I started off my spring break with a little trip to DC to see my boyfriend and Maryland to see my roomie. Because Catholic's cafeteria was closed, we were forced to eat out every meal; bad for our bank accounts, wonderful for our taste palettes!
Friday night, we ventured to Georgetown's Tacklebox, a very casual restaurant supposedly serving up delicious and fresh seafood.
Each meal comes with a fish, sides, and a sauce. The combinations are endless. I opted for the fried bay scallops with spicy marinara and salad on the side.
I am a sucker for scallops and any spicy sauce. Matt got the tilapia with mac n' cheese, sweet potatoe fries, with a lemon garlic sauce that's mayonnaise based.
The bay scallops are a little different than the regular scallops as in they're tiny and bitesized! And dipping them into the sauce was oh so yummy. Matt said his tilapia was juicy and fresh.
The restaurant has the kitchen in the open and you can see your piece of fish being plopped onto the grill. I imagine that's a good feeling.
The best thing about this dinner was the Lemonade, ohh the lemonade. The 4 dollar lemonade was extraordinary. Probably the best I've ever had. You know they put in tons of fresh lemons because the aftertaste of the fresh tartness to the sweet taste is just overwhelmingly refreshing. I wish I could've just gotten a whole jug of it, although it probably would've been very expensive. And now that I think about it, I wonder if there was FREE refill! How dumb of us not to ask! Oh well next time.
Next day we had a late lunch at chipotles so we were guaranteed to be stuffed for at least 6 hours. But we ran out of things to do and got tired of walking so we had to find a restaurant before we headed back. We settled on La Tasca, a tapas place in Chinatown. We only got three tapas
1. Spanish Omelet with onions and potatoes. Nothing really special, as in I like my omelets with a little more moisture with cheese and tomatoes in it. But it came with a nice marinara sauce that made the dish a little better
2.Mini seafood paella. This was delicious, it was moist and the right amount of tartness with the tomatoe sauce. My favorite part was that it had chicken in it which gave it some meatyness and bite. And I need my proteins please.
3. Grilled asparagus. It was drizzled in olive oil and sea salt. Such a simple dish, but it was the best as far as I can remember. I tried it at another tapas place and it was sautéed in a pan, and grilling it just gives a little crunch to the exterior that work perfectly with the softness of the center. Maybe I noticed it more because I usually have it on the side. But just delicious.
For dessert. We couldn't decide so we got both!
I got mini churros, which are fried dough with cinnamon sugar and chocolate fondue sauce.
Matt got rice pudding. It worked out well because I ended up dipping my churros in the rice pudding, and matt started putting the chocolate sauce in the pudding. Really good dessert. I really liked this tapas place because it served okay portions for tapas and they paid attention to detail. And unlike the Bodega in Georgetown, the festive atmosphere with numerous decorations on the rustic walls made the food taste a lot better, not to mention visible.
The next day we had to wait at the Chinese Embassy forEVER to get my passport done, so we ended up going to Dupont for lunch. We ended up on the street corner outside at Circa at Dupont. The atmosphere was definitely very nice, I love eating outside and just being able to watch people walk by, or in this case, protest about impeaching obama. We started off with a green mix salad. Which I probably could've whipped up if I walked into a walmart right now. Then we both got pizzas, and they were alright, but a little overpriced. And my pizza was a little dry from the lack of sauce, especially paired with dry toppings such as grilled chicken and sun dried tomatoes. Hey at least the chicken was free range. Overall, you really just pay for the location, perhaps you could go buy some chipotle down the street and bring some lawn chairs and sit next to the little fenced off area. It's probably just as delicious and you don't have to pay extra for the sunshine!
For dinner we went to Zengo in Chinatown. I have walked by it many times and have always been intrigued. It apparently means to give and to take. "We serve in small portions, even the entree sizes are pretty small, so we encourage people to order more dishes and to share", said our waitress. Pretty good marketing strategy when entrees are 18 dollars and up with "smaller" dishes 6 dollars and up. However, it was an amazing meal.
It's supposedly Mexican and Asian fusion, and I could definitely see that because every savory dish had some sweet elements to it, be it mangoes, sweet corn, or pineapple. Being raised on chinese and japanese food, combining savory dishes with anything sweet is a no no. But I was convinced otherwise that night. The menu
1. Charred tuna wonton tacos.
Three little crisply fried wontons held charred bits of tuna, sushi rice, salsa, and mango. The softness of the mango contrasted well with the crispy wontons, and tuna's bite and saltiness just popped with its spicy seasonings. Matt thought it was a little too spicy, but it was just right for me, and the sweetness of the mango really helped with the kick.
2.Pork belly with pineapple in a steamed bun
Oh this was so good. Might be my favorite. Kicked the traditional Chinese pork buns in the ass. The pork belly meat was perfectly braised and had the perfect ratio of fat to meat. I love the moisture the fat part gives off that just brings the bun and meat together. The bun was like a little taco bun, and it had good bite to it. I can't imagine putting anything sweet to a pork bun, but the salsa with the pineapples really accentuated the pork and made the savory flavor pop. Oh I can eat a dozen of them. Too bad they only give you three.
3. Matt got the chicken tandori, which is chicken in curry sauce i guess. I don't know that much about Indian cooking because I refuse to eat it. It came with some really good naan which helped me with my dish because it was a little salty.
4. I got the scallop dish and I am glad I chose that one instead of tofu or salmon.
Because it was the best scallop ever! It even beats the scallop dish I had at Stonington CT on the water which was scallops with a white béchamel sauce with Duchess potato. I guess it comes in second now.
The scallops at Zengo was perfectly crispy on the outside and rightfully soft on the inside. I am guessing they probably seared it on the pan and finished cooking by roasting in the oven. It was sitting on a bed of crispy but soft sushi rice with corn and bacon and this other cilantro based salsa. I really don't like cilantro but thankfully it was overpowered by the bacon and the saltiness of the rice. But it was a little too salty. The scallop itself could've done without all the sauce and stuff on the top, and maybe a little portion of guacamole would've been nice. It was all really yummy though and the flavored married together so well. I will never say I won't try sweet and salty together now.
Another place where I had the best donuts ever was in Rockville while visiting my rooms. At the Fractured Prune
This puts Krispy Kreme to shame. No more commercial glaze dipping with a machine. No sir.
These babies are fried and hot and hand dipped in a variety of glazes and toppings.
Such as honey glaze with cinnamon sugar, or chocolate glaze with oreo crumbles, or french toast flavor or berry flavor. I can't remember all of them but they were delicious. I now realized the melt in your mouth by Krispy Kreme is probably just a rouse to use less ingredients while charging you almost a buck for each donut. These babies have substance and are more cake like with a crispy fried covering that is dripping with sweet goodness.
I think she made a mistake taking me there because now I'm going to harass her to bring things back.
Well that concludes my rant about food. Eating out and eating good food is a hobby and I would happily give up buying clothes before giving up buying good food.
You are what you eat, and I am pretty happy with eating happy food. :)
