DC: The Food

I'm back from DC now, but I still have more posts to do on my time there! Here I'll focus on the food.

I'm really not cut out to be a food blogger because I always forget to take pictures of my food before I eat it. I'm just always really hungry by the time it arrives. Fortunately, I managed to restrain myself long enough to snap photos of a few dishes before I devoured them, so I'll include those.

I was impressed by the variety of ethnic restaurants available in DC. During my time there, I had Thai, Ethiopian, Nepalese, Portuguese, and Mediterranean (plus I ordered Italian with some friends one night, but that doesn't really count). Some of my fellow interns were arguing about whether a Peruvian or Argentinian restaurant was better, which led me to realize that Kalamazoo doesn't even have a South American restaurant to the best of my knowledge, let alone one representing a specific country in that region. That having been said, you pay for the high rents imposed by DC's height restrictions in the price of the food. Reasonably priced entrees are seldom below 13 or 14 dollars, although there are good deals to be had if you're willing to look off the beaten path a little. In addition to ethnic food, I got to enjoy some of Georgetown's students favorite places. Among these was a great sandwich place that really makes me wish K had a good deli within walking distance (Stacks certainly doesn't count).

In terms of food experiences that stood out to me, there's:

-Basil, a Thai restaurant I went to on my first night in DC. The sweet sticky rice with mango was especially delicious.

My meal at Keren Restaurant. I had enough leftovers for a full lunch!

-Keren Restaurant, a great Ethiopian place just outside the downtown. The dishes come spread out on a giant piece of a sticky sort of bread, and you get a roll of the bread yourself. Instead of silverware, you use the bread to pick up the food. At the end, you get to eat what's left with the sauce soaked bread that the dishes came served on. It's really a fun, unique experience! I agree with Tyler Cowen that eating with your fingers definitely allows you to combine different pieces of food and flavors better than with a fork. I ate at Keren Restaurant myself and with my parents when they came to pick me up last weekend, and the three of us managed to eat for less than thirty dollars (including tip and tax).

The goat curry at Himalayan Heritage. 

-Himalayan Heritage, a wonderful Nepalese restaurant. The restaurant had a great decor, including Nepal tourism brochures. I had goat for the first time in a great curry.
-Cava Mezze, a Mediterranean restaurant I visited with my parents. This was the hippest place I visited, dimly lit and with lots of young people having fun. Cava Mezze is a small dish restaurant, where the table orders many appetizers and everyone has a bit of everything. Many of the dishes were pretty fun, including a cheese thing that they lit on fire (I don't remember much about it beyond that), some great meatballs, and a watermelon salad.
-Old Glory, a great barbecue place my internship director showed me for lunch. I was skeptical of bbq in DC, and while I still think it's not the city's strong suite (compared to the Ethiopian scene), Old Glory was impressive. I forgot that DC is actually pretty far south, so it's not too surprising that it has some bbq has some influence there. Barbecue is all about the sauce, and Old Glory had a great selection, including some delicious selections from Kansas City, Memphis, and Savannah. It also had the best corn bread I've ever tasted.

At Himalayan Heritage, they brought out this little appetizer. I forget how to really describe it, but it was great

The place I was staying at had a broken stove/oven, so I couldn't do as much cooking as I'd hoped to. Fortunately, the world of microwave dinners seems to be improving, and I found Amy's microwave meals to be quite tolerable. That and there was a Chipotle