Eating Out - Swedish

IKEA (Swedish)

You probably didn't even realize that they have food their did you? You probably also didn't know that the food is amazing. The food is so good, I convinced Kathryn to take this cheesy picture! We both got the same thing - meatballs, mashed potatoes, and lingonberries - and split a piece of Daim cake. All for about $12.

Observations:

• We went to eat some food, to buy some new glasses, and to walk around. Instead, we bought this:

• That's right. We bought an entire bedroom set. On accident.
• They make everything so cheap that you can't refuse whenever you are all hopped up on lingonberry.

Snow Storm

We just had a major blizzard in DC. You probably heard about it. People here were calling it Snowmageddon, Snow.M.G. or Snowgasm. We spent the first Saturday of the snow storm walking around taking pictures, very excited. That excitement was followed by denial, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Here are the Saturday pictures:

This is a tree outside of our building pushed down like old celery.

Kathryn standing in the middle of Pennsylvania Ave. in Washington Circle.

Kathryn's hospital.

We took the metro down to the mall to check out the capital. Everyone just walked around on the streets. Very post-apocalyptic.

Snow almost burying the stair rail at the art museum.

You can normally see this thing for miles.

Finally at the base of the stairs you can see it.

After walking around the capital for a couple of hours, we went to the National Snowball Fight at DuPont Circle. There were maybe a couple thousand people there.

I talked Kathryn into throwing a couple of snowballs before she got too cold/nervous. I, on the other hand, got way too into it.

Everyone basically threw snowballs at the people at the base of the fountain. The people at the base of the fountain acted like revolutionaries (complete with retro US flag - only in DC). Kathryn took this from the back while I was up front getting pelted.

Eating Out - American Standards in U Street

I actually brought our camera. I ate that food!

Eatonville (Southern)

This place was sort of a double winner. We got to walk around a neighborhood we haven't visited too much, and we got to eat some solid southern food. Also, we got out of the house during the snow storm. U Street is a really interesting neighborhood. Historically, it was the center of the wealthy and educated African American community of DC, but like most urban neighborhoods, it's undergoing a lot of gentrification. The major difference between U Street and most other neighborhoods though is that it is being gentrified by an even wealthier and more educated generation of African Americans.

Observations

• We split the fried green tomatoes appetizer. They weren't your traditional fried green tomatoes, but every fried food is better with goat cheese (fact!).
• Kathryn had the catfish and grits. I had the shrimp po boy. Both were pretty good.
• All the drinks were served in mason jars. I think it was supposed to make it interesting and hip. It just made it cliche and lame.
• Why does every restaurant in DC have to feel like it's in a hotel lobby? That's some how supposed to make it nice?

DC likes its cupcakes too much.

Cakelove (Bakery)

On the way home from Eatonville we picked up some cupcakes at Cakelove. It's owned by that dude Warren Brown who had the show "Sugar Rush" on the Food Network. That was before the days when every person with a cake show was a complete ass. Brown seems like a nice guy, so obviously, his show failed.

Observations

• Clockwise: homemade toffee, german chocolate, salted caramel, and raspberry.
• The salted caramel one is called "The 44" because it was inspired by Obama's favorite candy. I don't know if he's tried one yet, but I think he should. It was the best of the bunch. Followed by the german chocolate.
• We walked home in the snow and ice without me falling on the cupcakes, just barely.