Sorry about missing last Wednesday’s post.  Something came up (something very exciting! more on that later) and I spent most of the week running around like a crazy person.  I had a wonderful weekend though, full of food and fun.

Ethan and I had reservations at Jaleo on Friday to catch the end of D.C.’s restaurant week.  Jaleo is a Jose Andres restaurant.  I LOVE eating at his restaurants because he’s truly a cooking genius.  He is so innovative – he always puts flavors together that you’d never dream of putting together, but in the end, they are totally amazing together.  I practically died when Gwyneth (we’re BFFs, she just doesn’t know it yet) did a post on cooking with him.  JEALOUS.

Even though the restaurant week prices were great, we ended up ignoring the restaurant week menu and just ordering directly from the normal menu.  The food is just too good to be constrained to a tiny restaurant week menu.

We did start out with the wine flight from the restaurant week menu.  Usually you drink the wines in order (in this picture from right to left) but I’m not a huge red wine fan, so Ethan took the red and I took the white.  The white all the way to the right was AMAZING.  Its called Terraprimo Riesling and it was sweet and crispy.

Next we had smoked cow’s milk gouda cheese with a nut brittle.  MMM.

Then my favorite dish from the whole night, an almond garlic cold soup with green grapes and crab.  Sounds like an odd mish-mash of flavors but it was DELICIOUS.

Battered shrimp with caper mayonnaise sauce – Ethan’s favorite dish from the night.

Crab with diced zucchini, cucumbers, peppers, and cauliflower.  We were astonished at how much crab was in this dish!

I think a close second favorite for the both of us, these were empanadas stuffed with a cod emulsion.  Basically, the cod was pureed with cream (and probably a bunch of other things), plopped into a deep fried empanada, and then they drizzled honey on top.  These were amazing!  A definite must if when you go to Jaleo.

Next we had an egg “tortilla” which was made with sweet caramelized onions and Mahon cheese.  Before this came out Ethan and I were thinking we’d have to order a few more plates, but this was so delicious and so filling…

Last but not least, we had spinach with apples, raisins and pine nuts!

Our very convincing waitress assured us that we NEEDED dessert, so we opted for some coffee and the chocolate flan with olive oil and brioche ice cream, topped with a caramelized slice of bread… I’m sure you can tell from the picture that it was HORRIBLE.

Lastly, we finished the night out with drinks at the Iron Horse tap room, a half block away from Jaleo on 7th street.

All and all dinner at Jaleo was wonderful.  One wonderful summery night right before I left for China my Dad and Val took me, my sister, and one of her close friends there for dinner.  It was perfect.  Perfect weather, amazing food, great sangria, engaging conversation.  During the LONG winter months in China, away from my family and Ethan, I frequently thought about that dinner.  I remember sitting outside looking around at Chinatown, thinking how much I had come to love D.C. and how hard it was going to be to leave.  I remember that night feeling all the overwhelming feelings that come when you’re on the cusp of something exciting, challenging, and unknown.  A year later, I returned again feeling like I’m on the cusp of the uncharted territory of adulthood, only the boundaries are a little less defined this time.