Washington, DC Archives - Queen of the Food Age

Eatonville, Washington DC [CLOSED]

April 26, 2013

When visiting Washington DC from Charleston, SC, the first thing any true Southerner starts to miss is sweet tea. Even southern transplants like Lauren find themselves craving that sweet nectar that, for some reason, is only found in the south. Asking for sweet tea and receiving a glass of unsweetened tea and a packet of Sweet’n Low, just isn’t the same. Not by a long shot. Which is why Lauren decided to we needed to eat brunch at Eatonville, because they have “homemade sweet tea” on the menu.

We love sweet tea so much we infuse it in our liquor. That’s dedication.

I was worried that they were going to try to cater their sweet tea to more northern palates, but they surprised me by actually having legitimate southern-style sweet tea. It was delicious. Plus it came in mason jars with plenty of ice, which for a moment made me forget I was in DC. Our waiter had personality oozing out of the ears and was hilarious, attentive, and generally just a very fun dude. I wish more waiters were like him. The restaurant itself was also very cool. The whole restaurant is themed around Zora Neale Hurston and is in fact named after her Florida hometown. They have lots of cool murals on the walls, which I quite enjoyed looking at while eating my brunch.

Sorry for the unflattering picture, Sara, but that artwork is just so cool!

We were joined by Lauren’s roommate Ashley and friend Sara (who’s a vegetarian. But a real one, not like Naomi). Sara got the arugula-spinach frittata (sautéed shiitake mushrooms, grape tomatoes, avocado, crumbled feta cheese, basil pesto with a buttermilk biscuit). It actually looked delicious, and I’m assuming it tasted good, too, as Sara definitely did some damage. They do a really good job of identifying vegetarian- and vegan-friendly items on the menu, so this is a good place for herbivores and carnivores alike. Sara also got a mimosa, which she said was especially yummy because they used fresh squeezed orange juice instead of that slop from a carton. The rest of us skipped out on alcohol with brunch because we were recovering from the night before.

This has Christine’s name written all over it.

Lauren stuck with your basic breakfast fare of scrambled eggs, bacon, and a biscuit. She also ordered a side of fried okra, which came unlike I’ve ever seen fried okra before. They cut the okra into strips before breading them and frying them, almost like okra fries. I actually liked them a lot, despite how different they were. Lauren loved them and ate all of it, which is surprising because she doesn’t actually eat real food.

But you can cut basically anything up into strips and fry it and I’d think it was delicious.

Ashley opted for scrambled eggs with cheese (which looked delicious), macaroni and cheese, a bowl of fresh fruit, and a biscuit, which she seemed to enjoy.

Mmm…. Cheeeeesy

I was the only one who didn’t get eggs. I decided to get “The Callahan,” a fried chicken breast on a buttermilk biscuit, covered in jalapeno-sausage gravy, served with a side of mac and cheese. I thought the the mac and cheese was delicious (hooray cavatappi!) and I applaud any restaurant who decides to serve macaroni as a bunch side dish. My only complaint is that I would’ve liked a more detailed description of what cheeses it was made with on the menu. I thought the fried chicken biscuit was delicious; the biscuit was perfectly buttery and flaky and the chicken had just the perfect amount of breading. The jalapeno-sausage gravy was good, although I was a bit thrown off by the fact that it was brown (it’s camouflaged in that picture, blending in with the chicken), but it was still tasty. I do wish they would’ve put more on than the tablespoon I received. I like lots of gravy with my biscuit. I also thought the collard green garnish was a nice touch.

Man, that macaroni looks delicious. I have a problem.

I couldn’t resist the temptation to try their jalapeno-gruyere grits because I’d never had grits with jalapeno before. I think part of me wanted the grits to be bad so I could hold onto some shred of superiority, but I was sorely disappointed, when they turned out to be de-freaking-licious. They came out after we’d all pretty much finished eating, and although Lauren had been complaining of being “stuffed” only moments before, she miraculously regained some of her appetite after one spoonful of grits. They were that good.

Gosh, I love grits.

I didn’t expect to get good southern food at a restaurant in DC, but Eatonville pleasantly surprised me. Whether you’re a seasoned Southern cuisine connoisseur or have no idea what “grits” are, I’m confident you’ll have a positive and memorable experience.

I love that font / logo. #Nerd

Eatonville
2121 14th St NW
Washington, DC 20009
(202) 332-9672

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Restaurant Reviews Washington, DC

Pound The Hill, Washington DC [CLOSED]

April 19, 2013

Lauren went a little Groupon-crazy for my visit to DC, and even though she doesn’t actually eat real food, she actually picked some pretty delicious restaurants. For the second of my three DC restaurant reviews, we visit Pound The Hill, this little coffee-house-slash-cafe-slash-tapas-slash-bistro-slash-I’m-not-really-sure-how-to-classify-them.

It is butter? It’s not butter? But it tastes like butter? MAKE UP YOUR MINDS PEOPLE

After looking at the menu, Lauren and I decided that we basically wanted all the appetizers. Luckily, we had 2 other people joining us, so we could do that without feeling like disgusting and terrible human beings (we literally ordered 7 appetizers, one entree, and 2 desserts to split). I’ll go ahead and go through the list of everything we ordered, although they seem to have changed the menu a bit since we went. First was the “Pan Seared Crab Cake,” all lump crab cake, red pepper aioli, mixed pepper. They did a really good job of having big pieces of crab only lightly held together with some bread. I hate when crab cakes come out and they taste more like crab-flavored bread balls. These were pretty good, especially with the red pepper aioili.

They couldn’t even wait the 2 seconds it took me to take the picture. Savages.

Next up was the Sweet Potato Gnocchi (cinnamon, sage, brown butter sauce), which were really, really good. I think this was one of my favorite things that we ordered. It was a good mix of sweet and savory, and I think all of the flavors really melded well together.

Plus, it comes in a mini skillet. How can you go wrong with that?

After the gnocchi was the Parmesan Herb Croquettes (crispy croquettes with aged parmesan, shallots, fresh herbs, paprika dijoinaise), which were also pretty good. I kind of was hoping for a little more, they weren’t really unique or outstanding in any way, but they were still good.

I mean, it’s fried parmesan potatoes. Basically all of my favorite foods.

Next up, the Prime Rib Sliders (shaved dry aged prime rib, blue cheese spread, BBQ sauce, cucumber pepper salad). They changed the name on their menu online to “Beef BBQ Crostini” which is a way more appropriate description. When I think of a slider, I think of a mini sandwich of some kind. What we actually got was prime rib bruschetta. Not the same thing. It was pretty good, but I was too busy being disappointed in their presentation to really care about the taste.

Maybe you’re supposed to put the 2 halves together? Somebody must be drunk in the kitchen.

Our next appetizer was the Fish “in” Chips (fresh cod fried in crunch potato chip crumbs, saffron lemon tartar sauce), which were interesting and surprisingly good. Crispy on the outside, juicy on the inside, the way a good piece of fried fish should be. I don’t know that I would’ve liked them as much without the saffron lemon tartar sauce, though.

It would’ve been nice to get more than 1 tablespoon of it, though.

Next up was the menu item I had been looking forward to the most: The Bacon Tasting Plate (Benton’s couple smoked pork bacon, Tennessee wild boar bacon, New England mallard duck bacon, ancho chili maple dipping sauce). I’m not sure that I’d ever had boar before, let alone boar bacon (it’s the fatter piece), but it was delicious. I also really liked the duck bacon (darker, skinnier piece)…albeit I was the only one, but I thought it was really good with the chili maple dipping sauce. The pork bacon was really good too, but it was gone pretty fast between the 4 of us.

Bacon tasting plate. Let me repeat that for you. BACON TASTING PLATE. Why isn’t that a thing everywhere??

Following the bacon, we got the hummus of the day, which was a black bean hummus with arugula salad, sour cream, pico de gallo and pitas for dipping. It was good, but definitely not better than Dell’z Deli black bean hummus, which is the bomb.

I just kind of love hummus, no matter what it’s made out of.

The one entree we got was the Beef Tip Fondue (dry aged beef tender, pan seared onions, peppers, and mushrooms, creamy blue cheese sauce, arugula and chive salad), because that sounded delicious. It was another one of those cases where the name definitely did not match the dish that it belonged to. First of all, this wasn’t fondue at all. It was a cup of beef with a tiny dish of blue cheese sauce to dip it in. They changed the name on the online menu to “American Style Beef Stir Fry,” which is way more accurate. It was really good, but I would’ve loved more than a thimble full of bleu cheese sauce for my “fondue.”

I like how they give you a pound of arugula, like that'll make up for the lack of bleu cheese.

I like how they give you a pound of arugula, like that’ll make up for the lack of fondue in their fondue.

Apparently they recently started using a new reservation service on their website, so they bribe you into using it by offering a free dessert with your reservation when you enter “dessert me” in the promo code box. Don’t expect your server to know this, however, because ours certainly didn’t. We had to remind her of it and then explain what it was before she had any idea what I was talking about. Our “free” dessert was the Warm Winter Apple and Pear crisp with spicy sea salted honey. I liked it ok, but thought that the apples were a little undercooked. Plus I think there was way more pear than apple in that crisp. Lauren liked it though, so I guess that counts for something.

Again with the little skillets. I want a bunch of these, just to serve random stuff in.

Our second dessert, which I liked better, was Warm Spiced Doughnuts with powdered sugar. I think they tasted just like a funnel cake from the fair (read: delicious), but were really rich so I didn’t really eat more than one bite. Plus I’d eaten 7 other appetizers so I was kind of running out of room.

Seriously. Everything tastes better in a little skillet.

All in all, I’d say I had a pleasant experience at Pound The Hill. The one thing that really bothered me was that even though we had 4 people at the table, they kept bringing out our appetizers with only 2 or 3 servings each. Considering they ranged from like $8-$12 you’d think they would’ve been considerate enough to bring enough servings for the number of people at the table. Or at least specify on the menu how many servings each appetizer comes with. I get that it’s a little bistro/cafe/whatever, but still. If you’re going to have tables that seat 4 people, you should be prepared for that. Also, it was super pricey for the amount of food you actually got. Lauren kept saying that “that’s just DC, everything is expensive” but after 5 days there, Pound The Hill was the only place I thought was ridiculously overpriced, especially for such tiny portions.

I still have no idea what kind of restaurant this is.

Pound The Hill
621 Pennsylvania Ave SE
Washington, DC 20003
(202) 621-6765

Restaurant Reviews Washington, DC

Ethiopic (Washington DC)

April 12, 2013

So I just spent 5 busy and wonderful days in Washington DC visiting Lauren in her new city. It was the first time I’d been to DC as an adult and not in the company of my classmates and chaperones. It was nice to have to freedom to do whatever I wanted to. Although that was usually just seeing touristy stuff, eating, and shopping. So basically all the same things I did on my 11th grade field trip (only this time I added alcohol and Starbucks).

A combination to instantly make any trip more exciting.

Since I’d never had Ethiopian food before (and Lauren suddenly got all adventurous with her palate now that she’s a big fancy DC gal), we went to what she claimed was the “best Ethiopian restaurant in DC.” We were joined for dinner by Lauren’s roommate Ashley, and my childhood friend Monika. We had 9:15 reservations, and the place was pretty packed when we got there. First, let me talk about the bread. This is one of those restaurants, like Moroccan, where you don’t eat with silverware, you use your hands and bread as utensils. The bread at Ethiopic was unlike any other bread I’ve ever eaten before. It tasted kind of sour, and had a spongy consistency not unlike play-doh. It was good, but also kind of weird. Not sure if this is what it’s like at all Ethiopian restaurants, but I’d imagine this kind of bread is pretty typical of Ethiopian cuisine–heavy, easy to eat, and I’m pretty sure it expands in your stomach to make you fuller faster.

Also, it comes rolled up like a rug.

To start, Monika and I ordered the Azifa (lentil salad seasoned with red onions, garlic, jalapeno peppers, olive oil, lemon juice, herbs & spices), which probably tasted delicious, but I wouldn’t know because it was literally THE SPICIEST THING I’VE EVER EATEN IN MY LIFE. Which wouldn’t have been as big of a deal, if our waitress didn’t disappear for most of the time, leaving my water glass empty. I felt like a fire breathing dragon. Monika thought it was great and ate most of it. I stuck mainly to the weird play-doh bread, because it hadn’t betrayed my trust the way the lentils did.

Who knew some little lentils could bring me to tears.

Lauren and Ashley got the Timatim (fresh diced tomatoes, onions, garlic, jalapeno pepper, olive oil, lemon juice & spices) to start, and also had the same complaint about it being spicy. Lauren said when she got it last time, it wasn’t nearly as spicy. She thought maybe because we had a later dinner time, they prepared all the appetizers ahead of time and just let them stew in their own juices. Which makes sense, because I usually can handle jalapenos ok.

Yay, more bread carpets!

For main courses, Monika and I got the Ethiopic Signature Tibs (tender boneless leg of lamb marinated & sauteed with red onions, garlic, jalapeno pepper, fresh tomato, rosemary, herbs & spices served sizzling hot). I ordered the appetizer and my entree at the same time, so I ended up being really worried that my lamb was going to be inedibly spicy, but it actually was perfect. Very mild and flavorful, not fatty at all–some of the best lamb I’ve ever eaten. All of the flavors really came together well, and I loved the big fresh sprigs of rosemary with the rest of the vegetables (although I avoided eating anymore jalapenos to prevent future mouth fires). I almost smacked the waitress in the face when she brought a little dish of “spicy chile sauce in case the lamb isn’t spicy enough.” STOP TRYING TO BURN MY TASTEBUDS OFF OF MY TONGUE.

Apparently, the key to getting silverware is to order the hot food.

Lauren and Ashley split the vegetarian sampler #1 which consisted of gomen (fresh collard green simmered in mild sauce seasoned with spice and herbs. Mild.), miser wot (split lentils simmered in spicy hot berbere sauce. Spicy), kik aletcha (yellow split peas simmered in a mild and flavorful onion and herb sauce. Mild.), dinich wot (curried potato simmered with red onions, garlic, jalapeno peppers, olive oil, fresh herbs & spices). I thought it was really cool that the used the bread as a plate for the different vegetarian dishes. I really liked the collards, although they kind of surprised me a bit. Being from the south, I’m used to eating collards a certain way, and this was very different. Still good, though! I also liked the yellow and red lentil dishes, although the red one was a bit spicy. I didn’t get to try the potatoes but Ashley said she really liked those, so I’ll take her word for it.

I think sampler platters are my favorite food.

We didn’t get dessert because we were so full (it’s that bread, man, I swear). But I did try a glass of Ethiopian red wine, which was good, but kind of bitter for my taste. When the check came, I was surprised at how inexpensive everything was. I’d definitely go back here again and get the lamb tibs (and try to avoid all of the outrageously spicy stuff). I’d definitely recommend Ethiopic if you’re ever near H-Street in Washington DC!

It almost looks like this picture could’ve been taken in Charleston.

Ethiopic
401 H St NE
Washington, DC 20002
(202) 675-2066