Secret Ice Cream Social

This past weekend Superking and I had several fun and interesting food adventures involving three of my favorite things to eat...ice cream, cupcakes, and cheese.  You may remember my recent post I did about an Irish dinner we had through an organization known as Feastly.  A mysterious Feastly Facebook post went up Friday afternoon saying only that 8 seats were available for a secret ice cream social on Sunday at 2pm.  No other details other than instructions to email for the address. We decided we couldn't pass this up. This delightful ice cream social we attended was now our 2nd Feastly experience. So much fun, not to mention the delicious ice creams we were able to sample.

Our lovely host, Victoria, is an attorney by day and ice cream connoisseur by night and she has her own blog called Ice Cream Jubilee, where she shares all her unique ice cream creations. A friend of hers graciously opened her downtown DC home to allow Victoria to invite a select few to try some of her latest inventions. What we got was a smorgasbord of flavors!

Thai Iced Tea...

Fresh and light, slightly citrusy

Raspberry Rosewater...

Fruity with a slight floral aftertaste...normally I'm not a fan of floral flavors/scents as they can tend to be overwhelming, but I was pleasantly surprised how subtle the rose flavor was and how the raspberry complimented it perfectly.

Banana Ginger...

Neither one of us like bananas but combined with the ginger it was a winning combination! The ginger helped mellow out the banana flavor, giving it a more creamy flavor

Earl Grey...

Love Earl Grey tea...the bergamot flavor always makes me think of Fruit Loops, my favorite sugary cereal. This Earl Grey ice cream did not disappoint! One of my faves!

Chocolate Pretzel Peanut Butter Swirl...

You can never go wrong with chocolate and peanut butter...the little pretzel pieces added the perfect salty crunch!

Midnight Mocha...

This was dangerously smooth with a hint of kahlua...very rich and dark.

The texture of each ice cream was nice and creamy and each flavor came through beautifully! It would be hard to pick just one favorite. As we took a poll amongst the guests as to their favorite, it seemed everyone chose a different one.  There wasn't one flavor that stood out to be the best as they were all super yummy! Can't wait to see and taste what she comes up with next!!

Crawfish Boil

Ok folks, sorry Yumma Yumma has been a little absent for the last month, but things have been a little busy.  I needed a little time to recoop from Gray Kitty Boutique's Apple Blossom adventure, there were a few holidays and family birthdays, end f the school year,  a big party at our house yesterday...oh, and we've been busy getting our house ready to hopefully try to move this summer.  So needless to say there hasn't been a whole lot of time for many new food adventures.  However, I do have a couple I'd like to share with you.

This is a little story about some crawfish.  Once upon a time there was a quaint little restaurant in Leesburg, VA called the Cajun Experience (you may remember a previous blog post about them involving beignets and po'boys).  And every so often this little place would have a special event called a Crawfish Boil and invite all their friends to come out and visit.They would order hundreds, if not thousands, of little crawfish straight from Louisiana, have them delivered on a specific day, and serve them up fresh and hot that very afternoon to all the people in the land who RSVP'd. 

Superking and his Princess were so disappointed because they longed to try these succulent little creatures but alas!  Every time a crawfish boil was scheduled, they had other plans and couldn't make it.  "Some day", they sighed, "we will be able to attend this wonderful event."

this little guy was not too happy that he was about to get cooked up and eaten!

Then one day the decree went forth that another crawfish boil was scheduled and all were invited to attend. And this was possibly the last one of the season! Lo and behold, it was a day that Superking and his Princess had nothing else scheduled!  "Let's go!" said the Princess.  Superking heartily agreed and they sent their RSVP.  They were so excited and the day finally arrived.  It was a very hot day and the event took place outside but thankfully the restaurant provided a few umbrellas for people to sit under.

The crawfish was served in a large aluminum tray.  It seemed as though hundreds of the beautiful red creatures filled the tray along with corn on the cob and wonderful potatoes that had soaked in a little of the cajun seasoning.  This was the Princess's first time eating crawfish so Superking had to show her how it was done. With a quick twist the head popped off the body and they sucked the juice out before proceeding to tear the shell off the rest of it to get to the juicy pink meat of the tail.

They were hot and spicy and oh so tasty! Superking and the Princess ate and ate and ate until they could eat no more crawfish!!  But just before they left to return to their castle, they had to get one more treat for the road...soft, warm, sugary, doughy beignets!!

And they lived happily ever after...or at least for that afternoon!

Japanese Street Festival

In addition to our visit to Ollie's Trolley last month, Superking and I also went to see the Cherry Blossom Parade accompanied by the Japanese Street Festival. The parade was pretty neat though it seemed a little slow. For some reason, we'd see an act go by then had to wait five minutes before the next act made it by. Not sure what was up with that but what we did see was neat.

Cherry Blossom mobile

Japanese ladies and gentlemen doing traditional Japanese dancing

DC Roller Derby girls

Southern belles in very frilly dresses

antique fire truck

a cherry blossom!

military band

Miss PIggy

high school marching band

cherry blossom princesses

After waiting around for the parade to pass by, we wandered a few streets over to the Japanese Street festival.  It was packed full of people! There were tons of food vendors, Japanese art and various wares, and even street performers.  I've never seen so many anime costumes in one place before!

Japanese Street Festival

Adorable girl selling anime costumes

We decided to grab a bite of Japanese cuisine so we fought our way through the crowd to stand in a line headed towards a food vendor.  Half the time we weren't even sure what we were standing in line for. There was no shade and it was unseasonably warm for early April (thank you global warming).  But as we neared the front of the line we noticed the sign where we were about to order says "Sushi Taro".  Hey, we know this place!! It was one of our favorite stops on our first DC weekend trip!  We know the food is gonna be good then.

Of course we have to order at least one weird thing from their menu. We ordered a couple of pork buns, some pork belly on a stick, and an octopus tentacle also on a stick.

here's the menu...

The pork buns were good.  Nice soft buns filled with juicy pork and some kind of cucumber/veggie slaw with a light tangy sauce.

The pork belly...awesome, of course. Whats not to like about fatty pork meat on a stick??

The octopus...was interesting. First of all you can see the tentacle trying to escape the box.

Then we squirted a little lemon on it...I've had octopus before, even a little tentacle.  But this was a bit much for me.  I don't like the feeling of those practically-raw suckers on my tongue!! And to me the taste was not even what I was expecting.  I actually spit a piece out, which is something I never do!  Superking, however, loved it and ate it all up like it was going outta style! 

Overall it was a fun experience. But next time I'll just stick to the pork belly or go with regular sushi.

the one cherry blossom left on the Tidal Basin

Ollie's Trolley

Last month Superking and I were in DC for some of the Cherry Blossom festivities. One of which was the parade.  We got there pretty early that morning and wanted to get some breakfast somewhere nearby the parade route.  We weren't sure where to go and just began walking up and down the streets until we came across this "unique" looking place called Ollie's Trolley. This place has been in business for over 30 years and has been named a DC landmark institution.  It is most known for their burgers and their vintage antique toys (all of which have signs that say "do not touch"). 

We did not get to try their famous burgers as we were there for breakfast.  But it was an interesting experience to say the least. From the outside (and the inside to be honest) it has the look of a sort of creepy 1920's carnival/circus because of the lights and the vintage toys, dolls, carousel horses, etc. Even as I'm trying to think of how exactly to describe this place, no words come to mind.  You just have to see it for yourself.

The food was okay.  Superking ordered pancakes with bacon and I had a sausage/egg/cheese sandwich. We ordered our food at the counter where the little Asian lady who barely spoke English scribbled down our order on a large sheet of white parchment paper that became our placemat on our food tray. We sat down at the table and listened to 80's music playing overhead while we waited for our order number to be called.

I'm not sure if they meant "don't ask about using the bathroom" or "don't ask how its strictly enforced"

When our food came, it was served on styrofoam plates, our drinks in styrofoam cups, accompanied by plastic forks.  Nothing fancy, nothing pretentious.  But the food was hot, tasty, and filled our bellies. What more could we ask for?

The restaurant needed a good vacuuming (which is something for me to say because I rarely vacuum my own home often enough) and the bathroom was a little scary (the door didn't lock so you had to be fast).  But the vintage toys and machines were very cool to look at.  And most of them looked to be in very good condition thanks to the "do not touch" signs everywhere.

This food adventure has reminded me that not every dining experience has to be stellar, have amazingly good or crazy foods, or even be clean.  Sometimes its all about the unique atmosphere or trying something new even if its bad.  Sometimes the bad experiences help us be more thankful for the good ones.  And don't get me wrong, Ollie's Trolley wasn't bad, but I don't think it will be making my top ten list of restaurants any time soon. 

The only thing that may take me back there is to try one of their famous burgers.  Supposedly, in 2011, with 40,000 voters and 23 restaurants to choose from, Ollie's was voted the best burger in the DC/VA/MD area!!  That's quite an accomplishment seeing that it beat out all the other great burger places, like Five Guys, Elevation Burger, BGR Joint, and Sweetwater, just to name a few. So for now I'll put it on my "maybe give it one more try" list.

A Feastly Irish Dinner

Superking and I had one of the coolest dining experiences last weekend.  Imagine being invited to a strangers house for dinner along with 6 or 7 other strangers, not knowing who anybody is, where the house is, or what the food is going to be like.  That's what we did.  It was a little weird at first but it ended up being awesome.

There's a guy named Danny Harris who came up with this new concept of dining called Feastly...wait...

Before I go any further, there is one rule you MUST follow.  Number one rule about Feastly is that we don't talk about Feastly.  The idea is to keep it small, local, intimate, underground.  If you go running your mouth about to everyone it will no longer be cool and there could be dire consequences for you.  So if you can't follow this one simple rule, read no further.  Otherwise, please continue...

So Feastly is this organization that local chefs can hook into, create a menu, and invite people over to his house to try his food.  Only those who have signed up to be a part of Feastly will receive an email notifying them of an upcoming dinner to which they must RSVP to very quickly.  You show up to the chef's house with a group of other strangers and you all get to eat his food and hang out, get to know some new people, maybe try some new food.

The one we attended was an Irish feast created by Chef Fergus, a genuine Irish gentleman.  First of all his house was beautiful, nothing super fancy, but I loved its retro modern flair both inside and out.  Chef Fergus and his wife were wonderful hosts too.  We were also joined by another couple (who happened to be friends of the chef), two young girls who were friends, and another lady who came by herself.  A wide mix of ages from barely 30 to over 60 as well as a wide range of backgrounds and environments.  One lady was from Austria and was a professor at a nearby university.  Another person was a manager at Starbucks. And all the company was a delight to talk to and get to know. 

It was so much fun and the food was delicious!! It was a modern take on traditional Irish fare.  Our first course was smoked salmon on top of a potato pancake topped with sour cream and chives. It was served alongside a fresh green salad that was lightly dressed with a vinaigrette.  The salmon was wonderfully salty on top of the crispy pancake. The greens for the salad were freshly picked from their own garden that day and were the perfect compliment to the rest of the dish.

Our second course was beef tenderloin served with a mustard white wine sauce which was divine! I think just about everyone of us at the table were trying to lick the sauce of our plates!  Next to the tenderloin was garlic mashed potatoes, snap peas, and an array of sauteed peppers.  Such beautiful colors and textures! And it all tasted so lovely (even the peas which I normally don't like).

Our next course was dessert...my favorite course.  A chocolate cake which I believe is called a genoise served with fresh strawberries which were marinated in some type of liqueur and were absolutely amazing! On top of all that was fresh and fluffy whipped cream which we all watched Chef Fergus whip BY HAND!  Not a mixer, by hand, folks! Now that's a pro!! And there was a fresh mint leaf on top, also picked by hand from their own garden! Lovely!

Our final course was an after-dinner coffee with some chocolate walnut petit fours and meringues.  I'm not really a fan of meringue...as candy, as dessert, on pies...just not a fan.  But those meringues were like eating marshmallows! So yummy! And because they were so light, I felt like I could eat ten of them! And I probably would've had I not already been so full.

Great meal, great company, and great host/hostess! Thanks Chef Fergus! Can't wait to come back and visit!! We'll be hungry when we come!