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!

Week 16 - Belgium - Belga Cafe

Situated along Barracks Row on 8th Street SE is Belga Café, a Belgian restaurant lead by Chef Bart Vandaele. Belga offers authentic Belgian dishes to its Capital Hill clientele.

For starters we enjoyed the 4 Kazen Kroketten. These were four cheese croquettes with a strip of bacon and some salad. Very good, but when we asked a server with limited English what type of cheese was used, we ended up with a whole other order we didn’t want. Turns out the cheese was swiss, but not like swiss cheese as we know it. These lightly fried croquettes were creamy and delicious.

Next came Mussels Mariniere for me, a pot of mussels in a white wine, shallot, and garlic broth, along with Belgian fries and Belgian mayonnaise. (Yes, I dipped my fries in mayonnaise – sounds gross, but it was good.) My mussel pot was good, but would have been better as an appetizer. It became kind of repetitive to eat - not much variety in the flavor. The fries were top notch.

I mention the chef because he came to our table while we were dining. He wanted to know how we liked a special we ordered, a new dish that the chef said he was offering for the first time. It was corn bread waffles with pulled pork, topped with two fried eggs and avocado. It was very good, and the chef seemed pleased that were enjoying his new creation.

Another yummy meal under/expanding my belt...

http://belgacafe.com/

Week 15 Mexico - Mexican Radio

Gallows humor had infected our spirits as we thought about dining at Mexican Radio in Hudson, New York. We joked that this meal could be Dad's "Last Supper." Very early the next morning we would be checking him into Albany Med for a valve job and a bypass. So we were counting on this meal being terricfic. Mexican Radio didn't disappoint.

Mom, Dad, and I started our meal with their excellent maragaritas. Next was an order of fried calamari with a green dipping sauce. Not exactly typically Mexican, but we all agreed that the dish was the best example of fried calamari we'd ever tasted. Light, airy, and tender, the morsels of calamari were heaven. See the photo attached of the tiny octupus on the edge of the plate - even whole, the calamari were incredible.

We also tried the Mexican Spring Rolls, an intriguing take on the ubiquitous Asian appetizer. They were made of a savory fresh mix of corn, mushrooms, carrots, poblano peppers and cilantro rolled into rice paper with guacamole, and then served with a raspberry-chipotle peanut sauce. Another inspired dish that was unlike any I've tried.

Dad had enchiladas, Mom a Chili Relleno, and I had the carnitas. Mine was not an inspired selection - perhaps the pressure of the next day got to me. But we all enjoyed the meal, and especially the company.

Desert featured Mexican Radio's award winning flan - again, excellent - close to the best I've tasted. Rated best in the country by Latina Magazine, we had to agree.

Mexican Radio Hudson is the sister restaurant of New York City's Mexican Radio. Columbia County is lucky to have such a terrific eatery find its way to downtown Hudson.

Week 14 - Chile/Julia's Empanadas

So I've fallen behind in the fourth month of my dining quest. The posts are going to be shorter for now - I'll try and write more as we go...

Julia's Empanadas on 18th Street in Adams Morgan. This was my first time at this long time DC establishment popular with kids looking for a late night layer of food on top of pitchers of beer. They serve empanadas in paper wraps which make them easy to walk in and out with. I ate the chorizo and the Chilean I think at their window counter - I didn't take any notes at the time. Both were very good, and would definitely hit the spot after a fun night out.

(It's a stetch to call Julia's a Chilean restaurant... but one of their most popular is the Chilean. They make empanadas from all over Central and South America. Oh well...)

Week 13 - Argentina/Ceviche

Located along Fenton Street in Silver Spring , Ceviche is a cool Latin restaurant that features a menu of South American dishes. I’m going to just pick Argentina for this entry. I had an Argentine steak, so I’m calling this one Argentina…

And so we had a dinner out with our eldest daughter at Ceviche. Cool Cuban Mojitos started the meal. Next was a ceviche sampler featuring four different types. One was Edcuadoran, another Peruvian. The other two didn’t have a nationality, but they were all delicious morsels of marinated fish and shrimp.

Here’s a wikipedia entry for ceviche: Ceviche is a form of citrus-marinated seafoood appetizer, popular in mainly Latin American countries like Peru, Panama, Ecuador, Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, and Chile. Both finfish and shellfish are used; finfish is typically raw while shellfish is typically cooked.

As a ceviche novice, I didn’t know what to expect. But it was delicious and tangy. Fresh fish or shrimp or calamari marinated in citrus, and then mixed with other fresh ingredients such as tomatoes, onions, peppers, or cilantro. Yum.

For my entrée I had the Churrasco con Chimichurri steak, the name coming from the Argentine Chimichurri sauce that topped the cut of meat. (It was very good, but slightly over cooked – I’ve decided if you want pink steak, just order it rare, not medium rare.) The steak was complimented by golden potatoes and salad.

Ceviche is the first restaurant review I’ve done during dinner. The evening atmosphere and mojitos added just the right elements to make the meal seem more authentic than during the lunch hour.

Week12 - Peru/Granja de Oro

Well it’s getting a little harder to keep up with weekly reviews – time passes!! Week 11 is Peru and Granja de Oro, a non descript Peruvian rotisserie chicken restaurant in Adams Morgan. The restaurant is a casual, fast food type restaurant that caters to the many recent immigrants in Adams Morgan.

I ordered the ¼ chicken with yucca and house salad. The dish is served with little containers of green and white sauce – spicy sauces to add heat to the chicken. The chicken was a breast on the bone with a unique, smoky or grilled flavor - their own unique cooking method. And the spicy sauces add just enough heat to make the meal. I actually picked up the chicken to gnaw some of the skin I couldn’t get off with my knife and fork – next time I’ll get the ½ chicken size. The yucca was fried and tasted close to french fries, and the house salad was a nice cool contrast to the chicken.

I was reminded of the chicken at Nando’s Peri Peri from week 9. Both are flavorful and spicy versions of the same chicken cuts. And maybe this one of those bigger picture observations. People in Peru, or Mozambique, or Adams Morgan enjoy a very similar dish that they call their own. Maybe we're all not so different after all..

Anyway, Granja is the type of restaurant that I want to continue to sample; a restaurant that serves the native populations in DC with food from back home. So I enjoyed the meal, but I need to order some more sides to experience more flavors they offer. I should have gotten a soup or the plantains. Next time…