Movie caterers

Nicole Kidman is in town filming some movie. I ran across the movie caterer's tent set up in a parking lot underneath the Whitehurst Expressway along the harbor in Georgetown. They were grilling lots and lots of marinated flank steaks!

Sequoia, Georgetown, D.C.

Robert rang me this evening and announced he was at the Foggy Bottom Metro stop and wanted to go to dinner while he was in the neighborhood, so, since I was just sitting here editing foliage pictures, I thought it might be kinda fun, and away we went. The Georgetown bus was sitting on 23rd Street as we were headed towards the Metro station and that gave us the inspiration to hop on and head to Georgetown. We landed at the Washington Harbor, which is the Georgetown waterfront along the Potomac River.

There are several restaurants there which overlook the harbor, and we picked Sequoia, because it had a more varied menu. I've wanted to go there for some time, anyway, since one of my friends at the DOI Solicitor's Office has been promising to take me there for months.

Sequoia is an elegant restaurant. Upon entering from the plaza, diners must go up a staircase past murals of rowers on the river to get to the main dining room. That room was occupied, though, tonight with a black tie private party for a convention of plastic surgeons; we went to the other dining room, which was still a very large room overlooking Christmas light-wrapped trees and the huge floor to ceiling window walls that allowed all tables a view of the waterfront. While a couple of large round tables occupied the corners, most all of the other tables were white cloth-covered two tops with very comfortable modern highback chairs upholstered in a soft sueded fabric. I was a little confused by the staff's attire: our waitress was in formal white shirt and apron with a black bow tie and black trousers, but the assistants and expediters were wearing casual Henley-style grey shirts with the restaurant's logo silk screened on the front. Regardless of their choice of attire, however, they seemed efficient and there were a number of people who tended to our table during the course of the evening.

After we were seated and given our menus and water, the waitress brought us a basket of bread and rolls wrapped in a white napkin. After about a minute, we smelled smoke. Suddenly, the bread basket burst into flames! The waitress had set the basket down with the napkin over the lit votive candle on our table. Fortunately, though, we were able to blow out the flaming napkins, then then staff spirited the smoking basket back to the kitchen and brought us a new basket of bread and a new candle, and strategically arranged them with a foot of space between them.

Our food was quite lovely. I started with a larger-than-expected bowl of butternut squash bisque; it had a strong cinnamon presence and was decorated with a heavy sprinkling of paprika and then a decorative drizzle of creme frâiche. For a main course, I had a Caesar salad with grilled shrimp—four jumbo shrimp with visible grill marks—decorated with two long leaves of romaine that made perfect rabbit ears! Robert had a grilled swordfish steak resting on a bed of garlic mashed potatoes and surrounded by a scattering of haricots verts, and a glass of the house chardonnay. There was a yellow sauce on the swordfish, but I forgot to ask if it was butter or lemon. For dessert, he had a tart with a poached pear encased in frangipane that looked and smelled delicious; I talked him out of getting the ubiquitous creme brulee, so I hope he liked the tart!

Dinner for the Waleses

White House Photo

Amidst all the excitement this week about Halloween and church services, I forgot to mention that the President and Mrs. Bush had some foreign relatives in to lunch and later to dinner on Wednesday. The President's cousin from England, HRH The Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, was in town to show off his new wife, HRH Camilla, Princess of Wales (but for public relations purposes currently going by her subsidiary title, Duchess of Cornwall).

My efforts to pull strings and call in favors were to no avail in getting an invitation to the black tie dinner at the White House, or even to the larger group invited to the "after dinner entertainment." The Bushes have had so few state and formal dinners, there are just too many major contributors waiting in line for tickets to such things, and poor little me didn't have a chance, especially since they only had 100 guests.

So, for those of us who missed the dinner party, here's what we missed:


Dinner Menu in Honor of Their Royal Highnesses
The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall


Celery Broth with Crispy Rock Shrimp
Newton Chardonnay "Unfiltered" 2002

Medallions of Buffalo Tenderloin
Roasted Corn
Wild Rice Pancakes
Glazed Parsnips and Young Carrots
Peter Michael Pinot Noir "Le Moulin Rouge" 2002

Mint Romaine Lettuce with Blood Orange Vinaigrette

Vermont Camembert Cheese and Spiced Walnuts

Petits Fours Cake
Chartreuse Ice Cream Red and Green Grape Sauce
Iron Horse "Wedding Cuvée" 2002

Reports are that the tables were set in gold silk cloths each decorated with large white phaeleanopsis orchids with camelia leaves. They used the Clinton china (that gaudy stuff Hillary picked out with the wide gold borders and the gold picture of the White House in the center).

I get the impression that Yo Yo Ma must be a Republican, because once again he was called upon by the President to play his cello after dinner, along with pianist Kathryn Scott.

It was a fairly low-key event for a black tie White House dinner, and there's been virtually no news coverage here in the District. I'm told Mrs. Bush looked lovely in her lacy, off-the-shoulder, satiny-looking red dress with a stunning antique garnet necklace, though some of my more acerbic friends thought she looked a little old-fashioned with the bows on the dress. The Princess wore a long, deep sapphire skirt with a matching velvet jacket trimmed in irridescent blue bugle beads and a diamond drop necklace I'm told is worth over £400,000 (that's about $700,000 American). My friends were disappointed that she didn't wear a tiara. She must be in a blue mood, cause she wore a blue suit to the luncheon that day, too.

So, I guess it's time to put my tuxedo back in the closet.

Thai Tanic, Washington, D.C.

Yesterday was my friend Doug's birthday, but between All Saints' Day Mass and him having to go to a meeting at the cathedral where he is on the parish council, he didn't celebrate, so we went to dinner after tonight's All Souls' Day Mass at Thai Tanic. Thai Tanic is usually a reliable, inexpensive place to eat (the Washington Post calls them "dirt cheap," but those Post reporters must be used to some pricey dirt; it's one of the paper's "editor's pick" restaurants, too), however, tonight the restaurant reeked of moth balls, and I've no idea why. The food was good, though, and eventually our noses got desensitized to the odor.

For appetizers, Doug started off with a chicken satay, grilled chicken on skewers served with a peanut dipping sauce. I had the potpourri mussels, a serving which was truly large enough for a main course. The mussels were steamed with slices of fresh ginger root (the surprising source of a great deal of spice heat), slivvered scallions, basil, and horizontal slices of some shiny green leaf which was the wrong size for the menu-advertised lemongrass. There was enough of the steaming broth leftover in the bottom on the bowl to make a small soup course, and I would have drunk the tasty liquid, but the main courses arrived as I was eating my last mussel and I let the waitress take my bowl away.

Doug told me he was going to order the pad thai for his main course, but when the waitress was taking our orders, he requested a shrimp pad see eew, instead. I didn't taste it, but it was a mixed dish with wide rice noodles, bean sprouts, ground peanuts, and grilled shrimp. I had one of their two daily specials, crispy roast duck. To demonstrate the high standards of service at Thai Tanic, I can tell you that I ordered my duck without rice (my ubiquitous diet), and the kitchen peeled an entire tomato in one long strip that was then rolled into a rose for my plate, flanked by two fan-cut cucumber halves, all just to keep me from having an empty looking plate. My duck was delicious. The duck was roasted, then cut into small boneless pieces which were dredged in a spice mixture and then flash deep fried. Tiny juliennes of hot Thai red chile peppers were scatterred decoratively over the top.

Very tasty dinner. Happy birthday, Doug!

T.G.I.Friday's, Washington, D.C.

After All Saints' Day Mass tonight, Leo and I went to the neighborhood T.G.I.Friday's for dinner, where we had their standard mediocre but palatable food that took 50 minutes for us to get served, and the restaurant wasn't even full. How hard can it be to bring Leo a Cajun pasta (they are frozen and only have to be nuked) or me a Cobb salad? Our poor waiter kept checking on us and saying he was bringing the food soon, but when the kitchen is inefficient, there's little a waiter can do except pray he doesn't get stiffed on his tip.

Fifty things to taste

The British Broadcasting Company asked people to vote for the top fifty things everyone should try a bite of in their lifetime. This is the final list.

1. Fresh fish
2. Lobster
3. Steak
4. Thai food
5. Chinese food
6. Ice cream
7. Pizza
8. Crab
9. Curry
10. Prawns (a/k/a shrimp, in the U.S.)
11. Moreton Bay Bugs
12. Clam chowder
13. Barbecues
14. Pancakes
15. Pasta
16. Mussels
17. Cheesecake
18. Lamb
19. Cream tea
20. Alligator
21. Oysters
22. Kangaroo
23. Chocolate
24. Sandwiches
25. Greek food
26. Burgers
27. Mexican food
28. Squid
29. American diner breakfast
30. Salmon
31. Venison (a/k/a deer)
32. Guinea pig
33. Shark
34. Sushi
35. Paella
36. Barramundi
37. Reindeer
38. Kebab
39. Scallops
40. Australian meat pie
41. Mango
42. Durian fruit
43. Octopus
44. Ribs
45. Roast beef
46. Tapas
47. Jerk chicken/pork
48. Haggis
49. Caviar
50. Cornish pastry

The original link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/tv_and_radio/50eats_index.shtml

Obviously, there are a few foods on here not common to American diners, so let me explain a few things.
• A Moreton Bay Bug is a crustacean from Australia very similar to a crawfish/crayfish/crawdad.
• Paella is a Spanish seafood and rice stew.
• Barramundi is a type of very expensive Australian fish.
• Australian meat pies are just like any other culture's kind of meat pie; cubed steak with onions are the most popular.
• Durian fruit comes from southeastern Asia; it is quite large, looks yellowish with spines, has a custardy texture with an almond-sweet flavor, and bears an unusual smell which can probably be best described as "fecal."
• Tapas are little hot or cold appetizer dishes common in Spanish cuisine.
• "Jerk" meats are Jamaican-style grilled meats seasoned with very, very hot spices.
• Haggis are traditional Scottish things made mostly of barley and minced organ meats stuffed in a sheep's stomach.
• Cornish pastries are much the same as Australian meat pies.

Stonehorse Cafe, Tulsa, OK

Yesterday I drove to Tulsa to go shopping with Tony. We had lunch at the Stonehorse Cafe in Utica Square. I'd been at Stonehorse once before over a year ago, but the kitchen was closed and all we did was have a glass of wine. Tony had actually eaten there recently, so he was raving about their pistachio-encrusted halibut with leeks and shrimp. It's a popular socialite gathering spot on the corner across from Saks Fifth Avenue and Harold's, and it seemed appropriate for our lunch since it's neither as pretentious as The Wild Fork nor as expensive as the Polo Grill or Fleming's.

The location has been a succession of popular restaurants over the years, and I've eaten in that geographic location dozens of times. The current concept is much more "urban cafe" and about a third of the dining room is partitioned off with a sleek, contemporary, glass and brushed steel wall which masks the bar area. The dining room itself is filled to the gills with so many two-top tables that every time a waitress walked by, I instinctively pulled in my elbow and leaned away from them. Our table was right up against the window, so we got a good view of the al fresco tables.

Tony started his luncheon with a cup of the lobster-shrimp bisque, which he liked a lot, and reported little chunks of lobster and tiny shrimp. I had a tiny sampling, though, and thought I could taste a bit of "can," which led me to think either the shrimp or the seafood stock were canned instead of fresh; there was enough cayenne, though, I couldn't be certain. For his main course, he had a whole California pizza, which came with mozzarella, goat cheese, roasted garlic, and sun-dried tomatoes on a hand-tossed crust.

Taking a cue from the lady at the next table, I ordered the kosher chicken salad sandwich, but on a bed of lettuce instead of on bread. I got a surprisingly large serving of chicken salad that was flavorful, yet rather plain and unadventuresome. It had a tiny bit of minced celery and chopped parsley for color and texture, but I really thought it needed a little more character with perhaps some nuts or water chestnuts or something. The bed of lettuce was a melange of mixed greens in a heavily vinegared dressing.

We both had their "tropical iced tea," which was a fruit-flavored tea with strong hints of mango and raspberry. They also offered baskets of bread consisting of pieces of round country wheat loaves cut by hand by the waiters at a special bread table near the open kitchen counters.

It was a fun lunch spot, and the prices were very reasonable, I thought.

Outback Steakhouse, Tulsa, OK

Yesterday was my father's birthday, so I flew to Tulsa for a few days. My parents picked me up at the airport and wanted to eat dinner in Tulsa, so we had to pick a place. I suggested Fleming's in Utica Square. I know it's a national franchise, but the food is upscale and decent with excellent service. My mother thought it was too expensive, so we ended up going to Outback Steak House, another national franchise.... What can I say about Outback? Alas, we didn't even have a fun waiter. It was a nice evening, though, and we had the waitress bring my father a chocolate chocolate tower with raspberry puree and vanilla ice cream for a birthday cake, which he and my mother split (I'm still dieting).


The birthday cake arrives. There was a doggy bag.

Delhi Club, Arlington, VA

After church, we Metroed over to Clarendon in northern Virginia for brunch and some shopping, since Robert had never been to the shops there. We ate at the first place we came to, the Delhi Club, a British-style Indian restaurant with a $9.95 all you can eat buffet. The food was simple and basic, but decent, though, being British style, it lacked spicy kick. I can't remember everything on the buffet, but I recall lettuce and cucumber salad with yogurt dressing, herbed jasmine rice, tandoori chicken, a chicken and creamed spinach dish, a lamb in a brown cream sauce, chunks of paneer cheese in a masala sauce, dal (lentils), and a chickpea dish. There was something called coconut penny pudding for dessert, which was a creamy grated coconut and rice mix garnished with ground pistachio nuts, but I never did find a penny in my pudding.

News about Ris Lacoste

In other restaurant news, I learned today that Chef Ris Lacoste of 1789 Restaurant is leaving after the first of the year to start her own restaurant. That's going to be quite a blow to 1789, and it makes me wonder if their corporate owners, the Clyde's group, is wanting to cut costs and quality. We shall have to see who they hire to take over next year. Lacoste has been there so long and has such a reputation and devoted following I can only imagine that friction has come up with the owners.

600 Restaurant, Washington, D.C.

After tonight's National Symphony Orchestra concert at the Kennedy Center, my friend Steven and I stopped for a late-night supper at 600 Restaurant, next door in the Watergate complex.

600 Restaurant is, surprisingly, the only place in the Watergate complex that stays open late to accommodate post-concert and post-theater crowds. I've heard that a lot of the casts, opera chorus members, and others gather in the bar after concerts and dress rehearsals, so I was anxious to try it. Once there, I could see why they just gather at the bar, since the food was a little on the pricey side (but really not that bad for D.C.). Foggy Bottom has a decided shortage of affordable restaurants with full bars.

When we walked in, we weren't sure if the restaurant was open or not. We saw quite a number of waiters sitting around, looking bored, and no customers in either the dining room or the bar. So, even though we didn't have a reservation, we didn't have a bit of trouble getting a good table! Eventually the dining room began to fill up a bit, but it was more from the Chinese opera crowd rather than symphony goers.

There were a number of very interesting entrees on the menu, from an Australian rack of lamb ($32) to a filet mignon (also $32) to a sea bass ($28) to Maryland crab cakes ($26). They also have a dinner prix fixe option adding two more courses for an additional $10, but I didn't think that was that great of a deal. We also decided we really weren't that hungry tonight, so we opted for several lighter morsels.

Steven chose the lobster bisque and a cheese tray for two. I had lobster bisque, a spinach salad, and the artichoke and borsin fondue.

I found the lobster bisque rather ordinary. It was kind of thin and garnished with a very light sprinkling of chopped parsley, and no sour cream, creme fraiche, or anything else to enrich it. The spinach salad was tasty. Had all the traditional stuff in it, with a balsamic vinaigrette dressing served in a little glass on the side. The cheese tray had a big chunk of gouda with the red wax still on it, a brie, a mild blue, and a chevre, plus berries and grapes and a whole bunch of water crackers. I'm not sure what I was expecting for the artichoke and borsin fondue. It was good, but think artichoke dip with little rounds of grilled baguette slices.

For dessert, I had a dinky bowl of fresh strawberries and blueberries with a squirt of commercial whipped cream on top. Steven had a creme brulee that looked good, but he reported that it was thoroughly chilled, which means the brulees had been prepared in advance.

By staying away from the main entree items, we were successful in crafting a decent, fairly inexpensive dinner tonight. I don't know that our late night experience is representative of 600 Restaurant's usual performance. Their credentials, reviews, and press are all pretty good, but I found our food to be fairly mediocre for an expensive restaurant, and lots and lots of corners had been cut to speed preparation and serving times.

Julia's Empanadas, Washington, D.C.

During the lunch hour today, I was in the MacPherson Square area northeast of the White House and happened upon a little shop called Julia's Empanadas at the corner of Vermont and K. Practically every world culture has some kind of meat pie, and the Latin American cultures are no different with their empanadas. I was struck by the artistry and care taken with the empanadas at Julia's, though; the pastry seams were very artistically joined and even decorated. They had a big variety of empanadas, too, including turkey, chicken, beef, spinach and cheese, and "Jamaican" (goat??), all of which they sell for the very reasonable price of $3.18. I had a "Chilean" empanada, which was a traditional beef and raisin recipe.

They also had dessert empandas, and I tried the pear and almond one, which had the pastry drawn up into a little bag shape, tied with a string at the top. I noticed on their menus that they have miniature "cocktail sized" empanadas, too, which you can order in advance for parties. It's a good place, and I look forward to going by again to try some of the other meats and flavors.

Logan Tavern, Washington, D.C.

Tonight we had a great party at one of the P street bars, but after a couple of hours, we were all hungry, so quite a few of us meandered down the street to the Logan Tavern, where we grabbed dinner and more cocktails. Below is our waiter.



Things got exciting at the restaurant when a skillet caught fire, and instead of dealing with it in the vented open kitchen, someone carried the smoking skillet to the dishwashing area and put water on it, which created clouds of smoke and set off the smoke alarms! Strobe lights flashed and an obnoxious beep beep beep......beep beep beep......beep beep beep.....pummeled our ears for a good fifteen to twenty minutes before the Washington D.C. fire department showed up to turn off the noise. At least the beeping was in tempo with the thumping of the background music. Meanwhile, the restaurant could have been burning down, but none of the guests got up to evacuate.







The restaurant gave us all free desserts for putting up with the noise. The most popular dessert at the table seemed to be a mango-flavored key lime pie. I was hoping to get to see the firemen, but even though two trucks showed up, only three guys got out and walked around. Finally, though, all the excitement died down and we got to finish our dinners in relative peace.

Hard Times Cafe, Alexandria, VA

One of Leo's friends was starring in a play at the Lee Center for the Performing Arts in Alexandria last night, so we wandered down to Old Town to see him. After the play, Leo and I walked up to King Street, where we were in quest of an open restaurant at 11 p.m. We landed at a greasy-spoon looking place called the Hard Times Cafe, which, Leo tells me, is actually some kind of small chain with over a dozen cafes in the D.C. metropolitan area. Hard Times considers itself a chili parlor, and this particular cafe was decorated with old Oklahoma and Texas area photographs, flags, and memorabilia, with some Patsy Cline record playing incessantly on the jukebox. I heard the waitress tell another table they should go select something different from the jukebox if they didn't like that Cline song which was on perpetual repeat.

Since it was my first visit, the fun waitress brought me a little chili sampler—a special square, ceramic plate with four little wells to hold the different types of chili. And the chilis were interesting: a "Texas" chili made with ground beef and a little too much grease; a "Cincinnati" chili based on a rather sweet Greek recipe including cinnamon (my Tulsa readers will recall their trips to the originally-Greek-owned Coney Islander and the unique taste of their chili, which is a similar cinnamon-scented recipe); a "Terlingua Red" chili which was meatier and spicier than the "Texas"; and a "vegetarian" chili which was an abomination composed of mushrooms, onions, peppers, and peanuts.

I ended up with a Frito chili pie made with the Terlingua Red. It was a big bowl of Fritos (they forgot to crush them!) with a couple of ladles of chili, then handfuls of diced tomatoes, onions, and shredded cheddar cheese, with a big dollop of sour cream on top. Leo ordered an "authentic coney dog," which turned out to be a huge platter with two coneys and a mound of French fries, plus a pickle spear he gave to me to eat. Little squares of sweet, cakey, "northern-style" cornbread came with our entrees.

Many of you won't like Hard Times Cafe, but I like this kind of white trash food, so there's a good chance I'll be back. I want a big plate of chili mac (spaghetti and chili)! They also have racks of ribs. The food was good, the waitress was very friendly, and the kitchen was surprisingly fast.

Chadwick's, Washington, D.C.

I had a lovely lunch yesterday of some delicious fish and chips at Chadwick's in Friendship Heights, where I met up in the rain with my friend Robert for a shopping excursion at Mazza Gallerie and other area stores. The fish was fresh, flaky, and flavorful, and I was pleased that the waitress brought us a bottle of malt vinegar, which is the traditional British fish accompaniment, instead of high-calorie tartare sauce. Robert had the same. For first courses, I had a bowl of clam chowder and he had a big basket of fried calimari and jalapeño peppers (a combination I would never have thought of, and I noticed he didn't eat the peppers).

Cafe Paradiso, Washington, D.C.

After my expedition to the National Zoo this afternoon, I stopped for a late lunch at one of the sidewalk cafes along Connecticut Avenue in the Woodley Park neighborhood. It was hard to decide where to eat, since there were probably a dozen cafes. I ruled out the Lebanese, Asian, and Indian restaurants, and still I had to pick between a New Orleans Cajun place, a French cafe, and three Italian cafes. I read the menus posted outside and narrowed it down to the French cafe and two of the Italian places, and I ended up picking based on who had waiters outside.



The lunch crowd was mostly gone by 2:30 at Cafe Paradiso Ristorante Italiano. There was one businessman sitting at a sidewalk table reading his Wall Street Journal (and a very slow reader was he, since he was still there when I left!), so I picked a table on the side with a view of the street. The cute, young, Italian waiter brought me a glass of water and a basket of slices of a country loaf of white bread. The menu had the usual selections of Italilan-American items, plus a supplemental menu del giorno with half a dozen daily specials. I chose a grilled seafood salad from the supplemental menu (mostly fish and fresh pastas), with a glass of iced tea.

The salad arrived with one great big scallop and three extra large tail-on shrimp, all grilled and warm, resting on a bed of mixed, European-style salad greens and dressed in a lemon-basil-olive oil emulsification. There was quite a nice assortment of lettuces and chichories, obviously not from a stock mix, in a large white rimmed bowl with a fan of ripe tomato wedges on one side, a light scattering of capers, and quite a number of julienned strips of sweet, cold, roasted red and yellow peppers mixed in with the leaves.

The waiter recommend the tiramisu for dessert, but I wasn't in the mood for that, so I chose the tartufo. Tartufo—the Italian word for truffle—is an amaretto-flavored chocolate ice cream ball rolled in dark cocoa. Cafe Paradiso's version had a vanilla ice cream core. The large "truffle" was presented on a big, colorful, Italian country, pottery plate with three star-shaped dollops of sweetened whipped cream and two whole strawberries as garnish.

And after eating all that, the businessman still reading his same newspaper, I wandered home.

Beacon Bar and Grill, Washington, D.C.

After church at St. John's Lafayette Square, Robert and I walked up to the Scott Circle area, where we brunched at the Beacon Bar and Grill for their Sunday brunch buffet. It's certainly not gourmet, but it's a $19 per person all you can eat spread with all you can drink of bloody Marys, mimosas, or champagne, so even if the food is mediocre, we can get our money's worth just from the liquor. We had a cute, chatty, new waitress named Gabriella from Argentina, and she kept bringing the bloodies, one after another, without us even asking—I think we must have drunk half a dozen apiece!

Bistro Francais, Georgetown, D.C.

My feet hurt.

Last night, Leo got home late from work after a hard day with office politics and was too tired to go to the gym, so we decided to walk into Georgetown to find something "non-Asian" for dinner. Our explorations got us onto the wrong road, and we ended up walking down a mile-long expressway with no way to exit. As we walked back towards civilization, we began to see some restaurants along M Street. West of Wisconsin, though, the establishments seemed to be mostly Indian, Lebanese, Chinese, or those crowded, noisy, smoky bars with food, none of which were what we had in mind. Finally, we espyed the tried-and-true Bistro Français and headed straight there.

The restaurant was crowded, but I guess the maitre d' recognized me, because we were immediately escorted to a decent table in the back dining room with an antique wood banquette on one side and an interesting view of the service bar through the window partition on the other. A non-Anglophone female brought our bread, butter, and water, then we met our charming waiter, a tall guy from Ivory Coast. His English was perfect, with an ever-so-slight cute French accent.

What to eat? What to eat? While we were trying to make up our minds, we got a bottle of one of their cheaper house bordeaux-superieurs to sip while we perused the menu. I forgot what it was, but I remember it made the claim to be like a Saint-Emilion (but if it was, it was totally unlike any Saint-Emilion I've ever drunk!). Eh. House wine.

When the waiter came back the second time to take our order, we still hadn't made up our minds, so we just plunged in and made a quick guess. I ordered a bistro salad and a minute steak. Leo asked for the seafood soup and the cold poached salmon.

My salad was a big plate of leaf lettuce with a lot of julienned beets on top and a very ripe and flavorful tomato wedge on either side (where do they get ripe tomatoes this time of year?). Their house dressing is a tasty, thin mayonnaise flavored with a bit of dijon mustard. My minute steak maitre d' hôtel was yummy. It was a large, thin, nearly square piece of sirloin cooked medium rare and topped with two little round pats of parsley-herb butter. A big pile of thin pommes frites, accompanied by a small bowl of dipping mayonnaise, overflowed the rest of the dinner plate.

Leo's seafood soup was a bit of a surprise. It was prepared very much like a French onion soup, with a large crouton in the soup and an ample amount of cheese melted on top and down the sides of the soup crock. His cold poached salmon looked nice. It was served atop a sauce of some kind (mousseline??), but I didn't taste it and Leo doesn't know the names of the classic French sauces, so I couldn't ask. He had a vegetable on the plate, but I didn't think to identify it, since another waiter from previous visits (the French one who's the exotic dancer) came to the table to say hi and chat.

Our waiter brought the dessert tray, but I didn't see anything inspirational in the way of napoleans or fruit or nut tarts, so I opted for a little cheese plate. Leo had a crème brulee. The cheese plate was simple, with a wedge of brie, a slice of a goat milk chevre of some type, and a small slice of a not-very-aged blue, with green apple slices filling up the empty spots on the plate. He brought some thick slices of a nice, crusty, country-style bread for the cheese—much better than the hard rolls served with dinner. The brie was brie. I'm not a great fan of brie, and, thankfully, this one wasn't ripe (the French like brie which has aged so much that it turns brown and runny and smells worse than dirty, damp gym shoes left in the locker all summer). The blue was tasty. It was an edge piece, so it had a bit more character than the center would have had, but it certainly wasn't a premium French blue. My favorite was the chevre, which was light and rich and had a very nice, complex flavor to it.

Leo's crème brulee must have been good, since he ate it all and kept trying to scrape the au gratin dish with his spoon to extract every last morsel. I think, though, for expediencies' sake, the restaurant had pre-made the crème brulees, since Leo reported that the hard sugar crust on the top of the cold custard was not warm.

After coffee with cream, we limped back home, walking the whole way.

Starland Cafe, Washington, D.C.

Last Friday, my financial planner picked me up in his Z4 so we could continue our previously truncated business meeting. We went zooming off with the top down, the wind blowing my hair. It was a great chance to enjoy the beautiful sunshine and warm weather. We headed out to the Palisades area of D.C., way, way out in the far western corner of the district, northwest of Georgetown, and stopped at the Starland Cafe. He said the Starland is popular in the neighborhood because they feature a lot of live musical groups during dinner. It was an interesting crowd, though I'm not so sure the luncheon patrons are the live music set—most of the tables seemed filled with local matrons. We sat out on their covered terrace overlooking MacArthur Boulevard, and we had a very friendly, peppy waitress with wild hair.

I had the Cobb salad and he had a fried crabcake sandwich with French fries and mayonnaise. I also had a warm pot-au-chocolat à la mode for dessert. What they served me was not a pot-au-chocolat. A proper pot-au-chocolat is very much like a dense, rich, dark chocolate flan or creme brulee (without the caramel or broiled sugar); what they brought was crusty on the outside and more like a baked chocolate pudding or baked fudge. Now, it was good for what it was, but I don't like misnamed menu items.

Port of Piraeus, Washington, D.C.

A few days ago, I had lunch with a financial planner. He was buying, so I let him pick the place. He picked Port of Piraeus in the "Golden Triangle" area of downtown D.C. I've walked by the place before and knew it was Greek ("Piraeus" is a city in Greece), but I was expecting a fairly fancy restaurant, given the substantial square footage it assumes in a downtown office building; it turns out it's nothing more than a big deli serving mostly Greek themed sandwiches and salads. We both ended up ordering their salad special of the day, which was a Greek salad with tuna on top. Our cell phones kept ringing and due to the press of business, our meeting was somewhat truncated, so we agreed to get together again later in the week.