Picture preview of Bandolero, Mike Isabella's new Mexican restaurant

Thank You, LivingSocial Gourmet Deals!

Because of you, Jarrett and I got a preview of Mike Isabella's new Mexican restaurant, Bandolero, set to open in Georgetown in April.  It was A-MAZ-ING!  I was expecting a completely fixed menu, and was pleasantly surprised that all of the courses, save for the first one, had options.  And our waitress encouraged us to order different things in order to try more.  Don't have to tell us twice.

Instead of blabbering on like I normally do, I'll walk you though our dinner using pictures.  Reviews won't be necessary since everything that passed my lips was incredible.

First Course:  Warm chips & chicharrones with guacamole, sikil pak (pumpkin seeds, jalapeno orange), and salsa roja
Paired With:  Michelada (milagro blanco, tomato, lime, mole bitters, corona)

Second Course:  Sopes (lamb picadillo, chipotle goat cheese) and Taquitos (blue crab, coconut, red chile, lime)
Paired With:  Margarita (milagro blanco, patron citronage, agave, grand marnier, lime, blood orange)

Sorry, I dropped the ball on this one, no pictures:(  I went to the bathroom to make the food come faster, and it worked, and when I got back to the table, we dove right in.

Third Course:  Tacos!  Mahi Mahi with chipotle, avocado, lime and Skirt Steak with refried beans and crispy onions
Paired With:  City of Gold (milagro resposado, cardamaro, st. germain, lemon)

Fourth Course:  Tamal (wild mushrooms, epazote) and Mole Negro (pork ribs, sesame seeds)
Paired With:  Malverde (sombra mezcal, cucumber, cilantro, agave, hellfire bitters)

Fifth Course:  Flan (canella, orange) and Mexican Chocolate Pudding (mezcal crema)
Paired With:  Sparkling Cocktail (el jimador blanco, prickly pear, sparkling wine)

And although I've met him once before, the high point of the evening was chatting and getting a picture with Mike Isabella.  I was way less nervous this time since I had just had all those cocktails though!

Sunday Night Supper: Pumpkin Sausage Pasta

As I mentioned in my most recent post, I ran the Hot Chocolate 15K last weekend, and also volunteered as a running buddy at the DC Girls on the Run 5K.  So I had figured that I’d be all “runned out” by this weekend, right?  WRONG!

Soooo Jarrett and I went out to the bar with friends and had “party night” on Friday, so we then had “date night” on Saturday at Tsunami Sushi and Lounge in Logan Circle to use up one of my livingsocial deals (no blog post on Tsunami, I’d give it an “average”, nothing special).  We were very tame on Saturday night and I had been receiving peer pressure all week to do the Jingle All The Way 8K on Sunday morning.  It was only 5 miles and it was a beautiful, sunny morning (though cold) so I figured, “What the hell?” and registered on-site that morning.  And it was a quick, fun run:)

The Tulsa Hurry Canes! (yes, I'm aware I didn't go to Tulsa... but they all did... it's all good!)

Jenn and Me:)

I went to a fantastic brunch at Old Ebbitt Grill with the Hurry Canes afterwards (definitely get the Long Island Eggs if you go there, and the French Toast looked good if you want something sweet), then I headed home to shower and put on my sweats.

Anywho, the reason I’m telling you all this is because after a run, I usually just want to lounge around at home and cook.  So after we put up our sweet, gaudy Christmas tree, that is exactly what I did.

I love lights!  And ornaments!  And candy canes!  And yes, my wall and foam roller are both orange.

Pumpkin Sausage Pasta

Ingredients

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, plus 1 tablespoon

1 pound sweet Italian sausage

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1 bay leaf, fresh or dried

4 to 6 sprigs sage leaves, cut into chiffonade, about 2 tablespoons

1 cup dry white wine

1 cup chicken stock

1 cup canned pumpkin

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Coarse salt and black pepper

1 pound penne rigate, cooked al dente

Romano or Parmigiano, for grating

Directions

1.      Heat a large, deep nonstick skillet or sauté pan over medium high heat. Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to the pan and brown the sausage in it (if using sausage links, first remove sausage from casing). Transfer sausage to paper towel lined plate. Drain fat from skillet and return pan to the stove.

2.      Add the remaining tablespoon oil, and then the garlic and onion. Saute 3 to 5 minutes until the onions are tender.

3.      Add bay leaf, sage, and wine to the pan. Reduce wine by half, about 2 minutes.

4.      Add stock and pumpkin and stir to combine, stirring sauce until it comes to a bubble.

5.      Return sausage to pan, reduce heat, and stir in cream. Season the sauce with the cinnamon and nutmeg, and salt and pepper, to taste.

6.      Simmer mixture 5 to 10 minutes to thicken sauce.

7.      Remove the bay leaf from sauce.  Return drained pasta to the pan and toss with the pumpkin sausage sauce over low heat for 1 minute.

8.   Garnish the pasta with lots of grated cheese.

*Original recipe may be located here.

Best enjoyed in the fall or winter with a glass of wine (as always) and Love Actually!

A Binge Post

Why did I title this entry, “A Binge Post”?  While I did not officially “binge” last weekend, there was much eating and cooking going on, and I felt a succinct title would be better than one that was a run-on sentence.  This is basically four posts mashed into one, and probably should have been four posts, but I had a busy week, so I’m taking the cluttered way out.  However, I’ve subtitled each one so you can pick and choose to read only the ones that interest you!

That said, on to the food…

Running for Chocolate

Saturday morning, I woke up bright and early… well, dark and early… 6am to be exact… earlier than I wake up for work… to run the Hot Chocolate 15K at National Harbor.  (That’s 9.3 miles for all you non-math/physics majors out there.)  I was super excited because what could be better than two things I love, running and chocolate, combined into one!

Since I don’t want this post to be a complaint of how poorly this race was organized, if you haven’t heard about it already, you can read about what a disaster the Washington, DC Hot Chocolate 5K/15K was here.  I’ll just say that after picking up two friends, Sarah and Tarcy, we were on our way out of the city on 295 by 6:55 am and we didn’t get to the start line until about 7:45 am due to the traffic and parking issues.  To find out that the 8 am start time was delayed.  Cut to 9:15 am… the race finally starts!  Again, I don’t want to complain about the course/corrals/walkers, so I’ll just say that I spent most of the race zigzagging around the thousands of people and still never achieved my optimal pace, so I was not super happy with my time.  At least I had the chocolate to look forward to!

Good news about the chocolate:  It was Ghirardelli, so it was great!  We got fondue in a little nacho-type tray with half a banana, half an apple, a few marshmallows, a few pretzel stick and a rice krispie treat.  And hot chocolate!  (Sorry for the lack of pictures… my brain usually only has food and sitting on its mind after a run.)

Bad news about the chocolate:  They rationed it:(

So basically, food is what saved the day.

Restaurant Review:  Cuba Libre

Saturday night, Jarrett’s old boss, Dave, was in town (old as in former), so I had made reservations at a place that I thought he would enjoy.  Cuba Libre!  Due to the fact that I didn’t take pictures (I didn’t want Dave to think I was weirder than he already thinks I am), this will be a super quickie review of what we got and whether or not you should ever get it:)  Though I have eaten here before, it was awhile back so I’ll only focus on what we got this time.  And since we decided to just do appetizers/tapas all family-style on our table, I can’t comment on any of the entrees.

Cuba Libre

801 9^th Street NW

Washington, DC 20001

http://cubalibrerestaurant.com/i/washington-dc/

Tropical Red Sangria

Very average for sangria, but we got a pitcher so it definitely made sense if you know you’re all gonna want more than one drink.

Cuban bread and butter (on the house)

AMAZING!  I *may* have enjoyed this more than some of the dishes we ordered.  And since it’s their bread basket, you can eat as much as you want… for FREE! 

Tostones (Twice-fried crisp green plantains.  Garlic-mojo dipping sauce.)

Personally, I love tostones.  I have a Puerto-Rican Uncle Julio and growing up, my Auntie Sandy also made tostones for his birthday.  Maybe I only love hers…  I found Cuba Libre’s tostones to be too big (so they weren’t crispy enough) and the dipping sauce was not chock full of flavor.  I’d try something new next time.

Pato Ahumado (House-cured smoked duck, roasted corn salsa.  Huitlacoche vinaigrette.)

The boys wanted this to satisfy their meat cravings.  Personally, I could take it or leave it and I didn’t think the amount you got was worth the price.

El Chinito Cubano (Crispy “Cuban sandwich” spring rolls.  Pickled carrots, cabbage, and cilantro salad.  Chinese mustard sauce.)

Excluding the empanadas, this was my favorite item.  I like the concept as well as the execution.  We almost placed a second order; it tasted great!

Coctel de Camarones (Cuban style shrimp cocktail.  Latino coctel and avocado salsa.)

Also very tasty.  The accompaniments to the shrimpies were wonderful and you got 6 not-large-but-not-too-small shrimp.

Mama Amelia’s Empanadas (I got the Shrimp, creamy spinach, and pine nuts and the Hand-chopped chicken, corn, sweet peppers, and Jack cheese.)

These we all just ordered on our own, whatever we wanted.  Fantastic.  I ate my shrimp one first, so I only had a few bits of the chicken, but they were both great.  The dough was definitely what makes it.  The boys both also got the chicken, as well as the Pulled pork, roasted poblano, and charred tomatoes, and they raved about theirs, too:)

No dessert for us that night as the boys just finished my empanada and I was still on sugar-overload from all of the chocolate in the morning.

I’d eat here again… there’s still so much on the menu I need to try!

Sunday Night Supper:  Tomato and Roasted Garlic Soup and Gourmet Grilled Cheese

Finally, a section where I’ll have pictures because I planned ahead/didn’t have post-run brain/wasn’t self-conscious!

Jarrett loves this tomato soup and since it’s starting to get cold outside, I thought it was a great idea.  It’s definitely a simple dinner… the grilled cheese takes no time to make at all, but the soup takes awhile and makes 8 cups so there’s plenty to eat throughout the week.  And you can easily whip up some more grilled cheese as needed or pair the soup with something else!

Tomato and Roasted Garlic Soup

Ingredients

1 head garlic

½ teaspoon extra virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling garlic

Salt and pepper

1 cup onion, chopped

1 cup celery, chopped

8 cups stewed tomatoes, including juice

1 cup water

1 bay leaf

2 teaspoons dried oregano

2 teaspoons dried basil

1 teaspoon dried thyme

Directions

1.      Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.  Remove loose papery skins from garlic, leaving head intact.  Cut half an inch off the top of the garlic, drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Bake on center rack for 40 minutes until garlic has softened.  Allow to cool.

2.      In a large saucepan or dutch oven, heat ½ teaspoon olive oil.  Add onion and celery and cook until softened, about 5 minutes.

3.      Stir in tomatoes, water, and all seasonings.  Bring to a boil.

4.      Reduce heat and squeeze in roasted garlic.  Simmer for 30 minutes.

5.      Puree with a hand blender until mostly smooth.

*Original recipe may be found in The Eat-Clean Diet, by Tosca Reno.

Gourmet Grilled Cheese

Ingredients

Pam

Butter

Bread (for as many sandwiches as you want)

Shredded cheese (as much and whatever kind you like, my sous chef (Jarrett) and I used a mixture of Grafton Vermont Cheddar, Gruyere, and Emmenthaler)

Directions

1.      Over medium heat, prepare a grill pan placed over two burners (or just a skillet) with Pam.

2.      Butter both sides of all of the bread you intend to use and place in heated, prepared pan.

3.      When nice and brown and crispy, flip the half of the pieces of bread over, and put as much shredded cheese as you would like in each sandwich on each of the flipped pieces of bread.

4.      Take the unflipped pieces of bread and placed them, ungrilled side up, on the pieces of bread with cheese.

5.      When the bread touching the grill pan is nice and brown and crispy, flip the entire sandwich one last time, until the last side of bread is nice and brown and crispy.

6.      Serve with tomato soup:)

Note:  I like my sandwiches cut into triangles, but Jarrett did  the majority of the grilled cheese while I was making the soup... including the cutting...

Book Club Goodies:  White Chocolate Chip Dried Cherry Cookies

I am in two book clubs.  Yes, two.  If you combine both clubs’ books into one, I probably read them about 50% of the time.  Don’t get me wrong, I love reading… it mostly just depends on if my reading schedule lines up with the book clubs’ schedules.  I won’t read more than one book at a time, I won’t partially read a book, stop, read a second book, then go back to the first book, and when I finish a book, I need another one in queue to start reading right away.  I always purchase the book club books and there have been multiple occasions where I’ll read it like a year after we’ve discussed it.

But it’s all good because book club is about more than just reading books… it’s also about wine and female camaraderie and wine.  So this month, one of my book clubs had a cookie exchange!  It’s where you make/bring cookies, and so does everyone else and you take a few from everyone, so you all leave with multiple kinds of cookies!  The recipe below always makes me think of Christmas for some reason, and since this was December book club, it’s what I decided to make.

White Chocolate Chip Dried Cherry Cookies

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1 egg

1 tablespoon orange liqueur

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 cup white chocolate chips

1 cup dried cherries

Directions

1.      Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets.

2.      In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until smooth. Beat in the egg and liqueur. Combine the flour and baking soda; stir into the sugar mixture. Mix in the white chocolate chips and cherries. Drop by heaping spoonfuls onto prepared cookie sheets.  (You should get about 24 cookies… I think this is the first time I actually correctly made the amount the original recipe called for!  But feel free to make them larger or smaller as you desire.)

Please excuse my messy kitchen:)

3.      Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. For best results, take them out while they are still doughy. Allow cookies to cool for 1 minute on the cookie sheets before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

*Original recipe can be located here.

I swear I'll try to make my next few posts shorter!

Beaujolais Nouveau Night 2011!

Note:  This post is also a wine lesson:)

First, a little background:  For those of you who are not wine aficionados, Beaujolais Nouveau (“BN” for the rest of this paragraph) is red wine from the Beaujolais region of France, made from Gamay grapes.  BN is sometimes considered “immature” by critics as it is typically bottled 6-8 weeks after each year’s harvest, and is fermented in the bottle for only 3 weeks.  This process does leave BN without much complexity and with much fruitiness, but that’s the point!  There are other wines which critics can drink if they want “earthy undertones”, “hints of cherry and smoke”, etc.  BN is always released on the third Thursday of November (Beaujolais Nouveau Day), and is intended to be drunk (drank? drinken?) immediately (rather than fermenting further by storing in your wine cellar).  Thus, all the hype surrounding Beaujolais Nouveau Night/Day.

Moving forward:  Bistrot du Coin is a French restaurant in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of DC that looooooves Beaujolais Nouveau, and loves to celebrate it.  If you call them at exactly 10am two weeks prior to the Wednesday before Beaujolais Nouveau Day, you might be lucky enough to snag a reservation for Beaujolais Nouveau Night at Bistrot du Coin.  You get a seating at either 7pm or 9pm on Wednesday, the day before Beaujolais Nouveau Day, for a $40 prix fixe three-course dinner (“prix fixe” means “fixed price” for all you non-sophisticated people out there… aka, people other than me… just kidding, people exactly like me!).  In this case, the food isn’t really a deal… the deal is that you’re issued a wristband so that you can leave the restaurant, then come back at midnight (so it’s now Thursday) for free all-you-can-drink Beaujolais Nouveau until the wee hours of the morning!

Bistrot du Coin, note the discoball for the later festivities!

And that, my friends, is Beaujolais Nouveau Night:)

Some of my friends (the “PartyBus”) partake in this event every year and even plan their work schedules/take time off around it.  (I can painstakingly remember that I was in Alabama for a business trip last year for a technical assessment of a vendor that only had one day available to host me.  Lame.)  Thus, this was my first experience with Beaujolais Nouveau Night.  FYI, I did not do any of the reservation calling, I just got to reap the benefits:)

For my first course, I had the Salade verte au Roquefort (Green salad with Roquefort cheese and walnuts).  As happens frequently, I was so hungry that I dove right into my salad without taking a picture.  That just means it was really good:)  Here are the remnants, though!

For my entrée, I had the Cassoulet du Bistrotier (White bean stew with sausage, pork, lamb and duck Confit), a very classic French peasant dish.

Yummy Cassoulet that tastes even better than it looks in the picture

Tarcy's steak

It was amazing!  And an incredible amount of food (which I totally couldn’t finish because I scarfed down my salad so fast along with the endless bread baskets that kept appearing at our table).

For dessert, Classique Crème Brulee (this one should be pretty self-explanatory, but just in case, Classic Crème Brulee with Vanilla Beans).

All-in-all, a very classic (and delicious) French meal.  I applaud you, Bistrot du Coin.  Even though this night was to celebrate wine, I also got to indulge and enjoy and amazing meal (along with a few bottles of non-BN wine… don’t worry, there were 13 of us, it wasn’t all for me!).

Anywho, we had the 7pm seating, so we were kicked out at 9 for that seating.  As we were walking down the street to seek out a bar at which to kill the next 2 ½ hours, we passed by a nail salon when my friend Shawn exclaimed, “Hey, this place gives you free champagne when you get a manicure!”  (P.S. Shawn is a girl.)  Still a little tipsy from dinner, most of us girls decided, “Hey, why not?  They’re open until 11.”

Rachel and Shawn

Me and Allison (aka, wifey) P.S. Note the wristbands.

So $17 later (tax and tip included), I’d had 3 glasses of champagne and my nails done:)  Still having about an hour to kill, we met the boys and Tarcy at the Irish bar a block away.  (Side note:  Poor Jarrett (who’s a CPA) has a 9/30 year-end client with a filing deadline that’s always the day before Thanksgiving, so he was working.  He’s now considering a career change so that he won’t miss out next year.  Just figured I’d explain the non-existence of him in any pictures.)

We got back into Bistrot du Coin just before midnight, when the bottles were released and you just make your way up to the bar and they give you one (an entire bottle, that is).  Along with plastic cups.  I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Me, Tarcy, Allison

Misha and Travis

Right before the Beaujolais was brought out

Beaujolais Party!

The bar

Ryan, Shawn, Misha, and I... a few plastic cups of Beaujolais in

Charles loves his Beaujolais!

Some of the PartyBus:)

More Beaujolais!

And now that you know what Beaujolais Nouveau is and when it’s released, you can find/organize your own BN Night/Day wherever you are!  Or check out Bistro du Coin in DC!

Saturday Night at Toki Underground

This past Saturday evening, Jarrett and I made double date plans (though we would never actually call it a double date) with our good friends Dan and Sarah, who always seemed to be at a wedding every time we’ve tried to hang out with them recently.  When Dan suggested Toki, I was thrilled because I’d been hearing that name a lot in the DC food world, as well as in my daily Tasting Table emails.  When we finally narrowed down the date to Saturday, and Dan told me there would likely be a 2 hour wait unless we arrived at a geriatric hour, I was leaning towards disappointed, but all’s well that ends well.

Toki Underground

1234 H St. NE

Washington, DC 20002

http://tokiunderground.com/#/

We were quite fortunate in that Dan and Sarah live a few blocks from H St. and offered to go and put their names in, then kill time at our favorite local H St. pub, Little Miss Whiskey’s, until it was time to eat.  (Toki doesn’t take reservations and only has 30-something seats and no waiting area so they’re totally down with you waiting it out at a local pub and will call/text when your table is about ready.)  Sure enough, Dan and Sarah put their names in around 7, Jarrett and I finally made our way up there around 8:30, and we were seated by 9.

Toki Underground is a new(ish) tiny Taiwanese Ramen/Dumpling Joint in the H St. corridor which recently made the list of the 38 essential Washington restaurants per dc.eater.com.  If you can go on a weeknight (when I hear the wait is only about half an hour) or have the patience (or alcoholic inclinations to drink for 2 hours prior to dinner) to wait on the weekend, then I fully endorse this claim.  However, I must mention that I was very surprised that immediately upon entering this establishment, we had no choice but to go up the flight of stairs in front of us to get to the kitchen and dining area. (Maybe they thought “Toki Aboveground” didn’t sound as cool?)

Anywho, from what I could see, there weren’t too many actual tables, mostly a long bar around the room, and we were lucky enough to be seated right in front of the kitchen.  This was our view.

Hello, kitty!

Note:  Maybe it’s just because I’m a sweaty person in general, and though sitting that close to the chef/cooks was cool, it was also HOT!  Especially when I started scarfing down my ramen broth.  At least our after-dinner plans were Rock & Roll Hotel, so it didn’t really matter.  But I’m getting off-topic… another story for another time.

Their menu is not extensive, but when you’ve got a niche, it doesn’t really need to be.  Also, everything is filthy cheap.

As appetizers, we got ½ dozen each of the pork and chicken dumplings.  Phenomenal!

Sorry, one's missing cuz we ate it already:)

Since it was my first dining here, I decided to go with the Toki Hakata Classic, figuring it was their “baseline” dish.  No idea if that was the case, but it was a-maz-ing.  I washed it down with a Satsuma Yum! off of their cocktail list.

Pork loin chashu, seasonal vegetables, 1/2 boiled egg, red pickled ginger,  sesame, scallions, and nori in a delicious noodle broth... yum!

Note that we go both chopsticks AND a big spoon.  I must admit that I’m not the most proficient with chopsticks (though I can certainly manage) so that made it a bit difficult to politely eat (I’m also kinda naturally messy when I eat), so another warning if you’re going somewhere fancy afterwards.  That being said, I would gladly come back and slurp noodles all over my face any day!  To be completely honest, I don’t understand why I saw so many “finished diners’” bowls heading back to the kitchen with so much broth in them… that was the best part!

Also, you get little candies when you pay:)  Please excuse the poor photo quality.

Let’s just say this is the best ramen I’ve ever had.  And the only ramen I’ve ever liked:)

Marathon Weekend: Four Restaurant Reviews

The “marathon” reference in my title is not just referring to the fact that I went on a binge of visiting many restaurants last weekend, it has a double meaning… I also ran my first marathon!  (As did Jarrett!)  It was definitely one of the most difficult things I have ever done, not only the event itself, but also the 17 weeks of training in which I ran over 350 miles, as well as 2-3 days a week of cross and/or strength training.  It was also one of the most rewarding.  I am happy to say that I smoked my original goal of 4:45, and even beat my updated goal of 4:30 to finish in 4:26:48.  Maybe not legendary, but I ran the entire time and am still very pleased with myself.  And I have plenty of time to run many more marathons and beat this time.

Anywho, part of marathon success is attributed to “carbing up” in the 3 to 7 days prior to the race.  As this blog progresses, you’ll realize that my eating habits are usually in a state of “carbing up” so there wasn’t much I needed to change.  However, I do contribute my successful race to the food choices I made in the days leading up to it.

Nando’s Peri-Peri

224 Boardwalk Place

Gaithersburg, MD 20878

http://www.nandosperiperi.com/index.cfm

Nando’s specializes in Portuguese chicken and they have multiple locations in the DC metro area.  Similar to Buffalo Wild Wings (Bbubs!) in that you can “choose your own heat” for any of the chicken items, they also have extra sauces and condiments that you can bring to your table.

Nando’s was Friday lunch with coworkers (I work in Rockville, hence the Gaithersburg location), so I can’t speak to their dinner atmosphere or their cocktail quality (they did have what appeared to be a decent alcohol menu).  However, it worked extremely well for a group lunch… you were seated, then you order and pay at the counter, then your food is brought to your table.  This was my first time here, and I would definitely go back to sample more of the menu and “heats”.

I got the Chicken Breast Sandwich with “Lemon and Herb” as my heat. 

Not very hot, I know.  Normally, I would be more adventurous, but considering that my marathon was less than 48 hours away, I felt like throwing spicy things into my plumbing was not the best idea.  However, the chicken was very moist and the fact that it was grilled made me feel like I was being healthy:)  The bread left a little to be desired, but just a little… not a lot.  And the pop machine (sorry, I’m from Michigan… so it’s “POP”, not soda) was AWESOME!

Zengo
781 7^th St. NW

Washington, DC 20001

http://www.richardsandoval.com/zengodc/index.php

Friday dinner was date night at Zengo, a Latin-Asian fusion tapas-style restaurant.  LOOOOOVE fusion restaurants!  Probably because I’m a very indecisive person.  I also LOOOOOVE tapas-style restaurants because I like to eat as much off of the menu as possible, especially if it’s my first time somewhere (P.S. not my first time here, but it's been awhile).  That being said, my overall view of Zengo is about average.

Again, I didn’t want to irritate the plumbing so close to the marathon, so I had made 7:15pm reservations, a bit earlier than we would normally do dinner, so that we could get to bed early, get plenty of sleep, and wake up early.  I also wasn’t going to have any alcohol to keep myself in tip-top condition.  (Trust me, when you get to know me better or if you already know me well, not having any alcohol at dinner is extremely rare, and a big deal for me.)  Both of these intentions got completely destroyed.

So when Zengo calls to confirm your reservation, they make a big deal about how you must arrive within 15 minutes of your reservation or else they will give away your table.  Totally understandable.  We were a few minutes late, which was par for the course for me, arriving at 7:22pm.  Upon checking in with the hostess, we were informed that they were running “just a little bit behind”, but people were asking for checks and leaving so it shouldn’t be too long.  Though they couldn’t tell us exactly how long, or even provide us with an estimate.  Except that there were 5-6 groups in front of us.  Damn!  Normally, I would just eat elsewhere (plenty of options in Chinatown), but I should probably mention that it was my intent to use a livingsocial deal that was expiring on Sunday.  I didn’t want to lose my $25 that I paid for $50 worth of food!  So we waited.  I did, however, ask for a menu so that we could order immediately upon sitting down.

After an indeterminate amount of time, I forced my way through the masses that were quickly accumulating by the front door, to check in with the hostess again.  Now only 1 group in front of us.  But I was pretty mad.  So I asked, “Aren’t you going to offer us drinks or anything for not being able to honor our reservation?”  Apparently Zengo follows an “ask and you shall receive” mantra so at least we each got a free glass of wine.  Finally, at 7:55 pm, we were seated!

Our first three dishes came out at the same time:  Salted Edamame, Lobster Sushi Roll, and Charred Tuna Wonton Tacos.

The edamame was great and had somewhat of a smoky flavor.  I had very high expectations for the sushi and the tacos and was let down.  I couldn’t really taste the fish in either.  In the case of the tacos, there were a lot of accompaniments which overpowered the fish, but most of them were awesome (including guac, mmmm) which made the situation better.  However, the wonton tacos were not formed as well as they could have been, and a lot of the toppings fell out/ran all over my hands.

Our next dish:  Pork Belly Steamed Buns.

My expectations were average, and these buns blew them out of the water!  The pork had a great flavor with great accompaniments, and the buns were the perfect consistency.  My only complaint is that you only get two buns in an order so each of us only got one:(

Usually our eyes are bigger than our stomachs and we would normally order another dish before dessert, but we somehow exercised self-control on this occasion and went straight for dessert:  Churros Y Chocolate.

Note:  This was a few churros in.  Sometimes I forget to take pictures when I'm excited about eating.  Working on that.

I felt like we got the proper amount of churros for the price, and while the chocolate was a tad thinner than I would have liked, it had a great flavor.  (And since it was on the thin side, Jarrett let me drink it once the churros were gone!)

So even though this experience started off poorly, it did end well.  P.S.  I always look at the menu if I have to wait for a table… saves so much time!

Carmine’s
425 7^th St. NW

Washington, DC 20004

http://www.carminesnyc.com/locations/wadc/index.php

By Saturday night, it was time for our most carbilicious meal (and in my opinion, this is the most important meal before a race).  We, stereotypically, wanted pasta, and since my rents and Jarrett’s mom arrived in town on Saturday afternoon, I also didn’t feel like making it myself.  So Carmine’s it was!

I used to not be a huge fan of Carmine’s.  I was very put off by the fact that their pasta was not homemade, and you weren’t really saving that much money by going to a family-style palce.  And you do have to be somewhat in sync with your fellow diners.  However, I have a number of friends who love Carmine’s, and I was forced to go over and over again.  At some point in time, I started to enjoy it.  I think perhaps, my tastes were becoming a bit “snobby” and I was expecting “creations”.  I’ve now changed my expectations and appreciate Carmine’s for their traditional family-style Italian food (and the fact that you feel like the mob could walk in at any moment).

We started off with the Carmine’s Salad, meat on the side (Jarrett’s mom is a pescetarian).  Good traditional starter.  For the main carb-loading event, we got the Penne Marinara and Chicken Marsala with Rigatoni.

This picture does not do the amount of pasta justice.

Since 4 of us eat meat and one does not, this was a way to make everyone happy.  Normally, I would prefer something with lots of garlic (the more, the better), and was trying to go a bit on the bland side… but the marinara was delicious and not bland at all.  Enough garlic to make me happy, but not so much that I was sweating it out as I slept.  With respect to the chicken marasala, my mom kept saying, “this is the best chicken marsala I’ve ever had”.  I don’t usually get chicken marsala, so I’d probably have to agree!

Pizzeria Paradiso

3283 M St. NW

Washington, DC 20007

http://www.eatyourpizza.com/

This was a post-marathon recovery meal, and in retrospect, we could not have picked anywhere to eat that would have been as perfect:)  And it was complete accident that we ended up eating here.  So Jarrett and I finished the marathon meeting our time goals, found our parents, and set off to the metro.  Line for metro was a block long… and that was only outside the station… so we decided to walk across the Key Bridge to catch a cab and along the way decided we’d rather have Pizzeria Paradiso than go home!  And carbs covered in cheese was exactly what our bodies needed anyway!  We were lucky enough to get one of their last open tables before the place was packed with other marathon finishers who thought like we did.

I started with the Insalata Mista to get my veggies in (lettuce is carbs after all).  Nothing special here, but the pizza is where it’s at!  We got the Margherita with Buffalo Mozzarella and the Bosco with Sausage, which was perfect for the 5 of us and again, everyone had meat and non-meat options.  And their wood-fired pizza was excellent, as always.  To make matters more awesome, they also have a very extensive bottle and draught menu featuring beers from around the world.  I was in the mood for a nice wheat beer to wash all that pizza down (side note:  beers is carbs, too), and ordered something off of their draught list with “Hopslosion” in the title.  All in all, awesome regardless of if you just finished a marathon, or are just looking for some great pizza.  And sorry, no pictures from here… my brain may or may not have been operating properly… cut me some slack, I had just run 26.2 miles!

Our post-marathon dinner was Buffalo Wild Wings, but since BDubs is inherently awesome, and a chain, it requires no further write-up at this time:)