I know what you're thinking.  Why in the world would you need a whole post on cooking a steak?  It's simple right?  You season it, you either put it in a pan and fry it or you grill it. Done and done.  NOT SO FAST MY FRIEND!  Over the years, I've grown to love steak but are loathe to visit steakhouses as I don't think I found many that have been really tasteful.  So, I've tried to find a tried and true method on how to cook a steak at home and since I've been living in apartments for most of my adult life, the method I usually use involves a stove top and oven.  So, here goes!

3715 Macomb St. NW
Washington, DC  20016
202.885.5700
www.2amyspizza.com


There's a wonderful old movie theater in the Cleveland Park area of Washington DC called the Uptown.  It's a throwback theater with only one screen with usually a pretty big hit.  I love the atmosphere and the nostalgia it it evokes.  I went there to go see the Hunger Games (there's a theme here, folks) which was very good and as faithful as a movie can be to a book without running 4 hours long.  While the Uptown has its own charm, Cleveland Park itself makes the image complete.  I would compare it to a less dense Upper West Side complete with pockets of shops to browse and, of course, good restaurants.

2000 Mount Vernon Ave.
Alexandria, VA  22301
703.549.5051
www.eveningstarcafe.net

I had a craving for fried chicken and an urge to take my lunch hour and keep reading my book.  I'm on the last book of the Hunger Games trilogy and it's pretty addictive.  It's not Harry Potter addictive but it's pretty damn close.  Evening Star is part of the Neighborhood Restaurant group which also includes Tallulla and Rustico.  I believe that Evening Star is their flagship or their first or I may be completely wrong about that.  Regardless, when I was looking for restaurants near me, they were close, had some great reviews, and had fried chicken on their lunch menu which is ONLY on Fridays.

911 King Street
Alexandria, VA  22314
www.majesticcafe.com


If you're going to eat in Old Town, Cathal Armstrong's restaurants have to be on your list of places to visit.  I've tried two of them (Eammon's and Virture Feed & Grain) and today I decided to have lunch at The Majestc.  It was a gorgeous Spring day and I had just gone through two pretty harsh days at work so I decided to put some time aside for a nice leisurely lunch of good book and some catching up on my reading I'm reading Catching Fire which is the 2nd book in the Hunger Games Trilogy.  I can't put them down and they are so much more than just teen reading.  And no, I've never read Twilight.  Really, no.

The Majestic sounds like one of those grand old movie theaters like the Uptown in DC or the Senator in Baltimore where it's a big expansive room with only one big blockbusting movie is playing.  The restaurant somewhat evokes that feel with the big neon signs on the facade of the building but when you walk in, all you see is casual elegance and grand old wooden bar top that is reminiscent of the 30s and 40s.  I sat in the back which was rather dark except for the lone skylight that only brightened up half the room.  The open kitchen is a nice feature but I was too far away to see the bustling activity in the back.  The waitress and I wish I got her name was amiable, friendly and extremely professional.  We even had some great small talk about the book.  They were also playing Florence & the Machine as their choice of music in the dining room which made me really like the place immediately.  For a drink, I ordered one of their homemade sodas which I believe was a kefir lime, coconut juice, and thai chile mixture.  The first part of the sip for the soda was cool, tart & sweet with the lime & coconut notes coming through but the last note and aftertaste had a small spicy tingling that wasn't overwhelming but made the drink very balanced.

I chose The Majestic for lunch because while I was looking over menus for places to go, The Majestic had three of my all-time favorite ingredients in three different courses.  They offered a fried oyster appetizer, a pasta dish with morel mushrooms and a vanilla panna cotta for dessert.  For the appetizer, I ordered the Fried Local Oysters with what is described as a creole caper remoulade and chives.  Besides the slightly pinkish color which maybe indicated some creole spices, I didn't taste the kick I would expect something labeled as creole.  The capers seemed to take over the sauce and was more akin to a smoother tartar sauce which worked quite well with the oysters and reminded me of the sauces at Eammon's.  The batter on the oyster was lighter than it looked (still no Pearl Oyster Bar like I mentioned in my post about Hank's Oyster Bar) and there was little enough as to not mask the oysters.  There were some soggy bits of the batter but overall a lot of different flavors from the savory oysters and crunchy batter to the sweetly tart sauce, made this dish very successful.

For my entree, I ordered the House Made Tortelli with fresh morels (!), brown butter, morel cream, and Parmesan.  Morel mushrooms (and I love mushrooms in general) are my favorite type of fungus not only because they are full of the earthy flavor you expect from mushrooms but also due to numerous ridges and crevices on the cones of the mushrooms that are the perfect vehicle to absorb and carry any sauces you serve them with.  In this particular dish, the tortelli sat in a bath of butter cream sauce with sauteed morels and crumbled parmigiano reggiano on top.  The tortelli felt a bit under-cooked to me and I'm a fan of al dente but this was just a tad stiff with more starchiness than I prefer in my pastas.  However, this was more than made up with the delightfully creamy sauce and the morels.  The pasta, the well-seasoned, well-cooked morels and the sauce all went so well together and provided a savory, creamy depth of flavor but much lighter than expected.

For dessert, I got the Vanilla Panna Cotta with a rhubarb passion fruid coulis.  The panna cotta was sitting in a rich red coulis with raspberries and blueberries interspersed around the bowl.  On top there was a twig of basil and what I'm guessing to be a strip of the peeled skin off of the rhubarb.  I didn't eat the basil this time but I tried the strip of rhubarb which was rather flavorless and I wasn't sure of why it was even included.  The vanilla panna cotta was cool and creamy without being overly heavy and the vanilla component was just right as to not override the creamy flavor of the panna cotta.  I did like how it paired with the coulis and fresh berries which gave a nice balancing tartness to the panna cotta. The color of the coulis, though, was a bit off-putting and along with the consistency reminded me of a spaghetti sauce which wasn't a pleasant association for dessert for me.

Of all the Cathal Armstrong restaurants I've visited so far, The Majestic was by far the best meal of them all. They gave me three nicely composed dishes which all melded flavors very well.  It was fortunate that they featured three of my all-time favorite foods but they presented all of them in a manner that reminded me why they were my favorites.  I would come back here any day but after this meal, I've set my sights on eating at the flagship called Restaurant Eve.
 

4883 Macarthur Blvd NW
Washington, DC   20007
202.342.9101
www.blacksaltrestaurant.com

Ah brunch!  There probably isn't a better meal than brunch especially Sunday Brunch.   The implication is that it's a special event during the week to be savored and guilt-free.  Every brunch menu is a murderer's row of food cravings with savory egg dishes, sausage, bacon, pancakes with sweet maple syrup, and french toast or waffles for breakfast and burgers, french fries and friend fish for those who like lunch for brunch.   This particular Sunday, I found myself looking at a long day of work due to a day-long meeting the next day so I wanted to start it off right with a proper meal.  I went to BlackSalt which is just right over the Potomac river in DC from Arlington.

7220-C Columbia Pike
Annandale, VA  22003
703.256.5229
www.eathoneypig.com


I have this new app called Chef's Feed which shares recommendations of where to eat from local chefs.  So, if you're in DC, you set your location and you click the Feed Me Now link on the app and you're directed to recommendations for places near you.  I decided to try it since I was working late on this night and just wanted to grab a nice bite to eat on my way home (well, in the general direction of home).  So, I pressed the magic button and was directed to Honey Pig by Spike Mendelsohn of Top Chef fame.

95 Allen Street

New York, NY  10002
212.274.9595
www.sorellanyc.com


Unintentionally, my birthday weekend spent in NYC turned out to be a tour of Italian joints from Il Buco Alimentari & Vineria to Osteria Morini and finally to Sorella for a Sunday night dinner.  The restaurant is located way down on the lower east side, very close to Chinatown and the entrance to the Williamsburg Bridge.  The neighborhood, on Sunday at least, is mostly closed shops with iron grates over their facades and if you didn't see the big red sign outside Sorella, you'd almost think that it wasn't open.