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