Present in Falls Church, VA

This was a banner weekend for eating, what with the organic produce, pie, and our trip to Virginia for Vietnamese food. On Sunday, we returned to our favorite suburban dining destination, Falls Church, to try out the much-celebrated Present.

Notice Julia's yoga pants- I finally got her to come to a class with me!

One of the more hilarious (and exciting!) parts of Tom's review was what we could expect of the staff: "The restaurant's staff is uncommonly suave and articulate, even Ritz-like at times (make that the fabled Ritz of yore, not today's brand)." The Ritz on a CESDB outing! The fabled Ritz at that!

Our waitress was certainly up to the task. As soon as we sat down and said we'd never been there before, she launched into explanations and recommendations, noting good dishes for sharing, and telling us that if we wanted something healthy, we could get our food steamed, but if we wanted something delicious, to get it deep-fried. I mean, my god, woman, it's like you can see into our souls.

Papaya salad with beef liver jerky

"Autumn Rolls:" seafood and pork deep fried in rice paper wrappers.

As you can see, the Brigade took on a guest member this week: Felipe is an exchange student from South America. He is very interested in learning about new cultures.

With Tom's and our waitress's suggestions, we ordered papaya salad, autumn rolls, deep fried tuna with mango ("Tuna Swimming in the Mango Grove"), duck in a tamarind sauce, and some sort of delicious beef dish called Cow in an Open Field.

Felipe is intrigued by the radish flower.

We really liked the food, particularly our two appetizers and the beef dish. Our least favorite was the duck, because the tamarind sauce was a little too sweet, but this was only relative; it was still really good. The sauce for the tuna was also delicious.

Action shot of Julia in the mango grove.

Present had a lot to live up to in its competition with the nearby Four Sisters for best Vietnamese restaurant in the area. And although we struggled with the decision, we're ultimately giving our vote the the latter. And one of the reasons for that is that even though we ordered about the same amount of food as we usually do, we left a little hungry. The portions at Four Sisters are a lot more generous.

Brigade members do not deal well with hunger, so we made a game time decision to continue the outing by trying to find some dessert at a Vietnamese bakery. Where better than the Eden Center,wondrous playland of all things Vietnamese and delicious?

We went into a few places to check out the selection, and I don't remember where we finally ended up. We made the poor lady behind the counter explain the contents of almost everything, and settled on a mung bean bun and coconut macaroons.

Felipe had never seen anything like the Eden Center and was a little overwhelmed.

 I think the Brigade might going on hiatus for a little while, since Easter and finals are coming up and people are going out of town. Adam is already mired in finals which is why he couldn't join us. (He also had quite the weekend.) But hopefully we can squeeze in an Urban Outing...we do have some Groupons that are about to expire...

dangerous. delicious. PIE.

Last night, three fourths of our humble dining group convened a meeting of the Drunken Urban Dining Brigade (otherwise known as Friends Going Out). Adam had an old friend in town from Indiana, and to show off our fair District he organized a night out on H Street. This was particularly exciting, for two reasons: 1) Despite living in DC for nearly two years, I had never been out on H Street and 2) In addition to many, many bars, H Street is the home of Dangerously Delicious Pies, which Alex and I have been wanting to visit for quite some time now.

Suffice it to say, Alex and I would never turn down an excuse to get drunk and eat pie, so we joined Adam and his friends at the Biergarten Haus, before going on to Fruit Bat, Church and State, and Palace of Wonders.

Of all these bars (and yes, we really did go to all of these bars--you can imagine what my head feels like today), the highlight of the night was probably Church and State. Alex, not knowing the name of the bar when we first walked in, remarked that she felt as though she was "in a Church." Adam's roommate, Sean, asked her if she also felt like she was "in a State." Befuddled by the question at first, she was quite amused when all was explained.

The place had sort of a kitschy vibe, with stained glass, menus written in Declaration of Independence-like script and a room in the back called "the confessional" (complete with a confessional window facing the bar).


The drinks were as they should be--strong and delicious--and the bartenders were also just as they should be--attractive and attentive. All in all, the place may have been trying a bit too hard, but it paid off.

Palace of Wonders had its charms, too. Alex was particularly pleased with the cat who lived at the bar.


Unsurprisingly, however, the real star of the night was pie. After drinking far too much, we all stumbled into Dangerously Delicious Pies and proceeded to eat pretty much everything in the place.


Alex and I ordered a lemon pie, which we were all quite excited about:




The boys also bought pieces of the SMOG (steak, mushroom, onion, and gruyere) pie, cherry pie and blueberry pie. We all enjoyed the sweet pies (the lemon was particularly good) but agreed that the savory was truly amazing. We managed to pretty much decimate all the offerings, though, and left thoroughly pleased. The women behind the counter were probably less than amused with our drunken antics, however. Oh, well.


Next up: we're going back to the basics, with a Sunday afternoon outing to Present, a Vietnamese place in Falls Church, one of our favorite locations for cheap, ethnic, suburban dining.

Arganica Farm Club

In what is perhaps the antithesis of Cheap Ethnic Suburban Dining, Marta and I received our first delivery from Arganica Farm Club last night. We have a livingsocial deal for a free month long membership. After that, we probably won't be able to sustain our expensive, locally sourced diet.

It's really fun to come home to a big box of delicious food at your doorstep. Arganica is not a CSA model, meaning you can select the food you want, which includes meat, dairy, and prepared foods, in addition to fruits and vegetables. But our first order came with a produce box, so we stuck with that. We also got hummus from a farm in Virginia and peanut butter that is totally unlabeled, and could be any brown substance as far as I know. It is the best hummus and the best peanut butter I have ever had. I may or may not have eaten both of them for breakfast straight out of the container.

We're not sure if these are lemons, or lemon-lime hybrids.

Marta and I were excited about most of the produce, although our box was "Organic" but not "Organic and Local," which is (even) more expensive. Supposedly, the goal is to provide local food when possible, but our celery was from California, and our pears were from Argentina. I don't really understand the benefit of this. I don't even have to go to Whole Foods to get international organic foods- I can get that at Giant or Safeway. But when you order things individually, you know where it's coming from and how it's produced ahead of time. I suppose one of the big draws is the home delivery, but we have two good grocery stores within walking distance of our apartment, so that's not a big value add right now.

Still life with unidentified root vegetable.

We are not sure what these are. Rutabagas? Turnips? Radishes? Are they even all the same thing? And what do we do with them? Rita suggests rutabaga fries if we are able to slice through them.

Big Night In in the Alex and Marta household: cooking with our new produce box! We made spicy broccoli pasta and carrot ginger soup. I'm very excited for my Friday lunch leftovers.

Vietnamese food this weekend! Julia and I are also hopeful that a possible trip to H St. with Adam and his friends will result in some dangerously delicious pie.

(Sub) Urban BBQ in Rockville, MD

The tag line on Tyler Cowen's Ethnic Dining Guide is "All food is ethnic food." That's not usually our mantra in seeking out restaurants, but this week, we decided to go with it. On Sunday, we set out to disprove the notion that you can't get good barbecue around these parts. Did we succeed? Only somewhat.

One of Marta's co-workers, who was in the military for four years, frequently asks her about our "missions" and informed her that we only have enough members to constitute a squad, not even a platoon, and hardly a brigade. Nevertheless, we persisted in our willful ignorance and set out in our Brigade Chariot for Rockville, Maryland. We were pleased that, upon arrival at Urban BBQ, there was a long line at the counter. Many times, when we arrive for our late Sunday lunches, we are the only ones in the restaurant.

We don't understand what is urban about this setting, but we accept it.

Usually we order a few appetizers and entrees and share everything, but this time we each got our own platter of meat and sides, and sampled each other's food. We ordered chopped pork, pulled chicken, brisket, macaroni and cheese, coleslaw, and corn bread. And Georgia peach sweet tea, of course.

We love a table packed with delicious food.

Creepy dude does not appreciate our dining club.

The meat was really good, the pulled chicken especially. And the additional dipping sauces were delicious. I don't know anything about barbecue regionalism, but they seemed to represent the gamut of American barbecue traditions. There was a yellowy one with mustard, a red one that was thick and spicy, and a thin vinegary one, among others. We each got an enormous piece of still warm corn bread.

The macaroni and cheese was fine, but not amazing, although we appreciated that the pasta was al dente and not mushy, and that it was topped with extra cheese. The coleslaw and cornbread were also pretty good, but the sweet tea, alas, was not up to par.

I will almost always love a meal if it comes with that many dipping sauces.

One of the reasons we went to Urban BBQ this weekend, is that Adam is doing his next review on DC barbecue options, including the new Hill Country in Penn Quarter and Rocklands in Glover Park. We decided that the meat at Urban BBQ was the best, but the sides at Rocklands were far superior. And that Hill Country (according to Adam) is just terrible.

Overall review from Marta: "I was nervous about this outing, because I don't like barbecue, but I am happy."

For our next trip, we are thinking of going back to our roots, and heading out to Falls Church for some Vietnamese eats at Present, which is a nearby competitor to Four Sisters, which we loved.

Friday Night Food Fun: Kushi (and Kelly's Irish Times Pub) in DC

Adam and I went Kushi on Friday night, with two other friends. It was expensive and in DC, so it doesn't count as a Brigade outing, but it was delicious and fun, so it counts as an eating adventure. Adam really likes this place. He wrote a review for the Georgetown paper, and then bought another Groupon to go back.

Adam and Owen are happy because they just had a lot of delicious food.

We forgot about taking pictures until the very end of the meal, which is a shame, because our table was packed with some lovely food. We had sashimi and sushi rolls, grilled vegetables, squid, a meatball on a stick, and pork belly in almost every possible iteration. And after we finished the first orders of pork belly, we ordered more.

Sean with the remnants of the braised pork belly. Sean is actually a Canadian celebrity.

Our food outings almost never involve dessert, but Kushi was an exception. Mochi trio and sea salt gelato? Yes, please. I'm a big fan of sweet and savory in desserts.  There was also a wasabi gelato that I didn't get to try... Next time!

Green tea, mango, and vanilla.

Our evening continued apace with several sweet tea vodkas at Sign of the Whale, and ended at Kelly's Irish Pub near Union Station. Despite our pricey, wonderful dinner, there was something on the menu that we couldn't resist: tater tots. Covered with cheese and bacon. And served with sour cream. I have a special place in my heart for deep fried things covered in cheese and bacon.

Several drinks into the evening, we are very excited about tater tots.

Up next: our trip to Urban BBQ in Rockville!

Reminiscing

A weekend outing to a yet to be determined spot is in the works. In the meantime, I thought I'd catch our many readers (there may be as many of three of you out there!) up on some of our past adventures. (Admittedly, this is an excuse to post more of the pictures we have, which resident photographer Julia started dutifully taking about a year ago. There is no visual evidence of our first year, alas.)

The Time Marta Almost Died

There is no picture of our trip to Hong Kong Palace, but here is a picture of Marta:

This is the delicious soup that saved us from fainting from hunger the first time we went to Bamian.

She looks nice, right? You don't want her to die. But the chefs at Hong Kong Palace clearly had more sinister intentions. The restaurant (which was really excellent aside from the near death experience- you should go!) is located somewhere in the Apocalyptic Seven Corners Intersection of Nightmares in suburban Virginia, and is very difficult to find if you are under the naive impression, as we were, that GoogleMap directions and common sense will get you anywhere in Virginia. When we finally called the restaurant for help from the parking lot of another strip mall, after an hour of making illegal u-turns on all seven of the corners, they said, "You don't have a GPS?!"

When we got there, one of the entrees we ordered was a Tyler Cowen recommendation: Stuffed Pepper Chicken. This consists of chillies, de-seeded and stuffed with sesame seed paste and then deep fried. With deep fried chicken. A little piece of heaven on a plate, really, until you get to a chili that hasn't been de-seeded, but just deep fried, and pop it in your mouth. Poor Marta. She turned an alarming shade of red and I think there were tears and gasping and wincing. I can't really remember because I was still trying to eat the stuffed peppers because, I mean, that was some tasty food. I do remember that she didn't really speak for the next few hours as she tried to quietly deal with her pain. Julia recently went back and had the same dish and and reports that it was delicious.

How We Taught Adam to Point

I mentioned last time that one of the Rules is to have a picture of at least one of us pointing to the sign outside the restaurant, because if we didn't, you might not believe we went there. Plus it is so fun!

This was our second trip for our anniversary.

We found this place due to smartphone assistance, despite my reservations.

She survived and continues to eat spicy food.

The first few times Adam saw us do this, he wandered away and pretended not to know us. Understandable. But he adapted and is now a champion pointer!

Look at that arching!

Now he points at everything!

Adam loves his Inca Cola, Marta gives up.

 In other news, I had an amazing and coma-inducing buffet lunch at Masala Art, one of our Urban Brigade discoveries. Dinner there is consistently good, but for $9.50, this buffet was one of the best price-to-deliciousness-ratio meals I've had in a long time. Also, Julia suggests we go here soon, but Marta claims that it wouldn't count as ethnic food. I think we'll go either way, but: does down home Americana count for our ethnic food brigade? I'm leaning towards yes.