Ethnic Food Weekend…Yummy!!!

I love living in Northern Virginia.  Contrary to the blogs, t.v. shows, newspapers, the Washington D.C. Culinary Scene, especially with regards to ethnic cuisine, is the VIRGINIA CULINARY SCENE.  If you want avant garde, haute cuisine, patrician-pretentious food, Washington, D.C. is your thing.  Citronelle, City Zen, and other restaurants of that vein…D.C. can keep them.  Not that I necessarily have an issue with restaurants like that.  But I grow tired of restaurants in Virginia and Maryland being encompassed as “D.C.”  D.C. is D.C., Virginia is Virginia.  And what we have in Virginia that beats D.C. by a mile, is our many and varied ethnic restaurants…primarily in Northern Virginia.  Travel to Arlington, Herndon, Falls Church, Alexandria, Chantilly, Sterling, etc., and you can find cuisines from Ethiopia, Vietnam, Chinese (Not that Americanized Crap), Burmese, Afghan, Thai (Which is becoming the new “Chinese food”, in my opinion), Ethiopian, Honduran, Peruvian, Venezuelan, Salvadoran, Greek, Turkish, Lebanese, Indian…I can go on and on and on and on (Mind you…Northern Virginia also has haute cuisine as well).

I love the fact that Northern Virginia is diverse.  I grew up in Northern Virginia, and still live there, and over the years the diversity has exploded, with each culture bringing their delicious food.  So this weekend, my fiance’, Alicia and I decided to have “Ethnic Food Weekend”.  Being that Alicia is originally from Queens, she also appreciates the wonderful delights that come with culinary diversity, and this weekend we took full advantage of it.  So we started on Friday in Ashburn, where I currently live.  We ate at a relatively new Thai Restaurant called “Bangkrak Cuisine”.  The decor and feel of the place is really contemporary…really fresh.  Service was prompt.  The food…pretty good.  I think the food at this place was a bit “Americanized” (Why is Americanized Thai always a bit too sweet?  Where is the salty, where is the bitter?), but it was pretty tasty.  Chicken Satay, a chicken coconut soup, fried calamari…all very good.  For our entrees, I had a very delicious duck dish (They said it was glazed with a bourbon sauce, which made me think that they might have copied this dish from TGIF…oh, the horror!).  Crispy on the outside, and very tender on the inside, the duck was served over grilled napa cabbage, which was outstanding.  I can’t stand cabbage, but if cabbage was prepared to me like this, I would eat it all of the time.  Alicia ordered the Tilapia Three Flavors.  The concept was good, but the execution was flawed, as they overcooked the fish.  There were few tender parts of the fish, but Alicia was struggling to finish her meal.  She liked my duck though.  Will we go back?  I think we will.  We usually go to Thai Basil, located in Chantilly, which is known throughout the region for serving up some of the best and most authentic Thai cuisine.  However, if we just want our “Thai food fix” to be satisfied quickly, Bangrak is a pretty good substitution.

On Saturday, we actually departed briefly from our ethnic food weekend, and Alicia and I joined my parents and my uncle for breakfast at IHOP.  You gotta love the pancakes.  We fast forward to later on in the afternoon, where Alicia and I headed to Falls Church, Virginia, which I believe to be the “mecca” of ethnic cuisine in all of Virginia.  We stopped by the Eden Center, which is shopping center that caters to the local Vietnamese Community.  Among the nail salons, jewelry shops, and movie stores, you have numerous restaurants…most of them Vietnamese, but a few Chinese restaurants as well.  I have been going to the Eden Center since 2004, where one of my favorite restaurants was located…”Huong Que” (Four Sisters).  I say “was located”, because Four Sisters recently moved a few miles down the road to Fairfax.  However, the same family that owns and runs Four Sisters, saved the space where the original restaurant used to be, and converted it into a Vietnamese bakery and sandwich shop, called “Song Que”.  If anybody saw the Washington, D.C. episode of Anthony Bourdain’s “No Reservations” a few weeks ago, this is one of the places he stopped at.  And we both stopped there to get the same thing…Banh Mi…the quintessential Vietnamese sub-like sandwich, which includes a meat, carrots, cucumbers, lettuce, cilantro, and onions, a sprinkle of fish sauce, all served on a French-baguette (I guess colonialism has some good points).  I have been wanting to try this sandwich for a long time, and now I had the opportunity.  I ordered a Banh Mi with grilled pork, and Alicia ordered the same.  The “black” in me (LOL) still wanted to have a regular drink, so I ordered an orange soda, and Alicia ordered some “bubble tea”, which is a flavored tea, studded with tapioca pearls.  The Verdict-simply one of the best sandwiches of all time.  It is really, really, really tasty.  Texture, flavor, sweet from the fish sauce and a bit of sour from the onion.  Run to this place, and while you’re there, walk around the Eden Center and check out all of the other wonderful restaurants they have.  You will not be sorry.

After we ate our sandwiches, Alicia and I decided to push it a little bit.  A few miles down the road in Arlington, Virginia, Alicia and I decided to stop at the legendary El Pollo Rico (Also featured on the Washington, D.C. episode of “No Reservations”).  Alicia has been there before…I have not, although I have had Peruvian chicken.  You sit down in this place, and this place is packed, but the staff is moving at lightning speed, making sure that everybody gets their order.  The smell of this place is intoxicating…just charcoal grilled-chickens all roasting on a spit…dozens and dozens of them.  They have like five or six ovens, each with probably 50 chickens in them…it’s insane.  You can order quarter-chicken, a half-chicken, and a whole chicken…served simply with steak fries and some of their house made condiments.  Alicia ordered us a half-chicken, and within seconds of her ordering, they plopped a steaming hot half chicken on her plate, with some fries (Alicia ordered herself an Inca Cola).

The Verdict-I love this place.  I could probably eat there two or three days a week, if I lived closer to it.  The flavor of the chicken was remarkable, but what I was amazed with even more, was how moist the chicken was.  The meat could barely hold on to the bone, while at the same time being completely cooked-through.  Alicia and I, despite just eating a sandwich at the Eden Center, devoured this half-chicken.  I hope this place never, ever closes, and if I hear about it being closed, I will set up a petition, march, protest, write my Member of Congress…whatever I have to do to keep this place open, because chicken should never, ever taste that good.  After that, Alicia and I went to the movies (We saw “Taken” with Liam Neesom.  Despite the fact that he was portrayed as an American Agent, he couldn’t get rid of that Irish accent.  Aside from that fact, it was a good movie).

After the movie, we needed to eat something a bit lighter.  SUSHI!!!  So we headed to a familiar, yet favorite restaurant of our’s…Hooked on Seafood in Sterling, Virginia.  This restaurant received a very favorable review by Tom Sietsema in the Washington Post, and if you all decide to go, I think you will agree.  The seafood is treated with care and respect, and it is reflected in the cooking.  And the sushi is treated, also with the same level of attention and respect.  Alicia and I decided to go all out.  We ordered some sea urchin, some mackeral, and some toro (fatty tuna) as our nigiri plate.  For the main course…Alicia ordered the “PGA Roll” (Spicy Tuna, Strips of Tuna, Avocado, and Tempura Flakes), and I ordered the “Super Tiger Roll” (Shrimp Tempura, Tuna, Avocado and Spicy Mayo).  The sea urchin was awesome, as well as the toro.  The mackeral, my first time trying it, wasn’t pleasant.  It was very fishy, and it was unexpectedly packed with wasabi, which almost made me scream (LOL).  I won’t be trying that again.  The rolls, as always, were fantastic.  I go to this place so much, I have a V.I.P. Card, and at the end of my meal, I was given a $25 gift card.  Yummy-Yummy!!!

Sunday Morning…Alicia wasn’t feeling too hot.  I know the cure.  PHO!!!  We went to Pho 75 in Herndon, and slurped on some of the best pho in the DC Met Area.  Beef Broth, Rice Noodles, Green Onion, Cilantro, Thinly Sliced White Onion, Fatty Brisket, Flank Steak, Tripe, Soft Tendon, and Vietnamese Meatballs.  Yummy Goodness!!!  A sprinkle of Siracha, Lime, and add some fresh Thai Basil…it was fantastic, and it helped Alicia with her cold.  After we finished up our pho, right next door we went to an Arabic Grocery store.  This place is awesome.  Every spice you can think of…they have.  Every kind of rice you can think of…they have.  They have a Halal butcher in the back, butchering whole legs of lamb, goat.  They sell fresh injera bread, roti, lavash, and other Middle Eastern Breads.  I kept saying the same thing…”I have been to the mountain, and it is good” (LOL).

Diversity is awesome.  Step outside of the box once in awhile.  Eat something from another culture.  It’s nowhere as bad as you may think, and in fact…you may become an addict just like me.  I can’t wait for some more pho.  See Ya!!!