Rasika

**I wrote most of this entry before break started but didn't have the heart to rewrite it, so I am posting it as is.**

I am so thrilled for spring break. I'm not doing anything special, per se, but I'm going back home and that is good enough for me. I want to read until my eye sockets burst and spill out words, drink countless cups of tea, sew buttons and labels onto things, and in general, have everything be quiet for once. Don't you guys miss that about home? Having mornings when you wake up to an empty house but find warm grinds in the coffee-maker and the traces of people hurriedly leaving, and feel hummingly, perfectly happy? Or is that just me? I read recently that Brahmin children in India used to be woken by their parents while it was still dark to recite poetry in anticipatory thanksgiving of the coming day. Maybe they still do this...I should go investigate for myself. Hurray for break!!!

DC Restaurant Week ended on the 22nd but I was fortunate enough to tag along to Rasika. Being entirely ignorant of DC, I had never heard of Rasika before, but Google proved to be handy as usual and turned up a ton of praise for its reinterpretation of Indian cuisine. I was super psyched and it did not disappoint!

To tell the truth, I didn't take this photo, but I wanted to give a general idea of the interior. My own photos from dinner didn't capture how tempted I was to paw at the crystals hanging over our table.

Glasses.

The Parsi lamb cutlet-minced lamb with cilantro and ginger and served on top of a spicy tomato sauce. For some reason, this tasted so Korean to me that I was tempted to order some rice...

Scallops! I don't remember anything about this other than that the scallops tasted very alive.

And once again,my limited knowledge of Indian cuisine and poor memory fail me...this is a curry. That is all I can say.

Our table with my entree in the foreground. Black cod with dill, honey, star anise, and red wine vinegar. The reason why I can rattle off these ingredients with confidence is that Rasika (bless them!) included my entree on their restaurant week meny, conveniently placed online. This also tasted very alive and fresh, as if I were eating a baby black cod.

Carrot salwa with cinnamon sabayon. I wish I hadn't been so full by the time the dessert was served. I felt like a little piece of my heart died when I pushed back the plate after just a few bites, forced by my stomach to wave the cowardly white flag of surrender. My dessert made me the happiest out of all the ones we tried...the rice pudding tasted like a peasant's breakfast.

The green tea ice cream. Notice how the blackberry on the left of the plate is the same length as the strawberry on the right side. Have you ever seen a blackberry that big???

We had an amazing dinner that night- it's just too bad that I forgot a lot of what I wanted to say about the food. In any case, I don't think that the restaurant made any negative impressions on me, so I recommend it 110%!

Rasika
633 D Street, NW
Washington, DC 20004

Post-Valentine's Day Aftermath...

This is hardly the best way to begin a post, but I really can't get over the fact that I'm awake right now. It's barely 9 in the morning and everyone else appears to be sound-asleep in their beds-hair matted and shoes tossed haphazardly on the floor. I hope that you all had a lovely Valentine's Day, with or without a Valentine.

Is it just me, or do you guys do this too? After major holidays I like going to CVS/Eckerd/Duane Reade/what have you and buying massive, massive quantities of candy related to that holiday at ridiculously cheap prices. So yea....if you happen to venture out today, I'll be helping CVS clean out its Valentine's Day inventory like the good consumer that I am.

So yesterday, Eunae, Hayato, Andrew and I went to Ten Ren's Tea Time in college park (the word "ten ren" of course meaning "a place that makes super awesome bubble tea with pearls soaked in honey and happy high school memories"). I had no idea that Ten Rens existed outside of ny! After living in DC for a while I realized that there weren't any good bubble tea places near Georgetown. I even went to Chinatown in search of roast pork buns and bubble tea but the only bakery-like establishment happened to have newspapers strewn on the floor and the bubble tea I had was somewhat gritty and strange. Deprived of my buns and boba, I was not a happy camper. Now that I have excellent bubble tea a mere metro ride away, my life is a little more complete. Just a bit.

Inside Ten Ren's.

My roast pork bun. Now that I think about it, "pork bun" may have been the first Chinese word I ever learned...

Fried cheese wontons. I'm not sure why but I felt kind of stressed while eating these...it might have been the act of biting into them with the knowledge that there was dangerously hot, oozy cheese inside. 0___0

Kung Pao tofu with peanuts and...corn? For some reason all the entrees came with a little scoop of canned corn.

Hayato ordered this but I don't recall exactly what it was...something with chicken?

Tonkatsu!

General Tso's.

The spread.

The sad thing about this photo is that I can't tell whether or not my eyes are closed.

Andrew and Eunae intently drinking their bubble tea.

Eunae's lychee bubble tea. It didn't come with the fuzzy glow and the small star attached to it, but this is how I felt when I drank it. It was so wonderfully delicious that I wanted to weep lychee tears.

Wow I started this post at 9 and it's taken me a full hour to get to this point. Anyway, please visit Ten Ren's and try their bubble tea! I mean, it made me want to weep lychee tears and I'm not someone who is usually overcome by waves of emotion like that.
Au revoir!

Ten Ren's Tea Time
7418 BALTIMORE AVE
COLLEGE PARK, MD 20740
(301) 864-8920

Papa Razzi, Yee Hwa, and Gooldaegee

It's 51 degrees right now and rising! Does it mean that spring is finally upon us or that we've been blessed with a brief warm spell? I have no idea since I don't know what to expect of DC weather but I hope that it's the former! It'd be nice to break out some short-shorts and celebrate with a cold bottle of Crush soda. Speaking of Crush soda, I was tabling with Derek Ahn to keep him company when Professor Marshall walked by and asked what we were doing. We tried to explain it to her but the only thing she really heard was, "You buy a soda for someone you like!" and insisted on buying both of us sodas. In a way, getting a soda from a professor is a lot worse than not getting one at all. It was a nice gesture on her part though....-_____-.

So yes, here are food pictures again!

About a week ago, Yeina, Eunae, and I really wanted to eat at a Korean restaurant but couldn't figure out how to get our butts to Virginia, so we decided to visit Yee Hwa. Now, I've heard some pretty bad things about Yee Hwa from different people, the biggest complaint being that the food isn't authentic. It might just have been the things that the three of us ordered, but I didn't think that it was bad at all. Spectacular, it was not, but definitely not subpar either.

Yeina and Eunae :)

The side dishes neatly lined up in military formation.

Tonkatsu!

The stews that Yeina and I ordered weren't too photogenic so they won't be included here. No one really wants to look at violently red beef broth up close, right?

After feasting on Korean food, we returned to the georgetown area to feast on non-Korean desserts at Papa Razzi.
The interior. For some reason the three of us ended up being served by two waiters at the same time.

My apple crisp with a scoop of vanilla gelato on top.

Eunae's chocolate gelato with an ornamental almond cookie.

The brownie sundae that Yeina ordered....you can't really tell from the picture but the glass was about the size of a small trophy.

And a close-up. You might be wondering whether we finished everything. The answer is no, but we were damn close.

And finally, the most recent restaurant that I visited. Gooldaegee, also known as Honey Pig, is supposed to be one of the best Korean barbeque places in the area and according to a review I read online, was recently featured in the Washington Post. When we went, Honey Pig was packed, utterly chaotic with Kpop blasting from every speaker and too noisy to hold a conversation without yelling- in short, everything a good Korean restaurant should be like. I do have to offer a precautionary warning for diners: do wear something that you don't mind possibly soiling and/or reeking of Korean food. One might avoid the soiling but definitely not the reeking.



The chaos!

Part of our dinner table.

In the process of grilling meat.

Haemool pajeon, a pancake made with scallions, seafood, and other veggies incorporated into the batter and fried until golden-brown and crispy.

Honey Pig (Gooldaegee) Korean Grill
7220 Columbia Pike
Annandale, Virginia 22003
(703) 256-5133

Yee Hwa Restaurant
1009 21st St NW
Washington, DC
(202) 833-1244

Papa Razzi
1066 Wisconsin Ave NW
Washington, DC
(202) 298-8000‎

Super Bowl Sunday

What better way is there to celebrate Super Bowl Sunday than by writing up a new fooding post? I've been eating out a ton recently and have built up a good number of photos to show all of you! (That is, all ten of you readers out there. hehe)

Several nights ago Eunae, Derrick and I went to Bangkok Bistro for a quiet dinner. The funny thing about Bangkok is that I always feel as if I'm at home whenever I eat there but I've never been able to put my finger on the reason...until now. Bangkok Bistro is almost identical to the Saigon Grill in Union Square, which I wrote about sometime in August. The ambience is eerily similar, as are the menu and the waitstaff. This can't just be something about Thai restaurants, right?!

Are we in ny or dc? I can't tell!

The wonderful crispy tuna roll. There was some tension among the three of us as we realized that there were only two pieces left.

The pad thai that never disappoints!

Derrick's drunken noodles...I recall there being a small complaint on his part about the oiliness of the noodles?

Futomaki = Kimbab. I had no idea until I ordered it that night! There's really no point in ordering it at a place like Bangkok because the best kind of kimbab is made by middle-aged korean women with frizzy, DIY perms.

A couple days after Bangkok Bistro, CSA held their annual ball at Chinatown Garden.
Our lovely table.

Barbeque ribs with lots of sharp bone fragments hidden inside 0____0

The spring rolls.

The delicious cross section.

I found a small golden star on the rim of my soup bowl.

I was wondering what these little fried lumps were...

And it was shrimp! It would be nice if that happened more often...I mean, not knowing what something is and having it turn out to be shrimp. Yom.

The glorious fried bananas.

There were a total of ten dishes but a handful of them didn't look too appetizing, so I didn't take any photos. In any case, expect more posts soon!

Bangkok Bistro
3251 Prospect St NW # 1
Washington, DC 20007
(202) 337-2424

Chinatown Garden
618 H St NW
Washington, DC 20001
(202) 737-8887