Ireland's Four Courts in Courthouse

I've just got an invitation in my eMail for Halloween, at Ireland's Four Courts in Courthouse, the Arlington County.

I cannot honor it any more, as I am now in Massachusetts, but I remember a fine evening I spent there on the terrace, with a glass of good Irish beer, and some fries. There were three guys at another table, two young gentlemen and a young lady, and we started a discussion together. I felt at the beginning like they were somehow making fun, so I answered kind of cool. But I soon realised that I was actually tired after a long work day and that they were just nice. I told them this and we became friends immediately, despite of age difference. So the rest of the evening was great.

(Washington, District of Columbia)

Arlington - John, Robert and Edward

The Final Place of Edward Kennedy, the Liberal Lion of the Senate

The three brothers rest at the National Cemetery in Arlington: John, Robert and Edward. I was there the day after the body of Edward had been buried, at the foot of the hill that offers the greatest view of Washington.

(Washington, District of Columbia)

Bouranee Baunjan

I found last year an Afghan restaurant in walking distance, Adnana. I entered thinking I would drink a cup of good coffee. No, they had the same coffee as in any other place in America, so I was about to leave. They insisted me to see their menu.

People were looking very nice and I decided to try something. I choose by random some dish (Bouranee Baunjan) that consisted basically of fried eggplant, yogurt and Afghan bread (kind of Pita).


I had never eaten such a tasty fried eggplant. Actually, what I like most is eggplant salad (the Baba Ghanoush that you find here in any Mediterranean restaurant), but this Bouranee Baunjan was unique.

I came again to Adnana when one of my two sisters was visiting and I offered her this delicacy. We quarreled after that as always, on various issues, but the point is that she enjoyed Bouranee Baunjan.

And then bad weather came, firstly rain and storms, then snowfalls, then low temperatures, all that kind of stuff, and I forgot about Adnana. I went again after about one year: Adnana was out of business. There was now a Mediterranean restaurant (with hookah bar, like the old restaurant), but without Afghan cuisine. I tried a fried eggplant: well, Moroccans prepare it some other way, nobody's perfect.

So I started to look for other Afghan restaurants, to have a Bouranee Baunjan. A look on the web gave me a very promising spot: the Marcopolau.



Marcopolau appeared to be some place in Arlington, pretty close to one of the metro stations. The menu looked great:


The Bouranee Baunjan was there, with the same description (fried eggplant with homemade yogurt and Afghan bread) and the same price as at Adnana:



I decided to go there the same evening, only this came out to be impossible. I had too many tasks in the same time, and finding a place with Bouranee Baunjan appeared not to be the highest priority.

The time for Marcopolau came after about one month, and one Friday evening I took the metro and got out at Courthouse. I took the street that was on the left just to realize that I had forgotten everything, directions, address, even the name of the restaurant.

I started to ask people on the street whether they knew about an Afghan restaurant located some place there. The answers were not very encouraging. I took the Veitch Street, down to Lee Highway, then I erred for about half an hour, without finding anything. The place was new for me, and it was getting dark. I arrived at a shopping center on Lee Highway, with Giant, and CVS, and all kind of other stores, except for Afghan restaurants, so I decided to go back. It took some time to be again near the metro station, then I started to look again for the Afghans.

I found an Afghan fast-food, just near the metro station, but it was not what I was looking for. I took the Wilson Boulevard towards Clarendon, hoping to find the restaurant with Bouranee Baunjan. There were maybe twenty restaurants on Wilson, Irish pubs, an Italian ristorante with an interesting name (kind of Listrani or something like this), one or two Mexican Cantinas, an Indian fast food, some grills, a Thai bistro, a great Tapas bar, and so on, only Marcopolau was not to be seen.




Eventually I reached Clarendon metro station: no Afghan restaurant at all. Something was wrong in my memories about the location. And I was hungry.

There was an Iranian restaurant there, Kabob Baazar, and I remained to have a bit of a dinner.


I ordered fried eggplant with yogurt: it was not like the Afghan dish. You cannot fight against destiny.

I came back home and I looked on the web. Marcopolau was on Fort Myer Drive, in walking distance from Rosslyn metro station! Another station, another street, that's kind of a difference. I decided to go there the following day.




This time I was more cautious and I had my breakfast home, just in case. I took the metro and got out at Rosslyn. I found very quickly the address: a huge building you could enter from four streets. I went around the building: all doors were locked. I saw a mailman and I asked him about Marcopolau. He sent me to the other end of the building. I found nothing.

I went back to the metro station and asked the supervisor there. He knew vaguely about such an Afghan restaurant and sent me back to that address. I circled again the building, with the same result.

Something was definitely wrong.

There was a foreign languages institute across the street, I found there one door that was unlocked, I entered and asked a lady about Marcopolau. She told me that the restaurant had gone out of business some time ago.

It seems that there still are some Afghan restaurants in DC area, with a strong possibility to be out of business, too, so I gave you here the recipe of Bouranee Baunjan, just in case. I found it on the web:

Ingredients:
* 4 Medium eggplants (1 kg total)
* Salt
* Oil for frying
* 2 Medium onions; sliced
* 1 Green pepper; seeded, sliced
* 2 Large ripe tomatoes; peeled Salt
* 1/4 tablespoons of Hot chili pepper
* 1/4 cup of Water
* Chakah (Yogurt Sauce)
* 2 cup Chakah (drained yogurt) Buy a cheese cloth. You can find at Wal-Mart in the craft section, Place plain yogurt inside the cheese cloth over a bowl in the fridge overnight. Squeeze excess liquid out and only use the remaining yogurt inside the cheese cloth)
* 2 Garlic cloves (or more)
* Salt to taste

Directions:
1. Cut the stems from eggplants and leave peel on. Cut into slices 1 cm (1/2-inch) thick. Spread on a tray and sprinkle slices liberally with salt. Leave for 30 minutes, then dry well with paper towels.
2. Pour enough oil into a deep frying pan (with lid to fit) to cover base well. Fry eggplant until lightly browned on each side. Do not cook completely. Lift onto a plate when browned. Add more oil to pan as required for remaining slices. As oil drains out of eggplants on standing, return this to the pan and add onion. Fry gently until transparent. Remove to another plate.
3. Place a layer of eggplant back into the pan. Top with some sliced onion, green pepper rings and tomato slices. Repeat using remaining ingredients and adding a little salt and the chili pepper between layers. Pour in any remaining oil from eggplant and onion and add the water. Cover and simmer gently for 10-15 minutes until eggplant is tender.
4. Combine chakah ingredients and spread half of the sauce into base of serving dish. Top with vegetables, lifting eggplant carefully to keep slices intact. Leave some of the juices in the pan. Top vegetables with remainder of chakah and drizzle vegetable juices over it. Serve with Kabaub and Lawash (flat bread).

If you succeed then give me a call:) Thanks in advance!

By the way, you can find this dish name on the web with slight variations, like Burani Baanjaan for instance; no wonder, Afghans are Pashtu or Farsi speakers and use the Arabic alphabet.

(Washington, District of Columbia)

Arlington National Cemetery

(Washington, District of Columbia)

Carpool Pub in Ballston

Ballston neighborhood in Arlington County, Northern Virginia. Pretty close to Virginia Square.



It used to be a carpool garage. It was converted into a pub. They kept the gas pumps at the entrance and all kind of auto stuff inside.



Beer and billiard, and always crowded. I think at my old friend from Bucharest, Radu - he would be fine here. This video is devoted to him.



Here are some more images:







(Virginia Square)

Photo from a Book about Arlington County

(America viewed by Americans)

It is fine at Greenberry's

This coffee house is in Arlington between Courthouse and Rosslyn, on the Wilson Boulevard. It is a franchise of a small chain (Greenberry's Coffee & Tea). I went there twice. The coffee is fine, the pastries too. You have a large choice of newspapers to read there for free.

I have tried a small video. Let's see what I've got.






(Washington, District of Columbia)

The Tin Soldiers of Andersen are in Clarendon

There were once five-and-twenty tin soldiers, who were all brothers, for they had been made out of the same old tin spoon. They shouldered arms and looked straight before them, and wore a splendid uniform, red and blue. The first thing in the world they ever heard were the words, “Tin soldiers!” uttered by a little boy, who clapped his hands with delight when the lid of the box, in which they lay, was taken off. They were given him for a birthday present, and he stood at the table to set them up.



The table on which the tin soldiers stood, was covered with other playthings, but the most attractive to the eye was a pretty little paper castle. Through the small windows the rooms could be seen. In front of the castle a number of little trees surrounded a piece of looking-glass, which was intended to represent a transparent lake. Swans, made of wax, swam on the lake, and were reflected in it. All this was very pretty, but the prettiest of all was a tiny little lady, who stood at the open door of the castle; she, also, was made of paper, and she wore a dress of clear muslin, with a narrow blue ribbon over her shoulders just like a scarf. In front of these was fixed a glittering tinsel rose, as large as her whole face.



But there is much more in Andersen's tale. Click here if you forgot it.




(Clarendon)

(Hans Christian Andersen)

Clarendon

Clarendon Boulevard at Evening

• Van Gogh - Cafe Terrace at Night
• Evening in Clarendon
• The Tin Soldiers of Andersen are in Clarendon
  

(Washington, District of Columbia)

Evening in Clarendon

Each Wednesday the place in front of the Clarendon Metro Station is used for the Farmer's Market. I was today there and bought some stuff, then I continued my way down the Clarendon Boulevard.

There is a fine Wine Cellar there. Usually they have there two or three sorts of Moldavian wine - today there was none - but I had a surprise: a bottle of Tamaioasa!

Clarendon is part of Arlington County in Northern Virginia; it's a nice place to live, of course very expensive. Not far from Fairfax, where I live. I usually come to Clarendon every Wednesday evening: I do some shopping at the Farmer's Market and at the Whole Foods store, I enter the Barnes & Noble to browse some books and CD-s, I take a cup of coffee at the Starbucks, sometimes I am walking further to Courthouse (as I did this evening), sometimes even to Rosslyn, sometimes I walk back up to Ballston and I take the metro back there.

I did not have too much luck this time at Barnes & Noble. I wanted to take a picture of a wallpaper that was over the cafe room: it is in any Barnes & Noble bookstore. The clerk I asked kept on saying something about the company's policy. And of course, nobody working there was able to give you any information about that wallpaper (it shows all famous British and American authors). The same wallpaper in any Barnes & Noble bookstore, and nobody from Barnes & Noble can give you any information!

I left the bookstore disappointed. Huge corporations like Barnes & Noble have their good and bad parts. This evening I could see only the bad parts.

It was already night, so I could take no more pictures. I tried to record a video instead, in front of the Barnes & Noble bookstore. There is a small garden there, with a playground, and some elegant stores around. Here you go:




(Clarendon)

Van Gogh, Cafe Terrace at Night

(Click here for the Romanian Version)
The lights grew bright along the Boulevard St. Michel and the cafe terraces filled with people ... Night settled like a blue blanket over Paris.
Langston Hughes, The Big Sea: An Autobiography

I came to a good cafe that I knew on the Place St.-Michel. It was a pleasant cafe, warm and clean and friendly, and I hung up my old waterproof on the coat rack to dry and put my worn and weathered felt hat on the rack above the bench and ordered a cafe au lait. The waiter brought it and I took out a notebook from the pocket of the coat and a pencil and started to write.
Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast



Clarendon - part of the Arlington County, in Greater DC area. Spending sometimes the evening there. Not Paris, of course - it's very small, only one block actually - but it has style, and it has a certain taste for the savoir vivre.

People stay at the terraces of the cafes - La Tasca, with sangria and the tapas cuisine, marisscos, or Chorizo al vino, you have there the feeling of the South of Spain universe - then the Cheesecake Factory, with huge cakes and great wines - and the Harry's Tap Room, and a bit farther the Dr. Dremo's Tap House- there is also in Clarendon a wine store, very classy, then some other restaurants, each one with a personality of its own, and a coffee house - there I like to go often, to stay at a table on the small terrace, watching the scenery of the street, while nightfall is veiling everything with its blue sprinkles - Langston Hughes was speaking about his Parisian evenings - the terraces of the cafes, on Boul Saint Mich, I was once there, in 1999, only for a too short period - a week passed so quickly... the Paris of Hemingway and Henry Miller, the Paris from the movies of Pola Rapaport - and I remember now one evening in New York, the Gramercy Theater on the 23rd Street, a show with old Parisian documentaries, gathered in a lifetime by Jack Goelman ...

I'm leaving the coffee house, a bookstore is in close distance, I would go again there one of these evenings - or maybe in DuPont Circle, at the Kramer Books - I found a book by Philip Caputo last time, Horn of Africa.

Clarendon, or Bethesda, or the Friendship Heights ... the Washingtonian charme.


(Clarendon)

(Hemingway)

(Van Gogh)