Archive for "Travel"
Open City
Posted on April 17, 2015 by Ching under Food and Drink, Travel.
Brian and I found this neat restaurant by our hotel called Open City. It’s so close that you can see the hotel from the restaurant’s patio.
The big windows fold out of the way so that even when you’re inside it feels like you’re outside. We asked for a table on the patio, but we didn’t really have to be outside to enjoy dining al fresco.
The cover of the menu has a drawing of the restaurant’s facade.
Lots of great items on the menu, including gluten free pizza. I’m not sure I’ve come across any other restaurant that offers these. Probably because it’s a risky thing to offer considering the crust ends up tasting like cardboard sometimes (or so I’ve heard). We found positive feedback about Open City’s gluten free pizzas online though. Someone sitting at a table close to us who had it even mentioned that they couldn’t tell the difference. That’s huge. I wonder if cooking the pizzas in their special firebrick pizza oven makes the difference?
Oh, and the best part about Open City is they serve brunch all day long.
I ate at Open City a couple of times with Brian (on our first day and also our last day in DC). I think he ate there more than that because (a) it was cheaper than eating at the hotel, (b) the food is great, and (c) it’s just a short walk from our hotel.
We shared the carnivore pizza on our first time at the restaurant. With its generous smattering of pepperoni, bacon, ham, sausage, etc. it’s the perfect pizza for meat-lovers like Brian and me.
We had to try one of their pies for dessert because they bake their own pastries. This pie consisted of chocolate mouse and chocolate ganache. They serve it topped with whipped cream. It was delicious! If I didn’t know it was so bad for you, I would have had one every single day I was in DC.
There were lots of delicious pastries to choose from in the pastry case. They even had some vegan options.
Brian and I decided to go to Open City again for our final meal in DC. Brian had the babe calzone the day before and he just had to have it again. It doesn’t look very appetizing but, after he had me try a bite, I realized why he liked it so much. The calzone was filled with the perfect combination of sausage, ham, pepperoni, and mozzarella cheese. Almost like the carnivore pizza folded over.
I got the Open City grilled chicken wings with blue cheese. They were perfect. They were so good that I wanted to eat them all, except I couldn’t because I got so full.
It didn’t help that I couldn’t stop eating the vegan, gluten free homemade potato chips. They weren’t greasy like they sometimes are at other restaurants.
If you ever find yourself in the Woodley Park area in DC, I highly recommend checking out Open City. There are many reasons I can think of why it’s popular with locals and visitors alike — they have great food; they offer lots of vegetarian, vegan, and gluten free options; they serve brunch all day; they bake their own decadent pastries; and they’re conveniently located close to a metro station. It’s definitely worth checking out!
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Omni Shoreham Hotel
Posted on April 11, 2015 by Ching under Travel.
My first Omni experience was amazing so I was super excited to find out that we’d be staying at an Omni for the conference in Washington, DC.
The opulent lobby is consistent with what you’d expect from an Omni hotel, except this hotel is in a really old building so it isn’t modern like the Omni I stayed at in Fort Worth.
Our room was spacious but very old school in terms of decor and furnishings.
The room had two skinny doors with glass door knobs. One door led to a walk in closet, while the other door led to a tiny bathroom. The small bathroom wasn’t really a surprise considering the age of the building.
We had a nice view of the pool from our room which was good and bad. Good because the view was nice. Bad because we could hear noise from the pool even though we were seven floors up. I can’t imagine what the people below us had to deal with.
Other old school touches in the hotel include shoe shine stations…
Old fashioned railings, chandelier, and carpet…
And rotary phones that actually work. I thought they were just decorations and I was startled when I heard ringing when I picked up the receiver.
The backside of the hotel features an extravagant terrace…
With a fancy fountain, beautifully manicured garden/lawn, gazebo…
And a wildlife observation deck just beyond that overlooks a jogging/biking trail.
The hotel itself was nice. The service was not as good as what I’d come to expect from the Omni brand. Housekeeping was really slow, but I think that might be partially due to the super slow, ancient elevators. LOL.
Dining options inside the hotel were limited. However, the one thing that the hotel has going for it is its fantastic Woodley Park location. There are lot of great shops and restaurants just outside the hotel and the closet Metro station is within a short walk. There’s also a Dunkin Donuts nearby, which worked out really well for Brian.
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BonChon Chicken Fairfax
Posted on April 9, 2015 by Ching under Food and Drink, Travel.
We had the opportunity to try Korean chicken wings at BonChon Chicken in Fairfax, VA on Sunday. Thanks to Cousin Joy and her husband Erwin for picking us up from our hotel and taking us there. We never would have ventured out that far on our own.
We were told up front that chicken wings would take a half hour so we started with some fries and fried calamari.
The fries and calamari were delicious, and were great for munching on while we waited for our chicken wings, but we had to be careful not to get too full because we wanted to save room for the chicken wings, which are the stars of the show.
We shared an extra large order of wings but we asked for a combination of the regular soy garlic and spicy hot garlic.
Brian and I had never had chicken wings like these before and, for the record, they were worth every minute of the wait. The breading had a wonderful texture that was the perfect combination of crispy and crunchy. The chicken wings had excellent flavor, though I will be completely honest, I did not try the spicy hot garlic because I can’t really handle spicy foods. Brian had both flavors so I will have to rely on his assessment. He said the spicy hot garlic was delicious but the spiciness catches up to you after a few. I could tell they were spicy because they were making Erwin sweat. LOL.
The restaurant is a great value, specially since you can share the food and eat family style. I sort of wished we had a BonChon Chicken back in Wichita because it’s a great alternative to fast food. It’s a nice, casual place to eat but the food is good and doesn’t cost a lot of money.
Since we don’t have a BonChon, Brian has been tasked with figuring out how to replicate the Korean chicken wing flavor. Stay tuned because we may be serving it soon at our next party. Who’s in?
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Rib & Chop House
Posted on January 31, 2015 by Ching under Food and Drink, Travel.
Yup. You guessed it. More pictures of food are coming your way. This happens when I get behind on blogging. Sorry, guys. We are almost caught up, though.
One of my favorite aspects of traveling is trying restaurants that I wouldn’t find in Wichita and trying dishes that I wouldn’t normally get back home. Our friends in Saint George took us to Rib & Chop House, a restaurant conveniently located next to our hotel.
I had the stuffed red snapper with a side of asparagus (above). The filet was stuffed with crab meat. It was almost over the top. The dish was delicious but it was so rich that I couldn’t finish it all. It’s a shame too because I want to eat it again just thinking about it. I wish I could have found it in me to eat every single morsel.
The surf and turf was popular with several people in our group. You could get with either lobster or crab legs. As soon as I saw the surf and turf plates arrive at the table, I regretted ordering the red snapper. The surf and turf plates looked amazing.
I didn’t order it because I didn’t want to fight crab legs which tend to be difficult to eat, but Rib & Chop House has pre-split the crab legs. They’re already cracked open so you don’t have to do any work. You just dig the meat out of the shell with your fork and chow down. It required little to no effort at all.
The restaurant also served mutant baked potatoes as a side option. That’s not what they’re called on the menu but that’s what they looked like to me because these potatoes were ginormous.
Speaking of ginormous, check out this ice cream sandwich.
It’s not like any ice cream sandwich I’d ever seen. It was huge!
I had to get a picture of Josh’s beer. That’s something else not readily available in Wichita. LOL.
I’m not a beer drinker so I didn’t get to try it but now I wish I had. I mean, when will I ever return to Utah? Sometimes the things we regret most are the things we didn’t get to do.
Oh, well. Maybe work will let me go again next year. If so, I’m definitely having a Polygamy Porter. Bitter beer face and all.
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Avenue Café
Posted on January 30, 2015 by Ching under Food and Drink, Travel.
We always eat a lot on work trips. Here are a few more pictures of food.
You’ll never go hungry when you stay at the MGM Grand. The casino resort is like a small city with dozens of dining options.
Avenue Café is just one of several restaurants on site. The best part about Avenue Café, besides the great food, is that breakfast is served all day (note that they close at 2 PM).
If I had one complaint, it would be the price. $5 for a hot chocolate is a bit much. Then again, it is Vegas, so I guess that should be expected. I have no complaints about the food. I had breakfast there a couple of times and I liked what I had both times. They had several gluten free items and I even liked them.
We all cracked up when I ordered the gluten free corned beef hash with white toast. LOL. Ginger had to explain to me that even though it’s listed as gluten free, I don’t have to order it that way. Anything that is gluten free can be made the regular way so I could have just ordered corned beef hash, period. I was like, “That’s good to know. I was just reading it straight from the menu.”
Also, it’s never too early to drink in Vegas. Even though Avenue Café is a breakfast place, they had a good cocktail selection — most notably the “manmosa” which is the manly version of a mimosa. It’s the exact same thing, except they serve it in a beer mug rather than a champagne flute.
The champagne flutes are small and skinny so you don’t get much for $8. The $20 carafe is a better value because you get several champagne flutes worth. I only know because we had some on departure day. As tempting as it was, we didn’t have any the first time we were at Avenue Café because we don’t partake on work days.
If you don’t mind paying a little bit more for breakfast, Avenue Café is a good, convenient option. It’s a straight shot from the MGM Grand lobby.
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