DC's continuing hunt for better street food vendors is making some progress. The Washington Post reports that local company On the Fly is establishing a fleet of electric cars serving fresh, local food. Tasty and green? A good combination.

Thanks to my intrepid webmaster, I keep my hands as far away from the technology side of this gizmo as possible. But it's fun to putter.

Google Analytics is one fancy toy, keeping track of all sorts of fun, useless data. For instance, I can see what search terms resulted in a hit on my site.

For your pleasure, the top five (somebody like Illy coffee, and apparently not many people have written about it):

illy dc
montsouris dc
illy cafe dc
nora o'donnell
pickling/preserving

The Washington Club on Dupont Circle is looking a little Italian these days. Tomorrow, it will how a wine tasting event, "A Tour of the Great Wines of Italy.”

This event boasts a four-course wine-pairing dinner and wine from four Italian regions: Alto Adige, Tuscany, Piemontese and Sardegna. Wine expert Sean Tuttle will speak. He comes to the event from importer Banville & Jones Wine Merchants.

Thursday, September 26
The Washington Club
15 Dupont Circle
Washington, D.C.

Reception begins at 6:30 p.m.

If there's one thing I love about California, it's the tacos. DC still lacks a large enough population to have readily accessible, high-quality taquerias. There are a few exceptions, but the worst taqueria in California trumps the best in DC. Lengua, tongue to the uninitiated, is perfectly cooked, not stringly like that in Taqueria El Charrito Caminante. The carnitas is the perfect balance of lean and plump, not the fatty excess that so many holes in the wall fork over. Sure, the Gubernator is in charge. But as long as they keep pumping out the tacos, I'll keep coming back to this little slice

Nice little piece of work in the Washington City Paper this week about La Tasca's tragic excuse for "sangria."

No booze. Nada. See it on the menu? Doesn't matter. Just a lie.

La Tasca servers are supposed to inform guests of said change, though the moron girl who waited on us the last time we were there (last, meaning both most recent and final) said no such thing.

Yet another reason to avoid that sorry excuse for a restaurant.

A relatively new arrival to the Clarendon scene, Liberty Tavern is a noisy, high-priced restaurant and bar. In other words, a perfect fit for the area.

It's a bit like a smaller, louder version of Harry's Tap room. Featuring a large bar downstairs and a dining area upstairs, it's a good balance of atmosphere, meaning a Saturday night dinner needn't be interrupted by too much revelry.

The food was generally good, though nothing out of the ordinary. Pizzas and several entrees receive the wood-burning oven treatment, and the small gratins using cast-iron pots are fun. Several items at a recent dinner were on the oily side, and the pork loin was a bit dry and salty, but overall the dinner was fine. They offer a few pastas in full and half-portions, with entree prices ranging from ~$15 to ~$25.

The last few years have seen a fun little trend: salsa bars. Salsa (before it trumped ketchup as King Condiment), was just a watery red goo, shoved across the counter in a plastic tub. Now, we have choice!

After a tasty week in Seattle (not DC!!!), here are some mini-reviews:

Union (1400 1st Ave.) -- The best meal of the week. Braised pork belly appetizer on young garlic was amazing. Ran out of two of their half-dozen entrees by 8 (strange) but cut up some black bass and cooked it perfectly. Pouisson was also great, as were desserts.

Serious Pie (316 Virginia St.) -- What a fun place. Excellent food, reasonably priced wine, great service.

Purple Cafe (1225 4th Ave.) -- This beautiful space had some high-quality wines in their flights, and generous pours. The upstairs bar area is great for wine and some small plates.

The Peking Gourmet Inn is a very good Chinese restaurant on Leesburg Pike in Falls Church. It's a bit kitschy, touristy because George Bush I was a big fan. You can even snag a table with his picture looming above. But that doesn't change the fact that the food is pretty damn tasty.

A recent meal consisted of Peking duck, a specialty; Peking Gourmet beef; and Treasure Chicken, a mild preparation with green peppers, water chestnuts, mushrooms and peanuts. As with most tourist-friendly Chinese restaurants, "hot and spicy" means mild and tame, but the food is still good.

In the world of food, everything's been done. If it wasn't done by the French or Italians 300 years ago, it was done by the Chinese or American Indians 800 years ago. (Kind of like Hollywood's sequel habit, come to think of it...)

But that leaves plenty of room to combine, rethink, rediscover. Sometimes the product is great, sometimes horrible, but usually fun.

How about Buffalo Chicken Tenders with Blue Cheese Coleslaw from Chow.com, via Maverick restaurant in San Francisco? Blue cheese cole slaw? It's either gonna be the best thing in the world or the worst!!