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!

Lobstah!

Tonight we whipped up a quick, tasty meal on the grill.  Last week when we were trying to decide what to do with our sorrel, we came across a recipe for grilled lobster tails with a sorrel sauce.  This week, I happened to see lobster tails on sale at the grocery store, so it was a no-brainer.

We started with the sauce since the lobster tails wouldn't take long to cook.  Though the sauce itself was really simple as well.  Chop up a shallot and toss it in a pan with some cooking wine.  The recipe calls for Sauternes, but since we didn't have any on hand, we just used marsala wine.  Any sweet, dry-ish wine will probably do.  Once it boils and reduces, add in your cream.

Once that has reduced down by about 1/4, pull it off the heat and pour it into the blender.  Then just add your sorrel and blend.  The recipe also has you blend in watercress, but we didn't have any on hand, so we just left it out.  We considered adding some of our celery tops, but didn't want to mess with the flavor of the sauce.

Once everything is blended together, pour the sauce back into your pot, and reheat it.  Now you'll season with salt, pepper, and a hint of cayenne.  Ours was tasting a bit too sweet for my liking, so I added a dash more of cayenne, and we threw in a bit of truffle salt.  This helped balance out some of the sweetness, without overpowering it.

Now for the lobstaaah!  You'll want to crack the shell a bit with your knife, so you can get in there and season the tail with some oil, salt & pepper.  Then just throw them on the grill.  We cooked our tails for about 4 minutes on each side, and they came out perfect!

Since we still had about a dozen ramps left, we decided to throw those on the grill to accompany our lobster.  We just brushed them with a little grapeseed oil, and seasoned them with salt and pepper.  They went onto the grill once we flipped our tails, and they were ready when the lobster was done.

It was a really quick meal to throw together, and didn't require a ton of ingredients, which I always like.  The sorrel sauce really brought out the sweetness of the lobster, and the grilled ramps were divine.  So there you have it--a restaurant quality meal that was easy and delicious, and doable on a random weeknight but good enough for a special occasion!

California Christmas Recap

Now that we're back home in chilly DC, its time for a little recap of our culinary adventures in CA.

First, there was the pig head.  After 2 days in the fridge, our roll 'o head went into the oven at 325 degrees for 5-6 hours.  We rotated it a 1/4 turn about every 90 minutes in order to get all sides nice and crisp.

As it roasted, a lot of the fat seeped out, and the porchetta really shrunk down.  Once it finished roasting, it went back into the fridge, and we compressed it from all sides to squish even more moisture out.

Once it was completely cooled, it was ready for eating!  You can see all the fat marbling through, and all the meat that came off the face.  The really thin squiggly is the ear!  All that's left to do is slice it super thin and eat!  The seasoning was spot on and there was so much flavor imparted in the meat.

And so as not to waste any part of the head, we roasted the skull, and then simmered it in water to create a really rich pork stock.  A bunch of meat fell off the skull, so we ate those along the way, but now we also have a really rick, gelatinous stock for future meals.

Next came the joong.  Justin really had a knack for wrapping them, and they made the perfect snack/lunch when we got home today off the redeye.

Now that you're caught up on how those items turned out, I'll throw some new info your way.  We had some leftover lobster meat hanging out in the fridge, so Justin & I cooked dinner  for mom, dad and grandma, consisting of a simple salad, and lobster quinoa.  The lobster quinoa was super simple...cook up the quinoa, and in a separate pan, saute onions, garlic and ginger, toss in some mushrooms, deglaze the pan with Chinese rice cooking wine, add it some soy sauce, sesame oil, and sriracha, then toss in the lobster.  It was topped with some green onions and ready to eat!  It came together rather quickly and was a great way to use the leftover lobster.

 

But we didn't spend all of our time eating at home.  We hit all of our favorite restaurants: El Burrito Jr., In-n-Out, and A-1.  Plus, we tried out a really delicious Polish restaurant, some great tapas, a Top Chef contestant's bar, and a burger joint in the back of a liquor store.

And finally, Christmas gifts.  We were both really spoiled this year and received a lot of items to add to our pantry and kitchen.  I have a new All-Clad pan, along with cooking utensils and a wok.  We both now have a mortar & pestle, some squid ink, bottarga, and a variety of flavored salts.  And since Justin tends to be a little messy, a pirate chef apron was long overdue!