With Mother's Day just around the corner, I found myself wondering how to honor the holiday in the course of a post about cheese.  Try it for yourself - not so easy, is it?  I thought about finding a recipe for something to make for Mom that features cheese prominently, but nothing really jumped out.  I considered reviewing a restaurant where you could spoil Mom and enjoy a good cheese plate, but I wasn't in love with the idea.  And I toyed with another post recommending cheese-related gifts, but I suspected that would have limited appeal in this case.

Fortunately, fate intervened in the form of a new vendor at the Dupont Circle Farmers' Market - Clear Spring Creamery.  As seen at the Market on Sundays, Clear Spring is a true family business - the whole Seibert clan, including two children and assorted relatives, shows up to sell their milk, yogurt and cheese.  And Clare Seibert, who owns and operates Clear Spring with her husband, Mark, handles all of the day-to-day operations of the Creamery in the time between getting her children off to school and greeting them when they come home.  What better way to celebrate Mother's Day than to talk about the great things that Clare Seibert is making at Clear Spring - including her newest offering, Clare's Camembert?

The Seiberts' farm has been in the family for more than 100 years, but Mark and Clare have only been in the dairy business for about a year and a half.  At that point, they transitioned from a farm that raised replacement heifers for sale to others to a true dairy.  Their herd consists of Jerseys and Jersey-Holstein crossed heifers, and the milk is primarily from the Jerseys.  Because the cows are pasture-fed on a strict rotational grazing system, they get plenty of fresh grasses in their diet and their milk has a high butterfat content - more than 5%.  This makes for a rich, smooth milk that holds up well to pasteurization (they don't sell any unpasteurized milk, for those who might be looking for it).

All week long, Clare gets the children out the door and on their way to school, then she heads to their retrofitted creamery where she processes a portion of the milk from their herd five days a week.  They use small-scale machinery manufactured locally, allowing them to work on a manageable volume of milk for their purposes.  What isn't processed on site is sold to a co-op, and what they keep on site is made into pasteurized milk, chocolate milk, yogurt and cheese.  The processing is frequently an all-day affair; for example, yogurt is started in the morning, allowed to cool throughout the day and then bottled in the evening. 

In most cases, the process has some down-time built into it, which is when Clare manages to take care of household chores and necessary errands.  But the processing takes up a significant portion of her day and her output is limited by the time it takes to make each type of product.   This also impacts the variety of products Clear Spring Creamery can offer - Clare is considering adding one or more fresh cheeses to their product list and fans still ask about the mocha milk that has been available on a few occasions, but the time required for each forces her to think carefully about what products she will make in a given week.

The newest addition to the Clear Spring lineup is a soft-ripened cheese appropriately named Clare's Camembert.  Before they started making cheese, Clare and Mark made it a point to visit as many of the cheesemakers in the nearby area as they could find, learning what they could about the process.  That research has been put to good use - their first effort at cheese making is delicious and it has been selling out for the past two weeks.

Despite the name, Clare's Camembert is most reminiscent of a young double-cream brie - it lacks the earthy, bloomy flavor that I always associate with camembert, but it has a silken, salty taste that is absolutely wonderful.  Even at room temperature, the cheese holds its texture fairly well, providing a spreadable but not liquefied cheese that cries out for crusty bread, apple slices, crackers - anything with a little bit of a crunch.  The rind is thin and unobtrusive, without any of the chalkiness or bitterness that turns people off.

Because of their limited production capabilities, Clear Spring Creamery only produces a few rounds of Clare's Camembert at a time.  They sell out quickly, so try to stop by before noon to increase your chances of getting one.  The rounds were originally priced at $13 each, though they are now sold by weight for $13/pound.  Most of the individually wrapped cheeses weigh in right around a pound each.

Clear Spring Creamery's milk, cheese and yogurt are rich and full-flavored thanks to Clare Seibert's commitment to small-scale production methods and the quality of their grass-fed cows' milk.  Check them out next time you're at the Dupont Circle Farmers' Market, and wish Clare a Happy Mother's Day while you're there.

Most of the local cheesemakers who sell their products at farmers' markets throughout the DC area consciously focus on one or two specialties (small-batch goat cheese, mozzarella from Jersey cow's milk, etc.), allowing them to fill small niches in the average shopper's basket.  Keswick Creamery*, on the other hand, seems to aspire to be all things to all shoppers.  The funny thing is, they seem to succeed. 

Despite its relative youth (Keswick was founded in 2001), the creamery has continued to expand its line of cheeses to include something for just about everyone.  Looking for a semi-firm cheese studded with an assortment of hot peppers?  Try the Dragon's Breath.  Looking for a blue cheese with a sense of humor?  Step up to the Blue Suede Moo.  Looking for a dry, aged cheddar?  The Carrock is likely to please.  Looking for a moist yet crumbly feta cheese that blows the store-bought varieties away?  Not only does Keswick have it, they also have it flavored with tomato & basil, Italian herbs, and herbs de Provence!

No trip to the Dupont Circle FreshFarm Market is complete without a stop at Keswick Creamery's stand.  They are generous with their samples, allowing customers to try everything from quark (a yogurt-like spread that is hugely popular in Germany) and fresh yogurt to blue cheese dressing, marinated feta and most of their cheese offerings.  And they are competitive with their pricing - not just within the market, but compared to larger producers, as well.  That's nothing to sneeze at, as most folks who frequent the markets do so knowing that they will be paying a small premium for the fresh, local goods they can find there.  But Keswick's cheeses can hold their own against many of the national brands in terms of value almost as well as they do in terms of quality.

On my most recent visit, I picked up Keswick Creamery's Feta Sampler.  Talk about value!  For $5, I received samples of three different flavors of their feta cheese - original, tomato & basil, and Italian herbs.  Each cheese came vacuum-sealed in its own package, allowing me to use them as I chose instead of forcing me to use them all at once.  The cheese crumbles easily, but it is moist and tastes fresh and tangy.  This is a far cry from the pre-packaged, pre-crumbled feta on offer in grocery stores, and I definitely appreciated the absence of that chalky residue that seems to accompany most of them.

To further compare Keswick's feta with its mass-produced counterpart, I reached for some of the store-bought stuff I conveniently had on hand and laid it out side-by-side with a few crumbles from the block of plain feta I purchased at the Farmers' Market.  You can see them in the photo to the right of this paragraph, though it's not quite as sharp as I would have liked.  The most obvious point of comparison you can see is the color - a rich, buttery tinge to the Keswick feta on the left compares quite favorably with the white and dried out look of the feta from Harris Teeter.  But there was another easily observed difference when viewed up close.  The textures were decidedly different, with the Keswick feta having a soft and natural look to its crumbles while the other's chunks seemed more rigid and less cohesive.

Pleased to see that the locally produced option measured up quite favorably to the comparably priced, mass-produced alternative, I wasted no time in putting it to good use.  Although I normally prefer to plate my cheese selections and enjoy them as a pre-cursor to a meal, I figured the feta would work better as a component in a dinner made almost entirely from locally-grown ingredients. 

I started with a fresh chicken purchased from Capitol Hill Poultry at Eastern Market.  We brined the chicken and roasted it with some sweet potatoes purchased from Toigo Orchard's stand at the Dupont Circle Market.  I paired the feta with some diced yellow pepper (from Trader Joe's, the one non-local ingredient) and served it atop the Loudon Lettuce blend from Endless Summer Harvest, who also sell at Dupont Circle.  My wife and I were thrilled with the depth of the flavors that came from quality ingredients simply prepared.

Keswick's wide range of dairy products offers plenty of choices and lots of reasons to keep coming back for their samples week after week.  Though not everything they sell represents as great a value as their feta sampler, you can rest assured that quality and flavor are prevalent throughout their product line.  You can find Keswick's cheeses at several FreshFarm Markets in DC - look for them at Dupont Circle on Sunday mornings year-round, Foggy Bottom on Wednesday evenings from April to November, and H Street Northeast on Saturday mornings from May to October.

* = EDIT:  Turns out the folks at the FreshFarm Market site and in the Atlas of American Artisanal Cheeses had a bad web address for Keswick.  I have edited the first paragraph to include a link to their actual website, http://www.keswickcreamerycheese.com/.  Thanks to Sandy for bringing it to my attention!

Even in the dead of winter, the Dupont Circle FreshFarm Market is a great source of locally-produced vegetables, pasture-raised buffalo meat, and artisan baked breads.  Not surprisingly, the selections are significantly limited compared to the bounty that can be found from late spring through the fall, but there is still quite a bit that can be found and enjoyed.  Just make sure you show up early: although the FreshFarm website lists the market's winter hours as 10-1, I have seen vendors breaking down as early as noon when there's a chill in the air.

The changing seasons and colder temperatures have less of an impact on dairy products than they do on produce, so it should come as no surprise that most of the local cheesemakers who sell at the Dupont Market are still going strong through the winter.  One of them, Blue Ridge Dairy, has been catching my eye from the first time I saw them set up at the Penn Quarter Market.  Their hand-chalked sign advertising yogurt, cheese and creme fraiche from Jersey cows' milk caught my eye, and the samples on offer made the sale even before I had a chance to ask about them.

Since that first encounter, I have learned quite a bit about Blue Ridge Dairy through conversations with the sellers and the Atlas of American Artisan Cheese.  Located in Leesburg, Blue Ridge turns out fresh cheese and cultured milk products using milk from Jersey cows.  Paul Stephan, who has been working at cheesemaking for almost a decade, cultures the milk at his facility and then stretches the curd by hand to make his fresh mozzarella, which is sold in 8-ounce balls for $6.  Other fresh cheeses are also hand-made, including a naturally low-fat small-curd ricotta and lightly sweet and creamy mascarpone.

Some of Stephan's most flavorful offerings, however, require a little more attention.  Feta is aged for two months before the 8-ounce squares are offered to the public, and their tangy bite is well worth the wait.  Slow-churned cultured butter is silky and rich, with a definite flavor and a higher fat content than what you'll find on most grocery shelves.  It is supposed to be excellent when used in baking, though I have not used it in that capacity myself.

And the most distinct of his offerings, for my money, is a smoked version of his fresh mozzarella.  Using applewood, which is popular with enthusiasts of barbecue, turkey and bacon for its deep, slightly sweet smoke, Stephan uses the "low and slow" method of bathing the mozzarella in wave after wave of applewood smoke until the finished product emerges with a latte-colored skin and an aroma more like bacon than anything else.  These smoked balls of mozzarella are sold dry in 8-ounce portions for $7, and a little goes a long way.  Unlike the fresh mozzarella, whose delicate taste and soft, moist texture encourage you to keep coming back for more, the strong smoky flavor is almost overwhelming when eaten by itself.  If you've ever tasted a packaged smoked mozzarella like the ones that can be found in Safeway and Giant (or even the ones that can be found pre-packaged at Trader Joe's), you will be hard-pressed to identify this as even remotely related...the taste is so distinct, the texture so much less rubbery.

It begs to be used in cooking, paired with caramelized onions or other semi-sweet flavors where it mellows into the taste equivalent of a deep bass rhythm.  Blue Ridge Dairy's applewood smoked mozzarella is wonderful on homemade pizzas, as well, where it can stand up to spicy ground sausage and sweet red peppers with equal aplomb.  It can be melted atop crostini or paired with fresh tomatoes and basil for a twist on a standard caprese.  Whatever you do with it, just make sure not to overdo it or you will find yourself overwhelmed by the smokiness to the detriment of your other ingredients.

Blue Ridge Dairy can be found year-round at the FreshFarm Markets in Dupont Circle, Courthouse and Penn Quarter (check the FreshFarm website for each market's hours and dates of operation).  They also sell some of their products through Whole Foods, but it's far more fun to walk up to Paul or one of his assistants at the market, take a taste, and get to know the people who make this delicious local cheese.

Tucked away on a quiet block of N Street just south of Dupont Circle, the Tabard Inn is one of those places that you don't quite discover until you've been in Washington for a while - and then you wish you had known about it forever.  The hotel has 40 guest rooms spread out across three adjoining townhouses, and each room is uniquely decorated.  Looking out a south-facing upstairs window at the dome of St. Matthew's Cathedral, it is easy to imagine yourself in some picturesque Italian village.

But the Tabard Inn is not just a Hilton alternative - its restaurant boasts the talents of Huw Griffiths, the man recognized by the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington as 2007 Pastry Chef of the Year, and its cozy parlor is a great place to curl up with a hot beverage and one of his creations on a cold evening.  Although the restaurant's main courses left something to be desired on a recent visit, the starters and desserts definitely saved the day.

To get to the Tabard Inn's eponymous restaurant, you pass through the lobby of the hotel and into a parlor that is dominated by a stone fireplace and its massive wooden mantle.  Chairs and benches throughout the dark-paneled room provide plenty of space for people waiting to be seated in the restaurant, but I would highly recommend a visit for the sake of the parlor itself - a limited menu of light fare and desserts is available from an attentive waitstaff.  My wife tried the Hot Buttered Rum despite the fact that she is not normally a fan of rum, and she thought it was absolutely amazing.  I enjoyed a hot apple cider spiked with Knob Creek bourbon instead of rum - a special request that they accommodated without hesitation.  What a great way to start!

We were encouraged to let the hostess know when we were ready to be seated for dinner, a nice change of pace from overbooked restaurants who make you wait while they hurry other diners out.  Once we did so, we were quickly shown to a table in a small upstairs dining room (not the main room) with views of the Inn's courtyard through the nearby windows.  Our server quickly and ably walked us through the menu and informed us that there are no off-menu specials because new menus are printed every day.  She also pointed us toward a short list of wines that are imported directly from Italy by the hotel.  These represent some great values, but the unique relationship between the Tabard and the growers means that you'll have a hard time tracking the wines down later should you want to buy them yourself.  We shared a bottle of Deltetto Roero Arneis, a crisp white wine from Roero in northern Piemonte that was wonderful with our various seafood and pork dishes.

A generous basket of bread was brought to the table once we had placed our orders, and this was our first introduction to Huw Griffiths' skills.  The basket contained several slices each of light rye, focaccia and sourdough olive breads, each handmade by the pastry chef that day.  Although one of my dining companions found the focaccia a bit too salty for her taste, we all agreed that the breads were delicious and lived up to the hype.

Soon after that, our appetizers arrived.  With several salads, soups and hot dishes ranging from $7 to $11, there are plenty of choices to tempt you, and you would be wise to start with something.  An arugula salad that featured roasted pears and pine nuts had its sweetness nicely tempered by a balsamic vinaigrette, and fried gingered calamari were light and tender - though none of us could detect the ginger.  My favorite starter was a combination of mussels and spicy lamb sausage served in a silky curry sauce that was rich with a subtle heat.  A garnish of watercress lent a fresh, peppery note that complemented the dish nicely.  To this point, the meal was wonderful.

Unfortunately, we had decidedly less luck with our entrees.  Despite a wide variety of dishes (10 choices in all, ranging from $21 to $33), there were very few that begged to be tried.  My mother opted for a seafood gumbo that featured house-made creole sausage.  Though the sausage was tasty and the seafood well-cooked, there was something about the flavor of the gumbo that seemed out of place - a dusky smokiness that none of us could recall in other gumbos we had eaten (and preferred).  My wife's tagliarini pasta suffered from too much salt - despite the inherent saltiness of the squid's ink used to color the pasta as well as the scallops and the grilled calamari, the dish was topped with a spoonful of trout roe that only added to the overly briny flavor.  I ordered a suckling pig roulade that was topped with a deliciously tangy fig gastrique, but I was disappointed by the meat used - the cut of pork I was served was at least 1/3 fat, and the skin had a soft, chewy consistency.  Only my aunt's crab cake was an unmitigated success, with large lumps of sweet crab meat barely held together by any filler at all and served with a wonderful remoulade.

We had been warned to save room for dessert, because Huw Griffith's pastries and cakes are truly the stars of the show (desserts run $7 to $10).  A pear tarte with an airy pastry shell came with a scoop of house-made maple ice cream, and the flavors were amazing.  A vanilla and malt cheesecake with a banana creme anglaise was decadent and too rich for any of us to finish.  A tall slice of moist chocolate cake was served with a scoop of mint-chocolate chip ice cream that tasted like garden-fresh peppermint, instead of some artificial mint flavor.  But the true standout of the evening was the pumpkin pecan bread pudding, accompanied by dulce de leche ice cream.  Picture a warm, sweet, gooey confection with a base of house-baked bread tempered by savory spices and you've got a good idea of just how wonderful it was.  Any disappointments brought on by our entrees were momentarily forgotten over dessert.

Unfortunately, the main courses were not the only disappointment.  Service during this trip was surprisingly uneven, as well.  At no point in our meal did our server stop by to check on us, save to present the dessert menus.  We went through the entire meal without having our water glasses refilled once, only to have them topped off twice during dessert.  And, most disturbingly, all of my companions' dishes made it to the table a full five minutes before my roulade, leaving them to look at their cooling plates of seafood while they politely waited for my dish to arrive.  All of this despite the fact that the restaurant was not full at any point during our two-hour meal.

As I said at the beginning of this post, I consider the Tabard Inn one of Washington's hidden gems, and I always look forward to visiting when the weather turns cold so I can enjoy the warmth of the fireplace in the parlor.  The romantic appeal of the Inn cannot be overlooked, either, which is why I have often recommended it to friends as a great 'special occasion' spot.  But I have found the quality of their main courses to be steadily declining over the past year or so.  The desserts and hot drinks (our server informed us that Griffiths was responsible for the fantastic Hot Buttered Rum, as well) remain reason enough to visit, but there is too much competition in this price range for the kitchen to turn out unimpressive dishes like the ones we had.

Tabard Inn
1739 N Street, NW
Washington, DC  20036
Map
(202) 785-1277

Details:
Dress Code: Business/Dress Casual
Parking: Valet parking is available for dinner patrons for $7.  Street parking is available nearby but can be difficult to find due to the proximity to Dupont Circle.
Closest Metro: Dupont Circle (use the south exit)
Reservations: Taken and recommended. Tabard Inn is not currently part of OpenTable.
Baby-Child friendly Rating: 0 diapers (to borrow Jason's system).  The quiet and somewhat romantic atmosphere coupled with the limited child-friendly menu options make this a bad choice for families with small children.
Bathroom Rating: Two small unisex bathrooms are both clean and well-kept.  A framed letter on the wall from one of the vintners whose wines they import directly reflects the special relationships that go into their wine purchases.

"Jason, Are you ok? Are you crying? " Heather asked.

(pause)

"Yes, perfect. This is just SO amazing!!"

(flashback four days earlier...)

When I found out that our babysitter Heather was leaving town permanently and had NEVER been to Komi, I insisted that she let us take her as a going away present. It's my favorite place to eat, anywhere, and I just couldn't bear for her to leave town without eating there. My motivation might have been a tad selfish, because I was looking for an excuse to return to Komi, but regardless she obliged and let us take her.

Given Komi's recent press (with Johnny being in the upcoming July issue of Food and Wine's Best New Chefs 2007), I would've expected to have had to call further ahead to get a reservation, but I only had to call a few days in advance. Granted, we were going on a Tuesday, but I still expected to be turned down because of my usual lack of planning.

In preparation the day of the dinner, I didn't eat all day. I never eat breakfast anyway and I skipped lunch completely. I had a late meeting at work and traffic getting into DC from out in Reston was a nightmare so we were running very late. I've never actually had to drive to Komi. Up until our recent move, it's been a quick 10 minute cab ride away, but now it's a 20 minute drive for us. Luckily, our reservation was early, and Komi doesn't overbook their tables, otherwise we would've been hard pressed for time.

When we arrived, Heather already had a glass of champagne and was happy. Our waiter came over to our table, who'd interestingly enough been our waiter many times over at 2 Amys and had moved up in the world. "Whatever she's having is good enough for me. Thanks!"

The menu was what I was expecting -- a vast array of dishes that I can't get anywhere else, making it  impossible to choose. There's now an option to order what is called the "Degustazione", which puts you in the hands of Johnny for the evening. You get what Johnny thinks is you should eat; sometimes things from the menu, sometimes not. If he has a spare cut of meat in the back that he's experimenting with  it might just be on your plate at some point -- you never know.

"Degustazione" is more food than you receive for ordering the regular "Dinner" -- usually a couple meat and pasta courses each, and a couple more starters (or what they call mezzathakia), a cheese course, a dessert, and also includes a wine pairing for $150. The "Dinner" alone is now $78, a little more than it was the last time I was at Komi ($64), but still a steal for all the food you get.

With dinner you get a flight of several mezzathakia (or starters), a choice of pasta course and a choice of meat...and you get to choose your own dishes, but what's the fun in that. Since Heather doesn't eat red meat, we went with the regular "Dinner" menu instead, which turned out to be more than enough food for us.

The mezzathakia started coming out one at a time. First, the house-cured olives. These have become a staple at Komi, much like the dates filled with mascarpone or the speck-wrapped white tuna (R.I.P.). I can't think of a better way to start a meal. Next, some buttered radish topped with salmon roe and butter, cut to look like little fish. It was a great little bite of creamy salt and pepper.

Ever heard of Amberjack fish? Yeah, me neither, but Johnny was serving a simple Amberjack sashimi with sea salt, chives and Meyer lemon oil. Next came the dates filled with Mascarpone cheese. As I said they're a staple now. I can't remember not ever having them at Komi and I hope they never go away. I've attempted to recreate them on my own, but I've never been able to match the delicate flavor that Komi's kitchen produces. The mascarpone cheese was oozing out the side of the date oh so slightly and the date was warm and just slightly caramelized. MMMM!

The next delicacy to come out was a deep-fried foie gras fritter, probably about the size of a medium-sized marble with crispy breading and the nutty, sweet filling. After that, a mint and english pea panna cotta with a quail egg in the center. It took me back to the cauliflower panna cotta that I always would've ordered by the quart if I could, and this was better than that. It was like Spring in a Jello mold. Amazing.

I didn't think that anything could top the panna cotta, but then the next dish appeared and was probably the most odd combination of ingredients I've ever had -- charred octopus with sliced avocado, quail egg, on top of a mold of lentils and pig knuckles. The octopus was crispy and tender and when you mixed it with the rest of the ingredients it was a fabulous combination of texture and flavors - creamy, salty, meaty. I don't know if it was this dish that was suddenly made me start to cry or if it was that I had just realized how long it'd been since I'd eaten at Komi, but either way, I was in heaven. I wasn't balling and there weren't really tears, but Heather and Amy could tell I was moved. We all started to laugh a little. Amy said, "Now if only I could get him to react that way!"

After that, everything is a little fuzzy although I remember everything was equally amazing: a sardine with a salad of carrots, currants, capers, raisins, mint and pine nuts; a soft-shell crab fried in crispy Japanese panko bread crumbs, a peekytoe crab cannoli, and a mint fennel cucumber compote and quite possibly quite the best soft-shell crab I've ever had; a spoon with celeriac soup, sea urchin, and crispy fried sweetbreads (seriously, where does he come up  with this stuff?); and the Komi gyro with oxtail meat, a sweet yellow beet tzatziki and pomogranite glaze. That finished off the starters.

We were served three different pastas for the pasta course. My favorite pasta was actually the one that Amy was served, a fava bean and mint ravioli with lamb tongue ragu. I had an agnolotti (basically tiny ravioli cut in little cylinder shapes) that was served in a broth too salty for my tastes.

Entrees were better than ever. To accommodate Heather's diet, she was served an individual serving of the whole bronzini (Mediterranean sea bass) which normally comes in a portion for two. It's cooked in a salt dome to keep the heat even and give the fish an extra flakey texture. Amy and I shared the spit roasted kasikaki (or kid goat), a whole thigh of kid goat, roasted until the meat is falling off the bone, amazingly tender and juicy, and a smoky flavor that tops that of the old suckling pig that Johnny used to make.

I'd be missing half the meal if I didn't mention the wine pairings which Derek Brown described in great deal before each course. The wines are paired very well with the food and do a great deal to enhance the entire meal. If you order the pairings with dinner, it will cost you $50, but the pairing is included with the "Degustazione". My favorite pairing was an unfiltered 2004 Gewurztraminer from Lazy Creek Vineyards with a smoky fruit flavor and not too much residual sugar. There was also a slight acidic flavor that cut down on the fruit a little.

At a little over $400 for the three of us, it was quite an expenditure. Komi is still an incredible value and worth every penny, but it's solidly a special occasion restaurant for me now rather than the whim place it used to be. The increase in price is partially due to the success that Johnny Monis has had recently, but also because the menu isn't available a la carte anymore.

Komi
1509 17th St NW
Washington, DC 20036
(202) 332-9200
Map

Hours:
Closed Sunday and Monday.

Dress Code: Business Casual
Parking: It's very difficult to find parking in this area. There is a pay parking lot around the corner in an office building that's open until 12.
Smoking: Not Allowed.
Closest Metro: Dupont Circle
Reservations: Taken and recommended.
Baby-Child friendly rating: 1 diaper. I wish I could give it more but the atmosphere just isn't appropriate for a child.

It was a gloomy, cold and rainy evening when I was walking down M Street, and I was looking for a place to get out of the rain, as well as a quick bite to eat. I passed Camelot.

Hmmm...I hear they have good burgers there.

Then I passed Malaysia Kopitiam. Since I might be the only person who hasn't been there, I figured it was about time I tried it out. It was on Washingtonian's Cheap Eats last year, it gets very positive reviews from just about every food critic and gets very good word of mouth. Just a couple weeks ago, I was talking to a friend who said he went there and had a great meal. This was someone whose opinion in food I respect very much, so I figured I'd better try it.

Malaysia Kopitiam is on the the basement level, but it's hard to miss with the big sign above its door. Since it was 5:30, the restaurant was pretty empty. The only people there were one couple and what seemed to be a bunch of family members of the restaurant staff and owners. I recognized one of the owners from the pictures and articles hung on the wall out front. My first impression of the interior of the restaurant was that of one of the restaurants on the Food Network's Restaurant Makeover, before the makeover. It just goes to show that looks aren't everything.

I sat at a table by myself. The server handed me a menu...no, not a menu, a three-ring binder. The menu comes in two parts, the regular menu with the list of dishes and prices, and then a three-ring binder with the pictures of the dishes. I found this very convenient when ordering because the descriptions on the menu were not the best at explaining what the dishes are actually like.

This first trip, I wasn't so happy with my choice of appetizer. The roti canai, or flaky layered Indian bread with spicy Malaysian curry chicken, would've been great except for the rubbery chicken. The sauce was a wonderful hot-spicy blend and the bread couldn't have been better. I loved how buttery and flaky it was. A friend of mine later told me this was their favorite dish at Malaysian Kopitiam. I guess I just had a bad batch of chicken -- mine was fatty and over-cooked.

The spicy tamarind beef, on the other hand, was pretty good, but wasn't anything to write home about. Unlike the chicken, the beef was lean and tender. This beef was cooked for a long time, and had a consistency of the beef that I make in a slow cooker all day. I'd say that it was either brisket, hanger or skirt steak.

Out of the kindness of my heart, I ordered some takeout for Amy, and chose extremely unwisely for her entree. I think of all the dishes on the menu, I chose the most bland and unsatisfying of them all -- vegetarian stir-fried mix noodle. I'm not sure why, but I think I chose the dish that's on the menu for the unadventurous vegetarian diner who thinks they're a vegetarian, but doesn't want to try any "weird" vegetables because they're actually just a picky eater. Yeah, I'd say that about sums it up.

On the other hand, the appetizer that I chose for her made me want to return a second time. It was a little spring roll called a Po Pia. This was a thin crepe filled with jicama (pronounced hick-e-mah), lettuce, eggs, dried shrimp, and topped with a hoisin sauce. I'm not sure what it was that made these rolls so good, but I'm pretty sure it was the hoisin sauce. As I ate them back at our apartment I said to myself, "Well, if these are this good after sitting in these takeout containers for a half hour, then I've got to try these fresh in the restaurant!"

This is going to be another one of those reviews where I describe each dish I ate in detail...If you are short on time, you should stop reading now. :)

I returned a week later with Amy and Noah and had a great time with him there. Malaysia Kopitiam, I have to say, is very baby friendly. They have high chairs, the restaurant staff were very friendly to Noah, and the casual atmosphere makes me feel at ease having Noah there. Especially since Noah's been getting experimental with the volume of his voice lately. 

My choices of dishes was better this visit. Maybe it was Amy's influence over the ordering, but we ordered some really incredible dishes. Of course we started with some of those incredible Po Pias which were sooo good -- fresh and hot unlike my first time eating them cold after takeout.

The raja chicken was an very similar to the General Tso's chicken that you find at every Chinese takeout joint. Somehow, the chicken seemed to have this double-fried chicken texture to it, almost like they'd fried the chicken without the breading really quick, dipped it in batter and fried it again. It'll be hard to get crappy MSG-y Chinese takeout ever again after eating this dish.

We also ordered some curry pork rib noodle. Imagine pork ribs so tender you could suck the meat right off the bone. Now add curry sauce and rice noodles.

Yeah, I want to go back too.

Both meals were under $40 after tip and this is with us ordering beer (Singhas to be exact.) I really wish I'd gone to Malaysia Kopitiam before now. Perhaps I'll head back there this weekend.

Malaysia Kopitiam
1827 M Street NW
Washington DC 20036
Map
(202) 833-6232

Hours:
Mon - Thu: 11:30 am - 10:00 pm
Fri - Sat: 11:30 am - 11:00 pm
Sun: 12:00 noon to 10:00 pm

Dress Code: Casual
Parking: No Valet. If you time it right, there is a ton of parking that opens up on M street right around 6:30PM
Closest Metro: Dupont Circle or Farragut North
Reservations: Not Taken
Amy's Bathroom rating: Need for improvement. They were a little rundown, but hey, you're not going here for the ambiance.
Baby-Friendly Rating: 3 out of 4 diapers. A casual environment, friendly and accommodating wait staff make this place ideal for taking an infant to. Noah had a meltdown after about an hour and a half and no one even batted an eye. The rundown bathrooms mean there's NO place to change a diaper though.

Recently, I've been working more at my real job's Georgetown office, which gives me the opportunity to eat at Pizzeria Paradiso's Georgetown location, a much roomier and less crowded space than its older sister in Dupont Circle.

Lunches here are calm and relaxing. There's rarely a wait (at least at the Georgetown location) and I find that it's a good place to stop and have a business lunch with coworkers. Service is prompt and usually congenial (and is anything but perfunctory), but try to get a table for dinner or lunch on the weekends, and you'll find it's a different story. I stopped by last Saturday and there was a very long wait so I had to find somewhere else to eat lunch.

The pizzas come in two sizes, 8 inch and 12 inch, and range in price of $9 to $11 for the 8-inch pizzas and $15 to $17 for the 12-inch pizzas. My favorites so far are the salty Bottarga, with an egg, garlic and of course, bottarga, and the Atomica, with tomatoes, salami, olives and black pepper flakes. As you all know, pizza for me is all about the crust, and while Pizzeria Paradiso's toppings are fresh and of a high quality, I find the crust is a bit dry and not as chewy as I would like. It's just personal taste though. For everyone that agrees with me, there's probably someone who prefers it that way.

There are a couple appetizers that I'd recommend you order. I love the tuna and white bean salad, which is covered in olive oil. The white beans are firm and not out of a can as far as I can tell, which means they are either getting them from a high-quality supplier or soaking the beans themselves. Also the milky-white mozzarella with sundried tomatoes and olive oil is always sure to please, even for the pickiest eater in your group.

It's also worth mentioning that on Tuesday nights, Pizzeria Paradisa has a special they call "Two for Two-sdays." The special is meant for two people and includes an antipasto plate with salad, mozzarella and sundried tomatoes and some charcuterie; a 12-inch pizza of choice, a dessert sampler, and a bottle of wine for $50. While your choices for the bottle of wine are limited to one of two bottles, either will go well with the pizza. Overall, it's a very good deal. The bottle of wine normally costs close to $30 by itself.

I haven't been too happy with the panini I've ordered. The marinated roast pork panino had more onion on it than roast pork -- I counted two slices of meat which wasn't quite what I was expecting. The bread was very thick as well, and when combined with the lack of meat, made it seem like I was eating a bread sandwich.

Just a little tidbit of knowledge for you. I did a little research on Panini and the proper ways to make them, and it turns out that a real panino (not panini which is the plural of panino) is made with grilled ciabatta bread. Perhaps the panino I had was made on Ciabatta bread, but it seemed a little thick to be Ciabatta to me.

The recently opened Birreria is a welcome addition to the Georgetown bar scene in my opinion. The bar has 18 taps and over 80 microbrews available, including (what I would say is my favorite that I've tried there so far) the J.W. Lees Vintage Harvest Ale, which is matured in casks of either Calvados, Sherry, Port or Lagavulin casks for flavor. They also have a couple Rogue drafts on tap including Imperial Stout and Shakespeare Ale. If you come during happy hour from 4PM to 6:30PM weeknights, you can get $3 selected drafts and bottles, discount pizzas and antipasto plates. Hell, if it's a Monday or Tuesday, you might see me there...

Pizzaria Paradiso
Dupont Circle
2029 P Street NW
Washington, DC
(202) 223-1245   
Map

Georgetown
3282 M Street NW
Washington, DC
(202) 337-1245
Map

Hours:
Dupont Circle and Georgetown
Mon-Thurs: 11:30 am to 11:00 pm
Fri-Sat: 11:30 am to midnight
Sun: noon to 10:00 pm

Dress Code: Casual
Parking: Find a lot in somewhere that let's you park all night for $5. Street parking is hard to find.
Smoking: Not Allowed.
Closest Metro: Foggy Bottom
Reservations: Not taken.
Baby-Friendly Rating: 3 out of 4 diapers.

It's a Wednesday night and I'm sitting at the bar at Hank's Oyster Bar listening to The Dire Straits' Walk of Life. With my right hand, I'm feeding Noah his bottle and with my left, I'm eating fresh Kumamoto oysters. Life doesn't get much better than this.

We'd yet to be seated at our table, and I couldn't help but notice that the table behind me was having some problems with something cold that'd been delivered to their table. The only reason I noticed though, was because the floor manager, who'd treated us very nicely when we first came in the door, was apologizing for the mishap and was bringing over some complimentary appetizers to make up for the problems. Service isn't sacrificed at Hank's.

Hank's Oyster Bar gets very crowded. If you come after 7 on any night of the week, your in for at least a 30 minute wait. But that 30 minute wait can easily turn into 15 minutes or less with Hank's Oyster Bar's  "call ahead" policy. Call before you leave, and the host/hostess will put your name on the list, quickly turning that long wait into only a slight inconvenience.

I wonder how many people actually know about this policy -- I should've probably kept my mouth shut. Oh well...

With the name Hank's Oyster Bar, you'd expect the oysters to be good...and they are! I'd suggest a glass of the Muscadet or Viognier with them (there are many wines that go well with oysters), but the oysters are only one of many treats to get at Hank's. Take for instance, the not-too-heavily-creamy New England clam chowder, which on my first trip contained more potatoes than clams, but on my second trip had an abundance of clams. Or perhaps, you'd prefer the homemade mac and cheesy, which is fresh-baked to order, and don't forget the salty Old Bay seasoned fries.

On top of the regular menu, there are four fish specials available. Both times we went to Hank's, there was a sablefish on the menu, a chili-crusted fish (Rockfish or Mahi Mahi) or a white tuna. Chef Jamie Leeds rotates in specials depending on what fish she can get fresh that week and how well they are selling, but she tries have something new on the specials menu every day.

My first night there, I tried the sablefish which is marinated in a mixture of soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, ginger and other seasoning for 24 hours. I thought the marinade gave a good contrasting flavor to the slightly fishy flavor of the sablefish. The second entree I had, which was anything but typical when you think of how fish is usually prepared, was a roasted monkfish with a mild marinara sauce and pancetta. The dense monkfish was lightly breaded, almost like you'd see the chicken in chicken parmesan prepared, but it wasn't dry or rubbery like I've had it elsewhere.

After both wonderful meals at Hank's, I was ready for some dessert, but there's no dessert menu, so I was glad I didn't save room. For those of you with a sweet tooth like me, you'll be happy to know that they bring out a little bit of bittersweet chocolate with your check which hits the spot quite well and is probably better for you than that creme brulee or bread pudding.

However, I wouldn't be surprised if Jamie Leads had a silent deal with Johnny Monis around the corner, because both times I was tempted to stop at Komi on the way home and grab some homemade donuts. Of course, you can always order some more oysters for dessert, which is probably what Jamie Leeds would prefer and I'm almost positive you won't regret.

Hank's Oyster Bar
1624 Q St NW
Washington, DC 20009
(202) 462 HANK (4265)
Map

Hours:
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday 5:30 - 10:00pm
Wed, Thurs 5:30 - 11:00pm
Fri and Sat 5:30 - 11:00pm
Sat and Sunday Brunch 11:00 am - 3:00pm

Dress Code: Casual
Parking: This restaurant is in Dupont Circle. If you're lucky like I was, you can find someone pulling out the moment you're driving by on the same block as Hank's. If you're unlucky, you find a spot five blocks away.
Smoking: Not Allowed.
Closest Metro:Dupont Circle
Reservations: Not taken, but take advantage of the call ahead policy. 
Baby-Friendly Rating: 2 out of 4 diapers. The restaurant is nice and loud, so if your baby starts crying, no one will hear them. However, if it's crowded, you'll have a long wait and you'll be outside in the cold with your baby because there's not a lot of room to wait inside.

Valentines Day was very special this year - Partly because of the great food, but mostly because of something else. At about 3 PM, I left work to meet Amy at the radiologist's office in Bethesda. Amy was having a sonagram to find the heartbeat of our 8-week-old baby growing inside her. Amy was about as nervous as I've ever seen her, terrified that there wouldn't be a heartbeat. At about 4:20 PM we were called into the examination room. The technician started performing the sonagram and at first there was nothing on the screen. Then I sort of saw something on the screen - a little spot that seemed to be fluttering. I think Amy and I saw it at just about the same time. Soon after that the technician said, "There it is. I'll let you hear the heat beat." BA BUMP. BA BUMP. BA BUMP. BA BUMP. BA BUMP. 160 loud beats a minute. The spot that we saw fluttering turned out to be the heart. And then the technician said, very appropriately, "Happy Valentines Day!" I don't think it had occured to either me or Amy how appropos it was that we were doing this on Valentines Day until the technician said that. LOL. You can read more about the Sonagram Story at Amy's site.

After the sonogram was over, we headed home. I stopped to pick up a few things, groceries, something from Tiffany's, etc. (in case you couldn't tell, I spoil Amy). We weren't home for too long before it was time to go to our reservation at Komi. Just as it was time to leave, it started to rain, and of course, we didn't bring an umbrella. I was trying to hail a cab on Wisconsin Ave. What is it with the shortage of cabs lately!? I probably stood there for 30 minutes trying to hail a cab in the poring rain. To say the least, I was soaked. Luckily, Amy was able to hide under a Metro bus waiting area. We finally found a cab that was actually pulling out of our street.

The good thing was that we were out of the rain. The bad thing was that this taxi driver was the worst we've ever driven with. First, our reservation was at 7:30 and we were already late. This driver practically rolled down the street. Only one pedal existed for this driver, and it was the break. I kindly asked him to speed up because we were in a hurry, so he started using the gas. JESUS CHRIST GO FASTER YOU ASSHAT! I'M HUNGRY! YOU DON'T WANT TO MESS WITH ME WHEN I'M HUNGRY! OK. I didn't actually say anything, but I wanted to scream. Not only that, but the driver decided that he was going to go the scenic route through Columbia Heights to get to 17th and P. AAGGHHH!

We finally arrived. We were about 20 minutes late. I HATE being late for a reservation. Sebastian Zutant, the Wine, Food, and Service Director at Komi (and the person who took my reservation), was at the door greeting people. He introduced himself to me (I'd never met him in person) after we told him who we were. It was nice to finally meet him. We were seated right away and had a pick of places to sit.

The menu was completely different from out last trip. Only a couple dishes remained that I recognized - the Marinated Yellowtail and the Braised Short Ribs. Amy immediately had this panicky look on her face. She was worried that her stomach wouldn't be able to handle the food. Pregnancy is taking its toll on her. She's had to eat like a poor college student, feasting primarily on Kraft Mac 'n' Cheese, Spaghettios, and Ramen Noodles. I knew the tasting menu would be off limits this time -- It's just way too much food for Amy. It was no loss, though. There were plenty of great dishes to order off the menu a la carte.

When we ordered, I asked the waitress if it would be possible for them to bring me a wine pairing with the dishes I ordered. Amy wasn't drinking, but that wasn't stopping me - if anything I need to drink more now ;-). I'm not sure this is something they normally do, but she went and talked to Sebastian about it. I guess he said it was ok, because they brought out four wonderful wines with my dishes. I'll go into detail later.

Before our dishes came out, our waitress brought by the little demitasse (small cup) of soup. This time it was a mushroom soup topped with what I thought was sour cream. I wasn't all too crazy about this. I mean, it was better than most mushroom soups I've eaten, but I'm not usually one for mushroom soup. Put it this way, Amy couldn't eat all of hers, so I finished it for her. If it was "bad," I wouldn't have done that.

For our 1st course, Amy ordered the Calabaza Soup. There were two melted marshmallows on the top of it. Amy could also taste strong hints of curry, which we always love. It was very similar to the butternut squash soup we had last time - but better :). For those of you who don't know what a Calabaza is (and that included myself until I just looked it up), it is a South American pumpkin. I, on the other hand, chose to go with the Hen of the Woods Mushrooms with Papardelle and sheep's cheese. The Papardelle pasta was perfectly cooked. It reminded me of my trips to Il Pizzico in Rockville. I also saw some parsley and olive oil. I didn't really taste the sheeps cheese on it's own, but the whole dish eaten together was outstanding. The mushrooms had a very mild flavor. This dish pretty much made the meal for me. Chef Johnny Monis has a great ability to pick out mushrooms for his dishes that don't have that pungent mushroom flavor to them. For this course, I was given a spicy Soave from Verona, Italy, which was "completely coincidental and not intentional," as Sebastian stated. (The soundtrack for "Romeo + Juliet" was playing in the restaurant when he brought it over.)

Amy opted to skip the second course, but they brought her a little something anyway - a few blood orange slices with yogurt, avocado, pine nuts and baby greens. I think the Chef felt bad that some ass was making her watch him eat the yellowtail. The artistry and attention to detail that went into the creation of this dish amazed me. It was perfect for a pregnant woman and settled her stomach down. Meanwhile, my yellowtail was just as good as the last time I had it. Like last time, it was served with a tiny spoonful of greek caviar and thin-sliced, fried fingerling potato chips. It was served raw and marinated in what I thought was a lemon vinegar. The glass of wine I was served with the yellowtail was a slightly fruity glass of Di Lenordo Tocai Friulano from Fruili, Italy. I LOVE Italian whites.

For the third and final course, I had it down to a decision between the speck-wrapped tuna and the roasted pork. I was incapable of a decision so I let our waitress decide. (It turned out that we had the same waitress as our last trip. She was great!) She convinced me to get the tuna. It came served on a bed of bulger wheat, mango, olive oil and seranno ham - a mixture of ingredients that I never would have pictured going so well together. The tuna itself could have been cooked a lot rarer. I like my tuna still flapping on the plate. The speck wrapping was a wonderful added touch. The smokey flavor of the meat complimented the flavor well. With my tuna, I was served a glass of a 2003 Le Paradou Grenache from Cotes du Luberon, France. I'm usually never one to drink a grenache, but I really liked this. It was just slighly sweet enough to compliment the salty, smokey flavor of the tuna and speck.

Amy's ribeye was absolutely, perfectly medium, like she asked. Well, actually, a little more on the medium-rare side, but that's really the way she likes it anyway. She only ordered it medium because the site of blood makes her stomach do loops. It came with a creamy spinach paste. Overall, I found the flavor of the paste a little too strong for the ribeye, but that was after eating my dish, which had some pretty stong flavors itself.

For dessert we chose to chare the Key Lime Flan. It was very TART! A little too tart for my taste, but still very good. If any of you have had the blood orange sorbet at 2 Amys, you'll know what I am talking about by TART. As far as texture was concerned, it was right on. Firm and not mushy as flans tend to be.  Anyone who isn't into really sweet desserts will love this. The flan was also served with a side of chamomile sorbet, which helped settle Amy's stomach after the ribeye. Sebastian brought me a small yet interesting glass of German wine, which wasn't on the menu, nor was it really a dessert wine. The name escapes me, but I remember him saying that I'd need German characters to write about it. :-)

The cost of the meal when it comes to a restaurant like Komi is really inconsequential, but if you must know...The bill came to about $145 - Well worth it. That included two appetizers, one middle  course, two entrees, a dessert, and my wine pairings. Your first courses run from $7 for the soup to $13 for foie gras. 2nd courses (or Thalassina, according to the Komi menu) are priced from $8 for grilled squid to $14 for the oysters. Entrees run from $17 to $22. Desserts cost about the same as you first courses. As far as the wine menu goes, Sebastian Zutant had done a wonderful job picking out wines that complement the dishes on the menu. Glasses of wine cost anywhere from $6 to $9 -- really quite a bargain considering what other similar restaurants in the area charge for a glass of wine. As far as bottles are concerned, there are many in the $20 to $40 range.

As usual, service was excellent. The ONLY time I had any issues with service was the first time we visited Komi, and even then, I only got pissy because my drink glass wasn't kept full.

Komi
1509 17th St NW
Washington, DC 20036
(202) 332-9200
Map

Dress Code: Business Casual
Parking: None - street parking is a rare in Dupont. No Valet either. I recommend taking a cab (just find a cab driver that drives faster the 20 mph and knows where the hell he's going).
Reservations: Taken
Bathroom rating: Immaculate.

Read about my previous trips to Komi here.

So far, I've been to the Dupont location of Heritage India twice. Both times I've had some excellent Indian food that I've wanted to write about since the first time I went there a few weeks ago. I just haven't had any time.

To start with, the Dupont location of Heritage is not just another location for Heritage India with the same menu. The first way it is different is with the menu which features a tapas menu that takes up an entire page. Also, some of the entrees are different. In particular, there are a few prawn dishes, a couple new curries and kabobs. Our first night there, we were having a drink at the bar after our meal was over, and we saw the manager having the jumbo tandoori prawns. I haven't been brave enough to try them yet, but they're literally the size of a small lobster. The bartender said it was one of the restaurants specialties.

The second way this location of Heritage India is different from the others is in the area of service. As most of you know, and have commented, the service at the Glover Park location of Heritage India is lacking in some ways. It's almost like they know their food is good so they don't feel like they have to provide good service to go along with it. At the Dupont location, however, the wait staff is gracious and friendly. Your food comes out quick and if they make a mistake, they are quick to fix it. I've heard a few stories from people about rude service from the Glover Park location and I've experienced some myself. But, it's Heritage India and the food is awesome so we all continue to go back...

Also, the Dupont location has a drink menu...but I'd stay away from it. The drinks on it are entirely too sweet. Maybe they thought they needed to make the drinks sweet to compliment the spicy food, I don't know. Either way they're bad. I'm sure they added the drink menu to compete with Indique's drink menu, but there is some definite room for improvement (like the addition of a mango lassi drink like the one I had at Tallula a few weeks ago).

The first time Amy and I went to the Dupont location, we stayed away from any entrees and ordered competely off their tapas menu. The tapas menu features some dishes that I've only been able to get at the Indian Street Food Event earlier this year at Passage to India -- and some more. To start with, they have Pav Bhaji (spelled Pav Bhaji on the menu, but I swore it was spelled Pau Bhaji, but after searching online, it looks like it IS called pav bhaji). It's a spicy vegetable curry served on a few dinner rolls or hamburger buns. We've had this both times we've gone and it was nice and spicy both times. Also, we had some channa masala. It was served identically to the pav bhaji on dinner rolls - It was plenty spicy as well. Let's see, what else did we have...Oh right, the Frankie. The Frankie is much like a wrap that you would see at any chain restaurant around here, but it is made with Indian flat bread, peppers, onions, and Indian cheese, and then grilled. Very Good! It's also available with chicken I believe. Also, we had a spicy chicken curry atop of a polenta cake of all things. This is an interesting idea, and I see that they're working in a little fusion cooking here. The chicken curry is more like a spicy butter chicken than anything else and you can see the red chili floating in the sauce. It actually was pretty spicy and lit us up a bit. "Keep the water coming please!" Finally we ordered some papri chaat. This is something that you can get at Passage to India and Indique. I only discovered this dish at the Indian Street Food Event and have been ordering it at every restaurant I see it at since. You really can't go wrong with this dish unless you leave it sitting around and let it get soggy, but it has tasted pretty much the same anywhere I've ordered it.

If you stick to just ordering tapas, you can get away with a fairly reasonably priced trip to Heritage India - A nice change of pace from our past $100 or more checks. If I remember correctly, our the bill for our first trip ran us about $60 for two glasses of wine and 5 tapas. The tapas all run about $4 to $10. Heritage India (Dupont location only) also runs a special from 5 pm to 7 pm where the tapas are half price with drink specials as well.

Our second trip we actually ordered some entrees and started with some pav bhaji and some papri chaat as well. I tried moving away from ordering curries again and ordered the tandoori rockfish kabab. Unlike the Glover Park location, all entrees at the Dupont Circle location actually come with rice and daal now, a very welcome change in my opinion. (Of course they are probably just charging another dollar or two on every entree to make up for it.)  Any had her usual saag paneer and she loved it as usual. Also, my kabob was pretty good. In general, I like fish cooked more on the medium/medium rare side than well done, and the rockfish on this kabab was pretty well done. I guess there is not much of a choice when you are cooking a small amount of fish in a tandoor oven though. On a whole, most dishes at the Dupont location are, by default, spicier than those at the Glover Park location. This is a welcome change because I would always have to ask for the chef to make my food a little spicier at the Glover Park location. Our second trip's bill ran us about $85 and included a bottle of wine, two orders of bread, two entrees, two appetizers, and an order of rice pudding.

So my final judgment is that the Dupont location of Heritage India is a welcome addition to the DC Indian food scene. All I need now is an Indian restaurant to open within walking distance of my place I'll be all set.

Heritage India - Dupont Location
1337 Connecticut Ave
Washington, DC
(202) 331-1414
Map

Glover Park Location
2400 Wisconsin Ave NW
Washington, DC
(202) 333-3120
Map

Valet Parking: Yes
Dress Code: Casual ( little more on the business casual side though, especially at the Glover Park location)
I'm trying to find the Dupont Locations hours of operation. I will post them when I find them.
Reservations: Taken

I'm so pissed...At myself.

Back in February I went to Komi with some friends. I think since then, my taste in food, particularly new American food, has developed considerably (at least in my opinion). But when I was writing my original review, I think I just didn't get it. In the mean time, I've been missing out on this wonderful restaurant.

Last Friday night, Amy and I wanted to go out for a last minute celebration. We were celebrating her being contacted by a literary agent. By the time I got home from work and after we decided to go out and celebrate it was 8 pm. I called Komi to see if they had any last minute cancelations and  lucky for us, they did - 9:30.

Besides the menu, Komi has not changed much since February. As I stated in my previous write up of Komi, the menu changes with the seasons. On Friday, only a few of the dishes looked familiar from our past visit. Even those had ingredients that had been altered so most dishes on the menu were new. We were about to order and Amy noticed the option at the bottom of the menu for the Chef's tasting menu. With as many interesting options on the menu as there were, this option seemed very attractive. The waitress explained to us that the tasting menu had two options - 5 courses for $59 and 7 courses for $79. We also had the option to have a wine pairing for $25 and $30 respectively. The final decision was to go with the 5 course with pairing, because we knew we'd never be able to eat 7 courses.

The waitress began by bringing out 2 glasses of champaigne. They were very dry, crisp, full glasses of wine. Soon after that, the first course came out - a single oyster atop a bed of ice with a spicy mustard. Now, I'm normally not an oyster kind of person. I barely know how to eat an oyster let alone what to look for in how oysters taste. However, according to Amy, who's eats oysters occasionally, they were great. There wasn't a hint of brine.

The next course was a marinated yellowtail tartar with fingerling potato chips and caviar creme. To say the least, this course was excellent. We found ourselves wiping the plate with our fingers to get the last of the caviar creme. Yum!

Starting off the next course was a spicy white wine what was slightly fruity and dry. I almost drank it all before the food it was paired with came, which turned out to be a butternut squash soup. This was no ordinary butternut squash soup and really turned out to be the piece de resistance of the entire menu. Overall there was not much of it. The bowl, barely half full, contained a homemade marshmallow and a spicy cracker. The broth was smooth - not gritty or pulpy in any sense of the word. It had a definative curry flavor to it that really made the soup extraordinary. At the end, I found myself longing to lick the bowl. When the waitress came by to take our dishes away, she could see how we were smiling and asked jokingly if we liked it. I stupidly replied, "No! It was horrible. Bring me another!" Almost immediately I replied to myself, "Oh god. I can't believe I just said that!" When I was a waiter, I always wanted to smack people that said things like that.

At this point in the meal, I was still very hungry. Most of the courses up until this point were pretty small. The next course, a mushroom and mozzarella salad,  wasn't much different, but really set us up for the following course - a grilled sea scallop. Never in a million years would I order the wild mushroom salad on my own. If it weren't for us ordering the tasting menu, I probably would have never tried it. It contained a few different kinds of mushrooms that were very fresh and complemented the mozzarella well. Also, it contained a slightly bitter salad green that I could not identify - like miniature watercress. All the ingredients were organized in a neat little circle on the plate which I very quickly detroyed once I tasted it.

Before the scallops came out, the waitress brought us another glass of wine. This time, it was a red wine. As soon as I saw the red wine, I said to Amy, "Ooh, I bet the next course is a meat dish!" I could'nt have been more wrong. The waitress appeared with the scallops and Amy and I both laughed. Of course the red wine went really well with the scallop. I'm really mad that I didn't have my notebook on me to take notes for this meal, because I would've liked to get the names of the wines we had. Oh well. Next time. ;-) The scallop (and yes it was a single large scallop) wasn't anything extremely wonderful except for the fact that it was very fresh.

We finshed off the scallop quickly and the waitress was bringing out our next glass of wine. It was another red and this time the red was actually matched with a meat course - beef short ribs. When the short ribs were placed on the table, I picked up my knife and fork to cut through the short ribs. Soon after that I was putting my knife down because I realized that I wasn't going to need it. The meat was incredibly tender. You barely had to cut with the side of the fork. Pressing down slightly made the meat crumble. Over the meat was a sweet, cinimony barbeque sauce. The short ribs were served over a bed of lemon cheese grits. Now, Amy is a grits expert (Well, not really, but she likes to make grits a lot). These in her "expert" opinion were top notch. ;)

Around this time, I started feeling a little full. It came on me kind of fast and I was worried that I wouldn't have enough room for dessert. All awhile, we were wondering how many more courses we had left. We'd already had 6 courses, and I thought I remembered only ordering the 5 course meal. I figured our waitress had put in our order wrong. Either way, I didn't care and would've gladly paid the 7 course meal price for the meal we were having. 

Desserts showed up with a couple glasses of dessert wine - a glass of red and a glass of white. I'm not normally one for dessert wine, unless it is Limoncello, and in this time wasn't much different. That's just me though. By the time the desserts came, I wasn't able to eat much more. The waitress brought out the homemade donuts for me and a flourless chocolate cake for Amy. Both were amazing, but we were so full we couldn't finish either. The donuts were just as I remembered them from our trip in February. Amy's chocolate cake was sinful, and probably one of the better desserts we've had in a long time - too bad I didn't have room to enjoy it. We also had some coffee to finish the meal off.

Unlike our last trip to Komi, the service was perfect. I think when we went last time, Komi was affected by a review that a certain Tom Sietsema had written the week before. Funny how his reviews can do that to a place, especially when they are good.

I can't remember the last time I was so pleased when a check was delivered to the table. Don't get me wrong, it was expensive at $198, but well worth it in my opinion. You could easily spend less there by not ordering the tasting menu. I would just have a really hard time deciding what to order. I'll be returning to Komi soon, and I expect it to top my list of meals in December.

For full restaurant details - address, phone number, etc., check my previous post.

(Humph)

I'm sorry everyone. I was really hoping to go to Firefly, have a great time with Amy, and write a really positive review about it. That's not gonna happen though.

I made the reservation for Firefly pretty far in advance on OpenTable, which I have to say is a great service and allows you to make a reservation without having to talk over a loud dining room. I don't know why, but for some reason I was anticipating Firefly to be a swanky restaurant, so Amy and I dressed up a bit. It turned out that we were overdressed - which is a good and a bad thing.

We had a reservation at 8:30. We were almost late because the police decided to close down Mass Ave for Prime Minister Tony Blair's visit. Our cab driver got so confused he froze up and didn't know what to do. We sat there in the traffic for about 5 minutes before Amy spoke up and asked the cab driver to find another way to the restaurant. When we walked in at 8:30 exactly, the hostess told us our table "wasn't quite ready yet", so we walked over to the window where you can observe the chefs preparing the meals. About 15 minutes later, a table opened up and we were seated. The restaurant was ridiculously crowded - pretty much standing room only.

After we sat down, it took a little while for the waitress to come over and ask us if we wanted a drink. That didn't really bother me too much, but what did bother me was the fact that A