A wholly vegetarian restaurant is quite the exotic experience for me.  I’m left at a loss of expectations before I even enter the front door.

Do I need to bring my passport?

Are they going to give me one of those uber-intrusive body scans, and check me for contraband weapons or meats?

Do they speak English?

Will they put me in the corner and eat in a cage if they smell jerky on my breath?

It’s not as bad as you’d think, dear meat eater.  Upon entrance, Sunflower is about as normal as you’d expect any place to be, except for a fetish-level adoration for all things sunflowers.  There’s a large, expensive-looking etched glass wall with a sunflower mural embedded inside.  A sunflower lamp hovers over many diners, looking as if it’s ready to erupt into showers like the produce section at your supermarket, only drenching patrons with delicious seeds.  Sunflower photos. Plush sunflowers. Ceramic sunflowers. Sunflowers made of the parts of lesser sunflowers. You get the point, right?  They wholly live up to their namesake.

The diners were few and far between, perhaps because we came in at an off hour, but I’m guessing more likely because there simply isn’t a huge population of vegetarians in the area.  Jen and I took a corner table, and poured over the options.  I was actually pleased with the fact that there were a copia of options available, so much, that I had some difficulty in picking something from the list.

The pan-fried dumplings were a no-brainer for us.  Realizing that I’ve got my girl hooked on the perfect parcels of deliciousness (as long as they’re stuffed with an assortment of non-meat ingredients), we ordered these, which come with your option of being served steamed or pan-fried.  Each dumpling is filled with napa cabbage, tofu, shiitake mushrooms, ‘bean thread’ noodles, and yuba.  What is yuba?  It’s a tofu ‘skin’ with the consistency of pasta, and not a smaller tuba or something in the family of trombones.  Clarinets, even.  I don’t care what you stuff a dumpling with, it comes down to the dumpling skin and the sauce that makes this dish, and I give Sunflower the seal of approval on these.  I do wish that the dumplings were accompanied by a sweet sauce rather than a soy sauce, but nonetheless, these are a great way to start your meal.

Jen order the General Tso’s Surprise (WUAHAHAHA, SURPRISE! NO MEAT!) which is apparently the restaurant’s best seller, and it’s not hard to tell why. Excellent presentation aside, the dish is absolutely loaded with giant chunks of soy protein, steamed broccoli and carrot slices, then covered in a tasty kung pao sauce.  The sauce really brings this dish together, and the freshness of the vegetables stands out, although I should expected as much with the type of restaurant we were dining in.

I took our waiter’s recommendation to order the Curry Surpreme – soy protein with mushrooms, broccoli, carrots, potatoes, and green peas served with a thick Japanese curry sauce that really made this a hearty dish, even for a die-head (see also: hard headed) meat eater like myself.  Don’t be fooled, there’s some subtle kick to the curry, and I broke out into a small sweat halfway through the meal.

So what’s the synopsis here?

Sunflower was actually…really good.  I’ll admit that I had my reservations, but just as there’s 1,001 paleo or primal recipes to sub for your favorite foods, there are just as equally as many offerings here at Sunflower to give you an excellent meal at a reasonable price.  The service is very good, and alcohol is available upon request.  You have you option of two locations, one in Vienna and one in Falls Church, which is to say it’s a shame they don’t have one in the city, as I’d think it’d do very well there.

You won’t even need to smuggle in contraband bacon in your underwear like me.

See Sunflower in Vienna on a map here.

See Sunflower in Falls Church on a map here.

Recommended For:

• First Dates
• Vegetarians
• Pescatarians
• Ovolacto-librarians
• Gentle Barbarians

Not Recommended For:

• Paleoheads
• One last meal after a long night at the clubs (You know who I’m talkin’ about, K-town)
• Anthophobics
• Carless Gastronoms
• Showing off your latest meat helmet creation

Son of Grok has a fantastic paleo BBQ sauce, but it’s more of a saucy sauce, meaning, you pour it right over you’re going to cook, or use it to marinate your delicious pasture raised meats.

I tend to need it more for crockpottery, so I modified it just a tiny bit for my purposes here.

BBQ Sauce:

Ingredients:

Buffalo brisket, about 2-3 lbs

1/2 large red onion, diced

3/4 cup tomatoes, diced, or tomato sauce

6 cloves of garlic, diced

2 tbsp avocado oil (olive oil works, too)

2 tbsp chili powder

2 tbsp dijon mustard

2 tbsp organic apple cider vinegar (balsamic vinegar works in a pinch)

1 tsp kosher or sea salt

1 tsp hickory liquid smoke

Directions:

1. To prep, mix all the ingredients EXCEPT for the onion in a medium sized bowl until it gets a nice, thick consistency.  I opted out of the beef stock used in the original sauce recipe because cooking brisket in a crockpot does wonders in terms of bringing out the natural juices in the meat.  Buffalo tends to be an especially lean meat, but have to fear, this might be some of the best paleo brisket you’ll ever have.
2. Score the two flat sides of your brisket in a diagonal criss-crossing pattern, with each score being about 2-3 inches apart.  You don’t have to be perfect about scoring all the meat, but you do want to be able to really get the sauce into the meat.
3. Place the brisket into your crockpot, lean side up.  Pour half of your BBQ sauce over your brisket, rubbing in the sauce for just a few seconds until your brisket is fairly well covered.
4. Turn over your brisket, and pour the remainder of the sauce on your brisket, and repeat rubbing in the sauce until you get pretty good coverage.
5. Cover your BBQ-ified brisket with all the diced red onion, and spread evenly.
6. Cook for 5-6 hours. Your brisket should be lean, tender, and pull apart with a fork.  BAM!

Columbia Heights is quite the clash of cultures these days. The streets are filled with hoodrats, latino workers, hipsters, and well, the other people who live there. It’s one of the few areas in Northwest DC where you can pick up kitschy photo frames from Target on one block, and get shot or stabbed on the very next. Fun!

Jen and I ventured up 14th street to the area to check out Social, one of the newer restaurants to open in the area and serve such a diverse crowd. As it was, we didn’t quite have any expectations when we arrived. The restaurant has two entrances- the left leads down to a bar area that’s packed with men who could care less if a woman walked in the door, and an upstairs dining area with luxurious leather couches and plush chairs for diners.

Almost too plush. No, actually, they were too plush. I nearly banged my chin on the table sitting down on the table, and the reclining angle of our seats nearly doubled the distance between Jen and I at our table. The decor here is, however, very tasteful and contemporary, with a myriad of professional photos adorning the walls.

The water service comes to each table with a bottle of water, but don’t be alarmed by the fact that you might be charged for a bottle of water, as Jen and I wondered through the majority of our meal. The water’s simply DC’s finest on tap, but a little clarification would have taken some stress out of the meal.

While we sat with our waters and poured over the menus, we noticed a certain absence, both in diners and staff. A fair number of tables were empty, but we attributed it to just a slow night. So it’d come with some logic that we’d be doted upon by our waiter.

So we waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Even our water boy, keenly aware of our lack of attention by the staff, came by and asked if we had been checked up on by our waiter, to which we naturally replied, “No.”

“Oh great.  I mean, that’s not great,” he fumbled.

He scurried off, and a few minutes later, our waiter finally arrived.  We put in our order for food before he barely greeted us, but I’d consider that less rude or impatient had we not been sitting there for at least 15 minutes.

Their menu, on first glance, reads like an incomplete math problem. Three numbers accompany every dish, and you’re to make the assumption that those three numbers indicate the prices of differing sizes of the order. But how big are the sizes? Small, medium, and large barely denote anything of actual serving size.  Our waiter explained that the small serving was the size of a tapas dish for one, the medium a size suitable for sharing, and the large, something for a large party, or in my case, the perfect size for my main course.

Jen wanted to start with the tomato and mozzarella with fresh basil, which came out with an excellent presentation, but lacked any originality, making this all looks and no substance order the Jennifer Anniston of our selections.

The Guacamole comes with a heaping side of fresh fried tortilla chips, sharing a similar affliction as the dish above.  The guacamole was certainly fresh and well made, and the chips glistened with oil like a tour bus of retired ladies in the South Beach sun…but somehow this still just didn’t have anything to make this really stand out.  Adding in the fact that the chips were flimsy and snapped when scooping up the delicious green butter only exacerbated the situation.

The Oven Roasted Madeira Mushrooms are soaked with truffle oil, oven roasted, and then simmered in a wine cream sauce, then served atop fresh sliced baguette bread and a creamy goat cheese spread.  This dish seemed to follow suit with the others, being a reasonably average tasting dish with great presentation.  The mushrooms are cooked to perfection, the goat cheese pairs well with the baguette and the mushrooms, but there’s a certain lack of inspiration that comes through a really great dish.

As for my main course, I ordered the large basket of meatballs.  A large bowl filled with somewhere in the range of 10-12 meatballs, which I easily devoured on my own, these were pretty much what you could expect out of a good meatball- satisfying, meaty, and covered in just the right amount of tomato sauce without being drowned in it.  I can’t complain about these one bit.

The dishes here all hold the same level of quality, which is to say, passable, and not worth too much complaint, but lack the creativity or appeal to really give them substantial praise, either.  The kitchen uses quality ingredients and sticks with fairly tame offerings without offending anybody’s palette.  Getting someone to actually serve you, however, is a completely different matter.  That’s not to say Jen and I were the only patrons to get frustrated with the service here;  we watched another couple move tables from a back corner table to one closer to the back where the wait staff hovered in hopes of getting better service.  By the time we left, the two were slumped back in their lounge chairs, looking annoyed, disappointed, and ready for a cheque.

Well, it could have been worse.  At least they didn’t do this:

Social can be found on a map here.

Recommended For:

• Anorexics
• Narcoleptics
• Scallywags
• Non-Tippers
• Waiting For a Storm to Pass

Not Recommended For:

• First Dates
• Gastronomic Greatness
• Attention Whores
• Out of Towners
• Cheat Meals

I saw this recipe a while back for a paleo coconut cake and have been waiting for chance to actually make it.  I had a few friends come over for dinner the other night, and decided that was about as good of an opportunity as any.  Looking over the ingredient list, I was a bit leery about how cake-like it could taste, but it was surprisingly good, so here’s to finding your new paleo birthday cake substitute.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup coconut  milk
• 1/3 cup of avocado, grapeseed, or coconut oil
• 1/2 cup of honey
• 2 cage free eggs
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 tsp almond extract
• 2 cups desiccated (shredded) coconut
• 1/2 cup almond meal
• 1/3 cup coconut flour
• 1 tsp baking soda

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees Farenheit (190 degrees Celsius).
2. Mix all wet ingredients (coconut milk, oil, honey, eggs, and extracts) in a medium sized mixing bowl well.
3. Add the dry ingredients (desiccated coconut, almond meal, coconut flour, baking soda) to the bowl, and continue to mix.
4. Grease an 8″ x 8″ baking dish lightly with oil.  I used grapeseed oil, as it doesn’t have too strong of a flavor to it.  Spread the cake mix evenly in the dish, and place into the oven.
5. Bake for 25-30 minutes.  The cake is done when the top is a nice golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.

I garnished this dish with Cointreau soaked strawberries (eh, okay, so maybe the Cointreau isn’t exactly paleo) and a coconut milk cream sauce.  For the sauce:

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup coconut milk
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1 tsp cinnamon

Directions:

1. Mix all ingredients well with a spoon or fork in a small bowl.

You can pour the sauce over the coconut cake and strawberries, and even add some coconut milk ice cream with this dish.

Well.  It’s technically paleo.

Hi everybody! Sorry for the lack updates this week. I’ve been wrapped up with the usual ongoings of life, and haven’t had a moment to write up anything. Jen and I will be back in action next Monday, so check back with us then. Hope you’re keeping cool this week as we’re being blasted with fire and brimstone temperatures here in DC.

How about a Friday reader’s open comments post? Have a favorite recipe that you’d like to see done up paleo style? Or maybe a restaurant you’ve wanted to see reviewed? Let us know!