Wordless Wednesday

Things are Looking Up

The last couple of months, I've decided to intensify the search for "real" Mexican food here in the DC area. For the past several years, whenever someone gives me the name of a Mexican restaurant that has "authentic" food, I try it and end up disappointed. The tortilla factory? Good, but not that authentic. Taco Poblano? Oaxaca Yuppy food. I finally convinced Kelli that we needed to go up to Little Mexico for lunch, even if it is in PG County and we were improv-ing our obits to our roommate as we left for the Ghe-tto. The drive out there wasn't too far or too bad. We decided to go to the Taqueria tres reyes, a Mexican fast food sit-down restaurant on Kenilworth Avenue in Riverdale. I ordered a taco del pastor and a taco de res. The taco de res (beef) was less asado and more roast beef, but still good. The taco del pastor was pretty perfect. To wash down the tacos, I ordered a horchata (best horchata I've had on the east coast.) Kelli had a taco de pastor and a tamarindo drink. The tamarindo was smooth going down, very good choice. After we left the restaurant, we decided to find the bakery down the street. We ordered 4 loaves of french bread (personalized size), and 3 various pastries...all for 5.25. The bread is fabulous..perfectly tender, chewy and the crust is just so. Finally, we found decent Mexican food in the area...in the ghetto.

Did I mention we ate our way through Mexico? I'm not even sure what I'm eating in this shot. I'm sure it was good. I think we're in puebla.

I've got enchiladas suiza and jamaica to drink. Kell's got a tamale on her quest for the best tamale in the world. Puebla.

I guess I didn't really like this shaved ice. I think it was tuna (cactus flower). Actually pretty good.

Kelli trying out some chocolate in Oaxaca.

 

I'm pretty sure this is really a shot of kellis red tamale. However, inexplicably I'm in the shot.
Did I mention before we ate our way through mexico? That green salsa is the avocado salsa. Its the salsa of the gods.

I'm actually contemplating whether or not to buy a bag with a skeleton on it. I didn't end up buying it.


I think this maybe the most famous shot of our mexico trip. Kelli eating the jamaica slice dipped in chile paste and green apple sugar. 

No Sugar Crack for You

When Kelli and I were in Puebla, Mexico, the two other gringos on the tour befriended us. One of them, Victoria Roberts, is a New Yorker cartoonist who has been writing a one-woman show and the other one, Bonnie Deakin, was her set designer. They invited us to come up to NYC over Columbus Day weekend and see Victoria in action. A trip to NYC, who needs more of an excuse than that? The weekend was spectacular. Weather in the 70s with blue skies, and relative low humidity made for some gorgeous days.

Saturday we found that East Broadway actually does head east, rather than North/South like its more famous cousin. We walked for a couple of hours, found a subway that worked, stumbled upon two street fairs, some good Indian food, the hostel (unfortunately not as clean this time around), We walked over from Greenwich to the East Village where Victoria Roberts performed. Her show is a work in progress, but its really good and has some great potential. Afterwards, we tried to go down to ride the Staten Island ferry since Kelli never has been on it, but we ended up in Queens. Yeah, that was a little humbling. We collapsed into our beds after a long day.

We spent Sunday in Brooklyn at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the botanical garden (we made a beeline for the one place you can sit on the grass and took a 1.5 hour nap under the cherry trees after being reprimanded by a garden worker), and a street fair. After a while we headed back to Greenwich, and then walked over to the Upright Citizen’s Brigade theater, but we were early so we then walked over and got a bite to eat. Almost two years ago, we were at the theater and saw Amy Poelher, Horatio Sanz, Matt Besser, Matt Walsh, Seth Meyers, Tina Fey and Rachel Dratch among others perform. Needless to say, it was awesome. Sunday night however, we saw Matt Walsh perform with a bunch of young performers. Unfortunately, even though there were 10-12 performers on stage, only 4 really kept the show going. Matt Walsh once again was awesome and really put the rest to shame. Jack McBrayer quickly turned into a favorite, and a couple of others were good…but there were a few that were horrible and one that was the worst. Paul Scheer of best week ever really bugs. Seriously over the top and only occasionally funny. Anyway, Kell started talking to a girl in line who was in nyc visiting friends from texas. She ended up watching the show with us. Afterwards we just went back to the hostel. That night, the window of our dorm room was cracked a bit. The sounds of NYC won’t be a sleep tape anytime soon, for me anyway.

Sunday we spent about a hour taking a nap on a rock at central park. We then went shopping down on 34th and got two cute shirts (both brown) for less than 45 bucks. Woo hoo! We headed over to Chinatown and had lunch at the McDonalds (sacrilege I know, but Chinatown really smelled badly and nothing sounded good after that walk but chicken nuggets). Our bus was late getting out of Chinatown and the bus-driver put on two “movies:” two documentaries “proving” the existence of aliens and ufos, and a three stooges marathon. I really can't say which I prefered.

Random thoughts:

I’ve never seen as much Mets gear as I did this time in NY. A guy in Greenwich told another guy that no one in NY rooted for the Yankees anymore. Of course, the guy next to us started muttering not too quiet that the guy who said no one roots for the Yankees in new york was full of it. Ah, I love NY

Almost wish I was Jewish. At the street festival on Sunday, we were asked by several orthodox jewish men and youth whether or not we were jewish. They were trying to bless jewish people no matter if they were practicing or not, as part of the traditions of sukkot. A couple of these men were so eager to find someone who was jewish, I almost felt sorry for him. However we were in Brooklyn, I’m sure he found someone to bless shortly after we left.

I never thought I'd say this, but my youngest brother looks a little like Leonardo Dicaprio. Seriously. Look at this:http://media3.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/2006/10/05/PH2006100501860.jpg

Last but not least, we went to the Magnolia Bakery twice (that's why we were in Greenwich on Saturday and Sunday) and the lines were down the block. No sugar crack for us.

The food of the Gods...okay, la comida de los Dioses

Here's my first blog from Mexico. We ate a lot of tacos, and enchiladas and a fair amount of tamales..but this lil' guy is a taco del pastor. i think this is the one we paid gringo tax on. 10 pesos for a taco. Right.......