Farmers market, Crafts, Tea. Me, me, me.

Today I did stuff in cool parts of the city! And I took pictures! Crappy camera phone pictures, but still. It's been a long time since I put up pictures.

I only have one day off this weekend, so I wanted it to be a good one. Don't cry for me though. I'm only taking one day off because I leave for Las Vegas at the end of this week and I couldn't take more than 40hrs off in a row.

So the day began with a trip on the train. Choo! Choo! Ok, not that kind of train. More like a subway. So....Whoosh! Whoosh! I got off at Dupont Circle at about noon and caught the last hour of the Farmers Market. I was very excited because I'd never been there before. I was pleased to find LOTs of vendors and many with grass fed meat and chickens and eggs and milk in addition to produce. Pears are in season, by the way. This market often has special events and this week was Free Giant Paella Day! I don't think that's the official name, but it's as good as any. Three chefs from Jaleo were there to make free paella for everyone in a giant pan.
See? Giant Paella pan. And you can also see that there was none left when I got there. The last little plate went to the woman next to me. But that's OK, she was probably waiting and I had JUST gotten there. Plus, it looked kinda wet. I dont like wet paella. But I love sour grapes. haha.

Since I was going to be out and about I could only buy things that would survive a day in my canvas bag. Unfortunately, that meant no meat or milk. Fortunately that DID mean croissants and mushrooms! And since it was near the end of the selling day, I got the 2 croissants for the price of 1. That makes up for spending waaaay too much on porcini mushroom, right? That's ok, the porcinis were deeeelicious. When I got home, I sauteed them in some olive oil, garlic, and thyme and had them with bread, havarti cheese, and asparagus. There was more, but I ate some. Hm, I suppose I could have had them with croissants, but those were long gone.

After the Farmers Market, I walked to the big event of the day, Crafty Bastards in Adams Morgan. About 100 vendors selling handmade goods. It was like Etsy come to life. It was craft pleasure overload. It was awesome. The weather, not so much. It rained a bit on and off and it was hot. I did meet up briefly with my coworker who told me about the event. It was a really big event and there were tons of people so it's amazing that I did see her. There were lots of tshirts and plush toys and knit goods and jewelry. I got some great stuff, but since some are gifts, I can't post those. One booth caught my eye because she had a framed drawing of Sophia of the Golden Girls saying "picture it: sicilly..." Unfortunately, that drawing was out of my price range. Fortunately she also had this hilarious shirt:I present to you, Presidential Facial Hair Hall of Fame. The shirts she had were imperfect and were marked down from $18 to $10. Hilarious $10 tshirt? Of course I'll buy it! But I'm gonna have to get my tshirt paints to fix the pic on the back to properly say"honorable mention". Gotta respect the mutton chops.

I loved the Crafty Bastards show. There was stuff handmade and local. There was music and food. There were free tote bags. There was a lot. I was tired. And thirsty.

What to do, what to do? Ohhhh for the love of god, what?

Well, Whiny McWhinypants, I went to Teaism. It's a tea house that I've been wanting to go to for a long time. I think Rachel Ray went to it for $40 a day. I'm just sayin...

The branch of Teaism I visited was in Dupont Circle. They have tea (duh), tea accessories, sweets, and hot food and cold food. It's a tiny place and it was very busy. But I did manage to find a seat right next to a window. I had iced morrocan mint green tea and the handroll bento. The mint tea (not shown, you know what tea looks like) was not super minty but very refreshing on this hot and humid day. The handroll bento had tea cured salmon with miso mayo, tangy pickled cabbage, brown rice with sesame seeds and more sheets of nori than I knew what to do with. Custom maki or tiny asian burritos! I really can't go wrong with rice and smoked salmon. It was yummy. I also had a toffee/granola/chocolate chip cookie. It was good, but it would have been better if I couldn't hear the guy two seats away telling his life story. I hope he was being interviewed and not on a date, because there would not be a second date in my opinon. Anyway, I look forward to going back and trying more of their menu, including the Jasmine creme brulee and the veggie bento (tofu and roasted veggies, yum).

Infact, I really look forward to going to Dupont Circle and Adams Morgan again and again. On my way to all those things today, I passed so many interesting looking restaurants and shops. So, next time you're in town, let's go there.