I have about 5,000 things I want to
write about, all flying through my brain, but it all brought me to
that procrastination point where I just didn't write about anything
at all. Oddly, I woke up this morning feeling a) like I'm catching a
cold, but also b) more rested than I had been in weeks. Which is
weird, but I'll take it (and some cold meds) and move on.
That said, I hope everyone had a lovely
Christmas holiday.
We kept it simple this year, and
according to the news reports, it sounds like a lot of other people
were holding back as well. I figured that would happen. Anyways, we
took a quick trip to Washington D.C. last weekend as a small gift to
ourselves and to finish our Christmas shopping.
Washington is driving distance from
here at The Hundred Acre Wood, and Hubby got a hotel discount for all
the traveling he does for work. So other than food, it was a
relatively frugal trip.
We decided to stick to Georgetown –
no monuments or museums this time. Georgetown has innumerable great
restaurants, and you could literally walk from Glover Park, down
Wisconsin to M, and pick a new restaurant every night. It would
probably take months to get through them all.
We stuck with three: Sushi Ko, The
Tombs and Old Europe, so this will probably sound more like a
restaurant review than a real post. But hey, just sharing in case
anyone has the opportunity to get down to D.C.
Sushi Ko isn't fancy, just a tiny restaurant with simple formica tables and a spartan décor. It opened
36 years ago and has the distinction of being Washington's oldest
sushi restaurant. It is also refreshingly inexpensive for a D. C.
restaurant.
The sashimi and nigiri were perfect.
Very thinly sliced. Many sushi restaurants seem to go for “American
sizes” and make the fish too thick, which can often be too chewy to
be enjoyable. The Beef Kushi-Yaki (beef on skewers) was lightly
marinated (in what, I do not know, but it was delicious) and tender.
Just perfect.
The food is consistently high quality,
and I have to say it was the best Japanese experience I've had.
Which I should explain...
I've been to several excellent Japanese
restaurants in the last 20 years. The two others that stand out for
me would be Morimoto in Philadelphia and Kome in Allentown. Up until
this point, Kome has been at the top of my list.
Morimoto (Iron Chef Morimoto) was
outstanding until our last experience a few years ago. Our first
visit was shortly after it opened in 2001. It was amazing and
unbelievably expensive, but truly an incredible dining experience. I
could certainly understand why everyone raved about Morimoto-san's
skills.
However, this was his first restaurant
after leaving Nobu in New York, and at that time he was physically
involved. During our first few visits he could be found making sushi
and visiting each table, making sure everything was perfect (it was
oddly surreal having someone you watch on TV stop at your table to
check on your dining experience, but a seriously nice touch). About
five years later we stopped in to celebrate Daughter's birthday and
it was not a good experience. The sushi was sloppy and the “Kobe” sirloin was
burnt. Thinking it was a one-off, we went back again a year later, but
it still wasn't the same as it had been.
It may be that after Mr. Morimoto opened
a few more restaurants, he was no longer overseeing things in Philadelphia. However,
Google tells me that Zagat's is giving it 28 out of 30 now, so maybe
it's time to give it another shot.
I'm told Kome in Allentown has some
connection to Morimoto, some say the owner or chef worked there at
one point, but I haven't found anything on Google to prove that.
However, it has been consistently outstanding for the past four
years. It's a beautiful place, very trendy and they make a fab
martini. And of course, the food is wonderful. Kome had been
Daughter's favorite restaurant until our Sushi Ko experience. Now
she's got even more incentive to go to school in D.C.
Our second day in D. C. meant getting
Daughter out of bed before noon. But she had incentive – there
would be shopping. Although, she didn't realize that while Georgetown
did have the standard “mall fare” like Banana Republic and
Sephora, it mostly had trendy mom-and-pop shops, antique and second
hand stores, high-end stores like Barbour, Hugo Boss and Dean and
Deluca, as well as European clothing stores like H & M and
Benetton - none of which she had heard of before.
We started at Georgetown University,
which was a ghost town. Since it was the weekend before Christmas,
everyone was gone. It was actually pretty neat being the only people
there. It was also freezing cold, because the storm that blew through
the Midwest earlier that week was sending gale force winds through
the East, and D. C. wasn't spared. After about an hour of poking
around the school, we headed over to the 1789 restaurant, which is
just off campus.
The 1789 is one of Georgetown's best
restaurants, but our destination was actually it's rathskeller, The
Tombs. Years ago, it had been a dark pub with just enough room to
circumnavigate the square wooden bar. It's been redecorated in the
last ten years, adding a restaurant area and more lighting. I'm not
crazy about that. I preferred it cramped and dark. Heh.
After lunch, we spent several hours
walking it off and exploring the pretty row houses and the shops.
Headed down to M street, then up Wisconsin Avenue to Glover Park. I found
the same old book store that I visited during my last trip to D. C.,
years ago. It's situated in the basement of a 150 year old brick row
home, with stairs so narrow and steep they resemble little more than
a cement ladder. Then, once inside, it opens up into a maze of
bookshelves. I love places like that.
By this time it was getting late, so we
stopped at Old Europe for dinner. Conveniently, it happens to be
practically across the street from Sushi Ko, so we really didn't
stray much.
Old Europe is a German restaurant with a standard fare of sausages, schnitzels and Sauerbraten. For
December, it had a special menu dedicated to it's Wild Game Season.
We tried the wild boar sausages for an appetizer, which were done
with some kind of wine sauce and spiced apple slices on the side.
I've never had that before, but they were so good I'm looking into
trying to find some locally. Hubby went with the Sauerbraten, his
personal favorite, Daughter was unadventurous with a sirloin, and I
had the venison goulash. Venison has always been hit or miss with me,
so it was a tough choice. This seemed to be slow cooked like a stew,
then served in a kind of pastry shell. Each bite sized piece was
fall-apart tender, and spiced just right.
Again, this is another restaurant I'll
miss until we visit again in a few years. Thankfully, Old Europe has
been in operation for 50 years and seems to be doing phenomenally
well, so I expect it will still be there when we finally get back to
Washington again.
