About Me

All my life I’ve been obsessed with food. As a toddler I only liked bed-time stories that centered around desserts, thanks to “The Biggest Cookie in the World” . At age four I would only eat in restaurants that had olives on the table thus subjecting my parents to a year of expensive dining before they resolved to introduce me to a steaming bowl of good ol’ Kraft Mac & Cheese. And in kindegarten my teacher found it quite important to comment in my report card, “Tess doesn’t eat; she dines” referring to my habit of assembling my lunch on a placemat and refusing to go to recess before each morsel was slowly and carefully enjoyed.

In middle school, I spear-headed a fun project of creating a brownie business-the uncopyrighted “Sweet Tess”- which not only taught me the basics of purchasing whole-sale ingredients and making a profit, but also how to win over boarding school admission counselors. And then there’s that Food Network appearance that I refuse to brag about but do love the occasional Facebook friend request by an avid fan of Ina.

But enough about my childhood. My real love of restaurants evolved during what I call my “NYC Semester”, that is Fall ’08: a few months spent interning by day and exploring various New York City neighborhoods through restaurants by night. At the time I had not discovered Yelp, and so I started off at Pinche Taqueria, by far the best fish-taco-and-cold-watermelon-juice-joint in Soho. The dude to my right that night was thoroughly in bliss with his three fat tacos and ice-cold Heineken, when I rudely interrupted him to ask some of his other favorite places. But he was delighted to be asked and sent me off to an NYU Vietnamese sandwich shop where I asked the same questions to other patrons. This pattern continued until I decided to strike out on my own, browsing through menus during coffee breaks deciding on my next restaurant adventure.

My standards were simple: cheap, that is meal for me had to be under $15; fun, the place had to have a bit of character and good, as in I better leave happy and begging to come back. Within a few weeks I had compiled a fairly good list, which I started distributing to friends, who soon began relying on my NYC-food wisdom. That is to say if you’re a student either visiting or studying in NYC you should trust me on finding you the best place to either bring your five-year-old niece (ok a bit expensive) or your favorite hipster.

But now for the bad news: I’ve relocated and some of my favorite NYC dives are closed (or I guess relocated) and I’m out of the loop! Currently I’m a freshman at GWU in Washington, and I’ve found myself completely clueless to the DC culinary scene. This is a blog that I wish I’d started back in NYC: the blog that traces my culinary adventures as I attempt to find the best and relatively cheap restaurants in DC. This is starting as a project for my UW class La Vie Boheme (shameless plug: take the class, you get to do awesome projects like this!), and hopefully will transform into a nice collection of reliable DC eateries.

Welcome to my journey, I hope you enjoy!