JulieTwoTimes

Well, because I admittedly have a problem controlling myself around food, I would have probably hung out on my couch with half the wheel of cheese and a spoon....(that being said, I do respect food, honest!) However if someone's got even a smidgen of dignity, queso fresco would be good in a salad if you wanted to keep it cold and light on a hot day...but they definitely would have gone great in the arepas with your refried beans...I bet that would have been fantastic. I wouldn't know....I left my arepas in the car overnight in the heat! Speaking of which...the tamarinds were also in that bag. I know they usually thrive in that kind of weather (when they're not picked) but does anyone know if they're still fine? We haven't dealt with whole tamarinds in our own house...how do you know if they've gone bad? I'm sure it's one of those things where if you looked at it, you'd know, but we haven't opened the box as of yet.

"The pastry which goes unnamed" was also my favorite...it was dense, which I love, but still held it's moisture. I also got a ghata which was delicious but reminded me of other pastries I can't quite place. Would still pick a couple up, no question. The cegaret was veerrrrry good as well...that was the one he was describing as the candy in the middle surrounded by walnuts and such, the long one that looked like, obviously, a cigarette dusted in powdered sugar. If I was just munching a snack, I'd take the cegaret, but if I was sitting down for a cup of tea, I'd take the ghata (though I'd take the entire pan of that currant cake and skip town if I had the chance).

Alright, I'm in! Member as of today. The company was so fantastic, I had to join! (and Sonia's cegarets certainly didn't hurt the cause...) When I got home, I passed out for a few hours due to acute food stuffage from the vast amounts of goodness I packed in...I'm sure I had dreams of skipping through fields of goi cuon and swimming in lakes of their iced coffee...does that make me weird or somethin'? Because of the incredible power my sweet tooth holds over me, I came home with mainly desserts.....3 pastries from Sonia's plus a couple candy impulse buys at the register. I also grabbed some arepas at Compare Foods that I'm looking forward to stuffing later in the week. Which reminds me, I scoped out the queso fresco in Chris' cooler on the way out of the restaurant....whoever bought that, let me know how it is! I almost picked some up myself so I'm curious. Also on the cheese front, I'm sure I'll be back at Sonia's for more french feta. I guess it wouldn't hurt to also grab some pahklava, too....and chocoprinces...and a strawberry and nutella sandwich....and pistachio halvah..... So thanks everyone for coming, it was great meeting all of you and I hope to see you all again on our next trip. And thanks so much to Chris for organizing this outing. No doubt the businesses we visited today will be very thankful to you as well...Steve and I already have meals planned around some of the beautiful ingredients we discovered today and are going back to pick them up surely within the week!