Washington DC Excursion: Day 1

By Greg B.  So, for the following few days, I will be in Washington DC for a science conference.  As such, I will be taking this opportunity to go out, eat, drink and tour the city like I have never seen it before!  I’ll try and post a quick summary of my activities, give you a little of the flavor of Washington, and hopefully find some interesting restaurants and activities.

In this first post, I will combine the Thursday afternoon with the events of this Friday, as most of the time was spent sciencing (if that’s not a word yet, I want some kind of copyright claim to it!).  Thursday morning/afternoon my labmates and I headed down to DC, through the very gross, cold, misty weather.  Having arrived in DC, scoped out the conference location (Molecular, Cellular Cognition Society at the Embassy Suites), we decided to go to DuPont circle for lunch.  Once here, we ventured into the Brickskeller in DC (1523 22nd st, NW, though I always think it’s at the intersection of P and 21st… close, but no cigar!).  This place is one of the meccas of beer that exist, with a giant beer list.  Head downstairs to the bar, grab a seat at a table and just start ordering beers you have never heard of and might never seen again!  My one complaint with this establishment is that they have a giant beer list, but a lot of the beers are always out.  That being said, I did try some interesting beers and food

• Palma louca de brasil - Pale straw colored pilsner, with a little bit of malt to it to make it sufficiently different than, say, a Budweiser.  But nothing special
• Dragon Stout - a Jamaican brew, but on the list as from Italy.  Smells like alcohol and toffee, and has a real syrupy taste, kind of sugary like Patron XO almost.  Or the sweetness of some kind of cola syrup.  Not my favorite, too sweet, syrupy.  7.5% abv
• Turkey sandwich with spicy mustard.  The turkey was good and moist, rye toasted bread good and fries crispy on the outside (need salt).  Mustard was good, not real hot spicy, but a good creamy, mild spice.  Actually went well with the Palma Louca.

From here we walked downtown, towards the hotel for the conference, and decided to stop at Quigley’s Pharmacy.  It seemed interesting, near George Washington University in Foggy Bottom (an area of DC… they have strange names for neighborhoods in this town), and we still wanted to kill an hour or so.  However, after looking at the sign, seeing happy hour from 4-7pm, yet seating from 5-close, and us standing by the “please wait to be seated” sign for about 5 minutes, we got rather agitated.  There were people in the place, and a couple of women ahead of us in line.  Eventually one of them went to talk to the bartender, who said he wasn’t seating anyone (lots of open bar space and table space), so they would have to wait for someone else to seat them, and he didn’t know how long that would take.  So, we left.  Thus far, service in the DC area has been rather poor….

However, this all changed once we got closer to the convention center.  We dropped in the Capital City Brewing Company for a round before the multi-hour poster session.  The bartender, Benny, was very personable and I had two beers.  Turns out they no longer brew in DC for their main production, as it was moved out to somewhere in Virginia, but I look forward to taking a trip to the brewery at some point (I was looking forward to doing it in DC this trip… next time!)

• Kolsch - This beer was very crisp, and despite being brewed in the US, really captured that unique ‘Kolsch’ flavor, kind of a leathery/cardboard/malty thing.  That may not sound appealing, and Gabi didn’t like it, but if you’ve had a good one, it is pretty refreshing.
• Porter - This is a nice, dark beer with chocolate malt and black malt aroma.  The black malt really comes through when you drink it, as the dark bitter roast sticks out.  It is not overwhelming, it’s a nice flavor, and I think this beer is quite nice actually.

The following day on the lunch break we quickly moved down to the National Archives, because I wanted to see the magna Carta, US Constitution, and Declaration of Independence.  It is very moving to be in there, and I recommend this to anyone as a necessary part of any DC tour.  The national archives are near the IRS building, so hurry past that and then duck inside to see some old and important documents.

For lunch, we ate at Oyamel Cocina Mexicana, a really wonderful Mexican restaurant at 401 7th st.   Normally, I am wary of upscale Mexican restaurants, since I think sometimes people get too creative with ingredients and lose sight of the real origin of foods, but this restaurant was great!  Our server, Amir, was friendly and quick with the food/drink items and helpful in suggesting different dishes to try.  One thing I noticed that he did not mention, but I will be happy to try later this weekend, are the grasshoppers on the menu.  Keep checking back to see how that turns out!

• Dos Equis amber and lager on tap, along with dogfish head 90min (Great!)
• Chips served with a nice, spicy and thick salsa
• Napolitos - A salad with ‘baby’ cactus, tomato, diced onion and a lime dressing, really very nice and cactus has an interesting flavor, highly recommend this!
• Sopa Tarasca estilo pátzcuaro - a blackbean soup served with a half avocado, corn tortilla crisps and a dried/roasted ancho chili, to crumble into the soup to add a smokey flavor.  Delicious soup!  Add some of the extra ingredients, let it sit for a few minutes to soak in, then enjoy, really a wonderful dish especially on a cold rainy day.
• Carnitas con salsa de tomatillo - A deliciously flavored and perfectly textured baby pig meat taco with just the right amount of flavor from the sauce and onions.  Great!
• Gabi and I also ate this item from the ’special’s menu, a poblano pepper stuffed with what I think was shredded beef (possibly pork?), topped in a delicious creamy sauce and pomegranite seeds sprinkled on top.  Great texture, perfectly cook, wish I could remember the name of this dish!
• Dessert was coconut and passion fruit sorbet with a crumbled graham cracker and diced mango.  Delicious!  I dont normally like coconut foods other than real, fresh coconut and this was very delicious.
• Monte Alban Mezcal - A very warming liquor, smells very much like alcohol and agave.  Taste is much more smooth than the smell might suggest, and I enjoyed this very much.  Next time, I’ll see if I can get the worm!
• Café de Olla - Mexican coffee with cinnamon, anise and some brown sugar (served sans cream).  Really good!  Not too sweet at all, nice cinnamon smell and flavor.  Really nice way to end a meal.

And this is it!  Other than the obligatory beer in the bar at Union Station (Sam Adam’s winter lager), we returned home full of both science and food.  Oh, and a lot of literature on very expensive shaving equipment from a store in the train station.  $150 for a badger hair shaving cream brush?  Yeah right!  Anyway, stay tuned as I try to update the blog as often as possible with events and food and drink regarding Washington DC, as Mike and I head down there for both science and food!