Eastern Market and the far East
Hi everyone!
I just need to get this out of the way: Kim Jong-Il is dead, so that makes Kim Kardashian the most powerful Kim in the world, doesn’t it? (via wellalright)
Continuing with the Eastern theme here tonight, I present to you the Eastern Market, which is DC’s oldest farmers’ market!
It’s open Tuesday through Sunday at 7th and C St. SE in Washington, DC and has not only local produce and artisan food stuffs, but next door is a flea market with lots of interesting vendors.
Coming from a girl who has spent the last 15 years of her life living in Arizona, then Florida, and now California, it was preeeetty cold out.
However, I was able to stay distracted from my numb fingers with all the pretty and shiny things for sale.
Hand-blown glass
Stuart at the Eastern Market!
Ah, but this is sort of a food blog, so I should mention the food, yes?
Artisan muffins!
Fresh produce
And SAMPLES!
Hot sauce
Hummus
Salsa
And quite possibly the richest hot chocolate I’ve ever downed
Next door to the Eastern Market is this bakery/cafe named Le Pain Quotidien, and if we didn’t already have plans to stuff ourselves over in Chinatown, I probably would have allowed myself to die of a happy carb coma.
Holy [moly] bread, right?
Chinatown! (Plus my bad attempt at capturing the Chinatown Friendship Arch while avoiding being hit by a car.)
For those who have never been to the DC area before and want to check out Chinatown, one of the most famous restaurants there is Chinatown Express, for hand-pulled noodles.
They have their Noodle Master (I kid you not) make hand-pulled noodles by stretching out handfuls of dough, and with a snap of his wrist, splitting the dough into spaghetti-like strands.
Which are then immediately rushed to the kitchen to either be stir-fried or dunked in a hot soupy broth.
(Okay, I was sort of kidding about the Noodle Master thing. I don’t know what his official title is, but in Chinese, he is called a Master…. of what, I’m not sure.)
My little cousin Olivia and her father have extremely discerning palates, so they weren’t too enthused about coming here since apparently, the food is really bad.
However, that still didn’t kill my enthusiasm for trying the noodles, even though I’ve been here twice prior.
Note my godmother’s increasingly grumpy facial expressions:
And Stuart in Chinatown!
I think bringing out Stuart was a charm, because our food was brought out essentially five seconds later.
Olivia and her parents ordered the hand-pulled noodles in duck
While I got the hand-pulled noodles in a veggie broth.
Unfortunately, the predictions were right; the soup was less than fabulous and I had to douse it with various sauces to get some flavor. Even though the noodles were chewy and thick, they weren’t anything particularly memorable.
And an eggplant casserole (seen as one of today’s specials via the yellow poster above Olivia’s head), while flavorful, was completely doused in oil.
I could feel my pores screaming in grease with each bite. Not pleasant.
Bottom line is, if you’ve never been to DC or Chinatown before, visiting Chinatown Express could be another check off your to-see list since it’s such a Chinatown institution, but if you actually want good food, I would say pass on this one.
Playing with Stuart post-lunch.
What does it matter that Olivia and I are high school and college students, respectively? You’re never too old to roll around in the grass with little dolls, obviously.
Basically, Stuart is the cutest little bugger we have ever laid our eyes on.
And don’t try to convince me otherwise.
I won’t blog about my dinner since it was just a simple one with sautéed veggies, so instead, I’ll tell you about how one of the neighbors brought over a box of mini macarons from Paul’s bakery.
According to my godmother, Paul sells the best macarons outside of Paris, and that is something to be believed, considering she lived there for a year and travels back periodically.
From L to R: chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, lemon, toffee, and pistachio. These babies were uh-maaazing, and the best part is, I’m actually going to Paul’s myself this Tuesday for a lunch with one of my old bosses.
I’m dreaming of macarons tonight!
