A short jaunt to DC

We had a chance to visit DC last weekend for some straight up touristing here's what we ate and saw:

• we arrived round 3:30 in chinatown via a "chinatown bus" from nyc, two tkts roundtrip: 70-bucks... nice to do ONCE. ate a really greasy spoon (nothing was open at that time). Very bad, duck, undercooked beans and GREASY fortune cookies. Can't remember the name so can't properly steer you away.
• After crashing at the hotel, Ms Marie and I met her friends Richard and Carolyn at ZENGO for dinner. A note here Richard is proprietor of the proper carpenter and Carolyn is the brains behind pedestrian typography. Great folks and good hosts; onto the food. Zengo is a Latin/Asian fusion joint with a huge space. Bar downstairs and Restaurants upstairs. Very fancy with dim lights and loud eurotrash electro blasting (my headache lasted until the food arrived). We went tapas style and ordered a smattering of things: Mariscos and Mahi Mahi Ceviches... very bland and way too much coconut in the Mahi Mahi (I didn't know fish could be cooked in vanilla and coconut milk.... wait, it can't). Potstickers (lobster, blus crab, shitake mushroom) Kobe beef gyoza, and Peking rolls (duck, shitake, cabbage, snow peas); very yummy all around if a bit dense. The dim wrapping was thin and tender, though. My faves were definitely the crunchy calamari, tuna belly tartar and won ton tacos. All those dishes were the simplest on the menus and really got the "fusion" right. Here's a menu
• We also had deserts and coffee but I forgot to note those (too busy rockin' to them) I had some sort of key lime thing, there was sorbet and Richard had a dish that had some burnt chinese five spice. Actually, I'll bet the complete menu is on the zeno site. 
• Next we wandered over to Brasserie Beck for beers, lots of beers (all Belgian). I would guesstimate that the beer menu was about 15 pages (each was categorized and had very insightful descriptions) and I must admit that I wish we'd had dinner there too, cause they were loaded with oysters. Miss Marie had wonderful Witte beer, the Floris Witbier, it was very light and delightful. I of course headed for the Trappist and threw down an awesome Westmalle Dubbel, dark, and rich with a touch of clove.
• Sunday was spent on the mall headed to Washington monument and the mall. Bitterly cold but fun. Hopped over to the Smithsonian Castle (found out that wild bison were kept there for a time in the 19th century). Then on to the Air and space museum for loads of geeky fun. Everything from V2 rockets to the original set of the moon landing ;-) Had lunch at the cafeteria for boston market and McDs... I guess it's what the astronauts ate. A word of caution: DO NOT venture to the flight simulators after downing a big mac especially if want to do some barrel rows while shooting a bunch of migs.
• Then to the National Portrait Gallery for the highy disappointing Recognize! exhibit (more on that at photoreciprocity) and silly Stephen Colbert
• After we passed out for several hours at the hotel; my high school chum, Joy,  took us to Busboys and Poets. A crazy mashup of bookstore, restaurant, coffeeshop and performance venue. Thankfully the different areas are separated from one another. 'Cause I wouldn't want to be chowing down a steak wile a bunch of angry women were screaming at me about cruelty to animals. While there is a certain left-wing, vegan slant to the joint (left-wing capitalist that is) there isn't any agenda on the menu. All comfort food, huge portions and LOTS AND LOTS of meat, fish, etc. We had wings, catfish, trout and and scallops. finished off with pecan pie and chocolate cake. All good, cheap and lots of it.
• Afterwards we took a nice walk down U-street; very nice, lots of ethiopian and caribbean restaurants. along with a couple of jazz joints that sounded really nice (you could hear the tunes on the streets). Definitely worth a second visit.
• Joy then took us on a leisurely drive around DC through Dupont and Adams Morgan. The best part, though, seeing the Mall at night. It really is beautiful and the fact that the mounments are open 24/7 really impressed me.
• Before leaving Monday I dragged Ms Marie to Ben's Chili Bowl for a heavy breakfast and half smoke with Chili. YUMMY! 

All in all DC ws wonderful and we look forward to going back soon to check out more art and more food (although I could eat at Ben's the whole time I'm there). My only real gripe: the confusing DC MetroRail ticket system... had to push 6 different buttons to buy one ticket. A bit indicative of some branches of our fine government I must say.

I'll try to get some pix up soon