Wednesday;

Back to Einstein’s for another bagel. This time I ordered 2, the first was the same as Tuesday, the everything bagel with lots of cream cheese. The 2nd I added scrambled egg, sliced ham and cheese to it. Again, execellent bagel.

Does anyone know if Einstein’s bagels are a chain? If so, anymore in the DC, especially the Virginia side of metro DC?

Lunch Wednesday was my first experience with Popeye’s fried chicken. Dave wanted to go and since I had never tried them before I went with. It was decent, not terribly greasy but not a whole lot to comment on. If given a choice I’ll take the Colonel over the swabbie.

When I got out of work I had some shopping to do. Started off with gas for the trip home, then a trip to the taco place for 2 orders of tacos to go. I got 6 assorted tacos for my oldest and 3 for Connie, the Mexican wife of Domenick the Itialian owner of my local Itialian joint. I had mentioned to Connie back in June about finding this style of taco place and she wanted to know why I didn’t bring her any. So this time I did. A bit more on this later in the story.

Went to Giant suopermarket and got 9 gallons, yes 9 whole gallons of fresh milk. Peggy swears that Giant milk taste better then other brands. So when near a Giant, closest one to us is 30 miles, we (I) pick up several gallons. My house averages 6 gallons a week. So 9 will last about 11 days. We have an extra frig in the garage just for milk and Costco buys.

I also picked up 12 Anaheim chilies. These got roasted on the charcoal grill Friday afternoon and made into chilies rellenos for dinner[:)] A very tasty treat, don’t always find good Anaheim’s around here. I did the roasting and the oldest daughter did the cooking. We even took some over to the daughter that is recovering from surgery on Thursday.

from Giant I also bought my favorite sushi, Inari and Calif. rolls, w/o the cucumber. I like cukes, but they tear me up. So I pass when I see them.

After Giant I went to what I will call a bodega, since I have never seen what New Yorkers refer to as bodega’s I’m kinda guessing here. What it is is a small store that says it carries, in spanish, Central American and Mexican food and brands. A specialty store. I don’t buy a lot of this type of stuff. But here and a few other places I know about carry fresh, good quality tortillias. Both corn and flour.

One of my biggest complaints about leaving Fresno has been the dearth of good mexican food and fresh tortillias. We have found 2 decent mexican restraunts in our area, one about a half mile away and the other in Winchester, Va. about 15 miles away. We prefer the Winchester place but not worth a special drive, usually.

The real problem has been with tortillias though. In Fresno it had gotten so that even several of the local chain supermarkets had put small tortillia plants inside the store. Von’s comes to mind. You also had your choice of several mom&pop tortillia stores making and selling fresh ones as well as 2 or 3 large brands that are made in the Fresno area and delivering daily to the stores. All my life, 41 years in Fresno, it wasn’t unusual to walk into the local grocery store and buy freshly made corn tortillias that were still warm from that early morning production.

So it was a big culture shock to us to be getting these inferior things made in Pa. With a 6 month shelf life. Now most of the local stores carry ones made in NC., with a 6 month shelf live. At least NC has a decent mexican population. And these do seem to taste better. But when I can I pick-up others in the DC area.

This time I bought the brand that my taco shop uses, LaEnsenada.

So I head home, the milk packed away in the Cincy ice chest in the bed of the truck with a big bag of ice. The tacos and the tortillias in the newish electric cooler in the truck cab with me. 2.5 hours later I’ve made the 98 miles from PG county to King’s New York pizza and itialian restaraunt in Inwood. God, how I hate rus,12,28206.006,1,14009,209.49.118.20
28211,28206,28206,2003-08-02 02:55:15,RE: Trip to Annapolis”