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!

Sear-iously Good Tuna

The items in this week's share really inspired this quick and easy dinner of sesame crusted seared tuna over bok choy and daikon.  It didn't hurt that tuna was on sale at the grocery store either.

Start by mixing up a marinade for your tuna.  We used soy sauce, sesame oil, honey, and some fresh ginger. Toss everything together, add your tuna, and let it sit while you prep everything else.

For the salad, we just chopped up some baby bok choy, sugar snap peas, and daikon.  If you have a mandoline, that would be ideal for slicing the daikon.  But if you're like us and don't have one, just try to slice the daikon as thin as possible.

For the dressing, we threw together some sesame oil, Chinese cooking wine, black vinegar, and a touch of honey.  You could also use rice wine vinegar in place of the Chinese cooking wine and black vinegar, we just didn't have any on hand.  So we improvised.

Now, back to the tuna.  Once marinated, we seasoned it with some wasabi salt & pepper that we'd picked up from the Asian market, to add a little spice.  But if you don't have any, you can season with salt and pepper.  Then just roll it in your sesame seeds.  We used a combo of black and regular.  Place your tuna in a hot pan and sear it for a couple minutes on each side.  We like it raw in the middle, so we didn't leave our tuna in the pan very long.

Then just slice up your tuna and arrange it on top of your salad.  We topped ours with some freshly sliced scallions.  It paired nicely with the Flying Dog green tea imperial stout that I happened to find at the grocery store that morning.  Restaurant quality food in a matter of minutes.  What more could you ask for?