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home on the road the musings of a part time nomad saturday august 27 2011 yet another dc mussels joint for some reason belgian food is super trendy in dc not only have there been a ton of new bistro style restaurants opening in the past few years but there was even an official belgian restaurant week leading up to the national day which i suspect had more fanfare than in the homeland seriously i think i ve eaten more mussels here than i ever did in antwerp with so many moules frites to choose from here is a helpful guide to your options in the district et voila tim and i found out about this place because they served amazing waffles at the belgian ambassador s national day party yes we are fancy they are in the palisades area of dc and thus only accessible by car or taxi but there s a huge upside if you make reservations after 9 30pm you get a free bottle of wine good spanish wine too i had veal sweetbreads a guilty pleasure of mine and curry flavored moules frites tim had smoked trout which he loved and stoofvlees which he loved a bit less bistrot le zinc this place is located on wisconsin ave north of glover park about 20 min walk from where we live it s only been open for a few weeks but we were really impressed with both the food and the service i had a tasty hot goat cheese salad and red snapper with an eggplant tapenade which was really strong tasting but good tim had a sea scallop appetizer and giant delicious leg of lamb for his main course and we split a chocolate cake for dessert we want to become regulars here we liked it so much marvin this u street restaurant is an interesting mix of soul food and belgian cuisine based on the few years that marvin gaye spent living in the seaside town of oostende we visited during belgian restaurant week and the chef whipped us up a tasting menu right on the spot we had a bunch of small plates garlic beer mussels lobster waterzooi and pork cheeks the caramel toffee cake was to die for and so was the lavender ice cream that went with the chocolate cake belga cafe i visited this place for brunch with a belgian friend and we were unimpressed it was really american food savory waffles for shame the portion sizes were much too small for the price as well it s a pity because this is one of the few places on this list that actually has a flemish chef who is married to greet dekeyser the belgian tv foreign correspondent based in the us the lines get out of control on the weekends here when everyone is out shopping in nearby eastern market brasserie beck this place is known as being a popular happy hour spot for k street lobbyists but we went here for sunday brunch with a few friends although one friend had a bad experience with her shredded chicken omelet the rest of the food was good including their fresh blueberry pancakes and a seafood salad this place is pricey though the stoofvlees carbonade will set you back 27 and a seafood plate costs almost 100 granville moore s this is a rustic pub that s housed in an old doctor s office on h street the food is a mixture of mussels and burgers but their beer list is extensive and impressive show up early or in a smaller group because they don t take reservations there are plenty of bars around to grab a drink while you re waiting though bistrot du coin this trendy noisy dupont french restaurant steals belgian menu items our waiter bristled when we asked if the place was belgian style or french of course we are french she sniffed then proceeded to bring moules frites to half of the table they were good mussels though she had to stand outside today in annapolis and get pummeled by hurricane irene on live tv pech gehad voila there you had it the belgian restaurants in dc the only restaurant missing from this list marcel s which is located near the white house and is the kind of place that only serves prix fixe menus such as the hoity toity sounding pre theater menu anyone feel like sponsoring us written by katy at 9 18 pm 2 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest thursday august 25 2011 coming to america after waiting nearly a year for his visa the boy has finally arrived and anyway i figured it was about damn time i broke my blog vow of silence on the subject especially since i m going to marry him like immigrants of american yore the boy arrived with only his suitcases to his name suitcases which enclosed many delicious treats from belgium like speculoospasta also plenty of liquor but let s not mention that part in case customs is reading this just like the tales of many other immigrants tim s name has been unwillingly changed by various brainless officials usually they just smush the 2 words together into vanaelst but my favorite geico called him just van on his auto insurance i m pretty relieved that in belgian tradition i don t have to change my name upon marriage who knows what might happen if i did worst of all like many other immigrants tim is unable to go back to his home country not because of financial strife or war although come to think of it belgium has been without a government for a year no it s because of immigration rules k1 visa holders cannot leave the us until they get their green card this takes 6 8 months if you re lucky or if you have a relative who works at us immigrations snide comments aside this rule certainly curtails our international travel plans for a while but not to worry tim and i have already bought tickets for our honeymoon as far away in the us as you can get anchorage alaska maybe we ll be able to see russia from our hotel written by katy at 2 02 am 3 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest friday january 21 2011 yes yes no it has been forever since i updated this blog since september i have been working part time blogging for other people so that took precedence proving about how strong my blogging keeping it real principles are now that i m somewhat less gainfully employed i can go back to what i love best telling strange stories about the french in their natural habitat tim and i were sitting in a bistro in reims in the north of france enjoying ourselves some delicious moelleux au chocolat translation lava cake is your mouth not watering in fact it was so good that we started a fork swordfight over the last piece the battle endured but i swear we did not cause a scene however we were so absorbed in the fight that we did not notice the middle aged very intoxicated french gentleman creeping toward us with a fork of his own seriously we are pretty sure that he drank a whole bottle of table wine by himself as soon as we noticed him mouths agape he decided to be polite yes yes he asked fork quivering with anticipation no tim and i both shouted maybe a little too loudly he tried a different tactic american he asked now this was a moment of personal shame i always make a point not to stand out as the american wherever i go especially somewhere like france i swear i was not wearing white tennis shoes a baseball cap or sweatpants in public i made a conscious effort to use my indoor voice tim was wearing a giants sweatshirt it s because of you i hissed glaring at the man i considered saying some random things in polish to throw him off english allemand he tried espanol tim gleefully replied i facepalmed at that we would make two of the most pasty skinned spaniards in history yes american i gave in the frenchman may have guessed correctly but he still couldn t have our cake he went back to his seat in defeat then proceeded to discuss where tim and i might be from loudly the rest of the evening with his dinner companions loudly and clearly enough that even i could understand most of it so basically what i concluded from this experience is that based on fork swordfighting and overall gluttony the french rank americans number one followed by the english and then the germans either way they figured that all three nationalities would give them carte blanche to speak about us loudly because there was no way we would actually understand it or no way that one of us might just turn out to be a belgian who happens to enjoy watching american football but damn that last bite of moelleux sure was delicious written by katy at 3 41 am 2 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest monday september 13 2010 almost heaven it s a little bit of a sad realization after only a month living here but d c a little pretentious at least it is in comparison to little frederick maryland where i went with friends this weekend in honor of their annual in the street festival frederick like many other small towns in this neck of the woods is the kind of place where you expect townsfolk to dress up like civil war soldiers and fight mock battles in their spare time as a matter of fact the battle of monocacy junction was fought just outside of town and frederick is on the civil war trail meaning busloads of elderly tourists in matching t shirts roll through to visit all the numerous war museums and historic markers sounds like a pretty frumpy crowd but luckily just as we arrived the early bird special set was already getting back on the bus to go back to their hotel and the rowdy locals had taken over it was clear to us that they had been in the street since breakfast something about the frederickians put me at ease it wasn t just the lower ratio of government issue id cards who other than a cop has an id card in a place like frederick it had something to do with the fact that when the band played country roads the entire bar burst into song and maybe the preponderance of very very good local breweries that hold their own oktoberfest every year guess i just have a little hillbilly in my blood but i think i ll be back in frederick sometime soon corn maze anyone pumpkin patch oktoberfest or the war of northern aggression if you re southern for the record the confederates won written by katy at 2 26 am no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest sunday august 22 2010 hand over the keys i was so excited to get my car back upon coming to the us again that i forgot one important thing i haven t driven regularly in two years and now every time i get behind the wheel i think it s going to end up like the picture i thought i would be reasonably prepared after dealing with insane elderly and foreign drivers in orlando who tend to cut you off randomly go 45 in the left hand lane or accidentally drive on the left i thought wrong for one the dc area is known for its legendary long commute times because of near constant heavy traffic a friend of mine drives an hour to cover a distance that should take less than 20 minutes not to mention this is a place where there have been i kid you not road rage induced gunfights the other day i was lost on the way to a job interview and was on the phone getting directions and a middle aged woman gestured wildly at me and flicked me off because i was too slow in pulling out of a parking spot there were plenty of other parking spots around but she had to have mine dammit it s funny because in all other circumstances people around here are really friendly apparently they turn into demons once they get behind the wheel why not just take public transportation you may ask call me crazy but i just feel less safe on public transportation here than i do in europe dc s metro is crummy looking it is gray concrete block no artwork anywhere dirty and stained trains and rather than a recorded voice announcing the stop clearly it s the driver whom you can hardly hear muffled over the loudspeaker there is a also sort of stigma about public transport in america as in why would you ever take it if you can drive anyway if you need me i ll be walking to whole foods a whole 15 minute walk uphill let s see how long my car protest lasts written by katy at 10 20 pm 2 comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest older posts home subscribe to posts atom search this blog about me katy view my complete profile blog archive 2011 3 august 2 yet another dc mussels joint coming to america january 1 2010 11 september 1 august 2 june 1 may 1 april 1 march 2 february 2 january 1 2009 26 december 4 november 2 october 3 september 1 august 3 july 2 june 4 may 3 april 1 march 1 february 1 january 1 2008 12 november 1 september 1 august 2 july 2 june 3 may 3 2007 6 june 3 may 3 total pageviews followers picture window theme powered by blogger