Cousin Reunion

I love traveling to other cities - and especially when there is a cousin reunion involved! My cousin Amar lives in DC, and my sister is in Baltimore. My other cousin Ajay lives in Boston and for his spring break he came to DC. So, the four of us got together for a weekend of good food and fun times!

On Friday night, we went to Good Stuff Eatery, which is former Top Chef winner's Spike Mendelsohn's place. What the reviews say are true: what is UP with the fries? They were soggy, and I didn't feel like dipping them into my milkshake. I'd like to think that an important quality of a fry is whether you can dip it into your shake or not. These failed the test.

{Bad. Very bad.}

The shakes (I had Vietnamese Coffee, my sister ordered the Toasted Marshmallow) were to die for - but my cousin made a good point - shakes are just a ton of ice cream blended together so really, how could those go wrong?

{Good. Very good.}

The buns on the burger were fluffy and moist, and I thought the burger was ok (not fantastic).  My burger was a bit too well done for my tastes - would have preferred it medium rare or medium at most - but they did not ask me how I wanted my burger prepared. Would I come here for another burger? No, probably not, but I'd stop in for a shake if I were in the neighboorhood!

For brunch the next day, Amar took us to  Busboys and Poets. The space is really cool - a nice coffee shop / restaurant vibe and it is also a book store. I ordered the avocado panini and a latte - I was a bit full from last night and the usual brunch options did not seem too appealing to me at the time.

{Yum town pastrami sandwich}

The four of us stopped by a dog park and gazed longingly for a good 20 minutes. Then we headed back to DuPont circle, and of course, I spied a cupcake shop. Since I had worked out earlier in the morning, I decided I could share a cupcake with my sister. Actually, that is the ONLY reason I dragged my butt out of bed at 9:30am to workout.

Dinner that night was at Cedar, which I enjoyed. We each got an appetizer and an entree. And, dessert. Of course.  My sister's butter nut squash soup seemed out of place, given that we are in the spring, but it was still delicious. And my cousin's peanut butter chocolate dessert was the most salivating item out of everything we ordered.

The most magnificent meal of all was our brunch at Blue Duck Tavern. New York, I love you, but I don't think I've had a brunch this delicious, ever.

{It's not brunch without a little champagne}

{Perfectly baked croissants. Dreaming of these.}

{The best pancake. Ever.}

Let's not forget Baked and Wired. It's a cafe / bakery near Georgetown. The cupcakes are basically divine. Moist and topped with a frosting of perfect consistency and flavor. I could eat four in one sitting. And in fact, I'm pretty sure I have.

{Try and guess which one is mine}