ahhhh. to be high on food you don't normally prepare at home...

despite having a meltdown at work yesterday because of the deadlines i have in the next week or two, my night ended spectacularly. originally, the plan was cavin was going to meet me at union station so that we could pick up a few last minute items for our xmas presents, stop by teaism, and then go home and eat hotdogs or whatever else we have lying around in the fridge (not much: hotdogs, zucchini, tortillas, bacon) for dinner.

as soon as we got off at gallery place/chinatown metro stop though, cavin said something, but the only part of what i heard was "poste" and "french fries". let me just state for the record that i am addicted to french fries and that i love love love! poste's truffled frites! and at $4 during happy hour (4-7pm)? how could you NOT love them?

so after stopping by teaism, we quickly made our way to poste. after ordering $4 glasses of the house white (happy hour price), a table cleared up and we were able to sit. then, the frites came out. oh, glorious frites!

the truffled frites are served in a cone of newspaper lined with wax paper on the inside. every time we've gone and gotten them, they are ALWAYS spot on. they are always crunchy, hot, and i think they are mixed with truffle oil, a tiny bit of chopped parsley, just a bit of thinly shredded parmesan, and of course, salt. they are served with ketchup, which i only use sparingly because seriously, who needs ketchup when the frites tastes this good?

the only downside in going to poste are the drinks. they do have specialty drinks, but they are quite pricey (~$10), which doesn't really jive with the whole happy hour theme. the house red and white are $4, but what if you don't drink wine? oh, and don't get me started about the beer prices during happy hour. miller lite, sam adams, high life, and bud for $4? normally those beers costs $4.50 at poste, so you're only saving 50 cents, and really. bud for $4? who pays for that? more importantly, who's drinking bud and ordering truffled frites? the whole thing is a travesty, but i digress.

so at this point, our plan was to eat the frites at poste, and then go home and figure out what to do with the items in the fridge that have been begging for attention. again, cavin said something before we left poste, but the only words i heard were "cafe atlantico." as soon as i heard these words and before cavin could finish what he was saying, i immediately felt like kramer: "I'LL TAKE IT!"

we left poste and headed down the street to cafe atlantico, another restaurant in jose andres' empire. we hadn't gone in a while, really. cavin took me to minibar for my birthday back in september, but before that we had only done the latin dim sum brunch there. so i was pretty psyched that we would be going. there was some confusion as to whether we would get a table or just eat something small at the bar, but we quickly settled on eating at the bar if there was space. and there was.

cavin and i started off with drinks. i have always heard the mojitos at cafe atlantico are awesome, so i decided to try the special blackberry mojito. it was really fantastic. i should have paid more attention when the bartender was making it. it wasn't super sweet, and it had just the right amount of rum. cavin ordered a pineapple capirihna, which was also excellent.

i like tasting different things, so we decided to split three appetizers and one entree:

-passion fruit guacamole (served with flour tortillas)
-fritura de lambi (dominican conch fritters with liquid center, jicama-avocado raviolis and mango oil)
-foie gras con maiz y tamarindo (seared foie gras with corn puree, sauteed corn kernels, corn nut powder, corn sprouts and tamarind)
-duck confit on a bed of frisee and topped with pine nuts

everything tasted delicious. we ordered the passion fruit guac medium spicy, and it had decent heat, and the passion fruit really stood out in each bite, making the guac taste even more fresh. the conch fritters could have been a little bit more (temperature) hot, and the outside could have been a bit more crunchy, but the liquid center was delicious. it tasted like a creamy, earthy flavored sauce with pieces of conch inside.

the two stars of the night were the foie gras and the duck confit. the foie gras seemed to be pan seared and deglazed with white wine and had a soft and delicate texture, not unlike fresh sea urchin (but not nearly as delicate). the corn had a sweet, roasted flavor and was also topped with something crunchy, and i realized that the corn nut powder was essentially crushed up cornicks (think corn nuts, but 10x better).

the duck confit i think was mislabeled in the menu as having spinach and pepitas (pumpkin seeds): ours came out with frisee lettuce which was tossed with some sort of fruity vinagrette and was also topped with toasted pine nuts with a side of deep fried plantains. the discrepancy between the menu and what we got didn't make any difference. the duck confit had a nice caramelized crust and was perfectly seasoned throughout. the meat was also tender enough that we really did not need a knife (which we were provided, though).

we were too stuffed to get dessert, but we did order another round of drinks. this time cavin got the acai, guarana, mango martini (acai, guarana fruit, mango juice and mango rum) while i sloshed down the pisco sour (montesierpe pisco from peru, sour mix, sugar, and egg whites). again, both were really delicious.

going out in the chinatown/gallery place area is really great for us. it's on both the red and green lines, so if we are coming from work we don't have to change lines, and when we go home we also don't have to change lines. in fact, we lucked out last night and ended up with the perfect scenario one would hope for when trying to catch the train: the next train in our direction was in 1 minute. we didn't have to rush down the platform, nor did we have to wait many minutes till the next train arrived.

and the fact that cafe atlantico and poste are so accessible to us, in price and atmosphere and location, makes going a no-brainer. next time we'll save room for dessert.

poste brasserie
hotel monaco
555 8th street nw
202.783.6060

cafe atlantico
405 8th street nw
202.393.0812

Labels: french fries, restaurant, wine