Kings of the Road

On Friday evening, Larry and I joined our friends Amy, Kirk and Blythe at the Ritz Carlton for the return of Chocolate Decadence. Last spring, the Ritz held a Chocolate Decadence event every Friday night, an all-you-can-eat chocolate buffet of unimaginable sweetness. Amy, Blythe and I attended the spring event, which I blogged about here. When I found out that Chocolate Decadence was back again this summer, I just had to go.

The theme this time was ice cream–four flavors of chocolate-based ice cream, with about 20 gourmet toppings to garnish with. A regular ol’ ice cream social. They had toppings like brandied cherries, chocolate peanut sauce, nutella, and peanut brittle, but none of the traditional toppings like sprinkles and hot fudge. I was a little disappointed at the small portions of ice cream we were given, but I made friends with the pastry chef and was able to finagle more scoops from her.

The ice cream was delicious, but the whole thing just didn’t have the same WOW factor as the first chocolate decadence, maybe because we’d already been there, done that, or maybe because ice cream and toppings don’t look as impressive as all the cakes, pies, pastries and mousses that they had displayed last time. Also, we burned out of the ice cream way more quickly than we had expected to, and had to order some “real” food.

Although the chocolate may have been a tiny disappointment compared to the last Chocolate Decadence, the company more than made up for it. We had a great time.

Yesterday, Larry and I went to Chinatown in search of soup dumplings. We first saw soup dumplings a few weeks ago on Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations, when Anthony took a trip to Shanghai. The soup dumplings he ate at Nan Xiang restaurant in Shanghai were pillows of dough enveloping a rich soup broth. The smaller variety look like they burst out soupy goodness in the mouth, and the larger ones are big enough to suck the broth out with a straw. Ever since I saw the episode, I’ve been obsessed with soup dumplings. Must have soup dumplings.

After some research, I found that Chinatown Express in Chinatown (where else, with a name like that) serves the elusive soup dumpling, although their specialty is the hand-stretched noodles you can watch them make in the window. They’ve got chickens, pigs, and ducks hanging in the window, which I think is super cool. We ordered the soup dumplings (duh), some seafood dumplings, stir-fried noodles with beef and the roasted half chicken.

The soup dumplings were…disappointing. They didn’t really have much broth in them at all. They were good for pork dumplings, but these are not the dumplings I saw on Anthony Bourdain. The noodles and the chicken were really delicious. The noodles were one of the best Chinese noodle stir-fry dishes I have had, for sure. I will definitely be back to Chinatown Express. But I guess we’ll have to go to either New York or San Fransisco for soup dumplings. Or Shanghai for the real thing. Sigh.

Last night, Larry and I had our second Restaurant Week dinner at Bistro Bis in Capitol Hill, and our buddies Greg and Martin joined us. My manager at work had decided not to use her reservation, and she offered it to me. Larry and I tried to say no, because going out to eat all the time is expensive, but our Foodie brain cells would not let us. We cannot resist. Will power, what is that?

The food was good–I had a pork pate de campagne, duck confit and peach mille feuille. Larry had mussels, steak frites and opera torte. Of course, I forgot to take pictures of the food, so you’ll just have to use your imagination. I thought everything was delicious and very Francais.

Bistro Bis offered pretty much their entire menu for restaurant week, with up-charges for certain dishes. This is so much better than restaurants that offer you a paltry two or three selections, like a chicken and a pasta dish. Restaurant Week is a chance for these restaurants to attract new customers, so why would they want to give you crappy selections? It’s a double whammy–you probably wouldn’t go back, and you wouldn’t recommend it to your friends. Bistro Bis definitely did right with their menu.

My one complaint is the service–we experienced the dreaded Restaurant Week service slump last night. It took over a half hour just to place our orders, and our waiter just rubbed it in when he finally came to our table and said with a smirk, “do you know what you want, or should I leave you alone for even longer?” When we were leaving, he said “I hope you come back again, so that I can actually spend some time with you.” Yeah, I hope so, too.