How much can you eat in three hours? - Food truck adventures

About a month ago, Raisin Bread and I attended the DC Funky Fresh Foodie Fest (worst name ever, by the way) to see how much we could eat in three hours. Not really, but that's what the event wound up being. For $45, we were entitled to tastings from ten different food trucks plus 10 alcoholic drinks and 2 non-alcoholic drinks.

We found out that items such as a slice of pizza or a sandwich count as "tastings" and came to the realization that we would not be making it through all of the food trucks.

My sheet of food and drink tickets

We decided to be a little more strategic and try things that we already know we like or food from places that we have been wanting to try.

 Taco from TaKorean

 Buttered chicken from what is probably my favorite DC food truck: Fojol Bros.

Davis Ficelle from The Rolling Ficelle

I'm not sure how I kept eating, but we had only visited three trucks so far!

Time for a refresher! One of my favorite things about the festival was the beer tasting stations and our mini beer stein!

Pulled pork sandwich from BBQ Bus

It started raining pretty constantly at this point so I found myself standing in line at Jose Andres's Pepe the Food Truck.

Futbol Club Barcelone and Jamon Serrano y Queso Manchego from Pepe

I can't remember what these were but I think corn fritters and a piece of shrimp from Tapas Truck. I was unimpressed and very full.

Pineapple basil pop from Pleasant Pops

And one for the road from Curbside Cupcakes.

Eight out of ten....not bad! We skipped DC Empanadas and DC Slice and I also didn't finish my drink tickets. Overall, I found it to be a fun event and worth the price of admission although I wish there was a non-boozy option for those of us who don't want to get trashed.

Second Annual Annapolis Oyster Roast and Sock Burning

Last weekend, husband and I made the short trek to Annapolis to attend the Second Annual Annapolis Oyster Roast and Sock Burning at the Maritime Museum. It was a rainy day so I suspect there were fewer people in attendance than if the weather had been nice. We decided to go with the VIP tickets which in addition to unlimited raw and roasted oysters included eight tastings of chef-prepared oysters by local restaurants.

We hit the VIP tent first and made our way through the tastings.

Paul's Homewood Cafe's oyster rockefeller. I knew there was going to be an old boring oyster rockefeller in this mix!

The Wild Orchid's oyster ceviche. My second choice.

The Rockfish's oyster stew. There were three different oyster stews out of the eight tastings! Boo! Although they were mostly yummy.

Azure's wood-grilled oyster with pork, corn, fennel and orange oil. Too smokey for me.

Chart House's grilled oyster with compound butter and dill lemon aioli. The winner for me!

I have an anti-chain restaurant bias, but I had to be fair and voted for Chart House. 

Next, we went outside and stood in line to get some raw oysters. It was rainy and cold but worth it. The grand total consumption was 19 oysters. Is that a lot? I could have ate more but the rain was getting old.

Over all, it was a fun event and nice to finally be able to enjoy some of the things the mid-atlantic has to offer. Although socks did not seem to be burning.

A rarity in my life: a calm Saturday

The last two weekends were surprisingly calm compared to just about every other weekend since August. I'm "only" taking two courses this module and don't have any trips out of town planned until the end of April. There haven't been any sudden out of town family emergencies, so what does that mean? Some quality time enjoying life and not pulling my hair out/driving my husband and myself crazy. We decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather to take a bike ride. In anticipation of bike-riding weather, husband scoured Craig's list last week and we got me a fancy schmancy used bike. Hooray.

We made our way past the Netherlands Carillon with beautiful tulips in bloom and then to the National Mall.

The Mall was packed with visitors for the 100th Cherry Blossom Festival and the Blossom Kite Festival. We took a break from our ride and admired the tons of kites flying around the Washington Monument. 

Giant flower kite at the Kite Festival

On top of the kites, there were musical performances happening. We caught a little bit of this orchestra performing.

For lunch, we rode to Penn Quarter for some lobster rolls at Luke's Lobster. Husband and I shared the Noah's Ark which includes two half shrimp rolls, two half lobster rolls, two half crab rolls, two bags of chips and two sodas. Yes, we are pigglies. 

Luke's Lobster in Penn Quarter

Half crab, shrimp and lobster rolls

Now, time for some homemade Thai iced tea and Portugal planning!

Luke's Lobster

624 E Street, NW

Washington, DC 20004

Explore: Port of Los Angeles Lobster Fest

[Insert food here] and tack on the word "festival" and I am there! The Port of Los Angeles Lobster Festival and Music Weekend took place between September 18-20, 2009 at Ports O' Call Village in San Pedro, California. We attended on Sunday, which has historically been the busiest day. $7 with a $2 off coupon downloaded from their website is a small price to pay for a day of celebrating this famed crustacean!

 Free samples from Laughing Cow and Coke Zero

Eclectic entertainment such as Arturo Nakame's one man band 

Saturday also happened to be International Talk-like-a-Pirate Day so there were plenty of pirates representing among us landlubbers. 

For $31, we enjoyed two Maine lobsters with drawn butter, cole slaw, potatoes, and a biscuit.

After lunch we headed over to the music stage to see what was going on. We had just missed a rock band that we could barely hear from where we were sitting. Next on the line-up for our musical enjoyment was a Mini Michael Jackson and Tiny Tina Turner!! I certainly wasn't expecting to hear Smooth Criminal and Proud Mary!

 

Think you missed your chance to savory some shellfish? Lucky for you, the Redondo Beach Lobster Festival will be held this weekend (September 25-27, 2009) at Seaside Lagoon, 200 Portofino Way, Redondo Beach, CA - 90277. For more information, go to http://www.lobsterfestival.com/

Festival Fun: Los Angeles BBQ Festival

The first Los Angeles BBQ Festival took place on September 13th and 14th at the Santa Monica Pier. Admission was supposed to be $10, but I found a coupon code online and paid a little over $6 including service charges. Admission also did not include food and each plate cost an additional $10.

Overall, I was not impressed with the event or the food. Since there were only eight vendors, the lines were insanely long which made it impossible to walk around. The concept was really cool though, in that out of town pitmasters were showing off their food!

Elgin hot sausage and bbq brisket

Southside Market and BBQ, Elgin, Texas

Kansas City spareribs and baked beans

LC's BBQ, Kansas City, Missouri