I recently attended Shecky’s Night Out in DC, despite the “No Boys Allowed” rule. I was hoping to see Rachel DeAlto speak (since I’ve written with her for another publication and have never actually met her), but unfortunately, Shecky’s rescheduled and Rachel had an obligation to speak in New Jersey that evening. Shecky’s had various vendors including fashion, bath products, and cosmetics, but also Merlot’s Masterpiece (painting/wine events) and Chouquette. Why am I mentioning Shecky’s night out? I’ll tell you why. I got to try Chouquette‘s chocolates, and they were definitely among the best things I’ve eaten lately.

I would like to insert a little feedback for Shecky’s. You probably want food at the event, even if it is a vendor (and you make money off it), since shopping and diet cocktails seem to make make girls hungry–I saw some of them tearing into the Orville Redenbacher Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pop Crunch samples that were part of the event’s gift bag like they needed the calories and sugar to keep their shopping pace up.

Other great things we have eaten lately:

My new favorite healthy snacks are Saffron Road‘s Bombay Spice Crunchy Chick Peas. I like the Felafel flavor as well (but would like it more if it had a bit less flavoring), and have yet to open the wasabi-flavored bag. I will say that the zippers do not work well because the spices get into them during manufacturing.

Frontera’s New Mexico Taco Skillet sauce is a quick way to make tasty tacos. We used ground turkey, avocado, lettuce, and tomato in our tacos. The Texas version is good too, but I prefer the New Mexico.

The spicy wings at Rice & Noodles in Franconia are excellent and are part of a 2 courses for $10 or $11 special from Sunday through Wednesday. The wings take20 minutes, so make sure they know to bring the food out as it is ready or that one dish will slow you down. I have really liked most of the dishes I’ve had at R&N, but there has been an occasional clunker R&N delivers within 3 miles.

April’s DC Food Blogger Happy Hour was hosted by Daphne of Go Gastronomy at the downtown location of ChixDC. I was surprised at how good the food was at ChixDC, including the Caribbean wings special. (The next DCFBHH is hosted by me on May 1st at Ambar.)

Last night, I tried Daikaya‘s (Shoyu) Ramen for the first time, and was very impressed. The nitamago (marinated soft-boiled egg) is delicious. The pork dumplings are good as well. The downstairs space s a ramen house, while the upstairs space is a restaurant with a nice long bar and beautiful decor.

Daikaya‘s printed menus (both at the upstairs and downstairs restaurants) are designed in such a way that they are hard to navigate, and are a bit frustrating; you have to flip back and forth a lot to follow the menus. It was nice that they sat me right at the middle of the bar because I got to see and take pictures of the ramen as it was plated. Once the upstairs restaurant launches a happy hour menu, I’ll probably check it out.

-JAY