Visiting the House of the "First" Foodie

[Kerry Beal]

Headed off first thing this morning, driving to the Washington, DC area to attend the 2015 eG Chocolate and Confectionary Workshop. It's a long drive for me - so of course sustenance is required.

 

I recall that somewhere on eG I had seen it mentioned that Cracker Barrel is a reliable place to get a meal while travelling so I waited until I found one and stopped.

 

 

 

Opted for something called Uncle Herschel's Favourite - a little of everything with your choice of meat - I chose the pork chop. Suspect it was sous vide - very tender!  Grits, gravy, biscuits...  I quit early!

 

Met up with Chocolot and RobertM - we headed out to Magnolia's at the Mill in Pursellville.

 

 

A shrub with white wine for me.

 

 

I had the boiled sea food dinner.

 

 

Chocolot opted for the Ethel the free range chicken with house made parparedelle (?sp)

 

 

Rock fish with lemon risotto for RobertM

 

[gfweb]

Hard to imagine Cracker Barrel and sous vide in the same paragraph.  Maybe a combi oven and brining?

[Hassouni]

DC you say??

[curls]

Purceville, wow! If I had know you were heading into that section of Northern Virginia, I would have recommended a stop at the family run Chicama Run Farm where I buy most of our meats and eggs. Welcome to Virginia Kerry & Chocolot.

Edited May 14, 2015 by curls (log)

[Kerry Beal]

DC you say??

Indeed - would you like to join us for dinner tomorrow?

[SylviaLovegren]

It all looks quite yummy. 

 

And I find Cracker Barrell to be pretty good for drive-by food.  I especially like their green beans, boiled long with lots of pork fat, slurp.. 

[Kerry Beal]

So the hotel that RobertM picked for us provides a nice hot breakfast bar. We decided to take advantage this am.

 

 

You have to make your own toast - apparently you need to warn people about even the most obvious things. 

 

 

We toasted some english muffins and removed them with the wooden tongs provided - no cheese available but a slathering of cream cheese, a nice slice of ham and some scrambled eggs made a perfectly acceptable breakfast sandwich.

 

 

RobertM, Chocolot and Curls (and Curl's hubby) awaiting our presidential appointment.

 

 

Imagine our disappointment as we saw the helicopter (look carefully it's there) removing the first foodie just after our arrival.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Kerry Beal]

After our tour of the big old house - we headed off to Ace Beverage and spent a while poking around among the dusty bottles to see what we could find.  I left with a bottle of Salers and a bottle of Dorothy Parker gin that I've heard FrogPrincesse praising on eG.

 

Lunch was taken at Wagshal's Deli. 

 

 

 

I opted for Birch Beer and a Cuban.

 

 

Might be a Reuben.

 

 

Don't know if I ever knew what this one was.

 

 

Corned Beef

 

 

Gyros 

[Kerry Beal]

After lunch we headed to Albert Uster.

 

 

Their cows - outstanding in their field.

 

 

Some Pain Chocolat they were testing out.

 

We got a tour of the facility again which is always fascinating - picked up a few items for the weekends events.

[Kerry Beal]

Dinner tonight at the Four Sister's vietnamese.  

 

 

Summer rolls

 

 

Raw beef salad

 

 

 

 

Variations on Bun - the last a bit out of focus I see.  

[Tri2Cook]

apparently you need to warn people about even the most obvious things.

Unfortunately, you really do.

[Kerry Beal]

 

 

Breakfast at the hotel - very nice as before.

 

 

Dinner at The Bottle Stop in Occoquan. Must have been hungry as I didn't get a picture until after I'd eaten the first little lamb slider.

 

 

Stopped in at Mom's Market to pick up a few things - it's a nice organic grocery store just down the street. Decided we needed a little help carrying the things we were carting in from the car. Imagine the look on the desk clerks face as we rolled on past him in the lobby on the way up to our room.

[Kerry Beal]

Dinner tonight with the gang from the chocolate workshop at Four Sister's Vietnamese - here.

[Kerry Beal]

Last post about my Washington trip - it was an exceedingly long drive back yesterday - construction caused quite a delay - and the air conditioning on the car seems to have given up the ghost - so it was an exceedingly long, hot drive.  So today I'm finally getting around to posting these last meals.  

 

 

This little fellow moves around the lobby at the whim of the desk staff - we decided he should see the rest of the hotel. Chocolot has a picture of him closer to the breakfast bar.

 

 

Breakfast at the hotel before leaving - again decided that a toasted english muffin with a handful of the cheese used in the omelettes, some ham and bacon and some scrambled eggs makes a mighty fine meal. 

 

 

Lunch was Wendy's - slim picken's by the time I was hungry.  A grilled chicken sandwich, caesar salad, unsweetened ice tea and a small Frosty.

 

 

 

[curls]

LOL the dog in the elevator! So sorry to hear that you had a rough drive home. It was great seeing you!

[Kerry Beal]

It was indeed wonderful to see all my eG friends again and to add some new ones! Need to find my notes from the last Niagara workshop so I can begin planning for next year.