Another Food Blog

Today I noticed a sirloin steak in the fridge was getting a bit old. I like to eat steak very rare indeed and therefore like it very fresh. By no means an antique this steak teetered on the edge of the ‘fresh enough’ line so I elected to cook it differently.

I cubed the steak, seasoned with salt and put in a hot pot with sunflower oil. As it fried I sliced a purple onion and threw in, then I added some raw chorizo made from acorn fed pigs and let the oils from that seep out. Next, I poured in the leftover amount of a jar of homemade spicy salsa I’d made previously and poured in a tin of baked beans and left to simmer.

A lovely, homely, comfort food dish resulted. A slight spice from the salsa remained and it all tasted pretty good! Given more time and thought I’d use different beans and make a proper sorta stew!

Sweet Obsession Chocolate Log.

This delicious creamy praline chocolate log is entirely dairy free. I was fearful I’d have to live my entire life eating only purest darkest chocolate – delicious though it is, it’s nice to have something sweet and cream occasionally!

Small consumption faux pas though. I’ll admit is now: I cut through the dark brown plastic coating thinking it to be a dark chocolate crust and ended up with a mouthful of plastic! Delicious chocolatey plastic…

For starters I had the ever excellent combination of scallops and black puddings. These black puddings were much more haggis like than usual. They contained what appeared to be rice and were subsequently a lot lighter than others I’ve had. Most important though, for me, was the fact that the scallops still had their corals attached (the yellow piece) this is unusual as they distract from the visual elegance of round white scallops. however, they are most tasty!

Someone with more time on their hands would have made an Alice in Wonderland joke about the name of the restaurant “About Thyme” and me eating rabbit…

…this rabbit wasn’t particularly late for what must have been it’s most important date. It turned up promptly after the starters and was eaten with great skill and dexterity by myself. The wine, an Eagle’s Cliff pinotage weighing in at 14% and tasting (in a good way) of tobacco and leather, accompanied nicely.

For breakfast/brunch I made myself a smoked salmon sandwich with a difference. I made it spicy.

I started out as usual. Bread, salmon, purple onion and capers but then I topped off with a light helping of spicy salsa.

I really wasn’t sure if this would work at all. But, for me, it did. Not too spicy but spicy enough to add a light mid-morning kick.

Because I hate to fly on a full stomach I find sushi is the perfect pre-flight meal. It’s filling without making you feel too full. Miso soup is very settling too. One thing I cannot abide before or during a flight are grapes. Odd? Maybe…

Sushi is my ideal meal and there is good reason to get a decent amount. Transatlantic flights are long and if you turn right when you board the plane, like me, then you don’t want to rely on the squalid food they feed you. Although in fairness to Virgin I was impressed with their food.

One of the best things to do when flying is to order a vegetarian or vegan meal. Normally I’d call you names if you did this in a restaurant. However, on a plane this is often the best way to ensure a good meal and avoid over-cooked beef stew or equivalent.

My mainstay meal in DC was chicken and vegetable pasta. Bored of this and in a rush I sliced a chicken breast in half and fried in a pan. I then placed said fried chicken breast between bread and ate. A balanced meal!

In fairness to myself I seasoned it with garlic, salt, pepper and Italian herbs!

El Pollo Rico is a Peruvian chicken place based in what looks like an industrial estate opposite the George Mason University campus (original and law school buildings).

It serves chicken in quarters from 1/4 to a whole. The chicken is spit roasted over coal with a delicious herb skin and comes with a fantastic sauce.

The sauce is thick and spicy as hell. In fact I believe it is purely made from blended green chillis. The tiny shot sized measure which they give you is more than adequate. I had around 1/2 to 2/3rds left over from my quarter piece.

The second time I went I took one of my dinning companion’s ration as she didn’t like hot food. I used it to make spicy scrambled eggs. An amazing hangover cure!

The apartment block I was staying in in DC had a roof top pool and gym as well as a communal penthouse space with kitchen and tv and this outside BBQ area.

Frequently of an evening we’d cross the road to Costco and buy some meat. This occasion we grilled amongst others a rack of ribs, lamb chops and steaks.

Relaxing with a cooled beer or gin and tonic with a whole mess of meat is about as good as life gets.

This reminds me of my invention: a gin and tonic slushie. Mix a 50:50 gin:tonic and freeze. When frozen break up into a slushie and eat with a spoon. Refreshing!

Ray’s Hell Burger in Washington was on my to-do list when I first arrived. However, Obama took the Russian President Medvedev there and the usually long queue became impossibly long for the weeks that followed.

Ray’s burgers are ground from steak throughout the day. Ray also owns Ray’s the Steaks which serves fresh steak every day; at the end of the day the remainder steaks get sent to the burger joint to be ground into burgers – so the legend goes at least.

The menu is impressive; burgers can come with a peppercorn crust, bone marrow and even foie gras. The list of extras is a mile long, a whole host of different cheeses, onions both cooked and raw, mushrooms, the list goes on.

I had a medium rare burger with tomato, lettuce, cooked onions, spicy grilled jalapeños and spicy pirañha sauce. It was delicious. $10.

I ate my burger so fast that my dining companions asked if I had inhaled it!

I’ve never had Korean BBQ. In fact I’ve never even had the much more common Mongolian BBQ. So I was happy to go to this restaurant with a friend in the outskirts of DC. It was called something like: Hee Bin. I remember the named because, like many Korean restaurants the name could carry some sexual innuendo. At least… To my mind that is.

Anyways! The concept is this. You go to the buffet which is all raw meat. You bring it to your table. Throw it on the hot dish and eat it. A world of meat.

Delicious, filling and then meat-coma inducing.