Sushi Kaiten

Check out this kaiten sushi restaurant in the middle of a shopping mall- neat, huh? I first had the pleasure of eating at a sushi kaiten restaurant when I was visiting a friend in Japan a few years ago and seeing the parade of perfectly placed nigri and rolls, along with other treats, just doesn't get old. I could, and usually do, spend an inordinate amount of time watching the dishes wiz by before I choose anything. It's easy to divide up the tab with sushi kaiten too- just count your colored plates and figure out how much you ate and owe.

This restaurant is a branch Wasabi, which I have been to before. If you get a chance to stop by, I recommend the fusion dishes on the menu- a bit passe I know, but the chef if Peruvian Japanese and the chicken anticucho, tender bites of fiery chicken perched on a tower of steaming rice and lashed with bright orange sauce, is delicious.

Farrah Olivia

Zach's dad and J- have been in town for the weekend and took us out to dinner at Farrah Olivia, one of the top restaurants in the DC area. Zach and I had been there for restaurant week last year and, as it was the most delicious meal I ever had, I was very excited to go back. I put on my new black dress with new emerald green heels adn we were off.

The dining room of Farrah Olivia is serene, with huge windows on two sides and a faint African feel to the decorations as a nod to Chef Morou Outtara's heritage. We sat down and the hostess handed us thick, mint green menus which I could have read all night without eating a thing and still gone home happy. Through some coordination, we finally all decided what to get an ordered and then the fun began.

First came a bread basket and small plate with four toppings: horseradish cottage cheese, curry butter, bok choy pesto and tomato paste. I went back and forth between the four but finally decided the curry butter was my favorite. It's golden yellow color and distinctive curry flavor that tasted just like my favorite curries from Denmark won me over. The bok choy pesto came in a close second though with the clean Asian flavors reminding me of summer and our CSA.

Next came a tiny amouse bouche on a straw skewer. Mushroom cornbread with a bacon creme and slice of grilled shrimp. It was a perfect bit with the earthy mushrooms setting off the sweet shrimp and the creamy sauce balancing the cornbread.

Highlights of the first course; my ying and yang hot and cold pea and carrot soup, J-'s salad served in a crisp cone with shockingly yellow dressing on the side and Zach's deconstructed escolar sushi with soy pearls and wasabi powder.

The main event, as with all the courses, came with narration as the servers explained all of the intricacies of the dish. My braised beef rib was perfection. The meat was so tender that it fell apart as the merest touch of a fork and the mushroom puree and bbq essence made the dish taste like my grandma's pot roast times 50, comforting but intense at the same time. Zach's pork tenderloin was juicy but even though the mole perfectly balanced the chocolate, cumin and spice, I was reminded that I just don't like mole. He does though, and loved it.

Farrah Olivia really does save the best for last. Dessert was fantastic. Zach and I had a bit of negotiation but settled (meaning I prevailed) on the mango soup. The dish came out in a shallow bowl. It held a layer of bright orange mango soup with a perfectly shaped quenelle of coconut sorbet with flecks of golden toasted coconut on top. Circling the soup were little jewels of mango and lychee. When I say that this dessert was a triumph of the chef's, I am not exaggerating. We were all well and truly speechless.

At the very end the kitchen sent out a little plate of sweets with a tiny truffle, pineapple jelly and pine nut cookie for each of us. I didn't really need anything more after the mango soup but of course I had to try each. The pineapple jelly sweet but covered in a sour sugar; a very grown up sour patch kid. The pine-nut cookies were crisp chewy and delicious and reminded me yet again of a cookie my grandma used to make, only better (I feel rather guilty typing that one out).

All in all it was a perfect dining experience. Not exactly for the faint of wallet but if you'll be in DC for a few days and want to splurge on one nice dinner, Farrah Olivia is the place to do it.

Farrah Olivia
Alexandria VA

I Saw Chef Spike!

Yes, it's true. I saw Chef Spike today [an aside- just in case you are not Top Chef obsessed like I am, Spike was a contestant on season 4 and charmed us all with his quirky style and delicious looking food] Towards the end of season four of Top Chef, we started to hear some rumors here in DC that Spike would be opening up a restaurant. Pretty soon a website was up for Good Stuff Eatery. It didn't have much besides a concept- burgers, fries and shakes but made only with the best ingredients, and a prospective opening date, Spring 2008.  DC already has a lot of burger joints but this one would have a semi-celebrity at the helm and  K* and I immediately made plans to go, but, as the best laid plans are wont to do, they got delayed.

Finally, we made specific plans for our pilgrimage.  Presidents' Day, since we were both of from school and work, was it.  On the way, K* and I had debated to likelihood of Chef Spike being at Good Stuff.  She was more hopeful than I, as I imagined that Spike would be, well I don't know what else exactly he might be doing other than running his own restaurant but I figured there must be something.  We walked in to the converted row house and joined the bunch of people standing near the cashier and then I saw him. I will admit, I squealed a little. Spike was behind the counter, expediting the orders, wearing his trademark fedora. I felt a bit better for behaving like a 13 year old at a Jonas Brothers concert when a woman who walked in behind us did the exact same thing.

As I tried to concentrate on the menu instead of the pseudo-celebrity chef, I saw there were about 8 burger choices from the plain to jacked up versions with options of egg, bacon, cheese and assorted other toppings, along with fries, Chef Spike's fries (seasoned with thyme), onion petals and milkshakes. I like to keep it simple with burgers and got the Farmhouse Cheddar along with an order of Chef's fries and K* got the Colletti's Smokehouse with fried onion, bacon and BBQ sauce and the famed marshmallow milkshake. A few minutes later we got our orders, found a table and got ready to try our first taste of a Top Chef worthy meal.

As I pulled my burger out of the bag, I noticed it was on the smaller side and had been squished a bit into the wrapper which seemed rather odd- I mean, why would anyone squish a bun on purpose? I took out the fries, heavily seasoned with the thyme and managed to control my excitement and appetite just long enough to take the above photo and then dug in.

The burger was delicious. Really, really good. Juicy, cooked medium-rare and had the perfect amount of toppings, enough to taste everything but not too much to overwhelm the meat. The fries could have been crispier but had a great flavor and were cooked well on the inside. The milkshake though, was a revelation. Normally I don't love milkshakes (why not just eat ice cream?) or marshmallows (chemicalized sugar just doesn't appeal to me) so I was quite skeptical when K* wanted to get the toasted marshmallow milkshake. I expected to try a sip and then politely pass the glass back to her. I couldn't have been more wrong. The milkshake was so smooth and creamy it was like drinking liquid creme brulee. It had a subtle toasted sugar taste, not at all like a commercial marshmallow even though it had on sitting on top. I loved the burger but hands down I would go back and have a milkshake. For lunch. By itself.

Beside this litany of praise I have 2 minor complaints. 1) You don't get to pick how you like your burger done and 2) there is little consistency with how the burgers are cooked. Mine was medium rare, far less done than I usually order it and K*'s was quite well done, much to close to incineration stage for her liking. It wasn't that huge a deal and both of us still really liked our meal, but a minor point, one that I think both of us expected Chef Spike would have taken care of. Overall though I'm glad I finally got to go and I'm thinking of what other Top Chef fans I can round up to justify another trip in the near future.

Good Stuff Eatery
303 Pennsylvania Ave, SE
Capitol South Metro

Closed Sundays
Burgers $5-8
Fries $2.75-$4
Milkshakes $3.50-$4.75 but totally worth it

Bahn Mi

Before we left for the holiday's, Zach and I had to run some errands in an area of suburban hell called Seven Corners. While I hope I haven't offended anyone who lives there, I don't feel that bad as it is a literal intersection of at least 7 roads, is completely pedestrian unfriendly and always takes about 3 times as long to drive around as you expected. Generally, I end up going in the exact opposite direction as my destination and have at least two fits of road rage before I end up getting to where I am going.

That might explain why I have only been to the Eden Center a sort of little Vietnam in a strip mall in the suburbs only once... Before we left I remembered reading about Bahn Mi, a kind of Vietnamese-French fusion sandwich in the Post food section ages ago so we decided to give it a try for lunch.

We ended up at Song Que, a huge bakery/deli/market that had 6 or 7 types of Bahn Mi for under $3.25. Zach chose meatball and I picked braised pork and we looked around at the French style breads, durian fruits, unknown sweets and prepared foods while we waited for our sandwiches. As you can see from the pictures, the Bahn Mi is served in a fresh (still warm) baguette, with thin slices of meat and pickled vegetables on top. It looked so good that I couldn't wait to take a bite. The bread was crisp, the veggies had the perfect amount of tartness and the meat, well, I know a lot of people find pork fat to be delicious, but I am not one of them.

The braised pork was mostly slices of pork fat and I am somewhat ashamed to admit that I pulled them off the sandwich and left only the small pieces of meat on the bread. Even so- the Bahn Mi was delicious with just the pork flavor and the veggies and I am already thinking of heading back to try another kind... Zach's meatball Bahn Mi did look good.

Song Que Bakery
6773 Wilson Blvd., Falls Church, VA 22044
Open 9am-9pm

The Cupcake Chronicles Continue

Cupcakes are the new black in the DC area. It seems that every few months another cupcake shop opens to great hype and enormously long lines. Last week it was Hello Cupcake's turn. I had seen the storefront before it opened- just off DuPont Circle, an trendy area known for restaurants but also for being an independent place not littered with chains, though this has been changing in the last few years. The Hello Cupcake shop had huge plate glass windows, bright pink chandeliers and a few tables and a compressed bamboo bar for those (like me) we can't wait to get a cupcake home before eating it. In short- it looked very DuPont and I was very interested.

Some friends and I arranged a study date at a coffee shop across the street (confession- it is a chain; justification- we needed free internet) and cupcakes were going to be our reward for our first afternoon studying of the semester (am I the only one that gives myself rewards for things like that?). We read and read some more and then it was finally time for cupcakes. We rushed across the street, skirting the cars stuck in traffic and joined the line outside the cupcake shop. Looking through the windows, we could see that the days selection of a promised 10+ flavors had dwindled to two or three and by the time we got to the counter we found out that all of the gluten-free cupcakes had been sold so my friend A- had to go without. The rest of us had a choice between peanut butter blossom, triple coconut and de coconut and de lime. I chose peanut butter blossom, which the man behind the counter insisted tasted just like a peanut butter cup and K* got the triple coconut and we planned to go halves.

We paid for our goodies ($3 even) and it was all I could do to take a few photos before digging into the cupcakes, especially as I could hear the other girls exclaiming about how delicious they were. I carefully peeled back the paper on my cupcake, trying not to take too much cake off with it, and took a bite. It was a peanut butter explosion. I have never in my life had a frosting like that. It was as peanutbuttery as eating a spoonful straight from the Skippy jar, but not heavy or sticky. It was like eating a peanut butter cloud. It was so good in fact, that I would have been happy eating a little cup of frosting (with chocolate kiss on top) and skipping the cake entirely. In this instance, the cake seemed like an afterthought to the frosting and I had trouble getting more than the merest hint of chocolate out of it. Even when I broke off a piece to eat without the frosting, it didn't taste like much but it may have been because my taste buds were going crazy with a peanut butter overload.

K* and I did switch cakes but just for a bite. I always forget that I think that coconut baked goods smell too much like sunblock for me to actually enjoy them, so after a taste, we switched back.

The overall verdict on Hello Cupcake- very promising. I'll have to go back when there is a larger selection of flavors available.

Hello Cupcake
1351 Connecticut Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20036
Just south of Dupont Circle, across from the Metro

Vapiano

I will freely admit that I am a pizza snob. I grew up in New Jersey where every local pizza place serves up a thin crust New York style pie, with just the right amount of sauce and cheese. When I moved to DC and was introduced to Papa John's and Domino's I was really appalled. How could they call that thing with a mushy, bready crust, a strange sweetish sauce and an overwhelming layer of plastic like cheese on top pizza? For a while a friend and I fantasized about opening our own pizza place but after a few years here we discovered a few places that serve real New York pies.

Whenever I try a new pizza place I get a bit nervous; pizza is so simple but so many things can go wrong. Will the dough be rolled thin enough? Will the oven be hot enough to give it a slightly singed crust? Will the ratio of sauce to cheese be just right? I've been to Vapiano a German based chain restaurant that does quick service modern Italian food. (I can just see your face cringing with skepticism now - it's actually pretty good). Overall their pizza gets high marks. It's European style, meaning 1 pizza per person, though Zach and I will sometimes split a pizza and a salad, and rolled thinly and topped lightly. They don't have a brick oven so the crust isn't quite as crisp as some other places in DC but given that it's only a 10 minute walk from the apartment, it's my bet for nights when I just don't want to cook and I need a pizza fix.

Vapiano
Locations in the DC Metro Area

Aloha Report Round 2

After the week in the Big Island we flew to O'ahu to spend a few days in Honolulu. Zach and I had the chance to visit last year and pretty much everything we wanted to do on our return trip had to do with food and revisiting our favorite spots. On the first night we walked down Kuhio St. (the skyscrapers were really a shock after the laid back small town vibe of even the biggest towns on the Big Island) to Keo's. Zach and I had the best Thai food ever there (even now that Zach's been to Thailand he still says that) and we had talked it up to everyone else so I was a bit nervous that it would disappoint. Luckily for us not that much had changed. The restaurant was still filled with a somewhat eclectic mix of European and Thai artwork and enormous urns overflowing with tropical flowers my evil jungle prince (that does sound rather funny- I do mean my dish of curried tofu and veggies not a rogue Thai warrior) had the perfect balance of spice and heat with richness provided by coconut milk. For dessert we couldn't resist the mango and sticky rice, as the note told us the mangoes came from Keo's own farm. It was so good it was gone before I realized I hadn't even taken a photo.

The next morning we woke up early and trekked over to Leonard's for malasadas. Zach and I had been to this family run bakery before for their homemade Portuguese doughnuts, always freshly fried and rolled in sugar and sometimes filled with custard. Personally, I prefer the unfilled kind as the warm, slightly chewy doughnut really doesn't need any embellishments. For lunch Zach and I went to Rainbow's, an old fashioned drive-in, for plate lunch. By now we had gotten smart to the portion sizes and shared one plate (which had mahi-mahi, barbecue beef and fried chicken along with the requisite 2 scoops of rice and 1 of mac salad) and then walked to Waiola's for a shave ice.

For our very last meal we all went to Ono Hawaiian Food (ono meaning delicious in Hawaiian language). The staff here are all Hawiian and will take the time to explain what each dish is and how you should eat it (especially helpful with poi). Everyone got the plates that came with a seemingly endless array of little dishes. First off was lomi salmon, a mixture of chopped tomatoes and cooked salmon that even those who didn't like tomatoes (me included) thought was good, then the pipikaula, homemade beef jerky. This may have been the best thing that I ate in Hawai'i. It had the perfect mix of pepper and spices that balanced the intense beefy flavor. Then I had kalua pig, a kind of roasted and shredded pork with a thin sauce. The flavorings took a back seat at the kalua pig really just tasted like the most tender, juicy pork every. For dessert we had a little square of coconut custard pudding, the perfect end to the meal. Then, sadly, it was time for Zach and I to grab our bags and head to the airport for the trip home, but at least we traveled with full stomachs.

Aloha Report #1,

It seems hard to believe that just a few days ago I was hiking up Diamond Head trail thinking about what to eat for lunch now that I’m back in the lovely summer heat of D.C. and the office air conditioner is broken. But that’s the way it is with vacation, no matter how wonderful it may be, you have to return to real life in the end.

We left for Hawai’i on the morning of July 4th, pretty early in the morning. The food choices during out fourteen hour trip weren’t the greatest (I could write an entire post on the lack of anything remotely healthy in the Phoenix airport so I think it’s better I not say anything at all) so I was really glad that I had packed some chocolate and zucchini muffin cakes (post to come) to help us get through the trip. After seemingly endless hours squished into economy class we touched down on runway at Kona International Airport at Keahole in the middle of a craggy, black lava field and we stepped out into a blast of heat convecting off the blacktop that made me wonder why we left DC. My sentiments quickly changed as less than an hour later we were in the water though and the memories of being scrunched into an airplane seat were fading fast.
After a unremarkable dinner and breakfast the next morning we got in the car (a crème colored PT Cruiser, yes really) and headed for the other side of the island, stopping at Waipio Valley to take a look from the top of a cliff down on a black sand beach and making another stop to pick up some home-made fudge (dark chocolate macadamia for me and chocolate-coconut for Zach) before getting in to Hilo. For lunch we headed to Ocean Sushi downtown, which gave off a grade school cafeteria vibe with its linoleum and white walls but had some very fresh sushi (it was the first time Zach’s dad had ever had it--). That night we headed to Kalapana to see lava flowing into the ocean. At first I was sort of annoyed with Zach for making us drive down after an entire day spent in the car as all we could see was a huge plume of steam coming off the ocean but after the sun set we could see the orange reflection of the lava flow in the plume and occasional explosions that sent fiery lava into the air. For a late dinner that night we ate at Ken’s- a local diner with a really great keiki (kids’ menu).

Food portions on the Big Island really reflected the island’s name and were enormous so I was really happy to see a menu of smaller things at Ken’s that wasn’t just mac and cheese or a hot dog. I got grilled mahi-mahi with a tossed salad and brown rice and managed to clear my plate for the first time on the trip. After a few days hiking at Volcanoes National Park we headed back to the Kona side where I had a bit of a food rebellion.

When I am on vacation I get to eat whatever I want. Not that I’m restrictive about food at home, but on vacation I can eat ice cream every day and really think I should. The only thing that was a bit disappointing on the first half of the trip was that the lunch portions were so big I never had room for an afternoon ice cream. The first day back in Kona was no different as I got a bowl of saimin that was sized for a sumo wrestler. Though the name ‘Big Island Grill’ probably should have tipped me off, I was still surprised to get a massive bowl of steaming pork based broth chock full of soft noodles, pork filled dumplings, cooked egg, Chinese style pork and scallions. As if that wasn’t enough, our server also set down a little bowl with two batter dipped fried shrimp. I kid you not- I ate as much as I could for lunch and still had soup left over after filling a quart-sized take out container. It was delicious, but I could barely eat dinner that night, which led to my epiphany the next day.

After a morning snorkel at Honaunau Bay, where we spent a few hours in the peace of coral covered mountains (they were only 30-50 feet tall but seemed mountainous to me) watching the fish go about their daily lives and sharing the water with Honu, endangered Hawaiian sea turtles, we went to the Coffee Shack for lunch. Recommended in our guidebook, the Coffee Shack is an unassuming building perched on the side of the mountain hugging the edge of the highway. We stepped into a tiny room with a counter and dessert case and the pies immediately caught my attention. French silk, key lime, macadamia nut, not to mention the tall carrot cake with its cream cheese frosting or the dark chocolate layer cake next to it. As we picked a table outside on the veranda and momentarily forgot out hunger looking out over the view of the ocean worthy of a Michelin 3-Star restaurant the epiphany came- I was going to eat pie for lunch.

Now some of you might be laughing at this point at the silly nature of this revelation but for me it really was a revolutionary idea- skip the nutritious stuff and go straight for dessert but I am honestly not sure I’d ever done it before in my life. My plan did backfire a bit though, as the smell of Zach’s pizza reminded me of how hungry I actually was from the morning swimming so we made a trade- I got a quarter of Zach’s pizza and he got half my pie (he really was the winner on that one- though at the time he was quite huffy about it). The pizza wasn’t really what I would consider a pizza- more like thick bread with a sauce and cheese topping, though it was delicious. The pie filling, Kona lime not Key Lime, had the perfect balance of tart and sweet and the real whip cream topping balanced it out with a creamy finish. The crust was actually not the greatest but in the interest of full disclosure I will say that Zach’s mom makes an amazing flaky-crispy piecrust so I’m a bit spoiled.

We liked the Coffee Shack so much we drove down again for our last meal on the Big Island before heading to Honolulu.

To be continued….

Sushi Taro

Yesterday my friend S-- and I went for lunch at Sushi Taro, a Japanese restaurant on 17th Street that I had been hearing about for years but had never actually managed to get to. It's claim to fame is the $9.95 bento box lunch (which you see above). Maybe some of you are questioning the $9.95 part, but in DC where a plain turkey and cheese sandwich that has been sitting in a refrigerated case for what seems like days since can cost upwards of $7, a real sit down lunch that covers all the food groups for under $10 is sort of amazing.

I went into Sushi Taro thinking of the bento box lunches I had enjoyed with my friend I-- when I went to visit her in Japan a few years ago. There the bento boxes impressed me with their artful presentation and variety, keeping with the Japanese tradition of eating 5 colors and something sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami with each meal. I ordered the sushi bento box and it came with everything you see above, plus a salad and bowl of miso soup to start.

The tempura was the best that I have had in the States- the delicate coating wasn't greasy at all, and the warm dipping sauce enhanced the flavor of the shrimp and zucchini rather than masking it. The dumplings were crisp and perfectly seasoned (I could have eaten a whole plate). The pickles made for a good palate cleanser and the sushi was good, although the chef did put a lot of wasabi on the pieces of nigri and I did for a second think that my nose was going to explode with the spice. I only wish I worked in the neighborhood so I could go for lunch more often.

Sushi Taro
1503 17th St. NW (17th and P)
Washington DC, 20036

San Francisco

Well it has been a while.  Taking the red eye back to DC on Monday night left me exhausted for the rest of the week and since I didn't have classes I took a bit of a mental vacation as well but now I am back and ready to talk about our trip.  I was a bit skeptical that it would be worth flying across the country for just three days but we managed to do (and eat) so much that I really think it was.  Granted, being in full on zombie mode Tuesday at work was an unfortunate consequense but oh well.  

So- San Francisco.  I think it's about as different a city as DC as possible.  The hills, the victorian architecture, the independent spirit of the shops and restaurants and just the general aura of the San Franciscans give the city a mellow vibe but there is so much going on I wouldn't call it laid back.  We got in very late Friday night and spent the night at a friend's house in Pacific Heights (it's really too bad this isn't an architecture blog and I can't go on and on about the 15 foot ceilings and moulding, but I wish I could).  The next morning we began the great trek looking for a place for breakfast.  We ended up at a crepe shop in Nob Hill where I got the breakfast crepe-- an omelette with ham, peppers and cheese folded into a crepe, with a salad and home fries.  The crepe was delicious and when I went to grab my camera to take a picture I realized that I had forgotten it so no pictures of the first day.

We continued our trek up Russian Hill, down to North Beach and then back up to Pac Heights to grab out bags.  We got on a Muni bus to get to our hotel in Union Square (which reminded me of Times Square with the throngs of tourists but had much less neon advertising) and headed down to the Embarcadero.  We met up with our friend E-, who is from the Bay Area and happened to be in town and walked down to Pier 39 to see the sea lions (I could watch them for hours, they are so funny as they lug themselves out of the water onto the docks and then proceed to the throw themselves down to lay in the sun) then headed back to North Beach for a cappuccino refuel stop and had dinner in an Italian restaurant there, but sadly it wasn't anything special.

On Sunday we walked around the Haight and saw where Janis Joplin lived (but the pictures are other houses in the area) and peeked into the Japanese tea garden in Golden Gate Park.  I would have like to go in to see the place where fortune cookies may have been invented, but the $4 entrance fee seemed a bit high (and didn't include any tea).  So we headed to the Mission and saw some amazing urban public art and had lunch at El Farolito.  Zach got a massive burrito that he said rivaled Chipotle in quality and I had tostadas.  For dinner that night we had Thai at Osha, good but not spectacular though they did to a great job plating.

Monday was the big food day.  I had seen a pastry shop the night before so we went there for breakfast.  It had been so long since I've had a pain au chocolate- I forgot how good chocolate is for breakfast.  For lunch it was bento boxes at the Japanese deli in the Ferry Building.  They were as good as any I had in Japan.  Mine had a crispy shrimp cake, chicken meatball in a sweet glaze, a potato, lettuce and edamame salad (I would never have though about combining those items with a wasabi mayonaise but it was delicious) and a purple rice salad.  Walking around Berkley that afternoon I got a crepe avec Nutella from the same shop that I stopped in when we did spring break in California my senior year of college.  

Our last meal in San Francisco was at the E&O Trading Company, which our friend described as serving 'food from the former British colonial areas in South East Asia'.  It's sort of a strange description but it fit.  We had naan stuffed with paneer served with sweet tamarind and tart tomato sauces, a light and crispy corn fritter with a soy dipping sauce, minced chicken lettuce wraps (definitely something to try at home) and eggplant, hakka style (eggplant is one of those items I always love out yet can never seen to make for myself).  Dessert was so good I didn't even manage to get a picture of it- 

But then dinner was done and it was time to head to the car and the airport and home to real life.  I've made a little slide show to remind myself of our visit- you can take a look if you'd like to see some of the food that I've talked about. If you click on a picture it will take you to a larger view with captions.  

Wasabi(sito)

Last Friday it was about 80 degrees here in Washington.  I had planned to take the afternoon off work to start cooking for Zach's birthday party (15 people coming over for dinner) so I drove into work so I could get home quickly (I really do feel guilty admitting that- I do take metro 99% of the time- really).  I was headed home at around 2, slightly hungry after having a PB&J on a hot dog bun for lunch when I was suddenly struck by the idea that some sushi would be delicious and, as I drove down the hill on Lee Highway, Wasabi came into view. 

I have been to Wasabi downtown, home of a revolving belt sushi and $2 bottles at happy hour, but I had never been to the Wasabi (formerly called Wasabisito) in Virginia. It's a tiny little shop/restaurant with about 6 table and a large refridgerated case for take out where they have sushi rolls, bento boxes, seaweed salad, and little desserts all ready to go, or at least i'm sure they usually do but since I got there after 2, nearly everything was gone. I asked at the counter for a California roll and the (hmmm, I'm not sure that I would call her a chef, but I'm not sure what other word to use) put the roll together with rice, nori, immitation crab meat (that had been tempura fried- an interesting touch) and avocado and proceeded to put my roll on a very strange machine. 

The machine sat on the counter and was shaped like a mini upright piano, with a high back and small flat space, where a piano keyboard would be.  She set my still flat roll down on a small platform and pushed a button and all of a sudden the roll sprang into the air on the platform and two metal bars appeared on each side and shaped the contents into a square log. I had never in my life seen anything like it and my astonishment was rather clear to everyone in the shop. It's a rather cool device, but it seems o me that it takes away something from the sushi, a food that is about balance and having a delicate touch with ingredients, to have it slammed together like that.

Well, no matter how it was made, it was pretty tasty.  It ended up rolled in a very thick sheet of plastic, sort of like a transparency slide, for transportation home so assumed the traditional round shape and it was just was I was looking for for a snack on a very hot afternoon.

Wasabi

Multiple locations in the DC area.

At Last

You might remember that back in February I attempted to get cupcakes from a shop that had just opened in Georgetown.  It was sold out that day and every subsequent time I walked by their was a sign on the door that said "Sold Out: Reopening at 5" or "Closed for Private Event Today".  I had pretty much given up hope on ever getting a cupcake as their business model seemed to be "create high demand by artificially restricting supply and creating hype."  Yesterday, as I was down on M St. to drop something off for work, I decided to walk by but without much hope of success. 

As I turned onto Potomac St., I saw a line of people snaking out of the shop. I was rather amazed and, as I had no desire to get back to my desk, decided to join the queue. After a few minutes, someone from the shop came out and told us, "Well- we think we have enough cupcakes for you all, but if anyone else comes, tell them we're sold out." Making the customers do the dirty work-- not a good sign.

Finally I made it into the shop and could see the flavors listed on the board; coconut, several varieties of chocolate and lemon blossom. Sadly, when the man in front of me was ordering, a staff member came out of the back and said "We're all out of lemon blossom" so chocolate coconut, coconut and chocolate hazelnut it was for me. 

We had dinner at a friend's house and I brought the cupcakes for dessert. They were good, but not amazing. The tiny pieces of candied hazlenut that topped my chocolate cupcake and were held on by a thin layer of chocolate ganache was the best part. The crunch of the hazlenuts gave the cupcake great texture (I think I will be stealing this idea in the future) and the ganache itself had a good chocolate flavor but wasn't overwhelming in quantity. The cupcakes themselves tasted just like Duncan Hines or Betty Crocker box mix. I don't say this as a bad thing in and of itself- box mixes are generally pretty tasty, but if I'm paying $2.75 a cupcake, I want something I can't make at home for 1/10th of the price.

Georgetown Cupcake
M and Potomac, just across from Dean & Deluca's
http://www.georgetowncupcake.com/

Pastelsito

Yesterday a new cupcake bakery opened in Georgetown. Creatively named 'Georgetown Cupcakes', my co-workers and I had been looking forward to it for a week (which was how long we knew it would be opening). We made plans for an office field trip and decided 1 o'clock would be a good time to go; after lunch, so hopefully we wouldn't be tempted to eat too many cupcakes. Then, at 12:55 my co-worker S--- got a call from one of her friends. He was at the bakery and there was a "Sold Out of Cupcakes: Reopening at 5:00" sign on the door.

We were distraught. Not in the least because we had all promised at least one person a cupcake (or in S---'s case, about 5 people...). Something had to be done so we walked down to Baked and Wired. I had never gotten cupcakes there before since I think the price ($3.50 each) is sort of extortionate but, with it being Valentine's Day and all I decided to splurge and buy Zach and I a cupcake each.

Mine was the chocolate one and I got a coconut one for Zach. The cake itself was a rather normal cupcake size and slightly on the dry side (I think that they had been refrigerated at one point) but it seemed as thought the cake was merely a vehicle for the icing. The chocolate was so rich and chocolaty that I ended up taking half of it off. Zach, on the other hand, managed to eat all of his pink buttercream with soft coconut on top.

Baked and Wired
1052 Thomas Jefferson St. NW
www.bakedandwired.com

Georgetown Cupcake (very cute website)
M and Potomac, just across from Dean & Deluca's
http://www.georgetowncupcake.com/

Restaurant Week

Restaurant Week developed in DC to help restaurants fill their tables during the August congressional recess and has since evolved into a twice yearly event where for $20.08 for lunch or $30.08 for dinner (the cent value changes with the year that we are in) you can enjoy a three course meal at many area restaurants.

I haven't been overly impressed with my choices for restaurant week in the past considering that dinner for two people, with tax and tip ends up being around $80 but this year things were different. I looked for a restaurant that I knew we could never normally afford and that I'd read some good reviews of and ended up with the choice of Farrah Olivia in Old Town. Some of you might have heard of its chef, Morou Ouattara, as he was a competitor on the FoodNetwork program- The Next Iron Chef, but that it another story.

My story is of dinner in a little square dining room with big windows on both sides. Of a goat cheese terrine with red pepper sauce as an amuse bouche and deconstructed sushi with soy soy pearls for starters. Of the most delicious, smoky porkchop served on creamy lentils and carrots and of a rich dense brownie with marshmallow topping alongside a quenelle of beetroot ice cream. Of tiny jam thumbprints and little raspberry jellies that you are really to full to eat but have to just try anyway. Of food that makes you laugh as you realize that the couscous is really tiny bits of fried yucca and grits can be the vest thing you have ever eaten.

Even the final bill couldn't spoil the happy ending to this tale.

P.S. The presentation was the best I have ever seen in my life. As I cannot figure out how to get the pictures off my phone, I'll have to give you a link to the restaurant's website instead. Take a look at their gallery- you will be amazed.


Farrah Olivia
600 Franklin St.
Alexandria, VA 22134
http://www.farraholiviarestaurant.com