Bubble Tea, Foreign Films, and ... Peanut Butter

To finish up my trip (I feel like I've taken a trip nearly every weekend this semester...I promise I actually do work sometimes, haha):

A few of the random things we did throughout the weekend: 

- went to a classical vocal concert dress rehearsal

- saw a great movie, "Farewell," at the DC International Film Festival (it was in Russian and French with English subtitles, and was by the same director as "Joyeux Noel," another great movie)

- walked around Georgetown

- did some real estate browsing

- visited TJ's

-took the Metro a LOT...

-and I had my first bubble tea!

It was lychee flavored...delicious!

On Saturday morning we ate at Busboys and Poets, an activist cafe named after the poet Langston Hughes. The food there was terrific. I knew that later that day we'd be eating at a tea shop, so I didn't want to have too much (partially prompted by the copious amounts of chocolate and German cookies graciously offered to me by my friend). One of the first things I saw when I walked in were the homefries. They looked absolutely delicious and I immediately settled on having that, although the sweet fugi apple and gorgonzola sandwich with fig spread on walnut raisin bread (whew, what a mouthful!) was calling too. I also got some freshly squeezed carrot juice. It was so creamy and carroty; just the way I like it. I'm sorry I don't have pictures; we ate with some of his friends and it just would have been awkward to take pictures. I'd definitely go there again.

The restaurant highlight of my trip was to Teaism, a tea shop and restaurant. There are three locations, and we went to the one in Dupont Circle, which was right by Embassy Row. It was fun to see all the flags of the different countries there.

I like eating little portions of a lot of different foods, instead of eating a meal with say, three items of a normal portion. So we decided to do a tapas type thing and order a lot of their side dishes. First the tea. I am an avid tea drinker; NOT a coffee person at all, haha. We got the Africa Star tea, which was a fruity tea, to share. Next up, the sides. We decided on the:

Naan with mango chutney 

Sweet Potato Salad with miso sauce 

Asian Slaw with spicy mayo dressing

and 

Palak Paneer: Indian spinach curry with homemade cheese, Indian brown rice & raita.

It was all very delicious. My favorite was the sweet potato salad, followed closely by the naan. My friend's was the Asian slaw. It was creamy at first, then you got the kick from the pepper in the dressing.
We saved room for dessert and got the chocolate tort with green tea gelato and a salty oatmeal raisin cookie (this one to go). The chocolate tort was alright; it improved on eating. The cookie was delicious; not too salty, but very oaty.

The spread...

The green tea gelato...

See the salt grains on top of the cookie?

I would highly recommend Teaism if you're in the DC area. I can't wait to go back again.

Haha, just a quick note on WF again. I forgot to mention in my last post that we tried the So Delicious green tea coconut ice cream. Did we like it?

We ate the whole pint.

That dinner was a wild one. I can now say that I've experienced peanut butter on brussel sprouts, citrus roasted potatoes, and green tea coconut ice cream. And you know what, it was pretty good.

Question: What's the weirdest/oddest food combination you've had? (Evan, I was thinking of you and PB with homefries...)


Checkout Madeline's giveaway for a tea press!

Trip Recap...Naked?

Hello everyone,

Have you heard the song "Bulletproof" by La Roux? It's been stuck in my head ever since the weekend.

I had a really fun trip and most of it involved around food, haha. Isn't it nice when you have a friend that can share your love of food and puts up with you taking pictures of it?

I wish I would have taken more pictures, but some of the time we were with people who really wouldn't understand, so I decided not to freak them out and refrained from taking pictures.

Luckily I didn't have to eat at the dining hall at all since my friend lives 5 minutes away from a Whole Foods (score)! He frequents it so often that most of the workers there know him by name. It was kind of funny to walk in and have the workers wave and greet you like they were your friends.

We tried the new Naked coconut water Tropical smoothie.

I really didn't care for it too much. My initial reaction was that it tasted like Capri-Sun...yuck. Once I drank a little more, it tasted better, but I still wasn't wild about it. I wouldn't buy it again. I'll just stick to my good old Green Machine Naked.

(source)

And the salad bar at Whole Foods was our best friend. I have to say that I ate many foods this weekend that I ordinarily wouldn't have, but I don't really feel that bad about it because it was really a one time thing. And now I'm back to copious amounts of veggies...just how I like it.

A sampling of our salad bar finds from Sunday afternoon:

Cajun sweet potato wedges and samosas

Balsamic roasted veggies

Fried plantains

Since sweet potatoes are one of my favorite foods, I probably ate those every night. The Cajun sweet potato wedges had a kick at the end that was terrific! The samosas were pretty good too...the chutney that came on the side was a nice sweet addition. The roasted veggies were rather bland and not that great. And don't the friend plantains look just like chicken wings? I promise they weren't, haha. We got those every time they had them too, because they were just so delicious. Probably because they were fried, haha.

It was fun to go to Whole Foods that often, since I don't have one here by me at school, but I just have one thing to say: thanks, Whole Foods, for sucking all my money up.

Haha, but it was worth it. 

I'll finish up the trip later today. See you all tonight!

Question: If you've tried Naked juices, what's your favorite flavor?

The Shower and some Whole Foods Fun

I survived the baby shower. 


It was by far the longest shower I have ever been to. We helped set up around 11, and the shower actually started at 12. It was held at an Italian place, so I kind of figured what the menu was going to hold: pasta, pasta, and more pasta. Even before eating mostly raw, I never liked pasta. At all. Call me weird (and some people have), but pasta was never my thing. Even when my family traveled to Italy, I still did not like their freshly made pasta (however, the panini and pizzas were delicious, haha). I was partially right: there were two kinds of pasta with red or bolognese and a pan of chicken parmigiana, but they had this gorgeous salad laid out, full of romaine, onion, tomato, and olives. No cheese, yay! I had a small plate of salad and then a dinner plate of salad when everyone else went up for the pasta/main course. They women at my table kept commenting, "Oh, you're so good. Look at her." It did make me a little uncomfortable, but I brushed it off.
Thank goodness for Lent, as I could use it as an excuse for not eating any of the HUGE shower cake. It was very pretty, though.


My cousin ended up opening gifts for (and I am not exaggerating) THREE hours. No joke. It was pretty painful. And ridiculous. It made me not want to have kids.


Yesterday I went shopping at Whole Foods with my mother to stock up on produce. I LOVE grocery shopping. I would grocery shop for other people if I could. I love the little fruit samples they have at Whole Foods. Sometimes I get lucky and they have chocolate covered almonds, sushi, or some other little treat that I'd like. This recent trip they had haroset, a Passover dish consisting of dates, apples, walnuts, raisins, and honey.

(source)

It was pretty good. We purchased my favorite: figs.

Who took at bite out of this guy?

These beat dates any day. Speaking of dates, I've consumed my body weight in figs this past week. So many, in fact, that my mother bought THREE containers. Oh boy.

Date heaven...

And guess what turned up at Costco? My other absolute fav (I know, I know, it seems like I have a lot of absolute favorites...)...

Slightly dark, but I'm sure you can tell what these juicy babies are...

Blueberries! I've waited so long and they taste delicious. I eat blueberries like someone would eat popcorn. Tomorrow I'm heading off to Notre Dame to visit a friend for the night. I've eaten in their dining hall before, but I can only remember breakfast. It's supposed to be really good, but I'll be the judge of that, haha...


Today's been one of those days when nothing I eat seems to hit the spot. I've been snacking around for the past hour, but nothing tastes right.


Questions: Do you ever have those days where nothing tastes right? 


What's the most painful event/shower you've had to go to? (and I mean painful as in torturous, not emotionally painful, to keep it light...)