Washington, DC

Last two nights in DC! We decided to live it up by going first for Ethiopian Food. Unfortunately,
I forgot to take a picture of that meal, but believe me when I say it was delicioso. We found a little
hole in the wall place in a not so safe part of the city, but the walk through empty parking lots and
dilapidated buildings (and believe it feels like there aren't many of these in DC) was worth it. We
had the vegetarian platter.

Afterwards, we drove a bit for some Gelato. The lovely thing about DC is that there are monuments everywhere. Yes, I've said it. I LIKE monuments. They're cute to look at, and keep some artists employed.

The next day at work, I had the pleasure to run into an award given to the Public Charter School I was at. They teach English as a Second Language to adults. This is a snippet of their award.

Yes, you read that right. It does say AMERICANIZATION SCHOOL. Good grief, people.... I no longer remember what year this award was given. But since the school was founded in 1996... Well.

Regardless we finished DC with a bang, by going out to eat some El Salvadorean food. DC has one of the biggest El Salvadorean communities in the States! We went to El Rinconcito II, near Columbia Heights. I had the pupusas and rice platter. And a Corona. The refried/pureed beans were perfect.

Arlington, Arlington

So the day couldn't have been longer. After putting up with some very rude people, giving in to the requests of some cute people, and forty-five minutes in traffic, we decided on Thai food for dinner. Enter Gi Ne Raan Restaurant in Arlington, VA. A little hole in the wall hidden in a street mall kinda place, we were assaulted by the stench of recent vomit after we parked outside. We braved the smell, though and it was worth it; the waitress was quick and pleasant, the portions were huge and super delicious.

After VERY briefly thinking of ordering something new, I had some Vegetarian Pad Thai, because I am a creature of comfort. It was perfect: the noodles were done to perfection, chock full of peanuts with sweet but firm tofu drenched in paprika. As I said, the portions were huge, so we ate half of our meals and are now looking forward to having leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

For dessert: a scoop of Baskin Robbins chocolate chip cookie dough. Yes. Now to collapse.

The Perfect Game

If you know me, you know that I LOVE sports movies. A simple, utterly true and pure love, the kind that can only be given to cheesy storylines with manufactured inspiration and hope. This weekend, however, I saw a perfect example of what a good Sports Movie is, but it had the added bonus that it was based on a real life story. So you know the inspiration and smaltz is totally true. Squee!

If you haven't guessed yet, the movie is called "The perfect game," a little flick about a group of boys from Monterrey, Mexico, who in 1957 managed to not only win the American Little League World Series, but their final game was a Perfect Game - in baseball this means a game where the opposing team does a no hitter, and they do not score a foul, not even gets a player into first base once.

The movie was pretty good - it interlaced footage from the original game with scenes from the movie, making it look very realistic. The kid actors were properly fresh faced and adorable - although having Disney actor J. Panetiere playing a little brown kid was interesting. I'll admit to not really knowing his heritage except that he obviously is of Italian descent. The rest of the cast was for the most part Latino. Little Jake Austin (who is not so little anymore) did a great job as Angel Macias, the star pitcher.

A couple of things - I still find it funny when directors have actors speak English with a heavy accent in order to let the audience know that they are speaking in Spanish. (I'm talking to you, Love in the time of cholera.) It did get confusing at times for the audience - after all, we hear the principal characters speak English all the way through, and it's hard to understand why they kids are all surprised and quiet when someone speaks to them in English. But the children are so cute with their little accents and earnest portrayal that I was able to get over that for the most part. The only other part that rubbed me the wrong part was towards the end when the Monterrey crowd chants for a second "Si, se puede!" after they learn that the children have won the Series. THAT, was a little too on the nose and annoying - in 1957, the famous chant was mostly used in the United States and around in regards to Labor and Civil Rights Issues. I don't really see a crowd spontaneously breaking into this song at the moment. They should've gone a little patriotic at the end.

The introduction of the storyline of Angel Macias' conflict with his father, although needed to give his character pathos was in my eyes, unnecessary. But it was executed somewhat okay, so whatev'.

Into the important part! The sport was very accurately portrayed, easy to understand even for those that don't follow baseball. I was very pleased and had the appropriate "AWW" feeling at the end of the movie. The tiny audience that watched the film with us clapped at the end, and I think, it was worth it.

After the movie we walked around Union Square for a bit, searching for a Mexican food place, as it seemed like the right cuisine for the night. We settled on Mexicana Mama on 12th between University and Broadway. Despite the incredibly loud table of six that was seated next to us, it was a very enjoyable meal. We had the vegetarian Burrito:

  It was quite different and enjoyable - instead of your usual filling of rice and beans and a scattering of lettuce for a vegetarian Burrito, this one had cheese, roasted potato and roasted sweet potato with a slight hint of black beans. Rice to the side with some havanero sauce to give it some calor.

All in all, a very good night in New York City.

La casa de Nina Skyy

Last Thursday I met up with my very good friend after work and he kidnapped me and took me home with him to cook me dinner. Woe is me.

His house is gorgeous! He lives in the faraway land known as Queens. We decided to eat in the backyard since the weather was so beautiful.  We began the meal with some deliscious cheese and beef empanadas, dipped in his special sauce, which consists of sofrito, mayo and ketchup.

We followed appetizers with a bit of wine and some fire while we relaxed on the outside couch.

Before dinner we also took a walk through the neighborhood - the houses are all very pretty, but I loved all the trees everywhere. Gotta love Spring.

Finally, dinner was ready - Steak, mashed potatoes with cauliflowers, butter (no milk), toasted bread crumbs, roasted garlic and carrots. Add some caubernet sauvignon and the evening was complete.

Thank you my love!!

Adventures, big and small, happen everywhere. A little bit of traveling WHILE at home makes me very happy.

Ich bin ein Berliner!

So I had to take vacation days or I would lose them, and my friend says "I'll be in Berlin for Easter weekend," and I answered with "I want to be in Berlin for Easter weekend!" And so I was. 

We had a blast. We both arrived on April 1st and the first order of business was to get us something yummy to eat. Enter Vietnamese Food restauran Hoai Nam, a couple of blocks from our apartment.

The atmosphere was very nice and they helpfully had the menu in English and German. I began the meal with vegetarian dumplings, kimchi, and Saigon beer. 

The main course consisted of Tofu Noodles with coconut milk:

It was a great way to begin our visit!!

The next day we went on a walking tour of mostly East Berlin. We saw all the big attractions: Checkpoint Charlie, the Berliner Dom, Museum Island, the TV Tower, a bit of Berlin Wall that's still left, Hitler's Bunker, the new memorial for the murdered Jews of Europe, the German memorial for the victims of War and Tyranny, the Royal Opera House, Bebelplatz and the memorial to the book burning that happened there in 1933. Awesome, and exhausting... some pictures: 

After all that walking we were starving! First we took a break at a small café and had a bit of a snack

We did go drinking, which was great and fun. The beer was cheap and of EXCELLENT quality. There are no pictures of debauchery available, however ;-)

The next morning though, we took our time waking up and had brunch at around noon. We had to search but found a little brunch place, practically empty. I had the Chorizo and sweet pepper omelet

The omelet was good, but it made me feel a little queasy later. More sightseeing happened, in the meantime - the weather was perfect and we rode U-Bahns and S-Bahns all over the place. We ended Saturday night by watching the movie "Precious" with German subtitles - yeah, we like to keep it light and sweet during vacation. 

Sunday also had a slow start, but in a good sense. Museums were visited, we went up to the TV Tower observatory (not as cool as the Empire State Building, but who's comparing?) and also up to the Berliner Dom roof and had great looks of the city. We didn't make it too far into West Berlin, unfortunately, but I guess that means we'll have to go back. We finished our visit to Berlin by having a delicious meal at a Vegetarian restaurant in Kreuzberg. Some awesome Rose wine and a stuffed aubergine in a bed of a tomato sauce:

The next day I headed back to the States, via London. I made a quick stop at the Brittish Museum.

I made what I believe was a brilliant attempt to actually at the very least walk through the entire museum, which consists of three levels and what seems like countless exhibitions. I failed miserably.

To cheer myself up, I walked to the West End and attempted to find a good show. I ran into Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, with Sanaa Lathan and Phyllicia Rashad. I got super excited. 

But then I find out that the show is sold out for the night. Bum-mer. I keep walking and almost inmediately I run into another theater, where Dirty Dancing (Yes, based on the movie) was playing. I figure, what the hell, right? I liked the adaptation of Legally Blonde to the Stage (actually one of my favorite musicals, say what you will,) and the show's been open for years by now, there's no way it would be open for long if it wasn't good. So I got whipped out my student ID (yes, it is expired, but the Brits didn't seem to care) and purchased me a 20 Pound seat, which was on first mezz, second row center. What luck, right? 

Before the show I walked around - I found at least three different Thai food restaurants, but this is the one I chose

Thai Square was a GREAT choice. I let the waiter know I had a Show to make and she brought out my Tofu Pad Thai inmediately

It was one of the best Tofu Pad Thai's I've ever tasted. The Tofu had a wonderful scald to it, the noodles had a good consistency, the sauce made me very happy. YUM to the MY. 

Quickly though, as I was cutting it close, I ran to The Aldwych Theater thinking that as soon as Dirty Dancing was over I would skip over to the Stage Door on the other theater and get to say hi to the actors of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. 

Dirty Dancing... What... a waste of my time and money. They included EVERY SCENE of the movie. Even though it made the entire thing run choppily and made scenes sometimes less than a minute long. What that means is that it took longer for the actors and the stage to set up for a scene than it got them to actually say the lines. The dancing was not properly Dirty, I'll say that too - severely dissappointed in that respect. AND they added scenes to the whole deal: A bit about Neil the grandson going freedom riding and Baby and her mother having more a rapport, as well as showing Baby's mom and pop talking to each other a bit more. Unnecesary scenes for the movie and certainly unnecesary for the show. These people really needed to get the important scenes together, combined some of the scenes to make the flow better, and they seriously needed to choose a Johnny that had a bit more experience with modern dancing and not a completely ballet trained dancer. The guy was horrible. 

The only saving grace of the show was the actress that played Baby's sister. Now, she did almost a carbon copy of what the movie actress did - but it was a good choice. Singing during the talent show and her way of dancing: perfect. What upset me is that the entire theater went crazy when Johnny did his "Nobody puts baby in a corner" bit, which came out rushed and quickly, and done badly. They started cheering and SINGING ALONG AND OUTLOUD when the "I've had the time of my life" number came on, as if: a)they had never seen the movie, and b)as if the actors were any good. Really, I cannot possibly explain how angry I was at my having spent money on this. And then, to boot, by the time I was out, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof had been long over, and there was not even a slight chance to say "hey" to Mrs. Cosby. Feh. 

Regardless, I enjoyed the walk back to my hostel, and I had good chamomile tea before bedtime. The next day I checked out early and decided that my last meal in London before heading to the States would be what they call "The full English."

This protein-and-grease fest consists of buttered toast, fried bacon, fried egg, fried sausage, and beans. Topped it with a cup of coffee and off the Airport I went. I felt a little queasy there for a second, but it was well worth it. I'm pretty sure that on this mini vacation I put on all the weight I lost in the month of March. Huzzah.

Go Gophers!

So, this will be a bit delayed, what with me trying to get used to doing this regularly, so bear with me.

Went to Minnesota in March, specifically Annandale, Elk River and Minneapolis/St. Paul. It was a great trip! Started by a visit to a State Park after the first day of work, where we did some hiking.

On our day off, we headed to Minneapolis, stopping by the home of the Minnesota Gophers and having Breakfast at Al's Breakfast - this little hole in the wall type place


I ordered the Hashbrowns, Egg omelette, orange juice and toast combo. Food porn:


There was a lot of walking in the city after that. For dinner, we went to this Ethiopian/Asian fusion place, T's. Had some awesome dumplings for appetizers.


followed by REALLY spicy vegetarian noodles


The next day after work we drove to St. Paul and had dinner at Heartland bar. The appetizer wasn't that great, but the fish (I don't remember what kind anymore) was pretty tasty.


Finally, on our last night in Minneapolis we met up with my good friend Dawn and before drinks had dinner at "It's all Greek to me". I had the vegetarian sampler. Pretty good, but also very cheesy, so I had to limit myself.


And then on our very last day there, passed by the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. Pretty awesome stuff, like this one:


Minnesota was, as Matt would say, very real.