I just got back from eating at Sodere, 1930 9th, just south of T St. The food was excellent. My friends and I arrived late and still received great service and were cooked fresh food. We ordered several platters of meat and vegetarian dishes: This was great food, spicy and very flavorful. The vegetarian platter had lentils, greens, cabbage, stewed tomatoes and onions. The meat dishes included spicy beef, lamb, and chicken. One of the sauces on the beef was not unlike a sweeter mole sauce, especially since there were fresh jalape

Last night we decided to try out a new restaurant in Logan Circle – with the soft breezes it was the perfect temperature for a dreamy walk to Merkado Kitchen.

“What did you say?” my husband Chris was craning over the table to hear me.

“I said this could be a really romantic spot,” I shouted.

I was prepared to possibly not like Merkado Kitchen. There were a few mixed reviews online, but then again, who takes any of those seriously? ;)

We went for a late dinner around 9:30pm, thinking perhaps it would be calm. No such luck – the place was packed. We headed to the bar to wait with some far too syrupy mojitos and to ogle the beautiful people. The dining room has very high industrial ceilings and a bare floor, which leads to some ear-cringing decibels. The warm orange walls and flattering lighting adds to an overall feeling of vibrancy.

Though we had an initial upset when Chris’s salad turned out to be just a plate of watercress (when they say “salad of greens” they really mean greens), the food turned out to be absolutely delicious. I had a very yummy ceviche (which more than made up for the blah ceviche I had earlier in the week at the over-rated Rosa Mexicano) and then a firey yet creamy grilled squid stuffed with crabmeat in a coconut curry sauce. The salad fiasco was salvaged by Chris’s entree of a lovely salmon over shrimp and dashi risotto.

At about 10pm the sound level normalized as most diners had finished and left, and we got to enjoy the rest of our meal in relative quiet. It was at that point that I really began to like the place. The warm glow of the walls with their kooky murals, our relaxed waiter, the open kitchen – I could see it being a great place to relax and try out some innovative new flavors. Just not at peak times, unless you’re with an equally raucous group of friends!

The second Tamarind Flickr event is set for this coming Saturday night at El Tamarindo in Northwest: “a fusion of food, friends, photography, art, music, and poetry.” We saw some great photography last time, and we’re planning on getting back up that way this Saturday. We hope to see you there!

el tamarindo restaurant
7331 georgia ave n.w.
washington, d.c. 20012
202/291-0525

An open letter to the managers of the AMC Hoffman center complex:

If you don’t get your bass-ackwards parking lot figured out I am going to boycott you until you do. While your theater is my favorite multi-plex in the area, each time I have gone there in the last month it seems you have closed off yet another signifigant portion of your parking lot for the mysterious construction project under the Metro tracks. I can tolerate some fencing and some closures, I can put up with it taking a few minutes to find a parking spot. But when you decided to close the back lot, effectively seperating the north and south lots, that was the final straw.

The south lot is miniscule as it is. And now, with the new fence you have erected the only way to get from the south lot to the larger north lot is to drive all the way back out to Eisenhower and go up through 2 traffic lights! This takes about 10 minutes, added on to the time already wasted in the south lot and then wasted finding a spot in the north lot.

I am not one of the many complainers about movies being too expensive, or concessions being over-priced (not that I particularlly enjoy the prices either) but when you start making it difficut to even park at your theater, I start to wonder why do I put up with all of this? Hoyt’s Potomac Yards is right down the street.

If all of that construction is being forced on you by the town, at the very least you should be able to defend your patrons’ rights to park. I mean come on, we pay that ridiculous “entertainment tax”. Couldn’t you fineagle a deal here?

Until this situation improves, I am going to boycott you. I’m going to urge all of my friends to boycott you. I am going to urge them to urge all of their friends. I am going to post this boycott call on the internet. In short until you re-open the back parking lot, you will be losing my movie dollars and Alexandria will be losing my “entertainment tax” revenue.

Sincerely,
Mad Max at the Multi-Plex

Friday night the fellas and I did a little bar crawl through Adam’s Morgan.

We started at the Big Hunt (where else?) had a few with the friendliest waitstaff in town. Headed up to Zucchabar for Saccharine’s “Slut” event with Medusa Promotions spinning choice tunes.

The “Slut” event was having a slow start so we shot over to Toledo Lounge on 18th. While we don’t make a habit of going there, we always end up having a blast when we do and I can’t think of a single time when we’ve gone to Toledo and not picked up some company for the rest of the night.

From TL we rolled over to Asylum which was jumping. Asylum has re-modeled their interior once again and I must say I like the new set-up the best. The new design fits a lot more seating in there. The basement was jumping with punks and toughs while upstairs there was a very cute grrl power DJ event going on.

We finished the night back at Zucchabar which was sizzling with great music and hot girls at 2am. I did a little dancing, my buddy passed out, my other buddy disappeared with our Toledo girl.

Wrapped up the night staggering with my passed out buddy over to 18th st. for some fine jumbo pizza and late-night chit-chat.

In all, a classic 18th street crawl.

when pigs fly

Originally uploaded by tbridge.

When it comes to barbeque, there are two schools of thought. North Carolina, and Tennessee. The third school ought to be Dixie Bones off I-95 in Woodbridge. Their sunday $10 buffet has placed me in such a food coma today that I’m not sure I’ll ever recover. Four kinds of sauce, three kinds of meat, amazing mac and cheese, potato salad, cole slaw and rolls, the world has not seen this much deliciousness outside a condemned shack.

If you get a chance to head south on 95 for some amazing barbeque, but don’t want to head too far out of the District, this is your spot. Expect a bit of a line, though, they usually fill up.

Good news to all the folks stuck in body-cavity TSA searches at National Airport

Ya gotta pitty the Boy Scouts this year. At their Jamboree in the NoVA burbs this past week all hell broke loose. First off, a North Carolina man, 57, died of a heart attack Sunday, which the Scouts only acknoledged when quizzed by the press.

Then four Alaska Scout leaders were electrocuted Monday while trying to put up a tent. While they apperently get merit badges for the effort, a Boy Scouts spokesman, Gregg Shields, suggested that the Alaska leaders might not have followed Scout teachings that warn against pitching tents under trees or power lines.

Next up, searing heat sickened more than 300 Scouts on Wednesday after thousands of Scouts, clad in full uniforms, march and then sat under a blazing sun. About 40 even needed hospitalization.

Tonight, they’re to get a visit by President Bush, which was postponed twice already. Now I wonder if he’s gonna tell them about my favorite “what were they thinking?” staute in DC

Gee thanks BWI! How nice of you to offer such great drinks and viddles as such low prices. I don’t know where there is anywhere else in the city I can get so much for so little. I mean, $8 for stale bread with turkey, cheese, and two slices of tomato.

Not even Raku is Crapu has the gumption to serve such crap at such high prices. I think I could find better deals at Disney World! Naw, not even Disney would be this bad. And even if they were, the service would be so much better than the shite servers at Fells Point Brew Pub.

Okay, this one is just too weird. A guy on a plane from DC to Syracuse, NY is accused of exposing his wang to the flight attendant, but it appears that he was actually wearing underwear?

Gibeau was on his way back from a Florida vacation. Police searched Gibeau and found five Polaroid photos of his penis, according to Bragg’s affidavit. Gibeau said he was bringing the photos to his girlfriend to show her the contrast between the sunburned areas of his body and the areas that weren’t exposed on the beach.

Of course, carrying around explicit polaroids isn’t the brightest of ideas…