MXDC

Last night we had the opportunity to attend the grand opening event for MXDC, Todd English's newest restaurant in DC.  We couldn't turn down a chance to try out their food and drink offerings, and get a glimpse of the former Galileo III space.

So let's dive right into the deliciousness!  We were greeted at the door by margaritas.  Not a bad way to start the night.  Justin went for their classic, house marg while I opted for the hibiscus.  I was a little worried it'd be too floral and sweet, but there was some smokiness to the drink that balanced it out.  The house margarita was tasty, but nothing to write home about either.  The 3rd cocktail they were featuring was their "Cocoa Picante" - cocoa flavored tequila, jalepeno, and lime (though it was garnished with a grapefruit wedge).  It was...interesting.  Let's just leave it at that.  I guess they were trying to go for some mole flavors...it just didn't work.

tuna tartar sopes

Onto the food!  There was plenty of it.  Servers roamed the dining room with plates of tacos and ceviches.  We sampled huitlacoche (it may have been mushroom and corn), mahi mahi, crispy chicken, and carne asada tacos.  The hands-down favorites were the chicken and carne asada.  The chicken was grilled with a nice char and some crunch to it, but still remained juicy.  It was topped with pico de gallo and some avocado cream.  The carne asada was packed with flavor too.

beet ceviche

The tuna tartar sopes were also a favorite.  The fluffy, masa sopes were a perfect vehicle for the fresh fish that was lightly topped with a spicy chili sauce.  The beet ceviche was a bit of a miss.  The citrus overpowered the sweetness of the beets, and just made for an overly acidic bite.  And the tomato gazpacho was sweet and light, but missing any hint of spice I was expecting since they mentioned there were habaneros in it.

There are 4 different guacamoles on the menu, and we were able to sample 2 of them.  Both the crab and lobster guacamoles were tasty, though I think I prefer the lobster guac since it was topped with queso fresco.  We may have parked ourselves in front of a big bowl of it towards the end of the night...

Overall, the food was pretty tasty.  I would definitely consider heading back once the restaurant opens to try out some of the entrees, and the duck carnitas tacos.  Those sound amazing!

Taco Night

It hard for us to resist the Korean tacos from Takorean.  The bulgogi steak, topped with crunchy, spicy kimchi, and wrapped in soft corn tortillas is a combination that's hard to pass up.  Since we've had a tub of homemade kimchi in the fridge, we thought we'd try our hand at making our own version on them.

We started with some top sirloin.  Justin cut it into strips, while I made the marinade.  I found this basic recipe online, and luckily I already had the ingredients on hand.

The marinade consisted of soy sauce, sesame oil, a little sugar, garlic, ginger, and toasted sesame seeds.  Once everything was whisked together, you simply add the meat, some green onions and some yellow onions to the bowl and massage it altogether.

We let the meat marinate in the fridge for a little while we made the cilantro lime crema.  I had about half a container of sour cream leftover from when we made chipotle sour cream, so we thought we'd make a nice little topper for our tacos.

We chopped up a bunch of cilantro that we had left over from a previous CSA, added the zest of 1 lime, and the juice of half.  Mix it all together, and you have a delicious crema!  I also chopped up a bunch of the kimchi so it'd be more the size of cole slaw, and easy to put into our tacos.

It was finally time to cook the meat and assemble our tacos!  The meat cooked up pretty quickly, and then it was time to fill our warm, soft tortillas!

Then came the kimchi, and cilantro lime crema.  We'd reserved some of the toasted sesame seeds and chopped cilantro to sprinkle on top of each taco.  And to really finish them off, they each got a drizzle of sriracha.

 

They turned out to be quite tasty, and a great way to use some of our kimchi.  To quote Justin, "They're my 2nd favorite half Asian thing."

Taco Bamba

Its hard for either of us to pass up delicious tacos, especially when they're filled with non-traditional meats. So when we first heard about the Taco Bamba pop-up at Black Jack, we kept it on our radar.  We finally made it over there this past Monday for their last night, and boy did we pick a great night to go.  The menu changed week to week, but for the final pop-up, they offered Taco Bamba's Greatest Hits...all the favorites from the past weeks.

We managed to snag some seats on a couch where we settled in for our taco feast.  After choosing drinks (him a Tecate Michelada, me a mix of tequila, rum, lime and mint), we thought long and hard about which tacos to try first.  We settled on the Taco Bamba (because it had chicharones), the Duck Tinga (because it was filled with duck confit), the Masa Crusted Foie Gras (does this need any explanation?), and the Grilled Smoky Belly (again, no explanation needed).

It was hard to pick a favorite, but I think we both agreed that the Foie Gras took the cake.  The masa crust gave the savory foie gras a much needed crunch.  The duck was another one of my favorites because of the sauce that covered it.  It kind of reminded me of Indian food.  And of course, the belly.  You can't go wrong with smoky strips of crispy pork belly.

We wasted no time scarfing down these tacos, and decided we needed a few more to fill our bellies.  For round 2, we went with the Crispy Kiss (because it had both pork and beef tongue), El Cheek-o (who can resist pork cheek?), and the dessert taco (banana, dulce de leche, and almonds).  In this round of tacos, the duo of tongues came out on top.  They were cooked perfectly, seasoned excellently, and the addition of a chili aioli gave it a very subdued heat with a nice, creamy, textural component. The desert taco came in second because the dulce de leche was fantastic, but it was almost a shame it was encased by a plain ol' tortilla

Taco Bamba is a worthy entrant into the recent surge of taco eateries in DC.  It sets itself apart from traditional variants, like the delicious Tacos El Chilango, which features more traditional fillings. Overall, the tacos were great, though a little pricey at $5-$9 a pop.  Another favorite, TaKorean, offers three times as much taco at the same price point (Do yourself a favor and hunt down their truck, or visit them at Union Market.  You won't be disappointed!).  The brick and mortar Taco Bamba will be opening in Falls Church, so I don't know how frequently we'll drive out there just for tacos.  But it was a great introduction to Chef Albisu's food, especially since he'll be opening another restaurant downtown in the near future.