So I heard through the grapevine about Georgetown Cupcake, located on Potomac Street NW (across from Dean & Deluca). I finally made my way over there a couple months ago, and I’ve been hooked ever since! Though the space is very small (sometimes you have to wait outside for your cupcakes), including only one table, this sister run cupcake-palace it worth it, especially now that they have daily and monthly schedules on their website! They also serve cafe drinks here (coffee, tea, etc) and the staff is super helpful. You can almost see the cupcakes being baked in the back, and if you don’t know what to get, they’re more than happy to share their favorites. I’m slowly trying to taste every one of their flavors, but their seasonal flavors keep evading me (blueberry coffee cake, cherry blossom, carrot cake, independence day).

They are most famous for pre-ordering (people buy these by the dozens for their friends, office mates, parties, or their children). The only bad thing is that the smallest box is for 4 or 6 cupcakes, and you have to pay for single cupcake boxes ($0.50 each). Other than that, a short walk across the key bridge can result in disaster (depending on your pace and packaging) in the form of smushed cupcakes or mixed flavors. Though these cupcakes are very moist and super yummy, sometimes there is just a little bit too much frosting on it for me, so I wipe it off.

Recommended flavors: Summer: Lemon Berry, Key Lime Everyday: Mocha, Lava, Chocolate Ganache, Chocolate Squared

Score was updated after visiting Hello Cupcake in September 2008.

From the Washington Post ‘Cupcake Wars’

About: Sisters Sophie LaMontagne and Katherine Kallinis quit their jobs last year to open this business on Valentine’s Day 2008, creating such a sensation that they now sell thousands of cupcakes a day (more than 4,000 on Saturdays). 1209 Potomac St. NW, 202-333-8448; » More About Georgetown Cupcake

The Range: A dozen varieties when we visited, including all four permutations of chocolate/vanilla, plus triple chocolate, chocolate ganache, lemon blossom, mocha, coconut and caramel apple (a special September seasonal flavor that will return in November).

Price: $2.75 each, $15 for six, $29 for a dozen.

Size: Smallish, with just the right amount of frosting. (Average weight: 3 ounces.)

How do they taste?: Wow! These are the Nadia Comanecis of the Cupcake Wars: cute, diminutive and the first to get scores of 10. Not all of them, of course; we liked the vanilla cakes less, and we weren’t too crazy about the coconut, but most of the others had us using descriptions such as “dreamy,” “creamy,” “bright” and “sensational.”

Best of the Bunch: Chocolate Squared was so moist, with deep chocolate flavor in both cake and fudgy frosting, that one taster wrote, “I’m not even a huge chocolate fan, and that is a perfect chocolate cupcake.” (Score: 9.8 out of 10.)

Price Per Ounce: 86 cents

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On our second attempt to visit Jaleo (because apparently they are closed on Mondays), we were finally able to enter the doorway. We visited the location in Crystal City, but there are two other ones (Bethesda, Downtown DC).

I love the high ceilings here (in fact, I think it’s a Crystal City trend), and it has an indoor cafe feeling–complete with LIVE music. It was a little loud at first, but as I got used to it, it really added to the atmosphere.

Jaleo has an impressive wine selection (unfortunately, I don’t care that much for wine), so I opted for some special mixed drink (mojito lemonade I think) that I had to send back for some more lemonade because it was too strong. There were many great sounding things on the menu, but I didn’t know many of the ingredients, and the menu reads like it is in Spanish (similar to Lupa’s in NYC, but with Italian). We got several dishes, and the amount of food was not always relative to the price. Some dishes we ordered: Pan con tomate (Toasted slices of rustic bread brushed with fresh tomatoes), Chistorra envuelta en patata frita (Slightly spicy chorizo wrapped in a crispy potato), Codorniz con salsa de romero y alioli con miel (Grilled quail with rosemary sauce and honey alioli), and Calamari with garlic alioli, though other tapas staples such as bacon wrapped dates, or slightly unusual “pork cheeks” sounded good. Jaleo, staying true to it’s Spanish roots, is also famous for it’s paella, and has several varieties in house, similar to pizza at an Italian restaurant.

From Zagat:

Invite your amigos to “nibble the evening away” on “tantalizing”, “imaginative” yet “authentic” Spanish tapas with “never-ending sangria to wash it all down” at this trio of “crowd-pleasers”; they’re a “loud”, “chaotic” “fiesta”, especially if there’s flamenco dancing, and they’re among the “few places where ’small plate does not equal ‘large bill’”; P.S. beware of “long waits”, as they take only a limited number of reservations.

Food: 23, Decor: 20, Service: 19, $33

Penn Quarter (480 Seventh Street NW & E. Street 202-628-7949), Bethesda (7271 Woodmont Avenue & Elm Street, Maryland 301-913-0003), Arlington (2250A Crystal Drive & 23rd Street, Crystal City Metro, Virginia 703-413-8181)

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After reading this article in the Washington Post Weekend section (7/25/08), I decided to try this restaurant. Before, the only time I had Indian food was at a tried and true restaurant called Minerva or when the occasional Indian-inspired dish popped up at an otherwise non-Indian restaurant. We ordered the recommended chat-papdi appetizer (steamed potatoes and garbanzo beans over flour chips with a yogurt, mint and tamarind sauce), and were sadly disappointed. It had way too much cilantro and it ran all together like a watery, eggy, mixture. It was too sweet and too spicy at the same time. The service crackers were also too spicy for me and had an odd taste to them, with pockets full of not-so-good flavor and served with two sauces (a diluted syrup and a cilantro paste). Our entree was the Lamb Biryani (since we’ve had biryani before, this was a good dish to measure by). This was enough food for two people (therefore making the appetizer not essential) with food left over. The lamb was cooked in consistently though. Half of the pieces were moist and delicious, but the other half were spongy, flavorless, and took minutes to chew. The rice itself was the star of the dish. Scooped up with some flaky naan, this rice, each grain itself, had a flavor, not to mention the flavors that were mixed into the rice and with the lamb. I would have preferred the egg to be mixed with the rice as well, and as a result, it remained mostly uneaten.

Jaipur’s decor leaves much to be desired (pink walls, too-dim lighting, plates with their name on it, and decorations all over the place), and the service is so-so (helpful on describing dishes and sauces, but took several visits to clear plates and empty baskets). Overall, this is a typical shopping-center-restaurant experience. Maybe their lunch buffet is better, and maybe it’s better to come as a group (I know we were seated next to a tipsy, raucous bunch that thought it necessary to place all their calls on speaker phone), but I will not be visiting again.

From Zagat:

You “won’t regret your trip” to this “jewel of North Indian cuisine” that’s “surprisingly good considering its location” “tucked in the bottom of a high-rise apartment complex” in Fairfax; enjoy a “romantic dinner for two” in “lovely” (if “very pink”) rooms “filled with Indian art” and attended by “particularly accommodating” staffers, or else go for the “ridiculously delicious and cheap lunch buffet.”
Food: 23, Decor: 20, Service: 20, $24
9401 Lee Highway (Circle Woods Drive), Fairfax, Virginia 703-766-1111

More pictures in the full entry.

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GIRL TALK “FEED THE ANIMALS”
Illegal Art, 2008

So, I kinda love and kinda like “Girl Talk” (aka Gregg Gillis). All of the tracks are complied of seamless splices of timeless yet nostalgic songs. In one song, it would be Jay-Z mixed with Ace of Base and Hoku with maybe some Micheal Jackson, Coldplay, Radiohead, MIA, and nameless past Top 40 one-hit wonders. He writes albums to be albums, not individual tracks, so the whole album flows together, and you could leave an album or two on instead of a dance mix one night. It’s energizing and somehow makes me remember my childhood, and recent dancing days at the same time. Some people might not the music he splices with (some classic 80’s and 90’s with recent pop/rap) or find it too repetitive, but it works for me. It was actually recommended to me for workout music, and I second that!

From Pitchfork Media:

Unlike mash-up makers in it to figure out the lamest way to combine two song titles, justify their existence with cheap mp3 blog Diggs, or wind up in a Cobrasnake shot with some Olsen twin look-a-like, Gillis just really likes stuffing tons of his favorite FM moments into bursts of Top 40 overload. “I’m a pop music enthusiast,” [...]

Unsurprisingly, his new record, Feed the Animals, comes off like the ultimate July 4th rooftop soundtrack. [...]

Feed the Animals offers a new round of associative concoctions ready to blow out clubs this summer and beyond. Perhaps in an effort to work his crowd up quicker and more efficiently, Gillis spikes his signature mix of current smashes, hip-hop, 1980s pop, 90s alternative, and classic rock with a slew of wedding-ready staples.

You can go to his site and pay ANY price for his new album, “Feed the Animals” here.

The label, “Illegal Art”, has a few sample tracks for download off of his other albums too.
Recommended tracks: “Still Here”, “Set It Off”, “No Pause”

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So, I am the art teacher (leaving next Thursday) and 1) I don’t have all of my ideas finalized and 2) the ideas I did send to the staff were not approved/un-approved and I wasn’t told if they had the materials I need.

Here’s the breakdown of what I need:
Kindergarten (5) [20 kids]
First (3) [27 kids]
Second (5) [4 for 27 students, and one activity for 13]
Third (4) [19 kids]
Fourth (4) [12 kids]
Fifth/Sixth (3) [14 kids]

I’m the art teacher, so I need to have… art activities.
I want them to make a scrapbook, which I can display at the end of the program, each day their art goes inside. I don’t know if I will make this a ‘bound’ book or if I will just make a file folder to hold everything that they can decorate and tie closed with ribbon.

Here’s where I’ll be at:

View Larger Map

edit: I solved my problem! I mapped out the art classes, reusing some crafts and just changing the difficulty of them.

Kindergarten: Folder Scrapbooks, “About Me” page to put in scrapbook, Calendars, Weaving & Bookmarks, Illustrate a Story, Sponge Painting, Picture Frames, Tissue Paper Flowers
First Grade: Folder Scrapbooks, Mosaics, Calendars, Weaving & Bookmarks
Second Grade: Folder Scrapbooks, “About Me” page to put in scrapbook, Mosaics, Calendars, Tissue Paper Flowers, Paper garlands, Picture Frames, Yarn Paintings, Weaving & Bookmarks
Third Grade: Folder Scrapbooks, “About Me” page to put in scrapbook, Mosaics, Calendars, Puppets, Tissue Paper Flowers, Picture Frames
Fourth Grade: Folder Scrapbooks, Collages, Mosaics, Calendars, Picture Frames & Bookmarks
Fifth/Sixth Grade: Folder Scrapbooks, Calendars, Top Hats

Washington Post Article here.

Asian American students will outnumber white classmates for the first time in the freshman class at the region’s most prestigious public magnet school this fall, a milestone reached as the number of African Americans and Hispanics has remained low and the Fairfax County School Board prepares to review the school’s admission policy.

Black and Hispanic students often are vastly under-represented. Many of the schools struggle to reflect the diversity of the wider population while maintaining a transparent admissions process with uniformly high standards…The incoming class will have 10 Hispanic and nine African American students. The School Board is scheduled to review the admissions policy this month.

Hmmm. I don’t know how I feel about this. The article cites that first or second generation immigration students receive pressure from parents to do their homework, obey their parents and perform well in school yet at the same time cite that the average [white] child spends less than 1 hour a day on homework. I do not want TJ to install an affirmative action policy to appease the parents that want their children into TJ. As we all know, just because you’re accepted into TJ does not mean that you are guaranteed that spot for all four years and in the time it took for you to be accepted and drop out or be ‘kicked out’, you took a spot from someone that really deserved it. While affirmative action may have helped me get into college or my cultural background may have helped me stand out from the rest of applicants, I could not have gotten into–and stayed in–college based on that alone. How much longer do we need affirmative action? There are many poor white people that can’t afford to get into college and many people that achieve success without AA. Affirmative action is just solidifying racial differences instead of making equality. School systems are done apologizing (I mean, I didn’t get AA for being a woman and racial minorities were in school and could vote before women could), and they’re just re-opening and making more painful the wounds that existed generations ago.

It’s the same concept with reparations. Yes, we give reparations to African Americans because they were enslaved, but at the same time, do not recognize my relatives that walked the Trail of Tears, Native Americans that were forced to convert to Christianity, forbidden to speak their language and farm for other people, or Chinese people that replaced African-Americans on the plantations after the Civil War as slaves. Not to mention that land was stolen (and not given back) to Native Americans, who are currently in a state of economic, social, and cultural poverty, restricted to their ‘reservations’ yet injured every day by state casinos and forced by depression to alcoholism, thus rendered incapable to fight for themselves via the government (not to mention their lack of education and awareness of the possibilities–or lack thereof–through the government).

And we wanted Hawai’i because it was convenient for us so took over a self-governing, independent nation and made it a state. Now we take their land that they use to practice their religion and force them off of it, stating that it’s “private property” and run them to poverty by high real estate prices and standard of living costs and then take away their refuge (in the form of beach tents or rainforest trailers), when they are just trying to have something that resembles a normal life.

To think that these people were once part of their own glorious nations, and their current state is all our fault.

So I recently remembered when I lived with a foreign exchange student here and she made us Omu Raisu one morning. I didn’t remember anything more than ketchup and rice, and it took me two tries (and some research) to get a recipe I liked. Of course, you can put anything you want in your omu raisu–it’s a great dish to use up leftovers!

Omu Raisu

- cooked rice (I used leftover from last night’s dinner)
- ketchup
- vegetables of choice (negi, onion, cilantro, peppers, etc)
- protein of choice (I used 3 chopped up slices of left over filet mignon, but you can use fish, tofu, or deli meat).
- oil or butter
- 1 egg
- soy sauce or okonomiyaki sauce (optional)

Heat up a pan (I used a wok) and add small amount of oil or butter. Add rice and toss around pan for 1 minute. Add protein and vegetables until all are warm. Add ketchup until lightly colored (or as much as you want).

Slightly butter the egg pan. While butter heats up, whisk the egg. Thin it out with chopsticks and you can add soy sauce or okonomiyaki sauce or pepper to taste. Put in pan and allow to cook. Once done, take rice out of pan and place on plate. Organize in neat mound and flip the omelet ontop. If desired, split the top open and decorate with ketchup. If you want to encase the rice inside the omelet, use two eggs and a larger pan. Lay the egg flat, fill with rice, and flip over, then cutting. (This is a good way to keep food separated in bento).

Below are pictures of my two omu raisu.

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Chop’t, to sum it up, is a place where you can get really tasty salads that are conveniently wrapped in an edible wrapper (tortilla). This makes them ‘sandwiches’, but I just call it super yummy goodness that’s healthy for you! If you opt to have the real salad, you get about twice as much salad and no edible outside goodness. You choose your salad and dressing (there are a variety–even ‘spa’ (fat free!!) and they chop it up there in front of you with their special chopper. Another great thing that Chop’t has are their drinks. They have in house lemonade, strawberry-lemonade (I recommend), iced tea, and iced-tea/lemonade as well as hand crafted sodas (sweetened with cane sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup). Chop’t, though slightly expensive, is a worth-wile trip for those in the area that are in the mood for a refreshing lunch that won’t cause them to nap after lunch or regret not going to the gym (plus you can get a ‘Frequent Chopper’ card that will reward you with a free meal after 9 paid ones). Everything is fresh in Chop’t, even the bright green decor and clean, white tables. (I was bummed I didnt get a basket to get the few salad bits that fell as I ate, but that might be because they thought our order was to-go). SUPER plus points for RECYCLING too!

From Zagat:

A “salad isn’t just a salad, it’s a meal and a half” at these “cheery”, “healthy” fast-food outlets now sprouting around townl a Manhattan-grown concept involving “endless combos” of “fresh”, “choose-your-own” fixings that the counterfolk “slice and dice” with double-bladed knives, it’s “not cheap”, but it makes the cut with lunchtime “masses”; P.S. “the only thing longer than the ingredient list is the line.”

Food: 18, Decor: 12, ServiceL 17, Cost: $11
Chinatown | 730 Seventh St. NW (G St.) | 202-347-3225
Dupont Circle | 1300 Connecticut Ave. NW (Dupont Circle) | 202-327-2255

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Today I got a new haircut! I don’t know how much hair I got cut off, but it was ALOT. Maybe a foot? It is a bit shorter that what I wanted–my stylist just kept cutting even though I showed her multiple pictures of what I wanted. It also might not look good because all hair that had been straight permed got cut off and she round-brushed it. I think I look like a little boy, and wish it was longer–hopefully it grows out super fast before I go to Japan. I also was all sweaty and such from walking Georgetown->Rosslyn while trying to flatten and un-curl-under my hair so I didn’t look like a 10 year lost old school boy. I thought $65 was a reasonable price (considering I’ve paid $40 at ‘normal’ salons for a hack job) but I did not factor in tip and the fact that I was ‘supposed to tip the shampoo girl’. geez. so I paid $85, BUT I hope it will be like my last hair cut (in Japan) that was such a good cut that it lasted me a year because it was meant to look good as it grew.

OZUKI SALON

http://ozukisalon.com/

I first learned about Ozuki Salon during DC’s Sakura Matsuri (Cherry Blossom Festival) because they had a booth selling hair products. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t what I got. I traveled up and down TJ NW looking for them, then realized they were in a large building, across a courtyard (very hidden). Once I walked in, I felt really awkward because right-and I mean RIGHT-in front of me were people getting their hair cut. I had to look around for someone to recognize me and check me in and then looked for where I was supposed to sit and wait. I read reviews of the salon before I went and it was hot and cold. It seems that everyone either had a really good experience or a really bad one, but the consensus was that Shigemi was the best stylist, and I got her. Out of all the stylists, only 3 were Japanese. (2 women, 1 man). The rest of the staff was not. [Even thought Ozuki makes a point on its site that you can choose to conduct your 'experience' in english or Japanese]. I had to wait a little while she cut this guy’s hair and then I showed her the pictures of what I wanted it to look like. I think she just didn’t understand the pictures. She kept looking and looking at them and nodding to herself or saying things to herself. I didn’t think the cut was that difficult, but apparently it was. After shampooing, I did NOT get the famous ‘tea and cookie’ that everyone says is this salon’s hilight. She cut my hair and then blowdried it (I don’t know why she round-brush dried it under–I never wear my hair like that and hate it) and then ‘texturized it’. She looked like she did NOT know what she was doing and was trying to cut my hair each and every way with everything to try to replicate the picture–in fact she spent 5-10 minutes on one section of my hair until she moved on to the next. At the end, my hair was a bit shorter than what I wanted, and it didn’t look like she had slaved for an hour to cut it. All that work to ‘texturize’ it and it sort of looked like a mousy mullet bob hybrid. >_<. I don’t think I’ll go back again, but I’ll have to try and style it myself (without her roundbrush aid) and see how it ends up. Plus side is that I got to speak Japanese ^_^. (and realized how much my Japanese has worsened!!)

So, since it’s cheap and only $5 more than the book (without the bento), I decided that I want this. (Of course I haven’t bought it yet)

It’s not that I can’t cook, I just like that this is a simiplified, concise book (with pictures, so I’m not the only one that can use it *wishful thinking) with staple bento dishes in it, IN ENGLISH yo. in english.

Totoro 2009 Schedule Book *Preorder*
Price: $18.00

This is SO cute and it goes from Dec 2008 to 2010

I really want this ID Pass because the one that I have is white and silver and unfortunately, is getting to the point where it’s a dull grey. (捕まえた!)

I like the fabric, colors, and of course, the print on this one. (Also got the pencil case)
Totoro Bag (super cute!) 
Cute Bento Sauce Containers (捕まえた!)
And some more cute sauce containers 
Cube Sushi Molds (捕まえた!)
Sammy makers/stampers 
Hello Kitty Muffin Molds (!!) (捕まえた!)
Flower Weiner thing-y 
Bento Punch 
Dino Crust Cutters (捕まえた!)
Silicone Bento Cups (捕まえた!)
Totoro Forest Mug Got a Totoro SIGG Bottle instead
Totoro Fluffy Blanket Got another Totoro towel, totoro elastic towel dress, and hand towels instead