Tennessee Williams in a Bar.

Go see it.

Sakana: A Good Alternative to Sushi Taro?

Sakana: A Good Alternative to Sushi Taro?
Since Sushi Taro did not open in time for my birthday, we went instead to Sakana.

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Sakana is best with the Japanese food other than sushi, but their sushi is still decent.

Their appetizers are what really get me. I like the spinach dish at any time of year, but I like their tofu dish in the summer. I've also had their nabeyaki udon (noodles in a clear broth with seafood etc) and it's really nice on cold days.

Today we had sushi, and it seemed better than normal today. The spicy tuna was better than usual. The yellowtail with scallions roll was subpar somehow, like there wasn't enough fish or flavor, or both. The green caterpillar roll was overpriced for what you got; a $10.95 roll is supposed to be a huge maki, but instead they just loaded a regular-sized roll with too much avocado. The unagi was great, though, and the nigiri tuna and salmon were good for the price.

I really like Sakana's take on tempura sushi: rectangular-pressed blocks with crunch on top and in the middle. We had both the veggie tempura roll and the sakana sushi tempura roll (which I think was shrimp). Really good texture, no oiliness, and just enough shrimp to the rice to make it feel worth it.

It's too bad about Sakana's service. Although today there was a dude with a teapot and water pitcher going around, on other days (when it's just the middle-aged woman) our drinks haven't usually stayed full. Also, better order everything you want right away. It'll take a while for your (sushi) order to come, but once it does, the waitstaff doesn't look out for a second round of orders.

So, while Sushi Taro's rebuilding, I suggest Sakana for a cheapish alternative where you can also partake in other Japanese items. This is only if you're committed to dining in Dupont Circle, though; there are better places, but they're more expensive.

(By all means, don't go to Uni for sushi! It's just down the road on P Street, but it's terrible!)

Chariots For Hire, kstreet lounge, and Manny & Olga's

Last night I went to a birthday party for two of my friends. It wasn't really my scene, but it was great hanging out with good people.

We started out on a party bus, courtesy of Chariots For Hire. (Please note, H&C, that Chariots For Hire capitalizes the "F" in its own business name.)

It wasn't quite what I had pictured. I had pictured a double-decker bus with an open top, a staircase, and a fully-stocked bar. Yes, what I had pictured was probably impossible. This is what we got:

Except instead of cheesy Chariots of Fire music, we listened to a mix ranging on the scale from M.I.A. to Hanson, but staying mostly on the M.I.A. side, thankfully. The TV screens played Fast Times at Ridgemont High for the first two hours and Wanted for the second. A couple of times the laser hit me in the eye.

The bus was basically a city bus with comfy benches. The 35-person limit is a real limit; we had 34 and were cramped.

As I looked around at my friends drinking, I thought, why a bus? We were cramped, we were jostled, it was difficult to get drinks if you weren't sitting up front, the music was a little loud, and we weren't even going anywhere far away. But the discomfort and the cheesiness were all part of the fun. Besides, being driven while drunk to the Lincoln Memorial at night was something that was pretty special.

Our first stop, before the Memorial, was kstreet lounge (Note, H&C, that they don't use capital letters in their name, and they don't put a space after the "k".)

I'd never been, so I was interested in what it was like. Because of some special through the bus, we didn't have to wait very long to get in.

Inside, it's about what you'd expect for a clubby kind of place. Loud music, bad remixes (the Losing My Religion cover remix was particularly terrible), and lots of people on a Saturday night. And a lot of ladies.

From 10 to 12 on alternating Saturdays (?), ladies drink free. Seriously, there were a lot of drunk women up in that joint. I wasn't really looking for anyone, just standing in one place talking to the group I was with, and I had two encounters. The first one splashed her drink on my arm. She was very sorry, and talked with me for a bit, but she was the sluttiest-dressed girl within visual range, so I was kinda uninterested.

The second girl reached out and grabbed my arm for support while she put on her shoes, then pulled me into a little bit of dancing with her. She asked "Are you single" as the first thing she said to me. I replied I was. It turns out we have a mutual acquaintence, so I might be seeing more of her... actually, probably not; too busy studying.

kstreet lounge was pretty boring for me after a while. I don't like shouting to talk, so I was disinclined to talk, which is pretty much the only thing I do at bars. We got back on the bus and went to the Lincoln Memorial.

Ever tried to get a bunch of drunk people together for a group photo? Kinda hard to do.

At the end of the night, I was screwed by daylight savings time. I had thought that Metro would be running when I got off the bus at 2:00 am. Except there was no 2:00 am. My cell phone totally skipped that hour, stranding me in DC.

So I went back to one of my friend's houses and ordered some Manny & Olga's cheesesteak. I must say, I love that everything in Adams Morgan stays open until ridiculous hours. Especially Manny & Olga's. Their cheesesteak is the worst-for-you-slash-best cheap cheesesteak in town. Added benefit: they stay open until FIVE A.M.! Slight disadvantage: they're very unreliable, time-wise and order-wise. But hey, that's okay.

I woke up the next morning and found that someone had drunk my left contact (which I'd left in a plastic cup in the bathroom). I went home with one seeing eye and didn't eat until 3pm today.

Coraline

I saw Coraline in 3-D Thursday night at the Gallery Place theater.

(Side review: Before the show, I had Thai Chili's stir-fried duck with bamboo shoots--quite tasty, but not as spicy as described. My compatriot had some sort of noodle-in-yellow-curry dish that tasted a bit like curry laksa, but not as good as the curry laksa at my favorite asian restaurant in DC, Malaysian Kopitiam.)

I read the book by Neil Gaiman. It's a children's book, yes, but there's always been an element of children's fantasy in Gaiman's work, so tthat was fine. I remember liking it but being far from loving it. Call me too growed-up.

I was excited to see Coraline the movie, because it looked creepy and creative. Plus I wanted to check out the 3-D stuff.

First, I wasn't prepared to pay $12.00 for the 3-D effect (and that's with my student discount). You don't even get to keep the glasses for the extra three bucks; you're encouraged to recycle them after the show.

Then the ads. I really detest the fact that they were pimping 12-year-old media so hard. After showing a bunch of ads for a boy-band-ish new movie, a kid's reality show, and Conan O'Brien (was that for the parents or the kids?), they recapped all the ads they'd just showed us.

Then the previews for other movies in 3-D. The Tim Burton one, called "9," looks boring and not really 3-D-ish. I can't remember the second one. But the third was kind of exciting and kind of "huh? A CG remake of an anime?" It was a teaser for Astro Boy.

And finally, the movie itself. Coraline's very pretty in parts, and creepy and disturbing in some ways, but... not creepy and disturbing enough.

Gaiman's story is creepy itself. A girl finds out that she has an Other Mother, who wants her to come live with her in her wonderful world. All she has to do... is give up her eyes and sew buttons into her sockets instead. Lotsa creepiness in that.

The movie was... It was too pretty to be creepy. It was too perfectly executed to inspire nightmares. Thanks to advances in technology, the stop-motion technique is really just a put-on; there's no need for jerkiness in the figures. Everything moved smoothly. Too smoothly.

You've heard of the Uncanny Valley, right? There's this place in the continuum from C3P0 to Commander Data where we get the shivers. Or at least we Americans do; the Japanese, on the other hand...

L'androïde Geminoid
by jeanrem

When I went to see Coraline, I wanted to take a stroll in the Uncanny Valley. I wanted to see twitchiness, almost-humanness, oddness. I'm not a horror kind of guy, but I do like creepy. Coraline the 3-D movie isn't creepy. It's cute. And cute is kind of nice but also kind of boring.

The deuce of it is, there's almost no point in watching Coraline at home without 3-D glasses. The effects are dazzling, when they're used well. I would've been upset had I not seen it in 3-D. I might've walked out, were it not for that cool feature.

Oh, there was a good part in the story. It had to do with dogs.

Thai Tanic Has a Good Location

I really want to like Thai Tanic. It's in such a good location. It's central to a lot of good places. And the food is pretty good. It's just... not that awesome.

Tonight, I ordered from the House Special section: the Thai Tanic Star. It was minced chicken, shrimp, some sort of fishpaste fried cakes, peppers and broccoli. It had three stars next to it, meaning on the mild, hot, and fire scale, it would be fire.

The Thai Tanic Star was very tasty, but it was not spicy at all. I was very disappointed. I had wanted to burn my tastebuds off. I figured that the waitress had looked at me and thought, "White guy can't handle it."

I had some of my date's pad thai, and I admit it was the tastiest pad thai I've had in at least two years. Then again, I like spicy food, so I almost never eat pad thai when at a thai restaurant. But Thai Tanic's pad thai was sweet but not too sweet, peanutty but not too peanutty, and with the mung bean sprouts on the side it felt very light.

Another plus for Thai Tanic is the size of the soda glasses. You'll pretty much get a gallon of coke all to yourself.

But, after we paid the check, the waitresss kept hovering. We were still letting our food settle (we both had eaten too much), and so we were settling into talking. Then the hostess came over and said, "Can I clear table?"

We looked at each other, then back to the hostess, who said, "Sorry, there's so many people, waiting..." blah blah blah she kicked us out. Sure, it's Saturday, and sure, there was a line, but, really? Really? You're going to kick out customers who just finished? We hadn't even been sitting long after paying the bill; tops, 6 minutes.

Thai Tanic... I'll probably be back, since the food's decent and the locale is great, but man, don't kick me out again.

Passive Review: Dusit [Thai Cuisine]

When a restaurant is two blocks from a Metro station in downtown DC, I don't care. I'll even walk five or six blocks without hesitation down there. But when a restaurant is two blocks from a Metro Station in suburban Maryland, I'm like, "What? 2 blocks? Oh, who wants to go to Wheaton, anyway." It makes no sense, but I feel incredibly put out when I find that, to find good ethnic food, I have to walk a bit in the suburbs.

Today I was Christmas shopping at the Wheaton mall and I decided to visit Dusit, reportedly one of the best Thai restaurant in the Districted area. It's at the corner of University Blvd and Georgia Ave, only two blocks from the Wheaton stop on the Red Line.

It was 5:00 or so and I was by myself, which was fine by the friendly staff. They waved me to a booth and then continued talking among themselves in what I assume was Thai. I flipped through the menu, but I had no idea what I wanted. I put the menu down and the waitress came over instantly. I told her I didn't know what I wanted, but that I like everything, spiciness included. She recommended the Penang Curry. I passively went with it, choosing the shrimp option. I also ordered the Steamed Dumplings (pork and shrimp).

The dumplings were great. They were of the shaomai variety, which can sometimes be overcooked so as to ruin the texture. Dusit's were perfect. The sauce that came with them was strong and salty and sweet.

Penang curry is not normally a favorite of mine, but Dusit's penang is the best I've ever had. It was sweet without being cloying. It was subtly peanutty (with peanut chunks in the sauce as well). And it was spicy, but the spiciness was more of a supporting role than a lead. You can tell that it's hot from the start, but you can taste everything perfectly--it only gets warm in your mouth after the first few spoonfuls.

While I was eating, a woman came in who appeared to know the owner. The owner, a tall woman in a gray dress, sat and talked with the customer about the weather, how she's been, their respective children, etc. I didn't get the impression they were close, but maybe the customer had been a frequent patron a year or so ago. I got the feeling that Dusit would be a nice place to be a regular at, unlike my local 24-hour diner, the Tastee.

In all, Dusit seems worth returning to to sample more food. I won't say they're awesome just yet, but my one entree was perfect, as far as that goes. Walkability is very high, just get over the fact that it's in Wheaton.

Axis Bar and Grill

Location: 1340 U Street NW, between 13th and 14th Streets, near the U Street Metro station.
Website: http://www.axisbarandgrill.com/

A small, quietish bar and lounge with decent appetizers and good service. We arrived around 9:30 and were able to secure a bunch of the tables on the upper level. This was key to my enjoyment; I don't like standing around in a crowd. We were able to talk without shouting most of the night, which is also very important to me in a bar. The music was forgettable, but that's forgivable. The atmosphere was a touch classier than your average U street hole, welcoming and not pretentious.

The waitress was cute but a bit too sassy, shushing my friend (whose birthday we were celebrating). She was friendly, though, and, though she seemed busy with the floor below, she made sure to take care of us at our table. She even refilled my water glass multiple times without my asking. And she was knowledgeable about the alcohol; she gave one friend a list of her favorite drinks and how they tasted different from each other. He was pleased with her recommendations.

I had the calamari, a slider (mini-burger) and a bit of the spinach & artichoke dip. The dip was too hot for us hungry fools, burning us as we swallowed it down, but it was all right; the only complaint would be the small amount of toast we received with it. The calamari was above average: the squid was soft and evidently "flash-fried" as the menu suggested, leaving a texture other than the normal deep-fried-tire variety. The sauce was creamy and a bit hard to place--slightly spicy and a little tart. The sliders were excellent and gone in 60 seconds. The meat was flavorful and juicy. The bun was a bit like fat pieces of an Italian baguette--plain, airy, much wider than the mini-burger--but it fit the flavorful contents.

The appetizers were priced appropriately (6-9 dollars) but were not incredibly generous. The entrees looked good but a bit pricey. With Car Bombs costing $10 each, and with us ordering 24 of those through the night, there was no need to consider anything past appetizers.