Laura and I met in high school in Perrysburg. We became good friends our senior year after a mission trip and starring in a play together. Her full name was Laura Morgan McDowell. Isn't that great? I just love calling her Laura Morgan! Now she is Laura Morgan Bensman...she got married a couple years ago to a fabulous guy, Rich who is a landscape architect. No, he isn't always digging in the dirt while he's at work, he's always on a computer designing landscapes. Laura Morgan is currently working at a preschool until next fall when she begins seminary at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington DC.
I arrived just in time for lunch at Ben's Chili Bowl. Oh my goodness, YUM! It's not the healthiest meal for you but it's worth it! So many famous people have eaten there, including my (apparantly) famous friend Laura! So we walked in to quite the fan fare, everyone knew Laura! When she worked in DC as a seminar leader she would visit Ben's weekly taking each seminar group to eat there at some point during their week working with her.
I had what Laura suggested, a half smoke, shared order of chili cheese fries and a Diet Coke. Don't laugh, I like Diet Coke better any day for and meal.
Laura and I with our meal. A half smoke consists of a kielbasa on a bun, sprinkled with diced onions, a generous portion of mustard and then chili on top. Wow. Chili Cheese fries were just like they sound, fries covered in melted cheese and chili. Amazing.
All gone!
Don't worry...we shared them...although I swear I could have eaten this much by myself. It was so delicious!
We headed home after meeting Rich for coffee. The next thing we knew it was 2am and we were still talking. Yikes!
Saturday afternoon we spent time walking around the lcoal shops. One of the place we went is called Eastern Market. It was filled with local artists of all kinds. What a neat place to walk through. We saw everything from oil paintings to jewelry to tin mirrors to beautiful lace hankies. My favorite was a little vendor selling pashmina shawls. So the only thing that I have decided upon in my mind for the wedding is that each of the ladies in the bridal party will have pashminas instead of bouquets. I have imagined the colors and just about fell over when they were all sitting at this vendors booth. Seven pashminas later I was one shocked but happy girl! (Thanks to Laura's help coaching me on color combinations of course!)
Canoes for lunch. We ate lunch at a new Turkish restaurant in Laura's Capital Hill neighborhood called Cafe 8. Between the hummus and baba ganoush and then the fabulous pide (we refer to them as canoes because of their shape) and the chicken shish kabob sandwich we were set for some more shopping!
The view of the capital from the Eastern Market. Laura sees this view every single day. How crazy is that?
Okay, so we needed a little bit of sweetness after lunch. So we each bought a cookie from one of the bakeries inside the Eastern Market. Laura went the classic white chocolate macadamia nut cookie.
I on the other hand went big city big cookie with a black and white cookie. Delicious! Half way through the cookie I got a message from an old friend. After a quick phone call Laura and I were on our way to Virginia! (sounds crazy...only takes ten minutes on the Metro though!)
Kate Fujikawa and I after coffee at Starbucks. WHAT! I hadn't seen her since the summer after 8th Grade! Thanks to catching up through Facebook we were able to meet up in DC, where she also lives, for a quick cup of coffe. How crazy!
Back to Laura's. Quick change. Off to the Metro again to try and make it to a going away party for her friends, Sara and Miguel, in Maryland. Again, crazy, but only a twenty minute Metro ride! They are moving to Costa Rica. What fun!
Back to the Metro so we could head to dinner at a Moroccan restaurant called Marrakesh. It was absolutely fantastic! You are served seven courses while you are there. This was our first course. We ate bread with eggplant, carrots and then a fatoosh like mixture of cucumbers tomatoes and green peppers.
Be warned, there are a lot of photos of food platters to come. I will never be the same again.
We were entertained by a belly dancer. She was wonderful...balancing a knife on her head as well as dancing for 30 minutes straight. I was exhausted just watching it, I can't imagine how she must have felt!
Course two. Laura's favorite. Chicken and egg with almonds covered in phyllo like dough and sprinkled with powdered sugar and cinnamon.
Did I mention it was Laura's favorite?
Course three. My favorite. They called it Lemon Chicken. I call it Lemon Heaven. Enough said.
Course four. What they refer to as "the meat course." Lamb or beef, we chose the lamb. It was so delicious but we were fighting over the almonds on the platter that tasted even better than the lamb because they were toasted in honey!
Couscous. Oh my goodness. The best couscous I've ever had, hands down. It was sweet and buttery and so delicious when you paired it with the raisins. There were carrots and squash too...but oh...the raisins with the couscous!
Must stop eating...But it tastes so good.
Too. Much. Food. Must. Stop. Can't. Stop.
Course Six. Fruit and Nut bowl. We both cracked a nut just for fun. The healthiest part of the meal and we couldn't find any room for it.
The after shot. I really should have taken a before shot too. We were so stuffed...and had no intentions of ever eating again!
Seventh course. Our waiter pours us each a glass of hot tea.
Oh. What's that? A baklava to eat with our tea. Well, we can't let a nice piece of baklava go to waste. That would just be awful of us! Besides, as Laura's husband would say, your dessert compartment is completely separate from the stomach! I agree! Yum!
Laura running out the (little) door, that's inside of a huge door, before they try to feed us any more courses of food. Unless they have some extra baklava, of course!
I had a great time with Laura. Can't wait to go back and explore more of our beautiful capitol some day...thanks Laura Morgan!
2 comments:
Oh man, those chili cheese fries are calling my name! I swear I ate so many chili cheese dogs when I was pregnant with Ethan and now you're making me crave those. How was Laura?! I just loved her in high school! Looks like you guys had tons of fun! Now when are you headed to Dallas? You might want to come soon since it's supposed to be in the 70's pretty soon!
I love pashminas. That's such a creative wedding idea.
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