Taste of Georgetown 2011

Taste of Georgetown is a lovely foodie festival that celebrates...whats else? The wonderful foods that are Georgetown!  We've been able to recruit a few of our friends into joining us on some recent food adventures and this was one of them.  Our friend, Tierney, joined us on this one!

Many of our favorite Georgetown restaurants were there offering some small tasty bites.  Some things we'd tried before and also some new things. 

A place called Chadwicks had mini Cajun chicken egg rolls served with a sweet and sour sauce. Very crispy and yummy!

Delicious fish tacos from Sequoia. Crispy shell and fresh fish with tomato and lettuce inside.

Baja shrimp ceviche from Sea Catch Restaurant and Raw Bar. Fresh and chunky!

the shadow was trying to steal our ceviche!

Mie N Yu had Spicy Pumpkin and Coconut Soup with duck confit and topped with pepitas.  This was one of my favorites!! And lucky for me, Superking and Tierney (we'll have to come up with an alter-ego name for you at some point) aren't huge pumpkin fans so that left most of it for me!  I love duck and I love pumpkin...who would've thought they'd be so good together in a coconut soup! Amazing!

open wide, honey bunny!

A place called Neyla offered freshly made hummus and baba ganouj with a crispy pita.  Delicious and creamy! The pita also was seasoned with herbs and spices on one side too which added a nice flavor with the dips.

Mortons had simple steak sandwiches.  It was a piece of tenderly cooked medium steak on a simple white bread and spread with mayonnaise.  I would've thought a fancy steakhouse like Mortons would've offered something a little fancier. But it was delicious all the same. I don't think we would've found a steak any better anywhere else.

Bodega's had a huge vat of paella they were churning up fresh which wasn't quite ready for us at that time so we had to wait til later. But while we waited we tried their serrano ham served on mini toasts with a tomato compote.

Thunderburger had juicy little cheeseburger sliders.

a view of the Georgetown Canal

Georgetown Catering had pumpkin whoopie pies, peanut butter and jelly whoppie pies and lobster rolls served with sweet potato chips.  Quite the combination!  But we weren't turning it down!

Of course we had to make a stop at our beloved Georgetown Cupcake!! They were giving away 2 flavors in one box. Tier got the Red Velvet & Peanut Butter Fudge. While Superking and I got the Salted Caramel and Lava Fudge.

We went for a walk and did a little shopping in Georgetown before coming back to the festival for one more small bite.  We went back for the paella which was finally ready. It was thick and hot, full of rice and veggies. Super yummy and worth the wait!

And we got a tenderloin kabob from Sequoia.  Complete with roasted veggies. A nice savory end to the day!

I can't believe we actually ate all that food! It was all so yumma yumma!! This is why I love Georgetown!

Fighting Sickness with Tom Yum Soup

This is now day 5 of me trying to recover from being sick this past weekend. For over 24 hours (beginning Thursday night going into Friday night) I fought the most wicked fever I think I've ever had. Along with other flu-like symptoms which I don't need to get into here. While being sick though, I didn't have much of an appetite, but what appetite I did have, I was craving soup.  Particularly some good creamy tomato soup with a hot grilled cheese.  Unfortunately that wasn't available. But the Super King (aka Hubby who decided he wasn't sure if he wanted to be called Hubby anymore in my blog posts so this is the new name he came up with...) took very good care of me, bringing me all kinds of other foods and helping to clean the house a little.

This is the original Super King from Futurama

Having said all that, right before I got sick I decided to try my hand at making a Tom Yum Soup, a very yummy and simple to make Thai soup. Technically I think what I made is more of a Tom Khaa soup but we're calling it Tom Yum soup anyway.  My soup had coconut milk in it which apparently Tom Khaa has but Tom Yum doesn't. I don't really know. Although if you look through my past posts about DC Restaurant Week, we went to a restaurant called Masa 14, in which we were served a Tom Yum soup which clearly had coconut milk in it as well. So maybe I'm not that far off.

Tom Yum soup from Masa 14

Anyway, here's the recipe I used, which is an adaptation/combination of 2 recipes (you know I can't just pick one recipe and use it as is). Parts of the recipe are from "Easy Tom Yum Soup with Coconut Milk" by Darlene Schmitt on About.com Thai Food.  And parts of the recipe are from "Asian Shrimp and Coconut Soup" on Recipe.com.

Ingredients:
1 Tbsp canola oil
1 Tbsp grated or minced ginger
3 garlic cloves minced
3 cups chicken broth (tho I used beef broth because thats what I had and it was fine)
1 cup water
1 lemon
1 lime
Generous handful of mushrooms (I used shitakes)
1 cup matchstick carrots
1/2 to 1 lb precooked shrimp
1/2 cup coconut milk
2 Tbsp fish sauce
4 oz angel hair pasta
Fresh coriander/cilantro for garnish

Directions:
Heat oil in large saucepan over medium heat.  Cook ginger and garlic in oil for about 30 seconds.  Add chicken broth and water. Bring to a boil and let cook about 3 minutes. 

Zest your lemon and lime and add zest to broth. Also add mushrooms and carrots.  Cook about 5 minutes.

Reduce the heat and add shrimp, coconut milk, and fish sauce.  Cook for another 5 minutes. Then add a squeeze of lime juice if desired. Here is a good opportunity to taste-test the soup and adjust flavors as needed. (If it needs more spice or saltiness, add more fish sauce.  If its too sour, add 1 tsp brown sugar. If its too salty, add more lime juice. If you want more spice/heat, add red chilies or chili sauce. Add more coconut milk if you want it richer/creamier or if its too spicy.)

Cook pasta, drain, and add to soup right before serving.  Pour into bowls and garnish with a few sprigs of coriander.  Serve with a nice plate of sushi and enjoy! This recipe gave us about 3 large bowlfuls of soup and took about 30 minutes to make.

This isn't exactly the sushi we had that night but this looks yummy too!

Donna note: I actually made this soup earlier in the day, everything except the pasta, and put it in a crockpot on low to keep it warm. Then had Super King make the pasta later that evening just before serving. It worked great. It was the perfect warm compliment to our cold fresh sushi plate.

Masa 14 in DC

So last night we had our first food adventure for Restaurant Week in DC.  We went to a place called Masa 14 located on 14th St NW between S and T streets.  Masa 14, only open for barely over a year, is a cool sophisticated place that serves a fusion cuisine of Asian and Mexican.  Whoever woulda thought to put those 2 things together? Well, someone did and it was genius!

can you see the snowflakes/ice pellets falling?

For most restaurants who celebrate Restaurant Week, they have a special prefixe menu specifically for this particular week.  And most menus have 3 or 4 courses for about $35 a person.  And in each course you usually have several items to choose from.

For our first course I chose the Tom Yum Soup...a sweet and spicy concoction of coconut milk, chicken adobado, masa dumplings, thai basil, bean sprouts, and some kind of spicy red peppers. Absolutely delicious and amazing how all those flavors work together.

Tom Yum Soup

For Hubby's first course, he chose Shrimp Ceviche...which contained juicy shrimp, yuzu (an Asian citrus fruit), melon, orange slices, cilantro, lime, and serrano chilis. For those who have never had ceviche, its essentially raw but then "cooked" in the acid of lime juice.  Its amazing how science can make food so yummy!  It was light and sweet and spicy all at once.

Shrimp Ceviche

For the second course, I chose the Country Ham Flatbread...a flat piece of bread (as the name implies) toasted crispy topped with salty very thin sliced ham, goat cheese, slices of cantaloupe (yes, you read correctly...cantaloupe), arugula, truffle, and lime.  Such a pantheon of flavors I never imagined together.  You could experience just about every flavor sensation in one bite.  Salty, sweet, crunchy, slight bitterness from the greens.  It was awesome.

Country Ham Flatbread

check out those slices of cantaloupe under the greens!

Hubby's second course was Pork Belly Steamed Buns...soft squishy doughy buns wrapped like a taco around the sweet shredded bits of pork belly topped with achiote (a paste made from annato seeds), hoisin sauce, pineapple, red fresno peppers, lime, cilantro, and pickled onions.  Again this combination of sweet, savory, and spicy was beautiful.

Pork Belly Steamed Buns

Third course...I picked Salt and Pepper Calamari...slightly crispy fried squid rings with flavors of madras curry, cilantro, mint, scallions, and a sweet and spicy chili sauce.  Fairly simple, not extremely unique but delicious and lovely all the same.

Salt and Pepper Calamari

Hubby's third course...Smoked Wagyu Beef Brisket Medallions...sweet and smokey shredded wagyu beef shaped into a lovely medallion, so soft and sumptuous you could eat it with a spoon!  It also was served with a wasabi parsnip puree, tat soi (a type of Asian green), hot and sour sauce, and truffled huitlacoche (which is actually a kind of fungus that grows on corn...sounds weird but was yummy).  There was definitely a little heat with this dish so proceed with caution if you're heat-sensitive as I am.

Wagyu Brisket Medallions

Our last course was dessert of course.  I chose a Molten Spicy Chocolate Cake...not your average molten chocolate cake here as there was definitely a hint of something spicy in that wonderful gooey melted chocolate pouring out of the center of the cake.  And next to the cake was served an orange tapioca/strawberry sorbet and gingered strawberries.  The heat from the cake (both temperature and flavor) mixed with the light fruity coolness of the strawberries and sorbet were a perfect combination of yumminess!

Left: mango panna cotta; Right: chocolate cake and sorbet

Hubby's dessert course was Mango Panna Cotta...something neither one of us had ever had and weren't even 100% sure what it was exactly.  Panna Cotta is traditionally an Italian dish kinda of like a creamy pudding type thing but with a bready texture to it.  This panna cotta was mango flavored which gave it a bright citrusy orange color.  It was topped with diced mangos, sake blackberry sauce, and a coconut tuille (which is a crispy cookie decoration on top).  Very unique for us.  It was odd and yet delicious.

the aftermath

Needless to say, our bellies were full to the brim and our plates scraped clean when we left!  Unfortunately we had a long drive home in the middle of a freezing rain downpour!! But we eventually made it home in one piece and very pleased with our food adventure.  We can't wait for Thursdays dinner now!  Stay tuned...

Hunter's Head Tavern

Today hubby and I went on a little road trip to Skyline Drive.  It was so gorgeous! The fall leaves aren't quite at peak color yet but there was enough color to still enjoy the views.  We stopped at probably close to 20 overlooks to gaze at the beauty of the Shenendoah Valley and the surrounding mountains.

On the way back home, we took a little detour into Upperville to visit a little hometown restaurant we've been wanting to go to for a while.  Its called Hunter's Head Tavern.  Its a quaint English style pub that specializes in organic straight-from-the-farm ingredients.  The restaurant works in conjunction with a nearby farm called Ayrshire Farm....sustainable, humanely-raised meats, and organic produce.

The atmosphere was cozy, even sitting outside on a cool fall evening, and the food was comforting.  The bar area, typical pub look, with the menu written on a chalkboard.  They give you your table number written on a wooden spoon which you then stick inside an empty wine bottle that adorns your table. The floors were made of old creaky wood and there were a couple fireplaces here and there.  The outside seating area on a stone patio had wooden tables with matching bench chairs and it was covered by a white tent decorated with white lights.  A tree sitting next to the patio was also covered in the pretty little white lights making the whole area seem like we were at a quiet outdoor party.

First they brought us a small loaf of freshly baked bread...soft on the inside and crisp on the outside.

 Hubby ordered a ceasar salad, and filet with mashed potatoes and carrots.  Nothing super special or out of the ordinary but yumma yumma nonetheless.

 I ordered spicy sweet potato soup which was served in this cute little pewter cauldron...so creamy and not hot spicy but spice spicy, like maybe cardamom or cinnamon or nutmeg?  I don't know but it was heavenly.

 I also ordered their seasonal lasagna, which was unlike any lasagna I've ever had.  First of all there was not one sign of a tomato.  Instead it was pasta layered with butternut squash, sage, and goat cheese.  It was topped with some kind of white creamy cheesy sauce.

 Very unique and very yummy and also very rich.  Needless to say there was no room for dessert. :(  Maybe next time!