Southern Dining at Sou'Wester

Last night we went to Sou'Wester in the Mandarin Oriental for dinner.  I have been to the Mandarin Oriental a number of times for dinner because my absolute favorite dining experience is, hand down, CityZen.  We decided to try Sou'Wester because the chef from CityZen, Eric Ziebold, opened Sou'Wester in 2009 and I absolutely love his food.  

We sat outside on the patio to enjoy the fall weather in DC.  Their patio overlooks the garden and last night, there happened to be a wedding in the garden.  So we got to eat and watch the wedding cocktail hour which was quite entertaining.  It was fantastic ambiance, very romantic.

The bread that they brought to the table was cornbread, in keeping with the Southern style of the menu, and it was delicious.  It was warm, spongy and melt in your mouth.  We ate two baskets of bread, it was that good.

Made with fresh corn!

For an appetizer, I ordered the Creamy Corn Soup and my husband got the Pork Fritter.  The soup was good--simple and creamy.  I think it could have benefited from roasted red pepper or some other spice to add a little more flavor, but it was a solid dish. 

More corn, please

The Pork Fritter was absolutely fantastic.  It was served with pickled garlic over a bed of  roasted peppers and eggplant.  The blend of flavors was perfectly balanced and the presentation was unbelievable.

I love you, Pork Fritter

For dinner, I ordered the Chicken-Fried Softshell Crab which was served over shrimp and tasso ham jambalaya with a spicy tomato emulsion.  It was a great dish, the crab coupled with the jambalaya was so yummy.

Crab, shrimp and tasso ham come together for a cool twist on jambalaya

 We also ordered two side dishes, the hush puppies and pimento mac & cheese.  The hush puppies were excellent--crispy, warm soul food. 

how can you say no?

 The pimento mac & cheese was underwhelming, it sort of reminded me of Kraft macaroni and cheese.  It could definitely use some improvement.  Like a cheesy, breadcrumb crust.

I need a little pick-me-up

Overall, Sou'Wester was delicious, Southern food in a romantic atmosphere with attentive service.  I would definitely go back again and am super excited that they have a Sunday Jazz Brunch, I can't wait to go back for that!

Truckeroo

Today was the monthly celebration of Truckeroo, a festival of food trucks in Southeast DC near the Navy Yard.  I have frequented food trucks from time to time, but I have never attended Truckeroo until today.  This event has been on my calendar for two months since I couldn't make the dates in June and July.  Needless to say, I was very excited to attend my first Truckeroo and it did not disappoint.

I got to the "festival fairgrounds" and after having my purse checked by security (they were lucky enough to find some LEGO Batman toys and an airplane - nothing worth confiscating), I surveyed the scene.  There were so many food truck options!  I decided to do a lap around the food truck block to check out the available selections and see what caught my fancy.

So many food trucks, so little time...

After much deliberation, I decided upon (drum roll please!).... DC Empanadas to satisfy my hungry tummy.  I ordered an El Toro (Chipotle Beef, Onions, Garlic, Cilantro, Black Beans, Cheddar Cheese & Corn) and a Speedy Gonzalez (A mild Cheese Empanada filled with Queso Blanco, Asadero Cheese & Mozzarella Cheese).

Feed me...

The El Toro was DELICIOUS!  It had all the right spices and it took me on a trip down memory lane... back to memories of nights spent at Julia's Empanadas in Adams Morgan at 2 in the morning, eating empanadas in a drunken stupor after partying at all those bars (oh my god, I just aged myself didn't I?). record scratch... Oops anyway, I loved it.  The Speedy Gonzalez  on the other hand, meh... it was okay.  It was cheesy, but I didn't get a whole lot of flava love out of it.

My friend was nice enough to share his tater tots from DC Slices.  The bacon and cheddar kind.  For some reason, I was expecting these tater tots to be infused with bacon and cheddar which they were not, they were loaded with bacon and cheddar (like a baked potato). 

Bacon makes everything better!

Again, they were just okay.  I was expecting more, like a tater tot experience to rave about.  It just tasted like tater tots with bacon and cheddar on top.  But serving tater tots at a pizza food truck says a little somethin' - like, I'm not afraid to try something a little different here.  So if I ever run into this food truck again, I'm going to try the cajun kind because I think they are on to something... 

Anyway, for dessert (because no meal is complete without it) I had a red velvet cupcake from Curbside Cupcakes.  I had to try their cupcakes and it was all I could do not to buy the six pack.  I know people who leave meetings when the cupcake truck shows up outside their office.  I had to see for myself.  

I should have bought the cupcake six pack

OH. MY. GOD.  It was out of this world.  I am not sure what is in the icing, but it was so creamy and delicious I could have ate a bowl of it.  And the cake part was made perfectly - spongy and fluffy.  It looked so good that I didn't even get a picture, I just jammed right in my mouth.  Now I know why people run out of meetings to get those cupcakes.  They are made with magic fairy dust or something.

I had fantastic time at Truckeroo and I am pleased to say, I ate everything on my plate (and then some).  Can't wait 'till September, I'm coming back for more!

Tomato, Tamato

Our family belongs to a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) and for the most part, it's great.  We get lots of fresh veggies and we support a local farmer -- Waterpenny Farm in Sperryville, VA.  It's a win/win and you feel like a good little environmental steward.  However, there is the occasional problem around 'what in the hell am I going to do with this many (fill in veggie of choice here)?!?'  Because with a CSA, you get what is in season and right now, tomatoes are in peak season.  We get at least 6 to 10 tomatoes each week of a different variety - red, round hybrid, pink heirlooms and yellow hybrids.  It's A LOT of tomatoes to work with.  And coming from me, that's a pretty bold statement since I grew up "Jersey Fresh" and could eat tomatoes sprinkled with salt as a snack every day.    

Needless to say, I've got a lot of tomatoes that I need to do something with, so I decided to make gazpacho.  Initially, I was not a fan of gazpacho from a purely theoretical stand point. Gazpacho is a cold soup and in my mind, soup is a item meant to be served hot (unless you are homeless and are eating out of can, then you take what you can get).  But I abandoned my theoretical construct and embraced gazpacho in order to avoid rotten tomatoes.   

For my first try (since I am a gazpacho virgin), I got my recipe from a blogger my friend recommended, The Pioneer Woman.  I chose this recipe because it used a bunch of other veggies I had sitting around from my CSA share (zucchini, cucumber, garlic) -- two for one on that, choice is made!     

The recipe is super easy, basically chopping up veggies, pureeing a bunch of them with tomato juice, mixing the chopped veggies with the pureed ones, and viola! Gazpacho.  A few things to note that I found I had to adjust based on my preferences:

• My gazpacho came out a little too chunky in the end for my tastes, so I added more tomato juice and did a little more pureeing to adjust the veggie chunk to soup ratio
• Gazpacho is best served chilled (in my opinion) and to get it COLD, I throw my bowl in the freezer before I eat it.  Then it tastes refreshing on a hot summer day.

Overall, the gazpacho was delicious, proving that soup doesn't have to be hot (are homeless people on to something here?  hmmm.....) and like revenge, might be a dish best served cold.  Thanks Pioneer Woman for a super simple, and fantastic, recipe!  I will definitely eat what's on my plate.  And I guess what's on my husband's plate too since he claims to not want to eat 'salsa in soup form.'  Whatever, more for me!