Reader Request: Best Pho

As I sit here and eat some leftovers, I feel it’s time to write my feelings about D.C.-area pho. I was not exactly a pho veteran before, and sampling our fine city’s options in the middle of the summer isn’t exactly ideal, but I still think I gave it the ol’ college try. Only once did I have to stop eating because I got so hot I thought I was going to pass out (thanks for the prompt water service, Pho 14!) so all in all, I believe it was a success. And successful for no other reason than I found out I am an absolute expert when it comes to pho-related puns. In order of least impressive to pho-tastic:

4. Nam Viet Pho 79 (3419 Connecticut Ave. NW) - Though closest to my house, this one was not closest to my heart. The noodles were really mushy, and the broth had a distinct Campbell’s Chicken and Stars flavor to it. As in, not exactly the complex Asian flavors I was looking for. This joint does get a few extra points for having the best decorations—it reminded me of when Marty McFly goes back to his parent’s Under the Sea dance and invents rock n’ roll. Tropical decor? Check. Delicious pho? Not so much.
3. Pho Viet (3514 14th St. NW) - I wanted to love Pho Viet. It’s the cutest little place—square footage-wise probably about the same as the inside of my dishwasher—and the servers were just so darn nice. And while the brothwas good (if a little unremarkable), the noodles were really undercooked. They were even a little crunchy, making them pretty difficult to handle with chopsticks. One point to mention—the chicken was all white meat. So this might be a good way to go for pho novices or people who are put off by a little cartilage in their chicken, or dark meat of unknown origin.
2.Pho 75 (1721 Wilson Blvd., Arlington) - Alright, now we’re in to the heavy hitters. Every single person that answered my impromptu Twitter survey about where to get pho told me, nay forced me, to go to Pho 75. I showed up a noon on a Sunday (in 100 degree heat, mind you) and the place was packed. Long communal tables full of slurping eaters. Me and my friend, a little nervous. The broth here was leaps and bounds better than the other two I’ve mentioned—deep flavors that gave me that salty-sweet-tangy-delicious thing I think we’re all aiming for in life. And we got a bit more authentic with the meat—pieces big and small, some that didn’t exactly look like chicken, and all of it that tasted like someone’s grandmother had made it from a million-year-old recipe.
1. Pho 14 (1436 Park Rd. NW) - What’s that I hear? Is that the sound of every one of my readers navigating away from this page at once? Yes folks, I’ve gone against trend and decided that Pho 14 was the best pho I had. It was really, really close between this one and Pho 75, but it eeked out the win because I flavored my brothwith a bit less hoisin and sriracha at the Columbia Heights location. This broth was really something poetic—so flavorful that you almost (almost!) didn’t need to add anything to it. It was an absolute p-home run.

So there we go, every person who emailed me about pho restaurants in D.C., I’ve come to a conclusion, Pho 14 for the win!

Next up: Standing in front of the air conditioner until I cool off, and the Best Independent Ice Cream Shop.

This is the book I’m currently reading. Did I pick it up because I love travel writing? No. Because it was the one directly next to the actual book I was looking for? Maybe. Because I’m really interested in things that were awesome in 2008? Nope. It’s because Anthony Bourdain’s name is plastered across the front. He didn’t even write the damn thing—he just “edited” it. And I’ll bet he didn’t even edit it. I bet Jason Wilson, with his tiny name in the corner actually did. Anthony Bourdain has an unbelievable power over me—I will literally stop whatever I’m doing to watch, read, listen to or otherwise ingest what he has to offer me. When he was here last year filming that goofy episode of No Reservations*, I almost had a coronary episode when I found out he was filming near my house and that I had missed him. This love may not be pretty, but it’s real.

*For the record, I actually hated the D.C. episode of No Reservations.Seriously, Chadwick’s? Of all the restaurants in Washington he ate at one under the Whitehurst Freeway?

Reader Request: Best Chinese Take Out on Capitol Hill

You readers love your Asian food, don’t you? Well lucky for me, so do I. Today’s food showdown comes courtesy of Elliott, who was looking for some good Chinese food on the Hill. I was right there with him, since the only Chinese I’ve ever had was from Hunan Dynasty, and I knew there had to be something else out there. For this challenge we were quite scientific—an order of combination fried rice from each, as well as a different take out standard to spice things up a bit.

Hunan Dynasty(215 Pennsylvania Ave. SE) - Probably the most frequented of the Capitol Hill standards, it is also the only one we sampled that I had ever had before. Let me just say, after our experiment I’m going to give Hunan a solid “meh.” Both the kung pao chicken and the fried rice were okay—not the best but not the worst. It does get extra points for having more pictures of politico celebrities on the wall than most people take at their weddings.
Szechuan House/Fusion Grill(515 8th St. SE) - This restaurant inexplicably has two names. Or maybe the Szechuan House sign is just left over from an old restaurant. Who knows. Our guinea pigs gave the Szechuan beef high marks for being both really spicy and really flavorful. I had a problem with it since it was more carrot than beef, but I guess we all need a little less red meat in our diets. Their fried rice was the worst of the bunch with no real flavor and hardly any meat, and one of our samplers didn’t even try it since “fried rice shouldn’t be white” (it was). Szechuan House also had the smallest portions and highest prices.
Young Chow(312 Pennsylvania Ave. SE) - So who knew there was stuff on the other side of Pennsylvania Ave. from Cap Lounge? I didn’t. Which is why it took me a very long time to figure out where Young Chow was. This spot definitely has the least charm, but if we’re just carrying out I don’t think that matters. Young Chow had, far and away, the best fried rice—dark and flavorful and chocked full of goodies. The chicken and broccoli was definitely good, though not knock your socks off. It did, however, have awesome potential for a late night cold Chinese chowdown in front of the fridge.

The Results: It was close, but Young Chow is the winner for better than average food, cheap prices and a fortune cookie that said I would have a financial upswing in the near future. There are easy ways to my heart.

Next Up:Best pho in town. It’s all Asian, all the time, baby.

I Can Read, Too! Foodie Thoughts on Something Not Edible.

I picked up this book a while ago and have put some major time in reading it. Well, more like I’ve spent a lot of time sleeping with this book in my hand. Now wait, that sounds bad. This book is definitely really interesting, but it is all kinds of dense. However, if you are the kind of person who justifies shopping at Dean & Deluca because the product is that much better than at the local grocery store—this book is definitely worth a read.

It goes through all the things that are oh-so-American about food—rampant vegetarianism, the Whole Foods revolution, baby vegetables and grassfed meat to name a few. There is a large section of the book devoted to Alice Waters and her early years opening Chez Panisse. I always knew I was supposed to worship Alice Waters (and I did) but it was finally nice to know why. 

The central thesis of the book gets a little lost sometimes, but it ultimately is a map of how home dining in the United States went from jello molds and casseroles to the more refined foods even the most novice of home chef is able to turn out. And truthfully, that change only really happened in the last thirty years. I shudder to think of a world before goat cheese, thank goodness I was born in the 80s.  

I recommend The United States of Arugula to all those who have run out of really asinine culinary details to bore your non-foodie friends with at your next dinner party. Because what better way to weed out potential friends than testing their knowledge of obscure food facts. People love that game, right?

The United States of Arugula by David Kamp

The fact that Zagat is getting their information from me makes me trust their recommendations a little less.

Reader Request: The Best Cold Sesame Noodles in Logan Circle
(Brad, Logan Circle…obvs.)

The first of hopefully many reader requests came across my inbox the other day asking what I thought the best cold sesame noodles in the Logan Circle area was. Well Brad, I didn’t know. So I did a little empirical testing and put on the Great Noodle Challenge of 2010. Using friend, coworker and champion eater Patrick and myself as guinea pigs, I tested the noodles of four Chinese restaurants in the (much) greater Logan Circle area. Our thoughts:
North Sea (2479 18th St. NW)- This is definitely not in Logan Circle, but it was a last minute sub for D.C. Noodles when we discovered they didn’t offer sesame noodles (change the name to something more descriptive, dudes.) For sesame noodle purists, this flavor was a bit sweet but I liked that there were some veggies thrown in there and that the sauce was a lot lighter than the rest of the belly busters.
Peking Express (1338 U St. NW)- This struck me as the sesame noodle fan’s equivalent to those folks that order pasta with butter and Parmesan in an Italian restaurant. The sauce was definitely peanut butter based but was a little thin, and had no vegetables at all save for a few pieces of scallions scattered on top for color. This was however the cheapest of all options at about $4.  
Great Wall Szechuan House (1527 14th St. NW)- This was the only entry in to our illustrious competition with a thinner, denser noodle which I think was a nice change. The sauce from Great Wall had a lot more depth of flavor and was really creamy, but had I not been sharing my noodles I think I would have gotten a little sick from a creamy overload. Great Wall was the priciest option, coming in at a bank busting $6.50.
City Buffet (1101 14th St. NW) - Sadly for Patrick (a major Buffet fan), City Buffet was a real disappointment. They gave us essentially a giant container of sauceless cold noodles with a tiny bit of too-spicy brown sauce sitting on top. That one took the bullet train to garbageville.

The Results: Since we didn’t agree (!) I give you both our rankings…

   Patrick                                     Ashley

1. Great Wall                           1. Great Wall
2. Peking Express                     2. North Sea
3. North Sea                           3. Peking Express
4. City Buffet                          4. City Buffet

So it’s a unanimous decision: Great Wall is the winner!

Keep those requests coming!

Stars, they’re just like us!

One of the most memorable meals I’ve ever had was at Le Cirque back in the early 2000s, where we splurged beyond the understanding of humankind and got the full tasting menu. The food was obviously wonderful and it was my first taste of foie gras, but the thing that has always stuck out was the dessert. Jacques Torres was the pastry chef at the time, and he cooked up some winners—most of all, the chocolate oven. Above is a picture I stole off the internet since blogging was just a sparkle in my eye at that point and we took no pictures, but my oven came with tiny pots and pans filled with sauces to pour over my cake. Well, nine years later, President Obama is following in my footsteps at a fundraiser tonight in New York. And he just went to Komi the other night…maybe he reads the site? Maybe Sasha and Malia read the site?!?

To read the whole enviable menu, check out the New York Mag article.