10K Saturday, Dim Sum, and Belga Cafe

Went to dim sum for lunch at China Chef with Dan's folks in Silver Spring, MD., as planned.This chart doesn't do it justice. I should have taken my own camera and snapped some shots. I will try to next time. If you go to Oriental East's website, they have some very good photos of the dim sum Dan and his family introduced me to, and I have found to be very delicious. Dan tells me there used to be great dim sum at Golden Palace in DC's Chinatown, but it closed in 1999. It was well-known to be a great restaurant-- President Clinton was there on its last day. You have to go out to Silver Spring, MD, Wheaton, MD, or to Fortune Restaurant in Seven Corners in Arlington, VA. for good dim sum now. For great Korean food, go to Annandale, VA. Il Mee is awesome, but dangerous-- an all you can eat Korean buffet. You pick out the meats you want, take it back to your table, where there is a grill. The servers help you cook it. There are other choices there, too. An all you can eat is not a good option for a fat guy who likes Korean food very much. And, it is right next to Shilla Bakery. Some very nice things there. Check out the restaurant links on the right side of the page to get more information online.

Dim sum proved challenging enough for me. The carts keep coming by with delicious dumplings, spring rolls, barbecue pork roll, fried shrimp, clams, and many other choices. I did OK, though not great. I tried to limit myself to only a couple of dumplings, no fried foods, and a few vegetables. I ate fried shrimp, but otherwise kept the portions reasonable. The dim sum was especially good today for some reason. I even chose not to have chai dumplings - a personal favorite.

So, had a few more calories today, and the body seemed to do a little better on the run. I tried speeding up again, and it went OK this time. Had to be in DC by 8:15 pm, and got a late start working out, so had to adapt and hope for the best. I stretched out pretty well, but didn't do my usual warm up 30 minute walk. I started right in on a 9:40 mile pace and jogged 60 minutes - a 10K in an hour. It felt a little dicey on the left ankle, and right calf, but apparently, was OK. I only walked a cool down for 15 minutes, stretched, and hurried up to the shower. I hope there are no negative repercussions from this truncated warm up and cool down time. I will try to manage my time better for future work outs.

Got cleaned up and dressed up, and hurried to 8th Street SE - Barracks Row. Parking can be challenging, but found a space on a side street pretty quickly this time.

Turned out the people we were going to have dinner with at Belga Cafe had a change of plans, but Dan and I went in anyway. I would have passed, but we saw other friends there, and we had a chance to say hello and catch up a little. It was much noisier and more crowded than I like, but this appeals to some people. The service was pretty good, especially considering the crowd.

The decor is nice - warm colors, brick walls, small modern furniture. The bare brick walls, however, also amplify the noise from people at the bar, as well as at tables.

We were served kalamata olive sourdough bread and glasses of water served from very modern and tasteful metal pitchers. I ordered a glass of Bordeaux, which turned out to be very smooth and full-bodied. Very nice. Dan had a Pepsi. For dinner, I ordered two appetizers - an endive and granny smith apple salad and "chicken and crab meat cigars." The salad was tasty, but challenging to eat - not in bite sized pieces, but very good. The bitterness of the arugula, endive, and small chunks of grapefruit were balanced by crumbled blue cheese, pecans, and mandarin orange. There were also very thin, salty slices of fried prosciutto in the salad. A nice combination of flavors, if challenging to put in your mouth without a mess. Yes, I could have tried to cut it with my knife, but it didn't work for me. The dish was served in a crunchy shell you could eat, but I didn't.

The "cigars" were a type of deep fried spring roll, sliced on an angle, with chopped chicken and crab meat and two dipping sauces. It was good, but not what I wanted calorically. I had two pieces, and gave the rest to Dan. I also had a lot of water during the meal. On a side note, spell check doesn't like the word "calorically", and would prefer "caloric ally." That is actually pretty good. That's exactly what I need - a caloric ally to help me against my caloric enemies. And now, back to our food critique.

Dan ordered endive wrapped in bacon and cheese sauce and mashed potatoes. Very, very rich dish, but he enjoyed it a lot. The server offered us the dessert and coffee menus, but we declined this time. Vincent, the pastry chef, is French, very nice, and very talented, but we were full, and I am trying to lose weight. We'll try some of his delicious creations another time.

So, with an entree, two appetizers, a soda, and a glass of wine, we got out of there for under $65.00, including tip. We could have made some less expensive choices - I could have skipped the cigars and been fine with the salad and bread - , but all in all, except for the noise and the close quarters, we were pleased with our dinner there.