Ideas As They Occur

Bad Idea: Riding my bike to Georgetown wearing jeans during a heat advisory.
Good Idea: Stopping at Dolcezza for chocolate amargo, avocado and lemon gelato. Mmmm!

Bad Idea: Watching Sex and the City, the movie.
Good Idea: Watching Sex and the City, the movie.... and bringing the new David Sedaris book to occupy the surplus 45-minutes.

Shorts:
I wish I could wear shorts. I don't like to wear shorts and I really don't know why (it probably has something to do with my hips, my skinny ankles, cargo short flashbacks, feeling like a boy when I wear shorts and sneakers, etc.). And I can't wear a skirt on a bike, at least not without a lot of paranoia and top-drawer underwear, but the jeans are just killing me. I have one pair of shorts, but they're short-shorts, which I bought to wear over tights two years ago when that look was "in fashion." Capris are fine, but in what fabric? And linen/thin cotton slacks could result in embarrassing sweaty-seat. I've given up walking for biking, even if it means exerting a little extra energy, so I can get back to air conditioning before I melt or die. I'm not made for swamp weather, I'm afraid. I just hadn't expected to revisit my short phobia because of it.

Jobs:
Speaking of sweating, I'm still waiting to hear back about that job. Luckily, I'm plotting a tenth-frame strike-out, all my chips in, final sprint to the finish kind of comeback. I just hope it works and I don't make a fool of myself. What's the worst that could happen, right?

Dulce de Leche--Best Food Ever

I've eaten my share of dulce de leche thanks to Dolcezza in Georgetown, but never like this before. In the spirit of “When in Rome,” I have grown into what my friend NM has penned as an “alfajore”. Alfajores are an argentine sweet—dulce de leche sandwiched between two sugar cookies that one must eat after every meal. Dulce de leche is cream and sugar heated into an awesome, delicious, creamy paste that is often mistaken for caramel but is much, much better. At Dolcezza, you can enjoy in three forms: Churros, Alfajores and gelato (of course). Here, you can have it on everything, in everything, as any meal so long as you breath. This food is a gift from heaven—truly… it's the most pure and sinful of milk-meets-sugar bliss—but, as you can imagine, if eaten every three hours, it goes straight to the middle region and results in the partaker having a cookie-like appearance. Ergo, I am now an alfajore. Add bottles of red wine to this diet and we have a massive caloric dilemma. How can I resist the local cuisine when in a foreign country for a limited amount of time? My only hope is to head straight to zy-oga (yoga) tomorrow morning until I leave or stop eating dulce de leche. Since I don't plan to do the latter, zy-oga it is. No one said temporarily adopting a culture was easy. NM will buy a whole tub of it from the supermercado and attempt to eat the whole thing with a spoon. Quite the cultural and nutritional experiment that I plan to document from first bite through painful completion... stay tuned.

Oh Right, It's That Holiday Again. Better Get Some Chocolate at ACKC.

I have a boyfriend, so I'm not exactly one of those typical people (singles) who hate Valentine's Day because it reminds me of being alone or those other people who become completely ridiculous about hearts and red bows and cheap lingerie. Scratch that--I'm exactly the second half of that last sentence.

Simply put, I'm just one of those types who would rather do everything that this holiday wants me to do--go to dinner, buy lots of loot, cards, flowers, chocolates--some OTHER day. So instead, my boyfriend and I will get a good bottle of champagne (this is my one exception, since I LOVE champagne), I'll go to the gym, and then we'll sit a home and shuck oysters and watch a movie.

However, as I finally made it into the Cocoa Gallery (ACKC) on 14th Street last week--and back several times since then (I live in the neighborhood, okay?)--I remembered the one damn good thing this holiday brings--specialty food items.












Photo from the Washington City Paper, see their ACKC article here.

The Juliet hot chocolate is a chocolate lovers heaven and a foodies fascinating experience. All of the hot chocolate here is made with real cocoa shavings, not powders, and the Juliet--a Valentine's Day special-- is infused with a hint of rose water, topped with whipped cream and garnished with a rose petal. I just had the most interesting white wine from Germany the other day at one of the daily tastings at Vidalia, which had a flowery infusion in addition to a somewhat dry and clean finish, and I liked it, loved it really, and it didn't
make me gag as if I had just walked into a cloud of cheap perfume. So I was feeling good that this Juliet was not going to let me down.

It didn't. It was creamy, a great blend of dark chocolate and what must have been whole milk, with the most subtle, unpretentious hint of rose, more like a scent in the air than a flavor in your mouth, though maybe a tad over-garnished with the whipped cream. My chocolate tolerance is well above the average nonprofessional, yet I had some trouble drinking the whole mug. No matter... I'll be going back for at least one more if they carry it throughout the week.

The place was packed on Tuesday with eager shoppers hoping to surprise their loved ones with designer truffles (the lavendar pistachio is fantastic, and I'm eager to go back and try several of the others that fill three full cases towards the back) and kitschy little chocolate Valentine's items--Chocolate Voodoo dolls, body frosting, chocolate shower bar.

ACKC also sells Vosges chocolate bars, which I love and only used to buy when in Soho. The Black Pearl Bar with wasabi and ginger is my favorite, though the Oaxaca bar is a spicy classic--chili and chocolate were meant to be together.

My friend bought the chocolate pasta packaged and available on one of the many display tables, which he plans to cover in mole sauce in the hopes of making a serious impression on a potential Valentine.

The atmosphere is a bit loud, in color an in noise--without rugs, couches or curtains to dull some of the echo happening, it can feel like the lobby of a hotel or a wine tasting room-- not exactly the coziness I want with my hot chocolate.

When the holiday's over, I'll go back to ACKC for the Audrey hot chocolate--a nice, tight blend of dark chocolate and the slightest bit of milk, full of body and just a tad sweet without being bitter. It's an espresso personified in a hot chocolate, if you get my drift.

Although, the Audrey is still a second (a FAR second) to my favorite form of chocolate in the world--the extremely rich and devilish dark, dark chocolate gelato at Dolcezza.

My Love Affair with Tryst

This is my third consecutive day at Tryst, so it seems only right that I give a "hell yeah!" to it's existence as a damn-fabulous coffee shop and a place I could visit nearly every single freaking day if I wanted to.

Let me tell you--When I moved here from Seattle five years ago, I swore that if I couldn't find a respectable place to call my 'coffee home', I was gonna get the hell out of this crummy town before my three-month employment commitment was over. No joke... good coffee is much more important to us Northwesterners than you could possibly imagine... more important than some silly JOB. As luck would have it, I squatted with friends on Biltmore and Columbia in my first week and my tryst with Tryst (could I avoid the pun?) began. It was exactly the magical, caffeinated dream I sought: Cozy ambiance; a perfect work space for students and writers; a neighborhood joint; and damn fucking good coffee.

Here are the top ten reason I love Tryst:
1. Cappuccinos
2. The Portia sandwich (heavan)
3. Everything served with Nutella
4. The Cuban Coffee
5. That orange juice and cardamom infusion tea thing (so classy!)
6. Chai Tea Latte (the best in the city; only the fallen Sparky's could challenge it)
7. Iced Green Tea (garnished with a piece of pineapple)
8. Lemon Poppyseed waffle
9. All the other waffles
10. I can sit for as long as I goddamn please

Despite your pissyness about Tryst---how damn impossible it is to get a seat, confusing table service, how easy it is to feel ignored or forgotten, and your issues with it being "sceney"--I will argue that you need to get your issues and your shit together.

My tips: Go during the day, know what you want, waive to your waiter when you want something else or the check (they prefer it to reading your mind), and smile. (It's hard for the waiters, too... just so you know.)

Here's an apt pledge from their website:
"The French have their cafes, the English their pubs, the Greeks their tavernas and bodegas; what do we have in America? Somewhere between home and work we all need a ‘third place’ to go -- where we can escape the stresses of everyday responsibilities but still connect (with high speed internet access if you choose) to the outside world. Tryst is defining that third place for us."

In case you didn't realize the additional and crucial (in my case) true brilliance of Tryst COFFEE: Tryst serves Counter Culture Coffee, which is one of the most respected coffee rosters on the East Coast that delivers to all the top coffee counters in D.C.--such as Murky, Big Bear and Dolcezza. Counter Culture epitomizes sustainable and artisanal coffee as a company motto. David Fritzler of Tryst works diligently to select the best crafted coffees for your Tryst consumption, which are brewed to perfection every time. And lets talk dirty about the espresso: the perfect pull of the shot, savory and sweet creme, the exact temperature for silky-smooth froth in the milk-based drinks... like a tall, hot drink of milk that you never saw coming because you had no clue what real, sultry, naughty coffee pleasure was in the first place....

Plus, I love the staff! Can I give a shout out to Aya, David, Kat, Stephanie, Orlando, and Jocelyn! They've been there at least five years or more--as long as I can remember--and they know their shit.

So don't crowd my space, but let's give some proper cred to Tryst.

DolceZZa at Dupont Market

The Dolcezzito's are now at Dupont Market, you must go and try the yummy flavors of artisanal gelato and sorbetto, we had a half pint of RICOTTA HONEY at 11am and it was the best idea any one of us have ever had. We discussed how the flavors are so fresh and intense, not overpowering, but somehow infused into every frozen molecule. Rob is a gelato genius!