A Culinary tour of our Nation's Capitol. (w/ pics) Old Ebbet, American Eats.....

So in my recent trip to DC, I wanted to try a few different restaurants as recommended to me by members of this forum as well as friends on Facebook. I must say every recommendation was excellent. My only wrong turn was some fish at an Asian restaurant.

So here is where I went.

day 1

Got in late, went to Tune Inn

(note these pics are from internet for this place, I forgot my camera in my suitcase. Also for pics that didn't come out good I substituted with images from Google)

The Fireman's Burger, a burger topped with scrapple. It was a good burger, but the scrapple tasted like pure sausage fat. Apparently its something people eat out here, but I didn't like it. That said, this place made a good flounder sandwich and buffalo wings. It's just a plain old Bar and Grill "Dive" I saw on DDD. I usually try a couple of Guy Fieri places in my travels.





Like Ben's and Ebbet it's an institution so I gave it a try. I think I would go back, but stay away from the Scrapple.



Day 2

Early Lunch at falafel stand (meh)

Dinner I took my Mom to Ben's Chili Bowl. For what it was, it was very good. A sausage with Chili and onions on top. Got it with chips that were similar to lays, but still tasty. Was a neat place to go to just to say I went.





It wasn't the best thing ever, but it sure beats a Lucky Dog. Though I wonder if I should have used my only foray into the U street area to try Marvin or Ooh Wee.

day 3

For lunch we had a place called Chinatown Express. An interesting place, the seafood looks fresh as it's mostly still alive, and the noodles are made in a window. The noodles, the soup and the egg rolls were top notch, but that fish... I smelled it a long time before it got to me. I knew it was fresh, but it was some fish salty mackeral tasting flesh. I did not enjoy it. Ordered some more dumplings and ate those instead.

at night


The Salt fried fish


The specials


The Seafood


The seafood 2


Making Noodles




For Dinner I just ate a Lobster roll in the hotel restaurant. It was just okay, nothing special.

day 4

Kramer Books was recommended to me, so I traveled to Dupont Circle to check it out. I just want to say thanks for the suggestion. What a place. First off, its a book store. The cafe is in the back, its a big cafe. But you enter and leave through a book store. I found a nice tourist book to purchase while I waited for my table. They had a Strawberry Mimosa special, $3 for the first one $1.50 each additional. So I got a few of those to go with my Eggs Benedict Oscar. Which was a slice of housemade bread, topped with poached eggs, a Filet medallion, Lump crab meat and topped with holandaise. A very good Saturday Brunch.



Afterwords took the very long walk through the monuments to the foot of Maine street and ate some fish tacos at a place near the market. Catina Marina, though the selection wasn't that good, and I wasn't that impressed with the place.



Day 5

The best day of the entire trip. For Brunch I wanted Jaleo. Well I didn't call ahead. For some reason it is being remodeled so we decided to try another Jose Andres restaurant, called America Eats.

This place had a solid concept. Every menu item told the history of the dish it presented. I was able to order hard to find NOLA classics such as a Brandy Milk Punch and a Ramos Gin Fizz on the menu. tried a few things off the menu.

first off the fried chicken and catsup (catsup is a big deal here, and most have no tomatoes in them, its not what we think of ketchup.

Very good buttermilk flavor soaked deep into the chicken and the crust was perfect. The blackberry catsup made a nice condiment for it.

then the vermicelli pudding



A fancy mac and cheese, but done very well. I would get this again and again. It had complex flavors, yet was very simple.

Fo my main item I got the Shrimp and Grits, which wasn't the best I ever had, but was still very good, and the fried egg on top made it a great brunch meal.



My Mom got a deconstructed Rueben, I liked the flavor, but it was strange the way they served the 1000 Island, it was also deconstructed...




They had a menu which told the history of every dish on it. Most of which where dishes that where historically significant in parts of the country.

Menu



For dessert my Mother had Snow on Vermont, which plainly was a $10 snowball. But it was complex. It had Maple Syrup presented three ways, first under the snow mixed with a cream, then flash frozen into trees set in the snow, and lastly as hot syrup poured on the snow. It was really good, and different, but I can see how people don't like it...



I got the Key Lime Pie, which was very good, but wasn't pie. I did enjoy it and wish I would have tried the pecan pie as well.



Pecan Pie I didn't get to try...