To "e" or not to "e"

Tis the question.

The American spelling of judgment has only one "e".  The British spelling is "judgement".  I had a very strict CivPro instructor who insisted that the "proper" American spelling be used...except for those students who were British; they got a pass.  He felt that the American version of spelling that had been taught in schools was appropriate for American students; using the "e", using the "u" in words like colour and favourite was pretentious.  And he graded down for misspelling, typos, wonky formatting...and that was all before hitting the citation style or substance. 

Personally, I don't care which spelling an author uses, as long as the usage is consistent.  Judgement should have the "e" every time it appears or never, and not alternate randomly between the spellings.  And if the British spelling floats the authors boat, please use it all the way through, not just for selected words.  

IMO.

Café Atlántico

Café Atlántico was my third stop in DC’s Restaurant Week. Well, really, it’s more than a week since many of the restaurants are offering their RW menu for two weeks or even all month. The second stop, B.Smith’s, was for an office lunch. While it wasn’t bad, the only thing that stood out to me was the mac n’ cheese, which wasn’t worth the effort of writing a whole post.

Back to Café Atlántico:

This was a high fat content meal. But as my waiter remarked when I was wavering between a healthier choice and the more calorie-laden offering, why eat out if you can make the same thing at home? Nothing on my menu was home food. Although, to be perfectly honest, nothing on this menu is anything I would ever attempt to cook at home.

To start with, a glass of albariño. Normally I would’ve gone for a cocktail, but not many places have albariño or verdejo by the glass, so I took advantage. Really, though, I think I’d like to try their “Vino Verde” next time – albariño, pear vodka and vanilla syrup.

Terrina de higado de pato con pina y platano: foie gras terrine arranged horizontally rather than vertically. Cubes of foie gras alternated with pineapple slivers tossed with plaintain dust and tamarind oil.  The toast was warm, the pineapple cool, the foie gras at room temperature. The flavors were lovely. Personal quirk – I like foie gras either hot (if cooked, as this was) or chilled and spread on toast points with mustard and cornichons. Yes, I’m spoiled. The velvety texture was gorgeous. Not sure about the pineapple pairing, certainly it was unusual.

Pato con frisée y pepitas de calabaza: duck confit over bed of frisée lettuce, with plaintain chips and a reduction made of pumpkin seeds, pomegranate seeds and passion fruit oil. The duck leg was rubbed with sugar, I think, before roasting, resulting in occasional bites of very sweet crunchiness. And duck crackling? Yum. The duck was incredibly tender, of course, and went very well with the frisée. The sauce/reduction was good, too -- I would never have thought to match pomegranate seeds and pumpkin seeds with duck, but they worked very well together. The decadent taste and texture of the duck were worth the elevation of my cholesterol, I’m sure. Question – how does one gracefully consume frisée? I always end up with a little frond sticking out of my mouth, like an unruly piece of spaghetti.

Bizcocho templado de chocolate con banana: molten chocolate cake with Venezuelan chocolate flan, banana espuma, and banana & lime salad. This was an interesting combination. The Venezuelan flan turned out to be more or less a bitter chocolate mousse, not the traditional flan taste or texture I had anticipated – but it was very good nonetheless. The chocolate cake was fabulous – dense without being heavy, and well-matched by the mousse/flan and the banana flavored cream/espuma. The banana-lime salad consisted of very firm bananas tossed with lime juice. Upon first tasting, I tried to figure out why the bananas tasted of pine needles. I don’t equate lime with pine, so I’m not sure what was going on there – maybe the lime was too tart in comparison to the sweet of the banana and the bittersweet of the chocolate? It was a bit jarring when paired with the richness of the other ingredients...which may have been the point, I suppose.

My friend had the scallops, salmon and sorbet – all quite lovely.

The restaurant is located in a nice little venue in the Penn Quarter, just off the Archives/Navy Memorial metro stop. The building is narrow and tall, going up what appeared to be four floors or levels; we were seated downstairs, I would’ve liked to go upstairs just to be nosey, but the restaurant was bustlingly busy.

The service was very good – the waiter was personable and knowledgeable, and easily answered all of our questions. [I especially appreciated his information about sous chefs from El Bulli working in the kitchen occasionally. Wow.] Dishes and glasses arrived promptly and were cleared expeditiously.

The Restaurant Week menu was *quite* the bargain here. Ordinarily my meal alone would’ve been ~$50 (before wine, tax and tip) instead of $30.08.

Would I go back? Certainly. And I would love to try the interactive meal at the Minibar. And the Valentine’s Day menu looks tempting as well, though a bit more spendy than the Restaurant Week menu.

This is the third José Andrés’ restaurant that I’ve tried, with Oyamel still on the list to try. Thus far, though I’ve enjoyed both Zaytinya and Café Atlántico, Jaleo remains my favorite. Not a surprise, though, since I tend to favor traditional Spanish tapas and the more casual setting that Jaleo affords.