My Trip To Baltimore

A few weeks ago, my awesome anthropologist friend presented her master's thesis at a conference in Baltimore. I would never do it, but she's way cooler than I am. The conference was at the Sheraton City Center, and that's where we stayed. Of course, being in an unfamiliar city, I would have to find interesting food. My friend is vegan, which makes it even more interesting. Before I arrived, my friend was unaware of nearby restaurants catering to her needs. So I pull out my iPhone (sorry, not trying to be pretentious) and find a vegan restaurant in about a minute. It's called The Land of Kush. Since I have no idea what that means, I had trouble remembering the name and kept calling it Land of Tush. My friend called it Land of "Koosh". It's about a mile from City Center, and we walked all the way there and back. And I was wearing heels. Yeah, ouch.

Curry chick-un with rice and beans. Yes, fake chicken. It tasted so good, but the texture of the chicken was so.... mushy. I couldn't take it. It made me lose my appetite. I really wanted to finish it, but I have a thing about textures. It was too much. I need tofu to be firmer.

My friend had fake bbq ribs with yams. Real bbq, fake ribs. Her yams were fantastic, but I didn't try the "ribs". I was afraid it would have weird texture.

Breakfast the next morning was at Peace & A Cup of Joe. They have tofu scramble, which I didn't even know existed.

It looks harmless enough when it's inside bread. I'm still a little creeped out, though. I think I actually need to see the tofu getting scrambled to be okay with this.

I forget what this was called, something with "hash" in the name. I think it's potatoes with vegetables? It was good. I remember that much. This place has good lattes, too.

Vegans eat sushi? Okay. I like sushi.

I think this is Geisha Sushi Bar. Eel and avocado. I wonder if I'll ever go to a sushi restaurant and not get eel. Probably not. Should I feel badly because they're going extinct?

Vegetable tempura. Yay. Take something healthy and deep-fry it beyond recognition. That's my kind of appetizer.

Dumplings, of course. It's not a sushi dinner without dumplings. Not to me, at least.

Breakfast near the harbor at Miss Shirley's Cafe. This seemed to be a pretty popular spot. You can add crab to almost everything. I guess crab is special in Maryland?

Breakfast cocktails. Crab cakes and fried pickles/ okra for breakfast. Nice.

 

Okay, how many different types of Eggs Benedict do you need? Also, market price? If I don't know the price, I'm not buying.

I had Eggs Benedict with pulled pork and collard greens. It was so weird having that for breakfast. Once I got over having dinner foods at 8 AM, I really enjoyed it.

My vegan friend's fruit plate and hash brown. And her hands playing with her phone.

I also had my first ever mimosa. This place makes VERY strong drinks. Being drunk at 8 AM is so not okay. Never again. It didn't even taste good. Why would anyone want to drink a mimosa?

Surprise, we went back to Peace & A Cup of Joe for lunch after meeting up with a friend from Fairfax.

 Something like a BLT with clam chowder. They ran out of all the other soups. I'm not really a clam chowder person, but this one was okay.

Roast beef? I'm just guessing because they don't have their menu online right now and I don't remember what my friends ordered. I wish I could see the menu because all the sandwiches have cool regional names like The Edgar Allan Poe.

 Oh yeah, I remember this one. It's peanut butter and jelly. I always think it's so funny when people order than in restaurants, like ordering cereal. It just amuses me. I don't know why.

For dinner, I took my friend to this tourist trap near the hotel: B&O Brasserie. Every time we walked past, we mentioned how it looked like they were advertising body odor. According to Yelp, this place has some awesome duck fat fries. According to the employees, they've never heard of such a thing. I was so disappointed.

The butter you get with the bread is so AMAZING. Seriously, I wanted to eat it with a spoon. It was fantastic. I almost stole it, except we didn't have any bread in the hotel room for me to put it on. Instead, I put at much as possible on my bread.

 Tofu scallops. So I guess that means tofu made into scallop shapes and pan-seared?

Lobster gnocchi with pesto.

Alright, where's the rest of our food? When the server put our plates down, we both stared. After a minute I said "THAT'S IT?!" I can't believe these ridiculous portions for over $20 each. These people are crazy. I guess I should have expected this from a tourist trap.

Sorbet for my friend.

 

Strawberry shortcake for me. The desserts were great. It's a shame when your desserts are more filling than your entrees. The desserts were even reasonably priced.

One thing I really like was the exposed cooking area. We could see the chefs and the fires and all the magic happening. I didn't like seeing them flirting with each other with their tongues out and being completely unprofessional. I think if a restaurant wants to be a certain caliber, they should hire people who will help them get to that level instead of bringing their image down. I don't know if having servers in skimpy black dresses helps the image or not. I guess some people like that.

Of all the restaurants I visited, I really recommend Miss Shirley's Cafe and Peace & A Cup of Joe. At the Cafe, we heard this lady say she didn't like her pancakes, and she was a real jerk about it. They brought her new food within a few minutes. With a smile. I would have given her a death glare. When my friend lost an envelope full of money, the nice people at Peace, etc. kept it for her. Good food, nice people.

Derek Visits NYC

My friend Derek lives in Saratoga Springs, NY (near Albany), and sometimes I convince him to come all the way to NYC to hang out with me. I wish I could post pictures of him, but he always hides from the camera. I'll just post pictures of food instead.

Derek usually arrives in NYC around lunchtime, and I try to find interesting places for us to eat. After all, what's the point of going to NYC and then eating at McDonald's or Five Guys or something. I was really craving something Spanish. I don't mean some American interpretation like Taco Bell or Chipotle. I mean something like Dominican or South American. With my trusty Yelp app, I was able to find a Peruvian restaurant not too far from Times Square where we met up.

It's called Pio Pio and it's at 604 10th Ave. I've been to a place called Pio Pio in DC where the food was cheap and it was really loud and you had to order your food at the counter. This place was totally different from that. They both specialize in rotisserie chicken, but the NYC version has a more extensive menu, including some $30 entrees. However, we lucked out with a $10 lunch special and an outdoor table.

Okay, let me just say this plate is awesome. I wanted to steal it. On the fantastic plate, we have a quarter chicken with salad and a side dish. I chose maduros, of course, also known as fried (sweet) plantains. I love them. I eat them at every available opportunity. The salad is awesome because it comes with avocado, but I almost ordered extra avocado, anyway. I love avocado. I think Derek had rice and beans as his side, but he kept stealing my maduros. I didn't mind because I can't eat this much food. Oh, I forgot to mention the lunch special comes with a soda. Awesome! I hate those places that charge you a ridiculous amount for a cup of ice with a little bit of soda in it.

For dinner, we went to Heartland Brewery (5th Ave & 34th St).  I figured it's probably just an overpriced tourist trap, but I wanted to try it, anyway.

Butternut squash ravioli? I think? Only a tiny amount, though. Totally not worth the money. There was way too much nasty nut garnish all over it. Actually, I feel like there was more garnish than actually ravioli. Yep, definitely a trap.

Derek had lentil soup. He said it was ok. I'm glad I caught his arm in this picture, because otherwise it would seem like he doesn't exist. There's nothing wrong with going to restaurants alone, but I don't do it. I usually need someone to eat half of my food. USUALLY, but not in this case. We were still hungry afterwards, so we went across the street to McDonald's.

Of course, no trip to visit me is complete without a trip to Pinkberry (58th & Columbus).

Derek's is the baby one in the middle. Apparently they gave him the wrong size. We stopped at the K-town Pinkberry (32nd & 5th) so he could get another. I think mine is the prettiest with the Cap'n Crunch and Fruity Pebbles. Next time, we're going to Max Brenner.

Homemade Microdermabrasion Scrub

It's so hard to find a good microdermabrasion scrub that doesn't cost a ridiculous amount. I found a great one by St. Ives once, but it has since been discontinued. My skin looked so good while I was using it. I've been researching treatments for acne and dark spots, and sugar and salt scrubs seem to be a good alternative. Lucky for me, the recipe is pretty simple.

Combine one cup of sugar, half a cup extra virgin olive oil and one teaspoon of lemon juice.

Add several drops of essential oils, such as lavender or citrus. Add one tablespoon of baking soda, which will soften the skin.

I'm using tea tree oil for the essential oil. I couldn't find anything pretty like lavender or citrus. I found coconut, but I don't know about coconut oil being beneficial to the skin.

I added the vanilla and cinnamon mainly in an attempt to improve the smells. It still smells pretty weird. Not bad, though.

Finished product. I wish I had gotten some food coloring so it can be pretty. Oh well. It's probably best to keep it as natural as possible.

Here is a great site listing the benefits of sugar scrubs. I chose sugar over salt because sugar produces glycolic acid, which is a common treatment for acne scars. Yes, I'm still fighting them. You might think they don't show up because I'm brown, but they do. I chose tea tree oil because it's supposed to kill bacteria on the skin and treat acne as well as benzoyl peroxide but without the side effects. Unfortunately, it's also supposed to work more slowly. I'm still using benzoyl peroxide, so I guess I'll have the benefits of both. I hope I will.

After using the scrub, I'm thinking it would be better to go for an oil-free version next time. My skin is oily enough on its own, and it felt really oily after I rinsed my face. I hardly scrubbed at all, and it was almost painful. This will definitely take some getting used to. I know this can be used on the whole body, so I'm betting it'll work wonders for my feet and my itchy legs. They could use some scrubbing.