Arepas at La Caraquena

This was my grilled Venezuelan cornmeal bread stuffed with Reina Pepeada (lightly seasoned avocado with baked chicken), It's a type of stuffed arepas. The cornmeal can come either fried or grilled, my guy on the inside said to get grilled, "...it always makes the cornmeal softer..."

It's from La Caraquena, a tiny Latin American restaurant in Falls Church, Va. They serve over 11 types of arepas there along with beef, chicken, and seafood entrees.

This is the most flavorful thing I've had in this area, and I'm not kidding, the avocado and chicken is subtly deeelish, but here the basic taste of the grains in the white cornmeal instantly took me back to a one woman run roadside bread meal I had in the middle of nowhere in the Baja Peninsula. The salsa (pictured) rocked out too, it's got a bite and it's hot. Also the arepas was grilled with a tasty light oil that remains at the bottom of it. This is my new and lasting favorite thing to eat in this town.

La Caraquena, 300 W. Broad St., Falls Church, Va. 703.533.0076 MAP

Pork & Fries at Earl's

My Pork & Fries, roasted pork loin, roasted green peppers, sweet pickles, chopped onion, chipotle mayo and french fries between a toasted ciabatta. Very tasty, served very quick.. Earl's Sandwiches in Arlington roasts their own pork, turkey, and beef, fresh daily. Soups from scratch. Super nice owner (Stephen Dugan) and staff. I hear it's a key part of the Clarendon lunch rotation.

Earl's Sandwiches, 2605 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, Va., 703.248.0150 MAP

Hippie Rolls at Joe's Place

They are the best quality sausage shipped in from New York, sauteed green peppers and onion, wrapped in thin, hand rolled dough. They are Hippie Rolls from Joe's Place, Woodbridge Va. It's made fresh every morning and they come in spicy or mild sausage. Crispy outside, piping hot inside. It's common for loyal customers to travel 100 plus miles to get these, they buy a bunch and freeze them when they get home.

These rolls are the most delicious things. It's the mild, sweet, soft sausage that's different from almost anything sold in these parts. You will flip for these things.

Joes Place, 13710 Jefferson Davis Hwy, Woodbridge, Va. 703.494.9689 MAP

Ray's Hell Burger

Your not going to find any french fries here, " ..no fries, ever.." says owner Michael Lundrum. They don't serve them, just corn, watermelon and a few light sides. Ray's Hell Burger in Arlington Va., is got the buzz as the best burger's in our entire area, at least for now. A very large 10oz. patty, cooked 1. "warm red center" 2. "pink" or 3. "cooked throughout" I had the pink, and it was still deliciously bloody. 3 months training is required for the cooks. The apprenticeship at Lundrums Ray's the Steaks a few doors down.

The burger I had was $6.95 plus $1 for the Smoked Mozzarella, two half ears of corn and a giant iced tea, all for $10 bucks. Great price! and they have more expensive, specialty burgers too. The choice of luxurious cheeses for the price is the kicker here, all on top of a home ground, perfectly cooked monster. The brioche bun is lacking, and it quickly disintegrates under the juicy steak, but who cares. Warning, the place is small and IT PACKS OUT, all day, every day.

Ray's Hell Burger (Butcher Burgers), 1713 Wilson Blvd.; 703.841.0001. Open Monday thru Thurs at 5pm, Friday, Saturday and Sunday noon to "whenever". MAP

Wacky Packages, The Book!

I just came across this Wacky Packages coffee table book! If you loved Wacky Pack stickers as much as I did, this book is definitely for us.

Wacky Packages (Abrams; June 2008; $19.95; 240 pages, 233 color illustrations), is the first-ever collection of Series One through Series Seven (from 1973 and 1974) and showcases images of all 223 rare and hard-to-find stickers. Celebrating Wacky Packages’ 35th anniversary, the book also includes a bonus pack of four rare and previously unreleased stickers, an introduction by Art Spiegelman (one of the original creators), and an afterword by Jay Lynch (a long-time Wacky Packages collaborator). Also included are 3 never before seen "Lost Wackys" (actual stickers) available only with this book, and a version of Muller Beer not seen since 1967.

To order click here. For more pics of the book see here.

The awesome bi-annual art show is here again, SUNDAY SEPT. 28 at the MARIE REED LEARNING CENTER - 18th St. & Wyoming NW DC. (Adams Morgan). One of a kind, unique, handmade stuff, great food, and a proper music stage with some really good small bands. See HERE for the City Papers website, and HERE for the vendors.

hulu is a pretty good site to at the very least get your somewhat hard to find SNL clips including the commercial skits and the SNL Digital Shorts. It's all free, but ad supported streaming video of TV shows and movies from Fox, NBC and a bunch of other networks and studios. And Flash gives you a higher resolution and size than YouTube. It gives you over a 100 motion pictures to choose too,.. full length features, clips and trailers. It seems to be worth the exploring, just the SNL stuff alone was keeping me pretty happy.

Pentagon Memorial

Please click here for more pics of my visit today.

Take Metro to Pentagon, but if you would like to drive, it's easy, park at the Pentagon City Mall parking structure ( $2 for 2 to 3 hours ) then walk directly across the street to the tunnel clearly marked Pentagon Memorial, and it will take you there.

My Margherita at Pupatella

Hand-rolled pizza pie from a food cart? Say what? It's the little red food cart that can. Pupatella on the corner of 9th and N. Stuart St, Ballston Common, Arlington Va., next to the Ballston Metro. I heard whispers of this place hanging out at the Kettler Iceplex around the corner. And you know when people whisper, it's gotta be good. Culinary school friends Anastasiya Laufenberg and Enzo Algarme are both slinging it, in Neopolitan style, and flavor, for cheap. Working with tiny 650 degree ovens, they peddle way above average street fare.

My Margherita was 6 bucks, thin, light, really fresh tasting mozzarella, and of course San-Marzano tomatoes. The Margherita is the easiest thing on the menu so I got it in about 8 min. Their bringing it to us, so check them out. Washingtonian Magazine also says they got the best sausage and grilled onion sandwich this side of Philadelphia! Will have to try next time.

Hill Rag is a very competent monthly community newspaper owned by Capitol Community News. I try never leave home without it. If you want to know the haps on everything on Capitol Hill, Southwest, H St Northeast, and Navy Yard, pick up an issue ....free of charge, at Metros, street corners and fine establishments across the city.

News, community periodicals, food, the arts, finance, bulletin board, homes, classifieds, Eastern Market Watch, it's got it all. Also see the great online version at capitolcomunitynews/hillrag, .pdf's of every relevant page from the monthly. Not to be confused by The Hill. Also see DC North and East Of The River.

maria bamford

the very funny maria bamford from the comedians of comedy.

A large build up of Imperial activity in San Francisco...

Wouldn't they have more room in Fresno? I would hate to see Polk street after that Death Star is fully operational.

Katie was cleaning her paws and just before I snapped this pic I asked her about her thoughts on this up coming election.