Week 18 - Japan - Murasaki Japanese Restaurant

I found this Japanese restaurant while on sales calls one day in the Tenleytown neighborhood of DC. (Dad, this place is across the street from Sonny's old hangout, The Dancing Crab.) A sign on the sidewalk advertising Murasaki's $8.99 lunch special drew me. The special features a teriyaki beef bento box with Miso soup. The beef was very good, tender and tasty. One veggie in the box in the lower right corner is still a mystery to me - some kind of strange brown Japanese seaweed, veggie, I'm not sure... The box also had delicious vegatable tempura, and a single gyoza.

I've learned that the restaurant caters to the nearby Japanese embassy. So not much else say about this one.

Week 17 - Italy - Sal's Caffe Italia

We stopped at this Italian restaurant on the downtown mall in Charlottesville over Memorial Day weekend. Not a great find, but the food was filling and the kids could order their favorite dish, pasta with butter. Like a number of restaurants on the downtown mall, Sal's has outdoor seating along the pedestian walk. The whole family really enjoyed the trip, with Mallory lobbying the whole family to actually pick up and move to Charlottesville. She's a future wahoo for sure.

Bill - VIVE LA FRANCE!