Jim's birthday dinner - Gallileo III

UPDATE: Galileo III closed September 2011

For Jim's birthday, we chose Galileo III. We had been given a very generous gift certificate to Galileo as a thank you for taking the wedding picture for our friends Ted and Bruce's wedding and decided to use it for Jim's birthday dinner. And not just any dinner but the 12+ course Chef's Choice Tasting Menu. You heard me right boys and girls, 12 courses. Plus dessert. *
*actual number of courses we were served was 10 - see my follow up at the end of this post.

We got to the restaurant about 30 minutes before our reservation and paid a visit to the bar and pestered Chris the bar manager. We each ordered a cocktail and a short time later, were treated to a small plate of the thinnest sliced Mortadella ever and some warm bread. It was heavenly. With drinks and our pre-dinner treat behind us, we were seated at our table to begin our dining extravaganza.

With help from Chris and our server, we selected a nice bottle each of white and red wine to go with the meal.

Reflection from the wine glasses on a shelf behind our table

An assortment of breads were brought to the table with a side of ricotta, parsley and garlic butter.
Then the courses began.
First Course:
Burrata: Imported Burrata cheese over roasted peppers marinated with capers, garlic, Sicilian olive oil.Second Course:
Tonno delle Isolelle Isole: Salad of Fregola, chopped tuna, smoked, bottarga of tuna, curly endive, blood orange dressing.Third Course:
Bagna Cauda: Flan Duo of warm red peppers and Jerusalem artichokes in a Bagna Cauda (anchovy garlic) sauceFourth Course:
Budino di Parmigiano: Parmigiano Reggiano cheese pudding top with a layer of Burrata cheese, cream of porcini mushrooms, sliced black truffle. (Ours were missing the black truffle) Fifth Course:
Raviolini del Plin: Small “pinched” ravioli filled with beef, veal and chicken. Served in a sauce of veal jus, butter and sage.Sixth Course:
Tortelloni: Tortelloni filled with red beets in a chive cream sauce with poppy seeds.Seventh Course:
Butternut Squash Ravioli: Ravioli stuffed with butternut squash. Topped with crushed ameretti cookies and a butter sage sauce.Eighth Course:
AnatraFettuccine all”Anatra: Spinach fettuccine with duck meat stewed in tomato and vegetables.Ninth Course:
Capesante: Sauteed sea scallops atop yellow & black polenta, sautéed lobster mushrooms, cream sauce.Tenth Course:
Coniglio: Roasted loin of rabbit served over braised legs with pancetta in a sauce “alla Ligure” of stewed celery, onions, olives and walnuts.

Dessert:
Barbara had Crostata di Mele. Apple crostata, honey-roasted pecans, caramel gelato, apple jelly.Jim had Torta All’ Olio D’Oliva. Olive oil cake blood orange sauce, mascarpone sorbetto, crispy pine nuts, vanilla poached fennel.And some lovely coffee
The food was in a word, fabulous! Jim's favorites was the artichoke flan. The delicate texture and flavors were wonderful. My favorite was the budino. I called it sex in a spoon (Jim said I'm not that limber). We would easily order any of the 10 dishes again. In fact, some we had already eaten on two previous visits.

And Chris, Bar Manager extraordinaire, was terrific as always. Thank you Chris!

As good as the food was, we felt the dining experience could have been better. The tab for this meal was $360 meal (before tax and tip). This was the Chef's Choice Tasting Menu which we said we would be ordering when we made our reservations. It's not like they weren't aware what we would be ordering.

Issue 1: You'd think they would have seated us closer to the open kitchen but no, we were in the farthest corner behind a wall from the kitchen between two service stations.

Issue 2: The online menu says the Chef's Choice is 12 plus courses plus desert. Trust me, we were very full after 10 courses but I can imagine there are folks out there that would argue this with the server and either say to bring two more courses or lower the price of the meal. There needs to be consistency with what you advertise and what you actually offer.

Issue 3: Where was the chef? Even if it wasn't Chef Donna in the kitchen, you'd think the who ever was in charge of the kitchen would have made at least one appearance just to ask if we had any questions or to see how things were going. Just sayin'

We'd still say that the food is worth a visit. But to get a better bang for you buck, each person at the table should order the 3 or 4 course meal + dessert and have everyone get different items. You'll be able to get to choose what you want and have slightly larger portions which lends itself to sharing and swapping bites.

Dinner at Corduroy

The bar upstairs at Corduroy has one of the best deals in town. Three courses for $30. We took my sister there for dinner while she was in town last week. Our friend, Beth, joined us.

Dinner was superb, as always. The pictures below speak for themselves.

We started out with the Filipino Spring Rolls. They come with a spicy dipping sauce and are additively delicious.


My sister got the Charred Tomato Soup. The first picture is the bowl before the soup was poured. It is a mixture of tomatoes and basil oil. The soup is poured into the bowl at your table. Rustic, earthy, creamy and one of my favorite soups.


Beth ordered the Duck Confit as her entree. This is perhaps the best duck confit anywhere! I'm normally not a duck fan, but I could eat this everyday if I had to. It's served on a bed of frisée.


I got the Faux Rib-Eye (a cut of beef from the shoulder). It's served withLyonnaise Potatoes and green beans with pearl onions. This is a very tender, very beef cut and far more than I was able to eat. Jim lucked out having the leftovers for lunch a couple of days later.


Gen got the Grouper with Sushi Rice and Hajiki. It's seasoned with ginger and sesame oil. The grouper was outstanding and the ginger/sesame flavors really brought the dish alive.


Jim had the Tuna with Sushi Rice and Hajiki. Same dish as Gen's with different fish. Just as delicious.

For dessert, Jim got the trio of sorbets. Pineapple, Concord Grape and Peach. Absolutely fantastic!


Gen and I each got the Pistachio Bread Pudding. It's served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. I'm a sucker for bread pudding. This one was moist, dense and full of pistachio goodness.


And lastly, Beth got the Flourless Chocolate Cake. This is a big dense hunk of chocolate cake served with a scoop of chocolate ice cream. If I wasn't so full already, I would have gotten this.

Barbara's Birthday Dinner at Galileo III

Happy Birthday Dinner. Chef Roberto Donna just reopened Galileo. Commentary to come later.
UPDATE: Galileo III closed September 2011

Barbara with a pear Sidecar.

Porcini cake with cheese, roasted caps, and truffle sauce.

Budino pudding of parmesan cheese, truffles.

Mezzeluna filled with lump crab, tomato and orange sauce. Transcendent combination of flavors. Who knew tomatoes and oranges played so well together.

Scallops with yellow and black polenta.

Pinched ravioli stuffed with pork, chicken, and beef, sauce of browned butter and sage.

Squid ink taglianeni with lobster tail and lobster cream sauce.

Veal tenderloin medallion.

Monkfish wrapped with pancetta.

Hazelnut semifreddo ice cream.

Chocolate torte with basil and vanilla ice creams, limes, and coconut.

Kalbi Tang

(By Jim)
We haven't written about Gamasot lately. We still go frequently, and I think it's still one of the best places for Korean soups and some other dishes. With the kitchen project underway and Barbara suffering from a cold we decided to head there for dinner to get some restorative soup.
The sollongtang is still fantastic. They add some tendon as well as the sliced beef to it these days. Barbara tried it, and didn't dislike it, but it doesn't have much taste. It's more of a texture food.
My favorite these days is the kalbi tang, beef short rib in beef broth with some egg, green onion, and I think radish. The broth is seasoned with black pepper and is soothing. The meat off the rib is tender, and is supplemented with some thin slices of brisket.
The pan fried dumplings (mandoo gui) are a treat. They can be a little greasy, but I don't care. They're delicious.
The kimchee has been very good lately, having that fizzy feeling on the tongue from the natural fermentation. They've recently added goat to the menu, although I haven't tried it yet.

I'm surprised that the place hasn't been more crowded lately. With fall coming on, it's time to have some soothing, warming soup to sustain us. Go, and go often.

Eat at Joe's

By Jim

We haven't posted about Joe's Noodle House lately because we're in Alexandria, and it's in Rockville, about 30 miles away, which means we burn at least 2 gallons of gas going there. [You know, considering how much we used to go there, I'm surprised we only posted about it once.] Saturday night, to have dinner with our friends Jason and Abby, was an exception, and we got to have some old and new favorites. And I had a full diner's card there, so we got $20 off dinner.

Appetizers were pressed bean curd with spicy sauce, tender bamboo shoots in sesame oil dressing, and baby wontons with red hot sauce.

This dish has become a favorite of ours, Tibetan Lamb, cubes of lamb wok-fried with red bell peppers, dried hot peppers, szechuan peppers, green onions, and cilantro on top. It's relatively new on the menu. And it's fantastic. Just avoid the dried peppers if you're not a chile-head.

The other dishes were Kung Pao Chicken Home Style (like they make in Szechuan, in other words incindiary), fish filet and soft tofu in Szechuan sauce (Like the old H20, but without veg and adding soft tofu), and another new one, Shanghai cabbage with garlic. This was a perfect, soothing counterpoint to our hot and spicy dining.

Needless to say, we had a lot of leftovers. And Jason and Abby let us take them home. We'll be having those for dinner tomorrow night. And if you live in the Washington, DC area, like authentic Chinese food, or are a chile-head and want something to blow your head off (get the triple pepper dry beef sautee) get up to Rockville. This is seriously good stuff. Just make sure you get some veg with your dinner to cool off with.

Beet Salad

One of our favorite appetizers at Corduroy is the Salad of Beets, Baby Carrots and Goat Cheese. If I don't get the Lobster Salad (omg, it's good), this is one that I will usually order.

Today while strolling the aisles of Trader Joe's, I spied a bag of baby beets in the produce case. Already cooked, they are ready to use straight from the bag. I immediately thought of the Corduroy salad. Tossing the beets into the cart, I headed right over to the cheeses and picked up a package of goat cheese.

As a starter to our meal tonight, I present my version of Corduroy's salad of beets, baby carrots and goat cheese.

Giving my tastebuds a test run

With just over a week to go before I fly to Malaysia, Jim and I gave our taste buds a test run and went to Malaysia Kopitam on M St NW in Washington for dinner last night. In addition to the regular menu with just text, they have a three-ring binder version that included pictures of the dishes. This was very handy and I'd recommend it anyone who isn't familiar with Malay food.

Jim posted this his thoughts about dinner on Don Rockwell and since he did such a nice job on his review, here it is in it's entirety. I added pictures from their online menu because we forgot our camera.

Malaysia Kopitam
by Jim
So I've been to Malaysia Kopitiam twice recently, and I've done a better job of ordering. The first time with friends, we didn't tell them that we were going to Malaysia and ask for help ordering, and came out winners. We got the sampler appetizer which was an interesting mix of curry puffs, satay, a fresh roll, something steamed in banana leaf. Then I got the assam sambal shrimp, which was tasty but not that spicy, while my friends got nyonya chicken, a tasty bowl of deep fried small pieces of boneless chicken in a sweet sauce; tamarind beef, which reminded me of potroast and some dishes I've had at Burma in the past, and Malaysian Curry Shrimp, which I don't think I tried. There was beer involved, many bottles of Tiger, a polite and tasty beer that didn't have many distinguising qualities.

Last night I was there with Barbara, and we told the server that I'll be in Melaka next week. She gave us some pointers, and asked about spicyness. I said we liked spicy food, and they cranked it up. First we had the Rembah Udang, sticky rice with curry chicken and shrimp inside, steamed in banana leaf, and Baby Oyster Omlette which is mentioned on several food blogs in Melaka. If you like oysters, it's good stuff. It's like a cross between a pancake (think Korean seafood pancake) and an actual omlette, served with a small dish of sauce with red onions in it.

Our entrees were the Mamak Mee Goreng and the Nasi Lemak. I had the Nasi Lemak, and it was good, with the coconut rice and the chicken and little fish curry, and the pickled pineapple and vegetables. If you're sqeamish about baby fish, bones and all, in curry sauce, you might skip this dish. If you're game, just try to keep the little bones from poking your gums. The curries were moderately spicy. I liked it, because of the mix of flavors and textures in the dish, and would recommend it.

Barbara had the Mee Goreng, and it was the spiciest thing we've ever had there. It was an intermittant thing, she'd be happily eating her noodles with shrimp, tofu, etc, and then all of a sudden she'd take a sharp breath of air and grab some of my rice. She kept trying to figure out what it was, and gave me bits of stuff, but we couldn't pinpoint the incindearies in the dish. Even with her discomfort, it was good, real good. As were all the dishes. I'll let you know how it stands up to street food in Melaka and other places in a month or so.

Malaysia Kopitiam
1827 M St NW
20036 Washington DC
Phone: 202-833-6232