house salad, a very tasty chopped salad with lots of egg and bits of pepperoncini dressed with a dijon mustard-scented, mayonnaise-based house dressing.

Peter chose to pay the $4.00 upcharge to have their luncheon size prime rib for his entrée. If what he got was "luncheon size," I'd hate to see what they bring for dinner! The slab of beef covered a large, oval plate. Of course, prime rib is their signature item, so it's always good. I might note that an RW-style special with the prime rib is always available here at lunch for $25.

I stuck with the RW plan and got the crab imperial. I got a good sized serving of sweet crab meat, very lightly sauced, baked in a large scallop shell. Peter and I were each both brought the same side dishes in little individual-sized au gratin casseroles, one with mashed potatoes and the other with some exceptionally delicious, bright green, lightly creamed spinach. One of the things I like about this restaurant is that they don't overwhelm their dishes with sauces and fillers. Both the crab and the spinach could have been filled with all kinds of cheap fillers, but in both cases, they used a lot of the main ingredient and let the virtues of that ingredient shine through.

For dessert, Peter got the key lime pie, and I got the crème brulée. My crème brulée was very nicely done, and I was very pleased to note the sugar crust was warm while the underlying custard was cold, so the sugar was freshly broiled (or, more likely, propane torched) immediately prior to serving.

The one service faux pas of the day occurred at dessert, when the waiter initially brought me a key lime pie (I'm certain I ordered the crème brulée at the beginning of the meal), but the problem was immediately rectified. Otherwise, the service here is formal, dignified, and efficient.

The Prime Rib is a lovely restaurant, albeit an expensive one. It's an excellent, dependable location for those special "meals to impress" or anytime one wants a big piece of meat elegantly served.

Bistro D'Oc, Washington, D.C.

Tonight my friend Scott drove down from Columbia (the Baltimore suburb, not the Missouri college town) to have an early dinner with me at Bistro d'Oc in the Penn Quarter area of town. I Metroed in from Virginia and got off at the Archives station, then nearly got engrossed in the farmers' market they were having on Eighth Street that I didn't even know was happening on Thursday evenings this summer, as I walked to our destination. But, I made it in plenty of time to meet Scott, since the restaurant does not unlock its doors until 5:30 on the dot.

We'd thought about doing a Restaurant Week dinner at one of the few remaining participants, as some of them are very good places, but that's at least a $45 per person investment just drinking tap water (wine at those kinds of places usually runs about $10 a glass, too, and would be extra). I knew, though, that Bistro d'Oc, a dependable place offering bistro-style country French cuisine from the Languedoc region of France, happened to offer a pre-theater prix fixe dinner menu with three courses and a glass of wine for just $22.95, so we went there, as that's a particularly outstanding dinner "deal" here in Washington.

So, promptly at 5:30 (to the accompaniment of neighborhood church chimes), they opened the doors and we entered as the first customers of the evening. Naturally, there was no waiting for a table! We got a lovely space in the front window with a view of Ford's Theater across the street (Scott is a professional stage and screen actor), though it got a little more interesting, since it turned out the restaurant menu was posted outside on the window right by our table, and we often looked over to find people standing there staring at the menu.

Several of the daily specials sounded wonderful, but we stuck to our discipline and got the pre-theater dinner. Scott started with the watercress soup. It was a bright kelly green hot soup and looked nice. He said it was very good, but I'm not so sure; he only ate about half of it before letting the waitress take it away. I began with the house pâté Languedoc, a nice big slice of chicken liver pâté served with cornichons, black olives, dried cherries, and a nice little fig compote. It had a hot, black peppery flavor that was unexpected, but enjoyable nonetheless.

Scott's main course was a beautiful, large slab of Norwegian salmon interestingly arranged on a bed of puréed sweet potatoes with short juliennes of carrot on the side, creating a monochromatic display of orange hues on the plate. A vivid yellow sauce—hollandaise, I would guess—garnished the top of the salmon. This dish met with greater approval, since he ate all of it. Meanwhile, I occupied myself with their free-range chicken fricasée Languedoc. I think my chicken fricasée is better, but this wasn't bad, just different. Presented in a crockery bowl, the fricasée came with broth, boiled potatoes, and green olive, while having no discernable mushrooms or cream in the sauce. The chicken, though, was classically French for a fricasée or a coq au vin, as they used the stringy "old cock" that requires long, slow, stewing to tenderize and release its flavor. Since I always use just plain old chicken from the grocery store, my chicken stews lack that complexity and element of flavor.

A couple of profiteroles floating on a pool of hot fudge sauce made up Scott's dessert, and disappeared before I was even half done with mine. I wanted to savor my choice, though, and enjoy their very custardy version of raspberry clafoutis. We broke discipline during dessert and ordered a second glass of the house white wine. I never did ask what the house wine was, but it tasted of chenin blanc and chardonnay grapes, and it seemed domestic to me, not French. Knowing how so many of the house vins ordinaires go in France, though, I'm probably completely wrong on all counts.

We had a very enjoyable dinner, and our waitress was very attentive, always, it seemed, popping up at the table whilst we conversed to check on our progress and needs.

After our repast, we walked up to Chinatown to people watch a bit before taking our respective subway trains away to be home in time to watch the Obama acceptance speech.

Mio Restaurant, Washington, D.C.

Our friend Peter joined Robert and me for lunch today at Mio Restaurant downtown near McPherson Square as we begin to wrap up our Restaurant Week holdovers. Mio has been open for about a year, and they have a "Mediterranean inspired" menu of contemporary foods.

Peter liked the restaurant and the food a lot. Robert was more jaded, finding the food satisfactory, but not appreciating the decor (he called it "cookie-cutter contemporary restaurant"), and finding the service insufficiently attentive. I fell somewhere in between, though I really liked my food, and I probably have an overall positive impression of the place.

Robert and Peter ordered the same identical menus, so you won't have to look at so many food pictures (thanks, Robert, for taking the pictures during my camera's absence). They started with an unusual appetizer with no formal name, but which was an oval serving plate with toast, littleneck clams, a poached egg, and a large slice of paper-thin Serrano ham that had been flash-fried just crispy. Both of them liked it, and Robert's only complaint was that there was no salt or pepper on the table (or any of the tables, from what I could see) for him to use on his egg.


I wanted to be different, so I got the chilled beet soup with a chèvre (goat cheese) and, I think, crème fraîche blend sitting in the center of the bowl. The soup had a bright beet flavor with the chèvre adding notes of richness, making for a pleasant summer soup.


Their main course was the plancha grilled skate with white corn puree and brown butter. What looked like a big leaf of tempura basil garnished the top of the dish. Skate, of course, is a creature related to the stingray, and it has a nice, sweet, firm, white flesh that is easy to eat and remove from the bone. "Plancha" is a traditional Spanish cooking technique of grilling things on a hot metal plate. Both of them were pleased with their selection.


I, also, was pleased with mine, the Oaxacan-style "arroz con pollo"—chicken with rice—prepared with the chicken marinated with oregano and grilled separately from the rice. A little salad of watercress and curly endive topped the timbale of rice. I was a little nervous on ordering, though, as I wasn't quite sure what "Oaxacan-style" meant. Oaxaca is one of the states in the south of Mexico, and one of their distinctive local delicacies is fried grasshopper. Fortunately, that delicacy did not make an appearance today. Everything was well cooked and had a lovely flavor; a rich sauce adorned the plate tasting almost like a demiglace.


Desserts were also fun. Peter and Robert got the lime tart, a little round individual pie with a small scoop of "fresh cream" ice cream. Peter liked it, though Robert found his rather more mundane. I definitely got the best dessert, a warm circle of brownie-like chocolate cake dusted in powdered sugar with a scoop of chocolate-garnished peanut butter ice cream and a cappuccino-espresso sauce.



Peter washed down his lime tart with a big glass of milk.

And, that was our lunch. I thought it was a fun place, and I hear they do nice cocktails here at happy hour, too.

Rasika Flavors of India, Washington, D.C.

We've often heard how there are only a couple of "good" Indian restaurants in town, and the one remaining place in that very short list at which I hadn't previously eaten happened to be one of the extenders for this summer's Restaurant Week, so off we went last Thursday for lunch. Rasika Flavors of India is that place, located near the Wooly Mammoth Theater near the Archives Metro stop. Rasika likes to distinguish itself from run of the mill Indian places by offering contemporary Indian cuisine.

Inside, the restaurant is starkly contemporary, though with warm honey-colored woods and soft earth tones to complement their modern Indian paintings and sculpture. It was a busy day (we had reservations at 1:45, when it should have been a slower time) and the restaurant was bustling.....bustling rather too much, I thought, because it was very, very noisy and difficult to carry on a conversation; we often had to ask our waitress to repeat herself, since we couldn't hear her. They also pack in the tables and chairs in the space, and we had to squeeze through other diners as we moved in and out of the dining room.

Robert opened his luncheon with palak chaat, a most interesting salad made of flash-fried bits of baby spinach tossed with a little bit of minced tomato and onion and a light amount of sweet yogurt dressing with a tamarind date chutney. The frying gave things a bit of crunch, and Robert found the salad quite enjoyable.

I chose the dakshini chicken tikka, basically a curried shish kebob of chicken smoked and barbecued in a tandoor. A green sauce tasting of fennel and star anise decorated the plate. It was a rather plain selection, and they had what is all too often a common problem with tandoori foods: a few of the smaller chicken chunks were a bit dry and overcooked, while one or two of the larger chunks were not fully cooked inside—something that always worries me with chicken. Fortunately, I did not get food poisoning later that day.

Robert had a much more successful tandoori experience with his main course, a large slab of Scottish salmon spiced with cinnamon and black pepper then cooked in the tandoor. I had a tiny nibble, and it had a lovely, delicate flavor and even with my outside edge, it was not over cooked. What looked like the same sauce as I had on my chicken appetizer also decorated Robert's plate.

I picked the lamb pista korma. Their version puts ground pistachios and cashews in the cream sauce, giving it a distinct green color. It was okay, but I definitely wasn't wowwed. In fact, I found the sauce to be rather thin and soupy, and I've had better korma at "common" places in town.

For dessert, Robert got the gulab jamun (those little dough balls in honey syrup) with cardamom ice cream, primarily, he said, because he wanted to try to ice cream. He decided the dough balls were surprisingly good, though, because, he said, they were light and didn't feel like they had been soaking in syrup for days. I got the carrot halwa with cinnamon sabayon sauce, and it was the only thing in my meal that I really liked. Halwa is a north Indian dish of shredded carrots and chopped cashews sweetened and then simmered in milk and butter.

My camera has decided to hide somewhere, so when and if I should find it, I shall upload the photos of the meal.

And that was our Rasika experience. It's an okay enough place I wouldn't mind going back to eat, but it didn't meet my expectations as one of the top two or three Indian places in town. Service was okay, if not a touch slow. Food was okay, but what I got was not outstanding; I think Robert definitely got the better of the two meals, though!

Fifty years old

Fifty years ago on August 22, 1958, the doors opened to the new Ben's Chili Bowl, a simple, unpretentious lunch counter on U Street. In the ensuing decades, Ben's has become an iconic institution in the District with an international reputation for chili, chili cheese fries, and D.C.'s traditional "half smoke" sausages.

Thursday night, they had a special star-studded gala concert hosted by none other than Bill Cosby, and earlier today at lunchtime they had a big street party with the mayor and live radio and television broadcasts. Knowing it would be crowded, we avoided the four-hour-long "party" and popped in to Ben's late this afternoon. Still, though, it was jam-packed crowded, with a line running out the door, around the block, and down the alley. Nevertheless, I managed to get inside the place for some photos and a little snack.

Happy birthday, Ben's!

Historical food help

Any early American food experts out there? I need some assistance planning a menu.

My lodge has its annual "Founders' Day" coming up next month, and I have to plan and cook suitable food for three dozen-plus people. This is a special Founders' Day, since this year is the semiquincentennial (250th anniversary, for those of you who don't do Latin) of the birth of our first master (president), James Hoban, and I'd like to do something in tribute to him.

It just so happens that Mr. Hoban is an early Washington Irish-Catholic celebrity. Born in County Kilkenny, Ireland, in 1758, then going to Dublin for architectural studies, he immigrated to the United States, first to Philadelphia about 1786, then to Charleston in 1791, then to Washington by October of the next year. What brought him to Washington? He was selected as the architect and building superintendent for the White House. Along the way, he also took over as supervising architect of the Capitol's construction, then after the War of 1812, he oversaw the restoration and reconstruction of the White House.

The lodge was founded in 1793, and Hoban stayed in Washington until his death in 1831. Nearly all the early members of the lodge were Irish and Scotsmen who were working on the White House and Capitol projects, so we've a strong Irish connection. This all gives us a broad range of menu options, with forty years of early Washington/American culinary history from which to choose.

Here's what I've got so far, with some explanation as to why I've picked it:

Salt Pork and Hominy Chowder
a common one-pot supper for Irish workers of the 1790s

Tavern Meat and Pork Pie
this recipe comes from Philadelphia, where Hoban first immigrated from Ireland
Virginia Ham with Fried Eggs
pork and ham were the predominant meat in early America
fried eggs graced the table of many dinners in the Adams and Jefferson White Houses
Cornmeal Fried Oysters
oysters from the Chesapeake Bay were cheap and commonly eaten back then
Colcannon
a traditional potato and cabbage dish from Ireland
Mushy Peas
mentioned in a 1771 Valley Forge commissary return
Bacon Spoonbread
George Washington’s favorite
Kilkenny Irish Ale
beer originally made in Hoban's county of birth

Huguenot Torte with Whipped Cream and Pecans
this apple dessert comes from Charleston, where Hoban lived before coming to Washington
Assorted Irish Whiskeys for Tasting
what would an Irish dinner be without whiskey?
Coffee
No tea. Duh!

Yes, I know that three entrées is a lot of meat, but that was the common practice back then (actually, there would have been even more!). I also thought we should do four courses (my Oxford training harping in the back of my mind! LOL), but I don't know what to fix. I'm thinking, though, that I might be able to find a cheese from County Kilkenny, and if so, we can have a cheese course or use it in some sort of amuse bouche.

Questions? Comments? Stray thoughts? Your suggestions are appreciated!

Il Mulino New York, Washington, D.C.

A few of the participating Restaurant Week establishments opt to extend their special menus for an extra week, some through the end of the month, so that gives us the chance to go a few more places this go round. One of the extending restaurants this time is Il Mulino New York, and Joel and I managed to get reservations last week for lunch there today.

Il Mulino—"the mill" in Italian—is a small, exclusive, international chain, concentrating on contemporary Italian-American-themed fine dining. It's a formal, white tablecloth kind of place (the waiters even carry table crumbers with them) with professional career waiters, a nice low noise level, and it definitely caters to the expense account crowd.

Joel started off with a glass of the house cabernet sauvignon. Interestingly, the single glasses are $10 at dinner, but only $7.50 at lunch. I perused the wine list. I got through the first page of Americanized by-the-glass things and flipped to the bottles of Italian reds.

As I looked at the prices, my first thought was, "Is this in lire?" but then I realized that the numbers were too small since the old lire were running about 1,000 to the dollar, and Italy's using euros now, anyway. They had $1,000 bottles of wine on the menu, and quite a few in the $700, $800 range. I saw a $3,000 bottle, too, but, it was actually a jeroboam (equivalent to four normal bottles). Afraid to order anything, I stuck with water for the meal.

As soon as we placed our food orders, an assistant brought us a basket of breads—including some excellent olive bread and some country wheat—and a plate of marinated eggplant, which I believe was intended as a spread on the bread. Eggplant is one of my food allergies I actually have to avoid, so I left it all to Joel to taste and consume. He said it was good, with the eggplant marinated in olive oil.

Our first courses arrived. Joel got the prosciutto è melone, both of us expecting it to be thin Italian ham slices wrapped around pieces of honeydew melon. Instead, he got a plate with many thin slices of the ham, all surrounding a little bowl with honeydew melon balls, blackberries, and raspberries. He liked the ham with the honeydew, but he commented that the prosciutto just didn't go well with the berries.


I'd started to order that same appetizer, but to be different, I got the calamari fritti. I thought it was good. It came wrapped up in a white cloth napkin with a cheesecloth-wrapped lemon half on top and a little bowl of delicious, warm, spicy, marinara sauce for dipping. The squid was cut into rings and lightly breaded, and they'd been cooked expertly. Twas quite a large serving, too—it would be good for two people to split at a larger lunch.


For his main course, Joel ordered the pasta primavera, expecting something very simple in the way of spaghetti and a fresh red sauce, but he ended up with a big, beautiful bowl of pasta topped by a plethora of just-al dente cooked fresh vegetables with mushrooms and raw tomatoes, all in very light olive oil and melted butter. When he emailed me after lunch, he wrote, "Exceptional pasta."


I got the pollo fra diabolo, or "chicken in the style of the devil." This was a nice meal of tender chicken chunks braised in a tomato-based sauce with onions and peppers, and the spicy "devil" was provided by a huge amount of Italian sausage chunks in the dish. In fact, there was more sausage than chicken! While I didn't need it, I was a little bit surprised that the chicken didn't come with any pasta, and we were both surprised that the waiters weren't going around to the tables offering grated parmesan cheese for the dishes.


For dessert, I ordered the tiramisu and Joel ordered the chocolate cake, but the waiter took it upon himself without asking first to bring us a big dessert sampler plate to share that included the tiramisu and chocolate cake, plus Italian ricotta cheesecake, coffee-scented mascarpone cheese and cream, thick zabaglione, and a couple of pirouettes, all drizzled in chocolate and lightly dusted with powdered sugar. I suppose that was fine, and Joel really liked the variety, but I would have appreciated being asked first. I didn't like the chocolate cake, as it was too dense. The tiramisu was standard. I thought the ricotta cheesecake was good. The mascarpone cream was just the stuff used in making tiramisu, so that wasn't a big deal. I really liked the zabaglione, which had a nice alcohol tingle to it.


After dessert, Joel had a double espresso (into which he dumped the entire pitcher of milk allegedly to "cool it off") and I had an espresso macchiato. I like their coffee roast, which is strong and rich without being unduly bitter.



So, that was our Il Mulino experience. It was a pleasant lunch with excellent food and top-notch, professional service. One thing I did notice is that you can get the Restaurant Week-type menu there year-round, though they charge $22.95 for it instead of the $20.08 R.W. price—still a good deal, though. The place is definitely on the "recommended" list.

Florida Avenue Grill, Washington, D.C.

Robert came over for dinner, but the place we'd planned to go wasn't open. It was late and we were watching the clock so we wouldn't miss the last subway train home, so, instead of wandering around looking for a fun and different restaurant that was still open, we just went to a place we knew was open, Florida Avenue Grill. Robert likes the breakfasts there.

He had the Virginia ham with fried eggs, grits, and biscuits. Looked good. I had their French toast, which turned out to be surprisingly good and nicely cooked (sometimes French toast is either undercooked or burnt). It was dusted with powdered sugar, but I put syrup on it anyway. I noticed both the ham and the French toast were fried on the grill with presses on top of them.


We also got glasses of their "famous" brewed sweet iced tea, but I can only drink two glasses of it due to all the sugar before I have to convert to straight water.

Dunkin Donuts, Washington, D.C.

Remember the other day when I popped in to Dunkin Donuts for a single doughnut and got forced to eat two doughnuts instead? I won a peel-off coupon on my iced coffee for a free flatbread sandwich, so I cashed it in on my way home from Mass yesterday.

I got the "southwest chicken" version, the most expensive on the menu. It was okay, but it's not nearly as good as the turkey, cheddar, and bacon version they have. The turkey sandwich also has the virtue of being fifty calories less per serving! Dunkin Donuts continues to have the best (and the cheapest!) iced coffee from amongst all the coffee shops and chains in the neighborhood.

RedRocks Firebrick Pizzeria, Washington, D.C.

Had dinner with the neighbors at our neighborhood gourmet pizza joint, RedRocks Firebrick Pizzeria, just up the street a couple of blocks. It was an interesting evening, since they brought their 22-month-old daughter along, and also we happened to get a waiter who was on his second or third day of employment, so every time we asked a question, he had to go ask someone for the answer.

Joel, of course, started off the evening with some new beer they called "Golden Monkey." It had a pretty bottle.

James and Ian got a salad of mixed greens to split. Their daughter tried some of it, too, but she doesn't like salad if it has dressing on it.

Everyone got pizzas but me. Joel got his usual, the pizza salsiccia. Ian got a pineapple and sausage creation, and James (sharing with Julian) got a three cheese pizza, both going with the "create your own" option. I assume they were all good, since there was no left over pizza.

I got a meatball and fontina cheese sandwich. It was on a split chunk of thin, chewy, French baguette. The meatballs themselves were rather bland, but roasted red pepper on the sandwich added flavor interest.



Afterwards, James and Joel decided to brave dessert. Both of the desserts were rather unusual, and our waiter didn't really know enough about them to fully explain them, so what arrived was rather a surprise. Joel asked for the Black Forest cake. I tasted a corner, and it was a simple chocolate cake with whipped cream and cherry pie filling. James got the three berry pie, but it was quite a hybrid, seeming almost like a riccotta cheesecake in a pie shell topped with three different types of fresh berries. Both of them wanted their desserts à la mode, and our waiter made the interesting decision to bring the cake and pie with scoops of chocolate gelato!