DC Report!

Kinda like The Colbert Report, but without Stephen Colbert.  And Tek Jansen.  And sadly, Alan Colmes.

Anyhoo, Matt and I decided to honeymoon in DC!  (We are perfectly allowed to call a trip 2.5 years after our wedding a honeymoon, especially since we were so poor when we got married that we couldn’t afford it.)  Anyway, we did a lot of the touristy stuff (the Capitol, Air and Space Museum, the Mall), we saw Arlington Cemetery (every American must see it), and we ate.  We avoided a lot of the touristy places (I hope).

Thursday evening: It was Christmas night, and our hotel’s kitchen was closed.  We walked over to the Willard InterContinental and had drinks at Cafe du Parc, mainly Breton cider.  Mmmm, French alcoholic cider.  Then we ventured up to Foggy Bottom to eat Italian at the restaurant in the Embassy Suites, Trattoria Nicola’s.  This place was a desperation move, and I think we had a new waitress, and the kitchen was understaffed.  We ordered calamari fritti, which we didn’t receive until our entrees were delivered.  Matt ordered linguine pescatore, and I ordered bucatini all’Amatriciana.  My bucatini was okay, but I prefer my Amatriciana sauce; the dish felt bland.  A little salt would have helped things immensely, or some Romano cheese in the sauce versus the Parmesan they shaved on top.  I didn’t try Matt’s linguine, but it looked good; there was a lot of seafood, including mussels, calamari and shrimp.  We ordered an eight-ounce carafe of red wine to share, and they brought us two.  Ugh.  The manager was very conciliatory, which was a plus, and we got the second carafe of wine and the calamari comped.  I hate to argue, and was apologetic the whole time.  To be fair, I would try it again on a normal night, but the table next to us was having issues with the same waitress.

Friday involved breakfast at the hotel (yogurt and Cheerios!  Mmmm!), a quick trip to Union Station so Matt could buy some shaving cream at Art of Shaving, and then lunch at Cosi, which is a national chain, apparently (there’s one in San Antonio).  Not bad for a quick lunch (we were going to Arlington that afternoon, and decided to eat before we caught the Metro).  Matt ordered a buffalo bleu sandwich; I ordered a wasabi roast beef.  Mine was really good, and I’ve recreated it at home: Roast beef, wasabi mayo, soy ginger sauce, pickled ginger, and lettuce.  (Matt won’t eat tomato.  His loss.)  His was okay, if not bland: The buffalo sauce was not very hot at all, and there was no flavor to the bleu cheese dressing.

Friday dinner found us in Georgetown after a lot of walking.  We walked from Arlington Cemetery to the western Mall to Foggy Bottom to Georgetown.  We ate dinner, on the recommendation of our friend Rebecca (who lives in Rockville, so she knows where to eat), at Clyde’s.  You can tell you’re in DC when you walk into a restaurant and the TV at the bar is showing The Situation Room.  (They turned it to basketball soon after we walked in.)  I ordered the rigatoni with sausage and rapini, Matt ordered the butternut squash ravioli.  The sausage was spicy (finally! spicy food!), the rapini was bitter, and it actually worked.  Matt’s ravioli had an awesome caramelized onion cream sauce; I was eating it off his plate.  We ordered dessert – cheesecake for him, chocolate and croissant bread pudding for me.  Mmmmm.  My bread pudding was very yummy – lots of gooey chocolate and creme anglaise.  Thankfully we had to walk back to Foggy Bottom to catch the Metro!

Saturday morning found us at Market Lunch, conveniently located inside the Eastern Market.  Mmm, BLT with egg…best way to start out a morning.  The atmosphere is just as good as the food: You’re crowded at a long table with all sorts of people – locals, shoppers, Metro Police officers, market workers.  The workers behind the counter are loud and brash, and they don’t take crap from anyone.  The market isn’t anything to sneeze at, either – they had whole pig heads in a meat case.  My friend Rebecca would have had a heart attack, since she’s Jewish.  Lots of fresh meat, produce, flowers, and prepared foods.  The tamale lady didn’t understand what I meant by “Kosher” (I was debating taking some tamales to the latke party we were attending later); she thought pork was kosher.  *facepalm*  I decided against it, for several reasons.

After walking around the market, buying a brand new wool embroidered pashmina for myself and looking at all the jewelry, we walked to Capitol Hill.  Then walked around the Capitol.  Then walked back up Penn to Good Stuff Eatery.

(Those who do not like the show Top Chef, stop reading now.  I’m not kidding.  I ate there so you don’t have to.  STOP!!)

This is the burger joint that is operated by Spike Mendelsohn, who was on the Chicago season.  It’s in a good location: It’s close to Capitol Hill, surrounded by residential neighborhoods, and six blocks from the Capitol South Metro station.  (Though can you really see Congressional staffers chowing down on burgers during lunch?!)  Matt ordered the “Five-Napkin” burger (lots of mayo, cheese, bacon, and a fried egg) and I ordered a barbecue bacon cheeseburger.  We also split an order of “Village fries”.  Alas, there were no milkshakes.

Anyway, Matt’s burger was very messy and kinda bland (I’m noticing a trend with DC restaurants), and mine was messy and had lots of flavor (the barbecue sauce helped).  The bacon was nice and crispy.

The brioche buns were nicely baked and slightly sweet, which was a good choice versus the boisterous burger.  The fries were hand-cut and supposedly double-fried, and topped with rosemary and thyme.

I wanted more salt.  I never want more salt!  I wanted them to be crispier, too.  They were floppy and flaccid.  The mayos for dipping were good; I really loved the Sriracha mayo (can I slather this on everything?) and the chipotle mayo, though a little more heat would have been nice.  Matt liked the mango mayo (I’m not a mango fan), and both of us were confused by the Old Bay mayo.  Methinks it’s because we’re not from the area.  Spike was actually behind the counter, and commented on my hat (he supposedly liked it).  I think I turned about ten shades of red.  There was an “environmental fee” on the receipt (my guess is it’s a carbon offset), but seriously, don’t package my lunch in layers of paper AND put it all in a paper bag!  For eat-in orders, use baskets.  Or metal plates.  Or something a little more environmentally friendly!  You’re not showing me that you’re conscious of the environment when you do that.  [/soapbox rant]

Saturday night was latkes!  Lotsa latkes.  After confusion about which Metro stop to go to, my friend Rebecca and her dad picked us up and it was off to her house.  We had to help peel potatoes and I was given onion duty, since they supposedly make everyone cry.  They didn’t give me any problems.  The frying took a few hours and a tripped circuit.  They were good, if not a bit stodgy; I would have preferred sea salt versus Morton’s iodized salt (or even kosher salt would have done nicely).  I’m not a big applesauce or sour cream fan.  There was the traditional lighting of the menorahs and the prayer, and lots of chatting and meeting of people.  It’s always nice to see Rebecca, and it was cool to be included in her family’s traditions.

Sunday: We went to the National Cathedral for service.  Met Rebecca in Tenleytown for lunch at a Mexican place called Guapo’s.  Again, bland.  I had tamales.  The masa was good, the chicken was bland, the sauce was meh.  Rebecca had cheese quesadillas (again, the whole kosher dietary restrictions), and Matt had cheese enchiladas.  Next time I go to DC, I’m taking a bottle of Big Daddy’s hot sauce.  I’ll check my bag if necessary!  Dinner was at Teaism in the Penn Quarter.  I had Thai chicken curry (NOT VERY GOOD) and Matt had palak paneer (“okay”).  Rebecca had a salmon bento box, which may have been the way to go.  After dinner, Rebecca and I went up to U Street and ACKC.  Hot chocolate abounded.  I had peppermint hot chocolate, named after our President-elect, and Rebecca had a Marilyn Monroe (white chocolate with Oreos).  When I got back to the hotel (homemade s’mores from ACKC in tow, which were very good, and rich!), we were still hungry (we ate dinner at 4:30).   We were so desperate, we ordered a burger from room service.

Tomorrow (or tonight, if I’m really ambitious), I’ll post the rest of our trip.  And pictures!