A Holiday Friday Night

Phor and I made plans to meet up last night to do what we do best - eat good food.  We had hoped to go ice skating but the wind has been miserable here recently.  I prefer to go ice skating when it feels like you're not drowning in the wind.

I had some time to kill between work and meeting up with her so I stopped by the National Portrait Gallery.  I love the fact that Lincoln had one of his inaugural balls in this building.  It was closed for a long time for renovations and finally reopened I believe in 2006.  It's still a gorgeous building but it's just more than it was.

We met up at Rasika in Penn Quarter.  I hadn't been here since 2003 probably and it's still the best Indian food in the city.  We sat in the back where we had a good view of the kitchen.

We started with the Avocado Banana Chaat.  Neither of us knew what to expect but it was very good.  It was a nice contrast between the grilled bananas and the cold avocado.

I saw the Honey Ginger Duck on the menu and Phor was nice enough to agree as we were sharing.  A beautiful dish with cashews and candied ginger.  The duck was tender and perfectly cooked.

We ordered a side of Butternut Squash Bharta which was again something new but it is now a favorite.  Our entire meal was very winter comfort food-ish.

Even our naan was a little different with it being flavored with chili and olive oil.