DC Trip Eats - Part 1

Hank's Oyster Bar

Kim and I made a whirlwind trip to our nation's capital to meet up with Julia, who will, after all my years of begging and coaxing, be a east coaster at last (muahaha).  What did you expect when Kim and I are allowed too much free time to ourselves?  Eat and drink, of course.

Our first stop as soon as we dropped of our bags was to hit up Hank's Oyster Bar, recommended by my coworker.  It was delicious, but sadly, it was also the best meal we would have (because we were lame and canceled our reservations at Komi and Cork due to poor planning, lame).

Mah fav - bread with butter and jam

Kim and I are essentially the same person when it comes to food taste.  After a cursory glance at the menu, we both blurted out that the oyster po' boy and shrimp and grits were on our consideration list.  Problem solved!  We will get the two and share!  Wheee!  I love eating with me.

Forgot to mention, they gave us gold fish crackers when we sat down and then the bread basket above after we ordered.  I love a restaurant that tries to stuff you silly before your meal arrives.

The oyster po' boy was delicious.  The oysters were so perfectly fried - crunchy without being too bready.  The oysters themselves were so fresh.  Plump, ocean-y, lightly briny, and um, plump.  It was not heavily seasoned, but oysters that fresh don't need to be.  The huge oysters were nestled in a lightly toasted potato roll.  Why don't people use potato rolls more?  Sweet and so soft (the untoasted parts), they offer an amazing contrast to the crunchy oysters.  There were some arugula in the sandwich to provide a freshness.   The sandwich came with a slaw that I sadly have little recollection of.  It was good, I'm sure.

Oyster po' boy

The shrimp and grits were good as well, though the oyster po' boy was definitely the star.  The grits taste freshly grounded.  I heart grits.  I can always always eat grits.  I think it's because it reminds me of my childhood comfort food, congee, but with cheese.  (note to self, try congee with cheese).  The shrimp were nicely sauteed with spinach.  Again, very fresh and plump.  I like.

Shrimp and grits

At the end of the meal, they gave us chunks of dark chocolate.  For brunch!  That is awesome.  I need more free dark chocolate chunks in my life.  

Bone Lick Park

bone lick park, originally uploaded by chrispy!.

I love a deliciously boozy brunch. I blogged about my love affair with boozy brunches long ago. I guess I have not out grown them. Eh, oh well.

I was lured to Bone Lick Park by the promises of bottomless bloodies, mimosas, and margaritas. Our drink orders were taken as soon as our behinds hit the chairs. So far, so good.

I got the pulled pork sandwich with scrambled eggs and potato au gratin.  It was...  sad.  The potatos were COLD!  I really hate it when food comes out cold.  Argh!  The pulled pork was pork chunks rather than the chopped NC style.  It also had a sticky sweet ketchup based bbq sauce rather than the vinegar based one that I love.  I was... sad.  

My sad cold potatos

But the drinks kept coming.  The waitress did not let our table go dry.  I like it.  It's kind of hard to screw up mimosas since OJ can cover all multitude of sins.  The bloody mary was fine too, not the best, but good for being kind of free.  We even got to sit around with fresh drinks while our check was being processed. 

Mimosas!

I don't know if I will be going back there again because there are other AYCD brunches to be explored.  But I know where to go if I just want to drown myself in mimosas.  Mmmm... mimosas...  

Elizabeth's Restaurant - New Orleans

I planned the entire New Orleans trip around food.  Sightseeing occured if we happened by something from restaurant A to restaurant B.  Sticking to our rigid eating schedule, J-me and I hiked our expanding rears to Elizabeth's Restaurant for Saturday brunch.

Elizabeth's Restaurant

The restaurant was cute, kind of a kitchy diner.  It was packed and had a bunch of people waiting outside.  Our wait wasn't bad, but could have been better if we had known about the bar upstairs.

We started with drunken bananas and their famous praline bacon.  I'll spare you the drunken banana pix, because, if you don't know already, brownish bananas still in one piece are not the most photogenic food.  They were good, nice and rum-y.  But slightly too sweet for me to eat too many.  I also wanted more caramelization and crispiness.

The praline bacons were crispy bacons sprinkled with sweet sweet pralines.  They were yummy and taste exactly like how they sound.  Bacons with pralines.  Yeah, salty + sweet = happy

Praline Bacons

J-me had the Red Neck Eggs (fried green tomatos, poached eggs, hollandaise.  Served with grits).  I had the Cajun Bubble and Squeak (country bacon, cabbage, and shrimp.  with poached eggs and hollandaise.  Grits, of course).  I loved my dish and J-me loved his.  So I guess it was a double win.  The fried green tomatos were fried perfectly.  The tomatos had a nice snap and tartness that acted as a nice balance to the hollandaise.  One of his eggs was overcooked, boo.  

Red Neck Eggs

I love stir fried cabbage, so my dish was perfect for me.  The country bacon lent a smokiness to the shrimp and cabbage.  My eggs were perfectly runny and added a heartiness to the dish.  I didn't think the hollandaise was necessary, but whatever.  Not going to complain about extra butter and cream.

Bubble and Squeek

The grits were sooo good.  It had a great consistency, not overcooked.  Tasted very fresh, if grits can taste fresh.  I appreciated the light hand with the cheese.  As much as I eat cheese by the ton, some food shouldn't be obscured by cheese, it's a very strong flavor, you know.  Yeah, you do.  I know you do.

We also had a bunch of bloodies and a drink that's creamy.  Can't remember what it was, so here's a pic.

Mystery Drink

I so wanted to go to Elizabeth's for lunch or dinner.  Too little meal times and stomach space!  Sad...

Cafe du Monde

I visited New Orleans a few weeks ago, lured by the promise of food, drinks, and more food.  As soon as all the lodging logistics were taken cared of, J-me and I made a beeline for Café du Monde, in search of fried dough buried in sugar.

Beignets!

Greed overtook rationality again as we ordered 2 orders of beignets and café au laits.  New Orleans is famous for its café au lait spiked with chicory.  It was good and hit the spot, but I prefer an Italian café au lait more.

Mountain of beignets and cafe au lait

But the beignets, oh man, the beignets.  They were hot, crispy on the outside, light and fluffy on the inside.  The mound of snowy sugar they are buried under seemed daunting at first, but really wasn’t super sweet, just super messy – getting all over my hair, clothes, wherever the wind blew.  No matter, just eat faster. 

Hot fried stuff is the best, especially those fried so well that they trick you into thinking you’re not ingesting any oil.  They look so innocent!  And light!  And not greasy!  Until you almost finish all three donut sized beignets and kind of want to die.

 

Num Pang - Cambodian Sandwich

I’ve been tracking the opening of Num Pang for, oh I don’t know, a few months now.  I’ve been craving banh mi sandwiches and was praying every night to the sandwich gods (and they do exist, you know.  They live next to the beignet gods) that a shop would open near me.  My prayers were answered.  The gods bestowed a shiny new shop a block from work, but they did make me wait impatiently for YEARS, or months, whatever.  Cambodian sandwiches not banh mis exactly, cuz Cambodian isn’t Vietnamese.  But whatever, they are pretty close, so I was happy

I got my sandwich a day after they opened during an off-ish hour.  I’m crazy about these sandwiches, but not wait-in-line-for-45-min crazy.  My friend got my first choice, the pork, so I got the veal meatball.  MUST OVERWHELM MY TASTE BUDS WITH AS MANY FLAVORS AS POSSIBLE – the number 1 rule in my play book.

The sandwich looked puny in the paper coffin it came in.   I was already planning dinner #2 when I carried my prize home, thinking, it better be damn good for being 50% more costly than a banh mi with 50% less girth.

My first reaction when biting into my sandwich was whoa, this bread (from Parisi Bakery) is damn good.  Dare I say, better than most banh mi bread I’ve tasted.  It was perfectly toasted with crunchy shell and soft insides and held up the stuffing pretty well. 

The hoison meatballs with tomato sauce were pretty good and tender, but I could have used less sauce.  I loved loved loved the chili mayo.  It didn’t apologize for being spicy.  My favorite part of the sandwich was all the pickled veggies.  Num Pang didn’t skimp and they cut thru the heaviness of the meatballs.

I’m already planning my next sandwich order.