www.eatyourpizza.com (it wurks)

I spent the last few days back in DC, wandering around the mall.

Across the river, and eventually reaching Georgetown

to this pizza joint, Pizzeria Paradiso and was seated next to their open window.

They had a pretty good selection of beer. I ended up trying the St. Faulian Triple, and then later a Bear Republic Big Bear Stout. They had beers from all over and I was surprised to see one from The Bruery, a small microbrew in Placentia. And I got a simple margherita pizza: tomato, basil, mozzarella. The cheese was really milky and overall, this was a good pizza. Plus after a long walk, I was starving, so I devoured this in no time.

My last day, I went to check out The General Store with my cousin. In some DC magazine I got from the airport, they were listed under soul food, but they offer quite a variety from fried chicken to fish tacos.

I ordered the sweet tea, then we sat down while we waited for our food. It's not exactly sit down, but you pay and sit, then a guy comes over with all your food.

I got the chili w/ cornbread. Hearty and a little on the sweet side.

while my cousin ordered the chicken tarragon sandwich. Very fresh tasting. They make everything here down to their mayo. We also shared two sides

rich mac n cheese

and some delicious collard greens with small pieces of pork.

For dessert, although I was stuffed, I had to try some of their lemon chess pie. Really sweet, but the lemon helped to cut through some of that. They also offered some kind of buttermilk pie, which I also wanted to try, but I think I'll just take a shot at making it sometime soon instead.

Overall, I thought it was good solid homestyle food but a little on the pricey side.

www.ilovethischicken.com

is the amusing name of El Pollo Rico's website (dun't work mang) painted outside their door, and let me tell ya, the colonel's got nothing on this joint, so good you'll be suckin to get every last bit of that marinade on dem bones even though you just visited the doctor's and she told that if you kept up those high cholesterol levels, it would kill ya. All right, perhaps I'm stretching the truth a bit as this was my first time trying peruvian rotisserie style chicken at El Pollo Rico in Maryland, so I have nothing to compare it to, but I thought it was pretty tasty, especially slathered with some aji and mayo(?) sauce. Fine dining? Rip apart the meat with your hands because civility has no place here when there's a tasty bird waiting to be devoured. Respect the meat mang!

A cheap and filling dinner was washed down with some Chicha Limena, a purple corn drink that tasted a bit medicinal due to the cloves in it. (eugenol extraction in ochem lab anyone?)

For dessert, we stopped by an ice cream joint run by a Jamaican woman. I tried a scoop of coconut pineapple and rum raisin. While the former wasn't anything special, the rum raisin was absolutely delicious, and I don't really consider myself a lover of rum (although my experience with it is laughable having only had, you guessed it, captain morgan's during college). The maker used a heavy hand, and the ice cream was potent, so much in fact that despite it being in the freezer, the plump, soft raisins burst with rum and started to sing yo ho yo ho in my mouth. Another noteable mention was the Guinness ice cream, a chocolate malty start with a smooth Guinness finish. An absolute delight.

I challenge you to try that on for size, Yogurtland, and I don't want your Red Velvet either. But I'll save that rant for another day my friends.

east coast west coast everywhere a pig pig

Recently, I had the chance to visit DC and Philly with my sister. It was nice to be able to just spend a week there peacefully without having to give a damn about anything. I had a good time visiting family, but good lord, i met a lady named gluttony, and I came back to cali a hurt heart, a swollen foot, and a few pounds heavier.

Having taken the red eye flight, we passed out once we arrived in DC and woke up to have a late lunch/early dinner.

Here's the spread from a local take out joint + a Heiny. As much as I love the whole shebang, I am more of an Old Bay fan when it comes to seafood(perhaps bc salt>butter for me?). I was curious to what it actually has in it and so I looked it up on wiki: "Mustard, paprika, celery seed, bay leaf, both black and red pepper, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, nutmeg, cardamom, salt, and ginger," all of which combines to make something which I fondly refer to as crabby crackle crack to sprinkle sprinkle liberally on your food.

Maybe it's my poor technique, but getting the crab meat out is tedious, hard work. Wonder how long it took these guys to make these cakes or what they did different from my cousin's tutorial? Very meaty and good with a squeeze of lemon. Served with some coleslaw and a stale homely looking bun which I still ate.

We had no trouble polishing off the dozen #1s. brains and guts tasted like something familiar, but what was its name? What's in a name anyhow. It was lipsmackin good.

Had to get the bubba shrimp too. I think I'm going to buy some Old Bay and make this myself.

And that was the start of my clogged artery causing, belly bustin, let's fatten up Wilbur for that applewood smoked bacon and winter ham we all love so much, trip to the east coast.