On a Tuesday evening, my husband and I went out to Capital Fringe to see my stepson's girlfriend perform in Over Her Dead Body, an 80-minute theater piece composed of bluegrass murder ballads, with full bluegrass band and five top-notch singers (including my stepson's girlfriend, who has a beautiful, deep, North Carolina voice-- and somewhat macabre sensibility-- perfectly suited for the material).  I would have loved this even if a family member were not performing.  I would have seen it again.  (But it is sold out.)  I hope they are able to take this show further than Capital Fringe, because it is wonderful.  Review here.  (Update: Over Her Dead Body won Best Overall show according to the audience awards, and is moving on to the Millenium Stage at the Kennedy Center!  See video here.)

After the show (which, due to tight Fringe scheduling, was at 6:30 pm), husband and I were trudging back up Florida Ave., to the nearest Metro station which is over a mile away, and wishing we would encounter something for dinner.  It was still light, the most amazing huge orange sun setting over the city street.  Only a single restaurant offered itself, but its board outside proclaimed $2.75 tacos, so I convinced my husband it was a good idea.  It was.  The Far East Taco Grille.  Far East?  Tacos?  Maybe just because it was on the east side of the city?

Nope.  In some ways these are conventional tacos: you choose flour or corn tortilla, several types of salsa are available.  But the fillings are things like Korean short rib, spicy pork, tofu.  Topping styles include a kimchi version.  Clearly this is a Korean-fusion joint, just like where I work, only so different.  Better.   Though the menu is more limited and it is just counter service.  I order two tacos: flour tortilla, short rib, "#15 sauce," banh mi-style toppings.  Short ribs cost $0.25 more each for tacos, so this meal cost $6 altogether, and it is perfect.  So, so good.  The short ribs are tender and delicious (better than those at our restaurant, maybe even better than the ones Scarlet made for me), the #15 sauce (whatever the hell that means) is a sweet and spicy Asian-influenced sauce, I suspect involving gochujang, and the banh mi toppings are pickly, spicy, sweet.  Total flavor bomb.  I think it would be overwhelming to eat more than two.  My husband ordered more conservatively, as he always does: spicy pork in a rice bowl with their simplest topping option of lettuce, cheese, and lime crema.  He said it was very good too.  In total we paid $20 (including a tip, which would be optional here) for one of the best meals I've had in a while.  I have no idea how they can make any money at all, charging $3 for tacos containing a substantial amount of expensive short rib, but GO THERE while it lasts.

Next day.  I've finally had time to organize my recipes and do a more extensive shopping trip at the Whole Foods, so (after a long, busy day at work) I have three dishes planned to cook this evening.  One is my second effort from Mridula Baljekar's Best-Ever Curry Cookbook, the Tandoori Chicken.  This time I buy the appropriate amount of chicken, and actually look up the spices involved in tandoori masala.  So I believe myself to have followed the directions fairly well.  I did blend my own tandoori masala out of spices I already possessed, instead of buying a prefab paste, so it's possible I missed out on some ingredients that might have been present in the paste... sugar, perhaps?  Because my chicken tasted nothing like what you get in an Indian restaurant.  (Perhaps it is just more authentically North Indian, as it appears in that section of the book.)

​Anyway, I managed to skin my whole chicken myself (with painful slowness, using kitchen scissors), a feat that used to be quite ordinary for home cooks, but of which I now feel inordinately proud.  It marinated for two hours in yogurt mixed with the tandoori spices, then roasted at a high temperature (475 degrees) for about 30 minutes.  Simple enough, except the chicken was not done after 30 minutes.  It looked  quite done on the outside, but close to the bone it was still soft and pink.  Returned to the oven and eaten after 15 more minutes, the cook on the chicken was still only barely adequate.  Another 10 minutes would have been better.

While the chicken was marinating, I made the Buttery Cayenne Pecans from the October 2015 issue of Bon Appetit.  These were a simple matter of melting butter, stirring in Worcestershire sauce and spices, tossing with the pecans, and roasting.  Kind of like the chicken, actually.  But more successful.  The one problem did not lie with the recipe: the pecans themselves were not very good.  I bought them in a package from Whole Foods, and they had the bitter aftertaste and discomfiting mouthfeel of unripe fruit.  The flavor was worse when raw, but they retained some of their bitterness even after roasting. 

​The third recipe was intended as the final Pie-of-the-Month for my husband, and was from this month's Bon Appetit via The Bitten Word.  The Bitten Word guys had made this Blueberry and Corn Crisp, and concluded that it had potential, even though it seemed not to have enough corn in it, and the topping did not brown well.  They discussed the desirability of trying it again with double the corn, and a blast of higher-temperature baking in hopes of achieving a true "crisp."  So I made the recipe myself, incorporating these tweaks.  Nope.  Before baking, I had a full 1-inch (or deeper!) layer of corn-y crumbs on top of the blueberries.  During baking, almost this entire layer sank into the bubbling berries, leaving only a little topping peeking out.  Even that didn't brown much.  So, to the extent that there was any perceptible crumb topping at all, it was mushy and dissolved in your mouth (and not in a good way).  Definitely not "crisp."  The corn kernels (whose quantity I had doubled) simply dropped out of the topping and mixed with the blueberries, creating a somewhat odd fruit filling instead of a cornbread-y crumb.  Your experience will probably not differ, as other Bitten Word commenters seemed unhappy too.  It was not inedible, but I can confidently fail to recommend this recipe.

​All in all, it was a disappointing dinner.  The pecans were all right.

​June 20
Back to our usual sorts of breakfast.  Lemon water, coffee, smoothie made from coconut water, vanilla yogurt, hemp protein powder, almond butter, frozen peaches, frozen strawberries, and iceberg lettuce.  Not my favorite (too much iciness between the fruit and the lettuce), but my husband especially liked it.  He is reporting feeling a post-smoothie queasiness that could be about blood sugar.  I am responding by cutting back the sweetness in our morning smoothies-- no more lemonade and fruit juice bases for a while.  My kid, on the other hand, will be disappointed.  They were guzzling juice as fast as I could bring it into the house.

Later in the morning, we practiced setting up our new tent and using the new campstove.

Morning shopping (Co-op): organic lactose-free 2% milk, coconut water, peanut butter, 2 fresh mozzarella balls, organic cashew milk, organic flour tortillas, Cascadian Farms Ancient Grains cereal, pepperjack cheese, honeydew melon, organic portabello mushroom spaghetti sauce, 2 boneless pork chops, green salsa, can coconut milk, large can black beans, bananas, cilantro, 3 roma tomatoes, raspberries, strawberries.  $64.

Just before lunchtime, I go to the mall to try on a few more backpacks and shop for clothes.  While there, I take a lunch break at the Panera in the mall.  Coffee is my number one priority, but I also want a sandwich.  Somehow I am seduced by their limited-edition Lobster Roll, with a $17 price tag (at least I pay cash for it).  Is it worth it?  Well, if you are measuring purely in terms of quantity of lobster, it probably is.  There is a TON of lobster, giant chunks, in my roll, and little filler in the form of mayo or lettuce.  Lovers of lobster rolls may be satisfied.  Do I derive twice the pleasure from it as I would from a normal sandwich, for instance the roast turkey and caramelized kale panini I was considering?  Doubtful.  I have an apple on the side.  A $20 lunch, for myself only, at the mall.  What kind of self-indulgence is this?  But I read my hard-boiled Scottish crime novel and drink my coffee and am reasonably happy.

At home again after buying an excess of cardigans at H&M, it is time for some decaf and settling down to work with my laptop.

Dinnertime finds me trying to make a decent soft taco, in order to erase the memory of Saturday night's Mexican Fiasco.  I chop up some boneless pork chops and marinate them briefly in hot sauce and spices, then brown the meat with some onions.  Season (similarly) and heat some canned black beans.  The kid does not eat pork.  Other fixings: chopped tomatoes, shredded iceberg lettuce, grated pepperjack cheese, chopped cilantro, green salsa, bottled hot sauce.  Some warm flour tortillas, build-your-own.  This simple dinner, in its infinite variety, is always much appreciated by my family.  On this particular occasion, I didn't go to a lot of effort; there are fancier versions.  Even this basic and relatively boring version was so much better than what we had at that restaurant. 
I will note again that one Google review calls Jalisco Mexican restaurant in New Market "the best darn food, probably, in this part of rural Virginia."
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Oh, and I had a glass of red wine with dinner.  Now that bottle is finally gone.

​June 21
Same old, same old breakfast.  Lemon water, coffee, smoothie.  The smoothie is good, uncomplicated, like a Slimfast breakfast drink.  Coconut water, cashew milk, vanilla yogurt, hemp protein powder, canned coconut milk, banana, strawberries.  Maybe it doesn't sound uncomplicated.  But it is.  Also, the lack of greens make it an actual pale pink instead of army green or mud-brown.  I don't get a chance to finish my coffee before I have to go out.

Back midmorning, I have some decaf, then some more regular, and then some more regular again around lunchtime.  After which I have lunch.  Lunch is leftover pasta from last Thursday night with a tiny bit of grated parmesan (kid has used most of it, left the rind in the fridge); also, a slice of stale whole wheat bakery toast with butter and lingonberry jam. 

​Midafternoon, I cannot handle any more coffee, so I have a cup of Pero with half and half, try to do some planning for our backpacking trip while listening to hail and thunder outside.

As dinnertime approaches, and especially after a late afternoon yoga class, I am really hungry-- have a few salted cashews, scarf down some honeydew melon while I am slicing it for dinner, drink a glass of white wine.  Dinner itself is spaghetti again: sauce from the jar, but lots of fresh basil and sliced fresh mozzarella dress it up a little bit.  Honeydew melon on the side, which I realize does not match at all.  Just trying to feed my family; but there's been too much pasta lately.  Our carb intake is through the roof.

In the evening, we walk over to the neighbor's to pick up our CSA box.  It is a really good one this time! Giant leeks (see photo), tiny cabbages (see other photo), a few giant leaves of something I cannot identify (farmer says it is "tronchuda" or "Portuguese cabbage."  Most vendors seem to refer to this as a variety of kale, but to me it looked somewhere between Swiss chard and collards), marjoram, broccoli, kohlrabi, beets, radishes, 4 gorgeous red onions, garlic.  I miss the strawberries but they cannot last forever.

​June 22
Work day, typical breakfast.  Lemon water, coffee, smoothie made from cashew milk, plain nonfat yogurt, hemp protein powder, peanut butter, strawberries, and honeydew melon.

I have a cup of decaf coffee at work, but it takes me the entire shift to finish it; too busy.  So, when I get home at 2:45, I have a lot of catching up to do.  Coffee, a Q ginger soda, lunch consisting of leftover spaghetti from last night, 6 saltine crackers, about 3 cashews.  Yep, we need to find something besides carbs to eat.  While having lunch, I look up leek soup recipes online.  Preferably ones that use up a TON of leeks.  I choose this one. 

Still in workplace recovery mode, I have another cup of decaf, black this time, because we are out of half and half and I haven't been to the store yet.

Shopping (Co-op): organic whole milk, golden raisins, decaf coffee, organic frozen mangos, creme fraiche, sponges, half & half, carton of almond coconut milk, 3 rolls toilet paper, organic spinach, bananas, raw peanuts, pull-apart challah rolls, white cage-free eggs, fresh tarragon, 2 lemons.  $64.

For dinner, I have to do something about these outrageous leeks that came into our lives last night. The leek soup recipe I chose off the internet is pretty plain, really-- lots of leeks softened in butter, thickened with rice (instead of potato), a lot of raw spinach blended in at the end, with a garnish of creme fraiche and tarragon (no chives were available at my local store).  I don't bother to strain the soup to eliminate all spinach bits.  Neither do many of the commenters on the original recipe.  We are sane people with lives.

​Along with the soup, I make a slaw out of some of the other CSA vegetables: a tiny cabbage head, shredded, with grated radish and kohlrabi.  The dressing is my standard slaw dressing: olive oil, apple cider vinegar, a little mayonnaise, honey, salt and pepper.
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Neither of these swell items has much in the way of calories, so we also have some challah rolls with butter.  And I have a glass of sherry.  And another half a challah roll with butter just before bed.

June 17
The first day of our mini-break!  We have an ordinary breakfast: lemon water, coffee, smoothie.  After getting kid squared away and packing ourselves, more decaf coffee for the road.  And off in the direction of Shenandoah National Park.

We arrive at lunchtime, too early to stop into our hotel room.  So we scout out the small town of Luray, VA for someplace to eat, and end up at what is clearly the town's trendy hotspot: a combination coffeehouse/restaurant called "The Gathering Grounds."  All small-town coffee-houses are required to make some kind of pun on the word "grounds."  The clientele is an odd mix of student-types with laptops and elderly couples having a staid sandwich.  Everyone is white, though, which is something that, after some years living just outside of DC, we now notice and remark upon.  A sea of whiteness-- which I got used to after some years living in Montana-- now makes me feel uncomfortable, as though something potentially sinister were going on.  We order coffee and chicken salad sandwiches; I have potato chips.  The food is fine, the coffee terrible, even though it is most likely the best coffee in town. 

We take a pleasant afternoon stroll along Luray's outstanding riverside walkways-- huge investments have been made here in green space and beautification, despite the tiny size of the town.  There are more murals here in a small radius than practically anywhere else I have ever been.  There are lots of ducks and other waterfowl-- a least bittern is there, and a black-crowned night heron, and a duck that I try and try to identify, but which does not seem to exist.  Finally this helps (thanks, Cornell).  Some kind of mallard-y hybrid, I reckon.  And yet it looked like a totally plausible wild duck.

​When 4:00 rolls around, we go check out our cabin, which I can whole-heartedly recommend.  For $95/night, there is a medium-sized bedroom (decorated with artificial flowers and teddy bears by someone's great-grandma, but no matter), a large bathroom with skylight, a small hallway/closet area with full-sized coffee pot, refrigerator, and real mugs... and not one, but two porches!-- a sunny front porch looking out on the parking lot (the only place where the wifi works well), and a lovely shaded back porch facing a burbling stream and, on the other side of the stream, forest.  We buy coffees (decaf for me) in the hotel restaurant, and spend some time resting, hanging out on the back porch, enjoying the set-up.  I mentioned, when I reserved the cabin, that we were celebrating our 5th anniversary, and the staff have left us an assortment of tiny "gift shop"-type gifts, including a Virginia shot glass decorated all over with little hearts.

We are not ready for dinner until what turns out to be late for Luray-- on a Friday night, lots of places seem to close at 8:00, or even earlier.  We end up at a place called "Mok-N-She's" (a pun, I guess?) whose crowded parking lot makes it look popular, and general festooning with American flags strikes us as potentially alarming.  However, Mok-N-She's turns out to be friendly, tasty, and cheap.  We both eat BBQ sandwiches, topped with coleslaw, and french fries, and enjoy the heck out of them.  From here on out, every restaurant meal we eat in the Luray area costs precisely $19-and-change (plus tip) for two people.  (Hip "Gathering Grounds" cost us a few dollars more.)  There is an artificial flower on the table in an American-flag pattern, and an artificial Christmas tree behind me covered in American-flag ornaments.  My husband keeps mentioning, hopefully, that Flag Day just passed, but these things look like permanent fixtures to me.

Home to bed, all full of middle-American fried food and charm.
 
June 18
We sleep in a little, drink hotel-coffeemaker coffee on our back porch in the dappled morning sunshine.  It is lovely.  It's around 10:30 before we mosey on over to the hotel restaurant for some breakfast.  We're kind of overwhelmed by yesterday's consumption of heavy food, so we have breakfasts on the lighter side: for me, 2 eggs, toast (homemade!), a fruit cup, decaf coffee.  Then we have the restaurant ladies pack up some bag lunches for the road, and head into Shenandoah NP. 

​Driving, beautiful overlooks and vistas, a brief stroll here and there, a cup of good coffee-- at last!-- from the Park concession at Skyland.  We eat our lunches late, around 3:00, sitting on boulders near the Crescent Rock Overlook.  Mine is a turkey sandwich-- made from real, thick-sliced roast turkey, with lettuce and tomato, but unfortunately NOT on homemade bread this time but some kind of supermarket white bread that gums up and sticks to my teeth.  Little sandwich baggie of ripple chips.  An orange that turns out to be secretly rotten.  An apple-cinnamon Nutrigrain bar (my mom would be so pleased).  When we ordered our lunches, which had been billed as "sandwich, chips, fruit and drink," the waitress said in a worried voice, "I'm not sure if we have any candy bars left."  We quickly assured her that it was ok, we didn't need any candy bars!  But apparently these Nutrigrain bars were offered as a substitute.  I hadn't been planning on eating mine, but when my orange was bad I needed something as solace.

​After lunch, a wander around Big Meadows, then back towards our cabin for a rest before dinner.  We hang out on the porch, read, fall asleep.  Concerned that everything will be closing again, I wake my husband a little after 7 to go forage for dinner.  This time we drive to the next town, New Market, another 14 miles away, scout out all the nearby restaurants, and choose-- my husband chooses, I'll put the responsibility on him-- the Jalisco Mexican restaurant, which also has the advantage of being open until a sophisticated 10:30 on this Saturday night.  As it turns out, my city-boy husband has never in his life been to a small-town Mexican restaurant and doesn't know the risks; but, in his defense, the place does appear to be run by genuine Hispanic people.  There's a big free basket of standard fried tortilla chips, salsa that seems unusually mild, and the odd addition of a little dish of coleslaw to dip your chips into.  Nothing unpleasant, even though the idea of coleslaw with chips is an unusual one.  I add some habanero sauce to the slaw, and that improves the situation.  My husband orders a burrito platter (one chicken and one beef burrito), and I order soft tacos with carne asada.  The tacos are served (strangely, I think) with a choice of either lettuce and cheese or cilantro and onion.  Why not all of the above?  But I choose cilantro and onion, and my waitress nods approval, telling me "they're good that way" in a tone that suggests few people are so in-the-know.  Then she proceeds to deliver tacos with lettuce and cheese instead, with an impassive expression that suggests there is no point in complaining.  The "carne asada" seems entirely unseasoned, except for salt.  There is no flavor whatsoever.  I load them up with some more salsa (from the chips) and some habanero sauce (I don't typically use habanero sauce, but it wasn't very spicy either).  These tacos are one of the blandest things I have ever eaten.

Meanwhile, my husband, who is really not very picky about food quality, seems stunned by his burritos.  One is full of unseasoned shredded chicken and nothing else (except for the lettuce, cheese, sauce, and sour cream on the outside).  The other is filled with some kind of oily ground beef.  Much worse than my meal, but I feel his pain: I have eaten burritos like this before, in other small towns, in other times.  To some extent, it is a matter of local taste rather than restaurant quality; for instance, the most recent Yelp review of this restaurant reads "My friend, Brad, and I stopped at this place on our way through to town. I had probably one of the best burritos in my life."  Unless this review is intended as some kind of sick joke, I have to conclude that some people like this kind of aggressively bland cuisine.  The check comes to $19.

I promise to make it up to my husband by taking him to the outdoor frozen custard place we saw on our way into New Market.  There is a long line.  The people in front of us have a couple of restless kids and are controlling them by grabbing arms and twisting.  The vehicles in the parking lot are all massive.  Everybody is ordering elaborate, often colorful menu items, many of which I cannot identify.  Eventually we get our plain old custards-- a small vanilla cone for me, the plainest there is.  Then we sit on a reeking bench outside a cigarette store that's closed for the night, and eat them.  It is nice.  But we are eager to go back to Luray.  New Market just doesn't have the same friendly vibe.
 
June 19
Sunday morning; we're going home today.  We have last coffees on our sylvan back porch.  Late in the morning, one more stop at the Brookside hotel restaurant.  We both have ham-and-egg scrambles (they also contain potatoes) with biscuits on the side.  I have butter and honey on my biscuits.  More coffee.  Check: $19.

We are sad to leave the Brookside.  While we are checking out, the owner asks us whether we have seen any bears wandering around behind the cabins.  We haven't.

I have planned a long, meandering drive home, because I like that sort of thing.  When we get back, my stepson will be coming for dinner in honor of Father's Day.  So we stop at a farm stand, not far from Point of Rocks, MD, to pick up a few veggies.  I buy sugar snap peas, a tomato, a red pepper, broccoli, and an entire large basil plant.  We also buy a pie for dessert: apple walnut.  Total cost $31.

Dinner is to be simple, given that we're coming home at 4:30, having a guest at 6:00.  I roast a few vegetables for better flavor-- broccoli, red pepper, tomato-- then saute these with garlic, onion, sugar snap peas, and lots of fresh basil.  At the same time cook spaghetti noodles.  Combine all together with tons of shredded parmesan.  Voila, balanced meal.  Also a side salad of mixed lettuces, cilantro, and tomato, with a balsamic vinaigrette.  Glass of white wine.  Plus a Q ginger soda before dinner.  Also, apple walnut pie, which is surprisingly good (you never know with "homemade" pies), and decaf coffee.

Our wedding anniversary.  But I have to work first.  I start off the morning with the usual: lemon water, coffee, smoothie.  I try putting the leftover ricotta cheese in the smoothie.  It is pretty good and I would never guess the secret ingredient.

I'm dreading going to work this morning because the air conditioning has been out and it is forecast to get up to 95 degrees today.  But it turns out that workmen are installing new air conditioning units when I arrive.  They work great!  My whole attitude is altered, and the day becomes much more pleasant, despite various other sorts of mishaps.  I also consume a couple of cups of coffee (1 decaf, 1 regular), as well as odds and ends of leftover drinks (a little banana milkshake, a little pineapple-mango-kale juice), and eat a sandwich as I make my way home on foot after 3:30: grilled cheddar cheese with bulgogi and tomato on sourdough bread.  I should have had something lighter, as I know we are going out for a nice anniversary dinner tonight.  Mistake.

At home, I have a cup of decaf coffee and decompress, change, go over to the Co-op for provisions, and then ultimately fall asleep next to my husband. 

Shopping (Co-op): toilet cleaner, limeade, organic whole milk, lactose-free 2% milk, half & half, 2 containers raspberries, organic raw cashews, organic dried mulberries.  $33.

We wake back up a little after seven, and dress for dinner, even though I am still not all that hungry.  Dumbass.  Anyhow.  It is after eight by the time we get seated, so that helps a little.  We are at Republic, which I still think of as a "new" restaurant, even though by now it has probably been there for a couple of years.  It is pricey, and from the outside I thought it would be rather trendy and intimidating, so this is our first visit, even though it is actually across the street from my own restaurant and I vaguely know several of the employees as my customers.  (Can't Republic make breakfast sandwiches for its own staff?  Apparently not.)  Inside, I discover that it is not remotely intimidating.  Young people going out on a Saturday night mix with elderly folks wearing preppy golf clothes and middle-aged Takoma Park hippies in ugly cotton tunics and Tevas.  The dining room already looks somewhat chaotic and worn.  The service... well, our service is excellent.  But it is also bizarrely personalized.  Our server turns out to be a guy who used to work at my restaurant as a dishwasher.  He treats my husband and I like royalty.  Maybe he treats everyone like that, I don't know.  But then the bartender comes over and personally greets us, chit-chats a bit.  At the end, we find our dessert and coffees have been comped, no reason except that we are being welcomed as fellow local restaurant staff, I guess.  I never would have expected to get the VIP treatment here, just because I sell these people a few breakfast sandwiches (double bacon, avocado, egg and cheese, always).  So I come away with the impression that Republic takes its role as a community member much more seriously than I realized.  Points for that.

​Now to the food: I started with a "Localist" cocktail, which was a fancied-up gin drink, with local honey and lemon and a candied grapefruit garnish.  The garnish was fantastic.  Delicious candy!  The drink: fine.  We had a little bit of bread and olive oil, no biggie; I could have skipped this but my husband wanted it.  As an appetizer, we shared a small portion of the seemingly-modest dish most raved about by Yelpers: their Ancient Grains salad.  There was a lot going on in this dish, from feta to mint to dill to pomegranate seeds to fried shallots to god-knows-what-else.  It was a mouth party, though a somewhat confusing one.  Did I like it?  Sure.  Would I order it again?  Probably not, unless somebody else really wanted it.  To the entree.  I ordered rockfish atop a bed of mixed-something-or-other.  According to the menu, the little grains were actually small herb dumplings-- I would have had trouble identifying these-- and there were some minced vegetables in there-- perhaps some squash?  It tasted good, but was short on salt (ironically, since a common theme in reviews is that this restaurant oversalts everything), and salt was not available on the table because surely all food came out seasoned EXACTLY RIGHT.  I think this represents a bit of hubris on the part of a restaurant.  Tastes vary and chefs are not perfectly consistent. Anyway.  I saved half of this to take home, because I was full and because I could salt it there.

For dessert, I ordered an americano and we shared a piece of carrot-parsnip cake with dulce de leche ice cream.  The cake was good-- I couldn't really tell it from plain old carrot cake-- but the ice cream was to-die-for.  Next time I might just order that.  And I don't eat ice cream very often.  The decaf americano was also very, very good.  My husband had plain decaf coffee and he said that he couldn't even tell it was decaf, which is very high praise coming from him.  All in all we had a nice time-- though it was too noisy to talk much-- and spent quite a bit of money, by coincidence almost exactly the amount I earned during the day.

Did I mention that they were so, so nice to us?