Whitefish, Montana

My trip continues in Whitefish, Montana. We are about an hour from the Canadian border right at the base of Glacier National Park. I'm here for a political retreat (really, I do work occasionally) and have thoroughly enjoyed this little town. Montana is exactly as quiet, serene and beautiful as you imagine. 14 foot picture windows enclose the rustic lounge area in our Lodge and look out upon a pristine golf course that sits at the base of snow capped mountains. Note: come here with a date and not with your boss.

We arrived here a night early to avoid flying across the country half a million times between the Houston trip and this one so we have had time to acclimate and explore a bit. First night a few of us went o a restaurant called Tupelo Grill. Its described as Cajun although the menu features Thai noodles and chicken marsala on top of the expected jambalaya so who knows. I got a lobster and crab crusted halibut with a heavenly sauce. It was creamy and had a bit of a kick (ah, there is the Cajun). I think it came with a salad but to be honest I'm just not sure... I had a tiny bit too much wine (once again, my boss picked out a fantastic bottle. I'm telling you - traveling with wealthy people really is the way to go).

The second day brought with it the rest of the guests - welcomed additions for everyone I'm sure. Somehow we got 15 people into dinner at Pescado Blanca (original, eh... "white fish"), which is a "Montana Mexican Grill." It features things like Bison Enchaladas, Buffalo Tacos and the like. Feeling slightly adventurous, I went for Elk Chorizo Tacos (and by adventurous i mean had had a couple of beers and was being egged on by a few folks). "Tastes like chicken" isn't how i would describe it. Not my favorite type of meat - think well seasoned, overcooked ground beef. The chipolte creamy sauce on my tacos made everything better and the locally grown fresh arugula really brought it together nicely. It was a great Montana experience and yet another first for me this trip!

Tonight we dine outdoors at a ranch ... its pouring and very cold so I assume we'll be in a tent. Also - there will be a cowboy poet! yee haw.

Mark's in Houston

Traveling for work doesn't bother me too much. Hotel rooms are like mini decorating projects to be tackled anew in each city; exploring foreign cities - just curious peaks into the lives of a different set of people. This trip I am anxious to get home to a new interest but Houston defied my expectations - especially when it came to food (pan to me being torn between my meal and texting the new guy under the table).

Did you know Houston is the 3rd largest city in terms of population in the US? (im not sure how it couldn't be considering the sheer size of this place... there are TWO beltways! One inside the other!). Another fun fact about Houston - there are no zoning laws, which means that near my hotel (a nice one) you can see Neiman Marcus, Saks, two (yes two) starbucks and an adult video store called "HOT ZONE" complete with neon lights. It is perfectly normal here to see a sleezy looking "gentleman's club" next to Fogo de Chow and the Palm.

Well, I am traveling with my boss so I have spent exactly $0 so far (fantastic boss). For whatever reason he has left all of the logistics to me ... including picking a restaurant the other night. Suggestions solicited and googled and we landed at Mark's American cuisine. When you talk to Houstonians say its the one in an old church. They'll know.

I should start out by saying that this place will forever hold significance to me as the first place I have ever tried Kobe beef. They were offering Japanese kobe beef for an absurd price... the special sounded fabulous right up until he said the price and my heart fell (should have known better...) but my boss - out of nowhere - ordered a few ounces as an appetizer for the table. MMMMM try this NOW is all i can say. Make up a reason to celebrate and splurge because it is worth it.

We then proceeded to have a feast. I had a local tomato and mozzarella salad with balsamic reduction dressing, a tenderloin with porcini mushrooms and tomato basil risotto that was so flavorful I was literally taken aback. Talk about the freshest ingredients you can find. Despite being stuffed, desert came and somehow a vanilla bean creme brulee appeared in front of me. I wish it had a more crusty top but the flavor can't be argued with. Everything was just scrumptious (love this word).

The decor is actually lacking... the old church thing is very cool - see the vaulted ceiling. But they have FAKE flowers. Who does this to a restaurant where dropping over $500 on dinner isn't a stretch? The one very cool thing is that the wine "cellar" is actually up where you would normally see organ pipes. This is my type of sanctuary.

Restorante Tosca

Growing up I probably ate pasta for at least one meal a day, without exception. I wouldn't eat meat and my mother eventually threw up her hands and told me that she was no longer going to make me special meals. So I learned how to make a whole variety of pasta and sauces.

Fast forward 10-15 years and pasta is still by far my favorite things to eat. So when there was an excuse to have a decadent dinner last week, I choose Restaurante Tosca.

About 4 years ago a co-worker and I tried Tosca during restaurant week and adored every minute of the meal. We barely spoke but plenty of "mmm's" were overheard I'm sure. So when my foodie oriented ex came to town to visit I decided i had to return. One of the reasons we did so well together was because food was a shared priority. Money was not an issue when it came to food. We both traveled for our jobs and spent most of our relationship in hotel rooms around the country (and the world) and everywhere we went we were very well fed. I literally remember the places we visited by my favorite dishes ... deep fried goat cheese mac 'n cheese in Memphis (i am STILL trying to track down this recipe 3 years later), spiced shrimp in Little Rock, spaghetti with meat sauce in Beijing (not even kidding). Anyways, together we always ate well and spared no expense when it came to food and wine.

So to Tosca we went. I don't think even we have spent that much money and eaten so much food as we did last week. We ended up having two very nice bottles of wine and definitely too much food... but every bite and sip was fantastic. We both insisted that we couldn't share the goat cheese and arugula salad so we both had that ... and it was worth getting our own! We then decided to order a feast ... he would get the lamb shank and a side pasta while I would get the tasting menu featuring a veal ravioli and a rib eye steak. It was a disturbing amount of food. The veal ravioli was fantastic - much lighter than i expected for a creamy dish. The smoky tones from the prosciutto added a really wonderful warm feeling. The rib eye was good - i usually order a fillet or something more girly than the big slab of meat that I got. I finished about half of it before I had to cry uncle. The steak wasn't something i would order again but the lamb fell right off the bone and the sauce was rich and so savory ... I can't even remember what pasta he ordered but all of their pastas are to die for. The best part is that you can order any pasta as an appetizer for a pared down portion and a pared down price.

If you have a few hundred dollars to throw at a restaurant - I highly recommend Tosca. I have heard they also have a $35 pre-theater menu and you could probably pretty easily get away with ordering about half the food we did (and maybe half the wine... although really, who are we kidding).

Black Salt

Labor day came around very quickly this year. I am not really prepared for September's political onslaught - although thrilled for the emergence of fall. Since I know September will be a brutal month, I try to have a relaxing sun and food filled Labor Day weekend.

One of my girlfriends from college escaped New York and returned to visit those of us who never left. This friend grew up in northern-ish Jersey and always dreamed of moving to The City (for me "the city" means San Francisco and i somewhat resent that everyone on the east coast has conceded that NYC is the end all be all of cities. Whenever i visit the city the girls take me out to nice restaurants that they claim I will love because (flip wrist in that faux disdain sort of way) I live in DC where there couldn't possibly be restaurants that can rival those in the city. So when the girls return to DC it is the perfect excuse for me to take them out to a splurge restaurant and remind them the district can absolutely rival the city.

Black Salt has been on my list for years now. It moved into the neighborhood I lived in during college but it was quite out of my price range at the time. An employer of mine a few years ago suggested that we go for Restaurant Week (since she employed me and clearly knew I couldn't afford it on my meager salary) but getting a reservation on a normal Saturday was hard enough let alone get a RW res (and this year they did not participate). I'm pretty sure the only reason I could get a good reservation was because it was empty in DC during the holiday weekend ... so thank you all for leaving (even if you were defecting to the city)!

The city girl was blown away. We originally planned to have the three course tasting menu and a bottle of wine.... The price for the tasting menus is about $10 more than the website reports, but still a great deal. As we perused through the menu, we ended up deciding to order al la carte. (Click here for dinner menu... it changes all the time)

I choose a relatively inexpensive ($37) bottle of Pino Noir from Burgundy from their fairly varied list which was delightful... especially after a glass of champagne. We shared the Thai Muscles and the Heirloom Tomato Salad. These two dishes didn't actually go together so well but both were incredible. Three tomatoes, red, yellow and orange, were incredibly fresh and sweet. I really couldn't resist in-season tomatoes even if they were not seafood oriented. The Thai Muscles came next. Quite spicy... try to add a shallot to each bite of meat. I choose the Bouillabaisse and I (heart) NYC ordered the Bangkok Seafood Stew. Her meal was assorted seafood in a coconut thai style broth over udon style noodles. It matched the Thai Muscles perfectly. My dish, the Bouillabaisse, needed a bit more seasoning but everything was cooked to perfection... the scallops being the absolute highlight.

Desert could have easily sent me over the edge. After the meal, there was very little reason to continue eating except that we spied a neighboring table devouring a creme brulee dish which I had to have. It was a trio of creme brulee ... Chocolate hazelnut with a piece of chocolate on top, coffee with a truffle and this hardened sugar contraption ... and vanilla-mandarin orange topped with a fresh mandarin orange. I have started to salivate and get hungry just thinking about this desert ... and its 10am two days later. Definitely save room for desert.

In short... suck it NYC... I've eaten better here in my city than I do in the city. **


** With the exception of Cafe Habana in Soho ... best cojhita and chipolte grilled corn in the world.

Great Date Spot - Indebleu

Being single, it turns out, has some great advantages. The quality of restaurant that a date will take you to is far superior to the restaurants a long-term boyfriend will spring for on a random Thursday (or even on say ... a random four year anniversary).

Last Thursday I had the pleasure of dining at Indebleu. The French-Indian fusion restaurant lived up to its distinguished reputation. I expected the decor to be a lot more mysterious but the main dining area was par for the course with safe artwork and mellow tones. I think there are some more intimate tables in the back area but i didn't see those. The upstairs bar was really beautiful. There is a bench seat right next to the big window that looks out onto the Chinatown/Verizon Center area. Its a nice little people watching perch. No idea what wine i had but the house sauv blanc at the bar was yummy.

Then onto dinner.... Indebleu extended their restaurant week menu for the entire month (check dcfoodies.com to make sure). The entire menu is available, although if you were choosing the RW prices you could only order small plates under $11 and entrees under $26. These limitations didn't affect my ideal choices too much luckily ... although on my next visit i would like to try the scallops and the tuna & salmon.

We shared two small plates - the Wild Mushroom Dosa and the Curried Mussels. Dosa is a lentil crepe essentially. The mix of mushrooms was satisfying but i was left wishing it was a tiny bit more rich or exotic. The mussels were fantastic. Very spicy, especially if you dipped the meat into the broth, with a sweet aioli sauce draped beautifully over the shells. I find that mussels are a great date food. They provide a little humor since nobody can ever seem to eat them without flinging something across the table but they aren't too messy or tough to talk between bites. Anyways, they are a nice choice.

For the entrees Mr. Date choose the Pork Loin. This isn't my favorite meal ... even more so because he ordered it medium (big mistake... order it medium rare or rare! Medium was way too chewy). The pineapple slaw that accompanied the meat was incredibly interesting. Almost like a palette cleansing sorbet but not desert.

I choose the Yellow Fin Tuna and am still ecstatic about my choice. The tuna was seared and sliced to about a half inch thickness and presented on top of a roasted corn and avocado salad. I hated finishing this dish and made the runner come back two times before I would relinquish my plate. I would suggest this to anyone who enjoys seared tuna and/or light summer corn salads. Together they are paradise and a wonderful beginning to a great date. If food can be likened to sex, this dish was incredible foreplay.

Brasserie Beck

Restaurant week for me has never been that exciting. I have either had a job where there was no humanly possible way i could sneak out for an hour and a half or a boyfriend who thought the concept was ridiculous. Normally i will do one dinner with the boy of that year and be mildly satisfied.

This year, my whole office got really into it. We spend a good deal of time talking about food in here ... trading recipes and planning group dinners and the such. One of the girls even has a spreadsheet ... So this year we got a tip four months ago about the Restaurant Week dates for August. We work in the political world so August is paradise. We must have each made 6 reservations for various lunch/dinner combinations.

In reality as a group we just went to one lunch together at Brassiere Beck. We made the reservation four months ago before the RW list was actually posted and nobody checked if Beck was actually on the list... so to our surprise upon arrival, they are not participating. We are told by our waitress that "none of Robert Weidmaier's restaurants participate in discount restaurant week affairs." No wonder its not packed with interns! Our waitress continued to be sooty throughout the meal ... prompting us to ask her to explain just about every dish on the menu ;-). I should say that the rest of the staff were delightful.

We stayed of course and everyone left perfectly satisfied, impressed and full. I choose the Duck Congolese Almondine, Paul had the Potato Leek Soup and the Avocado, Shrimp, Hearts of Palm and Maria Rose Sauce salad, Roshan had the Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Confit of Cabbage and Mustard Sauce and Kellyn choose the Roasted Rabbit in Kriek Beer.

I had the Duck Congolese Almondine cooked medium rare and it was perfection. It was displayed on a bed of Israeli couscous with a sweet almond cranberry type sauce that was definitely not overwhelming. I loved the mix of crunchy almond slivers and the couscous with a little of the tender duck on top. Very rarely in my life have I wanted to lick a plate clean ... but the waiter literally had to wait for me to sup up the last bits of sauce with my bread (which was also fantastic.. it was light and flavorful and served very hot).

I sampled the other dishes... the pork tenderloin can only be described as melts in your mouth wonderful. This was my first experience with Rabbit so I can't compare this particular presentation but it was very tender and flavorful. I didn't love the salad but that was just because I didn't love the sauce... it had a bit too much mayo for my pallet but the presentation was beautiful ... like ceviche.

It was lunch during a work week so we did not sample the beer (a monumental mistake), but the list was overwhelmingly impressive and i would like to wander back for a happy hour at the bar to sample a few along with a few small plates.

Brassiere Beck
www.beckdc.com
1101 K Street, NW
WDC 20005
202-408-1717 or opentable.com for reservations.

Michel Richard's Central

I visited Central about a month ago and am still thinking (dreaming) about the Goat Cheese Vinaigrette Salad. It is the sort of thing you go home and try - desperately - to recreate but just can't quite get there. I assumed it would be a heavy ode to goat cheese, but instead i was pleasantly surprised with a light yet incredibly flavorful dressing ... and it STILL somehow tasted like goat cheese.

The entire meal was incredible.. its a must visit. We also saw Mark Warner in shorts at the bar. This is not a restaurant you should visit in shorts ... unless you are a former presidential candidate.