Food and Drink, The Daily Feed

First Look: TruOrleans

graffiato 001

TruOrleans Restaurant & Gallery sits on the early part of H St NE, before all the hustle and bustle you’ll find closer to Sticky Rice, Toki Underground and Granville Moore’s. If you stand across from it (by Ethiopic), TruOrleans really seems to command the entire block.

It is 2 floors with an open deck. The space is great, and the staff is friendly. Every time I make my way around the place, I’m greeted by the hostess, a waiter and a bartender. This friendliness is a saving grace.

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Eat Like Me, Food and Drink, The Features

Eat Like Me: March’s Best Dishes

Photo courtesy of
‘00374-04Crop’
courtesy of ‘furcafe’
This month got off to a bit of a slow start food-wise. I had a few lackluster meals and a few blah-worthy chain restaurant lunches that didn’t bode well for a month of culinary excellence. I ended strong though, with trips to Bar Pilar, Urbana and my new love of my (edible H St.) life, Ethiopic. If it wasn’t for a superb crab cake at J&G, the lamb tibs at Ethiopic would take the cake as my favorite dish of the month. I also ate at a lot of old favorites, but tried to branch out. Sometimes it worked (the rice bowls at Surfside), and sometimes I didn’t (why I ever stray from the T.U.B.S. sandwich at Ted’s I’ll never know). But as always, I ate well, and I ate plenty.

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Eat Like Me, Food and Drink, We Love Food

Eat Like Me: June’s Best Dishes

Photo courtesy of
‘this is generally what my life looks like at 6:30 p.m. any given day’
courtesy of ‘needlessspaces’

People ask me all the time if they can have my job. NO! Mine. Well, you can have my day job, but you’d have to fight me to the death for my foodie blogging job. And it would be your death, not mine. Along the way, through press dinners, media previews, nights out with friends, and places I’m reviewing for our We Love Food feature, I run into some damn good dishes (for up-to-the minute reviews, follow me on Twitter). Forkful after forkful, I wind up eating some dishes that make me think back with ultimate fondness, and leave me longing for them. Last month I told you all about with them in a little piece I called Eat Like Me. It was so popular with you guys, and I enjoyed writing it so much, that I decided I’ll do it every month. Sort of like a what’s worth it of my food intake – a satoralist of food, if you will.

So. June. It was rainy, right? Ugh. But it was also chock full of food for me, my calendar was overwhelming. June is a busy month in the foodie world. New warm weather menus come hot off the presses, restaurants open their doors to hungry summer crowds, and my friends want to eat out more. It’s pretty glorious. So, click on through to see what made the cut.  Continue reading

Food and Drink, Night Life, We Love Food

We Love Food: Sticky Rice

"Sticky Balls" at Sticky Rice

Sticky Rice is a lot like its brazenly named signature dish, “Sticky Balls” – a chaotic gooey crunchy glorious mess.

This isn’t some temple of sushi where a plate of trembling tempura is placed in front of you with a reverential hush like it’s the freaking Holy Grail. You want that, go to Sushi Ko. You want pristine sashimi prepared by traditional chefs, go to Sushi Taro. You want beautiful experiments and the occasional fugu dinner, go to Kaz.

What you will get at Sticky Rice is irreverent cuisine, a florid interior reminiscent of a tattoo parlor’s secret bordello, and a crazy atmosphere like some art students’ late night party. And resign yourself to waiting on a busy weekend… this isn’t the place to hit with a hard time deadline.

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