Reliving my youth with my college roommate Myra at our sons’ shared house in DC’s Columbia Heights neighborhood. They have introduced us to more great dining within walking distance of their house. DC Noodles on U street (pad see ew!) and Mi Cuba (Cuban roast pork, fried pork cubes, cassava, plantains, flan, mojito, sangria!) Great company and food. Myra and I had brunch at La Coupe on 11th street (hash brown bowl!) then walked all around the area down 14th street to u street and then over 8th street and the rapidly gentrifying Shaw neighborhood (warby Parker, dodge city, Salina …two Kansas names, no less). Much warmer day than yesterday morning when I watched Noah run in the cherry blossom run on the mall. Sunny but bitter cold wind. Didn’t expect to be that cold. But such a treat to be hear. Sunday the millennial cooked an elaborate and delicious brunch. Three of four house mates moms happened to be on hand, and then a bunch of visiting friends, maybe 15 people total. We drank mimosas, did the Sunday crossword puzzle online on the tv screen and sat around talking for hours. Loved it!
Category Archives: 3) DESTINATIONS — in the U.S.
Back to Columbia Heights with myra! MiCuba cafe and DC Noodles
Filed under Washington D.C.
Woodberry Kitchen, American Visionary Art museum, Hotel Monaco, light rail to Airport — Baltimore
i spent most of my two days in Baltimore in a hotel meeting room, as planned since it was a work trip, but the few trips I took outside the lovely if slightly faded Hotel Monaco were great, thanks in part to glorious weather— sunshine, high 70s. Dinner was at the Woodberry Kitchen in an interesting old neighborhood near Hampden. The outpost of a James Beard winner, the place completely lived up to the hype and was worth the minor aggravation of having to reserve a table weeks in advance and nearer to the date, confirm more than once that We would show up.
Flavor is the word that comes to mind from our dining experience. The food wasn’t particularly sophisticated or complicated or showy. just the opposition. The presentation was basic and the entrees clever at times but not kooky. instead the emphasis was on ingredients – delicious carrots, fresh oysters, special salt from West Virginia (yes West Virginia.) And the dishes we had were often old classics dine the best way possible, so the deviled eggs, for examples were super fresh tasking eggs with a super creamy whipped egg yolk, some crispy bits of cooked ham and some magical pepper. The oysters were roasted in a wood fired oven and topped with a creamy crabmeat sauce; the meatballs were soft and tasty, covered with a tomato and ricotta cheese. My pan fried (or wood fired oven roasted?) chicken looked like a brown leather shoe sole but tasted unlike any chicken I’ve had (as our enthusiastic and knowledgable server promised.) Somehow it manage to be crispy on the outside and moist and full of, yes, flavor, inside. it was served simply atop wilted collard greens and some sweet roaste carrots.aso excellent: shortribs, scallops, beets (according to my sister who likes beets) and a delicious cranberry crumble pie made with whole cranberries and oatmeal).
the restaurant itself is really cool, a warm welcoming old mill with a very high ceiling, lots of the original brick, stone and wood. the servers wore plaid shirts and denim, looking sometimes like north woods lumberjacks. Next door was a cool glass blowing workspace and gallery (hence the photo above.)
Today I finally got to the American visionary art museum near federal hill and the inner harbor, which has long been on your list and it terrific — three old brick warehouse buildings full of painstaking, often strange art by self-taught, often mentally ill artists. i recognized a few artists — Wayne coyne (of the band The Flaming Lips, who we saw painting the sidewalk in Oklahoma City…his work is above) and Elizabeth “grandma” Layton, who served us lemonade in her home in small town Kansas many years ago and gave me a rare signed poster of her work that hangs in my kitchen!)
I ended up taking the light rail for $1.70 from the convention center downtown to the airport and stopped for a crabcake at Phillips, conveniently near the southwest gates.
Filed under Baltimore
An unsettling surprise at the Holocaust Museum, Indigo, shake shake, Amtrak — DC
Within the first 20 minutes of my visit to the Holocaust Museum in DC today, I got quite the surprise. During an early display about book banning and burning in Germany, at the start of the Nazi era, several names were etched into the glass in front of some photos and videos and one name jumped out at me because it was my own: Rubiner. The first name was Ludwig. I was stunned. Rubiner is an unusual name and I’ve long assumed that any Rubiners are related to me. I had not heard of Ludwig. My dad seemed to know of him but I don’t know if he is a relative. apparently he was a poet and critic who specialized in expressionism and lived in Berlin, dying in 1920′ according to a man I spoke to in the research area of the museum on the second floor. will have to do some more research. I did use the museums database to find several other Rubiners linked to the holocaust in ways not very clear and some Reibmans (my grama’s maiden name). Some were from Kraków and Poland and Berlin, three places I visited a few years ago.
on a more cheerful note, I visited my son at his new office in the Hart senate building, (not far from my sisters office there),and we had a good Indian meal at Indigo, (Indian to go) a very casual place where you order at a window and are served in paper trays in a small room covered with intentional graffiti. There are a few tables inside and picnic tables outside, which people were sitting at thanks to glorious and surprisingly warm temps. i also stopped briefly in the Native American museum (must try their cafe sometime, which serves food from several regions). Also caught a glimpse of the African American museum rising up near the Washington monument. Really looking forward to that museum, in part because I have heard a lot about the architect. I am now in Baltimore at the hotel Monaco after an easy and pleasant Amtrak train ride.
Filed under museum exhibit, train, Washington D.C.
le coupe, Columbia heights Laotian food, wonder at the renwick gallery — DC
Columbia heights mural
Great to be visiting Noah a newcomer in DC — plus my sister and husband who sare old hands here. first stop the charming red brick row house Noah shares with three people in Columbia heights, including my dear old pal/ college roommate Myra’s son Dan! the house reminded me so much of my grandparents red brick row house in Easton Pennsylvania, but Noah’s neighborhood has a lot more going on.
We had a really good breakfast at a cheerful restaurant, Le Coupe, packed with people. Excellent lamb hash, eggs Benedict, hash browns, sautéed Brussels sprouts. Next stop: The Renwick Gallery which is part of the smithsonian and located kitty corner from the White House, for a fantastic show called Wonder (or Wonders) — site specific enormous installations by 9 different artists including Maya Lin and Tara Donovan. The show could also have been entitled “Mindblowing” — really astonishing work and great to see the place packed with all kinds of people and signs in each room that said “photography encouraged.”
Noah and I shared some good cheesecake at a bakery on 14th street in his neighborhood and later were joined by my sister, brother law and Noah’s roommate dan for Laotian food, also ion 14th street. Really fun day!
Filed under museum exhibit, THE ARTS, Washington D.C.
RA sushi, Scordattos pizza, Zinnburger, bike trail – Tucson
Now in vegas, awaiting my connecting flight home after a short flight from Tucson marred only by a raucous crowd of fellow fliers who were in very high spirits and laughing and shouting so loudly that I finally remembered I had my iPod and could effectively block out the noise.
Yesterday in Tucson, dad and I ate poke Arizona style, which was listed at RA sushi, in a ritzy outdoor shopping mall, as a “sashimi bowl salad with poke sauce.” iT was a delicious mix of raw tuna and salmon, cooked shrimp, greens, sliced avocado and a tangy soy sauce-based poke sauce. gOod strawberry lemonade too and it felt healthy enough to almost justify eating for dinner a “convertible” burger (served on half a bun, as if…) with carmelized onions at Zinnburger. a few days earlier, we also had good pizza at skordatos in the shopping center at Campbell and river (I think) that is moving soon, nearby we are told.
Dad and I also took a really pleasant bike ride on a trail along the wash (the dirt gully in the desert that catches water during heavy rain) from near Frys in Oro Valley north and east (I think) to another outdoor shopping area across from Catalina State Park.
i feel really lucky to have had such great weather during what may be my last trip to Tucson for sometime (my father’s house is for sale) and lucky too to have been able to visit this refuge from Midwestern winters for some 20 years. Thanks mom and dad! Xox
Catalina state park, Arizona Inn, 4th Avenue- Tucson
Almost 30 years ago, I visited Tucson for the first time to attend the wedding of my friend Mary at the lovely old world Arizona Inn. Today, Mary and I met again at the Arizona Inn, this time for lunch on the patio, overlooking a wide green lawn bordered by pink Adobe casitas and an impeccably landscaped desert garden. It may be the last time we meet there or anywhere else in Tucson, since my dad has put his house up for sale but we enjoyed our meal and the peaceful ladies-who-lunch setting (although neither of us fit that description…we are working gals out for lunch.)
I wandered around 4th Avenue south of Speedway, which had more strung out homeless people hanging around than I remembered but the head shops, vintage stores and Goodwill shop were Balanced by some more upmarket but still affordable youthful indie boutiques including Creations, where I bought some Airy made-in-India attire.Leaving that store I was approached by an attractive Israeli woman in her own airy India attire who convinced me to visit her “very nice” jewelry store, Evon Perez, which was very nice and I eventually succumbed to her relentless but not obnoxious sales pitch and bought some silver earrings from Mexico.
My visit began yesterday, as it always does, with a hike on the canyon loop trail at Catalina State Park, an easy and scenic loop with classic desert landscape – rugged mountains with a blue sky backdrop, gumby-esque saguaro cacti, all kinds of other cacti (barrel, paddle, purple paddle, agave) and spindly ocotillo and purple wildflowers. It always reminds me of my mother and how much she loved Tucson where she and my dad bought a house here 20 years ago. I didn’t make it to Catalina this morning for the 7:30 am Wednesday bird walk but dad and I spotted a dazzling red vermillion flycatcher off in the desert preserve beyond his patio (with help from binoculars.)
Filed under Arizona
A little Hawaii in NYC – Poke!
I first fell for Poke in – where else – Hawaii and haven’t had it since our trip there several years ago. So I was pleased to see a story this week in the NYTimes about the new Poke places popping up in Manhattan. Some of the Poke is a little too orange and creamy for my taste – k raw salmon slathered with orange midwestern salad dressing (but is actually chile aoili and quite good. spicy too.)
The kind I really fell for in Hawaii is red chunks of raw ahi tuna in a sesame oil/ salty soy sauce (the japanese version, Shoyu) with maybe some shredded carrots or seaweed or avocado.)
I first spotted it in the Big Island (see photo above!) when a hipster surfer guy staying at our bed & breakfast was eating some from a plastic takeaway carton. Had to try it – and it was delicious. Then I found it in odd places, including a little hole-in-the-wall natural foods place (Ruffage) restaurant off Waikiki Beach in Honululu; a very upscale version at the elegant Alan Wong’s (Obama’s favorite Honolulu restaurant) and then on the side of a two-lane highway, being sold out of the back of a parked white pickup by a guy with two Styrofoam coolers full of the stuff. I lived to tell the tale (I was a little concerned about food poisoning but it was delicious.) Short of another trip to Hawaii (some day, I hope!), I’ll now look for it in NYC. – best spot according to the NYTimes is Sons of Thunder in Murray Hill.
Filed under DINING, Hawaii, New York City
Rainbow Springs, “The Yearling” author’s cracker house, Blue Highway, Micanopy – “old Florida”
At Marjorie’s place
Filed under Florida
Cocoa Beach, New Smyrna Beach, JB’s Fish Camp and graffiti Junktion/Orlando
View from JB’s FIsh C amp
I had to return unexpectedly to the restaurant I ate at yesterday in Titusville (to pick up the credit card I left there) so decided to see a little more of what I believe is called the cape Canaveral Coast. First stop cocoa beach which has a rickety old ticky tacky pier and several surfers were out on a suddenly cold (50s) but suddenly clear and sunny morning. Fun Fact: I dream of Jeanne (the 1970s tv show) was set in cocoa beach (according to some history I read in a display on the pier). I also saw some enormous cruise ships, which I gather set sail (so to speak) from the area. My favorite high school name in the area was Astronaut High.
JB’s fish camp
After Titusville (with credit card now back in my wallet) I drove along Highway 1, mostly lined by green vegetation and surprisingly free of much development. This the Indian River area of citrus fame so I stopped for some OJ and bought a honey tangelo (a tangerine/grapefruit mix).
In New Smyrna Beach, I drove miles and miles on a narrow stretch of land bordered by apartment building and then beachfront homes (completely obscuring the view) to a cool place called JB’s Fish Camp, that looked like a cross between a fishing cabin and a tiki bar. On the edge of an marshy inlet/river, it has an old deck where I persisted (despite the cool temps)in eating at a picnic table (fortunately The sun was intense). I had a crabcake (a specialty of JB’s) that was memorably excellent and a piece of key lime pie (after confirming that it was white, not green…something my mother taught me as a kid when we’d search for the best key lime pie during trips to Florida). This was almost an ice cream consistency– frozen and cold and fantastic.
Filed under Florida
Thornton Park Farmers Market, Benjamin French Bakery, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, Dixie crossing — near Orlando
Who says you have to go to theme parks in Orlando? Certainly not when there is an amazing place like Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, about an hour east on the coast. My sister in law Denise and I drove there, binoculars at the ready, and saw dozens of spectacular birds flying low across the marshes and pools– my favorite is the startlingly pink Roseate Spoonbill, which we saw many of, plus a reddish egret (which has a dusty grey-blue body and a multicolored bill of pink, purple and black). As we drove along the narrow dirt road that winds 7 miles through marshland, we saw egrets of all colors, herons, pelicans and that’s just the ones I recognized.
Afterwards we had excellent broiled rock shrimp, a local product, in the gloriously kitsch decor of Dixie Crossroads in the worn town to Titusville.
In Thornton Park
We began the day at the farmers market in Thornton Park, where I had some prerequisite fresh squeezed orange Juice and bought some very good locally made plaintain chips. It turned out to be good luck that this was the rare market without some breakfast pastries because we found the fabulous Benjamin French Bakery and Cafe in the shabby chic neighborhood where we had the best chocolate twist pastries and met an 11 month old Bernese puppy!
The neighborhood has lots of charming old bungalows and plantain style homes and cottages shaded by live oaks and bourganvia.
Filed under Florida
TakeBetsywithyou 