What the Blog?

I've recently learned about (and been on the receiving end of tickets for) city parking rules that I deem to be excessively, for lack of a better word, dumb. Mostly because they are counter-intuitive, but generally because the sole purpose of most seem to be to extract (more) money from the visiting or short-term-resident District of Columbia population. I also learned recently that when contesting such tickets, physical evidence is required. (I add this because in many cities - ahem, San Francisco - you can just bring in a camera, show the photos and zoom in on the relevant portions, and have the ticket dismissed then and there). //insert sigh of annoyance// . Contesting a ticket in DC via the walk-in hearing also means at least a 4-hour time commitment and tour through three separate waiting lines. Efficiency, thy name is not synonymous with DC government.  Anyway, some rules I haven't seen anywhere else, and was not made aware of until recently. DC websites aren't ...

All you really need is a pumpkin beer to accompany this perfect fall (or winter? or spring?) dish. It was largely an experiment, and although I cringe at Sandra Lee's semi-homemade/mostly store-bought recipes (and that she spends half her time on each episode creating the "perfect tablescape" when, who really has the time, Sandra.), I really liked this one. What I learned while making this dish, is that no matter what you do to flavor tofu, even when you're deep-frying it in lots of tasty spices, the only thing that really flavors it is the curry / external sauce. And a lot of salt. Anyway. The recipe! It involves two of my favorite things - (1 can) coconut milk and (1/3 cup, creamy/salted) peanut butter. You can use any veggies for this dish, as long as they are cut to about the same size so they cook evenly, although I added the heartier ones first, to give them some time in the pan. I stir-fried the following vegetables in about 2 tsp olive oil on medium heat ...

At a bar the other night, the topic of taxicab scams around the world came up - how there are a number of region-specific taxi or transport-related scams that guidebooks often warn travelers about but still catch some victims off guard. I thought it was interesting how these scams have evolved, and thought it was worth cataloguing the ones we'd heard of.  How timely then, that only a day later we encountered a DC-specific taxi scam after a late train ride home from New York. I always doubt the honesty of DC cabbies (and happily for New York, have found almost every single one to abide by their regulations - DC, what are you doing wrong here?) and this experience absolutely confirmed why that doubt should continue. Indeed, despite the perception that taxi scams only exist in developing countries, or target foreigners who don't speak the language in the country they're traveling in, cabbies often try their "luck" within the heavily regulated taxi commissions acros...

I recently returned from a whirlwind trip to Delhi and Amritsar, mostly to see family but also to do some shopping and touristing. A summary of 2 days / 1 night in Amritsar: Low-cost flights are available on Jetlite and IndiGo - we flew in and went straight to our hotel, the Golden Tulip . The location is excellent - about 15 minutes to the Golden Temple. I'm told that they'll offer shuttle service to the temple by 2012, but until then it's easy to hire a taxi (the hotel can arrange one) or hop in a three-wheeler. For the price, you can't beat the location - and included breakfast - but we found the walls a bit thin, the shoeshine machine down the hall a bit loud, and the staff - although friendly - a bit forgetful. For a higher end experience, the Ista is pure luxury but if you're on a budget, the Tulip is a good option. Before heading to the temple though, we hit the shops. Amritsar is a great place for juttis and beautiful hand-embroidered fabrics, and we st...

Every once in a while, you have a meal that you just have to blog about. I'm a week late on my delicious dinner at Estadio (must-try: corn, chicken. slushitos. end happy.) but I am still basking in the glow of a new recipe for yellow squash. Raise your hand if you're bored with grilling squash in salt, pepper, and a drizzle of olive oil. It's simple, reliable, and works, but quite boring, Enter the squash pancake. I'll credit my cousin for sharing the recipe - slightly tweaked: Extra garlic (2-3 more cloves) Dubliner cheddar cheese instead of parm Threw in an eggplant for good measure (I had a lot of them lying around, plus 2 giant / overgrown yellow squash) Chopped white onions Pinch of cayenne pepper and double the salt This is my new favorite way to eat squash, and it didn't take too long to prepare once the squash were cooked & pureed (you could easily do this in advance). To top it, I sliced up mushrooms, red bell pepper, and yellow onions and sti...

Without an excuse, the blog was once again neglected. As we veer into fall, and likely the last fall I will spend in DC, I'm starting to get excited about cooler weather, crunchy leaves, and pumpkin flavored tasty treats. Having free time is a whole new world of fun. Although we start Hindi classes this weekend, there is absolutely no comparison to the joy of not having to read hundreds of pages of cases per week, look for writing inspiration, edit papers, and deal with those other pesky parts of graduate school. On the other hand, it's really easy to fill those spare hours with projects. Whether it's catching up on my very long to-do list, my DC bucket list, or just going to the gym after work, the newly found spare time has a weird way of going really quickly. Another project is catching up on books and movies. I recently read Miral, followed quickly by the recently released movie version. The movie, directed by one of my favorites based on his work on the Diving Bell a...

I have returned! I do exist! And school is over, hooray! To celebrate, we took a little tour of Germany and France. The France post will follow shortly, but we enjoyed 4 days in and around Mainz and Frankfurt. After 2 full days of exploring Mainz and one in Frankfurt, we wound up in a gorgeous historical town just up the Rhine, called Bingen. Although I wished I had signed up for an international data service plan, we were able to find some Wi-Fi...but having a map in these towns and a basic German phrasebook is key. What we loved: Day 1:  From Mainz Hbf (main) train station, catch a bus to Reingoldhalle / Rauthaus (almost all buses stop here but just check the signs before you hop on. When you exit, cross the street and follow signs to the Tourist Office. This is a great place to start - you can get city maps, postcards, and the Mainz card . For 9.90 Euros, you get two days of inter-Mainz bus and tram travel, as well as free entry to all of the local museums. Mainz card ac...

Although I did a lot of baking during the winter holidays, I failed to blog about it. Bummer. I was inspired to write the first post of 2011 after taking a fantastic cooking class about five blocks away from my house, in the home of a woman who has been teaching for over 15 years. And learning in a home (seems obvious, I know) is so much better than learning in an industrial kitchen for cooking classes. Three hours later, I emerged with the knowledge of how to butterfly and roast a chicken, make refrigerator soup, chicken stock, easy potato and gruyere pizza, almond paste cake, and cornbread pudding. Woah. It was awesome, as were the little tips and tricks for using every last bit of what you buy. I've officially adopted the 'real food, only' philosophy, as evidenced by my trip to the grocery store yesterday. Sapun's list: frozen boxed meals. Mine: bagged vegetables, and lots of them. Although his meals aren't really that bad - they're from Trader Joe's, a...

...And all I want to do is hibernate. No more school? No reason to leave the house, that's what I say. As high temps barely skim 30 degrees (although with the wind chill, we're closer to 15 F), it's a good time to bake, simmer, and generally make hearty meals. Winter cooking is definitely a thing I buy into - as I type, a big pot of vegetarian chili is almost ready, with a little mini-pizza to take the spicy edge off as a side. It's also a reflective time of year, to think back through the years, even if it's just via the Year in Facebook application (I was surprised by my own amount of snow-related posts from the early part of this year). And, as I get closer to finishing law school (July, but who's counting?), a time to think about my career and what I want to accomplish with my education. Lucky for me, I actually have some time to ponder these things for another few weeks. And before I forget this recipe, because it's pretty darned tasty: the veggie chi...

PNW = Pacific Northwest. Instead of going home for Thanksgiving, we got out of town. We used a JetBlue pass I had that was about to expire to go as many miles away from home as possible: Portland, OR! It had been on the list of destinations for a while, so this was the perfect chance to see it in its misty, gray, rainy best. We rented a car to drive up I-5 via Seattle, to Vancouver, Canada, wandering small towns on the way and checking out the cities. Portland reminded us both a lot of Austin; small, walkable, affordable, and scenic. It started snowing when the plane landed, and many restaurants closed shop due to 'inclement weather' of about a half-inch of accumulation (sound like Austin yet?), so we found a brewery called DeSchute's serving a greasy late-night dinner menu at the late-night hour of 9:30, and grabbed a bite before going 'home'. For our first 2 nights in PDX and two nights in Vancouver, we stayed through airbnb at apartments within walking or easy ...

F irst things first: finals are OVER! It's always a victory when I finish exams - this year, with 1 paper, 1 take-home (72-hour), and 2 full-on 3-hour exams, it was no different. I was exhausted for about three solid days after I finished but the beautiful thing is that I only have four more semesters left! And much fewer exams this summer and fall, so a lot of the hard part is over. It feels good. So good that I'm celebrating by baking, and basking in spring. Today, the temps are supposed to hit 70+ degrees. And sun, beautiful sun! We finally got out in the yard and cleaned up the weeds, planted tons of veggies (although I may greedily plant one or two more) and we are hoping for some tasty results soon. We've also been biking around - spent a whole day wandering among the cherry blossoms and masses of tourists on our bikes a few weekends ago. The blossoms had already started to drop but it was still really colorful and fun to explore. With my newfound free time, I...

When I lived in Austin, my roommate and I had lofty plans to write an inspiration-filled travel blog, full of anecdotes of where to go (and where not to go) on our various adventures, be they for one day, one week, or even longer. I loved the idea, but sort of let it drop (aside from my really long Argentina post - see January ), and it's time to revive the concept! As I venture out and about, I'll capture all the details in a post - for personal scrapbooking purposes and to hopefully inspire you! I found a great resource for day trips / weekend escapes on Washingtonian , and by combining ideas from that and other sites, have put together a couple of repeat-worthy day trips around the area. The first was a day spent wandering around lovely Old Town Alexandria. Just a short metro ride away (blue or yellow line to King Street, then either a free trolley or ~1 mile walk to the water), it was a great way to spend the first warm Saturday in spring. We walked from the metro down ...

My trips back to SF are always far too short and stressed, with catching up on missed classes, reading to keep up with future classes, and oh yeah...working... usually the whole reason that I'm out there. It's hard to squeeze in time with friends, so I actually laid extremely low this time - yet another reason I can't wait to finish law school! I need my social time, I think. This trip was no exception to the busy ones - three full days, with my mom by my side (or on her own, but hanging out with me during my precious hour or two per day of non-busy awake time) - but a good time nonetheless. It's been 3.5 years since I lived there, and I've finally moved away from eating at the old favorites in the interest of trying new cuisine. Oh, and it was wonderful! Blue Bottle Coffee, Frog Hollow Farm coffee + pastries, Le Boulange croissants (ok, those I get every time)... Tommaso's for pizza, Betelnut for a little Asian fusion... I wish I had more time, if only  to keep...

Snow. Snow, snow, snow. Well, for the most part, it's over, and at least every other state knows how we feel. Yep, snow in all 50 states at the same time. Amazing! Washington saw snow like the city has never seen before, at least on record. The first day, the pure quiet of seeing empty streets covered in a single white layer was calming. You could walk across Connecticut Avenue, a major artery of a major city, and not see a single vehicle. You might, however, see skiers or snowboarders cruising downhill. We went sledding, turned up the space heater, and reveled in days off class and home from work (sadly, it was the one time where working from home was NOT a benefit). By day 5 of the blizzard though, the once-clean snow turned gray and there was a general slushy disgruntled-ness among us. Still, the break from reality was welcome, and the ability to 'swim' in a pile of snow almost as tall as me was especially fun when followed by more hot chocolate. Some photos below. Our...