Birthday Dinner c/o Le Diplomate

When we established that we were going to spend the holidays in the Maryland/D.C. area there was the matter of a birthday dinner. Dad and I talked a bit about it at K. and A.'s wedding and then I began my research stage to consider the options. At first I was limiting myself only to the Silver Spring/Wheaton/Rockville area, but the conversation with Dad made me broaden it somewhat. I considered this Top Chef guy's place, but honestly the reviews were a bit mixed on Yelp. And I don't take Yelp very seriously, but if the overall message is 'some of the food was really good, but it was kind of weird and service wasn't awesome,' you still need to ask yourself if it's worth the hassle. I did think that a French meal of some kind would please me and also be in Dad's comfort zone, so I began honing in on French restaurants in the D.C/MD/VA vicinity. In the end, and not without at least a little Facebook input, I suggested we try a reservation at Le Diplomate. This is a relatively new restaurant in D.C. and is actually part of the Stephen Starr umbrella. Stephen Starr has a definite stake and reputation in the Philly area as one of the 'big-time' restauranteurs. I have not been to all his establishments, but I have been to a hand full. And whatever the formula is, they generally seem to work. Le Diplomate certainly did. Due to not planning many more weeks in advance, the only available times were either around 5 or 10 PM. Dad went with the earlier of the options, which I think was a very good idea. I started off the meal with a pamplemousse cocktail, which I can't find on the website to more fully tell you about. From my own recollection it did the balance between sweet and tart quite excellently. Refreshing but not cloying, with just a little effervescence in the mix.

I will admit that the lighting in the restaurant was better for the actual moode and place than for the photographs I tried to take. They also had very neat/old school tiled bathrooms with sinks that one child I encountered called "really cool." So please forgive the photographs, is really what I'm saying. So the Starr restaurants, I think the thing that really is down to a science is how to put together a relatively effective and professional team. Our server never got flustered by our delays in actually making a decision about the meal, laughed at our jokes, asked the right questions and knew most of the answers to ours. Basically I have zero complaints about the service. Though I will say that we pretty much stumped one newer employee when we asked for more detail about some of the accompaniments to our first round of dishes. But when he didn't know the answer he made the effort to go find out and come back, so that was nice.

I debated on what exactly I would order quite a lot in the days and hours leading up to this meal. I had a few concrete ideas but didn't know what combination would make the most sense. In the end I showed very little restraint. Here is the foie gras parfait...this was the fluffiest, spreadiest, heaven-on-earthiest of foies that I've had in quite some time. The thick toast and fennel aigre doux were the perfect texture and flavor to accompany this rich piece of manna. Seriously good stuff.

I also couldn't resist the frissee salad with duck confit, poached egg and potatoes. Variations of this salad have been my favorite for quite a number of years. The way the yolk mixes in with the existing dressing just makes a magic meal, especially if you add duck into the equation.

Then there was the deliberation of what to actually eat. Ultimately I chose to go with the roasted scallops with red wine salsify, truffle sabayon and black trumpet mushrooms...as well as what I recall as being some kind of legume or potato? I kind of forget that detail. I thought the scallops were well prepared and executed though I thought they were perhaps just a tad salty...that might actually be a reaction to my father's dissatisfaction with the grilled loup de mer he ordered, which he found too salty. His dish did come with tapenade, so perhaps it should have been expected. Meanwhile when I tried his dish I thought it wasn't that salty and, in fact, though my own dish was moreso. Dad didn't agree on his own comparison testing. In the end I wasn't too bummed about the salt level and was pleased with the tenderness of the scallop and the savory elements of its rich butter sauce magic topping.

We had this wine with our entrees.

Above, the photoshopped version. Below, the original. It's bascially like I did nothing, except I spent 15 minutes trying to do something. Alas. The main change is that Dad's country terrine and lettuce accompaniment turned a very different set of colors. Blue lettuce is de rigeur, don't ya know?

We opted for coffee and Armagnanac instead of dessert, in large part because we did have a secondary appointment for the evening and I felt that we were going to be too late if we had any additional courses. When we exited the restaurant we both took a moment before looking around for cabs, and during those moments I noticed a guy standing a few feet away that looked vaguely familiar. After a few surreptitious glances, we met eyes and I finally just asked him if his name was H., which it was, and he asked me if I was me, which I am. H. and I went to high school together! I was quite amused by this random run-in and asked whether we could have a photograph taken in order to prove that it ever happened. Dad and I were both a little punchy, so this is actually the photograph that he took for us. H. is pretty tall and clearly Dad's main goal was getting the sign in the photo. Still, a funny ending to a great meal. 

Big thanks goes out to Dad for the birthday dinner!

Thanksgiving Dinner in Maryland

Dad and I returned to Maryland for another Thanksgiving dinner with the T.s. I began driving on Thanksgiving day and picked Dad up from the airport in Baltimore. Traffic was generally not bad and we made it to our old neighborhood during the daylight hours. The T.s were our across-the-way neighbors for pretty much my entire life. They and my parents went to Royal Ascot together for quite a number of years, and I really appreciate their ongoing family friendship and their willingness to include us in their holidays. Here is a very cute cream cheese Dorito pumpkin that B. made.

Here is the dinner table.

There were two kinds of turkey this year...I think one was a bourbon glazed variety, grilled...and the other perhaps a more traditional roasted turkey? I feel like this was the first year I really tried stuffing with oysters...I've never been a big stuffing person, but I have to say that particular stuffing (there were about 6 different varieties) really spoke to me.

As in past years, the birthdays of R. and me fall quite near the Thanksgiving holiday...so we each had the opportunity to blow out some candles and sing the 'happy birthday song to one another.

Mmmmmmm. Sweet heavenly dessert.

B. and T.'s nephew and his wife recently had a baby, who did quite well during the entire evening, I would say. Here is a picture of him meeting his cousin-uncle for the first time.

I really am thankful for being able to spend this holiday with a great group of folks whom I have known in one way or another for quite a number of years. I'll have to post some of the photos that B. and D. gave me for my birthday...major throwbacks from childhood, and images I feel like I've never seen or only saw at the time. Very neat.

Birthday Fun Times c/o Buffalo Billiards, Han Dynasty and Yakitori Boy

My birthday fell on a Tuesday this year, which isn't really ideal for a night of celebration given the propensity for the people I know to have jobs that require them to use their brains effectively on weekday mornings. So I sent out a call to birthday arms for the Saturday preceding the actual day of my birth. It was sort of a two-pronged call. To a slightly  more select group I suggested dinner and to a broader, more dart-loving group I suggested darts before that dinner. This was all a bit more last minute than might have been ideal, but I was still really pleased and grateful for the turn out...nothing worse than inviting folks to your own birthday celebrations and finding yourself totally alone. L. and Fat T. came down from Brooklyn a bit before our first scheduled activity. I made a little cheese plate and L. and I drank champagne while Fatty and A. drank beer. We all threw some darts. Then it was on to Buffalo Billiards, where our numbers soon allowed us to take control over all three boards.

Mr. Ass couldn't make dinner, but we did play a game of darts. It was a funny mix between the true blue darters and some of my less dart savvy friends. The majority of darters are legitimately better than me, and usually when I played them I lost. Meanwhile the friends who aren't throwing darts on a daily or weekly basis were quite impressed by my prowess. My dart ability: a sliding scale of awesome based solely on others' own abilities.

After a good amount of time playing the darts, it was time for our rather late dinner reservation at Han Dynasty's new Old City location, just down the block from its old one. I basically ordered for all of us after hearing certain suggestions or desires from the crowd. So our meal ultimately included dumplings in hot chili oil.

Cucumbers in hot chili oil...these suckers are sooo good .

Dan Dan Noodles. Not everyone ordered a sazerac, but I did and I loved it.

This was the cumin lamb.

This was L. reacting to her imminent turn getting the cumin lamb as A. scoops some on his own plate.

I think this is Fatty and LW with the eggplant.

Yep. Succulent, savory eggplant. Love it.

This was either the kung pao chicken or the garlic chicken,

I think this was the twice fried fish maybe?

String bean magic.

Pepper scallops if I recall correctly. SO GOOD.

The dinner was quite lovely and I was so pleased to share my birthday with such fun and funny folks. After that C. and R. went home while Fatty, L., LW, A. and I decided that we would try to do some karaoke at Yakitori Boy, which we did. I sang a Tom Petty song. We also just sang along with all the other people singing. A.'s gf G. joined us and the night went late.

Sake bombs did happen.

I don't really know what's happening in this photo except that LW and I both look quite taken aback, but from different things.

I'm a homebody for much of my daily, weekly or monthly existence, and the older I get the more okay I am about it...that said, every once and a while it's good to have an evening full of folks and fun, and this was certainly such an evening. A hearty thank you goes out to all who partook in my pre-birthday fun times!

Birthday Dinner for Fatty c/o Congee Village

So I went on a vacation a bit ago and the planning of it was not without its iterations. The final plan resulted in my deciding to fly out of JFK Airport in NYC because it would be a direct flight to Nassau at a better price and time. This led to my asking L. if I could stay with her and Fatty the night before my trip, as the flight was at 7 AM. She said yes and the plan was good. Then as we got closer to the date in question, it turned out that they were going to celebrate Fatty's birthday that Friday. Celebrations would include dinner out and then a musical show. I was all in for the dinner, but less so for the concert, as it would keep me out far later than I would think prudent for a needed 5 AM airport arrival time. So I stuck with dinner, which was at Congee Village on Allen Street. I think we turned out to be a table of 10 with a variety of tastes and eating restrictions. At least one glutard and one vegan if I recall correctly. We ordered a nice variety of dishes.  SP ordered a whole roasted chicken that was all chopped up and marvelously garlicky and tender. I ordered a tofu in soy sauce dish and a thick noodle dish. Greens were well represented as well.

Scallion pancakes, no doubt.

A plate with greens, chicken, noodles and fried rice.

After dinner this group headed off into the night towards music while I made my way back to Brooklyn with the intention of making sure everything was ready for the trip, a bit of blogging and an early bed time. I ended up dealing with the pre-travel awakes for much of the night, but I think it was still good that I didn't go out. At least when the cab picked me up at 4 something in the morning I wasn't groggy or hungover. Glad that I was able to celebrate Fatty's big day a bit early. This was definitely a good last experience in the States before my Caribbean vacation.

Birthday Night Darts c/o The Bards; Birthday Night Dancing c/o The Barbary and Midnight Magic

Next up on my birthday night agenda was darts at the Bards. I wasn't sure who would or would not be there, but I had certainly invited a number of darts loving folks. LW and I arrived and gladly met up with S. (who is on my dart team) and TDoc. It was a little whirlwind because of the third act of my evening, but we got in a few games and, of course, some photos.

Next up was a relatively last minute addition to the night in the form of music and dancing at the Barbary. This was a venue I'd never actually been to before, so it was nice to broaden my horizons. Basically I bid adieu to LW, S., and TDoc and met back up with BC, BM and AS, who had stayed north in preparation for the dancing.

The band in question was Midnight Magic.

I went to college with one of the band members, and via Facebook it was brought to my attention that they'd be in the area that Saturday, and I figured what better way to round out a night then by dancing to the musical stylings of a group that includes former college people? No better way really.

As always, I was the annoying girl with the camera taking pretty not great photos. But it's what I do. It's too late to stop now.

I'm not sure I recall exactly what transpired between the first and second photos. But clearly it was hilarious.

It was a really fun show. Lots of dancing and sweating and jazz hands all around. Maybe not that many jazz hands. Of course by this part of the evening (2 AM ish) I was pretty sauced, which made me think it was a good idea to chat with A. (the college compatriot) while he did his post-show rounds. I can only hope I didn't embarrass myself entirely. Hope is half the battle.

Then I followed him (I mean not like without his permission, that would be very much weirder) to the green room area, insisted on taking a photograph, and then proceeded to blather about this and that and god knows what to his bandmates.

My face become fatter with every passing photo.

Yikes. In any case, my own ridiculousness aside, it really was a fun night, and definitely not the norm for me in Philly. It reminded me that when I put to my mind to it, I can have adventures in the city and talk to strangers. And that even if I'm not a good dancer, it's still fun to dance. Thanks to LW, S. and TDoc for coming out for darts, and to A. for putting on a good show and putting up with my college remembrances and overall ridiculousness.