Eve

Birthdays are a big deal in our home; it’s always a celebration marked by dinner out at a fancy-schmancy restaurant.

We’re in DC for my birthday celebration this year and Michèle has chosen Eve, located in Old Alexandria. The chef, Cathal Armstrong, is from Dublin and spent every summer from the age of 7 in France. He describes his style as “Modern American Cooking with Classical French Influences…highlighting the freshest of seasonal ingredients and local Virginia produce.” Right up our alley.

We spent the morning at the Newseum, which I highly recommend if you’re a newshound like me. There a great view of the Capitol and Pennsylvania Avenue from the 5th floor terrace. Wait, what’s that building with all the red and white flags next door? O Canada!

That evening, we’re in the Chef’s Tasting Room, where they offer five, seven, and nine-course prix-fixe tasting options, all on custom-printed menus. The courses are: Creation (palate teasers), Ocean (seafood), Earth & Sky (meats and game), Age (cheese) and Eden (desserts). Gulp. OK, we’re celebrating but we’re not crazy! 5 courses it is.

We start with glasses of Sauvignon Blanc, a classic wine for aperitif that also goes superbly with our First Course: Sashimi of Bigeye Tuna with Pickled Fennel, Ruby Red Grapefruit and Basil Emulsion for me; Tempura of Path Valley Shiitake with Ikura (salmon roe), Smoked Onions and Ponzu for Michèle.

Our Ocean course is Olive Oil Poached Pacific Halibut with Sunchokes (Jerusalem artichokes), Melted Spring Onions and Gremolata for Michèle. For me, it’s Roasted Tasmanian Sea Trout (so much for local!) with Baby White Asparagus Risotto, Kumquat, and Fava Bean Purée. Both are delicious and pair well with glasses of Chardonnay from Washington (not DC, the other one).

On to Earth and Sky. My choice is closer to local: Loin of Shenandoah Valley Lamb with Fresh Garbanzo Falafel, Homemade Yogurt and Baby Carrots. Michèle goes for one of her favourites, Pan Fried Veal Sweetbreads with Mushroom Butter Hollandaise, Poached Morels and Irish Peas.

I’ve scanned the winelist for something “off the beaten track” and the choice comes down to DuMOL Syrah 2007, Russian River Valley (California); 14.2% ABV. Russian River Valley is known for its cool climate varietals, but here’s Syrah, typically more at home in warmer climates. For that reason (a warm climate grape in a cool climate), I’m thinking it will go well with both the lamb and the sweetbreads (the latter usually needs a lighter wine). Aromas of blackberry and plum, gamy, and floral notes with a hint of dried herbs too. It’s black fruit and gamyness dominate on the palate. The tannins are well-integrated, holding their own with the lamb but not overwhelming the sweetbreads. Excellent finish. A good match for both.

We finish the Syrah with the cheese:

• Monocacy Silver with Garden Rhubarb, Blood Orange and Toasted Walnut. A brie-style goat cheese from Montgomery County, on the other side of DC.
• Pleasant Ridge Reserve with Sicilian Pistachios and Sour Cherry Filled Doughnut. A raw cows-milk cheese from Wisconsin, similar to Gruyere. Definitely our favourite.

On to Eden and, yes, we have room. Michèle selects the White Chocolate Chai Rice Pudding and my choice is the Milk Chocolate and Jameson Petit Gâteau with Caramel Sauce.  The candle is a bonus!

Great food, good wine.  What a terrific birthday treat!  Merci, Michèle!

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Kinkead's

It's one of those classic spring days, when the day dawns bright and sunny. You need a jacket in the morning, but you know that by mid-afternoon, the jacket will be off and you’ll be rolling up your sleeves.

It’s perfect weather for sightseeing and long walks, which in DC is the same thing.

Some sights (Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial) I’ve seen many times before. Some are new since I lived here: World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War. All are impressive in their own way and all capture the historical essence that we associate with those wars: generational triumph, stalemate, and the deep gash in the national psyche.



We’ll be having a quick dinner this evening (we're off to see Pink Martini at the JFK Center).  So we make time for a long, leisurely lunch at Kinkead’s (pronounced as Kin-kaid), which styles itself as “an American Brasserie”. Seafood is the speciality.

For our mains, I choose grilled flounder, served on a bed of endives and tomatoes in a lemon sauce with capers and pickled cucumber on top. Michèle chooses the Organic Chicken, served with chanterelles, fava beans, porcini cream, and mashed potatoes. Both are superb.

The selected wine is the only Chenin Blanc on the menu: Couly-Dutheil Les Chanteaux 2009, AOC Chinon. Wonderfully fresh floral, citrus, and mineral aromas. It’s citrus and minerality on the palate with good length. Crisp, but with enough body to be a terrific match with both dishes. Great price too. Ah, Chenin Blanc from the Loire…so little respect…it’s one of the great values.


Great service that hit all the right notes. An example: they hadn't chilled the Chinon ahead of time, so the waiter gave us a couple of glasses of wine to enjoy while the Chinon chilled down to the right temperature in an ice bucket.

Watching crew teams on the Potomac
with the Watergate in the background

We walked off our terrific lunch through Georgetown, and then slowly made our way along the Potomac to the JFK Center, stopping to enjoy the sunshine along the way.  Jacket off, sleeves rolled up.

Great show by Pink Martini caps off a magnificent day.





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J&G Steakhouse

Sightseeing is hard work, requiring stamina, determination, and at the end of the day, a culinary reward.

In Washington DC, there are many things to see: from the White House to Capitol Hill, everything in-between and beyond. To be sure, you can walk everywhere. But careful…it all looks close together on the map and even in person. But because the scale of everything is so grand (quite the opposite of the intimacy of Ottawa’s downtown), objects actually are farther away than they appear.

Luckily, DC has an excellent metro system. Back when I lived here, the public transit system was a local joke. It’s just one of the many things in DC that have changed for the better.

As for our reward at the end of the day, we needed steak. There’s no shortage of steakhouses in this red meat town. We bypassed the usual suspects and opted for J&G Steakhouse, just a stone’s throw from the White House. (Not that I tried throwing stones at the White House. Ill-advised, they tell me.)

J&G Steakhouse is a Chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten restaurant. (Vongerichten is an Alsatian who is now one of those worldwide chefs.) After a salad as an appetizer, I chose the 14 oz Six Peppercorn Prime NY Steak with sides of Frites and sautéed kale while Michèle selected the 8 oz Filet Mignon. For me, steak needs to have good body and texture. Rib Eye, Hanger, New York, that’s a steak. I don’t care for steak disguised as melted butter, which is what Wagyu can often be. My steak had just the right amount of chewy texture that makes steak so enjoyable.

Our wine is the Cliff Lede Cabernet Sauvignon 2007 Stags Leap District, 14.9% ABV. It’s an almost-Meritage blend of Cabernet Sauvignon (75%), Merlot (12%), Malbec (7%), Cabernet Franc (4%), and Petit Verdot (2%). Aromas of cassis, sweet spices, and a touch of earthiness. The cassis and spice follow on the palate with soft, well-integrated tannins. Some dark chocolate on the finish. No unpleasant heat from the high alcohol level. Good length, but perhaps lacks the structure I like with a good steak.



Service at J&G is quite the opposite of our dinner at Hank’s Oyster House. Friendly, efficient, unobtrusive and, most importantly, unhurried. Oh, I’m sure they can rush an order if called upon. But, for us, we finished our wine leisurely after the main course. No sign of the dessert menu until the wine was gone. The way it should be. The restaurant was full but we felt we could have stayed there as long as we wanted.

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Hank's Oyster Bar

It’s weird to be back in Northern Virginia, in the suburbs of Washington DC. It’s where I went to high school, oh so many years ago. And except for some quick business trips to DC from time to time, I haven’t come back until now. There’s a familiarity to the place, a feeling of déjà vu. Yet so much has changed that there’s a certain strangeness, or estrangement, to the place. Like a dream.

It’s spring here. Real spring, not calendar spring.  Driving south from Ottawa, near Scranton, we can see the sharp demarcation between winter and spring, between dormancy and budburst. 

Our first dinner is at Hank’s Oyster Bar in Alexandria. It’s a popular little joint; crowded on a Tuesday evening. We get the only open table and the line-up starts forming at the door just after we sit down. But it has that typically American approach to service…fast, get ‘em in…get ‘em out…that ensures that no one is waiting for long.

It’s an oyster bar so regular readers should be in no doubt about what I’m going to order. There are 9 different types of oysters on offer. I take a dozen, 3 each of 4 different ones.

Two from the west coast:

• Dabob Bay, light and salty
• Little Skookum from Puget Sound, smooth and rich

Two from the east coast:

• Bluepoint from Long Island, nothing distinctive here
• Delaware, big and meaty

Now, Hank’s does something that I’ve never seen at an oyster bar before but it’s blindingly obvious. Instead of plunking down the plate of oysters and rattling off the names (which I can never remember just 10 seconds later), the server puts the plate down with the order ticket next to it. The shucker arranged the oysters on the plate in the same order as on the ticket, clockwise, starting at 12 o’clock. Simple, effective, clever.  No "what was this one again?"

We order Nessa Albarino 2009. Bit of a greenish tint. Typical citrus, floral, and mineral aromas. Crisp lime on the palate and just a bit of peach pit bitterness on the finish. Great match for the oysters.

I followed up with seared scallops while Michèle had the lobster roll. The food was delicious (bit too salty) but the Albarino was too light-bodied with these choices.  Ah well, nobody's perfect.

Hank’s: good oysters, good (but too fast) service.


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