Big cities are expensive and before I came to Washington, D.C. I knew I would be "eating in" as much as possible.
My roommates and I get along really well. I knew we would be peas in a pod when my most important roommate criterion was met: combining finances when it comes to food. We love to cook, and we cook almost every night.
Our parameters and/or roadblocks:
A is a vegan.
L won't eat beets, cherries, or goat cheese.
Thanks to malaria pills I took during world travels in 2008 and 2009 I can't eat acidic foods like tomatoes, and eggplants trigger my migraines. A and L love spicy foods, and I have a more sensitive palate.
Our roadblocks:
Our "fully furnished" apartment contained no measuring spoons or cups and no sharp knives. Some other pepole in our apartment building had no serrated knives, and others had no cutting boards while we had around five. We've done some trading and sharing.
Our "fully furnished" apartment is also without a dishwasher. This is a huge problem for us. I often think of my grandfather, Papa Bee, when I cook. He loved to cook and was very creative, but he hated to do the dishes and he often left my grandma's kitchen a mess. The food was worth it. Still, none of us like to clean our own dishes. Our new fix: we've made friends with our next-door neighbors and we now use their dishwasher.
We live in a bit of a food desert. There's a supermarket around the corner from our apartment where we can get produce at affordable prices, but things like chips, milk, and cereal are marked way up. Apparently there is a Safeway supermarket near us. I helped another intern in our building carry her groceries into the elevator, and asked her where she went for our food. She told me there was a Safeway grocery store nearby in Southeast Washington. "But," she told me, "It's in a bad neighborhood. A really bad neighborhood. I'm not kidding. When you leave Safeway, run, don't walk."
I knew that wasn't going to work for us.
Still, we've made it work.
Where does our food come from?
Safeway delivery orders, Giant delivery orders, lugging grocieries from the Van Ness Giant, fresh produce from the Eastern Market, and the occasional haul from Trader Joe's near Foggy Bottom.
Now to the fun stuff. What have we cooked?
One of our first meals.
-Maddie.
Read the full post at http://maddiefireman.typepad.com/maddie/2012/10/foodochelcomidadc.html
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