Restaurant El Tamarindo, Washington, D.C.

Finally, at long, long last, the Democrats finished their presidential primaries last night. Robert, Ian, and I gathered at the Restaurant El Tamarindo in Adams-Morgan ('twas my first trip to the Adams-Morgan site, and I like it a lot better than the one in Tacoma) as the polls closed, to eat, drink, and watch the returns come in. This was the night of the major thunderstorms and torrential downpours that struck D.C., and I believe it took such a heavy, heavy rainfall to wash away the stench of the primary electoral process.

We picked a Hispanic restaurant, because how the Hispanic vote goes in November is most likely going to decide the election between Obama and McCain.

After we took command of the television in the main dining room, forcing one of the staff members to turn off her Mexican soap operas so we could turn to CNN, Robert and Ian split a pitcher of strawberry margaritas. I drank iced tea all night.

For food, Ian got a bare chicken burrito with rice and beans. Robert got the carnitas (pork) chimichanga garnished with three huge dollops of sour cream, accompanied by rice and salad. I assume they were good, since they both cleaned their plates.



I had the sopa de res, a surprisingly delicious beef stew with big chunks of beef, vegetables, and plantain in it; I'd definitely order it again. It came with lime wedges and a Salvadorean style tortilla, which is thicker and smaller in diameter than the usual Mexican types.


For dessert, we all split a single piece of tres leches cake, and it was so good, I'd like to have had a piece all to myself.



After the speeches, we paid our bill and parted ways, venturing out into the still-heavy rains.

American City Diner, Washington, D.C.

Monday night, we wandered over to American City Diner in Friendship Heights after Ian served as the official scorekeeper for some big congressional softball game. Last time we were there, Ian just raved about the chicken noodle soup. He got that again, and, just to see what the excitement was, I got the chicken matzo ball soup. As I suspected, we had the same soup, only mine had this tennis ball sized matzo ball plopped down in the middle of it. The chicken soup was okay, but not orgasmic. The matzo ball I found a bit dry (though that's rather traditional). It was certainly hearty, though.


For our main courses, Ian had a grilled cheese sandwich and fries. He chose the provolone cheese. Oh, he had a little side salad, too, that I phorgot to photograph. With his "special orders," the salad ended up being a bowl of romaine with a little cup of shredded [parmesan??] cheese on the side, and no dressing or croutons.


I got the chicken liver platter with fries, and it was pretty good. It came with mashed potatoes and green beans. The only problem with the mashed potatoes at this place is that they fix them so that if they have Jewish patrons trying to eat quasi-kosher, so there is no dairy in the potatoes; when I fix mashed potatoes, I melt a stick of butter in a half pint of cream and mix that into the potatoes. But, then, I'm not Jewish.



Alas, we had no room left for dessert!

The Diner, Washington, D.C.

We visited a couple of old standby diners this past week. Late night, of course. It's always late night.

Sunday we hit The Diner in Adams-Morgan (24 hours, remember?). Ian had a bowl of the soup du jour, a chicken and rice. He didn't finish it, so I don't think he liked it; it looked interesting to me, though, with nice, big pieces of vegetables and chicken breast.


I had a plate of French fries with gravy. They were okay, but I didn't like the gravy. It was sort of an insipid, non-descript, brownish stuff. I prefer milk gravy on fries, but a nice, hearty beef gravy can be good, too.

Return

After a week away in the "wilderness," upon my return to Washington last weekend, guess where Ian took me to eat?

Rib Crib, Bartlesville, Okla.

Our second dining excursion was on my last night in town, when we all went to the local store of the regional chain barbeque joint, Rib Crib. May was "all-you-can-eat-ribs month," so I took advantage of the opportunity. They've added a new sauce to their usual mild and hot choices. The new sauce is a Carolina style mustard and vinegar sauce that I didn't like at all.

Anyway, the food came. My dad got the chopped beef brisket plate, with a big house salad and a bowl of baked beans as his side dishes, plus a dill pickle spear and some white bread.



My mother and I both got the ribs. I picked fried okra and potato salad for my sides, plus it came with Texas toast, onion, and a pepperoncini pepper. My mother got okra and cole slaw.

I ordered unsweetened iced tea with dinner. The refills, though, as typically happens in the South, were sweetened tea, as waitresses passing by with tea pitchers routinely fill any empty glasses they see, and they usually are carrying sweet tea.

And, of course, since it was all-you-can-eat, I had to have rib refills. The first refill plate was a little anemic, but the waitress made up for it on the second refill. The ribs were pretty good, with a nice spicy rub on them. I usually prefer beef ribs, but I thought the pork ribs acquitted themselves pretty well.

La Tapenade Mediterranean Café, Chicago, Ill.

On a recent return flight through O'Hare Airport in Chicago, I found a place I suspect is a little more on the chain side, or at least soon to be, than local mom and pop eatery. La Tapenade Mediterranean Café is a brand-new place (as in, I was there the first week they were open) that was developed exclusively for the airport by HMSHost, the international commercial caterers formerly known as Marriott Host Services. I suspect that as it becomes successful and they analyze the diner trends, the concept will be exported to other large airports throughout the country.

I got a turkey berry panino with turkey, feta cheese, grilled zucchini, and a berry mayonnaise. It was actually really good. It came with a rather confusingly little container of hummus dip, and I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do with it. There were no chips or pieces of pita bread, so, being too lazy to get up and go over to get a fork, I merely lapped it up from the container with my tongue in between bites of sandwich.

We'll have to teach HMSHost some Italian......when I ordered a "panino," the person selling/serving the sandwich said, "You'd like the panini?" I responded, "One is enough," but clearly my understanding of Italian plurals was lost on her. If I remember, I'll try to write HMSHost—after all, they are headquartered just around the corner here in Bethesda.

Rib Crib, Bartlesville, Okla.

Our second dining excursion was on my last night in town, when we all went to the local store of the regional chain barbeque joint, Rib Crib. May was "all-you-can-eat-ribs month," so I took advantage of the opportunity. They've added a new sauce to their usual mild and hot choices. The new sauce is a Carolina style mustard and vinegar sauce that I didn't like at all.

Anyway, the food came. My dad got the chopped beef brisket plate, with a big house salad and a bowl of baked beans as his side dishes, plus a dill pickle spear and some white bread.



My mother and I both got the ribs. I picked fried okra and potato salad for my sides, plus it came with Texas toast, onion, and a pepperoncini pepper. My mother got okra and cole slaw.

I ordered unsweetened iced tea with dinner. The refills, though, as typically happens in the South, were sweetened tea, as waitresses passing by with tea pitchers routinely fill any empty glasses they see, and they usually are carrying sweet tea.

And, of course, since it was all-you-can-eat, I had to have rib refills. The first refill plate was a little anemic, but the waitress made up for it on the second refill. The ribs were pretty good, with a nice spicy rub on them. I usually prefer beef ribs, but I thought the pork ribs acquitted themselves pretty well.

Ocean China, Bartlesville, Okla,

During my recent family visit to Bartlesville, Okla., we only got out twice to eat at local restaurants. There's one new place in town, opened in the location of one place that moved to another address, but we never got around to going there. So, we went to places I've been before; not much has changed.

One evening, my mother and I went to Ocean China, a Chinese place across the street from the hospital. With an expansion into the adjacent space in their strip center building, the dining room has a calm but modern look now. Wall niches allow them to display some Chinese vases and art, improving their theme ambiance.

They offered a "family dinner" for two with soup, appetizers, and main dishes for a price cheaper than what I'm used to paying for just a main dish in D.C., so we go that, since it seemed like a great deal. My mother got the egg drop soup and I got the hot and sour soup.


Then, for appetizers, we each got plates with a little fried spring roll and a large crab rangoon.


For our main courses, we shared a platter of a rather mild but flavorful Hunan chicken and a platter of shrimp with vegetables. The shrimp was okay, but it seemed to me as though it was frozen shrimp. The dishes came with individual bowls of rice.



As is traditional in Oklahoma, with the check, they brought fortune cookies and wedges of fresh oranges.

Iron Skillet, Joplin, Mo.

After making the rounds on Memorial Day visiting our various family cemeteries, we stopped at the Iron Skillet, a truck stop in Joplin long known for their good food. Sadly, the food quality has declined considerably, and even my mother thought the food was just so-so.

We started with their soup and salad bar. It's large, but all very basic stuff. They have the nice tradition, though, of using an ice cream freezer to store the metal skillet-shaped plates so they are icy cold and don't wilt the diners' gourmet iceberg lettuce. My mother also got a bowl of their turkey noodle soup.



For her main course, my mother got the grilled calf's liver and onions. There was an ample serving of liver, though I thought the slices were very thin (only a problem because that leads to over cooking and toughness) and quite a mound of grilled onions on top. They rested beside a huge mountain of mashed potatoes, and the entire dish was drenched in brown gravy.


I had the smothered pork chops. My two pork chops were covered with grilled onions and sauteed mushrooms, came with mashed potatoes, and, like the liver, was well lubricated with brown gravy. It was, unfortunately, a commercial mix gravy, and they used a little too much base, because it had a slightly bitter taste to it. The potatoes were lumpy and lacked flavor—salt, butter, cream, something, was needed.


We wanted to have some blackberry cobbler with vanilla ice cream, but we were both too full to order, even one to split.

Skybridge Restaurant and Bar, Chicago, Ill.

O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, being a particularly large airport, has a lot of food options, primarily "express" versions of national chains. They do, however, have a few local establishments, and I always try to search them out. On a recent trip through there, I discovered a sort of simple, non-flashy hamburger grill counter called the Skybridge Restaurant and Bar that also happened to have a number of Greek items on their menu. I ordered their gyros platter and got a more-than-ample serving of gyros meat (a beef and lamb blend) that was tasty and juicy, though a bit too salty for my preference, accompanied by a container of yogurt sauce, a little serving of iceberg lettuce salad, some French fries, and a pita-like piece of flatbread that was warm and particularly good. I'm not sure how authentically Greek the food is, since I noticed the wait- and cook-staff was communicating in Spanish.

Tastee Diner, Bethesda, Md.

Dinner tonight.

Nationals Park, Washington, D.C.

Last night we went to the new Nationals Park to see the Nationals v. Phillies game. This was also my first chance to see the new baseball stadium paid for with our tax dollars. It's a nice enough place, but I really have to say I don't see what was wrong with the old venue at RFK Stadium farther down the river to the east, especially given the public funding of both sites.

As expected, one of the highlights was the plethora of dining opportunities presented by the new facility. This is one area where there does seem to be some improvement over the RFK Stadium, as there are quite a few more interesting places to eat, including branch locations of places like Ben's Chili Bowl and Georgetown Cafe. The prices seems to be equally exorbitantly high here as they were at RFK: big sandwiches go for around $8.50; baskets for $9.50; small crabcakes for $12.50, soft drinks for $5.50; beers for $7.50.

When I was walking to the stadium from the Metro stop, knowing I was there before Ian had left his Capitol Hill office, I found this comely young blonde woman at a street vendor's cart outside the stadium selling, interestingly enough, Mexican/Hispanic food, including several types of empanadas. Once I heard the description of the various meat pies, I asked if they were from Julia's Empanadas; she didn't know, but another man in her group did and confirmed the source. I don't know where the rest of the food came from. So, I got a turkey and green onion empanada, which you can see in the picture.

Once Ian arrived and we were inside the stadium, he waned dinner. We walked all over the place, both as a means of seeing the new stadium and to check out the food possibilities. On the main ground level, there are a number of big, "name" restaurants. The second level is mostly private clubs and suites. On the upper two levels, they have a finite number of restaurant counters and carts that are repeated over and over not only on each level but multiple times on each level. And, as is traditional in baseball stadiums, there were a number of vendors walking through the seating areas making sales, but the only ones I saw had just cotton candy or beers—no hot dogs or peanuts.

Ian found a counter selling a chicken tenders basket. The chicken actually looked pretty good, seeming much more appetizing than the fried-to-death, heavily breaded things often seen in such settings.


I went to a cart and got a Philadelphia cheesesteak sandwich (with no secret political message or team favoritism whatsoever). It was quite big and filling, with ample meat mixed with grilled bell peppers and onions and the whole thing drenched in Cheese Whiz; my only complaint was that as I finally unburied and found the bun, it was quite soaked with cooking oils from the meat and vegetables. It tasted good, though.


On our ways home, we walked by a Wendy's about a block or so north of the stadium. Ian wanted a Frosty. The Wendy's, though, was closed! They close their dining room—even on baseball performance nights—at 10 p.m., and they were losing business from dozens of potential customers. A little farther north, though, was an open McDonald's where people were having to go, and they were doing a booming business with people standing in lines. Alas, the service left a lot to be desired and the men's room smelled of stale urinal, but Ian was able to get his milkshake.

Plato's Diner, College Park, Md.

Kevin made me go up to College Park tonight to join him for dinner. He's still in the midst of grading his papers at the university there and needed a break, but not so long of a break as it would take to come down into the District. He met me at the Metro stop and we drove to the nearby Plato's Diner for our meal. The town was interestingly quiet, as students are finishing up finals there.

Plato's is one of the few places to eat in College Park. Obviously, Kevin goes there way too much, because when we walked in, it seemed as though the entire staff knew him! We were escorted to a nice corner booth and soon were greeted by our very chatty waitress.

Kevin had his usual food there, a big Greek salad. As with many of the diners and "home cooking" casual restaurants in the metropolitan area, Plato's is owned by a Greek family.


I ordered the North Carolina pulled pork platter. The waitress soon came back to tell us they were out of pork. So, I decided to get the roast turkey platter. They were out of that, too. So, I decided to get the white lasagna [sic]. And, they were out of that, too. So, I just got a patty melt and fries. They had that. And it was good.....though I was still a little disappointed I couldn't get one of the blue plates I wanted.


One of the highlights of Plato's is their dessert selection. Large refrigerated cases are near the entry, warning customers to save room for the enticing confections. Forgoing my usual preference for cream pies and fruit cobblers, I went for flash and got the strawberry cake, a big slice of three-layer white cake with sliced strawberries in between the layers, frosted with thick walls of meringue icing, and topped with a great big, ripe, red strawberry enrobed in some strawberry glaze. Kevin had his usual, a nice looking slice of apple pie.



Now, Kevin's back at his work, "bleeding" all over his students's essays......or at least he's supposed to be, if he didn't go home and fall asleep after all that dinner!

American City Diner, Washington, D.C.

Ian and I made a sort of last-minute dash to the Friendship Heights area last night for dinner just before American CIty Diner closed down serving their entrees and blue plates at 11 p.m. American City Diner is an interesting place, using the 50s diner theme, but also showing classic movies every night.

Ian got a Caesar salad and a bowl of chicken noodle soup (the soup of the day). He raved about the soup, thinking it had a rich, almost buttery taste. I sampled a spoonful of broth and it was redolent with well-flavored chicken fat. I noticed on the menu that chicken matzo ball soup is a regular menu item, so I think they make their chicken noodle in the Jewish tradition.



I had the liver and onions. It was, alas, disappointing. The very thin slice of liver was overcooked and reminded me a bit of liver-flavored shoe leather. Their version is topped both with grilled onions and with brown gravy. Accompanying the liver were some tasty mashed potatoes and gravy and some nice, long green beans. Ian was not pleased with my liver and onions either. He declared it "disgusting" and lined up all the napkin holders, condiments, and spare glasses to form a barricade down the middle of the table lest he have to look at it. I don't think he likes liver.


We split a slice of New York-style cheesecake for dessert. It tasted fine, but the serving size seemed a bit small for the price. The dessert choices were rather limited, but Ian ordered the cheesecake before I'd decided what I wanted.


Diners are always fun places for a good, basic, inexpensive dinner. I was disappointed with American City last night, though, not only because my entree was not well cooked, but because we found the meal to be just as expensive as the standard mid-range national franchise restaurants. We were also a bit put-off by their drink policy. Ian's Coke was $2.75 and my iced tea was $2.25; the menu makes a big deal about pointing out that they only offer one free refill with the drinks.....and we aren't talking about large glasses here! That's just not very "diner" in my mind.

Rumberos, Washington, D.C.

I had every intention of going to the baccalaureate Mass at Georgetown yesterday morning. I woke to the steady pitter-patter of yet more rain, though, so I stayed home.

Eventually, though, I ended up braving the drizzle and going to brunch with next-door neighbor David to Rumberos in Tivoli Square.

David had the seafood soup and a small ensalada de pollo. The soup was beautiful and he commented that it was very good; it was packed with shrimp, squid, scallops, cilantro, and avocado in a rich, tomatoey broth.


The salad came pre-tossed in a mayonnaise-type dressing with little bits of pulled chicken scattered throughout.


I had the huevos con chorizito, or two fried eggs with little chorizo sausage. The chorizo was good, but it was tiny and I would have liked to have had two of them instead of just the one. Caramelized purple onions topped the sausage. The dish came with fried potatoes plus a mild pico de gallo, sour cream, and avocado slices.