Asian Supermarket

My friend, Sid, took me to an asian supermarket. It is called Great Wall Market, and it was awesome. From the outside, the place just looks like a normal grocery store. But on the inside it is like a black market full of asian food. It honestly does not look all that legit, it doesnt smell all that great, its kind of dark, dingy, and dirty. 

Its also piled floor to ceiling with various and strange looked food. I ended up spending a lot of money there and bought a ton of groceries, everything was actually pretty cheap tho. There were a lot of things that Sid suggested and I said "uhhhhh not today". I ended up making a delicious stir fry with yakisoba noodles one day with it. There are so many items that I have no idea what they are in the stir fry.

I also made some sugar snap pees and cabbage another day, and it was fantastic. If you havent had sugar snap peas... you must learn to make them. They are easy to make and super delicious and great for you. Same thing with Edamame. 

The Boardroom

Yesterday we had a pretty awesome day in DC. We met up with some friends at the BoardRoom which is now my favorite bar. Cheap drinks, bring in your own food (yeah and there is a Chipotle right down the street) and rent/bring some board games and have at it! We played Settlers of Catan for about 2 hours, which was surprisingly fun. Afterwards we went to a place called Cafe Luna (I think) and it was meh. Sarah read Erin's Tarot cards and that was pretty cool. 

Afterwards we wondered around for quite an extensive time debating where to go. We ended up seeing a lot of DC as we kept picking a place and finding out it was closed. We ended up at Ford's Theater, which was interesting, we should definitely see a play there in the future. But more importantly we found a place called Crumbs Bake Shop, which I just found out is a chain. I dont even care. They had the best cucpake I have ever had in my life, the caramel coconut girl scout cupcake. So delicious. 

Afterwards we headed back to our apt to play with the cats and watch Shaun of the Dead. And. Tequila Shots. Always a good time.

US Science and Engineering Festival

Today we went to the USSEF and it was awesome! We got to see a plethora of booths, the most exciting one had live bugs that were crawling on the people at the booths. There was a really awesome praying mantis from south Asia that looked exactly like a dead leaf and was crawling up a lady's arm. There was also the largest beetle ever, like size of a rat large.
We also got to see Bill Nye! We were two rows back and we could easily see and hear him and he did some pretty awesome demonstrations. He mostly talked about the importance of space travel and of taking care of the Earth we have. He showed us a Sterling motor which was pretty sweet, with a push and no more energy it ran off its own power for the entire hour. I also now want to join the planetary society, which he is the head of.
After the Festival we went to a Japanese ramen shop! It was AWESOME. I posted a picture on Facebook, but omg the noodles were so delicious. Same with the soup. It was totally worth the wait, and we got to sit at a ramen bar and be right by the cooks. So delicious.

Japanese Cherry Blossoms

The cherry blossoms are beautiful, amazing, and very transient. They are only around for about a week. We saw them on friday (best day off ever) and they are already falling this morning, saturday. Its still beautiful when they fall. 

If you stand on the Jefferson Memorial and look towards DC, the entire bank is covered in the cherry blossom trees. They look like Pink clouds. 

Even better, we decided to make it an even better outting. We then went to the Sackler Musuem to see the Kiyochika gallery, https://www.asia.si.edu/exhibitions/current/kiyochika/. We couldnt take pictures, but these were amazing. Beautiful prints, and a lot of them. We then walked around the Smithsonian Gardens and looked for a restaurant for probably 2 miles until we settled on Lime, again. Lunch time anywhere near Smithsonian is a nightmare. 

The National Botanical Gardens

The Botanical gardens were pretty awesome. Very beautiful and separated by Biomes. It is definitely a great place to go (especially with a date) in the winter. During the summer I dont think one would appreciate it as much, but in the winter it is extremely refreshing. The its really humid and a perfect temperature and there are lots of benches to just sit and enjoy the jungle, dessert, anything. Also when we were there, there was an Orchid exhibit and it was beautiful. 

The jungle biome was probably my favorite, it is rather tall and has walkways going up and a beautiful creek going through the center of it. But the dessert had this awesome spike plant. 

Sporadic Running in Alexandria

I had a great run, 3.1 miles. Second run of the year. I ran to King street and back and that clearly was not enough distance. Only about 1.3 miles. So I kept running and wondered where it would get me. I ran a nice little loop around a park. It was pretty nice, rather cold and I saw these adorable sidewalk prints that I followed. I also saw ones that said "leap like a deer". All in all a great morning! I came back and made some awesome brunch! 

Hard Times Chili Bowl: Veggie friendly!

Chili places are really not our thing. This is the first one I have ever been in that had a veggie option at all. This one's veggie option was pretty good, it had soy flakes, a tomato base, and mushrooms. It was a little strong on the tomatoes, but over all quite tasty for a vegetarian option. Also its great on the chili fries. And great on my veggie burger, although it was just a morningstar veggie burger. The fries were particularly good too. All in all had a good southern comfort vibe.
After work we just walked over and met up on King Street, grabbed some chili and walked home. All this walking is pretty fantastic for us!

Chinatown!

We had a nice adventure in china town last night. Our original intent was to go to vapiano's, which we have been to before and love. But once we got in there were no seats left and the lines for food were really long, At this point we were extremely hungry and so we just picked the next place we saw, Lime fresh Mexican grill. It was awesome. For Mexican grills it is now tied as my favorite burrito place with the Burrito Shack in murray, Ky. Even there margaritas were absolutely delicious and they came from a slushie machine. So good. We then went to see the Wind Rises, which was fantastic! My review should be coming online here soon at http://movieblogbydonna.com/ . All in all we had a fantastic night! The look of joy on Erin's face here should be all you need to try this place.

Red Mei: Fast Food Thai

There is never a bad time for thai food. And this place is speedy and and genuine. Red Mei is right on King Street, but for the location it looks kind of shady. But it the food was cheap and great. And they deliver. The food was a bit greasy, and my drunken noodles were incredibly spicy, but I knew what I was getting into when I ordered it.

Erin got some pad thai and it was much better than my drunken noodles. Overall I would give it like a 6.5, good for fast food and a fun hole in the wall place with thai food.

Alexandria Happy Hour

On Monday we decided to check out Alexandria's happy hours. We somewhat randomly picked 2 places, Columbia Firehouse and Redrocks pizzeria. There are so many happy hours on king street that we can just walk from one to another.
Redrocks; the happy hour food was awesome. 6 dollars for a good 12 inch cheese pizza and 3 dollar rails. Erin had 2 jack and cokes and I had a great gin and tonic. There weren't too many people and they were playing good music and had a nice environment. It was a pretty fun time in general.
Columbia firehouse: pretty crowded and a much more expensive happy hour. I had a margarita that I was not a fan of at all, its pretty hard to make a bad margarita. Erin had a 1922 side car that she moved tho. After that it was just a short walk home.
We plan on trying a lot of different happy hours around town, but so far Red Rocks is a much better one than Columbia firehouse.

Alexandria Farmer's Market

This morning Erin and I visited the Alexandria Farmer's market. You might be thinking, "hmmm who would go to the Farmer's market on the first day of March?" Yes, you would be correct. There was practically no one there. Few customers and a couple of vendors. We were just excited to get out and get somewhere. We did manage to get some nice sourdough bread, a box of onions, and this adorable bunch of reject carrots. 

We also got some nice coffee at Starbucks. We really need to find a local coffee shop that we like. There actually seem to be fewer coffee shops here than there were in Louisville. Maybe we just aren't looking hard enough or maybe it's because we are not really close to a large university. We also got to make this tasty sandwich

Toasted (skillet toasted is the best) with hummus, caramelized onions, sliced tomatoes, sprouts, and some Italian cheese.



Faccia Luna Trattoria

Faccia Luna is a very small pizza place that does pizza well but nothing too groundbreaking. We headed there because it is incredibly close to us and looked interesting. Being vegetarian, there were only a couple items on the list we could order. We ended up settling with a 14in white pizza that was incredibly well priced. Which brings me to my first point.
The prices were the most perplexing thing I have ever seen. 9 dollars for a small plate of bruschetta or you could get an entire small pizza for the same price. All the starters were very pricy and small. All the pastas were 15 or more dollars. But the pizzas were crazy cheap, as long as you didn't do a build your own.
The pizza also tasted pretty good but was incredibly greasy. This isn't always a bad thing, I mean it is pizza, but in this case it did not work well. Salty, greasy pizza. Overall the pizza was pretty solid in taste, but nothing groundbreaking. It is a place that we probably would not visit again except that it is literally a 5 minute walk from our apartment.
Matt's Rating: 6.5
Erin's Rating: 7

LaPorta's: Death by Brunch

Disclaimer: this review only applies to LaPorta's brunch.
The very essence of brunch is different and far removed from breakfast. People that confuse the two are mere mortals whose spirits have not transcended to a great level of understanding of meals. Brunch is defined by whoever is serving it. Food that normally could never be included in breakfast find a loophole and work themselves into brunch. Crabcakes at brunch? Why not. Steak? Of course. Pasta? Most definitely.
Laporta's has a rather full menu including all these random items, but let's just skip that. They have a 20 dollar brunch deal. Your eyes should never wander from that list. It is 3 course, appetizer, entrée, dessert, and it is enough to leave two people loosening their belt buckles to accommodate such fine food.
Erin and I took part in this affair. It can be described in no other way, we did not eat or consume their food. We participated in the experience of brunch. The first course was greens with a pear emulsion and some other fantastic bits and pieces. It was sweet, tasty, and mind-blowingly good. We also had a breadbasket that was just unbelievable. Cheap, filling, fantastic. Do yourself a favor and order it. Best biscuits I have had in a long time. 
The entrée was French toast with a berry compote and some hashbrowns. The hashbrowns were delicious cooked potatoes and we laughed when they handed us syrup. Syrup would merely taint such a perfect balance that they had achieved in the French toast. Texture and taste. Perfect. Had a strawberry fleurette to finish, our friends had the same meal but with the lemon tart. I found the lemon tart much lighter and tastier. The fleurette had far too much caramel and too little of everything else.
While we were eating not only did our glasses never go below half full, but a fantastic gentleman started playing the piano. It was wonderful.
Matt's Rating: 9.75
Erin's Rating: 9.5
Who needs options when you have something this good? Perfection is within the grasp of Laporta's

Elephant & Castle:Pub food at its finest

There is a limit to how good British pub food is. Elephant & Castle almost defy the laws of nature and break that limit. But they don't quite. If you are craving pub food, just skip everything else and go here, its easily the best pub food I've ever had. We had some fantastic tomato basil linguine with a nice salad. The portions were large enough that we could split it and still eat heartily. The pasta itself was just perfect. The salad was a little bland with not the best lettuce, but hey; its pub food.
Our friends got poutine and grilled salmon. The Salmon was fantastic with some great broccoli and Tia claims the poutine was tasty too. Everything was a little overpriced, but overall the food and atmosphere were great and we had good service too.
Matt's rating: 8
Erin's rating: 8
Good food, but not amazing. Pretty good atmosphere, great locations. Fun logo

Southside 815: Boisterous atmoshpere, boisterous food

Southside 815 has a rowdy atmosphere when you first walk in. The left side is a sports bar; loud, cheerful, lots of TVs. The right side seems like a somewhat classy, family friendly restaurant with food that resembles the left side. The food is rowdy, fun, and loud. As the meal goes on the food gets a little too forward and is just too much. I ordered a Portobello sandwich and it was unhealthy, massive, and far too greasy to finish. About halfway through I got a little grossed out and dissuaded from letting it go any further. Erin had some tasty mac and cheese that fared better than my suitor, at least it was taken home for the night.
Our friends ordered some pork (I believe) nachos and seemed to enjoy it quite a bit. They raved about it, shared it, and even finished it the next morning, along with their side of mac and cheese.
And we shared a fantastic breadbasket. For the price, the breadbasket is definitely a great option.
Maybe my food was just a fluke. If I give the place a second chance I shall edit this post with the results.
Matt's Rating: 5
Erin's rating: 6
Good bread, ok food, ok atmosphere, huge proportions

First Weekend Adventures

Moving is hard. Especially when you live on the third floor and there is no elevator and the drive is 10+ hours long. But our comrades, Kayley and Tia, not only volunteered themselves but did so without being guilted or heckled into service. So noble. So honorable. And so we showed our appreciation by taking them all over town and having a good time.
Friday- Weary and bedraggled we got everything moved in around 8 pm and decided to eat wherever was closest. Erin was starting to get really hangry since we hadn't eaten since around noon. After a quick search we went to Southside 815. It was like two restaurants in one. A family friendly southern comfortfood place on the right, and a drunk bar on the left. Whatever. Just food. Need.
Saturday- Smithsonians, Elephant and Castle, Pie for dinner (seriously). We showed our friends the awesome metro, The American history Smithsonian, and The Natural history Smithsonian. Kayley wanted to see literally everything and so had no preferences. However time only comes in limited quantities, so Tia got to pick almost everything we saw. We got whole foods dessert for dinner and were too exhausted to do anything else.
Sunday- La Porta's heavenly brunch. Air and Space Museum, The National Mall, a sad departure. The universe exhibit at the Air and Space museum is really the best. The monuments were pretty cool, but the fountains were off and the reflection pool had been drained so it was less exciting. And then Tia and Kayley had to fly back from Reagan National Airport. Hopefully we shall see you before too long.

The Move

Our large ancient house in Louisville, KY has been traded for a small, classy apartment in Alexandria, VA. We started at 0400 and arrived somewhere around 1500. If you have never experienced a long move with cats, they are not fun. They whine. Continually.
After everything was said and done we now have an extremely nice new place that hopefully we will be able to afford. Top 3 best things about our new apartment:
1. Lighting- As we are on the third floor, there is nothing obstructing the beautiful morning light entering our apartment and illuminates everything it touches. It gets light at about 630-7 right now and we do not feel the need to turn on any of artificial lights in the morning. It's gorgeous and a great way to wake up.
2. The gas stove- We cook a lot, and although we aren't great at it (pictures to follow) we plan on getting better. Gas stoves trump everything. Especially compared to our old stove that never cooked evenly (burners were lopsided and would only get red in certain spots and the oven. Dear god that oven. One side burnt one side raw). 
3. Location- It's a long walk to everywhere, but still a walk. Not a drive. We will probably use our car more often as we stay here longer, but for now we are walking everywhere. 1.8 miles from trader Joe's with groceries isn't fun, but it's good exercise at least.

As we get settled in we find more things we like about this place. It is coming together slowly. Big shout out to the best friends, Kayley and Tia, for the help moving! 3 flights of stairs with all that stuff was a blast!