The other good place to have lunch by my office is Julia’s Empanadas. Ever since I’ve lived in DC, it’s always been there and it’s never changed. It’s smaller than a convenience store (there are several locations) and they offer around five or six savory empanadas: usually turkey, chorizo, vegetarian, chicken, spinach, and beef, with…

Blueberry Grunt, from Maine. Ah, New England: You have such a way with words. The Grunt is made by stirring together sugar and water with a little cinnamon and lemon, then adding blueberries and boiling the mixture of sweet ingredients on the stove. Meanwhile, cut cold butter into flour to make a biscuit dough and…

Lamb stew with honey. I made a broth using white wine (verdejo, a Spanish grape from Rueda, works well), and just a tablespoon and a half of honey, plus a little bit of cognac. You know the old saying that everything tastes better with bacon? Well, in this case, bacon would be superfluous, because that…

We went to the Arlington Crate and Barrel to find a sideboard for the living room (there’s a long and boring story behind this, but never mind) and we stopped at Java Shack, our regular coffee shop when we lived in the neighborhood. I ordered some hot cider. I have fond memories of every single…

We decided it was a good day to celebrate. And what day isn’t? At a bar we had a drink of Green Hat gin, my favorite thing made in the District of Columbia, before we went to eat at Doi Moi. The name, dổi mới, means “renewal” in Vietnamese, and refers to the 1986 economic…

After I resolve the dilemma of what to eat for breakfast on the way to work, the next question is what to have for lunch. Downtown D.C. is teeming with mediocre sandwich shops and fast-casual chains, and your only other real option is an expense-account meeting at a full-service restaurant. More often than not I…

We had frozen pizza while listening to an audiobook of Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe. I would say it’s just about a perfect young adult novel, and even though the basic plot is a list of things you’ve seen before — summer love, coming-of-age, swimming pools —  the author rushes past…

Viet made me salmon and we opened a sauvignon blanc. I like the taste of that wine: Water over stones. (Photo: Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.) >> April 6 << April 4

Tostitos “Hint of Lime” corn chips. I normally have bread with every meal, even if we have rice or potatoes as well, but instead of buying bread today we had chips. The salt and lime not only made them addictive, but also provided a nice complement to the frozen mixed vegetables which had sriracha squeezed…

Winter temperatures and punishing winds on a spring day when the bright sunlight turned the neighborhood into a reverse-autumnal landscape of reds, yellows, whites. Dinner was roasted chicken with mole coloradito. It’s one of the traditional moles of Oaxaca and one of the easiest to make, and unlike many of the others, it doesn’t call…

I took my parents around DC to check out a couple of wind-themed events by the Washington Monument: a kite festival and a pillow fight. Then we had Spanish meatballs. I combined ground beef with onion, garlic, and an egg, and then I roasted almonds with garlic in olive oil to make a picada, which…

French toast from the Asian buffet place by my office. I don’t like to buy breakfast there, as it’s a waste of money and doesn’t taste great, but it’s also the only place I can go without any detours on the way to work. Their French toast is always too soft and their waffles are…