I have always loved bakeries, standing and breathing in the perfume of fresh bread, admiring the gems in glass cases, playing “which cake would you rather” with my brother…

While waiting for the yogurt bingsoo we ordered at Shilla on Tuesday, I admired all the little dessert items on display in the refrigerated glass. I’ve only ever had Shilla bread (Eh. Not that fantastic, I have to say) and never any of their desserts, but they certainly look lovely!

Yogurt bingsoo arrives:

So good to have tart froyo again, not the soft-serve ice cream Leo’s trys to pass off as yogurt.

It is an unfortunate fact that one must drive out all the way into Northern Virginia to enjoy good Asian food. When the opportunity was offered, one ought not pass it up!

Dinner at a Korean-Japanese fusion place consisted of our table being gradually laden with more dishes than its capacity could contain, and our stomachs slowly expanding till absolutely full. The main entree (the sashimi) was wonderful in and of itself but the endless “side dishes” helped fill us up before and afterward…

The sashimi – flounder, SUPER fresh.

As stuffed as we claimed we were, we managed to stumble to the car and STILL had room for yogurt bingsoo at Shilla…

We stand here in this place, on a late Sunday afternoon, and I am thinking how surreal and how right it is for my worlds to collide — to be surrounded by friends from ‘home’ in a place I have come to see very much as ‘home’ as well.

This weekend overflowed with walking, good food, better company, and many occasions to take copious photos.

After a missed bus mishap, very little sleep, and my fifth (?) tour of Georgetown University proper and the surrounding neighborhood, Frank and I took our little crowd of visitors – Julia, Ryan, Dave, and Gabby! – to Pizzeria Paradiso for a late lunch.

Foccocia bread with roasted elephant garlic and drizzled with excellent olive oil. When I came here last year with my mom’s cousin, she tried to find out who the restaurant’s supplier was, to no avail.

Giant roasted cloves of garlic necessitate chewing gum afterwards.

Pizza #1, the Di Mare – topped with mussels. Pescadarians for the win!

Talk to me.

Gorgonzola and some other cheeses. I really liked this one too.

The namesake pizza.

YUMMMMM.

From the colors of fall to the fragrance of spring…

Ladybird, ladybird, fly away home
Your house is on fire and your children are gone
All except one, and that’s Little Anne
For she has crept under the warming pan.

Two elephantine pizzas at Castiglia’s on the way to retreat, eight exceedingly ridiculous Georgetown students, and you can imagine how dinner went:

Melissa stalking the supposedly “Supreme” pizza. Note the assorted sorry vegetables on top.

Goopy white pizza studded with “basil” flakes. We had to eat this thing with fork and knife, Emily Gilmore-style. Ben lurks behind.

Giles Deacon’s spring 2010 accessories are totally up Ms. Lovegood’s alley…

She could add these frames to the rest of her collection:

(I dig the clothespin hair clips as well.)

And this pink metallic triceratops purse = YES.

How does this sound for a DIY? Take a stuffed animal, de-stuff it, add some handles and then parade your handiwork while wearing radishes for earrings.

1) I LOVE chai (tea, lattes, coffee – basically every combination). As cupcake connoisseurs eat red velvet cupcakes in every establishment as to compare different bakeries, so do I sample the chai everywhere by which to judge each cafe and coffee house.

Ebenezers is great. They also have a church in the basement. Um, gold stars.

2) Sacher torte is extremely decadent, a true trial by chocolate in that it is entirely possible to suffocate by the denseness of the dark chocolate (good for you chocolate-obsessed!). In a petite parfait form, sacher torte can be the perfect note on which to round off a good meal and segue into the rest of the evening. La Madeleine’s mini sacher torte parfait did just that:

I clearly don’t get out into the city enough. Thank goodness for visitors to have an excuse to go exploring my own backyard!

Article III, reppin’ it.

SCOTUS. Gorgeous.

The Library of Congress. It is connected to the Capitol by an underground tunnel. Underground tunnels are a recurring theme in the government architecture of Washington D.C. (and Georgetown). We seem to really enjoy tunnels and secret passageways.

Inside the Capitol:

Baby rotunda, with a chandelier rescued from a demolished cathedral by Jackie Kennedy.

THE Rotunda, with the beautiful painted oculus. The poor artist injured his back doing the frieze here, apparently his downfall.

The whispering gallery – it is hard to keep secrets when they can be heard on the other side of the room.