Eating in Washington, AKA the “I need milk!” blog

I am a bit of a finicky eater but I do eat a decent variety of foods. I was never the kid who ate the same thing everyday; in fact, even as an adult I get bored with having anything too frequently. The issue with me is I like the familiar and have a huge issue with trying new things. If I didn’t try it by the time I was 14 years old, the chances are I’m not going to eat it. The handful of things that I have tried have happened one of two ways: I have either tasted someone else’s food (most likely the people I baby-sit for) or the more common one, I’ve sampled it at some place like Costco.

My draw for the familiar always presents a challenge when traveling because even if it is pizza, it isn’t New York City Pizza so even that leads me to be leery. In fact I try my hardest to never eat pizza out of town since I always end up disappointed.

Friday night we decided that, since we needed to pick up our race shirts in the hotel around 7, we would attempt diner at Potomac Bar and Grille located in the hotel lobby. Added bonus: they have happy hour specials, which were amazingly cheap so Lauren and I decided to get a bunch of appetizers and split them. The pulled pork sliders, fried ravioli, and mozzarella sticks were enjoyable and definitely a good portion for somewhere between $20 and $30 but we decided to follow it up with dessert from Cold Stone Creamery rather than a menu item.

Sticking with my none adventurous taste buds Saturday Morning we had Lattes from Starbucks and a breakfast buffet at the hotel café Veranda followed by a lunch of ½ a grilled cheese and 2 chicken fingers (ok fine and another coffee)in the American History Museum. Sunday’s breakfast was a Frappacino from Starbucks, McDonald’s ice coffee (I am not addicted) and cheeseburger for lunch, and a great steak from a restaurant with horrible service for dinner.

There was, however, two new additions to my diet on Saturday night. After a long day of walking around Washington, finding the Cathedral, and seeing the awesome display on the Metro I decided I would try my first ever steak quesadilla (blame the drag queens for waking my adventurous side.) I have eaten Chicken quesadilla for about six months after loving a Costco sample in the early fall but this was a challenge. The dish came with guacamole on the side, another thing I’d never tried as I don’t like plain avocado, so I figured what’s the harm in tasting the tiniest bit? Well I now know that I kind of love guacamole! In fact, I was eating it so much that I made Lauren take it away from me, in case I have an allergy so that I didn’t ingest too much on the first try. She really had to keep it away from me too because I kept reaching across the table to try to get it back.

The quesadilla was delicious and not spicy except for one jalapeño that must’ve accidentally fallen in during preparation because it wasn’t on the menu. I had eaten almost the entire thing when all of a sudden I bit through the pepper and thought I was going to die. It felt like I was one of those cartoon characters that have flames shoot from their mouths. I could barely talk but remembering all of the Food Network shows that I have watched, I managed to spit out, “I NEED MILK.” I guess the way it came out was funny because Lauren started laughing which led me to follow in suit and soon we were hysterical. What a sight we must’ve been because we laugh until we were tearing up and the entire time I was trying to cool off my tongue, hanging it out of my mouth like a pug. After the waiter brought my milk (that I chugged) I finished my delicious and no longer deadly dinner and followed it up with Apple Crumb pie with Vanilla Ice Cream just for good measure.

The moral of the story, sometimes trying new things is worth it but have milk near by if there is even the slightest change it could be spicy.