Mt. Vernon has long been considered (by me at least, but I am sure other people agree) the ethnic food epicenter of Baltimore. Within three blocks there is Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Afgahni, Italian, American fusion, and a number of other different cuisines. While this may be normal for DC, it is very exciting for Baltimoreans, members of a city more known for its drug and homicide rates rather then its food.
Dukem, an Ethiopian restaurant on 1100 Maryland Ave. is an impossibly crowded place that will definitely give the other ethnic restaurants competition. Ethiopian cuisine largely consists of interesting stews served on fluffy, pancake-like bread called injera. Generally the injera acts as the plate, and also as the method by which the food is conveyed to the mouth. One picks up some injera, scoops up some tasty lentils or lamb or beef stews, and pops the entire thing in the mouth.
At Dukem, the best option is to get the vegetarian or meat combination platters which give a little taste of everything. Particularly delicious are the lamb wot and beef tibs among the meats, and the spicy split lentil and shiro among the veggies. The food is spicy, though the degree tends to depend more on chance then anything. However, it is delicious, authentic, and the Kenyan beer, Tusker, is also not to be missed.
Dukem
1100 Maryland Ave
Baltimore, MD
410-385-0318

While I was away, it seems Logan Circle became the happening place for restaurants. Or so the word on the street goes. High on the list of “must try” restaurants was Logan Tavern, with its reputation for home-style comfort foods, like fried chicken, mac ‘n’ cheese, and meatloaf. So, with high hopes for an 8 p.m. dinner on Saturday night, we made our way down to Logan Tavern, directly across from the Whole Foods on the corner of 14th & P St in Logan Circle — or, as the real estate agents like to call it, Dupont East.
Logan Tavern was packed full on Saturday night. They don’t take reservations for parties of less than 6, so upon our arrival, we spent about 45 minutes at the bar, drinking down incredibly alcoholic concoctions, like a Caipirinha that was all alcohol and almost no sugar, and a blueberry mojito, which had fresh blueberries floating it in but no blueberry taste. The restaurant is mostly booths, with a few large tables in the center.
We were seated at the front of the restaurant at a large booth. It took about 10 minutes before we were given bread and our drinks. In fact, the service throughout the evening was slow, although our waiter fully made up for it in character. The only thing our waiter had more of than tattoos were opinions, largely about the food. And, to be fair, he was right on all counts. Though we’d be recommended the “comfort foods” at Logan Tavern, we were quickly steered away. The fried chicken was, we were told, “boneless, skinless chicken breasts thrown in a deep fat fryer,” and the meatloaf was “meatloaf, like you could make at home.” Instead, he recommended we try the pork, the seafood stew, the steak, or the fish. If there’s anything we’ve learned in our year and a half of food blogging, it’s that when a waiter offers suggestions, you better listen.
We started our meal with two appetizers, Baby Back Ribs w. Honey-Hoisin Glaze and Buffalo Shrimp w. Blue Cheese Sauce . Both were fantastic. The ribs were succulent and the meat fell off the bone, as ribs should. The buffalo shrimp were large and the buffalo sauce was mixed together with cheese, creating a think sauce that was so good we got extra bread to dip in it. Through the rest of the meal was excellent, I’d say the appetizers are by far the best food in the house. Entrees all come with salad or soup, so we each had a house salad as our second course. The salad was fine but nothing spectacular and the soup didn’t sound especially interesting.
For dinner, I had the pork chop special, an incredibly thick pork chop served with garlic mashed potatoes and apple sauce. The pork chop was excellent, as was the mashed potatoes. The apple sauce was, well, apple sauce. There’s really not much you can do to apple sauce. I’d definitely recommend it. One of my dining companions had the Roasted Pork Loin in Sweet Asian Mustard on our waiter’s recommendation and said it was divine. The other had the Grilled Salmon, which she said was great, too, although by that point her Caipirinha and wine had left her a bit tipsy, so I wouldn’t trust her recommendations. We passed on dessert, although they looked incredible.
The only downside to the evening was the speed the food came out. It took a very long time between ordering and the delivery of the appetizers and an equally long time between the appetizers and the main course. Once they get those wrinkles worked out, though, I can see it being an excellent neighborhood restaurant.
Total bill for three people, including wine, two appetizers, and three mains, was about $110 before tip, not including our alcoholic concoctions before the meal.
Logan Tavern is part of another D.C. trilogy of restaurants, eatwelldc. The other two are Merkado Kitchen, directly next door, and Grillfish, at 1200 New Hampshire Avenue.
Logan Tavern
1423 P St. NW
Washington DC 20005

-AMG

Every American has said one of the following at some point:
‘In India , they must eat a lot of different veggie burgers, because, get this, they don’t eat cow!’
‘Hey, I hear the ones In Israel are Kosher’
‘Did you know they have wine at the ones in France! Wine!’
It’s important to say those lines as though this was the most outrageous thing to ever happen to food, for the different items served at McDonalds in other parts of the world is the stuff of rumor and legend
Perhaps it’s because McDonalds is such an American institution. The idea of an alternate menu is like Halloween-themed breakfast cereal. Cute, maybe even collectable, but ultimately viewed with amused condescension. Heh, those crazy French guys sure do like their wine.
Anyway, enough philosophy. Here is the definitive list of what those insanely crazy eaters in other countries would prefer with their fries:

When I dream of Brazil, which is often, I think of deep fried pastries, thick bean stew, and gorgeous dark-haired chicks in the type of clothing I’d reserve for a FUD edible body-topping test (volunteers?). So it’s unfortunate that when Churrascaria of Rockville dreams about Brazil, they think of lumps of meat heated up till they turn brown.
A large dining room, where the décor can only be described as ‘eighties yacht club’, is the scene for this culinary oddity. For a surprisingly high price, each overawed soccer family and aging tourist gets all they can eat Braziliana: A large, lackluster buffet of cold pasta salad, canned corn, and dubious shellfish, and a hot one with traditional Brazilian fare like ‘lasagna’ and ‘oily chicken’.
But that’s alright because the real point of this meal is Meat Lumps. They’re carried on long spits, three at a time or as whole steaks skewered through the middle. It floats by on barges, servers at the ready with knife and fork. Some of it is very nice. But the vast majority I found fatty, rubbery, and overcooked. A piece of wood painted red and green sits at each table. Green means bring on the roast beef, lamb kabab, and ribs, red means for the love of god, don’t.
Every once in a while, conversation stops so that the servers can sing happy birthday to a giggling Midwesterner. It’s that kind of restaurant, the kind that’s only one step away from the deadly ‘hi my name is Jen and I’ll be your server tonight’. I highly recommend it if you have an aging aunt from Minnesota. She’s sure to say things like ‘cute’ and ‘exotic’. Otherwise, I’m still at a loss to figure this place out at all.
Greenfield Churrascaria
1801 Rockville Pike
301 8813397

You can tell we’re just getting caught up on all things DC related, as we neglected to post about this:
Tonight is Dining Out For Life, where your dining dollars will benefit the fantastic Food & Friends organization. Go here for a list of participating restaurants, then go out and have a good diner, knowing you’re lining the pockets of someone other than the restauranteurs. And let us know where you went and how the food was.

Meat! It’s juicy and good! Meat! It’s yummy and thick! Meat! It’s meaty!
But that not withstanding, it is possible for vegetarian food to be great. No really! Otherwise, the entire southern half of India would starve. Alright, poor taste there, but seriously, it exists, and The Vegetable Garden in White Flint proves it. It’s vegan and it’s good
Not only is the menu at this place longer than a really really long line of sausages…all lined up, but the people are so unbelievably friendly that you’ll wish you were related. For appetizers I tried the cilantro roll, a mix of tofu, black mushrooms, and, yes, cilantro, and ex-fudder snh got the crispy black mushrooms. Imagine the crunchiest, sweetest General Tso’s you’ve ever had, but with musky strips of fungus instead of gooey poultry parts.
For mains, there was tofu disguised as duck with crunchy greens, and a hot-pot of silky eggplant with chunks of ginger and basel. I tried the smooth sweet potato pie for desert, snh had rhubarb. Both were perfect, but admittedly it’s a lot easier to make those vegan than the chocolate mousse pie (made with soft tofu).
I practically rolled out of here confident that my culinary karma was at least momentarily safe. The Vegetable Garden advertises as vegetarian, vegan, organic, and macrobiotic. So if macrobiot is on your diet, this is the place for you.
The Vegetable Garden
11618 Rockville Pike
301 468 9301

Who has not tasted the salty anticlimax of an appetite unfulfilled? General consensus would answer this question with ‘the loyal clients of Lindy’s Red Lion’ in Foggy Bottom. But is it true? I ventured to test the hypothesis with an afternoon burger.
The bar and upstairs has the usual ‘best burger’ propaganda and signed photos that are required by law at all burger joints, and the chairs and tables are reassuringly cramped. In fact, it has all the hallmarks of a great food find: sprawls of yuppies toasting the weekend with cheap beer, tough world-hardened waitresses, and highschoolers from Minnesota who have wandered in by mistake.
What it doesn’t have is good burgers. When my defeated-looking basket arrived, the tiny meat patty reminded me of the Midwestern highschoolers, cold, thin, and greasy. The dusty sponge of a bun flopped limply on the side, and my guacamole had been forgotten by an overworked kitchen.
Now, it’s true that I was hungry as only great expectations can make you. So imagine my unhappiness when on top of taste issue, I then spent the next half hour at a Starbucks table trying not to be ill. Man, I leave the city for one year and look what happens.

Since moving to Arlington, I haven’t ventured downtown all that often to dine as of late (something about the suburbs; I can see all you city-dwellers shaking your heads as I speak). Luckily, my neighborhood and the surrounding area have given me a few delicious options of their own to tide me over until I get more ambitious (and to be honest, a little less broke). Some successful meals as of late have been at:
Delhi Club: This tiny Indian place right across from the Clarendon is quickly becoming a favorite. Mid-priced, with generous helpings of naan and a nice selection of appetizers and vegetarian options, my only complaint is attempting to get a seat in the intimate space on a Friday night can prove impossible, depending on your timing. So far, I’ve had success with the chicken tikka, butter chicken (a standard offering, but Delhi does it well), saag gosht with lamb (a spicy, spinach-infused dish), and rarah gosht (what can I say; I’m a sucker for anything with lamb, even lamb cooked with lamb). The samosas were fine, but nothing unusual. Next on my things-to-try: some of their paneer dishes.
Ravi Kabob: I visited this hole-in-the-wall Pakistani place first over a year ago, after two friends and I miraculously stumbled on it after just knowing it was “in a shopping center in Northern Virginia.” Hadn’t been back again until last week, though this was by circumstance rather than choice, and the place is even better than I remembered. The seating isn’t much more than what a take-out place offers, but the food is the real deal. I’d heard about it from a Pakistani friend-of-a-friend, and when I mentioned the place to a coworker whose husband is from the region, her eyes lit up, so perhaps that’s a testament for authenticity – it’s been my only foray into Pakistani food, so I lack a basis for comparison. Lamb kabobs, mixed kabobs, beef tikka – all are amazing, and come with generous sides of rice, salad and chickpeas (make sure you get a nice helping of the yogurt dipping sauce). I haven’t tasted anything there that wasn’t assertive, filling and satisfying. While friends of mine will swear by the mango lassi, I experimented with the pink tea, topped with pistachios. It’s a creamy, decent dessert drink, but I wouldn’t order it with a meal again (and the server’s skepticism when I did should have been a clue). Most dishes are under $12, and many are for even less, so you’re getting quite a bit for your money here.
Café Asia: I’m always on the lookout for a good happy hour, and this place fits the bill – cheap beer, and even more importantly, $1 pieces of sushi. I never manage to escape this place, however, without dropping quite a bit of money – maybe it’s the fancy cocktails (loved the mojito, as well as a pink-colored drink, the name of which escapes me), or the varied selection of main courses, and the need to get some sushi to start…ok, clearly there are a lot of reasons why I’m going broke here. I’m not a sushi connoisseur, so my opinion here is somewhat suspect, but I’m a fan of the place’s rolls and daily specials. And the shrimp and roasted pork Singapore noodles (distinctive for their generous shot of curry) are a favorite.
Delhi Club
1135 N. Highland Street,
Arlington, VA 22201
Ravi Kabob
305 N Glebe Rd
Arlington, VA
Café Asia
1550 Wilson Blvd
Arlington, VA

I’m feeling very suburban, in that my second dining out experience back in D.C. was at a chain restaurant. Feeling very jet-lagged and with my body still thinking it was sometime tomorrow, I headed down to Bethesda to catch up with the now-famous DJ Seeking Irony (aka NM) and a blogless friend. We decided that easy was our plan for the evening (and since I’ve sworn off all Asian and Indian food for at least three weeks), headed down to Rock Bottom in Bethesda.
Rock Bottom serves standard American brew-pub fare: burgers, pasta, salads, and several large entrees. I settled on a Hickory Burger, a larger burger with BBQ sauce, bacon, and cheese, which came out a bit more raw than “medium” generally implies but otherwise was fine, but not spectacular. NM went for the Mac n’ Chicken, which was, like most other Rock Bottom fare, generically mediocre. The saving grace is that Wednesday night is beer glass night, where you purchase a glass for $4.95 and get unlimited refills for $2.00 a piece. And you get to take the glass home. Oh, and our waitress gets points for being both cute and friendly.
Still, Rock Bottom remains what it’s always been: a place to go to hang out with friends, have a beer, and eat a decent meal. Go in with that expectation, and you’ll walk away satisfied.
Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery
7900 Norflork Avenue
Bethesda, MD 20814
www.rockbottom.com