French Fries to Foie Gras

You're invited to a delightful evening of Filipino flavors at Purple Patch in DC! Join us for a culinary journey that celebrates the vibrant and diverse cuisine of the Philippines.

** The small non-refundable registration fee helps us share the cost associated with the Meet-Up platform ($360/yr) and reduces the likelihood of no-shows, allowing us to better plan our events and accommodate all participants. Meetup charges $0.51 and Paypal charges $0.53 on the $2 registration fee. Thanks in advance for your understanding!**

WAITLIST:
Meetup does not allow a waitlist for paid events. If this event fills and you are interested in adding your name to the waitlist, please send host a message through the app.

From The Washington Post:

Remember when lumpia — spring rolls filled with beef and pork — represented what a lot of diners knew about Filipino food? New emissaries, including this two-floor Mount Pleasant hideaway, are helping expand our horizons (and vocabulary) with adobo and sisig. The first is braised chicken flavored with vinegar and soy sauce and fleshed out with potatoes. The second is a sputtering stir-fry of chopped pork, bird's-eye chilies and sweet onions that play-wrestles with your tongue until you cry "uncle" — or finish off the dish, crowned with a fried egg.

Sour accents get a lot of use, as in sinigang, a strapping soup crowded with braised pork, potato chunks and long green beans that doesn't stint on the lemon juice. The lumpia, made by the owner's mom and flown in from her home in Texas, are exemplary. Don't just take my recommendation. Staff at the Philippine Embassy come here for a taste of home, too.

Ambition. Resilience. Grace.

The best restaurants, in addition to serving food people want to return for, embody those traits.

As I ate my way around the region for this year’s annual fall dining guide, I returned several times to Purple Patch in Mount Pleasant. Yes, it’s convenient to where I live, and yes, the Filipino cooking is very much to my taste. (No place makes finer lumpia.) New restaurants sometimes have an advantage over established players in that young places often have energy to burn and tastemakers tend to lavish attention on them. Purple Patch opened in 2015, which, in restaurant terms, is practically middle age. Yet my visits over the summer revealed a destination that has only blossomed during its run, so much so that I’m naming it my Restaurant of the Year.

Welcome to our NEIGHBORHOOD GEMS series featuring emblematic meals from around the world. This series shines a light on local restaurants and is designed to bring together inquisitive foodies and dishes that are unique and oh so worth a trip on roads less traveled!

** WAITLIST: Meetup does not allow waitlists for paid events. If this event fills and you would like to be added to the waitlist, please send a note to the host through the Meetup app. **

Get ready for a delicious adventure! We're excited to invite you to experience khachapuri, a beloved Georgian treasure. This dish features warm, cheese nestled in a wonderfully leavened bread - sometimes even with a delightful egg on top! It's a staple in Georgia, found in cozy restaurants and bustling street corners alike, making it the ultimate comfort food.

Khachapuri is so special that it's even used to track inflation in Georgia. It's part of what makes this dish an icon of Georgian culture. To celebrate its deliciousness, the Gastronomic Association of Georgia has declared February 27th as National Khachapuri Day!

Join us for a brunch that honors Georgia's signature pastry - Supra offers 4 different types - you won’t want to miss this!

The Michelin Guide:

Supra is a gem for Georgian cuisine, so make those reservations. The dining room’s paneling and wood tables lean elegant, while the hanging sheep hats flaunt regional flair. This chef churns out authentic dishes with a dose of delicious. Start with spreads and cheeses, before devouring soup dumplings or mussels. No diner worth their salt would dare skip the imeruli or ajaruli khachapuri—crusty bread with a pit of molten cheese and runny egg. White pelamushi flaunts a riff on the staple dessert (think: pomegranate caramel and walnut crumble), no feast is complete without wine with selections from one of the world's oldest viticultural regions.

Step into the heart of New Orleans at Dauphine's, the Michelin Bib Gourmand restaurant where Creole cooking meets souldful sounds from The Hot Mess Ensemble.

Indulge in a delectable brunch menu featuring Creole dishes, sip on Creole-spiced Bloody Marys, chicory espresso martinis or Hurricane -style mimosas, and let the smooth jazz tunes transport you to the vibrant streets of New Orleans.

Whether you're a jazz aficionado or just looking for a fun way to enjoy Sunday brunch, this event promises to be an enjoyable gathering!

WAITLIST:
Meetup does not allow a waitlist for paid events. If this event fills and you are interested in adding your name to the waitlist, please send host a message through the app.

Washingtonian:

The pandemic silenced jazz brunches, but now bands are striking up again. Here is a place where the music bops, cocktails are cool and plates are popping. The Big Easy comes to life at this swank downtown restaurant showcasing Chef Douglas Alexander's creative Creole cooking.

What to Order: Go with hearty Southern-minded classics: Calabrian-chili-and maple glazed fried chicken and waffles; French toast with a bananas-Foster twist; or blackened catfish on a bed of grits.

Michelin:

The old adage "Never judge a book by its cover" couldn't be more apt for this operation, which seems a most unlikely candidate for "serious food." It's vast and spread over three levels, but when you're seated in that perfect nook full of pretty people and tantalizing cocktails you'll start to get the drift.

There is no denying the staff's skill, as they prepare a delicious tapestry of New Orleans dishes—with zero fuss and maximum flavor. Make a hearty start with fresh-baked bread and cultured Poirier’s cane butter. Then dive into a platter of silky oysters Dauphine, tailed by blackened soft-shell crab with creamed Prairie Ronde rice. Carry on carb loading at dessert with dark chocolate crémeux and vanilla rice pudding—you won't be sorry.

Welcome to our NEIGHBORHOOD GEMS series featuring emblematic meals from around the world. This series shines a light on local restaurants and is designed to bring together inquisitive foodies and dishes that are unique and oh so worth a trip on roads less traveled!

** WAITLIST: Meetup does not allow waitlists for paid events. If this event fills and you would like to be added to the waitlist, please send a note to the host through the Meetup app. **

Join us for a culinary adventure as we explore the vibrant flavors of Southeast Asia! This month, we're shining the spotlight on the beloved dish: LAKSA. Laksa, a popular Southeast Asian noodle soup, has a rich history and diverse variations. It's thought to have originated from a Persian word for noodle. Savor the rich, spicy coconut broth and fresh ingredients that make this dish a favorite across Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore.

The Washington Post review:

This restaurant bucks the rule: Good cooking across a huge menu. Southeast Impression serves the food of Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore in an eye-catching dining room.

Washington-area diners don’t see a lot of Hainanese chicken rice, one reason people go to Singapore just to eat. Chili crab, equally popular in Singapore and Malaysia, is another dish that deserves more places to pick it apart in the region.

Considerable thought has been lavished on the interior. Beautiful wooden benches, carved in Thailand, dress the foyer, and bottles of Asian spirits and brass vessels draw eyes to backlit shelves.

Plastic, pages-long menus with photographs are typically a sigh of a restaurant to avoid. Southeast Impression is an exception, partly because what you see is what you get. Check out the pie tee. The Malaysian appetizer — four fluted pastry shells filled with pinches of crab, shrimp and jicama — are as delicious as they are photogenic, thanks to freshly made crusts, sweet chile sauce in the dressing and a fresh orchid garnish. Steamed, pan-fried mackerel lend their silvery sheen to a salad of slippery rice noodles and tropical accents of lemongrass and cilantro.

Papaya salad is the Thai score you hope it will be: a little sour, a little spicy, salty with roasted peanuts, and crisp with threads of carrot and green beans. The pearly shrimp on the heap are good by themselves, sassier with a sprinkle of dried chiles. Duck larb is not the finely ground meat you expect, but rather cubes of duck, with bits of fat clinging to them and tossed with toasted rice powder, lime and mint. There are also red chiles for fire and fish sauce for funk. Lots to love, in other words.

A word of caution. The food comes out so fast, you might get your crunchy-meaty chicken wings before your daiquiri darkened with squid ink. ...Order a few plates at a time, which is my recommendation. The wings, red and sticky with curry, are fab. And don’t let a black drink scare you off.

You’d miss the point of the place by forgoing Hainanese chicken. A bird of a different feather, this one is slow-poached in ginger, lemongrass and pandan leaves until it approximates the texture of silk, after which the halal chicken is sliced and served alongside rice cooked in the poaching liquid. The fragrance sets you up for something lovely; the combination delivers in spades. A trio of sauces — ginger, chile, inky caramelized soy sauce — encourages dipping.

Diners who come for chili crab, a common sight in hawker stalls and fine-dining establishments in Singapore, can choose between hard or soft-shell models. I spring for the latter, a little catch of deep-fried crabs heaped on a tomato sauce that’s red with ketchup and hot sauce and laced with threads of egg. The excess sauce, bolstered with chile paste, vanishes with the help of tender little buns.

It’s unclear whether shiny gold chopsticks and other utensils make the food taste better, but the sleek implements feel good in the hand and easily transport kua kling from plate to mouth. The stir-fry — ground pork (or chicken) whose mellow yellow is from curry paste — tastes bold and bright with lime leaf, a gorgeous flavor I figure Mother Nature created on an especially inspired day.

The bartenders are serious about fun. The novel and classic cocktails are well-balanced. The $14 Hemingway daiquiri, for instance, is a smooth dance of rum, grapefruit juice and maraschino liqueur (and several dollars less expensive than in some less-fancy watering holes in the District). Some of the glasses look like estate sale finds, notably the colorful ceramic peacock used for the aptly named Wild Bird. The drink takes flight with rum, pineapple juice, passion fruit puree ... what a way to get some vitamin C!

No robots following a script here. Call the restaurant and see for yourself. Not only does a host answer, but she takes a few moments to let you know the best time to come if you haven’t made a reservation. When you order, servers steer you to things they like, not necessarily the most expensive items on the menu or what the masses deem popular. Workers convey a sense of humor, too. The last time I dropped in, my waiter bought out a trio of condiments and informed us they were “Twenty dollars a scoop — and we have cameras watching you!” It didn’t bother me that he used the same joke on a neighboring party, because he took time to lift the lid on each little bowl and describe the contents (all chile in various guises).

At any one service, a dozen cooks toil in the open kitchen. Their job revolves around almost 90 dishes. Which means I’ve only put a dent in the list. Which means three visits, even with companions to help eat, yields just a snapshot. Which means I’ll be back.

Which makes me delighted.