Starting off 2016 with a brunch fave!!

HAPPY 2016!!! Hubs and I kicked off the year with a date at our favorite brunch spot in Old Town Alexandria, Fontaine Caffee & Creperie.  We came across this local gem about five years ago when I moved back to the DC area, and it's our go-to place on weekend mornings when I'm too lazy to cook breakfast.

Norwegian Crepe. My fave!

Everything I've tried there has been excellent.  Though my favorite brunch dish would have to be the Norwegian Crepe, and that's what I got on our most recent visit.  I love the mix of smoked salmon, caramelized onions, creme fresh, balsamic glaze.  The side salad is perfectly dressed.  Plus, I feel like I am starting the year off right by having some veg with brunch.

 Hubs got the Smoked Salmon and Avocado Tartine (not pictured), which served over a slice of toasted brioche.  This special has rapidly become another favorite and has been ordered by one of us on our last few visits.  No lie, I stole a bite or two when possible.  Since it's on the "Specials" menu, there's no telling how long it will be around.  I hope that it will be made part of their regular menu in the near future.

All-in-all, brunch at Fontaine was a great way to start our year. And I'm sure that we'll be back there again.


Side notes:
- Towards the middle of the day, the wait can be a bit long - and Hubs and I often go soon after they open to avoid the long wait.
- I've also enjoyed this place for brunch with friends, but they do have a 3 card limit on the check. Also, you can reserve a table, but know that you won't be seated until all members of your party have arrived.

Finally got to Toki Underground

I’ll admit I’m getting on the ramen bandwagon a bit late.  I first heard about Toki Underground from a coworker who raved about the food.  Because of that, I knew it was a place to try because she’s a bigger foodie than I am.  I think a couple of reasons why we haven’t gone until recently is it’s Northeast, an area Hubs and I don’t frequent, and there’s often a long wait.  I’m more apt to go to a place in DC if I can get a reservation and luckily, there is a small window Toki Underground has for reservations, which hubs and I were able to get the night before. 

My first thoughts about the place is it’s has really neat décor and it’s a bit cramped. We were seated at a bar next to the window and were practically (if not literally) touching elbows with our fellow diners.  While both Yelp and Washingtonian rated Toki Underground as moderately priced, Hubs and I spent quite a bit since we got drinks, appetizers, ramen, and dessert.  

Drink and appetizers  I enjoy whiskey cocktails, though I should be more specific and say that I enjoy bourbon cocktails.  But, I’m a bit pickier about drinks with Scotch whiskey because I’m not too keen on peaty flavors.  I ordered the Toki Monster, not realizing that there was Scotch in the drink.  However, the little bit of pork belly that came with the cocktail was the perfect compliment to the smoke given by the Scotch.  This would definitely be a drink I’d go back to.

Hubs and I were pretty hungry and ended up getting two sets of appetizers, the pork dumplings (fried) and the fried chicken steam buns, both of which were delicious! I would go back to Toki Underground just for these appetizers.

Toki Monster

Pork Dumplings

Chicken Steam Buns

Toki Classic Ramen

Ramen  Of course we couldn’t have done to Toki Underground with out having some of Ramen.  I ordered the Toki Classic and Hubs got the Red Miso.  He also got a little Endorphine sauce on the side.  Both had a lvery meaty and flavorful broth.  The Red Miso broth had an added miso flavor, but was similar to the Classic broth.  The Endorphine sauce was a great add on, and wasn’t too spicy for me (I’m a spice wuss). Hubs also ate up all the baby kale that was in the soup, which is a rarity since kale is typically a veggie Hubs avoids.  

Chocolate Chip Cookies, Milk, and a hint of Miso Butter

Dessert  Who doesn’t like fresh baked-to-order chocolate chip cookies? While I was probably too full to, we went ahead and got some. I think fresh out of the oven is when they’re the best, and the neat surprise was the miso butter that came with them. The miso butter gave the cookies a hint of salty nuttiness that complemented the sweet chocolaty cookies.

All in all, it was a great meal and would be worth coming back (and maybe even wait in line for if we forget to make a reservation). It also started a desire to find a place that serves up a good ramen that is closer to home.

So....Let the search begin!

Southern Comfort on a Rainy Day

A few weeks back, my mom-in-law came up to the DC area for the Smithsonian Folklife Festival.  While she, hubs, and I were excited for the festival, we weren't excited about the cold rain that hit the DC area on that Saturday.  Since the weather dampened our plans, we decided to go to the Mosaic District for a showing of Inside Out and a late brunch at Gypsy Soul.

This wasn't the first time Hubs visited Chef R.J. Coopers restaurant.  We visited earlier in the spring after our friends, the Taylors, recommended it. We liked it so much that we immediately put it on our list of "go-to" places, that is when we aren't trying new-to-us restaurants.

Unlike the brunch with the my college roommates, I didn't take pictures of everyone's dish.  But, everything was so good that we were all part of the clean plate club. ;-)

Starters: Deviled Eggs
Who doesn't like deviled eggs? Well, in truth I do know someone who doesn't - but I always remind him that he's missing out. Hubs and I had these the first time we came by and we enjoyed them so much that we had to get them again.  And of course they were delicious.

Chicken Liver and Waffles No lie, when I think Southern breakfast, chicken and waffles is one of the items that come to mind.  But liver?  It piqued my culinary curiosity.  I happen to like liver. Especially a well prepared liver dish. And this one met exceeded that expectation. The meat was tasty and didn’t have the mineral-flavor and grittiness that can be associated with offal.  The breading was light and crispy, but didn’t feel oily.  The waffles were soft and not too sweet.  And the mushroom and gravy that topped the dish gave it an extra meaty flavor. Another CPC-experience indeed!  And I was more than sufficiently stuffed.

Overall, this brunch experience was a nice diversion from the rain that happened outside. And writing about it today makes me want to head back to have some more of Gypsy Soul’s southern breakfast.  Will we go again? Of course!  This Mosic District restaurant is great for any time of day.

Below are some pictures of dishes that Hubs and I got from the first time we visited Gypsy Soul this past spring.

Tuna Tartar

Fried Chicken 

Broiled Whole fish over potatoes

Brunch with the girls at Barrel & Bushel

Mrs. K, Dr. Black, ADP, and me

I love these ladies! We lived together at VT during the early part of my Ph.D. years and had all sorts of shenanigans - Weekly Food Network inspired dinners, TRPH, Man Wall, Big Foot Tests. Admittedly, we don't get together as much as we like. But our last meet up we went to some fabulous breakfast over at Barrel & Bushel at Tyson's.

After pursing the breakfast menu, we were at a loss of what to get... everything on the menu sounded delicious. But after a few recommendations from our server, here's what we got.

Crusty Bread and Ricotta (Me) Under the mound of figs was a creamy fresh ricotta. Paired with some season grilled bread, this dish was nice and light. Simplicity at its best.

Avocado Toast (Dr. Black) I stole a bit of this one. It's very tasty and makes me want to improve on the egg and avocado breakfast that I sometimes make for myself. 

Grilled Cheese Eggs Benedict (Mrs. K) This looked tasty, and the description by the Washingtonian makes me wish I got it too.

Sabra Pastrami Hash (ADP) ADP recounted a time that she made up breakfast with pastrami, because .... why not? She and Chef Dan definitely have similar thoughts because pastrami was on the menu for this hash. 

Bourbon French Toast (all) The name of this dish hides the fact that this is basically a pan fried Nutella sandwich with a side of butter and syrup. And it's DELICIOUS!! We split it and it make for the perfect "dessert" to our awesome breakfast. 

While we were dining, we noticed that there was an event being set up in the court yard outside of the B&B. Little did we know that the same day we decided to have brunch, we'd also be able to participate in a in a burger challenge. We didn't have enough stomach space to fully participate, but the burgers that we did get to try were flavorful and made it really hard to pick a "favorite."

Would I go again? Hands down yes! The cuisine is the local Americana food hubs and I often have at our "go-to" places. Plus, they have a lunch & dinner menu and an entire refrigerated wall full of libations to try. I have a feeling that I'll be back soon. 

Peruvian + Asian deliciousness

For our 4th wedding anniversary, Hubs and I went to China Chilcano, José Andrés's most recent addition to Penn Quarter.  Like many of Andrés's other restaurants in the area, items on the menu were mostly small plates.  Never having Peruvian dishes before, much less the Asian-influenced Peruvian dishes inspired by Chinese and Japanese immigrants to Peru, Hubs and I decided that we would rely on our server's recommendations for our meal.  

Decision #1: Drinks? 

Five-spice Old Fashioned

Pisco Sour

There was a bunch of different drinks to try that I wasn't sure where to start, so I went with the Pisco Sour - a Clásico de Perú.  This surprised Hubs since I normally get a bourbon based drink.  However, I wanted to try the Peruvian Pisco and having it in a cocktail that was a bit tart also really appealed to me. It was light and refreshing, and not too tart. Hubs went with the bourbon option instead with the Five-Spice Old Fashioned - here Chinese Five Spice worked well against the bourbon and citrus notes. 

Decision #2 - Small plates (round #1)Per our servers recommendation, we got the Yuca fritters (even though Hubs wasn't really too keen on the wood ear mushrooms). And because I love dumplings, we also go the "Lucky" - a sampling of the siu mai flavors listed on the menu. The Yuca fritters were excellent and what sent them over the top was the spiced brown sugar glaze that is poured table side on top of them. The dumplings were excellent. My favorite were Dorado because of the creaminess the quail egg gave to the dumpling. The Pollo was the one hubs liked the most, though the Concha was a very close second for both of us. 

Pollo, Concha, and Dorado Siu Mai

Yuca Fritters

Decision #2 - Another small plate, an entree and a little street food (round #3)

Ceviche Nikkei

Lomo Saltado

For the next course, I wanted to get a ceviche since I love the flavor of fish and citrus.  Hubs is a bit more apprehensive about these because he often feels like the citrus/lime flavor overpowers any other flavor present in a ceviche. In the Nikkei, I really didn't get a huge citrus flavor. I felt like it was more like a poke (fish salad) rather than a ceviche. But, the flavors were worked really well together and the saltiness of the soy sauce was balanced with the avocado and citrus flavors. The only entree we ordered was the Lomo Saltado, which we shared. The steak was cooked perfectly - nice and tender - and the peppers and shoestring fries provided an excellent textural complement to the steak. We also ordered chicken on a stick and duck tongue on a stick (not pictured). I loved the little roasted potatoes that came with each "meat on a stick" and were covered in a nice paprika sauce.

Spiral cookie, chocolate cream, and molasses-like ice cream

Decision #3 - Dessert? 

Even though Hubs and I split each item we ordered, we both were starting to get pretty full and I have an obnoxious sweet tooth. We decided to split dessert and went with the Ponderaciones de Kiwicha. It had such a cute presentation! 

In addition to dessert, we got a chilcano, a pisco based drink that reminded me of a lighter margarita, and decided to be a little bit more adventurous by getting the piscos that had been mixed with another flavor. I got the cinnamon and star anise one, and Hubs got a spicy pepper one. The drinks themselves were refreshing - the spicy pepper one had a slow to build kick of spice - but I'll admit that I wish I would have gone for the traditional chilcano as I thought the anise over powered any other flavor in my drink. 

At the end of it all, we were presented with a glass of bubbly to celebrate our 4th wedding anniversary. Hubs was happy surprised and a we bit confused - until I told him I let the restaurant know about when I made the reservation.

Overall, we had an excellent meal at China Chilcano and I can definitely see us going there in the future with friends or family. 

Post graduation celebration at the Wine House

Graduation selfie with my buddy Jon
(photo credit Jonathan Manuel)

Yay! I'm finally done with graduate school round 2! I've been working on my Masters in Public Policy from George Mason University for the past couple of years and as much as I like learning new things, it feels so great to be done with school.

Since I was told that the commencement ceremony could possibly run over two hours, I didn't really make plans to go out for a celebratory dinner since we would not have eaten until after 9:30pm - and that would have assumed we would have left right after the ceremony.

After pictures with family and giving celebratory hugs to some of my fellow graduates, Hubs and I went over to one of our favorite places in Fairfax, the Wine House.

Hubs and I came across this place through a LivingSocial deal  in 2011. It's a cute little wine shop and restaurant with a really knowledgeable staff. Because we enjoy the food and wine so much, it's become one of our go to places.

I don't know if it was a good or bad that my graduate program was run from GMU's Arlington campus. Had it been at the Fairfax campus, I might have spent my pre-class time at the Wine House.

Normally, I would go through what we ate by the course, but Hubs my phone battery was running really low and I didn't have the chance to take pictures. :-(

The food at the Wine House is absolutely delicious! I can sincerely say that we haven't had a bad meal there the times that we went. The food is always has great flavors and comes in filling portions. For my post-graduation dinner, I had the rack of lamb. Hubs is not a huge fan of lamb, but he said it probably was the best lamb dish he's ever had.

The last time Hubs and I went to the Wine House, it was in February for their Valentine's dinner. It was a three course dinner, where we got to pick from a selection for each course and opted for the wine paring as well.

Dinner started with a cute little amuse bouche of Gravlox salmon with a little mustard sauce. Since we both loved oysters, hubs and I each got a the panko breaded fried oysters. We both were surprised by the size of the appetizer; there were so many oysters on each plate, I was afraid that I would get full from that alone. For our main course, I got the veal shank, which was HUGE! I didn't have enough stomach space for all of it, but the leftovers made for the best lunch the following day. For desert, I had the chocolate cardinal, a rich and creamy mousse on top of a chocolate cake and raspberries with a side of fresh whipped cream.

Fried oysters with a mango sauce
and celery root and carrot salad

Gravlox appetizer

Veal Shank

Chocolate Cardinal

Catoctin Creek Distillery Dinner at Trummer's on Main

Catoctin Creek Tasting Photo Credit - Rebecca Goodman

Last fall, my friend Becca organized a VA beer and whisky tasting trip. The highlight of the trip was visiting the Catoctin Creek Distillery in Purcellville for a tasting and tour. I had such a fantastic time, that I signed up for their email news letters to stay up to date on their events and news. Unfortunately, Hubs was out of town for business, so he wasn't able to join us for the trip.

One of the awesome things Catoctin Creek does is pair with local restaurants to have a tasting dinner that feature its gins, whiskeys, and brandies. Hubs surprised me with one of these dinners that was at Trummer's on Main early in March. Since these are prix fixe meal, I didn't have to worry about making decision, just enjoying the meal.


Round 1: Appetizer Blue crab salad roulade and Cucumber Gin Cocktail.

Gin is not one of my go to hard liquors, however this drink I really enjoyed! The cucumber and Granny Smith apple balanced well with the juniper flavors of the gin. And the appetizer itself was fun. But then again I love blue crab. And the use of the gin in the appetizer tied the pairing very well.



Round 2: Entree #1 Pork belly and Smoked Manhattan

If you like smokey flavor, this course would have more than satisfied your smokey desires. The smoke flavor was pervasive in the Manhattan, to the point it was almost too smokey. However, when you paired it with the pork belly - which just melted in your mouth - you felt like you were eating some of the fanciest pork barbecue ever.





Round #3: Entree #2 VA Black Angus beef and bone marrow

So this course was fun because after you finished the marrow, you had to use to bone as a luge to take in your whiskey. And the Roundstone Rey 92 had a great warming quality. The fun thing to note about this experience is that you don't have to attend a tasting dinner to experience a whiskey luge, Trummer's has it on the menu.

(Video of me doing the whiskey luge at that bottom... the video is a bit dark)

Round #4: Dessert Smoked chocolate puffed pastry and cream.

In case we didn't get enough smoke from the second course, there was some more smoke in the dessert. There was smoke in the cream inside of the puff pastry and the cherries that garnished the plate. Delicious! This was paired with the Catoctin Creek 1757 Brandy, which went really well together.


All in all, it was a great dinner and a fun way to learn more about the Cactoctin Creek liquors from the owners themselves!

Hubs and I had a lovely dinner, but we weren't quite ready to leave. So we stayed for an additional round at the bar. I got this awesome chocolate espresso cocktail.

We'll definitely have to go back to Trummer's on Main for a non-event meal. The food was fabulous for this evet and I'm sure their regular fare will not disappoint.