Anyone can go out to a restaurant, spend money, and plop their opinions onto a blog. It takes someone with real skill to actually make something and make it look good.
This is why I'm reading Jeena's Kitchen, not only because of the great photography and wonderful looking recipies, but because she actually takes the time to go step by step and show you how to make whatever she's made.
Read it, you might learn something.
It's easy for a restaurant to get lost in the Chinatown/Penn Quarter area. Between the Jose Andres empire, Zola, and the large collection of big box "casual dining" joints, it's a hostile atmosphere for restaurateurs, and a target rich environment for diners.
One of the restaurants that I've overlooked for the past few years has been Zengo, but after a visit on Saturday night, it's hard to see why.
Zengo is an interesting concept, an Asian-fusion restaurant that sells as much cool as it does fancied up sushi rolls and dim sum.
It should be mentioned that the space is probably one of my favorite in the city. It's open and well managed. This is a great space if you want to stretch out and actually have a conversation. For a big restaurant, I found this surprisingly easy.
This is also a great restaurant if you're eating with someone that you can share massive quantities of food with (in my case, Apples). One of the first things your server will tell you is that they encourage sharing - and man oh man did we take advantage of that.
Starting off with the edamame "xo style", which was your basic steamed edamame with some kind of spicy sauce on it. It's not something I'd get every day, but for an every once and a while kind of thing, it was pretty refreshing.
Along with our beans we got an order of the potstickers, filled with lobster, blue crab and mushrooms, it's hard to go wrong with these. They're light and wonderfully flavorful, and come with a wasabi sauce that you'll be warned no less than three times about.
Accompanying the potstickers and edamame was an order of the calamari, which I found to be fairly pedestrian. They weren't bad, but then again it probably didn't help that I had calamari at Clyde's earlier that day. Apples seemed to enjoy them, so we'll take that as an endorsement.
Finally, we got an "Angry Zengo" roll, which has spicy yellowfin tuna, avocado, sesame-chipotle rouille, and wasabi tobiko. It was agreed that while these fancy rolls usually aren't our thing, this one was particularly good. Again, not one that I'd get on a normal basis, but something I'd get again.
The drink options are also pretty impressive here, with Apple's Yuzu Fresa (Vodka, Strawberries, Lemon) being particularly appealing.
The overall verdict on Zengo was good. My no means did it blow us away, but by no means do we not have a reason to come back.
This is a great restaurant if you want to go out with a large group of friends, or even want to do something new and adventurous for yourself.
It may be easy for other restaurants to get lost in that part of town, but after one try of Zengo, you'll never forget where it is.
So, have you been to Zengo? Let me know what your thoughts are.
I'm not going to sugarcoat this...I roll with nerds, hard core. 
Yesterday the crew took over a corner of the Big Hunt down in Dupont to watch the Iowa Caucuses (dubbed by me as the Hawkeye Caucai (sp?))
Next Tuesday of course is the New Hampshire Primary, and I'll be having a party at my place to celebrate, argue, and probably overeat/drink.
So, what exactly does one serve at a primary party. My first thought was making it a New Hampshire Primary Pasta Party, and just make three or four different kinds of sauces to go with a generic pasta (penne or spaghetti).
Anyone out there have any better ideas?
*I'll also accept primary predictions as ideas.
So I've got a problem. Really it's not a problem in the sense that problems are bad. It's the kind of problem like I have a $50 gift card to Williams-Sonoma and I don't know what to buy.
Please folks, make this problem go away, let me know what you think I should get.
Happy New Year and happy food day folks. Here's what's topping food headlines in the new year:
2008: Year of the Jose - As if a food empire isn't enough, Jose Andres is ready to take on the television world too. His new cooking show, "Jose Made in Spain", will debut later this month on WETA public television according to an article in the WaPo, and is slated for a 26 episode first season.
Jose had a big 2007, and with a new project in LA and his new show, is slated to have an even bigger 2008.
I sure picked a good time to stop drinking - Getting crunk won't be as cheap as it used to be according to an article in the WaPo today, as poor harvests, less acreage, and an increase in world-wide demand has sent malt prices up 100% and hops prices up as much as 400% in some cases.
It seems from the article that this will primarily effect specialty brews over lets say my beer of choice (Miller Lite), but still, if you want to drink a quality beer, it looks like you'll be paying a little more in the new year.
Small Town Market, Big City Scale: Local and seasonal meat and produce are all the rage these days, and NYC is making headway in creating a permanent market for restaurateurs and other folks to join in on the action. Right now there's no set plan according to a NYT article, but hopefully with a new year, progress can be made to even further improve America's top food city.
