You know a place is good when it transports you to your mom or grandma’s kitchen.
Last year, I mentioned my recommendations for where to eat in the Washington, DC, Maryland, and Virginia (DMV) area. But I didn’t add photos.
Now I have a new recommendations. From that list, have you been to Cielo Rojo and Y Noodles? Try them!
Now, on to other recommendations.
The Italian Store: Having lived in Italy, I am obnoxiously picky about my pasta. Luckily most grocery stores in this are now carry good brands of pasta. But, if you want, you can go to the Italian Store. They now have a second location in a off the metro area of Arlington. The original location a few miles away was famous for getting New York City style bagels delivered fresh every morning (New York city is about a four hour drive from here).
The Italian store also makes fresh pizzas and sandwiches. Plus they have fresh baked bread.
There are seats inside along the front window and they have a few tables and chairs outdoors.
Sidamo Coffee and Tea: It’s an Ethiopian coffee shop in Washington, DC. (Coffee as a drink was invented in Ethiopia about 500 years ago). The Sidamo cafe serves coffee but what I like is their breakfast sandwiches and the side of banana and honey.
Good Company Doughnuts: Speaking of breakfast (was I?) and good friends, the Good Company Doughnut makes great breakfasts and doughnuts. They have two locations, one in Pentagon City and the other in Ballston. They make ‘mini’ doughnuts of a good size and of those, I think that the espresso cream is the best. No custard. Just frosting, inside and out. With chocolate glaze.
Good Doughnut Company also makes great breakfast sandwiches and meals for any time of the day. Really delish. One time, I was sitting next to a French tourist who said that she came back two days in a row! Mainly for the espresso cream doughnut…
Villa Yara: This Lebanese place is so good that it transported a Lebanese person to their childhood and made them cry.
While I am not really into desserts, I did enjoy the variety of desserts at Villa Yara. Not only the baklava. I can’t recall what they were called, but one was a sort of floss of ice cream (this is the one that made the Lebanese person cry as they recalled eating this dish in their grandma’s kitchen). The other was a cardamom ice cream, but much more complex. The baklava was excellent too.
I’m a sucker for dairy and the labneh, with olive oil and pepper, served like a scoop of ice cream — made me really happy.
Misha’s Coffee: The pastries are much better than at many other bakeries. It’s a feel good kind of coffee shop. Independent. Quality. A nice place to be.
Get the “Danish” and the “coffee cake.” I’m sure the rest is good but the Danish was exceptionally so.
2Fifty Barbecue: If you want the most tender barbeque meat, then go to 2Fifty barbecue in Washington, DC. This is the softest moistest meat in this area. Nope, the other places do not compare!
Lai Lai Malatang (inside 99 Ranch): Inside the 99 Ranch store in Fairfax, there is a stall where you can choose your own hotpot or dry noodle dish. It’s spicy in a good way.
Truong Tien: This northern central Vietnamese place was trending for a hot moment last year. The food is good. Go for the mini taco style Vietnamese omelet crepe. This blogger described his experience there.
As I find other places, I’ll write about them. Happy eating!
As obsessions go, cheesecake is not one of mine. But, recently, I had a cheesecake that I actually liked. 
I didn’t expect to find a good sushi restaurant in Santo Domingo (sorry, don’t be offended, DR!) but I did. Shibuya is located on the ground floor of the Blue Mall (one of the most expensive high end malls in the city) and it is part of the SBG restaurant chain. SBG has a cafe on the same floor. While Shibuya is Japanese, the dishes are a fusion of Japanese-Peruvian dishes.
First, yes, they have a Japanese chef… for those who use this as a marker for a good Japanese restaurant. I don’t think he works every day so I imagine that sometimes the Japanese food is made by non-Japanese hands…
The sushi place has excellent sashimi (raw fish like the salmon in the first photo — a double portion), tiridito dishes (Peruvian “carpaccio” of fish — thin slices with sauce. See the photo of the fish in the yellow sauce, above.), and ceviches (classic Peruvian style in photo above, with deep fried sweet potato deep and Peruvian corn). Many of the other dishes are good as well, as are their cocktails. I liked their “tuna tartare” which was like a large portion of Hawaiian “poke” (raw fish salad mixed with soy sauce, green onions, sesame seed oil, and chili or mayonnaise… you get the idea) with extra ingredients.
I ate that this restaurant more than ten times and had almost everything on the menu. Their fried rice is super crunchy. I think they toss quinoa in it to make it extra crunchy.
Another surprise at this place is their coconut cake dessert. Not at all Japanese, but is a nice nod to the Caribbean. Try it! I wasn’t convinced as I recall the straw texture of desiccated coconut… this cake tasted like warm apple pie.
In Danish, a danish is a “viennese bread” because it was brought to Denmark in the 19th century by immigrants from Vienna. There are many names and many types of pastry sold in Denmark and the bakeries, although no longer on every corner, are still to be had (today, 7-11 bakes fresh every few hours).
One day when I was in Parque Virrey, here in Bogota, there was a lady selling mini apple pies. Each pie costs 5,000 each ($1.70). The pies are delicious. The pie lady makes other flavors of pie including blackberry.
