Lunch at Vidalia in Washington, DC

Top and to your left is Sweet and Spicy Cured Hamachi (otherwise known as yellowtail or amberjack), one of two appetizers I enjoyed yesterday over lunch at Vidalia Restaurant, 1990 M Street NW in Washington, DC. Vidalia is one of my favorite DC restaurants and describes its offerings as "regional American cuisine with a subtle southern influence." Listed at $10.75, the luncheon menu describes the hamachi dish as "molasses cured and seared raw with almond kuri squash relish, date espresso puree, and ginger-olive oil sorbet." The orange kuri squash relish is immediately above the hamachi and next to the lemon-ginger sorbet, from which extends a ring of date espresso puree.
Below the hamachi is Vidalia's Pave of Cured Salmon, my second appetizer, also priced at $10.75, and described as "with smoked trout parfait, trout roe caviar, and pepper cress salad." The salmon was smoked and layered with cream cheese. Beneath the caviar and pepper cress topped parfait, that deep red layer ---are you ready for this?---is actually a slice of pink beet.

Third picture down on the left is Vidalia's Whipple Farm Salad, described as "organic lettuces with crisp market vegetables, capers, fines herbs , applewood bacon, sheep's milk cheese, egg and mustard verjus vinaigrette." Although $10.25 seemed to me to be top dollar for so small a salad at lunch, it proved to be perfect insofar as my desires and needs regarding enjoyment and nutrition were concerned. Quite prominent among the leafy vegetables was the kind of Italian parsley that continues to thrive in our backyard garden here in Baltimore even now in January.

All three photographs were taken on the sly with my cell phone camera, which I've had now for six months. Only recently have I sufficiently mastered the various adjustments required of this camera to produce pictures acceptable for posting to Unique Culinary Adventures. Otherwise, the number of restaurants covered over the past six months would have been significantly higher.

Posts similar to this one are likely to follow over the next six weeks. Through most of this period I will be on the road with a hectic schedule allowing me no time to prepare recipes and little time for producing posts requiring research beyond basic description and impressions.