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

Random Nothings

One of my favorite bloggers will post an entry that sums up a lot of small things that happen in his week. I love that idea. During the week, I'll think to myself that something is really blog-worthy, but I can't flesh it out beyond a few sentences. Then my feeble mind will lose the thought forever before I can embellish it enough to warrant a posting. So today, you must endure my random thoughts.

People Who Don't Need People
We went to Home Depot today to return an empty gas cylindar for the grill. The Depot now has an automated system with outdoor lockers and you can return the empty and buy the new tank without having to talk to anyone. You begin at the kiosk and when it you say that you have a tank to return, it pops open an empty locker. You place the tank in the locker and shut the door, only then will the adjoining locker open for you to take the next tank. Freaking technology rocks.

Keeping Kosher
I love horseradish. I also love Wasabi. This week, it like that commerical where the peanut butter found the chocolate. There they were, joined at last. I grabbed the jar and ran back to Larry. "Hey, look what I found. This is exactly what I'm looking for," I said.

He looked over. "Great. Let's get it."
I frowned, "I can't. It's Kosher and we're not Kosher."
"We're not Jewish; people aren't Kosher." he corrected. "Who cares... we can still buy it."
"Really?" I asked. "But where do put it? It says to keep it refrigerated and we keep meat and dairy in our fridge."

Turns out, I'm not the brightest when it comes to religions.

G-L-O-R-I-A
My co-worker started a blog. I had decided not to share my blogging with anyone in the office, but when she mentioned she had begun this crazy blog journey, I totally caved and blabbed. I suck with secrets.

A Man's Castle is his...well, Castle
We bought Corey's Christmas gift today. Due to the amount of grandparents and extended family he has, we parents traditionally give him one gift a piece. Larry and I saw this Fisher Price Imaginext Adventures Castle and decided this was the toy of choice. Corey can play for hours in the world of imagination (much like I did) and he will love it. Plus it comes with a ton of accessories that my folks can buy. (On sale now at Toys R Us)

'I'm going to be like you Dad'
Daddy Daze did a great post this week about how kids can turn out a lot like you. It hit home because there is a lot of me I don't want Corey to be. I was a shy, embarrassed and timid kid. I had a tendency to play in imaginary worlds all by myself; something I now see him doing. Corey certainly interacts with a lot of kids, but I always worry and hope he is able to hurdle those stages I could not.

Daddy Daze also mentioned the fact that he's not into the traditional stuff a lot of guys like; sports, poker parties, etc. I also find myself in this category. It's funny how most people wrote it off as my being gay, but as I became older, I learned not every guy likes sports (and some pretty fantastic women can kick royal ass at fantasy football).

I'm not a wuss... I own power tools for God's sake, I listen to Metallica and I have eaten at a Hooters (not by choice mind you). I struggle with the fact I don't have a lot of guy friends. I spent so many years worrying that guys would interrupt it the wrong way. Now, through blogging, I find that I now have the guy friends that were never there before.

Music for the Masses
Sarah, Croutonboy, Chag and Dubya have all posted their top 100 CD’s. Their lists turned out to be some of the best CD's ever. For much if them, the walk down memory lane was incredible. For others CD's, I immediately went to Amazon and iTunes to hear what I'd been missing. Of course, I decided to begin my list. Well, then I edited it several times. Then I decided not to post the same CD's, but give them shouts for ones I would put onto my list. That would enable me to only have to write up 35 CD's that made my list. In six weeks, I have two descriptions done...and trust me, they pretty much suck.

Bear with me as I figure out how to post these, in some form or another. Dubya, I totally understand why it took so long.

Have a good week, folks.

Hmm, That Tastes Like Tuna

Minds out of the gutter! (and seriously...no way.)

I am happy to report that I am now one of the sushi loving public. For years I bitched about how gross it was and the other night at dinner, I broke out of my 'chicken fried rice' mold and tried sushi. Now it was the "rolls" type of sushi, not the shushimi raw shit, but let me just say, it was delicious.

Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks?