Dinner, August 28

After five days of eating things like Pigs in A Blanket (small hot dogs baked in refrigerated biscuit dough - I really didn't know people acually ate that) and sausage sandwiches for breakfast, C came back from visiting a friend in Colorado and needed sushi.

So I surprised my self, even, and jetted down to DuPont after work. We went to his fave little sushi place on P Street, which he likes because the inside reminds him of Tokyo. And therefore, the sushi must be real, too. Anyhow, we ordered edamame for an appetizer and he had miso soup, and a reasonable array of sushi:

What's amazing enough for a blog post was the crispy shrimp roll. Now generally, I'm morally opposed to sushi with cream cheese or tempura in it, but this turned out to be a winner - perfectly crunchy and lightly fried on the top, and sweet and spicy underneath. Mmmm.

After dinner, we ventured out for a drink and an unplanned shisha at Gazuza, high above the busy streets of Washington. We sat on a couch, smoked the hookah, and had a few drinks. A perfectly healthy Tuesday night.

Lunch, August 27

Today I feel like a member of the proletariat, as most of the world appears to be on vacation. Virtually the entire population of my office, most of my Baltimore girlfriends, and even my own boyfriend, who is hiking in Colorado. Fun for me.

But, dear blog readers, for you, that means descriptions of too-long lunches. Mom, in town for the day to deliver a new present to me, stopped by the office and we went to Soup's On in Hampden.

Now, I don't actually like Hampden - it's a little to kitschy and hispter-y for me. But I like a few of the restaurants and the stores, including the most amazing soup place. Soup's On caught on quickly, so it's not a rare find. The proprietor, who appears to be there daily, makes soups from fresh, mostly local ingredients, and serves them up and garnishes them to order. She also offers salads - original ones with exotic-ish ingredients - and chicken pot pies. It's not cheap - $8 or so for a bowl of soup and bread - but certainly worth venturing in to HAMpden to enjoy a burst of fresh goodness. Mom got tomato-bread soup, which was like a taste of garden, with fresh basil - inspired me to try a bready soup recipe I recently found. I got a cupcake from Rose's, the dessert place partnered with Soup's On, but in truth, it fell short of my expectations as it was two or three days old and the cake lacked dense flavor.

Lunch, August 25

Alas. Over in Fed Hill to pick up a pair of earrings for a friend, I decided to stop in Cross Street Market for a roll of sushi for lunch. I'd been out all morning running errands, from Home Depot to the drug store to the post office, and was famished. What would hit the spot better than a fresh roll of sushi?

Well, I walk in and standing by the door is Tall Mike, the shy guy who never kissed me after five dates. Then he went to China, leaving with a text that said "Can't wait to kiss you when I get back," and I decided to give girlfriendom with C a try. So when Tall Mike got back, I had to tell him that we wouldn't be getting around to that kiss.

Which totally sucks, because he's a really cool person and I know we would be great friends. Apparently that's not how it works in the dating world.

What also sucks is that I didn't get any sushi on Saturday.

Dinner, August 25

In the midst of a ridiculous personal crisis that makes me wonder if I'm working with the romantic mindset of a typical dude rather than a woman, I met E for dinner at Jack's Bistro in Canton.

Before arriving, I'd been dreaming of the braised short ribs that a girlfriend had nearly killed me with one night, while I sat across the table with my miserable (but delicious) cheeseburger. Damn food envy. (The description: Beef short rib braised in a merlot wine, dijon mustard, and caramelized onion BBQ sauce. Served with French cole slaw, and jalapeno, bacon, and smoked gouda grits.)

But when we got to Jack's, the hot bartender lured us to the stools when he spoke of happy hour, when most drinks and all appetizers are $2 off. We ended up ordering four apps and four drinks, for a stool saving of $16. Worth it!



I mention this to my dear readers so you, too, can experience Jack's at the happy hour discount. Because this place serves up dishes you'd never imagine, the point of coming here is to experience, not to stuff your face. So I reccomend sharing a few plates, as E and I did with the four appetizers, so you can experience as many of these wacky dishes as possible. To wit:

The Logom- A grilled all beef hotdog wrapped up in flatbread with shrimp salad, mashed potatoes, fried onions, lettuce, and spices. How the heck do you come up with something like this? It tasted good, particularly due to the high quality of the dog, but felt kind of late-night in the sorority house kitchen.

Macaroni and Cheese and Chocolate- Shell pasta with a blend of five cheeses and shaved Belgian milk chocolate. I've expounded before on the beauty of this dish; each bite is still a surprise when you taste the cheese and chocolate meshing together in a perfect balance. Cheese and chocolate???!?! That's the thought every time.

Cheeseburger Balls- Bacon, ground angus beef, mozzarella cheese, ketchup, and seasonings rolled in bread and lightly fried. Served with seasoned french fries, and tomato aioli. I tasted this and felt like I could die, right then. The bread tastes homemade, and seems baked, not fried. And the beef mixture inside is so perfect, I might not ever eat another cheeseburger again.

Champagne juiceboxes

Move over Juicy Juice and even Capri Sun: At Hotel Palomar, I met the new must-have for spur-of-the-moment parties. Champagne in a can. Canned by Coppola, the "Sofia mini" isn't the best champagne ever, but it's made up for in the experience of drinking it from an adorable pink can out of an extendable straw that came wrapped in plastic and glued to the can's side. I've already called The Wine Source to see if they can order me a case.

Dinner, August 18

To celebrate H's last night out, I organized a dinner at Oyamel. Ritzy mexican food, served tapas style. Our menu included:
Guacamole, mixed tableside

Salmon ceviche


Delicious potato fritters

Mussels with stinky cheese


Scallops cooked in pumpkin oil, with pumpkin seeds and pumpkin puree

Fish tacos


...and tres leches cake and a mole cake for dessert

Happy Birthday, Kim

A oreo cookie cake to celebrate Kim's birthday!

Does anyone actually read this?

Just wondering. I might stop doing it if no one is reading it. Send me an e-mail or leave a comment just so I know.

Brunch, Sunday August 12

Enroute to the Farmer's Market, we stopped for brunch at Donna's, which reminds C of a European cafe. I totally dig that because in my insecurities about my city, I attach to any comparision between Baltimore and a sophisticated, urbane place.

I ate a berry salad - all my favorite delights topping some mixed greens, with a chunk of gorgonzola and a vinagrette.

Sunday turned out to be like, the best day ever, and I'm sure it's because I started it off with a perfect meal.

Dinner, August 10

Green Chicken Curry. At the tender age of 16, C, at home in Sydney, watched a TV cooking show where they made green chicken curry. The teenager copied down the recipe and has been making it now for 19 years. (Quirky, yes - and I love it.)

So I got to try this mastered recipe for dinner - basically its chicken, cooked in a sauce of cilantro, lime, curry, and ginger, with little corns, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, and whatever else inspires. In this case, it was asparagus. And then, served over basmati rice.

Not his recipe, but similar: Green Chicken Curry.

Dinner, August 8

I love my mom. But seriously, the last think I want to do after a day at work is drive to Hampstead, Maryland, to hang out with anyone, even the person who gave me life.

But I can be bribed... Mom gave me a call at 5, imagining that we'd made plans for me to come out and assemble her new treadmill. Well, we hadn't. I was annoyed that she assumed. And then...

She told me that she's made spaghetti sauce, from scratch, with tomatoes and herbs fresh from her garden.

I was heading north on 83 in about 10 minutes.

Dinner, August 7

It seems like ages ago that R's time was at my disposal. Now that she is shacking up with some guy, and I'm running my own bachelorette pad, we actually have to SCHEDULE hanging out together. Alas, the perils of becoming an adult.

R and I went for dinner to Samos, our favorite Greek place in Baltimore's Greektown. While I wouldn't say the food they serve is exactly what I ate in Greece, nor is it as good as what I ate when I worked in Tarpon Springs, it's still pretty good, particularly their mezze dips.

What we (notice the "we" - I'm pulling at strings to keep my relationship with R as tight as it was when we shared a home) love are the salads.



Mmm... after sharing calamari, R got the Neptune salad, with shrimp, and I got a Greek Salad with Chicken. Their "famous" dressing is pretty decent, but overall its just an above-average quality American Greek Salad. Healthy, fun, engaging, at least as far as salads go.

While the salads were delicious, mostly, it was great to catch up. Lots has changed in the month since we parted ways, and its tough not having a live-in BFF. But, apparently, absence makes the heart grow fonder...

Alas

Loyal readers, (all zero of you)

Apologies for the dearth of posting this past week. I haven't eaten.

Just kidding - swamped with work, semester-end projects, a freelance gig.

I know you're dying for an update and I promise to get back on the wagon.

Dinner, August 6

You know what happens when I don't eat. And if you don't know, then, well, keep making sure that I eat at regular intervals and you'll be fine. (see: California drama, all caused when Nora had to wait til 3 p.m. for lunch.)

So Mondays are rough this summer. Class runs from 6 p.m. to 9, in Washington, D.C. Which takes 90 minutes to get to, and an hour to get home from. And all lasts right in the middle of dinner.

This Monday, Torie Clark spoke to our class about how to handle and craft communications responses to crises. She had a lot to say, having served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs and run the Pentagon's pr when the Iraq war started.

And all that made me hungry. As soon as she left, I pulled out a salad, brought from home, squeezed a lemon over the lettuce, tomatoes, and cukes, and ate salad while my classmates and I discussed the perils of working for Ted Stevens and whether our teaher planned to fail us all.

I felt creepy eating dinner at a table meant for discussing communications and speechwriting strategy, but sometimes you've just gotta do what you gotta do.

Brunch, August 5

For Christmas several years ago, I got my cousin a gift certificate to eat at Cashion's Eat Place in Adams Morgan. I ordered it over the phone and it was mailed to me, so I'd never been to the place, but had heard it was good. So I was excited to go there for Sunday brunch.


For brunch, I ordered a mimosa, iced tea, and water. Oh, and whatever is the french word for grilled cheese... croque, I think? This grilled sandwich - also perfection - was made of Parisian ham on the inside, and melted gruyere on the outside. Came with a salad. C had a bison-beef burger, served without a bun, topped with a poached egg and bernaise sauce. Apparently this is also how they eat burgers in Australia - topped with an egg. Oh-kay.



For dessert - c'mon, it was Sunday brunch - we had the Linzer torte. I always forget that I hate Linzer torte - too jammy for me - but it was so beautiful.

Dinner, August 3

The summer I spent in New Orleans was a three-month-long seminal moment in my life. I'll spare my dear readers the litany of self-discovery and personal growth, but for the gastronomic: the beignets, po-boys, fried oysters, red beans and rice cooked by Kermit Ruffin and served at intermission, chickory coffee... the list goes on and on.

So I was estatic to try Acadiana, where they serve Louisiana southern-style cuisine and friends have returned from with rave reviews. We started off with drinks at the bar - C had a mojito and I a Pimm's Cup, my newfound summer fave. (Our 9 o'clock reservation was delayed, because I didn't want to sit in the table we were originally shown. How lucky am I to have met someone who humors my eating quirks - if I'm going to bother eating at a restaurant, I believe all elements of the experience should be taken into account, including the comfort and location of the table. So we got a booth by the window.)

The meal began with a trio of demitasse soups - classic turtle soup, smoked chicken and andouille sausage gumbo, and roasted sweet corn and blue crab soup. The gumbo was pretty benign, but the other two were winners: the corn soup had enormous chunks of crab and lots of flavor, and the turtle soup was seasoned with the perfect splash of sherry. The restaurant also served fresh biscuits and a butter mixed with honey and hot peppers - delicious!

The drama started with the entrees. I ordered red snapper amandine, with the fish grilled and coated with brown butter meuniere and served with swiss chard and sweet corn pudding. Delicious. Nothing not to love about snapper, especially with a butter sauce. The corn pudding was fine, nothing special, and the greens were pretty tasty. Overall, the plate lacked visual interest; could have been solved with a slice of red pepper, perhaps.

C got the bbq grilled swordfish. And the ugly food envy set in. The perfectly grilled fish, criss-crossed by grill marks, was topped with blanched fresh peach wedges and a tomato chow chow. Perhaps the most amazing fish I've ever sampled, and served with a side of "yaya eggplant fries," which were these also-perfect little finger-sized, melted eggplant in a slightly spicy batter, dusted with powdered sugar.



Laissez les bons temps rouler!

Lunch, August 2

This week - and, hopefully, ad infinitum - I've been working as much as possible from another Johns Hopkins location five blocks from my home. Loving it!

I invited a friend who works nearby - for now, as she is moving to Rhode Island soon - to come over for lunch. At the appropriate time, I left the office, stopped at the Superfresh to pick up some a 50/50 lettuce-spinach mix and met L at my place. We ate salad with tomatoes and cukes, dressed with a homemade vinagrette of olive oil, fresh squeezed lemon, and some herbs. Delicous! We also noshed on some water crackers and leftover cheese from last week's party.

Growing up, my parents threw some pretty fabulous parties. Mom is a classically trained French chef, and both Mom and Dad are either snobs or appreciators of fine things in life - your call. I loved our parties, but even more, the days of teriffic leftovers afterward.

Dinner, July 31

Few and far between are the meals I get to share with my dearest friends from college. With jobs and lives and distance, it's difficult for us to get together. One girl recently decided to move to Rhode Island, of all places, so we made plans to meet at House of India in Columbia for dinner.

I ordered "Chicken Makhani" - which was shredded pieces of Tandoori Chicken cooked with Butter in a creamy sauce. Oh, it was heaven over a bed of rice. I can't wait for the leftovers today. And the naan, oh, the naan.