This past weekend I was able to experience a lot of firsts as well as learn something new. Part of the weekend was planned, and the other part impromptu.
It started Thursday night at Jaleo in Bethesda. Chris was going to take me to this new restaurant I’ve been wanting to try called Mussel Bar. My beloved Levantes closed down (for the life of me I don’t know why) and this restaurant took it’s place. The menu is Belgian and French, and had all sorts of delicious looking eats at all different price ranges. Side Note-Since we are always on a budget I try to find restaurants that are not too pricey.
It was the perfect summer night and I wanted to sit outside. Once we got there I found out there was no outdoor seating, and the wait was an hour long. Oh and they don’t take reservations so we couldn’t even put our name in ahead of time.
The place was packed and extremely loud. Unfortunately it put me off a bit so we walked across the street to a restaurant I can always count on…Jaleo. Chris and I are total Tapas people, and I know we can always get a great meal here. The wait was about 20 minutes for an outside table so we got a drink at the bar. I started with a Mojito because it looked and sounded so refreshing.
And refreshing it was! Once we were seated at our table I went ahead and ordered for us (since I pretty much know what we both like) and ordered 4 dishes. Because I was overwhelmed when looking at the menu I just picked the first 4 things that came to my mind, and didn’t realize that most of them were fried or very oily. I should have mixed it up a bit, but didn’t realize it when I was ordering.
Can you tell we were excited to eat?!?!
We started with a salad of apples, fennel, manchego, and walnuts in a Sherry dressing.
Next up were cod fritters with an unknown semi-sweet and creamy dipping sauce, fried dates, and the Jaleo special shrimp. That is not what they are really called, but they are the specialty.
The salad was a little sweet, a little tart, and I loved the Manchego in it. The cod fritters were just melt in your mouth amazing. Fried dates…well there isn’t much to say about them. Dates wrapped in bacon and then fried. It’s heaven I tell you. And the shrimp is always a little fishy for me, but I still love it with the oil and garlic.
I also ordered a glass of Albarino with dinner.
We were pretty stuffed after those four plates so we decided to call it a night. Oh, but I did try a few bites of mushroom risotto that was brought to us by accident. 
On Friday I drove up to Baltimore to have dinner with some AWESOME blog girls, Kat, Ashley, and Jordan. We went to a restaurant called Cork’s that we had all heard so much about and couldn’t wait to try. It was in Federal Hill, and was small, but had a nice dining area with a cozy ambiance.
I ordered the Woodhall Wine Cellars Seyval 2008 to start, and didn’t even realize it was a Maryland wine! I’ve heard so many bad things about Maryland wine, but I honestly didn’t mind this.
I didn’t mind it so much that we decided to split a bottle of it later. It was very similar to a Sauvignon Blanc, but a little more crisp, dry, and zippy.
We all shared some bread to start, but I was a little annoyed that you had to pay for it. I hate that! 
It was restaurant week, but I decided to order off the regular menu since the restaurant week menu was more money than I wanted to spend, and more food then I needed to consume. I decided on the Portobello with polenta and goat cheese. It was a nice presentation, but unfortunately wasn’t as good as I had hoped.
I thought the protobello would have been marinated, but the balsamic was just drizzled on top. The polenta was dry and chunky, and it didn’t really have much flavor besides the flavor of goat cheese. The greens added color and texture to the dish, but kept getting in the way and were a little difficult to eat.
It wasn’t horrible, and I ate both mushrooms, but it just wasn’t great. :-/
We still had the best time catching up, drinking wine, and talking about..BLOGS!
Saturday Chris and I decided randomly in the morning to head down to DC and spend the day with our friends. We stopped at Eastern Market to pick up some fresh veggies and enjoy the smells and colors. Then we rode bikes around DC taking pics along the way. We ended up at the Museum of Natural History. I learned a lot while I was there (or should I say I refreshed my memory 
) I’ll let the pictures do the rest of the talking.
The Capital
In front of Tidal Basin and Jefferson Memorial
Lincoln Memorial
In front of the Reflecting Pool and Washington Monument
Can you spot us?? Look closely!
Museum of Natural History
And the result of some of those veggies…a farmers market lunch on Sunday. Arnold Whole Wheat Sandwich Thin, Savora mustard, heirloom tomatoes, cucumbers, and a veggie burger with leftovers on the side along with some red and orange peppers. It was awesome.
What is your favorite thing to do on the weekend? Do you like planned weekends or impromptu weekends?
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Oh what a fun bloggy meet up! I love to stay at home and totally veg out! However, thanks to my parents busy social calender this is never possible!
I LOVE JALEO! It was one of the first places I ever tried in DC and I feel in love with their menu! So good!
What a fun day! I love bike rides and DC is a great city – excellent combo. I think a combination of lazy weekends and fun/going out weekends is my fav. A good balance, ya know?