From goat cheese cheesecake to salty plums

It's been a while.. business kept me busy, and led me to a trip to Washington D.C., which resulted in me eating my way through the various amazing places there are in that city..

First, DC is a great place for seafood, especially compared to Nashville.. (go figure)I encountered a seafood place that is seriously worth mentioning - very pricy, but a real experience:
DC Coast, with a menu ranging from 'caramelized porcini gnocchi' to 'crab boudin', all very eclectic and creative, but in a very good way. I decided on a tuna dinner, starting with a Tuna tartare, à la ceviche, with lime, cilantro, red onion, and coconut milk, and lightly spicy, an extremely delicious combination that was served in half a coconut on ice. My entrée was 'seared yellowfin tuna', with strips of apple, and a sauce made from foie gras, and one from sweet onions. I'm not sure I tasted foie gras in there, and it therefore had a pretentious touch to it, but the sauces were very tasty and both supported and contrasted the tuna taste really well, very enjoyable dish. As a dessert I chose the 'Chevre cheese cake', made from goat cheese from a local farm, on a pecan cookie crust and sprinkled with caramelized pineapple and kiwi pieces... outstanding.. :)

In the days following this dinner, I mostly pursued my interest in chinese or generally asian food. Right at the entrance to china town, behind the big gate, is Tony Cheng's restaurant; on the first floor, mongolian cuisine, on the second floor, chinese and: Dim Sum. Living in Nashville, I am deprived of the better chinese food, as you will hear from all chinese living here.. one of the few praised exceptions is Golden Coast (on West End Ave) serving Dim Sum on the weekend - knowing that, I had to try the supposedly even more real deal in DC.
Check out Tony Cheng's Dim Sum menu for yourself - it sounds already really good, and is actually very affordable when you share with someone. My choices were a little limited to the carts that came by in the first 20 minutes of me being there - both me and my colleague really were hungry and could not wait for more offers.. so we had spare ribs in black bean sauce, some noodle dish with shrimp and peas in it, roasted duck, and fried sesame balls; I liked it very much, and every time I am astonished how much asian food I can eat and still not feel as stuffed as I feel with most other food styles.

Another chinese restaurant that was really worth going back to was close to Dupont Circle, City lights of China. The best one can do in my experience, is go to a chinese restaurant with chinese friends and colleagues, and let them order a whole bunch of food. With this approach, we ended up eating steamed bass, cantonese style, with ginger and scallions, steamed spinach, ma po tofu, and fried shrimps in their shells. This was a dinner for four, we only almost finished everything, and walked home very happy in the freezing cold night :)

Last on my asian dinner experiences is a little vietnamese place that might not look like much - but the vietnamese wife of my friend was there once, desperately wanted to go back and she sure was right. The place is Pho An in the White Oak shopping center in Silver Spring, at the end of the red metro line. We had garden rolls (with white rice, shrimp, spring onion, rolled into rice paper) for starters, dipped into a peanut sauce that we made spicy by adding pepper paste. Then we ate a big bowl of 'Pho', a noodle soup, in this case with beef slices, that are still red and cooking when it comes to the table, in a broth that has a very complex flavor, and apparently is based on secret recipes that no restaurant shares with anyone. To add into the soup, there is a big plate full with bean sprouts, limes, cilantro, jalapeno pepper slices, and leafy green vegetables that I did not recognize. Who cares, throw it all in, be happy, such a beautiful rich dish to eat at an icy cold winter night.

What was really interesting to me were the drinks - I tried 'salty plum', which appears to be water with salt and sugar and whole and fuzzy pieces of dried plum. Stir it all up, and it looks very ... strange (as you might be able to see on the right). It tastes very strange as well, slightly sour, a little sweet, for my normal taste way too salty, but somehow it is good and refreshing and I kept thinking about what this taste is about and why I cannot tell whether I really like or dislike it.. odd. But.. good. Somehow. :D

Aside from the asian adventures (I had more than the ones I mentioned here): at the First Cup Cafe, right at the convention center, you can sit down in a big armchair, grab one of the books off the window seals, or look at the photograph exhibition they have hanging up, and enjoy the best Avocado-Eggplant sandwich I have ever eaten or imagined.
I went back there and had it a second time. Amazing. Go get it!