Washington D.C.

We had brunch at Jaleo the next day. Jaleo is a popular, Spanish restaurant, which works entirely under the concept of tapas. Why do I call it popular? I have never seen a line down the street for brunch before. Why are they called tapas? The waiter claimed that tapas was the word for "small portions" but essentially it means that you order many different, appetizer sized portions and you get to try a lot of different things but yet not look like you're pigging out. We had quite a variety of dishes. We had melon with serrano ham, which I guess could count as an appetizer, and we had asparagus with tomatoes, which could either go the direction of a salad or side dish. For a main course type of dish, we had beef with mushrooms and one of the best portobello mushrooms I've ever had. Everything throughout the meal was a bit different from the typical standard meal. For example, the pepper wasn't stuffed with the typical ingredients but with goat cheese and a mushroom reduction sauce. Even the escargot wasn't what one would expect from snails, but in my opinion, was actually edible. Overall, one of the highlights of the meal wasn't as much the meal but the service itself, our waiter was constantly there at our side explaining every dish as it arrived.
From lunch we walked over to the Smithsonian Museums, with the first stop being the National Gallery of Art. The National Gallery of Art is massive. In fact, it houses so much art is makes you wonder what the rest of the world claims to have in their museums. It's like the kid in your grammar school class who had all of the marbles so nobody else could have them. Every floor has various sections of art, more than enough to get lost in. We then decided to walk along the mall towards the Holocaust Museum.

The mall is one of the most beautiful places in D.C. and every time you walk along it you feel as if you're in a movie. The backdrop of every political movie you've ever seen is all around you. The Capital Building is on one end of the mall and the Washington Monument is on the other end.

The Holocaust Museum hits you like an emotional bulldozer. Slow and steady it completely blows away your emotions leaving you challenged and either questioning things you didn't know or expanding on things that you did know. From the outside, it looks like any other modern museum, but the interior looks like a concentration camp. Upon entering, you're issued a "passport" which contains the identity of a victim of the holocaust. Every floor that you then pass is a cue for you to turn the page and eventually find out the fate of the person whose life you're fictitiously living.

After exiting the elevator on the fourth floor, you work your way down the museum with each floor representing a different era of the holocaust. The first section shows the racism that started the rise of Nazism. The exhibits don't berate you with the facts but slowly present them in such a way that you can see the unfolding of events. You learn about how Germany was stricken by it's own recession and problems after World War I and how many of its residents were looking for something or somebody to blame. When Hitler came to power proclaiming the Jews were the cause, you can begin to see the progression of events.

The biggest impact of the museum is not as much the exhibits, but the conversation that follows. After leaving, we talked for most of the walk to dinner about what we saw and the impact that it had on us. The conversation and the thoughts we had about what we learned at the museum had an incredible impact on us both.

We left the museum and decided to visit the memorials. The major memorials in DC seem to form a perfect walking tour that can be done during the day or better yet, at night when they're illuminated. Since it was a bit cold, we started at the Korean War Memorial, bypassing the Vietnam Memorial, and walked from there towards the Lincoln Memorial. The Korean War Memorial, with its life size soldiers standing firm in the night, is very realistic. Seeing them walking from the Lincoln Memorial with the lights coming up and the sun setting is truly awe-inspiring. From there, we saw the regal like statue of Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial and walked over to the FDR Memorial along the Potomac. The FDR Memorial has to be my favorite. Simply put it's an amazing rock garden with each section describing a term in his four-term presidency. Water flows over the rocks artfully and my only disappointment was that the cold was getting to me; I would have loved to stay there longer. Since we were right between the river and the tidal basin we ran over to the Jefferson Memorial, did a simple wave and then jumped in a taxi to head to dinner at Sushiko.

Sushiko has a minimalist black and white look with sparse decorations that create a Zen like feel upon entering. Located in Georgetown you realize that this is not your father's traditional Japanese restaurant. The menu is probably one of the most diverse that I have seen so we decided to simply order various appetizers and main courses to try a bit of everything. The restaurant had wine suggestions that were sushi-friendly. Admittedly, it was a pretty helpful feature for novice drinkers. One of the appetizers we had was the grilled baby octopus with mango sauce. Unlike calamari, which is the only thing I could associate them with, they were not chewy and the mango sauce went perfectly well with them. The seared scallops with uni butter and mushrooms were a unique creation of the chef. I liked it although I found out uni butter is made from sea urchins. A friend once said that perfect sashimi would not taste at all like fish. As this was my first attempt at tuna sashimi, I must admit that it didn't taste fishy. The sampling of sushi we had included crunchy shrimp roll, which was truly the most unique and best sushi I've had to date. It also included a Maine crabmeat California roll that did taste different as compared to a traditional California roll. After that, we made room for dessert, which included a banana spring roll and fried banana and ice cream, both of which I've never seen before but I would love to see again in other restaurants.

Considering the Bush influence, it seemed an apropos choice to go to Austin Grill for lunch the next day. Austin Grill is similar to the TGIFriday's and Ruby Tuesdays that you see across the country but with a Tex/Mex feel. What makes it stand apart is that the food is excellent in quality and freshness. We had the chicken sampler appetizer, which was a meal in itself. It had buffalo wings, quesadillas, and really was more than enough food for the two of us. I then had the enchiladas and Margherita regretted filling up on the chicken sampler, as she was too full to eat her tacos. I think what stood out for us the most at Austin Grill was their level of community involvement. The president of the company, Chris Patterson, is so involved with the area that he personally chose songs from various Austin artists to create a CD where all profits go to D.C. Central Kitchen.

Every time we see the Old Town Trolleys in a city, we're always tempted to spend the day riding on it. The Old Town Trolleys are these bus/trolleys that ride around in a fixed circle giving a tour of the area's highlights. The beauty is that you can jump on and off whenever you'd like, catching the next trolley in 30 minutes. The bad news is that if you get a driver giving a good tour you don't want to get off the trolley. We happened to have a great driver and did not jump off at all; we listened to his stories as he drove. I'd suggest next time getting on the trolley and using it not only as a guided tour but also as a simple guaranteed taxi.

The first stop on the trolley tour was Ford's Theater. There is something alarming about Ford's Theater that grabs you emotionally, something akin to a cemetery. You walk in and know that Lincoln was shot there but being there adds that extra dimension, you can actually envision it happening. The basement of the theater is filled with memorabilia of the assassination, including the actual derringer used in addition to Lincoln's clothes and pamphlets advertising the play that was performed that night. The first floor contains the theater and stage while the second floor has the actual booth that Lincoln sat in. While the building was gutted at one point and even used as an office building as recently as the 1950s, the theater has been reconstructed to include as many artifacts from that time period as possible. Then comes the best part of the theater, Ernie Price, the tour guide. Every hour the events of April 14th, 1865 are re-created. It's one story to hear a history lesson, but to hear the entire story including a lot of background information told exceptionally well by Ernie Price was truly entertaining. After Ford's theater closed we decided to walk towards the White House, almost reversing the steps Lincoln would have taken.

We had dinner at Old Ebbitt's Grill. Old Ebbitt's Grill strikes me as the local Cheers of the White House. Located just a block east of the White House there probably isn't one president or major politician who has not eaten there. The look of the restaurant itself, with the wood paneled walls and various paintings seem a cross between a very large, local bar and a fancy restaurant. You could envision wearing jeans and a t-shirt or a full suit. The menu also seems to reflect everything from hamburgers to artichoke and crabmeat dip. Just like Cheers, there is a little bit of what Norm would like and a little bit of what Frasier would like. We started with the endive, pear and frisee salad that had to be the best salad we've ever had. It had a bleu cheese and port wine vinaigrette dressing. Then the waiter suggested the artichoke and crabmeat dip, it was a dish that no simple bar could have ever created. I should admit that I use the Cheers metaphor more for the atmosphere and attitude than the actual look. The waiter and the staff were nothing less than friendly. Moreover, the idea that almost every president over the past 100 years has eaten there is quite inspiring. Anyway, back to the meal, I had the crab cakes and Margherita had the Creole shrimp. It was now a debate on which was better. The shrimp were large and the sauce was spicy while the crab cakes were meaty and could have been served as a hamburger patty. For dessert, we had the peanut butter mousse, which really was something to make Hershey's Peanut Butter Cups division quite jealous. It was smooth, creamy and really a peanut butter lover's dream. I have a feeling you can tell we really loved Old Ebbitt's Grill.

One of the best parts of the trip had to be the return flight because the idea that it took 3 hours from the restaurant table to our kitchen table is pretty amazing. We left Old Ebbitt's Grill at 6:45, took a taxi to the hotel and arrived at the airport at 7:30. We then jumped on an 8:00 flight and were in our door by 9:45.



Read part 1 ~~ Read part 2