I’m consolidating my DC recs to this post, and I want to plug Halal Kabob House on 18th St (Adams Morgan) for briyani. It’s a basement spot with no ambiance. They cook up everything to order, so we usually call in an order then pick up. Mehran in Foggy Bottom was my go-to but they closed.

I always look at the clientele in the restaurant too. If I’m at a Chinese restaurant and it’s full of Chinese families out for weekend group lunch, I know I’m in a good place.

Loved Orinoco (Caribbean/Venezuelan) in South End and Lucy Ethiopian Cafe by Symphony station. Lucy has a peanut coffee which tastes like hot melted peanut butter, only better.

I was in Toronto earlier this year and stayed near the CN tower, but we ate most of our meals at Chinatown/Kensington Market. We loved:
Seven Lives Tacos
Torteria San Cosome
Jackpot
Mother’s Dumplings

GB hand-pulled noodles in Downtown Core.

So much good food in Toronto.

Mandalay is A+!

It is really worth going out into the VA/MD areas on the outskirts of DC for Chinese/Salvadoran/Korean/etc food. One of my favourite Chinese restaurants is A&J (one in Rockville, one in Annandale) for fantastic hand-pulled noodle dishes, scallion pancakes, etc.

Mark’s Duck House in Falls Church has…

Are you a dress-wearer? I’ve built a wardrobe I love around dresses. I live in a 4-season city and I wear dresses year-round. I mix and match them up with cardigans, blazers, scarves, tights, and leggings, depending on the season and the occasion. I wear a bright, summery purple dress in the summer with sandals, in…

The condescension is the worst. I also hate it when people are condescending to elderly people. “Oh she’s SO adorable I could put her in my pocket.” She’s also 80 years old, leave her alone.

And the elbow sneeze is pretty effective at muffling your sneeze without one having to holding it in.

Very interesting!

I’m an international living in the US. We don’t do Thanksgiving or Christmas, so we tend to do all our travel major family/leisure travel at the end/beginning of the year. Usually visit our respective families in Asia in November/December, and then we try to go somewhere tropical in January after the…

I use ziplocks when hiking, when I need some extra protection from the rain (or from falling into water) for my phone and cash.

I’m a real butterfingers, so I will drop my phone in the bathwater if it’s naked.

Whenever I take my phone somewhere wet or potentially wet (bath, beach, pool, boat), I put it in one of these pouches. Very useful.

Seconded. A friend of mine made Meetup her job after moving to a new city. She couldn’t work for various reasons, so she had more time, but all the Meetups she went to were on weekends or after office hours. At one point, she was going to 4-5 Meetups a week. It was exhausting and many times fruitless, but after a few…

Also, the best breakfasts are found in many parts of Asia. Hot and savoury rice/roti/noodle breakfasts are fantastic. I’m talking nasi lemak (coconut rice cooked with pandan leaves and served with spicy sambal and various garnishes included a hard-boiled egg and fried anchovies), paratha/roti canai (a soft flatbread…

I have recently begun making and freezing breakfast sandwiches at home for my husband and I. I wrap them in foil and keep them in Ziploc bags. I take one in the morning, and reheat at work with the help of a toaster oven and a microwave. Game changer.

I also drink Vega nutritional shakes most mornings. I blend a scoop…

I use/adapt this recipe for oxtail, short ribs, goat, and lamb shanks. Delicious every time. The curry powder/paprika/allspice combo is a winning one.

I watched the first season, loved it, laughed out loud multiple times, but didn’t find it painfully cringe-y. It’s very well done and Michaela is masterful. For comparison, I found the engagement party scene in Bridesmaids (if you have watched it) so horribly cringe-worthy and suffered from so much secondhand…

Shady Beta.

For real. I don’t get why it’s a big deal, unless people are fighting to get back to their seats while other passengers are boarding from the other direction. But the people who are likely to do that are also probably the kind of people who would hold people up while taking their sweet time with their luggage and…

...She answered and heard the terrifying words, “Hi, it’s Donald Trump Dolores Umbridge here.”