Restaurants, discounts, and restrictions...oh my!

Apply the code 44355 to receive 60% off at Restaurant.com for gift certificates valid at over 7,000 participating restaurants. They have $25 gift certificates available for $4 after coupon. Some restrictions apply. Offer expires 10/31/2006 The proceeds will support Share Our Strength's efforts to end childhood hunger and ongoing recovery efforts in the Gulf Coast.

This does not only apply to DC Area restaurants, and I have used them in various cities. Locally, I have used Restaurant.com's certificates for Matsutake and The Front Page. Just look at the restrictions very carefully because there may be party size requirements, the certificates may not be valid certain times or days, etc.

Dukem: Delicious, With Delays

I love Ethiopian food, and often have found some of the best of it at Dukem. The place does a particularly nice job with combination platters - usually for around $11, you can try out anywhere between three and seven dishes to see whether you like them.

My friends and I picked up 2 combo platters and another dish Friday evening. I can say that I enjoyed every dish I sampled. As a rule, you can't go wrong with tibs - beef or lamb marinated in various sauces. We tried the goden tibs, short ribs in a light marinade. While not the most convenient of dishes to eat sans utensils, the steak-like little bites were delicious, slightly crispy and flavorful. We also tried a combo platter with lamb wot, a spicy stew, as well as minchet and regular tibs. Outstanding, though the wot's later impression wasn't as favorable as the first few bites.

Particularly high praise should go to the vegetarian combos that Dukem offers. I tend to shy away from vegetarian dishes at many places just because I'm not sure they'll be assertive enough for me. Here, the variety of flavors and choices left me more than satisfied. I'd recommend the veggie combo #3 - it's one of the only ways you can sample Dukem's delicious chickpeas in spicy sauce, which I'll take over hummus any day.

All the dishes come with Dukem's injera, which is fluffy with just the right touch of sourness. The honey wine is a bit sweeter than other varieties I've had, and I'd probably order a less cloying beverage on my next visit.

If only our service had matched the efforts from the kitchen. Flagging down a waitress was a constant problem, and there was a particularly long delay for drinks and between drinks and our main course. In addition, a friend's mixed drink was served in a broken glass with mysterious black flecks floating inside. My restaurant standards are usually food-driven rather than service-driven, so it wasn't enough to put me off the place, but a friend was definitely less than impressed. You've got a wonderful product here, Dukem. Sell it like it deserves to be sold.

Dukem
U St and 12 St NW
Washington DC
202-667-8735

Chocolate that's hot -

It smells like hot chocolate. I mean, it's hot, and it's chocolately. Hot chocolate, right? Noooo, chocolate tea. This stuff has been around forever, but it still has me totally confused. I had always assumed if someone wants watery, dirty-looking hot chocolate they'll just use half a packet of powdered stuff; But no, there is a more tannic alternative.

Chocolate tea is usually made from a mix of ground, black tea, usually Ceylon, and various additives. Sometimes one of those additives is chocolate or ground cocoa beans, but a lot more often the source of that chocolocity is chemicals, chemicals, chemicals. When you're reading the description, pay close attention to where the commas appear. You have to hand it to a PR department who can word something as slyly ambiguous as 'This black tea is blended with Bavarian chocolate and raspberry flavors'.

As anyone who's tried the new 99% cocoa bar from Lindt knows, cocoa flavor without some sort of sugary uplift can be an sharp, metallic thing. So some chocolate teas use natural sweeteners like liquorice root or cinnamon oil, and some simply include the instructions "Add sugar". Connoisseurs of loose chocolate tea suggest using it as the starting point for blends instead of naked; and manufacturers are way ahead of them in terms of turning out mixes with coconut, rose, mint, caramel, and whatever else chemical happens to be lying around on the mixing floor that day.

Still not convinced to just break out the Swiss Miss? Then give these a try. They're actually pretty good if you're on a diet:

Stash as any number of chocolate teas, from macadamia flavored to caramel.

Adagio makes a pure version good for mixing. Reviews say don’t let it steep too long

Canada Creek is what you want if there's a connoisseur you're trying to impress

SpecialTeas also seems to know what they're doing, and they may very well have the most organic versions of the bunch. Or then again, it may not. Chocolate teas are shifty things.

Incidentally, this in no way discounts the pure awesomeness of Chocolate that has tea in it. Try the Dark Chocolate and Earl Grey Version from Neuhaus over in Union Station.

Tasting Georgetown on Saturday

The 13th Annual Taste of Georgetown is happening this Saturday, October 14, from 11 AM to 4 PM. The event takes place on Wisconsin Avenue between M and South Streets, and at Grace Episcopal Church.

About 25 restaurants will be on hand, and the cost per taste is $5, or you can get a pack of five tastings for $20. With such national culinary gems as Citronelle and 1789, plus the excellent Red Ginger, Agraria, Leopolds, Fahrenheit and Neyla, the interesting Mie N Yu, and Georgetown stalwarts Old Glory, Clyde's, J. Paul's and Smith Point, any hungry person could drop 40 bucks and still not hit every stand they'd want.

As an added touch, Blues Alley will be providing the jazz and blues...though they'll have to crank it up to compete with the psuedo-techno pumping from the Euro boutiques.

Kinda funny that Georgetown would be the less-crowded alternative, but with Howard Homecoming, U Street and the Waterfront will be packed.

Wonder if Cam'ron's gonna get shot this year...?

Cheeseburger in Paradise - Reviewed by the Five Paragraph Bitter Food Critic

Have you ever been to a restaurant that you can't stand, yet can't wait to try again? Then you know how the 5PBFC feels about Cheeseburger in Paradise, a Jimmy Buffett-inspired tribute to three of Buffett's favorite subjects - eating, drinking and making money.

Cheeseburger in Paradise embodies and embraces pretty much everything I hate about chain restaurants. Cheesy, overenthusiastic servers who have to follow a greeting script? Check. Stupid names for ordinary menu items (in this case, with a Buffett theme)? Check. Day-glow menu with paragraph-sized food descriptions because "French-Fried Potatoes" is too nebulous for mere mortals to understand? Check. Bartenders who think they're Tom Cruise in "Cocktail?" Check. Acoustic singer/songwriters doing covers of Live, Guns and Roses and Nirvana? Check. Ungodly amounts of tacky crap on the walls? Check. A roaming gangbang of servers singing "Happy Birthday" while food waits under heat lamps? Check. A little too kid-friendly? Check. Mediocre food and drinks at inflated prices? Well...

That's the rub. The food is good - surprisingly so, given the sub-$10 mark on most of their chow. They'll prepare their burgers to any desired temperature, from scorched well-done to scared-with-a-flashlight rare - a nice, wonderful touch in the chain restaurant world. They'll also substitute a turkey burger or a vegan patty on any of their burgers for no charge. The appetizers alone are the size of a meal. Check out the Carnivorous Habits Platter (again with the Buffett theme!). The BBQ Jerk ribs were about as good as any ribs I've had. Perfectly seasoned, just the right combo of spice and sauce, and very juicy. The teriyaki wings were fantastic, almost as good as the wares from Bruce Lee Wings in Baltimore's Cross Street Market.

This is not a restaurant for Alcoholics Anonymous members. Their bar book is the size of a F. Scott Fitzgerald novel, and lists dozens of various margaritas, pina coladas and mojitos. The place has more booze than a hip hop video, and the large variety of rums could make a pirate scream for temperance. The drinks are cheap, just a step above "college dive bar" cheap. The Goombay Smash, somewhat similar to the Gorilla Farts from my beloved Monterrey's in Virginia Beach, is $5.50. That seldom buys a draft beer around these parts anymore. I just wish the fruit garnish wasn't looking at me.

CiP is a fine place to take any Parrothead, or perhaps a decent meal after a day in the malls. It's definitely a step-up above the run-of-the-mill suburban chains, and, at the very least, the cheap drinks will make you forget that a dozen servers are singing "Happy Birthday" to some screaming toddler. My biggest complaint is that it tries just a little too much to be cute and pleasing - the overall theme of a beach bar alone would be nice. I just wish it could be a little more Coastal Flats classic than Chuck E. Cheese loud, because the food deserves better.

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CiP gets 5 out of 10 Whammies! The food, drinks and overall value would earn it more Whammies!, and the drinks are strong enough to make me think for a second, that, indeed, I am in Key West, but I simply can't fully endorse any place that calls its employees "Islanders" in the middle of a landlocked suburban strip mall.
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Cheeseburger in Paradise
5 Virginia Locations - Woodbridge, Charlottesville, Fredericksburg, Virginia Beach and Newport News
2 Maryland Locations - Pasadena and California

World Market's 40% off Coupon

Just in case some of you are fans of World Market, I’d like to mention that they have a 40% off coupon which is valid through the 7th, and is in store only. It is for one regular priced item, including gourmet food, and excludes alcohol, furniture, or gift cards. I have on occasion found some good gourmet items at World Market’s Pentagon Row location, and I know that there are a good number of locations in the area.