after dinner sneeze

t says: I had the great fortune of going to Distrito yesterday.  I had even greater fortune in that because the meal was for work, it was being picked up by my boss.  While I cannot reveal the nature of the business taking place (makes it sound mysterious, right?), I can reveal that the five of us were given free reign to order whatever we wanted.  That, my friends, is a recipe for disaster … a good kind of disaster …

6/2010, 7pm, Party of 5. When we arrived, we were informed that our table was being cleared.  Not more than 2 minutes later, we were escorted upstairs by a hostess and shown our seats.  We were in one of those circular booths along the wall on the upper floor.  On the way I noted that even though I knew the inside of this place was pink, I apparently forgot just how pink it was.  Yea – it’s pretty pink in there!

Because it was the first time at Distrito for some of the members of our party, we listened to the server’s spiel; she recommended 2-3 plates per person.  That sounded like not enough food, but we listened to her instructions and everyone picked out 2-3 plates, and I ordered some guacamole and the vegetarian nachos for the table (someone else ordered that as one of their dishes, so we got two).

I’ll talk about the food in a second – first let me talk about this drink: “honeysuckle”.  This drink is not a very manly drink.  The name isn’t manly.  The ingredients aren’t manly (Bluecoat gin, muddled mint, lime, and honey).  The taste isn’t manly.  But manliness be damned – it was so good.  I’m not sure if it was my sweet tooth or if it was because I had a rough day at work – but that drink was delicious.  The sweet, rich honey was livened up by the mint and lime and citrus flavors of the gin.  I didn’t get any of the burn from the gin, either.  This made me suspect that perhaps there was very little alcohol in the drink.  My suspicion was wrong.  When I stood up at the conclusion of the meal, I found that this drink was kind of like sake … the alcohol sneaks up on you like a ninja.

Now, we had a lot of dishes of food on the table.  It’d be incredibly boring to describe them all.  The highlights were the nachos (trust me – these aren’t just “nachos”), the queso fondido (who can say no to cheese and meat?), the ceviches (we had the hiramasa and the lobster – Garces makes great ceviches), and, from what I could see, the kobe beef tacos (I didn’t have any – but they looked amazing).  The surprise awesomest dish award of the evening goes to … the steamed corn!  That’s right – steamed corn.  You know – I can’t explain it – but just go there and order it yourself, and, as you dive into the warm parfait cup, mixing the layers of corn and some sort of orange-colored cream, I dare you to try and tell me that you’ve had better corn at a restaurant.  Also – because you don’t have to eat it off the cob – no corn in your teeth!

Unfortunately, there were a few misses.  The shrimp ceviche wasn’t as bright and lively as the other two – it was muddled in a tomato-based sauce that, even though it was layered above a puree of avocado, took over the palate completely – maybe some lime and cilantro would have helped (or using slices of tomatoes instead of a puree).  The carnitas taco was also a disappointment, as the meat was a little dry, under-seasoned, and lacking the porky punch I was desiring.  Of course, we had a lot of other dishes that I can’t currently remember, and they were all at the very least a notch above “good” – I only remember the highs and lows.

In the end, we actually had to reduce the number of Kobe tacos from two to one, because we were just too full – I give mad props to the waitress for letting us do that (she could have said, “I’m sorry, the chef had already made it … here it is”).  Unfortunately, I take away the mad props because the person who came to clear our tables gave me only half of the leftovers to take home.  Had I been paying for the meal, I would have felt extraordinarily robbed!  At least he didn’t give me the carnitas tacos – that would have been a double-whammy.

So what was the disaster? … I was so full that the walk home was fairly uncomfortable.  But it wasn’t all that bad, as the  happiness courtesy of the honeysuckle allowed me to travel care-free!  The flavors in most of the dishes were bold and inviting – so much so that I feel that Distrito’s food has surpassed Tinto’s.  I believe that it is now the new #2 – just under Amada.  And, you know what, the pink is growing on me …