The best part of this PIG Project was that my Exponent II/ Mormons for the ERA friends Chelsea & Aimee joined us. These are some rockin’, fun, smart-as-a-whip ladies!

Perhaps one of the best things about this restaurant is that when you walk up to it there is a mechanic’s shop by the same name so you immediately get confused… “wait, is this a car repair shop, or a restaurant??”

Also adding to the fun was Junie B Jones & her mama & papa!

We went up to Baltimore to the Kinetic Sculpture Race again this year. Is there a better combination than food, friends, family, costumes and really elaborate, moving works of art? I think not.

Since we were down at the harbor we decided to knock out Cuba from the list at the Little Havana Restaurante and Cantina Cubana right across the water. We had such a fun & large group it was nice that the place turned out to be a rowdy bar.

¡Viva la revolución!

The food, on the other hand, was not exactly authentic Cuban, and leaned more toward the generic Mexican bar food genre. Neil thinks we need to do Cuban 2.0 and get Cuban food that does not involve fajitas. However, we did get plantains, so I am willing to count it.

Plantains for the win! Who’s with me? Does Little Havana count?

One of the fascinating things is that I am actually working on a Cuban case right now at work, so I have been learning a lot more about Cuba. I remember my dad took a trip to Cuba in the ’90s and he said the only thing they were ever able to order at restaurants was a ham sandwich. He tried to order other things on the menu and they would reply “I think you’ll really like the ham sandwich.” Also, all of his film was mysteriously destroyed from that trip, so we never got to see any photos.

While the island has opened up a lot in the last year (now permitting some political dissidents, to travel abroad) there is still a vice-grip on communications on the island and a great deal of intimidation against any one who opposes the Castro government. There are over a million Cubans living in exile around the world.

Our great group of Colombian enthusiasts. We had the place to ourselves.

For Colombia we went to Restaurante Monserrate in Arlington. We had resident expert on Colombia, Shane, who served his mission there and somehow pulled out of his backpack two liters of Colombian soda at one point in the evening.

Shane <3 Colombiana

Shane told us that there was a really large range of altitude & thus temperature difference between the various cities in his mission. The terrain is beautiful there, but many areas are tightly controlled by guerrillas or drug cartels, so you have to be very savvy when you travel.

The food was amazing.

Neil had arroz con pollo (rice with chicken). It was flavored rice with peas and chopped chicken pieces in it.

I ordered a typical Colombian chicken soup called “Ajiaco” it was quite flavorful and had potatoes, rice, corn and then you mixed in capers, avocado and cream from the side. (Yes, I did eat chicken soup, but there were no vegetarian options, so my ox was in the mire. It was totally worth it. Delish.)

Not sure if the pupusas were Colombian, but they were delicious. (Don’t worry, that’s not my cerveza. I ate chicken, but I’m not that wild.)

Shane with his hearty, meaty dish and Pony soda.

Emily with her Colombian tamale. Not to be confused with the Mexican tamale, which is much smaller. It’s large enough to be a main course serving. It consists of pork, chicken, veggies, and polenta wrapped in large banana leaves and steamed. It’s served with a small arepa (flat cornbread) on top.

Emily recently went to Colombia for vacation, and while she stayed mostly in the touristy areas she said she felt very safe there. With beautiful beaches and amazing cuisine, she highly recommended Colombia as a destination.

¡Viva Colombia!

The Khmer Kitchen is owned and operated by a family who came from Cambodia as refugees. They were great and went out of their way to tell us about Cambodia, the food, and the restaurant. I even got to chat with the matriarch of the family as she delighted in how well all of her children could cook. We said we had come up from DC to eat there, and they were thoroughly unimpressed. They said they get customers from all over the east coast, coming from as far as Massachusetts and all around the country. It was good enough that I totally believe it. Completely worth the trip.

The gang outside Khmer Kitchen in Philly.

Here is a video about the restaurant from the website Phily.com

In the background is a traditional salad, nyum sahdau, made from bitter flower leaves, cabbage, cucumbers, and herbs. In the foreground is sah-law ka-koe stew made from papaya, sweet pumpkin, Khmer eggplants, seasonal veggies, and traditional spices.

Thelma eating some unknown spice or vegetable.

A picture of the bitter flower that was included in one of the dishes. The chef told us this spice is a really common ingredient in Cambodian cuisine.

We forgot to write down the names of all the dishes and so I am trying to guess from a menu I found online. I don’t remember what this was called but it was amazing.

Me eating a Khmer eggplant.

I had to try the lemon grass marinated beef sticks and coconut milk and Curry infused chicken sticks. Both…amazing!

Once again it was a delight to try food from a new county with great friends. The food was amazing and I can’t wait to try some more soon… too bad there isn’t a place to eat Cambodian food in DC. If anyone is in the remote vicinity of Philadelphia I cannot more highly recommend this place. They were so friendly, helpful and nice. The flavors were rich and unique.

Nothing better than good friends + good food!

]]> http://www.kateandneil.com/pig-project/you-so-tastey-cambodian-food/feed/ 1 http://www.kateandneil.com/day-to-day/we-finally-own-our-car/ http://www.kateandneil.com/day-to-day/we-finally-own-our-car/#comments Fri, 15 Mar 2013 16:31:50 +0000 Neil http://www.kateandneil.com/?p=3429 Not sure if this is something to celebrate, but Kate and I just finished paying off our car and received the title in the mail on Wednesday. I would say it feels great to be out of debt but Kate owes something like $1 billion in student debt. Anyway, here’s to responsibility!

Sichuan food is found south central part of China and is known for spicy meat dishes and lots of interesting vegetables.

Spread of dishes

Celery and wood ear mushrooms

The menu had lots of vegetarian options. The celery and wood ear mushrooms were Kate’s favorite. We also had some garlic spinach and bok choy, both which where also good.

Vegetarian pot stickers

For starters we had some vegetarian pot stickers and a green onion pancake. Both were delicious but I preferred the pot stickers.

Lots of tiny dried fish with peanuts

I don’t recall the name, but one of the dishes was a bowl of tinny fishes in a peanut sauce.

Breaded flounder fish

We also ordered another fish dish. The breaded flounder was very good although it was the least exotic of all the dishes.

Sesame balls

For dessert we had sesame balls which were rice gluten rolled in roasted sesame seeds. I can’t say this was my favorite and I let Kate finish mine.

Numbing peppers

This is where things get weird. Sichuan cooking uses a very strange spice that looks like a pepper corn that actually numbs your tongue and makes everything you eat afterward taste different. Apparently no one knows exactly how the numbing spice works or how it messes with your taste buds but it does. After eating some of the numbing spice my whole mouth felt as though I had been given a Novocain shot and when I drank water it tasted like crappy lemon aid. Crazy!

Dinner with friends

Again I want to thank everyone who came. Great food always tastes better when paired with great friends. See you at the next PIG Project!

1. Some brilliant human has a passion for collecting awkward and strange art from thrift store. She/he has a mighty collection with well over 100 pieces of art from thrift stores, junk sales, garage sales, and the like. She/he has uploaded images of all his/her paintings to their website Thriftstoreart.com.

2. Another collector of the cool Bill Davenport who is also an artist and also shares his collection online at www.billdavenport.com.

3. There is also a website dedicated to crop art: art . . . that is made . . . from crops!!!! Mind blowing! Anyway, the link is www.cropart.com.

4. A museum dedicated to those brave souls whose attempts at art were, lets say, failures: The Museum of Bad Art (MOBA). This museum is amazing. I highly encourage you to look at their collections and then read about the museum on wikipedia.org.
P.S. if you know of any related art links please share them in a comment.

The event was put on by the International Club of DC and was hosted by the Ukrainian embassy at it’s super-swanky Georgetown location.

The Ukrianian embassy has traditional Ukranian handicrafts on display, like these pysanka Easter eggs.

The Romantic Ukraine event featured a dinner buffet feast of traditional Ukrainian delicacies prepared by the embassy chef as well as an enchanting violin and flute concert by the delightful duo.

The musical performance was by Ukrainian duet Gerdan with Solomia Gorokhivska playing the violin and Andrei Pidkivka playing various ethnic flutes.

Gerdan played several traditional Ukrainian numbers, as well as a few new songs, including the theme song from Titanic.

Gerdan played a tribute song to the 200th anniversary of Semen Hulak-Artemovsky who wrote the first ever Ukrainian-language opera. Andrei Pidkivka played at least 7 different instruments including a pan flute and a flute made out of a walking stick. Their music was really entertaining, and even kept Neil amused.

Behold, a Ukrainian feast

After the concert, we went down to the basement of the embassy for our meal. It was quite the spread.

Starters: Fried shrimp, Salted salmon, Stuffed trout, Assorted delicious cheeses, Crepes with caviar, Grilled veal with green salad, Bacon-wrapped dates, Spinach pies, Tomatoes stuffed with cheese

Colorful appetizers

Main Dishes: Varenyky (known to most Americans by their Polish name “pierogi”), Dumplings, in this case with potato filling, best served with sour cream and/or sautéed chopped onions, Holubtsi, cabbage leaf rolls with beef and rice filling, Zavyvantsi tenderized meat rolled into tubes filled with mushrooms and herbs fillings and wrapped in bacon, Grilled sausages

In this shot we are sharing a delectable potato dumpling.

Dessert: Dried plums filled with nuts in cream sauce, Fresh fruit, Eclairs, and Ukranian candy

Last, but not least

It was the perfect way to spend our nerdy Valentine’s Day!

Hopefully some day we will get to visit the romantic Ukraine. Look at the 10 Most romantic places in the Ukraine. The tree tunnel aka ‘the tunnel of love’ that’s a part of abandoned railway in the north-western Ukraine looks SOOOoooo dreamy! Bet you never thought of the Ukraine as a romantic destination before!

Хай живе романтика!

Empathy without judgement

This is my new mantra for 2013. Being a very process-oriented person I’ve never been much good at setting goals (don’t think I ever got that Young Women’s Personal Progress Medallion), so I thought I’d stick with a simple group of words to help me create transformation in my life.

Please feel free to download our Christmas letter for 2012. We weren’t quite organized enough to mail one out to everyone on our list (we need address updates).