Alero Mexican Restaurant, Washington, D.C.

Tonight Kody and Ian took the GU Shuttle Bus from the campus and we all met up at Dupont Circle so we could wander up to Alero and have Mexican food. Mexican was Ian's idea, and we were all also curious as to whether or not there would be any employees there tonight or not, but it wasn't a problem and the food was just as good as ever. I didn't notice any impact at all from the immigration protests around the country.

While Kody drank his pitcher of margaritas, we ordered. Kody had spinach enchiladas, Ian had a chicken burrito, and I had a chicken chimichanga. Ian doesn't like guacamole, so he got it as a side instead of on his burrito, and I was the grateful recipient of another scoop of pureed avocado.







For dessert, the other two guys split a fried ice cream.



Alero, as always, is tolerable Mexican food. It's probably one of the best places in the District (we don't have that many Mexicans, but we have thousands of Salvadoreans!) for Mexican food, but it certainly doesn't compare to the food out in the Southwest. They make great margaritas, though, and they pour heavily!

Saigon Saigon, Arlington VA

Last night we went to Pentagon City so pick up a few things and while we were there, Leo showed me where the Saigon Saigon is that Kody and I wandered around looking for unsuccessfully one night (I think we ended up at a French place instead). We had a really good dinner at Saigon Saigon, and I always enjoy this place.

After a huge madberry martini, Leo had some fried spring rolls on a heavily garnished plate for an appetizer, then their Vietnamese version of the traditional Korean dish bi bim bap for his main course. It arrived in a little handled metal pot with the usual egg on top and a little side bowl of both kim chee (rotten cabbage) and barbecue sauce. Of course, since it wasn't the traditional version, Leo didn't like it, but I noticed he ate all of it. Must have been that big martini leading him astray.

I had a house salad, which I expected to be small, but it turned out to be a dinner plate of salad with actual non-lettuce vegetables in it—quite a pleasant surprise. My main course was a delicious yellow curry with large pieces of chicken breast and a side dish of actually fresh and tender white steamed rice.

No pictures this time. I didn't have my camera with me cause I thought we were just going to shop and not eat. I'm sure everybody's happy I'm not slowing down their dial-ups for a change.

Russia House, Washington, D.C.

At long last I finally got to dine tonight at Russia House Lounge and Restaurant in the restaurant strip north of Dupont Circle. I've been trying for months to get my Russian friend Svet to take me there, but he always refused and claimed the food was awful, forbidding me to go. Well, my friend Robert was bored tonight after his day of dealing with too many politicians at the office and decided that we should go, since he'd walked by the place many a time and was curious about the food. So, off we went, and what a great evening we had!

Russia House is located in a large, old, grey, stone building on the corner of Connecticut and Florida. Patrons have to go up a grand staircase to the main entrance, where a large lounge with heavily pillowed sofas everywhere offered dozens of vodka selections as well as normal bar fare. The dining room is downstairs, though, so diners had to walk up only to have to walk down again. The dining room was quite nice with a lovely dark burgundy and green patterned wallpaper on the walls between dark wood paneling and moldings and brass chandeliers everywhere. Tables were covered with white clothes and formally set.

We each were presented with three menus, a "large plate" menu, "small plate" menu, and a wine list. The wine list was mostly New World wines, and surprisingly lacking in Russian selections. We found the Russian wines in the by-the-glass section of the "small plate" menu. While we read and considered all of this, Robert had a Baltika Porter #6, which was a dark Russian beer, and I had a glass of mukuzani (I forgot to write down the vineyard), which is a red wine from Georgia (the former Soviet republic, not the U.S. state) that reminded me very much of a shiraz.

For an appetizer, we shared an order of perogis. Perogis are baked, filled dumplings or little miniature meat pies that usually are pretty heavy, but the dumplings here were artfully formed and the pastry was surprisingly flaky. They were filled with a delicious mixture of smoked duck, potatoes, and onions. A bowl of crème fraîche with scallions and the slightly sweet taste of ginger accompanied the perogis as a sauce.



We chose different dishes for our soup courses. Robert did a traditional borscht. This was a vegetable version with beets, onions, and potatoes and a side of sour cream; the soup was served in a little pottery soup pot.



I had the mushroom barley soup. It was wonderful! I'd feared a thick, heavy porridge, but this was a light vegetable stock with just a little bit of barley, and there were both morels and chanterelles in the mix with winter vegetables. A sliced quarter-loaf of pumpernickel bread arrived on our table hot from the oven along with the soups.



Robert selected the trout "Forshmack style" and it looked quite interesting. A whole trout had been skillfully fileted and roasted in its skin until flaky and accompanied by a potato puree (think thin mashed potatoes) and a sautée of green apples and red onions.



I thought it would be fun to try the chicken Kiev. I haven't had chicken Kiev in Washington since 1978 when I was at a private dinner in the Senate Cafeteria. It used to be a common menu item in many of the nicer restaurants in the country, but I've not seen it much of late. Anyway, it's a delicious dish where a chicken breast is pounded flat then rolled around a small stick of cold, herbed butter; the chicken breast is breaded and deep fried; when one cuts into the chicken, the melted butter spurts out. I really liked the Russia House version. My two chicken Kievs were served on a bed of potato puree with some steamed baby carrots, a baby zucchini, and slices of red onion serving as edible garnish.



Oh, I'd wanted some caviar, but it was $65 an ounce and up here, which I thought was a little extravagant.

We wanted to finish our meal with a Russian dessert, but while they had several standard nice desserts on the menu, none were Russian. So, we opted not to eat dessert and decided to do a vodka course instead.

This place had a whole page of vodkas from ultra-ultra-premiums "all the way down" to their cheapest vodka, Stolichnaya. After consulting with our waiter, we chose an Altay and a Mernaya Business Class. Both were excellent: crisp, clean, smooth. Robert thought maybe the Mernaya was a bit stronger, and both were very, very smooth.

The interesting thing about the vodka service, though, is that our little tiny chilled glasses were each accompanied by a cornichon (tiny dill pickle) on a skewer, and it is traditional to eat pickles while drinking vodka!



I thought it interesting that this Russian restaurant (which has been open about a decade) didn't have more Russian participation. Our excellent waiter was Polish and we saw other staff that looked eastern Asian. And, while it's no guarantee of nationality, the executive chef has a very English/American sounding name. The patrons in our dining room also all appeared to be Americans, since I heard no one talking in Russian.

Russian cuisine from the Russian Imperial Court has had a majorly important impact on modern American and western European food, even the traditions of haute cuisine in France that is often considered the standard for elegance in dining. Formerly, the French would bring out all of the dishes for a meal at one time, often in an elaborate procession, and this was called service à la française. The idea of multiple, separately served courses during a formal dinner—perhaps as many as fourteen—came from Russia in the early 19th century and is called "service à la russe.

As you can see, Robert had a great time with the vodka and pickles! I'm sure he'd have liked to have tried all 50+ vodkas, but we both have to work tomorrow!



Anyway, I actually liked this place a lot despite Svet's negative recommendations, and I'm looking forward to another visit to Russia House. There were quite a number of dishes I'd still like to try, especially including their grilled boar sausage, and many more vodkas to drink.

Chinatown Express, Washington, D.C.

Had a great dinner and stimulating conversation tonight with my friend John, who's been in town this week from southern California while he attends a convention for the National Association of Elder Law Attorneys. We dined at Chinatown Express in Chinatown. John walked all the way over there from his hotel in the rain, but he said he wanted the exercise. We picked Chinatown Express because he wanted noodles, and they have fabulous freshly made noodles there (this is the place with the noodle chef in the front window where passers-by can watch him work).

We started off with a plate of hand-made pork-stuffed dumplings. They always do a good job with their steamed dumplings and manage to make them in a way that doesn't make the wrappers gummy or sticky.

John ordered a little bowl of seafood and noodle soup. You can see what he got! There was a big selection of octopus, squid, shrimp, scallops, and fish balls along with Chinese vegetables and a large quantity of the handmade, fresh noodles.

I had the pan-fried noodles with similar seafood items (except no fish balls). It was as expected and arrived billowing steam from having been just dished up out of the wok. Their fried noodles have a bit of brown sauce, so the dish always reminds me a little of lo mein.

It was great to have the chance to meet John on this trip and I'll be looking forward to future dinners when he's back in D.C.

Tandoori Nights, Arlington, VA

The Market Common at Clarendon is the beneficiary of an exciting new restaurant that opened just a little over a week ago. Tandoori Nights is the second location for the Migliani family, which already established a successful Tandoori Nights in Gaithersburg, Maryland. If our experience this week is any indication, the Arlington location as well should prove to be highly successful.

Svet and I went to Tandoori Nights for lunch Thursday. It was a beautiful day and we took advantage of their large, second floor patio overlooking the Market. Inside, though, the decor is bright and exciting. Fabulous murals decorate the space, including some vibrant Indian-themed paintings on the ceiling. Bar furnished are streamlined and contemporary, and several tables in the dining room feature stylized canopies recalling Indian tradition.

The menu features items which I can best describe as popular and modern, designed for the young Washington urban professionals. Perhaps this is due to the popularization of Indian foods in American culture, but the kitchen does not forget its Indian roots. I'm not sure if they have separate lunch and dinner menus, since the menu we received featured a lot of dinner type items priced in the mid- to upper-teens. A table tent, though, listed a number of lunch meal specials priced at $7.95.

While Svet started with a fruit smoothie, we both ended up ordering the lamb kebob lunch special. The first course was an apple and shredded carrot salad dressed in a light and slightly sweet vinaigrette served in a white, boat-shaped bowl.



For the main course, they brought us clover-shaped plates with two sausage-shaped rolls of lamb barbecued in the tandoor, a bowl of thin yellow dal (lentil) soup, basmati rice studded with bits of saffron rice, and a delicious spinach dish I thought at first was going to be saag paneer, but which turned out to be pieces of miniature corn on the cob in the spinach mixture. Along with the meal came some nice naan bread from the tandoor; Svet wanted more bread, so we ordered an onion naan as well.



Service was excellent and attentive throughout the meal. We also had a visit from the restaurant manager to make sure everything was alright.

Next time you're on a shopping expedition to the Market Common (Apple, Williams-Sonoma, Crate and Barrel, etc.), stop in at Tandoori Nights for lunch or dinner. And, judging from the looks and size of the bar, it will, no doubt, soon be a popular happy hour destination for the young professionals crowd.

Georgetown Cafe, Georgetown, D.C.

There's something comforting about a diner. The food is always simple, plentiful, and cheap, and one can always count on getting full without emptying one's wallet. Diners are surprisingly hard to find in D.C., probably because their low prices don't generate the cash flow needed to support the high rents in most parts of town, which makes it all the more surprising that we would find a diner not only in Georgetown but on the tony Wisconsin Avenue.

Ian has been trying for weeks to get me to try one of his favorite diners, the Georgetown Cafe, so off there we went last night. It was an interesting irony since this is one of the few times we've been out before midnight when lots of restaurants are still open, yet the Georgetown Cafe is open twenty-four hours a day.

Georgetown Cafe isn't your stereotypical diner. In addition to burgers and breakfast items, they have a large selection of Middle Eastern foods. Located on the upper floor of a narrow, old building, decor is sparse around the cheap, utilitarian tables and chairs. A long bar in the back suggests that at one time the space may have been a restaurant with a liquor license, but it's now used as a service station for the wait staff.

Diners always make me crave chicken-fried steaks and gravy; alas, there were no such treats on the menu. Then I looked at the burgers, but Ian wanted breakfast—omelettes, specifically—and he's not much of a carnivore, so I acquiesced to breakfast as well, ordering a ham and cheddar cheese omelette. Ian chose a Swiss cheese omelette with home fries, potato slices lightly pan fried until soft. Both omelettes came with buttered white bread toast which was rather lighter than I would have preferred for "toast," and little pre-packaged servings of grape jelly. We also ordered a basket of French fries; the fries had been lightly battered and expertly deep-fried; they were just great, being the highlight of the meal.




For beverages, I had an iced tea, which was fine, and Ian had a Coke, which I noted came from a gun in the bar and looked, I thought, a little weak.

Even though we'd eaten breakfast foods for supper, we both opted for dessert, Ian the chocolate cake and me the carrot cake. Both of the cakes were "homemade" and fresh; they both arrived covered in commercial whipped cream; the chocolate cake also got squirts of chocolate syrup.




It was nice getting to try Georgetown Cafe finally, since most of my eating-out friends like Svet and Tony are food snobs who don't like diner food; in fact, when Tony was in D.C. last January, we walked in to Georgetown Cafe and he refused to eat there, making us land at the incredibly overpriced and mediocre Cafe Milano. Ian will no doubt drag me to the cafe again, so I'll have to try some of the grill sandwiches and the entrees, which are really the true test of a diner, especially one that doesn't have chicken-fried steak.

Kaz Sushi Bistro, Washington, D.C.

With the proliferation of the ubiquitous sushi bar in nearly every pan-Asian restaurant around the country, Japanese food has started to become common and mundane. A few places, though, maintain the tradition of food as art so highly prized in Japan, and it can be particularly exciting when Japanese chefs trained both in the cuisine of their homeland and the cuisine of the West fuse the styles into creative Japanese-American dishes; thus is our restaurant choice earlier tonight, Kaz Sushi Bistro in downtown D.C.'s West End.

Kaz is located on the upper level of a storefront near the Uruguayan Embassy. The decor is simple with classic Japanese lines and furnishings; Japanese-style watercolors of fish decorate the walls. As expected from a Japanese restaurant, service was speedy, quiet, and efficient.

My dinner companion started with a grilled baby octopus appetizer. I sampled one of the little octopi and it was tender, tasty, and had a spicy kick to it. The photo below is a little misleading, since the dish was served in a square bowl, not a plate, and there was more to the serving than it appears. In the bottom of the bowl was a fine julienne of pickled carrots and daikon (Japanese radish), and scallion sprouts garnished the top.



For her next course, she chose several different types of sushi, including clockwise from the top left, a spicy tuna roll, eel, salmon, and uni (sea urchin). I noticed that the gari (pickled ginger) looked very pale and fresh.



I selected the unadon bento box for my meal. This included two big pieces of barbecued unagi (eel) on a bed of Japanese rice, with a seaweed side dish, a clear vermicelli and mushroom dish, some light vegetable tempura, and an American-style tossed green salad in a creamy sesame dressing. The unagi was good, but I especially enjoyed the seaweed and the vermicelli.



Our desserts turned out to be wonderfully creative and memorable. My friend had the green tea tiramisu. A thin layer of cake was covered with a strongly green tea flavored mascarpone cheese mousse and garnished with a tiny dice of cherry jelly; a red bean paste was squirted decoratively on the plate.



I had the lychee panna cotta with mango sorbet, which was excellent. Both of the fruit flavors exploded in the mouth and complemented one another well.



We also had some very interesting Japanese wines with our meal. We each had one of the two sake tasting flights, each with three different cups of ice cold sake. We both thought that our favorite sake of the flight was our respective "light" wine; the other wines were good, too, and their flavors differed widely, including one of mine which had been aged in cedar casks and had a very peppery flavor.



With dessert, we both had a glass of choya, a very traditional Japanese plum port wine. Our waitress brought a tray to the table with a glass for each of us that contained a small, green, Japanese plum and a large plum-filled decanter with the choya, which she poured for us tableside. The wine was sweet and syrupy and had an intense but pleasant green plum flavor and also a flavor with reminded me somewhat of red hot candies without the "hot."



Kaz ranks highly on my sushi bar list in D.C., up with one of my favorites, Sushi Taro. I'm looking forward to a return trip to Kaz to try out some of their many larger tasting menus, including eight-course gourmet samplers of the cold and hot "small dishes" featured by Chef Kaz Okochi (who we saw in the dining room tonight visiting with one of the other large tables). These small dishes give the chef the opportunity to fuse Japanese cuisine with American tastes, and he does it with skill and aplomb.

Bistrot du Coin, Washington, D.C.

Who speaks French around here? My French is awful—I only speak enough French that with my Okie accent I can convince the waiters in Paris that they really do know how to speak English. My question is, what is the difference between "bistro" and "bistrot"? I know that they both mean bar/café, or something of that sort, but when is something a "bistro" and when is it a "bistrot"? Is it a gender question? Socioeconomic question? Preference of the owner question?

Well, the source of this burning question was last night's late night supper with my friend Steven, who had me meet him at Dupont Circle at 11 p.m. and then graciously took me to Bistrot du Coin. The crowds had thinned out by that point and we were able to be led straight to a table.

Bistrot du Coin is a wild place. Part bar, part restaurant, it's always lively and noisy—very noisy. It attracts a very young, hip crowd and it's often full of young couples, especially drunk young women who paw all over their men in a way best reserved for the hotel room. The high ceilinged space rocks not only with loud, happy crowd noise, but with popular music played at a loud, deafening level. One can never say the place isn't festive!

As we perused the menu, staff brought us a basket of thick slices of French bread and water in a wine bottle. Where some restaurants have daily specials up on a chalkboard, the chalkboard specials at Bistrot du Coin were for various wines of the day, both by the glass and by the bottle. We ended up ordering a carafe of one of the house wines, a Lyonnais red Cotes du Rhone 2002, which was light and versatile.

Steven started with the tartiflette savoyarde, a tasty and hearty gratin made of potatoes, roblochon cheese, onions, and intensely flavorful bacon.



For his main course, he had the casserole de lapin aux spätzle a creamy rabbit, mushroom, and vegetable stew with Alsacian spätzle. He let me have a sample of his stew, and it was absolutely divine! In fact, it was so good that when one of Steven's friends called (this is what he gets for talking on a cell phone in the middle of a restaurant!), I sneaked my bread over to his casserole dish to sop up a bit more of that delicious cream sauce!



I finally got to try the salade de magret de canard fumé et seché, a salad with smoked duck and grilled scallions, which I've always wanted to try on previous visits, but thought it was too big to do along with a full meal. It was worth the wait. There was a perhaps too small amount of French-style bitter salad greens covered with slices of duck "proscuitto" and the grilled scallions. Then, around the edges of the plate was a dice of smoked duck meat with diced bits of roasted onions and carrot that offered an explosion of flavor. I found myself using my fork to track down every last morsel of the duck.



For dessert, we split a pyramide d'abricot de chocolat, an exquisite creation with chocolate mousse around an apricot jelly enrobed in chocolate ganache and garnished with chocolate shavings, dried apricots, and an apricot sauce. Along with the pyramid, Steven ordered us a couple of glasses of Clairette de Die et Muscat sparkling wine, a perfect choice since the wine was light, slightly sweet, and had essences of apricot, exactly matching the pyramid.



While the proprietors and regulars of Bistrot du Coin are not so happy about it, I rejoice at the newly-in-force smoking ban in restaurants here in D.C. Smoking is a huge, nasty tradition in France! Now that I don't have to worry about coughing from the smoke and leaving the place with my clothes smelling like an ashtray, though, I'm looking forward to a lot more visits to endulge in the delicious foods at Bistrot du Coin.

Bistro Français, Georgetown, D.C.

Why does everyone always call at midnight and want to go out to eat? I have always been a night owl and love late night dining, but D.C. just is not the city for this sort of thing. We end up going to the same handful of places over and over and over again, since no one else is open, public transportation has shut down, and we've no car for driving around all over the place. So, tonight when Kody called me tonight at midnight and wanted to go be social and have a little French food, what else could we do but walk in to downtown Georgetown and land at the old standby, Bistro Français?

Mind you, I like Bistro Francais, but I just wish we had more options for late night variety.




Anyway, I had a tasty Tropiques salad with avocado, hearts of palm, and artichoke hearts with a remoulade type dressing. Kody had an omelette with fine herbs, Swiss cheese, and smoked salmon accompanied by French fries, and a glass of the house sauvignon blanc. Lovely, crusty, French rolls and butter were served alongside.

And, what would dinner out with be without his traditional liquor glass picture?



I suppose I should go to bed. I hate going to bed when the sun is coming up.

Zorba's Cafe, Washington, D.C.

Happy Passover!

Today is the first day of Passover (seasonal felicitations to any of you Jewish readers!), which means the observance started last night at sundown. My friend Eugene has some Russian Jewish ancestors, so we decided it would be fun to have a meal with traditional Passover foods, but we didn't want to do a formal religious Seder meal (the original "Lord's Supper," for you Christian readers). Several of the nicer restaurants in town have special Passover menus this year, including Felix in Adams-Morgan, Gallileo in the West End, and Rosa Mexicana in Penn Quarter, but they were booked up with reservations (not to mention pretty expensive!). Nonplussed, we looked for a place with roast lamb on the menu.

And, we happened upon Zorba's Cafe, just across from the Q Street exit of the Dupont Circle Metro station. Zorba's is always a fun place for a quick and inexpensive meal. They are a rather casual place where diners go to a counter on the lower level to order, pay, and pick up their own food, then they can select their own table on the main level, upstairs, or out on the patio where we chose to eat. The best thing about Zorba's, though, is the "home cooked" food from old Greek family recipes.

This place has some of the best kotósoupa avgolémono I've tasted. This is a simple chicken, vegetable, and rice soup enriched with eggs and lemon juice—a very classic Greek dish—and theirs is always well balanced, hearty, and delicious. They didn't have any matzo ball soup (matzo is not a traditional Greek food!), but we brought our own box of matzo crackers to eat in lieu of the leavened rolls Zorba's serves.

For our main course we had a sort of "blue plate special," their arnáki sto foúrno. They roast a leg of lamb and pull the tender meat from the bone and allow it to mingle with its own natural juices. They serve it on top of a mound of lightly tomato-sauced Greek pasta called manéstra, which looks like large, oversized grains of rice. Along with the lamb and pasta is a large serving of Greek salad with crumbled feta cheese and black Greek olives. Along with our meal, we split a carafe of Greek red wine, since the Passover tradition is to drink four glasses of wine with dinner!

Oh, I'm really curious about the "Mexican Passover" food at Rosa Mexicana, so if anybody is feeling bold and adventuresome and wants to try it out, let me know.

Double dinners

Ended up going to Annie's Paramount Steak House with Kevin after lodge last night for a martini and fried mushrooms.

No sooner did I get home and online to check mail did I find Ian, who was in a social mood and after we IMmed for an hour, we decided to meet at Au Pied Bistro in Georgetown for an early early morning breakfast. Well, I walked all the way to Au Pied, whose web site says they are open til 3 a.m. on Monday nights, only to find them closed. So, we wandered over to the nearly-always-open Bistro Français, where I had a deliciously fluffy and tender omelette aux fines herbs with an order of thin, crispy pommes frites and some handmade mayonnaise for dipping. Ian was going to do a salade du marché avec chevre chaud but changed his mind at the last minute to order glacée de chocolat. After leaving the bistro, we loitered a bit on the streets of Georgetown watching the local constabulary turning doughnuts in the streets and racing off to their various coffee breaks with their lights flashing, before finally deciding to head our separate ways and go home to bed.

Little Viet Garden Crabhouse, Arlington, VA

Leo has been working a lot of late hours and weekends at the office lately, so when he was still at the office at 8 p.m. one night this past week, I made him take a dinner break and meet me in the Clarendon neighborhood of Arlington. He wanted something other than Chinese or Thai food for a change, so I was thinking the international variety in Clarendon, not to mention a Hard Times Cafe with great American chili, would give him some variety. He selected Little Viet Garden Crabhouse, a Vietnamese place. Well, at least it wasn't Chinese or Thai. LOL

Little Viet Garden is a fun cafe with both indoor seating and a very large outdoor covered patio. It was just a little too chilly that night for al fresco dining, so we stayed indoors. Leo started with an order of fried spring rolls. Then he had the seafood special, a double kebab of shrimp, salmon, and a single scallop which ended up on the floor. I had the bun cha gio, the traditional Vietnamese salad with vermicelli noodles and a chopped pork eggroll.




I want to go back to Little Viet Garden soon for their all-you-can-eat crab feast, featuring she-crabs for $25 and he-crabs for $30. Sounds delicious.

Circle Bistro, Washington, D.C.

After getting tired of the delivery pizza Leo had been ordering us every night this weekend, last night I decided that we should go out for a proper dinner after The West Wing was over. We walked up to Washington Circle where we went to the Circle Bistro in the One Washington Circle Hotel. It was still busy, even at that hour of the evening.

I was determined to have a proper dinner with four courses (an affectation drilled in to me during my Oxford days), so I opted to stick with multiple appetizers, since non-à la carte restaurants serve too much food with their main courses. Unfortunately, some of the things I wanted to order were no longer available last night, particularly a duck confit. Nonetheless, I started with a starkly green broccoli soup with an intense explosion of broccoli flavor. It was supposed to have been accompanied by a truffled custard, but they were out of that, and I chose to have the soup anyway; I noticed they charged me the full amount for the soup, though. My second course was the pan roasted wild mushroom salad, which was another intense explosion of flavors, this time from the mushrooms tossed with some delicious applewood smoked bacon served on a bed of frisee and topped with a poached egg. With these two courses, I drank a white Spanish Escencia Diviña Pontevedra 2004 albariño.

My third course was the crispy veal sweetbreads "General Tso," three sweetbreads which had been sauteed til crisp on the outside and still tender and moist inside dressed in a sweet Chinese "General Tso" sauce and served on a bed of salty, wilted, baby spinach. The combination of sweet, sour, salt, and bitter was classically Asian. For a fourth course, I selected a three-cheese sampler plate with a soft goat cheese, a rich triple-cream cow milk semi-soft cheese, and a lovely blue sheep milk cheese, served with a basket of thinly sliced French baguette bread. Our waiter selected a German 2003 Lingenfelder riesling for me to drink with these courses.

Meanwhile, Leo started with a braised leek and Vermont goat cheese tartlet accompanied by a mound of vinegared curly endive and a glass of white Touraine sauvignon blanc. His next course was a square piece of grilled rockfish resting on a bed of mashed potatoes and surrounded by a tomato sauce which he praised as tasting just like a dish his mother makes at home; he drank a classic dry Australian 2003 Hope chardonnay with that course. I thought the chardonnay was quite good. For dessert, he had a mediocre dark chocolate and chocolate mousse parfait (I'd encouraged him to do the lemon pound cake with lavender essence and wild honey sorbet, but he didn't listen) with a glass of a very unusual red Spanish Silvano Garcia Dulce Monastrell 2003. The monastrell had a powerful taste of grape skins in a silken eiswine-type viscosity; it had a sweetness to it without being cloying.

And thus was our dinner.

Bistro Français, Georgetown, D.C.

I had a wonderful evening at the L'Elisir d'Amore last night with my friend Ian, who wandered down from Georgetown U to join me. After the opera, we walked along the river towards Washington Harbor, then up to Wisconsin and M to do just a touch of shopping (he was looking for a birthday card), after which we ended up at Bistro Français for dessert. Ian had the glace à la vanille and I had a tasty gâteau d'abricot avec crème anglaise followed by coffee.

Penang, Washington, D.C.

Leo dragged me off to the downtown Penang for a late dinner tonight. I started with a seaweed and seafood soup and he started with roti telur, an Indian-style pancake folded around an egg and onion mix with a chicken curry dipping sauce.




For a main course, I once again had the sarang burung, the addictive taro root basket filled with seafood, vegetables, and cashews I've had on each of my previous visits. Leo had the Singapore char mee hoon, a rice noodle dish with spicy seafood and pork sausage.

For dessert, we each had a traditional folded pancake, he the peanut filling and me the coconut filling.

L & N Seafood Grill, Arlington, VA

A shopping excursion to Pentagon City led Leo and me to pop in to L & N Seafood Grill (way up on the top floor of the mall) for a quickie dinner. Leo had the shrimp fettucine and I had the fish and chips. Our waitress, a very personable woman who was really flirting with Leo, suggested that I order the fish and chips "well done," since she reported the batter was often way too doughy without that special request—it was a good call, and the battered fish turned out perfectly with her guidance.




We arrived ten minutes before "Happy Hour" was over and we ordered the $3 happy hour margaritas. Our waitress decided that we'd probably want a second cocktail, so she brought each of us two at the happy hour price. Often during happy hours, cheap cocktails are watered down, but that was definitely not the case here!

Red Sage, Washington, D.C.

After walking down to the Tidal Basin to look at the cherry blossoms, my friend Kody and I wandered downtown for an early dinner. I'd wanted to go to Butterfield 9, but when we arrived, they were closed for a private party. Alas. So, we looked across the street and decided to try Red Sage. Red Sage is an interesting establishment on the corner of a big office building. The street level floor is a large bar and dining area featuring Mexican food in their "Border Cafe," while the downstairs is a slightly more elegant version with multiple dining rooms in similar decor and with a much more expensive menu I'll call American with a Mexican flair for what they call "The Grill." We opted for the Mexican food upstairs.

The decor can best be described as a contemporary attempt to create a Southwest geographic feature feel. Tables were free form (ours looked almost like the shape of a grand piano) and there was a huge "cloud" or something hanging from the ceiling over the bar area which I thought looked more like an upside down mesa. They chose a palate of deep sunset colors for the tables and chairs. Designs are modern, but comfortable; our oddly shaped booth was quite private and quite cozy.

Red Sage has an interesting take on Mexican food. Lots of trendy ingredients such as mushrooms and goat cheese have been incorporated into traditional food forms. There were a lot of cross-cultural Hispanic items, and I saw a lot of seviches and Cuban sandwiches on the menu. They also have a significant tequila selection and all the accompanying varieties of margaritas.

We opted to actually order chips and salsa for an appetizer. No free chips here—they cost $4.95. I ordered the chorizo-stuffed masa empanadas, but the waitress said they'd been taken off the menu. Alas. We got a large basket of warm tortilla chips, half yellow corn and half blue corn, and a plate with three small ramekins of "Fiery Pueblo Salsas": a black bean, a green tomatillo, and a red tomato version. The green salsa had the most jalapeño kick to it, but none were "fiery." All three of the salsa I thought tasted sweet.

For our main courses, Kody had the mushroom and goat cheese enchiladas with spinach and grilled onions and with a side of green rice. I had the "Border Platter," a combination plate of a chicken enchilada, a mushroom enchilada, and a mushroom tamale with red chile mole. Tiny ramekins of beans accompanied each entree. I thought the food was good and flavorful, but I couldn't help but notice that back in Oklahoma, we would have gotten twice the food for half the price. Of course, we have real Mexicans back there, and we don't have to import chefs from New York to create "Mexican" dishes.





There were a lot of interesting desserts on the menu, but we opted to spend our dining dollars on additional margaritas. I'll probably regret it in the morning. But, what would a dinner out with Kody be without a gratuitous Kody-holding-a-liquor-glass pic?

Cafe Berlin, Washington, D.C.

Last night I got to have an impromptu dinner with one of my politico friends up on the Hill who always manages to have an unusual insight into the behind the scenes workings of the party before the press figures things out. We decided to do something there in the neighborhood; I suggested the always-competent Cafe Berlin and he acquiesced, saying he'd always wanted to try it. So, off we went, braving the light rain which started falling (a significant event, since it wasn't so long ago when this friend and I went to lunch on a rainy day in Friendship Heights and he showed up sans umbrella and looking ever so much like a poor, drenched cat!).

Cafe Berlin was busy enough (wow, a Tuesday night, too!) that we were seated in the back dining room. Along the way, a diner passes through the bar and then next to the wickedly decadent dessert table as they wind their way through the floral tablecloth-covered tables to the large back room.

My friend started with a 1/2 liter of a German Bitburger beer whilst I drank a very ungermanic iced tea. Dinner was simple. He ordered the Sauerbraten and I ordered the Ungarisches Goulash.

The Sauerbraten had a stunning presentation. Slices of the marinated beef roast in the braising liquid rested in the bottom of the plate while a large baseball-sized Knödel—a potato dumpling— spiked with carrot spears and flat-leafed Italian parsley sat amidst the meat. My friend reported that the Sauerbraten (beef roast marinated and braised in wine vinegar) was very good and that the Knödel was "interesting," having the texture of a stiff cream of wheat; that texture is expected, though, since the dumplings are usually made from a combination of mashed potatoes and grated raw potatoes before they are seasoned and poached.



My goulash was good, but oddly unsatisfying. Now, this German "Hungarian goulash" is very different from the thick, macaroni goulash of my childhood; rather, it is very tender, stewed meat served atop Spätzle, or free-form German noodles, in broth. While everything tasted fine, I found the serving size of the meat to be a little small and the stewing liquid surrounding the Spätzle was very much that: liquid. I think perhaps I would have preferred the liquid to be thickened into more of a gravy.



Both entrees were accompanied by little bowls of clove-redolent red cabbage.

Both of us showed remarkable self-discipline and restraint and declined dessert. It's always a sacrifice to do that here, but I'm already wearing my "fat clothes," so it's a necessity.

Cafe Berlin is one of the few places I enjoy in the Capitol Hill-Union Station area. They do a great job of showing how German food need not be "heavy" and bland. I'm also pleased to see that they are staying busy and getting lots of mid-week diners, as by the time we were getting ready to leave, our dining room had filled up to the point that ambient crowd noise made it difficult to hear (of course, that was mainly due to a new table with three young married couples where the young women were "trying too hard" with their forced laughter at their husbands' lame jokes).

Ich bin ein Berliner!

Boys' night out at Annie's Steakhouse

Kam Fong Seafood Restaurant, Washington, D.C.

An unlikely quartet of us gathered in Chinatown Friday night as roommate Leo and I joined Robert and Jon after they called to invite us to come see the new Bed Bath and Beyond store. We found a nice place for dinner where Leo and I had not yet dined, and it turned out to be really good.

Kam Fong Seafood Restaurant is on Seventh Street, just north of the CVS Pharmacy across from the Chinatown Metro stop. A bakery and live seafood display (mostly lobsters and eels) occupies the outer lobby before diners go in to the main restaurant. Hong Kong native Leo was able to order for us in Cantonese.

Jon is a boring, unadventurous Georgia country boy, so he refused to eat "good" foods with the rest of us. He opted for a very Georgia meal of fried egg rolls with orange duck sauce, a won ton soup, and a plate of pork fried rice (fried rice is actually a snack or "junk food" in China, not a proper entree).



The rest of us enjoyed a fabulous repast personally selected by Leo. We started with a delicious cold sliced jellyfish on thinly sliced smoked pork knuckles, served with a hot pepper-spiced vinegar as a condiment sauce. I thought both were quite good, and Leo thought that it was quite authentic.



Next, the main courses began to arrive, starting with a large shrimp, pineapple, and walnut dish in a sweetened cream sauce served atop lettuce leaves. There was a big plate of beef satay with strips of green peppers and onions, and another big plate of roasted duck. Steamed white rice and a pot of hot tea were complimentary with the meal. Robert and Leo both also drank Tsing Tao beers.