July 23, 2011

Food in the DC Area - Part 1 of probably many

Those of you who know me are probably surprised I haven't written about the food here yet.  After all - I'm a super foodie.

On vacations growing up, museums were just places you went to between the significant restaurant stops.  And family get-togethers were always about who was cooking what and where it came from and what the story was behind it.  The best Christmas present my grandparents ever gave was the handwritten copy of my grandmother's favorite recipes.  We all have our own copies of "Nana's Cookbook" and when she died, I was fortunate to get her copy that had many annotations and additions.

And of course I ended up working in restaurants, starting a catering company, going to cooking school and eventually opening my own restaurant.

But eventually that all ended and now I'm in DC with my fabulous new job with the State Department.  Of course the big attraction of a job in the Foreign Service is that I get to taste food from all over the world!

So here we are in our first posting - training at FSI with us living in Northern Virginia.  I'd been very excited to check out the food scene in DC.  It's not really fair to draw comparisons between the restaurants of the DC area and those of the San Francisco Bay Area.  After all - DC is a town that's all about politics and power - that's the whole point and everything ultimately serves that.  San Francisco is a town that's about food.  When your chef's are celebrities and recognized wherever they go; when your newspaper's food section is larger than the entertainment section - and has a food scene gossip column - then you know you're in a food-centric town.

The DC area has some great places though - and does some things significantly better than SF - for example pizza.  I've had some really good pizza in Berkeley.  And everyone knows that the Cheeseboard pizza is a category unto itself.  Here there are a lot of really great pizza places.  We love Pizzeria Orso in Falls Church but our absolute favorite is Pupatella.  They've got the wood-fire oven from Naples and use San Marzano tomatoes.  Just wonderful!
















They even have a wonderful Insalata Caprese for my daughter! Fresh Mozzarella - Yum!

July 22, 2011

Snow Day in July??????

Yes - it's true. 

Although not the "snow" part.  The heat here on the East Coast is reaching record highs.  Yesterday the power started fluctuating at FSI (Foreign Service Institute / Hogwarts) and classes were cancelled for the rest of the day around 2:30.  Lucky for us we're on the early schedule for languages and were already on our way home to do our Portuguese homework.

And then this morning while on the shuttle bus to FSI, we learned that it had been closed for the day.  It seems that the power issues continue.  One colleague pointed out that this wouldn't happen in Africa.  There the power fluctuations occur so frequently that everyone has backup generators and life just continues.  Oh - the issues you have to deal with in the US!

So - we've got a surprise day off.  Which leaves us lots of time to continue to practice our Portuguese.

July 19, 2011

Folklife Festival

Each year the Smithsonian holds the Folklife Festival in DC.  It's "an international exposition of living cultural heritage" held on the National Mall.  In one of the areas this year they were celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Peace Corps.  We got to go and check it out with our good friend from California.


 There were some great exhibits from many of the places Peace Corps Volunteers serve.

 This is an exhibit about making Shea Butter by the women of Mali.  A Peace Corps volunteer met these women in Mali and ended up creating a non-profit organization that works with these women to help them sell their product.  You can learn more about her organization here.
 And then there were the weaving demonstrations from all over the world.  They really appealed to my yarn / craft side.


Making mud cloths.

It was a great day!

July 18, 2011

Camp Grandma and Bompa

Choosing to join the Foreign Service means that you might not get to see your family as often as you used to.  And that's been pretty hard.

Of course, family and friends come and visit.  And if you're going to a really wonderful place, they may come and visit often.  But it's still not the same as being able to drive a few hours to see your cousins, parents or grandparents.

But we may be starting a new tradition.  Camp Grandma and Bompa.  This year, to coincide with the beginning of Language Training, we sent our kids to stay with my parents for 3 weeks.  Leading up to it I was both excited and scared.  Excited for my kids to be able to spend some great times with my family and excited for K. and I to get to spend some nice uninterrupted quality time as we started language training.  But I was scared too.  Neither one of us has been away from our kids for this long.  It's a long time to go without hugs and kisses from your babies.

My mother is absolutely thrilled.  She's planned a whole slew of activities.  For the Fourth of July, she and my dad took them to the beach and then got a hotel room so that they could watch the fireworks over the ocean.

She's arranged drum lessons which they just adore.  The drum teacher is even teaching them some Brazilian drumming to prepare for Recife.  They've taken the train to San Juan Capistrano.  And she found a day camp where they swim and take archery.  It's pretty amazing stuff.

This week they've headed north to my sister and brother-in-law's home where they get to play with their cousins and go to music festivals.  They're having a pretty wonderful time.

They may never want to come home.

Fourth of July - DC Style

Before we joined the Foreign Service, we lived on one of the greatest blocks in Berkeley.  Our street had an amazing sense of community and it was best exemplified by our annual block party on the Fourth of July.

Each year on the Fourth of July, we'd close the street.  The barricades and permit came from the city, but the decorated signs announcing the party were done by the neighborhood kids.  They'd gather to make the signs and then we'd load the barricades on a wagon and troop to the ends of our block to officially close the street.

At that point, all the neighbors would bring their BBQs to their front yards and start the grills up.  We'd move our lawn furniture into the street and erect tents and tables for the communal food.  At some point, the Scrabble crew would start playing their game, the kids would fill water balloons and music would begin playing.  Some year's we'd have a band and do the Electric Slide in the middle of the street.


We'd always have a parade.  The kids (and some adults), would decorate their bikes, scooters, hats - whatever, and ride down the street playing kazoos.  One year we even had a City Councilmember attend!


We'd also have a neighborhood Egg Toss.  It was a contribution the very first year by a neighbor whom I'll call "Egg Toss Man" and was such fun that it became a yearly tradition growing larger each year.  Eventually we had to have a smaller version for the under 10 set.


So this year I was a little concerned about the Fourth of July.  We wouldn't be with our fabulous neighbors.  And the kids would be away at Camp Grandma and Bompa.

But luckily we had a friend from California come to visit and a Vibrant Colleague invited us to her neighborhood party.  They have a wonderful annual event that gets capped off with a visit to the rooftop of their local school to watch the fireworks over the Capital.  Pretty amazing!






It wasn't Berkeley - but it was pretty spectacular!