Paris or Little Rock?

Sunday, January 19, 2014 – Paris or Little Rock?

With a forecast of 4 to 7 inches of snow by midnight, I’m looking forward to a quiet day at home.  But I knew that before I could settle down, I needed some exercise.  So right after breakfast I did a half-hour walk in the neighborhood.  It’s also important to have plenty of reading material in the house on a snow day, so I made a quick trip to the library.  Now I’m ready to spend the rest of the day reading (The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert), sipping tea, and listening to my new CD of choral music by John Rutter.  If Elliott gets ambitious, I might do all this while basking in the warmth of a blazing fire.  Unfortunately, I’ve never mastered the fire-building technique.  Decades ago, I was a Girl Scout dropout and as well as an utter failure at building a campfire at summer camp.  All of my efforts at our present homestead have been dismal failures.  I can manage to set some newspaper on fire, but then the flames sputter out within seconds.  It’s a good thing I don’t live in the wilderness. 

Speaking of where I live, I was intrigued by recent Facebook posts by several friends who did the Buzzfeed quiz to find their best city.  Out of curiosity, I decided to take the short online quiz myself.  Some of the questions were easy enough, but others were challenging.  For example, I had no trouble answering the question “How do you like your coffee?”  (I picked “Cappucino with plenty of foam.”)  But I had to reach out for assistance from Elisa in order to answer other questions, such as “What is your favorite Beyoncé song?”  After analyzing my responses, Buzzfeed told me I should live in Paris, which wasn’t a surprise at all.  I’ve often thought I could be happy living in Paris. 

I should have stopped there.  But I saw another link on Facebook to a website called FindYourSpot, which confines itself to U.S. cities.  I couldn’t resist trying their online questionnaire, too.   At first I was encouraged because the questions seemed more meaningful than those on Buzzfeed.  The FindYourSpot questions related to the kind of activities I enjoy, the kind of weather I like, the kind of community I prefer, etc.  After indicating that cultural activities (concerts, museums, etc.), non-extreme weather and public transportation were extremely important to me, I was certain that New York, Washington DC or a similar major city would be at the top of the list.  I was especially eager to see which city would be in first place. 

Within seconds, I had a list of 24 cities that would fit my requirements, and Washington was indeed on the list, ranked at #6.  Three of the cities in the top 5 came as no big surprise: Baltimore, Albuquerque and Portland, Oregon.  But you’ll never guess which city was ranked first – Little Rock!  Yes, according FindYourSpot, the capital of Arkansas would be my best choice.  With sincerest apologies to all you Little Rockers out there, I can’t begin to imagine myself living in your hometown.  In fact, I’d never considered living anywhere within a 500-mile radius of Little Rock.  (Where exactly is Arkansas, anyway?) 

The city profile for Little Rock indicates that it does indeed have museums and concerts.  Perhaps it wouldn’t be such a terrible choice after all.  Should I consider it as a retirement destination?  Should I at least take a little trip out there to get a first-hand look?  On second thought, I recall that Bill and Hillary Clinton chose to relocate to New York rather than go back to Arkansas leaving Washington, DC.  Maybe I’ll hold off on buying that plane ticket to Little Rock. 

In any case, while the surveys were fun, I seriously doubt that I’ll be leaving the DC area anytime soon.  Where else could I find all the world-class museums (mostly free!), the wealth of high quality cultural events, the sheer range of fabulous restaurants, the (somewhat) reliable public transportation system, and much, much more.  Granted, DC area residents pay a premium for the amenities our metropolitan area offers, but it’s worth it to me. 

Just consider what I’ve done close to home in the past week:

Winter Restaurant Week is always a highlight of the season.  This year, I visited an old favorite and tried a few new places as well.  In the immediate area, 2941, with its park-like setting and inventive, exquisitely executed cuisine, never disappoints me.  At lunch with my friend Cheri at the end of last week, I enjoyed delightfully crispy calamari with roasted peppers and cannellini beans; a robustly flavorful beet salad with dried cranberries, goat cheese, and a pistachio vinaigrette; and a succulent salmon filet a l’oseille (with sorrel sauce).  Chocolate panna cotta with blood orange sorbet provided a perfect finish.   

Earlier last week, I traveled into DC with my friend Kathy for a day of culture and cuisine.  We started in the Sculpture Garden of the National Gallery of Art, where we admired the newly installed Chagall mosaic panel.  This monumental piece, entitled Orphée, stands 10 feet high and is 17 feet wide. Chagall made the piece in 1969 as a gift for his friends Evelyn and John Nef, and it stood in their Georgetown garden for decades.  The mosaic is comprised of thousands of tesserae (hand-cut pieces) of glass and stone in a variety of colors.  Some pieces absorb the light while others reflect it.  It will be interesting to back several times over the course of the year to see the mosaic under different lighting conditions.  In the photos, you can see Orpheus, the Three Graces, a couple lying under a tree, a huddle of immigrants and skyscrapers and Pegasus and an angel floating around a golden sun.

Orphée by Marc Chagall (1969)

A close-up view of one section of Chagall's mosaic

 

We also went into the museum to take a quick look at a Van Gogh painting that the NGA recently acquired and is proudly displaying.  In addition, we got a glimpse of the temporary exhibition on Byzantine art, which looked fascinating.  However, we couldn’t linger at the museum because we had a lunch reservation at The Bombay Club, an upscale Indian restaurant just a block or so from the White House.  It was my first visit to The Bombay Club.  The entire meal was delicious, but we were most impressed by two unfamiliar fish dishes we ordered.  Fish Moilee was a Kerala style fish stew (in this case, grouper) cooked in coconut milk and spices including cloves, cardamom and curry leaf.  We didn’t let a single drop of the luscious sauce go to waste.  Hariyali fish was a filet of striped bass grilled with a coriander-mint paste and topped with tomato kachumber.  As for dessert, I never pass up an opportunity to indulge in the warm, syrupy sweetness of gulab jamun, but Kathy made an excellent choice with the trio of sorbets – mango, coconut, and pomegranate.  

Ready to try Fish Moilee at The Bombay Club

Fairfax City was the site of my next restaurant meal.  SistersThai Café opened within the past few months and is getting rave reviews, both for its cuisine and its cozy décor.  Eleanor and I stopped by for lunch after we renewed our parking permits at George Mason University last Thursday.  I’ll certainly add this to my list of good Thai restaurants in northern Virginia. 

Liberty Tavern is another restaurant I was eager to try.  It’s been highly rated by local critics and appears on the latest Washingtonian magazine Best Restaurants list.  Since it’s located in Arlington, Elliott and decided to meet Marshall there for dinner on Saturday night.  It was a bitterly cold night, and Elliott wasn’t too happy about the block and a half walk from the car to the restaurant.  (I was just thrilled to find a parking place on the street in Clarendon.)  Once inside, we warmed up with the tenderest imagineable grilled octopus salad (with garlic puree, rapini, blood orange), and a divine roasted beet salad (with hazelnut, chevre, orange, and fennel) for starters.  We followed that with half-size orders of pasta.  Elliott chose homemade tagliatelle Bolognese (an unusual ragu of duck and pork, porcini mushrooms and Parmigiano) while I chose the cloud-like gnocchi al pomodoro (fresh tomatoes, mozzarella and arugula).  We even had room to split a dessert – goat cheesecake with a scoop of champagne sorbet.  

Enjoying dinner at Liberty Tavern

Grilled octopus salad

Marshall at Liberty Tavern

 Then there was this past Sunday.  Since it was a long weekend for my teacher-friends, Cindy and Michelle wanted to use their extra time for a mini-vacation.  We started with a visit to the National Museum of Women in the Arts to see an exhibit of quilts, many of which dated back to the mid-19^th century.  Afterwards, we stopped at nearby Point Chaud on 14^th Street for a quick crepe break before heading to a Gala Theatre production called La Vie en Rose.  This show was a collaboration between the theater group and the Washington Ballet.  It featured live music (piano), singers, and dancers, all interwoven on stage to bring the joy of French art song and cabaret music to life.  It was a delight to be part of the audience.  When the show ended at 5:00 p.m., it was time to eat again.  We chose Logan Tavern, on P Street near 14^th, for its casual, neighborhood vibe, and its straightforward, well-prepared food.  Of course, we also stopped at Pitango, a few doors down from the restaurant, for what many consider to be the city’s best gelato, before heading back out to Virginia on the Metro. 

Lest you think I spend all my time in restaurants, I want you to know that Elliott and I are going out on a daily basis to look at granite slabs and kitchen cabinets.  The remodeling project is inching forward, and we’re hoping to make some final decisions within the next couple of weeks.  It’s been a difficult process.  I’ve had so many (too many) different ideas about style.  My kitchen fantasies have included a French country farmhouse, a minimalist Japanese interior, a Southwestern adobe structure, and a seaside cottage, to name just a few.  But I’ve finally realized that it’s best to let our natural surroundings dictate our décor.  We live in a beautifully wooded setting, and we can take our cues from the views outside the windows to help us make decisions about color and material.

The snow is falling steadily now.  I'm thoroughly enjoying this day at home.  I think I'll get up and make another cup of tea and give Elliott a subtle hint about building that fire.