Eating in DC

It's come to my attention that I experience DC via food. (Yes, I'm in DC tonight. Came down last night after working a five hour cashier shift at Target for a job interview today ~ second interview ~ as a communications director at an NGO here.)

We left Target a little before 5 pm, armed with flatbreads from the café and Starbucks, specifically a venti iced caramel macchiato with extra espresso and a tropical creme frappucino. We drove about 3.5 hours into DC and dined on Cava hummus and harissa at my friend's apartment.

This morning we ventured to Paul, where my husband enjoyed a gourmandise and I had a croissant. My interview was very nearby and afterwords we had lunch at Nando's Peri Peri on 18th. This particular office is close to all my favorites! Even Godiva is nearby.

For dinner tonight we went to Ercilia's for some El Salvador style street food. Papua and plantains! Those cheesy stuffed flatbreads all gooey and hot... And the plantains... Cheap, comforting and fills the belly.

Road trip!

Friday morning at 5:30 am, we headed into the dark for our first road trip in our Nissan.

We started out with dark chocolate covered espresso beans for the grown ups and baby carrots and sesame sticks for the child. The types of food allowed in the Nissan... Is limited.

We drove to the suburbs of Baltimore where we met my college roommate and her young boys for a delightful breakfast of popovers, blueberry muffins, fruit, eggs and bacon fresh from the butcher.

From there we headed into DC where we headed down to the Mall (no cherry blossoms yet) and bought the child ice cream from a food truck (and I got an egg roll).

Dinner was Salai Thai. My daughter loved their pineapple chicken last time since it came in a pineapple... And so she requested a return visit. Our party had a tofu appetizer that was quite melt-in-your mouth.

I had scallops and I don't remember the sauce/preparation. They were spicy in a big way, which was sooo good, but the scallops themselves were not as tender as I had hoped yet not tough either.

We had brought our host food gifts of zaatar bread, Tunisian Harissa and chocolate halawa. I believe he enjoyed them.

In the morning we went to PAUL. Spoke some French, ate lots of pastry.

Our final meal in DC was pitas at Cava Mezza grill near the DC City Target. Fun stuff-- organic food locally sourced.

On the way home we stopped at Cracker Barrel where I did something crazy-- I got the sampler platter instead of one of my favorites. This allowed me to try the chicken and dumplings, ham AND meatloaf. Surprisingly I liked the ham best and the meatloaf, while perfectly adequate, didn't hit the spot. Then I had a molasses sundae. That was fun.

Daughter had the chocolate coca cola cake. That was one of the best chocolate cakes I've ever eaten.