Chef Siri's (2009.06.14)

It seems I only go out to eat with AJ or E. At least according to my tags anyway...lol

Chef Siri's is a Thai and American Cuisine. Of course, 80% of the menu is Thai, the American stuff is for the "Americans." This is the fifth time eating there. I've tolerated everything I've ordered. I don't love it, but I like it more than other places I've been. I've tried something different each time and haven't disliked something too much.

We ordered an appetizer, two entrees and dessert. For the appetizer, we ordered the Thai Shrimp. It wasn't quite what I expected, but it tasted ok. It's not something that would turn me away from eating there again. Thai Shrimp consisted of baked shrimp stuffed with crab meat, cabbage and vermicelli. Thai sweet and sour sauce is drizzled over the Thai Shrimp. The shrimp was rather tiny and non-existent really. I'm not sure if there was actual crab meat, though it did have a seafood taste. The sweet and sour sauce wasn't too bad. They didn't mix it together, so you weren't stuck with Thai Shrimp dunked in sweet and sour sauce.


One of the entrees was Siam Duck. The menu capitalizes all the letters to "SIAM DUCK." Well, at first glance, it can look like "Slam Duck," which E found super amusing and was the main reason she wanted to order it. lol. Siam Duck is fried crispy pieces of duck with scallions, broccoli, carrots (lots of big chunks) and onions sautéed in chef’s special sauce. The special sauce was a mix of soy sauce, garlic, basil and curry. Not quite what I expected... The fried crispy duck was mostly batter with duck. I think I had more batter than duck, a bit disappointed with it.


The other dish was Thai Basil with sliced beef sautéed with fresh basil leaves, carrots, onions, carrots (lots o big chunks), chili & garlic in a brown sauce. It was pretty good, the overall flavor was decent. The beef could've used a bit of corn starch to soften it up, was a bit tough. I like the taste basil leaves give, but I'm not a fan of eating it. It's like my philosophy with ginger and garlic. I love the flavors it gives food, but I need it chopped up finely so I don't pick it out!!


Oh, and can you tell we weren't fans of big chunks of carrots? I like my above philosophy applied to carrots. That or at least shredded or sliced, no chunks though.

For dessert we ordered Thai Sticky Rice with Mango. The sticky rice was not the kind I was used to. It's long and thin. The rice was warm and had coconut drizzled over it. Slices of mango accompanied the rice with dabs of whipped cream and basil leaves as decorations. On it's own the, rice and mango were all right. However, when you eat the rice with the mango, it's pretty good. I wouldn't mind trying it again. The coconut gave it a stronger taste since mango or rice on its own doesn't taste like much.


Total price: $6.95 + $14.95 + $9.95 + $4.50 + tax + tip = $23/person

Note: Pictures are courtesy of E's camera...

SLICE Pizzeria (2009.04.04)

Day three's dinner was at SLICE Pizzeria located on 1513 St. Charles Ave, a block behind the B&B. E ordered spaghetti and meatballs, it doesn't get simpler than that. Those are some huge meatballs! There was a choice of linguine, angel hair or something else. This is angel hair. Actually just looks like thin spaghetti to me. Right.


So apparently Shrimp and Andouille pizza looks like below. If you notice there are ham/sausage like objects. Um, didn't know that's what Andouille was. It never occured to me to ask the waitress either... It was topped with carmelized onions, yellow corn, tomatoes and green onions. This was actually a cheese pizza with those toppings reheated so it "stuck" on the pizza. It was all right...


This was a cheese calzone with red onions, mushrooms and peppers. Well, it was a tad raw where the inner circle was. Um, I asked for it to be re-cooked. When it came back I was still a bit iffy about it. It became really soggy because of the veggies... I ate the middle and left the outer crust. The marinara sauce was ok, I've had better marinara sauce, like at Sbarro's. Ah, I miss their Strombolis!


Total cost = 5.50 + 5.95 + 2.55 + tax + tip = $13

Praline Connection (2009.04.04)

Day three lunch at NO was at the Praline Connection located somewhere. It was highly recommended by the locals. Many of us hadn't had real LA food so it was decided to get a large appetizer platter rather than separate entrees. This was called the Connection Platter. It consisted of Fried Alligator Sausage, Spicy Chicken Wings, Fried Okra, Fried Pickles and Bite Size Catfish. As you can see the catfish were a bit short of "bitsize." Everything was pretty good (your regular fried stuff), except for the chicken which I didn't eat. E said it tasted like spicy chicken so I decided I wasn't missing out. There was 4 different sauces to dip in: Barbeque sauce (not like the one from Oceana Grille, but the normal kind!), tartar sauce, a tomato based sauce and a tartar-like sauce without the pickles.


E and I split another appetizer, BBQ Oysters with garlic toast. The oysters were very fresh, plump and tender. The sauce was, well, BBQ sauce. I'm not a fan of BBQ sauce, so it was all right.


Someone else's meal came with cornbread and I decided I wanted some too. It was your regular cornbread, nothing too special. I think I still liked the one at Vidalia's more. Ha.


Total Cost: $25 split amongst 6 people = $4 + $5 +tax + tip = $12.50

Ye Old College Inn (2009.04.03)

Day two dinner was a team outing at Ye Old College Inn at some location in New Orleans (I don't have the address). No appetizer today, just plain old entrees.

E ordered the Grilled Mahi Mahi atop a bed of sauteed spinach with a lobster beurre blanc and garnished with mashed potatoes, tortilla sticks and shrimp. I only tried the mashed potatoes, they were a bit cold. Bleh. The dish looked good though and E seemed to enjoy it.

I decided I needed to turn on the flash. I ordered the Fresh Fish (Redfin) Meuniere, grilled and topped with a creole meuniere sauce over a sauteed medley of fresh asparagus, baby spinach and chopped tomatoes. It was tangy and good. I don't really like tomatoes with my food, but it tasted pretty good in this dish. I enjoyed this dish but it wasn't alot, a bit more like the upscale dining in MD and not the big platters of LA.

This is why I wanted to order dessert. I don't remember the actual name since I didn't take a picture of the menu. However, it's something like "Fried Bread Pudding PoBoy". Everything in LA is "poboy" style, aka fried. Well, we kept thinking they meant poboy to mean in a sandwich, as all poboys are, but our server, Jimmy, cleared it up for us. They take the bread pudding, cuts half of it and deep frys it. Then they put it back on the original bread pudding and puts rum sauce over it with confectionate sugar on top. It was good. It looked better than the regular bread pudding a couple other people got. The funny thing was AJ mentioned bread pudding on Wednesday when I saw her. And I told her then I never had it before and asked if it was like rice pudding, she gave me a funny face and told me she couldn't describe it. Now I know. It's not that hard to describe!! LOL


Total cost = 17.95 + 4.50 + tax + tip = $30

Oceana Grille (2009.04.02)

Day one in New Orleans. As soon as we got to the B&B we went out in search for Lunch/Dinner. We had a gift certificate for Oceana Grille (739 Conti St). The GC was worth $25 but we purchased it for $2. The stipulation? Had to eat over $50 for two people, excluded alcohol, not that we ordered any.

So we ordered two appetizers and two entrees. Yes, lots of food for two people, but we managed. This first one is Louisiana Crab Cakes in a crawfish cream sauce. E and I each ate one. It had a lot of breading and really wasn't that special. The sauce was very creamy and had a remoulade hint to it. I still like the crabcake at King's Contrivance or G&M's.


The other appetizer was Cajun Alligator Sausage "Atchafalaya." I never had alligator before, and no, I don't consider it "meat." It wasn't very special, acceptable. It tasted like a cross between pork and beef, texture-wise.


Next came the entrees, E ordered Redfish"Amer" which was sauteed redfish topped with crawfish and mushroom cream sauce, served with potatoes and vegetables. It wasn't really "sauteed" - there was breading on it and it seemed fried or grilled. I tried some, it was ok...


I ordered Barbequed Shrimp - New Orleans Style. The menu states that it is barbequed in a buttery pepper sauce cooked in their shells with cafun french bread for dipping. Well, no shells (and I assumed it to be large shrimps) and that yellow-orange stuff if grease...yuck... The tiny gritty stuff was probably garlic, but it tasted funny. I didn't like it. I ended up putting all my shrimp around the plate so the grease would drip off and picked the garlic off. My plate looked pretty funny as I was eating. No, not as tasteful as I wanted it to be.


Total Cost = 12.50 + 8 + 18 + 18 = 56.50 - 25GC = 31.50 + tax + tip (based on 56.50) = $45
LA tax is 9%, what fun...
With the GC it wasn't a bad deal for two people. Though, the taste, was... =/

Oh, and though it was 'alot of food' - I manged to finish off all the shrimps, the 3 alligators, 1 crab cake and 1/4 of the red fish and some potatoes. No, I wasn't really stuffed either! =P

CHIPOTLE!

And we have a winner!!! LOL! I can't believe I never took pictures of my Chipotle. Well, here it is, my creation. hehe. You really can't tell from this picture, but my Chicken Burrito Bol has lots of rice with black beans, chicken, hot salsa, tomato salsa, corn salsa and lettuce. I get the same thing every time, without fail. Sometimes I'll get steak, but rarely now since they've upped their prices.

So the official ingredients from the website:
Rice: White rice with freshly chopped cilantro, a dash of citrus juice (I think that means lemon juice) and salt
Black Beans: Black beans are seasoned with cumin, garlic and special spices (that will not be revealed). Slow cooked until tender.
Chicken: Marinated overnight in smoky, spicy chipotle pepper adobo, then grilled. The char marks impart a subtle caramelized flavor.
Tomato Salsa: Chopped red, ripe tomatoes, mixed with red onions, jalapeno peppers and freshly chopped cilantro for a mildly tangy, refreshing taste.
Hot Salsa: This salsa of pureed chiles de arbol, tomatillos and fresh spices is smooth, fill-bodied and a rich, rusty, red color. Very hot. (Sort of, I’ve gotten 3 spoofuls of that stuff before..)
Corn Salsa: Sweet, succulent corn, blended with roasted poblano peppers, jalapeno peppers, red onions, and freshly chopped cilantro. This unique, robust salsa is both sweet and mildly hot.
Lettuce: (Just plain old lettuce in shreds...gee what else did you expect?!?) Except, Chipotle manages to write a few lines about this…Crisp, fresh leaves of crunchy romaine lettuce, cust just right to accompany your tacos. Omit rice and add lettuce to your burrito bowl for a Chipotle salad.

One day, I WILL attempt to make this, but let's start with either working there or buying that house to make it in. ^_^


Total price for a happy stomach: $6.14 + tax = $6.25 (this being the price at the one in Chinatown, I know for a fact the prices are different if you go to the CP, Greenbelt or Columbia one...yes I've been to them all! AND we found one in Dupont Circle when we left from Vidalia's!)

Vidalia - DC Restaurant Week

So, another Restaurant week excursion, this time with E for lunch. Vidalia's is an American cuisine concentrate on Southern foods, in the up-scale version. It's located at 1990 M St, NW, Washington DC, just past the McD's is you're walking from the Dupont Circle stop. The service was excellent, no complaints there. The gentleman we had was very polite and was great! The food...well a bit od a different story...

I took pictures of E's 3-course as well, so I'll explain a bit of both...

We started with a "pre-appetizer" - Corn Bread and Onion Bread. It was strange to eat the onion bread after the corn bread, but it probably would've tasted better in a sandwich or something anyway. E ate her onion bread before I took a picture, that's why you see 2 corn breads and an onion bread...


On to my appetizer: Sunny Side Up Path Valley Hen Egg which composed of chicken liver fondue, yellow corn grits and julienne black truffle. Now that I think about is there even such a thing as a Rooster Egg? Well that explains the picture below... I think I should've chosen something else... I didn't like the sauce or grits...it had a strange flavor I couldn't swallow. And I really didn't eat much of it either, just some of the egg whites. The truffles didn't taste like anything, just texture...


E ordered Crispy Pig Tails which had pickled turnips, quail egg, pink lady apple sauce and rye jus. I guess that explains the white and red thing on the side, quail egg and pickled turnips. I don't see how this is "pig tails" plural... I didn't taste it, so no comment from me, but E ate the whole thing so I guess it was acceptable to some respect.


For my entree I got the thing I wrote about in my status all week: Southern Fried Frog Legs which had blue cornmeal polenta, cinnamon cap mushrooms and garlic emulsion. Well, it was rather interesting. I never had frog legs before, and they really do taste like chicken, just without the big bones in them. It only had a tiny toothpick like thing and the joints. The sauce, again was strange to me. I don't know why the mushroomc were called "cinnamon cap" since it didn't have anything cinnamon to it. It was like the oriental white mushroom I had before, only bigger.


E got the Shrimp and Grits which had yellow grits, andouille sausage, pearl onions and spicy shellfish cream. It's rather bubbly. Ther table next to us got this and it wasn't bubbly at all, how strange. I had a shrimp and it tasted like shrimp. I didn't try the rest of it, the bubbliness was a tad strange to me.


On to dessert! I got Vidalia's Lemon Chess Square which was a buttery crust layered with rich lemon custard, garnished with berry compote and sweet cream. I really though the 'sweet cream' was just a thick whip cream. Ha. And it has a tree, which I'm attempting to write a story about later... It was pretty good and I was looking forward to it since the pre-course was just ok... It's as it describes and was pretty tasty.


E got the Banana Napoleon which had caramelized bananas with salted caramel mousse, bitter sweet chocolate layers and salted caramel sauce. I had a piece of it, the choclate wasn't exactly 'bittersweet' but it tasted pretty good. I didn't try the caramel sauce, now that I know it was 'salted' that was probably a good idea not to try it! Though the salted caramel mousse didn't taste bad so the sauce probably wasn't too bad either.


It's a good thing the dessert was good otherwise I would've been rather disappointed. I still think I ordered the wrong appetizer which just kind of set me off a bit..

Total price: r-wk price $20.09 + tax + tip = $26/person

So here's my tree! Isn't it pretty?


And it got de-rooted...


And in an attempt to plant it back into the "Earth" (caramel sauce)...


The End. *applause*

富記 (Full Kee)

At 富記 (Full Kee) in DC (H St, I think) we grabbed our dinner. We both ordered a type of noodle soup. The first picture shows 燒鴨混沌河粉湯 (Roasted duck, wontons and he fun soup). The duck was good. The wontons were a mix of shrimp and pork and were additions to the soup. That was good too. He fun is a thick rice noodle. Also very good.


E ordered a 叉燒混沌蛋麵湯 (BBQ pork, wontons and egg noodle soup). The BBQ pork was pretty good, very standard BBQ pork. The egg noodles, all right. I may have to try it again, but I like he fun alot, so maybe not...hehe


Total price: $16.50 ($7.50 for each bowl + tax + tip)

大家樂 (Szechuan House)

At 大家樂 (Szechuan House) at 748 6th Street NW in DC, E and I had brunch before heading to the Auto Show a few blocks away. E ordered the Congee for both of us as well as the 油條.

This first picture shows the congee, the pork is the pinkish stuff and the preserved egg is the black stuff. Congee is basically rice cooked in alot of water. The soup is thick due to the rice being almost gone (not in it's original rice shape). Here you can't see the shape of the rice at all. The spring onions give the light breakfast a kick and come color to the dish.


This picture is part of a 油條. (I wasn't quick enough to take a picture before someone devoured half of it =P) I'm not a big fan of this since I know some of the ingredients in it. It tastes crispy and is only good when it's crispy. It's poofy (alot of air) and is made of dough and was fried (to it's golden brown color). In Taiwan this is eaten with soy bean milk (as the table next to us had this) but E (and HK people) eat this with their congee, as seen in the last picture.


The 油條 is placed into the congee to compliment the lightness of the congee with the fried 油條. This is kind of like putting crispy noodles (or saltine crackers) into soup. It adds a bit of substance to it as well. This is E's bowl of congee with 油條 mixed in it. I ate mine separately. ^_^


Total Price: $12.75 ($5 per congee, $2 for you tiao, plus ridiculous DC tax)