Winter 2013 Restaurant Week

I almost missed Restaurant Week this time around.  Honestly, I had given up on it, since it is usually in January.  Fortunately, there was a flyer in the elevator at work on Thursday and I was able to find us a last minute reservation for early dinner on Saturday.

I picked Evo Bistro in McLean.  The restaurant was not what I would have expected at all judging from the outside.  It's in a small strip mall and completely unassuming.  I liked this restaurant because they listed their Restaurant Week menu on their website.  I need to know that there will be something I will eat among the selections.  It was small and busy but with a casual atmosphere that I wasn't expecting from the website.  We will have to go back some time when I can try the wine list, which looked very nice.

For appetizers, we ordered the grilled artichokes with jalapeno aioli and the shrimp and grits.  Both dishes had some zing, but in completely different ways.  The aioli gave a bite and creaminess to the artichokes that they don't have on their own.  The chorizo in the shrimp and grits was spicy without being hot.

 

For the entree, Jim chose the sausage wrapped venison with parnips, swiss chard and cranberries.  I picked the Chilean sea bass with Swiss chard, caramelized salsify and spicy tomato sauce.  The fish was cooked perfectly and the Swiss chard was a nice counterpoint to the mild fish.  I had a bite of the venison, which I had not tried before.  It was much more tender than I expected it to be.

 

For dessert, we had the seasonal crumble, which was apple and date and the seasonal creme brulee, which was cranberry.

Summer Restaurant Week 2012

Saturday was the last day of Restaurant Week for this summer.  I was so excited that my sister was going to be here to experience it.  Plus, with three people, we get to try even more great dishes.  If you haven't been before, 200+ restaurants in D.C. offer a prix fixe three course menu for $20.12 for lunch or $35.12 for dinner.  It's a great chance to eat at some fabulous places that we wouldn't go to otherwise. 

This time we tried District Commons, which is located right at the Foggy Bottom metro stop and is owned by the same restaurant group that operates Acadiana, D.C. Coast and Passion Fish.  I love to go to restaurants in this group because most of the restaurants that participate in the Restaurant Week give you a limited number of choices for your meal, but Passion Food Group lets you choose any entree on their menu. 

Appetizers:   For our first courses we had Texas Chili (Jim), Mixed Greens Salad (Sara) and Seafood Chowder.  Jim's chili came with this adorable star shaped cornbread and my soup had Hidden Valley Ranch oyster crackers.  The salad had excellent deviled eggs with pralined bacon. 

Entrees:  Jim ordered the Pork Rack Chop “Blue Ribbon” with Benton Ham, Mozzarella, Eggplant Chow Chow and a Jonnycake.  My sister ordered the Roasted Duck “Low & Slow” with a sorghum chili glaze and Wild Rice-Sweet Potato Hash.  I ordered the North Carolina Mountain Trout with Broccolini, Pine Nuts, Citrus Burnt Butter, because I can never say no to trout when I see it on the menu. 

Dessert:  Honestly, I'm surprised we had any room left for dessert at this point, but we had the Boston Creme Pie, Peach and Mango Sundae and the Chocolate Raspberry cake.

Three Course Bacon Dinner

Have I mentioned before how much I love D.C. Restaurant Week? I'm pretty sure I have. Tonight we went to dinner at Restaurant 3 in Clarendon. A quick explanation of Restaurant Week - you get a three-course lunch for $20.12 or dinner for $35.12 (the cents change with the year). It gives us the chance to eat at some very nice restaurants that we would otherwise never go to. I picked this restaurant because I looked a their menu and over half of the options, including dessert, involve bacon.

Appetizers: I ordered the Low Country Mussels, which were steamed in beer with leeks and bacon. I don't know why I avoided mussels for the longest time, because they are delicious and these were no exception. The broth was very flavorful with the smokey bacon and tang of the beer. Jim had the Fried Green Tomatoes, with goat cheese and a green tomato relish. This was his first time trying fried green tomatoes and these were very good. The crust was nice and crisp and the goat cheese made a nice contrast.



Entrees: Continuing my bacon themed dinner, I ordered the BBQ Shrimp and Grits. I've found that in Northern Virginia grits are a hit or miss proposition. These were done well, not sticky and not too thin, with the nice addition of asiago cheese. The shrimp were nicely flavored and the whole dish was topped with house cured bacon, caramelized shallots, tomatoes and BBQ sauce. I thought the sauce was a little strange at first, but the sweetness was a nice counterpoint. Jim had the Duck Breast, which was served on a sweet potato and duck hash (divine) with a pomegranate glaze. I've only had duck breast once before this, but I thought it was good, but the skin could have been crisper.



And, finally, Dessert: To round out my bacon dinner, I ordered the Bacon Studded Waffle with Maple Bacon Ice Cream and caramel sauce. I think that I am not a fan of bacon in dessert. Although the waffle was crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside, I couldn't taste the bacon in it. I could taste it in the ice cream, but not the maple. Over all, I'd say it was just so-so. The other dessert was Chocolate Bread Pudding with a white chocolate sauce, which was also just so-so. It was moist and dense, but nothing outstanding.

Viva, Las Vegas

This year was our first Christmas without my Mom. My sister and I were kind of at a loss as to what to do, since we usually spent the holiday at home. We were tossing around ideas and decided to do something completely different, so we went to Las Vegas.

We flew out on Christmas Day and had three hour layover in Milwaukee. We were really lucky that the weather was mild (we were worried that we would get stuck there with snow) and even more lucky that a friend of mine was able to come out the airport to meet us and let me monopolize her baby.

We got in very late on Sunday night and had Christmas with my sister and room service. We stayed at Treasure Island. She had been in Vegas for about 8 hours already and had done all kinds of reconnaissance for us. Then we crashed.

Monday morning, Jim and I went on a tour of Hoover Dam. This was really an amazing sight. The construction process and how they had to divert the Colorado River is just a marvel. We took the tour of the power plant and got to go 540 feet down into the dam. On the way back, we stopped at Ethel M Chocolates (the M is the Mars candy people). Unfortunately they weren't making candy because of the holiday, but we still got a sample and bought some chocolates.

Monday night, we had a fantastic dinner at StripSteak in the Mandalay Bay casino. Big thanks to whichever friend it was that mentioned the Black Friday deal on Restaurant.com, because we never would have eaten there otherwise. They brought us an amuse of duck fat fried potatoes with matching dipping sauces and Sara ordered the bacon lobster fritters appetizer. Jim had the biggest slab of steak I've seen in a long time. I had the loup du mer (sea bass) and my sister had an absolutely divine waygu rib cap steak that melted in your mouth. We all shared a side of bacon creamed spinach and scalloped potatoes.

Tomorrow, I'll tell you about Tuesday.

"Hello, Cleveland!"*

Way back in September, my best friend (wave hi Christine) called me up and said, "If I buy tickets to see Duran Duran four days after your birthday, will you come visit me?" Um, hellz yeah, sign me up! [n.b. We saw them play twice in 1988/89 in Atlanta and I haven't seen them since.]

I flew out to Cleveland on Wednesday afternoon before the show that evening. It was my first time flying Southwest, which is a little interesting. It was my first time at BWI airport, too. I'm not a fan - it's very difficult to find a bathroom there. The flight itself was short and easy, even though we were delayed nearly an hour taking off. Not really a fan of Cleveland's airport either; I swear there is not an arrivals/departures board anywhere in the airport.

For dinner before the show, we went to Bricco, which is directly across the street from the theatre. We had an appetizer of goat cheese in spicy marinara with fried pita and the bartender recommend a great wheat beer (Weihenstephaner) to me. I had the risotto for my entree and my friend had the parmesan crusted tilapia. All of it was great. Then we headed across the street.

The band was playing at Playhouse Square, in the State Theatre. Playhouse Square is the largest performing arts complex outside of New York City, with eight stages, 1000+ performances a year and over 1,000,000 visitors. The State Theater was built in the 1920s as a movie house and is the largest of the theatres at Playhouse Square. We got to our seats just in time to catch the end of the opening act, a band I have never heard of and that wasn't really my style. Duran Duran, on the other hand, is just my style and they sounded exactly the same as they did in the 80s. They played a great mix of their older hits and newer songs.

The next day, we went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. after lunch at Great Lakes Brewing Company. There are a lot of microbreweries in Cleveland and I think I had more beer while I was there than have all year (I tried the Dortmunder Gold, to go with my bratwurst and pierogis. We were in the museum for about four hours and seriously could have spent another two hours. They have thousands and thousand of pieces of memorabilia from the roots of rock and roll in bluegrass, gospel, jazz and blues all the way through a stage costume worn by Lady Gaga last year. You could spend a hour or more just watching the multimedia production that tells about all of the inductees.

For dinner that night, we went to Lolita, which is a Michael Symon (of Iron Chef fame) restaurant. For me, the highlight of the meal was the Big Board, a selection of house cured meats. Holy cow, was it good. There was prosciutto, sopressata, a lamb pate, a chicken liver mousse, a shredded duck packed under duck fat and a cured sirloin. I also had a good beer here, called White Rascal, from Avery Brewing.

Even though it was gray and raining horizontally, I could tell that Cleveland is really a pretty cool place to live. Friday night, there was a great happy hour party at my friends' house, with homemade pumpkin beer. We will have to go back in the summer for baseball and to see the art museum, natural history museum, zoo and the Great Lakes Science Center as well as all the parks that we missed on this trip.

* Bonus if you know where I got the title for this post.

August 2011 Restaurant Week

Restaurant Week is wrapping up this weekend, so tonight we once again ventured out to try a restaurant that we normally would not be able to afford. If you haven't seen my past entries for Restaurant Week (here and here), twice a year restaurants in the area offer a three course prix-fixe menu for lunch ($20.11) and dinner ($35.11).

Tonight we went to Open Kitchen in Falls Church. The restaurant is very unassuming, tucked away on the first floor of a commercial office building. They have the bistro, but the restaurant actually started as a shared commercial kitchen for entrepreneurs who needed a licensed kitchen for their food businesses. Open Kitchen also offers cooking classes.

For our starters, we had the deviled eggs with summer salad and steamed mussels in garlic, white wine and tomatoes. The deviled eggs were a classic mayo and vinegar variety with chives on top. They were kind of interesting because the were halved in the middle, rather than the long way. The mussels were nicely steamed and tender, not chewy. Both were big enough to share.



For the main course, Jim had the Skirt Steak, New Mexico Green Chili, Purple Potatoes, Grilled Mushrooms & Onions. I don't eat beef, so I can't comment on it, but Jim reports that it was very tender and the sauce was delicious. I had the Pork Chop with Onion Mustard Sauce, Soft White VA Grits & Summer Vegetables. The grits were creamy and the onion mustard sauce was a little sweet with the caramelized onions. The pork chop was frenched, which is always a pretty presentation.



The final course was dessert. I ordered the Vanilla Brown Sugar Creme Brulee. I will never say to creme brulee. It was a delicious custard, but could have used a thicker brulee on the top. I didn't quite get the snap I like when I crack the top. Jim had the chocolate mousse, which was light, but very intensely chocolatey. I'm glad the mousse came with fruit and whipped cream.



We ate outside on the porch and the weather could not have been nicer. Open Kitchen was a delightful dining experience and we are looking forward to eating there again.

Restaurant Week Winter 2011

For those who are not from here, Restaurant Week is a twice a year event in which hundreds of D.C. metro restaurants offer a three course prix fixe meals. Lunch is $20.11 and dinner is $35.11. This is your chance to eat at some really great restaurants for a really reasonable price.

Let me say once again that I have never been disappointed with a meal at any of the Passion Food Group restaurants. One of the things I like best about Passion Food is that they offer all of their entrees as a part of their Restaurant Week offering. This year we went to Acadiana, which features the cuisine of southern Louisiana. Unfortunately, all I had for a camera was my cell phone, so I don't have any beautiful pictures to share with you. These photos were taken by someone else and attributed to the photographer where possible.

Appetizers: Jim had the trio of deviled eggs; the three eggs were crab meat, cheddar bacon and caviar. All three eggs were delicious and the "deviled" part was smooth. You could clearly taste the bacon and the crab, but we had trouble finding the caviar taste, just a bit of saltiness without the fish flavor that I normally associate with caviar. I had the roasted corn and crap soup. The sweetness of the corn and crab was paired with just a little heat that stayed at the back of your mouth. (photo from www.fijiwater.com website)

For the entree, I had the blackened red fish topped with crawfish etouffee which was served with creamed spinach and grits cakes, which were cut into wedges and fried. The cool creaminess of the spinach was the perfect offset for the spiciness of the blackening on the fish. Jim had the "grillades and grits," veal medallions on jalapeno cheese grits with a mushroom pan gravy.

We shared both desserts, a mint chocolate cake with coconut ice cream and chocolate sauce, and warm vanilla bread pudding, bourbon sauce and praline crunch ice cream. I even liked the coconut ice cream and I don't like coconut. The bread pudding was soft on the inside like a decadent piece of french toast. (photo by vincentgallegos)

Yet More DIY Projects

Our office was closed yesterday for the Fourth of July holiday, so a co-worker and I made a field trip to a restaurant for real southern cooking and then to IKEA.

Several things - First, the restaurant was the bomb. I had fried whiting, mac and cheese that was to die for, string beans with some kind of hot sauce on them and cornbread. All delicious. Jennifer (hi, Jennifer) had black eyed peas that were the best I've had in a long time and sweet potato pie that would make an excellent breakfast item.

Second, you should never try to go 95S on a holiday weekend, so I googled a back road way to get to IKEA. This turned out to be the best decision ever and I may never take 95S down there again. If we had gone that way, we might still be sitting on 95. If you are in the area and want the directions, let me know.

Third, I should never be allowed free rein in the IKEA. We had a great time and I found exactly what I was looking for. I also found several other things that I wasn't looking for. Which brings me back to DIY. I was able to get a ridiculous quantity of silk hydrageas for a fraction of what they would have cost at the craft store. So last night, I made my first pomander ball for the pews at church. I had ordered some from etsy.com, but the post office lost my package and I was resigned to doing without. These really don't take that long to make (about an hour and half) and I don't need that many, so they are back on the agenda. I think it came out very nicely.

Restaurant Week

This week was Restaurant Week. Usually, I make it to two places, but we only got one this time around. Jim and I made a day of it in the District on Saturday. We spent a few hours in the morning at the Natural History Museum, because they had a new exhibit called Written in Bone that I really wanted to see. Take some time to check out the link - it was fascinating and I got to touch actual bones in the forensic lab. It was probably as close as I will ever get to my dream of growing up to be Quincy (or if you are not old enough to remember Quincy, Kay Scarpetta).

After the museum, we went to Zaytinya's for lunch. It is a Greek/Mediterranean small plates restaurant with the same executive chef as my other favorite small plate restaurant, Jaleo. The restaurant is really bright and open, decorated in white and blue like the Greek flag. We shared all the plates (except the lamb which I can't eat).

For round one, we ordered the Fattoush, which is a tomato, cucumber, radish, pepper and onion salad in a lemon vinaigrette, and the Bantijan Bil Liban, a crispy fried eggplant with garlic yogurt.

Round two was Spanakopita and Adana Kebab, skewered ground lamb, grilled tomatoes and sumac onions.

The third round brought Shish Taouk, which was grilled chicken, tomatoes and sumac onions, and olive oil poached salmon with spicy eggplant and green olive tapanade.

Both the lamb and the chicken were served in these beautiful copper tangines. The plating of all the dishes was just lovely and everything tasted fantastic.

For dessert, we had the Greek cherries and vanilla yogurt, with ground pistachios and the Turkish Delight - walnut ice cream with goat milk yogurt mousse and honey gelee.

In case you were curious, Zaytinya means olive oil in Turkish.

Restaurant Week

Finally, finally, they listed the restaurants that are participating in Restaurant Week for August 11 - 17. I am somewhat disappointed that they increased the price for dinner to $35.08 for the three course fixed price menus. I am sure that this is due to the rising price of fuel - everything else is.

Anyway, we thought it would be nice to try something new for dinner this time around. We usually go to D.C. Coast, because I love it and that is the only way I can afford to eat there. I'm still going, just for lunch on Wednesday. For dinner on Saturday, we are going to try Jackson 20 which is in the Hotel Monaco in Old Town. It has been getting good reviews, so I'll be sure to report back on what we try.

These little town blues are melting away...

Saturday morning, we headed out early to go to the top of the Empire State building. I cannot stress enough the importance of buying your tickets online and printing them at home. The security line moves fast, but if you have to wait in the ticket line, you will be there all day. Then you wait for an elevator to the 80th floor and another elevator to the 86th. You can just dart up there like at the end of Sleepless in Seattle. They never tell you that in the movies.

After the Empire State Building, we took a taxi all the way down to Battery Park to go see the Statue of Liberty. Again, buy tickets online, we did not. When we got there the line was 1 1/2 hours long for the boat over to the statue AND they had given out all the passes that let you go up the statue. So, we bought tickets for the harbour tour (no waiting) and cruised past Ellis Island and the Statue. We also got to see the waterfalls, which is a public art installation up for the summer.

From there, we went to Chelsea Market, then started the Project Runway tour of Manhattan. We went to Mood Fabrics, passed by the Atlas Apartments and spent some time in Bryant Park, watching the carousel. Then, back to the hotel for a much needed shower.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art stays open late on Saturday, so we did that last. For dinner, we tried a barbecue place called Virgil's that was a couple of doors down from our hotel. We'd been smelling it everytime we went outside and just couldn't resist it anymore. I had pulled pork and Jim had ribs. We had mac n' cheese, barbecued beans, coleslaw and potato salad for the sides and the entrees came with chive corn muffins. We also had warm chocolate chess pie a la mode for dessert. We got there about 9:20 p.m., waited 15 or 20 minutes for a table and rolled back out at 10:45ish. The place was still packed.

More pictures are available here.

Happy Easter

Hi, everyone. This is a picture of the cross of flowers that we did at church on Sunday. It starts off as a basic wood form and is wrapped in chicken wire, with a few pieces of greenery added. Then everyone came up and added their flowers to it and just turns into something beautiful.

After church we went to brunch at Bistro-Bistro in Shirlington. The food was terrific, but we probably won't eat there again, because they never answered my email about reservations, so I called to make it. Then, when we got there, they didn't have our reservation. Fortunately, they were able to seat us right away. The brunch buffet was wonderful. Between the two of us, we sampled grilled veggies, feta and pesto pasta salad, cold grilled salmon, cold asparagus, blacken tilapia, bacon, eggs benedict, roasted potatoes, waffles and prime rib. The for dessert there were lemon tarts, cheesecake, chocolate cake, coconut cake, banana bread, chocolate chess pie, some kind of german chocolate tart thing, bread pudding and my favorite, creme brulee. Then we went home and passed out. That is a successful brunch.