Dim Sum Yum

Day two in Washington D.C. is fini. I started it off bright and early at 7 to go on a run. Upon glancing outside, I was rather excited, seeing an overcast and predicting the showers that may occur during my run. Yet no showers came, unless you consider massive amounts of salt water produced through the pores in my skin showers. Coming from an incredibly dry climate, every time I step outside, I'm suffocated by the humidity that engulfs me. I especially felt this when I went running in the morning, the humidity as powerful as the heat I feel when running in the afternoon in Utah. By the time I got home, I was soaking in sweat, and I didn't even feel that hot.

Following a nice and cool shower, we headed off to the Betesta Farmer's Market. Located in the parking lot of an elementary school, this Sunday market has one thing I've never seen at a farmer's market in Utah: fresh seafood. Sadly, the seafood was in a truck, so I couldn't get a picture, but following are some snapshots of pastries, flowers, and vegetables galore.

Mini-pies and croissants at one of the stands

Crepes crepes crepes



Spinach and cheese crepe

Flowers to buy

Huge Paella. Can't wait until Spain to eat this as much as I can

I may or may not have a secret obsession with tomatoes and sour cream



The odd shapes of bread impress me. Just saying.

These eggplants... yeah, just eggplants. No story.

Following the farmer's market, we headed back to the National Gallery to compare renaissance art, impressionist art, and modern art. After checking out the exhibit on Russian ballet, we walked to the National Building Museum (yeah, I'd never heard of it either), where there are exhibits about architecture and also mini-golf! We didn't play mini-golf, but we did explore some exhibits. Fun fact: the main entrance area, pictured below, is the location of one of the presidential inaugural balls.

Inside the National Building Museum

After this museum, we hopped onto the red line to Dupont Circle. Upon arriving, we walked to Ping Pong, the hippest dim sum place I have ever seen. At first, I was pretty disappointed. I mean, my favorite part of dim sum is the atmosphere of the old ladies bustling around with cart-fulls of steaming dishes constantly nudging me and asking me if I want chicken feet (still haven't gotten the courage to actually try them), and at Ping Pong, as you'll see in pictures below, you sit down with a dim sum menu and then the food is brought out to you individually by waiters. Although it was a bit too formal and on the pricey side, the food was good, especially the sweet pork buns. For anyone in the area who has already tried dim sum before, I'd suggest trying it out if you're willing to spend more money than usual on dim sum. However, if you've never had dim sum before, I'd suggest going to a more traditional place to get the full experience.

Exiting to Dupont Circle from the subway.

So as you can see, a pretty hip venue for a dim sum place, along with an odd way of serving it, but it was still tasty. So I leave you with these pictures of my Dim Sum Yum, and until next time!