Catch up post
Wow! It’s been a while since I’ve done more than weather check-ins, which means this is going to be a really long post. Here’s what I’ve been up to:
My job sent me to Mongolia for two weeks in early August. It was awesome. Mongolia is always someplace I’ve wanted to visit, ever since I was a kid; darth_mom thought I was insane for this wish. It was a fantastic trip! It is one of the few places where I landed and felt immediately comfortable. I’ve never been to East Asia before and I thought I’d be completely out of it for a while. But it was very similar in appearance to many other post-Soviet societies I’ve visited, and at least in the capital (Ulaanbaatar), enough people speak English to make the language transition easy. Between a *packed* schedule of meetings, I made time to see some of the top sights in Ulaanbaatar and we also had a quick trip out to the countryside -- which is gorgeous. Much like the arctic, photographs don’t really do it justice because what makes it so amazing is just its vastness - sky and earth as far as you can see. If it didn’t take so darn long to get over there, I’d go back often! I’ll post a few photos soon, I promise! (The only bad thing… as a foodie… the food = not so great. Still, I didn’t starve.)
Shortly after arriving back, we hit VOLT, Bryan Voltaggio's Frederick, Maryland-based restaurant. The goat and I really liked it, and are super-glad we went, but are not in a rush to go back. I could give our criticisms, but really it was a good evening with very good food and good service - it’s just at the end of the day we’ll say we had a great meal, but not one that is significantly better than what we can get in downtown DC. I started with the yellowfin tuna tartare (with avocado, chili oil, petite cilantro, soy air, marinated whitefish roe), which was probably my favorite thing of the entire meal. The tartare was perfect, the accompaniments complemented but did not overpower the tuna - somehow this is surprisingly hard to do. The whole thing was wrapped up in like a rice paper, which kept it easy to eat. The goat chose the hudson valley foie gras (with crimson watermelon, cucamelon, crystal lettuce, brioche), which was good but VERY salty. The accompanying melons cut the salt enough and made it good, but it never really did away with the overpowering taste of salt that pervaded the dish. We then split the red wattle pork belly (with cranberry beans, tokyo turnip, blackberry, petite mustard), which was excellent - it was perfectly seared and crispy on the outside and deliciously soft and moist inside. For my main I had the red wattle pork loin (with braised collards, kabocha squash, cippolini onions, lobster mushrooms). I had been debating between a few dishes and the server recommended this one, it definitely was the best choice. Again, it was cooked perfectly and had very well thought out components to the dish; I was very pleased with my choice. The goat had the pineland farms beef strip loin (with chanterelle mushrooms, sweet yellow corn, scarlet turnips, leeks). It was cooked well and the corn accents were fantastic - when you managed to get a bite of all the components together, it really hummed. For dessert, I had the cheese cake (with figs, almond streusel, citrus cookie, lemon verbena), which was deconstructed and messed with. Honestly, I would have just liked a slab of well executed cheesecake. It was good, and extremely light (which I needed since I ate so much throughout the meal), but I missed the lusciousness of cheesecake by this version being so precise. The goat had the textures of chocolate (ganache, chocolate caramel, pistachio, raw organic cocoa), which was probably his favorite dish of the night. In this, the deconstruction was good and could exemplify the various ways we enjoy chocolate. We also had a bottle of delicious Spanish red wine, and topped it off with a Sambuca.
It was a fantastic dinner. But I have to say, the failing of this type of cooking-- for me as a diner -- is that everything is too well thought out. That sounds like it wouldn’t be a bad thing… but I actually don’t want every bite of the dish to taste exactly the same and every component to be adding a measured flavor profile. I like the accidents by someone tipping in too much vinegar or pepper or whatever…and the dish still tasting good. Oh well, VOLT was a fantastic celebratory dinner, and a great experience!
We went wine tasting a bit on the way home, making stops at Loudoun Valley Vineyards, 8 Chains and Dry Mill.
Then we had an earthquake.
Then we had a hurricane.
Then I cooked an awesome dinner for some of my DC-based friends: two types of Crostini; Meatballs; homemade sauce (not the one in the meatball recipe); homemade pasta; garlic bread; grilled marinated zucchini; and a fresh (local) peach dessert. And several bottles of wine. Yum!
And then we went to Michigan for opening weekend of Michigan football! Wow, it is fall already?? Where has the year gone? We left Thursday night and hit our favorite halfway spot -- Hofbräuhaus Pittsburgh - for some awesome German food (I had the Hofbräu Dunkel; Sauerkraut Balls; and Münchner Weisswurst). I really, really need to get a good German cookbook and cook German more often, because I love it.
The next day we had a late lunch at Michael Symon's B Spot Burgers, which was easily one of our top 3 burger experiences ever. (Hell Burger still wins, but we REALLY enjoyed these burgers.) Besides the amazing burgers and toppings, I have to give a shout out to the Tomato Blue Cheese Soup, because I am extremely picky when it comes to tomato soups and this is the first time I’ve had a tomato soup in a restaurant that holds a candle to the one I make. This tasted almost identical to mine, but added blue cheese. Guess what I’ll be doing the next time I make it?
Finally we arrived in Michigan and spent some time with the goat’s friends Friday night. Then Saturday was game day! I cannot stress the awesomeness of game day anywhere, but especially in Ann Arbor. It was so much fun. And this year had the added excitement of me almost passing out from the 97 degree heat while tailgating with no shade for 5 hours, followed by sudden hail/rain storms that came out of nowhere and dropped the temperature like 20 degrees in 20 minutes. And the game was called after the second stoppage of play, close to the end of the third quarter. It was surreal, and fun. We went to our normal post-game spot and then collapsed into bed exhausted (and we’re supposed to be able to handle a real night game next week???). Sunday was having lunch and spending some time with the goat’s mom and visiting more friends.
Monday was time for the long trek home. We saw some rain on the radar as we were getting ready to leave, so decided to dawdle in Michigan for a while and let it get a bit farther ahead of us and then took off. We did ok for half the drive. Then once we passed Pittsburgh (where we stopped to split a quick sandwich at Primanti Brothers), we hit what was apparently the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee. We didn’t know that at the time, all we knew was it was a lot of miserable rain and even more miserable traffic. It turned an 8 hour drive, which usually takes us 10 because we stop a lot, into a 13 hour drive. It was even worse when you realize we’d just be diving back in 4 days… Next up: Michigan vs. Notre Dame.
Whew. I’m exhausted!
My job sent me to Mongolia for two weeks in early August. It was awesome. Mongolia is always someplace I’ve wanted to visit, ever since I was a kid; darth_mom thought I was insane for this wish. It was a fantastic trip! It is one of the few places where I landed and felt immediately comfortable. I’ve never been to East Asia before and I thought I’d be completely out of it for a while. But it was very similar in appearance to many other post-Soviet societies I’ve visited, and at least in the capital (Ulaanbaatar), enough people speak English to make the language transition easy. Between a *packed* schedule of meetings, I made time to see some of the top sights in Ulaanbaatar and we also had a quick trip out to the countryside -- which is gorgeous. Much like the arctic, photographs don’t really do it justice because what makes it so amazing is just its vastness - sky and earth as far as you can see. If it didn’t take so darn long to get over there, I’d go back often! I’ll post a few photos soon, I promise! (The only bad thing… as a foodie… the food = not so great. Still, I didn’t starve.)
Shortly after arriving back, we hit VOLT, Bryan Voltaggio's Frederick, Maryland-based restaurant. The goat and I really liked it, and are super-glad we went, but are not in a rush to go back. I could give our criticisms, but really it was a good evening with very good food and good service - it’s just at the end of the day we’ll say we had a great meal, but not one that is significantly better than what we can get in downtown DC. I started with the yellowfin tuna tartare (with avocado, chili oil, petite cilantro, soy air, marinated whitefish roe), which was probably my favorite thing of the entire meal. The tartare was perfect, the accompaniments complemented but did not overpower the tuna - somehow this is surprisingly hard to do. The whole thing was wrapped up in like a rice paper, which kept it easy to eat. The goat chose the hudson valley foie gras (with crimson watermelon, cucamelon, crystal lettuce, brioche), which was good but VERY salty. The accompanying melons cut the salt enough and made it good, but it never really did away with the overpowering taste of salt that pervaded the dish. We then split the red wattle pork belly (with cranberry beans, tokyo turnip, blackberry, petite mustard), which was excellent - it was perfectly seared and crispy on the outside and deliciously soft and moist inside. For my main I had the red wattle pork loin (with braised collards, kabocha squash, cippolini onions, lobster mushrooms). I had been debating between a few dishes and the server recommended this one, it definitely was the best choice. Again, it was cooked perfectly and had very well thought out components to the dish; I was very pleased with my choice. The goat had the pineland farms beef strip loin (with chanterelle mushrooms, sweet yellow corn, scarlet turnips, leeks). It was cooked well and the corn accents were fantastic - when you managed to get a bite of all the components together, it really hummed. For dessert, I had the cheese cake (with figs, almond streusel, citrus cookie, lemon verbena), which was deconstructed and messed with. Honestly, I would have just liked a slab of well executed cheesecake. It was good, and extremely light (which I needed since I ate so much throughout the meal), but I missed the lusciousness of cheesecake by this version being so precise. The goat had the textures of chocolate (ganache, chocolate caramel, pistachio, raw organic cocoa), which was probably his favorite dish of the night. In this, the deconstruction was good and could exemplify the various ways we enjoy chocolate. We also had a bottle of delicious Spanish red wine, and topped it off with a Sambuca.
It was a fantastic dinner. But I have to say, the failing of this type of cooking-- for me as a diner -- is that everything is too well thought out. That sounds like it wouldn’t be a bad thing… but I actually don’t want every bite of the dish to taste exactly the same and every component to be adding a measured flavor profile. I like the accidents by someone tipping in too much vinegar or pepper or whatever…and the dish still tasting good. Oh well, VOLT was a fantastic celebratory dinner, and a great experience!
We went wine tasting a bit on the way home, making stops at Loudoun Valley Vineyards, 8 Chains and Dry Mill.
Then we had an earthquake.
Then we had a hurricane.
Then I cooked an awesome dinner for some of my DC-based friends: two types of Crostini; Meatballs; homemade sauce (not the one in the meatball recipe); homemade pasta; garlic bread; grilled marinated zucchini; and a fresh (local) peach dessert. And several bottles of wine. Yum!
And then we went to Michigan for opening weekend of Michigan football! Wow, it is fall already?? Where has the year gone? We left Thursday night and hit our favorite halfway spot -- Hofbräuhaus Pittsburgh - for some awesome German food (I had the Hofbräu Dunkel; Sauerkraut Balls; and Münchner Weisswurst). I really, really need to get a good German cookbook and cook German more often, because I love it.
The next day we had a late lunch at Michael Symon's B Spot Burgers, which was easily one of our top 3 burger experiences ever. (Hell Burger still wins, but we REALLY enjoyed these burgers.) Besides the amazing burgers and toppings, I have to give a shout out to the Tomato Blue Cheese Soup, because I am extremely picky when it comes to tomato soups and this is the first time I’ve had a tomato soup in a restaurant that holds a candle to the one I make. This tasted almost identical to mine, but added blue cheese. Guess what I’ll be doing the next time I make it?
Finally we arrived in Michigan and spent some time with the goat’s friends Friday night. Then Saturday was game day! I cannot stress the awesomeness of game day anywhere, but especially in Ann Arbor. It was so much fun. And this year had the added excitement of me almost passing out from the 97 degree heat while tailgating with no shade for 5 hours, followed by sudden hail/rain storms that came out of nowhere and dropped the temperature like 20 degrees in 20 minutes. And the game was called after the second stoppage of play, close to the end of the third quarter. It was surreal, and fun. We went to our normal post-game spot and then collapsed into bed exhausted (and we’re supposed to be able to handle a real night game next week???). Sunday was having lunch and spending some time with the goat’s mom and visiting more friends.
Monday was time for the long trek home. We saw some rain on the radar as we were getting ready to leave, so decided to dawdle in Michigan for a while and let it get a bit farther ahead of us and then took off. We did ok for half the drive. Then once we passed Pittsburgh (where we stopped to split a quick sandwich at Primanti Brothers), we hit what was apparently the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee. We didn’t know that at the time, all we knew was it was a lot of miserable rain and even more miserable traffic. It turned an 8 hour drive, which usually takes us 10 because we stop a lot, into a 13 hour drive. It was even worse when you realize we’d just be diving back in 4 days… Next up: Michigan vs. Notre Dame.
Whew. I’m exhausted!