The UCC Is Going National (!)

Avid UCC fans will know that we are branching out down the East Coast.

Biz is still livin' large in the 'burgh (before she takes the UCC international when she moves to Dublin at the end of the summer).

I just left Pittsburgh to move back to Washington D.C. (my hometown and first love). As soon as my new apartment in Del Ray in all set up at the beginning of next month I will start new posts on all the fun and wonderful things Amanda (my new roommate/best friend/new contributing editor for the UCC) and I are cooking.

Until then, I'll update with restaurant reviews (as I am eating out quite a bit, given that there is NO FOOD in my father's apartment where I am staying temporarily).

For example:

Today I went downtown to the Archives/Navy Memorial/Penn Quarter area to have lunch with my cousin Carli (senior in Spanish/Sociology at Duquesne, soon to be a resident of Madrid, Spain). Carli had scoped out a place called Teaism which has three locations around the D.C. area. We ate at their 8th Street (400 block, at the corner of D Street NW) location.

Teaism advertises itself as a Tea House. But it is in fact a restaurant and also a tea shop. Tea shop-wise it cares an assortment of fancy-looking teas, books about tea, things you can eat while drinking tea, and other tea-related paraphernalia.

I can speak more articulately of it as a restaurant. It was crowed, even after 1 pm when Carli and I arrived. We snagged that last table outside (since it was warm and we're people-watchers). You order inside, deli-style. For lunch and dinner they have an assortment of pan-Asiany small plates (since that's all the rage), ochazukes - which, here's the vocabulary lesson of the day: are Japanese rice and tea soups, bento boxes, sandwiches, big plates, and a variety of side dishes.

Carli and I are both eaters so we got big dishes. Carli got the Thai Chicken Curry with sticky rice. It didn't look terribly appetizing, but Carli said it was delicious. It was a huge shallow bowl filled with chicken and vegetables in what looked like a green curry sauce with a mound of white rice in the middle.

I ordered the Tempeh Curry with brown rice. Which came in the same shaped bowl as Carli's Chicken, but included a lot more veggies and a lot less curry sauce. Whereas Carli's chicken and vegetables seemed to be drowning in curry, mine was much more of a light curry broth. There was a good amount of tempeh and plenty of mushrooms, cabbage, and peppers. We both ordered the black iced tea of the day, which came with two lemon slices each. The tea was ... tea-y. I'm not very articulate about teas, I'll have to take one of my more snobby tea drinkers (John, are you available?) to test out Teaism's teas.

Teaism also serves Breakfast, Brunch, Afternoon Tea, and Dinner at their 8th Street location. Both the Dupont and 8th Street locations are open for weekend hours. The Lafayette store (the one closest to where I will be working!) is only open M - F.

I apologize for the lack of photography, I forgot my camera this morning when I was running out the door to meet Carli. But I promise to be much more diligent about food pictures with the next restaurant! And I'm sure I'll be back at Teaism to take photos.

So, if you're visiting D.C. anytime soon, check out one of Teaism's three restaurant/shops when you're cruising around town.

Happy Eating!

-Robin-