Chevy's Fresh Mex, Arlington, Va. (Pentagon City)

My second mall meal this week was last night, when Robert and I went to Pentagon City, stopping off first to eat at Chevy's Fresh Mex.

Robert got the "Chevy's Super Cinco," an enormous platter of food that included a beef enchilada, chicken enchilada, pork tamale, beef taco, and cheese chile relleno. It's so much food, the chile relleno has to come on the side on its own plate. He also ordered (by accident) a small side of guacamole.



I had the Santa Fe chopped salad with chicken for dinner, and tried the waiter's recommended dressing, a vinaigrette made out of Chevy's salsa.



While I drank bunches and bunches of iced tea (I warned the waiter to bring a pitcher, but he didn't listen), Robert had dessert. He got the coconut cajeta. It was enormous! Using an oversized, heavy, margarita glass as a serving dish, they took vanilla ice cream balls and rolled them in toasted coconut, then drenched the ice cream in chocolate and caramel sauces and smothered in all in clouds of whipped cream. Then, they took little cinnamon cookies cut in the shape of saguaro cacti and inserted them in the top of the glass. It all looked very cute!

The Cheesecake Factory, McLean, Va.

We have lots and lots of shopping malls around here. It's not enough, though, for them to have just stores, they have to have things to entertain the shoppers, especially nice places to eat. I went to a couple of malls this past week.

Ian and I went to Tyson's Corner Galleria and Tyson's Corner Center in McLean, Va., Thursday. While we were at the Galleria, we ate at The Cheesecake Factory.

Ian started with a strawberry-banana daquiri and an order of their fried macaroni and cheese balls (which, Ian noted, were not made with macaroni, but with penne). For his main course, he had the spicy chicken chipotle pasta.




I had a sandwich they call "The Navajo." I ordered it not so much because I wanted it, but because I was curious. They were playing off the idea of some modern pow-wow food called a Navajo taco or an Indian taco, where a large, flat round of "fry bread" is covered with beans or chili and lettuce. Cheesecake Factory has made a large but very thin round of fry bread, then used it like pita to enclose a chicken breast, avocado, tomato, and lettuce. It was okay, though not the "authentic" Indian taste I was hoping for. It came with French fries.



Cheesecake Factory always serves enormous portions of food. Because of that, neither Ian nor I were hungry enough to order any dessert. Alas.

Eli's Restaurant, Washington, D.C.

In honor of Passover starting this weekend, for lunch today, I had a hot pastrami on rye sandwich at Eli's Restaurant, a place that is, to my knowledge, the only certified kosher restaurant in D.C. I started to have a big bowl of matzo ball soup, too, but I just wasn't that hungry....the sandwich and plate are somewhat bigger than they appear in the photo.

Hawk 'n' Dove, Washington, D.C.

After an afternoon at the Library of Congress, I stuck around long enough to meet Ian when he left his Capitol Hill office at six, and we walked up Pennsylvania Avenue to Hawk 'n' Dove, one of those old bars frequented by congressional staffers and interns, for happy hour and dinner.

Ian wasn't being very happy hour-ish, drinking only a single Coke. I had a glass of nasty cheap Miller Lite beer (but it only cost $2). My cheap beer entitled me to order a dozen chicken wings for only $2, so I did that. The chicken wings were done in a rather sweet sauce; I think it could have used a bit of spice and heat. Ian had one of their daily specials, a chicken tri-color tortellini alfredo. It also came with a side salad, though Ian had to ask the waiter to bring it after the pasta arrived, the waiter not yet having served it (Ian also had to go fetch his own silverware, since the waiter left the plate and ran off without having provided a fork).

The tables near us had two different waiters from ours. I saw our waiter taking care of a table on the patio as we left. What ever happened to the system of having a zone or section for a waiter to serve? Do all restaurants scatter their waiters around the dining room, bar, and patio these days? No wonder we can never find a waiter when we want one!

Before leaving, I made my way to their, um, rather "utilitarian" men's room, and was amused (given the clientele in this place, all dutifully serving us and going about the Nation's business) to find this on the wall:

This is the first time I've seen such a thing in D.C. I mean, after all, we don't have any truck stops here. I wonder if the machine gets much use? Was it installed in a Republican or a Democrat administration?

And not a McDonald's in sight....

Ian and I had a late "supper" last night in Columbia Heights at Pollo Campero, the Guatemalan fast food chain that has moved into the D.C. area and soon will be seen nationwide, as they recently signed a deal with Wal-Mart to do in-store chicken shops.

Ian had the Camperitos, their chicken strip plate, with fries and a biscuit. I had the Campero chicken bowl, a mix of rice and beans with sliced chicken strips on top, plus salsa and fresh chopped cilantro. They were fine for fast food.



Next, we went two doors down to Julia's Empanadas, sneaking in just as they were closing, to get a couple of dessert empanadas. Ian had strawberry and cream cheese and I had pear with almond paste. The dessert empanadas are very artistically done to look like a little pouch and they are tied at the top with string.

Rumberos Latinamerican Cuisine, Art, Bar, Washington, D.C.

After Mass yesterday, Laurent and I Metroed up to Tivoli Square, where he took me to a surprisingly delicious brunch at Rumberos Latinamerican Cuisine, Art, Bar. That mouthful of a name is what the restaurant calls itself. They have a lot of different Latin American art, from the serious to the folk to the social commentary to the religious all over the place, and they play Latin music on the sound system. It's a pretty and relaxing space, with wall colors in complementary darker hues of reds, oranges, and yellows.

The brunch menus were moderately priced; I didn't get a chance to look at a regular lunch or dinner menu.

Laurent and I both started with bloody Marys. I liked their bloody mix, though those who prefer hot and spicy might need a bit more fire. I was particularly happy to see them serving their drinks with the traditional celery stick, something that's often missing in D.C.

Food choices were interesting. Laurent picked the omelet rumba. In the typical Latin fashion, the egg isn't fluffy or puffy, but very flat like a tortilla made from egg. That egg wrapped and encased an unusual mixture of black beans, sausage, plantain, onions, peppers, and cheese. A small serving of home fries and a thin slice of melon completed the dish. Laurent liked it, though he (as usual) would have liked to have had more sausage in the meal.



I had the chivito Uruguayo, an interesting sandwich with steak, ham, egg, and cheese, and I certainly made up for Laurent's perceived sparcity of meat. I also got a small serving of potatoes, but no fruit with my sandwich. I found it quite filling and full of flavor.



Laurent wanted dessert. He ordered the peras al vino tinto, pears poached in port wine with vanilla ice cream and a scattering of chopped walnuts, and shared half with me. It was delicious! The chilled pear halves had a wonderful deep ruby coloring and the wine was delicately flavored with lemon and just a hint of cinnamon. This qualifies as the most interesting dessert I've had thus far in 2008.



We're very much looking forward to another trip to eat at Rumbero's.

Elephant and Castle Pub and Restaurant, Washington, D.C.

After our big afternoon playing tourist downtown Saturday, Robert and I were hungry. He didn't want to get something at the Cherry Blossom Festival and then stand around and gnaw on it, he wanted some place where he could actually sit down and eat. So, we were across the street from some Pennsylvania Avenue restaurants and went to one of the ones that had immediate seating. So long as we sat indoors and not on the patio outside, that made our early dinner location Elephant and Castle Pub and Restaurant.

One of about two dozen restaurants in a chain located mainly on the two national coasts and in Canada, Elephant and Castle is an upper mid-range theme restaurant in the British pub mold. They feature a number of U.K. beers on tap and have several Americanized British food choices, plus standard American bar-restaurant foods with a British theme. Decor is clubby but bright and open, with a preponderance of cricket prints throughout.

Robert ordered from the "pub classics" page, selecting a stuffed Yorkshire pudding with roast beef, caramelized onions, and gravy, served with mashed potatoes and green beans. He found it surprisingly good. He washed it down with a pint of Pilsner Urquell.



I had the Guinness meatloaf from the "dinner entrees" page. The plate consisted of two slices of meatloaf that had Guinness-spiked braised vegetables (carrots, onion, etc.) chopped and mixed in with the ground meat, then sauced with a mildly spiced barbecue sauce (I was expecting gravy, or at least that British classic, "brown sauce,"—think A-1 steak sauce, but with a tomato, date, and tamarind flavor) and a few cooked mushrooms, with a little ramekin of barbecue sauce on the side, plus a couple of scoops of some tasty garlic mashed potatoes with red skins and some green beans. I liked the meatloaf, though I think maybe the chopped vegetables could have been cooked a little longer.



For dessert, Robert had a lovely looking apple-berry crisp with vanilla ice cream. While what he was served was very good, he reported that there was no "crisp" to it, and he couldn't identify any kind of crust.



I had the bread pudding with golden raisins and a lightly Irish whiskey-spiked hard sauce. The piece I was served was huge—easily big enough for two servings—and tasted okay, but I thought it lacked any flavor outside of the raisins and the sauce. I also probably would have made it a little more custardy, especially since this is a "British" place.

Elephant and Castle Pub and Restaurant, Washington, D.C.

After our big afternoon playing tourist downtown Saturday, Robert and I were hungry. He didn't want to get something at the Cherry Blossom Festival and then stand around and gnaw on it, he wanted some place where he could actually sit down and eat. So, we were across the street from some Pennsylvania Avenue restaurants and went to one of the ones that had immediate seating. So long as we sat indoors and not on the patio outside, that made our early dinner location Elephant and Castle Pub and Restaurant.

One of about two dozen restaurants in a chain located mainly on the two national coasts and in Canada, Elephant and Castle is an upper mid-range theme restaurant in the British pub mold. They feature a number of U.K. beers on tap and have several Americanized British food choices, plus standard American bar-restaurant foods with a British theme. Decor is clubby but bright and open, with a preponderance of cricket prints throughout.

Robert ordered from the "pub classics" page, selecting a stuffed Yorkshire pudding with roast beef, caramelized onions, and gravy, served with mashed potatoes and green beans. He found it surprisingly good. He washed it down with a pint of Pilsner Urquell.



I had the Guinness meatloaf from the "dinner entrees" page. The plate consisted of two slices of meatloaf that had Guinness-spiked braised vegetables (carrots, onion, etc.) chopped and mixed in with the ground meat, then sauced with a mildly spiced barbecue sauce (I was expecting gravy, or at least that British classic, "brown sauce,"—think A-1 steak sauce, but with a tomato, date, and tamarind flavor) and a few cooked mushrooms, with a little ramekin of barbecue sauce on the side, plus a couple of scoops of some tasty garlic mashed potatoes with red skins and some green beans. I liked the meatloaf, though I think maybe the chopped vegetables could have been cooked a little longer.



For dessert, Robert had a lovely looking apple-berry crisp with vanilla ice cream. While what he was served was very good, he reported that there was no "crisp" to it, and he couldn't identify any kind of crust.



I had the bread pudding with golden raisins and a lightly Irish whiskey-spiked hard sauce. The piece I was served was huge—easily big enough for two servings—and tasted okay, but I thought it lacked any flavor outside of the raisins and the sauce. I also probably would have made it a little more custardy, especially since this is a "British" place.

Cherry Blossom Festival

Well, the cherry trees around the Tidal Basin were in full bloom the end of last month, and most of the petals have pretty much fallen off by now, but yesterday morning was the Cherry Blossom Festival Parade followed by the street festival that blocked off several blocks of Pennsylvania Avenue near the White House and a few adjacent streets. Robert and I happened upon the street festival by accident, having espied it from atop the new Newseum on the Capitol end of Penn, so we walked the nearly-mile down the street to see what it was. After all, the one thing these street festivals usually have is fun and interesting food!

They had Japanese bands playing animé music, some traditional cultural groups, and various forms of martial artists performing on four or five big stages around the area. One large tent was devoted to playing video games. There was a huge section of food booths and two large beer gardens, plus a block or so of various booths with organizations, information, and the occasional merchandise vendor. Lots of obviously not Asian people were running around in geis, kimonos, and Japanese themed t-shirts, while most of the people who looked Asian were in American clothes or Western European techno clothes. It seemed fun, but it had been a long day and we didn't stay long. I snapped a few pictures just cause.

El Sol de America, Washington, D.C.

Last night, Laurent and I went to that place on U Street Robert and I discovered the other day, El Sol de America. Too bad it's in such an out of the way location, cause I like the place a lot.

We had a bit of a false start, however, as both of us ordered iced tea. What they brought had been made in the coffee pot (it's a short cut to use the hot water from the coffee maker), and I could distinctly taste the coffee in the tea. I mentioned it to the waiter and he denied it; he brought me a Diet Coke in replacement, though, and I noticed him talking to other staff members about the problem. When Laurent got a refill of tea some time later, he said that they'd made a new batch and it no longer tasted of coffee.

We started with a plate of three pupusas, one queso (cheese, the white Salvadorean kind), one revueltas (mixed cheese and pork), and one loroco (loroco is a flower native to El Salvador, and the buds are chopped and mixed with cheese for the pupusas). I thought the pupusas were quite good. They brought us two tiny containers of chopped up pickled cabbage to go with them, and I thought it lacked the character and "authenticity" of the big shreds of cabbage I usually get at the more ethnic pupeserias.

Laurent got a burro for his main course. It was filled with lots of grilled steak, plus rice, black beans, and some lettuce. He liked it and found it quite filling.



I had a pork chimichanga. They grill their chimichangas here instead of deep-frying them. It was topped with guacamole, sour cream, lettuce, and pico de gallo, and little sides of black beans and cilantro rice accompanied the plate. I thought the beans were a little on the bland side, but the cilantro rice was very interesting and vibrant.



Laurent wanted dessert. He got the tres leches cake, it looked yummy, and he liked it a lot. I got a flan.

Alero Restaurant, Washington, D.C.

The other night, Ian and I were on Dupont Circle and he wanted to go to Alero for dinner. It was quick and simple. Ian had a chicken chimichanga, bare (though I talked the waiter into bringing me his guacamole). I had the chicken tamales, which were okay but not terribly interesting.

Gloria's Pupeseria, Washington, D.C.

Continuing my exploration of restaurants around the new Target store, tonight I visited Gloria's Pupeseria, a tiny Salvadorean place with a brisk Latino business. This is truly one of those local gems for those who like Salvadorean food, and, at very, very cheap prices, too. I've been twice now, both times being the only non-Latino in the place. Good thing I can still recall some of my rudimentary high school Spanish.

Being a Salvadorean place, they specialize in pupusas, little, round, fried, cornmeal cakes stuffed with cheese or with a mixture of pork and cheese. I got a couple of pupusas revueltas, the mixed kind. They came with the traditional accompaniment of shredded, pickled cabbage and tomato sauce, which is eaten as a part of the pupusa.



I also had a tasty and really big plate of chicharrones con yuca, fried bits of pork ribs with a huge serving of big sticks of deep-fried yucca. Yucca isn't the ornamental, spiky-leaved desert plant popular in many landscapes, but a big, starchy root that is used much like potatoes in many Carribbean and Central American cuisines. The plate also had another serving of the pickled cabbage.

Whitlow's on Wilson, Arlington, Va.

It was half price burger night last night at Whitlow's on Wilson in Arlington just down the street from the Georgetown Clarendon campus, so that's where Kevin and I went for a quick dinner before racing home to watch the Kansas basketball game.

We looked at the full menu, but ended up with burgers anyway. Kevin had "The Yodeler," a burger with Swiss cheese and sauteed mushrooms. I got a regular cheeseburger, though with blue cheese. Both burgers came with really good battered French fries and a pickle spear.




Kevin wanted dessert afterwards, so he ordered a bread pudding. It came with vanilla ice cream, and it was garnished with a little whipped cream and drizzles of honey. I had a couple of bites and it was good as usual.

Ledo Pizza, Washington, D.C.

Last night, Robert invited me up to his place in Tacoma for a visit. We walked over to the Georgia Avenue commercial strip, where he took me to dinner at Ledo Pizza.

Ledo is an 80 restaurant chain of derivative pizzerias located mostly along the mid-Atlantic coast. Maryland and Virginia are full of them, but I've never gone to one before. This particular store is in a former Pizza Hut. The menu also includes pasta entrees, calzone, sandwiches, and salads, in addition to a wide variety of available interesting pizza toppings.

We had a medium pepperoni pizza. The pizzas at Ledo are all rectangular, instead of round. They arrive at the table on rounded-corner plastic trays reminiscent of cafeteria trays. Our pizza was neatly cut into twenty square pieces, with a rather thick slice of pepperoni centered in each piece. I found the pizza to be quite pleasant. They use a fairly sweet tomato sauce, and the crust was flavorful and quite good. We split the pizza, and I was stuffed after eating my half. It was good and economical, too—even with soft drinks, the bill was only $12 for the two of us. I'll be looking forward to trying more flavors on future visits.

After leaving the pizzeria, we walked on up Georgia Avenue, crossing the Maryland line, so Robert could buy some beer and pastries at a Hispanic grocery store. The store had a food counter and a full bakery with a number of interesting Latin American confections, and he says he frequents the place. I'm not quite sure what it's called; the Spanish sign in the window translated merely into "Latin American market."

Florida Avenue Grill, Washington, D.C.

There is an old restaurant just above the U Street Corridor that has been open since the days of the Roosevelt Administration that many consider to be a Washington institution called the Florida Avenue Grill. Saturday afternoon I happened upon it, so I decided to try the place.

It's a very old, small restaurant dominated by a long counter with round, spinning stools affording views of the short order grill. A few booths line the opposite wall along the windows. Photographs of famous patrons and visitors cover the walls. It was mid-afternoon, and yet the place was packed with loud and happy diners, and I just did squeeze onto a stool at the counter. They had a lot of staff, many rather elderly, and I noted from plaques on the wall that a decade ago, several of them had been recognized for over twenty years of service.

The cuisine here can best be described as "soul food" or "Southern cooking," so I ordered the fried chicken platter for $9.95. My waiter brought me two cornbread muffins to start. They were good, though I was surprised how sweet they were. I got a leg quarter that had been fried, but it had been held after cooking, so the limited breading on the chicken was soft from the steam table. For my two side dishes, I got the "fresh cabbage" and the macaroni and cheese. The cabbage had been cooked for such a long time, the pieces were about to fall apart on the fork; it lacked any particular flavor, even when I was searching for hints of butter or maybe a ham hock. The macaroni and cheese was cold and overcooked, both in terms of the pasta internally and the undesirable dry crunchiness of much of the surface. It, too, lacked any real flavor or sense of cheesiness. There was nothing outstanding or even remotely interesting about any of the food. It was, really, a very disappointing meal.

What concerned me more, though, was that from my perch at the counter, I was able to watch a lot of the food preparation going on, and quite a number of their practices caused me to raise an eyebrow, remembering usual food service and health code standards. I watched a cook from the kitchen bring out a big pan of biscuits in one hand and a handful of more biscuits in the other, resting both against the top of her dress as she walked out. I saw the grill that looked like it hadn't been scrubbed down in years. I watched many of the staff grabbing glasses and dipping them into a crushed ice bin to prepare drinks for patrons, with no ice scoops or gloves or hand-washing apparent. I saw many of the waiters going to a common steam table with side dishes and, again with no hand washing, dip out and serve food, oftentimes with the same spoon between dishes. And, all this time, I saw the waiters handling money, wiping down tables, and clearing dishes, again with no gloves or hand-washing in between. In addition to that, judging from the tepid temperatures of my food, I'm not convinced that their steam table keeps cold foods cold and hot foods hot, and I've no idea how long that food has set out.

After I got home, I checked some of the reviews about Florida Avenue Grill, and I am perplexed. Many people rave about the food—and the place certainly had lots of business while I was there. Many also recommend the breakfast foods. None of these were my experience. Perhaps if I ever go again (blindfolded, so I can't see their sanitary practices), I'll try breakfast. But, the question is, will I ever go again?

Tastee Diner, Silver Spring, Md.

It was a rainy, chilly night Friday when Ian, Robert, and I went up to Silver Spring for the evening. Ian had some shopping to tend to, so we tagged along to watch. Then, once the stores closed, we walked over to the Silver Spring location of Tastee Diner. We've been to the Bethesda location many times, but never before to Silver Spring. While relocated, the Silver Spring location is the original store in their three store chain, and it's quite a bit bigger than Bethesda.

Ian and Robert started with appetizers. Ian got a plate of fried green beans (this seems to be a new restaurant trend, especially since T.G.I.Friday started featuring them) with dipping sauces of Ranch dressing and a spicy Ranch. I sampled a few and they were pretty tasty.



Robert got a plate of chicken wings; he was not impressed. When he ordered, the waitress specifically asked if he wanted the sauce on the wings or on the side; he said on the wings; she brought it on the side.



I abstained from an appetizer because of the entree I ordered: smothered chicken. Two big, fried chicken breasts were covered in grilled onion and mushrooms, and then covered with melted cheeses. They were quite tasty! But, with all those fat grams, they should have been. A side of cole slaw and mashed potatoes and gravy came with the meal. I'd specifically asked the waitress for white gravy on the potatoes and she brought brown instead; I sent the potatoes back and she brought the proper item. One would think that it would be common knowledge that brown gravy goes with beef and white gravy with chicken.



Robert had a bacon cheeseburger that he said was good.



Ian just ordered a bowl of chicken noodle soup. By the time we all had finished and were ready for dessert, though, he decided he was still hungry and ordered a fried egg sandwich.




Meanwhile, the waitress brought dessert for Robert and me. He had the cherry pie à la mode. This is, alas, not one of those diners that specializes in pies like many of the places I like in small town Oklahoma, but Robert was able to eat all he was served (he thought the serving size "small").



I had a piece of chocolate cake with ice cream. I was expecting a layer cake, but they served thick pieces of sheet cake with a light chocolate glaze on top.


After we were all finished, Ian ordered his dessert, getting the rice pudding. It looked pretty good, although I didn't try it.