Valentine's Day

Because of the 2 feet of snow yesterday and another storm forecast overnight. we took the executive decision to change our plans and stay at a hotel near the airport tonight. A friend snapped up my original dinner reservation at a local restaurant! After a long drive c/o the gps through some of the less salubrious neighbourhoods of DC, we arrived at the Hyatt Crystal City, a stone's throw from the airport. I lucked out as they had hypoallergenic rooms, but they were much more expensive than I was willing to pay. When I checked in and asked for non-feather pillows they offered me the hypoallergenic room for the same price. That made this guest really happy! As it was Valentine's Day the restarant was only offering their celebratory prix fixe 4 course dinner menu that included a glass of wine, at $45 a head or $70 per couple. Ladies got a dead red rose too. Not much to offer the single male diner apart from making him pay more to feel bad about dining alone! The menu was "southern cuisine". Not my favourite, usually dense, heavy,fried unhealthy food. I had the salad to start with the fried green tomatoes. never had them before and had always imagined them to be sauteed but they were breaded and deep fried! Tom had shrimp and spicy gritty nasty porridge grits. Next up was corn soup with a crab fitter. I'm not a fan of corn soup but it was the safer option than the veal sweetbread! The next table ordered that and called the waiter over and asked where the veal was.... Classic! Next up the fish which was nice, with the side of hominy, corn and peas. The dish had a distinctly indian smell, the smell that indian DVDs that come back to the library have! Tom said it's fenugreek! Last course we went with the raspberry tart, or at least I did, as I got the last one. I would happily have shared, but they brought Tom a huge piece of cheesecake instead. He likes cheesecake as much as sweetbreads and "designer starches" such as hominy and grits :( The wine was very nice and the rose was past it's prime, but we spent a very pleasant Valentines evening together.