Best of Washington – A Foodie’s Heaven

I apologize for the 24-hour delay in this post. But I was just wayy too full (and slightly tipsy) to post this last night! So here you go- below is a photo-recap of my wonderful evening at the Best of Washington Party 2011! For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, each year Washingtonian Magazine hosts a huge party with 60 of the top-rated restaurants in DC sampling food and drink. I had only ever been to 2 restaurants on the list, so I was quite excited to try some awesome food, some of which I may likely never actually eat in the restaurant because of how pricey they are! The tickets for the event are not cheap– but let me assure you, I got my $95 worth 🙂 Good thing I had my expert foodie friend with me to navigate the crowded booths inside the National Building Museum- she even made a ranked list beforehand so we could prioritize which restaurants were essential to try first. It’s actually amazing that I managed to take so many pictures, while juggling a plate of food in one hand and a drink in the other the entire night!

First view of the party upon entering

First drink of the night: the madras (a taste of summer)

First taste of the night - yellowfin-tuna carpaccio from Central (Chef Michel Richard)

So simple yet one of my favorites - Tomato Tartare from Citronelle

Scallop and blue crab "chorizo" with shaved summer-squash salad from Vermillion

Lobster rolls from Red Hook Lobster Pound

Mini cupcakes from Red Velvet. We decided to wait to eat these until we sampled all the dinner food first (That strategy lasted approximately 20 minutes)

Favorite dish of the evening: Salmon sashimi with tomato salad and basil from J&G Steakhouse (unfortunately it was consumed before I could take a picture!)

Macaroons from Adour. Personally I thought these were prettier than they were tasty

Pork dumplings from The Source (okay yes I ate a little pork) - by Wolfgang Puck!

Green gazpacho topped with melon salad and rock shrimp from Redwood that was amazinggg

One of my fav restaurants - Kushi! They went for a more simple chicken dish - still delicious

Yes, more cupcakes. Georgetown Cupcake was giving out regular-sized ones! And yes, I ate one even though when I'm in Georgetown I will ONLY eat cupcakes at Baked and Wired.

Indulging in a chocolate peanut butter cupcake!

Our "to-go" stash of cupcakes... don't judge

Foodies for life ❤

Believe it or not, that wasn’t even half the food we ate. But if my pictures weren’t enough, be sure to check out Washingtonian’s video recap of the evening. Next year, I think we will have to pace ourselves better (yet still hit the top restaurants first, before they run out!) and also take some tupperware. (just kidding!) ALSO: Read the program!! We took one look at the map and made a bee-line for the first restaurants we wanted to try without even realizing that the food selections were all listed in the programs! I was so sad when I realized we had missed 2 sushi samples!

Some other not-picutred favorites of the night included: BLT Steak’s tuna crudo with cucumber citrus and burnt-olive jam, Rasika’s Cauliflower Bezule, Michel by Michel Richard’s almond-cherry shooter, Cozumel ceviche (from El Centro D.F. with white fish, citrus sauce, tomato, onion, and avocado) & Perrys scallop crudo with green-tea-and-yuzu foam and tobiko! And my favorite libation was hands down the St. Lemongrass Sangria from Ping Pong Dim Sum. The Raspberry Shock Top was pretty rockin as well.

This night was so fun and it confirmed the abundance of amazing food in DC! Can’t wait to continue eating my way through the city 🙂