“What goes into a man’s mouth does not make him ‘unclean‘ , but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him ‘unclean.’”-Matthew 15:11 (New International Version)

The diet industry takes in an estimated $35 to $40 Billion Dollars a year.  You have vegans and vegetarians spewing, what I feel, is their one-sided, elitist way of thinking when it comes to eating food.  You have environmentalists who are talking about how factory farming abuses the environment…polluting the air, leaving carbon imprints, and other esoteric ”tree-hugging” b.s.  I don’t mean to be such a cynic.  If you want to pursue a healthy lifestyle (Or what is perceived to be a healthy lifestyle), that’s great.  Lord knows, Americans as a whole need to be healthier, African Americans REALLY need to pursue healthy lifestyles, with regards to food.  However, I think we have focused so much on the healthy, that we have nearly forgotten about the “pleasurable” aspects of food, the “sensual” aspects of food.  Those familiar smells, textures, and flavors that bring us to the table over and over again, like some kind of Pavlovian experiment, yet remind us of some of the best memories of our lives.  I honestly can’t imagine me sitting around with a friend a few years from now and saying, “You know…remember that time, you and I were eating that stalk of celery and that rice.  WOW!!!  Great memories!!!”  Hell Nah!!!  The psychological effect of eating a plesaurable meal, in my opinion, can help you live as long as eating, the raw carrots and celery that one believes is good for you.  I think someway…we need to have love the food eat.  Explore flavor.  We need to eat a good piece of meat, and not necessarily give a damn on where it came from, as long as it is aged, cooked medium-rare and well rested, and served with a wonderful side item.  This past Friday, that happend for my wife and I, but we were joined by a “special guest” eater, who is not necessarily accustomed to the wonders that food has to offer.  Well…Charlie Palmer Steak, in Washington DC, provided all of the wonders in the world for all who ate.

Now, it was less than a month ago that I ate at Charlie Palmer Steak, and I reviewed it (Here is the link to the review:   http://blackfoodsnob.wordpress.com/2009/10/13/three-restaurant-reviews-together/).  Although I enjoyed the ambiance, and service, the food lacked in some areas.  Also, I was eating alone that night, because my wife was on a business trip.  Despite the few dishes that lacked that night, I enjoyed my experience at CP Steak, to ask my wife to join me for dinner there after work this past Friday.  My co-worker/friend/ace, Ophelia Rivas, heard that I was going to CP Steak, and asked if she could join Alicia and I for dinner.  She has been wanting to hang out with us for awhile, and she has been wanting to step out and do different things, other than just the normal Friday Night stuff that DC has to offer (Bars, Clubs, etc.).  Originally from Brooklyn (NYC), she hasn’t had the opportunity to venture out into the city, so Alicia and I found this to be a great opportunity to have Ophelia hang out, have a great culinary experience (While at the same time expanding her culinary horizons), and just see a different side of DC Nightlife.  RESERVATIONS FOR THREE AT 6:45 P.M….JOHNSON PARTY.  Ophelia and I got off at 5 p.m. that day (We normally get off at 6 p.m.), and we had to wait until my wife got off at 6 p.m.  Ophelia and I got to CP Steak around 6:40 PM, and we were escorted to our table, and you could see the happiness in Ophelia’s eyes.  When we got to the table, she leaned over to me and said, “Wow…I felt like I was a ’somebody’ when I walked in here.”  I simply replied, “Then the people here at the restaurant are doing their job.”  The thing I love about this restaurant is the ambiance, decor, and service is all dedicated to making its clientele feel important, even if they are just simple “working stiffs” like Ophelia and myself.  The colors are bright, but not too bright.  The waitstaff was attentive, without being overbaring.  They were friendly without being fake-friendly.  It’s a beautiful thing.  Ophelia looked over the wine list, as we waited for my wife to arrive, and luckily for my stomach, we didn’t have to wait too long…Alicia showed up about 10 to 15 minutes later.

Kissy-Poohs are exchanged, the small-talk ritual begins, but enough of that stuff…LET’S EAT.  The only thing I had that day was a salad, and I wanted some prime, aged meat in my belly.  I knew what I was getting, so Alicia needed time to look over the menu.  Ophelia, with a little bit of help from your’s truly, decided on what to order before we arrived.  She originally wanted a huge, freakin’ ribeye.  Although I don’t doubt that she may be able to fork that steak down, I figured that she may want something a little bit smaller, yet still substantial.  She wanted filet mignon, but filet mignon is overpriced and so boring.  I suggested that she ordered the hanger steak…that way, she still gets a decent sized steak, for a good price, with alot more flavor.  Also prior to coming to the restaurant, she told me she had a lousy steak at another restaurant, which led me to ask her about how she likes her steak cooked.  When she told me “well done“, I immediately found the answer to her problem.  I suggested that when she goes to the restaurant, that she has her hanger steak cooked “medium-rare” or if she really has to…”medium“.  It was really difficult for her to do, but she took my suggestion, and ordered the hanger steak, medium-rare.  Anyway, it’s time for all of us to order.  I’ll put everybody’s order below….

Ophelia
-Marinated Hanger Steak (Aged 21 Days)…cooked medium-rare
-Truffle Twice Baked Potato (Side)
-Chocolate Peanut Terrine (Dessert)
-Sparkling White Wine-Roderer Estate, Brut Rose, Anderson Valley, California (Glass)

Myself
-Braised Short Rib Ravioli (1st Course)
-Rib-Eye “Bone In Cowboy” Cut (Aged 21 Days)….medium-rare
-Herb-Parmesan Gnocchi (Side)
-Trio of Creme Brulee (Dessert)
-Ginger Ale and Coffee

Alicia…AKA, “The Wife“
-Frisee and Spinach Salad  (1st Course)
-Roasted Grass Fed Veal Chop….medium-rare
-Creamed Spinach (Side)
-Chocolate Hazelnut Pyramid (Dessert)
-Pinot Grigio Wine-Stone Mountain Vineyards, Dyke, Virginia (Glass)

As Alicia and I anxiously await for our first courses, the waiter brings us all a complimentary “amuse bouche” of sorts…a little “sumthin-sumthin” to hold us over and to culinarily express to us what is about to come.  It was a simple butternut squash soup in a tall, slender shot glass, topped with roasted pistachios, with a hint of cinnamon oil.  Alicia and I love butternut squash soup, and make it when squash is in season (I will be making it real soon).  For Ophelia, this will be her first time, so Alicia and I are both interested in what she will think.  The good thing is that she wants to try it…that she doesn’t suffer from the culinary incuriousity that quite a few people have when faced with something they never experienced before.  Alicia and I tried it, and loved it.  The texture was very smooth and creamy, and the roasted pistachios added texture and additional flavor.  Ophelia LOVED IT.  She savored it, wanting to experience the flavors, more like a wine connissuer.  I think this tipped her off to what she was about to experience.  A few minutes later, my first course arrived, as well as Alicia’s.

The title that I wrote for Alicia’s first course, really didn’t speak to all of the ingredients in her salad.  It wasn’t just some leafy green salad and that’s it.  Yes, it had frisee and spinach, with a nice dressing, but the best part, was the fried “pig trotter” that came with it.  YES..PIG FEET.  Not “southern style“, with vinegar and hot sauce (Although that is good too).  But they braised the pig feet, then finely chopped up the meat, fat, and cartiledge.  Put it into the shape of a tiny disk, about the size of a chicken nugget, crust it with bread crumbs, and then deep fry it.  It came out hot, and when you bit into it, the essence of pork just came out in a big way.  Meaty, porky, sticky….YUMMY!!!  Three of those “nuggets” came with the salad.  I am so happy that Alicia shared that pig trotter with me.  Ophelia didn’t try the pig trotter unfortunately…that’s OOOOOOO-K.  More for us!!!  Alicia wasn’t too thrilled otherwise with the salad.  She felt that it was a bit overdressed, and that the salad lacked a certain something.  She wished that she just received a plate of the pig trotter nuggets (Laughing).  My braised beef ravioli was pretty good.  The pasta was nice and light, and the beef was pretty tasty.  I guess I was just expecting more inside the ravioli than just the braised beef.  Maybe a mushroom, a truffle or two.  Maybe a lil bit of cheese.  But I think that was the chef’s intention with the dish, so that was cool with me.  The dish was served with a beef jus-like sauce, mushrooms and artichoke hearts.  Alicia actually like my dish, and so did Ophelia.  NEXT COURSE!!!

We didn’t have to wait that much longer after our first course to receive our THE MAIN EVENT…THE MEAT, and sides.  Alicia received her veal, which was beautifully presented, the bone beautifully and cleanly “frenched“.  My ribeye…just a huge freakin’ piece of meat.  That’s how I like it.  Ophelia’s hanger steak, was really nicely presented.  Cut into thin segments, which is often done with hanger steak, accented with sauce, and I believe mushrooms.  And because she had it done medium-rare, the pink color of the meat made the presentation look all the more beautiful.  Each of us ordered side dishes as well, so our table was pretty full.  The gnocchi, spinach and potatoes…the latter which was ordered by Ophelia, which she didn’t expect to be so big.  Alicia and I were really looking at her side dish, because it was accented with black truffle, and you could smell it on the baked potato.  ANYWAYS…we dug in.  Oh…before I forget…one cannot forget to mention the “mustard tasting plate” of five different mustards from “mild to spicy” as the waiter tell us…champagne mustard, tarragon mustard, blah-blah-blah.  Personally, I would never put mustard on a perfect cooked steak…but hey, to each is own.  NOW…we dig in.

My ribeye was perfectly cooked.  Tender to the fork and knife.  A “wonderful interplay between fat and meat“…ahh forget all of that culinary, esoteric b.s….IT WAS DAMN GOOD.  Alicia, surprisingly, was not too thrilled with her veal, and wished she ordered a steak.  It wasn’t that she didn’t appreciate the flavor, or the sauce (It was served with a blackberry sauce), but I think her cut of veal had alot of connected tissue and fat, that just wasn’t too pleasing to her.  I would like to say that I was empathetic to her plight, but I was too much in my “comfort zone“.  That being said, she enjoyed it enough to still get her proverbial “eat on”.  As for Ophelia…with a bit of trepidation, she ate her first piece of medium-rare steak.  REACTION?  Let’s just say that the fireworks were going off at the nearby National Mall on the Fourth of July in her mouth.  She just had a very, very happy reaction on her face.  She kept saying that she didn’t know that steak could taste that good, and ate more and more and more, until it was GONE!!!  Well…she certainly got her “Atkins-On” that evening.  But again…the joy she got out of eating something new (to her), and the joy that Alicia and I received for introducing to her to that, just made the dining experience all the more pleasurable. 

We move to the sides…Alicia had her creamed spinach.  It was good, but nothing to write home about.  I think there was a bit too much water in the spinach, which is always a problem when making dishes with spinach.  You always have to squeeze all of the water out of the spinach, or else it will totally screw up the dish.  She liked the flavor though, and continued eating.  Ophelia, originally intimidated by the size and quantity of the twice-baked truffled potato, took her first bite, and was “pleasantly puzzled” by the flavor.  She couldn’t grasp what the flavor was, and Alicia and I immediately knew what it was…the wonderfully “sexy“, yet earthy flavor of the black truffle.  Alicia is a truffle fanatic, and Ophelia was more than gracious to share some of her potato and Alicia didn’t waste anytime in accepting Ophelia’s graciousness (((Laughing)))…neither did I.  DAMN…FREAKING…GOOD!!!  If I was President, I would pass a law stating that baked potatoes should only be done like that, until otherwise changed by executive order.  Maybe I can talk to President Obama about that, but I digress.  But nobody…nobody’s…nobody’s side dish was as lucious, sinful, decadent and as wonderful as my herb-parmesan gnocchi.  Again…when I was at CP Steak before, my two complaints against the gnocchi were:  1) no herbs and 2) some of the gnocchi were a bit dense.  Well through telepathy, they must have heard my complaints, and adjusted the recipe accordingly, because there was herbs, and each gnocchi was a “pillow of wonderful goodness“.  My wife had some, and nearly caught the Holy Ghost.  So I offered some to Ophelia, and straight up told her, “If you don’t like this, something is wrong with your mouth.”  She tried it, and did what Giada and Rachel Ray do all the time when they eat food, but it’s fake with them…she closed her eyes, because she was having a true “foodgasm”.  That’s right…A FOODGASM.  I believe it was at this point, she said something that I never heard being said at a dinner before…she said, “Jesus in here tonight!!!”, hence the title of this blog entry.  The food experience she was having was so good, that it evoked the name of the Lord.  THAT’S AWESOME!!!  That’s how it was for me when I first started to get seriously into food, so I recognize the kind of sensory overload she was experiencing.  There is nothing like it.  Shortly after that…Alicia, Ophelia and I are all competing to eat up my damn gnocchi.  They need to back up off me (((Laughing)))!!!

Lastly was dessert.  I knew what I was ordering….the trio of creme brulees, small tasting portion sizes of three different creme brulee’s: (1) Classic Vanilla, (2) Orange-Basil, and (3) Expresso with a Cinnamon Foam, served with Almond Biscotti cookies.  Alicia ordered the Chocolate Hazlenut Pyramid…another awesome dessert.  Chocolate Phyllo Dough triangles formulated to shape a pyramid around a dome of chocolate ganache.  And then the waitress pours additional chocolate sauce around the pyramid.  The chocolate being poured around the dessert, caught the attention of a lady at another table, and it damn near made her “swoon“.  Lastly, Ophelia ordered the Chocolate Peanut Terrine.  It would be difficult more to describe it, but it was a beautifully presented dessert…a work of art, and the flavor profile as described, made me wanted to snatch it away from Ophelia.  Alicia, again…not having the best of luck, enjoyed the dessert, but found problems with it.  Don’t get me wrong, she loved the chocolate, she appreciated the presentation, but again, she felt that something was “lacking“.  As for me..my complaint with the trio of creme brulee the last time I was at CP Steak was:  1) Not enough flavor in the orange-basil creme brulee and 2) some of the creme brulee suffered from “scrambled egg syndrome.  NOT TONIGHT!!!  I tried the orange-basil creme brulee, and the flavors, hit you harder than bricks (in a good way).  I had Alicia try some…and all she could do was “hate” on me as she wish she ordered my dessert.  The real test was Ophelia, again, never having creme brulee before, it was interesting to see what she would think.  She first tried the orange-basil creme brulee…BOOM!!!  Grand-Slam!!!  She laughed, because it tasted so good, and the same goes for the other two flavors that she got to taste (Of course the wife tasted them as well, which just merely increased her playful resentment against me for ordering a better dessert than her).

At the end of the meal, the waiter brought us complimentary snacks of cookies, truffles, and raspberry gelees…by this time, Alicia and Ophelia were “food drunk”.  I was just happy for the experience.  I have used this quote before in a blog entry, but the quote by Anthony Bourdain really rings true for this occasion…”A perfect meal is a perfect confluence of other forces…the right sound in the background, it’s the right smells in the air, the people you’re eating with, the colors….it’s everything, it’s the particular needs and feelings that you brought to that particular time and place.”  Although Ophelia’s comment about Jesus being in the place was true.  Me being a Christian, I believe He is with us everywhere, all of the time.  He worked through those chefs to prepare a wonderful meal.  The front of the house staff provided excellent service.  The restaurant itself…a beautiful place to eat and be comfortable.  And of course the great company that I dined with.  I guess I did dine with Jesus.

Alicia (Despite some of her dining issues) and I, gave this place a “9″ on our “1 to 10″ scale, “1″ being “complete and utter crap”, and “10″ being a “completely foodgasmic experience”.  We certainly look forward to heading back to CP Steak sometime in the near future (Well…my checking account has to recover first…Laughing).

Charlie Palmer Steak
101 Constitution Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20001
(202) 547-8100
Website:  http://www.charliepalmer.com/Properties/CPSteak/DC/

Why do I have this picture of a chain?  To signify what I have come to dislike about food…to signify what I have come to dislike about restaurants.  THE CHAIN RESTAURANT.  Not all of them, but 95% of them.  They service is often mediocre, the decor borders on the tacky, and the food suffers from bordem, incuriousity, and consumer-driven menus.  Now…like I said there are a small percentage of chain restaurants that do put out a quality product (Five Guys, In and Out, Fosters Grille, and The Higher End Steakhouses [Mortons, Ruth Chris, etc.] (I am not including fast food restaurants in this).  But the Cheesecake Factories, Olive Gardens, Chilis, and Golden Corrals of the world…they should be banished, and Ted’s Montana Grill, should also be banished with them.

Now, you may be asking yourself, “Marc, if you don’t like chains, how and/or why are you reviewing this place?”  Yesterday afternoon my sister calls me, and asks if my wife and I would like to join her and my parents for dinner at a restaurant.  Mind you, while she is asking me this, I am kind of suspicious, because my sister is not as…how should I say…”adventurous” or “dedicated” when it comes to food.  But being that this is about family, I graciously accepted.  She calls me later on before I leave work to tell me that “Mom and Dad said they never been to Ted’s Montana Grill, so they want to try it”.  I am still kind of suspicious.  While at dinner, I come to find out my sister has been to Ted’s Montana Grill a few times, and been to the location that we dined at with such frequency that she remembered the waitress.  Sounds like my sister wanted to eat there more than my parents.  Either way, I met up with my family there.

For those who don’t know about this place, this is a restaurant chain started by Media Mogul Ted Turner…yeah, the same Ted Turner who started CNN, was married to Jane Fonda, and managed to pursue one of the most horrid business deals in history (AOL/Time Warner Merger).  He is also, if memory serves me, the largest private landowner in the United States, owns a sizeable chunk of Montana, and on his acreage, owns a great deal of buffalo…which is a theme ingredient at the restaurant, as well as a logo of the restaurant.  They got buffalo ribeyes, buffalo burgers, etc., etc.  In addition to that, they have the same old tired menu items they have at most chains…grilled shrimp, onion rings, ceasar salad, blah-blah-blah-blah.

I don’t really want to spend too much time reviewing this place, because it was really that bad.  I mean, I asked myself last night “Was it bad, because it was really bad?” or “Was it bas, because I am a food snob?”  And really…it was the former…it was bad.  I ordered some grilled shrimp for an appetizer, and if the shrimp was grilled…I surely didn’t taste it.  It was more than likely pan-seared, and it was slightly overcooked.  Also, the shrimp was way overseasoned.  I gave a piece to my father and he nearly puckered up his face because of the salt content.  It was served “lazily” on a piece of bread…not impressed at all.  Mind you, it took about 20 minutes for my appetizer, as well as my wife’s appetizer and my parents’ appetizers to get to us.  The place wasn’t well-staffed at all.  I ordered for my main a bacon, chedder, and bbq bison burger.  Because bison doesn’t have a great deal of fat, like beef, one should never cook bison no more than medium.  I asked for a medium-rare burger.  The cook, I guess, doesn’t know what medium-rare means, because I received a “rare” burger…it was purple-ish/red in the middle.  I was so hungry at that point, I didn’t care.  A side of densely onion rings were served with them.  They were dipped in cornmeal and then fried…not good texturally.  Honestly…I think the onion rings were not fresh at all.  I believe they were frozen.  LAZY, LAZY, LAZY, LAZY COOKING!!!  The best part of my meal was the ginger ale and the check.

The food sat in my stomach all night so bad, I couldn’t sleep.  My wife had the same reaction.  This is commonplace in alot of chain places.  They have to learn that there is more to life than onion blossoms, mexican-style egg rolls, and flavorless soups.  Fresh ingredients, proper technique…and yes, you can do that, and serve it for a good price.  Mr. Turner can’t run a restaurant like he does a business, and for this, he gets a “3″ on the “1 to 10″ scale that Alicia and I have (“1″ being complete and utter crap and “10″ being a completely foodgasmic experience).  I think the only reason why I didn’t give it a “1″, was because the waitress was very sweet, and she was doing the best she could with the little resources she had.  My parents left her a decent tip, and I went home to a night of indigestion and “The Real Housewives of Atlanta”.  DEAR GOD!!!

I usually give out the website to the restaurant…NOT THIS TIME!!!!

WOW!!!  In the past two weeks, I have been on a “food frenzy”.  I really wonder how food critics for the NY Times, Washington Post, and other publications do it.  That being said, they truly have the best jobs in the universe, but I digress.

Today, I am going to do a first on BlackFoodSnob…I am going to review THREE RESTAURANTS in one posting…Mo’s Seafood and Pasta in Baltimore, Maryland; Charlie Palmer’s Steak in Washington, D.C. and Sushi-Ko in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

(1) MO’s CRAB and PASTA FACTORY-First heard about this place through my parents.  They were in Baltimore a few months ago on a Sunday afternoon, the same day Alicia and I decided to go up there and eat at Chaps Pit Beef, a restaurant which has now been popularized on many travel and food shows, and also my blog (http://blackfoodsnob.wordpress.com/2009/04/19/ignorantly-deliciouschaps-charcoal-restaurant/).  Not knowing that my parents were only a few miles away, I called my father to see if he wanted something from Chaps.  He had the sound of a drunken man when he answered the phone, not because he was full of liquor, but because he was full of food.  He kept trying to tell me about the food at this place, not just the quantity, but the quality of the food.  At the time, I really wasn’t focused, because I was still in “pit beef nirvana“.  Well…that all changed when over the Summer, Alicia and I were watching Anthony Bourdain’s “No Reservations” on the Travel Channel, specifically the episode titled, “The Rust Belt“, where he ventured to three U.S. Cities…Baltimore, Detroit, and Buffalo.  While in Baltimore, Tony chatted with Felicia “Snoop” Pearson of HBO’s hit show, “The Wire” over seafood at Mo’s.  Being that Alicia and I never really had the opportunity to see what my father was talking about, we really took noticed, and what we noticed, was something that was VANGLORIOUS!!!  WHOLE CRABS piled on a plate in a garlic cream sauce, a crab cake the size of a small child, a “kitchen-sink“-type dish called “The Hookup“, and a strong, mixed drink concoction wrongly, if not affectionately named “The Obama“.  Check out the clip below.

We move to October 4th, 2009.  My mother’s birthday.  My birthday was only a few days before, and I ate pretty well.  Well, it was about to get even better.  My father called me on Friday, and told me that we were going to Mo’s Seafood on Sunday for Mom’s Birthday.  I hear “cannons going off“, I hear “trumpets being played“…a great day in Johnson Family Culinary History.  I say that, because only a few weeks before my sister had the gaul to suggest taking my parents out to Golden Corral for their 41st Wedding Anniversary.  I was just hoping that my father wasn’t leaving my mother’s birthday plans up to my sister as well (By the way, we didn’t go to Golden Corral…I took charge, and we ate at a much better restaurant).  Alicia and I, knowing what we were getting into, decided not to eat alot on Saturday, so we relegated our diets to salad and sushi.  We felt like kids on Christmas Eve, anticipating the seafood bonanza of a lifetime.  On Sunday…we are on our way to Baltimore, and we were blessed enough to find a parking spot, directly in front of the restaurant.    We (Father, Mother, Myself, My Sister, Alicia, and My Sister’s Friend..Blaine) sit our tables happy and ready to go…I know I was.  Now…the whole ride up to Baltimore, I was talking about “The Obama“, and the previous day, I showed my father the YouTube clip that I provided above so he could see what “The Obama” is.  We got there, I ordered an Obama, as did my father, and my sister’s friend.  I asked the waitress what was in it….151 Jamaican Rum, Patron, Watermelon Liqeur, Pineapple Juice, and whatever stuff that makes mixed drinks blue.   I’m not a drinker, but I know about certain liquors, and when she read off that list of poisons, I was scared.  My mother ordered some whiskey and water, Alicia ordered an amaretto sour, and my sister who doesn’t drink under any circumstances, ordered water.  The waitress brings out our drinks in huge glasses, unlike what you see on “No Reservations“.  I took a sip of my “Obama“, and I see why they call it “The Obama“, because once you drink it, you would qualify for some kind of government healthcare plan.  I only touched about 25% of it.  My 70 year-old father…tossed the whole thing down, and became a “comical mess” as a result.  My sister’s friend downed his, but was much more restrained.  OH…the food, let me get to that.

I ordered clams casino for an appetizer, and seafood alfredo for my entree.  Other things being ordered around the table were Cream of Crab Soup, Crab Cake Entrees, Broiled Seafood Entree, and Fried Seafood Entree.  The Clams Casino was average…not because of the clams per se’.  The clams actually were huge, fresh, and tasty.  They were average, because of the preparation of the dish.  The classic preparation of Clams Casino calls for garlic, butter, wine, breadcrumbs, bacon, and maybe a “hint” of parmesan reggianao…the emphasis on “maybe” and “hint“.  Unfortunately for them, they slathered on thick pieces of mozzerella cheese, which basically took away from the clam, and the bacon was almost non-existant.  I tried Alicia’s cream of crab soup….very, very good.  Nice, comforting…great for a winter’s night.  Let’s move on to the “mains“.  I ordered a “seafood alfredo“, which consist of fresh mussels, crabmeat, shrimp, and scallops.  When this thing came to my plate, it looked like a “Mount Everest of Seafood Alfredo“, and all of the seafood was fresh.  None of that imitation crabmeat, that isn’t really crabmeat.  Mussels that were nice and pink.  I started to eat, and it was just incredibly rich and decadent….I just kept repeating these words, “Oh My….Oh My….!!!“  Anytime a crabcake came to the table, I would just give a look of “bewilderment“, because they were “eyepoppingly” huge.  My mother crudely said that they were “Boob-Size”…probably Dolly Parton boob size.  There were that large.  Like Anthony Bourdain asked when he went there, “How does this place stay in business serving portions like this?”…I kept wondering the same thing.  I tasted my mother’s crabcake, and it just wasn’t big, it was absolutely delicious.  Alicia said it was very good, but she said it had a little bit more breading for her taste, however, she understood that a crabcake of that size needed that much breading to hold it together.  Still…the ratio of crab to breading was about 90-Crab to 10-Bread.  Whether you were eating scallops, shrimp, etc…the seafood was very, very fresh tasting.  The cooks at Mo’s know how to broil and fry food equally, and they season food properly.  To make matters worse, we ordered a chocolate mousse dessert, and we all shared it, because it was that big.  It was outstanding as well.

CONCLUSION-Alicia and I gave Mo’s a very favorable rating.  The service can be a bit better, but this place has a “dive” kind of feel, so we are not necessarily expecting “Michelin-star” service.  Although the portions are huge, this is not a “Cheesecake Factory” kind of place where this place is capitalizing on just huge portions and little else.  This place has very good food.  However, you can order one plate of something, and share it, thus saving money.  Now if you are in a “pig-out” state of mind, I would advise you all to fast and pray.  Alicia and I give this place an “8″ on our “1 to 10″ scale.

Mo’s Crab and Pasta Factory
502 Albemarle Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21202
(410) 837-1600
Website:  http://www.mosseafood.com

(2) CHARLIE PALMER STEAK (DC)-It’s 6:00 p.m., Thursday afternoon (October 8, 2009), time to go home and hang with the wife.  WELL…not this time.  The wife is on a business trip to Texas, and usually when she is out of town, I don’t like being home by myself.  I decided to take myself out on a “date“…yes, I said it…A DATE.  I didn’t want to eat in Virginia, like I usually do.  I wanted to stay in the city and do something different.  I wanted steak.  Well…one won’t have a problem in this town, being that DC is full of steakhouses.  However, most steakhouses in this town are of the “old-school model“…emphasis on big steaks,  a few seafood items, lobster bisque, iceberg lettuce salad, creamed spinach or some kind of potato dish as a side, very masculine-centric, and the decor always includes some kind of dark wood.  Charlie Palmer Steak breaks that molds.  When walking in there, I didn’t know if I was walking into a refined French restaurant, or nouvelle-American cuisine establishment, or some post-modern art museum…nothing masculine, clubby, or old school about this place, located a “stone’s throw” away from the U. S. Capitol (Not so much of a novelty for me, considering that I work on the Hill).  Escorted down a small corridor, with a small indoor lake, with a pebble bottom, I was escorted to my table, near the floor to ceiling glass windows that face out towards Constitution Avenue.  I was waited on by a beautiful and attentive waitress (Which always makes the meal more pleasant), who presented me with a rather simple, yet different steakhouse menu.  I say “different”, because I see items on here, that reflect Asian, Mexican, French, as well as American influences.   While waiting to order my meal, I was given a complimentary cucumber and crab-ceviche’ salad “amuse bouche”.  Absolutely delicious.  I’m thinking “If the rest of the meal is just like this small bite, then I am really in for a hell of a ride“.  To started off,  I ordered the “Spiced Yellowfin Tuna Cannelloni” served with Avocado and Ponzu.  Essentially a rolled-up raw piece of tuna, served with tortilla straws, advocado, some sort of salad (I don’t remember), and then the ponzu was poured onto the fish tableside.  The tuna was absolutely tasty, and the presentation, despite my horrible description of it, was lovely.  The problem with the dish, to me, is that it suffered from “culinary identity crisis“.  Because of the tortilla strips and the advocado, one would think that the dish could be Mexican.  But with the ponzu being poured over the fish…a raw fish at that, one could think that this dish was Asian-inspired.  In that way, it kind of confused me.  Also…the ponzu was a bit overpowering.

Charlie Palmer Steak (DC)-Image Courtesy of CP Steak (DC)

For my main, I ordered the “Cowboy Cut” Ribeye Steak (Medium Rare) and a side order of their Herb and Parmasean Gnocchi.  Again…another beautiful presentation.  The steak…aged 21 days, had a beautiful char on it.  It was more “medium” than “medium-rare“, but I can be forgiving of that.  It was tasty, delicious…what a steak is supposed to be.  They presented a separate “mustard-tasting plate“, with five different mustards, that I could dip my steak in…everything from a citrus mustard to a tarragon mustard.  Personally, I don’t believe in dipping my steak in ANY kind of sauce.  A good steak doesn’t need a sauce, and if it does, mustard certainly wouldn’t be my sauce of choice.  That being said, I tried each sauce, and I enjoyed the tarragon mustard alot.  The one thing I was very disappointed about was the gnocchi.  If you tell me that I am going to have a herb and parmasean gnocchi, I expect to see some herbs and parm on the gnocchi.  I didn’t see not ONE herb on the gnocchi, and that was a bit disappointing, because herbs would have really added something to an otherwise decent side item (Although some of the gnocchi were a bit more dense than others).

For dessert, I ordered a trio of creme brulee…kind of a sample platter of one of my favorite desserts.  In each mini-cup, they had a different flavor….a) Orange Basil, b) Classic Vanilla, and c) Expresso with a Cinnamon Foam, served with Almond Biscotti cookies.  Of the three, I enjoyed Expresso Creme Brulee the best.  The Orange Basil didn’t have quite the citrus punch that I wanted, and also, the custard suffered from “scrambled egg syndrome“.  The Classic Creme Brulee was smooth, creamy, and delicious, it was just that the third one was different, exciting, and the almond biscotti cookie was really tasty.

CONCLUSION-Despite my “nit-pickings“, the service was more than attentive, quick, and after my dessert, the pastry chef sent out a complimentary plate of small desserts…cookies, truffles, and raspberry gelees.  You feel like someone important here, in beautiful surroundings, and still with wonderful food.  Alicia wasn’t here to help me with the rating, but…for my own rating I would give this place a “7” on our “1 to 10” scale.

Charlie Palmer Steak (DC)
101 Constitution Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20001
Website:  http://www.charliepalmer.com/Properties/CPSteak/DC/

(3) Sushi-Ko (Chevy Chase, MD)-A beautiful Sunday Morning (October 11, 2009), a great “soul-stirring” sermon at church, and a handsome well-dressed couple.  That only equals one thing….SUSHI (RECORD SCRATCH SOUND)???  Not your typical “Sunday Dinner“, right?   Usually after church, Alicia and I have established a tradition of stopping at Harris Teeter, and buying good ole fashion, “pedestrian“, supermarket sushi.  For a supermarket, they don’t do half-bad, which is why we frequent the place.  But that day, we didn’t even want to do sushi…we wanted something a bit more exotic.  We wanted a bowl of a soup that we haven’t had in months, Thai Floating Market Soup (As pictured below).

Thai Floating Market Soup-Image Courtesy of DCIst.Com

There is only one place in the DC Met Area that I know makes and serves the stuff…Nava Thai in Wheaton, Maryland.  Alicia and I make the drive to Wheaton, about 25 minutes from our church in nearby McLean, Virginia.  Unfortunately, we show up the very day that they are having a festival in Wheaton, and we could not find a parking spot anywhere.  To say we were disappointed was an understatement.  I had to think fast…”Where to eat next?”, I am thinking to myself.  Although familiar with restaurants in Suburban Maryland, I am not as familiar with restaurants in Suburban Maryland, as I am with restaurants in Northern Virginia, or DC for that matter.  However, I did remember a place that I heard about from the Washingtonian Magazine as well as other publications.  It was a sushi restaurant, known as “Sushi-Ko“…they had two locations, one in Chevy Chase, Maryland, and the other location in the Glover Park section of Northwest DC.  Alicia and I went to the Chevy Chase location of DC’s oldest sushi bar, located amongst the “glizt and glamor” of Chevy Chase’s high end shopping district (Jimmy Choo, Louis Vuitton, Tiffany’s, etc.)  Alicia and I entered a sheek looking restaurant awashed in colors of blue, white and gray.  Like always, Alicia wanted to sit in a booth, which I was surprised, because usually when we go to our normal place to eat sushi (Hooked on Seafood in Sterling- http://www.hookedonseafood.com) we always sit at the sushi bar.  I guess she didn’t feel comfortable sitting at a sushi bar she never been to before, so she let me have my way for once and we ate at the sushi bar.  And I think Alicia was glad that we did.  Why?  We were able to watch true sushi artists at work.  Chef Tjan and his crew worked quickly, clean, and with discipline…and with barely anybody in the restaurant, it was like we had the whole place to ourselves.  Alicia and I started out with a series of appetizers…she ordered “Chicken Yakitori“, basically Japanese Kabobs, glazed with teriyaki, and accented with green onion.  I ordered the “Grilled Baby Octopus with Mango Sauce“.  Let me tell you all this…I WOULD HAVE TO SAY, IT RANKS AMONGST MY TOP THREE FAVORITE APPETIZERS OF ALL TIME.  PERIOD!!!  It was so good, that I ordered again.  They marinated the octopus in some kind of soy or teriyaki sauce, and then grilled it, giving it a nice char, without making the octopus chewy or “tire-like“, which alot of people do.  They served it with a small watercress and radish salad, and mango sauce.  OUTSTANDING!!!  If you don’t like sushi, just go to Sushi-Ko for that appetizer alone.  Alicia was eating off my plate.  Oh…did I forget the mains (((Laughing)))?

Of course, we ordered sushi for our mains.  My wife ordered the “Jo Sushi Moriawase“, which the website describes as the “deluxe chef’s assortment of today’s finest fish“, and fine it was.  9 different fish…everything from fatty tuna to yellowtail to mackeral to eel to shrimp…it was a “smorgashborg of sushi“, and the wife thoroughly enjoyed it.  The fish was extremely fresh, and well put together.  I ordered the “Rainbow Roll“…a wonderful combination of tuna, whitefish, shrimp, salmon, cucumber and avocado.  Again…really, really fresh, and tightly rolled.  If I was to nitpick about anything about our experience, was that I wish that the sushi rice was a bit more seasoned, but that’s a nitpick I can happily do without.

Chef Tjan at Sushi-Ko Chevy Chase-Picture Courtesy of Wash. Post

CONCLUSION-Although a bit overpriced, the best thing that happend on that Sunday was our inability to park at Nava Thai in Wheaton.  I can’t wait to go back to Sushi-Ko, again and again and again.  The General Manager, watching me order everything, brought over a menu, suggesting the next time I come, I should order their $65.00/9-course tasting menu.  You know what…I think I may take him up on his offer (I wish he was paying for it).  Alicia and I gave this place a “9” on our “1 to 10” scale.

Sushi-Ko
5455 Wisconsin Avenue
Chevy Chase, Maryland 20815
Website:  http://www.sushikorestaurants.com

“A perfect meal is a perfect confluence of other forces…the right sound in the background, it’s the right smells in the air, the people you’re eating with, the colors….it’s everything, it’s the particular needs and feelings that you brought to that particular time and place.”-Anthony Bourdain

First and foremost…I would like to thank everyone who came out to Matchbox (Capitol Hill) to celebrate my birthday (9/30) on Friday, October 2nd, 2009.  As the quote eloquently states above, a perfect meal hinges on more than just the food.  It is about the noises, the smells, lighting, the circumstances which brought everybody together, and of course the people.  And on that day, a really great group of people got together…a group of people who in just a few months, I have come to respect and grow fond of.  A group of people who took time out of their busy schedules to celebrate my birthday.  For that, I am very, very humbled and grateful (Truthfully, when Alicia and I walked back to the car, tears of happiness ran down my face thinking about it).  AGAIN…THANK YOU!!!

Good Friends, My Wife and Myself@Matchbox (Capitol Hill) 10/2/2009

Now to the review.  Matchbox was a last minute replacement for my birthday celebration, but a welcomed one.  Matchbox, whose Chinatown location has been up and running since 2003, recently opened up a Capitol Hill location near Eastern Market in 2008.  “This reminds me of New York”, my Queen-bred wife said, and the neighborhood, near the Navy Yard, did have that kind of vibe to it.  Question is…can the pizza stand up to the task? 

I have been hearing about Matchbox for a long time, so I was excited to go, and the menu at the Capitol Hill location is identical to the one in China, although the restaurant on Capitol Hill is smaller.  Got there shortly after 5 p.m., and my co-worker and I put our party on the list, and chilled at the bar.  The place was very nice inside…two levels, contemporary, very rustic, with hardwood being emphasized everywhere (Even the menus are made with wood).  Towards the end of the bar area, you have the open prep kitchen where the cooks are making the pizzas and the wood-fired oven, which has now become somewhat of a cliche’ in most pizza restauraunts these days. 

Open up that wooden-covered menu, and you have a bountiful menu, mainly because of it’s libations.  They have a “beer list” of fairly diverse beers, and a long, but somewhat boring “wine list”.  I mean…come on, you’re in Washington, D.C., and you can’t get one vintage from a local Virginia winery?  I mean…France, Italy, California (A token Australian wine)…lets throw some Chilean wine, South African wine…other vintages.  Anyways, we have the drink list, which is split up into sub-categories of “Matchbox Top 10″, “Manly Martinis” and “Girlie Martinis”.  I had a “Matchbox Punch”, which was in the Top 10 category.  It was ok…I am not a drinker, so for others, it may be the greatest thing on the planet.

Once the rest of our party arrives, we were seated, and given our menus.  People order appetizers, most ordering the sliders, which I have heard about over the years (The reviews always being positive).  I ordered the “tuna tartare”.  I wish I ordered the sliders.  One of my friend’s wives was courteous enough to share a slider with me, and I have to admit, the slider was really, really good.  Truly one of the best I have had.  Usually the mistake with sliders, is people make them too thin and they overcook, or too thick, and they come out like meatballs.  These were done with the perfect thickness and perfect doneness.  In fact, I don’t think they can be considered traditional sliders…I think they are considered more mini-hamburgers.  Either way, they came three to a plate, with a huge pile of excellently cooked onion straws…a perfect meal in its own right.  The problem with my tuna tartare…the tuna was fresh enough, and it had that nice taste of ginger and sesame, but unfortunately, it was missing salt.  No matter how good of a cook you are…no matter what fancy-pants ingredients you cook with (foie gras, truffles, saffron, etc.), the usage of salt and pepper are still one of the most important aspects of cooking, and unfortunately, salt was applied to the tuna.  If not tuna…a little bit of lemon juice would have helped.  Something to bump up the flavor.  Also…the tartare was served with potato chips, the potato chips being a tasty conveyance device for the tartare.  Unfortunately, the chips were so small, you really couldn’t spoon the tartare on the chips, with the tartare falling off the chip.  That dish needs to be re-worked.  My wife had the bacon-wrapped shrimp and grits.  My wife said it was a bit salty to her, but what I tasted, it wasn’t salty at all.  The grits were very creamy, the shrimp were cooked nicely, and the bacon was nice and crisp.  The chorizo butter was a nice touch to the dish. 

For entree’, I ordered a four cheese pizza, and I had bacon added to it.  It’s a sauceless pizza, described on the menu as having roasted garlic, and four cheeses (Ricotta, Buffalo Mozerella, Pecorino Toscano, and Pecorino Romano).  Others at the tabled ordered the Spicy Meatball, “Fire and Smoke”, and Chicken and Pesto pizzas.  Flavor-wise…all of the pizzas were pretty decent.  The chicken and pesto pizza that my friend ordered, was really, really good.  I actually make something like that at home (Only with shrimp, instead of chicken).  Very good.  The “Fire and Smoke” pizza…was a bit much for me, but that’s because I’m not a “sadist” like my friend/co-worker.  The spicy meatball, also very spicy, had a great deal of flavor, but suffered from too much sauce.  Lastly…my pizza.  Very tasty, but I think they could have used a different cheese blend.  Why two different kinds of pecorino?  I mean…it’s like having a burger, and then presenting it on the menu and saying “The Double Chedder Burger, featuring Sharp American Cheddar and Irish Cheddar”.  Yeah…I am sure there is a difference, but the difference is really, really small.  Ultimately, they are both cheddar cheese.  Why not have a ricotta, mozerella, pecorino, and fontina, for example?  The crust for these pizzas were yeasty and soft, but weren’t cooked long enough or weren’t stable enough to hold the ingredient-intensive pizzas.

Yummy Chocolate Lava Cake@Matchbox on 10/2/2009

At this point in the evening, I have had “Happy Birthday” sung to me three times, and it was about to be a fourth time, when a mini-chocolate lava birthday cake was secretly ordered by one of my friends/co-workers.  You get one of those complimentary cakes they give out to people at restaurants, and they are usually “after-thought” desserts, but this cake, actually was very, very good.  Moist, chocolately and delicious.  Despite that cake, I still wanted to order a dessert from the menu, and I ordered their “coffee and doughnuts”, which are cinnamon doughnuts served with a espresso kahlua creme.  The doughnuts, which are closer to a “fritter” or Italian zeppoli, came out hot, and were delicious.  Pour on the kahlua creme, and it was even better.

With all of the great pizza places in DC (2 Amy’s, Pizzeria Paradiso, etc.), you have to be exceptional to walk with the proverbial “big dogs”.  I am not sure if Matchbox is that kind of restaurant.  What is their identity?  Are they are a pub-kind of restaurant…catering to many different tastes?  Or are they a pizzeria, really involved in the art of pizza-making?  I think those kind of questions translates into the quality of their food.  Alicia and I after consultation, gave Matchbox a “6.5″.   

Regardless of the food, again, for me…it was the company that meant a great deal to me.  A few years ago, I was unemployed, struggling to find work, thus struggling to find myself.  It was a hard, dark time for me.  Now…I have a beautiful wife, I have had the opportunity to work for a great organization (The Office of the Clerk of the House), and now work for another great organization, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.  It was no question who I wanted to celebrate my 35th with, and I certainly wasn’t disappointed.  CHEERS!!!

On Oprah every year, she has that episode called “Oprah’s Favorite Things”…where she basically shills out corporate-sponsored swag, and then gives it out to the whole audience, basically saying that she loves the stuff.  Well…this is “Marc’s Favorite Things”, although the big difference is, I am not giving stuff out, but I really do love the stuff that I am recommending to my audience.

I thought about this blog entry yesterday while eating one of my favorite dishes, and I said to my wife, I just need to write a list of just my favorite things to eat.  Those dishes that I would crawl over broken glass to eat.  A few years ago, most of my dishes revolved around either soul food or Italian food, but over the years my tastes have evolves, and now they range from Vietnamese to Pakistani.  Some of my favorites things are staple dishes of a particular cuisine, and some of my favorite things are dishes from a particular restaurant.  Either way…THESE….ARE….MY….FAVORITE….THINGS!!!!  LET’S GO!!!

(In no particular order)

(1) Peking Duck (Especially from Mark’s Duck House-Falls Church, Virginia)-This is where I was last night, when I decided to come up with this list.  Crispy skin, and fatty, moist delicious meat.  Wrapped up in a tortilla/pancake-hybrid, with onion, and hoisin sauce…MY GOD!!!  If you don’t like this, something is seriously wrong with the sensory aspect of your body. http://www.marksduckhouse.com

(2) 2 Amy’s Neopolitan Pizza-Considered one of the best pizzerias on the East Coast…this place is all that it is cracked up to be.  Go there any day of the week, and it is packed.  Talking about it now, is making me very hungry.  It is the perfect blend of tomato, fresh mozzerella, and the best crust on Earth.  I usually get pancetta and proscuitto added to it, and I am taken to another place…”a happy place”.  http://www.2amyspizza.com

(3) Fried Chicken-Fried Chicken is a sentimental favorite thing.  These days when I eat it, I usually get it from Popeyes, and it is awesome.  But when someone cooks it at home, there are not many people who can do it right as far as I am concerned.  Only a few people in my 35 years did it right…my maternal grandmother, her neighbor, “Ms. Matty”, and my mother-in-law.  Don’t get me wrong, my paternal grandmother and my mother can make decent fried chicken.  But the first three women, made/make fried chicken that went far and beyond the call of what fried chicken is supposed to be.  Tasty, seasoned properly, crispy, not oily…and it reminds you of one’s childhood.  No website for that, you would either have to come to Culpeper, Virginia to visit my mother-in-law, or you were just unlucky to not have met my grandmother (I called her “Nanny”) and Ms. Matty.

(4) Sushi-I never thought in a million years I would like this stuff.  I was like many other folk, especially black folk, who said, “I don’t eat fish unless it is fried, died, and laid to the side.”  Well…my wife dared me to try, and I did, and I never looked back.  Whether it is something as simple as a Tuna Roll or Salmon, or something a bit more advanced like “uni” (Sea Urchin)…I like challenging myself with the textures and tastes of sushi.  Aside from the challenge of it all…it really tastes good, and it is good for you.  I can’t wait to go to Japan, to really try fresher, more exotic sushi (No blowfish though…I do have my limits).  I can’t get enough of sushi.

(5) Pho-It is medicine and food wrapped up into one.  The greatest bowl of soup ever made…beef broth, white onion, scallion, cilantro, rice noodles, “beef parts” (Tendon, Tripe, Meatballs, etc.), and then assorted condiments (Hoisin Sauce, Siracha, Lime Juice, Bean Sprouts, Peppers).  When I have a cold, I don’t take ThermaFlu or Tylenol Cold, I go to Pho 75 or Pho Bistro and order me a large, steaming bowl of pho, with everything in it.  By the time I finish the bowl, which I rarely do, because it is filling, I am usually much better.  The next day, I am on the road to recovery. Personally, I think pho can cure AIDS…LOL!!!

(6) “Soul Rolls”-You can only get these at Urban BBQ Co., which has two locations (Soon three) in Montgomery County, Maryland.  Very simple, very delicious…CRACK ADDICTING!!!  They take brisket, put it into an egg roll.  Along with carmelized onions and two different cheeses, they then wrap it up, and then deep fry it (Like an eggroll).  After taking it out, they split it in the middle, so you can see the “wonderful goodness” that is the Soul Roll, and then you can dip it into Urban BBQ’s “Redneck Fondue”, which is a Chili-Cheese Dip.  ENOUGH SAID!!!  http://www.urbanbbqco.com .

(7) Crab Alfredo-Back in the late-90’s, Phillips used to have a restaurant in Tysons Corner, that many people didn’t know about (It’s no longer there).  Out of all of the Phillips locations, it actually served the best food.  They served a dish, that since then, I have been making myself for years to the delight many everywhere.  It was tons and tons and tons of crabmeat, cream, parm, red and yellow peppers, herbs, and bow-tie pasta.  DE-LIC-IOUS!!!  It is rich, so you can’t have it everyday, but it is certainly one of my favorite dishes of all time.

(8) TIE-The T-Bone Burger at Rare Bar and Grill in NYC and the bacon-cheeseburger at Central Michel Richard in DC-Never in my life have I had such fantastic burgers in my life.  Granted…these burgers are what one would call “luxury” or “upscale” burgers…both of these burgers are over $20.00.  They are so good, I would pay $30.00 for them.  I am a burger fan in general, and have specific rules for how a burger should be done, and these guys follow these rules, and then break other rules to make the burger taste even better.  It is insane.
http://www.rarebarandgrill.com and http://www.centralmichelrichard.com

(9) Kettle Corn-Yes…kettle corn.  Catoctin Popcorn Company puts out a roadside stand on Route 15 in Loudoun County, Virginia, near the VA/MD line, where they put out fresh, quality kettle corn, in addition to other great products, such as peanut brittle, cinnamon-roasted pecans (My favorite), and apple cider.  I love this stuff.  Crack Cocaine without the rehab…LOL!!!  http://www.catoctinpopcorn.com/

(10) Steak-Aged, Preferably A Bone-In Ribeye.  Seared to perfection, medium-rare.  Done simply.  That’s all that needs to be said.

I have talked about before how I think African Americans do not step out of their culinary “comfort zones” when it comes to eating different kinds of cuisines, or even eating foods in different preparations or styles.  I think the trend is slowly changing, as the general population of America is also changing with regards to their views on food.  Still…I believe African Americans have a ways to go.  I hear comments like, “Ooooh, I won’t eat that!!!”…or “Nah Man…that’s alright“, or “If I don’t recognize it, I won’t eat it.”  Mind you…9 times out of 10, they have never tried any of the things that have been presented towards them. 

But what I have come to realize in my “Journey Through Food” is that the more food of different cultures/ethnicities I eat, really…the more that we are the same.  While at the same time, being amazed at the amount of different and wonderful flavors that these cultures bring.  If people would just open their minds and mouths, they would really be surprised and indeed happy.  For me…sushi has been one of those foods.  Three years ago, if you mentioned sushi to me, my reaction, like many others would be, “Nah Dude…the only fish I eat is grilled or fried.”  However, as a person who calls himself a chef and food enthusiast, I had to work through that fear.  I had to work through that ignorance.  My then fiance’, who loves sushi, challenged me to be more of a chef, and to try all things before rejecting it.  Back in 2007  I tried it, and loved it.  I love it so much, that I now eat sushi probably two to three times a week, and I eat everything from several kinds of tuna, clam, scallops, to more exotic fare such as sea urchin.  The place that I regularly eat sushi, “Hooked On Seafood” ( http://www.hookedonseafood.com ) in Sterling, Virginia, the sushi chef there calls me “Mr. Try“, because I try everything.  Whatever he put forth, I tried, and it was generally good (I didn’t like mackerel).

Lately, I have been stretching my boundaries a little bit more.  Eating things on the menu that I normally wouldn’t eat, and continuing to try different ethnic cuinsines.  Today, Alicia and I ventured to Sahara Lebanese Market and Cafe located also in Sterling, Virginia.  Based on the name of the restaurant, the cuisine is obviously Lebanese, and very much delicious.  They had a “Vegetarian Platter” of food that Alicia and I ordered which was one of the best things I ever eaten…yes, I said it, “vegetarian“.  Can you believe it?  I ate a vegetarian platter, and hell didn’t freeze.

I stepped out of my comfort zone and tried falafel for the first time, and was so glad that I did.  The outside texture was crisp, and the inside was “spicy, herby deliciousness”.  Definitely a great way to have your kids eat their beans.  The baba ghanouj (An eggplant dip) was my favorite.  Why this is not being served at every bar during football season is beyond me?  It’s smoky and tasty…I could eat that rather than buffalo wings and blue cheese (I can’t believe I just said that…but it’s true).  The veggie platter was so good, the next time Alicia and I go back, we will probably just order that and be perfectly happy.  That being said, the meat items were equally impressive and delicious.  Alicia and I ordered “sanjouk“, a sausage that was spiced with cumin, clove, cinnamon, among other spices, and served in a tomato sauce.  Pretty tasty, although it was a tad bit on the salty side.  We also ordered the Mixed Grill platter, which featured kebabs of chicken, beef, and kibdeh…a mixture of ground lamb and beef made into tube form, and then grilled.  The latter was awesome.  The chicken was outstanding, and although the beef was somewhat overcooked, it was great too.  Whatever spice mixture they used on the meat, they need to market it, and sell across the country.  All of these dishes served with endless amounts of pita-style bread, used for dipping and sopping.  When the waiter came and asked if we needed anything else, I told him I needed a “pillow“, because I was so full.  Alicia and I first heard about this place in the Washington Post Sunday Magazine, where Washington Post Food Critic regularly has a column on a restaurant in the DC Met Area that reviewed.  I read it today, and we went there for lunch…so glad we did.  Here is a link to the review in the Washington Post (It’s where the picture is from above):  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/23/AR2009092303728.html

Again BLACK PEOPLE, life is more than just fried chicken, biscuits, and collards (Although that is quite good).  We don’t need to put our noses up to food that is unfamiliar to us, because of ignorance or fear.  Just simply try it.  At best…you’ll love it, and expand your horizons.  At worst…just spit it out…LOL!!!  But seriously…take your palette for a ride, and enjoy the journey.

It has been awhile since I have wrote an entry. Between starting a new job, working my job, getting married, adjusting to married life, moving into a new apartment, etc., etc., I just haven’t dedicated the necessary time to blogging. My apologies to all three of my fans out there (((Laughing))). Now…I am back.

In my first blog entry since my “hiatus“…I am going to offer up a recipe. My cooking specialties are (1) African Diasporatic Cuisine, (2) Italian Cuisine, and (3) Mexican/Tex Mex Cuisine. I have alot of recipes in my repetoire, even a little Asian, but “Chili Con Carne”, also known as just plain “Chili” is not one of them. But according to the Democratic Staff of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, should be added to my repetoire.

For those who don’t read my blog often, I am a staffer with the committee, and when I am not blogging and cooking, I am an “Assistant Clerk” with the committee. In my last position with the Office of the Clerk, I used to cook stuff for my co-workers/friends all of the time…cakes, cornbread, ribs, curry chicken, quesadillas, etc., etc. When I joined Oversight and Government reform in April, 2009, my policy of supporting my co-workers…my team…through food wasn’t going to change. The only difference between my old job and my job with the committee, is the committee has alot more staff. So I had to think of a dish to make, that was relatively easy to make, relatively inexpensive, universally familiar, yet tasty and delicious. No “molecular gastronomy” here…just straight up, plain, stick to your ribs food. CHILI!!! Thing is…I think I have made it only one other time, and it was just for my wife and I. Well…I will just have to adapt.

My first foray into making mass quantities of chili con carne was early July, 2009. Fourth of July Recess was coming up, and this would provide a good opportunity to feed the staff. Now, in making my chili, like in everything I do…authenticity is a must. Chili is a dish with a history…with a context…and you want to “do the dish justice“. In studying how chili is “properly” or “preferably” made…chili started out in Texas, where beef was plentiful. The beef was cut into tiny cubes, and then slowly cooked for hours and hours…kind of like a stew. BEANS ARE NOT USED. Beans were introduced by Midwesterners and Easterners who put beans into chili, because they could not afford substantial amounts of beef, and needed something else to compensate. So although beans may be preferable to some, it is not necessarily “authentic“. So…alot of work goes into making this chili. I made the chili for the staff, and put it into a substantially large, plastic container. At least I thought it was large. After I sent out an e-mail to the staff, announcing that chili was made and brought in for their eating pleasure, the masses came, and they devoured the chili within 15 minutes. As a chef, there is no greater honor or pleasure than to have people eat your food, and devour it so quickly. However, there is a certain bit of insecurity that one gets too. You ask questions like, “Did they like it because it was free?” Who knows. But soon, I started getting e-mails back from staffers, raving about the chili. Staffers that didn’t know me before…that didn’t know my name, came by the office, to thank me for bringing in the chili, and thanking me for making them such a wonderful chili. It really helped “rest” the insecurities that I had. But now…I am a prisoner of my success. The staff wants more…they demand more. Must…make…more…chili.

Well…August Recess comes…a whole month where Members of Congress go back to their home districts, to raise money for their upcoming campaigns, engage in constituent relations, hold townhall meetings, etc., etc. For congressional staff, it is a great time on Capitol Hill. The atmosphere is relaxed, work hours are reduced, dress code is very relaxed, and for once…people can act like themselves. I am sure people in many offices had “pot lucks” and things of that nature, but for our office, the call immediately went out…”Marc…dude…when are you making more chili?”. I heard this from several staffers for several weeks. The weeks went on and on. Congress comes back from recess on Tuesday, September 8th, and we are coming up on the last week of August…I need to hurry up and satisfy the staff. Unlike last time, where I paid for the whole chili day myself, this time around, I needed “start-up capital“, so I solicited help from some of the staffers who enjoyed my chili, and went shopping immediately after work on Friday, August 28th to get the ingredients and start prep. That night, I made “from scratch” beef stock for the chili. I could have used boxed beef stock, but the OGR staff doesn’t deserve crap. Then over the weekend, I bought the rest of the products needed to create what is now called “OGR Chili“. I brought the chili in on Monday, August 31st. This time, I was prepared. 16 quarts of chili con carne was prepared. In addition, I also made pico de gallo con mais, an avocado dip, and Mexican-Style Cornbread Muffins (Other condiments included two kinds of cheeses and sour cream). The staff, again, was happy, satisfied, and full, which left this tired chef fulfilled and very happy. Nothing is too good for the OGR staff.

People have asked me for my recipe, and I kind of laugh, because I never make it the same way twice. There are certain things that I do everytime, but there are no measurements, and I may change things up a bit. Nevertheless, I will try to create a recipe that will be workable for the homecook, and for family portion size. OGR CHILI…YUMMY DELICIOUSNESS!!! Tonight, I will work on an actual recipe, and post it up either tonight or tomorrow. It will have directions to make the beef stock, the spice mixture, condiments, cutting up the beef, and the actual combination and cooking of the ingredients. Thanks for the support and praise.

The Spread

Alicia's Yummy Cheesecake

Three months went by, and it was time to plan another dinner event.  We had to come up with a culinary theme?  ASIAN!!!  Everybody wanted Asian, and I was certainly down for it.  In the last few months, I have been cooking and eating more Asian cuisine, and I have come to really, really love it and appreciate it for its flavor, yet simplicity.  Alicia is an Asian food “addict”, so this event really hit her “comfort zone”.  This time around, we expanded the event, and invited my father’s older sister, my Aunt Barbara, and invited my cousin, Stephanie, whose father was my Dad’s younger brother.  He passed in 1982.  Of course, Uncle Harry, Aunt Faye, Stacee and April, my parents, my sister, myself and Alicia.  We set out to create a menu.  We had an awesome menu, that brought in the flavors and cuisines from several nations including Korea, Vietnam, China, and Thailand.  Here is the menu and the people who made/cooked the items:

STARTERS:  Vietnamese Vegetarian Spring Rolls (Myself), Pork and Chive Dumplings (Alicia), and Asian-Style Meatballs (Stephanie…the meatballs weren’t photographed)

Vietnamese Veggie Spring Rolls and Pork and Chive Dumplings

SALADS & VEGETABLES:  Green Papaya Salad (April), Asian-Influenced Green Beans (Stacee), and Baby Bok Choy Noodle Salad (Aunt Faye)

Green Papaya Salad

Asian Green Beans

Baby Bok Choy Salad

SOUP:  Hot and Sour Soup (My mother….dish not photographed)

MAINS:  Red Curry Crawfish/Shrimp (Myself), Peking Duck (My father), Grilled Korean Bulgogi Skirt Steak (Myself), “Twice Cooked” Pork (My Aunt Barbara), Asian-Inspired Udon Noodle Dish (Stacee), and Lemongrass Chicken (Myself-Not Photographed)

Red Curry Crawfish/Shrimp

Peking Duck

Grilled Korean Bulgogi Skirt Steak

Twice Cooked Pork

Asian Inspired Udon Noodle Dish

 DESSERTS-Thank God for my cousin, April, because the rest of us did not keep with the Asian-theme when it came to desserts.  Although my family likes different cuisines, I don’t know if they are quite ready to part with their love of American and/or Western-European-influenced desserts.  I have admit, I am the same way.  As I stated, my cousin, April, was the exception.  She made Mango Sticky Rice, a dish we have seen on many Thai Restaurant menus, and speaking for myself, something that I have constantly passed over.  But…we are to try everything, so I did, and I am very glad I did.  This stuff was unbelieably good.  I wanted to try more and more and more and more of it, but I was too full from dinner.  It really was delicious, and I look forward to trying it the next time I venture to my favorite Thai restaurant.  Other than, my father made a bread pudding, but instead of using stale bread, he used stale cake…DAMN GOOD.  My wife to be, made a fantastic trifle using scratch-made strawberry cake, fresh strawberries, lemon curd, vanilla pudding, and whipped cream.  Just take a look below for the rest of the desserts:

April's Mango Sticky Rice....DAMN GOOD!!!

Strawberry Vanilla Trifle...one of my wife's signature desserts

 

Gene's Mango Bread Pudding

Krystal's Coconut Cake

Gene's Carrot Cake

Again, this is how my family rolls.  We have made ourselves, our stomach, and the souls of past family members proud.  This is legacy building in the making.  Enjoy and Good Day!!!

Being a “food enthusiast” is a beautiful thing.  Food is necessary for life, but the emotional impact it has makes it all the more better.  The ultimate and most natural of endorphin releases.  Today, I just had the ultimate endorphin release at Chaps Charcoal Restaurant in Baltimore, Maryland.

Outside of Baltimore, alot of people heard about this restaurant when it was featured on Food Network’s popular show “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives“.  Baltimore really must be a hidden gem when it comes to good places to eat, because five or six restaurants from Baltimore have been featured on “Triple D“.  Chaps is the first of those restaurants that I have been to, and if the other restaurants didn’t exist, that would be ok…CHAPS ROCKS!!!  When it was featured on “Triple D“, Alicia…my fiance’ and myself were watching the television drueling at the sight of grilled meat…beef, pork, turkey, it didn’t matter.  ALL OF IT LOOKED DAMN GOOD, and we had to have it.  Granted, life’s little moments get in the way, and we were not able to get up to Baltimore right away (From where I live in Northern Virginia, Chaps is 70 miles from my house, according to MapQuest).  That all changed today.

Once we go to where Chaps is located, it soon became apparent that Chaps is not in the most “savory” of neighborhoods.  Across from Chaps is an adult video store, and Chaps itself is located in front of a strip club…one of many along Pulaski Highway.  Along with the nasty motels, fast food chain restaurants, and liquor stores…again, not the most savory neighborhoods.  But you know…for whatever reason, it adds to the “charm” and “mystique” of the place.  We park behind the restaurant, and go in.  We see a large, autographed poster of Guy Fieri (Host of “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives“) hanging from the ceiling, in a rather “dive-ish” looking place.  A few seats…nothing special.  After taking in the atmosphere of the place, we take in the other atmosphere of the place…THE SMELL.  GRILLED FREAKIN’ MEAT, and I take a peak, and huge slabs of all kinds of meat are on this giant pit-grill apparatus.  It was beautiful.  Alicia and I looked at the menu, and made our orders.  Alicia ordered a regular pit beef sandwich, some cole slaw, and some water.  Myself…I got a pit beef-sausage combo sandwich, fries, and a sprite.  The cool thing about this place is that you can get your meat cooked however you want….Alicia got her’s medium, and myself…medium-rare.  Within five minutes our order was out.  We sat down and ate.  THE VERDICT….

After taking a few bites, Alicia and I looked at each other, as if to say, “Can you believe this sh*t!!!”  “Can you believe how utterly damn delicious this is?”  We just had confused looks on our faces.  These sandwiches were ignorantly delicious.  Alicia and I both considered ordering additional sandwiches to take home, but we decided that we would just visit again in a month’s time.  We want to make it a special trip.  Hell…Alicia and I are getting married next month, and I wouldn’t mind my first wedding meal to be at Chaps (Although I think Alicia would have an issue with that).

I noticed apartments across the street from Chaps, and I told Alicia, “I couldn’t live within 10 minutes of this place.  I would be here almost every week, and become fat and bloated.”  If you live near this place and haven’t been…shame on you.  If you have the opportunity to go there…GO!!!  This place is awesome.  Thanks Chaps for a good meal.

Chaps Pit Beef
5801 Pulaski Restaurant
Baltimore, Maryland 21205
http://www.chapspitbeef.com

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!!!