Farewell to Wheels

Today: my last ride on the bus that started autoFoodography. The Crystal City metro shuttle that added up to 20 minutes to my commute and countless characters to your cortexes. Following our move, next week my commute will be halved, but I'm hoping I still harness in enough time to haphazardly continue my culinary-literary hijinks. My culinary journey will not end but improve and invariably incite my innovation. My literary drive will never fade into melancholy malaise. And my creative wheels will continue to turn, despite never again happening atop the turning wheels of a bus. So don't fear the retirement of the bus ride lyrics upon my move, get excited for the countless dishes I'll be making in my new kitchen and the restaurants I'll be trying in my new neighborhoods. As for finding the time to construct the words on a severely shortened commute: leave that one to me. If you continue to share your time reading, I'll continue to share my time writing.

Farewell, Crystal City

Yes, we are moving away from Crystal City. Well, not far though – to neighboring neighborhood, Pentagon City. So we will not actually be saying good-bye to the many restaurants of Crystal City. Perhaps we'll just not be frequenting them as much. Crystal City is definitely an up-and-coming portion of Arlington, VA and the DC area, but really could use a further infusion of great restaurants and night life attractions. For now, it's a little vanilla for our tastes, but we did have some worthwhile culinary experiences here. But all general complaints aside, with us moving next door, now is a perfect time, in my opinion, to reflect on the restaurants in Crystal City, from good, to mediocre, to mediocre, to mediocre to bad.

~~~~BEST-TO-WORST OF CRYSTAL CITY CULINARY~~~~

McGinty's Public House (near corner of South Glebe Road and Route 1, in with Harris Teeter): The newest restaurant in the area and certainly the best. We can't stop going there, and it is finally bringing the slightest bit of nightlife to the area. The bar is open late and they've had some great nighttime entertainment. Plus, the menu is very unique, the food is delicious and the prices aren't bad. It's simply a very fun place and Crystal needs more like it.

Hamlet Restaurant (North end of Crystal City shops off the CC Metro): Consistently the best place to just go for a relaxing burger and a beer. Great menu has lots of nice options and the service is usually quite friendly. The fries aren't that great, but the burgers are terrific.

Jaleo (Crystal Drive and 23rd Street): Great atmosphere place that serves Spanish tapas and al fresco in the nice weather. The tapas themselves didn't all "pop" but they were still very tasty. This is consistently one of the best places in the area.

Legal Sea Foods (Clark Street and 23rd Street): Great seafood menu with delicious, fresh and creative options. The lobster was fantastic. The lump crab soup is terrific as well. Plus they had great accommodations for the vegetarians, something hard to find in a fish place.

Crystal Bonsai Sushi (23rd Street between Eads and Fern, north side of street): Simple, inexpensive, quality sushi. This combination is not easy to find around here, as I've documented. This isn't the absolute greatest place, as it sometimes shows some of its hole-in-the-wall weaknesses, but in all they have some nice dinner combo specials and are a nice easy place to go for dinner.

Charlie Chiang's Restaurant at Crystal City: This woefully under patronized Chinese restaurant actually has some fantastic Chinese dishes as well as the Mongolian “make your own stir fry” option. I've always loved some of the more creative Chinese dishes on the menu. Very unassuming place, but one I like a lot.

Enjera Eritrean (23rd Street between Eads and Fern, north side of street): The more consistent, tastier, less value and less friendly of the two Ethiopian restaurants on 23rd Street (see below). Hey, the food always wins for me.

La Bettola Italiano (23rd Street between Eads and Fern, south side of street): Cute, little Italian restaurant with great rosemary bread and a nice, classic Italian menu. Nothing special here, but as such a little unknown, it's a fun place to come for a romantic dinner. They seem to be closed a lot, so that sometimes sends us to its competitors.

Cafe Pizzaiolo (23rd Street between Eads and Fern, north side of street): Definitely the best pizza around, but service is a major afterthought. The salads are not good and their very enticing array of gelatos yields gelato that is not very special.

San Antonio Bar & Grill (North end of Crystal City shops off the CC Metro): Decent Mexican food, with very good chips and salsa. Their dishes are usually pretty good and huge but sometimes slightly oddly-conceived (i.e. grilled chicken and quail fajitas, where the chicken is deboned and ready to go for fajita-constructing and the quail still has all of its annoying little bones, making it hardly conducive for fajitas. Things like that annoy me and are commonplace here.)

Don Pablo's Mexican Kitchen (in Target complex on Route 1, past South Glebe Road): Again, decent Mexican food in a chain restaurant. Sometimes the food is pretty good, sometimes it's pretty lame. The $2 beers and $3 margaritas make it all better though most of the time. The fresh corn chips, salsa and tortillas shine, but the rest of the ingredients tend to be quite mediocre.

Harar Mesob (23rd Street between Eads and Fern, south side of street): The less consistent, less tasty, more value and more friendly of the two Ethiopian restaurants on 23rd Street. This one has fallen from previous glory, as it was a few consecutive underwhelming visits here that even led us to try its across-the-street rival. We haven't been back.

Bebo Trattoria [CLOSED] (Crystal Drive near 23rd Street): This over-hyped Italian place from Chef Roberto Donna was a mess when we went there. They had two wait staff for a completely packed dining room, and they were both incredibly rude. The food took forever and then was completely wrong – the waiter then even blamed us for not saying the right order. When the correct food arrived, it was borderline inedible for the vegetarian pizza Julia ordered. The meatballs I got for $18+ were just that – two small, decent meatballs, no pasta or any garnish. Even the olive oil for the bread was basically cooking oil it was so watery; I'm not even sure it was olive, let alone extra virgin. Needless to say, we were neither surprised nor saddened when we saw that this restaurant closed up a few weeks ago. It will be replaced by a Chef Morou (of Next Iron Chef glory) restaurant and we are incredibly excited for THAT to open.

Cafe Italia (23rd Street between Eads and Fern, north side of street): Bland, weird Italian. Mainly classic Italian menu, this place has struck out several times and just always leaves me feeling a little queasy. Plus, the décor is hideous; the décor reminds me of what you’d see at a place featured on Hell’s Kitchen. Let’s hope the kitchen itself isn’t as bad.

Cantina Mexicana (23rd Street between Eads and Fern, north side of street): Less-than-decent Mexican. I can barely remember this place, but what I do remember was not good. Tasteless chorizo. Bad salsa. Non-fresh tortillas. Slimy tomatoes. Poor service. Let's just say, it took me 20 minutes just now to remember the name.

Matsutake Sushi & Steakhouse (Clark Street near 23rd Street): Sparkly Japanese steakhouses and sushi bars in my neighborhood tend to get me excited. This place looks so enticing and has a nice-looking menu. But the combination of incredibly slow service not even including the wait for a backed-up sushi bar (despite very few customers), practically-inedible sushi due to poor craftsmanship and tough cuts of fish, and bad vegetarian sushi, all paired with unexpectedly exorbitant prices doomed this place quickly. It's now the prime example of restaurants we desperately try to avoid.

The Rest: There are lots of other chains like Corner Bakery, Cosi, Quizno's, Subway, Chipotle and Jerry's that we’ve been to occasionally, and several high-end restaurants like Morton's, Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, McCormack & Schmick's and Portofino Restaurant that we haven't patronized yet because of price and/or not having enough vegetarian offerings for Julia. Lack of vegetarian friendliness was also the reason we skipped out on Ted's Montana Grill and Crystal City Sports Pub. All others unmentioned just never met our fancy.

All in all, I give Crystal City a B+ for quantity of restaurants, a B for variety, a B- for restaurant quality, a C+ for uniqueness of restaurants, a D for brunch and lunch and a D+ for shopping and other pre/post-dinner attractions. I still see potential for this area in the next 2-5 years, but right now, Crystal is still searching for the “fun” and “unique” that will definitely put it over the top. Once we move, I'll be just down the street, so I'll still be able to “reap” if and when this area does take off.

A Call For Better Sushi Joints

I've said it before and I've heard it from others. So it's not just me. The sushi scene is weak in this area. The Washington DC metro area, complete with northern Virginia and a large chunk of Maryland enjoys a surprising dearth of high quality, affordable sushi, a combination in a sushi joint that I've found many times over in Ann Arbor and Manhattan alike. I'm looking for a neighborhood place that's not necessarily cheap, just not inflated. The fish needs to be high quality and consistent and the work not sloppy. That is all I ask for – a place I can go and grab sushi without even thinking about it. I've been to at least a dozen different local susheries since moving to the DC area and have yet to come close. The relatively inexpensive sushi I've found has been being bland and junky and anything nicer I've found has been so incredibly overpriced that it puts even most NYC joints easily to shame. I don't need frou-frou, I need neighborhood. DC doesn't always do neighborhood so well.

I recently found a strong contender – Bonsai Sushi on 23rd St near Fern in Crystal City in Arlington, Virginia. About as hole-in-the-wall as I've seen around here, which gave me fond memories of a couple of my favorite Ann Arbor and New York sushi joints. Small, unpretentious, fast, efficient, high quality, simple, well priced, tasty. All the things I need and nothing more. Not so cheap that I'm getting ungainly cucumber (my sushi pet peeve) in rolls as filler for fish or avocado, but not so overdone and overpriced that I'm pressured into ordering the Barak Obama Roll and the Super Man Verses Godzilla Roll for $17 each that make their $12 spicy tuna roll look like a real bargain. Perfectly in the middle and great sushi. The tuna was cut perfectly and tasted perfectly lovely. I stayed simple and just ordered the tuna sampler, so that's all I can say for now. But perfect tuna for a good price is a perfect start for me to a beautiful little relationship. It's only been once and consistency is the last and most crucial trait (see Café Asia). I will be trying Bonsai again and giving it that chance to become one of my “destinations” like my sushi places always becomes. And I will try other potential great sushi places – like the new Current (in Dupont Circle) tomorrow for my sister's birthday.

But seriously, DC area, you can do better! Crystal City is not the only place I should be resorting to for good sushi around here. I'm looking for better than that and hope to be further impressed shortly. You’re on notice, and I’ll be keeping my eyes open.

To Burger or Four Burger

I'd been to Hamlet Restaurant several times before I discovered it’s most awesome and innovative dish. Later I found out the place is sometimes called Hamburger Hamlet, so the title became more fittingly apropos for the dish. I had never tried a burger there, always skipping over the page-long burger portion and ultimately settling on the good-but-not-great selections from their sandwiches, salads, small plates, burritos and entrees. Why did the skip the burger and fries? Maybe trying to be healthy? However, they offer all of their burgers in all-beef, turkey or veggie patty, so I could have done a burger more healthily even before this occasion. As it happens, I was craving a burger, fries and beer this weekend, and Julia was too. So we split our 40 minute walk to the mall (for last-minute holiday shopping) with lunch at Hamlet, halfway there, near the Crystal City Metro (in the Crystal City Shops at 1750.)

After ordering huge Yinglings and looking down the burger menu, I saw too many burgers I wanted to try. There was the All American Classic cheeseburger with American cheese, onion, lettuce, tomato, pickle and Thousand Island dressing – how could one go wrong? But then there was the Steakhouse Blue Burger with lettuce, onion, tomato, Wisconsin blue cheese, horseradish sauce and A1 – a great combination that just couldn't be bad. And then there was the Hickory Burger with lettuce, tomato, onion, cheddar, bacon, an onion ring and BBQ sauce – decadent and utterly tempting, at least for the first bite or two. And finally, there was the Caliente Burger with lettuce, tomato and caramelized onion, pepper jack cheese and roasted Serrano and cilantro pesto – very creative and mouthwatering. How could one decide? I was afraid I'd regret my decision. Finally, I was all set to order the Caliente Burger – the same one Julia had decided on in its veggie patty version – when I saw at the very bottom, the ultimate. Mini versions of all four burgers which were tempting me, all on a single plate! What luck – no regrets needed!

And what an amazing dish it was. Each one slightly more different than the last, I had the perfect amount of each. It was a foodie's dream.

So how were they?

American: Classic and delicious, highlighted by the pickles, onions and American cheese providing enough salt and tang to groove up the classic patty and bun. You all know the taste – can't go wrong.

Steakhouse Blue: If there could have been a weak link, it was this burger. Its taste was quite interesting but didn't have a lot of bleu or horseradish flavor and was slightly sweet. A little more flavor from the star ingredients and this would have gone from pretty good to great. Maybe it’s because I am not much of an A1 sauce person, but I don't see how horseradish and blue cheese could have been overshadowed by the sweetness of anything else.

Hickory: The onion ring, the bacon, the cheese, the BBQ sauce. All played together as well as you would hope they would. Crunchy, savory, sweet, tangy and salty all together. My one complaint is the onion ring being a little to crusty – I would have preferred a lighter, crispier ring, perhaps a tempura-style ring. Nevertheless, it was tasty even after two bites, which was better than expectations. And since I only had three bites of the burger on there anyway, I never had to eat too much to get disappointed with it.

Caliente: The flavor on this burger was incredible. Julia and I both noticed it was very hard to eat. I informed her that that is how you know it's a good burger, but in all honesty, it was a little “slippery.” That was probably due to the awesomely flavored, yet thick and generous Serrano and cilantro pesto on each burger. I couldn’t believe how much of this thick, green stuff we were given, but it was remarkable. I have never had a burger with so much umph before and this one had a layered, lasting flavor, but not overpowering or too spicy or anything. A real winner in my book.

If I had to go back and get just one burger? Maybe the American. Or the Caliente. Or maybe I'd see if they could do a full sized burger with one third American, one third Caliente, one sixth Hickory and one sixth Steakhouse Blue. You know, if I could vote proportionally.

2008 Chinese Food Olympics

With all the excitement brewing for the Olympics starting in just one week, and gossip about the 10,000-person cast, top secret opening ceremony performance swirling around, I can't help but feel the international thrill that we're supposed to feel every two years when the Olympic Games roll around. All politics and protests aside, I am happy the games are in China (except for the tape delays or 3:00 AM events). To me, it reminds me of all the great things about the country, people and culture of China. But as sure as any warm-blooded American, it also reminds me of the food!

Chinese cuisine in America is as diverse as, well, America. There is bottom of the barrel, greasy garbage and there are high-end, culinary interpretations. We see myriad different regions of China represented, and now with Asian fusion being so popular, many restaurants have modernized and blended with other Asian and even euro cuisines for some dazzling results. I've seen a Chinese restaurant win Restaurant of the Year in the suburban Detroit area recently, your greasy college-campus fried rice and dumplings delivery, as well as an incredible Sunday morning dim sum brunch right in the heart of Chinatown in Manhattan. (Incredible, even ignoring the seven heart attacks I wanted to have later that afternoon!) Bottom line is, it's tough to find good Chinese restaurants because there are SO many, the gems are often hidden, and we all know so many of the dishes and envision our ideal version, that it is tough to try even the most conservative variation and enjoy it.

This is why I look for two extremes: the absolute classic or absolute creativity and innovation. I took a shot at creativity recently in my new neighborhood – Crystal City in Arlington, Virginia – at Charlie Chiang's Crystal City, a member of the Charlie Chiang's family of restaurants in the DC area. And surprisingly, I ended up right in the middle of my two extremes! And I was pretty darn happy. Décor? Decent. Service? Adequate, especially because our very nice waiter seemed obsessed with making sure Julia’s order actually was vegetarian top to bottom. Price? Very affordable for the area. One Japanese beer, one specialty martini, one appetizer, one soup, two entrees, tax and tip got us out of there for under $50. Not bad. But as always, it is really the food I care about. If the peripherals at a place are excessively good or excessively bad, I’ll care, but other than that, they are what they are – peripherals.

MENU – What I like about this menu is that it has a classic Chinese food setup (i.e. apps, soups, chicken, seafood, etc) but the dishes within are mostly updates of classics, fusion dishes or new dishes altogether. Plus, they offer a Mongolian Barbecue style make-your-own stir-fry bar, which adds an extra layer of intrigue to an already loaded menu. There are dishes like Lamb of Two Seasons and Orange-Tangerine Steak, which looked very appealing, and an extensive and interesting vegetarian offering, including Garlic Eggplant and Asparagus Kung Pao Tofu. They have a healthy “revolutions” section too, which offers healthier dishes that go particularly well with sodium-, sugar-, gluten- or MSG-free diets. Plus they have a full bar with lots of house specialty drinks, wine by the glass and bottle and a decent beer selection.

OUR ORDER

VEGETARIAN PAN-FRIED DUMPLINGS– This appetizer, one of the classics of Chinese Food restaurants, is one of our favorites. We like them steamed too, for a somewhat healthier option, but we wanted to try them in all their glory. And it was a good decision! They were a little different from normal dumplings, but excellent. They had a slightly crispy but still soft exterior, and the inside was packed with interesting flavors including zucchini, marinated tofu and more typical dumpling insides like scallions. Plus, the sauce was a very nice complement, nicely and ever-so-slightly sweet and not too salty or soy saucy. It was just enough too prime us for our dinner.

VEGETARIAN HOT AND SOUR SOUP– Well, almost enough to prime me. I just cannot go to a Chinese food restaurant and skip soup, so when I saw their selections, I had to order. Not only did they have 100% Vegetarian Hot and Sour Soup (a rarity) but they had a seafood version as well, which sounded tremendous with fresh shrimp and scallops in the already rich broth. However, I opted for the simpler option, if not just to have the opportunity to let Julia try H&S Soup for the first time. She liked! And so did I! It came with some nice crispy wanton noodles and had a great bite to it, as it should. It had big pieces of very flavorful tofu and veggies. I nursed it down in less time than it took Julia to nurse her Chi Chi Martini (Vodka, crème of coconut and pineapple juice).

CHARLIE CHIANG'S CRISPY PURPLE EGGPLANT – We found this entrée on their “Chef’s Recommendation” section, which happened to have quite a few interesting dishes. Julia was impressed by the fact that there even was a vegetarian special, as it is not common in her experience, and thought it looked better than the regular vegetarian dishes, which she was already impressed by. So, she ordered this and it was superb. Not the healthiest thing in the world; but it doesn’t matter sometimes....Like the times when dishes are so unexpectedly good! These were little hunks of eggplant fried up and then served with an awesome orange peel and chili sauce. I thought the sauce complemented the eggplant perfectly and I did not find it excessively sweet, even though it was meant to be a sweet sauce. Okay I’ll just say it! They were McDonald’s Chicken Nuggets! Or at least tasted like big McD’s chicken nuggets with a nice smattering of really good Sweet and Sour sauce. For someone like me, who used to love those little things and has since sworn off fast food, this was like heaven. Because they literally tasted the same, but were not goopy, weird McDonald’s chicken fried in who knows what, but honest to goodness hunks of eggplant. I was hooked. Oh yeah, and since it was Julia’s meal, I guess I should mention that she liked it too – and thought it was cool that they tasted like McDonald’s chicken nuggets (considering this lifelong vegetarian has never even tried a chicken nugget)!

SHREDDED PORK WITH HOT PEPPERS– This was my choice, because it was probably the best looking of all the non-deep fried dishes, and well, you know, I try. The name was a little bit of a misnomer, but that was good in my opinion. Rather than shredded pork (as in pulled pork), this was jagged, little strips of pork – almost like how chicken and lamb are in Middle Eastern Shwarma plates. And it was barbecued and tasted amazing! The whole dish had a great smokiness that you can only get from grilling, and the strips were complemented with small chunks of bell peppers, jalapeños, scallions and black beans, and it just had a light sauce over it. It was so festive and colorful, and everything was cut to the perfect size for appetizing eating. But for this one, I need to emphasize the smoky flavor above all. It made the dish, and my night!

And the other beauty of Chinese food – you can never finish it all, and it saves SO well. I had the remains of both dishes for lunch the next day, and well let’s just say Charlie Chiang’s, chain or no chain, made my next day as well! I’ll be looking for excuses to go back, if not just to try some more of their cool-sounding takes on traditional Chinese fare. And with the Olympics right around the corner, my excuse might be hand delivered via NBC.

Check out my reviews of these places in even more detail at Menuism.com!