DC Part IV: Work, WTF and a Mini Mexican Feast

Yesterday, I had to work and it was a pretty long day, starting with a briefer than usual jog along the Mall just before sunrise. As such, today's post is mainly about food and drink. Plus ça change, you say? On the way back to my hotel, I stopped for breakfast at Filter, a cheery orange-accented coffee shop on I Street in Foggy Bottom, for a rich, nutty Colombian pourover and a raspberry and peach muffin.

It's hard to complain too much about going to work, when you get to walk past a much more famous, ovoid-shaped office. Hello, Barack! Apparently Angela Merkel is in town this week as well; not to see me! I also got to visit NPR and the National Geographic Society, with its giant Spinosaurus sculpture, so it wasn't all bad.

For lunch, my colleagues took me to an excellent sandwich bar a few blocks from our office in the National Press Building called WTF (Woodward Takeout Food). Overwhelmed by the choice on their epic menu, I managed to miss their specialty sandwich, the Chick Chick (three layers of fried chicken with bacon, cranberry and lettuce), but it was hard to be too disappointed when the chicken bánh mi I ordered was roughly the size of my head and utterly delicious. I only managed about half, but took a triple-attack chocolate cookie back to my desk to aid me through some later website woes.

Although it was another cold day, by the time I arrived back at my hotel in the early evening, it looked like it was going to be a good sunset. Sadly, I had too much work to do, so I headed up to my windowless hotel room instead. As a reward, though, I went to Oyamel for dinner, a Mexican restaurant recommended to me by my friend who had been before. They prepare a huge bowl of fresh guacamole for you at your table, which is meant for 2-3 people to share, but I couldn't resist (and I did seriously demolish it).

I also had a couple of yummy tacos (one spicy pork and one brisket), and the benefit of sitting at the ceviche bar was that I got a free sample of some sea bass ceviche, which was so fresh and tasty. I ordered the margarita of the day, which involved grapefruit and ginger, and which slipped down nicely. Oyamel is a colourful, airy restaurant decorated with butterfly motifs. The staff are very friendly and the food is great and good value.

As this post goes live, I will already be on my way to California, where the weather will be 20 degrees warmer. I've really enjoyed my time in DC, though, and found that three-and-a-bit days was about the right amount of time to spend there in winter. With an extra day, I could have seen more, but I feel like I had a good taster and I hope I will be back again before another 20 years elapses. In the meantime, here is one last White House selfie!