Daikaya Izakaya

In honor of a friend's birthday, we met up with the birthday girl for happy hour at the Daikaya Izakaya, on the second floor above Daikaya. This was our first time there, but we were quite impressed by the food and the variety of shochu.

Chu-hi with shochu and grapefruit.

This lacked the effervescence of the canned chu-hi in Japan, but was very refreshing.

Spicy Edamame with fried garlic....kind of addictive.

Onigiri with nori. 

Since we were with a few vegetarians, my husband ordered the kombu version.

All wrapped up and ready to eat.

Cucumber with a yuzu vinegar and sesame seeds.

This was a surprisingly delightful dish that mixed textures.

Hamburger

A staff recommendation, this had a good flavor and a softer texture than American burgers.

Squid ceviche

Grilled avocado with yuzu and soy sauce.

This was a surprise winning dish for the group.

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The husband liked it so much, he's already asking to go back. I think we'll go the drinks and a few nibbles route, and then finish off with a bowl of ramen downstairs. Sounds like a great night out to me.

Naked Mountain Winery in VA

With our trip to Hollins Farm finished by 10:45 am and our fruit and vegetable harvest safely tucked away in the car's boot, we debated what to do next. We had seen a number of signs indicating we were not too far from some Virginia wineries, so wine tasting sounded like a great Sunday morning activity. 

We may have selected this particular winery because of the name. 

The winery is located only 10 minutes away from Hollins Farm.

Wine tasting with a view $10.

I loved all the wood and rustic atmosphere of the wine tasting room.

The winemaker blends grapes grown onsite as well as in other areas of Virginia.

We selected a bottle of chardonay to drink al fresco on the patio.

What goes well with wine and a view? A tasty cheese and charcuterie plate.

We did notice that a number of other savvy guest purchased a bottle of wine inside but had come prepared with their own food. I saw a few Italian hoagies that looked delicious.

View from our table.

Perfect way to leisurely spend a Sunday afternoon with good company.

Cooking with Farm Fresh Produce

Cajun pork loin with green beans almondine and caprese salad.

Peach pie with homemade crust.

Peach bread with toasted pecans.

Hollins Farm Pick Your Own Adventure

Looking to try something different while my husband was busy golfing in a tournament, I suggested trying out a pick your own farm to a friend. Up for new experiences, we set out early on a Sunday morning to arrive right around when they opened the farm. Getting an early start also helped us miss out the hottest part of the day. The farm staff are really nice and helpful. We picked up two peck bags each to pick some peaches.

I didn't know there were so many different varietals of peaches.

Beautiful peaches on the trees.

Rows of tomato plants including heirloom varieties, cherry, plum and beefsteak.

Gorgeous and delicious cherry tomatoes on the vine.

Tomatoes were $1.50 per pound.

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My harvest.

Yellow squash and zucchini. I made the mistake of picking the golden yellow squash, but the nice staff guy told me those were past their prime and only good for ornamental uses.

Two pecks of peaches is a lot of peaches. I selected a yellow and a white varietal.

Super delicious vine-ripened tomatoes.

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It was $40 for four pecks of peaches, and another $13 for the squash, zucchini, tomatoes and green beans. Pretty good deal, and it was a lot of fun to harvest the fruit and vegetables myself. We saw a number of families with small children at the farm which was really good to see. I believe it's important for children to understand where their food comes from.

Caphe Banh Mi in Old Town Alexandria

Located at 407 Cameron Street in Old Town, Caphe Banh Mi is a small Vietnamese restaurant on the first floor of a townhouse. 

Cabbage salad with chicken, carrots, cilantro, peanuts and crispy fried onions. 

Super light but lovely flavor.

Crispy crab rolls.

The wrappers were a bit too chewy. This was the only miss for me.

House Pho

The flavor of the broth was really great, deeper flavor than our regular pho joints.

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On the plus side, they serve cold beer, banh mi, pho, bun, salads and nice starters. Delicious and a cute atmosphere, we definitely recommend it.

The Regent on 18th Street NW

Had an office えんそく (field trip) the other day with my boss. We had to pick up the snacks and drinks for the monthly film event at the Japanese supermarket Hana on U Street. Since it was a Monday, most of the nearby ramen shops were closed. Instead, we stopped off to have a quick lunch at The Regent on 18th Street. 

Lunch Special of the day includes soup and spring roll with choice of entree.

Vegetable consomme with nicely fried springroll.

Mind-blowingly spicy chicken kaprow.

We asked for authentically spicy, and boy was this a mouth burner. I went through a number of glasses of water to cope. It burned but was so good. My husband, with his heat-seeking palate, would have loved this. There were only a few tables, but the staff was super nice.

Beer and Belgian Food at BToo

At a recent farewell reception for the JET Program, I caught up with two lovely ladies I've known since moving back to the DC area post-Japan. All JET alumni, we worked together in the Goodwill Ambassador Program for the Cherry Blossom Festival. Last time we saw each other was at the nabe party at our place. We set up a date to get together and ended up trying one of the newish restaurants on 14th Street, BToo.

Parking is a bear on 14th, so I had a Stella while waiting for the ladies to arrive.

Traditional Moules Mariniere with a side of frites.

Oddly there is additional sauce on the side. The mussels had a nice flavor, subtle, but good.

One of the more affordable brunch items, the lamb-chorizo sandwich with a parmesan frico.

BToo's best item, the frites, with three different dipping sauces.

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We also tried the waffles, and the bucket of bacon side elicited a few chuckles. The service was definitely a highlight at the restaurant. The menu prices were a bit steep, but it was a nice, leisurely lunch together. I did have a side order of beer-braised sausages, which were just ok but not remarkable. 

Celebrating the end of the week at Gom Ba Woo

Despite August being generally a quieter month work-wise, the husband and I have been busy in our respective offices. For the first time in as long as I've known my husband, he's taken advantage of working alone in the office by wearing business casual outfits. I think he might be more productive without a tie on. To celebrate the end of the work week, we hit up one of our favorite Korean restaurants. We haven't had Korean food in quite a while, so the hubs was super excited. We ordered more than normal, but packed up the remainder for lunch the next day.

The steamed mandu are fabulous. I need to figure out what is in the dumpling filling. It's so good, flavorful but nuanced. My favorite stew is the yukke jang, very spicy with lots of great vegetables and shredded beef brisket. The hubs also ordered a hamul pajeon, which is good but not my favorite version in Annandale.

The hubs ordered the galbi tang, with chunks of beef and lots of scallions.

The hubs really loves a good yukke jang, so about halfway through our bowls, we switch so he can enjoy some. With some cold soju and Cass beer, we unwound from the week and enjoyed a nice dinner together.

Kaz Short-Rib Bento

Since my office has a number of lunch meetings, I often am in charge of ordering bentos from Kaz. By now, I've tried almost all of them. I've also learned to come in with the order written down with my name, phone number, quantity and desired bento with a pick up time. Every time, Kaz staff has had our order ready and waiting right at the desired pick up time. 

Short-Rib Bento with tofu dengaku, salad, bean sprouts and rice.

Siroc Lunch with the Husband

August is generally less busy in DC with Congress on recess and the think tanks taking well-deserved vacations. With a lighter schedule, the husband and I were able to take a nice lunch together at an Italian place he has been to before for business dinners. Siroc does get pretty loud when the room is full, so we made a reservation on the early side. 

Lamb sausage with rapini with a red wine sauce.

There was a bit of spicy chili oil as well, and this small plate had a lot of flavor. I loved it.

Burrato with roasted red peppers.

Really light and packed with bright but subtle flavor.

Handmade black pepper tagliatelle with seared scallops.

This was lovely. The noodles were toothsome and the portion size was surprisingly large. I overheard that you can even order a half portion size of the pastas. As it was, I took half of the pasta home.

Spicy handmade spaghetti with shaved bottarga and tomatoes.

Bottarga is dried cod roe and a super intense flavor. The husband liked  it.

Almond cake with blueberries and a cinnamon cream sauce.

***

This was my first time at Siroc and I really liked the food. The service was professional, although it was a bit odd that all of the servers were female. The husband thought the experience was better at dinnertime when he went previously for business dinners. I thought the small plates had a great mix of flavors, and had I known you could order a half portion of the salads and the pastas, that might have changed my order a bit. Although the husband is not a super fan of lamb, I loved the dish. It was fantastic with the rapini, although would also be fabulous with a creamy polenta.

BBQ Ribs in the Oven

Since we live in an apartment, we don't have an outdoors bbq. Despite that limitation, I wanted to make bbq ribs anyways. Thanks to the power of google, I found a number of over-baked ribs recipes. Slow cooked in the oven, these were nice and tender.

Ribs, potato salad with dill and egg, arugula salad with red peppers and cherry tomatoes.

Baltimore Excursion

Hung out with my friend today on an unplanned, unorganized wander around Baltimore. Since she grew up in the Baltimore area, we were not looking for the typical Inner Harbor touristy experiences. 

We started off with a stop at the Lexington Market. This is nothing like Eastern Market in DC or Reading Terminal in Philly. We walked into the building, passing by some Panthers preaching on mics. Walking into the building, they have live music shows and Ussence was throwing down some r&b vibes and getting the audience on their feet and dancing. We headed out in search of something different and went to find the Edgar Allan Poe Museum.

We found the Edgar Allan Poe House.

The museum here apparently closed down a year before, and the location is not exactly ideal for loitering around for photos. We skedaddled, and headed to the Brewer's Art restaurant for a late lunch. Unfortunately the restaurant would not open for another 2 hours.

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We ended up finding a prime parking spot in Fells Point and wandered around. The original place my friend wanted to go, Blue Moon Cafe, had a 45 minute wait, so we wandered around some more, until we found the John Steven Tavern. 

I went with the seafood club.

This was a bit of an odd concoction, with shrimp salad with lettuce and bacon on one section, with lettuce, tomato and crabcake on the other section. I really just wanted a lettuce, tomato, bacon and crabcake sandwich. Fries were solid.

Grilled Cheese and Crab Sandwich

My friend won the best dish of the table award. This was a grilled cheese and what amounts to hot crab and cheese dip with slices of bacon on nice bread. I had a bite and this was a decadent winner.

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We wandered around Fells Point for a bit longer, walking off the impending food coma. On one of the sides streets, we saw the narrowest little townhouse. You know it's small when the SUV parked in front was longer than the width of the house.

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Sometimes it's nice to get out to a different area and explore without an agenda. We saw a lot of unintentionally interesting things throughout the day. Unfortunately we also missed a number of things because of not planning out the day ahead of time. 

Hong Kong Palace Reunion Dinner

I seriously have the sweetest husband. After a long day of meetings in NY, I attended the company's summer cruise around New York harbor, made a pit stop in the 43rd Street Uniqlo to pick up some omiyage for my husband, and took the train back to Washington. My husband came to pick me up at Union Station. Not only did he meet me at the train station, he also cleaned our apartment and did two loads of laundry. Super wonderful and so grateful.

He let me pick which restaurant we would go grab dinner from, and I chose my Sichuan favorite, Hong Kong Palace in Falls Church. We just wished the roads were a little better out towards Seven Corners.

Cold Noodles with Spicy Sauce

We tried a new appetizer this time, and this dish is truly a winner. The cold noodles have a great toothsomeness, and the spicy sauce has a different spice profile than our go-to dan dan noodles.

Dan Dan Noodles pre-mixing

Beef and vegetables in spicy broth

They have toned down the spice level quite a bit since we have been coming here. I think we need to indicate we'd like authentic spicy. This is still one of my favorite dishes, but it needed an extra tablespoon of hot pepper power and more sichuan peppercorns.

Mapo Tofu with pork and leeks

Still good, this was probably the spiciest of all the dishes.

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Fantastic welcome home reception and dinner by my sweet husband. Even better, he loved his new Uniqlo t-shirts with One Piece and Fist of the North Star designs. I even heard a rumor that a Uniqlo store is scheduled to go into the new City Place development, which would be fantastic.