I'd Eat That! DC

Red Hook Lobster Pound

fred — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 21:15:09 +0000

The most hyped-up food truck in DC arrived at the corner of 13th and New York Ave, which meant that even during this latest heat wave I wouldn’t have to perspire and die of heat exhaustion tracking down the latest DC food-truck craze. Yes, I read all of those food blogs (I’ve heard that there are others besides this one) raving about the Red Hook Lobster Pound truck, and figured what the heck, even though one meal from them is usually what I spend on lunch for a whole week, I had to see what the fuss was all about.

I guess the fact that you can get a genuine Maine lobster roll packed with juicy bits of lobster meat for $15 is a pretty good draw. Soda, chips, and a pickle adds three bucks. Now, full disclosure, I’ve never had a lobster roll before, I’ve never been to Maine, and I consider the Subway Seafood Sensation sandwich to be pretty good for the money. (And they make that with imitation crab meat.)

I always use my credit card for major purchases such as this, and luckily this food truck happily accepts them, although not without a few hiccups from its iPad credit card processing app. The man who identified himself as the owner had to manually write down my credit card info, which would make me nervous, but considering how good his business has been, I’m sure it would actually be a waste of time for him to make fraudulent charges to my credit card, when he could instead be selling more lobster rolls.

So was it tasty and delicious? Oh yes. If the idea of a sandwich packed with lobster meat doesn’t automatically make your mouth water, you must be a closeted ostraconophobe. Or maybe you just had a lobster roll already. Was it worth it? Well, I probably won’t eat there everyday because I could use that money to do other useful things, like paying for a mortgage on a house. But I think it was, considering that you’re not going to get this much lobster meat elsewhere for the price.

So lobster fans, pay attention. You can follow them on their twitter account (LobstertruckDC) or just follow your nose.

Red Hook Lobster Pound DC
http://redhooklobsterpound.com/

Dukem Ethiopian Restaurant

fred — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 15:37:10 +0000

I’m staying in Baltimore during the Christmas break, but DC can’t keep me away from its delicious food for long! My brother and I traveled to U St to meet my cousin Albert who invited us to dinner. He recommended that we try an Ethiopian restaurant. Since DC has a sizable Ethiopian population, there were a number of good Ethiopian restaurants, he explained. We soon found ourselves at Dukem on U Street.

It was pretty crowded for a weekday night during the holidays. Luckily we got a nice seat by the window facing the street. I had no idea preconceptions whatsoever about Ethiopian food, so my brother and I just let Albert order for us. We also made sure to order the imported Ethiopian beers.

Basically, you get a large plate (or several plates) of meat, in our case it was beef short ribs. You tear off pieces of bread (called injera bread?) and use that to wrap the meat along with little veggie sides. And then there are little dips too, some kind of dark sauce. Make sure your hands are clean, because you’re going to have to eat with your hands. But any time you eat food like this, where you’re eating from a shared dish with your hands, it just makes the whole eating experience more fun. And it was the best thing I had tasted in a long time. I’m Korean, so I’m already familiar with the deliciousness that is grilled beef short ribs, which we call galbi, but then this meat was a lot more tender than a lot of galbi I’ve had in the past, and plus wrapping it in the injera and enjoying it one bite-sized nugget at a time allows you to appreciate the flavor the meat a lot more. And you get to wash it all down with an Ethiopian brew of your choice and still have the motor coordination to drive home, whereas washing down your galbi with soju guarantees an early night passed out on the front hood of your car. That only happened once, I swear.

Dukem Ethiopian Restaurant

1114 U Street Northwest

Washington, DC 20009 (map)

Columbia Catering – Chicken Kabob Sandwich

fred — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:46:07 +0000

Today I had a special guest: Fabio Lomelino, who traveled all the way from Sao Paulo, Brazil to be able to join me today. Ok that’s not quite true from a narrative perspective, but in a purely logical sense, it’s exactly true.

After wandering around aimlessly for a good amount of time, we finally decided to try a place called Columbia Catering. Fabio ordered a steak kabob sandwich, and I ordered the chicken kabob sandwich. After we ordered, we were disappointed to learn that we didn’t have a choice of any of the delicious-looking sides on display at the counter. Instead, we each got a handful of good ol’ American freedom fries.

We both agreed that the sandwiches we pretty good. The chunks of grilled chicken in my sandwich were very juicy and tender. Fabio’s sandwich looked equally delicious. I will ask him to insert a quote here later, but I think he would say, “This sandwich the ka-bomb!”

On a side note, this restaurant also had a number of paintings for sale on the walls, ranging in price from $300 to $700. But think about how many delicious kabob sandwiches you could buy for that money.

Chicken Kabob Sandwich + Snapple Iced tea = $9.71

Columbia Catering
1090 Vermont Ave NW, Washington, DC 20005 (map)

Cafe Express – Crunchy Roll

fred — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 20:07:07 +0000

Two of the most overused words in the food business, which I’m noticing more and more: “cafe” and “express.” Today, I visited a sushi bar that dared to use both in the same name, Cafe Express.

They had a nice selection of different sushi. I decided on getting the “Crunchy Roll” with miso soup and a cup of water. After a brief wait of about five minutes, my order was ready. The “Crunchy Roll” turned out to be a good-sized meal. And it was beautiful to look at, which is always something I enjoyed about sushi. The “Crunchy Roll” turned out to be crunchy for two reasons. First, it had a fried, breaded crust on the outside. This was brilliant, I now think that all sushi should be deep-fried in batter. Secondly, there was a piece of fried shrimp in the middle. Unfortunately, they included the tail, which is a pet peeve of mine, but I was mostly able to overlook that today. Overall, this was definitely one of the better sushi places I’ve been to.

$6.95 Crunchy Roll + $1.00 Miso Soup + Water + tax = $8.75

Cafe Express
1100 15th St NW, Washington, DC 20036 (map)

Pino Pizza – Pepperoni/Supreme Pizza

fred — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 20:15:38 +0000

Today I went to Pizza Pino/Cafe Cantina on G Street because I was craving some greasy, cheesy pizza. The place is really tiny though, with only a couple of tables. When I went, all the tables were occupied by a bunch of small kids, so I decided to take my pizzas back to the office. I ordered two slices, one pepperoni and one “supreme.” The pizzas were indeed greasy. I always hated having greasy food near me in the office, just because that hot greasy feeling tends to stick with you for a while.

The pizzas were on par with places like Sbarro. This is fast food pizza, nothing gourmet or authentic about it. But it’s pretty tasty, and two “super slices” fill you up nicely. And oh man were they greasy. I enjoyed the pepperoni pizza more than the supreme pizza. Somehow having all those extra toppings dilutes the overall taste of the pizza, and also tends to make the pizza extra soggy. So for me, pepperoni is the way to go.

Supreme Pizza with tomatoes, mushrooms, etc $3.19 + Pepperoni Pizza $2.60 + Soda $0.96 + Tax = $7.27

Pizza Pino
1325 G St NW, Washington, DC

City Buffet – Chinese Buffet

fred — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 19:47:43 +0000

I’ve eaten at a lot of buffet-style places with Chinese food, like Soho Cafe in the National Press Building, but this was the first all-you-can-eat buffet I’ve been to so far, and it was much cheaper than any of those other places that weren’t all-you-can-eat. And the food was really good. Unlike Soho Cafe, however, the selection here wasn’t that great. There was the standard Chinese take-out fare: Sweet and sour chicken, General Tso’s chicken, noodles, fried rice, you get the idea. But it was all cooked very well. The restaurant itself is very spacious and clean. Maybe even a little too clean. An elderly lady sitting behind me started complaining loudly about how her food and her plate tasted like bleach. She went on to accuse the staff of not rinsing off the plates well enough. I didn’t have any complaints, this is a very good place to eat if you want to avoid crowds and stuff your face with as much Chinese takeout food you can handle.

All you can eat buffet! $8.50

City Buffet
1101 14th St NW, Washington, DC

Cafe Spice Express – Chicken Curry

fred — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 19:29:24 +0000

I’ve eaten at this place on one other occasion, and I’m pretty sure I got the lamb curry that time, so today I got the chicken curry. There isn’t much of a selection. Basically you have a choice of chicken, lamb, and possibly one other type of curry. (Sorry I’m really bad at identifying Indian food. It’s all so good but it all looks so similar!) For sides, the usual choice of chickpeas, spinach, lentils, and some other stuff that I haven’t tried. You order at the counter, and your food is served on a paper plate. I ended up getting chicken curry with chickpeas and spinach, and I also got a slushy mango drink. And of course naan bread! It came wrapped in foil, which kept it warm but also made it kind of soggy. I can’t say much about the restaurant itself, other than that the walls are very green. It wasn’t busy at all when I went. The owner walks around occasionally asking everybody how they like the food. And the food was not too bad. For the price, however, I would have expected – and certainly have had – something a little better.

Chicken Curry + Mysterious Mango-flavored Drink = $10.99

Cafe Spice Express
1025 Vermont Ave NW, Washington, DC

Casa Blanca Restaurant – Enchiladas de Pollo

fred — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 20:50:51 +0000

This was my first time eating at Casa Blanca Restaurant. I was feeling a little uncertain about whether I really wanted Mexican food today. But there I was, standing at the counter and gazing up at the menu. The restaurant was pretty busy at 1:30 which was when I arrived. I tried taking a photo of the outside of the restaurant, which really wasn’t much to look at but I thought, hey, if I’m doing this blog thing, I’m at least going to be thorough about it. But the batteries were dead, and so I risked looking like a tourist for nothing.

The kindly gentleman at the counter who was probably the owner asked me if I wanted a table. Why yes I would! He led me to a table and before I could sit down, he said emphatically,”Let me wipe first,” even though the table looked plenty clean to me. That didn’t stop him from doing a vigorous scrub of the table surface before I sat down.

There was a bit of a wait for my food. I’m not sure how long exactly, but I got through a considerable part of my copy of Express before my food arrived. The food was really great, my only complaint would be that the rice was a little burnt and crusty on the bottom. I really wish I had photos to show. This blog is off to an inauspicious start.

$7.65 Enchiladas de Pollo + $2.00 Tip = $9.65

Casa Blanca Restaurant

1014 Vermont Ave NW, Washington, DC