A Taste Of The Islands

Cafe Trope (Sept. 17)

An evening with Carol, my mentor, is always an adventure. We originally had planned on Asia Nora, a renowned organic restaurant, but we were welcomed by a We've had a good run sign. So after a quick convo with neighboring fire department, and some aimless wandering around Dupont Circle, we stumbled upon Cafe Trope.

Just recently opened, this French Caribbean restaurant knocked my socks off right from the start. Our absolutely delicious waiter (imported from Manhattan) made a few suggestions, to which we ignored and unintentionally ordered anyway.

To start the bread (rolls) were perfect, right out of the oven and generous accompanied with a tampanade hummus like spread. I would have preferred a slightly more olive infused flavor but it was tasty nonetheless.

Two glasses of wine (pinot grigo) later we were feasting on Shrimp and Grits with Chorizo with Sausage, Spinach, Bermuda Onions and Lobster Curry Sauce. This was the stand-out for the evening. The sauce was creamy and rich coupled with the punch of the chorizo and the texture of the grits.

Carol had the much milder dish, the Aromatic Chickpea and Spinach Curry. I found it to be too mellow for my taste. To share we had the Truffled Macaroni & Goats’ Cheese, a popular dish, to which we disagreed. Carol wanted to salt the dish but I found the hint of goat cheese to be just the right balance.

On a scale of 1-10 I'd give cafe troupe a 7: overall delightful and the chorizo dish a winner.

Viva La ColdPlay

(August 4) A good friend of mine, Kate, studied abroad in Spain. While she was backpacking Europe on a shoe string budget, she splurged and bought last minute tickets to see Coldplay. I will never forget her description; "Seeing Coldplay is sooo German." Although the band is English, she was absolutely right. The sound, the lights, the crowd screams European rock!

So when my mentor Carol asked if I wanted to go with her to see the Euro-pop sensations - of course I said yes.

Touring for their new album, Viva La Vida, the band rocked the Verizon Center with their new artsy beat. David from the Washington Post summed it up perfectly:

The only Coldplay bashing at the sold-out Verizon Center on Sunday night was when band member Will Champion attacked a giant drum with an oversize mallet during "Viva la Vida." The fans were truly, madly in love. They ecstatically clapped in time from the first notes of "Violet Hill." They tenderly sang along with Martin, often with more sincerity than the singer himself. And they took pictures. Lots and lots of pictures. So many pictures that Flickr might crash. One fan was even seen snapping away while the stage was cloaked in darkness. (The best description of a Coldplay crowd is this: Think of "Heavy Metal Parking Lot," the 1986 documentary of pre-show partying at a Judas Priest concert. The exact opposite would be "Coldplay Metro Car.")

The photography overload was understandable, though. Coldplay designed a nice visual feast for this tour, the main component being six giant spheres that descended from the rafters to show live video of the band from all angles. Of course, the perfectly scruffy Martin -- dressed in his by-now-standard 19th-century European battlefield jacket -- was the focus of most lenses, especially when he made his way out to the sides of the horseshoe-shaped stage.

As for the music, it was less a feast and more semi-filling hors d'oeuvres. There were scant surprises in the band's brand of anthemic arena rock, but that's part of Coldplay's comfortable appeal. "Yellow" still soared, thanks to Johnny Buckland's chiming guitar and Martin's trembling falsetto. "Lost" and "Lovers in Japan," both from the new album, "Viva la Vida," found the right mix of surge and sentimentality. The same could not be said for tedious piano ballads "Fix You" and "42." Another in that line, "The Hardest Part," was abandoned by Martin just after it started. "That's enough of that," he said, with knowing self-deprecation.

The main takeaway from the show was that Coldplay is no longer a band suffering from an identity crisis. Instead of following in the footsteps of its heroes and trying to pass itself off as the world's most important or biggest band, Coldplay seems content being a less adventurous but equally loved -- if not equally revered -- act. For all his sad-puppy-dog lyrics, Martin was an extremely playful frontman, hopping, prancing and skipping across the stage, thrusting his left arm into the air, goofy grin on his face.

When tens of thousands of pieces of paper came flooding from the rafters during the encore, it served as a perfect assessment of the band's current state. Coldplay is a band that will shower its fans with brightly colored, butterfly-shaped confetti while singing, "But I have no doubt/One day the sun will come out." And the band -- and especially its fans -- is just fine with that.