Messy and Picky

At this point in our DC journey, we were seriously full. But we really wanted to try the trendy upscale Indian Rasika West End, so we soldiered on.

You walk in and are greeted by the gorgeous bar. You'd be quite happy to plop yourself down on a backed stool and munch away while sipping fanciful cocktails.

Around the corner of this triangular eatery, you could opt for a quiet corner table.

We started off with cocktails (why stop now?). Here's the Chhaya: Old Port Rum, averna, tamarind, ginger simple syrup, lime [all signature cocktails $12]. The Aarohi: Milargo silver tequila, allspice dram, lime, house-made grenadine, was a deliciously salty margarita with no tequila bite. The Divya: Beefeater gin, apricot liqueur, lime, spiced honey syrup, sparkling wine, was a light fare. The Naina: Amrut fusion whisky, Averna, yellow chartreuse, bitters, was an Old Fashioned without the sugar and Picky very much enjoyed it. The Lalita: Buffalo Trace Bourbon, Cocchi Americano, mango, house-made grenadine, bitters had a lovely and strong mango nose.

By this point, we were old friends with our dinner companions and we decided to share pretty much the entire restaurant week menu.

Palak Chaat: crispy baby spinach, sweet yogurt, tamarind, date chutney [$10]. This was amazing: one of the items that you have to order when visiting this place and if you're there with somebody who has been before, chances are they've had it; it's a popular carryover from the original Rasika restaurant. The spinach is quickly blanched for color then fried.

This one escapes our memory, but we're getting hungry looking at it.

Crab pepper masala: lump crab meat, curry leaves, black pepper, filo. Crab in filo was new to Picky, but he enjoyed it, especially with that split pepper on top.

Pretty, pretty, but our memories let us down and our notes weren't as plentiful.

Fish Chutneywala: sea bass, cilantro, mint, coconut. A very clean coconuty flavor, this would be an easy choice for those who like un-fishy fish.

Mixed Grill: Kali Mirch Salmon, Coorgi Murgh Tikka, Seekh Kebab. A little bit of everything to please the undecided eater.

Paneer Tawa Masala, Vegetable Rassa, Dal Makhani. The vegetable rassa was Messy's favorite.

Sweet potato and Sago Tikki: cumin, green chili, curry leaves, pineapple chutney. Tangy/sweet and spicy.

Not pictured: Andhra lamb curry: curry leaves, red chilies, black pepper was Picky's choice. He was too busy scarfing down what may have been the tastiest curry he's consumed in his life to snap a pic. It did just look like curry though. But the taste… oh the taste… And the Malai fish curry: halibut, onion, bayleaf, coconut milk was a standout for Messy. She found the coconut broth to be outstanding!

By the time dessert came around, we had to practically force ourselves to try everything. Messy pretty much gave up at this point, but Picky charged on. Coconut and Lemongrass Panna Cotta. See, DC really loves these panna cotta / flan desserts nowadays. We've never seen so many of these items on menus at the same time before.

Gulab Jamun with cardamom ice cream. This can be found in many Indian spots and is basically a luscious honey cheese and is a must order when Picky sees it on the menu.

Rice Kheer was creamy with bits of fruit for a spark.

Mango and jasmine sorbet. A nice palate cleanser.

Rose compote ice cream. Not for the faint of heart, this was very rosey. A little goes a long way and Picky needed to go back to the mango/jasmine to clear his senses.

Picky continued on to Churchkey with friends. Messy, on the other hand, promptly passed out in what may have been the first legitimate food coma of her life. This was clearly the right choice (not that she had much of a choice!) because we still had a full day left of eating ahead of us. Churckey is a no longer the new kid on the block, but it was bustling with action at 10.30p. Picky and his friends grabbed a seat in the lounge area in the back by the kitchen and enjoyed some drinks from the extensive draft list (56 taps including casks?!). The beers range from the exotic to the local and everything in between. Even coming from a serious beer city, Philadelphia, Picky was quite impressed with what they had to offer. Too stuffed to enjoy the delicious looking bar bites menu, he sipped away at some Chesapeake Bay area brews. What a night.

Bigger versions of all the photos if you follow the link below:

After our ridiculous tasting of pretty much everything on the menu at The Source, we rushed over to the celebration of Julia Child's 100th birthday at the National Museum of American History, just east of the Washington Monument. Messy in particular is a huuuuuuuge Julia Child fan, so we were pretty stoked for this event.

Here's what the festivities looked like from the second floor.

A view into the kitchen where Julia Child filmed her seminal cooking show in Cambridge, MA for 45 years. The Smithsonian has created a website dedicated to her work here. All 1200 pieces in the exhibit was used by Julia during the show. (Well, everything except for the plastic produce!) The white fruit bowl on the table was striking. According to the Smithsonian's site, it's a bowl from Moustiers, in the South of France, by the Childs' country home.

We were so lucky to have a chance to sit and talk with Rayna Green, who helped move the whole exhibit from Cambridge to DC. She had some really great stories and gave a little background on how the food scene in America changed during Julia's time. She mentioned how the nation changed post-WWII where backyard culture came about and men grilled and meat consumption rose. Countering that, hippie food came about through Woodstock's free kitchens and a concern for fresh ingredients rose with California cuisine. The "nachoification of America," as Green put it, arose with America becoming a snack nation of Fritos eaters and Jack in the Box patrons grew in size. The Super Bowl became a second Thanksgiving of sorts for snack food.

Coming soon to the museum is a larger exhibit on food called FOOD: Transforming the American Table, 1950-2000 which will open just before Thanksgiving. Objects on view will include TV dinner trays from the '50s, Weber grills from the '70s and the story of Zinfandel and its tie to the University of California at Davis.

After the birthday celebration, we headed over to the recently redesigned (March 2012) Jaleo for some afternoon cocktails and snacks.

Everywhere you looked, there was color. Jorge Figueredo, Jaleo's General Manager, said the redesign makes the space "more electric." The old Jaleo was apparently a loud space so sound muffling pads were installed as functional artwork. You can peep some older photos of the space here. No telling when those will be redone so click over quickly!

Figueredo with one of the Jaleo chefs. Figueredo told us of his recent trip to Spain with Jaleo's founder José Andrés and the culture of drinking gin and tonics after every meal. That tradition was brought back to Jaleo to go with the redesign.

Several of the tables in the front of the house are gussied up foosball tables. All of the little foosball people were replaced with little action figures!

Left of the entryway is a long communal table with one of a series of artwork anchoring the scene.

Surrounding the bar area is a gentle curve of tables making full use of the space while allowing for plenty of walking space. The beautiful tiles on the floor are custom made. The design incorporates elements of Spanish food staples: jamón (which Figueredo calls "the healthiest fat you'll ever eat!"), water and wine.

There are about 100,000 hand-linked beads strung all around the restaurant.

The menus are on iPads. Fun!

We loved these smiling people on the bathroom floor. Must be quite the surprise after a couple of extra strong Jaleo gin and tonics!

One of the talented bartenders prepping some of our gin and tonics.

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L-R: London Dry Grapefruit, lemon balm, lemon, white pepper; Barrel Aged Pickled ginger, allspice, orange, lemon; New Western Tarragon; and José's Choice. The dangerously light London Dry was Picky's favorite. You could easily drink a few of these too quickly and end up stumbling home. The Barrel Aged G&T was fantastically light even with its murky look with a bright orange kick.

We sampled six of the famous gin and tonics. (Messy is also a huge fan of a good old g-and-t and she was pretty excited to get to sampling these.) Above is the New Western Tarragon, lemon, lime, borage.

The Herbal Coriander: blossom, lemon, lime; New Western Tarragon and José's Choice: Kaffir lime, juniper, lemon, lime. And the final drink was a Vegetal Fennel, radish, cubeb, kumquat, but it looks like Picky didn't get a shot of it.

While we were busy sampling these delicious drinks, the kitchen was busy making us a full meal's worth of tapas.

Pan de cristal con tomate: Toasted slices of uniquely crispy and ethereal bread brushed with fresh tomato [$8.50]. How could something so simple taste so good? We could not stop eating this! The special bread has more water than flour and is pulled on a bubble gum making machine. We assume that's something like a taffy puller you can see on the Boardwalk. The bread is parbaked in Barcelona and then flown into DC.

Cono de La Serena con membrillo: La Serena cheese and quince paste cone. Cono de salmón crudo con huevas de trucha: Salmon tartare and trout roe cone. The strong-flavored La Serena cone was Messy's favorite snack.

Ostras 'Gin & Tonic': Five oysters with lemon, gin and tonic. Disclaimer: neither of us has ever enjoyed bicuspids. We always found the texture to be kind of gross. But we both decided to give these oysters a try and we were not disappointed. They were phenomenal. While the G&T flavors were dominant, we doubt that traditional oyster lovers would be disappointed.

Here are the croquettas, presented in sneaker made by Salma Hayek's brother (no joke). Apparently Andrés wanted to use a real (clean, of course) sneaker for this dish, but that presentation was controversial. These croquettas are apparently a big favorite and it was easy to see why: they tasted great!

Mejillones Vinagreta, mussels served with pipirrana (a Spanish salad with tomatoes, potato, and peppers), sherry dressing and honey ($9).

We finished off with this amazing gin and tonic dessert! At this point we were a little toasted and seriously full. . . and we had dinner reservations in just a few hours!

Bigger pics in the link below

Our second day in DC, we awoke refreshed from a great night's sleep at the Madison and ready to spend another full day eating. We started off with Counter Culture coffee at Peregrine Espresso, where we also enjoyed some high carb treats.

Yummy Counter Culture coffee and treats at Peregrine Expresso. You can find Counter Culture in various Philadelphia coffee spots, including Ultimo. They also have a Philadelphia Training Center which sounds pretty awesome for the coffee fiends out there.

We then took a stroll through Eastern Market, where there wasn't a whole lot going on because it wasn't a Farmer's Market Day. It was no Reading Terminal, but we enjoyed it nonetheless.

We were supposed to stop here for a proper breakfast of pancakes and such, but we were stuffed from fresh beignets and croissants that our DC host Kate brought along. So we just got some iced teas and were on our way.

We spent a few hours in the Newseum, where Messy (who is media researcher and news junkie) would love to work. Here's a shot just inside the gorgeous balcony. This gorgeous long room joining the two spaces.

Here's the view southwest down Pennsylvania Ave towards the Capitol Building with the Canadian embassy to the left.

There's Messy in yellow taking in the view south towards the Mall with the Federal Trade Commission with the orange roof and the National Gallery of Art across Pennsylvania Ave. That's Jen of Tiny Urban Kitchen in red right behind Messy, also taking in the view.

Here's a shot overlooking the atrium.

Inside the Pulitzer Prize Photography exhibit on the first floor with a film playing in the multimedia area. The photo on the screen is Nick Ut's famous Vietnam War photo of a girl screaming that her skin is burning from a napalm strike. Nick Ut has since stayed in contact with that girl, now a wife and mother, through the years. This was Picky's favorite photo exhibit he's seen in a good long while.

Here's the wall displaying all of the Pulitzer Prize wining photographs through the years. Picky was having a field day reliving all of the photographs he has seen through the years and remembering the amazing stories they tell.

Messy wished we could have spent longer, but we had to head on over to The Source, a Wolfgang Puck restaurant with Executive Chef Scott Drewno at the helm.

Interestingly, we learned that Puck allows his chefs to have a large amount of creative control over what ends up on the menu. This place was very attentive to the details: they replaced the light-colored napkins with black ones for our companions with dark-colored pants. (The lower floor is more of a Japanese gastro-pub with a lower price point. Happy hour includes three small plates for $20.)

For a starter, we had spicy tuna tartare: sesame-miso cones, pickled ginger, shaved bonito. A nice wake up of the senses for the onslaught to come. We were served a mix of the Saturday dim sum brunch [pdf], the lunch menu [pdf] and the dinner menu [pdf]…

Scrumptious boiled beef dumplings: fermented chili bean sauce.

Housemade silken Ma Po tofu custard, chili pork sauce, fresh herbs. Incredibly tender, even for tofu.

Tiny Dumplings: pork belly, black vinegar, chili oil, ginger, cilantro leaves. The pork belly dumplings may be "tiny," but they pack a punch as pork belly tends to do.

Scallop & shrimp Shu Mai: Shanghai curry lobster-uni emulsion.

The pork bao was the highlight for Picky. He can't wait until the Philly Bao Truck is on the streets. The homemade marshmellow-y fluffiness of a proper bao bun is comforting like the other side of a cool down pillow in the summer heat.

Crystal garlic chive dumplings: king crab, Kurobuta pork, Chinese mustard. The closest thing to a "regular" dumpling on their menu, this is still hit out of the park.

And then the larger plates came out. Oh lord. "Thai Style" drunken noodles: Gulf shrimp, Thai chilies, holy basil. The fantastic combination of tender noodles and crispy duck skin is always memorable. Pungent anise-y basil rounds out the flavors when you think it'll be too much on your palate.

Their tempura chicken sandwich: heirloom tomatoes, avocado chili aioli. It's a schmancy version of your deli chicken sandwich turned up to 11 with a sour and butter pickle on top!

When we were all ready to throw in the towel, desserts came out [pdf]. Yes, desserts. Vanilla custard with lemon curd, mango, orange madeleines were first. More panna cotta-style stuff in DC. DC really loves this custard/panna cotta stuff.

Strawberry and Thai basil sorbet was a delightful trio of sweet, punchy herby and tang.

The chocolate dessert:espresso ice cream, chocolate tart, chocolate brownie was Messy's favorite eat of the entire trip and a perfect finale to the fanciful whirlwind at The Source.

While we were chowing down on these delicious eats, we had a chance to chat with Chef Scott Drewno, who's been at the Source since the tender age of 21. Like The Federalist's Chef Harper McClure, Drewno hails from upstate New York. He was super nice, and he told us how he just came back from a long trip to China where he learned some new tricks from Chinese grandmas (what a source [see what we did there?!])! They clearly paid off—everything we had was phenomenal!

A slideshow of larger shots can be seen by clicking on the link below:

Our first dinner in DC was at The Federalist at The Madison Hotel. The Madison is a 50-year-old, super-nice hotel four blocks from the White House. Opened by JFK, it was the first hotel to have minibar and wine cellar and was used as a temporary Oval Office for President-elect Bush in 2000. But after a $20M renovation of the 356 rooms, restaurant, lobby bar and cafe, The Madison is ushering in a new era with The Federalist leading the way.
[Photo: Sarah Dorio/The Federalist]

We started off by meeting Meredith Goldberg, PR & Marketing Manager for The Madison, on the patio for drinks. At this point, we were also joined by Jen Che from Tiny Urban Kitchen, who flew in from Boston to eat and drink with us for the rest of the trip. Picky began with a Five on Rye [$12]: (ri)1 Rye, peaches, rhubarb shrub, pink peppercorn, sugar. Sweet and bitter. Just like Picky, heh.

Messy, who jumps at the chance for off-the-menu anything, ordered the Tradewinds cocktail without even hearing all of the ingredients. (She's a risk-taker that way!) The Tradewinds turned out to be a delicious combination of lemongrass/lime gin, lemon galengal syrup, and Hum Botanical spirit, garnished with candied ginger. The shot above, while pretty, is not the Tradewinds. It's what our friend Kate had, a Smoked Strawberries [$12]: three citrus vodka, local strawberry preserves, "smoked" limoncello. We had a sip and it was delicious.

Chef Harper McClure, a CIA grad, came out to chat with us for a bit. He asked us if we trusted him to just bring stuff out instead of choosing individual items from the menu. We all nodded and he was off. A group of servers brought out six appetizers and we got started munching and passing to our right. Here's the Heirloom Tomato Panna Cotta* [$12]: horseradish tomato consomme, cherry tomatoes, white anchovy, opal basil. (A quick note about the descriptions: they're straight from the menu and each one with an asterisk is gluten-free!) The panna cotta was creamy with a slightly curded texture. Picky loves anchovies on just about anything and it definitely sparked each bite.

Heirloom Melon Soup* [$12]: Alaskan king crab, sweet wine, lemon verbena. The soup was deliciously cool and mellow.

Vine Ripe Tomato Gazpacho* [$10]: croutons, nasturtium blossoms, extra virgin olive oil. Wonderfully creamy and mesmerizingly beautiful.

Lobster and Corn Fritters [$12]: warm vermouth cream. Ummm, fried lobster and corn with vermouth cream?! This is something you could (but should not) eat all night while drinking yourself to oblivion at the bar. The Federalist isn't a bad way to go out.

Grilled Judith Point Calamari* [$13]: seared potato gnocchi, roasted garlic puree, pearl onions, scallion. Picky has had so much horrible and rubbery calamari that he's often wary of it on menus. This was not one of those cases. Grilled ceopolapods are delicious when done right. Not a hint of rubberiness in sight. We also really loved the Federalist-branded plates. Classy.

Ipswich Clam Chowder* [$13]: braised pork belly, poached Ipswich clams, cabbage, Yukon gold potato, sweet corn, cream. Look at that hunk of pork belly. Picky was practically drooling when the plates were brought out and immediately eyed it across the table. The sweet and creamy corn with a dusting of chili powder made each bite deliciously squishy.

Roasted Gulf Shrimp* [$27]: baby bok choy, snow peas, bell pepper, Bergamot broth. Our server poured the warm broth tableside for a bit of flair.

A close up shot of the Roasted Gulf Shrimp which was actually from South Carolina. Chef McClure informed us of the regional sourcing of lots of the meat: the tuna was from North Carolina, the chicken from Pennsylvania and from Virginia came their pork, duck and beef. While they don't hit you over the head with their local foodiness, they do go out of their way to find the best ingredients they can.

Seared Raw Tuna Loin* [$30]: Rappahannock oyster veloute, baby summer squash blossoms. The sight of a deep pink and just barely-seared tuna warms Picky's heart. Sliced thin enough to just about melt, yet thick enough to not flop around, the tuna was light and filling. But we had no idea just how full we'd get in a few minutes. Even just eating the sides was filling.

Virginia Black Bass* [$29]: sweet corn, chanterelle mushrooms, fried fresh link chiles, paprika-olive oil emulsion. The seared fish was delicious and the vegetables were pretty great, too! See those vicious looking peppers in the photo? They're not vicious at all. Turns out, they're called hat peppers and they tasted just like a tender green bell pepper.

At this point in the evening, we thought we were moving on to dessert. Then the steak knives came out. We had another whole course to sample, and it wasn't going to be a light one!

Roasted Moulard Duck Breast* [$29]: grilled white peaches, lacinato kale, Macadamia nut butter, sarsaparilla jus. Our dining companion Clare could not get enough of this one! Duck is one of those things when you see on the menu, you gotta order. But in our case, everything came out so we didn't even have the choice.

Heritage Pork Chop* [$32]: summer bean ragout, pearl onion, cornbread puree, bourbon jus. Messy couldn't get enough of the cornbread puree. Picky couldn't get enough of the chop, even the delicious fat cap. Mmmmm, fat cap.

Martin's Angus Beef Flatiron* [$28]: roasted heirloom tomato, marble potatoes, rosemary-lavender-garlic butter. Is there anything more decadent than butter on steak? Probably not. Oh wait, yes: rosemary-lavender-garlic butter! This was fantastic.

. . . And then the desserts came out.

Lemon Verbena Panna Cotta [$9:] honeyed amaranth bar, roasted pineapple, lime-espelette granita. This was the second of many panna cottas we'd enjoy in DC. DC seems to really love this stuff, and luckily, so do we.

A la minute chocolate cake gets dressed up with poached cherries and finished with cocoa nib ice cream. Messy is a big chocolate fan and this was her favorite.

Syllabub $8: caramelized bananas. Messy doesn't normally enjoy bananas, but she loved this dessert!

Towards the end of the meal, Chef Harper McClure came out from the kitchen to enjoy a glass of wine with us. He told us a little bit of his past, hailing from Preble, NY (population: 4,000 and one blinking yellow traffic light), he knows the small town life. But he's obviously transitioned to living in the nation's capital with the chops in the kitchen to match. He spoke lovingly of his ingredients and that love comes through in his cooking. But he's not just a cooker, he's a preserver too! You can read a post on the blog about his love of Mason jars (he also finds time to write everything on the restaurant's blog!) and next month, you'll be able to take a canning class right in the restaurant. Details will be up on their site in the near future.

What a night. And we had another two days of this madness to come!

Bigger pics in the slideshow below:

Last week, we hopped on an Acela train down to DC for a three-day bender of delicious food and drink courtesy of Destination DC, DC's marketing super squad. We arrived at a bustling Union Station and were whisked away to The Madison where we took a deep breath before getting onto an incredible roller coaster of eats.

Our first stop, after a lively round of mini-golf (more on that later) was supposed to be snacks at Hill Country Barbecue. But it turned into a feast of smoked goodies and sweets. Loosely modeled after Kreuz Market in Lockhart, TX, the 200+ seat restaurant, with three bars stuffed to gills with Shiner, is DC's premiere BBQ joint.

They don't just stock Shiner, Hill Country's patrons guzzle down more Shiner than any other bar this side of the Mississippi. They offer $20 Shiner pitchers all day, every day. They also have a twice-daily happy hour (3-7 and then 10-close). That is a minimum of six happy hours a day!

Here's Chef Derek (from San Antonio) in front of one of the three hickory smokers. They hold 1,000 lbs of meat each (there's a 70% return rate on the meat that goes in versus what comes out). 50 b