The balance between loving to go out to eat and trying to lose weight.

I think I’ve made it very clear that I love food. I love the smell, the taste, the ritual, the actual cooking, kitchens, gadgets, basically everything to do it with food. So how in god’s name is one supposed to eat all the glorious foods out in the world and lose or even maintain his weight? Do you just treat it like an addiction and avoid all tasty foods all together? There’s always moderation – eat the pork belly and cracklings only once a month and the rest of the month live off of celery?

Okay I’m totally exaggerating. But let’s take a simple example. Last night I was watching Lie to Me. And they were talking about poisoned muffins. That just triggered me to just want to eat a muffin all night last night. I tried to substitute it with something else – I had a piece of See’s Candy, some chips, and a mint. I ended up having to walk away and pre-cooked some breakfast burritos to take to work. I also just kept busy with packing my healthy breakfast and lunch to make sure that I have lots of healthy snacks and meals.

In fact let me tell you what I packed –

2 boiled eggs
Breakfast Burrito made with egg beaters and a low calorie tortilla
Broccoli
Carrots
Cucumbers
Hummus
Low Fat greek yogurt
Half a Turkey Sandwich
Apple
Rice
Shrimp Wanton Soup
Cooked Steel cut oats
Pudding Snack
Nalgene of hot tea

You would think with all this food I could resist the muffin. But no, I could resist the siren call of the deli near the metro and their freshly made muffins. I bought it, brought to my desk, closed my cube door, and scarfed the muffin down. I didn’t savor it. I didn’t enjoy it. It was all about getting it into my food as quickly as possible before someone took it away from me, or, more threatening, someone saw me eat it. I think that’s a sign that I may have a food problem. :\

Anyway, out of guilt, I think that I will scratch Restaurant Night tonight to make up for my muffin mishap and try to make it to the gym. Maybe that’s the balance act that needs to happen. If I screw up, then my consequence is I can’t go out to eat. And when I do go out to eat – I’m just going to eat with hedonistic abandonment and enjoy the meal.

A walk down memory lane.

So I am from California, and over the holidays, I did the faithful trek back home to the land where family is. But honestly if you asked me where to eat in California or even where I grew up, I would just look at you blankly and give you trite answers of places that I’ve only read about. While I went to school in driving distance of Napa Valley (CIA test kitchen, French Laundry, and just amazing food) and San Francisco (the city that has more restaurants per capita than anywhere else in the US), I didn’t really venture out of my little collegiate town.

Why? Mostly because my food awaking didn’t happen until college. My idea of good Italian food was Olive Garden. I had very limited exposure to foods that weren’t Korean or American diner food. And in a college town, I ate more Indian, Japanese, Nepalese, Mediterranean, and Czech food in 4 years then I did in my whole life before combined. It was amazing enough for me. And when I traveled for speech and debate conferences, my friends would introduce me to more amazing food.

I remember when I was a sophomore, we traveled to Philadelphia for a conference. And we did the normal things of eating at Pat’s and Gino’s. But they convinced me to part with my hard earned cash to go to Le Bec-Fin in the fall of 2002. I also remember that the pre fixed meal was $210 a person - the same amount I would make in 2 weeks working at the school cafeteria at that time. So it was scary to think about the life of ramen I was committing myself to.

So why am I taking this stroll down memory lane – mostly because I read recently that the once beacon of fine French cooking fell on hard times and will be closing this spring. This was my first taste of fine dining. Le Bec-Fin was where I really learned about what a charger was, what silver service entailed, and just the sheer elegance that a dinner could be. And most importantly – what cheese should taste like. I don’t really remember much about the food outside of being really confused on what to do with the rabbit bones in my mouth (I actually just ate the bones until someone noticed that there were no bones on my plate and to this day I am ribbed about it).

But I do remember the cheese cart. In high school, I knew that I loved cheese. When getting together with friends for lunch, we would go to our local supermarket and grab grapes, roasted chicken, a loaf of French bread, and some cheese from the deli. And I thought that was the be all and end all of amazing food. But Le Bec-Fin introduced me to camembert, humboldt fog, what parmesan that doesn’t come out of a green paper can tastes like, and just soo much more. Okay, I am now just drooling thinking about that cheese cart. And the servers there were soo nice about letting this table of young’uns try everything and explaining what we were eating.

I also remember the dessert cart as well. The amazing 3 level dessert cart of heaven. When we walked in, we passed by the dessert cart that was being served to those that were there for the earlier seating. And when we were seated in the upstairs small loft area – we were all a bit dejected thinking that we were not going to be able to see the dessert cart. But of course with service this people provide, they somehow timed for all 3 tables in the loft to get to the dessert at the same time. And they lugged the tray up. It was seriously the most amazing things I’ve seen in my life. And I remember asking if we were allowed try more than one item in a soft hushed tone, and the waiter telling us that we were allowed to ask for anything we wanted on the cart. Then he proceeded in fixing all of us our own plate of amazing sugary goodness.

Tonight I’m going to Citronelle. And I’m hoping that the food and expereince will be equally amazing and elegant as Le Bec-Fin was. My only regret about going to Le Bec-Fin was that my palate was not refined enough to really enjoy what I was eating. So let’s see how tonight goes.

The word Foodie.

I don’t know why, but I don’t really consider myself a Foodie. I do love food. But I feel like the current use of foodies is interchangeable with gourmets. And lord knows that I am not a gourmet. I am not refined nor do I have a discriminating palette. I love going to McDonalds as much as I love going to Palena. Give me food that makes me happy and I will be happy. In the Washingtonian’s current (January 2011) issue – the one that lists the “100 Very Best Restaurants” – they have a line in the introduction to list on how they picked the restaurants that sums up my view on a good meal as well. So because imitation is the best flattery – I’m just going to quote it.

“Some […] restaurants didn’t strike us as good values. Not that we were hunting for bargains – a $300 meal that seduces from start to finish can be as good a value as a delicious from a low-key restaurant down the street” – Todd Kliman

Tuesday Resturant Group

To spice up my life I am putting together a tuesday night dinner group. Every Tuesday night I am going to hit up a different resturant in the DC area. Anyone that want to join is welcomed to. :)

But this is my list of some of the resturants that I want to hit up. Let me know if there are more that I should be visiting. :)

Adam Express - 3211 Mt. Pleasant St NW

Againn - 1099 New York Ave. NW
Bar Pilar - 1833 14th Street Northwest

Bastille – 1201 N. Royal Street, Alexandria
Bradbo Tasting Room – 1600 King Street, Alexandra
Cava – 527 Eight Street SE
Cork – 1720 14th St NW
Estadio – 1520 14th St NW
Ethiopic – 401 H St NE
Et Voila! – 5120 MacArthur Blvd NW
Figs Fine Food - 4828 MacArthur Boulevard NW
Indique Heights - 2 Wisconsin Cir, Chevy Chase
Jetties - 1609 Foxhall Rd NW
La Caraquena - 300 W Broad Street, Falls Church
Levi's Port Café - 1102 8th St. SE
Liberty Tavern – 3195 Wilson Blvd, Arlington
The Majestic – 911 King St, Alexandria
Maine Avenue Fish Market - 1100 Maine Ave SW
Masala Art – 4441-B Wisconsin Ave NW
Metro 29 Diner - 4711 Lee Highway, Arlington
Minh – 2500 Wilson Blvd, Arlington
Mitsitam Café - 4th St & Independence Ave SW
Montmartre – 327 Seventh St SE
Oohhs & Aahhs Gourmet Deli - 1005 U St NW
Palena Café – 3529 Connecticut Ave NW
Passage to India – 4931 Cordell Ave, Bethesda
Rays’ the Steaks at East River – 3905 Dix St NE
Seventh Hill Pizza - 327 7th St. SE
So's Your Mom - 1831 Columbia Rd NW
Sou’Wester – 1330 Maryland Ave SW
The General Store - 6 Post Office Road, Silver Spring
The Majestic - 911 King St., Alexandria
Toki Underground - 1234 H Street, NE
Tune Inn Restaurant & Bar - 331 Pennsylvania Avenue Southeast
Vermilion - 1120 King St., Alexandria

Adour – 923 16th St NW
Bistro Bis – 15 E St NW
Bourdon Steak - 2800 Pennsylvania Ave NW
CityZen – 1330 Maryland Ave
Citronelle - 3000 M St NW
Corduroy – 1122 Ninth St NW
Komi – 1509 17th NW
Kushi – 465 K St NW
Minibar - 405 Eighth St NW
Marcel’s – 2401 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Rasika – 633 D St NW

For those that don't already know ...

DC Resturant Week is almost here! January Restaurant Week in 2011 will be from January 17th through January 23rd

Make your Reservations ASAP to enjoy them!

Here is a site with the menus http://www.dcfoodies.com/