Restaurant Week!!!!!!

My favorite week!!!  Or weeks!  In D.C, some restaurants do Restaurant week for 2 weeks!!  We hustled this weekend to cram as much eating in as possible!

 1) Arcadiana-Washington D.C

http://www.yelp.com/biz/acadiana-washington#query:arcadiana

First up, Arcadiana after work on Friday.  Great way to end the week!

I love that we were greeted with warm biscuits and a sweet jam butter spread..so good!

George let me order for both of us..since he really has no say anyways =D.  

To start things off: Smoked Chicken and Andouille Sausage Gumbo.  Could have been better--a bit salty and not thick enough.

Roasted Corn and Crab Soup.  Now this was deliciousness in a bowl.  Chunks of huge lumps of crab meat, and sweet corn in a light creamy soup. mmmmmm!

We're starting a good roll here!  Crispy Soft Shell Crab for an entree.  SO GOOD!

I like to start off with the crispy legs and go towards the sweet meaty center!

Blackened Beef Tenderloin--Juicy, Moist, TENDER, and yes!! cooked just right! Medium rare.

This lovely hunk of tender meat sat on top of peas, sweet baby onions, chanterelle mushrooms and gnocchi.

And for Dessert: Chocolate Cake on a bed of raspberry sauce and Tahitian vanilla ice cream

Vanilla bread budding with praline crunch ice cream

A sweet departing gift as we paid our bill--chocolate almond raspberry marshmallow nougat bites.

I felt so spoiled and happy after leaving here.  =) I love spending hard earned money on a great delicious meal.  It made the 2 block walk to the metro in the looming crazy thunder lighting and 80 degree heat a happy walk!

(I've never seen such crazy thunderstorms in my life!  It's something I've gotten used to since being here.  When it rains, it pourrssss and thunder sounds like cannon fires!)

 2) Jaleo-Washington D.C

http://www.yelp.com/biz/jaleo-washington

It's Tapas time!  

We missed the paella festival that Jaleo does annually because SOMEBODY forgot to put it in his phone!  But finally we're able to try Jaleo! and for cheap!  This was ..maybe THE best of the 3 we tried for Restaurant week.

I'm a sucker for good bread and dip.  The olive oil was infused with roasted garlic and fresh thyme.  Smelled and tasted yummy!

The gorgeous beet salad with blue cheese, grape fruits and tangerine slices.  I love beautiful food--such vibrant colors--so pretty to look at and devour!

A classic combo--serrano ham with melon.  I've had this in a lot of places--even in Italy at a prosciutto factory but I think..it's best to keep meat and melon separate...The flavors never meld for me--it's always more like I'm tasting something salty..and something sweet.  But nonetheless--it tasted really good.

NOW this was just pure pleasure.  The garlic aroma that came from this bad boy was just to die for.  I asked for extra french bread to sop up all the delicious juices!

Um how can you EVER go wrong with Chorizo wrapped in fried potatoes!!!!

Little bites of heaven!

 I craved for this again today--the calamari with garlic aioli sauce....so tender and crispy..I could cut through it with a fork.  The squid literally melted in my mouth.

  

I hope my arteries are hanging in there...

Braised pork tenderloin.  The pork is a bit dry as expected.  But we tasted why that sauce was so good--tons of buttahhhh!

I'm a huge fan of FLAN.  It's light, it's creamy, and it's not as sweet since I'm not a huge dessert fan.  Granted I make a lot of flans at home from a box but O.M.G...this flan..made me speechless.  I kid you not..it was so decadent..but light..and creamy..not too sweet, but caramel-y..speechless...

And last but not least--this little chocolate mousse in a cup topped with cinammon toasted hazelnut and hazelnut icrecream..

You can't even imagine the mmmmmmsss and omgss that came out of my mouth while eating this..

To work off our meal, we headed over to the Space museum! Most of the museums here are free admissions! =D

We bought tickets to see Hubble 3D.  Hubble's a giant Space Telescope that took 10 years to build and now orbits outside of Earth's atmosphere.  It takes really sharp images of the universe's objects, stars, and where little stars are made!  We even saw the inside of Orion's belt and the Carina Nebula.  SO COOOOL!!!!! And Leo Dicaprio narrated it--nice touch.

How coooool do we look!  Me and my four eyes!

The history of the Wright brothers and their first flight!

 3) Jackson 20

http://www.yelp.com/biz/jackson-20-alexandria

This is what happens when I let George choose...this place was a bit gross..=/  For bad food, this place was pretty packed.  Service was reallyyyyy slow and we were told to sit outside in the courtyard next to some tomato plants and herbs which is normally great--except it was 95 degrees outside with no breeze and no umbrella.

Appetizer: Maryland Crab Cakes with fried green tomatoes and arugula and pink peppercorn sauce.  It was actually really really good.  I like crab cakes that aren't packed in with tons of bread crumbs and flour.  These were flaky and had tons of crabbies.  And i've actually never had fried green tomatoes--they're delicous!

Shrimp Fritters

...where's my shrimp..in the shrimp fritter??!?!?

Fried Steak with gravy, with 2 eggs and hash browns.  The fried steak was greasy and gray, overcooked and no seasonings =/.  They messed up a perfectly good piece of meat..boo..

You can't screw up eggs at least =) The hash browns were also good too--really crispy!

George got the burger with bacon and slaw--which was overcooked and dry.

Strawberry and cream cheese cake with strawberry icecream..Pretty good..a bit salty..a bit sweet..nothing to ooh and mmm about..

Peaches N' Cream.  The grilled peaches drizzled in caramel sauce was actually really good!  I'm going to try grilling fruits more often!  Very interesting flavors and really delicious.  Though the cake was a bit dry, even with the cream.

Tomorrow's the boy's 29th's birthday!!! Hopefully the restaurant I'm taking him to won't disappoint =D!

HAPPY 29th BIRTHDAY GEORGE!