Yearly Archives: 2008

Washington Post Magazine 2008 Dining Guide

Thats right folks, the 2008 version of the Dining Guide (courtesy of Tom Sietsema) is out and about! I stole mine from the beau’s newspaper last weekend, but was too busy with the goodness that was “Taste of Georgetown” to read all of it and narrow down the list to restaurants I would like to try. You can see the full online version of the dining guide here.

2008 Dining Guide Restaurants I would go to:
Central Michel Richard ★★★☆
CityZen ★★★★
co co. Sala ★★½☆ (Would like to re-visit)
Comet Ping Pong ★★½☆
Corduroy ★★½☆
Cork (Wine Bar) ★★½☆
Et Voila! ★★½☆
Great Wall Szechuan House ★★☆☆
Inn at Little Washington ★★★★ (This is just an un-realistic hope though)
Majestic ★★½☆
Marcel’s ★★★☆
Marvin ★★½☆ (Only if I were at U-Street already)
Me Jana ★★½☆
Michel Richard Citronelle ★★★☆
Minibar ★★★½
Oyamel ★★½☆
Palena ★★★☆ (Would like to try non-Cafe)
Proof ★★★☆
Rasika ★★★½
Restaurant Eve’s Tasting Room ★★★★
Saigon Cafe ★★☆☆
Sushi-Ko ★★½☆
The Source ★★★☆
2941 ★★★½ (Would like to try the new chef)
Volt ★★½☆

Ratings are based primarily on food quality but take into account service and ambiance. Restaurants that earn no stars are rated poor. * Satisfactory: Restaurants that are useful to know about if you are nearby; they may have only a few dishes or a single quality, such as a view or atmosphere, to distinguish them. ** Good: Restaurants with generally appealing cooking, service and settings; they tend to be worth driving across town for. *** Excellent: Rewarding destinations, no matter where you’re coming from; they typically blend high-quality cooking with the environs. **** Superlative: An unsurpassed dining experience; these restaurants do what they do extraordinarily well.

Other restaurants in this edition of the Washington Post Magazine I would like to go to:
Two Amys (Pizza)
Good Stuff Eatery (Burgers)

Psuedo-Chop Suey Bento

– Chicken & tofu Chop Suey – Grapes – Yogurt covered raisins
– Vitamin Water

This is a slightly un-conventional chop suey. Usually, its just some chicken and broccoli cooked with chicken broth over rice, but since my partner doesn’t like rice or broccoli that much, and is afraid of lack of flavor (never a problem for Cantonese cooking ^^), it got turned into something else.

– kung pao tofu
– chipotle marinade chicken
– orange pepper <– new favourite veggie
– mushroom
– green beans
– mian
– baby spinach!
– flax seeds

Flax seeds are really good for you, and taste like nothing! At home, I would prefer to grind up flax seeds and put them in oatmeal or smoothies (or anything!), but here I sprinkled them on top of the vegetables while cooking. You can get some flax seeds (whole) to try at Whole Foods in the bulk section (a few cents) and either eat them whole or grind them in your blender. You can also buy a huge bag of Ground Flax Seed at Whole Foods for about $6.

Baby Spinach is a great vegetable that doesn’t have a strong taste (for those that don’t like the taste of greens) and can be eaten wilted or not-wilted. Its great to always have spinach laying around to throw in omelets, fried rice, stir-frys, fajitas, nachos, and anything really! I like mine cooked with other things so it wilts down, and Dan likes his heated up, but added in at the end so it still has its leaf shape.

Orange Peppers are really flavorful and keep their crispness. These are really sweet and juicy and are a great fresh burst of flavor for any dish that needs it. One pepper sliced is enough for a dish of four and half a pepper is more than enough for two people (with other protein or vegetables).

These vegetables, in true chop suey style, were cooked with only chicken broth. You can add as much chicken broth as you want, and/or add as you go because the chicken broth cooks right off. Its a great way to cook vegetables (and meat or tofu) because its natural and not oily. Plus its full of yummy chicken flavor. I find that chicken broth works best, but you could try vegetable or beef as well.

Mid-October Bento

Here are some not-so interesting bentos as of recent:

– Fajitas (Peppers, Steak, Tortilla) – Pistachio chips – Pineapple Nat de Coco fruit jelly

Leftovers from a super-yummy dinner I made with Danny! The peppers and grilled onions in these fajitas were so delicious — I never knew I liked vegetables so much!

– Pizza – Strawberry yogurt
– Grapes		 – Rice
– Oatmeal Cookie

Um.. the grapes were old and soft, and the pizza was leftovers. Nothing too great here. Its a friday afterall.

Chicken & Broccoli Alfredo Bento

– Chicken & Broccoli Alfredo – Chinese pineapple cake – Navel orange fruit jelly
– Green Tea soymilk

Lazy lazy lazy day.

Leftovers from the lunch before (pineapple cake) and leftovers from dinner (pasta from Ruby Tuesday’s)

This was the first time I used my new bento from Japan (Asakusa 2007)!

The totoro bento has a divider that I didn’t use and it actually holds a lot, I like it ^_^

Curry Rice Pink Bento

– Curry Rice – Chinese pineapple cake
– Oatmeal cookie		 – Strawberry yogurt
– Green Tea soymilk

This curry is from Japan (2007), Anpanman curry that I had bought Dan. It’s meant for kids so one packet wasn’t enough for me, and I thought two wasn’t enough, but it really was! The curry was a little sweeter than I would like and it didn’t have enough vegetables in it (note the small carrots!). I had planned on using the remainder rice to make rice-pudding (rice + sugar + milk), but I was so full that I couldn’t even eat my cake/oatmeal cookie or finish my yogurt.

This was the first time I used my new bento from Japan (LoFt 2008)! I like it a lot!