Nom Nom Nom

One thing that I have been doing a lot of this fall/winter season is eating. Yes, I know I'm paying for it since I will have to be beach body ready in a couple of months, but Lord knows I  have been enjoying the good eats!

 

Justin and I finally made it to Toki Underground the day before Thanksgiving. I can't believe as a DC local and DC area native this is my first time dining at this place. We went during the day and still had to wait (about 20 mins) for a seat. Not too bad, comparing it to the multi-hour waits on the weekend evenings. So the key is come early and come during the day if you can!

Our server (I forgot her name but she had cute purple hair!) was friendly, informative and attentive. She gave us a great description of each item. We started off with the pork dumplings which were tasty and came with a sauce that had a little heat. Note: for lunch they only do steamed, not fried dumplings. My hubby ordered the classic (which I highly recommend you order if it's your first time) with pork cheek and extra noodles and I ordered the kimchee with pork cheek because I like things spicy!

 

Sorry I didn't take too many pics. I didn't want to seem like a huge dork/fangirl...LOL...

 

When our order came out it looked as if my bowl had the extra noodles instead of my husbands. Chef Erik overheard us (we were seated at the "chef's table"--in front of the kitchen :) and gladly made my husband an extra bowl of noodles on the spot. He was super nice and chatted with us for a bit, although I was a little shy and didn't want to bother him. In hindsight I should have chatted him up about the upcoming opening of Maketto, but I digress...

Anyway, I couldn't finish the extra order of noodles I unexpectedly received, but they packed it up. Btw, they separate the noodles and the broth so when you reheat it, your noodles don't get super soggy!

Lastly, I had a little bit of room for dessert and their fresh baked cookies were delicious on a cold rainy day. They come with a red bean miso which makes for the perfect combination of salty and sweet.

Another restaurant, I dined at was Water and Wall in Arlington. It is the newest creation from the team that brought you Maple Ave. (which I love!). I went with a couple of my crossfit gals and we definitely came with our appetites! Since it was all of our first time eating at this place, we decided to try a bunch of their appetizers. One of the apps we ordered was the shrimp and grits. They were so tasty and the grits made the perfect complement to the spicy shrimp broth.

 

 

 

We also ordered the bone marrow, which goes without saying. One of my friends hadn't tried bone marrow before...boy was she in for a treat!

 

Another appetizer we ordered was the steamed mussels. They were tasty and I enjoyed the Chinese sausage in the broth. However, between the bone marrow and the mussels the three of us didn't have enough bread to enjoy all the bone marrow-y and brothy goodness. Each appetizer only came with two pieces of bread. When I asked for extra bread, the server said it would cost extra (I can't remember how much). That was kind of annoying since you figure how cheap bread is and how much we were spending. We sucked it up and ordered the extra bread.

 

Now to the entrees!

 

I got the duck confit which was divine! Perfectly crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside, with the delicious layer of fat in between. Served atop Brussels sprouts it made for a filling and tasty meal (which I couldn't finish since I had stocked up on the appetizers!)

 

My friend got the beef cheek which looked really good! We shared a bit of entrees with one another, and her dish was good too!

 

My other friend went with the meatless option, the sweet potato risotto which was good, but I preferred the meat dishes!

 

Although we had ordered a ton of appetizers and entrees we still made room for dessert. We ordered the mochi (which is a standard at Maple Ave).

 

And what I think were apple fritters with vanilla ice cream. I can't remember. Either way, both desserts were wonderful and the perfect was to end a meal.

Wow, I'm getting hungry just thinking about all these delicious dishes! Do you do a lot of eating when it started to get cold? For some reason, I find it comforting to eat good food and stuff my face the minute the temperature drops ;)

Napa Valley Girls Weekend

Every year we plan a girls' weekend so we can get together and getaway. This year we decided to go to Napa Valley! Here's a brief synopsis (with pictures) of what we did!

 

Our day started off with early morning flights into San Francisco. After picking up our rental we headed toward Napa, but our hotel wasn't ready yet. Since I got up at 4am to make our 6am flight I was starving so we went to nearby Fairfield to eat some crepes at Crepes-N-More.

 

I got the chicken cordon bleu crepe which was super yummy. The portion and sides of potato and salad made it a complete and reasonably priced meal. I was stuffed!

 

N. about to dive right in!

 

After that filling meal we strolled downtown Napa and visited some tasting rooms! The first tasting room we went to was Vintner's Collective. Our tasting host, Andy was really funny! He had an incredible memory too! After looking at our IDs just once he was able to recall all of our names, where we were from and our birthdates! But I'm sure you need a really good memory to recall all the wine facts. :)

 

The next tasting room we went to was Bounty Hunter Wine & Smokin' BBQ. This place was neat because they had wine flights with different themes (e.g.: champagne flights, red flights, etc.). We started to get a little hungry so we ordered the BBQ platter the share. It was the perfect amount of food for all three of us and it helped stave off the the wine buzz we were getting, LOL.

 

We didn't want to eat too much because we needed to head to the hotel to get ready for dinner at Morimoto.  I ordered the ishi yaki buri bop, a play off of Korean bimbimbap, but instead of meat, mine was made with yellowfin. Here is a shot of the server making my food tableside. What a neat presentation as the fish cooked in the hot stone bowl. 

 

 

Here's a shot of our decontructed s'more dessert. It was so good!

 

A shot of the three of us in the foyer of the restaurant.

The next day was jam packed so we woke up bright and early and got the day started off right with breakfast at Boon Fly Cafe. Some of the thngs we noshed on include the Boon Fly benedict with spicy jalapeno hollendaise...

 

And the breakfast flatbread topped with fried egg, bacon and caramelized onions. Yum! Not pictured were the Boon Fly doughnuts that were pipping hot and delicious!

 

After our filling breakfast it was on to our Napa Valley Bike Tour. We would be visiting two wineries and traveling approximately 14 miles (!!) via bike. D's bike skills were a little rusty and I had never bicycled on a road alongside fast moving cars. After a while she was riding around like a pro, although the cars still freaked me out a little bit. The first winery we went to was Odette Estate. Odette is a newly opened winery which offered a casual tasting in an open and relaxed setting. The second was Clos du Val where we had our tasting in a private room. Its setting was a little more upscale. We got to sample some some pretty expensive wines at this winery! Below is a picture of our tasting menu from Clos du Val along with this cute dog bed they made from one of their wine barrels.

Here is a close-up shot of the wine grapes  and us with our bike guide, John. He was super knowledgeable and nice. He even invited us to the winery where he does tastings, Conn Creek. He was such a good guide we visited him the next day!

 

 

After a day full bike riding and tastings, we were exhausted and needed to relax so we headed up north to Calistoga Spa Hot Springs to hit up their world famous mud baths! Our day at the spa was complete with the mineral rich mud baths, steam room and relaxation room. We ended our time at the spa with a dip in their mineral pool, filled with Calistoga spring water!

 

Our last meal in the Napa Valley area was at Thomas Keller's Bouchon. Here's some hot and crusty bread for the table!

 

A shot of my rabbit! Sorry it's blurry! Boo!

 

Flatbread complete with fresh truffle shavings on top! Thanks for giving me a sliver, it was delicious!

 

The classic French dish--croque monsieur.

 

And my fresh creamed corn...it was busting with flavor!

 

After eating, we headed to nearby St. Helena do some strolling. They had a really cute Main Street filled with little food shops and boutiques, but we couldn't stay long because someone had a plane to catch!

California Eatin'

While we were in California for our family reunion, we did a lot of eating. I don't know how California manages to have a health conscious reputation with all this good food around. I swear, I lived in Cali (again) I'd be eating myself silly. Let's start at the very beginning shall we?

We flew into Long Beach Airport and oddly enough, s often as I visit California I had never been to this airport. The interesting thing about this airport is that they don't have sky walks. So, when you deboard the plane you go via stairs straight outside. It kind of reminded me of flying somewhere tropical! Also, the airport itself is partially outdoors which also added to the tropical vibe.

Jill posing in front of Sweet Jill's in the airport. Although I heard great things about it, we never ate there just took a picture in front of it. ;)

Our first stop in California was Roscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles. I thought they only had locations in LA, but they had one in Long Beach so we had to hit it up! Here's Justin about to dive in and and a shot of my plate. The waffles were awesome! They had the perfect bit of sweetness and cinnamon in the waffle mix you almost didn't need the syrup...almost. :)

Look who else ate here--Barack Obama.

Despite our usual complaints of eating mostly Filipino food while we're in Cali the only Filipino restaurant we went to was here, the Salo Salo Grill. We didn't even hit up a Goldilocks or Jollibee which was surprising. Don't know exactly what my sisters are doing in this picture...

One night when we were craving Italian we went to Lupo D'Abruzzo in Cypress. It is a local, family owned spot that served up huge, tasty portions! Judy got this combination platter that offered up a little bit of everything while I ordered the lobster ravioli with cream sauce! Yummy!

 

After chowing down in the OC, we headed down to San Diego's Pacific Beach to do some grubbing there as well. We originally planned on hanging out on the beach, but it was so overcast we decided to do some shopping (and eating of course!) instead.

Here's a picture of Justin and I during our cloudy day at the beach...the sun was finally starting to pop up, but it was already the toward the end of the day...

Here is the shot of the yummy gyro I had at Vanoos Grillette.

Right next door Justin got himself a haircut at West Coast Cuts...

As a shopping snack we went to The Baked Bear, an ice cream sandwich shop. On the left is Justin's chocolate chip cookie with mint chocolate chip ice cream. I opted to get one snickerdoodle cookie and one red velvet cookie with cheesecake ice cream. I really like how you can customize your ice cream sandwich, however, I wish the ingredients were of a high quality. Not to reveal my hidden fat girl status, but I can tell if the ice cream has a lower milkfat quality (as compared to higher fat ice creams such as Haagen Daaz) and the cookies were just so-so (definitely no Mrs. Fields here). I know the prices are reasonable as they are now, but I would actually pay more if it were more high quality, know what I mean?

Our eating adventures didn't stop there! While on vacation we spent sometime in Temecula and got to discover Old Town Temecula! First stop in Temecula, Aztek Tacos for some tasty authentic Mexican food! The taco on your left is a Mexican style carne asada taco. On your right is their quesataco, where the filling is enveloped in crunchy cheese, yum!

Of course we had to get carne asada fries!

Justin and his huge carne asada burrito. California knows its Mexican food!

On another day after a good, long workout my family and I were trying to find a bite to eat. We looked up Havana Kitchen and saw the great Yelp reviews! This place is amazing! I knew I could count on my fellow Yelpers not to lead me wrong!

I had the Cuban sloppy joe which was the perfect combination of sweet and spicy. It's pairing with salted kettle cooked chips worked out well as I used my chips to scoop up the excess sloppy joe as "chip dip." Yum!

Both the sister and the hubs got Cuban sandwiches which were delicious. The right amount of meat and condiments--mayo and pickles and whatnot. The bread was excellent and must be authentic bread used for Cuban sandwiches because it had the right consistency of hard on the outside and soft on the inside.

The sides were also good. The empanadas were super flaky and delicious. The plantains and the beans and rice were devoured!

But wait, our meal doesn't end there! My sister got the guava pastry, thinking that she would save it for later, but we ended up eating it on the spot. Just like a cheese blintz with some tropical flavor. Lastly, I had the iced salted latte which totally hit the spot on a hot day. It had the perfect hint of salt, not overpowering. Next time, I'm in Temecula I would love to visit this place again!

Whew! That's a lot of food! After getting back from California Justin and I knew that we had do some damage control, however, with three out-of-state weddings on the horizon I hope it won't be difficult for me to get back on the right track!

Weekend Review: Kennedy Center and Continued Anniversary Festivities

Can you believe I've been living in the DC Metro Area for almost 20 years and I've never been to the Kennedy Center? Oddly enough, I have run beneath it several times during races, such as the Cherry Blossom 10 miler and the Rock and Roll Half Marathon, but never been in it.  I've even drove past it countless times while driving on Rock Creek Parkway.

A few months ago, tickets went on sale for the Book of Mormon, a musical written by the creators of South Park. It has won several Tony awards and I've heard such great things about it.  When I heard it was coming to the Kennedy Center, I knew I had to see it! After waiting in an online queue for two hours, we got our tickets and we were all set! I figured it would be a good belated anniversary gift to us! Although metro delays got us nervous for our 1:30pm showtime, our worries went away as soon as the show began. The show started off with such great energy we were excited to see what songs they would sing next.

Photo courtesy of Book of Mormon Broadway

During intermission, I walked around the Kennedy Center and snapped some shots of the beautiful interior.

A shot of Justin and I waiting for the complementary shuttle back to the metro. Why is it that over the years my eyes seem to be getting more and more chinky squinty? LOL...

The Book of Mormon was a great show, and if you were lucky enough to snag tickets to this musical while it's in town, you are in for a great treat! 

After the show, we grabbed some food at Woodward Table. We started off with some spicy mussels served with some crusty bread. The chorizo in the broth gave the mussels a kick!

Despite not eating red meat too often, Justin made a special exception and treated himself to a New York strip steak. 

I opted for the duck breast cooked to a perfect medium with skin that had the right balance of crispy and fatty. It was served atop spinach and parsnips (I think?). Mmm...

Despite having some drinks at the bar before our reservation, an appetizer, and an entree, I still wanted to try the dessert! Somehow, I was determined to try something sweet despite being stuffed.  Looking at the menu beforehand, I wanted to try the bread pudding.  Because my stomach was almost at max capacity, we opted for the homemade cheesecake with lemon curd.  It was a very flavorful option and not too heavy! It was the perfect finish to our meal!

On Sunday, we slept in and then ran errands around the neighborhood. We went to District Taco for lunch and tried to visit the Goodies custard and dessert truck that was parked at Eastern Market. 

Justin with his mouth full of taco goodness...

Unfortunately, they ran out of inventory, and as a consolation, the owner offered us some doughnuts.  Despite the disappointment of not getting to try the custard, the donuts were pretty good! I'll have to try it again next time when they have their frozen desserts in stock.