I know, I know this is a blog about cooking not about dining out. But, I would be lying if I said that dining out wasn’t a critical aspect of my personality. Since it’s That Time of the Year™ when everyone is putting out their best-of lists and top moments of the year, I thought I’d join in on the fun.
This is a bit of a free-form list — this list isn’t necessarily about individual dishes or restaurants but of moments I experienced around food. Some of these moments are about the food themselves, some the decor, some the company I was with.
I hope this list inspires you to reflect on not just the things you consumed this year but how you consumed them and who you consumed them with.
Have a happy, healthy, and safe new year everyone. :)
Kabocha Squash and Chicken Ramen with Truffle
Bantam King | Chinatown, D.C.
The first thing to note about Bantam King is that, yes, the name is a play on Burger King. Walking into the restaurant, you’ll notice right away that the name is not the only nod to Burger King you’ll encounter there. The restaurant is actually situated in the carcass of a Burger King that closed with its pre-Y2K design intact. The floor bears the original linoleum tiling, the tables and chairs are made from PVC plastic (the kind of plastic that you can smell), and everything is faded bright greens and blues.
As a ramen shop, it’s a ramen shop with a neat twist: everything is halal. Every ramen on the menu is based on either chicken or vegetables. I love good ramen but I have a tendency to stick with what I know when I’m ordering — rarely venturing outside the usual tonkotsu. So, a ramen restaurant that not only doesn’t sell my usual order but doesn’t sell anything close to my usual order is great for getting me to try something new. So, my pick here isn’t so much the ramen itself (even though that ramen was excellent) but the idea of restaurants that get me out of my comfort zone.
Century Egg
Maketto | H Street, D.C.
Maketto is the hippest place in all of D.C. I don’t necessarily mean that in a positive way. Maketto is a Cambodian restaurant, but also a thrift store, but also a record shop, but also a place to buy vintage Jordans, but also a place to buy high-fashion streetwear. The restaurant only has 60 seats and is pretty much impossible to eat at without a reservation. It’s tough to get at who the heck Maketto is for — other than 23-year-olds with lots of money who are perpetually anxiously waiting the next supreme drop. However, I can assure that the food is excellent.
On my first visit, I went bold and ordered the Pidan Tofu which is cold tofu topped with a quartered century egg, green onions, chillis, and sesame seeds then finished with a drizzle of tare. Century egg is a Chinese delicacy wherein an egg is encased in a mixture of tea and clay and aged for several weeks, up to several months. What results is a black, slightly translucent white surrounding a turquoise-green yolk. I’ve long been fascinated by the process but utterly terrified to try it. Sometimes when you order food that’s unfamiliar it takes a moment for your brain to wrap around what you’re tasting. With this century egg dish, there is no such moment. The flavor — rich and earthy with nutty, funky overtones — was one I’d never had before yet instantly made perfect sense.
Old Bay Caramel Corn
Fischer’s Popcorn | Bethany Beach, DE
What is it about the beach that inspires so much nostalgia? Growing up on the east coast, the beach often feels like an alternate dimension where time stops. A trip to the beach transports you to another world lined with kitschy stores, traditional fudge makers, candy stores, kites, and bicycles all bathed in warm summer light.
The beach feels like one of the last places in the world where a small business that does one thing and does it really well can thrive. Fischer’s Popcorn feels like a case and point of that hypothesis because they do one thing: kettle-cooked popcorn. There’s something about a simple menu that asks you to make as few decisions as possible that really speaks to me. All you need to decide on is the size and whether you want a flavor.
I went out on a limb and picked the Old Bay seasoned popcorn. Old Bay is a spice blend native to the mid-Atlantic that’s designed to taste good on crabs but, really, works just about anywhere. It’s a “secret” blend that is mostly just celery salt and paprika and it’s so good. Nothing about celery salt and paprika sound like they belong on caramel corn but trust me you’ll never want it any other way.
Oysters
Two Mile Crab House | Wildwood Crest, NJ
Who would have thought that me of all people would have had not one but two formative food experiences at the beach within the same calendar year? I am not a Beach Person™ per se but I will put up with just about anything if it means spending quality time with the people I love. My friends could vote to take our group vacation to the bottom of an active volcano and I’d say “who do I Venmo for the airbnb”. So, thinking of it that way, the toil of walking on sand and militantly putting on sunblock is a small concession in the grand scheme of things.
Plus, there are quite a few aspects of the beach that are totally my jam — long walks, kitschy stores, and novelty ice cream. But, let’s talk about the real star of the show at the beach: seafood. I have spent more money than I’m comfortable with on oysters at nice restaurants in Washington, D.C. and none of them have ever been better than the 2 dollar oysters I’ve had in restaurants and bars on the Jersey shore. Maybe it’s the thrill of getting a good deal, maybe it’s the fresh proximity to the source, maybe it’s that in D.C. I’m usually the only one ordering oysters and at the Jersey shore, I’m splitting them with friends who love the freaky little mollusks as much as I do.
Who’s to say?
Lemon Twist Martini
Courtyard Marriot | Annapolis, MD
Let me set the scene. It’s Friday night at a 3-star hotel just outside Annapolis. Annapolis is a city known for its scenery and old-world charms – but this hotel is on a commercial highway, the only scenery is the Dunkin Donuts across the way. My friend and I have just arrived for our friend’s wedding that weekend. Our plan is to check out Annapolis tomorrow but for now, we just want to relax and catch up. We head to the small bar in the lobby and order some drinks.
What follows is the most unique bar experience I’ve probably ever had. The “bartender” isn’t really a bartender at all – just an employee at the hotel tasked with pouring drinks. She can do a standard 5oz pour of wine and crack open a beer, but anything else is outside her expertise. Still, she offers that she can make us any drink we want…. As long as we know how to make it. So, there I am at a hotel bar guiding this woman on how to make a gin lemon-twist martini. In a way, this was kind of my ideal bar experience since, when it comes to certain drinks, I can be really picky about how I like them. At a regular bar, I have to sound like an ass-hole as I list all my stipulations of how I like my drinks but here there’s no other choice than to give my bartender a step-by-step guide.
Shouts to the bartender who didn’t know much but certainly had the spirit.
Two Beers
McSorley’s | Lower East Side, NYC
This is an experience that (at the time of writing this) literally happened yesterday. But, here it is gracing my list to close out the year. Is that cheating? Is that proximity bias? I don’t care.
I met up with some friends I haven’t seen in a while for a day of stumbling around New York City. These are the kinds of friends with whom I am never bored — wherever we go, whatever the circumstances, we’re always having a great time. We all have friends like this where no matter how long it’s been things pick up right where they left off.
So, there we were bumbling around the lower east side, killing time before our scheduled tour at the Tenement Museum. My dad is often talking about McSorely’s as one of the quintessential dive bars of New York City. It’s the oldest bar in New York City and hasn’t removed a single piece of decor since 1910. The floor is still coated in sawdust (an old-timey method to speed up cleaning spilled beer) and they still only serve two kinds of beer (light or dark).
I list this experience as a favorite of mine not for the beers (which were only okay) nor for the history (which is legendary) nor even for the vibe of the place (which was raucous in all the right ways). I list this experience because of what happened when we walked in. We walked in mainly to get a feel of the place and found that the place was rammed with people celebrating the limbo week between Christmas and New Year’s. We were hoping just to look around and maybe get a beer (only two of the four of us are beer drinkers). A man with long hair and a goatee came up to me and yelled “HOW MANY?”. I held up four fingers and suddenly we were being pulled deeper into the bar.
Goatee sat us down at a table that we were sharing with a family of German tourists. We sit down and start taking off our scarves and hats (it’s hot in the crowded little bar). Goatee leans down next to one of my friends and I hear my friend reply “light”. Suddenly, the clinking of glasses and: PLONK.
Eight half-pints of beer are on the table in front of us. As I said, only two of us are beer drinkers and we’re supposed to be at the tenement museum for a tour in a half hour. One of my friends attempts to negotiate our case: we didn’t really consent to the delivery of these beers. Goatee responds in the nasty but polite way only a New Yorker can speak: “THEY COME IN PAIRS. IT’S TWO PER PERSON.” We back down and pay for the beers. The two of us who are beer drinkers drink two half pints each and we end up giving away the rest of them to other patrons at the bar. In essence, we accidentally ended up buying a round for some strangers.
We give some to the Germans and I overhear them (in German).
“What are they doing?”
“Giving us these beers.”
“Why?”
“They say they ordered them ‘by accident’.”
Some of the best things in life happen by accident.