Founding Farmers

Last Thurs I went into DC with a group from work to Founding Farmers. Its an organic, green-centered, all about sustainablity restaurant. I meant to tell you about it earlier, but got all excited about Sound of Music. Thursday we were still in the week of non-stop rain, and it actually got bad enough that they were announcing evacuations over the radio. As we drove through the mixing bowl, the water was draining off the overpasses looked like waterfalls. It was crazy. For appetizer, I got the grilled flat bread. It was grilled ciabata with marscapone cream, prosciuotto, and figs. It was amazing. It also came in three slices, and I told myself to only eat one and leave room for the rest of the meal, but after I tried it, it was pretty much gone. For my main course I got chicken and waffles, which I had heard about and have been wanting to try for ages. I got two pieces of Pan Fried Southern style chicken, with gravy, and two quarters of Belgian waffle with syrup. It came with Mac-n-cheese, and I picked the double whipped red potatoes for my second side. It was amazing. I tried a bit of everything, and knew I'd have to pick what to eat there and what to take home, cause I was pretty full from the appetizer. I went with the waffles, because I knew they wouldn't keep, and the potatoes, because they were some of the best mashed potatoes I have ever eaten. They were smooth, with pieces of the skin, and you could tell they had been whipped with melted butter. Hmmmmmm. For dessert I got red velvet cake, which was four layers high and served in a wedge so large, it took me three days to eat through it. I tried some of the cake, and then ate the vanilla ice cream that came with it (made fresh every day) My friends made fun of me for not being able to eat the cake, but by then I was so full it hurt.

New Years Eve - Quite Late

So for New Year's Eve I got together with a bunch of friends down in Alexandria. B got us a reservation at a Mexican restaurant we'd never heard of, because it was one of the few that still had open seats. It had a difficult Aztec name that we mispronounced until we just gave up and called it "Casa WacaWaca"

On the menu, we noticed that under appetizers was "Grasshopper Fondue," which was described as a cheese fondue with grasshoppers. B decided we had to try it as part of our New Years Adventure.

In my mind, I saw a cheddar-type fondue with big old fried grasshoppers for dippin'. The kind that always managed to show up in Seminary class. What actually came was a small, ceramic pot with what looked like salsa with shredded cheese on top.

"Where's the grasshoppers?" we all asked each other. B took a spoon, and started stirring the cheese into the sauce. As she stirred this enormous black mound of grasshopper bit rose into view, and I just blurted out "Holy Crap those things have been cuisinarted!"

This is why I shouldn't go to nice places.

Anyway, we all tried some. I had mine on a chip. It tasted like crunchy, spicy tomato salsa. But the chitlin bits of the grasshopper really stick around in your mouth. It took a bit to get them washed down, and in my brain was this reoccuring thought, "Leg or antenna? Leg or antenna? Leg or antenna?"

I only had the one chip. For dinner I had lamb tacos that were amazing.

Huzzah!

Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate is back at Starbucks!! AND Krispy Kreme has their pumpkin shaped donuts out.


I love fall.

Restaurant Week!

Needless to say, my diet was blown this week. On Wednesday we went to Sushi Taro, which boasts authentic Japanese cuisine. This had a set restaurant week menu, which started with a Japanese New Year Platter. On the platter was a bowl of sweetened black beans, two fish cakes (which didn't really taste like anything) some slices of duck (very good) a pickled beet salad, (okay) and six candied baby anchovies, staring up at me with their wide fishy eyes. They were odd, and had a strong fishy flavor, but I ate them all in one big bite. I figured that my chopstick skills were bad enough to embarrass us already, I didn't need our waitress to think I was a wuss on top of it. The second course was tempura shrimp and vegetables, and then a sushi box with miso soup. We drank the miso and the sushi wasn't rolls, but slices of fish on rice. There was tuna, yellowfin, salmon, flounder, omelete (cooked eggs on rice) shrimp, and salmon roe, which was seafood wrapped around rice, and then filled with salmon eggs. It was gooshy. For deserted we got a little square of jelly filled with fruit pieces. It was good. It was an interesting experience, but not one I would rush back to. On Friday we went to Cheff Geoffs, and since one of our party was late, we started with hush puppies served with maple butter, and fried plantains with guacomole. Then I got grilled lamb skewers, served with cucumber-yogurt sauce, and onions, tomatoes, feta, and cucumber salad. It was a gyro without a pita. For my main course I got bacon-wrapped pork tenderloin which was amazing. It melted in my mouth it was so tender. It came with sweet potato gnocci and greens glazed with a sour cherry glaze. For dessert I got pumpkin cake with marscapone filling, and came in the shape of a giant moon pie. It was awesome. Starting Monday though, back to the diet. ;)

Much Ado About Nothing

Last night we went to the Folger to catch their first play of the season, Much Ado About Nothing. It was set in a Caribbean neighborhood in DC, so not only where the actors performing Shakespeare, they were doing it with Jamaican accents. It was cool and very impressive. I enjoyed it very much. Afterwards we went to Good Stuff, the restaurant owned by Spike from Top Chef for burger sand fries. The best thing there? The mango mayonnaise. The fries are cooked with salt and rosemary, and then you dip them in a variety of sauces. Mango mayonnaise is my favorite though.

Deep Fried Oreos and Crunches

On Sat I went to the Maryland Ren Faire, an enormous affair of shops, shows and food on a stick. They offer Chicken on stick, Beef on a stick, sausage on a stick, Mac n' cheese on a stick (its deep fried in triangles, then put on a stick) and cheesecake on a stick. I had ribs, fried potatoes, mac n' cheese on a stick, part of a turkey leg, deep fried oreos, and cheesecake on a stick. (The cheesecake isn't fried, its frozen and then dipped in chocolate. It was delicious) I felt everyone of those delactible items tonight in Krav. Especially when we did ab exercises. I chanted "Bye bye Oreos" in my head once the flutterkicks started getting really painful. We also did shopping, saw some shows, and the joust. They also had a booth where you could throw 7 chinese stars for 2 bucks. If you got four in the heart you got a free drink. It was more difficult than I thought. Its a weird cross between throwing a baseball and skipping a rock. By the time I managed to get the knack of it, I had a nice little cluster going. One board over from the painted heart. Never could get them to curve left. However, of all the people up there, I was the only one who managed to throw all 7 stars to the target wall. My friends told me someone in the audience said, "That girl's got a good arm!"

Art and Soul

I don't know if any of you watched Top Chef Masters, but one of their contestants owns a restaurant in DC. Wednesday we went there to celebrate The Starving Artist's birthday. We all ordered different things and then shared. I got an Oyster Po boy Hoe Cake. The Hoe cake is a flat, grilled piece of corn bread, and then it had the po boy on top of it. It was amazing. Their fried oysters were really well done, and I liked their spicy remoulade sauce. Then it was served with some romaine lettuce. They had another one that had carmelized onions, apples, lettuce and goat cheese that was also really good. I ordered the roast chicken which was tender and juicy, and it came with a goat cheese biscuit which I didn't care for. It was just sooo dry. We also got various sides. We ordered roast vegetables, buttermilk mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, and fried green tomatoes. The mashed potatoes were awesome and, has one of our friends put it, the mac and cheese was "literally the stuff that dreams are made from." They came in their own little skillets, and the macroni was thicker and more twisty than your average mac n' cheese. The mac was in a really creamy white sauce, and there was toasted cheddar all across the top. It was gooey. It was creamy. It was amazing. Yes, yes, I went to a gourmet restaurant and my favorite dish was the 6 dollar mac n' cheese side.

Monday AMV

I tried to watch Blue Gender last week, but couldn't make it through the first episode. I'm just not in the mood for giant scary robots.



So instead we grilled on the community grills, nestled in a copse of dead pines, adding the thrill of forest fire to the traditional back yard grill experience.

This is the first time I stood by a grill with a fire extinguisher. Just in case.

Medieval Times

Saturday I went with a group of friends into Maryland to go to Medieval Times. Its a massive restaurant designed like a castle with an inside arena. Based on the order you arrive, you are given a colored crown and a number. (They look like Burger King crowns.) We had red and yellow crowns, so we sat in the red and yellow section, and were told that our knight was the red and yellow knight. To our right sat the green knight section. The green knight was our immortal enemy and we were to boo him at every opportunity. Since he ended up riding past us quite a bit we booed him with gusto and he sneered back. He sneered well.

The yellow knight section, seated across and up from us, was filled with soccer hooligans. Or perhaps they spent the hour wait at the bar (you get there an hour early so you can shop and look at their stuff), or perhaps both, because they screamed and hollared and had a chant of "Blue Sucks!" going for at least 5 minutes. They also got chastised by security a couple of times. Watching the yellow section was almost as entertaining as the show itself.

You are served several courses, all of which you eat with your hands. We got Tomato Bisque in a bowl with a handle, garlic bread (aka Texas Toast), 1/2 a small chicken, a pork rib, (seriously, a single rib) an herb roasted potato, and an apple tart.

While you eat there's a story, they have the horses do all kinds of cool tricks, bows, dances that sort of thing. They had a falconer, which was awesome, and the knights did all kinds of tricks. They grabbed flags from the ground, threw them to each other, threw lances at a target, grabbed tiny rings with their lances, all kinds of funness.

Our knight, the red and yellow knight, also known as The Stealth Knight, which apparently won out over Sir Baby-Face, or Sir Sucks-a-Lot (our knight died in the first joust, the only knight without a single win. We had to content ourselves with cheering for whoever killed his killer, and booing the Green Knight.)

It was a lot of fun. The Princess was annoying, but whenever she was talking there was a pink light, so you could ignore her and focus on tearing apart your chicken by hand.

I also bought a mango slushy in an awesome looking black glass.

Philly

I went to Philadelphia for my bday weekend, and had a great time. I planned my trip around a plan I found online called "Life,
Liberty and the Pursuit of Lunch." My friend Yoosh came with me, and went to eat and tour.




Friday we went to Morimoto for lunch. Morimoto is an Iron Chef, and is restaurant is really cool. The doors were bright green,
the ceiling was wavy, and the frosted glass partitions between tables changed colors.

I got the tasting menu, which was seven courses of awesomeness.

The first course was tuna tartare. They took meat from the belly of the tuna, mixed it with shallots and herbs, formed it into a
little tower, and served it in a bowl of some amazing soy sauce. The second course was really thin slices of Pacific Snapper,
served in hot oil with ginger and lemon. The oil was hot enough to cook the fish slighty and it was amazing. On top of the fish
was sea urchin roe, and it was sweet and soft. This was my favorite course. Third course was a micro-salad and striped tuna
sashimi. I'm not a fan of sashimi. No matter how pretty they make it, its still just a chunk of raw fish. Course 4 was tempura
rock shrimp with a spicy orange glaze. The rock shrimp meat was really rich, so they serve it with endive leaves to help cut the
richness. 5 was Chilean Sea Bass with a sweet black bean paste. By this time I was getting pretty full, so I only ate the bits
with bean paste. 6 was sushi, three California rolls and three spicy tuna rolls. Course 7 was desert, black forest cake. The cake
was rich chocolate square, with cherry whipped cream on the inside. There was a little sour cream and a sour cherry on top. It
was really good.

We saw Wolverine, and then spent the evening walking around center city exploring art galleries and even caught a string
quartet in Christ Church. Around 9 we were slightly less full so we went to Franklin Fountain, an old fashioned ice cream place
that offers historical blurbs on menu items.

I ordered a NY chocolate egg cream, which was the first slim fast. Billed as a cheap meal for the poor, and said to fill a man for
hours, it turned out to be a thick, carbonated, chocolate milk. It was strangely refreshing. Yoosh got a cherry bomb, which was scoops of chocolate ice cream in black cherry soda.

Saturday we went to Reading Terminal Market, where a nice Amish girl sold me the best cheese Danish I've ever eaten in my
life. We also hit a soft pretzel stand, where the Amish lady rolled out the dough, and then filled it with egg, cheese, and bacon.

Then we did the tourist thing. We saw Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, went on a ghost tour, and went to the Museum of
Art. The Philly Museum of Art is where Rocky makes his famous run, and when we came out the door, there was a group of
about 15 people making the run, and raising their arms in triumph. It was hilarious. Saturday was also our day of original
Philly cheesesteaks, which are made with cheez whiz and sweet peppers. It sounds gross, but its really good.

Sunday we walked around in the rain and explored, and then came home. It was a great weekend.

Independence Hall

Playing Chess in the Rain

Pineapple Rice

Right now, I'm in the apprentice phase of my work training.

This morning I had to go to Dover, Delaware to do some work with my mentor. He has two mentees right now, so we got a company car (we ended up getting a massive black SUV with a diesel engine you could hear for blocks. It was an interesting drive.) We were supposed to meet him at 7 am.

Our original plan was to leave at 4:30 (am) but the other girl texted me the night before at 10:30 saying that Yahoo maps put the trip at 2.5 hours so she was going to come a little early. I knew she was nervous about getting there on time, so I mentally translated that to "a lot early" and got up at 3:45.

She called to pick me up at 4:10, though she later admitted she'd been sitting in my parking lot for awhile. We got to Dover at 6:20, so we got breakfast and ate until my mentor drove in to the parking lot.

Our work got delayed, so I didn't get home until 3, slept for 2 hours, and then got up. I didn't want to, but was worried that if I slept again I would wake up at 2 in the morning. I also said I would go out to eat with my roommates. So I really needed to get up and moving.

We went to a Thai place that has a sushi bar. My roommates got sushi rolls, and I ordered Pineapple Fried Rice, which came in a half hollowed out pineapple. It was awesome, and it tasted really good. And half a pineapple is really deep. I ate from when it came out, til when everyone else had finished, and I barely made a dent.

I asked for a box, and to my delight, they boxed up the entire thing. Pineapple and all.

I am TOTALLY taking that thing to work tomorrow. :)

When the bill came, BSA looked at it and said to me, "Wow, you had fun."

I replied, "It came in a PINEAPPLE BSA. I'm only human."

Happy Christmas!

Is everyone having a good Christmas?

I'm having a very merry Christmas. I have been visited by Father Christmas, and I have tasted the figgy pudding. It tasted like fruit and booze.

The Christmas pudding is made with a very rich cake, stuffed with fruit (presumably figs) and then soaked in cooking sherry. You steam it for an hour, so it cooks off, but it leaves a pretty strong flavor behind. There's also a warning about putting it in the microwave, as the pudding could catch fire. Which I thought was funny. I don't remember the exact wording, but it went something like this:

Warning: This pudding might spontaneously combust when exposed to high temperatures.

We went down to London and went to the Christmas festival in Hyde Park. I bought some beautiful German ornaments carved out of wood and reeds. I also got a crepe stuffed with cherries and nutella, which tasted amazing. I love eating something hot out of your hands when your walking around in the cold. It seems so wintery. They also had ice skating, but it was sold out.

That's okay. I've never been ice skating, but given my roller skating experiences I'd guess I'd spend most of it falling on my backside.

After the park we went to a Japanese noodle house called "Wagamamas" and I had some amazing Ramen. Before this, Ramen was the super cheap meal you ate in college. But this Ramen came with chicken, fish, tofu, spinach and a pickled something or other on the top. It was pink and white, but it didn't taste like a radish. You ate it with chop sticks and this enormous wooden spoon. Seriously, the thing was more like a ladle than a spoon. The tables were community tables, and the girl next to me would load up her spoon, and then just chew stuff off the front end. I couldn't quite manage that without spilling soup all over me, so I would sip the broth off the side of the spoon, and eat the noodles and meat with my chopsticks.

We stayed at a very nice hotel which had a full English breakfast in the morning.

Other than that I've been enjoying the English countryside. I've been helping my friends get ready for Christmas, making cookies, dropping off neighbor gifts, and playing Santa.

Last night we attended an Anglican Christmas Eve service in the little village church. The church was built sometime in the 1300s, so it was really beautiful, and really cold. There were readings and Christmas carols I had never heard before. After communion they passed out candles, turned off the lights, and we sang "Angles we have heard on high" to candlelight.

It was really fun. Although the highlights were probably when the bats woke up (It's so medieval! Stone work, large creaky doors, stained glass, bats, it was awesome.) And when my friend accidentally set her hair on fire during the service.

Father Christmas even managed to find me, and brought me the DVD of Hogfather, which I've really wanted, and some cool Warcraft goodies. He also brought me Haribo gummies, which just seem to taste better when they're eaten out of German packaging.

Hot Chocolate

I love the fall, except for the fact that it's now cold and dark when I get up in the morning. Once we get to full on winter, the sun won't rise until almost my second hour of work.

So occasionally I like to reward myself for making it out of bed by getting a hot chocolate for the road.

I usually get Starbucks, with their rich blend of cocoa and steamed whole milk. Hmmm, it's good stuff.

Today, they had something new. "Salted Caramel Chocolate" Wow, I thought to myself, that sounds disgusting. I must try it.

It was surprisingly delicious. The caramel had the slightly burned, slightly bitter taste of the goo you get with flan. So it was rich without being overly sweet.

If you like caramel, it's definitely worth a try.

Also, I went to the movies with some friends from work, and saw Eagle Eye: The IMAX experience.

It was better than I thought it would be. And even when he's 20 feet tall, Shia Leboef is still the kid from Holes.

Although the beard helps. A little.

Random Dinner Post

Have you guys tried those vegetable steam packets from Jolly Green Giant?

They're pretty good. You just throw the bag in the microwave for six minutes, and then you open the bag, and they're all steamy and nice. And they don't have that weird frozen vegetable mushy thing going on.

Tonight I made a bag of entitled "Baby Vegetables" for dinner. Soon the whole house smelled like steamed cauliflower, because nothing beats cauliflower for scent permeation. Anyway, I was sitting there, smelling the cauliflower and I thought, "You know, I bet a little grated cheese would taste great with that."

The timer dinged, I unzipped the cheese bag, and tossed a handful in the bowl. It instantly melted over the steamy hot vegetables. What I forgot to consider is that these packets also come with a sauce. As I stirred the veggies around, the cheese melted and combined with the sauce, covering all the vegetables with a thick, sticky paste that looked like a head full of snot.

Tasted good though. I just didn't look at it while I ate.

Old but Tasty

Hmmm, Pancakes....

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Restaurant Week: The Continuation

Sorry this is tardy, all these late nights are starting to get to me.

Wednesday we went to B. Smith's, which offers Southern food. It's located inside of Union Station, and this was the first time I had been inside. It was beautiful, the architecture reminded me a lot of the Library of Congress. Very ornate.

I got fried green tomatoes, the fried catfish which was really good. It had a honey-mustard sauce instead of tartar sauce, and it came with collard greens and mac and cheese.

For dessert there was a bread pudding that was okay. Not my favorite southern place, but it was pretty good. The fish was my favorite.

Thursday was my day off from restaurant week. I went to Krav to try and burn off some of the calories. We worked on elbows, and my partner was a large guy who refused to move back unless I pushed him really hard.

So the instructor was all "Use your body weight!" and I was slamming my elbows into his pad really hard over and over and over again until today, I have purple elbows.

Bruised elbows hurt alot more than you think they would. It's just a really odd place to be bruised.

Today we went to Bobby Van's, a very swank steakhouse. The kind of place where nice girls don't flash their purple elbows, so I had to find a nice, long sleeved shirt to wear.

I had gazpacho, which they made with avacado, filet mignon with smoky mashed potatoes and haricot vert (green beans) and topped it off with chocolate raspberry cake.

Our waitress served the dessert, and when she came back, the cake was gone and the plates were cleared, and my friends were eating the last of their cheesecake.

She was like, wow. I could bring you something else if you guys didn't really care for those.


Our waitress was funny.

Restaurant Week: Oya

Tuesday night we went to Oya, a Eurasian restaurant. It's actually a restaurant/bar/lounge, which means that while I was dressed in business casual, everyone else there was in nighttime going out/clubbing clothes. This, of course, violates the first law of the ninja.

First law of the ninja: Blend.

Anyway, I couldn't take pictures because the inside was really dark, and the tables were really close together, and I couldn't figure out a way of snapping a photo without getting 5 or 6 people angry at me.

I started off with a goat cheese salad, although the goat cheese wasn't actually in the salad. It was in this weird looking tart thing off to the side with candied something or other all over it. That I didn't care for.

The salad, just greens with some walnuts and a vinaigrette, was good.

For my entree I ordered the Chilean Sea Bass which was bland (and I really like Sea Bass, so this made my sad) but it came with stuffed red peppers that were good. So I give it an okay.

For dessert I ordered a banana bread pudding that made me wish I'd ordered the mousse.

So far, PS7 is the place to beat.

Tonight. B Smith's which features Louisianan/Cajun style cooking. HHHhhmmmmmm Blackened EVERYTHING.

Restaurant Week: PS7

So last night we ate at PS7 in Chinatown. The restaurant is Fine American Dining, and they had some amazing seafood.

I went with a group of friends, and we sampled many appetizers. I got the smoked salmon wrapped around an endive (a fancy word for lettuce.)



I also got to sample my friends' tuna sliders, which featured spicy tuna tartare on little sesame onion buns, and some Prince Edward Island musells, which were cooked in an ale and mustard broth and were amazing. They were my favorite.

My entree was five spice grilled chicken breast, with black plum dumplings, served on cooked mushrooms. Hmmmmmmm,

and then for my awesome dessert, I got the chocolate cake.



The green spots were some sort of minty sauce (the problem with restaurant week is that by the time dessert comes around, you forget all the descriptions of the stuff that comes with it.) There was also that little spot of creamy thick pudding, which was perfect to offset the rich chocolate.

BSA also insisted that I take a picture of her beignets, (a fancy word for fried dough) served with chocolate and raspberry sauce.)

Restaurant Week!

It's Restaurant Week! It's Restaurant Week!! It's Restaurant WEEK!!!

Every time this happens I vow to blog it, and it has yet to happen, but this week, I WILL blog the food awesomeness that is Restaurant Week.

Restaurant Week happens when Congress breaks for a 5 week vacation and all the swanky restaurants in the area suffer a drop in business. So they offer a set menu, appetizer, meal, and dessert for 30 bucks. It's awesome.

Tonight... PS7.

It is still Monday though, so while I go enjoy some fine cuisine, here's the awesome popper battle from So You Think You Can Dance's finale:



Or even more awesome. . . the drummers from the Olympic Opening Ceremony

Corbeau's Embassy Row Adventure

Saturday, I went into DC with two friends that I haven't blogged about yet, so I will call them Yoosh and B. We went into DC for the annual Embassy Row Open House.

It was a beautiful day, perfect for walking around the city. We started with Columbia, which had a tour of the ambassador's house, which was beautiful. In the garden they had some sort of jellied fruit on cheese. It was gross.

To be perfectly honest, I hate jellied fruit, so it didn't have much of a chance. The volunteers were passing out various tourist swag, with Colombia's new tourist theme.

Columbia: The only risk is not wanting to leave.

I found this to be freaking hilarious.

After that we went to India, which was my personal favorite. They had their best bollywood dj rocking the house, we were treated to a excellent choreographed dance show, and then given an entire plate of amazing, and free, Indian food.

We also went to Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Nigeria, and Pakistan, but none of them were as cool as India. Ethiopia had a speaker, Nigeria was prepping for something, but we'll never know if the event ever occurred, since we gave up after checking back a couple of times. We were going to eat at Ghana, but they had this massive non-moving line. Bangladesh had kids performing folk dances, which was adorable. Pakistan had a small bazaar, and were blasting euro-pop at ear-peircing levels.

I'm not sure why. Perhaps to let everyone know that they were the cool embassy. Pakistan also had food. The only thing we recognized were samosas, which we had also eaten at the Indian embassy. So I decided to pick something at random from the menu. "Can I get the Julab Gotti?" I asked the man.
"What?"
"Uh, number 6?"
"What is the Number 6?"
"Er...Julab...Gotti?"
At that point, the guy started laughing, took my money, and plopped two enormous balls of fried bread that had spent the last five hours soaking in honey down on my plate.

After that, both of my friends ordered samosas.

After the embassies we headed down to the Asia festival in downtown DC. They had a martial arts arena, and we watched some Tai Kwan Do guys kick the crap out of some wooden planks. They were awesome. This one guy threw an apple in the air, kicked it, and it exploded all over the audience that wasn't me.

I cheered. As did everyone else who wasn't covered in apple sauce.

We also went down to the cultural stage, and watched some belly dancers.

Have you ever seen a cultural festival without belly dancers? I haven't. I'm convinced that I could throw a dance/culutral/garage sale festival in my back yard and belly dancers would show up.

There were also Mongolian dancers, and the Indonesian embassy sent a group of muscians. While we were watching the dancers, we noticed that all the people around us were eating bowls of what appeared to be jello floating in milk. We finally worked up our courage to ask what it was, and that's how we found ourselves in front of the Thai shaved ice stand.

Neither of my friends would get some, but they did advise me as to toppings, since both of them have actually lived in China, and knew that some of them were nasty.

So there was a whole line of nice, elderly Asian people, standing behind bowls of various weird things. The first lady scooped some shaved ice in a bowl, and poured coconut milk over it. She handed it to the topping line.

"What you want?" the first guy asked,
"uh, what's good?"
"It's all good!" They all started shouting and pointing their ladles at their topping and telling me how good it was.
"Get the red bean paste" Yoosh told me.

The guy poured an enormous scoop of red bean paste on top of my ice. Then I also got Ai Yu jelly (which looks like yellow jello)
Grass jelly (which looks like black jello) and then had them top it off with a good squeeze of Hershey's chocolate syrup.

It was...strangely delicious. The grass jelly in particular was very refreshing, and the red bean paste was really yummy. Sweet, with a nice texture and a really great flavor.

In fact, it was all really good, but I have no idea about how to describe the flavors I tasted other than... strangely delicious.