A Quickie

Salem is great so far even though I've only eaten in the hotel (which is really lovely) and at the conference, The food hasn't been bad at all. I have, however, managed to fit in two glasses of this stuff & I highly recommend it if you can find it.


Sara gave me very strong recommendation for Blossoming Lotus. She swears I'll love it (even though it's vegetarian) and I trust her, so I'm going to try it. My conference ends with dinner tomorrow and I'm going to lie in the pool, haunt Powell's, and eat for five days so if you know of other must-eats in the Salem - Portland area, please let me know in the comments.

Another Saturday

This morning I was up before 8. Now I could have been cooking or cleaning right out of the gate, but instead I got on Facebook (which I joined last night). I've said it before and I'll say it again: I am a fool.

That aside, I made some cinnamon sugar donut muffins before going into town to pick up Sadie and hit the Obama campaign office grand opening. They looked scrumptious but were a little... dry? Chewy? I'll have to have another one in the morning with some coffee.


Even though I was up early this morning, I didn't go to the Farmer's Market. None of the meat vendors were going to be there, and since I'm leaving on Tuesday it doesn't make any sense to get produce. So, on my way home from the Obama office opening I stopped at Food Lion to pick up some spicy Italian sausages so I could make one of my favorite recipes ever, pasta with hot sausage and fennel.

Here's the "mise," with some of the muffin stuff still laying around. Cinnamon toast in the morning?

Here's everything save the pasta and sausage cooking down to a thick, creamy sauce.


And here's the final product. Even though it looks like Hamburger Helper, this is one of the tastiest dishes in my repertoire. The fennel becomes velvety smooth, very nearly melting into the cream. The spicy sausages + red pepper flakes provide the perfect kick. As an added bonus, it freezes well.

Pasta with hot sausage and fennel

3/4 pound hot Italian sausage, casings discarded

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 large garlic, minced
1 large fennel bulb, sliced thin (about 2 cups)
3/4 cup dry white wine
1 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tsp red pepper flakes
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 pound penne or other tubular pasta
freshly grated parmesan to taste

In a heavy skillet cook the sausage over moderate heat, stirring and breaking up any lumps, until it is cooked through and transfer it to a bowl with a slotted spoon. Add the oil to the skillet and cook the onion and the garlic over moderately low heat, stirring, until the onion is softened. Add the fennel and cook the mixture over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes, or until the fennel is softened. Add the wine and broth, bring the liquid to a boil, and simmer the mixture, covered, for 5 minutes. Add the cream and red pepper flakes and boil the mixture until it is thickened slightly and reduced by about one third. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Cook the pasta until it is al dente and drain it well. Stir the sausage and pasta into the fennel mixture and toss with the parmesan.

Smokin' (by Schwartz)

Last night Joel and Karen had some folks over to celebrate the return of Ron and Patricia and introduce Joel's father's day present to a wider audience. It was a great evening all around.

All the smokin' had been done well before the guests arrived for dinner, but Joel kindly agreed to strike a few poses with his new best bbq buddy. Note the sad Weber off to the side. I'm surprised he lets it sit on the same deck.

Always the educator: "This is where the fire goes."


"And this is where the meat goes." Careful with the scotch!


Bags o'meat


Here are the finished products. First up, melt-in-your-mouth brisket, perfectly moist. Joel may look goofy but the man sure knows his way around a bbq.


Pork, also perfect (and so juicy it didn't need sauce):


As always at Karen and Joel's, the sides were spectacular too. Corn salad:


Baked beans (this bowl and wine cooler, the plates, and platters were made by Amy Schwartz):


Here's my laden plate:


One very happy Cosmo.


Ron and me. We're SO glad to have them back!

Catching Up

Another busy week with not so much time for cooking (or cleaning...). But today I made one of my favorite dishes, one that screams SUMMER: spicy roasted cherry tomatoes with marjoram.


This is adapted from an Epicurious recipe that calls for chicken breasts. I make it with chicken thighs but more often than not I'll just go with the tomatoes and garlic. Here's my version.

Spicy Roasted Cherry Tomatoes with Marjoram

1 pint cherry (or grape) tomatoes
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp seasoned salt (I like the salle alla diavolo I got in CA last year)
1 tbsp fresh marjoram
4-5 garlic cloves

Preheat oven to 450. Mix all ingredients well, place in a shallow baking dish and roast for about 30 minutes or until tomatoes are blistering and splitting.

If I have hot pepper jelly I'll substitute that for the flakes. It's excellent warm or cold, add some feta and you have a great salad.

I used my Neuwave oven for these and they only took about 9 minutes to cook. The upside is that the kitchen stayed cool, the downside is the lack of crunchies that form on the bottom of the dish when it's roasted in the oven. That's a tradeoff I can handle in the summer.
...

While I was in Europe I missed my friend Tom's birthday slumber party so on Wednesday we went out for a belated celebration dinner at Cities Grille. This place has been open for quite a while and the food is consistently great.

We each had a salad to start and he went with the Chick-a-rizo: gulf shrimp sauteed with chicken breast, scallions, tomatoes, mushrooms and chorizon sausage in a white wine lemon herb sauce, served over cheesy tortalloni. Sorry the pic is a little fuzzy but it still looks delicious. Tom gave it a thumbs up. (He chose not to have the shrimp.)


I had my Cities Grille standard, the Blue Gouda. It's a beef tenderloin served on toasted cornbread and topped with a housemade bleu cheese, gouda cheese and sun dried tomato spread and comes with herb sautéed shrimp and mashed potatoes. The juice from the beef soaks into the cornbread and the cheese / tomato spread is spicy and sublime. I've always thought the shrimp were overkill on an already perfect dish but I'm not about to ask for them to be held!


Cities Grille
4511-C John Tyler Highway Williamsburg, VA 23185
757-564-3955

Congee Wonderland

I've been meaning to post this for a while. This shop, Congee Wonderland, was one of about fifty in the half block between my hostel and the subway in Hong Kong. The sign flashes purple and green, 24 hours a day.


I walked past it every day and only stopped on the last day, preferring to go to the bakery for pineapple or curry buns or cinnamon twists instead. Of course everything was so good I wished I'd stopped every day I was there.

Here's a demure Helen and our wonderful spread of food at her favorite Thai place. Grilled squid on the left, green curry cooked (and served) in a coconut on the right, and pad thai in front of Helen. Delicious!

Store Wars

Thanks to Aidan for the highlight.

Kitchen progress update, weekend eating

Ok, my kitchen is not yet in tip top shape. Life, work, and - best of all - books got in the way this week. However, I'll have you know that I'm writing this post while taking a break from scrubbing the kitchen floor on my hands and knees. Honest to god. As the floor has only been Swiffered occasionally since I moved in over three years ago, this is a very gratifying exercise. So I'm giving myself a week extension (for good behavior) to finish this project.

Yesterday's trip to the farmer's market was a little disappointing. Some of the vendors I'd hoped to see weren't there so I didn't get any meat, but I did stock up on onions, eggplant, jalapenos, and cherry tomatoes. Add this to my realfoodwilliamsburg order and I have plenty of stuff for a week's worth of great fresh meals. Good thing I'm working at home tomorrow and can be cooking while editing essays, etc. I also got a couple of pots of herbs to start my balcony herb garden earnest. You can see them (and Samuel) here.

In the afternoon I met my friend Laurie for lunch at Emerald Thai, still my favorite Thai restaurant in Williamsburg (264 Mclaws Cir, Williamsburg, VA 23185,757-645-2511). Yes, we only have two and I do like Thaipot, but Emerald still holds the top spot. Laurie got some tofu dish that I refused to take a photo of (one of these days I'll conquer my very visceral dislike of that stuff) and I got a seafood soup I hadn't had before (forget the name, I'll look it up and post later). The broth was like that of Tom Yum but with more of a fish sauce tang. My bowl had scallop, shrimp, mussel, and squid, one large piece of each. It was delicious and I'd definitely get it again.


For the main I got the soft shell crab special with panang sauce. The first couple of bites were truly excellent, the crab was lightly battered and fried crisp and the panang flavors complimented it perfectly. After that, I must have been talking too much and the crab got a little soggy. Simple solution: eat first, talk later!


For breakfast this morning I ate the last of the peaches soaked in white wine that I made the other night, with some plain yogurt, sliced almonds, and a little demarara sugar sprinkled over. Although they weren't very pretty (thus no photo), they were delicious, and since peach season is just starting I'm looking forward to a lot more of these. The wine I used was the one I had open for sipping, a crisp and light Vernaccia di San Gimignano, Tenuta Mormorala.

Here is one of my very favorite summer indulgences: the cotton candy Blizzard from DQ.


This pic does not do justice to the creamy, crunchy, tooth-achingly sweet dessert. It's only available in the summer so a couple each year won't kill me, right? Right.

July 4

Greetings from the Colonial Capital. From the safety of my apartment I've been watching storms come and go all afternoon - hope the weather doesn't ruin anyone's holiday.

Yesterday I picked up my second realfood order of the summer:
free range chicken eggs
blueberries
white & red cabbage
potatoes (austrian crescent, adirondack red)
carrots
gold beets
daikon radish
italian zucchini

You'd think that I'd have spent today cooking all these great things, but you would be wrong. Instead, I cooked up a couple more turkey sausages and made home fries with some of the potatoes I'd boiled the other day + green onions. Why green onions? Well, for reasons that I don't entirely understand, I have NO onions in my apartment!! I will remedy that at the farmer's market in the morning. The home fries were good but I definitely missed the strings of crispy browned onions.

I did have some grill envy earlier in the day when it seemed like everyone in the complex had toted their Webers and Colemans down to cook up big holiday feasts. But the thought of schlepping equipment up and down the steps made me get over it pretty quickly. To think that I took for granted all the barbecues that we had pretty much every summer weekend when I was growing up: ribs, chicken, venison. sigh. We even had a fire pit where you could cook a whole hog.

Tomorrow is another day, and it has a blueberry smoothie, borscht and ice cream on the agenda. Have a happy 4th!

Pumpkin (seed) power

Under the influence of the Times piece on The Best 11 Foods You Aren't Eating, I picked up some pumpkin seeds at Ukrops tonight. Beets, cabbage, swiss chard are all on my realfood order coming tomorrow so I was ahead of the curve there. AND I ate fresh blueberries as a snack this morning. For once I'm on top of things, healthwise at least.

I also made my hotel reservations for the NCHC conference in San Antonio in late October. Ahh, 3+ months to mull over the many Texas food possibilities. Is Lockhart on the list? Damn straight! I will be reading up on Homesick Texan's posts in preparation.

In other news, I stopped at the Wine Seller in hopes of getting a fruity beer to go with the outstanding clinatro chili pork lettuce wraps seen below but came away with three bottles of wine (yay) and an Imperial Cherry Saison beer. The beer turned out to be good but it's not the kind of cherry beer I was hoping for, as Andy warned me. If anyone knows where I can get a good lambic or kriek in Williamsburg please let me know in the comments!


P.S. I also got some pink prosecco but blogging about that would have made this post way too alliterative, what with all the pork and pumpkin power.

A little progress, a few crabs

This morning I ran a full dishwasher, hand washed a couple of large skillet-type items, and wiped down the stove. It made sense to move the water kettle next to the stove since there's a) room and b) a plug there that never gets used. Baby steps, but still it's nice to have a clean stovetop.


Here are some luscious soft shell crabs from the Farmer's Market. I soaked them in a mixture of milk and an egg for an hour, dredged them in flour, salt and pepper, and paprika, and fried them in butter / vegetable oil. A dollop of mayonnaise and a leaf of lettuce made the perfect sandwich.


In other food news, I had this very forgettable fish & chips meal at Spectators Sports Bar while watching the Euro 2008 final. The chips weren't bad but didn't raise the level of the fish which were just two obviously frozen planks plunked down on the plate. The breading was hard without being crunchy or crispy, if that makes sense, and there was no malt vinegar in evidence (though to be fair I didn't ask the rather nice and obviously very new waitress). The house-made potato chips were lackluster and needed a lot of salt. On the heels of the so-so buffalo wings from the semi-final on Wednesday (not the best in Williamsburg as the website proclaims), this does not bode well for future dining outings. I will have to give the place one more try for their burger but if that doesn't come up to the hype it's three strikes and they're out.

I Need Help

Observation of the early evening: if I never hear another 30 something white guy say "Back that thang up" it will be too soon.

Spent the morning reading and the afternoon at the office and didn't eat a thing. I think the heat has wrecked my appetite, for better or worse. When I got home I boiled up some beef and spinach ravioli from Cavanna Pasta, put a simple tomato sauce and some reggiano over it and scarfed it up. I may eat a salad in a while. But that's not what I'm here to write about. Bigger things are afoot.

Ok, I've known it for a long time but have been in denial. My kitchen is a wreck, my apartment is a wreck, my office is a wreck, my life may well be a wreck too. But all I'm ready to deal with at this point is my kitchen, and I'm going to use Steak Salad to document the progress.

Here's a 360 of it. Unfortunately, these photos have not been altered.

First, the stove / sink area with kitchen table in the foreground.


Next, the counter around the microwave / over the dishwasher, to the left of the fridge.


The water heating / pot and pan storage area. Fancy! sigh.


And finally, a reverse view of the kitchen table / laundry drying area.


My project this week is to whip the kitchen into shape and post the "after" photos by the end of next weekend. Even though no one who doesn't already love me and understand my tendencies reads the blog, the minute chance that a stranger might stumble on it and idly wonder if I got the ungodly mess cleaned up is motivation enough. I hope.

The kitchen is not a small room. The main problem is the lack of useful storage space. Well, that and the fact that I don't put anything away in the space I do have. That gift bag is from April.

Wish me luck with this, and feel free to post encouraging words and helpful suggestions to the comments. Who knows, if this works I may have to tackle the rest of the apartment.

On the sunny side (think 74 degrees, no humidity kind of sunny), this is one of the cute rubber coasters I got at the V&A. Do NOT ask how much they cost.

Last Dinner in London

I can see that the photos and descriptions of meals from my month away are going to be dribbling out slowly, and that's okay. My last day in London involved a leisurely afternoon in the Victoria & Albert Museum, an excellent lunch at a place in Covent Garden (the name of which I will figure out soon), a viewing of the gripping but depressing French film The Heartbeat Detector starring the amazing Mathieu Amalric.


There was a Giraffe restaurant just around the corner from the movie theater and on the way back to my hotel so I stopped and had wok fried edamame (made with lemongrass, lime, and chiles and sprinkled with rock salt). With that I had a glass of Jeio prosecco.


For my main I went with the Malaysian coconut curry laksa with chicken and prawns, accompanied by a glass of Riff pinot grigio de Venezie. It's lovely, no? I would have preferred the laksa to have had more of a kick but it definitely provided a soothing end to the meal. Once back at the Tavistock I had "just" one pint of Magners cider. An apple a day and all that.

Yogurt Roasted Chicken

Since I'm working from home today (trying to catch up on roughly a bajillion emails and reading Fulbright essays), I thought the least I could do for myself would be to have something roasty filling the house with gorgeous smells while I toiled away.

A few weeks ago I drooled over The Wednesday Chef's version of Liz Pearson's Yogurt-Rubbed Roast Chicken with Red Pepper Sauce and was remembering said recipe on my way home from a dinner party last night. Those who know me know that my memory is amazing in its sievelike qualities and won't be surprised that "chicken" and "yogurt" were the only things I actually remembered. Undeterred, I stopped at Bloom for a container of greek yogurt, set the chicken from Saturday's Ukrops run to soak in some brine last night and got up early this morning to figure out the rest.

Basically the only things that remained from Luisa's version were the chicken, yogurt, olive oil, salt, pepper and dry mustard. I added some dried thyme, tarragon, and cayenne to the yogurt as well as a couple of dashes of sriracha. I had a cut lemon laying around so I stuffed that inside. Instead of using a rack, I cut up some onions and new potatoes to use as a bed for the chicken and cooked it for two hours at 325.

And here's the tender, juicy, delicious result:


The chicken is perfect. Seriously, I could barely stop picking at it long enough to wash my sticky hands so I could upload the photos and write a post.

The potatoes and onions may not look like much, but with a twist of pepper and a sprinkle of salt? Man, are they yummy.


The red pepper sauce still intrigues me and I'll probably try it in the near future. For now, this has made my week - and it's only Monday!

Back in the 'burg

I'm back - and very glad to be staying put for a while. For the past two days I've eaten fairly horribly, with the exception of a delicious flank steak caesar at Alize for lunch yesterday. After being gone a whole month, my cupboards and refrigerator were completely bare so some shopping was in order.

This morning I was up early and at the Williamsburg Farmer's Market by 8:30. In addition to catching up with some old friends and petting a lot of dogs, I got: a couple of soft shell crabs, zucchini, garlic, string beans, onions, new potatoes, some baby salad greens, a couple of loaves of whole grain bread, a new pot of rosemary, and a pot of pet grass for Sammy. As you can see, he's in seventh heaven.

This was the best photo of the lot - the rest were either really blurred action shots of the feeding frenzy or featured his crazed shiny eye look.

Since the pork folks weren't at the market this week I stopped at Ukrops for a pork loin and ended up getting some salmon, monkfish, kebab meat, skirt steak, a roasting chicken, and turkey sausages (the ones I had in Germany were really delicious so I figured I'd give them a try). After side trips to the Wine Cellar for wine (duh) and Amish butter and the Fresh Market for Yoder milk and Strongbow cider (yes! as if I hadn't drunk more than my fair share of that over the past week) and a Ritter Sport bar, my rounds were complete and I rewarded myself with a latte at the newly-opened Harbour Coffee in New Town.

The latte wasn't bad, and I really liked the atmosphere of the place - it felt completely comfortable to sit down and read a couple of chapters of my book while I sipped my drink. They serve some food and pastries, and they had a cooler full of Yoder milk - and half & half! - for sale. Right now they're only open 'til 2 but later in the month they'll extend their hours to 10 p.m. I believe the grand opening is July 1. Let's get out there and support the newest coffee shop in town!

After all the shopping and running around I came home to collapse and try to make a dent in my way backlogged blog reading. Dinner was simplicity itself: roasted salmon with lemon sliced thinly over it and lots of pepper and a glass (or three) of Cantine Riondo Pink Prosecco Raboso. Here's to a nice long month of cooking for myself.

German Food: Berlin

So far I've eaten really, really well Germany. On Tuesday night Cookie, Laura, Ruth and I went to Cavalinno Rosso on the recommendation of Rolf Hoffman from IIE. It was fantastic and I'd recommend it to anyone visiting Berlin.

First, the amazing antipasta plate: capers (those bulbous stemmed items), sundried tomatoes rolled in pickled eggplant, pickled herring, fresh mozarella, cheese stuffed tomatoes, pickled zucchini, veal in tuna sauce.



Ruth and I got the tagliatelle with chanterelles.


Cookie and Laura both got the cadillac of the night: ricotta filled ravioli in cream sauce with shaved truffles. Ruth and I were a little bit jealous even though our food was perfectly delicious.


The food at the Hotel Relexa where we were staying was very good as well. Here are some veal sausages and a pretzel with hot mustard that I had for lunch one day.


This is Laura's cutlet "Vienna style" with spring leek au gratin, leaf salads and lime-herb butter.


My pork belly.


The amazing spread the Thüringen embassy set out for our group.

Three Days in London

The flight over was more eventful than I would have liked - a guy in the row behind me drank three airplane bottles of wine and threw up all over himself, his seatmate, the seats, etc. - half an hour before landing. He was originally sitting next to me but traded to be across the aisle from his buddy, thank goodness.

I'd decided to eat in the Charlotte airport (barbecue, of course) and not to eat anything on the plane, so I just had some water and orange juice. This is the first time I've done this and it really is the way to go unless you're flying on an airline like Air France where the food is usually very good.

My eating record here in London has been incredibly boring. After rolling, bumping, and dragging myself and my luggage to the Tavistock Hotel in Bloomsbury I had to cool my heels for a few hours before getting into my room so I had strong English tea and a lunch of bacon (really ham) and onion quiche, salad, potato salad, and a mixture of rice and corn at Jacques wine bar on the ground floor of the building. Yes, that's potatoes and rice. The Tavistock's English breakfast buffet is been quite good, especially if you like artery-clogging stuff first thing in the morning.

On Wednesday night I got in late and exhausted so had the chicken paprika over rice (pretty flavorless). But last night's supper of lamb chops, roasted new potatoes and grilled vegetables was excellent.

(post photo here)

Today I have a late-afternoon flight to Brussels from Heathrow's notorious terminal 5. I'll have one more lunch at Jacques and head over there right after. Fortunately I can catch the Picadilly Line here at Russell Square and go directly there so there'll be a minimum of bruises.

On the way to Europe

I'm writing from the Charlotte airport, which has free wireless internet. Yay Charlotte!

Tomorrow morning I'll be in England. After that I go to Belgium, back to England, Germany, back to England, and home on June 18th. This is 3/4 work and 1/4 fun (the Belgium part is entirely fun). I'll be posting here as often as possible. Frites, mussels, belgian beer, here I come!

Get Yo' Man Chicken

I got this recipe from Down Home with the Neelys during my blissful-but-all-too-brief morning watching FoodTV in the hotel room. Even though the Neelys were perfectly nice and lovey dovey throughout the episode, I keep referring to it as "Slap Yo' Man Chicken" for some reason. It's not as though I actually have one to slap, now is it? Which is why I reduced the recipe to 4 chicken thighs and made a couple of meals out of it. As you can see from the photo, I also served it over couscous which soaked up the sauce perfectly. It was a fast and easy Friday night mean - this one's a keeper.

2 tablespoons olive oil
6 chicken thighs, skinless
1 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoons pepper
1 medium onion, sliced
1 cup chicken stock
1/2 cup white wine
1 (14.5-ounce) can crushed tomatoes in thick puree
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 tablespoon dried rosemary
1 tablespoon lemon-pepper
Hot buttered rice
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves

Heat the oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat.

Pat chicken dry with a paper towel and season with salt and pepper. Brown the chicken, meat-side down first, and turning once, about 4 minutes on each side. Transfer to a plate to reserve.

Pour off all but 1 tablespoon of oil from the pan.

Add onion to the pan and saute until tender, roughly 3 minutes. Add the stock and wine and stir, scrapping any brown bits off the bottom of the pan. Turn heat to high and reduce by half, about 3 minutes. Pour in the crushed tomatoes and add the dried herbs and lemon pepper. Add the chicken thighs back in. Cover and cook on medium low for 40 minutes.

Remove chicken from liquid and serve on hot buttered rice. Ladle the sauce on top and garnish with fresh chopped parsley.

(adapted from Down Home with the Neelys)

DC Food Trip, Finale

This lovely young woman is Stephanie. She is grinning at the camera not because she's getting ready to see Eddie Izzard but because she's poised over a tray of three gorgeous little dishes of crème brûlée. We're still at Belga Café, still full and happy from our meal and beer.

The brûlée on the right is either maple or molasses and it was delicious, the brown sugar was crackly perfectly on top and the creamy dense custard inside tasted like ginger snap cookie pudding. Thank god it was so good as it was the high point of the course. The one in the center was supposed to be vanilla cb with five peppers (?) and strawberry topping. The one to the left should have been pistachio cb with tapioca topping. Instead, the center was pistachio cb (clearly, as it was green) with strawberry topping and it was so-so. The strawberry topping was good but the pistachio was underwhelming. Plus, cb should be crackly on top or it's just custard.

The third dish contained what was to be the real problem of the night. As far as we could tell it was the vanilla with five peppers (never understood, never explained) with the misplaced tapioca topping (identified by the tapioca pearls). Steph, the cb afficianado, took one bite and the sides of her smile dropped. "Taste this." I did, and it was bad. Not as in "I don't like this," more like "this dessert is really old or has been left out of the fridge and has gone off." We both tried another small taste before suggesting to the waiter that something might be wrong. His response was "Oh, that one's my favorite. But lots of people don't like it." No "Let me take that back to the kitchen." No "customer is always right" attitude here! Maybe if we'd been obnoxious instead of excruciatingly polite he wouldn't have blown us off.

To further add insult to injury a manager came by and asked us how things were. We said the meal and beer were great but something wasn't right with this one cb. He also informed us that that was the least popular flavor and breezed off. Clearly our palates aren't sophisticated enough for Belga Café's rancid crème brûlée. Our powers of observation also don't allow us to remember which topping should be on which dessert. Hmm.

Love the mussels, love the beer, but the dessert experience left such a bad taste in my mouth it will be a while before I go back.

DC Food Trip, Part II

On Friday of Birthday Week, after Colleen had left for the train and I'd crawled back into bed, I had a long debate with myself about whether to stay in bed, read a little (maybe), and order a pizza. Maybe venture out to the nearby Starbucks at some point. But I mentally kicked myself in the ass with the "you have a chance to eat cool things and you're going to do something you can do at home?" argument and rallied.

Once I'd taken the metro in there were loads of choices. I went to the Navy Memorial metro stop, arriving just before noon, and there was some sort of ceremony going on with the US Navy Band. It was pretty awe inspiring, all those people in dress whites.

In the end I went up the street to Oyamel for a really lovely lunch. I had the special, a pepper stuffed with pork, pine nuts, and loads of great spices, the sopa de chileatole al lima y tequila con camarones (lime and corn masa soup with shrimp, marinated red onions, cilantro and reposado tequila), and a tamarind soda. The soup was brought out in a bowl brothless and the server poured the steaming stock over it at the table. Nice! I stupidly dumped in my entire tequila shot without tasting first. It was still delicious but I'd like to see what it's like with say a half or 3/4 shot. Another visit is in order! There were lots of tempting things on the menu, including the ceviche choices, so a return trip shouldn't be a burden.

Sadly, I didn't opt for one of Oyamel's beautiful margaritas. Instead I made my way back to the hotel for a nap then met Stephanie for dinner and the second Eddie Izzard show. We caught a cab and went to Belga Café for dinner. I'd been here a few weeks ago and had awesome mussels and, of course, amazing beer. We started with the kip & krab sigaar (spicy cigars of chicken and crabmeat with assorted sauces) which paired nicely with the beer we were drinking. Steph got one of the steak dishes & it look fantastic. I had the mussels "curry" (Asian style in a light curry-ginger-sesame-soya-oyster sauce) which were delicious. We were perfectly happy, sipping beer and catching up. Then we ordered dessert.

To be continued...