Getting Around in DC
Posted on April 18, 2015 by Ching under Travel.
We walked by this sushi place on our way to the metro station. I wanted to try the $1 sushi at happy hour but Brian was a party pooper and wouldn’t let me. I looked at the restaurant’s reviews online and they were all favorable. I think we really missed out.
We found a Dunkin’ Donuts right by the metro station which was fantastic because it ended up being Brian’s daily coffee stop.
I had to take a picture of the restroom at Dunkin’ because it had a keypad. You couldn’t use the restroom unless you had the code. Weirdest thing ever.
Descending down the metro station at Woodley Park was a trip. It was a long, long, long way down. Naturally, we had to take an obligatory escalator selfie to commemorate our very first time using the WMATA.
This super nice WMATA lady helped us figure out the best way to get around. SmartTrip cards are definitely the way to go because you save $1 on the cost of each fare on Metrorail, which comes out to $2 for each roundtrip far (compared to using a paper farecard). It cost us $10 each to get our SmarTrip cards but each card came with an $8 load, and they’re reloadable.
Speaking of fares, we also learned that fares during peak times (before 9:30 AM and between 3:00 PM and 7:00 PM) are more expensive than off-peak fares so, to save on fares, Brian usually didn’t leave the hotel to go on sightseeing adventures until after nine.
WMATA has quite an impressive rail system and it continues to improve. They’re in the middle of an expansion right now actually. Metrorail pretty much allows you to go anywhere you need to go. We got quite familiar with it during our stay. We’d just take the red line from Woodley Park, where our hotel is located, to Metro Center and we could hop on the silver, orange, or blue lines. It was amazing, and fast too! I can’t imagine driving.
If you ever find yourself in the Washington DC area, I highly recommend getting one of these SmarTrip cards. Trust me on this one!
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Dad’s 60th Birthday Dinner
Posted on April 17, 2015 by Ching under Family, Food and Drink.
And we take a break from all of the DC blog posts to show you pictures from dad’s 60th birthday dinner at Cy’s Hoof & Horn.
They say that it’s better to spend money on experiences rather than buying things so rather than buying a present for dad we opted buy dinner for the family instead.
For dad’s birthday Brian and I took mom, dad, and Jenni to our new favorite place to eat steak. Jenni got the filet mignon, which is what I had the last time. I thought it was good but I really, really liked Brian’s chicken fried steak so I ended up getting the chicken fried steak this time around.
Brian and dad both got chicken fried steak also.
I don’t know why we each had to get one, all three of us could have shared one piece. The chicken fried steak portions at Cy’s are enormous.
Mom got a steak salad. Only my mom would get a salad at a steak place. LOL. At least her salad was topped with slices of beef, I guess.
Brian and I can’t wait for his mom and dad to visit because we want to take them to Cy’s also. Now that we’ve discovered Cy’s we just want to bring everyone there.
Cy’s isn’t just a great place to eat steak, it’s a great place for a nice family dinner. I hope dad enjoyed his 60th birthday dinner just as much as we did.
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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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