What a day. We meandered about town, looking for the perfect sink and faucet for the downstairs powder room remodel (that’s another blog post altogether). Since we were in the neighborhood, we visited An Xuyen Bakery. They make the most beautiful breads and pastries. This is not the artisan baking that I’m working on myself – everything there has a very fine crumb and is the result of a fusion of Vietnamese, Chinese and French baking traditions. They do very fine coconut buns, called Banh Dua, and a heavenly pastry-type arrangement called a Sesame Ball. Sorry there’s no picture – the one we purchased got eaten before I could get the camera out (that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it). It’s a perfectly round pastry, slightly smaller than a baseball, with a ball of mung bean paste with coconut tucked inside like a little surprise. Sublime.
We’d heard about a place called the Rebuilding Center, so we went and checked that out. It’s extremely cool, if you’re a fearless creative with carpentry skills. I can only muster one of those attributes, but I enjoyed visiting, anyway. The Rebuilding Center just happens to be located on Mississippi Avenue – a very fun and trendy little neighborhood with uber-hip shops and restaurants, such as…
The Meadow – Insane variety of finishing salts and the most beautiful flowers I’ve seen in one shop for a long time. Hard to figure how it all goes together, but when I paid $8 for two little squares of house salted chocolate, I figured out their business plan. If you are looking for Himalayan pink salt, this would be a good place to go.
Por Que No – The cutest little streetside cafe with what looked like true Mexican food. I love Latin flavors, and it smelled like fire, garlic, and peppers out in front of this restaurant. We didn’t eat there, but I will be back to find out if they double-wrap their tacos.
And if they don’t, they should.
We ended up driving down Alberta St., but ran into a road block set up for the Alberta Street Fair. It looked like things were winding down; and we weren’t in the mood. However, in the process of turning around, we decided to stop and try the Grill Cheese Grill – a food cart shoved into a converted Streamliner trailer and all hopped up on some sort of cheesy steroids.
It’s a happy place. Lots of families with little kids stopping for dinner and that sort of thing. There’s a re-purposed school bus that has tables inside; and picnic tables underneath colorful canvas umbrellas outside. We ordered and chose a spotless picnic table, listening to Queen’s “Bicycle” (how long since you’ve heard THAT song?) and watching people while we waited. A few minutes later, I picked up the order, we said grace and started to eat.
Wow. WOW! Yuuuuummmm. It was hard to stop and take a picture (note the large bites taken out of both sandwiches).
Pesto, mozzarella, fresh tomatoes on Parmesan bread. And when I say Parmesan bread, I mean some sort of Parmesan-crusted bread with a wicked good crunch. With tart, summer-perfect tomatoes paired with a beautifully robust pesto and the melted cheese it was sublime.
Mr. Stoic chose the BABS Melt; a savory mixture of Swiss and blue cheeses, apples and bacon. Seeing this described on the menu did not move me. I was entirely prepared for it to be strange and not at all good. But, like many things in life, when I bit into the sandwich, I realized that good people everywhere love tasty food. I should trust people more. It was worth it tonight. Though I ate seasonally (which I’m focused more on these days), I still think that Mr. Stoic won the battle tonight.
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