Text 17165, 104 rader
Skriven 2008-12-01 00:50:00 av Michael Loo (1:18/200.0)
Ärende: non-txgvg meals 2 301
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Adams Morgan eats, near Susie's place

We wanted to get some dinner, so we braved the cold to pacify our
stomachs. There are a lot of interesting eateries in Adams Morgan;
the one I wanted to try is called Madams Organ, but Susie nixed
that for some reason. We ended up chickening out and settling for
Bardia's New Orleans Cafe, a couple doors down from Meskerem and
five easy minutes from home. It really looks like a Louisiana
lunch counter, with about 20 seats with a couple more at the bar
in back. It was about half full, counting us, on a midweek night,
and I mused on how tough it must be for a small restaurant to make
it in the big city.

We were greeted by a little swarthy guy who didn't look or sound
particularly Cajun; he was friendly enough, though, and always
there when we needed him (waiting on 12 people, none of whom was
in a hurry, so no great thing there). One fault was that he didn't
tell us the specials, which is fine as after I checked out the
board it became clear that we wouldn't have been interested in any
of them anyhow (fried calamari appetizer in a Cajun restaurant?).

We started with fried okra, pretty good, which came with a big dish
of grainy mustard, not a match made in heaven but easily avoided.
It was, as everything here, an adequate but not huge serving.

After a lengthy story about how she had coped in the South with
her semivegetarianism, Susie suggested jambalaya with andouille and
shrimp Clemenceau; though we are not the kind of friends where her
suggestions are law, that sounded fine with me, and so that's what
we had. The jambalaya was very strange, as though someone had read
about the dish in a book and had tried to recreate it from words
alone. It was really a pilaf, quite dry, each grain separate, with
lots of thin disks of slightly smoky slightly peppery sausage. The
rice was seasoned with bouillon, scallions, and a relatively huge
amount of cayenne. Not bad, but nohow jambalaya. The shrimp was a
complete misunderstanding of the dish: it was in fact shrimp sauce
piquante with a few peas thrown in and a splash of excruciatingly
cheap white wine: the real thing is tomatofree and very rich. It
was not bad as well but nohow Clemenceau. Again, portions were
satisfying but just: five medium shrimp, for example (semivegetarian
I guess).

Turbo Dog was comfortingly malty.

We were about closing the place up, but the waiter almost danced
with pleasure when we asked for a plate of beignets to finish.
Well, don't worry too much Cafe du Monde - these were some kind
of fried dough, but unrisen and quite heavy. Strange: again, not
what was expected, but not bad (the worst thing of the meal, though).

The guy who waited on us said that he was Iranian but grew
up in Louisiana. Putting two and two together, that must have
been the owner, Bardia, and that must be why the jambalaya
was really pilaf in disguise, et cetera.

We got out fairly cheaply: a bit less than the price of a meal for
one at the Tabard Inn.

=

One of my haunts to which I can take Jonathan is the Tower Oaks
Lodge, which is really a Clyde's in disguise and has all the
Clyde's specials. Anyhoo. Saturday night, and the place was
hopping - 45 minutes if you didn't have a ressie, which I did.
Waiter friendly but slightly spacy. We started with bread and
cheese on the house - I had one piece of pepper jack, which was
peppery and jacky. Jonathan ordered "Buffalo oysters," which are
fried oysters topped with hot sauce (not hot), celery bits, and
blue cheese crumbles (he asked for them to omit this, and thank
goodness they did). Not bad, actually, the oysters actually
tasting like something despite all the crud on them. There were
five, each served in a Chinese-style plastic soup spoon. I had one.

Jonathan had the half roast chicken with roast potatoes and green
beans; after hearing my order he asked me if I would spring for a
side of spinach for himself, and I said okay but pointed out that
that was reasonably healthy, and if it had been something disgusting
like fried potatoes, I'd have said no. The chicken was overdone and
kind of small but not bad. Jonathan asked if I wanted to do a trade,
so I gave him the most well done piece of my dish, and he asked what
I wanted in return. He was most crestfallen when I said "skin" and
gave me a little shred of it; it was good.

I had the Clyde's special, a 7-oz filet mignon for $17.95 (last
year this time it was an 8-oz filet for $16.95), very rare. It came
very rare and 8 oz. The regular accompaniments are garlic spinach and
mashed potatoes; I asked for double spinach, no taters ... what
came, spinach and mashed potatoes. I pointed this out to the server,
put the meat on my salad plate, and shooed him off. About the time
I finished the steak and Jonathan finished his whole plate, I got
my double spinach, which must have been quadruple spinach - at least
a pound of the stuff; I ate it all except for about 5 cloves of
garlic, which was raw. Surprisingly, Jonathan ate his spinach as well,
including all the garlic. I told him his poop would smell like salami
tomorrow. Naughty me.

Two glasses of Mirassou Pinot Noir, which is a sort of generic red
tasting wine, not much varietal character, sort of cherrylike, sort
of plummy, quite soft, not bad, not good.

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