One word of warning–if you don’t like spicy food–this is not the place for you.

We headed over to Little Serow on a Wednesday night, right before Christmas, for dear husband’s (DH) birthday. We both love all things Thai-food (and pretty much Asian food in general) and don’t mind a little heat either!  My mom was also visiting for Christmas and is game to try anything. Little Serow does not take reservations, and is super small–we arrived about 15 minutes before they opened and were probably 12th or so in line. Fortunately, we were one of the last tables to be seated and didn’t have to wait for the second seating.

(As a side note, if you do have to wait, there are lots of great nearby places to grab a drink. Duke’s, which is right next door, is a great option. Just don’t fill up on their truffle mac & cheese before dinner. Highly recommend.)

Anyhow, we devoured all of the seven courses with a delicious Christmas beer and a complimentary glass of sparkling wine that was graciously delivered by the server to match one of the spicier dishes. Service is casual–helpful explanations were always provided, but there was no tone of condescension in the dish descriptions. Each of the seven dishes is served with as much sticky rice and as many vegetables as you can eat. These both come in very handy, whether to put things on a cabbage leaf, cool your mouth with a cucumber, or just eat sticky rice with your fingers because that is fun to do. Very fun.

This was the first course, the salted fish with the amazing friend pork rinds. Spicy. Wonderful. It was followed by a soup with snakehead fish, and then by a dried shrimp/sour fruit and chili dish that was pretty spicy but kept you wanting more. This was followed by duck offal and a tofu dish (yes, I still don’t eat tofu…just can’t deal with the taste), a mushroom and egg dish, and finished by the most delectable pork ribs with a whiskey basting sauce.

While video and flash are not allowed, I won’t overly bore you with too many bad food photos. The menu at Little Serow does get posted weekly (so take a look before you go), and it is prix fixe with no modifications or substitutions. The cost is $49 + beverages. For seven course. I told you it was a good deal. At first you wonder if you will get enough food, but by the end of the 7th course, you are comfortably full and just thinking about all the delicious things you just ate.

As a side-note for picky eaters…there were things on the menu that I absolutely thought I was going to “skip” on. We had duck offal. I would never, ever, order duck offal in any restaurant. But you know what? This dish was absolutely delicious. I initially tried just a tiny bit and realized I was missing out. So don’t judge any dish before you try it–a good reminder for any restaurant, and certainly important for Little Serow.

You can find their website at www.littleserow.com, and at 1511 17th Street NW in Washington DC.

So off we went to Central this fall. Truth be told, I’ve been obsessed with Central for some time because they offered a lobster burger. It’s no longer on the menu (not sure if it has been removed, or if it was seasonal), but to be honest, that’s ok. It was good, but nothing beats lobster meat in a lobster roll or just cracking open your own lobster. Or those lobster pot pies I made this weekend with 4 lobster tails. We’ll get back to the lobster burger in a quick sec…

To start, we had the Provencal Calamari, which is easily one of the best calamari dishes I’ve had all year. And I eat a lot of squid. First off–it’s not breaded, as all good calamari should (not) be. It was soft, tender, and plentiful. Even though it was an appetizer, there was plenty for both DH and I and we aren’t small eaters. It had just the perfect amount of spice, plus olives, peppers, tomatoes, etc. I would go back to Central over and over and order this again. We were off to a delightful start.

DH ordered the scallops for dinner, and they were a hit.  I can’t say they were the best scallops all year, but they were very, very good. In much the same American with a French twist style of the calamari, the scallops were perfectly seared with some succotash-type foundation. Since I’m not a huge corn person, I wasn’t super excited about that, but it tasted good.

As I mentioned, I had to have the burger I’ve been lusting over for a very long time: the lobster burger. Ok, so conceptually I sort of understood what a lobster burger would be like, but I guess I really just didn’t think through the taste + texture + burger. Texture wise, it reminded me much of a mahi-mahi burger. Yes, it did taste like lobster no doubt, but it was smushed together highly dense lobster. It was tasty and I’m so glad I finally had a lobster burger, don’t get me wrong, but not sure I would order it again. I really prefer fluffy lobster claw meat to a burger-type lobster.

Overall, Central lived up to its reputation: it has solid food that is very American with a French twist.  I appreciate the fact that it is not small plates/tapas and has traditional yet delicious food. Central would be a great place for a work lunch downtown, a happy hour with delicious appetizers, or before/after the theater (they have a great menu option for that as well). Finally, it’s a place where you can take fussy eaters and pronounce the components of the dish.

For hours & location, click here.

Does anyone watch the Blacklist? I feel like the Blacklist, except we’re counting off restaurants on Washingtonian’s Top 100 list…and they are….counting….most wanted criminals. Whatever. So we’ve been trying to 1) try new places since there are so many and 2) get through as many restaurants as possible on the Washingtonian’s Top 100 list.  Minus those that are $500+. I mean, we like food, but there are limits.

Before the Washington Horse Show, we decided at the last minute to go to China Chilcano, a Jose Andres restaurant in Chinatown. Let me say one thing first….we would go back immediately. There are so many amazing things on the menu which we would love to try. Jose Andres is also the brain behind Zaytinya, which is one of my favorite DC restaurants of all time–we try to go there at least once a year because it’s always a great meal. Except that one time we got ditched by friends on New Years 1/2 way through a 5 course meal. Great food, terrible company, lesson learned.

China Chilcano is a mix of Chinese, Japanese, and Peruvian cuisine. Which is super neat. On the menu there are little icons signifying the inspiration behind each dish. They are a mix of sizes, from ceviche and sashimi to dim sum to noodles to larger meat/seafood dishes. So many things looked appetizing, the menu is quite large, and we had a hard time choosing. Ultimately, we were swayed but dishes we saw coming out around us…we weren’t the only ones, it was the norm to have people pointing at dishes asking what that was so they could order it themselves!

We started with a California “Roll”. But it’s not like any other normal California roll, it has potato causa, jumbo lump crab, spicy mayo, cucumber, avacado, tobiko, with huancaina sauce. The “meat” in the roll is the potato causa (sort of like a very densley mashed sweet potato), with the crab on top. It was such a unique and very delicious take on a normal sushi roll. Highly recommend.

Next came out our dim sum. We got the Concha, which had scallop, pork, jicama, shiitake mushroom, and tobiko. Good dim sum seems weirdly hard to come by in DC, and while not “pure dim sum”, these things were definitely delicious. No complaints, would try other items on the dim sum menu for sure!

Finally, we got a “to-share” rice dish, which was probably the hit of the night. It’s called the Concolon, which is a crispy fried rice pot. It has pork belly, egg, shiitake mushroom, bok choy, and chi-racha. I admittedly was not a fan of the lap chong sausage–it was way to sweet for me–but it didn’t take much away from my enjoyment of the dish. And DH happily gobbled up my share on the sausage.

I enjoyed a Cusquena, which I hadn’t had since we went to Peru! And DH had Sapporo on draft.

I would immediately go back to try out some of the other noodle dishes that looked so, so good, as well as some of the ceviches which have some interesting twists. If you are in Chinatown, I’d definitely recommend China Chilcano–seating is a bit tight, so either book a reservation, be prepared to wait, or try to grab a seat at one of the bar seats that overlook part of the kitchen area.

So, for my birthday, and to work our way through Washingtonian’s 100 Top Restaurants list (we have a lot of eating to do), we headed to Convivial. Convivial is a new restaurant by Chef Cedric Maupillier, best known in DC for Mintwood Place. Mintwood Place has my favorite brunch dish in all of Washington–eggs, bacon, cheese, potatoes piled up on top of one another. It’s the Hangover Special, and trust me–no hangover required to dive into that greasiness.

Convivial is located in Shaw, where there are a ton of new restaurants popping up. It has a pretty nice patio area, but it was looking like rain when we came in, so we opted to eat inside. The service was friendly, not at all hovering or pretentious, and really knowledgeable about the dishes and what would go well together. Most things are small plates, though the main courses aren’t that small. Definitely large enough for sharing. We had 2 starters and 3 ‘main-ish’ courses. Plus desert.

To start, we had the mixed heirloom tomato salad. Mainly because the menu listed cheese curds. Cheese curds are one of the few items that I cannot eat responsibly. I believe cheese curds are a meal. And I–with no shame–can eat an entire container of cheese curds without thinking twice. Cheese curds! The tomatoes were definitely some of the sweetest I’ve had all summer. Add some cheese? You have a winner. But, let’s be honest, no one goes to a new restaurant to eat tomatoes and cheese.

So we also had the tartiflette fritters (listed as “nibbles” on the menu, but they were great for 2 to share). We didn’t know what tartiflette was (though the menu kindly contained some handy definitions on the back), but it is essentially potatoes, cheese, and onions. I think these fritters also had some bacon. How can you go wrong with potatoes, cheese, onions, and bacon? You can’t, you just can’t. Delicious.

Now on to the more main courses. First up was the skate wing, with an octopus and crab bisque. This dish stole my heart (and most of the room in my stomach). The skate was decadent–I eat skate with relative frequency, and this skate ranked among the best. It was perfectly cooked, not over seasoned, and downright delicious. But it got even better with the octopus and crab bisque. DH said he did have on piece of octopus that was a bit fishy, but every bite I had was perfect. Nomnom.

Still, we had two more dishes + dessert to get through. The Provencale beef and chard ravoli and the coq au vin fried chicken came out at the same time. Convivial has become known for the coq au vin fried chicken–which, don’t get me wrong, was delicious. But I can only do so much “fried” and started picking off the breading to get to the exceptionally tender and well-flavored meat. Now the beef and chard was a close second to the skate: the ravoli was just a bit sweet and tart with the chard, really savory. Mixed with some tender beef and Parmesan cheese, it was a perfect combination. I’d definitely order that again.

Lastly, even though we were stuffed to the brim, we had dessert. DH has creme brulee, but I opted for key lime pie. It definitely was made with real key limes, and had the most delicious crust–probably because it was mainly brown sugar. I’m not a dessert person, but I’m glad I changed my mind and gave it a shot. It was good.

All in all, I think we’d probably return to Convivial, but may wait to see if they have a seasonal menu change. The menu isn’t expansive, and there weren’t that many dishes on the menu that we didn’t try that I am really interested in. But I’m guessing they make seasonal adjustments, since many of their ingredients are definitely “summer” ingredients. I hope so.

Website: www.convivialdc.com

Anyways, as a thank you for dog-sitting while we were in the Galapagos, we took my mom to Tail Up Goat, which is a new restaurant in DC. It’s owned by the same people that own the well-known Komi and Little Serow, both of which get a significant amount of praise.

DH really doesn’t like tapas restaurants, at least not those that charge entree-like prices for small plates. So I think he was a bit suspicious of Tail Up Goat. Don’t worry, even he was won over.

After a palate-cleansing drink with ginger, we started with the seaweed sourdough, a peculiar dish that was quite tasty. And I don’t even like sourdough. It has ciccioli (some type of pork mixture, if I’m not mistaken) and fennel pollen. Not quite sure what fennel pollen is, but it sure is tasty. The sourdough was not overpowering, and it was perfectly toasted.

Next up we ordered some excellent cavatelli, which had octopus ragu, breadcrumbs, and green olives. This was by far my favorite dish of the night. The octopus was perfectly cooked, and the flavor combinations were just so delicious. I wish it was a teensy bit bigger, but it is not labeled as an entree. Perhaps we all just liked it a bit too much…

For entrees, DH and my mom split the lamb. I don’t eat lamb (I don’t even eat things that are touched by lamb, I really dislike the flavor), so I’ll have to take their word that the lamb was just phenomenal. It had sumac onions, favas, and hazlenut dukkah. DH would go back to Tail Up Goat just to eat the lamb ribs again!

I opted for something a little different–the hen of the woods mushrooms. I love hen of the woods mushrooms, so I figured it would be a good choice.  The hen of the woods mushrooms themselves were simply wonderful. It’s surprising how filling a mushroom can be…and I am not one opts to eat mushrooms instead of meat!

The hen of the woods mushroom dish came with chicken crisps and burnt bread sauce. The chicken crisps were super crispy fried pieces of what seemed like chicken skin. I like a piece of chicken skin here and there, but there were a few too many pieces for me. The burnt bread sauce I could have lived without–even with the savory and delicious mushrooms, I couldn’t quite get behind the burnt bread sauce. It tasted exactly like what it was: burnt bread! I am not a huge bread person and can’t stand anything burnt, so I suppose it wasn’t meant to be. However, the mushrooms were so deliciously seasoned that I’d consider ordering the dish again anyway.

The portions at Tail Up Goat vary by the category on the menu, which is a fair way of doing things. I felt the starters were starters, and the entrees were entree-sized. And I appreciate having the opportunity to taste multiple dishes, since some of the portions are smaller. You could certainly go there and fill up without ever having an entree.

While the food is a bit adventurous, I’d definitely return to try some new flavors (and probably order more of that cavatelli). The atmosphere is very cute, and I’m thrilled to have another fun option that is in the neighborhood!

I don’t know if it’s because I’ve been too preoccupied with triathlon stuff (training and literally, stuff…tri shorts are a little too weird and hard to fit for my liking), or because I’m still tired from the Galapagos, or because I’d just rather do something else.

I don’t really feel like writing. In part, I think it’s because I can’t really explain how cool the Galapagos Islands are. And it’s hard going back to your every day life realizing there is something THAT cool out there. Sort of like the first time I went to Africa and realized how much I really love animals.

Because…I mean….look at THIS fellow. I stared at him for about 20 minutes. He stared back. He was trying to attract a mate. I’m sure I was interrupting. He let me watch him select a stick and wave his feet anyway.