Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Food for Thought

Clare's Dad and Stuff in my Brain both tagged me with this quick meme. Here's the rules:
  • Link to the person who tagged you.
  • Include the state and country you live in.
  • List top five favorite local restaurants.
  • Tag five other people and let them know they've been tagged.
You all know I live in the nation's capital, where there's a protest every other weekend, one of the country's worst baseball records this year and no voting representation in Congress. DC has some great places to eat, but most of us travel within Maryland and Virginia pretty fluidly so all my locales will be in this area.

My favorite place of all time is this hole-in-the-wall called Capitol BBQ. Located on H street in the Gallery Place section of town, this was the place that catered my 40th birthday party. BBQ pork sandwiches are about my favorite food ever and all the fixin's that come with it are pretty pleasin' as well. The place has a hot & mild sauces and serves pork, chicken, ribs, brisket and turkey. The sides kick total ass (especially the pasta salad) and nothing on earth beats their banana pudding.

My 2nd favorite cuisine is why I'm choosing Cubanos as another one of my choices. This is in Silver Spring, MD and is about as authentic Cuban as you can get. From the grilled bread to the plantanos to the ropa vieja & mi terra, the dishes are well proportioned for the money and service is always great.

Italian is dominated by the Dino restaurant. Owned by a couple who were wine connoisseurs (Somollies--how do you spell it?) in Hollywood, they came to DC a few years ago and opened an awesome higher-end place right on Connecticut Ave NW. There are special wine pairing menus all the time and the appetizers are to die for. Much of the menu allows for half-entries so that you can try two different meals each time. The atmosphere is great and the tables are spacious.

You want traditional Moroccan and Middle Eastern cuisine? There is no place better then Marakesh downtown DC. With two seatings a night, this place serves a nine course meal and explains the traditions behind each dish. During the middle of dinner, a woman comes out and performs a traditional belly dance..which is not like the stuff you see on TV at all.

Rustico is a new place I discovered from my friend, Jill. Located in Alexandria, VA, it has some of the most innovated foods and presentations I've ever had. Their pizzas are amazing--I highly recommend the duck bacon and brie-- and the Mosaic trio (three mini entrees) all have beer pairings along with them. There is a good size bar area as well as a sit-down restaurant.

So who am I tagging? I'm going to be selfish and tag five locals so I can learn about other great restaurants in the area.

Brian at Story of the Turtle
Kelly at O for Obsessive
Papa Bradstein at the Bradstein Household
Lisa at Lemon Gloria
Mamma at Mamma Loves

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5 Comments:

Blogger Whit said...

Phew, I was hoping you didn't tag me. There isn't anything worth eating at withing 20 miles that's not a chain, and who wants to hear about that?

1:25 AM  
Blogger Papa Bradstein said...

Someday I'll forgive you for taking Dino's, which was totally mine first. Dibs, dibs, double-dibs!

The chef used to live two doors down the hall from us, so we've been going there from their opening--well, up until we had 3B that is. Love it. Wish we had time for it.

Let's see if I can remember any of the good place we used to go to before we started picking our meals out of the leftovers on the high chair tray. Mmm. Stale, dry toast.

12:33 PM  
Blogger Kelly O said...

Sweet! It's been a while, though.... God, I need to get out more.

1:07 PM  
Blogger Darren said...

They all look good. And I don't know any of them...of course I haven't been in DC in years. I remember a really good pizza place (in Georgetown I think) that I went to about 20 years ago. There was also a great Spanish place (very upscale and expensive) that Clare's Mom and I ate at about 6 or 7 years ago.

6:30 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

We had a little hole-in-the-wall BBQ place like that and we loved it. But apparently it was either too hole-in-the-wall or not healthy enough for Los Angelenos and it went outta business.

My arteries are happy but nothing else is...

6:52 PM  

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