Last Meal in DC...Another Meal in NYC

Having been quite impressed with last night's Viet fare, Smee and I returned to the Eden Centre for more.  Poor Smee has not had the best of Viet food in London, so we thought it be best he try and get his fill in DC.  The surprising thing about the Eden Centre is that for the relatively small number of restaurants, each seemed to have their own specialty. 

Smee and I settled on Thanh Tong, a restaurant which specialised in Bun Bo Hue.  There was an odd thing about this restaurant.  We only know this because a customer walked in, sat down, struggled with the English menu and requested a Spanish one.  The restaurant did not have a Spanish menu.  The customer then asked in broken English if any staff in the restaurant spoke Spanish.  The Viet granny then went out to the kitchen and brought back the Latino head chef.  Wtf?  That's not a complaint though!  The food was tasty and authentic!  We didn't get the usual MSG attacks after either! 

Banh Xeo.  It was the biggest frigging Banh Xeo I've ever had.  They sure didn't skimp on the accompanying herbs either.  My Bun Bo Hue - nice and lemongrassy without tasting instant.  Smee had the Com Tam.  The biggest ever Com Tam I've seen on the planet and included two fried eggs instead of the usual one.  Mmm cholesterol city...

Never mind that we couldn't finish our meal, I am one to make the most of an opportunity.  So off I trotted much to Smee's protest to get my Banh Mi fix. I just wanted a snack for the five hour drive back to NYC! 

Unfortunately, it was a little disappointing.  The filling was ok, but the bread wasn't as crusty as the Aussie Viet bakeries.  Or maybe I've just gotten to the Aussie version. 

The journey back to NYC wasn't anything exciting.  We got back alive, that's all that mattered.

Well, we had brunch in DC, a snack on the ride home.....there really is nothing else to do but to have dinner after a long drive.  Hehehe.  Smee and I settled on Le Relais De Venise given that it wasn't far from our car rental return location (good riddance to The Tank!).

Le Relais De Venise is a L'Entrecote restaurant of which there are several outposts including Paris, London and New York.  Smee had been to the London one and told me all about it and I was pretty eager to wolf some L'Entrecote-goodness down.  The restaurant does not have a menu as it specialises in only one dish.  You specify how you want your steak done and you can either eat it or leave. 

The salad starter.  The steak with frites.  Mmmmm saucy.  The steak is served in two stages - half of it is held back and kept warm until you are ready for it.  Nums!!

Enjoying the house red.  Enjoying the steak. Oh how can I not enjoy a restaurant where the waitresses adorn French Maid/Waitress uniforms?

After dinner, we needed to walk off the binge-fest and doing so, had to bypass some lights.

Did I mention that we were in New York f**king City?!?

Of course, the cops have gotta have their station up in bright lights too.

Tomorrow is another day in NYC and no doubt there will be another eating adventure.