Yamazato = Yummy

General contentment is the consensus among those diners who attended March's meeting at Yamazato Sushi and Spice this March. Gyoza, sushi rolls, sashimi, and various other typical Japanese and pan-Asian fare satisfied hungry dinner guests' appetites for both sustenance and great taste. Despite the rainy weather and the overall gloominess of the day, the evening was a solid success. One of the MDC's newest members, Jonathan, was able to get everyone to stand still long enough for a photo op at the restaurant's entrance on the way out - note the many Zagat-rated signs framed on the wall. For good sushi in Virginia, Yamazato is where it's at ...

Join the MDC this April as it ventures (metaphorically) to Southeast Asia for a fusion of Indian and Chinese food at Raaz in Rio.

Back in Action

MDC is back in the saddle. Since the beginning of the New Year, MDC has visited two new restaurants. First, the club met at La Ferme, in Tom's return to the club after his Texas deployment. La Ferme is known for its souffles and traditional-style French cuisine. The lamb shank was a hit amongst several diners, as was the various fish dishes. Much of the show, however, was stolen by appetizers like pumpkin-ravioli and duck confit in a puff pastry.

For restaurant week this month, seven MDC members met at Le Chat Noir, yet another French restaurant. Le Chat Noir is known for its crepes, both savory and sweet. They are less stringent than most restaurants participating in restaurant week and allow diners to select their own appetizer, soup, or salad, one entree, and one dessert all for the $35 restaurant-week norm. Unlike many other restaurant week prix fixe menus, Le Chat Noir offers the diner much more selection.

Highlights were the crepe savoyarde, moules frites, and various steak dishes. The desert crepes were, as always, spectacular. Unfortunately, Le Chat Perche, the upstairs wine bar and lounge, is only open on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Le Chat Perche is a novel experience with a healthy wine bar selection and silent cinema playing behind the bar at all times. The dark-lit ambience sets an intimate tone and allows casual diners and wine enthusiasts to relax comfortably in this little-known niche.

Look to March for a new Virginia restaurant as yet unexplored by the Metropolitan Dining Club.

MDC Semi-Hiatus

The MDC is on semi-hiatus status until mid-December due to unusual circumstances. Tom Saffell, facilitator extraordinaire, has been deployed to Austin, TX, to assist FEMA in its Direct Housing Mission, a sub-task under the general recovery efforts following Hurricane IKE. The plans for Central Michel Richard were completed, but the reservation was impossible to make due to high demand for tables and limited space for seating.

Justin Kahrl, facilitator pro temps and gourmand fantastique, has assumed the responsibilities of managing the Dining Club in Tom's absence. In the collapse of the Central reservations, Justin deftly re-directed the diners to Rosa Mexicano for the October dining meet. For November, he is currently coordinating the meet which is to occur at Il Pizzico in Rockville on the 23rd.

So, as you can see, there is no real break in the flow of the dining club's actual mission, just a tactical change in leadership for a few months. This post is merely to explain the lack of recent web activity on the MDC blog site. So, fear not, DC dining enthusiasts ... the MDC is alive and strong. Tom hopes that he can return to DC in mid-December to reassume facilitation duties and to accept praise and accolades for his fine work in Texas.

Del Merei Grille Reviewed

The MDC visited the Del Merei Grille on September 21, 2008, here's what one diner had to say about the experience:

Del Merei Grill...the name conjures images of...the Spanish-English online dictionary. What did it tell me? That Del Merei is Spanish for...the merei. A google search reveals Merei to be the name of a zorgmanager in the Netherlands and a commune in Romania. I have no idea what Zorgs are or why they need managing - I like to think they are oompa loompas mixed with the Star Trek: Next Generation 'Borg' race - but this would mean that Del Merei fills the sorely empty niche market for coerced Romanian cooking. Given how these Transylvanian commie dwarf-managers run their restaurant, I'd say 'Del Merei' really means 'good idea, poor execution'.

The meal started with average if overly salty appetizers, a solid if unimaginative salad, and a delicious sweet potato soup. Anything sweet potato is usually good, so compliments should go to nature rather than the chef. The wait between appetizer and dinner was forgiveably long but noticeable and in general the service was unobtrusive.

Del Merei's real draw is its grill option menu, which lets the customer select their meat, sauce, and two sides, including a side menu of mashed potato mix-ins. It's a great idea - let the customer make the meal they want. The mashed potatoes shone - my mash w/ goat cheese and sundried tomatoes was excellent. Unfortunately, the main course was unimpressive - the filet mignon was fatty and gristly and the chicken as dry as Amish country on Sunday. The duck was good though.

The biggest disappointment was the meat sauces. Rather than braise them on the meat or present them as a clever element of the dish's arrangment (which was otherwise elegant), they come in a pub-style metal thimble. It's one step up from the paper things you use for tartar sauce at Long John Silver's. Worse, the sauces did not taste good. It made me wonder if they'd bought them in bulk and were trying to dump them on unsuspecting customers. There are millions of meat sauces in the world to chose from - I guess someone has to stock the bad ones but in the future, in the spirit of the restaurant, I'd like an option of having good sauces IN ADDITION TO the bad ones.

Deserts were solid, the current rage for donut-based deserts getting a solid treatment. The menu's hidden gem is an obscenely cheap muscato. Indeed, the booze list was impressive and very reasonably priced. Del Merei might be better served as a bar. The zorgs could pitch in and sing little songs whenever someone passed out about the evils of drinking.

In sum, Del Merei is a good idea that needs a better meat chef and someone to buy up a bunch of sauces from the local market and sample the lot of them until they find some worth including. Until that time, I'll take my Romanian commune cuisine dollars elsewhere.

~ JK

So, as you read, the food was average at best, though the idea behind the restaurant is indeed a good one. The MDC forays into the District again this October, and hopefully, DC will serve up something better than Del Merei ...

2nd Annual Vintage Crystal Coincides with MDC 2nd Year Kick-off Meeting

The MDC will kick the year off right with not only the regularly scheduled dinner meeting, but also by participating in the 2nd Annual Vintage Crystal wine and jazz festival in Crystal City, VA. The event features wine from all over and involves tastings, music, and an art market for all attendees. Participating restaurants promote wines and samplings of their own dishes to anyone interested in attending the event. Admission for those of legal drinking age is $20 for all or $10 for designated drivers. All participants also receive a commemorative wine glass.

The wine and gourmet food event coincides with the Duke Ellington Jazz Festival and will feature live music from many artists, including prominent jazz harmonicist Frédéric Yonnet. The event starts a 2:00 p.m. and goes until 6:00 p.m. and is located along 2200-block of Crystal Drive, between 20th and 23rd Street.

For event details and a list of participating restaurants, one of which is the Del Merei Grille where the MDC is meeting later that evening, see the online flyer at the Crystal City website.

MDC Poised for Second Year

After taking the summer off, the Metropolitan Dining Club is back on track. It is almost certain that all members of this elite group of gourmands have not passed the hot months idly, but rather that they have honed their culinary perceptivity. With Labor Day approaching and autumn on its heels, the MDC looks at a list of city cuisine with a keen sense of anticipation and a hunger for the epicurean lifestyle.

The second year's list is set and is packed with a lot of power players from the DC/Metro area. With big names Michel Richard and Wolfgang Puck, the restaurants are poised to impress. But big names alone will not affect the discerning palate of the typical MDC member. Following last year's disappointment from the big names like David Craig (good sides/apps, weak entrees), the important factors taste, presentation, complement, selection, and atmosphere and ambience will have to work hard to earn the respect of the dining patron. After a solid first year of fantastic restaurants, the veteran dining club members seek both a good time and an excellent menu from the second year's list.

The list has more than mere power hitters, though, and also contains possible underdog champions in never-before-seen rookies like Raaz. Also, little known favorites like La Ferme (dessert souffle, anyone?), Mannequin Pis, and Il Pizzico will give the big boys a run for their money. Furthermore, there are technically more than just the 12 contenders in this year's line-up. Side session trips outside the regularly scheduled dozen restaurants will include a casual beer tasting at Quarry House Tavern (great juke box), a wine tasting at Ironbridge Wine Company (awesome duck paté), and a possible tour of Virginia's wine country booze-cruise style via bus.

The year is set to kick off in September as the government fiscal year winds down. Restaurant one on the list is Del Merei Grille of Alexandria, VA. A hop, skip, and a jump from the Braddock Road Metro Station, this underdog is not well known to most Beltway insiders focusing their concentration toward the Capitol and the city-center. However, with Southern classics like frickles and entrée selections consisting of your choice of meat (or portabella 'shroom) grilled then a selection of eight sauces (blue cheese reduction, horseradish cream, dmg steak sauce, peppercorn brandy, dill créme fraiche, lemon caper butter, teriyaki bacon, and béarnaise), this is no chihuahua of an underdog.

Without further ado, MDC presents its second year list below:

MARYLAND

• Raaz
• Il Pizzico
• La Ferme
• Mannequin Pis

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

• Central Michel Richard
• The Source
• Poste
• Rosa Mexicano

VIRGINIA

• Del Merei Grille
• Rabieng
• Yamazato
• Farrah Olivia

Exact date of the first dining meet is TBD, but stay posted for updates and reviews.

Inaugural Year in Review

With the first year over and gone and summer in full swing, the MDC is in recess until the upcoming year's list can be filled and finalized. Looking back at the inaugural year of the club, it's hard to find fault with any aspects of this fledgling social group. The people are friendly, the food is great, and all is well. Expansion of the club has occurred naturally, primarily through word of mouth. Though the influx of new faces has been steady, the party size for each outing has not exceeded any number that would be too large for a simple reservation phone call.

Depending on how much the club increases in the upcoming year, new facilitators and a secondary restaurant list may be necessary, in accordance with the original intention of the club. However, for now, the club is content to remain a small but formidable force in the dining world. This is not to say that expansion has not occurred in other manners. For instance, the ancillary trips to dim sum brunches and wine outings has led to a generation of ideas for MDC-sponsored visits to vineyards, beer tastings, wine tastings, and various other culinary tangents in tandem with the usual restaurant line up. The scope of the club has also seen some ideas come into play. Instead of merely enjoying the food, some members have proposed judging it as well. Certainly, there is already a good bit of discussion of which restaurants top the charts and which were disappointing when compared to expectations. Additionally, rumors are circulating of beginning other MDC chapters in other major metropolitan areas. Yes, the MDC is still fresh and new, but the inherent potential of this little club is abundant.

As for the restaurants visited in the past year, there is a list of links provided below.

• David Craig
• Zaytinya
• Duangrat's
• Tavira
• Rasika
• Faccia Luna
• Black's
• TenPenh
• Restaurant 3
• Grapeseed
• Tallula
• Fogo de Chão

Certainly, there is a range of different cuisines reflected, but some clear favorites stand out prominently. Most notably worthy of mention are Zaytinya, Grapeseed, and Rasika.

Zaytinya is the perfect establishment for a large group that intends to share the myriad assortment of delicious and flavorful mezze dishes.

Grapeseed wows the diner with a magnificent wine selection (it has a wine bar, if one isn't hungry) and amazing food from its homey open kitchen. As an added kick, Grapeseed does the work of pairing most of its dishes with one of their nice wines for the customer.

Rasika is the place for gourmet Indian food. For people who do not typically like Indian food, it would behoove them to take a trip down to Chinatown for a meal at Rasika. The fried spinach melts like a savory cotton candy and is their signature appetizer for good reason and everything else on the menu is fantastic as well.

It has been a magninficent year and all that remains is the anticipation of next year's menu.