Bistrot du Coin

Escargot and Cote du Rhone on the zinc bar.

Yes yes, I know they are a bit blurry and a lot dark, but I'm not about to fight against a dimly lit bistrot, rather, encourage it and my hand aint' so steady.

Green glass bottles, snails absolutely swimming in garlic and butter and glasses and glasses of red wine. It's less like Dupont Circle and more like Le Marais. But I can also walk back to my apartment in less than 10 minutes (dangerous-especially when they begin to throw open their front windows).
I wish the servers had been French, is that unfair? I just wanted to hear one obnoxiously untouched French accent, though, Alli and I did make a point of reading the wine list in French accents while we were waiting for a table. It makes me crazy that Alli has a better French accent without ever having taken a class than me, having taken 8 years of French. She is making a great deciding face in the first picture and yes, Alli is one of those people that actually makes those kinds of faces in real life.

Can we all just agree to go to Paris sometime?

Tuesday Evenings

This particular Tuesday we had a belated celebration of two events that happen to fall on the same day, the birth of our Lord and Savior, Norite and Jesus' birthday. Somehow we pulled off a surprise dinner at Acqua al 2 across from THE Eastern Market and then had Secret Santa at my apartment. I love love Eastern Market, especially when I can catch more of a glimpse from the shuttle. After 5:00 all the young(ish) black frame glasses-wearing brunette people return from their downtown DC jobs to their pastel rowhouses to cook fabulous dinners and leave their curtains wide open. Seriously, everyone living in Eastern Market is brunette.

The food was good, I had gnocchi with Italian cabbage that would make Fabio (and his turtle) swoon. The company, however. Well lets just say I was happy we were seated in a dark corner where we could only make the couple next to us, and not the entire restaurant, uncomfortable. After cheesecake with an exposed red bra reduction, we had a lovely drive back to Georgetown through night light DC. Add still getting excited to see the Capitol to the long list of the reasons why I hate the metro.

These Tuesdays make the weeks go by fast.

Oh and doesn't my water glass look like outer space in the picture?

New Years Weekend

Friday we drove in the Exploder to We the Pizza for lunch. New Years Eve we had a pot-luck, drank lots of champagne (enough that i didn't leave the apartment until 5pm the next day and the highlight of the entire day was juggling fruit) and played Pictionary. My parents also played Pictionary at their New Years Eve party but they played it on the Wii. How are they cooler than me? How?

The rest of the weekend I would like to summarize in a few words.
And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!
Thank you.

Accio Twenty Eleven

My first blogpost ever was about my goals for 2010. Let's see how I've done:

Work on French : I drank a good amount of wine in 2010.
Volt: Whatever.
Minibar: What was I thinking?
Zaytinya: Yes, but threw up in the middle of dinner and we had to leave.
2 Amys: Yes!
Rays Hellburger: Yes, twice.
The Gibson: Whatever.
Run a Half Marathon: I had intentions, damnit. Intentions! Then I tore my hamstring and just never really...riiiiiiiight.
Visit Monica in LA: Visited her in Palm Springs. I'll give myself half a point here.
Take more photos: DUH.

My goals are really embarassing to go back in read. Perhaps it's the fact that I really didn't accomplish many of them, or maybe that half of them were restaurants? I mean, New Years goals are supposed to be about self-improvement, right? I suppose those are resolutios, I think there is a difference. This year I'm going to try and clean up my 2010 list and add an important resolution.

Visit Monica in LA (for the full point)

Run a Half Marathon

Simplicity and focus

These should be doable 2012 Kerry if you are still alive! I believe in you!

Last thing: The End's Not Near by Band of Horses is and will always be the perfect New Years song.

we make it rain

at pasta mia.

my leftovers

pork sin.

gluttony. it's a deadly sin and whoopsy daisy, i committed it this past weekend in new york city.
the amount of pork we ate is almost (almost) atrocious. i'll bold all the pork.

nearly the first thing we did upon our grand entrance via bolt bus was go to porcetta. for how simple the pork sandwich was, i was really impressed. it was a truly medieval meal we had in the park that afternoon. i had the rip the chewy bread out of my two hands with my teeth and then work through the crispy bits of skin.

that night we went to momofuku ssam bar. we started with a bottle of champagne in our coffinesque hotel room before walking the 3 blocks to restaurant. here's what we got:
raw oysters with pureed kimchi. drew said it tasted as if someone was holding you underwater, which i thought was beautiful.
steamed buns. so delicious! the softest and sweetest buns folded around pork belly and pickles.
pig's head something or rather. the other stuff doesn't really matter. i still cannot believe i ate pig's head, and while i wouldn't recommend it to anyone who doesn't want to venture to the fringes of charcuterie, i'm very proud of myself.
pork shoulder steak with baby spinach. the pork was braised and so sweet, with so much flavor.
long island skate. the skate was really good and surprisingly approchable. i'd recommend it to anyone who likes crab cakes.
ssam bar was definitely the best meal in nyc and one of the best i've ever had. it was truly exciting.

on saturday we went to stumptown coffee and wichcraft, then later that night, ventured out to brooklyn to go to motorino.

stumptown was interesting, i had a really great cappachino and the baristas all wore antiquated clothing like suspenders and caps.

the pizza at motorino was amazing. it was crispy and thin in the middle and soft and chewy in the crust. sam sifton said it's new york's best pizza, which really pissed drew off, but i thought it was prettty pretttttttttty pretty good. oh and we got proscuitto as an appetizer. even though we were stuffed, we got a late-night hot dog at gray's papaya. okay FINE we got one the day before as a snack as well at the papaya dog knock off.

sunday, even though by this point i was feeling all the rich food, we tried shake shack in madison square park (after visiting stumptown again). a good burger, crispy krinkle cut fries and an hour wait. fortunately it was a beautiful day, so the wait wasn't awful.

we did other stuff in nyc, i swear. we looked at some art at the met and the new musem, see?

we also went shopping, to the high-line and the new york public libary.

but i won't lie, we mostly ate like kings.

annie anyone?

oh my

oh my

photo taken today on my iphone at the good stuff eatery with heather.

Oyamel

I've been very fortunate in that i've been to some amazing restaurants over the past few months. Was Oyamel on my list New Years list? I don't know, but I loves me some Jose Andres. Megan and I went on a whim during DC restaurant week. The decor was clean, interesting and colorful and the tables were pretty intimate, perfect for the date night Megan and I had planned. It's also located right in Penn Quarter near a ton of shops and the verizon center (i'm always amidst Caps traffic).

My Menu

Drink: Ponche. Pretty unimpressive, but it was just too cold to get a Margarita. It sounded like a Sangria formula with wine, tequila and fruit, but it honestly tasted like lightly flavored water.

To Start: When we sat down at the table they brought us chips and salsa, which had hints of coffee in it.

Dinner: Oyamel is a small-plate restaurant, so we had a choice of 3 entrees and a dessert. My first entree was a mexican squash casserole. It was a squash sliced and topped with crumbled queso, crushed peanuts and hibiscus dressing. The flavors were interesting but it's nothing I would ever order again. My second entree was scallops. They were seared, topped with pumpkin seeds and garnished with pumpkin seed sauce and orange segments. Though the presentation was really interesting, that's ultimately why i put that picture at the top (and i took it from yelp because when mine uploaded it was too brown), I could have done without the garnishes. The scallops were, however, cooked perfectly and melted in my mouth. The third entree was a choice of a soft-shell taco. I had a classic beef taco, the beef was amazing. It was simply topped with fresh salsa. Megan had a mushroom and guacamole taco, which was better than mine.

Dessert: Amazing. It's not on the menu anymore (I went to look it up to make sure I got it right) but maybe they will bring it back for the sake of mankind. The dessert was a chocolate custard with fresh pomegranate seeds mixed in. The custard was topped with a dark chocolate sorbet and coarse sea salt. CHOCOLATE AND SEA SALT TOGETHER IS AMAZING. This was really the stand out for me.

So all in all very good, I thought Megan was going to die because she was so full, she couldn't even finish her last two plates (pish-posh, i was fine).

Hi Megan

Thanks for giving me a hot sauce addiction.

Hi not Mom because when i told you i got a blog you made fun of me and asked what i had to write about.

_____________

Tonight Alli and i ate at Ray's Hell Burger, which happened to be on my New Year's goal/resolution list/compilation thing/two posts ago. First off, let me just say that Miss Heaney deserves a metal for her swift and thorough work on her burger.

Though i maybe racked up some bad KARMAA in the parking lot, Ray did not disappoint me. It was a small and cramped place with zero pretension, but it was really the perfect atmosphere for what you are getting. I wanted to create my own burger but Alli kept being all I'M HUNGGGGGRY hurry UP find a table i only ate two clementines today choose your burger NAOW. So i went with The Big Poppa (They love it when you order Big Poppa). It was cooked au poivre and had a peppered crust around the meat and was topped with Aged Danish Bleu Cheese and sauteed peppers and mushrooms. My only complaint would be because the burger was oozing oil and fat and gooey cheese (not, by any means, my complaint) it soaked the bun and made it soggy. Toast dat. At the register there was a hand-written sign that listed the beer they served. There were only 5 or 6 offered, but I got a Bell's Two-Hearted IPA and Alli got a Bud Light.

Near the end I put my head in my hands and the guy walking around taking everyones plates and greasy paper towels away said "trust me, that's gonna feel great in about 2 minutes." He was not wrong, Alli and i were literally giddy from the food. I can only assume that friendly man was Ray and he put green in our burgers.

Accio Twenty Ten

A New Years Eve Tree at Radegast Beer Hall in Brooklyn. Okay, maybe it was a Christmas Tree.

Today I created new correspondence templates for 2010. As I was creating a folder for July, I became extremely excited just knowing that the month will come, sometime, and it will be warm. This has provided me with more excitement for the New Year than any recap or resolution.

That being said,

2010 New Years Goals:

French Language generally, my accent specifically.

Volt.

Minibar.

Zaytinya.

2 Amys.

Ray's Hellburger.

The Gibson.

Run a half marathon.

Visit Monica in LA.

Take more pictures.