#24: February firsts
Appreciating novelty while the world burns!
They say variety is the spice of life. February in DC raged on with blistery cold winds and a crumbling democracy. My mini bursts of joy were found trying something new for the first time. At least, this is what has kept me going as I patiently wait for the weather to plateau above 50 degrees. That, and milking every ounce out of the Eagles winning the Super Bowl. Once again: go. freaking. birds.
This newsletter covers food-related discoveries since I returned to DC after our whirlwind trip to India (read here) in mid-January. Those were simpler, more wholesome times.
New restaurant visits
From birthday dinners, happy hours, and longtime DC favorites that are new to me, I have been particularly well fed this winter.
Aventino Cucina (Bethesda, MD): There’s little to not like about this Roman Jewish menu. However, I was not expecting beautifully executed dishes for our friend’s birthday dinner in the suburban mecca of Bethesda. The elegant toasted sourdough bites with butter and plump anchovies melts at the first bite. A hint of garlic, whether rubbed on toast or hiding in the butter, adds a welcomed sharpness. The agrumi winter salad with curly tardivo (a very bougie looking radicchio leaf), shaved fennel, green olives, and pistachio vinaigrette is as dramatic as it is delicious. A very worthwhile restaurant salad.
After splitting a trio of fried apps including suppli, meatballs, and calamari, I couldn’t have possibly finished my wild mushroom pappardelle to follow. Somehow, I managed to put back every single bite, actually. Others (read: Will) weren’t as happy with their carbonara that fell flat with aggressively crisped bits of guanciale.
Desserts were a little weird and personally unmemorable to me. Except the comically stingy, pale birthday meringue engulfed by the massive plate it’s served on, almost purposefully implying how little they care that you were born on this day however many years ago. The blank canvas is anointed with a puny birthday candle melted onto the plate.
Conclusion: Weird-ish service but would go back for the food, specifically for those anchovy toasts.
Bar Japonais (14th Street, DC): This is a bit of a shortcut since we technically tried this happy hour for the first time in January. This is a much needed redemption arc for DC happy hours which have arguably become ambivalent hours as of late. Not here: $6 midori gin & tonics and margaritas, $6 for two skewers of your favorite protein, and a full menu of $6 snacks. If you really want to ball out, the sashimi is three pieces for $9. The pricing and feral strategy of figuring out how many G&Ts you can squeeze into two hours is reminiscent of COVID. Recession era happy hour is back baby and it’s right here on 14th Street.
Momiji takeout sushi (my couch, ordered from H Street, DC): Momiji is a longstanding DC favorite for takeout sushi. After a 24-hour up-and-back trip to Philly for the Super Bowl parade on Valentine’s Day, we decided to reschedule our special short rib dinner for Presidents’ Day (see below). Instead, we ate sushi on the couch while enamored by the Oscar-winning film, Anora (what a sweep!). Momiji’s rolls are massive. I loved the simple salmon and tuna roll bursting with fresh, raw fish. I’m still partial to Izumi in Adam’s Morgan but I’m glad I finally tried DC’s crown jewel of casual sushi.
Cana (Adams Morgan, DC): A seat at Cana has been a hot ticket in DC since October, managed under the same ownership as La Shukran in Union Market. Off the bat, everything at Cana is a better experience than La Shukran. The vibe here is we’re happy you’re here instead of the latter’s highbrow tone of you’re lucky to be here. The cocktail list is much more extensive, highlighting cachaça, the Brazilian liquor made from sugar cane. Cocktails are complex and have something for everyone. I loved the matte leão, which drank like an iced tea that’s not too sweet. The caju amigo with cachaça, feni, cashew orgeat, curaçao, pineapple, and lime is a frothy, pale yellow concoction that’s refreshing and cozy at the same time?
Definitely recommend booking a seat at the chef’s counter. The station is a tight line with a countertop oven searing off meats, a blacktop griddle, and two deep fryers. Fried bites were good, but nothing to phone home about. The mid-sized plates brought tons of vibrant flavor. The chilled hamachi with passion fruit and coconut made me feel something in the dead of winter. A bite of charred octopus with half a baby fried yucca ball is the perfect pair to mop up the bright orange pirão sauce that deserves a spoonful on its own. A mini mound of crispy pork belly sits in a pool of passionfruit aioli, crowned with a fresh onion slaw to cut through the crunchy, rendered pork fat.
Last but not least, the flan. I don’t mess with flan except this one. It’s exceptional. Served alongside a dulce de leche with mezcal and tequila. The dangerously boozy combo hides behind intoxicating flavors of burnt marshmallow. Go get that flan. Finally, this is a new opening that is worth fighting for a Resy.
Baan Mae weekend noodle shop (Shaw, DC): During these cold winter months, I have an insatiable thirst for scalding hot, spicy broth. Chef Seng specializes in Laotian comfort food, running Baan Mae and Thip Khao in DC, and Padaek in Virginia. Overall, Baan Mae’s menu strays away from traditional Laotian and Thai dishes found at Thip Khao and Padaek, digging into comfort meals from a Laotian mom’s repertoire. This includes their extensive noodle shop menu that’s available on weekends from noon-3:00pm. The chicken tom yum soup is sweet, sour, spicy, and savory. Any soup fan will struggle to choose from this extensive noodle bowl menu but the beautiful thing is that there is no wrong choice at Baan Mae.
New recipes
Stuffed shells: For the NFC East Championship, I single-handedly manifested an Eagles win with these spinach ricotta stuffed shells. Stuffed shells feel very Delco mom-coded to me. Stuffed shells showed up at every pasta night before a big soccer game in high school. And this recipe with a bright green filling for the birds? Perfection. Always fun to cosplay as an Italian American suburban mom for my friends in DC. If you make these, use more salt in the filling and a higher sauce ratio! These were drier than I wanted them to be.
Super Bowl chicken wings: My toxic trait is always volunteering myself for cooking projects that I’ve never tried. This time, it was chicken wings. This is a strange contradiction for an anxious person. I rarely test recipes before making them for others. Maybe because I have the loveliest friends who will lie if it’s bad? I decided I couldn’t risk it this time. Wings mean a lot to people - especially for the Big Game. They needed to be bomb to justify not ordering them in. The Monday before Super Bowl Sunday, I did a 12-hour dry brine in the fridge and made a test batch of Dan Pelosi’s (@grossypelosi) garlic parmesan wings and Mark Bitterman’s gochujang, ginger, garlic wings. Grossy’s garlic parm wings were incredible. So juicy, and the spices from the dry brine were spot on. No notes. Mark’s wings were good, but insanely salty. Probably because I dry brined and baked them instead of grilling them like the recipe intended, so no shade to Mark.
I decided to make 4lbs of Ali Slagle’s baked buffalo wings, 3.5lbs of the garlic parm wings, and 3.5lbs of a random soy garlic wing recipe. Each batch was baked in multiple rounds through the first quarter. Would I recommend it again? Maybe not for 20 people like we had. But honestly, I think I killed it. Each wing came out perfectly crispy, sauced, and fell off the bone with overnight dry brining. Go birds, literally and figuratively.
Short ribs & chocolate mousse: Another high stakes meal where I decided to try something new was our rescheduled Valentine’s Day on Presidents’ Day. Short ribs aren’t exactly an inexpensive mistake. I chose a foolproof recipe from Alison Roman with over 9,000 reviews on NYT cooking. Stumbling back home around 3:30pm after a bottomless brunch with friends, I needed foolproof. The only active cooking involves searing the short ribs on each side and sauteeing the veggies with tomato paste. The rest is just dumping in red wine and beef stock and then leaving the rest up to four beautiful hours simmering away in the oven. Once again, I nailed it. The meat immediately fell off the bone and paired with a simple mashed potato, I not only made a meal for my valentine, but one to nurture my body coming out of a mimosa-induced fog.
Chocolate mousse on the other hand is not an easy one to wing. In typical fashion, I forgot to read the recipe in full, realizing mousse benefits from overnight chilling. Will and I sped towards the grocery store Monday morning before my bottomless brunch to gather ingredients and assemble the mousse, knowing it would at least have 8-ish hours to chill. I do not recommend making a mousse with a new valentine. The process requires communication from couples who have seen their up’s and down’s, knowing each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Albeit a bit deflated, our mousse turned out great, and lasted us entirely too far into the week.
Chicken curry pot pie: Some version of a green curry chicken pot pie had been stewing in my brain for a while. Having never eaten a pot pie before, I think I already knew I needed something with more spice and flavor. After finding Emerald Carl Chan’s version, I had the blueprint I needed. I used coconut cream instead of milk since it was already in my pantry, and a red curry instead of a green curry. Otherwise, I followed her recipe to a T and it came out so golden and crispy! This isn’t as saucy of a version, so if having a looser filling is a priority, I suggest upping the liquid ratios.
Notable returns
While we celebrate the new discoveries from this deep dark winter, I need to call out a few spots that are reliable for a good time out of the home. This winter was cold as hell. The one spot you choose to leave your home for should be worth it.
OKPB (Mount Pleasant, DC): If you need a $9 martini to get through the current horrors in DC, this is your place. The prohibition style speakeasy primarily filled with short men in suspenders has an excellent happy hour from 5-7pm. Would I come here to pay for an $18 cocktail from their menu that rotates daily? Negative. Nevertheless, we come to this place for magic and a safe space for yapping.
Nice & Easy (Union Market, DC): This falls within the “trendy dive bar” category in DC: located in a modern building, good cocktails for $14, and ample space for pool, pong, and darts. The darts are fun, unless your friends are bad at darts like mine and accidentally hit the cord to the light hanging above the dart board, blowing it out entirely. If your friends are good at darts, you should be fine. This is a great place to start your night or hang out with friends to say you left your home but don’t feel like taking on the town. My friends are obsessed with the long Thailand iced tea, which as you can imagine, is a condensed milk cocktail with a melange of liquors. It is not my thing, but it could be yours!
Saying goodbye to Makan (Columbia Heights, DC): Now gone but not forgotten, we returned to the Malaysian staple in Columbia Heights before they closed their doors in early February. Makan has been stellar since they opened in the throws of COVID in 2025. It was the perfect place for non-bottomless brunch, incoming weekend visitors, or for a casual date night. The chewy, hearty penang street noodles and luscious fried chicken with a salted duck egg yolk sauce will be so sorely missed. The chicken satay skewers were a classic, and the second it gets warm enough to grill, I will be attempting to make my own with this new NYT Cooking recipe.
What is this sorcery with InKind?
I promise this is not sponsored at all. I just want people to get discounted meals out. If you dine out frequently in DC or other major cities, InKind is a crazy deal. The investment firm developed an app to partner with select restaurants in the city, offering different rewards like $25/$50/$75 off first visits or up to 20% back offers to then use as credit towards future meals. You get access to welcome deals and 20% back offers for free. That’s all I have been using it for, but if you are a real baller, you can buy food and beverage credits at a discounted value ($150 for $200 of credit, etc.).
I truly have no idea how this works, but it feels like Moviepass before it filed for bankruptcy. I cashed in an InKind gift card and a $50 off reward to slash our Cana bill in half. I even had credit leftover to cover our lunch at Baan Mae. While it doesn’t have every restaurant you’d like on the app, there’s still enough great options to incentivize return visits. Some of my favorites on the app include Cana ($50 off $150 for first visit), Baan Mae ($25 off $75 for first visit), Maketto (20% back), Chicken and Whiskey (20% back), El Secreto de Rosita (20% back) and even Death and Co (20% back).
The only catch is that this is purely for food and beverage items. So you will need to pay for the tip in full. Don’t be a jerk and only tip on your discounted total!
If you want to try out InKind, feel free to use this referral link - which gets you $25 off a $50+ meal, and in return, sends me a $25 credit. Win-win, no?
That’s all for this month! I’m looking forward to warmer days and spring produce at the farmers market. If you have favorite CSAs in DC, let me know! I’m thinking about compiling a list for next month as an actionable step to stop giving Sir Bezos as much of my money at Whole Foods.
xoxo!!!
Can’t wait to try the wing recommendations Merry! Since we cant enjoy the DC restaurants, I really appreciate the recipes!
Very descriptive. Interesting article