Yechon in Annandale

Surprisingly busy, sadly underwhelming. For the length of our wait for a table, you would imagine that it was something amazing. It was decent but there are other place that are better for different dishes. 

 At least there are tons of pan chan.

Beer and a slice of hamul pajeon (seafood scallion pancake) with beer is a pretty good start.

 The hubs ordered japchae...not sure why...not super impressed and not worth the price.

I picked the wrong fish to have grilled. Should have stuck with mackerel. 

The kalbi was only so-so and overpriced. 

Only so-so and overpriced with too long of a wait. Boo Yechon, I doubt I'll get the hubs to try you again.

Finally Putting My Pottery Barn Catering Sets to Good Use

Amusingly I found out that my silverware catering set had two sets of forks and one set of spoons. Sigh. On the bright side, we always need more forks when entertaining. 

Grilled chicken with a cheese plate, shrimp cocktail, salad and Costco pepperoni pizza.

My brother and his family stopped by for the night with us on their way back north from visiting my sister-in-law's brother. I only get to see them once a year if I'm lucky, so it was a really nice surprise. Even we couldn't host them in the style we would like, such as beds for everyone, it was a great opportunity for my brother and his family to meet my husband's family from Japan. The kids keep growing faster than the speed of light, but it's a pleasure to see them becoming young adults who unfortunately tower over their aunt. 

 The hubs has been actively expanding his grilling repetoire. 

Before my brother's family departed, we prepared a cheeseburger lunch. The watermelons we have been buying lately are incredibly sweet and delicious. I put kimchee and Kewpie mayonnaise on my cheddar burger with sliced onion and tomato, and it was awesome.

 Spanish tortilla breakfast

After many mornings of delicious breakfasts cooked by my mother and sister-in. -law, I wanted to make something different for them to try. I made a Spanish tortilla with potato, onion and egg, plus mixed greens salad to go with the shrimp cocktail, blueberries and toast.

In addition, I made a chilled corn pottage soup with leftover grilled soy sauce corn on the cob.

We have been eating very well during August. I'm almost a little afraid to see how much weight I've gained.

Japanese In-Laws Are Visiting and Cooking Fabulous Meals

My husband's family is visiting our new house. I love our new place, and now know it comfortably fits all of us with some room to spare. While we are happy to see them, unfortunately one of the cats needs to work on her hostessing skills and not pee in inappropriate places. The in-laws have been recovering from jet lag and yet my mother-in-law and sister-in-law have been cooking up a storm in the kitchen. 

 Delicious and nutritious breakfast with miso soup, rice, salad, kimchee and tamagoyaki.

 Salad with slices of charcoal-grilled ribeye and aged beef plus pork.

Hubs went to the special meat butcher in Fair City Mall to pick up the meat.

Grated fresh garlic with soy sauce is a fantastic dipping sauce.

Japanese Breakfast 

Potatoes with tofu, kombu and small fish. Kelp with yellow peppers and cucumber with ponzu sauce.

 Pork Shabu Shabu with salad and sliced heirloom tomatoes. 

 Wagyu Beef with kimchee and green beans.

Beef was so soft. One of the kitties was even lucky enough to have some handouts from grandma.

Soba maki sushi with egg and cucumber, tempura onion and carrot.

 Shrimp tempura.

 Costco steak dinner

The inlaws went on a field trip to Costco and came back with gorgeous steaks, which the hubs grilled over charcoal, plus salad, kimchee and kabocha simmered in dashi and soy sauce. We totally could have shared half of the steaks and been fine, but this was a nice American indulgence considering the price of beef and all other groceries in Japan. I made it through half of my steak and my sister-in-law also had some leftover.

 Breakfast of champions

Omelets, salad, rice, miso soup, simmered kabocha, kimchee, and leftover steak sliced and topped with sliced scallions and ponzu. Waste not, want not and sooo delicious.

Duangrats in Seven Corners

Duangrats has a decent amount of parking and a very nicely decorated restaurant space. This was our first time, so we chose to try a few of our favorite dishes to see how it compares. Flavor-wise it was good, spice level was nice, although price-point was a bit high.

 Hubs loves a tom yum gai or tom kha gai soup, and this was nice but not earthshaking.

 Larb Gai

Minced chicken with lime, fish sauce, chilies, cilantro and red onion.

Good but I really like larb gai, even average ones.

 Ka Prow

Spicy chicken with broccoli. Ok, but not my favorite dish. 

Flounder in a spicy chili sauce

Flounder was decent, but I prefer a deepfried rockfish with chilies, garlic and ginger. In all, it's a nice space, good service.

GRK is Good but No Greek Deli

I'll admit it, the line out of Greek Deli was too long so I opted to try out GRK instead. I'm sure there's a number of other lunchseekers in the area who have done the same thing. It was good to try it out and the ample seating space is definitely a draw, but the taste doesn't hold a candle to the gyros at Greek Deli.

 Great packaging and I dig the options of chicken, pork or lamb/beef gyros plus choice of sauce. 

I'm positive GRK will do well. I just don't hope it does so well that it hurts the small businessman a few storefronts away.

Lamb/Beef Gyro

Hands-down, this is a decent gyro, and definitely more ample and satisfying than the Greek joint in International Square plus Greek Deli gyro. That being said, it doesn't move me in the same way that the Greek Deli gyro does.  

Greek Deli Gyro

I like the cucumber, onion and tons of tzatziki sauce. Flavor is great, and the other dishes on offer at Greek Deli are really good, almost large enough for two meals.

Shake Shake Dupont Circle

Some days my husband and I attend the same event at the same think tank. Leaving one of the think tanks together one day, we commiserated that we had both missed lunch. Debating between stopping in for kabobs at Moby Dick or burgers at Shake Shack, we opted for the second choice. 

, 

Double cheeseburger with Shack Sauce with a side of fries.

The burger is delicious, although incredibly fattening. The fries were nice but not extremely noteworthy. The hubs prefers the fries at Five Guys. This salt and grease bomb was satisfying although salt coma-inducing. I don't advise having one when you have a full slate of work to do in the afternoon, but a little indulgence now and then is very enjoyable.

Grilled Ribeye with Corn, Tomato and Fruit Salad

The title pretty much sums up what we had for dinner. After a luxuriously delightful Saturday morning where I woke up, turned over and slept until I felt fully rested, I made breakfast/brunch, and did a wee bit of gardening before we headed to Old Town Alexandria for the hubs' haircut appointment. We managed to renew our Costco membership and survive the crowds, and came home with our spoils. Buying in bulk is interesting, but we definitely have much more room and storage to accommodate all of extra units. 

The hubs grilled the ribeye on the charcoal grill, and I cooked the corn and sliced the fruits and vegetables.

With a mixture of grated fresh garlic and soy sauce to dip the steak into, it was delightful.

Chirashi at Home

The hubs complained that I don't cook enough Japanese food for dinner and had also had some painful dental work done, so I made chirashi for dinner. The night before I had roasted salmon heads with salt. With the chilled leftover salmon, and some snow crab leg meat that I picked out of the shells, I assembled my version of chirashi with sliced Persian cucumbers and thinly sliced fried egg.

Chirashi at Home

The rice was cooked in the rice cooker and mixed with a chirashi seasoning mix we received as omiyage from some friends. It was nice and light and refreshing on a sultry summer's evening. Even the cats were interested in dinner.

China Star in Fairfax

We have only had Sichuan food from China Star delivered to our new house (which is fantastic to find Sichuan so close by). To celebrate my husband's great score in the latest golf tournament, we went to the actual restaurant to enjoy some spicy Sichuan dishes. While the delivery is great, and everything is better when it's just made and we enjoyed it.

Spicy beef and tendon with cilantro.

 Sichuan cold noodles.

I prefer this dish over the version of Dan Dan Noodles that they offer. The noodles are nice and toothsome and the spices are great after all the flavors are tossed together.

 Spicy beef with vegetables

This is my favorite dish at all Sichuan restaurants we try, and this one is quite fiery with a nice topping of cilantro with bean sprouts, celery and cabbage. This version was very good.

Mapo Tofu

We had an unfortunately miscommunication the last few times we tried to order this dish for delivery. Instead they sent us some countrystyle tofu dish with carrots and peas. So not the same thing. This time we had the dish we wanted with leeks and sichuan peppercorns ground over top. So delicious.

Captain Pell's in Fairfax

I've passed by Captain Pells for years, but had never tried it. One Sunday I caught up with a lovely friend and we went to indulge in steamed crabs. While we had read online that the restaurant can get busy, it was not very crowded when we arrived. There's an all you can eat option, but that's really wasted on me. I eat slowly, but enjoy it. I also wanted to check out the restaurant before my in-laws arrive, to check if it would a good place to take them when they visit us.

 One dozen Large crabs

Hush puppies (small size), fried clams and 1/2 pound spiced shrimp

We wanted to try out a few of the sides, and the hush puppies were really lovely. The clams were good, although only while super hot, and the shrimp were nice and plump with good flavor.

***

We picked the crabs nice and slowly, while chatting and catching up, and still only managed to eat half of our dozen. Since we did not order the AYCE option, we were able to take home the remaining crabs. I knew exactly what I would do with them...pick the meat and make crabcakes.

 Crabcakes frying on the stove.

Crabcake with leftover sliced steak with corn and tomato salad.

4th of July Burgers

After over four hours of gardening (for me) and car washing and polishing (for him), we were extremely hungry. We had picked up groceries before the 4th of July long holiday weekend, so I threw together an ode to the holiday. 

Bacon Cheeseburger with lettuce and tomato om a potato bun with blue cheese and bacon potato salad. 

Old School Steak Dinner

 Continuing our experiments with grilling with charcoal, we decided to have an old school steakhouse dinner. With some lovely steaks from Whole Foods (yes pricey, but the aging and marbling is nice), the hubs was on grilling duty and I worked on the sides and salad.

 Steak with salt, black pepper and olive oil.

Wedge Salad with blue cheese dressing, tomato, bacon, lettuce and aged blue cheese.

Steak with baked potato with bacon, sour cream and scallions, plus creamed spinach.

BBQ at the Ngos

So I've been super busy this summer, between purchasing and assembling furniture, to painting and decorating our new home. It's been a steep learning curve, and I'm currently scoring a middling C on landscaping and garden maintenance. Oh well...what do you expect from a desk jockey who researches a wide variety of business topics and industries and gets poison ivy infections whenever she ventures outdoors? 

One of the really nice things has been the chance to invite people over for dinners or lunches, which we were reluctant to do when we lived in a small one-bedroom apartment. We had a fun evening with the Ngos a few weeks ago, and they returned the favor one Friday night. The husband is a lovely, genial fellow with a wonderful way around a charcoal grill. 

Full tray of grilled sausages, ribs and galbi. 

With rice, lettuce, kimchee and grilled meats plus plenty of wine, we had a lovely night.

Japanese Kit Kats

It's often been said that the Japanese excel at improving on the inventions of others.

Behold, macha (green tea) flavored and purin (pudding) flavored KitKats.

Pretty amazing.

Tyson's Corner BGR

Running errands and getting our new master bedroom closet system designed and purchased from the Container Store in Tysons, we headed out for a quick bite while they were preparing our order for pickup. We went to BGR.

Cheeseburger with pepperjack cheese cooked medium with lettuce and tomato.

Amusingly my sesame bun was only seeded one side.

Mosaic District Matchbox Brunch

We have been working on our new house every weekend and finally took a break for a indulgent brunch and movie date. The hubs really wanted to see the X-Men movie and I particularly enjoy the atmosphere at the Angelika in Merrifield. What is great about the Matchbox restaurant next door is that the wait never has been as long as the Chinatown location. 

Bloody Mary #3 with cucumber and citrus salt.

Bloody Mary #6 with bacon and spicy rim.

The hubs ordered the huevos rancheros with a sunnyside up egg along with the beans and salsa.

They also offer a waffle side item.

I indulged in the crab benedict. Gorgeous crabcake wrapped with bacon with a side of home fries and frisee and poached egg. Unfortunately the poached egg was poached hard, but it was still delicious.

We had pretty good service and a really nice meal before heading in to the movie.

Mosaic District Red Apron Butcher

While at the Mosaic District, we stopped in the Red Apron Butcher to pick up a beautifully aged NY Strip steak. They also have a fantastic array of wine, and the two very reasonable bottles that I picked out were very good. One was a NZ sauvignon blanc and the other was an alvarinho from Portugal. They also have a nice small assortment of cheeses and farm fresh eggs. Of course I needed some eggs and a chunk of bleu.

The hubs grilled the steak over charcoal. 

We shared the steak with some endive and grapefruit and a light coleslaw salad with a bright vinaigrette dressing. 

Return to Soi 38

Following a farewell happy hour on an office rooftop, I joined my husband and his office mates for a late dinner after they finished giving a video conference briefing to colleagues overseas. Looking for something other than the regular Sichuan, we tried out Soi 38 for dinner. This was my second time and I had recently sent my husband there for a business lunch. Both my husband and his lunch guest were really pleasantly surprised by the menu and the dishes they shared. Since he had originally thought of going to Panache, my recommendation saved him from a boring business lunch.

Pineapple fried rice with shrimp.

Larb gai

Great appetizer to share with a few people. Love the lime and fish sauce flavors.

Piping hot tom yum soup that we shared in a theatrical presentation.

We also ordered the Gai Tod (fried chicken with two sauces), and gai lan (Chinese broccoli) side.