Brunch in DC: Crab Benedict

Barracks Row in DC is one of my favorite places to go for brunch. Historic charm, close to Eastern Market, plenty of walking-around-sights, cozy places to go, great people watching, and so on. I recently went to one of the restaurants down there, Cava, and had some awesome Eggs and Crab Benedict. 

I think you've probably already guessed what I did the following Sunday. Yup, I tried to replicate this on my own at home. Let me say...I surprise myself sometimes. This was awesome.

Essentials:
-1 english muffin, halved, toasted
-2 poached eggs
-1/3 to 1/2 cup of warm hollandaise sauce
-1 slice cooked bacon
-1/2 small can crab meat, briefly cooked in some butter

Try a recipe here for more info (not the exact one I used but close): Hollandaise sauce with Eggs Benedict

I tried a couple of things I'd never tried before, poaching an egg and making hollandaise sauce.

First of all, eggs benedict is apparently supposed to be with canadian bacon. If you ask me, I think canadian bacon is dumb, because not only does it look like ham and taste nothing like bacon, it couldn't even think of an original name for itself, and it is tough and rubbery. Nobody wants to have to saw through a sandwich at 1pm in the brunch-morning. That is why I used real bacon and crab meat, the way nature intended. 

Secondly, big ups to Em, who had a post awhile back on poaching an egg. Stirring is so essential. My cookbook said "make a whirlpool." On the first try, boyfriend and I went whirlpool-overboard, and my egg almost whirled out of control. The egg somehow stayed together though. On the next 3 tries, I slowed my whirl and stirred it constantly to keep it moving and non-sticking.

Finally, hollandaise sauce was fun. The recipe link glosses over this, so I will mention that my cookbook beat it in to me that the water has to simmer, not boil. The sauce is basically egg yolks, so I had to cook it really slowly so it wouldn't turn into scrambled eggs.


Now get on with your weekend.

Grand Canyon (Day 4)

On the fourth day of my trip to Arizona, I went to the Grand Canyon. Finally, the reason we were there! Some of you might remember that earlier this year, I saw the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania. Now, I bring you - The Grand Canyon of Arizona! 


We drove up to the South Rim, which is the usual spot for tourists to take pictures and walk along the rim.  After we got our fill of the view from here, we got on the Grand Canyon Visitor Shuttle. Someone familiar with DC might ask me, why would I willingly take public transportation on vacation? (Sidebar: check out "Metro Rap" to understand my plight.)


I had put my Grand Canyon trip into the trusty hands of Mr. Moon Guidebook, which had told me, for example: "Don't bother with driving, take the shuttle, which is GREAT!" and "The lines at the entrance are SO LONG!"


The shuttle? Now I know where fired Metrobus drivers go to get a job. Our driver was completely out of it, prompting one person in the back to shout, "Snap out of it, Jerry!" which garnered chuckles from everyone else on the bus. 


Luckily, even though the guidebook I had was filled with dumb advice about how to avoid long lines of 2-3 cars,  the park ranger gave us a free guide which told me everything I wanted to know about the park, such as how to identify plants and wildlife in the park. Thumbs up! 


Views at Grand Canyon of PA: One gorge covered in trees. 


Views at Grand Canyon of AZ: 

We went to the Bright Angel trailhead where we did some hiking into the canyon. 

Hike in Grand Canyon of PA: Moderate to Strenous - lots of stairs on the path and a steep climb back up


Hike in Grand Canyon of AZ: Moderate - but with more inclines than stairs, it made it fairly easy to return back to the top


On our way home after our excursion, we stopped in the town of Flagstaff, AZ, which is halfway between Sedona and Grand Canyon. Cool town, with a main street-meets-hippie vibe. We ate sushi for dinner at Karma Sushi, because no road trip is complete without me indulging my love for tuna and salmon rolls. I may travel, but I take no vacation from eating sushi. 

Phoenix, the "Dry Heat" (Day 1)

Someone mentioned to me the other day that I haven't posted in awhile, and I tend not to post when I get busy or when I've just returned from vacation. It always takes me about a week just to catch up on everything in my life after my travels! Luckily that is the case this week. In the next few days I will be sharing stories and pictures from my recent trip to Arizona.

A lot of times I hear, "Boy, you sure do travel a lot!" Yes, I love seeing new places, taking pictures, trying new cuisine, walking around, and hiking around in nature. I hate booking hotels and flights though. Whenever I log onto priceline.com, I feel like my soul has been crushed. Luckily for me, my boyfriend is a hotel and flight booking wizard. To paint a picture for you, he looks up hotels in his spare time for fun. He also has some pretty awesome travel benefits through work, which has afforded us an incredibly valuable opportunity to travel as often as we do. That being the case, we're a little "biased" in the hotels that we stay at, so I won't mention those by name.We want to take advantage of the opportunity while we have it, because you never know when things might change.

We left on a Friday evening after work and got into Phoenix, AZ late at night. Just about the only place open to eat was a 24-hour-diner, 5 & Diner, so we went there after a local recommended the chicken pot pie to us. I have never seen this before, but in Arizona, because of the dry heat, all the outdoor patios have misters (Not like Mr.'s, but you know, misters). Coming from DC, I had a hard time believing anyone would want to actually add humidity to the air:

I also spotted this kooky van outside the restaurant - with a wizard riding a horse, chasing a flying dragon, flying towards a tiger, outside a castle. Drug reference or mythical fairy tale?

New York City Trip - Day 3 and 4

Finally, today's post will recount the last days of my trip to NYC, days 3 and 4.

From our hotel in Soho, my boyfriend and I walked down through Chinatown down to Brooklyn Bridge station. Upon the advice of a local NYC friend, we didn't walk from Manhattan to Brooklyn, though ("you just get a view of Brooklyn, which is stupid! Stop, turn around, take a picture, stop, turn around, take a picture! No! Take the subway to Brooklyn, then walk back to Manhattan! You get to see the skyline the whole time!"). 

We walked across the Brooklyn Bridge and took in the Manhattan skyline and the Manhattan bridge. It takes at least half an hour. The pedestrian walkway is divided into a lane of bumbling pedestrians, and a lane of pissed-off cyclists who are annoyed with the bumbling pedestrians that keep creeping into their lane. Here I am on the bridge. In the background is the spot where the World Trade Center would have been, right to the left of that tallest building. 

After resting our feet, we took the train to Times Square in order to buy tickets for a Broadway show. The crowds of people are maddening but it's sobering when you realize you are one of those maddening people now. At least we were not as maddening as all the girls getting their pictures taken with the Naked Cowboy. The TKTS booth line is not as bad as it looks, though. We were in and out, "Memphis" tickets in hand, in less than 20 minutes. 

For lunch, we killed time until the show by getting sushi around the corner at Aoki. They had a $11 3-roll lunch special. Awesome!! 

Later, we saw "Memphis." This review, from the NYTimes, summarizes well the highs and lows of the show. I loved the set design, with its impressive scene changes and multidimensional elements, the dancing, and some of the less formulaic parts of the script. The music didn't terribly impress me, though, as I have yet to be won over on 1960s revival numbers. 

Even though it was the 4th, we passed on the fireworks show this year, so I can't recount that for you all.  After resting up at the hotel, we went out later to enjoy a dinner at a French bistro, Bistro Les Amis. I had some roasted duck with cranberries and wild rice, which I liked, but boyfriend did not like his Lamb Shank because "it was too much work to eat." I can see that. The thing practically had antlers. 

We sat outside on the patio. We were also sitting next to an older guy who sounded exactly like Ben Stein in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. At one point after he had paid his check, he said to his rather reticent date, "These lights! I can't stand these lights! It's so hot out here! I feel like I'm roasting like a chicken under these lights!" I think he must have been very angry about this, because what happened next was that his date's wine glass broke when he slammed his fist on the table. They got up quietly and left. 

We left early the next day to take the bus back to Washington. By the time we got back, I had finished the first two novels of the Sookie Stackhouse novels, a series which I am quite enthusiastically devouring. I had a great trip; at the same time, I was glad to be back in DC. Going to NYC makes me appreciate the comparative cleanliness of the DC metro. (If you've missed the ads that take a jab at the NYC metro, well, they mention that the DC metro doesn't have housecat-sized rats unlike "some other cities.") Until next time, New York, I'm still a DC girl. 

New York City Trip - Day 2

Today's post is about the 2nd day of my trip to NYC. 


My boyfriend and I took the 1 Train out of Manhattan and into the Riverdale neighborhood of the Bronx. It was my first visit to an outer borough. We met up with a friend of mine from college, who among other things, is a wonderful encyclopedia of knowledge about NY parks, buildings, and calling 311 to complain about trash maintenance. We all walked from the 242nd Street Station (the end of the line), past Van Corlandt park (which is bigger than Central Park), up to Wave Hill. Wave Hill is a small botanical garden that offers free admission on Saturday mornings. At the garden, we saw a man that I can only describe as the Pickle Man, and I would love to know his life story.  


Imaginary Re-enactment: 
"I went to the park today to have my daily pickle. I was hungry. This is what I order for lunch every day. I like to cut my dill pickle into three meticulous vertical slices. They have to be sliced at exactly 1/3 the volume of the pickle. I do this with a plastic knife. Slowly, I cut my dill pickle into slices. I enjoyed my vertically sliced pickle very much today."




I was amazed at Wave Hill beautiful indoor cactus and succulent garden. 

They also have a lily pond that is a favorite of my friend's. I enjoyed it, too. Lily ponds remind me of those 500 piece puzzles that are tricky because they have about 1001 not-quite-the-same instances of lily pads. This one was not like that though.

 We probably walked about 4 miles from the subway, to the garden, and back to my friend's apartment. We ate lunch at a deli in the Bronx called Cold Cut City. I think the name comes from the fact that they put enough cured meat on my sub to feed a small city. Or at least one of the boroughs. 


After our morning excursion, boyfriend and I were glad to rest up when we got back to the hotel. We had been exhausted. Later for that evening's entertainment, we found a wine bar called Cavatappo. If you say this very quickly, your friends might think you are saying "tapas," but you are not. So say it loudly. Cavatappo had cheese plates, wine, and thin-crust pizza. I ordered scamorzo cheese (if I remember the spelling correctly), and pear-and-gorgonzola pizza. I would make that again at home, I think. I particularly liked the chalk art on the walls. 


After dinner, we went to a comedy club, New York Comedy Club. For $15, we saw 6 different comics, most of whom were hilarious. The uncensored jokes cracked me up. There were some good jokes, although I keep this blog rated PG... so unfortunately I won't share them :) There were a lot of people of different ethnicities there, and boy did some of them get heckled. There was the big table of Asians ("hey, the karate kid over there"), and the big black guy sitting next to me ("Oh, and we got Kenan over here"). Point being, if you don't want to get heckled at a comedy club, just sit next to someone who is a more interesting race than you are, or for bonus points, an interracial couple, and the comic is sure to heckle them and not you.

Lastly, here's the Overheard in New York moment of the trip:

Gay man on the street: "I would SO be a lesbian for Queen Latifah!"

Stay tuned for tomorrow and my last post on my NYC trip (day 3 and 4). 

New York City Trip - Day 1

I took a trip with my boyfriend to New York over the 4th of July weekend. It was also our celebration of our "meeting each other" anniversary, so the timing was just right for a weekend trip. Today I will tell you about day 1 of our trip.

Before the trip, I spent a few hours at my favorite salon in DC, getting all sorts of spiffed up, with a new haircut and a pedicure. I'm not normally the type of girl who goes and gets "mani-pedis" (can you see me making a disgusted face as I say this?), so I enjoyed a chance to get pampered at the salon.

To get to NYC, we took a ride aboard the Washington Deluxe (which is not deluxe, but certainly is freezing cold) and exited at Penn Station in the mid-evening.

We stayed at a hotel in Soho. I thought it was a great location, probably the best location that we've stayed at during our past 3 trips to New York. I liked that we were in walking distance of lots of restaurants, bars, and other sights. (The hotel also had a smartly-designed glassed-in porch, on which I enjoyed my free breakfasts of cheese omelets every morning.)

Shortly after we got settled in the hotel, we searched for a place to eat dinner. I like using apps like Time Out New York, Yelp, or Urbanspoon. Searching for restaurants only when necessary makes going on vacation so much more spontaneous. We usually don't make a lot of plans in advance, because we like to just relax on vacation and not feel rushed like we're on a middle school field trip.

That evening, we ate at a Latin American restaurant, Ideya. What is the number one sign of authentic Latin food? Goya products. Latin people love their Goya. If Goya sold Adobo-scented deodorant, it would probably sell like nobody's business (except that it would be Goya's business, and they would have a lot of it). To put the Goya-love in perspective for you, this restaurant had a display case full of Goya juice, right in the front of the bar. For dinner, I had pico de gallo with plaintain chips, bacalaitos (fried salt cod, a Puerto Rican favorite), pork with rice, flan, and a coconut mojito on the side. While I can't scientifically put Ideya's claims of "the best mojito in the City" to the test, I can anecdotally agree to this, based on my sample size of n=1. Call it a case study in rum drinks, if you will.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's post on Day 2 of my trip.

An evening at Volt

Partially because of my man's birthday request and partially because of a lost poker game, I took my boyfriend out to dinner at Volt, a local "fancy rest-o-rahnt." Volt, or more correctly, VOLT, is about an hour north, in Frederick, MD, along a strip of quaint buildings (not unlike Old Town Alexandria, VA). I think VOLT can most accurately be described as fine ironic dining for former hipsters. The restaurant is located in a renovated Victorian brownstone and serves gourmet food on white tablecloths, but dresses its waiters in converse sneakers and plays Franz Ferdinand from the loudspeakers. To give you an idea of how popular this restaurant is, we could not get reservations until about 3 weeks after my boyfriend's birthday. VOLT is not to be bothered by such things as when his mother decided to birth him.

Among the items we enjoyed were tuna tartare, beef tenderloin over risotto, and what I could barely order with a straight face, the "textures of chocolate." The waiter even sent us home with cellophane-wrapped lemon-poppy muffins. Until the next birthday-slash-lost bet, I think my culinary demons have been quite satisfied!

Adams Morgan, or Brunch with Oompa Loompas

I love brunch in Adams Morgan/Dupont. Variations on the Scrambled Egg are enough to get me out of bed.

Since I've been apartment hunting for new digs in the District, I've been down in the area a little bit more recently. And yes! That means more brunch!

Saturday's stop was at Lauriol Plaza. I've been there before for their crazy crowds, enchiladas mariscos, and swirled margaritas, but never for brunch. The best bet is to show up early before the noon rush. We got in around 11:45 am - the place was empty. About 10 minutes later, the whole patio was buzzing. 

Turns out that Lauriol was the best place to be at noon on this particular Saturday, since as we soon witnessed, all kinds of contestants for something called the "Great Urban Race" came running by. Is anyone familiar with this? From my observation this must be some sort of race-slash-costume contest-slash-scavenger hunt. Or as my boyfriend put it, "Do these people really have nothing else to do?" We witnessed a couple of Oompa-Loompas, Super Heros, and People Dressed in Lots of Pink run by and take pictures at the intersection. 

People watching, check. Breakfast burrito, check. 

Sunday's stop was at Slaviya, the restaurant that replaced my old favorite, Left Bank. I'm not quite sure what the story is on the renovation, but basically what they did was swap out Left Bank's breezy yellow walls with black, brown, and red night-time decor. It would be like if you gave techno music and rail drinks a visual. I don't know if that paints a picture for you, but just think that this doesn't really bode well for the brunch atmosphere. They have exactly the same brunch menu as before, though. I was hoping the quality of the food would have been the same as before, but unfortunately it was poorly made this time. I'm assuming they just hired a new chef who doesn't know how to cook the old specials the same way. Slow service, too. I will have to find a new place for brunch. 

Eggs with salmon and cream cheese, check.

New apartment? Still searching for that one. 

Valentine's at 2941

I hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day (or at least had fun grumbling about it).

I had one of the best meals I've had in awhile. The boy took me out to dinner, and as usual, the boy has taste. He surprised me with a dinner at 2941, which is the kind of restaurant that should only exist in movies. The restaurant itself is stunning to look at, with priceless art, huge ceilings, and its own waterfall and koi pond. With all the snow on the ground it looked like a private mountain getaway. The food was just exquisite - what really took it to the next level was the attention to detail in every dish. We ordered from the a la carte menu. They did have a prix fixe tasting menu, but I just prefer to be able to pick my options. I ordered a hickory smoked tuna over a bed of potatoes, roasted duck with quinoa risotto, and the most amazing chocolate/coffee-sauce filled tart. Little details, like the topping of carefully placed blood orange marmalade slices on the duck, or the sprinkles of chocolate cake around the dessert, made every bite taste unique. As the guys say, Gotta feed the lady...

Dim sum

Super cheap lunch. Get to oriental east at 1030 am to get all the plates of dumplings and sweet buns you can grab from the circulating carts. As you can see, they line up early...



I will scold you if you don't go.

Best of Silver Spring

Via the South Silver Spring Neighborhood Association, I found a list of the Washingtonian's "Best of Silver Spring." It's a good rundown of local restaurants and shops in the area. There are a fair amount of chain places around here  - but one thing I do like about Silver Spring is that the local mom and pops can hold their own. Despite the recent demise of Mayorga Coffee (which had the best darn turkey melt of all time, until they took it off the menu a few months prior to closing, and yes, I am still bitter about that), we've still got plenty of other locally run shops. The local hardware chain, Strosnider's, for example, is much more convenient than trekking out to Home Depot out in the 'burbs, and the service is always friendly and helpful. Nothing beats being able to chat up an employee about what's really the best deal on paint or Christmas lights. (Finding a good hardware shop really is a bit like finding a good mechanic, don't you think?) Anyway, I've been in DTSS for about a year and a half now, but I haven't had the time to try all of these places on the Washingtonian list. Since I'll probably be moving sooner rather than later it seems, I'll be looking forward to checking out some of the restaurants on the list before I relocate.

Other favorites of mine that didn't make it on the list:
TPSS co-op (for organic and non-overwhelming grocery shopping)
Addis Ababa (Ethiopian)
Bombay Gaylord (Indian)
Sabroso (I've heard it rivals El Pollo Rico, which is on the list, and which also means I should taste test this to find out)

just another weekend around DC

Since my boyfriend got an iPhone recently, we checked out the "urbanspoon" app to find a good place to eat on Friday. We locked in on a "$$" place in "Old Town Alexandria", and shook the phone. For those of you wondering, "$$" is supposed to be 10-15 per entree. Bam! Instant suggestion. It suggested that we go to "Landini Brothers", an Italian place. Well, the restaurant was great, very romantic and candlelit, but the "$$" was definitely very off-base. It was more like $16-25 per entree. There was a $780 bottle of wine on the menu! $780! It's a recession, folks! Maybe they mean that you only have $10-15 left in your wallet after you eat here. Anyway, it was a fun little outing, but I'm not sure if I will trust Urbanspoon if I'm feeling frugal in the future.

No success with finding a bike this weekend. More slippery folks on Craigslist. One guy wanted to drive here from the beach to sell bikes and was trying to get everyone together to look at bikes at the same time (I have a hard enough time getting people I actually KNOW together to do something, getting a bunch of strangers together to meet at a metro just sounds like a poorly planned idea). Another guy kept telling me to call him back to see if he had anything in his shop (I really love telling you the kind of bike I want each time I call you). And another set of folks were "in town for the weekend, but maybe we can meet you somewhere, we've heard DC is convenient to navigate". Translation: telling people where to meet you in an unfamiliar location almost always winds up with you sitting around for half an hour while they get lost. My other favorite: "It's a small bike...I'm 5'9". Oh yeah, and the chain is a little loose!"

Now I know how people on dating websites must feel.

Anyway.

I also did one of my favorite weekend night activities this weekend....Sunday Night bowling! I love going out on Sundays because, well, what else is there to do. There's a couple of places in the area that I like to go to, that have "trendy" bowling, meaning the kind where you DON'T show up with your own bowling gear, and those are Lucky Strike in DC, and 300 in Gaithersburg. 300 is very large, with lots of lanes and music videos playing. They also have a nice system for getting your balls and shoes - you pick the ball out at a counter along with the shoes - so you're not rooting through balls trying to find the right size. However, their menu is lame (they have "gourmet chips" on the menu). The music videos also distract me from beating my boyfriend in bowling, which I love to do. I start grooving to "Put a Ring on It", and the next thing you know, my ball is heading straight down the gutter.

We actually went to Lucky Strike this time instead. It's not really that crowded on Sunday evenings, which is awesome (try getting a lane on Saturdays...). I like the food there (as bowling alleys go). They also only show sports on the big screens, which has the distinct advantage of NOT distracting me. I am very excited because last night, I bowled over 100 in one of my games! I got 2 strikes (plus one 9) on the last turn! (Yep, I beat the pants off the bf on that game.)

weekend adventures

Weekend adventure no. 1:

Friday happy hour at Mayorga. It's a coffee house in downtown Silver Spring (DTSS) that also happens to have a bar. You wouldn't even know it from the outside, but they do. And this is important because of the scarcity OF decent bars in the immediate vicinity. 

Weekend adventure no. 2:

I'm about 3 hours from Ocean City, MD, so it makes for a good day trip when you want to get away from the DC area. The drive out there is pretty nice, it's mostly on rural roads going through corn fields. Perfect beach day this time, the weather was warm, the waves were great, and the wind didn't steal my towel away.

Sunday Brunch in Adams Morgan

If you're a local, this view of Adams Morgan might surprise you.

Somehow, after a Saturday night of "crime-provoking" Jumbo Slice, 4 lines just to get into the Reef, and all other kinds of debauchery, Adams Morgan cleans up pretty nice on Sunday morning. Replacing the crowds and taxis are pleasant Sunday brunch-goers, just looking for some eggs and a mimosa.

I myself took a stroll down 18th street to check out the best of the famous brunch specials. Tryst, The Diner, Meze, Left Bank, and Bourbon, among others, all seem to be offering something tasty for those Sunday morning munchies. While Tryst does serve up a mean frittata, I decided to go for something I hadn't tried before, so I headed over to Left Bank.

The star of the brunch menu looks to be the scrambled eggs layered with smoked salmon and cream cheese ($8). Not only did I get it and like it, but I noticed that 3 other girls at the adjacent table ordered this too.

To get the most out of this experience - sit out near the open doors, and watch as drivers fight for parallel parking spots, then as they spend longer to park the car than to snatch up the spot, and then inevitably love-tap the car in front.

Sushi Tour Update

Since my first post about sushi in the DC area, I have been to a few more new places.

Bonsai Grill in Arlington (near crystal city)

-Soup and salad are included free of charge w/ meal, as well as a salmon appetizer when I went

-Salad dressing was yummy

-Rainbow roll = delicious, with a good variety of other specialty rolls for reasonable prices

-Made substitutions to sushi combo platter with no extra charge

-friendly service

-very casual/small restaurant (not fancy and overdone like some sushi restaurants)

-close to lots of other restaurants like the sports pub (fun for playing pool)

Yosaku Sushi in NW DC (wisconsin ave, north of tenleytown) 

www.yosakusushi.com

-This was interesting

-charged us extra for substitutions to sushi combo

-not really memorable, but not bad

-prices for special rolls seemed high, but they did seem to have a lot of daily specials if you're into that (i'm not, i'm cheap)

-slightly tacky decor

Benihana in Georgetown (in the mall)

-Has great lunch boat special that includes other fun items like tempura, sashimi, edamame, and other japanese words

-sushi is SO flavorful and yummy. A+. 

-has hibachi grills in the back which I intend to try next time for dinner

-in the mall with sharper image so you can sit in massage chairs after enjoying your meal

The Sushi Tour

Originally hailing from mass-produced Suburbia, I was never exposed to much fine dining as a youngster. Hong Kong Take-out was about as classy as my Pan-Asian experience got. So when I arrived in DC, with enough restaurants to induce (gastronomic) vertigo, I said to my self, Self, you must do all you can to expose yourself....to all this cuisine, that is. Given my love for sushi, and a friend who also appreciated this fine delicacy, The Sushi Tour was born.

Our goal is simple: To taste the best sushi that DC has to offer. Today I bring you a sampling of my favorites and least favorites.

Cafe Asia

The birthplace of our tour. We met friends for happy hour at the DC location, right across from the Farragut West metro. Instead of the traditional bamboo and ink-paintings interior of many sushi restaurants, Cafe Asia made me feel more like I was inside of a refrigerator, thanks to its sparse white and metallic interior. This wasn't a bad thing though, as the restaurant is large (also like a refrigerator), and the waitstaff quickly accomodated our large party. The sushi came out on large platters, perfect for sharing. It was scrumptious, especially the maki rolls that had special sauces on top - the eel, if I'm not mistaken. The sushi was quite fresh and the flavors were crisp.

I will make a note about Cafe Asia's Arlington location, however. I would not recommend it. The service was slower, and the waitress did not even offer me a sushi menu when I joined some friends for happy hour. There was also some confusion over the drink specials, causing some of my companions to pay more than they thought they would for their drinks. I cannot vouch for the sushi quality as I did not order any that evening. But here is my main complaint: Since it's located in Virginia, smoking is allowed inside, and we had the unfortunate luck to be seated next to a table of heavy smokers. This completely took away my appetite. What can I say? I'm a purist. DC restaurants have spoiled me with their clean air. For a good, clean sushi experience, stick to establishments in the District if possible.

Nooshi



As its logo points out, the name"Nooshi" comes from Noodles and Sushi. I didn't try the noodles, but the sushi is spectacular. My sushi friend and I are particularly fond of eel and tuna rolls, and the ones we tried here surpassed my expectations. They came in plentiful portions which filled me up. (Most sushi doesn't do this, and I leave wanting more.) Try the spicy scallop roll if you want to dazzle your mouth. Nooshi (in the Farragut North area, close to Foggy Bottom) has outdoor seating for warm summer evenings, which is nice.

We also tried its sister location, Spices, near the Cleveland Park stop. It has a very similar sushi menu, so its novelty factor for us wasn't as impressive. More of a good thing though! My favorite, the spicy scallop is also on this menu, hurrah! Determined to try something new too, I ordered the cream-cheese wonton appetizer, which I liked very much, but didn't seem to be as big of a hit with my companions. It's also worth noting that there' s a great billiards place right down the street from here, if you're in need of some after-diner pool-shooting fun.

Matuba

Matuba, located in downtown Bethesda, wins points for its variety and good taste. The menu has plenty of non-sushi options, in case you go out with diners who aren't sushi lovers. I went with a friend who swears by this restaurant and goes frequently, so I had to check it out for myself. Even more impressive than the sushi was the seaweed salad. This isn't your normal green seaweed salad. Not only was there the standard dark-green stuff, but also purple and light green fuzzy seaweed. To top it all off, it was presented artfully with peanut sauce drizzles. As for the sushi, I ordered nigiri rolls with a variety of fresh fish. Mm mmm. My only criticism would be that the service was very slow, perhaps due to the fact that it was very busy on a Sunday evening. We weren't the only ones who liked this restaurant!

I've told you about my favorites, but do I have any least favorites?

Thai Chef (of Dupont circle) and Sushi-Ko (of Georgetown/Glover Park) both rank low on my list. As for Thai Chef, the sushi specials and drink specials were cheap, but the ambiance was terrible. We were seated right next to the bar, and the constantly-running noisy blender was absolutely egregious! Put that thing back in the kitchen!

Me: So how was your -
*BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!! BRRRRRRRRR!!!!!*
Friend: Uh it was --
*WHIIIIIIIIIRRRRRRRRRR!!! BZZZZZZZZZZ! WHIRRRRRRRRRRR!*
Me: Well I ---
*CLANK.....CLANK!!!*

You get the point. And the sushi was bland too!

Sushi-Ko ranks low for more than just low ambiance. The waitstaff just cannot get their act together. My friend called ahead for reservations, and they lost them. Classy. When we were finally seated, I believe they had no idea who was supposed to serve us because two different waiters came to ask us our drink orders. On top of this, the front door was constantly opening and closing, letting in a horrendously cold draft. I don't like to shiver when I eat. It makes it harder to hold the chopsticks.

The food didn't recommend itself much better either. Instead of beautiful seaweed salad, I was served a bed of lettuce, with an afterthought of green seaweed in a vinegary dressing. The sushi menu does boast some interesting options, I will give it that. I do like to try unusual rolls whene ver possible. However, when my Washington roll (eel, crab, and mushroom) and my Rock Shrimp and Cilantro roll came out, I was less than impressed. The combination in the Washington roll was overkill, and all I tasted was mushroom. However, my companion liked it so much that she ordered seconds. More for her, I suppose. I like the shrimp and cilantro well enough, but my friend made a disgusted face upon trying it, saying it tasted like salad. To me, it was pleasantly crisp and a thoughtful combination, but I wouldn't order it on a normal basis.

If you ever end up in North Georgetown, forget the Sushi-Ko, and head right across the street to Max's Best Homemade Ice Cream! Not only is it one of the best ice cream places in DC, but it is owned and run by Mahmood Kishani, the famous Iranian soccer player, who claims to be from Tennessee, but we know the truth.

Now that I've given my thoughts on the best and the worst, I'll mention the other places I've visited so far.

Sushi Taro - Highly recommended. Friendly staff, good fresh rolls, albeit on the small side. They have an interesting plum roll which is sour and tasty. The eel and tuna are also great.
Well-Being Japanese Buffet - Located in Northern VA in Annandale, this sushi buffet is all-you-can-eat Japanese, Korean, and Sushi for under $20. They don't just stick to normal sushi - their spicy sushi finger sandwiches are quite delicious.
Kuma- cheap sushi in Tenleytown. Good for the price. Quiet ambiance.
Wok and Roll - sushi in Chinatown. Not bad.