We headed out this morning to go straight to the Archives to see the Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights as our primary focus. On the way we saw a bunch of children playing xylophones at a very tiny (smaller than the Billerica one) farmer's market. We watched them play a couple of songs before continuing on to the Archives. When we got there we had a long line of people trying to get in (you get screened for security purposes) and it probably took about half an hour or so before we were actually inside. We headed straight to the rotunda and had to wait maybe another 5 to 10 minutes to be let in to see the documents. It is tough to read the actual Declaration of Independence because it is so faded and the only signature you can really see at this point is the John Hancock. The rest of it is just so faded it is tough to see much. They had a replica for easier reading as well as many panels of explanation. The Constitution was more legible by far as is the Bill of Rights. It was great to finally see them. We spent quite a while in the rotunda. I was the guy that listened to the guards and just wandered around to see things rather than forming up in a line like a lot folks did. People didn't get bad about me pushing in around here and there though so it was cool.
We also went to the exhibit on alcohol in the US including the Prohibition. Downstairs we visited the exhibit which included the Magna Carta and also was a treatise on liberty and civil rights. It was very jam packed with information and took a while to go through. We visited the Archives gift shop and then headed out for lunch. The visit took a few hours all over again.
We had seen a restaurant called China Chilcano in our travels the previous day. It had a logo that included the Nazca lines. Daniela wanted to go there so we headed to it. It was only a couple blocks from the Archives on 7th street. We got in quick and were seated. I ordered a chilcano (it was a touch weak) and Daniela started with a chicha morada then on to a pisco sour. The waitress talked us into trying a tasting menu. This would be $55. Entrees were about $15 or so so it sounded like a good deal. .She said it would be great for two people. I need to emphasize that for later. I asked about the chef and it is Jose Andres. He is a Spaniard and not Peruvian. I hit this as a warning sign but Daniela was still excited so we picked up the Chilcano tasting menu. I should point out the theme of the restaurant is the fusion of Peruvian, Chinese and Japanese cultures in Peru. There is no doubt they have their own form of Chinese food called chifa. The name suggested the restaurant would have chifa to Daniela and myself so that is partially why she wanted to try it. The idea of a bowl of chaufa which is what they call fried rice Peruvian style was very appealing to her. The tasting menu started with a causa each. This is a potato with meat over it dish down with yellow potatoes. It was nice but they were very small. I bite or two at best. This was followed by a Chinese spoon of ceviche which was not really enough to get a good feeling about it. The ceviche had no spicy in it which is a must for the Peruvian. Also Daniela felt the fish was overdone in the acid though I am not sure there was enough for me to notice that. We received a pork shumai dish and a vegetable gyoza dish both off which had 4 pieces and I wasn't crazy about them too much but they weren't offense. There was a dish of aeropuerto (airport as you may have guessed) which is fried rice with noodles on top. Almost no rice in it. A cold rice noodles dish came but neither of us liked it and she said she had never seen it in Peru. Then a short fat rice noodle dish that had tomatoes and eggs. Very sweet sauce but not terrible. There was sugar snap peas but prepared separately from either the rice or noodles. Those were decent. The next dish was aji de gallina and it was reasonable but the texture was wrong. It did have the olive and some potato. I think it must be tough to get actual hen and prepare it correctly in the US so it was just chicken. I liked it but I expected the aji sauce to be more creamy and accurate. We were supposed to get lomo saltado and another saltado with shrimp but something happened and our ticket got lost we were told and over a half an hour later we still had nothing. It was getting late and we wanted to see the White House before it got dark so we had a brief conversation with the waitress and she agreed to cancel the rest of the meal and cut us down to the lower tasting menu as well as to remove a round of drinks for the extended delay that was not fixed after two attempts. That was when the bill was handed to me and I found out the tasting menu was supposed to be per person. I can honestly say there is no way I would have ordered a tasting menu for me at $55 in the first place but even more so when I saw the size of portions in the tasting menu. We complained to the waitress and the manager took the bill down to one order. I explained that they should word it better in the sales presentation as well as on the menu. The manager said they would work on that. Longest paragraph in the trip and it is about a restaurant. I would say the idea was a good one. And I know Daniela was excited about having Peruvian food but we both left disappointed and upset in the long run. Worse yet later in the day we both felt funny to the stomach. Basic statement is. Do not go to China Chilcano for 2 reasons. One it is not really accurate to Peru. Two it was not really a good experience for us for more than just the inaccuracies (we saw the lomo saltado someone ordered had potato chips instead of French fries).
After this failure we marched on to the White house which was just down Pennsylvania Avenue of course. It took maybe 20 minutes from there and we walked around back and then to the front side of it. We found out you can petition your congressman for a chance to visit the White House but we didn't do that before we left so we will do that in a follow visit where we have more time. There are definitely too many museums to visit for a two day trip. By the time we were done taking pictures we both spoke about our stomach discomfort and decided to head back to the hotel to have some tea bu ton the way found our first and only gift shop in the streets of DC called White House Gifts. So we went in and bought a couple things and had our pictures taken on their presidential sets. It was cute. Then we headed back to the hotel. We had some tea then I started to write blog entries and decided I was too tired before I finished so went to bed. Daniela had a little bit of stuff to type up as well. I do not feel we did near as much as the day before but we literally lost over 2 and a half hours at the restaurant when all was said and done there and it ate up most of the prime time to do anything.
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