PS-7s

Okay, this review is LONG overdue, so bear with me as I try to conjure up my food memories!

PS-7s was on Washingtonian's best restaurants list in 2010, fell out of favor in 2011, and has reappeared in the most recent version. When P and I went in late November, we agreed that it must be reinstated. Seriously, what a fantastic meal.

What's really great about this restaurant is that it's just a step below a true special occassion restaurant (read, you won't blow $400 for two people), but the food and service are definitely above your average random-Saturday-night-in-the-city dinner. And they do Groupons!

When the hostess called to confirm our reservation and asked if we were celebrating anything, I said, "um, well, we just bought a new house. Does that count?" Apparently it did, because they pulled out all the stops to help us celebrate! Every person we interacted with during the night acknowledged the event, we got the most romantic table in the place, AND gratis cava.

The food made us feel equally special. The table bread: delish, especially the soda bready-type cornbread. We share a flatbread (I think it had pumpkin, pepitas, and prosciutto maybe?) and a salad, both of which were really yummy and large. Then I got the deconstructed paella, which, with the exception of slightly overly charred shrimp, was perfectly cooked. And the shrimp still had their heads!!!! LOVE. P got some sort of seafood stew, which he also liked, although not as much as I liked mine. I think we also got desert, but I honestly don't recall.

Bottom line: If PS-7s ever misstepped, it's back. We would definitely return, and although I don't necessarily recommend going here for, say, your engagement dinner, it's definitely worth finding a reason for your dinner to be a celebration of some sort! (x-posted to yelp.com)

Dinner this Week: French Onion and Apple Soup; Ma Po Tofu

What a delicious week we had! My sister was in town on Tuesday, so we had her over for dinner and ate French Onion and Apple Soup. Definitely time intensive (it takes almost an hour just to caramelize the onions) but also definitely worth it! I added a skinless, boneless chicken breast to make it an entree dish--just toss in the chicken when you add the broth, and at the end, remove, shred with two forks, and return to the pot.

I also made the following subs:
-2 tbsp butter, not 3
-~1/2 tsp dried time in place of the sprigs
-apple juice instead of cider
-cider vinegar in place of the sherry vinegar
-no cheese.

We had this with a simple salad (read: bowl of lettuce) with a maple-mustard vinaigrette (olive oil, grainy mustard, cider vinegar and maple syrup). The only real downfall is that we were all pretty hungry again within a couple hours of eating. Next time, more chicken!

Later in the week, P and I had Ma Po Tofu. I had this dish once in Okinawa and looooved it, so I was really excited to find a recipe in CL! This I made fairly close to the recipe, but with Boca crumbles in place of the sirloin, no chili oil, sticky brown rice (we are a no white rice household, outside of risotto) and chopped broccoli (no broccolini at the HT!). Sooooo good that P had almost 3 servings!

Also, both make amazing leftovers. In fact, since I forgot to take pics at dinner this week, that's how you get to see the ma po tofu:

This year is off to a delicious start! It's a good thing these are CL recipes, because I need to fit into my wedding dress in March...